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The Interest Of The Man Must Be Connected With The Constitutional Rights Of The Place. It May Be A Reflection On Human Nature, That Such Devices Should Be Necessary To Control The Abuses Of Government. But What Is Government Itself, But The Greatest Of All Reflections On Human Nature?

-James Madison

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The Interest Of The

James Madison

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The Interest Of The Man Must Be Connected With The Constitutional Rights Of The Place. It May Be A Reflection On Human Nature, That Such Devices Should Be Necessary To Control The Abuses Of Government. But What Is Government Itself, But The Greatest Of All Reflections On Human Nature?

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The Belief In A God All Powerful Wise And Good, Is So Essential To The Moral Order Of The World And To The Happiness Of Man, That Arguments Which Enforce It Cannot Be Drawn From Too Many Sources Nor Adapted With Too Much Solicitude To The Different Characters And Capacities Impressed With It.

The American People Owe It To Themselves, And To The Cause Of Free Government, To Prove By Their Establishments For The Advancement And Diffusion Of Knowledge, That Their Political Institutionsare As Favorable To The Intellectual And Moral Improvement Of Man As They Are Conformable To His Individual And Social Rights.

Rulers Who Wished To Subvert The Public Liberty, May Have Found An Established Clergy Convenient Auxiliaries. A Just Government Instituted To Secure & Perpetuate It Needs Them Not.

Among The Features Peculiar To The Political System Of The United States Is The Perfect Equality Of Rights Which It Secures To Every Religious Sect. [...] Equal Laws Protecting Equal Rights, Are Found As They Ought To Be Presumed, The Best Guarantee Of Loyalty, And Love Of Country; As Well As Best Calculated To Cherish That Mutual Respect And Good Will Among Citizens Of Every Religious Denomination Which Are Necessary To Social Harmony And Most Favorable To The Advancement Of Truth.

To Provide Employment For The Poor, And Support For The Indigent, Is Among The Primary, And, At The Same Time, Not Least Difficult Cares Of The Public Authority.

Had Every Athenian Citizen Been A Socrates, Every Athenian Assembly Would Still Have Been A Mob.

The Aim Of Every Political Constitution, Is Or Ought To Be First To Obtain For Rulers Men Who Possess Most Wisdom To Discern, And Most Virtue To Pursue, The Common Good Of Society; And In The Next Place, To Take The Most Effectual Precautions For Keeping Them Virtuous Whilst They Continue To Hold Their Public Trust.

The Constitution Proposed By The Convention May Be Considered Under Two General Points Of View. The First Relates To The Sum Or Quantity Of Power Which It Vests In The Government, Including The Restraints Imposed On The States. The Second, To The Particular Structure Of The Government, And The Distribution Of This Power Among Its Branches.

The President Is Responsible To The Public For The Conduct Of The Person He Has Nominated And Appointed.

The Regulation Of These Various And Interfering Interests Forms The Principal Task Of Modern Legislation And Involves The Spirit Of Party And Faction In The Necessary And Ordinary Operations Of Government.

Conscience Is The Most Sacred Of All Property; Other Property Depending In Part On Positive Law, The Exercise Of That Being A Natural And Unalienable Right. To Guard A Man's House As His Castle, To Pay Public And Enforce Private Debts With The Most Exact Faith, Can Give No Title To Invade A Man's Conscience, Which Is More Sacred Than His Castle, Or To Withhold From It That Debt Of Protection For Which The Public Faith Is Pledged By The Very Nature And Original Conditions Of The Social Pact.

I Believe There Are More Instances Of The Abridgment Of The Freedom Of The People By Gradual And Silent Encroachments Of Those In Power, Than By Violent And Sudden Usurpations; But, On A Candid Examination Of History, We Shall Find That Turbulence, Violence, And Abuse Of Power, By The Majority Trampling On The Rights Of The Minority, Have Produced Factions And Commotions, Which, In Republics, Have, More Frequently Than Any Other Cause, Produced Despotism.

Congress Shall Have Power . . . To Promote The Progress Of Science And Useful Arts, By Securing For Limited Time To Authors And Inventors The Exclusive Right To Their Respective Writings And Discoveries.

In A Society Under The Forms Of Which The Stronger Faction Can Readily Unite And Oppress The Weaker, Anarchy May As Truly Be Said To Reign As In A State Of Nature.

Tyranny Of The Majority

It Has Been Said That All Government Is An Evil. It Would Be More Proper To Say That The Necessity Of Any Government Is A Misfortune. This Necessity However Exists; And The Problem To Be Solved Is, Not What Form Of Government Is Perfect, But Which Of The Forms Is Least Imperfect.

At First View It Might Seem Not To Square With The Republican Theory, To Suppose Either That A Majority Have Not The Right, Or That A Minority Will Have The Force To Subvert A Government . . . . But Theoretic Reasoning In This, As In Most Other Cases, Must Be Qualified By The Lessons Of Practice.

Those Who Hold And Those Who Are Without Property Have Ever Formed Distinct Interests In Society.

Ambition Must Be Made To Counteract Ambition.

[exchange] The Galling Burden Of Bachelorship For The Easy Yoke Of Matrimony.

But The Mild Voice Of Reason, Pleading The Cause Of An Enlarged And Permanent Interest, Is But Too Often Drowned, Before Public Bodies As Well As Individuals, By The Clamors Of An Impatient Avidity For Immediate And Immoderate Gain.

How Could A Readiness For War In Time Of Peace Be Safely Prohibited, Unless We Could Prohibit, In Like Manner, The Preparations And Establishments Of Every Hostile Nation?

Philosophy Is Common Sense With Big Words.

That This Liberty [of The Press] Is Often Carried To Excess; That It Has Sometimes Degenerated Into Licentiousness, Is Seen And Lamented, But The Remedy Has Not Yet Been Discovered. Perhaps It Is An Evil Inseparable From The Good With Which It Is Allied; Perhaps It Is A Shoot Which Cannot Be Stripped From The Stalk Without Wounding Vitally The Plant From Which It Is Torn. However Desirable Those Measures Might Be Which Might Correct Without Enslaving The Press, They Have Never Yet Been Devised In America.

Another Of My Wishes Is To Depend As Little As Possible On The Labour Of Slaves.

Nor Is Any Evidence To Be Found, Either In History Or Human Nature, That Nations Are To Be Bribed Out Of A Spirit Of Encroachment And Aggression, By Humiliations Which Nourish Their Pride, Or By Concessions That Extend Their Resources And Power.

Every Man Who Loves Peace, Every Man Who Loves His Country, Every Man Who Loves Liberty Ought To Have It Ever Before His Eyes That He May Cherish In His Heart A Due Attachment To The Union Of America And Be Able To Set A Due Value On The Means Of Preserving It.

The Power Of Taxing People And Their Property Is Essential To The Very Existence Of Government.

The Express Authority Of The People Alone Could Give Validity To The Constitution.

A Distinction Of Property Results From That Very Protection Which A Free Government Gives To Unequal Faculties Of Acquiring It.

The Accumulation Of All Powers, Legislative, Executive, And Judiciary, In The Same Hands, Whether Of One, A Few, Or Many, And Whether Hereditary, Selfappointed, Or Elective, May Justly Be Pronounced The Very Definition Of Tyranny.

Independent Judiciary

How A Regulation So Unjust In Itself, So Foreign To The Authority Of Congress, And So Hurtful To The Sale Of Public Land, And Smelling So Strongly Of An Antiquated Bigotry, Could Have Received The Countenance Of A Committee Is Truly A Matter Of Astonishment.

The Internal Effects Of A Mutable Policy Are Still More Calamitous. It Poisons The Blessings Of Liberty Itself.

Another Advantage Accruing From This Ingredient In The Constitution Of A Senate, Is The Additional Impediment It Must Prove Against Improper Acts Of Legislation. No Law Or Resolution Can Now Be Passed Without The Concurrence First Of A Majority Of The People, And Then Of A Majority Of The States.

So Strong Is This Propensity Of Mankind To Fall Into Mutual Animosities, That Where No Substantial Occasion Presents Itself, The Most Frivolous And Fanciful Distinctions Have Been Sufficient To Kindle Their Unfriendly Passions And Excite Their Most Violent Conflicts. But The Most Common And Durable Source Of Factions Has Been The Various And Unequal Distribution Of Property.

The American People Are Too Well Schooled In The Duty And Practice Of Submitting To The Will Of The Majority To Permit Any Serious Uneasiness On That Account

The Danger Of Silent Accumulations & Encroachments By Ecclesiastical Bodies Have Not Sufficiently Engaged Attention In The U.s. [...] Besides The Danger Of A Direct Mixture Of Religion & Civil Government, There Is An Evil Which Ought To Be Guarded Against In The Indefinite Accumulation Of Property From The Capacity Of Holding It In Perpetuity By Ecclesiastical Corporations. [...] The Establishment Of The Chaplainship To Congs. Is A Palpable Violation Of Equal Rights, As Well As Of Constitutional Principles.

It Was By The Sober Sense Of Our Citizens That We Were Safely And Steadily Conducted From Monarchy To Republicanism, And It Is By The Same Agency Alone We Can Be Kept From Falling Back.

Were It Possible So To Accelerate The Intercourse Between Every Part Of The Globe That All Its Inhabitants Could Be United Under The Superintending Authority Of An Ecumenical Council, How Great A Portion Of Human Evils Would Be Avoided.

No Nation Could Preserve Its Freedom In The Midst Of Continual Warfare.

Democracies Have

The Growing Wealth Aquired By Them Corporations Never Fails To Be A Source Of Abuses.

[in The Case Of] Dangerous Exercise Of Other Powers, Not Granted By The Said Compact, The States, Who Are Parties Thereto, Have The Right, And Are Duty Bound, To Interpose For Arresting The Progress Of The Evil.

Popular Liberty Might Then Have Escaped The Indelible Reproach Of Decreeing To The Same Citizens, The Hemlock On One Day, And Statues On The Next.

Of All The Objections Which Have Been Framed Against The Federal Constitution, This Is Perhaps The Most Extraordinary. Whilst The Objection Itself Is Levelled Against A Pretended Oligarchy, The Principle Of It Strikes At The Very Root Of Republican Government.

Conscience Is The Most Sacred Of All Property; Other Property Depending In Part On Positive Law, The Exercise Of That, Being A Natural And Unalienable Right.

There Is An Evil Which Ought To Be Guarded Against In The Indefinite Accumulation Of Property From The Capacity Of Holding It In Perpetuity By...corporations. The Power Of All Corporations Ought To Be Limited In This Respect. The Growing Wealth Acquired By Them Never Fails To Be A Source Of Abuses.

[i]n The Next Place, To Show That Unless These Departments Be So Far Connected And Blended As To Give To Each A Constitutional Control Over The Others, The Degree Of Separation Which The Maxim Requires, As Essential To A Free Government, Can Never In Practice Be Duly Maintained.

The Most Productive System Of Finance Will Always Be The Least Burdensome.

A Zeal For Different Opinions Concerning Religion, Concerning Government, And Many Other Points, As Well Of Speculation As Of Practice; An Attachment To Different Leaders Ambitiously Contending For Pre-eminence And Power; Or To Persons Of Other Descriptions Whose Fortunes Have Been Interesting To The Human Passions, Have, In Turn, Divided Mankind Into Parties, Inflamed Them With Mutual Animosity, And Rendered Them Much More Disposed To Vex And Oppress Each Other Than To Co-operate For Their Common Good.

I Own Myself The Friend To A Very Free System Of Commerce, And Hold It As A Truth, That Commercial Shackles Are Generally Unjust, Oppressive And Impolitic.

In Civilized Communities, Property As Well As Personal Rights Is An Essential Object Of The Laws, Which Encourage Industry By Securing The Enjoyment Of Its Fruits; That Industry From Which Property Results, And That Enjoyment Which Consists Not Merely In Its Immediate Use, But In Its Posthumous Destination To Objects Of Choice, And Of Kindred Affection. In A Just And Free Government, Therefore, The Rights Both Of Property And Of Persons Ought To Be Effectually Guarded.

A Well Regulated Militia, Composed Of The Body Of The People, Trained In Arms, Is The Best Most Natural Defense Of A Free Country.

The Ultimate Authority, Wherever The Derivative May Be Found, Resides In The People Alone, And That It Will Not Depend Merely On The Comparative Ambition Or Address Of The Different Governments, Whether Either, Or Which Of Them, Will Be Able To Enlarge Its Sphere Of Jurisdiction At The Expense Of The Other.

Democracies Have

And May I Not Be Allowed To ... Read In The Character Of The American People, In Their Devotion To True Liberty And To The Constitution Which Is Its Palladium [protection], ... A Government Which Watches Over ... The Equal Interdict [prohibition] Against Encroachments And Compacts Between Religion And The State.

[t]he Powers Granted By The Proposed Constitution Are The Gift Of The People, And May Be Resumed By Them When Perverted To Their Oppression, And Every Power Not Granted Thereby Remains With The People.

Money Cannot Be Applied To The *general Welfare*, Otherwise Than By An Application Of It To Some *particular* Measure Conducive To The General Welfare. Whenever, Therefore, Money Has Been Raised By The General Authority, And Is To Be Applied To A Particular Measure, A Question Arises Whether The Particular Measure Be Within The Enumerated Authorities Vested In Congress. If It Be, The Money Requisite For It May Be Applied To It; If It Be Not, No Such Application Can Be Made.

The Rights Of Man As The Foundation Of Just Government Had Been Long Understood But The Superstructures Projected Had Been Sadly Defective

The Civil Rights Of None, Shall Be Abridged On Account Of Religious Belief Or Worship, Nor Shall Any National Religion Be Established, Nor Shall The Full And Equal Rights Of Conscience Be In Any Manner, Or On Any Pretext Infringed.

It Is Not Certain That With This Aid Alone [possession Of Arms], They Would Not Be Able To Shake Off Their Yokes. But Were The People To Posses The Additional Advantages Of Local Governments Chosen By Themselves, Who Could Collect The National Will, And Direct The National Force; And Of Officers Appointed Out Of The Militia, By These Governments And Attached Both To Them And To The Militia, It May Be Affirmed With The Greatest Assurance, That The Throne Of Every Tyranny In Europe Would Be Speedily Overturned, In Spite Of The Legions Which Surround It.

It Is Vain To Say That Enlightened Statesmen Will Always Be Able To Adjust Their Interests. Enlightened Men Will Not Always Be At The Helm.

Public Opinion Sets Bounds To Every Government, And Is The Real Sovereign In Every Free One.

Wherever There Is Interest And Power To Do Wrong, Wrong Will Generally Be Done.

I Do Not Conceive That Power Is Given To The President And Senate To Dismember The Empire, Or To Alienate Any Great, Essential Right. I Do Not Think The Whole Legislative Authority Have This Power. The Exercise Of The Power Must Be Consistent With The Object Of The Delegation.

The Management Of Foreign Relations Appears To Be The Most Susceptible Of Abuse Of All The Trusts Committed To A Government, Because They Can Be Concealed Or Disclosed, Or Disclosed In Such Parts And At Such Times As Will Best Suit Particular Views; And Because The Body Of The People Are Less Capable Of Judging, And Are More Under The Influence Of Prejudices, On That Branch Of Their Affairs, Than Of Any Other. Perhaps It Is A Universal Truth That The Loss Of Liberty At Home Is To Be Charged To Provisions Against Danger, Real Or Pretended, From Abroad.

But Cool And Candid People Will At Once Reflect, That The Purest Of Human Blessings Must Have A Portion Of Alloy In Them, That The Choice Must Always Be Made, If Not Of The Lesser Evil, At Least Of The Greater, Not The Perfect Good; And That In Every Political Institution, A Power To Advance The Public Happiness, Involves A Discretion Which May Be Misapplied And Abused.

Despotism Can Only Exist In Darkness.

We Are Teaching The World The Great Truth That Governments Do Better Without Kings & Nobles Than With Them.

Let The Influx Of Money Be Ever So Great, If There Be No Confidence, Property Will Sink In Value... The Circulation Of Confidence Is Better Than The Circulation Of Money.

As Long As The Reason Of Man Continues Fallible, And He Is At Liberty To Exercise It, Different Opinions Will Be Formed.

Enlightened Statesmen Will Not Always Be At The Helm.

When Men Exercise Their Reason Coolly And Freely, On A Variety Of Distinct Questions, They Inevitably Fall Into Different Opinions, On Some Of Them. When They Are Governed By A Common Passion, Their Opinions If They Are So To Be Called, Will Be The Same.

May It Not Be Asked Of Every Intelligent Friend To The Liberties Of His Country, Whether The Power Exercised In Such An Act As This Ought Not To Produce Great And Universal Alarm? Whether A Rigid Execution Of Such An Act, In Time Past, Would Not Have Repressed That Information And Communication Among The People Which Is Indispensable To The Just Exercise Of Their Electoral Rights? And Whether Such An Act, If Made Perpetual, And Enforced With Rigor, Would Not, In Time To Come, Either Destroy Our Free System Of Government, Or Prepare A Convulsion That Might Prove Equally Fatal To It?

Besides The Obscurity Arising From The Complexity Of Objects, And The Imperfection Of The Human Faculties, The Medium Through Which The Conceptions Of Men Are Conveyed To Each Other Adds A Fresh Embarrassment.

We Look Back, Already, With Astonishment, At The Daring Outrages Committed By Despotism, On The Reason And Rights Of Man; We Look Forward With Joy, To The Period, When It Shall Be Despoiled Of All Its Usurpations, And Bound Forever In The Chains, With Which It Had Loaded Its Miserable Victims.

Liberty Is To Faction What Air Is To Fire.

Any Reading Not Of A Vicious Species Must Be A Good Substitute For The Amusements Too Apt To Fill Up The Leisure Of The Labouring Classes.

History Records That The Money Changers Have Used Every Form Of Abuse, Intrigue, Deceit, And Violent Means Possible To Maintain Their Control Over Governments By Controlling Money And It's Issuance.

Learned Institutions Ought To Be Favorite Objects With Every Free People. They Throw That Light Over The Public Mind Which Is The Best Security Against Crafty And Dangerous Encroachments On The Public Liberty.

The Apportionment Of Taxes On The Various Descriptions Of Property Is An Act Which Seems To Require The Most Exact Impartiality; Yet There Is, Perhaps, No Legislative Act In Which Greater Opportunity And Temptation Are Given To A Predominant Party To Trample On The Rules Of Justice. Every Shilling Which They Overburden The Inferior Number Is A Shilling Saved To Their Own Pockets.

The Number, The Industry, And The Morality Of The Priesthood, And The Devotion Of The People Have Been Manifestly Increased By The Total Separation Of The Church From The State.

A Good Government Implies Two Things: First, Fidelity To The Object Of Government, Which Is The Happiness Of The People; Secondly, A Knowledge Of The Means By Which That Object Can Be Best Attained.

The Diversity In The Faculties Of Men, From Which The Rights Of Property Originate, Is Not Less An Insuperable Obstacle To An Uniformity Of Interests. The Protection Of These Faculties Is The First Object Of Government.

Of All The Enemies To Public Liberty War Is, Perhaps, The Most To Be Dreaded, Because It Comprises And Develops The Germ Of Every Other. War Is The Parent Of Armies; From These Proceed Debts And Taxes; And Armies, Debts, And Taxes Are The Known Instruments For Bringing The Many Under The Domination Of The Few... No Nation Could Preserve Its Freedom In The Midst Of Continual Warfare.

It Is Too Early For Politicians To Presume On Our Forgetting That The Public Good, The Real Welfare Of The Great Body Of The People, Is The Supreme Object To Be Pursued; And That No Form Of Government Whatever Has Any Other Value Than As It May Be Fitted For The Attainment Of This Object.

In The Compound Republic Of America, The Power Surrendered By The People Is First Divided Between Two Distinct Governments, And Then The Portion Allotted To Each Subdivided Among Distinct And Separate Governments. Hence A Double Security Arises To The Rights Of The People. The Different Governments Will Control Each Other, At The Same Time That Each Will Be Controlled By Itself.

Union Of Religious Sentiments Begets A Surprising Confidence, And Ecclesiastical Establishments Tend To Great Ignorance And Corruption; All Of Which Facilitate The Execution Of Mischievous Projects.

It Is Proper To Take Alarm At The First Experiment On Our Liberties. We Hold This Prudent Jealousy To Be The First Duty Of Citizens And One Of The Noblest Characteristics Of The Late Revolution. The Freemen Of America Did Not Wait Till Usurped Power Had Strengthened Itself By Exercise And Entangled The Question In Precedents. They Saw All The Consequences In The Principle, And They Avoided The Consequences By Denying The Principle. We Revere This Lesson Too Much ... To Forget It

A Pure Democracy Is A Society Consisting Of A Small Number Of Citizens, Who Assemble And Administer The Government In Person.

The Legislative Department Is Everywhere Extending The Sphere Of Its Activity And Drawing All Power Into Its Impetuous Vortex.

What Is Here A Right Towards Men, Is A Duty Towards The Creator.

Complaints Are Everywhere Heard From Our Most Considerate And Virtuous Citizens, Equally The Friends Of Public And Private Faith, And Of Public And Personal Liberty, That Our Governments Are Too Unstable, That The Public Good Is Disregarded In The Conflicts Of Rival Parties, And That Measures Are Too Often Decided, Not According To The Rules Of Justice And The Rights Of The Minor Party, But By The Superior Force Of An Interested And Overbearing Majority.

Religious Bondage Shackles And Debilitates The Mind And Unfits It For Every Noble Enterprise, Every Expanded Prospect.

Secular Society

The Security Intended To The General Liberty Consists In The Frequent Election And In The Rotation Of The Members Of Congress.

Liberty And Order Will Never Be Perfectly Safe Until A Trespass On The Constitution Provisions For Either, Shall Be Felt With The Same Keenness That Resents And Invasion Of The Dearest Rights.

Second Amendment

The Essence Of Government Is Power; And Power, Lodged As It Must Be In Human Hands, Will Ever Be Liable To Abuse.

And I Have No Doubt That Every New Example Will Succeed, As Every Past One Has Done, In Showing That Religion And Government Will Both Exist In Greater Purity, The Less They Are Mixed Together.

The Real Difference Of Interests, Lay Not Between Large And Small, But Between The Northern And Southern States. The Institution Of Slavery And Its Consequences Formed A Line Of Discrimination.

Attempts To Enforce By Legal Sanctions, Acts Obnoxious To So Great A Proportion Of Citizens, Tend To Enervate The Laws In General, And To Slacken The Bands Of Society. If It Be Difficult To Execute Any Law Which Is Not Generally Deemed Necessary Or Salutary, What Must Be The Case, Where It Is Deemed Invalid And Dangerous? And What May Be The Effect Of So Striking An Example Of Impotency In The Government, On Its General Authority?

For The Same Reason That The Members Of The State Legislatures Will Be Unlikely To Attach Themselves Sufficiently To National Objects, The Members Of The Federal Legislature Will Be Likely To Attach Themselves Too Much To Local Objects.

I Am Unable To Conceive That The State Legislatures Which Must Feel So Many Motives To Watch, And Which Possess So Many Means Of Counteracting The Federal Legislature, Would Fail Either To Detect Or To Defeat A Conspiracy Of The Latter Against The Liberties Of Their Common Constituencies.

Religion, Or The Duty We Owe To Our Creator, And Manner Of Discharging It, Can Be Directed Only By Reason And Conviction, Not By Force Or Violence; And, Therefore, That All Men Should Enjoy The Fullest Toleration In The Exercise Of Religion According To The Dictates Of Conscience, Unpunished And Unrestrained By The Magistrate, Unless Under Color Of Religion Any Man Disturb The Peace, The Happiness, Or Safety Of Society, And That It Is The Mutual Duty Of All To Practice Christian Forbearance, Love And Charity Toward Each Other.

No Distinction Seems To Be More Obvious Than That Between Spiritual And Temporal Matters. Yet Whenever They Have Been Made Objects Of Legislation, They Have Clashed And Contended With Each Other, Till One Or The Other Has Gained The Supremacy.

A Public Debt Is A Public Curse.

America United With A Handful Of Troops, Or Without A Single Soldier, Exhibits A More Forbidding Posture To Foreign Ambition Than America Disunited, With A Hundred Thousand Veterans Ready For Combat.

Strongly Guarded As Is The Separation Between Religion And Government In The Constitution Of The United States, The Danger Of Encroachment By Ecclesiastical Bodies May Be Illustrated By Precedents Already Furnished In Their Short History.

A Just Government Has No Need For The Clergy Or The Church.

... The State Legislatures Will Jealously And Closely Watch The Operations Of This Government, And Be Able To Resist With More Effect Every Assumption Of Power, Than Any Other Power On Earth Can Do; And The Greatest Opponents To A Federal Government Admit The State Legislatures To Be Sure Guardians Of The People's Liberty.

Is There No Virtue Among Us? If There Be Not, We Are In A Wretched Situation. No Theoretical Checks-no Form Of Government Can Render Us Secure. To Suppose That Any Form Of Government Will Secure Liberty Or Happiness Without Any Virtue In The People, Is A Chimerical Idea, If There Be Sufficient Virtue And Intelligence In The Community, It Will Be Exercised In The Selection Of These Men. So That We Do Not Depend On Their Virtue, Or Put Confidence In Our Rulers, But In The People Who Are To Choose Them.

A Pure Democracy, By Which I Mean A Society Consisting Of A Small Number Of Citizens, Who Assemble And Administer The Government In Person, Can Admit Of No Cure For The Mischiefs Of Faction. A Common Passion Or Interest Will, In Almost Every Case, Be Felt By A Majority Of The Whole; A Communication And Concert Result From The Form Of Government Itself; And There Is Nothing To Check The Inducements To Sacrifice The Weaker Party, Or An Obnoxious Individual. Hence It Is, That Such Democracies Have Ever Been Spectacles Of Turbulence And Contention; Have Ever Been Found Incompatible With Personal Security, Or The Rights Of Property; And Have In General Been As Short In Their Lives, As They Have Been Violent In Their Deaths.

No Man Is Allowed To Be A Judge In His Own Cause; Because His Interest Would Certainly Bias His Judgment, And, Not Improbably, Corrupt His Integrity. With Equal, Nay With Greater Reason, A Body Of Men Are Unfit To Be Both Judges And Parties At The Same Time.

Religious Bondage Shackles And Debilitates The Mind And Unfits It For Every Noble Enterprise.... During Almost Fifteen Centuries Has The Legal Establishment Of Christianity Been On Trial. What Have Been Its Fruits? More Or Less, In All Places, Pride And Indolence In The Clergy; Ignorance And Servility In Laity; In Both, Superstition, Bigotry, And Persecution.

...to Support The Constitution, Which Is The Cement Of The Union, As Well In Its Limitations As In Its Authorities; To Respect The Rights And Authorities Reserved To The States And To The People As Equally Incorporated With And Essential To The Success Of The General System;... To Keep Within The Requisite Limits A Standing Military Force, Always Remembering That An Armed And Trained Militia Is The Firmest Bulwark Of Republics-that Without Standing Armies Their Liberty Can Never Be In Danger, Nor With Large Ones Safe.

The Smaller The Society, The Fewer Probably Will Be The Distinct Parties And Interests Composing It; The Fewer The Distinct Parties And Interests, The More Frequently Will A Majority Be Found Of The Same Party; . . . The More Easily Will They Concert And Execute Their Plans Of Oppression.

Nothing Could Be More Irrational Than To Give The People Power, And To Withhold From Them Information Without Which Power Is Abused.

Liberty Is To Faction, What Air Is To Fire, An Aliment Without Which It Instantly Expires. But It Could Not Be A Less Folly To Abolish Liberty, Which Is Essential To Political Life, Because It Nourishes Faction, Than It Would Be To Wish The Annihilation Of Air, Which Is Essential To Animal Life, Because It Imparts To Fire Its Destructive Agency.

As The Legislative, Executive, And Judicial Departments Of The United States Are Co-ordinate, And Each Equally Bound To Support The Constitution, It Follows That Each Must In The Exercise Of Its Functions Be Guided By The Text Of The Constitution According To Its Own Interpretation Of It.

The Nation Which Reposes On The Pillow Of Political Confidence, Will Sooner Or Later End Its Political Existence In A Deadly Lethargy.

But The Most Deplorable Effect Of All, Is That Diminution Of Attachment And Reverence, Which Steals Into The Hearts Of The People, Towards A Political System Which Betrays So Many Marks Of Infirmity, And Disappoints So Many Of Their Flattering Hopes. No Government, Any More Than An Individual, Will Long Be Respected, Without Being Truly Respectable; Nor Be Truly Respectable, Without Possessing A Certain Portion Of Order And Stability.

...several Of The First Presidents, Including Jefferson And Madison, Generally Refused To Issue Public Prayers, Despite Importunings To Do So. Under Pressure, Madison Relented In The War Of 1812, But Held To His Belief That Chaplains Shouldn't Be Appointed To The Military Or Be Allowed To Open Congress.

As A Man Is Said To Have A Right To His Property, He May Be Equally Said To Have A Property In His Rights.

Inference Is Founded Upon Obvious Reasons. Regard To Reputation Has A Less Active Influence, When The Infamy Of A Bad Action Is To Be Divided Upon A Number, Than When It Is To Fall Singly Upon One. A Spirit Of Faction . . . Will Often Hurry The Persons Of Whom They Were Composed Into Improprieties And Excesses For Which They Would Blush In A Private Capacity.

We Maintain Therefore That In Matters Of Religion, No Man's Right Is Abridged By The Institution Of Civil Society, And That Religion Is Wholly Exempt From Its Cognizance.

But The Mere Circumstance Of Complexion Cannot Deprive Them Of The Character Of Men.

Conscience Is The Most Sacred Of All Property.

What Is Government Itself But The Greatest Of All Reflections On Human Nature?

The Citizens Of The United States Have Peculiar Motives To Support The Energy Of Their Constitutional Charters.

The Powers Delegated By The Proposed Constitution To The Federal Government Are Few And Defined. Those Which Are To Remain In The State Governments Are Numerous And Indefinite.

[religious Liberty Was] In Its Nature An Inalienable Right ... Because The Opinions Of Men, Depending Only Upon The Evidence Contemplated By Their Minds, Cannot Follow The Dictates Of Other Men.

Respect For Character Is Always Diminished In Proportion To The Number Among Whom The Blame Or Praise Is To Be Divided.

It Is A Melancholy Reflection That Liberty Should Be Equally Exposed To Danger Whether The Government Have Too Much Power Or Too Little Power And That The Line Which Divides These Extremes Should Be So Inaccurately Defined By Experience.

In No Instance Have... The Churches Been Guardians Of The Liberties Of The People.

This Policy Of Supplying By Opposite And Rival Interests, The Defect Of Better Motives, Might Be Traced Through The Whole System Of Human Affairs, Both Private And Public.

The Important Distinction So Well Understood In America Between A Constitution Established By The People, And Unalterable By The Government; And A Law Established By The Government, And Alterable By The Government, Seems To Have Been Little Understood And Less Observed In Any Other Country. Wherever The Supreme Power Of Legislation Has Resided, Has Been Supposed To Reside Also, A Full Power To Change The Form Of Government.

With Regard To Banks, They Have Taken Too Deep And Too Wide A Root In Social Transactions, To Be Got Rid Of Altogether, If That Were Desirable. They Have A Hold On Public Opinion, Which Alone Would Make It Expedient To Aim Rather At The Improvement, Than The Suppression Of Them. As Now Generally Constituted, Their Advantages Whatever They Be, Are Outweighed By The Excesses Of Their Paper Emissions, And The Partialities And Corruption With Which They Are Administered.

A Victorious And Powerful Ally Is But Another Name For A Master.

Security Against Foreign Danger Is One Of The Primitive Objects Of Civil Society. It Is An Avowed And Essential Object Of The American Union.

No Government, Any More Than An Individual, Will Long Be Respected Without Being Truly Respectable; Nor Be Truly Respectable, Without Possessing A Certain Portion Of Order And Stability.

The Passions, Therefore, Not The Reason, Of The Public Would Sit In Judgment. But It Is The Reason, Alone, Of The Public, That Ought To Control And Regulate The Government. The Passions Ought To Be Controlled And Regulated By The Government.

An Efficient Militia Is Authorized And Contemplated By The Constitution And Required By The Spirit And Safety Of Free Government.

Second Amendment

Because Finally, 'the Equal Right Of Every Citizen To The Free Exercise Of His Religion According To The Dictates Of Conscience' Is Held By The Same Tenure With All His Other Rights. If We Recur To Its Origin, It Is Equally The Gift Of Nature; If We Weigh Its Importance, It Cannot Be Less Dear To Us; If We Consider The 'declaration Of Those Rights Which Pertain To The Good People Of Virginia, As The Basis And Foundation Of Government,' It Is Enumerated With Equal Solemnity, Or Rather Studied Emphasis.

In Order To Judge Of The Form To Be Given To This Institution The Senate, It Will Be Proper To Take A View Of The Ends To Be Served By It. These Were,first, To Protect The People Against Their Rulers, Secondly, To Protect The People Against The Transient Impressions Into Which They Themselves Might Be Led.

The Proposed Constitution, Therefore, Even When Tested By The Rules Laid Down By Its Antagonists, Is, In Strictness, Neither A National Nor A Federal Constitution; But A Composition Of Both. In Its Foundation It Is Federal, Not National; In The Sources From Which The Ordinary Powers Of The Government Are Drawn, It Is Partly Federal, And Partly National; In The Operation Of These Powers, It Is National, Not Federal; In The Extent Of Them Again, It Is Federal, Not National; And Finally, In The Authoritative Mode Of Introducing Amendments, It Is Neither Wholly Federal, Nor Wholly National.

We Have Staked The Whole Future Of Our New Nation, Not Upon The Power Of Government; Far From It. We Have Staked The Future Of All Our Political Constitutions Upon The Capacity Of Each Of Ourselves To Govern Ourselves According To The Moral Principles Of The Ten Commandments.

The Convention Thought It Wrong To Admit In The Constitution The Idea That There Could Be Property In Men.

That Useful Alterations Will Be Suggested By Experience, Could Not But Be Foreseen . . . . It Moreover Equally Enables The General And State Governments To Originate The Amendment Of Errors As They May Be Pointed Out By The Experience On One Side Or On The Other.

In Suits At Common Law, Trial By Jury In Civil Cases Is As Essential To Secure The Liberty Of The People As Any One Of The Pre-existent Rights Of Nature.

I Think It Absolutely Necessary That The President Should Have The Power Of Removing His Subordinates From Office; It Will Make Him, In A Peculiar Manner, Responsible For Their Conduct, And Subject Him To Impeachment Himself, If He Suffers Them To Perpetrate With Impunity High Crimes Or Misdemeanors Against The United States, Or Neglects To Superintend Their Conduct, So As To Check Their Excesses.

[the Republican Party] Consists Of Those Who, Believing In The Doctrine That Mankind Are Capable Of Governing Themselves And Hating Hereditary Power As An Insult To The Reason And An Outrage To The Rights Of Men, Are Naturally Offended At Every Public Measure That Does Not Appeal To The Understanding And To The General Interest Of The Community.

Before Any Man Can Be Considered As A Member Of Civil Society, He Must Be Considered As A Subject Of The Governour Of The Universe: And If A Member Of Civil Society, Do It With A Saving Of His Allegiance To The Universal Sovereign. We Maintain Therefore That In Matters Of Religion, No Man's Right Is Abridged By The Institution Of Civil Society And That Religion Is Wholly Exempt From Its Cognizance.

The Defect Of Power In The Existing Confederacy, To Regulate The Commerce Between Its Several Members Is In The Number Of Those Which Have Been Clearly Pointed Out By Experience . . . . A Very Material Object Of This Power Was The Relief Of The States Which Import And Export Through Other States From The Improper Contributions Levied On Them By The Latter.

I Love The Summer.... The Warm Weather, Hangin Out With Friends, And Swimmin In The Warm Water..... But Most Importantly Grabin A Glove And A Ball And Playin Some Softball In The Heat.

I Should Not Regret A Fair And Full Trial Of The Entire Abolition Of Capital Punishment.

The Constitution Expressly And Exclusively Vests In The Legislature The Power Of Declaring A State Of War [and] The Power Of Raising Armies.... A Delegation Of Such Powers [to The President] Would Have Struck, Not Only At The Fabric Of Our Constitution, But At The Foundation Of All Well Organized And Well Checked Governments. The Separation Of The Power Of Declaring War From That Of Conducting It, Is Wisely Contrived To Exclude The Danger Of Its Being Declared For The Sake Of Its Being Conducted.

The Government Of The United States Is A Definite Government, Confined To Specified Objects. It Is Not Like The State Governments, Whose Powers Are More General. Charity Is No Part Of The Legislative Duty Of The Government.

[it] Is Indispensable That Some Provision Should Be Made For Defending The Community Agst [against] The Incapicity, Negligence Or Perfidy Of The Chief Magistrate.

Union Of Religious Sentiments Begets A Surprising Confidence.

The Latent Causes Of Faction Are Thus Sown In The Nature Of Man.

Knowledge Will Forever Govern Ignorance.

In Europe, Charters Of Liberty Have Been Granted By Power. In America ... Charters Of Power [are] Granted By Liberty.

The Right Of The Citizens To Bear Arms In Defense Of Themselves And The State Shall Not Be Questioned.

To What Expedient Then Shall We Finally Resort, For Maintaining In Practice The Necessary Partition Of Power Among The Several Departments, As Laid Down In The Constitution? The Only Answer That Can Be Given Is, That As All These Exterior Provisions Are Found To Be Inadequate, The Defect Must Be Supplied, By So Contriving The Interior Structure Of The Government, As That Its Several Constituent Parts May, By Their Mutual Relations, Be The Means Of Keeping Each Other In Their Proper Places.

Government Is Instituted To Protect Property Of Every Sort; As Well That Which Lies In The Various Rights Of Individuals, As That Which The Term Particularly Expresses. This Being The End Of Government, That Alone Is A Just Government Which Impartially Secures To Every Man Whatever Is His Own.

That Diabolical Hell Conceived Principle Of Persecution Rages Amoung Some And To Their Eternal Infamy The Clergy Can Furnish Their Quota Of Imps For Such Business.

If Our Nation Is Ever Taken Over, It Will Be Taken Over From Within.

Resistance To Tyranny Is Service To God.

What Is To Be The Consequence, In Case The Congress Shall Misconstrue This Part [the Necessary And Proper Clause] Of The Constitution And Exercise Powers Not Warranted By Its True Meaning, I Answer The Same As If They Should Misconstrue Or Enlarge Any Other Power Vested In Them . . . The Success Of The Usurpation Will Depend On The Executive And Judiciary Departments, Which Are To Expound And Give Effect To The Legislative Acts; And In A Last Resort A Remedy Must Be Obtained From The People, Who Can By The Elections Of More Faithful Representatives, Annul The Acts Of The Usurpers.

There Is No Maxim, In My Opinion, Which Is More Liable To Be Misapplied, And Which, Therefore, More Needs Elucidation, Than The Current One, That The Interest Of The Majority Is The Political Standard Of Right And Wrong.

The Circulation Of Confidence Is Better Than The Circulation Of Money.

The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, Or To Publish Their Sentiments; And The Freedom Of The Press, As One Of The Great Bulwarks Of Liberty, Shall Be Inviolable.

[r]efusing Or Not Refusing To Execute A Law To Stamp It With Its Final Character . . . Makes The Judiciary Department Paramount In Fact To The Legislature, Which Was Never Intended And Can Never Be Proper.

It Will Be Of Little Avail To The People That The Laws Are Made By Men Of Their Own Choice If The Laws Be So Voluminous That They Cannot Be Read, Or So Incoherent That They Cannot Be Understood.

The Powers Of The Federal Government Are Enumerated; It Can Only Operate In Certain Cases; It Has Legislative Powers On Defined And Limited Objects, Beyond Which It Cannot Extend Its Jurisdiction.

Despotism Can Only Exist In Darkness, And There Are Too Many Lights Now In The Political Firmament To Permit It To Remain Anywhere, As It Has Heretofore Done, Almost Everywhere.

In Time Of Actual War, Great Discretionary Powers Are Constantly Given To The Executive Magistrate. Constant Apprehension Of War, Has The Same Tendency To Render The Head Too Large For The Body. A Standing Military Force, With An Overgrown Executive Will Not Long Be Safe Companions To Liberty.

Knowledge Will Forever Govern Ignorance; And A People Who Mean To Be Their Own Governors Must Arm Themselves With The Power Which Knowledge Gives.

A Bad Cause Seldom Fails To Betray Itself.

What Prudent Merchant Will Hazard His Fortunes In Any New Branch Of Commerce When He Knows Not That His Plans May Be Rendered Unlawful Before They Can Be Executed?

With Respect To The Words "general Welfare," I Have Always Regarded Them As Qualified By The Detail Of Powers Connected With Them. To Take Them In A Literal And Unlimited Sense Would Be A Metamorphosis Of The Constitution Into A Character Which There Is A Host Of Proofs Was Not Contemplated By Its Creators.

A Watchful Eye Must Be Kept On Ourselves Lest While We Are Building Ideal Monuments Of Renown And Bliss Here We Neglect To Have Our Names Enrolled In The Annals Of Heaven.

In The Latter Sense, A Man Has A Property In His Opinions And The Free Communication Of Them. He Has A Property Of Peculiar Value In His Religious Opinions, And In The Profession And Practice Dictated By Them. He Has An Equal Property In The Free Use Of His Faculties And Free Choice Of The Objects On Which To Employ Them. In A Word, As A Man Is Said To Have A Right To His Property, He May Be Equally Said To Have A Property In His Rights.

The Two Great Points Of Difference Between A Democracy And A Republic Are: First, The Delegation Of The Government, In The Latter,to A Small Number Of Citizens Elected By The Rest; Secondly, The Greater Number Of Citizens And Greater Sphere Of Country Over Which The Latter May Be Extended.

The Primary Function Of Government Is To Protect The Minority Of The Opulent From The Majority Of The Poor.

In Republics, The Great Danger Is, That The Majority May Not Sufficiently Respect The Rights Of The Minority.

Is The Appointment Of Chaplains To The Two Houses Of Congress Consistent With The Constitution, And With The Pure Principle Of Religious Freedom? In Strictness The Answer On Both Points Must Be In The Negative. The Constitution Of The U. S. Forbids Everything Like An Establishment Of A National Religion. The Law Appointing Chaplains Establishes A Religious Worship For The National Representatives, To Be Performed By Ministers Of Religion, Elected By A Majority Of Them, And These Are To Be Paid Out Of The National Taxes. Does This Not Involve The Principle Of A National Establishment ... ?

What A Perversion Of The Normal Order Of Things! ... To Make Power The Primary And Central Object Of The Social System, And Liberty But Its Satellite.

If Justice, Good Faith, Honor, Gratitude And All The Other Qualities Which Enoble The Character Of A Nation, And Fulfill The Ends Of Government Be The Fruits Of Our Establishments, The Cause Of Liberty Will Acquire A Dignity And Lustre, Which It Has Never Yet Enjoyed, And An Example Will Be Set, Which Can Not But Have The Most Favorable Influence On The Rights Of Mankind.

There Is Not A More Important And Fundamental Principle In Legislation, Than That The Ways And Means Ought Always To Face The Public Engagements; That Our Appropriations Should Ever Go Hand In Hand With Our Promises.

I Acknowledge, In The Ordinary Course Of Government, That The Exposition Of The Laws And Constitution Devolves Upon The Judicial. But I Beg To Know Upon What Principle It Can Be Contended That Any One Department Draws From The Constitution Greater Powers Than Another In Marking Out The Limits Of The Powers Of The Several Departments.

The Best Reason To Be Assigned, In This Case, For Not Having Made The Constitution More Free From A Charge Of Uncertainty In Its Meaning, Is Believed To Be, That It Was Not Suspected That Any Such Charge Would Ever Take Place; And It Appears That No Such Charge Did Take Place, During The Early Period Of The Constitution, When The Meaning Of Its Authors Could Be Best Ascertained, Nor Until Many Of The Contemporary Lights Had In The Lapse Of Time Been Extinguished. How Often Does It Happen, That A Notoriety Of Intention Diminishes The Caution Against Its Being Misunderstood Or Doubted!

Toleration Is Not The Opposite Of Intolerance, But Is The Counterfeit Of It. Both Are Despotisms. The One Assumes To Itself The Right Of Withholding Liberty Of Conscience, The Other Of Granting It.

To Consider The Degree Of Concord Which Ultimately Prevailed As Less Than A Miracle.

What Is The Structure Of Government That Will Best Guard Against The Precipitate Counsels And Factious Combinations For Unjust Purposes, Without A Sacrifice Of The Fundamental Principle Of Republicanism?

[montesquieu] Lifted The Veil From The Venerable Errors Which Enslaved Opinion, And Pointed The Way To Those Luminous Truths Of Which He Had But A Glimpse Himself.

It Is Of Great Importance In A Republic, Not Only To Guard The Society Against The Oppression Of Its Rulers; But To Guard One Part Of The Society Against The Injustice Of The Other Part.

Republican Government

Tyranny Of The Majority

Our Country, If It Does Justice To Itself, Will Be The Workshop Of Liberty To The Civilized World.

I Regret, As Much As Any Member, The Unavoidable Weight And Duration Of The Burdens To Be Imposed; Having Never Been A Proselyte To The Doctrine, That Public Debts Are Public Benefits. I Consider Them, On The Contrary, As Evils Which Ought To Be Removed As Fast As Honor And Justice Will Permit.

A Certain Degree Of Preparation For War . . . Affords Also The Best Security For The Continuance Of Peace.

No Power Over The Freedom Of Religion [is] Delegated To The United States By The Constitution.

Freedom Of Religion

Good Conscience Is The Most Valuable Asset Of All!

Whatever May Be The Judgement Pronounced On The Competency Of The Architects Of The Constitution, Or Whatever May Be The Destiny Of The Edifice Prepared By Them, I Feel It A Duty To Express My Profound And Solemn Conviction . . . That There Never Was An Assembly Of Men, Charged With A Great And Arduous Trust, Who Were More Pure In Their Motives, Or More Exclusively Or Anxiously Devoted To The Object Committed To Them.

The Better Proof Of Reverence For That Holy Name Would Be Not To Profane It By Making It A Topic Of Legislative Discussion.

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