Thomas Paine
“Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.” – Thomas Paine
Filed under Abuse & Misuse of Power, American Exceptionalism, Checks & Balances in Government, Constitution, Democracy, Democratic Republic, Enumerated Powers & Delegated Authority, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Freedom/Liberty, Government Accountability, Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Representative Government, Republican Government, Rule of Law, Thomas Paine, Tyranny, Will & Consent of the People
Thomas Jefferson
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.” — Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIV, 1781
Filed under Abuse & Misuse of Power, Balance of Power, Checks & Balances in Government, Democratic Republic, Enumerated Powers & Delegated Authority, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Government Accountability, Human Nature/Nature of Mankind, Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Representative Government, Thomas Jefferson, Tyranny, Will & Consent of the People
Thomas Jefferson
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” —Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 51, 1788
Thomas Jefferson
“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore … never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge William Johnson, 1823
Filed under Abuse & Misuse of Power, Balance of Power, Checks & Balances in Government, Democratic Republic, Enumerated Powers & Delegated Authority, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Government Accountability, Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Republican Government, Thomas Jefferson, Virtue
Thomas Jefferson
“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore … never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge William Johnson, 1823
Thomas Jefferson
“They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please… Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1791
James Madison
“In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 14, 1787
James Madison
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” —James Madison, Federalist No. 51
James Madison
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” ― James Madison, Federalist Papers
Filed under Abuse & Misuse of Power, Balance of Power, Checks & Balances in Government, Conservative Principles, Constitution, Enumerated Powers & Delegated Authority, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Freedom/Liberty, Human Nature/Nature of Mankind, James Madison, Limited Government, Rule of Law, Statism, Tyranny
Faith & Freedom Footnotes 