James Madison Quotes - Page 15

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• The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently that as the parties to it, they must themselves decide in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition.

  James Madison

  Party, Nullification, May

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.517

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• A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

  James Madison

  Government, People, Doubt

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more apt to be diminished than prompted, by those occasions which require an unusual exercise of it.

  James Madison

  Real, Exercise, Essentials

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.168, Cambridge University Press

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Opposites, Rivals, Might

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.240

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• Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded.

  James Madison

  War, Judging, Safe

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.436

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• The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.

  James Madison

  Mean, Relief, Causes

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.35

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• The people of the U.S. owe their Independence & their liberty, to the wisdom of descrying in the minute tax of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil comprized in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, in watching agst every evil lurking under plausible disguises, and growing up from small beginnings.

  James Madison

  Growing Up, People, Evil

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• In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not the executive department. ... The trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man.

  James Madison

  War, Men, Temptation

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1826). “The Federalist: On the New Constitution”, p.550

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• The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defense against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad.

  James Madison

  Real, War, Home

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Mean, Liberty, Federalism

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• At cheaper and nearer seats of Learning parents with slender incomes may place their sons in a course of education putting them on a level with the sons of the Richest.

  James Madison

  Education, Son, Parent

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.278

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• [Exchange] the galling burden of bachelorship for the easy yoke of matrimony.

  James Madison

  Marriage, Advice, Yoke

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.568

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• If men were angels, there would be no need of government.

  James Madison

  Angel, Men, Would Be

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• The danger of disturbing the public tranquillity by interesting too strongly the public passions, is a still more serious objection against a frequent reference of constitutional questions to the decision of the whole society.

  James Madison

  Passion, Interesting, Decision

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.248, Coventry House Publishing

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• 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?

  James Madison

  Sacrifice, Government, Principles

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• The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies, to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders, into intemperate and pernicious resolutions.

  James Madison

  Passion, Yield, Leader

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2007). “The Federalist Papers”, p.474, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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• In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several states, a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.

  James Madison

  Government, Nullification, Federalism

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.178

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• A distinction of property results from that very protection which a free Government gives to unequal faculties of acquiring it.

  James Madison

  Government, Giving, Protection

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the meaning of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

  James Madison

  War, Opportunity, Office

  "Political Observations" by James Madison, founders.archives.gov. April 20, 1795.

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• There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermingle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.

  James Madison

  Government, Religion, Shadow

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• [T]he delegation of the government, in [a republic], to a small number of citizens elected by the rest . . . [is] to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.

  James Madison

  Country, Sacrifice, Small Numbers

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• In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal of such a number to so great a distance [freed slaves to Africa], my thoughts and hopes have long been turned to the rich fund presented in the western lands of the nation . . .

  James Madison

  Distance, Land, Numbers

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• To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

  James Madison

  Errors, Media, Humanity

  James Madison, Thomas Jefferson (1826). “Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky”, p.51

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• A victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.

  James Madison

  Powerful, Government, Names

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist: On the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.83

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• In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by Power. In America ... charters of power [are] granted by liberty.

  James Madison

  Government, Europe, America

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