James Madison Quotes - Page 20

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• The powers of the federal government ... result from the compact to which the states are parties, [and are] limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact.

  James Madison

  Party, Government, Intention

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.190

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• The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican? It is evident that no other form would be reconcileable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the revolution; or with that honourable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.

  James Madison

  Determination, Government, Self

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

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• Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

  James Madison

  Confidence, Religious, Unions

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

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Mean, Government, Practice

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.238

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Christian, Exercise, Men

  James Madison (1900). “The Writings of James Madison: 1769-1783”

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• All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.

  James Madison

  Debt, Made, Latter

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.504

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• [In a democracy] a common passion or interest will, in almost every case , be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert results from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual.

  James Madison

  Party, Communication, Passion

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.45

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• The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents.

  James Madison

  Parent, Forever, Monsters

  James Madison (1906). “The Writings of James Madison: 1790-1802”

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• 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.

  James Madison

  War, Fall, Agency

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• Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.

  James Madison

  Liberty, Unjust, Socialism

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.124, University of Virginia Press

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• Man, who preys both on the vegetable and animal species, is himself a prey to neither. He too possesses the reproductive principle far beyond the degree requisite for the bare continuance of his species. What becomes of the surplus of human life to which this principle is competent?

  James Madison

  Men, Animal, Vegetables

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.454

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• For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?

  James Madison

  Purpose, Were Meant To Be, Particular

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.225, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.

  James Madison

  Independent, Rights, Class

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.12, University of Virginia Press

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• The members of the legislative department . . . are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their connections of blood, of friendship, and of acquaintance embrace a great proportion of the most influential part of the society . . . they are more immediately the confidential guardians of their rights and liberties.

  James Madison

  Blood, Rights, People

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.249, Coventry House Publishing

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• Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease.

  James Madison

  Religious, Blood, Differences

  James Madison (1819). “Religious Freedom. A memorial and remonstrance drawn by ... J. Madison, late President of the United States, ... against the general assessment in “a Bill establishing provision for the teachers of the Christian religion, presented to the General Assembly”, p.10

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• It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree.

  James Madison

  Religion, Atheism, May

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

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• The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitutional charters.

  James Madison

  Support, Liberty, Citizens

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.468

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Education, Art, Writing

  Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2017). “The Origin of the Nation: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and Other Amendments, Federalist Papers & Common Sense: Creating America - Landmark Documents that Shaped a New Nation”, p.508, Madison & Adams Press

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• In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question between power and liberty; in proportion to the solemnity of acts, proclaiming the will authenticated by the seal of the people, the only earthly source of authority, ought to be the vigilance with which they are guarded by every citizen in private life, and the circumspection with which they are executed by every citizen in public trust.

  James Madison

  People, Liberty, Citizens

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Law, People, Federalism

  Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison (2018). “America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights”, p.403, First Avenue Editions

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• 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

  James Madison

  Practice, People, Serious

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.94

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• Our opinions agree as to the evil, moral, political, and economical, of slavery.

  James Madison

  Evil, Political, Slavery

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.193

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Real, Differences, Southern

  Wendell Phillips, James Madison, American Anti-Slavery Society (1856). “The Constitution a pro-slavery compact, or, Extracts from the Madison papers, etc”, p.35

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• What becomes of the surplus of human life? It is either, 1st. destroyed by infanticide, as among the Chinese and Lacedemonians; or 2d. it is stifled or starved, as among other nations whose population is commensurate to its food; or 3d. it is consumed by wars and endemic diseases; or 4th. it overflows, by emigration, to places where a surplus of food is attainable.

  James Madison

  War, Chinese, Balance

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.454

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• It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted on by our laws, and have an interest in our laws. They may be considered as making a part, though a degraded part, of the families to which they belong.

  James Madison

  Character, Home, Light

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

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