James Madison Quotes - Page 21

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• We may be assured by past experience, that such a practice [as some states charging high taxes on goods from other states] would be introduced by future contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human affairs, that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not improbably terminate in serious interruptions of the public tranquility.

  James Madison

  Past, Government, Practice

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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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• I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheism, Opinion

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828: 1816-1828”, p.97

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• Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union.

  James Madison

  Essentials, Unions, Danger

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.220, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The great objects which presented themselves [to the Constitutional Convention] ... formed a task more difficult than can be well conceived by those who were not concerned in the execution of it. Adding to these considerations the natural diversity of human opinions on all new and complicated subjects, it is impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.

  James Madison

  Diversity, Miracle, Degrees

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.27, University of Virginia Press

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• [In government] the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other-that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Office

  James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution”, p.109, Arcturus Publishing

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Pride, Spirit, Human Nature

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.16, University of Virginia 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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• 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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• 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.

  James Madison

  Government, Law, Principles

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

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• Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.

  James Madison

  Wish, Slavery, Littles

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.161

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• [N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.204

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• Are not the daily devotions conducted by these legal ecclesiastics already degenerating into a scanty attendance, and a tiresome formality?

  James Madison

  Atheism, Attendance, Devotion

  James Madison (1999). “Writings”

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• The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

  James Madison

  Men, Ideas, Slavery

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”

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• [The human mind] finds more facility in assenting to the self-existence of an invisible cause possessing infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, than in the self-existence of the universe, visibly destitute of these attributes, and which may be the effect of them.

  James Madison

  Self, Mind, Religion

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• American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.

  James Madison

  Country, Mean, Law

  James Madison, Robert Allen Rutland (1996). “The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series”

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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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• The political truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees the character of fundamental maxims of free Government, and as they become incorporated with national sentiment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion.

  James Madison

  Passion, Character, Government

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

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• It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore establishing the Constitution, will not be a NATIONAL, but a FEDERAL act.

  James Madison

  People, Constitution, Authority

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.176

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• Is there a Legislative power in fact, not expressly prohibited by the Constitution, which might not, according to the doctrine of the Court, be exercised as a means of carrying into effect some specified Power?

  James Madison

  Mean, Doctrine, Might

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett 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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• 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.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Support, United States

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.349

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• Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.

  James Madison

  Successful, Perfect, Presidential

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.89, University of Virginia Press

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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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• This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.

  James Madison

  Law, Land, Constitution Of The United States

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.507

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