What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were... →
James Madison
War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is... →
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of... →
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... →
The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of... →
To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a... →