Quotes on the Constitution
“The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”
— James Madison (1751-
“God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
George Washington addressing delegates at the Constitutional Convention. He said,
“If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hands of God.”
— George Washington (1732-
“Every word [of the Constitution] decides a question between power and liberty.”
— James Madison (1751-
“The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.”
— George Washington (1732-
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
— Patrick Henry (1736-
“It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is every where the parent of despotism, free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence, it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power that our constitution has accordingly so fixed the limits to which and no further our confidence may go …In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. When the people once surrender their share of the legislature, and their right of defending the limitations upon the government, and of resisting every encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.”
— John Adams (1797-
“But, through the special protection of Divine Providence, a happy union of the principal inhabitants was formed, and we have hitherto miraculously escaped … I had the honor of being one among many who framed that Constitution. . . . In order effectually to accomplish these great ends, it is incumbent upon us to begin wisely and to proceed in the fear of God; . . . and it is especially the duty of those who bear rule to promote and encourage piety [respect for God]. … Let each man among us, whether in the State or in the Church, whether in public or in private life, by example, by precept, by every becoming act, persevere, and be ready with his life and fortune to defend the just cause in which God has been pleased to engage us.
We shall, weak as we are, succeed against those who have assumed to themselves the powers of omnipotence, who trust in fleets and armies to determine the fight. We shall be the happy instruments of establishing liberty, civil and religious, in a wilderness, where towns and cities shall grow, whose inhabitants to the latest posterity will look back to this happy epoch, and celebrate and bless the memory of this generation. In order effectually to accomplish these great ends, it is incumbent upon us to begin wisely, and to proceed in the fear of God; and it is especially the duty of those who bear rule, to promote and encourage piety and virtue, and to discountenance every degree of vice and immorality.”
— Henry Laurens (1724-
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States (which States you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances and prejudieces) should unite in forming a system of national Government.”
— George Washington (1732-
“The hand that destroys the Constitution renders our Union asunder for ever.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“It is every Americans right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself.”
— Benjamin Franklin (1706-
“What is a constitution? It is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people, in which certain first principles or fundamental laws are established. The Constitution is certain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land ; it is paramount to the power of the legislature, and can be revoked or altered only by the authority that made it.—What are legislatures ? creatures of the Constitution, they owe their existence to the Constitution—they derive their powers from the Constitution.—it is their commission, and therefore all their acts must be conformable to it, or else void. The Constitution is the work or will of the people themselves, in their original, sovereign, and unlimited capacity. Law is the work or will of the legislature in their derivative capacity.”
— William Paterson, VanHorne’s Lessee v. Dorrance, 1795
“It is a misfortune incident to republican government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that those who administer it, may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.”
— James Madison (1751-
“Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“I must own I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction [Constitutional Convention] of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler [God].”
— Benjamin Franklin (1706-
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.”
— John Adams (1797-
“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
— James Madison (1751-
“The Constitution, which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all.”
— George Washington (1732-
Charles Thompson was asked by Dr. Benjamin Rush to write a history of the revolution. He replied ..”No, I ought not , for I should contradict all the histories of the great events of the Revolution , and shew by my account of men , motives and measures , that we are wholly indebted to the agency of Providence [God] for its [the Constitution] successful issue.”
— Charles Thompson (1730-1824) Secretary to the First and Second Continental Congress
“Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God, been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will be extinguished.
— Andrew Jackson (1767-
“Let every man remember that to violate the law [Constitution], is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children’s liberty.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience.”
— John Adams (1797-
“I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that is not the guide in expounding it, there may be no security.”
— James Madison (1751-
“The present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes. Rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“The real wonder is, that so many difficulties should have been surmounted; and surmounted with an unanimity almost as unprecedented, as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candour to reflect on this circumstance, without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible, for the man of pious reflection, not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty Hand, which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief.”
— James Madison (1751-
“It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with powe; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go … In questions of power, then let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“To consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.”
— James Madison (1751-
“A constitution founded on these principles [Republican] introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.”
— John Adams (1797-
“The inherent right in the people to reform their government I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is, to resist unconstitutional laws, without overturning the government. It is no doctrine of mine that unconstitutional laws bind the people.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“It would be ungrateful not to observe, that there-
— Benjamin Rush (1745-
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; and its defenses are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, THE PEOPLE.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we had give them. The constitution, too, which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power; but they cannot justify it, even if we were sure that they existed. It is hardly too strong to say, that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real or pretended. …Human beings, we may be assured, will generally exercise power when they can get it; and they will exercise it most undoubtedly, in popular governments, under pretences of public safety or high public interest. It may be very possible that good intentions do really sometimes exist when constitutional restraints are disregarded. There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“The fundamental principle of our constitution … enjoins (the sense of command, duty) that the will of the majority shall prevail.”
— George Washington (1732-
[An] obvious truth, which is this: that a sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.
Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions—a government of Force, and a government of Laws; the first is the definition of despotism—the last, of liberty. But how can a government of laws exist when the laws are disrespected and disobeyed? Government supposes control. It is that Power by which individuals in society are kept from doing injury to each other, and are brought to co-
Those, therefore, who preach doctrines, or set examples which undermine or subvert the authority of the laws, lead us from freedom to slavery; they incapacitate us for a Government of Laws, and consequently prepare the way for one of Force, for mankind must have Government Of One Sort Or Another. There are, indeed, great and urgent cases where the bounds of the Constitution are manifestly transgressed, or its constitutional authorities so exercised as to produce unequivocal oppression on the community, and to render resistance justifiable. But such cases can give no color to the resistance by a comparatively inconsiderable part of a community, of constitutional laws distinguished by no extraordinary features of rigor or oppression, and acquiesced in by the body of the community.
Such a resistance is treason against society, against liberty, against every thing that ought to be dear to a free, enlightened, and prudent people. To tolerate it, were to abandon your most precious interests. Not to subdue it, were to tolerate it. Those who openly or covertly dissuade you from exertions adequate to the occasion are your worst enemies. They treat you either as fools or cowards, too weak to perceive your interest or your duty, or too dastardly to pursue them. They, therefore, merit and will, no doubt, meet your contempt. To the plausible but hollow harangue of such conspirators you cannot fail to reply, How long, ye Catilines [Roman politixan of the 1st century BC known the conspiracy attempting to overthrow the Roman Republic, will ye abuse our patience?
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“The duty imposed upon him [the president] to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will ’preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.’ The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence or defense; for the redress of grievances or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right.”
— Thomas Paine (1736-
“The convention by whom that constitution was formed were of opinion that the gospel of Christ, like the ark of God, would not fall, though unsupported by the arm of flesh …”
— John Jay (1745-
“The constitution, however, has wisely declared, that the ‘liberty of conscience thereby granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness’ …”
— John Jay (1745-
JUDGE JAY’S CHARGE 1777
“The Americans are the first people whom heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon, and choosing the forms of government under which they should live;—all other constitutions have derived their existence from violence or accidental circumstances, and are therefore probably more distant from their perfection, which, though beyond our reach, may nevertheless be approached under the guidance of reason and experience.
How far the people of this state have improved this opportunity, we are at no loss to determine.—Their constitution has given general satisfaction at home, and been not only approved, but applauded abroad. It would be a pleasing task to take a minute view of it, to investigate its principles, and remark the connection and use of its several parts—but that would be a work of too great length to be proper on this occasion. I must therefore confine myself to general observations; and among those which naturally arise from a consideration of this subject, none are more obvious, than that the highest respect has been paid to I those great and equal rights of human nature, ‘which should forever remain inviolate in every society—and that such care has been taken in the disposition of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of government, as to promise permanence to the constitution, and give energy and impartiality to the distribution of justice. So that, while you possess wisdom to discern and virtue to appoint men of worth and abilities to fill the offices of the state, you will be happy at home and respectable abroad.—Your life, your liberties, your property, will be at the disposal only of your Creator and yourselves. You will know no power but such as you will create; no authority unless derived from your grant; no laws, but such as acquire all their obligations from your consent. I Adequate security is also given to the rights ! of conscience and private judgment. They are, | by nature, subject to no control but that of the Deity, and in that free situation they are now left. Every man is permitted to consider, to jadore and to worship his Creator in the manner most agreeable to his conscience. No opinions are dictated; no rules of faith prescribed; no preference given to one sect to the prejudice of others.—The constitution, however, has wisely declared, that the “liberty of conscience, thereby granted, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.” In a word, the convention, by whom that constitution was formed, were of opinion, that the gospel of Christ, like the ark of Goo, ‘would not fall, though unsupported by the arm of flesh; and happy would it be for mankind, if that opinion prevailed more generally.
But let it be remembered, that whatever marks of wisdom, experience and patriotism there may be in your constitution, yet, like the beautiful symmetry, the just proportions, and elegant forms of our first parents, before their maker breathed into them the breath of life, it is yet to be animated, and till then, may indeed excite admiration, but will be of no use—from the people it must receive its spirit, and by them be quickened. Let virtue, honor, the love of liberty and of science be, and remain, the ‘soul of this constitution, and it will become the source of great and extensive happiness to this and future generations. Vice, ignorance, and want of vigilance, will be the only enemies able to destroy it. Against these provide, and, of these, be forever jealous. Every member of the state, ought diligently to read and study the constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.
— John Jay (1745-
“No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. It is a suitable pledge of his fidelity and responsibility to his country; and creates upon his conscience a deep sense of duty, by an appeal, at once in the presence of God and man, to the most sacred and solemn sanctions which can operate upon the human mind.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U. S.
“A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.”
— Thomas Paine (1736-
“The constitution, however, has wisely declared, that the “liberty of conscience thereby granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State.” In a word, the convention by whom that constitution was formed were of opinion that the gospel of Christ, like the ark of God, would not fall, though unsupported by the arm of flesh; and happy would it be for mankind if that opinion prevailed more generally. …from the people it must receive its spirit, and by them be quickened, Let virtue, honor, the love of liberty and of science be, and remain, the soul of this constitution, and it will become the source of great and extensive happiness to this and future generations. Vice, ignorance, and want of vigilance, will be the only enemies able to destroy it. Against these provide, and, of these, be forever jealous. Every member of the state, ought diligently to read and study the constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights [God given], they [you the voter] will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.”
— John Jay (1745-
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
— John Adams (1797-
“The Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“He [Washington] has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he was determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these declarations he repeated to me the oftener and the more pointedly.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic …The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered. It has been said, that the oath of the legislator, and the right of the people to change their rulers by election, form the legitimate securities against the passage of laws not authorized by the constitution. But the oath of the legislator is never introduced, or relied on, as an effectual, independent guard; it is only considered an auxiliary defense against transgression, operating on the mind of a conscientious, or timid man. From the very nature of an oath, while it gives security, with honorable men, against the willful perversion of power, it can give none against.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the constitution is written.”
— Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury vs Madison, 5 US 137(1803)
“While all mankind are by our Constitution tolerated, and free to enjoy religious profession and worship within this State, yet the religious professions of the Pagan, the Mohaminedan, and the Christian are not, in the eye of the law, of equal truth and excellence. According to the Christian system, men pass into a future state of existence when the deeds of their life become the subjects of rewards and punishments. The moral law rests upon the truth of this doctrine, without which it has no sufficient sanction. Our laws constantly refer to this revelation …
“By the oath which they [the law] prescribe, we appeal to the Supreme Being so to deal with us hereafter as we observe the obligations of our oaths. The pagan world were and are without the mighty influence of this principle, which is proclaimed in the Christian system—their morals were destitute of its powerful sanction, while their oaths neither awakened the hopes nor the fears which a belief in Christianity inspires.”
— James Iredell, Sr. (1751-
“As you sometimes swear by him that made you, I conclude your sentiments do not correspond with his, in that which is the basis of the doctrine you both agree in: and this makes it impossible to imagine whence this congruity between you arises. “To grant that there is a supreme intelligence who rules the world and has established laws to regulate the actions of his creatures; and still to assert that man, in a state of nature, may be considered as perfectly free from all restraints of law and government, appears to a common understanding altogether irreconcilable.
Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature….Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind. …
The Supreme Being gave existence to man …; and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety … Hence, also, the origin of all civil government, justly established, must be a voluntary compact between the rulers and the ruled; and must be liable to-
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe. The prospect of a war with any powerful nation is too remote to be a matter of calculation. Besides, there is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they my place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail to properly scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing [and ours]. …. I regard it [countries founding & Constitution] as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benignant Providence; for when we regard it as a system of government growing out of the discordant options and conflicting interests of thirteen independent States, it almost appears Divine interposition in our behalf …. I believe, if the bond of union were broken, we should never again be a united people…. No plan could be proposed that would be adopted; the hand that destroys the Constitution renders our Union asunder for ever.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“Each of these States is sovereign under the Constitution; and if we wish to preserve our liberties, the reserved rights and sovereignty of each and every State must be maintained. …God forbid that any man should ever make the attempt [undermine State sovereignty]. Let that Constitution ever be trodden under foot and destroyed, and there will not be wisdom and patriotism enough left to make another that will work half so well. Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it, inviolate, at the same time maintaining the reserved rights and the sovereignty of each State over its local and domestic institutions, against Federal authority, or any outside interference.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
“The fundamental principle of our Constitution, which enjoins that the will of the majority shall prevail.” (Within the framework of the Constitution and Biblical Law, not mob rule.)
— George Washington (1732-
“The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.”
— James Wilson (1742-
“Whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collectively and individually, that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them, than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787 to the object of devising and proposing a constitutional system which should best supply the defects of that which it was to replace, and best secure the permanent liberty and happiness of their country.”
— James Madison (1751-
“The state governments, I think, will not be endangered by the powers vested by this Constitution in the general government. While I have attended in Congress, I have observed that the members were quite as strenuous advocates for the rights of their respective states as for those of the Union. I doubt not but this will continue to be the case, and hence I infer that the general government will not have the disposition to encroach upon the states. But still the people themselves must be the chief support of liberty. While the great body of the freeholders (voters) are acquainted with the duties which they owe to their God, to themselves, and to men, remain free. But if ignorance and depravity should prevail, they will inevitably lead to slavery and ruin. Upon the whole view of this Constitution, I am in favor of it and think it bids fair to promote our national prosperity. This is a new event in the history of mankind. Heretofore, most governments have been formed by tyrants and imposed on mankind by force. Never before did a people, in time of peace and tranquility, meet together by their representatives and, with calm deliberation, frame for themselves a system of government. This noble attempt does honor to our country. While I express my sentiments in favor of this Constitution.”
— Samuel Huntington (1731-
“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 [the Constitution] 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 (1743-
“If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.”
— James Madison (1751-
“I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“It is a great mistake to suppose that the paper [Constitution] we are to propose will govern the United States. It is the men whom it will bring into the government, and interest in maintaining it, that are to govern them. The paper will only mark out the mode and the form.”
— John Francis Mercer (1759–1821) Patriot, Maryland delegate to the Constructional Convention (opposed a strong centralized government, walked out before the convention had ended)
“Of all the objections which have been framed against the federal Constitution, this is perhaps the most extraordinary. Whilst the objection itself is levelled against a pretended oligarchy, the principle of it strikes at the very root of republican government.
The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust. The elective mode of obtaining rulers is the characteristic policy of republican government. The means relied on in this form of government for preventing their degeneracy are numerous and various. The most effectual one, is such a limitation of the term of appointments as will maintain a proper responsibility to the people.”
— James Madison (1751-
“At the establishment of our Constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the Constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“The prosperity of the United States is not the result of accident. It has a philosophic cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all”—the principle that clears the path for all—gives hope to all—and, by consequence, enterprise and industry to all.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would glow on his lips would be, ‘Beware! Be cautious! You have everything to lose; nothing to gain.’We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of the people. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often. Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than they have it now, They may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies.”
— John Adams (1797-
“It broaches a new Constitutional doctrine of vast consequence, and demanding the serious attention of the public. I consider it myself as subverting the fundamental and characteristic principle of the government; as contrary to the true and fair, as well as the received construction, and as bidding defiance to the sense in which the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advocated and adopted. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”
— James Madison (1751-
“Our lot has been cast by the favor of heaven in a country and under circumstances highly auspicious to our peace and prosperity, and where no pretense can arise for the degrading and oppressive establishments of Europe. It is our happiness that honorable distinctions flow only from public approbation, and that finds no object in titled dignitaries and pageants. Let us, then, endeavor carefully to guard this happy state of things by keeping a watchful eye over the disaffection of wealth and ambition to the republican principles of our Constitution, and by sacrificing all our local and personal interests to the cultivation of the Union and maintenance of the authority of the laws.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“While the great body of freeholders are acquainted with the duties which they owe to their God, to themselves, and to men, they will remain free. But if ignorance and depravity should prevail, they will inevitably lead to slavery and ruin.”
— Samuel Huntington (1731-
“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws —the first growing out of the last.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [The Constitution] a finger of that almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.”
— James Madison (1751-
“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”
— John Adams (1797-
“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought toform the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseriesand evil men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression,slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the preceptscontained in the Bible.”
— Noah Webster (1758-
“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
— James Madison (1751-
“[The Constitution] is …the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen”
— John Adams (1797-
“Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
— James Madison (1751-
“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.”
— Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury vs Madison, 5 US 137(1803
“The Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution. But this doctrine is not deducible from any circumstance peculiar to the plan of convention, but from the general theory of a limited Constitution.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“With all the defects in our Constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our government with those of Europe, is like a comparison of Heaven with Hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate station.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.”
— James Madison (1751-
“A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.”
— John Adams (1797-
“Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.”
— John Witherspoon (1722-
“To every description of citizens, let praise be given. but let them persevere in their affectionate vigilance over that precious depository of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States. Let them cherish it, too, for the sake of those who, from every clime, are daily seeking a dwelling in our land.”
— George Washington (1732-
“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 (1751-
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“Gentlemen indulge too many unreasonable apprehensions of danger to the state governments. They seem to suppose that the moment you put men into the national council they become corrupt and tyrannical, and lose all their affection for their fellow citizens. But can we imagine that the senators will ever be so insensible of their own advantage as to sacrifice the genuine interest of their constituents? The state governments are essentially necessary to the form and spirit of the general system. As long, therefore, as Congress has a full conviction of this necessity, it must, even upon principles purely national, have as firm an attachment to the one as to the other. This conviction can never leave its members unless they become madmen. While the Constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the states must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the Union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.”
— James Madison (1751-
“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”
— James Madison (1751-
“This balance between the National and State governments ought to be dwelt on with peculiar attention, as it is of the utmost importance. It forms a double security to the people. If one encroaches on their rights they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits by a certain rivalship, which will ever subsist between them.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”
— James Madison (1751-
“The national government was itself the creature of the States…Yet today it is often made to appear that the creature, Frankenstein-
— Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-
“No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution of his country.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“The framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.”
— Hugo Black (1886-
“If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.”
— Franklin Pierce (1804-
“The present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes—rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.”
— James Madison (1751-
“No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges’ views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice. I have no fear of constitutional amendments properly adopted, but I do fear the rewriting of the Constitution by judges under the guise of interpretation.”
— Hugo Black (1886-
“The constitution of the United States is to receive a reasonable interpretation of its language, and its powers, keeping in view the objects and purposes, for which those powers were conferred. By a reasonable interpretation, we mean, that in case the words are susceptible of two different senses, the one strict, the other more enlarged, that should be adopted, which is most consonant with the apparent objects and intent of the Constitution.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“Constitutions are not designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or judicial research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for common use, and fitted for common understandings.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. Of that law, the following are maxims—that no injury should be done—that a lawful engagement, voluntarily made, should be faithfully fulfilled. We now see the deep and the solid foundations of human law.… Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The Divine law [Old Testement & Gospel of Jesus Christ]… forms an essential part of both. … Our Creator has a supreme right to prescribe a law for our conduct, and that we are under the most perfect obligation to obey that law, are truths established on the clearest and most solid principles.”
— James Wilson (1742-
“But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.”
— James Madison (1751-
“They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare…. 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 sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“It has been often remarked that the people of the United States come nearer to a parallel with Ancient Israel, than any other nation upon the globe. Hence ‘Our American Israel’ is a term frequently used; and our common consent allows it apt and proper.”
— Abiel Abbot (1770–1828) Graduate from Harvard Divinity School, Clergyman (Thanksgiving Sermon, 1799)
“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“But the origin of the American Republic is distinguished by peculiar circumstances. Other nations have been driven together by fear and necessity—the governments have generally been the result of a single man’s observations; or the offspring of particular interests. In the formation of our constitution, the wisdom of all ages is collected—the legislators of antiquity are consulted—as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. In short, it is an empire of reason.
In the formation of such a government, it is not only the right, but the indispensable duty of every citizen to examine the principles of it, to compare them with the principles of other governments, with a constant eye to our particular situation and circumstances, and thus endeavor to foresee the future operations of our own system, and its effects upon human happiness. Convinced of this truth, I have no apology to offer for the following remarks, but an earnest desire to be useful to my country.”
— Noah Webster (1758-
“The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But 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 to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. 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. 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 (1751-
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
“Never did a Government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid— gigantic: of a people so prosperous and happy, Ini contemplating what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy, when he reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that, in respect to it, we have no essential improvement to make; that the great object is, to preserve it in the essential principles and features which characterize it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people; and, as a security against foreign dangers, to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support of our independence, our rights, and liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we bare advanced so far, and in the path already traced, we cannot fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us …
I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrage of my fellow-
— James Monroe (1758-
[Unconfirmed Quote] “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-
— James Madison (1751-
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.”
— James Madison (1751-
“I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers established by the constitution for the limitation of both, and 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 (1743-
“The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself. No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add a single word thereto, or take a single word threreto. It is a great national enactment done by the people, and can only be altered, amended, or added to by the people.”
— Frederick Douglass (181-
“We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children.”
— Mallard Filmore (1800-
“Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”
— Hugo Black (1886-
“I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds. I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.”
— Grover Cleveland (1837-
“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.”
— James Garfield (1831-
“On every question of construction, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but … to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
“One country, one Constitution, one destiny.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.
Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions—a government of Force, and a government of Laws ; the first is the definition of despotism—the last, of liberty. But how can a government of laws exist when the laws are disrespected and disobeyed? Government supposes control. It is that Power by which individuals in society are kept from doing injury to each other, and are brought to co-
Those, therefore, who preach doctrines, or set examples which undermine or subvert the authority of the laws, lead us from freedom to slavery; they incapacitate us for a Government of Laws, and consequently prepare the way for one of Force, for mankind must have Government Of One Sort Or Another. There are, indeed, great and urgent cases where the bounds of the Constitution are manifestly transgressed, or its constitutional authorities so exercised as to produce unequivocal oppression on the community, and to render resistance justifiable. But such cases can give no color to the resistance by a comparatively inconsiderable part of a community, of constitutional laws distinguished by no extraordinary features of rigor or oppression, and acquiesced in by the body of the community.
Such a resistance is treason against society, against liberty, against every thing that ought to be dear to a free, enlightened, and prudent people. To tolerate it, were to abandon your most precious interests. Not to subdue it, were to tolerate it. Those who openly or covertly dissuade you from exertions adequate to the occasion, are your worst enemies. They treat you either as fools or cowards, too weak to perceive your interest or your duty, or too dastardly to pursue them. They, therefore, merit and will, no doubt, meet your contempt. To the plausible but hollow harangue of such conspirators you cannot fail to reply …”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“The house of representatives … can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.”
— Federalist No. 57, February 19, 1788
“I mean to stand on the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country’s, my God’s, and truth’s. I was born an American, and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this, with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil which may befall a great country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country’s fate? Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in defence of the liberties and constitution of his country.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-
“Wise politicians will be cautious about fettering the government with restrictions that cannot be observed, because they know that every break of the fundamental laws, though dictated by necessity, impairs that sacred reverence which ought to be maintained in the breast of rulers towards the constitution of a country.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“And now the future is all before us, and Providence our guide.
When the children of Israel, after forty years of wanderings in the wilderness, were about to enter upon the promised land, their leader, Moses, who was not permitted to cross the Jordan with them, just before his removal from among them, commanded that when the Lord their God should have brought them into the land, they should put the curse upon Mount Ebal, and the blessing upon Mount Gerizim. This injunction was faithfully fulfilled by his successor’ Joshua. Immediately after they had taken possession of the land, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, of whole stones, upon Mount Ebal. And there he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the children of Israel: and all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on the two sides of the ark of the covenant, borne by the priests and Levites, six tribes over against Mount Gerizim, and six over against Mount Ebal. And he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that was written in the book of the law.
Fellow-
— John Quincy Adams, (1767-
“Among the objects of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, Liberty & Equality stand in a conspicuous light—It is the first article in our declaration of rights, “all men are born free & equal, & have certain natural, essential & unalienable rights.”—In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator: They are imprinted by the finger of God on the heart of man. Thou shalt do no injury to thy neighbor, is the voice of nature & reason, & it is confirmed by written revelation. In the State of nature every man hath an equal right by honest means to acquire property & to enjoy it; in general, to pursue his own happiness & none can consistently control or interrupt him in the pursuit. But, so turbulent are the passions of some, & so selfish are the feelings of others, that in such a state, there being no social compact, the weak cannot always be protected from the violence of the strong, nor the honest and unsuspecting from the arts & intrigues of the selfish & cunning—Hence it is easy to conceive that men, naturally formed for society, were inclined to enter into mutual compact for the better security of their natural rights. In this state of Society, the unalienable rights of nature are held sacred: And each member is intitled to an equal share of all the social rights—No man can of right become possessed of a greater share: If any one usurps it, he so far becomes a tyrant; & when he can obtain sufficient strength, the people will feel the rod of a tyrant. Or, if this exclusive privilege can be supposed to be held in virtue of compact, it argues a very capital defect; & the people, when more enlightened will alter their compact, & extinguish the very idea….
Before the formation of this Constitution it had been affirmed as a self evident truth, in the Declaration of Independence, very deliberately made by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that ‘all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights’ This declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union & has never been disannuled. May we not from hence conclude, that the doctrine of Liberty and Equality is an article in the political creed of the United States.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
“The House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures: that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny. If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves, and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and, above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America; a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.
If this spirit shall ever be so far debased, as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on tho people, the people will bo prepared to tolerate any thing but liberty.
Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the cords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people. It is possible that these may all be insufficient, to control the caprice and wickedness of men. But are they not all that government will admit, and that human prudence can devise? Are they not the genuine, and the characteristic moans, by which republican government provides for the liberty and happiness of the people? Are they not the identical means on which every state government in the union relies for the attainment of these important ends? What then are we to understand by the objection which this paper has combated? What are we to say to the men who profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it; who pretend to be champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to them?”
— James Madison (1751-
“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-
“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-
During the deliberations of the convention to form the Constitution, the 4th of July, 1787, was celebrated in Philadelphia with great enthusiasm. The oration was delivered in the Reformed Calvinistic Church, and Rev. William Rogers—offered up a prayer, of which the following is an extract:
“As this is a period, 0 Lord, big with events impenetrable by any human scrutiny, we fervently recommend to thy fatherly notice that august body, assembled in this city, who compose our federal convention. Will it please thee, 0 thou Eternal I Am! to favor them, from day to day, with thy inspiring presence; be their wisdom and strength; enable them to devise such measures as may prove happy instruments in healing all divisions and prove the good of the great whole; incline the hearts of all the people to receive with pleasure, combined with a determination to carry into execution, whatever these thy servants may wisely recommend; that the United States of America may form one example of a free and virtuous government, which shall be the result of human mutual deliberation, and which shall not, like other governments, whether ancient or modern, spring out of mere chance or be established by force. May we trust in the cheering prospect of being a country delivered from anarchy, and continue, under the influence of republican virtue, to partake of all the blessings of cultivated and Christian society.”
— William Rogers (1751-
“The structure [Constitution] has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid, its compartments are beautiful as well as useful, its arrangements are full of wisdom and order, and its defences are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of men may justly aspire to such a title. It may nevertheless perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, the People. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people in order to betray them.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
[Regarding the Constitution] “THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE RETAINED THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AS THE FOUNDATION OF THEIR CIVIL, LEGAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS; WHILE THEY HAVE REFUSED TO CONTINUE A LEGAL PREFERENCE TO ANY ONE OF ITS FORMS OVER ANY OTHER. In the same spirit of practical wisdom, moreover, they have consented to tolerate all other religions. …We must be a Christian nation, if we wish to continue a free nation.”
— Jasper Adams (1793-
“When we contemplate the fate that has befallen other nations, whether we cast our eyes back into the remotest ages of antiquity, or derive instruction from those examples which modem times have presented to our view, and observe How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-
— James Monroe (1758-
“Temporary delusions, prejudices, excitements, and objects have irresistible influence in mere questions of policy. And the policy of one age may ill suit the wishes or the policy of another. The constitution is not subject to such fluctuations. It is to have a fixed, uniform, permanent construction. It should be, so far at least as human infirmity will allow, not dependent upon the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, to-
— Joseph Story (1779-
“All the forms of civil polity have been tried by mankind, except one, and that seems to have been reserved in Providence to be realized in America. Most of the states, of all ages …have been founded in rapacity, usurpation, and injustice; so that in the contests recorded in history …the military history of all nations being but a description of the wars and invasions of the mutual robbers and devastators of the human race.”
— Ezra Stiles (1727– 1795) Minister, Theologian, Author and President of Yale College
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of our Constitution itself, and not according to judges’ views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice. I have no fear of constitutional amendments properly adopted, but I do fear the rewriting of the Constitution by judges under the guise of interpretation.”
— Hugo Black (1886-
“It is out of the Word of God that a system has come to make life sweet. If you blot out of your statute book, your constitution, your family life, all that is taken from the Sacred Book, what would there be left to bind society together.”
— Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) was the 23rd President of the United States
“Let it [the Constitution] be taught in schools, seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“The constitution regulates our stewardship; the constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree their happiness.”
— William Henry Seward (1801–1872) Governor of New York, Senator, and Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln
“Study the Constitution. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislatures, and enforced in courts of justice.”
— Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) Sixteenth President of the United States
“But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.”
— William Henry Seward (1801–1872) Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
“The duty imposed upon him to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will ‘preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.’ The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people.”
— Joseph Story (1779-
“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”
— Harry S. Truman (1884-
“To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race”
— Calvin Coolidge (1872-
“I hope that you have re-
— Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-
“The Founding Fathers established a system which meant a radical break from that which preceded it. A written constitution would provide a permanent form of government, limited in scope, but effective in providing both liberty and order. Government was not to be a matter of self-
— Ronald Reagan (1911-
“Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: ‘We the people.’ ‘We the people’ tell the government what to do, it doesn’t tell us. ‘We the people’ are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which ‘We the people’ tell the government what it is allowed to do. ‘We the people’ are free.”
— Ronald Reagan (1911-
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“The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few. It is the universal right of all God’s children”
— Ronald Reagan (1911-
“Now I realize it’s fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we’re told we’ll violate the constitutional separation of church and state established by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny.”
— Ronald Reagan (1911-
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king; he will save us.”
— Isaiah 33:22 RSV
(The three branches of government, a reflection the divine words spoke by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah. “For the LORD is our judge [judicial]; the LORD is our lawgiver [legislative]; the LORD is our king [executive].”
”Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.”
— Exodus 18:21 RSV
The Declaration of Independence is a Christian document — Christian because it reflects many biblical principles, including the Christian idea of man and government, Christian self-government, biblical means of resisting tyranny, limited nature of civil government, the biblical purpose of government
, to name a few. It acknowledges God and His revealed will as the source of rights and law. It appeals directly to God as the Supreme Judge, protector, and provider. The ideas contained in our founding covenant reiterate those expressed in the civil documents written by the colonists in the 150 years prior to independence and show the Founders’ Christian faith.
Reading the Declaration of Independence and identifying biblical ideas is an exercise every Christian should undertake. Doing so will reveal one’s ability to reason biblically and to identify Christian ideas of government. It will also show how much history someone knows, since understanding the context will enable you to find more Christians ideas.
Most Americans (including Christian Americans) have not read the Declaration of Independence. For those who have, few can identify many biblical principles in the document. Why? One, they are a product of secular schools which teach that our nation was founded upon enlightenment ideas, and any reference to a higher power was merely out of cultural deference to some deistic God. Two, for those who are Christians, most have not been taught by their pastors and churches how to reason biblically regarding governmental or civil issues. …
How many Christian ideas can you identify in the Declaration?
Let’s see how you well do in this exercise. Read the Declaration of Independence that follows. As you read, write down all the biblical ideas you can. A list of some of these ideas follows the document. The list is not exhaustive by any means, but shows that the Declaration is much more biblical than most people have ever considered.
— Stephen McDowell – President at Providence Foundation, Historian, Public Speaker
“If the [Constitution] framers would come back today, they would have contempt for most of us.”
— Walter E. Williams (1936-
“Upon two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws.”
— Sir William Blackstone (1723-
“Labor Day, I suppose set by [an] Act of Congress. Everything we do nowadays is either by, or against, Acts of Congress. How Congress knew anything about Labor is beyond us.”
— Will Rogers (1879-
“General welfare has been used by Congress over the years to bring in a host of welfare programs because the words to our ears sounds like it means welfare. But that wasn’t the intention of the founders. … They meant to say the equal well being of the member States. And they didn’t mean more than that and they didn’t mean less than that. To put it in perspective, we need to go back to when they were forming the Constitution. The Constitution was created by the States. I like to tell people they created a government of the States, by the States and for the States. … The general government or Federal Government is by the states and for the States. … You would not be changing the meaning [Construction Article1, Section 8] if you said pay for the common defense and general welfare these States that are now united.”
— Michael Holler – Author of book The Constitution Made Easy
“Neither Party’s leadership has sufficient regard for First Principles, for Constitutional Rule of Law. Most Republicans give it scant lip service, while virtually all Democrats reject Rule of Law outright.”
— Mark Alexander – Writer and journalist with The Patriot Post
Definition: Any act by government or agents contrary to Constitution or law is a crime, not “just politics”!
— James H. Dearmore II – Preacher Baptist Missionary
“Outlawing religion form the political arena is not what the Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the First Amendment. We do a grave disservice to our country by removing the influence of religion. If you separate God from the public arena, inevitably you separate good from our government.”
— William (Bill) R. Bright (1921-
“The government we have in Washington D.C. today is the government our founders feared and wrote Constitution to prevent.”
— Michael Holler – Author of book The Constitution Made Easy
“These are words that are enemies of the Constitution … socialism, communism, totalitarianism, progressivism and liberalism.”
— Gordon Ellis (Epsom, New Hampshire, Veterans Day speech to students 2010)
“The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection against congressional tyranny.”
— Walter E. Williams (1936 –
“I want to make one thing clear. This war against our constitution is not being fought way off in Madagascar or in Mandalay. It is being fought here—in our schools, our colleges, our churches, our women’s clubs. It is being fought with our money, channeled through the State Department. It is being fought twenty-
— Senator William Ezra Jenner (1908-
“The Constitution of the United States is a living code, for the perpetuation of a system of free government, which the people of each succeeding generation must administer for themselves. Every line of it is as operative and as ing today as it was when the government was first set in motion by its provisions, and no part of it can fall into neglect or decay while that government continues to exist. The Constitution of the United States was the means by-
— George Ticknor Curtis (1812-
“The government was set to protect man from criminals—and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government. The Bill of Rights was not directed against private citizens, but against the government—as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.”
— Ayn Rand (1905-
“Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions …are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends.”
— Walter Lippman (1889-
“In these sacred documents are embodied eternal principles that no man, group of men, or nation has the right to withhold from others. Here is our basis for freedom of individual achievement. Our Constitution with its Bill of Rights guarantees to all our people the greatest freedom ever enjoyed by the people of any great nation. This system guarantees freedom of individual enterprise, freedom to own property, freedom to start one’s own business and to operate it according to one’s own judgment so long as the enterprise is honorable.”
— Ezra Taft Benson (1899-
“For whoever shall design to impair, pervert or undermine either of them, do strike at the very Constitution of our Government, and ought to be prosecuted and punished with the utmost zeal and rigour. To cut down the banks and let in the sea, or to poison all the springs and rivers in the kingdom, could not be a greater mischief; for this would only affect the present age, but the other will ruin and enslave all our posterity.”
— William Penn (1644-
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure. Thus, a duty is imposed on everyone which no one must evade, notwithstanding the risks and danger to him or his family.”
— Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German born Theoretical Physicist
“The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-
— Pat Robertson (1930-
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.” “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.”
— Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German born theoretical physicist
“Man has made 32 million laws since THE COMMANDMENTS were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than three thousand years ago, but he has never improved on God’s law. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are the principles by which man may live with God and man may live with man. They are the expressions of the mind of God for His creatures. They are the charter and guide of human liberty, for there can be no liberty without the law….”
— Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) American Film Director and Producer
“I believe that it is absolutely clear, in everything the Founders did, that they intended the Declaration to be a bridge between the Bible and the Constitution, between the basis of our moral faith and the basis of our political life. If we allow the bridge to be torn down, then what we will have is a chasm between this nation’s life and its moral foundations. And into that chasm will fall every hope we have for the future.”
— Alan Keyes (1950-
“All human laws were to be judged by their conformity to the natural law. An unjust law is not a law, in the full sense of the word. It retains merely the ‘appearance’ of law insofar as it is duly constituted and enforced in the same way a just law is, but is itself a ‘perversion of law.”
— Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-
“I believe that it is absolutely clear, in everything the Founders did, that they intended the Declaration to be a bridge between the Bible and the Constitution, between the basis of our moral faith and the basis of our political life. If we allow the bridge to be torn down, then what we will have is a chasm between this nation’s life and its moral foundations. And into that chasm will fall every hope we have for the future.”
— Alan Lee Keyes (1950) Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs and Author
(Discussion regarding the First Commandment from the Bible.)
“Since there is one God, therefore there is one law. There is one source of that law. There is one source of truth. All truth, all law, emanates from the one and only true God. And that’s what is says, you shall have no other Gods besides me. You shall have no other source of truth besides me. You shall have no other source of authority besides me. …
Who is the source of the law of your society? It is fundamental because the source of that society is the God of that society. The source of law in America was the Bible. … Unfortunately we have been putting aside the Bible as the source of our law; I am talking about civil law as well as personal and moral law. And we’ve been adopting this concept of evolutionally law or man centered law. We have put aside God but we have taken up the idea that I will be the source of law, five men on a court, or a legislature or as an individual. I will decide what is right and wrong, good and evil we don’t want God to do that. Any time you change a law system you are changing God and that is what we have been doing on the Twentieth century in America. …
What is the first amendment to our Constitution, what does it secure? Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. In a way that presents the same concept as the first amendment. Congress does not have any authority over God. Congress cannot legislate matters that invalidate God in what he says in his truth. In a way so it repeats the First Commandments that principle in the first amendment to our Constitution. …
This teaches us that government’s authority is limited. Because if it unlimited they it is claiming to be God itself. In fact Jesus taught this … when the scribes and Pharisees were trying to trick him. They asked him if it was lawful to pay taxes. … Jesus said show me a coin and he asked whose image is on the coin and they said Cesar’s. … Then render to Cesar that which is Cesar’s and to God that which is God.
What he was saying is that Cesar represents civil government. He is saying civil government is a divine institution that has a legitimate function. But Cesar’s authority and power is limited. Because he said yes, we give to Cesar what belongs to him so he can fulfill his mission to protect the righteous … and punish the evil doer. … But Cesar’s authority is limited, because he said we render to God what is God’s. There are areas of life that are completely outside the authorty of civil government.
And this is in accord with the First Commandment. So civil government’s authority has to be limited or it is claiming to be God. Of course we know the history of man is that he has always attempted to be the sovereign, the one that is the source of law, and right and wrong, and morality or not in conflict with this first Commandment God gave us.” –
— Stephen McDowell –
(“I’m an atheist voter; I’m not planted here,” the questioner declared. “I am born and raised in Iowa. I have a question about how your faith will play a role in your presidency.”)
“Well, first of all, everybody, including atheists, live according to their faith — it’s just what they decide to put their faith in. And everybody’s actions are ruled by their faith and by their beliefs. In my case I have strong faith in God and I live by godly principles of loving your fellow man, caring about your neighbor, developing your God given talents to the upmost so they can become valuable to the people around you, having values and principles that govern your life.
And that is going to dictate how I treat everybody.
Fortunately our Constitution, which is the supreme law of our land, was designed by men of faith, and it has a Judeo-
“If we create laws that are contrary to the Judeo-
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight against anything we see as unjust. And we have the mechanism built into our to allow those protests to take place.”
— Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr. (1951 –
Quran vs. Constitution: Why they’re incompatible –
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, yet the Quran states in Sura 4:89, “Those who reject Islam must be killed. If they turn back (from Islam), take hold of them and kill them wherever you find them.”
In Hadith Sahih al-
Islamic law relegates non-
The First Amendment states Congress shall not abridge “the freedom of speech,” yet Islamic law enforces dhimmi status on non-
“If you don’t hold them [elected officials] account table for the crimes against those that represent us we the people the consequence of violating Constitutional law. … God is going to teach you the consequence of not keeping His commandments.”
— Bradley Dean –
“It is only Christianity that enables a nation to be free. Because the Christianity faith brings the supernatural transformation of in heart. There it gives the ideas of liberty planted in the mind … lays the foundation for self-
— Stephen McDowell –
How all this relates to the Constitution (and Declaration of Independence). God does not forget his covenant. Israel was a country God chose, America is a country that chose God. I think the statement by one of Hank Kunneman’s staff members interviewing him sums up were we are headed. The staff member shared ….
“Now, as I was praying about this, this is what the Holy Spirit told me about this. He said, the way that God is moving is a reminder and a mirroring of the original principles that the forefathers of the nation of America established through the constitution. The difference is that the focus of the forefathers at the time of the founding the nation was largely centered around protecting individual freedom. This time, however, the emphasis will be on a reinforcement and a reestablishment of America based upon Biblical principles and the Lord first. That’s good. While restoring liberty in the process. And this was what God said, He said I am solidifying the Constitution with My covenant. … “
Quotes on the Declaration of Independence
“In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”
— Calvin Coolidge (1872-
“When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”
— Barron Charles de Montesquieu (1689-