Constitution Day Quotations
Today, the 17th of September, is Constitution Day. I am wondering whether Ricochet members have any favorite quotations on the Constitution. I should like to start things off with a great and obvious one from James Madison in Federalist #51:
“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.”
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May '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
"Pssh, I think it sucks."
- Patrick Henry
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 9:12amRe: Constitution Day Quotations
On being asked about the Constitutionality of the individual mandate:
"Are you serious? Are you serious?"
-Speaker Nancy Pelosi
On the surface my quote is a joke, but look deeper. This is how far we've come!
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 9:32amOct '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
As a majority of all societies consist of men who (though totally incapable of thinking or acting in governmental matters) are more readily led than driven, we have thought meet to indulge them in something like a democracy in the new constitution, which part we have designated by the popular name of the House of Representatives. But to guard against every possible danger from this lower house, we have subjected every bill they bring forward, to the double negative of our upper house and president.
... It is true, every third senatorial seat is to be vacated duennually, but two-thirds of this influential body will remain in office, and be ready to direct or (if necessary) bring over to the good old way, the young members, if the old ones should not be returned.
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 9:54amDec '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
"Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other." Benjamin Franklin 17 September 1787.
Jun '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
"Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect... Equal laws, protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country; as well as best calculated to cherish that mutual respect and good will among citizens of every religious denomination which are necessary to social harmony, and most favorable to the advancement of truth." - James Madison, in a Letter to Dr. Jacob de La Motta, August, 1820
Jun '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
Ethan Safron: On being asked about the Constitutionality of the individual mandate:
"Are you serious? Are you serious?"
-Speaker Nancy Pelosi
On the surface my quote is a joke, but look deeper. This is how far we've come! · Sep 17 at 12:31am
Edited on Sep 17 at 12:32 am
Likewise, from Pete Stark, another House member with a keen understanding of the intricacies of the Constitution (also talking about the individual mandate): "The federal government can do most anything in this country."
A more serious one from Honest Abe: "We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 4:50pmMay '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Jul '11
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.” -Calvin Coolidge
Oct '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes—a large class, no doubt—each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,” and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change. —Lysander Spooner, No Treason, 1870
Apr '11
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
The pressure of the public voice was so loud, I could not resist the call to a convention of the States which is to determine whether we are to have a Government of respectability under which life, liberty, and property will be secured to us, or are to submit to one which may be the result of chance or the moment, springing perhaps from anarchy and Confusion, and dictated perhaps by some aspiring demagogue who will not consult the interest of his Country so much as his own ambitious views.
~ George Washington (Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, 6 June 1787)
Edited on September 18, 2011 at 1:02amOct '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
Just read this today: Who can preserve the rights and liberties of a people when they shall be abandoned by themselves? Who shall keep watch in the temple when the watchmen sleep at their post? Who shall call on the people to redeem their possessions and revive the republic, when their own hands have deliberately and corruptly surrendered them to the oppressor and have built the prisons or dug the graves of their own friends? This dark picture, it is to be hoped, will never be applicable to the republic of America. And yet it affords a warning, which, like all the lessons of past ex-perience, we are not permitted to disregard. America, free, happy, and enlightened as she is, must rest the preservation of her rights and liberties upon the virtue, independence, justice, and sagacity of her people. If either fail, the republic is gone. It's shadow may remain, with all the pomp and circumstance and trickery of government, but it's vital power will have departed. Alexander Hamilton, 1795
Apr '11
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
~ James Madison, Federalist #45
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives. --Alexander Hamilton at the NY ratifying convention, 1788.
May '10
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
"...the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf." -- Barack Hussein Obama, 45th President of the United States, September 6, 2001.
I chose this quote to remind us of what we have seen happen when we elect someone who doesn't believe in the Constitution...or understand it.
Apr '11
Re: Constitution Day Quotations
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
~ George Washington