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"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting
the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain
laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an
appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the
peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.
Notes on Virginia [1782]
"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed
action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our
will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the
limits of the law," because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it
violates the right of an individual."
"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn
to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of
one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from
which we separated."
Letter to Charles Hammond [1821]
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares
fit tools for the designs of ambition."
Source: Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX, 1787
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"On every question of construction 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."
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which
dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the
laws of our country."
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."
"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living
on the labor of the industrious."
"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the
rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority."
"The concentrating [of powers] in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic
government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality
of hands, and not by a single one."
"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of
England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been
worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might
as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever
have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has
done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost
prepared to live under its constant suspension."
Source: letter to James Madison, 1788
"It had become an universal and almost uncontroverted position in the several States, that
the purposes of society do not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary
governors; that there are certain portions of right not necessary to enable them to carry
on an effective government, and which experience has nevertheless proved they will be
constantly encroaching on, if submitted to them; that there are also certain fences which
experience has proved peculiarly efficacious against wrong, and rarely obstructive of
right, which yet the governing powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove.
Of the first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion; of the second, trial by jury,
habeas corpus laws, free presses."
"By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom
of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no
suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil
which no honest government should decline."
"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those
specifically enumerated."
"...(F)reedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries
impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before
us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation."
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first
by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them
will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered."
"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' (10th Amendment). To take a single
step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to
take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition."
Source: letter to George Washington,15 February, 1791
"It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislature to frame laws in opposition to the laws
of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in
order to punish them."
Source: Note on the Crimes Bill, 1779
"Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it
a blank paper by construction."
"Laws provide against injury from others, but not from ourselves."
"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve
neither."
"Peace has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in it. However, therefore, we may have been reproached for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government, and the first duty of governors, and not the slaughter of men and devastation of the countries placed under their care, in pursuit of a fantastic honor, unallied to virtue or happiness; or in gratification of the angry passions, or the pride of administrators, excited by personal incidents, in which their citizens have no concern.
I am for
free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and
little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking
ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe, entering that
field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the
confederacy of Kings to war against the principles of liberty."
"Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without
health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by
society."
"If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs... Congress and Assemblies,
judges, and governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general
nature, in spite of individual exceptions."
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men
whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was
capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and
moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies,
instead of indemnifying losses."
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power
the greater it will be."
"I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."
"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time
who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."
"Do not bite the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it."
"No more good must be attempted than the people can bear."
"What has destroyed liberty and the rights of men in every government that has ever
existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares and powers into
one body."
"[We considered the Alien and Sedition] acts as so palpably against the Constitution
as to amount to an undisguised declaration that that compact is not meant to be the
measure of the powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise
over these States of all powers whatsoever... [We] view this as seizing the rights of the
States and consolidating them in the hands of the General Government, with a power assumed
to bind the States, not merely as [to] cases made federal (casus foederis), but in all
cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their
consent... This would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen and live
under one deriving its powers from its own will and not from our authority."
Draft Kentucky Resolutions [1798]
"The principles of the Constitution form the bright constellation which has gone before
us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our
sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be
the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which
to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of
error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone
leads to peace, liberty, and safety."
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a
series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through
every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic
plan of reducing us to slavery."
"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' (10th Amendment). To take a single
step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to
take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition."
Source: letter to George Washington,15 February, 1791
"By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion,
freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all
cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters
against doing evil which no honest government should decline."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish
it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than
not to be exercised at all."
"Government is, abstractedly taken, an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"A government regulating itself by what is just and wise for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on Earth. Or if it existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its continuance."
"...[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore ... 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."
"It is reasonable that every one who asks justice should do justice."
"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable."
"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."
"The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them. ... It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression...that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; ...working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped. ... The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our Constitution from a coordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone."
"May it [the Declaration of Independence] be to the world what I believe will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing man to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition has persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings of security and self-government."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"Indeed I tremble
for
my country when I reflect that God is just; that His
justice cannot sleep
forever."
"I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty."
"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."
"...[T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them."
"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent."
"Over the Judiciary department, the Constitution [has] deprived [the people] of their control. ... The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."
"It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation."
"I believe that justice is instinct and innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing."
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. .. A wise and frugal government ... shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. ... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated. ... Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?"
"Yet from such [absolute monarchies], we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. Their principles with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us in the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass."
"Notes on Virginia," 1782
"The Spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful manoeuvres & made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But time & truth have dissipated the delusion, & opened their eyes."
Letter to Thomas Lomax, March 12, 1799
"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches."
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
"I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair."
"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry"
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
"Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered, be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss."
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."
"You seem...to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all Constitutional questions: a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. ...And their power (is) the more dangerous, as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots."
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever..."
"With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties."
Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied upon to set them to rights."
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want for bread."
"It is not by the consolidation, or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected."
"No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and...their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice.... These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government."
"The only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion."
"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."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truth without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty."
"If we run into such debts,
as
that we must be taxed in our meat and in our
drink, in our necessaries
and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings
and
our creeds, as the people in England are, our people, like them, must
come
to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen
of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the
sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they
now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of
calling
the mis-managers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by
hiring
ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers."
"Is
uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and
children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt,
tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards
uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the
world fools, and the other half hypocrites."
"Parties
are... censors of the conduct of each other, and useful watchmen for
the public.
Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers
from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in
them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although
not the most wise, depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they
are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call
them, therefore,... Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists,
Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please,
they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object."
"The
moment a person forms a theory his imagination sees in every object
only the traits which favor that theory."