I have found some good, but what I think are obscure quotes by James Monroe. He seems to be consider a kind of "ex-officio" founding father -- but was also a member of Virginia's anti-Federalists movement. Then a few years later he was elected from Virginia as a U.S. Senator under our current Constitution (he was also a delegate to Congress from Virginia under the Articles).
Famous Quotes by James Monroe
"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."
"The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil."
"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, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy."
"In this great nation there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in the full extent necessary for the purposes of free, enlightened, and efficient government."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment