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Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

James Madison

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James Madison
Age: 85 †
Born: 1751
Born: March 16
Died: 1836
Died: June 28
4Th U.S. President
Diplomat
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Slaveholder
Statesperson
Writer
Port Conway
Virginia
James Madison
Jr.
President Madison
J. Madison
Madison
Every
Dangerous
Encroachment
Mind
Security
Crafty
People
Liberty
Throw
Public
Favorite
Education
Institutions
Free
Objects
Light
Ought
Best
Learned
Encroachments

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If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare... they may appoint teachers in every state... The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.
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Government destitute of energy, will ever produce anarchy.
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The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution but a composition of both.
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Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
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What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
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The appointment of senators by the state legislatures . . . is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the state governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government, as must secure the authority of the former.
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The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
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Is there a Legislative power in fact, not expressly prohibited by the Constitution, which might not, according to the doctrine of the Court, be exercised as a means of carrying into effect some specified Power?
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[In government] the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other-that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights.
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There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.
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Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
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The security intended to the general liberty consists in the frequent election and in the rotation of the members of Congress.
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If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
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Since it is impossible for the people spontaneously and universally, to move in concert towards their object and it is therefore essential, that such changes be instituted by some informal and unauthorized propositions, made by some patriotic and respectable citizen or number of citizens.
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War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement
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No power over the freedom of religion [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.
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[In the case of] dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil.
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It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.
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Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.
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[I]t is the reason alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government.
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