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[A] mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.

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
Concentration
Demarcation
Political
Department
Encroachments
Hands
Several
Parchment
Government
Sufficient
Encroachment
Powers
Tyrannical
Mere
Departments
Constitutional
Limits
Guard
Lead

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Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.
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I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the judicial. But I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in marking out the limits of the powers of the several departments.
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Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.
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Man is known to be a selfish, as well as a social being.
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If slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount consideration.
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Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
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People will continue to seek justice until it is found, or until liberty is lost in the pursuit.
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This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.
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Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
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A public debt is a public curse.
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The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
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The political truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees the character of fundamental maxims of free Government, and as they become incorporated with national sentiment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion.
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The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.
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It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
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There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises.
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A victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
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A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
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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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The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
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