Authority Quotes by James Madison

The express authority of the people alone could give validity to the Constitution.

— James Madison

The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone.

— James Madison

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power…

— James Madison

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of…

— James Madison

Nothing has yet been offered to invalidate the doctrine that the meaning of the Constitution may as well be ascertained by the…

— James Madison

The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the…

— James Madison

Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the…

— James Madison

To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least…

— James Madison

Who does not see that . . . the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of…

— James Madison

[A]s it must be admitted that the remedy under the Constitution lies where it has been marked out by the Constitution; and…

— James Madison

On any other hypothesis, the delegation of judicial power would annul the authority delegating it; and the concurrence of this department with…

— James Madison

Were it possible so to accelerate the intercourse between every part of the globe that all its inhabitants could be united under…

— James Madison

It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority…

— James Madison

Because the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education…

— James Madison

I do not conceive that power is given to the President and Senate to dismember the empire, or to alienate any great,…

— James Madison

How a regulation so unjust in itself, so foreign to the authority of Congress, and so hurtful to the sale of public…

— James Madison

“It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the…

— James Madison

there ought always to be a constitutional method of giving efficacy to constitutional provisions. What for instance would avail restrictions on the…

— James Madison

In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question…

— James Madison

[T]he bill exceeds the rightful authority to which governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and religious functions, and violates…

— James Madison

...to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect…

— James Madison

It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the…

— James Madison

Money cannot be applied to the *general welfare*, otherwise than by an application of it to some *particular* measure conducive to the…

— James Madison

As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the…

— James Madison

The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can…

— James Madison

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which…

— James Madison

The appointment of senators by the state legislatures . . . is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment,…

— James Madison

It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative…

— James Madison

In republican government the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this . . . is to divide the legislature into different…

— James Madison

But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single…

— James Madison

Attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general,…

— James Madison

The ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone, and that it will not depend merely on…

— James Madison

The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably…

— James Madison