James Madison

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge…

— James Madison

Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure…

— James Madison

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the…

— James Madison

How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations…

— James Madison

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether…

— James Madison

It is certain that every class is interested in [educational] establishments which give to the human mind its highest improvements, and to…

— James Madison

Since it is impossible for the people spontaneously and universally, to move in concert towards their object; and it is therefore essential,…

— James Madison

The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.

— James Madison

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is…

— James Madison

They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the…

— James Madison

The effect of a representative democracy is to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a…

— James Madison

“... But besides the danger of a direct mixture of Religion & civil Government , there is an evil which ought to…

— James Madison

Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have…

— James Madison

“It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what…

— James Madison

The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative…

— James Madison

[In the case of] dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have…

— 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

When men exercise their reason coolly and freely, on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions, on some…

— James Madison

I have appealed to our own experience for the truth of what I advance on this subject [that the legislative power is…

— James Madison

The regulation of commerce, it is true, is a new power; but that seems to be an addition which few oppose and…

— James Madison

The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.

— James Madison

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.

— James Madison

A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations…

— James Madison

Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.

— James Madison

Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the…

— James Madison