All James Madison Quotes
- In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. Civil
- [N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. Any
- The aim of every political Constitution, is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most… Aim
- With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them… Always Regarded
- Resistance to tyranny is service to God. God
- Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.… All
- The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men. Admit
- We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised… Color
- Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves. Depend
- American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those… Africans
- It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a… Abroad
- Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character. Alone
- 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… Abolished
- In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal of such a number to so great a distance [freed slaves to Africa], my thoughts and… Africa
- The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising… Acknowledged
- The real difference of interests, lay not between large and small, but between the Northern and Southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences… Consequence
- The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential… Best
- The liberal appropriations made by the legislature of Kentucky for a general system of education cannot be too much applauded . . . . Learned… Applauded
- The rich man, when contributing to a permanent plan for the education of the poor, ought to reflect that he is providing for that of… Concurs
- It will be remembered, that a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is solemnly enjoined by most of the state constitutions, and particularly by our own,… Constitution
- The infant periods of most nations are buried in silence or veiled in fable; and the world perhaps has lost but little which it needs… Accurately
- Congress shall have Power . . . to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Time to Authors and Inventors… Art
- There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermingle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant… Atheism
- It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as… All
- Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may… Already Furnished