Henry Clay: Government

Henry Clay was American politician from Kentucky. Explore interesting quotes on government.
Henry Clay: 46 quotes1 like

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.”

Henry Clay

Speech at the public dinner at Fowler's Garden, Lexington, Kentucky, May 16, 1829, printed in Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 36 (1829), at p. 399.

“What is the nature of this government? It is emphatically federal, vested with an aggregate of special powers for general purposes, conceded by existing sovereignties, who have themselves retained what is not so conceded. It is said that there are cases in which it must act on implied powers. This is not controverted, but the implication must be necessary, and obviously flow from enumerated power with which it is allied.”

Henry Clay

Speech in the Senate on the National Bank Charter (February 11, 1811).

“All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.”

Henry Clay

Speech on the Emancipation of South America], House of Representatives (24 March 1818); The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory

“The great advantage of our system of government over all others, is, that we have a written constitution, defining its limits, and prescribing its authorities; and that, however, for a time, faction may convulse the nation, and passion and party prejudice sway its functionaries, the season of reflection will recur, when calmly retracing their deeds, all aberrations from fundamental principle will be corrected.”

Henry Clay

Speech in the Senate on the National Bank Charter (February 11, 1811).