“It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.”

— James Monroe

First Inaugural Address http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/monroe1.asp (4 March 1817)

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James Monroe 10

American politician, 5th President of the United States (in… 1758–1831

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