“That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary.”
Article 4
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
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George Mason54
American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional … 1725–1792Related quotes
John Holt (Lord Chief Justice) (1642–1710) English lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of England
Ashby v. White (1703), 2 Raym. 956.
Ashby v. White (1703)
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)
Diary (14 February 1879)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) English barrister, politician, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
The British Constitution (1844), 322, 323; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 2-8.
William Blackstone book Commentaries on the Laws of England
Book I, ch. 7 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk1ch7.asp: Of the King's Prerogative. <br class="br">Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) <br class="br">Context: In this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty; which cannot subsist long in any state, unless the administration of common justice be in some degree separated both from the legislative and the also from the executive power. Were it joined with the legislative, the life, liberty, and property of the subject would be in the hands of arbitrary judges, whose decisions would be then regulated only by their own opinions, and not by any fundamental principles of law; which, though legislators may depart from, yet judges are bound to observe. Were it joined with the executive, this union might soon be an overbalance for the legislative. For which reason... effectual care is taken to remove all judicial power out of the hands of the king's privy council; who, as then was evident from recent instances might soon be inclined to pronounce that for law, which was most agreeable to the prince or his officers. Nothing therefore is to be more avoided, in a free constitution, than uniting the provinces of a judge and a minister of state.
“A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men ought never to be given command.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995) Member of the United States Senate from Maine
Statement (11 November 1953); also in Declaration of Conscience (1972) by Margaret Chase Smith, p. xi