Mozi (-470–-391 BC) Chinese political philosopher and religious reformer of the Warring States period
Book 4; Universal Love I
Mozi
The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)
Mozi (-470–-391 BC) Chinese political philosopher and religious reformer of the Warring States period
Book 4; Universal Love I
Mozi
William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist
Book III, "Of Obedience"
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist
Source: (1776), Book V, Chapter II, Part II, p. 892.
Joseph Yates (judge) (1722–1770) English barrister and judge
4 Burr. Part IV., 2379.
Dissenting in Millar v Taylor (1769)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, paraphrases our argument by saying: "The white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern themselves, but they are not good enough to govern a few miserable negroes!"
Well! I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are and will continue to be as good as the average of people elsewhere. I do not say the contrary. What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle, the sheet-anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that, according to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of master and slave is pro tanto a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow ALL the governed an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only, is self-government.
David Lipscomb (1831–1917) Leader, American Restoration Movement
Source: Civil Government : Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny (1889), p. 49
John Marshall (1755–1835) fourth Chief Justice of the United States
17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 424
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Context: [.. ] it can scarcely be necessary to say that the existence of State banks can have no possible influence on the question. No trace is to be found in the Constitution of an intention to create a dependence of the Government of the Union on those of the States, for the execution of the great powers assigned to it. Its means are adequate to its ends, and on those means alone was it expected to rely for the accomplishment of its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to means which it cannot control, which another Government may furnish or withhold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures uncertain, and create a dependence on other Governments which might disappoint its most important designs, and is incompatible with the language of the Constitution. But were it otherwise, the choice of means implies a right to choose a national bank in preference to State banks, and Congress alone can make the election. After the most deliberate consideration, it is the unanimous and decided opinion of this Court that the act to incorporate the Bank of the United States is a law made in pursuance of the Constitution, and is a part of the supreme law of the land.
“It is hardly lack of due process for the Government to regulate that which it subsidizes.”
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) American judge
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 131, 131 (1943)
Judicial opinions
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
1920s, Authority and Religious Liberty (1924)