Quotes about federation
page 4

Gary Johnson photo
Alexander Hamilton photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. The engine of consolidation will be the Federal judiciary; the two other branches the corrupting and corrupted instruments.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter, Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1821: ME 15-341, as quoted in The Assault on Reason, Al Gore, A&C Black (2012, reprint), p. 87 : ISBN 1408835800, 9781408835807, and Federal Jurisdiction, Form #05.018, Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry (2012)
1820s

Marc Randazza photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Northrop Frye photo
Charles Evans Hughes photo
Jefferson Davis photo
Ron Paul photo
Richard Holbrooke photo
Tom Clancy photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo
Friedrich Hayek photo
George W. Bush photo

“Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a — you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

When asked what sovereignty would mean for Native Americans in the 21st century http://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/10/bush_on_native_american_issues_tribal
August 6, 2004[citation needed]
2000s, 2004

Roy Moore photo
John E. Sununu photo
Václav Havel photo

“I believe that during the intervention of NATO in Kosovo there is an element nobody can question: the air attacks, the bombs, are not caused by a material interest. Their character is exclusively humanitarian: What is at stake here are the principles, human rights which have priority above state sovereignty. This makes it legitimate to attack the Yugoslav Federation, although without the United Nations mandate.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

Interview for the French newspaper Le Monde (29 April 1999); this statement is considered the source of the term w:Humanitarian bombing", frequently used about the Kosovo War.

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“You must remember what the concert of Europe is. The concert, or, as I prefer to call it, the inchoate federation of Europe, is a body which acts only when it is unanimous…remember this—that this federation of Europe is the embryo of the only possible structure of Europe which can save civilization from the desolating effects of a disastrous war. (Cheers.) You notice that on all sides the instruments of destruction, the piling up of arms, are becoming larger and larger. The powers of concentration are becoming greater, the instruments of death more active and more numerous, and are improved with every year; and each nation is bound, for its own safety's sake, to take part in this competition. These are the things which are done, so to speak, on the side of war. The one hope that we have to prevent this competition from ending in a terrible effort of mutual destruction which will be fatal to Christian civilization—the one hope we have is that the Powers may gradually be brought together, to act together in a friendly spirit on all questions of difference which may arise, until at last they shall be welded in some international constitution which shall give to the world, as a result of their great strength, a long spell of unfettered and prosperous trade and continued peace.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech at the Guildhall (9 November 1897), quoted in The Times (10 November 1897), p. 6
1890s

John Dean photo
Trent Lott photo

“The filibuster of federal district and circuit judges cannot stand. … It's bad for the institution. It's wrong. It's not supportable under the Constitution. And if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I'm perfectly prepared to blow the place up. No problem.”

Trent Lott (1941) United States Senator from Mississippi

On filibustering, as quoted in The Clarion-Ledger (23 May 2003), "Lott aims to change filibuster rules" http://orig.clarionledger.com/news/0305/23/m05.html
2000s

Jacques Delors photo

“Federalism is a guideline, not a pornographic word, you can speak it out loud…We have been focusing too much on a country that has said no, no, no!”

Jacques Delors (1925) French economist and politician

Speech in Maastricht (8 December 1991), quoted in Charles Grant, Delors - Inside the House that Jacques Built (London: Nicholas Brearley, 1994), p. 200.

George W. Bush photo

“The federal government and the state government must not fear programs who change lives, but must welcome those faith-based programs for the embetterment of mankind.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks at a luncheon http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-2002-08-26/html/WCPD-2002-08-26-Pg1411.htm for gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon in Stockton, California, August 23, 2002.
2000s, 2002

Eric Holder photo
Abbie Hoffman photo
Neal Boortz photo

“Politics? I'm a confirmed Libertarian. I believe that the principal difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats just want to grow our Imperial Federal Government a bit faster than the Republicans do.”

Neal Boortz (1945) American author, journalist, and radio host

Source: "Neal Boortz - Libertarian", [http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities.html Libertarian Celebrities & VIPs http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/neal-boortz.html,, Advocates for Self-Government, 2006-09-08, http://web.archive.org/20030719050508/www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/neal-boortz.html, 2003-07-19]

William O. Douglas photo
Vladimir Putin photo

“He is profoundly wrong. Our country is run by the people of the Russian Federation through legitimately elected bodies of power and administration: through representative bodies (the parliament) and executive bodies (the president and the government of the Russian Federation)”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

When Larry King asked that Robert Gates is wrong or right about Russia that democracy has disappeared and the government being run by the security services. (February 2010) http://en.rian.ru/interview/20101202/161586625.html
2006- 2010

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Statement on minimum wage legislation (18 March 1966) http://www.aft.org/yourwork/tools4teachers/bhm/mlktalks.cfm, as quoted in Now Is the Time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Labor in the South: The Case for a Coalition (January 1986)
1960s

Mitt Romney photo
Samuel Adams photo

“!-- A motion was made and seconded, that the report of the Committee made on Monday last, be amended, so far as to add the following to the first article therein mentioned, viz.: ' -->And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of time press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

Rejected resolution for a clause to add to the first article of the U.S. Constitution, in the debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788 (6 February 1788); this has often been attributed to Adams, but he is nowhere identified as the person making the resolution in Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Held in the year 1788 And which finally ratified the Constitution of the United States. (1856) p. 86. https://archive.org/details/debatesandproce00peirgoog<!-- Printed by the Resolves of the Legislature, 1856. Boston: William White, Printer of the Commonwealth.
Variant: The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...
As quoted in Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1850) edited by Peirce & Hale
Disputed

Timothy Geithner photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
James Bovard photo

“The federal tax system is turning individuals into sharecroppers of their own lives.”

James Bovard (1956) American journalist

From Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (St. Martin's Press, 1994) http://www.jimbovard.com/Epigrams%20page%20Lost%20Rights.htm

Jerry Falwell photo

“And the fact that John Kerry would not support a federal marriage amendment [prohibiting gay marriage], it equates in our minds as someone 150 years ago saying I'm personally opposed to slavery, but if my neighbor wants to own one or two that's OK. We don't buy that.”

Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) American evangelical pastor, televangelist, and conservative political commentator

CNN : Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/03/acd.01.html (3 November 2004)

James Bovard photo

“The Patriot Act treats every citizen like a suspected terrorist and every federal agent like a proven angel.”

James Bovard (1956) American journalist

From Terrorism & Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (Palgrave, 2003) http://www.jimbovard.com/Epigrams%20page%20Terrorism%20&%20Tyranny.htm

Lyndon B. Johnson photo
George Wallace photo
Stephen Harper photo
Sandra Day O'Connor photo

“The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals.”

Sandra Day O'Connor (1930) Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Striking down the "Take-Title" provision of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992).

Frank Chodorov photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office of the President to end segregation in the District of Columbia, including the Federal Government, and any segregation in the Armed Forces.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html (2 February 1953)
1950s, Annual Message to Congress (1953)

Scott Pruitt photo
Michele Bachmann photo
Gary Johnson photo

“I am in the camp that believes that we are on the verge of a monetary collapse given the fact that during the last year up to 70% of the money used to pay our ongoing expenditures were moneys printed up by the Federal Reserve I mean literally out of thin air. Monetary Collapse occurs when we are printing 100% of that money going forward and all of the roll over of treasury is that 15 trillion dollars is out there in existing notes when all of those notes also get rolled over with 100% of that money being printed … that's the monetary collapse. And that’s not something that their going to announce is going to happen two weeks from Thursday that’s just gonna happen literally overnight when we have a complete melt down in the bond market. Which I’m predicting is gonna happen unless we actually balance the federal budget so this is what we are entering into is a real mutual sacrifice on the part of all of us. I would argue let’s have that mutual sacrifice as opposed to all of us having nothing which is what happens during a monetary collapse that our money ends up being worth nothing. That happened in Russia part of that was Afghanistan. We’re not immune to this. We can fix it but we need to do it now and that’s the position that I hold.”

Gary Johnson (1953) American politician, businessman, and 29th Governor of New Mexico

Statement made to representatives of the Pagan Newswire Collective (PNC)
2011-10-16
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/paganswithdisabilities/2011/10/full-transcript-of-qa-with-presidential-candidate-gary-johnson/
2012-02-24
Economic Policy

Jack Layton photo

“If I've tried to bring anything to federal politics, it's the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart; we can look after each other better than we do today.”

Jack Layton (1950–2011) Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada

" Jack Layton's statement http://www.ndp.ca/press/jack-laytons-statement." July 25, 2011.
On announcing a leave of absence following a new diagnosis of cancer.

Clement Attlee photo

“We are told that we have to accept the Treaty of Rome. I have read the Treaty of Rome pretty carefully, and it expresses an outlook entirely different from our own. It may be that I am insular, but I value our Parliamentary outlook, an outlook which has extended throughout the Commonwealth. That is not the same position that holds on the Continent of Europe. No one of these principal countries in the Common Market has been very successful in running Parliamentary institutions: Germany, hardly any experience; Italy, very little; France, a swing between a dictatorship and more or less anarchic Parliament, and not very successfully. As I read the Treaty of Rome, the whole position means that we shall enter a federation which is composed in an entirely different way. I do not say it is the wrong way. But it is not our way. In this set-up it is the official who really puts up all the proposals; the whole of the planning is done by officials. It seems to me that the Ministers come in at a later stage—and if there is anything like a Federal Parliament, at a later stage still. I do not think that that is the way this country has developed, or wishes to develop. I am all for working in with our Continental friends. I was one of those who worked to build up NATO; I have worked for European integration. But that is a very different thing from bringing us into a close association which, I may say, is not one for defence, or even just for foreign policy. The fact is that if the designs behind the Common Market are carried out, we are bound to be affected in every phase of our national life. There would be no national planning, except under the guidance of Continental planning—we shall not be able to deal with our own problems; we shall not be able to build up the country in the way we want to do, so far as I can see. I think we shall be subject to overall control and planning by others. That is my objection.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1962/nov/08/britain-and-the-common-market in the House of Lords on the British application to join the Common Market (8 November 1962).
1960s

David Foster Wallace photo
James A. Garfield photo
Margaret Sanger photo

“The ministers work is also important and he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) American birth control activist, educator and nurse

Commenting on the 'Negro Project' in a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, December 10, 1939. http://smithlibraries.org/digital/items/show/495 - Sanger manuscripts, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
(Note: There is a different date circulated, e.g. Oct. 19, 1939; but Dec. 10 is the correct date of Mrs. Sanger's letter to Mr. Gamble.)

Anthony Eden photo
James Madison photo
Thomas M. Disch photo
William H. Rehnquist photo
Christopher A. Wray photo
Jean Monnet photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
George W. Bush photo

“Good morning. This coming week I will be making the trip up Pennsylvania Avenue to address a joint session of Congress. We have some business to attend to called the budget of the United States. The federal budget is a document about the size of a big city phone book, and about as hard to read from cover to cover. The blueprint I submit this week contains many numbers, but there is one that probably counts more than any other – $5.6 trillion. That is the surplus the federal government expects to collect over the next 10 years; money left over after we have met our obligations to Social Security, Medicare, health care, education, defense and other priorities. The plan I submit will fund our highest national priorities. Education gets the biggest percentage increase of any department in our federal government. We won't just spend more money on schools and education, we will spend it responsibly. We'll give states more freedom to decide what works. And as we give more to our schools we're going to expect more in return by requiring states and local jurisdictions to test every year. How else can we know whether schools are teaching and children are learning? Social Security and Medicare will get every dollar they need to meet their commitments. And every dollar of Social Security and Medicare tax revenue will be reserved for Social Security and Medicare.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2001, Radio Address to the Nation (February 2001)

Donald J. Trump photo
Tench Coxe photo

“The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments but where, I trust in God, it will always remain, in the hands of the people.”

Tench Coxe (1755–1824) American economist

Source: http://www.friesian.com/quotes.htm Pennsylvania Gazette], Feb. 20, 1788.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/41022229, archived image from newspapers.com, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788 page 2 column 2

Jefferson Davis photo
Bill O'Reilly photo

“If I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al-Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."”

Bill O'Reilly (1949) American political commentator, television host and writer

2005-11-08
The Radio Factor
Fox News Talk
Radio
2005-11-10
O'Reilly to San Francisco: "[I<nowiki>]</nowiki>f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. … You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200511100008
2010-11-24
2005-11-11
Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/11/headlines
2010-11-19
[2005-11-26, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20051126/ai_n15876099, Protest in San Francisco targets O'Reilly, KNEW, Oakland Tribune, FindArticles.com, 2008-07-17]
2007-08-03
Dodd-O'Reilly: Interview, shouting match or both?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2007/08/37269190/1
2010-11-19
reacting to 60% of San Francisco voters approving a nonbinding ballot measure encouraging public schools and colleges to prohibit military recruiting on campus

Warren Farrell photo
Michele Bachmann photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Kent Hovind photo

“Oklahoma City bombing was done on purpose. Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Evolution: the Foundation for Communism, Nazism, Socialism, and the New World Order (2003)

James Madison photo
Charles Stross photo
Davor Ivo Stier photo

“It is worth continuing the quest and develop now a new and common EU approach aimed at replacing the current conflicting forces of separatism and centralism by a federal and European concept of Bosnia and Herzegovina, truly embracing all three peoples, reinvigorating all its citizens and enabling an EU perspective for the country.”

Davor Ivo Stier (1972) Croatian politician

From article The case for a new EU approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina published in New Europe magazine on 13 January 2014 http://www.neurope.eu/article/case-new-eu-approach-bosnia-and-herzegovina

Harlan F. Stone photo

“Just what instrumentalities of either a state or the federal government are exempt from taxation by the other cannot be stated in terms of universal application.”

Harlan F. Stone (1872–1946) United States federal judge

Metcalf & Eddy v. Mitchell, 269 U.S. 514., 522 (1926).

Joe the Plumber photo
Rupert Boneham photo
Matt Rosendale photo

“Montanans are fed up with politicians who say one thing back home but vote another way in Washington, D. C., the people of Montana deserve a senator who will defend our way of life, get the federal government out of the way, and return power to the hardworking people who make this country great.”

Matt Rosendale (1960) Member of the Montana House of Representatives

Matt Rosendale Announces U.S. Senate Run https://www.mattformontana.com/posts/press/matt-rosendale-announces-us-senate-run (July 31, 2017)

Lewis H. Lapham photo
Harry Turtledove photo

“And what sort of country shall you build upon that watchword, General?" Lord Lyons asked. "You cannot be left entirely alone; you are become, as I said, a member of the family of nations. Further, this war has been hard on you. Much of your land has been ravaged or overrun, and in those places where the Federal army has been, slavery lies dying. Shall you restore it there at the point of a bayonet? Gladstone said October before last, perhaps a bit prematurely, that your Jefferson Davis had made an army, the beginnings of a navy, and, more important than either, a nation. You Southerners may have made the Confederacy into a nation, General Lee, but what sort of nation shall it be?" Lee did not answer for most of a minute. This pudgy little man in his comfortable chair had put into a nutshell his own worries and fears. He'd had scant time to dwell on them, not with the war always uppermost in his thoughts. But the war had not invalidated any of the British minister's questions- some of which Lincoln had also asked- only put off the time at which they would have to be answered. Now that time drew near. Now that the Confederacy was a nation, what sort of nation would it be? At last he said, "Your excellency, at this precise instant I cannot fully answer you, save to say that, whatever sort of nation we become, it shall be one of our own choosing.”

It was a good answer. Lord Lyons nodded, as if in thoughtful approval. Then Lee remembered the Rivington men. They too had their ideas on what the Confederate States of America should become.
Source: The Guns of the South (1992), p. 183

John Kenneth Galbraith photo
Charles T. Canady photo
Peter Kropotkin photo
Allen C. Guelzo photo
Sergey Lavrov photo

“I am very pleased to be here in Israel, the land of our friends, friends who are going through a complex period like their neighbors. We are convinced that the efforts of all countries and governments in the region will find a way to reach peace and long-term security. I have arrived here after visiting Beirut and Damascus and I want to tell the Prime Minister and all other ministers that today, everyone wants peace more than ever, peace and security.Now, the preferred position is that of those who do not want to live amidst endless arguments about who was right first and last. Everybody wants to sit around the negotiating table. Everyone aspires to reach decisions that will be acceptable to all and certainly to Israel. We always point out the Russian Federation’s full agreement that the State of Israel has the full right to peace and security. We are convinced that that there is no other way to resolve this problem except through peace.We are certain that UN Security Council Resolution #1701, that we all worked on together, will be carried out in full by all sides. We think that the abductees should be released as soon as possible and we are also convinced that the military blockade of Lebanon must be lifted and that the Lebanese army needs to deploy in southern Lebanon in order to facilitate the Israeli army’s withdrawal as quickly as possible. But we are convinced that peace is attainable only if an international conference - with the participation of all sides - convenes. Lastly, I would like to point out that we are very much looking forward to the Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow in order to discuss bilateral relations.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

In Israel, where he meets the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, {{September 2006)) http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2006/PM+Olmert+meets+Russian+FM+Lavrov+7-Sept-2006.htm

Ilana Mercer photo
Rich Lowry photo
Carl Rowan photo
Jerome Frank photo

“(1) If a convicted man has the money to pay the docket fee and for a transcript of the proceedings at his trial, the upper federal court, by at least reading the transcript, will ascertain whether or not there was reversible error at the trial, or whether or not there was such a lack of evidence that the defendant is entitled to a new trial or a dismissal of the indictment.
(2) If, however, the defendant is so destitute that he cannot pay the docket fee, and if the trial judge has signed a certificate of 'bad faith,' then although a reading of the transcript shows clear reversible errors, the federal appellate court is powerless to hear the appeal and thus to rectify the errors; and even if the defendant has money enough to pay the docket fee but not enough for a transcript, the upper court usually has no way of determining whether there were such errors, must therefore assume there were none, and must accordingly refuse to consider his appeal. As a consequence, a poor man erroneously convicted-- e. g., where there was insufficient proof of his guilt--must go to prison and stay there. In such a situation-- i. e., where the upper court, if it had the transcript before it, would surely reverse for insufficiency of the evidence or on some other ground, but cannot do so solely because the defendant cannot pay for a transcript-- the result is this: He is punished because he is guilty of the crime of being poor”

Jerome Frank (1889–1957) American jurist

more or less on the principle, openly avowed in Erewhon only, that one who suffers misfortunes deserves criminal punishment
United States v. Johnson, 238 F.2d 565, 568 (1956) (dissenting).

Hillary Clinton photo
Carl Hayden photo

“Every Federal program which has contributed to the development of the West—irrigation, power, reclamation—bears his mark, and the great Federal highway program which binds this country, together, which permits this State to be competitive east and west, north and south, this in large measure is his creation.”

Carl Hayden (1877–1972) American federal politician

John F. Kennedy
Kennedy, John F. (November 17, 1961). Remarks in Phoenix at the 50th Anniversary Dinner Honoring Senator Hayden. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=8451 The American Presidency Project. John Woolley and Gerhard Peters.
About

Pierre Trudeau photo

“The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Part 4, 1979 - 1984 "Welcome to the 1980's", p. 290
Memoirs (1993)

Tom DeLay photo

“I am the Federal Government”

Tom DeLay (1947) American Republican politician

to a waitress who asked him to put out his cigar because smoking in a restaurant in Washington is against Federal law.[citation needed]
2000s

Gerald Ford photo
Herman Cain photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“We are deeply unified in our support of basic principles: our belief in stability in our financial structure, in our determination we must have fiscal responsibility, in our determination not to establish and operate a paternalistic sort of government where a man's initiative is almost taken away from him by force. Only in the last few weeks, I have been reading quite an article on the experiment of almost complete paternalism in a friendly European country. This country has a tremendous record for socialistic operation, following a socialistic philosophy, and the record shows that their rate of suicide has gone up almost unbelievably and I think they were almost the lowest nation in the world for that. Now, they have more than twice our rate. Drunkenness has gone up. Lack of ambition is discernible on all sides.. Therefore, with that kind of example, let's always remember Lincoln's admonition. Let's do in the federal Government only those things that people themselves cannot do at all, or cannot so well do in their individual capacities. Now, my friends, I know that these words have been repeated to you time and time again until you're tired of them. But I ask you only this, to contemplate them and remember this--Lincoln added another sentence to that statement. He said that in all those things where the individual can solve his own problems the Government ought not to interfere, for all are domestic affairs and this comprehends the things that the individual is normally concerned with, because foreign affairs does belong to the President by the Constitution--and they are things that really require constant governmental action.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

July 27, 1960 Remarks at the Republican National Committee Breakfast, Morrison Hotel, Chicago, Illinois http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=11891#ixzz1fU73Watz
1960s

Hillary Clinton photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“By the oath I have taken "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," duty directs — and strong personal conviction impels — that I advise the Congress that action is necessary, and necessary now, if the Constitution is to be upheld and the rights of all citizens are not to be mocked, abused and denied. I must regretfully report to the Congress the following facts:
1. That the Fifteenth Amendment of our Constitution is today being systematically and willfully circumvented in certain State and local jurisdictions of our Nation.
2. That representatives of such State and local governments acting "under the color of law," are denying American citizens the right to vote on the sole basis of race or color.
3. That, as a result of these practices, in some areas of our country today no significant number of American citizens of the Negro race can be registered to vote except upon the intervention and order of a Federal Court.
4. That the remedies available under law to citizens thus denied their Constitutional rights — and the authority presently available to the Federal Government to act in their behalf — are clearly inadequate.
5. That the denial of these rights and the frustration of efforts to obtain meaningful relief from such denial without undue delay is contributing to the creation of conditions which are both inimical to our domestic order and tranquillity and incompatible with the standards of equal justice and individual dignity on which our society stands.
I am, therefore, calling upon the Congress to discharge the duty authorized in Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment "to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation."”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)

Alberto Gonzales photo