
1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)
A collection of quotes on the topic of legislature, state, constitution, people.
1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)
1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Madison's notes (31 May 1787)
1780s, The Debates in the Federal Convention (1787)
2013, "Let Freedom Ring" Ceremony (August 2013)
1860s, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)
“It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
1850s, The House Divided speech (1858)
Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128 (1810)
Resolution offered in the Philadelphia Convention, May 29, 1787. The United States Constitution was enacted without any protection for religion or the press, but with the understanding that a Bill of Rights would shortly be enacted to address these concerns.
1850s, The House Divided speech (1858)
Speech on the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence http://fairfaxfreecitizen.com/2015/07/02/22640/ (4 July 1876)
1870s
1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
1860s, A Short Autobiography (1860)
Context: A man offered to sell, and did sell, to Abraham and another as poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened as merchants; and he says that was the store. Of course they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. He was appointed postmaster at New Salem — the office being too insignificant to make his politics an objection. The store winked out. The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his work which was within his part of the County. He accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint https://books.google.com/books?id=iakIAAAAIAAJ and Gibson https://books.google.com/books?id=SIERLtc5aAYC a little, and went at it. This procured bread, and kept soul and body together. The election of 1834 came, and he was then elected to the legislature by the highest vote cast for any candidate. Major, then in full practice of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private conversation, he encouraged Abraham to study law.<!--pp.18-19
Letter to John Jay (15 August 1786) http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/constitution/1784/jay2.html
1780s
Context: If you tell the Legislatures they have violated the treaty of peace and invaded the prerogatives of the confederacy they will laugh in your face. What then is to be done? Things cannot go on in the same train forever. It is much to be feared, as you observe, that the better kind of people being disgusted with the circumstances will have their minds prepared for any revolution whatever. We are apt to run from one extreme into another. To anticipate & prevent disasterous contingencies would be the part of wisdom & patriotism.
What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable & tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal & falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.
Retired as I am from the world, I frankly acknowledge I cannot feel myself an unconcerned spectator. Yet having happily assisted in bringing the ship into port & having been fairly discharged; it is not my business to embark again on a sea of troubles. Nor could it be expected that my sentiments and opinions would have much weight on the minds of my Countrymen — they have been neglected, tho' given as a last legacy in the most solemn manner. I had then perhaps some claims to public attention. I consider myself as having none at present.
Source: Justice and Fraternity (1848), p. 319
Context: "[The socialists declare] that the State owes subsistence, well-being, and education to all its citizens; that it should be generous, charitable, involved in everything, devoted to everybody;... that it should intervene directly to relieve all suffering, satisfy and anticipate all wants, furnish capital to all enterprises, enlightenment to all minds, balm for all wounds, asylums for all the unfortunate, and even aid to the point of shedding French blood, for all oppressed people on the face of the earth.
Who would not like to see all these benefits flow forth upon the world from the law, as from an inexhaustible source? … But is it possible? … Whence does [the State] draw those resources that it is urged to dispense by way of benefits to individuals? Is it not from the individuals themselves? How, then, can these resources be increased by passing through the hands of a parasitic and voracious intermediary?
... Finally…we shall see the entire people transformed into petitioners. Landed property, agriculture, industry, commerce, shipping, industrial companies, all will bestir themselves to claim favors from the State. The public treasury will be literally pillaged. Everyone will have good reasons to prove that legal fraternity should be interpreted in this sense: "Let me have the benefits, and let others pay the costs." Everyone's effort will be directed toward snatching a scrap of fraternal privilege from the legislature. The suffering classes, although having the greatest claim, will not always have the greatest success.
1850s, Autobiographical Sketch Written for Jesse W. Fell (1859)
Context: Then came the Black Hawk war; and I was elected a captain of volunteers, a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it.<!--pp.34-35
Chapter XLVIII, p. 344 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t0xp7k74t&view=1up&seq=364' (published 1872)
Roughing It (1872)
“When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.”
Letter to Governor Letcher
Variant: The interests of the State are therefore the same as those of the United States. Its prosperity will rise or fall with the welfare of the country. The duty of its citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling; qualify themselves to vote; and elect to the State and general Legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country, and the healing of all dissensions. I have invariably recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.
“No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
Final accounting in the Estate of A.B. (1866) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/no_mans_life_liberty_or_property_are_safe_while_the_legislature_is_in_sessi/
1920s, The Reign of Law (1925)
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1897/mar/19/speech-by-lord-kimberley-at-norwich in the House of Lords (19 March 1897)
1890s
Source: Generation of Vipers (1942), p. 74
1790s, Inaugural Address (Saturday, March 4, 1797)
“Now an' then an innocent man is sent t' th' legislature.”
Back Country Folks (1914)
As quoted in The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949) by Evan Esar, p. 105.
Variant: Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.
5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Speech in Birmingham (27 October 1858), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), pp. 271-272.
1850s
2015, Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong (2015)
5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Dissenting, Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395 (1953)
Judicial opinions
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1868/jun/26/debate-resumed-second-night in the House of Lords (26 June 1868)
1860s
"Tastes Like Chicken".
1920s, Ordered Liberty and World Peace (1924)
1990s, Letter to Patrick Leahy (1999)
1860s, The Prayer of the Twenty Millions (1862)
17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 428
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Bradley and another v. Clark (1793), 5 T. R. 201.
POTUS election could have ‘huge’ impact on Mich. judges http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/04/potus-election-huge-impact-mich-judges/85424958/ (June 4, 2016)
1 St. Tr. (N. S.) 312.
Trial of Hunt and others (King v. Hunt) (1820)
Source: The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961), Chapter 4: Relationship Between Executive and Legislature, p 61
Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of William H. Pryor, Jr. to be Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit (June 11, 2003)
Address at the Hollywood Bowl http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html (19 October 1956)
1950s
The Americans: The Democratic Experience (1973), as cited in: Robert J. Gordon (2016), The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 1.
“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.”
As quoted in 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1988) by Robert Byrne
1920s, Ordered Liberty and World Peace (1924)
Dissenting, Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395 (1953)
Judicial opinions
“During the next legislature, we will aim for full employment in Spain.”
Debate on the State of the Nation, 3rd July 2007
As President, 2007
Source: http://www.cadenaser.com/economia/audios/prometio-zapatero-llegar-pleno-empleo/csrcsrpor/20090127csrcsreco_2/Aes/
Letter to Benjamin Rush, 4 April 1790. Alexander Biddle, Old Family Letters, Series A (Philadelphia: 1892), p. 55 http://books.google.com/books?id=5d8hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA55
1790s
Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 169 (1788)
" The Originalist https://ww2.callawyer.com/clstory.cfm?pubdt=NaN&eid=913358&evid=1", California Lawyer (January 2011).
2010s
Letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT. (1 January 1802) This statement is the origin of the often used phrase "separation of Church and State".
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
From his speech given on 28 November 1960 at laying the foundation-stone of the building of the Law Institute of India, in: p. 14
Presidents of India, 1950-2003
Letter to William C. Rives (1819) ME 15:232
Posthumous publications, On financial matters
Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128 (1810)
This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three millions in America; who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains and sordid affluence; and who will die in defence of their rights as men, as freemen.
Speech in the House of Lords (20 January 1775), quoted in William Pitt, The Speeches of the Right Honourable the Earl of Chatham in the Houses of Lords and Commons: With a Biographical Memoir and Introductions and Explanatory Notes to the Speeches (London: Aylott & Jones, 1848), pp. 134-6.
No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)
Texas Observer, Notes from a rookie, March 26, 1971.
Source: Game Theory and Canadian Politics (1998), Chapter 8, Staying Power of the Status Quo, p. 138
Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945
2013, Speech: Nomination of Senator Ralph Recto as Senate Pro Tempore
As contained in Treason Exposed: Record of the Disloyal Democracy https://books.google.com/books?id=1-d9AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Treason+Exposed:+Record+of+the+Disloyal+Democracy%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisi5WmtMrLAhUCOz4KHUcHCEcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Treason%20Exposed%3A%20Record%20of%20the%20Disloyal%20Democracy%22&f=false (1866), Republican Party (Ind.) State Central Committee, p. 1
Arraignment of the Democratic Party (June 1866)
James M. McPherson. Battle Cry of Freedom http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153655 (1988) p. 214
1980s
Column, December 19, 2008, "The U.S. House of Lords?" http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer121908.php3 at jewishworldreview.com.
2000s, 2008
Opinion: Clinton or Trump – Better or Less Bad? http://english.aawsat.com/2016/11/article55361471/opinion-clinton-trump-better-less-bad, Ashraq Al-Awsat (November 4, 2016)
Get serious about meaningful ethics reform http://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/get-serious-about-meaningful-ethics-reform/article_d9a98fc0-9172-54af-a084-335bc70fa3ed.html (March 10, 2016)
1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)
Letter to Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (16 June 1792)
1790s
1920s, Authority and Religious Liberty (1924)
Eric Chu (2015) cited in " Presidential Election: KMT’s Eric Chu takes over campaign http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/10/18/2003630321" on Taipei Times, 18 October 2015.
Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=00-949 (12 December 2000).
1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)
Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 22 U.S. (9 Wheaton) 738, 866 (1824)
"Depicting Europe", London Review of Books (20 September 2007)
Letter to Albert Gallatin (16 June 1817). Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0054.php, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 12 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Jefferson0136/Works/0054-12_Bk.pdf, p. 73
1810s
To My Fellow-Disciples at Saratoga Springs (1895)
Source: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-24-02-0387
Source: Discussion with Jefferson (1792)
Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 240.
2010s, America: One Nation, Indivisible (2015)
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
Speech the Hampshire Monday Club in Southampton (9 April 1976), from A Nation or No Nation? Six Years in British Politics (Elliot Right Way Books, 1977), pp. 165-166
1970s
Speech in the Virginia State Convention for altering the Constitution https://books.google.com/books?id=R9ctAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78&dq=%22The+evil+commenced+when+we+were+in+our+Colonial+state%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBmoVChMIwM7FxfHTxwIViPM-Ch3fiQrs#v=onepage&q=%22The%20evil%20commenced%20when%20we%20were%20in%20our%20Colonial%20state%22&f=false (2 November 1829)
Louis Brownlow. "The Executive Office of the Presidency." Public Administration Review, Winter 1941, vol. 1. p. 102.
1920s, Ordered Liberty and World Peace (1924)
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1841/sep/24/supply-distress-of-the-country in the House of Commons (24 September 1841) against the Corn Laws.
1840s
Rex v. Rusby (1800), Peake's N. P. Cases 192.
1960s, How Long, Not Long (1965)
James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153655 (1989), p. 214.