WOULD THESE PEOPLE BE HAPPY OF TODAY’S AMERICA? INTERESTING HOW TIME CAN CHANGE ISSUES!
THEY DIDNT INVENT INTERNET BUT NO DOUBT HOW GREAT THEIR MINDS! I’M IN SALUTE!
James Madison
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 44
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: January 25, 1788
What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them . . . the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.
James Madison
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 58
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: February 20, 1788
An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Judge William Johnson
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: June 12, 1823
[T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established . . . are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to James Madison
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: January, 1797
The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government.
James Madison
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 10
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: November 23, 1787
[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachment of the others.
James Madison
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 51
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: February 6, 1788
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.
George Washington
Farewell Address
Categories:
Separation of Powers
Date: September 19, 1796
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes.