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Quotes by Founder:
Abigail Adams (2)
Adam Smith (2)
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Alexander McDougal (1)
Andrew Hamilton (1)
Archibald MacLaine (1)
Benjamin Church (1)
Benjamin Franklin (50)
Benjamin Rush (5)
Charles Carroll (1)
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Daniel Webster (4)
Edmund Burke (1)
Edmund Randolph (1)
Elbridge Gerry (1)
Elias Boudinot, LL.D. (1)
Fisher Ames (4)
Francis Bacon (2)
George Berkeley (1)
George Mason (6)
George Washington (48)
Gouverneur Morris (4)
James Iredell (4)
James Madison (39)
James Monroe (9)
James Otis (2)
James Wilson (6)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (2)
John Adams (38)
John Barnard (1)
John Dickinson (2)
John Hancock (1)
John Howard Paine (1)
John Jay (5)
John Joseph Henry (1)
John Locke (1)
John Marshall (1)
John Paul Jones (1)
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John Rutledge (1)
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Nathan Hale (1)
Nathanael Greene (2)
Noah Webster (8)
Oliver Ellsworth (1)
Patrick Henry (7)
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew (1)
Richard Henry Lee (1)
Rufus King (1)
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Your search for "
retention of liberties
" returned 18 results from 11 Founders.
James Iredell:
"The only real security
of
liberty, in any country, is the jealousy and circumspection
of
the people themselves. Let them be watchful over their rulers. Should they find a combination against their
liberties
, and all other methods appear insufficient to preserve them, they have, thank God, an ultimate remedy. That power which created the government can destroy it. Should the government, on trial, be found to want amendments, those amendments can be made in a regular method, in a mode prescribed by the Constitution itself [...]. We have [this] watchfulness
of
the people, which I hope will never be found wanting."
source: Elliot, 4:130
amendment
,
constitutional convention
,
secret combination
,
retention
of
liberties
,
power
of
the people
John Joseph Henry:
"God in his great goodness grant, in the future vicissitudes
of
the world, that our countrymen, whenever their essential rights shall be attacked, will divest themselves
of
all party prejudice, and devote their lives and properties in defence
of
the sacred
liberties
of
their country, without any view to emolument, but that which springs from glorious and honorable actions."
source: Journal, 1811.
patriotism
,
parties
,
moderate
,
liberal
,
conservative
,
rights
,
liberties
Thomas Jefferson:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties
than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue
of
their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people
of
all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
source: www.quotationspage.com
banking
,
federal reserve bank
,
banking institutions
,
liberties
,
private banks
,
currency
,
inflation
,
deflation
Samuel Adams:
"If the
liberties
of
America are ever completely ruined,
of
which in my opinion there is now the utmost danger, it will in all probability be the consequence
of
a mistaken notion
of
prudence, which leads men to acquiesce in measures
of
the most destructive tendency for the sake
of
present ease. When designs are form'd to rase the very foundations
of
a free government, those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state
of
indolence, inattention and security. ... They are alarmed at nothing so much, as attempts to awaken the people to jealousy and watchfulness; and it has been an old game played over and over again, to hold up the men who would rouse their fellow citizens and countrymen to a sense
of
their real danger, and spirit them to the most zealous activity in the use
of
all proper means for the preservation
of
the public liberty, as a 'pretended patriots,' 'intemperate politicians,' rash, hot-headed men, Incendiaries, wretched desperadoes, who, as was said
of
the best
of
men, would turn the world upside down, or have done it already."
source: Essay in the Boston Gazette, 1771.
attention
,
neglect
,
watchfullness
,
public awareness
,
liberties
,
patriotism
Thomas Jefferson:
"For promoting the public happiness, those persons whom nature has endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit
of
the rights and
liberties
of
their fellow citizens; and they should be called to that charge without regard to [...] birth, or other accidental condition or circumstance."
source: Ibid., 2:221.
responsibility
of
citizery
,
duty
,
uphold liberties
,
prejudice
Thomas Paine:
"The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts
of
speech, and practically construct them into syntax."
source: The Rights of Man, 1791
explaination
of
constitution
,
rights
,
liberties
Alexander Hamilton:
"The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS."
source: The Federalist Papers
explaination
of
constitution
,
rights
,
liberties
Alexander Hamilton:
"Every government ought to contain in itself the means
of
its own preservation."
source: The Federalist Papers, 1787.
government
,
balance
of
powers
,
rights
,
liberties
Thomas Jefferson:
"I believe that justice is instinct and innate, that the moral sense is as much a part
of
our constitution as that
of
feeling, seeing, or hearing."
source: Letter to John Adams, 1816.
justice
,
liberties
,
rights
Thomas Paine:
"Liberty is the power to do everything that does not interfere with the rights
of
others: thus, the exercise
of
the natural rights
of
every individual has no limits save those that assure to other members
of
society the enjoyment
of
the same rights."
source: Plan of a Declaration of Rights, 1792.
liberty
,
liberties
,
freedom
,
rights
,
happiness
,
social enjoyments
Thomas Paine:
"Republican government is no other than government established and conducted for the interest
of
the public, as well individually as collectively."
source: Rights of Man, 1792.
republic
,
government
,
public
,
rights
,
liberties
John Adams:
"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments
of
religious liberty. Let us hear
of
the dignity
of
man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works
of
God. [...] Let it be known that British
liberties
are not grants
of
princes and parliaments."
source: Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law 1765
religious freedom
,
providence
Benjamin Franklin:
"The diversity
of
opinions turns on two points. If a proportional representation takes place, the small states contend that their
liberties
will be in danger. If an equality
of
votes is to be put in its place, the large states say their money will be in danger. When a broad table is to be made, and the edges
of
planks do not fit, the artist takes a little from both and makes a good joint. In like manner, here, both sides must part from some
of
their demands in order that they may join in some accommodating proposition."
source: Ibid., p. 196.
design
of
government
,
compromise
,
give and take
Edmund Burke:
"The people never give up their
liberties
but under some delusion."
source: Speech at Country Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784.
liberty
,
freedom
,
opression
,
hope
Samuel Adams:
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the aid
of
foreign invaders."
source: To James Warren, 1775.
ignorance
,
freedom
,
knowledge
,
downfall
of
society
,
liberty
Samuel Adams:
"The
liberties
of
our country, the freedom
of
our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense
of
treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark
of
infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is , if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out
of
them by the artifices
of
false and designing men."
source: Article in the Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771.
freedom
,
duty
,
preservation
of
rights
Patrick Henry:
"Show me that age and country where the rights and
liberties
of
the people were placed on the sole chance
of
their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss
of
liberty! I say that the loss
of
that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt."
source: Elliot, 3:59
loss
of
freedom
,
rights
,
dependency
,
watchfulness
,
checks and balances
,
entrust
William Goudy:
"I am jealous and suspicious
of
the
liberties
of
mankind [...] Suspicions in small communities, are a pest to mankind, but in a matter
of
this magnitude, which concerns the interest
of
millions yet unborn, suspicion is a very noble virtue."
source: Ibid., p. 93
suspicion
,
generations to come
,
power
of
leaders
,
checks and balances
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