Your search for "source of authority" returned 17 results from 12 Founders.
James Madison:"The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasoning on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone."source: Federalist Papers, No. 46, p. 294source of authority, corruption of officials
Alexander Hamilton:"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority."source: Federalist Papers, No. 22, p.152.source of power, right to authority
Thomas Jefferson:"I consider the people who constitute a society or nation as the source of all authority in that nation."source: Bergh, 3:227true authority, people governement
Thomas Jefferson:"All authority belongs to the people."source: Ford, 10:190ture authority, people government, authority holder
William Penn:"An husband and wife that love and value on another, show their children and servants, that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families, by their contempt of one another: and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples."source: Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693.marriage, union, example, love, parents and children, authority
Thomas Jefferson:"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."source: Summary View of the Rights of British America 1775source of freedom, gifts from God
Andrew Hamilton:"We ought at the same time to be upon our guard against Power, wherever we apprehend that it may affect ourselves or our Fellow-Subjects. ... Power may be justly compared to a great river which, while kept within its due bounds is both beautiful and useful; but when it overflows its banks, is then too impetuous to be stemmed, it bears down all before it and brings destruction and desolation wherever it goes. If this then is the nature of power, let us at least do our duty, and likewise men use our utmost care to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power."source: Defense of Peter Zenger, 1735.power, authority, liberty, freedom, oppression
Abigail Adams:"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave cries, "Give, Give."source: Letter to John Adams, November 27, 1775.power, authority, freedom, corruption, control
James Madison:"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."source: Speech to the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787.power, trust, authority, balance of power, corruption, deals
James Madison:"No axiom is more clearly established in law, or in reason, than that wherever the end is required, the means are authorized; whenever a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power necessary for doing it, is included."source: The Federalist Papers, 1788.power, authority, law, means to an end, the end justifies the means
Noah Webster:"[O]ur citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion."source: History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 6.Republic, Christianity, Bible, education, Separation of Church and State
James Wilson:"All [laws], however, may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine. 2) Human. . . . But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God. . . . Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine."source: The Works of the Honorable James Wilson, Bird Wilson, editor (Philadelphia: Lorenzo Press, 1804), Vol. I, pp. 103-105, "Of the General Principles of Law and Obligation."Natural Law, Divine Law, Human Law
James Iredell:"The authority over money will do everything. A government cannot be supported without money. Our representatives may at any time compel the Senate to agree to a reasonable measure, by withholding supplies till the measure is consented to."source: Ibid., p.129power of House of Representatives, compromise, creation of law
Benjamin Franklin:"Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such places it is that renders the British government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true source of all those factions which are perpetually dividing the nation, distracting its councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischievous wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms of peace."source: Ibid., 9:591war, motive, corruption, tendency of man, oppression
Thomas Paine:"Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another; for who is he who could be the first giver, or by what principle, or on what authority could he possess the right of giving?"source: Dissertation on First Principles of Government, 1795Rights,
George Mason:"Now all acts of legislature apparently contrary to natural right and justice, are, in our laws, and must be in the nature of things considered as void. The laws of nature are the laws of God; whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth. A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to him from whose punishments they cannot protect us."source: Robin v. Hardaway, 1772.natural law, balance of powers, legislature
James Madison:"The appointment to offices is, of all the functions of Republican and perhaps every other form of Government, the most difficult to guard against abuse. Bive it to a numerous body, and you at once destroy all responsibility, and create a perpetual source of faction and corruption. Give it to the Executive wholly, and it may be made an engine of improper influence and favoritism."source: Observations on Jefferson's Draft Constitution, October 15, 1788.appointments, elections, balance of powers

Quote of the Day!

Enter your email and get daily quotes of genius from the Founders sent to your inbox!


Sponsors

The 9.12 Project Network rights reserved.