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Quotes by Founder:
Abigail Adams (2)
Adam Smith (2)
Alexander Hamilton (22)
Alexander McDougal (1)
Andrew Hamilton (1)
Archibald MacLaine (1)
Benjamin Church (1)
Benjamin Franklin (50)
Benjamin Rush (5)
Charles Carroll (1)
Charles Pinckney (2)
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)
John Quincy Adams (7)
John Rutledge (1)
John Witherspoon (2)
Joseph Warren (1)
Michel Jean De Crevecoeur (3)
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)
Samuel Adams (13)
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Samuel West (1)
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Silas Downer (1)
Simeon Howard (1)
Sir William Blackstone (1)
Thomas Hobbes (1)
Thomas Jefferson (80)
Thomas Paine (47)
Washington Irving (2)
William Blackstone (1)
William Bradford (1)
William Cullen Bryant (1)
William Goudy (1)
William Johnson (2)
William Penn (28)
William Pierce (1)
William Pitt (1)
Zephaniah Swift (1)
Your search for "
taxation without representation
" returned 42 results from 21 Founders.
Elbridge Gerry:
"All monies to be raised for supplying the public treasury by direct
taxation
shall be assessed on the inhabitants of the several states according to the number of their representatives respectively in the first branch, [...] according to the general principle that
taxation
and
representation
ought to go together."
source: Ibid., p. 246
taxation
without
representation
,
taxation on population
,
taxes
,
fairness
Oliver Ellsworth:
"Direct
taxation
can go but little way towards raising a revenue. To raise money in this way, people must be provident; they must be constantly laying up money to answer the demands of the collector. But you cannot make people thus provident; if you would do anything to purpose you must come in when they are spending, and take a part with them. This does not take away the tools of a man's business, or the necessary utensils of this family: It only comes in when he is taking his pleasure, and feels generous."
source: Connecticut Ratifying Convention
method of taxing
,
taxes
,
business
,
econmonics
,
taxation on spending
William Johnson:
"The controversy must be endless whilst gentlemen differ in the grounds of their arguments; those on one side considering the states as districts of people composing one political society; those on the other considering them as so many political societies. The fact is that the states do exist as political societies, and a government is to be formed for them in their political capacity, as well as for the individuals composing them. Does it not seem to follow that if the states, as such, are to exist, they must be armed with some power of self-defense?"
source: Ibid,. pp. 182-83.
representation of States
,
representatives apportioned to poulation
Benjamin Franklin:
"It was always of importance that the people should know who had disposed of their money, and how it had been disposed of. It was a maxim that those who feel can best judge. This end would, he thought, be best attained if money affairs were to be confined to the immediate representatives of the people."
source: Madison, p. 218
financial responsibility
,
House of Representatives
,
importance of
representation
of the people
Charles Pinckney:
"The values of land had been found, on full investigation, to be an impracticable rule. The contributions of revenue, including imports and exports, must be too changeable in their amount; too difficult to be adjusted; and too injurious to the non-commercial states. The number of inhabitants appeared to him the only just and practicable rule."
source: Ibid., p. 215.
taxation on land value
,
direct taxation
,
taxes
,
property
,
taxation by population
Alexander Hamilton:
"Congress have but one exclusive right in taxation—that of duties on imports; certainly, then, their other powers are only concurrent."
source: Elliot, 2:355
tax
,
taxation
,
import
,
imports
,
power to tax
,
powers of congress
William Penn:
"It is a great mark of the corruption of our natures, and what ought to humble us extremely, and excite the exercise of our reason to a nobler and juster sense, that we cannot see the use and pleasure of our comforts but by the want of them. As if we could not taste the benefit of health, but by the help of sickness; nor understand the satisfaction of fullness
without
the instruction of want: not, finally, know the comfort of peace buy by the smart and penance of the vices of war: And
without
dispute that is not the lest reason that God is pleased to chastise us so frequently with it."
source: An Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe, 1693.
oposition
,
choice
,
opposites
,
war
,
conflict
James Madison:
"No free Country has ever been
without
parties, which are a natural offspring of Freedom."
source: Note on his suffrage speech at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 1787.
political parties
,
freedom
James Wilson:
"The skeptical philosophers claim and exercise the privilege of assuming,
without
proof, the very first principles of their philosophy; and yet they require, from others, a proof of everything by reasoning. They are unreasonable in both points."
source: Lectures, 1790-1791.
philosophy
,
ethics
,
reason
William Penn:
"What can we desire better than peace, but the grace to use it? Peace preserves our possessions; we are in no danger of invasions: our trade is free and safe, and we rise and lie down
without
anxiety. The rich bring out their hoards, and employ the poor manufacturers: buildings and diverse projections, for profit and pleasure, go on: it excites industry, which brings wealth, as that gives the means of charity and hospitatlity, not the lowest ornaments of a kingdom or commonwealth. But war ... seizes all these comforts at once, and stops the civil channel of society. The rich draw in their stock, the poor turn soldiers, or thieves, or starve: no industry, no building, no manufactury, little hospitatlity or charity; but what the peace gave, the war devours."
source: "An Essay Twards the Present and Future Peace of Europe," 1693.
peace
,
trade
,
foreign relations
,
war
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
Benjamin Franklin:
"Savages we call them, because their Manners differ from ours, which we think the Perfection of Civility; they think the same of theirs. Perhaps, if we could examine the Manners of different Nations with Impartiality, we should find no People so rude, as to be
without
any Rules of Politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some Remains of Rudeness."
source: Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, 1784.
native americans
,
race
,
civility
,
tolerance
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
Alexander Hamilton:
"Laws are a dead letter
without
courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation."
source: The Federalist Papers, 1788
necessity of courts
,
judicial system
,
interpreting law
,
justice
John Adams:
"Liberty cannot be preserved
without
general knowledge among people."
source: Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
education
,
libery
,
ignorance
,
importance
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.129
power of House of Representatives
,
compromise
,
creation of law
James Madison:
"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness
without
any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend upon their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."
source: Quotes in Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 5 vols. [Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1901], 3:536-37
virtue
,
morality
,
depravity
,
corruption
,
necessity for a virtuous nation
,
election of leaders
,
education
,
dependency
Thomas Jefferson:
"Man was created for social intercourse, but social intercourse cannot be maintained
without
a sense of justice; then man must have been created with a sense of justice."
source: Ford, 10:32
judgement of man
,
intuition of man
,
creation of man
,
society justice
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
George Mason:
"The people will be represented; they ought therefore to choose the representatives. The requisites in actual
representation
are that the representatives should sympathize with their constituents; should think as they think, and feel as they feel; and that for these purposes should even be residents among them."
source: Ibid., p. 63.
election
,
qualifications of representatives
,
connection to people
Benjamin Franklin:
"Where there's marriage
without
love, there will be love
without
marriage."
source: Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734.
marriage
,
love
,
union
,
commitment
,
adultry
,
fidelity
Thomas Jefferson:
"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies
without
attending to it, and truths
without
the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."
source: Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-1785.
lies
,
falsehoods
,
truth
,
trust
,
honesty
,
integrity
Alexander Hamilton:
"Give me the steady, uniform, unshaken securityof constitutional freedom. Give me the right of trial by jury of my own neighbors, and to be taxed by my own representatives only. What will become of the law and courts of justice
without
this? I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed."
source: "A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress" December 15, 1774.
liberty
,
freedom
,
constitutional freedoms
,
justice
Thomas Jefferson:
"It would be a blessing to mankind if God would never give a genius
without
principle; and in like manner would be a happiness to society if none but honest men would be suffered to be lawyers. The wretch who will write on any subject for bread, or in any service for pay, and he who will plead in any case for a fee, stands equally in rank with the prostitute who lets our her person."
source: A Serious Address to the People of Pennsylvania, 1778.
lawyers
,
justice
,
integrity
James Madison:
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Gov[ernments] do better
without
Kings and Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater purity,
without
than with the aid of Gov[ernment]."
source: Letter to Edward Livingstong, July 19, 1822.
government
,
kings
,
nobles
,
classes of society
,
rulers
,
republic
,
freedom
Sir William Blackstone:
"Every new tribunal, erected for the decision of facts,
without
the intervention of a jury ... is a step towards establishing aristocracy, the most oppressive of absolute governments."
source: Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765-1769.
supreme court
,
jury duty
,
justice
,
fair and balanced
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
John Adams:
"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided upon men. A resolution was passed
without
one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
source: Letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776.
independence
,
national freedom
,
america
Benjamin Franklin:
"Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty,
without
Freedom of Speech."
source: Letter from "Silence Dogood," printed in The New England Courant, July 9, 1722.
freedom of speech
,
freedom of thought
,
liberty
,
wisdom
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
James Monroe:
"A virtuous people may and will confine themselves within the limit of a strict neutrality, but it is not in their power to behold a conflict so vitally important to their neighbors
without
the sensibility and sympathy which naturally belong to such a case."
source: Third annual message to Congress, December 7, 1819.
foreign relations
,
policy
,
war
,
conflict
,
neutrality
James Madison:
"The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted... with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance
without
partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."
source: Federalist Papers, No. 37, pp. 230-31.
providence
,
God
,
beliefs of the Founders
,
revolutionary war
,
ponder
,
overcoming challenges
Benjamin Franklin:
"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities! We are offered, by the terms of this vendue, six months' credit; and that perhaps has induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot spare the ready money, and hope now to be fine
without
it. But, ah, think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over you liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor pitiful sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity, and sink into base downright lying; for, as Poor Richard says, the second vice is lying, the first is running in debt. And again, to the same purpose, lying rides upon debt's back. Whereas a freeborn Englishman ought not to be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any man living. But poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue: 'Tis hard for an empty bad to stand upright, as Poor Richard truly says."
source: Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 3:416
debt
,
money
,
monetary gain
,
debtors
,
bondage
,
borrowing
,
lending
,
owing money
Benjamin Rush:
"It is favourable to liberty. Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal."
source: Essay, 1786.
liberty
,
freedom
,
society
,
rights
,
learning
,
education
,
knowledge
Benjamin Franklin:
"There are not gains
without
pains."
source: Poor Richard's Almanack, 1745.
difficulties
,
adversity
,
accomplishements
,
dedication
,
determination
Thomas Jefferson:
"I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves
without
a master. Could the contrary of this be proved I should conclude either that there is no God or that He is a malevolent being."
source: Letter to David Hartley, 1787.
freedom
,
rights
,
government
,
republic
,
agency
John Adams:
"It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen,
without
one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can."
source: To Count Sarsfield, February 3, 1786.
liberty
,
freedom
,
freemen
,
king
,
monarchy
,
democracy
,
equality
,
republic
Benjamin Franklin:
"I may venture to say that there never was a Man eminently famous but what was distinguish'd by this very Qualification [constancy], and few if any can live comfortably even in a private Life
without
it; for a Man who has no End in View, no Design to pursue, is like an irresolute Master of a Ship at Sea, that can fix upon no one Port to steer her to, and consequently can call not one Wind favourable to his Wishes."
source: "On Constancy," in the Pennsylvania Gazette, April 4, 1734.
consistency
,
commitment
,
goal setting
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
George Washington:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports [...]. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained
without
religion [...]. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."
source: In Washington's farewell address (Basic American Documents, pp. 108-9).
necessity of religion
,
necessity of virtue
,
church and state
John Dickinson:
"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness. ... We claim them from a higher source--from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence ... It would be an insult on the divine Majesty to say, that he has given or allowed any man or body of men a right to make me miserable. If no man or body of men has such a right, I have a right to be happy. If there can be no happiness
without
freedom, I have a right to be free. If I cannot enjoy freedom
without
security of property, I have a right to be thus secured. "
source: Reply to a Committee in Barbados, 1766
happiness
,
undeniable rights
,
liberty
,
freedom
,
God
,
security of property
,
misery
,
parliament
John Adams:
"The first of qualities for a great statesman is to be honest. And if it were possible that this opinion were an error, I should rather carry it with me to my grave than to believe that a man cannot be a statesman
without
being dishonest. "
source: Letter to Willian Eustis, June 22, 1809.
honesty
,
statesman
,
congress
,
representatives
,
integrity
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