James Madison Monday ~The Words of Our Founding Fathers~

"Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it."
~James Madison
Federalist No. 41

James Madison Monday ~The Words of Our Founding Fathers~

"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."

-James Madison (Federalist Papers, No.46, p. 294; emphasis added).

~The Words Of Our Founding Father's~ James Madison

I get so sick of hearing people say that America is a Democracy.
Maybe it is now, but that is not how the founding father's had planned it or set it up. It was a Republic!! And I pray to God that it will soon return back to it's founding documents, morals and principles, and be a Republic once again!
We do not need to transform this country, we need to restore this country!

Here is something Madison wrote about the contrast between a democracy and a republic.......

"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.....

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking." ~James Madison (Federalist Papers, No.10, pg.81)

Virtuous People to Appoint a Virtuous Government--James Madison Monday

From "The Patriot's Post"

"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 on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."
-James Madison
1788 - speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention
Category: Virtue

Reference: The True Republican, French, ed. (28-29)

The Fedaral Governmant vs.the State Governments,Madison Monday

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." -James Madison, The Federalist Papers No.49

Freedom of Religion, James Madison Monday

"We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right." -James Madison

The 1st Amendment and James Madison Monday

"The people shall not be deprived or abridged of

their right to speak, or to publish their

sentiments; and the freedom of the press,

as one of the great bulwarks of liberty,

shall be inviolable." -James Madison

"The Bill of Rights"

Amendment I

"Congress shall make no law respecting an

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free

exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

peaceably to assemble, and to petition the

Government for a redress of grievances."

"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb

and silent we may be led, like sheep to the

slaughter." -George Washington

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Madison Monday

This is very timely! Hear Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “Why shouldn’t we look to the wisdom of a judge from abroad with at least as much ease as we would read a law review article written by a professor?” she asked." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/us/12ginsburg.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
This is our supreme court justice! And wasn't it just a few months ago that another justice said that our laws evolve?
I wonder what James Madison would have thought about all of this.....?
-Hannah


James Madison
1788 - Federalist No. 51
Category: Justice
"Justice is the end of government. It is the end

of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be

pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be

lost in the pursuit."

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 51.

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, Madison Monday

I found this at "The Patriot Post" and just Had to use it for todays quote!

-Hannah

James Madison
1790 - Speech in Congress
Category: Budget

"There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable. Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence."

Reference: Advice to my Country, Mattern, 38.

The Words of Our Founding Fathers, James Madison Monday

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America." -James Madison

The Words of Our Founding Father's....Madison Monday 2

"[A]ll power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution." James Madison

The Words of Our Founding Father's---James Madison Monday

Who better for Monday's Founding Father than the Father of the Constitution, James Madison! I still have a lot of studying to do on James Madison, since I don't know much about him. King Ed wrote the title for me! Too good! But so sadly true.

The Stimulus Bill,

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?"

James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: Federalist Papers 62