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James Madison Quotes
These James Madison Quotes are from his own writings, letters and speeches.
James Madison was a great American leader after the Revolutionary War and is
known as the Father of the US
Constitution. These James Madison Quotes are
listed chronologically with links to more at the bottom.
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James Madison |
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You can read some interesting Facts
about James Madison here.
James Madison Quotes
"A silent appeal to a cool and candid judgment of the public may, perhaps,
serve the cause of truth." - Letter to Joseph C. Cabell, March 19,
1829
"His authority is made to weigh nothing, or outweigh everything, according
to the scale in which it is put." - Letter to Joseph C. Cabell, March 19,
1829
"The compound Government of the United States is without a model, and to be
explained by itself, not by similitudes or analogies. The terms Union,
Federal, National, ought not to be applied to it without the qualifications
peculiar to the system." - Outline, September, 1829
"The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United
States composing the respective states, who alone had the right..." - Outline,
September, 1829
"The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle;
their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition
that would meditate the destruction of either!" - Outline, September, 1829
"The Union of so many States is in the eyes of a world, a wonder; the harmonious
establishment of a government over them all, a miracle." - Speech in the Virginia
State Convention, December 2, 1829
Read on for more great
James Madison Quotes
 Montpelier -
Home of
James Madison
"It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects
on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of
property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
These rights cannot well be separated." - Speech at the Virginia Ratifying
Convention, December 2, 1829
"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands,
will ever be liable to abuse." - Speech in the Virginia Constitutional Convention,
December 2, 1829
"The meaning collected from the general scope, and from a collation of the several
parts (of the Virginia Resolutions)
ought not to be affected by a particular word or phrase not irreconcilable with all
the rest, and not made more precise, because no danger of their being misunderstood
was thought of." - Letter to N. P. Trist, February, 1830
"The merit of the founders of our Republics lies in the more accurate views and the
practical applications of the doctrines (of self-government). The rights of man as
the foundation of just Government had been long understood; but the superstructures
projected had been sadly defective." - Letter to N. P. Trist, February, 1830
"Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our
Republican character." - Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, February 1, 1830
Read on for more
James Madison Quotes
"Although the old idea of a compact between the Government and the people be justly
exploded, the idea of a compact among those who are parties to a Government is a
fundamental principle of free Government." - Letter to N. P. Trist, February 15, 1830
"Errors which have their sources in an oblivion of explanatory circumstances, and in
the silent innovations of time on the meaning of words and phrases." - Letter to
Edward Everett, April 8, 1830
"The real measure of the powers meant to be granted to Congress by the Constitution
is to be sought in the specifications, to be expounded, indeed, not with the strictness
applied to an ordinary statute by a court of law, nor, on the other hand, with a latitude
that, under the name of means for carrying into execution a limited Government, would
transform it into a Government without limits." - Letter to M. L. Hulbert, May, 1830
"The Constitution and laws of the United States are declared to be paramount to those of
the individual states, and an appellate supremacy is vested in the judicial power of the
United States..." - Letter to M. L. Hulbert, May, 1830
"Although I have not concealed my opinion of that doctrine (Nullification), and of the
use made of the proceedings of Virginia (Virginia
Resolutions), in 1798-99, I have been unwilling to make a public exhibition of them,
as well from a consideration that it might appear obtrusive, as that it might enlist me
as a newspaper polemic, and lay me under an obligation to correct errors in other cases
in which I was concerned, or by my silence admit that they were not errors." - Letter
to Daniel Webster, May 27, 1830
"Undertakings by private companies carry with them a presumptive evidence of utility,
and the private stakes in them some security of execution, the want of which is the bane
of public undertakings. Still, the importunities of private companies cannot be listened
to with more caution than prudence requires." - Letter to Martin Van Buren, July 5,
1830
Need some more James Madison
Quotes? Read on!
"It may often happen, as experience proves, that erroneous constructions, not anticipated,
may not be sufficiently guarded against in the language used..." - Letter to Edward
Everett, August, 1830
"In order to understand the true nature of the Constitution of the United States, the
error must be avoided... of viewing it through the medium, of a Consolidated Government,
or of a Confederated Government, whilst it is neither the one nor the other; but a
mixture of both." - North American Review, October, 1830
"As the people of the United States enjoy the great merit of having established a system
of Government on the basis of human rights, and of giving it a form without example,
which, as they believe, unites the greatest national strength with the best security
for public order and individual liberty, they owe to themselves, to their posterity
and to the world, a preservation of the system in its purity, its symmetry, and its
authenticity." - Letter to A. Stevenson, November 27, 1830
"The two vital characteristics of the political system of the United States are,
first, that the Government holds its powers by a charter granted to it by the people;
second, that the powers of government are formed in two grand divisions - one vested
in a Government over the whole community, the other in a number of independent
Governments over its component parts. Hitherto charters have been written grants
of privileges by Governments to the people. Here they are written grants of power
by the people to their Governments." - Letter to A. Stevenson, November 27, 1830
"I am among those who are most anxious for the preservation of the Union of the
States, and for the success of the Constitutional experiment of which it is the
basis. We owe it to ourselves, and to the world, to watch, to cherish, and as far
as possible, to perfect a new modification of the powers of Government, which aims
at the better security against external danger and internal disorder, a better
provision for national strength and individual rights, than had been exemplified
under any previous form." - Letter to Andrew Bigelow, 1831
"I am far from regarding a change of opinions, under the lights of experience
and the results of improved reflection, as exposed to censure..." - Letter
to C. E. Haynes, February 25, 1831
"With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as
qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal
and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character
which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." - Letter
to James Robertson, April 20, 1831
You can visit Montpelier, James Madison's home today. It has lots of memorabilia
and things to do. Visit the
Montpelier website here.
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Did you enjoy these James Madison Quotes? Check out these
inspirational quotations from some other Founding Fathers
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