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James Madison Quotes
These James Madison Quotes are taken from his own speeches, letters and writings from the period of 1789-1792. This is the period just after the new Constitution was adopted and the first Congress was elected, of which Madison was a part. Many of these James Madison Quotes come from his proposals regarding a new Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution. Other topics covered include the inherent power of the judiciary, the foolishness of the government spending beyond its means and the importance of the right to private property. James Madison was one of the greatest leaders 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 before and after this time period at the bottom.
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James Madison
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James Madison Quotes
"I find, from looking into the amendments proposed by the state conventions,
that several are particularly anxious that it should be declared in the
constitution, that the powers not therein delegated, should be reserved
to the several states. Perhaps words which may define this more precisely,
than the whole of the instrument now does, may be considered as superfluous.
I admit they may be deemed unnecessary; but there can be no harm in making
such a declaration, if gentlemen will allow that the fact is as stated. I am
sure I understand it so, and do therefore propose it." - Speech on proposed Bill
of Rights to the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789
"The prescriptions in favor of liberty, ought to be levelled against that
quarter where the greatest danger lies, namely, that which possesses the
highest prerogative of power: But this (is) not found in either the executive
or legislative departments of government, but in the body of the people,
operating by the majority against the minority. It may be thought all paper
barriers against the power of the community are too weak to be worthy of
attention... yet, as they have a tendency to impress some degree of respect
for them, to establish the public opinion in their favor, and rouse the
attention of the whole community, it may be one mean to control the majority
from those acts to which they might be otherwise inclined." -Speech on proposed
Bill of Rights to the House of Representatives,
June 8, 1789
"It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating
particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights
which were not placed in that enumeration, and it might follow by implication,
that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned
into the hands of the general government, and were consequently insecure.
This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard urged against
the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that
may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning
to the last clause of the 4th resolution." - Speech on proposed Bill
of Rights to the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789
"I wish also, in revising the constitution, we may throw into that section,
which interdicts the abuse of certain powers in the state legislatures, some
other provisions of equal if not greater importance than those already made.
The words, "No state shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, &c."
were wise and proper restrictions in the constitution. I think there is more
danger of those powers being abused by the state governments than by the
government of the United States. The same may be said of other powers which
they possess, if not controuled by the general principle, that laws are
unconstitutional which infringe the rights of the community. I should
therefore wish to extend this interdiction, and add, as I have stated in
the 5th resolution, that no state shall violate the equal right of conscience,
freedom of the press, or trial by jury in criminal cases; because it is proper
that every government should be disarmed of powers which trench upon those
particular rights. I know in some of the state constitutions the power of
the government is controuled by such a declaration, but others are not. I
cannot see any reason against obtaining even a double security on those
points; and nothing can give a more sincere proof of the attachment of those
who opposed this constitution to these great and important rights, than to
see them join in obtaining the security I have now proposed; because it must
be admitted, on all hands, that the state governments are as liable to attack
these invaluable privileges as the general government is, and therefore ought
to be as cautiously guarded against." - Speech on proposed Bill
of Rights to the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789
"There are several lesser cases enumerated in my proposition, in which I
wish also to see some alteration take place. That article which leaves it
in the power of the legislature to ascertain its own emolument is one to
which I allude... There is a seeming impropriety in leaving any set of men
without control to put their hand into the public coffers, to take out money
to put in their pockets; there is a seeming indecorum in such power, which
leads me to propose a change... I have gone therefore so far as to fix it,
that no law, varying the compensation, shall operate until there is a change
in the legislature; in which case it cannot be for the particular benefit
of those who are concerned in determining the value of the service."
- Speech on proposed Bill of Rights to the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789
"The powers delegated by this constitution, are appropriated to the
departments to which they are respectively distributed: so that the
legislative department shall never exercise the powers vested in the
executive or judicial; nor the executive exercise the powers vested in
the legislative or judicial; nor the judicial exercise the powers vested
in the legislative or executive departments." - Speech on proposed Bill
of Rights to the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789
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James Madison
"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious
belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established."
- Proposed Wording for the First Amendment, June 8, 1789
"I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the exposition
of the laws and
Constitution devolves upon the judicial; but I beg to know
upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws
from the Constitution greater powers than another, in marking out the
limits of the powers of the several departments. The Constitution is
the charter of the people in the government; it specifies certain great
powers as absolutely granted, and marks out the departments to exercise
them. If the constitutional boundary of either be brought into question,
I do not see that any one of these independent departments has more right
than another to declare their sentiments on that point." - Speech in
the House of Representatives, June 16, 1789
"But the great objection drawn from the source to which the last arguments
would lead us is that the Legislature itself has no right to expound the
Constitution - that wherever its meaning is doubtful, you must leave it
to take its course until the Judiciary is called upon to declare its
meaning. I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the
exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the Judiciary. But
I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department
draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in marking out the
limits of the powers of the several departments." - Speech in the First
Congress, June 17, 1789
"Nothing has yet been offered to invalidate the doctrine that the meaning
of the Constitution may as well be ascertained by the Legislative as by the
Judicial authority." - Speech in the Congress of the United States, June
18, 1789
"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
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." - Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 20, 1788
Read on for more great
James Madison Quotes
"Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being
susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of
itself." - Letter to Benjamin Rush, March 7, 1790
"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." - Letter to William Hunter, March 11, 1790
"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." - Speech to Congress,
April 22, 1790
"In the Constitution, the great ends of government were particularly enumerated;
but all the means were not, nor could they all be, pointed out, without making
the Constitution a complete code of laws: some discretionary power, and
reasonable latitude, must be left to the judgment of the legislature."
- Debate on National Bank, February 2, 1791
"Man who preys both on the vegetable and animal species, is himself a prey to
neither. He too possesses the reproductive principle far beyond the degree
requisite for the bare continuance of his species. What becomes of the surplus
of human life to which this principle is competent? It is either, 1st.
destroyed by infanticide, as among the Chinese and Lacedemonians; or 2d.
it is stifled or starved, as among other nations whose population is
commensurate to its food; or 3d. it is consumed by wars and endemic diseases;
or 4th. it overflows, by emigration, to places where a surplus of food is
attainable." - Population and Emigration, in the National Gazette, November
21, 1791
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James Madison Quotes
"In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set
the example... of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in
the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the
most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of
its happiness." - National Gazette Essay, January 18, 1792
"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money,
and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited
one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to
particular exceptions." - Letter to Edmund Pendleton, January 21, 1792
"A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which
will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in
the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts." - National Gazette Essay, February 2,
1792
"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No
man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."
- Essay in the National Gazette, March 27, 1792
"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to
have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of
no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his
faculties, or his possessions." - National Gazette Essay, March 27, 1792
"This term (property) in its particular application means, "That dominion
which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world,
in exclusion of every other individual." In its larger and juster meaning,
it embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right,
and which leaves to everyone else the like advantage. In the former sense,
a man's land, or merchandise, or money, is called his property. In the
latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication
of them. He has a property of particular value in his religious opinions,
and in the profession and practice dictated by them. He has a property very
dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person. He has an equal
property in the free use of his faculties, and free choice of the objects
on which to employ them. In a word, as a man is said to have a right to
his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights."
- Essay on Property, March 27, 1792
"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that
which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term
particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is
a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his
own." - Essay on Property, March 29, 1792
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