Alexander Hamilton Quotes About Authority

Quotes about: Authority

• It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Authority, Increase

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2014). “The Federalist Papers”, p.33, Courier Corporation

• The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Law, Liberty

  Alexander Hamilton (1851). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Comprising His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, Exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and Military. Published from the Original Manuscripts Deposited in the Department of State, by Order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress”, p.164

• If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, People, Use

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.144

• [E]very act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, People, Acting

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.145, Rowman & Littlefield

• It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Political, Liberty

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.151, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• That instability is inherent in the nature of popular governments, I think very disputable … A representative democracy, where the right of election is well secured and regulated & the exercise of the legislature, executive, and judiciary authorities, is vested in select persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Thinking, Government

• The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority. Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Rights, Practice, Justice

  The Federalist Papers, No. 78 ("The Judiciary Department"), www.congress.gov. May 28, 1788.

• 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 from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  People, Fabric, Empires

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.106, Cambridge University Press

• Hence, in a state of nature, no man had any moral power to deprive another of his life, limbs, property, or liberty; nor the least authority to command or exact obedience from him, except that which arose from the ties of consanguinity.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Ties, Liberty

  Alexander Hamilton (1842). “The Official and Other Papers ...”, p.76

• There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Principles, Void, Constitution

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2004). “The Federalist Papers”, p.556, Simon and Schuster

• The states have authority to interpret the Constitution, enforce it, and protect the people from violations of it by the federal government In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Law, Government, Giving

• In a government framed for durable liberty, not less regard must be paid to giving the magistrate a proper degree of authority, to make and execute the laws with rigour, than to guarding against encroachments upon the rights of the community. As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Law, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton (1961). “1779-1781”

• The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Passion, Human Nature, Fit

  Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.100, Rowman & Littlefield

• The constitution of human nature" teaches us not to expect "that the persons, entrusted with the administration of the affairs of the particular members of a confederacy, will at all times be ready, with perfect good humor, and an unbiased regard to the public weal, to execute the resolutions of decrees of the general authority." "This tendency is not difficult to be accounted for," Publius argues, "It has its origin in the love of power.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Perfect, Unbiased, Administration

• Nothing is more natural to men in office, than to look with peculiar deference towards that authority to which they owe their official existence.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Office, Peculiar

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.109, Coventry House Publishing

• Man is very much a creature of habit. A thing that rarely strikes his senses will generally have but little influence upon his mind. A government continually at a distance and out of sight, can hardly be expected to interest the sensations of the people. The inference is, that the authority of the Union, and the affections of the citizens towards it, will be strengthened rather than weakened by its extension to what are called matters of internal concern.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Distance, Men, Sight

  Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison (2018). “America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights”, p.195, First Avenue Editions

• The idea of restraining the legislative authority, in the means of providing for the national defense, is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Mean, Ideas, Liberty

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.140, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the land and naval forces, as first general and admiral ... while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war and to the raising and regulating of fleets and armies - all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Kings, War, Army

  Alexander Hamilton (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution ... by A. Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. With an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus (A. Hamilton) and Helvidius (J. Madison), on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793; the Original Articles of Confederation ... Sixth Edition, Etc”, p.278

• Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Exercise, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2007). “The Federalist Papers”, p.565, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

• There can be no limitation of that authority which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community in any matter essential to the formation, direction, or support of the NATIONAL FORCES.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Support, Community, Essentials

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.112, Coventry House Publishing

• Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Constitution, Assumption

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1831). “The Federalist on the New Constitution”, p.98

• The experience of past ages may inform us, that when the circumstances of a people render them distressed, their rulers generally recur to severe, cruel, and oppressive measures. Instead of endeavoring to establish their authority in the affection of their subjects, they think they have no security but in their fear.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Past, Thinking, People

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.50

• I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government could ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Ambition, Loss, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.76

• If the end be clearly comprehended within any of the specified powers, and if the measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not forbidden by any particular provision of the Constitution, it may safely be deemed to come within the compass of the national authority.

  Alexander Hamilton

  May, Constitution, Compass

  Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank, 23 Feb. 1791

• The power of creating new funds upon new objects of taxation, by its own authority, would enable the national government to borrow as far as its necessities might require.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Creating, Taxation

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2017). “The Federalist Papers (Including Declaration of Independence & United States Constitution): Written by the Founding Fathers in Favor of the Constitution – Arguments that Created the Modern America”, p.150, Madison & Adams Press

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