Federalist Quotes - Page 4

• Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

  James Madison

  Army, Debt, Libertarian

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.106, University of Virginia Press

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• In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.

  James Madison

  Religious, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist: On the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.241

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• The purpose of the Federalist Society was to bring together young people who had this skepticism about what they were being taught and to let them know that there were others who shared this skepticism.

  Antonin Scalia

  People, Together, Purpose

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• In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.

  James Madison

  Military, War, Long

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787. The journal of the Constitutional convention”, p.317

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• It has been my pleasure to speak at many Federalist Society gatherings around the country, and I think one thing your organization has definitely done is to contribute to free speech, free debate, and most importantly public understanding of, awareness of, and appreciation of the Constitution. So that's a marvelous contribution, and in a way I must say I'm jealous at how the Federalist Society has thrived at law schools.

  Nadine Strossen

  Country, Appreciation, School

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• ...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Republican

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• If I could not go to heaven with but a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore, I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much further from that of the anti-federalists.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Heaven, If I Could

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• So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

  James Madison

  Strong, Fall, Passion

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.44

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• If your friend wishes to read your 'Plutarch's Lives,' 'Shakespeare,' or 'The Federalist Papers,' tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.

  Mortimer Adler

  Book, Heart, Car

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• Obama is now fighting for his life. He's fighting for a federal government. I believe in a federal government. I hope it sticks around. We had the American Revolution. There was this whole tension between the federalists and the anti-federalists. Then we had the Civil War. We had Lincoln fighting for it. And the secessionists were there. And we have the same issue today.

  Oliver Stone

  War, Believe, Fighting

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• Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. To guard a man's house as his castle, to pay public and enforce private debts with the most exact faith, can give no title to invade a man's conscience, which is more sacred than his castle, or to withhold from it that debt of protection for which the public faith is pledged by the very nature and original conditions of the social pact.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Men, Law

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.479

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• I want to commend the [Federalist] Society for bringing together the best minds from right, left, and center to debate the most pressing legal issues of the day.

  Samuel Alito

  Issues, Mind, Together

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• There is really quite an inherent danger in the traditional British view that the council of ministers and inter-governmentalism is your protection against the federalist superstate.

  Gisela Stuart

  Views, Protection, Danger

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• The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, was meant to inhibit only the federal government, not the states. The framers, as The Federalist Papers attest (see No. 28), saw the state militias as forces that might be summoned into action against the federal government itself, if it became tyrannical.

  Joseph Sobran

  Rights, Government, Second Amendment

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• In The Federalist, James Madison called the rage for equality 'a wicked project.' People differ and rewards differ-that's the essence of both liberty and justice. No nation that rewards effort, talent, inventiveness and luck can even pretend to cherish equal outcomes. In an inventive and dynamic society, equal (even relatively equal) incomes can be achieved only by abandoning liberty for tyranny.

  Michael Novak

  Essence, Justice, People

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• A zeal for different opinions concerning religion...[has] divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

  James Madison

  Party, Religion, Atheism

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1864). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States”, p.106

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• I think that decisions should rest in the hands of the states. I'm a federalist.

  John McCain

  Thinking, Hands, Decision

  John McCain at The Third Presidential Candidates Debate at Hofstra University at Hempstead, New York, www.nytimes.com. October 15, 2008.

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• Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Oracles, Sacred, Unequivocal

  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.92

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• By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest... The latent causes of faction are sown in the nature of man.

  James Madison

  Passion, Men, Numbers

  "Federalist No. 10 (The Federalist Papers)". Essay by James Madison, November 23, 1787.

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• To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Richard Henry Lee (1978). “Letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican”, Univ of Alabama Pr

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• Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.

  James Madison

  Party, Rights, Majority

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.55

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• Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!

  Alexander Hamilton

  Greatness, Together, Connections

  The Federalist no. 11 (1788)

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• It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it.

  James Madison

  Government, Europe, People

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• I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?

  Alexander Hamilton

  Rights, Done, Bills

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.459, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• A local spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of Congress than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures of the particular States.

  James Madison

  Spirit, Legislature, States

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.218

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