Quotes Of The Founding Fathers, Insight into their hopes for the country

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

--Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821

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"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

--John Adams, in a letter addressed to Thomas Jefferson June 28, 1813

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

--John Stuart Mill

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"[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Hammond, 1821

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"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."

--Thomas Jefferson

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"The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation."

--Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

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"The history of ancient and modern republics had taught them that many of the evils which those republics suffered arose from the want of a certain balance, and that mutual control indispensable to a wise administration. They were convinced that popular assemblies are frequently misguided by ignorance, by sudden impulses, and the intrigues of ambitious men; and that some firm barrier against these operations was necessary. They, therefore, instituted your Senate."

--Alexander Hamilton

One would wonder about this one today!!

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DEFINITELY!

"It is easy to foresee that there will be much difficulty in organizing a government upon this great scale, and at the same time reserving to the state legislatures a sufficient portion of power for promoting and securing the prosperity and happiness of their respective citizens. Yet, with a proper degree of coolness, liberality, and candour (very rare commodities by the bye) I doubt not but that it may be effected."

--George Mason

"The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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"Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood." Woodrow Wilson

(okay, so he's not really a founding father, but I love the quote!)

Good quote and absolutely true. My Great (times X greats) Grandfather, William Ewing, was a member of the Maryland Militia during the Revolution and many of my ancestors and kin (both scottish and other ethnicities) have served this county before and since. The oldest militiaman (and a Major General in the Massachusetts Militia) at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Seth Pomeroy, was a brother of my direct Pomeroy ancestor

Too bad Wilson was one of the original Progressives.

Actually both Scot and Irish.


"The true test is, whether the object be of a local character, and local use; or, whether it be of general benefit to the states. If it be purely local, congress cannot constitutionally appropriate money for the object. But, if the benefit be general, it matters not, whether in point of locality it be in one state, or several; whether it be of large, or of small extent."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833


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"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

--George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789



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"But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm. ... But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 46, 1788

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