Gov 1074
"A Single Assembly will become ambitious, and after Some Time will vote itself perpetual. This was found in the case of the long Parliament."
Adams
"England is a republic, a monarchical republic it is true, but a republic still; because the sovereignty, which is the legislative power, is vested in more than one man; it is equally divided, indeed, between the one, the few, and the many, or in other words, between the natural division of mankind in society,--the monarchical, the aristocratical, and democratical."
Adams
"The British Constitution itself is Republican, for I know of no better Definition of a Republic than this, that it is an Empire of Laws and not of Men." Moreover, "as I look upon Republics to be the best of Governments So I think, that particular Form of Government, or in other Words, that particular Arrangement, and Combination of the Powers of Society, which is best calculated to secure an exact and impartial Execution of the Laws, is the best Republic."
Adams
"There should be a third Branch, which for the Sake of preserving old Style and Titles, you may call a Governor whom I would invest with a Negative upon the other Branches of the Legislature and also with the whole Executive Power."
Adams
"if the original and fountain of all power and government is in the people, as undoubtedly it is, the people have as clear a right to erect a simple monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, or an equal mixture, or any other mixture of all three, if they judge it for their liberty, happiness, and prosperity, as they have to erect a democracy; and infinitely greater and better men than Marchamont Nedham, and the wisest nations that ever lived, have preferred such mixtures, and even with such standing powers as ingredients in their compositions." Moreover, "even those nations who choose to reserve in their own hands the periodical choice of the first magistrate, senate, and assembly, at certain stated periods, have as clear a right to appoint a first magistrate for life as for years, and for perpetuity in his descendants as for life.
Adams
"in our constitution the sovereignty,—that is, the legislative power—,is divided into three branches," but in fact "the third branch, though essential, is not equal. The president must pass judgment upon every law; but in some cases his judgment may be overruled. These cases will be such as attack his constitutional power; it is, therefore, certain he has not equal power to defend himself, or the constitution, or the judicial power, as the senate and house have."
Adams
"it is equally certain, I think, that [the president's powers] ought to have been still greater, or much less. The limitations upon them in the cases of war, treaties, and appointments to office, and especially the limitation on the president's independence as a branch of the legislative, will be the destruction of this constitution, and involve us in anarchy, if not amended."
Adams
"the English constitution is, in theory, the most stupendous fabrick of human invention, both for the adjustment of the balance, and the prevention of its vibrations; and that the Americans ought to be applauded instead of censured, for imitating it, as far as they have." He lamented only that "the Americans [in their state constitutions] have not indeed imitated it in giving a negative, upon their legislature to the executive power; in this respect their balances are incompleat, very much I confess to my mortification."
Adams, Defence
"Let us now inquire, whether the new constitution of the United States is or is not a monarchical republic, like that of Great Britain. The monarchical and aristocratical power in our constitution, it is true, are not hereditary; but this makes no difference in the nature of the power, in the nature of the balance, or in the name of the species of government... let us now consider what our constitution is, and see whether any other name can with propriety be given it, than that of a monarchical republic, or if you will, a limited monarchy" (Hamilton agrees on monarchy, but not that the resulting scheme can count as a "republic").
Adams, Letters to Sherm
"England is a republic, a monarchical republic it is true, but a republic still; because the sovereignty, which is the legislative power, is vested in more than one man; it is equally divided , indeed, between the one, the few, and the many, or in other words, between the natural division of mankind in society,--the monarchical, the aristocratical, and democratical. It is essential to a monarchical republic, that the supreme executive should be a branch of the legislature, and have a negative on all laws. I say essential, because if monarchy were not an essential part of the sovereignty, the government would not be a monarchical republic. Your position [that we shouldn't follow GB in the veto] is therefore clearly and certainly an error, because the practice of Great Britain in making the supreme executive a branch of the legislature, and giving it a negative on all the laws, must be imitated by every monarchical republic."
Adams, Letters to Sherman
"This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives...is no objection to the government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend."
Adams, Thoughts
"a republic" is simply "a government of laws, and not of men," then "the British constitution is nothing more nor less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate."
Adams, Thoughts
"Government is therefore indispensably necessary to mankind; and that government where the whole is most secure, and individual is most happy, is best" (7).
Anon, Reason in Answer to Pamphlet entitled Common Sense
"That the Americans have not any temptation to wish for a change of government, is evident from the whole tenor of the British conduct towards them, which has indeed been that of a fond parent, carefully cherishing her offspring, sparing no pains or expense for their advantage, and oftentimes distressing herself to promote their welfare"
Anon, Reason in Answer to Pamphlet entitled Common Sense
- "Let the Americans therefore, beware how they follow the example of that stiff-necked people, the Joews, in whose dreadful example, we see slavery ever following lose up on rebellion; unwilling to submit to laws, even if divine origin, averse to rule and government, they so weaken'd themselves by frequent revolts, and insurrections, that they became easy prey of foreign or domestic enemies"
Anon, Reason in Answer to Pamphlet entitled Common Sense
non-hereditary monarchy "subjected the state to the most violent convulsions on every vacancy; whoever had the largest body of troops, could best court the electors, and had most money to purchase their suffrages, if the kingdom was always put up to auction, might be sure of success"
Anon, Reason in Answer to Pamphlet entitled Common Sense
"_________ was opposed to every check on the Legislative, even the Council of Revision first proposed. He thought it would be sufficient to mark out in the Constitution the boundaries to the Legislative Authority, which would give all the requisite security to the rights of the other departments. The Representatives of the People were the best judges of what was for their interest, and ought to be under no external controul whatever. The two branches would produces a sufficient controul within <the Legislature itself."
Bedford
"If the exercise of powers, thus established by usage, this recognised by express declarations, thus sanctified by their beneficial effects, can justify rebellion, there is not that subject in the world but who has, ever has had, and ever must have, reason sufficient to rebel: There never was, never can be, established any government upon earth."
Bentham, Short Review of the Decl.
"the nation [Brit] will unite as one man, and teach this rebellious people, that it is one thing for them to say, the connection which bound them to us, is dissolved, another to dissolve it; that to accomplish their independence is not quite so easy as to declare it: that there is no peace with them, but that war, which offended justice wages against criminals."
Bentham, Short Review of the Decl.
- "But the truth is, to the exercise of these powers, the Colonies have not only tacitly, but expressly, assented; as expressly as any subject of Great Britain ever consented to the Acts of the British Parliament. Consult the Journals of either House of Parliament, consult the processings of their own Assemblies; and innumerable will be the occasions, on which the legality of these powers will be found to be expressly recognised by the Acts of the Colonial Assembies."
Bentham, Short Review of the Decl.
For what, according to their own shewing, what was their original, their only grievance? That they were actually taxed more than they could bear? No; but that they were liable to be so taxed."
Bentham, Short Review of the Declaration
"However necessary it may be to shake off the authority of arbitrary British dictators, we ought nevertheless to adopt and perfect that system, which England has suffered to be so grosly abused, and the experience of ages has taught us to venerate"
Braxton
"By this mode of apportionment, the representatives of the different pans of the union, will be extremely unequal: in some of the southern states, the slaves are nearly equal in number to the free men; and for all these slaves, they will be entitled to a proportionate share in the legislature — this will give them an unreasonable weight in the government, which can derive no additional strength, protection, nor defence from the slaves, but the contrary. Why then should they be represented?"
Brutus
"The very term, representative, implies, that the person or body chosen for this purpose, should resemble those who appoint them—a representation of the people of America, if it be a true one, must be like the people. It ought to be so constituted, that a person, who is a stranger to the country, might be able to form a just idea of their character, by knowing that of their representatives. They are the sign—the people are the thing signified. It is absurd to speak of one thing being the representative of another, upon any other principle... It is obvious that for an assembly to be a true likeness of the people of any country, they must be considerably numerous.—One man, or a few men, cannot possibly represent the feelings, opinions, and characters of a great multitude. In this respect, the new constitution is radically defective... The state of New-York, on the present apportionment, will send six members to the assembly: I will venture to affirm, that number cannot be found in the state, who will bear a just resemblance to the several classes of people who compose it."
Brutus
The more I reflect on this subject, the more firmly am I persuaded, that the representation is merely nominal — a mere burlesque; and that no security is provided against corruption and undue influence. No free people on earth, who have elected persons to legislate for them, ever reposed that confidence in so small a number.
Brutus
"First, the people of the Colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, sir, is a nation which still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored her freedom. The Colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant; 8 and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are, therefore, not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and on English principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object; and every nation has formed to itself some favorite point which, by way of eminence, becomes the criterion of their happiness. It happened, you know, sir, that the great contests for freedom in this country were, from the earliest times chiefly upon the question of taxing."
Burke
"I do not say whether they were right or wrong in applying your general arguments to their own case. It is not easy indeed to make a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The fact is, that they did thus apply those general arguments ; and your mode of governing them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wisdom or mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they as well as you had an interest in these common principles."
Burke
"It is that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, among them, like something that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, sir, to command the superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I can not alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these people of the southern Colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic ancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles, and such will be all masters of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible."
Burke
"Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The people are Protestants; and of that kind which is the most averse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built upon it. I do not think, sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting churches from all that looks like absolute government, is so much to be sought in their religious tenets, as in their history. Everyone knows that the Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in hand with them; and received great favor and every kind of support from authority. The Church of England, too, was formed from her cradle under the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting interests have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the world, and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a kind of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern Colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion. This religion, under a variety of denominations, agreeing in nothing but in the communion of the spirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the northern Provinces, where the Church of England, notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of private sect, not composing, most probably, the tenth of the people."
Burke
"The PROPOSITION is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the Empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the Colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and, far from a scheme of ruling by discord, to reconcile them to each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest, which reconciles them to British government."
Burke
"This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defense, full of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance. Here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."
Burke
In ancient commonwealths, "They took infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that, in all monarchies, the people must in effect themselves mediately or immediately possess the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty could subsist." The Americans have learned this lesson, with the result that "their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on this specific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or might be endangered in twenty other particulars, without their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its pulse..."
Burke
the "jealous" love of freedom: "In this character of the Americans a love of freedom is the predominating feature, which marks and distinguishes the whole; and, as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your Colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English Colonies, probably, than in any other people of the earth, and this from a variety of powerful causes, which, to understand the true temper of their minds, and the direction which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely."
Burke
"It is not consistent with my principles to say one word in favour of the divine right of kings, nor do I believe a word of what others have said in its favour. As little do I believe what has been said in favour of the divine right of republics, or any other human forms of Government."
Cato
"the Jews commonly understood this chapter [Deut. 17] as containing an absolute promise from Heaven of a Royal Government"
Cato
"there is no particular denounciation of God's displeasure against any form whether monarchial or democratical, under which such a people may think their civil happiness best secured, and their duty to God best performed"
Cato
"But if, imitating the constitution of Pennsylvania, you vest all the legislative power in one body of men (separating the executive and judicial) elected for a short period, and necessarily excluded by rotation from permanency, and guarded from precipitancy and surprise by delays imposed on its proceedings, you will create the most perfect responsibility for then, whenever the people feel a grievance they cannot mistake the authors, and will apply the remedy with certainty and effect, discarding them at the next election. This tie of responsibility will obviate all the dangers apprehended from a single legislature, and will the best secure the rights of the people."
Centinel
"I am fearful that the principles of government inculcated in Mr. Adams's treatise, and enforced in the numerous essays and paragraphs in the newspapers, have misled some well designing members of the late Convention.—But it will appear in the sequel, that the construction of the proposed plan of government is infinitely more extravagant"
Centinel
"Is it probable, that the president of the United States, limited as he is in power, and dependent on the will of the senate, in appointments to office, will either have the firmness or inclination to exercise his prerogative of a conditional controul upon the proceedings of that body, however injurious they may be to the public welfare: it will be his interest to coincide with the views of the senate, and thus become the head of the aristocratic junto. The king of England is a constituent part in the legislature, but although an hereditary monarch, in possession of the whole executive power, including the unrestrained appointment to offices, and an immense revenue, enjoys but in name the prerogative of a negative upon the parliament. Even the king of England, circumstanced as he is, has not dared to exercise it for near a century past"
Centinel
"Mr. Adams's sine qua non of a good government is three balancing powers, whose repelling qualities are to produce an equilibrium of interests, and thereby promote the happiness of the whole community. He asserts that the administrators of every government, will ever be actuated by views of private interest and ambition, to the prejudice of the public good; that therefore the only effectual method to secure the rights of the people and promote their welfare, is to create an opposition of interests between the members of two distinct bodies, in the exercise of the powers of government, and balanced by those of a third. This hypothesis supposes human wisdom competent to the task of instituting three co-equal orders in government, and a corresponding weight in the community to enable them respectively to exercise their several parts, and whose views and interests should be so distinct as to prevent a coalition of any two of them for the destruction of the third. Mr. Adams, although he has traced the constitution of every form of government that ever existed, as far as history affords materials, has not been able to adduce a single instance of such a government; he indeed says that the British constitution is such in theory, but this is rather a confirmation that his principles are chimerical and not to be reduced to practice."
Centinel
"Let not our Enemies nor our Friends make improper Inferences from the Solicitude, which we have discovered to remove the imputation of aiming to establish an independent Empire. Though an independent Empire is not our Wish; it may—let your Oppressors attend—it may be the Fate of our Countrymen and ourselves. It is in the Power of your Enemies to render Independency and Slavery your and our alternative. Should we—will you, in such an event, hesitate a moment about the Choice? Let those, who drive us to it, answer to their King and to their Country for the Consequences. We are desirous to continue Subjects: But we are determined to continue Freemen. We shall deem ourselves bound to renounce; and we hope you will follow our Example in renouncing the former Character whenever it shall become incompatible with the latter."
Dickinson/Wilson
"The Sentiments of the Colonies, expressed in the Proceedings of the Delegatees assembled in 1774 were far form being disloyal or respectful. Was it disloyal to offer a Petition to your Sovereign? Did your still ancious Imaptience for andwer which your Hopes founded only on your Wishes, as you too soon experienced, flattered you would be a gracious one—did the Impatience incdicate a Disposition only to amuse? Did the keen Anguish, with which the fate of the petition filled your Breasts, betray an inclination to avail yourselved of the indignity with which you were treated, for forwarding favourute designs of revolt?
Dickinson/Wilson
"the number of representatives is too large to debate with coolness and deliberation, the public business will be protracted to an undue length and the pay of the house is enormous. As the number of freemen in the State increases, these inconveniences will increase; in a century, the house of representatives will be a mere mob."
Essex Result
"The legislative power must not be trusted with one assembly. A single assembly is frequently influenced by the vices, follies, passions, and prejudices of an individual. It is liable to be avaricious, and to exempt itself from the burdens it lays upon it's [sic] constituents. It is subject to ambition, and after a series of years, will be prompted to vote itself perpetual. The long parliament in England voted itself perpetual, and thereby, for a time, destroyed the political liberty of the subject. Holland was governed by one representative assembly annually elected. They afterwards voted themselves from annual to septennial; then for life; and finally exerted the power of filling up all vacancies, without application to their constituents. The government of Holland is now a tyranny though a republic."term-62
Essex result
"a full and equal representation, is that which possesses the same interests, feelings, opinions, and views the people themselves would were they all assembled — a fair representation, therefore, should be so regulated, that every order of men in the community, according to the common course of elections, can have a share in it — in order to allow professional men, merchants, traders, farmers, mechanics, etc. to bring a just proportion of their best informed men respectively into the legislature, the representation must be considerably numerous — We have about 200 state senators in the United States, and a less number than that of federal representatives cannot, clearly, be a full representation of this people, in the affairs of internal taxation and police, were there but one legislature for the whole union. The representation cannot be equal, or the situation of the people proper for one government only — if the extreme parts of the society cannot be represented as fully as the central — It is apparently impracticable that this should be the case in this extensive country — it would be impossible to collect a representation of the parts of the country five, six, and seven hundred miles from the seat of government."
Federal Farmer
"the house of representatives, the democrative branch, as it is called, is to consist of 65 members: that is, about one representative for fifty thousand inhabitants, to be chosen biennially — the federal legislature may increase this number to one for each thirty thousand inhabitants, abating fractional numbers in each state. — Thirty-three representatives will make a quorum for doing business, and a majority of those present determine the sense of the house. — I have no idea that the interests, feelings, and opinions of three or four millions of people, especially touching internal taxation, can be collected in such a house."
Federal Farmer
"But the most common and durable source of factions, has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold, and those who are without property, have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a monied interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views."
Federalist 10
"As none of the Colonies separately are able to repel the force of Great Britain, and as it is impossible that she can make an attack on all at once, or were she to do so, her strength would be so divided as to be comparatively less than that of any single province; therefore our preservation as a people, depends upon our Union."
Four Letters
"To see America in arms is probably the very thing they wished for—the unpardonable sin which they wanted her to commit; because it furnished them with a pretence for declaring us rebels; and persons conquered under that character forfeit their all"
Four Letters
"to endeavor now either by words or ways to unite America to the crown and government of Britain, is the same kind of crime as it would be for a citizen of London to propose uniting England to the crown and government of France."
Four Letters
"There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharoah, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever. It will be said, that we don't propose to establish Kings. I know it. But there is a natural inclination in mankind to Kingly Government. It sometimes relieves them from Aristocratic domination. They had rather have one tyrant than five hundred. It gives more of the appearance of equality among Citizens, and that they like. I am apprehensive therefore, perhaps too apprehensive, that the Government of these States, may in future times, end in a Monarchy. But this Catastrophe I think may be long delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction & tumult, by making our posts of honor, places of profit. If we do, I fear that tho' we do employ at first a number, and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside, it will only nourish the foetus of a King, as the honorable gentleman from Virginia very aptly expressed it, and a King will the sooner be set over us."
Franklin
"It is now become the part of wisdom, and (in its effects) of clemency, to put a speedy end to these disorders by the most decisive exertions."
George III
"The authors and promoters of this desperate conspiracy have, in the conduct of it, derived great advantage from the difference of our intentions and theirs. They meant only to amuse by vague expressions of attachment to the Parent State, and the strongest protestations of loyalty to me, whilst they were preparing for a general revolt. On our part, though it was declared in your last session that a rebellion existed within the province of the Massachusetts Bay, yet even that province we wished rather to reclaim than to subdue. The resolutions of Parliament breathed a spirit of moderation and forbearance; conciliatory propositions accompanied the measures taken to enforce authority; and the coercive acts were adapted to cases of criminal combinations amongst subjects not then in arms. I have acted with the same temper; anxious to prevent, if it had been possible, the effusion of the blood of my subjects; and the calamities which are inseparable from a state of war; still hoping that my people in America would have discerned the traiterous views of their leaders, and have been convinced, that to be a subject of Great Britain, with all its consequences, is to be the freest member of any civil society in the known world.
George III
"The rebellious war now levied is become more general, and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire. I need not dwell upon the fatal effects of the success of such a plan. The object is too important, the spirit of the British nation too high, the resources with which God hath blessed her too numerous, to give up so many colonies which she has planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness, encouraged with many commercial advantages, and protected and defended at much expence of blood and treasure.
George III
"The toleration of domestic slavery in the colonies greatly weakens the claim of natural right of our American brethren to Liberty. Let them put away the accursed thing (that horrid Oppression) from among them, before they presume to implore the interposition of divine Justice: for whist they retain their brethren of the world in the most shameful involuntary servitude, it is profane in them to look up to the merciful Lord of all, and call him Father!"
Granville Sharp
"As to the Executive, it seemed to be admitted that no good one could be established on Republican principles. Was not this giving up the merits of the question; for can there be a good Govt. without a good Executive. The English model was the only good one on this subject. The Hereditary interest of the King was so interwoven with that of the Nation, and his personal emoluments so great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from abroad--and at the same time was both sufficiently independent and sufficiently controuled, to answer the purpose of the institution at home."
Hamilton
"It will be objected probably, that such an Executive will be an elective Monarch, and will give birth to the tumults which characterise that form of Govt. He wd. reply that Monarch is an indefinite term. It marks not either the degree or duration of power. If this Executive Magistrate wd. be a monarch for life--the other propd. by the Report from the Committee of the whole, wd. be a monarch for seven years. The circumstance of being elective was also applicable to both. It had been observed by judicious writers that elective monarchies wd. be the best if they could be guarded agst. the tumults excited by the ambition and intrigues of competitors."
Hamilton
"Could it be thought then that such a palpable violation of the law of nature, and of the fundamental principles of society would be practiced by individuals and commived at and tolerated by the public in British America!"
Hart
"It must be remembered, that in proportion as Liberty is excellent and to be desired on the one hand, so slavery or bondage is terrible and to be avoided on the other. These are justly esteemed the two extremes of happiness and misery in society"
Hart
"With what a very ill grace can we plead for slavery when we are the tyrants, when we are engaged in one united struggle for the enjoyment of liberty; what inconsistence and self-contradiction is this! Who can count us the true friends of liberty as long as we deal in, or publicly connive at slavery"
Hart
"Many thousands of people who were before good and loyal subjects, have been deluded, and by degrees induced to rebel against the best of Princes, and the mildest of Governments.
Hutchinson
"The Acts for imposing Duties and Taxes may have accelerated the Rebellion, and if this could have been foreseen, perhaps, it might have been good policy to have omitted or deferred them; but I am of opinion, that if no Taxes or Duties had been laid upon the Colonies, other pretences would have been found for [4] exception to the authority of Parliament."
Hutchinson
"This is a strange way of defining the part which the Kings of England take in conjunction with the Lords and Commons in passing Acts of Parliament. But why is our present Sovereign to be distinguished from all his predecessors since Charles the Second? Even the Republic, which they affected to copy after, and Oliver, their favourite, because an Usurper, combined against them also [i.e. the Navigation Act]. And then, how can a jurisdiction submitted to for more than a century be foreign to their constitution?"
Hutchinson
"the great Patriots in the reign of King Charles the Second, Lord Russell, Hampden, Maynard, &c. whose memories they reverence, declared their opinions, that there were no bounds to the power of Parliament by any fundamentals whatever, and that even the hereditary succession to the Crown might be, as it since has been, altered by Act of Parliament." (p. 11) "whereas those who call themselves Patriots in the present day have held" the opposite
Hutchinson
Subjects for controversy in opposition to Government were fought for in each of the Colonies, to irritate and inflame the minds of the people, and dispose them to revolt: Dissentions and commotions in any Colony, were cherished and increased, as furnishing proper matter to work upon: For the same purpose, fictitious letters were published, as having been received from England, informing of the designs of ministry, and even of Bills being before the Parliament for introducing into the Colonies arbitrary Government, heavy Taxes, and other cruel oppressions: Every legal measure for suppressing illicit trade was represented as illegal and grievous;"
Hutchinson
only I could wish to ask the Delegates of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, how their Constituents justify the depriving more than an hundred thousand Africans of their rights to liberty, and [10] the pursuit of happiness, and in some degree to their lives, if these rights are so absolutely unalienable"
Hutchinson
"But what if I say you deserve it [enslavement; tyranny] from God, and will tell you for what; it for your iniquitous and disgraceful practice of keeping African slaves, a custom so evidently contradictory to the laws of God, and in direct violation of the charter of this province, and the natural and unalienable rights of mankind"
John Allen
"if the slavery in which we hold the blacks is wrong, it is a very great and public sin; and therefore a sin which God is now testifying against in the calamities he has brought upon us, consequently must be reformed, before we can reasonably expect deliverance, or even sincerely ask for it."
John Allen
"what is a trifling three penny duty on tea in comparison to the inestimable blessing of liberty to one captive"
John Allen
Blush ye pretended votaries of freedom! ye trifling patriots who are making a vain parade of being the advocated for the liberties of mankind, who are thus making a mockery of your profession, by trampling on the sacred, natural rights and privilieges of the Africans; for while you are fasting, praying, non-importing, non-exporting, remonstrating, resolving, and pleading for a restoration of your charter rights, you at the same time are continuing this lawless, cruel, inhuman, and abominable practice of enslaving your fellow-creatures
John Allen
"We are told that the state of Pennsylvania has always been governed by a single legislature, and therefore, that part of our Constitution is not an innovation." But this claim, he countered, is "without any foundation." Under Pennsylvania's colonial constitution, "the Governor always had a negative power upon our laws, and was a distinct branch of our legislature."
Ludlow (Rush)
"it is true, he sometimes exercised his power to the disadvantage of the people; for he was the servant of a King who possessed an interest distinct from that of his people, and in some cases the Governor himself possessed an interest incompatible with the rights of his people. God forbid that ever we should see a resurrection of his power in Pennsylvania. But, I am obliged to own, that I have known instances in which the whole state have thanked him for, the interposition of his negative amendments upon the Acts of the Assembly. Even the Assembly-men themselves have acknowledged the justice of his conduct upon these occasions, by condemning in their cooler hours, their own hasty, and ill digested resolutions."
Ludlow (Rush)
It has been said often, and I wish the saying was engraven over the doors of every State-House on the continent, that "all power is derived from the people," but it has never yet been said, that all power is seated in the people... History shews us that the people soon grow weary of the folly and tyranny of one another. They prefer one to many masters, and stability to instability of slavery. They prefer a Julius Caesar to a Senate, and a Cromwell to a perpetual Parliament.
Ludlow (Rush)
"We live also in an age, when the principles of political liberty and the foundation of governments, have been freely canvassed and fairly settled" (329) "Let us have a constitution founded, not upon party or prejudice—not one for to-day or to-morrow—but for posterity"
MA Convention
The Governor is emphatically the representative of the whole People, being chosen not by one Town or County, but by the People at large. We have therefore thought it safest to rest this Power in his hands."
MA convention
the challenge of "combining the requisite stability and energy in government, with the inviolable attention due to liberty and to the republican form."
Madison Fed 37
"it appears, on one hand, that the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification of the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore, establishing the Constitution, will not be a national, but a federal act."
Madison Fed 39
It were doubtless to be wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation. But it is not difficult to account, either for this restriction on the general government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!"
Madison Fed 42
"Will it be sufficient to mark, with precision, the boundaries of these departments, in the constitution of the government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power? This is the security which appears to have been principally relied on by the compilers of most of the American constitutions. But experience assures us, that the efficacy of the provision has been greatly overrated; and that some more adequate defense is indispensably necessary for the more feeble, against the more powerful, members of the government. The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex. The founders of our republics have so much merit for the wisdom which they have displayed, that no task can be less pleasing than that of pointing out the errors into which they have fallen. A respect for truth, however, obliges us to remark, that they seem never for a moment to have turned their eyes from the danger to liberty from the overgrown and all-grasping prerogative of an hereditary magistrate, supported and fortified by an hereditary branch of the legislative authority. They seem never to have recollected the danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations. ...in a representative republic, where the executive magistracy is carefully limited; both in the extent and the duration of its power; and where the legislative power is exercised by an assembly, which is inspired, by a supposed influence over the people, with an intrepid confidence in its own strength; which is sufficiently numerous to feel all the passions which actuate a multitude, yet not so numerous as to be incapable of pursuing the objects of its passions, by means which reason prescribes; it is against the enterprising ambition of this department that the people ought to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions."
Madison Fed 48
"An absolute negative on the legislature appears, at first view, to be the natural defense with which the executive magistrate should be armed. But perhaps it would be neither altogether safe nor alone sufficient. On ordinary occasions it might not be exerted with the requisite firmness, and on extraordinary occasions it might be perfidiously abused. May not this defect of an absolute negative be supplied by some qualified connection between this weaker department and the weaker branch of the stronger department, by which the latter may be led to support the constitutional rights of the former, without being too much detached from the rights of its own department?"
Madison Fed 51
"But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."
Madison Fed 51
"Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of country and number of people comprehended under the same government. This view of the subject must particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere and considerate friends of republican government, since it shows that in exact proportion as the territory of the Union may be formed into more circumscribed Confederacies, or States oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated
Madison Fed 51
"The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of republican than of democratic government; and it is this circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to be dreaded in the former than in the latter. The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. 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 a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other."
Madison Federalist 10
"a republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place"; representation means "election" ("the delegation of the government...to a small number of citizens elected by the rest")
Madison Federalist 10
"the important truth, which it unequivocally pronounces in the present case, is that a sovereignty over sovereigns, a government over governments, a legislation for communities, as contradistinguished from individuals, as it is a solecism in theory, so in practice it is subversive of the order and ends of civil polity, by substituting violence in place of law, or the destructive coercion of the sword in place of the mild and salutary coercion of the magistracy."
Madison Federalist 2o
"...this many-headed monster; of such motley mixture, that its enemies cannot trace a feature of Democratic or Republican extract; nor have its friends the courage to denominate it a Monarchy, an Aristocracy, or an Oligarchy, and the favoured bantling must have passed through the short period of its existence without a name, had not Mr. Wilson, in the fertility of his genius, suggested the happy epithet of a Federal Republic"
Mercy Otis Warren
"Mr. Hutchinson, the great champion for arbitrary power, in the multitude of his machinations to subvert the liberties of this country, was obliged to acknowledge in one of his letters, that 'from the extent of the country from north to south, the scheme of one government was impracticable.' But if the authors of the present visionary project, can by the arts of deception, precipitation and address, obtain a majority of suffrages in the conventions of the states to try the hazardous experiment, they may then make the same inglorious boast with this insidious politician, who may perhaps be their model, that 'the union of the colonies was pretty well broken, and that he hoped never to see it reviewed."
Mercy Otis Warren
"The causes which have inspired a few men, assembled for very different purposes, with such a degree of temerity as to break with a single stroke the union of America, and disseminate the seeds of discord through the land, may be easily investigated, when we survey the partisans of monarchy in the State Conventions, urging the adoption of a mode of government that militates with former professions and exertions of this country, and with all ideas of republicanism, and the equal rights of men."
Mercy Otis Warren
"This people have not forgotten the artful insinuations of a former Governor, when pleading the unlimited authority of parliament before the legislature of the [sic] Massachusetts; nor that his arguments were very similar to some lately urged by gentlemen who boast of opposing his measures, 'with halters around their necks'."
Mercy Otis Warren
the people "deprecate discord and civil convulsions, but they are not yet generally prepared, with the ungrateful Israelites, to ask a King, nor are their spirits sufficiently broken to yield the best of their olive grounds to his servants, and to see their sons appointed to run before his chariots."
Mercy Otis Warren
"God indeed gives evidence throughout of his great displeasure at their [the Israelites'] request for a king—thus in [I Sam. 8] verse 7: "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them, according to all the works which they have done wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods."
Milton
"God indeed gives evidence throughout of his great displeasure at their [the Israelites'] request for a king—thus in [I Sam. 8] verse 7: "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them, according to all the works which they have done wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods." The meaning is that it is a form of idolatry to ask for a king, who demands that he be worshipped and granted honors like those of a god. Indeed he who sets an earthly master over him and above all the laws is near to establishing a strange god for himself, one seldom reasonable, usually a brute beast who has scattered reason to the winds. Thus in I Samuel 10:19 we read: "And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulation, and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us"... just as if he had been teaching them that it was not for any man, but for God alone, to rule over men... When at last the Jewish people came to their senses they complained in Isaiah 26:13 that it had been ruinous for them to have other lords than God. This evidence all proves that the Israelites were given a king by God in his wrath
Milton
_______ insisted that a free state should be governed by a single representative assembly and "that the other forms [of government], as of a standing power in the hands of a particular person, as a king; or of a set number of great ones, as in a senate," or indeed "a mixture of the three simple forms," are "beside the dictates of nature, and mere artificial devices of great men, squared out only to serve the ends and interests of avarice, pride, and ambition of a few, to a vassalizing of the community."
Needham
"The people did not desire such strange innovations, but only that the kingly, parliamentary, and proprietary powers should be totally abolished, and such alterations made as would thereby be rendered necessary, so that a well-formed Government might be established, solely on the authority of the people."
PA Resolutions
"Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honors to their deceased kings, and the christian world hath improved on the plan by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust.... Near three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of Kings, he need not wonder, that the Almighty, ever jealous of his honor, should disapprove of a form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven."
Paine
"I observe the Pensylvania [sic] Papers are filled with the controversy about Independence and think the writers have rather left the question [.] what matters it to us at present whether Monarchy is reprobated by the Almighty or not"?"
Parker letter to Lee
"__________ strenuously opposed a unity in the Executive magistracy. He regarded it as the foetus of monarchy. We had he said no motive to be governed by the British Government as our prototype... Mr. Wilson said that Unity in the Executive instead of being a fetus of Monarchy would be the best safeguard against tyranny. He repreated that he was not governed by the British Model which was inapplicable to the situation of this Country; the extent of which was so great, and the manners so republican, that nothing but a great confederated Republic would do for it."
Randolph
"The confederation, together with most of our state constitutions, were formed under very unfavourable circumstances. We had just emerged from a corrupted monarchy. Although we understood perfectly the principles of liberty, yet most of us were ignorant of the forms and combinations of power in republics. Add to this, the British army was in the heart of our country, spreading desolation wherever it went: our resentments, of course, were awakened. We detested the British name; and unfortunately refused to copy some things in the administration of justice and power, in the British government, which have made it the admiration and envy of the world. In our opposition to monarchy, we forgot that the temple of tyranny has two doors. We bolted one of them by proper restraints; but we left the other open, by neglecting to guard against the effects of our own ignorance and licentiousness."
Rush
"I have taken an oath to preside over the people of this state, according to the constitution or form of government agreed to and resolved upon by the representatives of South-Carolina in March 1776; it is therefore impossible for me, without breach of this solemn obligation, to give my sanction to the establishment of a different mode of government."
Rutledge
"I should nevertheless put a negative on the bill, because it annihilates one branch of the legislature."
Rutledge
I have taken an oath to preside over the people of this state, according to the constitution or form of government agreed to and resolved upon by the representatives of South-Carolina in March 1776; it is therefore impossible for me, without breach of this solemn obligation, to give my sanction to the establishment of a different mode of government"
Rutledge
On the late dissolution of government, the people, being at liberty to choose what form they pleased, agreed to one vesting an authority for making the laws by which they were to be bound in three branches, and committed it to the care of the several branches, not to be violated or infringed, but to be preserved as a sacred deposite, as that security of their lives, liberties and properties, which, after mature deliberation, they deemed it wisest to provide... [I]f we have power to lop one branch of the legislature, we may cut off either of the other branches, and suffer the legislative authority to be exercised by the remaining branch only, or abolish the third also, and invest the whole authority in some other person or body. Nor is it chimerical to suppose that such infractions may be attempted by others, since violations similar to these have been committed. We know that one of the houses of parliament voted the other house useless and dangerous, and that it ought to be abolished.
Rutledge
"Let the time past more than suffice, wherein we, the patrons of liberty, have dishonored the christian name—and degraded human nature, nearly to a level with the beasts that perish. Ethiopia has long stretched out her hands to us—let not sordid gain, acquired by the merchandize of slaves, and the souls of men—harden our hearts against her piteous moans. When God ariseth and when he visiteth, what shall we answer!"
Samuel Cooke
rulers must respect men "who are moral agents, and under the absolute control of the High Possessor of heaven and earth; and cannot without the greatest impropriety and disloyalty to the king of kings, yield unlimited subjection to any inferior power"
Samuel Cooke
"The executive in Great Britain is one branch of the legislature, and has a negative on all laws; perhaps that is an extreme not to be imitated by a republic, but the partial negative vested in the President by the new Constitution on the acts of Congress and the subsequent revision, may be very useful to prevent laws being passed without mature deliberation."
Sherman
"_______ was agst. enabling any one man to stop the will of the whole. No one man could be found so far above all the rest in wisdom. He thought we ought to avail ourselves of his wisdom in revising the laws, but not permit him to overrule the decided and cool opinions of the Legislature."
Sherman
"_________ said he considered the Executive magistracy as nothing more than an institution for carrying the will of the Legislature into effect, that the person or persons ought to be appointed by and accountable to the Legislature only, which was the despositary of the supreme will of the Society."
Sherman
"__________ was for the appointment by the Legislature, and for making him absolutely dependent on that body, as it was the will of that which was to be executed. An independence of the Executive on the supreme Legislative, was in his opinion the very essence of tyranny if there was any such thing."
Sherman
"The Power of Revising, and stating objections to any Bill or Resolve that shall be passed by the two Houses, we were of opinion ought to be lodged in the hands of some one person; not only to preserve the Laws from being unsymmetrical and inaccurate, but that a due balance may be preserved in the three capital powers of Government. The Legislative, the Judicial and Executive Powers naturally exist in every Government."
The Address of the MA Convention
"as We with divers other parts of the State are like to be always remote from the Seat of Government and can seldom if ever expect to be equally represented in the Legislature or to have an equal Interest in the same with those parts of the State that are near the Capital[,] We cannot think it safe that an uncontroulable power of disposing of our Persons and properties should be vested in a Legislature in which it may sometimes happen that we are not represented and by Reason of our distance are seldom likely to have an equal Interest in it with most of our fellow Citizens.
Town of Wells
"in a peculiar manner the Guardian of the Constitution and of the Rights and Interests of the whole State—All the Individuals have a like Interest in him and stand in a like Relation to him as their common Representative."
Town of Wells
"we shall always have a Representative in the Person of our Governor, we may claim an equal Interest in him with the other parts of the State. If a partial or misguided Legislature should bear hard upon us his Protection may be claimed his Justice may be appealed to his Interposition may reasonably be hoped for." The authors "therefore think it highly reasonable and necessary that the common Representative of the people, who may sometimes be our principal or only Representative in the general Court chosen by us to act on our behalf, may have his Hand at full Liberty and may be empowered to act effectually and with strong Arm for the Protection of all and every part of his Constituents as there may be occasion."
Town of Wells
"In all free governments, that is, in all countries, where laws govern, and not men, the supreme magistrate should have it in his power to execute any law, however unpopular, without hazarding his person or office. The laws are the sole guardians of right, and when the magistrate dares not act, every person is insecure"
Webster
"It is a false principal in the vulgar ideas of representation, that a man delegated by a particular district in a state is the representative of that district only; whereas in truth a member of the legislature from any town or country is the representative of the whole state...The design of representation is to bring this collective interest into view"
Webster
"The King of Great Britain has the same power [as a tribune], but seldom exercises it. It is however a dangerous power—it is absurd and hazardous to lodge in one man the right of controlling the will of a state"
Webster
"To make property the sole basis of authority, would expose many of the best citizens to violence and oppression. To make the number of inhabitants ina state, the rule of apportioning power, is more equitable... But the detached situation of the states has created some separate interests—some local institutions, which they will not resign nor throw into the hands of the other states. For these peculiar interests, the states have an equal attachment—for the preservation of these, equal sovereignty is necessary."
Webster
"a delegate is not the legislator of a single state—he is as much the legislator of the whole confederacy as of the particular state where he is chosen". Senators represent "the whole confederacy" and it is "totally immaterial where they are chosen."
Webster
discussing "that incomparable pamphlet called 'Common Sense'" in September of 1776, reflected that "new truths are often struck out by the collision of parties, in the eagerness of controversy, which otherwise would have lain hid, the divine disapprobation of a form of government by kings, I take to be one of this sort of truths."
Whitney
"We must consider two points of Importance existing in our Country—the extent & manners of the United States—the former seems to require the vigour of Monarchy, the manners are agt. a King and are purely republican—Montesquieu is in favor of confederated Republicks—I am for such a confedn. if we can take for its basis liberty, and can ensure a vigourous execution of the Laws. A single ex. Will not so soon introduce a Mony. or Despotism, as a complex one. The people of Amer. Did not oppose the British King but the parliament—the opposition was not agt. an Unity but a corrupt multitude—."
Wilson
"________ preferred a single magistrate, as giving most energy dispatch and responsibility to the office. He did not consider the Prerogatives of the British Monarch as a proper guide in defining the Executive powers. Some of these prerogatives were of a Legislative nature. Among others that of war & peace &c. The only powers he conceived strictly Executive were those of executing the laws, and appointing officers, not <appertaining to and> appointed by the Legislature."
Wilson