Alexis de Tocqueville, author of
Democracy in America, 1835, warned:
"The President, who exercises a limited power, may err without causing great mischief in the State.
Congress
may decide amiss without destroying the Union, because the electoral
body in which Congress originates may cause it to retract its
decision
by changing its members.
But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war."
Colonial leader John Cotton stated:
"For whatever transcendent power is given, will certainly over-run those that give it...It is necessary therefore, that
all power that is on earth be limited."
James Madison stated at the Constitutional Convention, 1787:
"All men having power ought to be distrusted."
George Washington stated in his Farewell Address, September 17, 1796:
"And of fatal tendency...to put, in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party - often a small but artful and enterprising minority...
They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government;
destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
President Andrew Jackson, July 10, 1832, Bank Renewal Bill Veto:
"It is easy to conceive that great evils to our country and its institutions might flow from such a
concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people.Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as deciding questions of constitutional power."
James Madison sums up the current dilemma in
Federalist Paper #51:
"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."
Andrew Jackson stated in his Seventh Annual Message, December 7, 1835:
"All history tells us that a free people should be watchful of delegated power,
and should never acquiesce in a practice which will diminish their control over it."
Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Mandell Creighton. April 5, 1881:
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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