ConstitutionaWriters+Quotes

"The new experiment in government worked both because the constitution was a practical, workable document, and because it was launched in an economically viable country."
(page 29. The Federalist papers Reader and Historical Documents of Our American Heritage by Fredrick Quinn, Seven Locks Press, Washington, D.C., 1997)

Read the U.S. Constitution on:
http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

Quotes by the Founding Fathers and patriots

The powers delegated by the proposed constitution to the federal government are few and limited. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. (James Madison)

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want for bread. (Thomas Jefferson)

A democracy is the only pure republic, but impracticable beyond limits of a town.
( Thomas Jefferson, 1816)

You persuaded me to come this convention, Mr. Madison. Here I am. I will not see this convention crumble around me because the brightest and stubbornness of us will not yield the Senate to the lesser states. (George Washington)

Those gentlemen, who will be elected as senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state. (George Mason)

The states can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore,...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may be bought and sold at market. (Thomas Jefferson)

The states can never lose their power till the whole people of America are robbed of their liberties. ( Alexander Hamilton)

Our new constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world no thing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. (Benjamin Franklin)

Here, sir, the people govern. (Alexander Hamilton)

A nation oppressed by taxes, can never be generous, benevolent, or englightened. ( John Taylor)

Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself. (Thomas Jefferson)

The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specific objects. It is not like the States governments, where powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of government. (James Madison)

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. (The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776)

We are still Jefferson's children. (Ronald Reagan, 1987)

It is a republic, if we can keep it. (Benjamin Franklin)

Purge that constitution of its corruption...and it would be the most perfect constitution devised by the wit of man. (John Adams)

If men were angles, no government would be necessary. (James Madison)

A power to take from a nation, and give to itself, is s strict definition of civilized tyranny. ( John Taylor)

The cause of America is a great measure the cause of all mankind. (Thomas Paine)

The power to tax involved the power to destroy. (Chief Justice John Marshall)

The most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome. (James Madison)

The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statue is to discover the meaning of those who made it. (James Wilson)

...Amendments, if pursued with proper moderation and in proper mode, will be not only safe, but may serve the double purpose of satisfying the minds of well meaning opponents, and of providing additional guards in favor of liberty. (James Madison)

Let us not establish a tyranny. Energy is a very different thing from violence. ( Alexander Hamilton)

The accumulation of all powers [ of government]... in the same hands...[is] the very definition of tyranny. (James Madison)

Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. (Samuel Adams)

"Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,/ And this be out motto- 'In God we trust' " (Francis Scott Key)

INDEPENDENCE FOREVER. ( John Adams at the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence)

The constitution was "purely democratic' because all authority of every kind is derived by representation from the people. (James Wilson)

The constitution is the guide, which I will never abandon. (George Washington)

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. (Thomas Jefferson)

The most prudent system of spending money to be paid by posterity, when under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. (Thomas Jefferson)

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. (John Adams)

Sourced from: The Founding Fathers' Almanac
                          Matthew Spalding, editor
                          published by the Heritage Foundation
                          Washington, D.C., 2002
                          www.heritage.org

Benefits for undoing five decades of federal power are:

Restore the original intent of U.S. Senators: an advisory board
Cut federal bureaucracy in the Senate and reduce committees, spilling into the Executive Branch.
Restore States guaranteed powers under Amendment Ten.
Give the voters a more direct and powerful voice in who their Senators shall be. ( At present, Senators disappear for six years, until next election cycle.)
Make Senators accountable to their State Legislators, who have the ability to recall them.
The people's disenchantment with their Senator would be aired locally! The distance for affirmative action is as close as the state capitol and its legislature. Senators would represent their state and the people's need within that state.
All politics is local! Prior to ratifying the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, citizens saw more of their Senators. They voted for their choice, and state legislatures appointed the popular choice.. The best know example is the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates; Lincoln lost to Douglas, who was appointed to the Senate by the Illinois State legislature.

Call for a Constitutional Convention to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment through state legislatures.

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