Party Political

This page contains a list of brilliant statements by James Madison, the fourth President of the United States. They seem especially relevant today, as America continues down the slippery slope towards fascism.

Here are 12 separate quotes. Placed in a specific order, these quotations make up a "speech" in which Madison seems to be directly alluding to our current situation, and the danger we face:

1. "All men having power ought to be mistrusted."
   
   
2. "The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."
   
   
3. "Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power."
   
   
4. "It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
   
   
5. "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
   
   
6. "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
   
   
7. "Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."
   
   
8. "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
   
   
9. "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
   
   
10. "The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war."
    
    
11. "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."
    
    
12. "We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties."

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