Quotes About James Madison

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

Wechsler and the New York Times showed that Adams' two immediate successors as president, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, as well as many others, regarded Adams' political censorship of 'seditious' newspapers that criticised the state as a clear breach of the First Amendment and an attack on democracy.

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries. [ Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803 ]

Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters , is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together . [ Letter to Edward Livingston, 10 July 1822 - Writings 9:100--103 ]

by the way, Adams – unlike Madison – actually signed the Bill of Rights." Well, of course James Madison, as a member of the House of Representatives, didn't sign the Bill of Rights, and John Adams, as president of the Senate, did!

The founding fathers went out of their way to establish a clear "wall of separation" between religion and state, to quote Thomas Jefferson. They reasoned, as James Madison so cleverly articulated, that both religion and government exist in greater purity if kept apart.

James Madison's face is on the five-thousand-dollar bill. That's right, there's a five-thousand-dollar bill! Can you imagine going into a store to buy a candy bar and asking if they'll give you change for a five-thousand-dollar bill?

If the Roman Republic is an example at all, citizens and leaders will realize that those decision makers will base their decisions on particular interests and advantages they see for what James Madison called a "faction.

James Madison, always at the vortex of the fierce disputes over what measures these enumerated powers implied as necessary and proper, concluded—after serving for a quarter century as a congressman, secretary of state, and president—that the bedrock constitutional principle was simply to ensure that America does not "convert a limited into an unlimited Govt.