William McKinley Quotes

The virtue, spirit, and essence of a House of Commons consists in its being the express image of the feelings of the nation. It was not instituted to be a control upon the people, as of late it has been taught

Logically, in a society ostensibly grounded on representative government, it would seem reasonable that a majority of the people in a State would elect a majority of that State’s legislators.

The Congress is not a court of law but it is a court of public opinion.

The wisdom and discretion of Congress ... are the restraints on which the people must often rely solely, in all representative governments

No president … has ever quarreled with Congress as a whole, or with either chamber, without being backed by the people. The great body of voters hate what they regard as an unequal fight, and may always be trusted to side with the one man as against the many; with the public servant whom they have jointly elected, as against any number of public servants chosen to represent fractional parts of the Union.

How is it the community can check ? The community can act only when assembled; and when assembled, it is incapable of acting. The community, however, can choose representatives.

The beauty of our democracy is that the final authority is not the president of the United States, but instead the American public through their duly elected representatives in the United States Congress.

I doubt the people of North Carolina will be content to allow the governor to decide or even unduly influence selecting their senator.

Upon you, fellow-citizens, as the representatives of the States and the people, is wisely devolved the legislative power.

Parliament of the country is the repository of the sovereign will of the people, and its successful functioning is a joint responsibility of both the government and the Opposition.

The judicial cannot prescribe to the legislative departments of the government limitations upon exercise of its acknowledged powers. The power to tax may be exercised oppressively on persons, but the responsibility … not to the courts, but to the people by whom its members are elected.

The voice of the people must be heeded.

In all forms of government the people is the true legislator.

Congress ... is far more than the simple, limited advisory council that most Presidents would like to maintain.

The authority of Congress must be respected …. The President must confine himself to his executive duties—to obey and execute, not make the laws.

The people never have and never will be able to understand how the will of a majority of the House of Representatives can be set aside by the judgment of a few men on a powerful committee.

The President ... should be merely the executor of a power of decision that rests elsewhere; that is, in the Congress.

Legislative power is always superior to the executive.

The authority of the Supreme Court must not ... be permitted to control the Congress, or the Executive, when acting in their legislative capacities.

Are the governors such exceptionally gifted men as to enable them … to represent the masses and act in the interests of all men better than all men would be able to act for themselves?

Elections are the means we use to establish the will of the people in order to assure the rule of the people.

… the people as the fourth branch of government

The representative assembly (House of Representatives) ... should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them

If certain selected bodies of men, deputed on these principles, determine contrary to the wishes and expectations of their constituents, the people have an undoubted right to reject their decisions, to call for a revision of their conduct, to depute others in their room, or if they think proper, to demand further time for deliberation on matters of the greatest moment: …

I believe in war, if the people want war. They have to do the fighting. I believe, first, in a referendum to the people, and failing that, a decision by the people's representatives in Congress assembled.