James Madison Quotes
Equal laws protecting equal rights ... the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.
James Madison, 1751-1836, 4th President of the United States (Democratic Republican, VA), Letter to Jacob De La Motta, August 1820
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
It is surprising that these ideas would come from one of the most autocratic powerful monarch in the world at the time. However there were many very liberal influences on her from Europe. This set of proposals she even sent to Voltaire to get his feedback and criticism.
This statement in the President’s Second Inaugural. Infuriated the politicians of the Southern States. Remember, at the time there was brutal discrimination throughout most of the South, and more important to the South than the fact if the discrimination was their perverse view that this was a right, proper and necessary state of affairs for the welfare of the people and was required by Christianity’s mandates as they read the Scripture. For the President to state so publicly that discrimination was contrary to the law, justice, good faith, citizenship and fairness was a major shock. Since the early days of reconstruction after the Civil war in the Grant Administration, no president had spoken so publicly and openly against the Southern status quo.
Most politicians at the time agreed with this statement. In the next 25 years, the economic system grew less fair and when government officials tried to come up with remedies, they sublimated fairness, to economic recovery, and America went through a phase where fairness was far less important then it traditionally had been.
For a similar application of the law to all see the Massachusetts Body of Liberties over a century earlier.
Although Holland was more egalitarian and fairer than most nations of Europe, it was not quite as desirable as Diderot described it. He only visited a part of Holland that was the most educated and affluent.
James Madison Jr. was an American statesman, diplomat, expansionist, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the United States Bill of Rights. He co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, and served as the fifth United States Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.
