Charles W. Pickering Quotes

Our country is not in crisis; there are no tanks in the streets. No matter what the outcome of the president's situation, life in America will go on. Our lives will continue to be filled with practical matters, not constitutional ones.

The sudden and abrupt departure of his Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., our late Governor, and several of the Council, leaving us destitute of legislation, and no executive courts being open to punish criminal offenders; whereby the lives and properties of the honest people of this colony are liable to the machinations and evil designs of wicked men, Therefore, for the preservation of peace and good order, and for the security of the lives and properties of the inhabitants of this colony, we conceive ourselves reduced to the necessity of establishing A FORM OF GOVERNMENT to continue during the present unhappy and unnatural contest with Great Britain

In times of crisis, we should have a period of 6 months of dictatorship to straighten things up, then return to democracy.

Ours is a government elected by the people and it will not succumb to threats.

September 11th does not justify ignoring the Constitution by creating broad new federal police powers. The rule of law is worthless if we ignore it whenever crises occur.

We hold the true republican position. In leaving the people's business in their hands, we cannot be wrong.

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

How necessary for modern liberty a national representative government is—a representative system comprehending the whole state

Where there is only a national representative government without local self-government, there is no liberty as we understand it

no law can be made, nor money raised, but by the people's consent …. That the rights and freedoms of England (the best and largest in Europe) shall be in force there

State Legislatures were better qualified to elect the Members than the people were

Democracy is slow moving in the short run, … but if it has the backing of the people, it proves to be more durable.

Elections by the state legislatures will be better than those by the people.

We are happy in having an opportunity of laying our distressed state before the representative body of the continent, and humbly hope you will favor us with your most explicit advice respecting the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government, which we think absolutely necessary for the Salvation of our country and we shall readily submit to such a general plan as you may direct for the colonies, or make it our great study to establish such a form of government here, as shall not only most promote our advantage but the union and interest of all America.

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

A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution, … are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government. The people ought, consequently, to have a particular attention to all those principles, in the choice of their officers and representatives: and they have a right to require of their lawgivers and magistrates an exact and constant observance of them, in the formation and execution of the laws necessary for the good administration of the commonwealth.

I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.

Pure representative government is not suitable to our character, customs, and present conditions...So long as our compatriots do not develop the talents and political virtues which distinguish our brothers of the north (The United States) the entire popular system, far from being suitable to our conditions, may, I fear, be our ruin.

I don’t do apocalypse!

Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics.

The foundation of English liberty and of all free government is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council.

For Texas, a wise and prudent administration in the commencement of her national existence will be universally expected, imposing upon me the difficult and delicate task of setting in complete and successful operation a political body based upon principles so hazardously asserted and so gloriously maintained.

One of the cornerstones of our democracy is the peaceful transition of power.

Our goal is to reaffirm that government by the people, speaking through their elected representatives, is the best way to keep us free and safe, protect our liberty, and make sure the promise of America exists for the next generation.

In democracies, we aren't always governed by the people or the parties that we voted for. But when officials are elected, we must respect their authority, as long as they're exercising that authority within the bounds of whatever regulatory frameworks are in place to guide them.