William Leggett Quotes

I do believe that it was through divine providence that the Founding Fathers drafted a document that created a government that didn't trust each other - hence the separation of powers. And then, to close the deal, the Bill of Rights was added to continue to protect individual rights and freedoms.

The Constitution was framed fundamentally as a bulwark against governmental power.

The founders did not trust human beings, and that is what the Constitution is about.

I have withdrawn from partisan politics. I am a constitutionalist who believes that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights must be central and the parties must be peripheral.

The founders had a strong distrust for centralized power in a federal government. So they created a government with checks and balances. This was to prevent any branch of the government from becoming too powerful.

In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

Maintaining checks and balances on the power of the Judiciary Branch and the other two branches is vital to keep the form of government set up by our Founding Fathers.

The basic premise of the Constitution was a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances because man was perceived as a fallen creature and would always yearn for more power.

The Constitution was about a limitation on power.

I am aware how difficult is the task to preserve free institutions over so wide a space and so immense a population, but we are blessed with a Constitution admirably calculated to accomplish it. Its elastic power is unequaled, which is to be attributed to its federal character.

The Founders who crafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights were careful to draft a Constitution of limited powers - one that would protect Americans' liberty at all times - both in war, and in peace.

The Framers (of the Constitution) were not concerned primarily with favoring one type of government over another, but with limiting the power of government, regardless of its source.

The Constitution is a list of things the government may not do.

It is a maxim that in every Government, there must exist, somewhere a Supreme, Sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable Power; But this Power resides, always in the body of the People, and it never was, or can be delegated, to one Man, or a few.

Our devotion to individual freedom limits our readiness to give central government the power to override our traditional power structure.

The Constitution of the United States is not a suicide pact.

The Federal government we have today is unimaginable in the perspective of the Americans who debated the ratification of the original constitution.

Our founders recognized that 'men were not angels' and that checks and balances in government were critical to avoid threats to the rule of law.

The Founding Fathers: A bunch of old white guys who are making it nearly impossible for modern government to pick our doctors, teach our children, correct our diets, and save our money.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws.

I happen to miss the Constitution; I thought it was a good document.

I do not subscribe to the doctrine that the people are the slaves and property of their government. I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

A constitution, in the American sense of the word, is a written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers are distributed among several departments, for their more safe and useful exercise, for the benefit of the body politic.

The Constitution was the expression not only of a political faith, but also of political fears. It was wrought both as the organ of the national interest and as the bulwark of certain individual and local rights.