Chris Gibson Quotes

Our Founding Fathers crafted a constitutional Republic for the first time in the history of the world because they were shaping a form of government that would not have the failures of a democracy in it, but had the representation of democracy in it.

The Constitution reminds us that the government that produces free people is one of divided power.

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.

There is not in the whole science of politicks a more solid or a more important maxim than this---that of all governments, those are the best, which, by the natural effect of their constitutions, are frequently renewed or drawn back to their first principles.

The Founding Fathers gladly sacrificed government that could provide speedy, effective, cohesive, and internally consistent policies. They opted for one that had a maximum number of veto points and checks and balances and protections against tyranny by particular officials or tyranny by selfish majorities.

The federal constitution is perhaps the greatest of human experiments.

The founding fathers hated two things, one was monarchy and the other was, democracy, they gave us a constitution that saw to it we will have neither.

In a Madisonian system, it is often more important how you do something than what you do.

Limited government is best.

The United States is a constitutional republic, and the Founding Fathers fought to ensure that the mob couldn't undermine it.

Governing through federal ultimatum grates against our history, traditions, and, most importantly, our Constitution.

The transformation of the United States from a traditional republic to a democratic nation run in large measure by a single executive took a couple of hundred years.

The Tea Party movement as I perceive it is all about recognizing the difference between state and federal powers. And that there are limits to federal power that need to be respected.

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.

But Connecticut and Rhode Island have originally realized the most perfect polity as to a legislature.

It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.

It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.

Our founders insisted that protecting the states' power to govern themselves was vital to limit the power of Washington and preserve freedom.

The combination of Federalism and Republicanism which formed the substance of the system, did not constitute a progressive and formative political principle, but it pointed in the direction of a constructive formula.

The strongest continuous thread in America's political tradition is skepticism about government.

We are not at liberty to add one jot of power to the national government beyond what the people have granted by the constitution

The genius of American government consists of the creative tension between conservatives on the one hand and liberals on the other hand..

I am sensible that there are defects in our federal government, yet they are so much lighter than those of monarchies, that I view them with much indulgence. I rely, too, on the good sense of the people for remedy, whereas the evils of monarchical government are beyond remedy. If any of our countrymen wish for a King, give them Aesop's fable of the frogs who asked a King; if this does not cure them, send them to Europe. They will go back good republicans.

It is not be consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected.

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.