James Iredell Quotes

We wish not a diminution of the prerogative of … Your royal authority and our connection with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavor to support and maintain [it].

In the 1770s the primary threat to American rights seemed to lie less with the King than with the Parliament that claimed a right to bind the colonists “in all cases whatsoever”.

Your dependence upon the crown is no advantage, but rather an injury to the people of Britain, as it increases the power and influence of the King.

I have no right to be a king, but I have the right to create a king.

It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do; so it is presumption and contempt to dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that.

… no line … can be drawn between the supreme authority of Parliament and the total independence of the colonies: it is impossible that there should be two independent legislatures in one and the same state.

An occupying power has no right to make significant alterations in the character of the occupied society, to change the laws all around, without a strong security reason and so forth.

The Senate trying to govern cyberspace is analogous to King George believing he could still govern the colonies even though he had never been there.

But the king should not be under any man, only under God and the law, for the law makes the king. Let the king therefore attribute to the law what the law attributes to him, namely lordship and power, for there is no king where will rules and not the law.

We stand at present on the confines between the liberty of the subject and the prerogatives of the king.

His majesty is an absolute king and not bound to give any account, to any, of his actions … yet he is so gracious and regardful a prince and was of the love and contentment of his subjects, …. That he would not think it fit to do anything of so great a consequence without acquainting them of his intentions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria-Hungary reserves the right to annex these provinces at whatever moment she shall deem opportune.

An independent House of Commons is as inconsistent to our Constitution as an independent, that is, absolute King.

They will leave the King nothing other than the empty name of King, no more

If a great multitude of men should call one of their number King, unless this instituted Prince, appear in greater visible splendor then others, can reward those that obey and please him, and do the contrary to others; his Institution signifies little, even although he chance to have greater corporal or mental faculties, than any other of the number

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved

All such of the said statutes and acts aforesaid, or parts thereof, as may be construed to establish or maintain any particular denomination of Christians or their ministers, or concern the allegiance heretofore yielded to, and the supremacy, sovereignty, government, or prerogatives claimed or exercised by, the King of Great Britain and his predecessors, over the colony of New York and its inhabitants, or are repugnant to this constitution, be, and they hereby are, abrogated and rejected.

I am free to confess that the exercise of that (Britain’s), authority is not perfectly constitutional in respect to the Colonies. We know that the whole landed interest of Britain is represented in that body (Parliament), while neither the land nor the people of America hold the least participation in the legislative authority of the State. Representation, or a participation in the supreme councils of the State, is the great principle upon which the freedom of the British Government is established and secured.

The principle of Parliamentary sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.

Wellington is the King of England. O'Connell is King of Ireland, and I am only the Dean of Windsor

When was America emancipated? This kingdom has the sovereign, the supreme legislative power over America; this is granted; it cannot be denied: taxation is a part of that sovereign power, is one branch of the legislative; it is, and it has been, exercised over those who are not, and who never were represented: the Indian company; the merchants of London; the proprietors of stock, and men of great manufacturing towns; the palatinate of Chester; the bishopric of Durham, before they ever sent any representatives to parliament. Great Britain protects America; America is bound to yield obedience; if not, tell me when the Americans were emancipated The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give them protection; and now, when called upon to contribute to the public expense, an expense arising from themselves, they renounce your authority, insult your officers, and almost break out into open rebellion. The seditious spirit of the colonies owes its birth to the factions in this house. Gentlemen are careless of the consequences of what they say, provided it answers the purposes of opposition I have been abused as an enemy to the trade of America; I discouraged no trade but what was illicit, and what was prohibited by act of parliament.

In effect we suffer as much at home as abroad; for, in order to prove that the Americans have no right to their liberties, we are every day endeavoring to subvert the maxims of our own. We never gain a paltry advantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood

Lord North, after the affair at Saratoga, from the beginning of the year 1778, made every effort to procure from the king permission to resign. These efforts were continually repeated for a long period, but in vain : the king could not give up the idea of coercing America, and therefore could not part with the only man who was, he thought, fit to manage the House of Commons.

Long did I endeavor … to preserve from breaking that fine and noble vase, the British Empire; for I knew that, being once broken, the separate parts could not retain even their share of the strength or value that existed in the whole.

My promises to the people for whom I have waged war have been fulfilled — to accomplish their independence and leave the choice of their rulers to their own will. The presence of an unfortunate soldier, however disinterested he may be, is not desirable in newly constituted states. On the other hand, I am tired of having it said that I wish to make myself King. In short, I shall always be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the liberty of the country, but as in the character of a simple private citizen and in no other.