James Harrington Quotes

As for us BRITONS, thank Heaven, we have a better Sense of Government deliver’d to us from our Ancestors. We have the Notion of A PUBLIC and A CONSTITUTION; how a Legislative, and how an Executive is model’d.

All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates from the people.

Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

The virtue, spirit, and essence of a House of Commons consists in its being the express image of the feelings of the nation. It was not instituted to be a control upon the people, as of late it has been taught

The republic has been structured to guard against the cabals of a few as well as against confusion of a multitude, but how each House of Congress would maintain that balance was left to the discretion of the two bodies.

Our maxim of that day [1776] was "where annual election ends, tyranny begins.

The government of the Union, then, ... is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.

When our Founders created this great experiment in self-governance, the House of Representatives became, by design, the body closest to the people. We are the most accountable, and we must be the most transparent.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people.

Without party, Parliamentary Government is impossible.

Government is not the enemy. Government is simply a tool that can be used wisely or unwisely.

A republic is little better than a government of devils

Shall the majority govern or be governed? Shall the nation rule or be ruled? Shall the general will prevail, or the will of a faction? Shall there be government or no government?

Congress is the voice, the conscience, and the judgment of the American people

When one person can initiate war, by its definition, a republic no longer exists.

We may define a republic to be … a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.

A popular assembly without parties--500 isolated individuals--cannot stand five years against a Minister with an organized Government without becoming a servile Senate.

In republics the executive must be strongest because everything conspires against it, while in monarchies the legislature must be strongest, because everything conspires in favour of the monarch

You don't determine what is good policy by polling.

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

Congress is where Americans are supposed to have our big, messy political fights. That's because the people who make the laws need to be hired and fired by the people. Don't like the laws? Fire the lawmakers.

The House of Representatives, which was closer to the population, had much less power. The executive was more or less an administrator, not an emperor like today.

The growth of constitutional government, as we now understand it, was promoted by the establishment of two different sets of machinery for making laws and carrying on government.

May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.