John Quincy Adams Quotes

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

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.

Form such a national government that we think best adapted for the good of the whole.

The primary social contract between the people of the United States and their government - quaint though it might seem to even mention it at this point - is that ours is to be a government 'of the people, by the people, for the people.'

Every government is the exact symbol of its people ... Like People like Government.

The new Constitution should be ratified in the most unexceptional form, and by the supreme authority of the people themselves.

When a people have no sufficient value for, and attachment to, a representative constitution, they have next to no chance of retaining it.

In this country the government responds to the people, not the other way around.

In the United States the people are the government; and their united voice is the only sovereign that should rule; the only power that should be obeyed; and the only gentlemen that should be honored; at home and abroad; on the land and the sea.

The government and people are inseparable under our system. We could not separate the government from the people if we would, and we would not if we could. This unity is the strength of our political structure.

In all trying positions in which I shall be placed, and doubtless I shall be placed in many such, my reliance will be upon...the people of the United States;

The foundation of civil power lies in the people.

The Federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers and designed for different purposes…. The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone.

I am sure that in Canada the people appreciate this principle, and the general intelligence which prevails over that country is such that I am sure there is no danger of a reactionary policy ever finding a response in the hearts of any considerable number of our people.

Here, again, as I conceive, gentlemen forget that this government is a republican one, resting exclusively in the intelligence and virtue of the People.

The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.

The difference is that for a soundly conceived and solidly endowed republic it takes a great deal longer for those seeds to germinate and the plants to grow.

People of the south have too much of good sense, and good temper, to attempt the ruin of the government.

People now do not want a constitution framed for them by their representatives—they want to pass on each section of it themselves.

If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so, and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of the matter.

Legitimacy [of governments] is not bought by force; it is earned by the consensus of the people.

Our sovereign, the people.

Tinkers may work, quacks may prescribe, and demagogues may deceive, but I declare to you that there is no remedy for us ... but in adhering to the Constitution.

In our system of government, nobody has the last word except the people.

Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.