Popular Sovereignty Quotes
The government relationship to people phrase, although probably Lincoln's most famous, was not totally original. John Adams came close in a 1774 proclamation. As did John Marshall in his McCulloch v. Maryland decision. Daniel Webster's Speech on Foot's Resolution was very close. as was Theodore Parker in 1850 {629578}. There was also Thomas Cooper in 1795. But the earliest appears to be John Wycliffe in 1382 {567292}. It is not known with which of these Lincoln was familiar.
He had been asked by other delegates what Franklin thought they had just created.
In a 1949 dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago Jackson claimed the majority view would “convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”
In the 19th century, most people, like Spooner, saw the combination of money and politics as per se corrupting—much like the view of John McCain in the 21st century. Howver, by then all of politics had been dependent on money. However, distrust of government and politicians prevailed, with money paying a large part of the distrust. Spooner was against the government levying taxes and thought that governments should be financed by the voluntary contributions of money or labor of the citizens. His idea was something like a religious and biblical tithing.
This quotation did not appear in the first edition, but did in later editions.
This is a Bostonian version of an ancient view expressed as early as the quote from The Babylonian Talmud.
