Presidential Quotes and the Principles They Show

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

Principle: Popular sovereignty. The people are the source of power and may change their government.

If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

Principle: Rule of law. Change the Constitution through Article V, not by ignoring it.

The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modernGeorge Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

Principle: Checks and balances. Dividing power among branches that guard against each other.

though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

Principle: Individual rights. Majority rule, limited by minority rights.

We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

Principle: Popular sovereignty. A peaceful transfer of power between parties after an election.

The Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution.Andrew Jackson, Veto Message on the Bank of the United States, July 10, 1832

Principle: Checks and balances. Each branch interprets the Constitution for itself; the veto is the President's check on Congress.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.Andrew Jackson, Veto Message on the Bank of the United States, July 10, 1832

Principle: Individual rights. Jackson framed the veto as protecting ordinary people from special privileges granted by government.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.Abraham Lincoln, "House Divided" Speech (as a Senate candidate), June 16, 1858

Principle: Federalism. The Union could not survive with states divided over slavery.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.Abraham Lincoln, "House Divided" Speech (as a Senate candidate), June 16, 1858

Principle: Individual rights. Slavery was incompatible with the nation's founding ideals of equality.

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual.Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Principle: Federalism. States cannot leave the Union; the national government is permanent.

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Principle: Rule of law. Secession rejects the constitutional order.

A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Principle: Popular sovereignty. The people rule, but through a majority limited by the Constitution.

the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulersAbraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Principle: Judicial review. Lincoln's response to Dred Scott: the Court decides cases, but the people should not surrender all national policy to it.

conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equalAbraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Principle: Individual rights. Equality from the Declaration of Independence.

that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Government comes from and serves the people.

With malice toward none, with charity for allAbraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

Principle: Federalism. Restoring the Union after the Civil War.

The world must be made safe for democracy.Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War, April 2, 1917

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Spreading government by the consent of the governed.

I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United StatesWoodrow Wilson, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War, April 2, 1917

Principle: Separation of powers. The President asks; Congress holds the power to declare war.

the only thing we have to fear is fear itselfFranklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Restoring public confidence in self-government during a crisis.

I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

Principle: Separation of powers. Even in an emergency, FDR said he would ask Congress for power rather than simply take it.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress ("Four Freedoms"), January 6, 1941

Principle: Individual rights. Echoes the 1st Amendment's speech and press clauses.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress ("Four Freedoms"), January 6, 1941

Principle: Individual rights. Echoes the 1st Amendment's religion clauses.

a date which will live in infamyFranklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War, December 8, 1941

Principle: Separation of powers. The famous opening of a request that only Congress could grant.

on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War, December 8, 1941

Principle: Separation of powers. The President asks Congress to declare war (Article I, Section 8).

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.Harry S. Truman, Address to Congress (the Truman Doctrine), March 12, 1947

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Supporting self-government abroad; Congress had to approve the money.

Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address on the Situation in Little Rock, September 24, 1957

Principle: Rule of law. Court orders must be obeyed; the executive enforces them.

the responsibility and authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution are very clear.Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address on the Situation in Little Rock, September 24, 1957

Principle: Judicial review. The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, and states must follow it (Supremacy Clause).

we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961

Principle: Limited government. Guarding against concentrated power that could endanger liberty.

Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Informed citizens are the final check on government.

ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Civic duty and participation by citizens.

the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

Principle: Individual rights. Natural (unalienable) rights, as in the Declaration of Independence.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.John F. Kennedy, Address on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963

Principle: Individual rights. Equal protection of the laws regardless of race.

It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.John F. Kennedy, Address on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963

Principle: Individual rights. Equality from the Declaration, applied to civil rights.

Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to Congress: The American Promise (voting rights), March 15, 1965

Principle: Individual rights. The 15th Amendment's promise of voting rights regardless of race.

It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to Congress: The American Promise (voting rights), March 15, 1965

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Voting is how the people govern themselves.

government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

Principle: Limited government. A call for limited government.

the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

Principle: Federalism. A states-centered view of federalism and the 10th Amendment.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.Barack Obama, "A More Perfect Union" Speech (as a presidential candidate), March 18, 2008

Principle: Individual rights. Equal rights of citizenship were promised but had to be won over time, through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the civil rights movement. The 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause made equal citizenship part of the Constitution.

our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man — a charter expanded by the blood of generations.Barack Obama, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009

Principle: Rule of law. The Constitution (the "charter") makes everyone, including the government, subject to the law, and its protections of rights were expanded over time, for example by the Civil War Amendments.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and StonewallBarack Obama, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 2013

Principle: Individual rights. Equality from the Declaration of Independence, protected in the Constitution by the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.Barack Obama, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 2013

Principle: Popular sovereignty. Voting is how the people rule; the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments expanded the right to vote.

the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.” “We The People.”Barack Obama, Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches, March 7, 2015

Principle: Popular sovereignty. The Constitution's first words, "We the People," mean the power of government comes from the people.

we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge — and that is the right to vote.Barack Obama, Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches, March 7, 2015

Principle: Popular sovereignty. The right to vote is how the people govern themselves; the marchers sought to make the 15th Amendment real through the Voting Rights Act of 1965.