"The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge the wants or feelings of the day-laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe, β when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
James Madison, statement (26 June 1787) as quoted in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787 by Robert Yates
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Federal government of the United States
28 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Federal government of the United States β
Related Quotes
"The United States is on pace to spend over $7 trillion over the next ten years for the Pentagon. To put that number iβ¦"
"This government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies mβ¦"
"We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends β¦"
"Let us then turn this Government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it."
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destrβ¦"
"Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary caβ¦"
"[T]here will be no blood shed unless it be forced' upon the Government. The Government will not use force unless forcβ¦"
"One of the greatest perplexities of the Government is to avoid receiving troops faster than it can provide for them. β¦"
"I am a patient man β always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for β¦"
"If the U.S. government had prosecuted Bush administration officials for their war crimes during the βwar on terror,β β¦"