"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."
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Presidents of the United StatesMembers of the United States SenateUnited States presidential candidates, 1808United States presidential candidates, 1820United States presidential candidates, 1816
Original Language: English
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Sources
First Inaugural Address (4 March 1817)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Monroe
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James Monroe
James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat and Founding Father who served as the 5th president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was the last president of the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation; his presidency coincided with the Era of Good Feelings, concluding the First Party System era of American politics. He is perhaps best known for issuing the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of opp
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