Classical Foundations
"for the best is often unattainable"
Aristotle, The Politics, approx. 330 BC
“neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory”
The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
“that all inhabitants of this colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds”
Constitution of New Jersey, 1776
“this country and this people seem to have been made for each other”
John Jay, Federalist No. 2, 1787
“there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislature and executive”
Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, 1748
“an expression of the American mind”
Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1825
“he has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice”
Seneca Falls Declaration, 1848
“you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it”
Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796
“yet it is not a state of license”
Locke, Second Treatise, 1689
“the picture was made for the apple”
Lincoln, Fragment on Constitution and the Union, 1860s
“still lingering in the period of childhood”
Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Speech, 1852
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”
John Adams to Mass. Militia, 1798
“reflection and choice” v “accident and force”
Hamilton, Federalist No. 1, 1787
“provided that this liberty of conscience, shall not be so construed, as to excuse acts of licentiousness”
Constitution of the Cherokee Nation, 1827
“found and maintain the sovereignty of the people”
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
“dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”
Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863