Political Quotes

On the record
Otherwise the President alone might declare war, without an Act of Congress, doing indirectly what he cannot do directly, and thus overturning that special safeguard which places under the guardianship of Congress what Story justly calls “the highest sovereign prerogative.
Said by
Charles Sumner
Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

This quote warns against the potential for presidential overreach if Congress's role in declaring war is undermined.

Share

More from Charles Sumner

It is larger than the entire profit of all the commerce and manufactures of the world.

gutenberg.org

Confessing the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent Brotherhood of Man, we find a divine standard of unquestionable accuracy.

gutenberg.org

Again I repeat, so long as the War System prevails under the sanction of International Law, these painful incongruities will be apparent.

gutenberg.org

It is clear that the only question of present practical interest arises from the usurpations of the Slave Power and the efforts to extend Slavery.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation