Political Quotes

“Madam President, especially in times of crisis but also in times of ease, Americans have reason to reflect on the foundation of the life we enjoy as a Nation. More than the citizens of any other country, when Americans think of their collective lives or their individual liberties, we think of a document. On this day, 226 years ago, a group of America's Founders signed the Constitution of the United States. In May of 1787, 55 of the 70 delegates chosen by 12 of the 13 States gathered in the Pennsylvania Statehouse, where both the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence had been signed. Just 115 days later, 39 of those delegates signed the Constitution and within 18 months it had been ratified and was the supreme law of the land. The Constitution is special both for whose it is and for what it does. The Constitution's first three words identify its ownership when it says ``we the people.'' The Constitution belongs to the people. The Constitution is also special for what it does. It both empowers and limits government. The Constitution gives powers to government by delegating enumerated powers to the Federal Government and reserving the others to the States and the people. And the Constitution limits those powers in multiple ways, including the very fact of being written down. As the Supreme Court put it in Marbury v. Madison, the Constitution was written so that the limits on government would be neither mistaken nor forgotten.…”