Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution, which expresses the official position of the United States House of Representatives regarding the sanctity of the vote in our Federal system. The authors of America's founding documents extolled the necessity of voting to a free society. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, believed that ``should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights.'' Jefferson also believed that ``the elective franchise, if guarded as the ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a constitution dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people.'' James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution and contributor to the Federalist Papers said at the Constitutional Convention that he ``considered the popular election of one branch of the national legislature as essential to every plan of free government,'' and ``that the great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable, if it should rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves.'' Madison continued that: ``Under every view of the subject, it seems indispensable that the mass of citizens should not be without a voice in making the laws which they are to obey, and in choosing the magistrates who are to administer them.'' Alexander Hamilton, another contributor to the Federalist…”