Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the principle that government should only exercise powers explicitly granted to it by the people.
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes that any actions taken by the government that go beyond the powers explicitly delegated to it by the constitution are inherently invalid. This reflects a fundamental belief in the rule of law and the limits of government authority, advocating for the protection of individual liberties against government overreach.
In practice
During a civic engagement seminar discussing the limits of government power.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
There's no problem with a woman being president of the United States if you take her gender as a sole issue. Gender shouldn't matter.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
I still passionately support comprehensive immigration reform legislation with a path to full and equal citizenship.
The defense budget is more than a piggy bank for people who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels.
Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't.
It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.
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