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James Monroe
10 quotes
“It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1817 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Inaugural Address (4 March 1817)
“National honor is the national property of the highest value.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1817 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Inaugural Address (4 March 1817)
“Preservation, improvement, and civilization of the native inhabitants. The Hunter state can exist only in the vast uncultivated desert. It yields to the more dense compact form of and greater force of civilized population; and of right it ought to yield, for the earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of which it is capable, and no tribe or people have a right to withhold from the wants of others more then is necessary for their own support and comfort.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1817 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message to Congress (1817)
“The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments, and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message to Congress (December 1822)
“Our relation to Europe, is pretty much the same, as it was in the commencement of the French Revolution. Can we, in any form, take a bolder attitude in regard to it, in favor of liberty, than we then did? Can we afford greater aid to that cause, by assuming any such attitude, than we do now, by the form of our example?”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1822)
“The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do therefore recommend the third Thursday in August next, as a convenient day to be set apart for the devout purposes of rendering to the Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of mankind, the public homage due to his holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasures; of seeking His merciful forgiveness, His assistance in the great duties of repentance and amendment; and especially of offering fervent supplications, that in the present season of calamity and war, He would take the American People under his peculiar care and protection; that he would guide their public councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow His blessing on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a love of justice and of concord, and with a reverence for the unerring precept of our holy religion, to do to others as they would require others to do to them; and finally, that, turning the hearts of our enemies from the violence and injustice which sway their councils against us, He would hasten a restoration of the blessings of Peace.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1812 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Proclamation – Humiliation and Prayer (20 August 1812)
“What was the origin of our slave population? The evil commenced when we were in our Colonial state, but acts were passed by our Colonial Legislature, prohibiting the importation, of more slaves, into the Colony. These were rejected by the Crown. We declared our independence, and the prohibition of a further importation was among the first acts of state sovereignty. Virginia was the first state which instructed her delegates to declare the colonies independent. She braved all dangers. From Quebec to Boston, and from Boston to Savannah, Virginia shed the blood of her sons. No imputation then can be cast upon her in this matter. She did all that was in her power to do, to prevent the extension of slavery, and to mitigate its evils.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Virginia State Convention for altering the Constitution (2 November 1829)
“We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”
James Monroe (1758–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source