The Quotable Founding Fathers

by Melton, Buckner F., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9781574886092
• ISBN10: 1574886096
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

No group is quoted-and misquoted-more often than America's founders. When a political controversy heats up, the nation's speechwriters, politicians, reporters, editorial writers, and talking heads try to influence the debate by quoting their words. Year in and year out, teachers and political buffs look to their wisdom to illuminate the issues. How much easier it would be to find every key quote by the founders in a single source. The Quotable Founding Fathers, edited by Buckner F. Melton, Jr., provides just that source-a compilation of some 2,500 quotes summing up the wit and wisdom of the founders. While some of these quotations can be found in general quotation compilations such as Bartlett's, these volumes offer only a fraction of what's available. The Quotable Founding Fathers mines deeper into the founders' essays, diaries, letters, speeches, and sermons to extract all the nuggets that are significant to the history of the country- and to the ongoing debate about the meaning of democracy in America.

Author Biography

Buckner F. Melton, Jr., has taught history at Duke University and served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. He is currently Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
John Adams	1	(1)
John Quincy Adams	2	(1)
Samuel Adams	2	(1)
Advice & Advisors	3	(1)
Age & Aging	3	(3)
Aggression	6	(1)
Agriculture & Farming	6	(2)
Alcohol, Alcoholism, & Drunkenness	8	(1)
Ambition	9	(2)
America & Americanism	11	(7)
Anger	18	(1)
Appearances & Vanity	19	(1)
Argument & Debate	20	(1)
Benedict Arnold	20	(1)
Arts	20	(2)
Attention & Neglect	22	(1)
Bad Company	23	(1)
Baltimore	23	(1)
Banks & Banking	23	(1)
Bigotry	23	(1)
Bill of Rights	24	(1)
Books	25	(1)
Boston	25	(1)
Botany & Gardening	25	(1)
Bravery & Courage	26	(1)
Aaron Burr	26	(1)
Business & Trade	27	(3)
Change	30	(1)
Character	30	(1)
Charity	31	(1)
Children & Parenting	32	(1)
Cities	33	(1)
Civil Rights	34	(1)
Compromise & Moderation	34	(1)
Congress	34	(1)
Connecticut	35	(1)
Conscience	36	(1)
Consistency	37	(1)
Constitution	38	(10)
Corruption & Bribery	48	(1)
Crime & Punishment	48	(1)
Cynicism	49	(2)
Death	51	(2)
Declaration of Independence	53	(3)
Defamation & Personal Attacks	56	(1)
Democracy & Republicanism	57	(6)
Dependence	63	(1)
Difficulties & Adversity	63	(1)
Discipline	64	(1)
Due Process	65	(1)
Duty	66	(1)
Economics	67	(1)
Education	67	(5)
Elections & Politics	72	(2)
England (United Kingdom)	74	(4)
Envy & Malice	78	(1)
Equality & Equal Rights	78	(2)
Error	80	(1)
Excuses	81	(1)
Expansion & Manifest Destiny	81	(1)
Experience	82	(1)
Facts & Opinions	83	(1)
Faith	83	(1)
Family	83	(1)
First Settlers	84	(5)
The Flag	89	(1)
Flattery & Praise	89	(1)
Force & Coercion	90	(2)
Foreign Influence	92	(1)
Foreign Relations & Policy	92	(4)
France	96	(1)
Benjamin Franklin	97	(1)
Freedom	97	(2)
Freedom of Speech & Press	99	(5)
Friends & Friendship	104	(2)
Future	106	(1)
Abraham Alfonse Albert Galatin	107	(1)
Gambling	107	(1)
Geography	107	(1)
Georgia	108	(1)
God & Providence	108	(2)
Good & Evil	110	(1)
Government	110	(14)
Government Spending & Public Debt	124	(2)
Great Men & Statesmen	126	(1)
Greed	127	(1)
Guns & Weapons	127	(1)
Alexander Hamilton	128	(1)
Happiness	128	(2)
Health & Medicine	130	(1)
History	131	(2)
Honesty	133	(1)
Honor	133	(1)
Human Nature	134	(1)
Humanity	134	(1)
Humility	134	(1)
Hypocrisy	134	(2)
Immigration	136	(1)
Impeachment	137	(1)
Independence & National Freedom	137	(5)
Intelligence & Knowledge	142	(3)
Thomas Jefferson	145	(1)
John Paul Jones	146	(1)
Judiciary & the Courts	147	(5)
Juries	152	(1)
Justice	152	(2)
Kentucky	154	(1)
Kings & Aristocrats	154	(3)
Labor & Work	157	(1)
Language & Writing	158	(2)
Laws	160	(5)
Lawyers	165	(3)
Laziness & Sloth	168	(1)
Liberty	168	(8)
Lies & Falsehoods	176	(1)
Love	177	(1)
Luck & Good Fortune	178	(1)
James Madison	179	(1)
Majorities & Minorities	179	(1)
Manners	180	(1)
Marriage	181	(3)
Massachusetts	184	(1)
Means & Ends	184	(1)
Memory	184	(1)
Mercy & Compassion	184	(1)
Military & War	185	(11)
Modesty	196	(1)
Money	196	(1)
James Monroe	197	(1)
Morality & Moralists	198	(1)
Motives & Intentions	199	(1)
Native Americans	200	(5)
Natural Law	205	(2)
Nature & Wildlife	207	(1)
Necessity	208	(1)
New England	208	(1)
North Carolina	209	(1)
Thomas Paine	210	(1)
Passion	211	(1)
Patriotism	211	(6)
Patronage & Appointments	217	(1)
Peace	217	(2)
Pennsylvania	219	(1)
Perseverance & Determination	219	(1)
Pessimism & Optimism	220	(1)
Philosophy & Ethics	220	(1)
Pleasure & Pain	221	(1)
Political Parties & Factions	221	(2)
Posterity	223	(1)
Poverty & Economic Inequality	224	(2)
Power	226	(5)
Presidency	231	(2)
Pride & Vanity	233	(1)
Privacy	234	(1)
Progress	234	(1)
Property	234	(3)
Public Office	237	(2)
Public Opinion & Prejudice	239	(3)
Puritanism	242	(1)
Reason	243	(1)
Religion	244	(19)
Revolution & Rebellion	263	(17)
Rhode Island	280	(1)
Rights of the People	280	(5)
Search & Seizure	285	(1)
Secrecy & Discretion	286	(1)
Self-Discipline	287	(1)
Self-Interest	287	(1)
Self-Reliance	287	(1)
Separation of Power	288	(2)
Slavery & Race Relations	290	(12)
Solitude	302	(1)
Speeches & Oration	302	(1)
States' Rights & Federalism	302	(3)
Taxes	305	(3)
Theory & Practice	308	(1)
Time	308	(1)
Tobacco	309	(1)
Treason	309	(1)
Truth	310	(1)
Tyranny	311	(3)
Unity	314	(3)
Value	317	(1)
Vengence & Revenge	317	(1)
Vice Presidency	318	(1)
Virtue & Vice	319	(2)
War	321	(1)
George Washington	322	(1)
Witchcraft	323	(2)
Women	325	(3)
Youth	328	(1)
Names Index	329	(10)
Subject Index	339