From Parchment to Power Quotes

“The Bill of Rights slipped quietly into the Constitution and passed from sight and public consciousness until given a new and very different life by the Supreme Court more than a century later.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“citizen armies would be relied on, rather than a standing army, to the extent possible, for defense against foreign enemies.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“In short, there is no reason to believe that the authors of the Second Amendment thought it had anything to do with private ownership of arms or the personal use of guns, such as hunting or defense of the home.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“a majority when united by a common interest or passion cannot be restrained from oppressing the minority, what remedy can be found in a republican Government, where the majority must ultimately decide?”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“Wherever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“Finally, Madison dismissed religion as an effective restraint on oppressive mass behavior: "The inefficacy of this restraint on individuals is well known," and experience shows that religion "has been much oftener a motive to oppression than a restraint from it.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition