National government

Definition and stakes

Francis X. Hennessy,  Citizen or Subject? (1923)

“ The national government possesses those powers which it can be shown the people have conferred on it, and no more.... We are here to administer a Constitution emanating immediately from the people, and trusted by them to our administration.... This government, sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of state legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on state sovereignties.... ”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson,  Congressional Government (1885, 1900)

“ The government of a country so vast and various must be strong, prompt, wieldy, and efficient. Its strength must consist in the certainty and uniformity of its purposes, in its accord with national sentiment, in its unhesitating action, and in its honest aims. It must be steadied and approved by open administration diligently obedient to the more permanent judgments of public opinion; and its only active agency, its representative chambers, must be equipped with something besides abundant powers of legislation. ”
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of John Taylor of Caroline John Taylor of Caroline,  An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814)

“ How much more sublime is the idea of forming a great nation, by a chain of republicks, subordinate to publick good, than by a chain of satraps subordinate to imperial will, or of chartered companies subordinate to selfish avarice? Such a system stands upon national interest. No people, except ourselves, have seriously attempted to make this interest the basis of civil government. ”
Source: Wikisource

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