Certainly the Government of the United States is a limited government, and so is every State government a limited government. With us this idea of limitation spreads through every form of administration — general, State, and municipal — and rests on the great distinguishing principle of the recognition of the rights of man. The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the state — prescribed his religion and controlled his activity. The American system rests on the assertion of the equal right of every man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to freedom of conscience, to the culture and exercise of all his faculties. As a consequence the State government is limited — as to the General Government in the interest of union, as to the individual citizen in the interest of freedom.
Andrew Johnson Carolinian
Source
No citation is recorded for this quotation.
- work
- First State of the Union Address (1865)
- year
- 1865
no citation recorded
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“Certainly the Government of the United States is a limited g…” Andrew Johnson. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-BF0CFF0BC6. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/bf0cff0bc6
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