William Henry Harrison

Quotes

• “The strongest of all governments is that which is most free.”
• “...there is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.”
• “It is necessary, therefore, to watch, not the political opponents of the administration, but the administration itself, and to see that it keeps within the bounds of the Constitution and the laws of the land. The executive of the Union has immense power to do mischief if he sees fit to exercise that power. He may prostrate the country. Indeed this country has been already prostrated. It has already fallen from pure republicanism to a monarchy in spirit if not in name.”
• “Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.”
• “The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.”
• “…it is preposterous to suppose that a thought could for a moment have been entertained that the President, placed at the capital, in the center of the country, could better understand the wants and wishes of the people than their own immediate representatives, who spend a part of every year among them, living with them, often laboring with them, and bound to them by the triple tie of interest, duty, and affection.”

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Wikidata facts

Image

William Henry Harrison by James Reid Lambdin, 1835.jpg

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