5 Andrew Johnson Quotes on Constitution

Andrew Johnson quotes on constitution

14. 'The sovereignty of the States' is the language of the Confederacy, and not the language of the Constitution. The latter contains the emphatic words - This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

15. 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.

21. Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.

22. I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.

24. Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.