8 Andrew Johnson Quotes on Law

Andrew Johnson quotes on law

1. There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws.

9. Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests at least equally important and equally deserving the considerations of Congress.

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.

16. Our Government springs from and was made for the people - not the people for the Government. To them it owes allegiance; from them it must derive its courage, strength, and wisdom. But while the Government is thus bound to defer to the people, from whom it derives its existence, it should, from the very consideration of its origin, be strong in its power of resistance to the establishment of inequalities. Monopolies, perpetuities, and class legislation are contrary to the genius of free government, and ought not to be allowed. Here there is no room for favored classes or monopolies; the principle of our Government is that of equal laws and freedom of industry. Wherever monopoly attains a foothold, it is sure to be a source of danger, discord, and trouble. We shall but fulfill our duties as legislators by according 'equal and exact justice to all men,' special privileges to none.

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.

34. This is one of the last great battles with slavery. Driven from the legislative chambers, driven from the field of war, this monstrous power has found a refuge in the executive mansion, where, in utter disregard of the Constitution and laws, it seeks to exercise its ancient, far-reaching sway. All this is very plain. Nobody can question it. Andrew Johnson is the impersonation of the tyrannical slave power. In him it lives again.

35. Whatever may have been the opinion of the President at one time as to 'good faith requiring the security of the freemen in their liberty and their property,' it is now manifest from the character of his objections to this bill that he will approve no measures that will accomplish the object.