7 Principles
By: Dakota Gallier
Principle #1: Popular Sovereignty
"No government can have a right to obedience from people who have not freely consented to it." -John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government.
Principle #2: Republicanism
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence." -U.S. Constitution Article IV, Section 4
Principle #3: Seperation of Powers
~The legislative branch is responsible for creating and passing laws.
~The judicial interprets laws by hearing cases in court.
~The executive branch is responsible for enforcing laws.
"When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no Liberty. The same monarch or senate would enact tyrannical laws and execute them in a tyrannical manner." -Charles de Montesqieu, Spirit of Laws 1748
Principle #4: Checks and Balances
"Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated." -Article 1 Section 7.2, U.S. Constitution
Principle #5: Limited Government
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." -Amendment 1, U.S. Constitution
Principle #6: Federalism
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in State governments are numerous and indefinite." -James Madison, The Federalist No. 45
Principle #7: Individual Rights
"No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by the law." -Amendment III, U.S. Constitution