Martin Van Buren

8th President of the United States
(1782-1862)

To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences, I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as are clearly with the constitutional authority of the Federal Government. {Wow, what a concept: the government appropriating funds ONLY for that which it is ALLOWED to do!}


The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.

It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.


There is a power in public opinion in this country and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens.


For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it.



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