# Early American warnings about tyranny

## A verified quotation collection — second edition

Prepared for Carl N. Merkle • October 4, 2026

**53 source-verified passages, from colonial political thought through 1820.** This is a substantial first collection, not a claim to have found every surviving quotation. “Early Americans” here includes colonial residents, Revolutionary figures, women, Black writers, and the founding generation. Historical British subjects are included where their writing belongs to the American colonial experience. British and European authors quoted by Americans are separately identified.

### How to use this collection

Each numbered entry supplies the words, author, date, document, source link, and context. Quotations follow the consulted transcription; spelling and capitalization vary by historical edition. Typographical quotation marks and dash styling may be standardized. No wording inside a quotation is silently paraphrased. Some excerpts begin or end inside longer sentences; the notes identify those cases. Verification means the passage is present in the cited historical document or a reliable reproduction; it does not establish that every allegation or prediction in it was true.

The collection includes exact occurrences of *tyranny*, *tyrant*, *tyrannical*, and *despotism*, plus clearly labeled related passages concerning arbitrary power, oppression, jury trials, accountability, and restraints. Several quotations come from one document; **53 passages does not mean 53 independent documents**. Convention speeches survive through reporters and later published debate collections, rather than recordings. Brutus is a secure pseudonymous attribution, not a certain personal identification.

### Useful starting points

- **Definition and elected tyranny:** entries 4–6, 25, 27–31, 46.
- **British rule and the Declaration:** entries 11–22, 53.
- **Courts, juries, and imprisonment:** entries 3, 16–18, 32–34, 41–42, 48, 52.
- **Faith, conscience, and public morality:** entries 2–3, 6, 9–10, 22, 25–26, 47, 51, 53.
- **Tyranny on American soil:** entries 23–53; especially Banneker's challenge to slavery in 49–50.

## I. Colonial thought, British rule, and the Revolution

### 1. Law, consent, and tyranny

**William Penn — 1682**  
*Preface to the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania*

> Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion.

**Context:** A documented Penn passage. He evaluates monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy by law and popular participation, rather than by the name of the form.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/pa04.asp)

### 2. Religious duty and tyrants

**Jonathan Mayhew — 1750**  
*A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers*

> Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not intitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of any thing here laid down by the inspired apostle.

**Context:** Mayhew's interpretation of Romans 13; he argues against unconditional obedience to oppressive rulers. This is theological argument, not a universal statement of law.

[Read the source](https://founding.com/founders-library/preachers-pen/a-discourse-concerning-the-unlimited-submission-and-non-resistance-to-the-high-powers-1750-jonathan-mayhew/)

### 3. Partial administration of justice

**Jonathan Mayhew — 1750**  
*A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers*

> But if magistrates are unrighteous; if they are respecters of persons; if they are partial in their administration of justice; then those who do well have as much reason to be afraid, as those that do evil: there can be no safety for the good, nor any peculiar ground of terror to the unruly and injurious.

**Context:** In the same sermon, Mayhew reasons that partial justice defeats government's protective purpose. Related oppression passage; it does not use the word tyranny.

[Read the source](https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3999&smtID=3)

### 4. Tyranny by one, few, or many

**James Otis — 1764**  
*The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved*

> Tyranny of all kinds is to be abhor'd, whether it be in the hands of one, or of the few, or of the many.

**Context:** Otis condemns tyranny in every form of government. In 1764 he still praised the British constitutional system; this is not yet a declaration of independence.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s5.html)

### 5. Truth, justice, and equity

**James Otis — 1764**  
*The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved*

> The same law of nature and of reason is equally obligatory on a democracy, an aristocracy, and a monarchy: Whenever the administrators, in any of those forms, deviate from truth, justice and equity, they verge towards tyranny, and are to be opposed; and if they prove incorrigible, they will be deposed by the people, if the people are not rendered too abject.

**Context:** Otis immediately illustrates removal in a democracy through changing votes and administrators.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s5.html)

### 6. Age of an abuse does not justify it

**James Otis — 1764**  
*The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved*

> But if every prince since Nimrod had been a tyrant, it would not prove a right to tyranize. There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the law of nature, and the grant of God almighty; who has given to all men a natural right to be free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves so, if they please.

**Context:** A natural-rights and religious argument against treating long-standing domination as rightful.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s5.html)

### 7. Decay of virtue and lost liberty

**John Dickinson — 1767–1768**  
*Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, Letter XII*

> Some states have lost their liberty by particular accidents; but this calamity is generally owing to the decay of virtue. A people is travelling fast to destruction, when individuals consider their interests as distinct from those of the public.

**Context:** Letter XII, during opposition to the Townshend policies. Related liberty passage, not an exact occurrence of tyranny.

[Read the source](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47111/47111-h/47111-h.htm)

### 8. Personal captivity and tyrannic sway

**Phillis Wheatley — written 1772; book published 1773**  
*To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth*

> Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
> Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

**Context:** The preceding lines describe her childhood seizure from Africa and her parents' suffering. Her appeal links personal enslavement with a poem about colonial liberty; it should not be reduced solely to British taxation.

[Read the source](https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/206/poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral/4900/to-the-right-hon-william-earl-of-dartmouth-his-majestys-principal-secretary-of-state-for-north-america/)

### 9. Distant rule and tyranny

**John Witherspoon — May 17, 1776**  
*The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men*

> And there is a certain distance from the seat of government, where an attempt to rule will either produce tyranny and helpless subjection, or provoke resistance and effect a separation.

**Context:** A Princeton sermon during the conflict with Britain, delivered before Witherspoon signed the Declaration.

[Read the source](https://www.consource.org/document/the-dominion-of-providence-over-the-passions-of-men-by-john-witherspoon-1776-5-17/)

### 10. Even a good constitution can fail

**John Witherspoon — May 17, 1776**  
*The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men*

> A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.

**Context:** His warning about corruption of public morals. Here slavery is used for political subjection; label it accordingly.

[Read the source](https://www.consource.org/document/the-dominion-of-providence-over-the-passions-of-men-by-john-witherspoon-1776-5-17/)

### 11. Independence and eternal tyranny

**Thomas Paine — 1776; consulted edition February 14**  
*Common Sense, Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs*

> Ye that oppose independance now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government.

**Context:** Paine argues that failing to create an American government invites domination and opportunistic seizure of power.

[Read the source](https://thomaspaine.org/major-works/common-sense/)

### 12. Law above a ruler

**Thomas Paine — 1776; consulted edition February 14**  
*Common Sense, Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs*

> For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

**Context:** Related rule-of-law passage. The preceding paragraph proposes a symbolic charter ceremony, refers to the word of God, and says America's king reigns above. It is Paine's proposal in 1776, not a provision enacted in the later Constitution.

[Read the source](https://thomaspaine.org/major-works/common-sense/)

### 13. Absolute tyranny over the states

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

**Context:** An accusation adopted by Congress; principally drafted by Jefferson but properly attributed to the adopted Declaration or Continental Congress.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 14. Absolute despotism and new safeguards

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

**Context:** The preceding sentence counsels against changing long-established governments for light and transient causes. Preserve that qualification when explaining the passage.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 15. A tyrant cannot rule a free people

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

**Context:** The sentence follows the complaint that repeated petitions received repeated injury.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 16. Obstruction of justice

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

**Context:** One particular grievance offered in support of the Declaration's tyranny charge.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 17. Judges dependent on a ruler

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

**Context:** A grievance against royal control of judges. It concerns judicial dependence, not a claim that judicial independence itself is tyranny.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 18. Deprivation of jury trials

**Continental Congress — July 4, 1776**  
*Declaration of Independence, adopted text*

> For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

**Context:** Another grievance supporting the tyranny accusation. A historical complaint, not a statement that every possible proceeding requires a jury.

[Read the source](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript)

### 19. Reconciliation would invite renewed tyranny

**Benjamin Franklin — July 21, 1776**  
*Letter to Lord Howe, excerpt reproduced by the National Archives*

> And this must impel you, were we again under your Government, to endeavour the breaking our Sprit by the severest Tyranny, and obstructing by every means in your Power our growing Strength and Prosperity

**Context:** Franklin explains why return to British government is unacceptable. The National Archives reproduction reads 'Sprit'; preserved here rather than silently correcting the transcription.

[Read the source](https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2012/06/20/in-their-own-words-john-adams-and-ben-franklin-part-i/)

### 20. Tyranny and perseverance

**Thomas Paine — December 1776; commonly headed December 23**  
*The American Crisis, No. I*

> Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

**Context:** Opening paragraph of Crisis I, written during the Revolutionary War.

[Read the source](https://thomaspaine.org/major-works/the-crisis-i/)

### 21. Britain's claim to bind the colonies

**Thomas Paine — December 1776; commonly headed December 23**  
*The American Crisis, No. I*

> Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth.

**Context:** Paine attacks unlimited parliamentary authority. The words about binding are his quotation of Britain's asserted legislative power.

[Read the source](https://thomaspaine.org/major-works/the-crisis-i/)

### 22. Unlimited power belongs only to God

**Thomas Paine — December 1776; commonly headed December 23**  
*The American Crisis, No. I*

> Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to GOD.

**Context:** This sentence refers to the immediately preceding British claim in entry 21. It should not circulate without that antecedent.

[Read the source](https://thomaspaine.org/major-works/the-crisis-i/)

## II. Tyranny within American society and government

### 23. Unlimited power in American households

**Abigail Adams — March 31, 1776; letter continued April 5**  
*Letter to John Adams*

> Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.

**Context:** Part of 'Remember the Ladies.' This concerns married women's legal position in the new American order, rather than only royal tyranny.

[Read the source](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0241)

### 24. Cruelty without accountability

**Abigail Adams — March 31, 1776; letter continued April 5**  
*Letter to John Adams*

> Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity.

**Context:** An adjacent appeal for protection of women. A related oppression passage; her capitalization and spelling are preserved.

[Read the source](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0241)

### 25. Rulers who exceed their authority

**James Madison — June 20, 1785**  
*Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments*

> The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants.

**Context:** Section 2. The encroachment is on the barrier protecting people's rights, in an argument against Virginia's proposed religious assessment. Do not omit that context.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/amendI_religions43.html)

### 26. Spiritual and political tyranny

**James Madison — June 20, 1785**  
*Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments*

> In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people.

**Context:** Section 8. 'They' means ecclesiastical establishments. Madison critiques state establishment, not private religious belief or all religious participation in public life.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/amendI_religions43.html)

### 27. The definition of tyranny

**James Madison — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 47*

> The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

**Context:** Madison defends the proposed Constitution against this charge. Later passages explain that checks and partial blending of powers need not violate the principle.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed47.asp)

### 28. Legislative tyranny

**James Madison — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 48*

> They seem never to have recollected the danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations.

**Context:** 'They' refers to founders of state republics. Madison warns that elected legislatures can threaten liberty, too.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed48.asp)

### 29. Elective despotism

**Thomas Jefferson, quoted by James Madison — Notes composed in the early 1780s; quotation published in 1788**  
*Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIII, as quoted in Federalist No. 48*

> An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

**Context:** Jefferson's criticism of Virginia's arrangements, explicitly quoted by Madison. Capitalization and wording here follow Federalist No. 48, not a claimed transcription of Jefferson's second edition.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed48.asp)

### 30. Government must control itself

**James Madison — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 51*

> In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

**Context:** A central constitutional response to abuse; related restraint passage without the word tyranny.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp)

### 31. Human nature and government controls

**James Madison — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 51*

> If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

**Context:** Madison argues that dependence on virtuous officeholders alone is insufficient; institutional controls are also necessary.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp)

### 32. Independent judges against oppression

**Alexander Hamilton — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 78*

> In a monarchy it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince; in a republic it is a no less excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative body.

**Context:** 'It' means judicial tenure during good behavior. Hamilton presents independence as protection against oppression.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed78.asp)

### 33. Individual oppression by courts

**Alexander Hamilton — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 78*

> It equally proves, that though individual oppression may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; I mean so long as the judiciary remains truly distinct from both the legislature and the Executive.

**Context:** Include the full qualification. Hamilton acknowledges possible individual oppression while defending the judiciary's structural independence.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed78.asp)

### 34. Arbitrary imprisonment

**Alexander Hamilton — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 84*

> The creation of crimes after the commission of the fact, or, in other words, the subjecting of men to punishment for things which, when they were done, were breaches of no law, and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

**Context:** Hamilton's own sentence. The next paragraph quotes Blackstone; do not attribute Blackstone's words to Hamilton.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed84.asp)

### 35. Tyranny of rulers

**Patrick Henry — June 5, 1788**  
*Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, recorded debate*

> I am not well versed in history, but I will submit to your recollection, whether liberty has been destroyed most often by the licentiousness of the people, or by the tyranny of rulers. I imagine, sir, you will find the balance on the side of tyranny.

**Context:** A recorded ratification speech opposing the Constitution as then proposed. This is Henry's historical judgment, not an independently demonstrated statistical conclusion.

[Read the source](https://users.wfu.edu/zulick/340/henry.html)

### 36. Standing armies enforcing tyranny

**Patrick Henry — June 5, 1788**  
*Virginia Ratifying Convention, Elliot's Debates 3:51–53*

> A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them?

**Context:** Henry's warning about the proposed national government's military power. A prediction and objection in debate, not a finding about a later administration.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_16s10.html)

### 37. Reliance on good rulers

**Patrick Henry — June 5, 1788**  
*Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, recorded debate*

> Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty!

**Context:** Henry challenges reliance on the personal virtue of American rulers. Recorded in convention debates, not a surviving audio or verbatim stenographic transcript.

[Read the source](https://users.wfu.edu/zulick/340/henry.html)

### 38. Press freedom and growing despotism

**Mercy Otis Warren — 1788**  
*Observations on the New Constitution, published as A Columbian Patriot*

> Despotism usually while it is gaining ground, will suffer men to think, say, or write what they please; but when once established, if it is thought necessary to subserve the purposes, of arbitrary power, the most unjust restrictions may take place in the first instance, and an imprimatur on the Press in the next, may silence the complaints, and forbid the most decent remonstrances of an injured and oppressed people.

**Context:** Objection 2. Warren argues for protections of conscience and press. This was before the federal Bill of Rights.

[Read the source](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72627/pg72627-images.html)

### 39. The proposed Constitution and aristocratic tyranny

**Mercy Otis Warren — 1788**  
*Observations on the New Constitution*

> a Constitution, which, by the undefined meaning of some parts, and the ambiguities of expression in others, is dangerously adapted to the purposes of an immediate aristocratic tyranny; that from the difficulty, if not impracticability of its operation, must soon terminate in the most uncontrouled despotism.

**Context:** A continuous excerpt from a longer sentence. Warren's Anti-Federalist prediction; not a settled description shared by all founders.

[Read the source](https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/mercy-otis-warren-observations-on-the-new-constitution-1788)

### 40. Unrepresented residents of the federal district

**Thomas Tredwell — July 2, 1788**  
*New York Ratifying Convention, Elliot's Debates 2:402*

> The plan of the federal city, sir, departs from every principle of freedom, as far as the distance of the two polar stars from each other; for, subjecting the inhabitants of that district to the exclusive legislation of Congress, in whose appointment they have no share or vote, is laying a foundation on which may be erected as complete a tyranny as can be found in the Eastern world.

**Context:** A ratification-era objection to the federal district's representation and congressional control.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_17s7.html)

### 41. Judicial expansion of federal power

**Brutus (pseudonym; commonly attributed to Robert Yates) — January 31, 1788**  
*Brutus XI*

> The judicial power will operate to effect, in the most certain, but yet silent and imperceptible manner, what is evidently the tendency of the constitution:—I mean, an entire subversion of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the individual states.

**Context:** A related usurpation warning. Attribute securely to the pseudonym Brutus; the individual author is commonly identified as Yates but is not certain.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s31.html)

### 42. A court with no higher appeal

**Brutus (pseudonym; commonly attributed to Robert Yates) — March 20, 1788**  
*Brutus XV*

> There is no power above them that can correct their errors or controul their decisions- The adjudications of this court are final and irreversible, for there is no court above them to which appeals can lie, either in error or on the merits.

**Context:** Brutus discusses the proposed Supreme Court. Do not misapply this to every lower court, or read it as denying all constitutional mechanisms of accountability.

[Read the source](https://www.consource.org/document/brutus-xv-1788-3-20/)

### 43. Factional domination

**George Washington — published September 19, 1796**  
*Farewell Address*

> The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

**Context:** A warning about American party conflict and the route to authoritarian rule. Address issued by Washington with substantial drafting assistance from Hamilton.

[Read the source](https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/washington-s-farewell-address-1796)

### 44. Consolidated departmental power

**George Washington — published September 19, 1796**  
*Farewell Address*

> The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.

**Context:** Separation-of-powers warning. Date is publication September 19; the Mount Vernon transcription's closing date is September 17.

[Read the source](https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/washington-s-farewell-address-1796)

### 45. Usurpation destroys free government

**George Washington — published September 19, 1796**  
*Farewell Address*

> But let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.

**Context:** Washington directs that changes in constitutional distribution of powers be made through the prescribed amendment process.

[Read the source](https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/washington-s-farewell-address-1796)

### 46. Elected leaders can confer tyranny

**Thomas Jefferson — 1798**  
*Draft resolutions relative to the Alien and Sedition Acts*

> Let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to, and accepted over the friendly strangers to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws have pledged hospitality and protection

**Context:** Jefferson's draft language against the Alien and Sedition Acts. The cited edition reproduces draft resolutions; do not label every part of this text as the final Kentucky enactment. The excerpt ends before the sentence's colon.

[Read the source](https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s41.html)

### 47. Tyranny over the mind

**Thomas Jefferson — September 23, 1800**  
*Letter to Benjamin Rush, authenticated extract*

> for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

**Context:** An authenticated extract. The letter's context concerns religion, clergy, and the 1800 election; the words alone do not settle any particular modern church-state question.

[Read the source](https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/sworn-upon-the-altar-of-god-quotation)

### 48. Judicial oligarchy

**Thomas Jefferson — September 28, 1820**  
*Letter to William Charles Jarvis, printed in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. VII, pp. 178–179*

> You seem, in pages 84 and 148, to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so.

**Context:** Jefferson's position on ultimate constitutional interpretation among coequal departments. It is his argument, not a statement of current judicial-review doctrine.

[Read the source](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56035/56035-h/56035-h.htm)

### 49. British tyranny recalled

**Benjamin Banneker — August 19, 1791; consulted pamphlet published 1792**  
*Letter to Thomas Jefferson*

> Sir, suffer me to recal to your mind that time, in which the arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude

**Context:** A continuous excerpt ending before the original colon. Banneker appeals to Jefferson's Revolutionary experience as the basis for an anti-slavery challenge.

[Read the source](https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/inde-bbanneker-letters-tjefferson-1791.htm)

### 50. Tyrannical captivity in America

**Benjamin Banneker — August 19, 1791; consulted pamphlet published 1792**  
*Letter to Thomas Jefferson*

> I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed

**Context:** A continuous excerpt within the longer sentence. Banneker, a free Black American, contrasts his liberty with the enslavement of others on American soil.

[Read the source](https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/inde-bbanneker-letters-tjefferson-1791.htm)

### 51. Constitutional restraints and moral restraint

**John Adams — October 11, 1798**  
*Letter to officers of the Massachusetts militia*

> Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion.

**Context:** Related moral-restraint passage. Adams goes on to name avarice, ambition, revenge, and 'Galantry' as threats to constitutional safeguards. This alone does not specify a required denomination.

[Read the source](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102)

### 52. Judicial despotism

**Alexander Hamilton — 1788**  
*The Federalist, No. 83*

> Arbitrary impeachments, arbitrary methods of prosecuting pretended offenses, and arbitrary punishments upon arbitrary convictions, have ever appeared to me to be the great engines of judicial despotism; and these have all relation to criminal proceedings.

**Context:** Hamilton argues for criminal juries and habeas corpus, while distinguishing civil proceedings. Do not quote this as his endorsement of an unrestricted jury right in every civil or equity matter.

[Read the source](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed83.asp)

### 53. Rebellion to tyrants and obedience to God

**Motto proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1776; later used by Thomas Jefferson**  
*Proposed Great Seal motto; Jefferson’s personal seal*

> Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

**Context:** Franklin proposed this motto with a Great Seal design depicting Moses, the Red Sea, and Pharaoh’s defeat. John Adams described the proposal in his August 14, 1776 letter to Abigail. The final Great Seal did not adopt it. Jefferson later used the words on his personal seal; Monticello identifies an intact impression on his April 4, 1790 letter to Richard Gem. “Rebellion,” rather than “Resistance,” is the wording verified in these sources. The phrase’s use by Franklin and Jefferson is documented; its original authorship remains less certain. It also appeared in a supposed John Bradshaw epitaph circulated in colonial newspapers, possibly written by Franklin.

[Jefferson’s personal seal — Monticello](https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/personal-seal)  
[Adams’s account of Franklin’s proposal — American Revolution Institute](https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/lesson-plans/objects-of-revolution/the-great-seal-of-the-united-states/)  
[Jefferson’s manuscript and earlier history — Monticello](https://www.monticello.org/stories/hiding-in-the-archives-identifying-a-priceless-jefferson-manuscript-of-1776)

## Attribution checks and limits

### Penn's “governed by God / ruled by tyrants” saying

Do not list the meme's sentence as a verified Penn quotation, and do not attach the date 1668. The Congressional Research Service quotation reference *Respectfully Quoted* reports that it has not been found in Penn's writings. Entry 1 is a documented alternative. References: [CRS quotation entry reproduced at Bartleby](https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/william-penn-16441718-4/) and [attribution history](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Penn#Misattributed). The latter is a reference aid, not a Penn primary source.

### Blackstone quoted by Hamilton

Federalist No. 84 follows entry 34 with words about secretly hurrying a person to jail and the danger of arbitrary government. Hamilton explicitly identifies these as **William Blackstone's** words. Blackstone was an English jurist, so that passage belongs in a companion list of British sources used by Americans, not a list of original American quotations. [Read the surrounding text](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed84.asp).

### Distinct positions must remain distinct

Hamilton defended independent judges as safeguards; Brutus and Jefferson warned about their potential power. Henry and Warren objected to the Constitution as then proposed; Madison and Hamilton defended it. Washington warned against usurpation while also insisting on obedience to the established constitutional government. These are real disagreements, not one uniform founding position.

The historical documents may support an argument about safeguards or abuse, but applying them to a particular current dispute requires evidence of what happened and the relevant legal rules. This collection makes no determination about any modern official or case.

## Further work needed for an exhaustive catalogue

An exhaustive project needs a defined corpus and reproducible search, rather than a finite list of famous sayings. Next search targets include John Adams's 1765 Dissertation and Novanglus essays; Samuel Adams's correspondence; James Otis's other pamphlets; the full Dickinson and Paine corpora; colonial petitions and congressional declarations from 1764–1775; all state ratifying conventions; additional Federalist and Anti-Federalist essays; political sermons; early state constitutions; and founding-generation correspondence through 1826.

Search terms should include *tyranny*, *tyrant*, *tyrants*, *tyrannical*, *tyranize*, *despot*, *despotism*, *arbitrary power*, *usurpation*, *oppression*, *enslavement*, and historical spelling variants. Record every occurrence, exclude quotations borrowed from another author when counting original statements, group duplicates, and distinguish contemporary writing from later recollections. Full-text databases and scanned print must both be checked because OCR misses words.

This edition does not claim an exhaustive search of those corpora. Its 53 entries are ready for source-grounded study and selective quotation, subject to the context notes above.