TRUSTEES OF THE PEOPLE

“Members of Congress are trustees of the people and of our Nation.”

Congressional Record Vol. 164, No. 24, SEC. 3, Page H913 (House – February 7, 2018)

“In 1881 his party turned to him as the logical candidate for mayor of Bu alo. Again the
nomination was practically forced upon him, and in his letter of acceptance occurs the famous
phrase, “public o cials are the trustees of the people”, and from it was created the equally
famous slogan of his later campaign for President, “public o ce is a public trust.”

Congressional Record p2519 (House – March 19, 1937)

“While Madison’s paramount purpose was to rescue the people from the perils of an existing
condition bordering on anarchy, and to maintain justice between the States, he was also intent
upon preserving the rights of the States. In his view, it was through the Unton that the States
themselves were to be preserved. His conception was of the needs of a great people, and as
he put it, “the Federal and State Governments are in fact but di erent agents and trustees of
the people, of the people, constituted with di erent powers, and designed for di erent
purposes. Madison was seeking not to impair the necessary functions of State governments
but by conserving the essential interests of national security and stability to make it possible
for the people in their respective States to enjoy the advantages of the peaceful administration
of their local a airs. Madison very clearly recognized the necessity of providing for invalidating
State legislation which might be repugnant to the Constitution.”

Congressional Record p10475 (Senate – July 1, 1935)

“The fact that this country is large is no reason why we as trustees of the people should rush
into all sorts of useless expenditure, and be satis ed with the statement that there is a surplus
in the Treasury and the resources of the country are so great that it can stand any extravagance
whatever.”

Congressional Record p2193 (Senate – February 22, 1889)

“The federal and State governments are in fact but di erent agents and trustees of the people,
constituted with di erent powers, and designed for di erent purposes. The adversaries of the
Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject;
and to have viewed these di erent establishments, not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but
as uncontrolled by any common superior in their e orts to usurp the authorities of each other.
These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate
authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone, and that it will not
depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the di erent governments, whether
either, or which of them, will be able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the
other.”

The Federalist Papers: Madison, No. 46, January 29, 1788

” “My idea of government,” says Lord Abingdon, “to speak as a lawyer would do, is, that the
legislatures are the trustees of the people, the constitution the deed of gift, wherein they stood
seized to uses only, and those uses being named, they cannot depart from them; but for their
due performance are accountable to those by whose conveyance the trust was made. The
right is therefore duciary, the power limited; or, as a mathematician would say, more in the
road of demonstration; the constitution is a circle, the laws the radii of that circle, drawn on its
surface with the pen of the legislature, and it is the known quality of a circle that its radii cannot
exceed its circumference, whilst the people, like the compasses, are xed in the center, and
describe the circle.”

Luther Martin: A Citizen of the State of Maryland Remarks Relative to a Bill of Rights, 12 April
1788

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“That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, that magistrates are
their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.”

Virginia Constitution Article I Section 2 – People the Source of Power