| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | | | | | | NUMBER: | 941 | | AUTHOR: | Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) | | QUOTATION: | The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow,) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one. | | ATTRIBUTION: | THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821.—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 15, pp. 331–32 (1903). | | SUBJECTS: | Judiciary | | |
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