| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 37410 |
| QUOTATION: | In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | James Madison (1751–1836), U.S. president. Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 24, 1787. W.T. Hutchinson et al., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 10, pp. 213-14, Chicago and Charlottesville, Virginia (1962-1991). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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