The people are responsible for the character of their Congress.
Interpretation
Citizens play a crucial role in shaping the moral and ethical standards of their elected representatives.
James A. Garfield's quote emphasizes the idea that the quality and character of a nation's legislative body, in this case, Congress, directly reflect the values, choices, and actions of its citizens. It suggests that if the people desire integrity and virtue in their leaders, they must take responsibility for their own conduct in order to elect representatives who embody those qualities.
In practice
In a speech about civic duty at a local town hall meeting.
Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics.
I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.
Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.
If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
China is a vast, disparate country; there is no alternative to strong central power.
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.
There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.
Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we're going to have to put it back in the hands of the people.
These political movements flourish on the margins of Turkish society because of poverty and because of the people's feeling that they are not being represented.
There also exists another alliance - at first glance a strange one, a surprising one - but if you think about it, in fact, one which is well grounded and easy to understand. This is the alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists. This alliance is not new. ... We observe continuous and steady support by the businessmen of the West of the Soviet Communist leaders.
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