Quote
By James Buchanan
Public virtue is the vital spirit of republics, and history proves that when this has decayed and the love of money has usurped its place, although the forms of free government may remain for a season, the substance has departed forever.
- Source
- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857
- Read at
- The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara
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About this quote
From James Buchanan's inaugural address on March 4, 1857, in a passage on keeping government free of corruption.