“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy” is a popular quotation that has been credited to James Madison (1751-1836), but there is no evidence that he ever said it. The quotation has been cited in print since at least November 2001 and became frequently used in discussions about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
 
Madison did say “The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home” (1787) and “Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad” (1798).
 
   
Wikiquote: James Madison
James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was the fourth (1809–1817) President of the United States. He was co-author, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, of the Federalist Papers, and is traditionally regarded as the Father of the United States Constitution.
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Sourced
In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
. Speech, Constitutional Convention (1787-06-29), from Max Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. I (1911), p. 465
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Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad.
. Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1798-05-13); published in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. II, p. 141
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Unsourced
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
. This appears to be an inaccurate and out of context paraphrase of the “pretended from abroad” or “The means of defence agst. foreign danger,” quotes above.
   
Google Groups: alt.politics.democrats.d
Ninure Saunders
11/27/01
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“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”—James Madison
   
Reclaim Democracy!
“Patriot” Act II Bush Administration Escalates Its War on Americans’ Freedom
By Jeff Milchen
First published by Pacific News Service
February 11, 2003
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Now is the time to recall the words of James Madison: “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
     
BuzzFlash.com
June 29, 2004
The Founding Fathers Meet George Bush
by Maureen Farrell
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MADISON: “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” (As a U.S. Congressman)
 
Nugeblog
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2004
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
James Madison
POSTED BY TERRY NUGENT AT 3:17 PM
 
Google Books
It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong:
The Case for Personl Freedom
By Andrew P. Napolitano
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson
2011
Pg. 166:
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
—JAMES MADISON
 
Technoccult
Did James Madison Say “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”?
Posted on October 16, 2011 by Klint Finley
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Conclusion
If Madison said or wrote “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy,” no one seems to know when or where. That doesn’t mean that Madison never said it, but it definitely calls it into question. However, “The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home” is pretty close.
     
Godlike Productions
LuV!!
07/07/2012 07:23 AM
“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.”
— James Madison