Government is not reason, it is not eloquence --it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment
should it be left to irresponsible action." -GEORGE WASHINGTON -JANUARY 7, 1790
If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected
by an ammendment in the way in which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this in one
instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. -GEORGE WASHINGTON
America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the
inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly
of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand
of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.
She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal
liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.
She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations
while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been
for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.
She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate
power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart,
her benedictions and her prayers be.
But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example...She well knows that
by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself
beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition which assume the
colors and usurp the standards of freedom.
-JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, July 4, 1821
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!
All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted)
in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio,
or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach
of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad.
If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live
through all time, or die by suicide.
...I know the American People are much attached to their Government;--I know they would suffer much
for its sake; --I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they would ever think of
exchanging it for another.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be
secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation
of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.
-ABRAHAM LINCOLN, JANUARY 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and
political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters
or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition
to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races
living together on terms of social and political equality.
And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much
as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that
because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN -September 18, 1858 - Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union
without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save
the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe
what I am doing hurts the cause,and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
-ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AUGUST 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley
If you have grievous sufferings through your own wrongheadedness, charge not the gods with having
assigned you this lot. You yourselves have raised up these men by giving means of protection, and it is
through this that you have gained the evil of servitude. Each separate man of you walks with the tread
of a fox, but in the mass you have the brain of an idiot; for you look to the tongue and the words of a
wheedler, and never turn your eyes to the deed as it is being done.
-SOLON OF ATHENS, 6TH CENTURY BC
As for my madness, a little time shall make its nature plain to the citizens, yea, plain indeed, when truth
comes forth into public view.
-SOLON, Archon Eponymous of Athens, 594 BC
At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless
and harmless members of the government.
Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous;
that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold
and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent
and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping,
by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one
has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance.
In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.
-THOMAS JEFFERSON,OCTOBER 31, 1823 -Letter to Monsieur A. Coray
In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief
by the chains of the Constitution. -THOMAS JEFFERSON -Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
By the general power to make treaties, the Constitution must have intended to comprehend only those objects which are usually regulated
by treaties, and cannot otherwise be regulated. It must have meant to except out all those rights reserved to the states; for surely
the President and the Senate cannot do by treaty what the whole government is interdicted from doing in any way.
-THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1801
A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."
-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN -1787
Courtesy THE NEW AMERICAN
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing the proofs I see of this truth--
that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice,
is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN -Philidelphia Convention, June 28, 1787
Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its Faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government
necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered;
and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism
as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Final Speech at the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
-Attributed to BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Letter from the Pennsylvania Assembly dated November 11, 1755 to the Governor of Pennsylvania.
more details
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons
ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation,
commerce and agriculture,in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture,
statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
JOHN ADAMS, Letter to Abigail Adams, Spring 1780
You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by
human laws, rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe. -JOHN ADAMS
We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality
and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate
for the government of any other. -JOHN ADAMS
I testify that America is a choice land. God raised up the founding fathers of the United States of America
and established the inspired Constitution...
I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized,
more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power,
gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations,
and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.
-EZRA TAFT BENSON, October 2, 1988
This nation came into being only through freedom of choice, sacrifice, labor, and struggle. Brave Americans
gave their lives in the settlement of this nation -- and in its preservation. Let us remember our heritage and recognize that the day
of courage, labor, and sacrifice is never done. For the welfare of America, each citizen must develop a keener sense of responsibility
for the solution of public questions -- all public questions. Our people must think. They must discuss. They must have the courage
of their convictions. They must decide on a course of action and they must follow through. All this must be done freely, in the open,
without government dictation or control. -EZRA TAFT BENSON, Teachings, p.579
I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles
are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic -- it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take
their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a
more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.
-JAMES MADISON, in Congress, April 9, 1789
It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty
hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.
-JAMES MADISON, Federalist No. 37
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those
which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.
-JAMES MADISON, Federalist No. 45
Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security,
or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
JAMES MADISON, Federalist No. 10
For not only every democracy, but certainly every republic, bears within itself the seeds of its own
destruction. The difference is that for a soundly conceived and solidly endowed republic it takes a
great deal longer for those seeds to germinate and the plants to grow. The American republic was
bound -- is still bound -- to follow in the centuries to come the same course to destruction as did
Rome.
But our real ground of complaint is that we have been pushed down the demagogic road to disaster
by conspiratorial hands, far sooner and far faster than would have been the results of natural
political evolution. -ROBERT WELCH, September 17, 1961
I want for our country enough laws to restrain me from injuring others, so that these laws will also
restrain others from injuring me. I want enough government, with enough constitutional safeguards,
so that this necessary minimum of laws will be applied equitably to everybody, and will be binding on
the rulers as well as those ruled. Beyond that I want neither laws nor government to be imposed on our people as a means or with the
excuse of protecting us from catching cold, or of seeing that we raise the right kind of crops, or of forcing us to live in the right kind
of houses or neighborhoods, or of compelling us to save money or to spend it, or of telling us when or whether we can pray.
I do not want government or laws designed for any other form of welfarism or paternalism, based on the premise that government knows
best and can run our lives better than we can run them ourselves. And my concept of freedom, and of its overwhelming importance,
is implicit in these aspirations and ideals. -ROBERT WELCH
The Constitution is not fashion, it is principle. Regular laws may be made to fit fashion, but the
Constitution is no ordinary law, and though laws are created and destroyed, and are born and pass away,
principles never die. That is why the Constitution could fit and govern a people in any era and in any
place in the world, if only they would be worthy to receive it.
The natural hierarchy of power is laid thus: government at the bottom, for governments are instituted and
created necessarily by man. Then man, because he was created by God, who sits at the top, for he created us all
This hierarchy is gradually switching order in our time. There is great danger in putting government above
its creator in power. This danger was carried in the message of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. For if
the created at any point becomes more powerful than the creator, it will unavoidably turn on the creator.
-KEMPTON COX, Robert Welch University Rocky Mountain Summer Camp, June 2005
The world maintains that truth is enlightening, but I now suppose that we know we've found real truth when the great irony occurs.
That is to say, when there is so much inherent responsibility contained within the truth that enlightenment becomes burdensome.
It's not depressing, it's a call to duty. -KEMPTON COX, RWU Summer Camp, June 2005
I love to think of Nature as wireless telegraph stations through which God speaks to us every day,
every hour, and every moment of our lives." -GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
Why, I just took a handful of peanuts and looked at them. "Great Creator," I said, "why did you make
the peanut? Why?" With such knowledge as I had of chemistry and physics I set to work to take the peanut apart.
I separated the water, the fats, the oils, the gums, the resins, sugars, starches, pectoses, pentoses,
pentosans, legumen, lysin, the amino and amido acids. There! I had the parts of the peanut all spread
out before me. Then I merely went on to try different combinations of those parts, under different
conditions of temperature, pressure, and so forth. -GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
How I thank God every day that I can walk and talk with him. Just last week I was reminded of his omnipotence,
majesty and power through a little specimen of mineral sent me for analysis from Bakersfield, California. I have dissolved it, purified it,
made conditions favorable for the formation of crystals, when before my very eyes, a beautiful bunch of sea green crystals have formed and
alongside of them a bunch of snow white ones. Marvel of marvels, how I wish I had you in God's little workshop for a while, how your
soul would be thrilled and lifted up. -GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER, Letter to Jack Boyd, YMCA, 1927
In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary
organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most
influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy
of the daily press....
They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. "An agreement was
reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each
paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism,
financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests
of the purchasers."
-CONGRESSMAN OSCAR CALLAWAY, Congressional Record, 1917
I introduced this legislation [HR 1146] because I do not believe it is in our interest to be in the United Nations,
principally because it undermines our national sovereignty. And I think current events verify that.
-CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL, The New American, 2003
CAFTA and other international trade agreements do not represent free trade. Free trade occurs in the absence
of government interference in the flow of goods, while CAFTA represents more government in the form of an
international body. It is incompatible with our Constitution and national sovereignty, and we don’t need it to
benefit from international trade. -CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL, Texas Straight Talk, June 6, 2005
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and
shortest means to accomplish it. — ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE
I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and ample rivers, and it was not
there. I sought it in her fertile lands and boundless prairies, and it was not there. Not until I went into the
churches of America, and her pulpits aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and
her power. America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
-ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE, Democracy in America, 1835
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they
can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the
candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy collapses over loose
fiscal policy...always followed by a dictatorship. -ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE
The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations,
if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her powerful good, and endanger her very existence.
Leave her to march freely through the centuries to come, as in the years that have gone. Strong, generous,
and confident, she has nobly served mankind. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance — this great
land of ordered liberty. For if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin.
-SENATOR HENRY CABOT LODGE, 1919
