The Coming Election

"No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was ever more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm."

George Washington

Guarding Liberty and Order

"Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe, until a trespass on the consitutional provisions for either shall be felt with the same keenness that resents an invasion of the dearest rigths, until every citizen shall be an Argus to espy, and an Aegeon to avenge, the unhallowed deed."

James Madison

Swindling Futurity

"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

New Debt

"To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones."

George Washington

Debt

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes-a principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world."

Thomas Jefferson

Personal Merit

"In a Republic personal merit alone could be the ground of political exaltation, but it would rarely happen that this merit would be so pre-eminent as to produce universal acquiesence."

James Madison

What do we mean by Revolution?

"As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar perhaps singular. What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington."

John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

Choicest Blessings and Natural Rights

"The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States of worshipping Almighty God, agreeably to their consciences, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights."

George Washington

The Source of Rights

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

Thomas Jefferson

The Source of all Rights

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

Safe Depositories

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories."

Thomas Jefferson

A Bright Constellation

"Equal and exact justice to all men...freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under the protection of haveas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected; these principles form the bright constellation that has gone before us."

Thomas Jefferson

Experiment of Liberty

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Occupy Your Life

"A people who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything."

George Washington

Preservation of Freedom

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

James Madison

Foundations

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it."
John Adams (Thoughts on Government, 1776)

Equal Rights

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.”

~ Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

The Broadest Foundation for Happiness

“When we practised by necessity the maxim of buying nothing but what we have money in our pockets to pay for lays the broadest foundation for happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mr. Skipwith, July 28, 1787

The Enemy

"War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
revolution is when you decide that for yourself.”

Benjamin Franklin

Principles of Freedom

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

John Adams 1787

Freedom's Existince

"It is favourable to liberty. Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal."

Benjamin Ruch 1786

Education

"On education all our lives depend/ and few to that, too few, with care attend."

Benjamin Franklin "Poor Richard's Almanack" 1748

Preserving Liberty

"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among people."

John Adams

Critical Examination

"The principles and modes of government are too important to be disregarded by an inquisitive mind and I think are well worthy a critical examination by all students that have health and leisure."

James Madison

The Palladium

"I mean...to let you know how deeply I am impressed with a sense of the importance of Amendments, that the good people may clearly see the distinction-for there is a distinction, between the federal powers vested in Congress and the sovereign authority belonging to the several states, which is the Palladium of the private and personal rights of the citizens."

Samuel Adams

Original Intent

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it."

James Wilson

The Legitimate Constitution

"I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of it's powers...What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were taken in its modern sense."

James Madison

Questions of Construction

"On every question of Construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollecting the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

Thomas Jefferson to SCOTUS Justice William Johnson

Medicating the Dead

"Attempting to debate with a person who has abandoned reason is like giving medicine to the dead."


~ Thomas Paine

A New Nation

"Tis done! We have become a nation."

Benjamin Rush

The Value of Education

"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."

James Madison

Limits to Earthly Understanding

"How has it happened...that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?"

Benjamin Franklin

Actors

"The citizens of America...are from this period t be considered as the actors on a most conspicuous theater,which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity."

George Washington

Principles of Freedom

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."

John Adams

A Rising Sun

"At length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."

Benjamin Franklin

The Flow of Powers

"The national legislative powers ought to flow immediately from the people."

James Wilson (Delegate from Pennsylvania)

Foundation of Liberty

"The great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable if it should rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves."

James Madison

The Brightest Morn

"I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds which have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country."

George Washington

Universal Truth

"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
James Madison

The Reality of Power

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."
John Adams

Force

"Force cannot change right."

Thomas Jefferson

The Subject of Religion

"The subject of religion, a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved, I have considered it as a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, & far less the public had a right to intermeddle."

Thomas Jefferson

Acquit Yourselves like Men

"Banish unmanly fear, acquit yourselves like men, and with firm confidence trust the event with that Almighty and benevolent Being who hath commanded you to hold fast the liberty with which he has made you free; and who is able as well as willing to support you in performing his orders."

John Jay

Freemen

"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend.
Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty--that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."

George Washington
General Orders August 23, 1776

A Great Cause

"The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth."

Thomas Paine

One Life to Lose

"I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Nathan Hale

"My affections are deeply rooted in America, and are of too long standing to admit of transplantation. In short, my friend, I can never become so far a citizen of the world as to view every part of it with equal regard; and perhaps nature is wiser in tying our hearts to our native soil, than they are who think they divest themselves of foibles in proportion as they wear away those bonds."

John Jay

Real Liberty

"We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments."

Alexander Hamilton

Rights of Society

"Men must be ready, they must pride themselves and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasures, passions and interests, nay their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society."

John Quincy Adams

The Amor Patriae

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. The Amor Patriae is both a moral and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations. This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first characters of history."

Benjamin Rush

A Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key

Facts

"Facts are stubborn things."

John Adams

Experience

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past."

Patric Henry

The Free Exercise of Religion

"It is true, we are not disposed to differ much, at present, about religion; but when we are making a constitution, it is to be hoped, for ages and millions yet unborn, why not establish the free exercise of religion as a part of the national compact."

Richard Henry Lee

Courage

"One man with courage is a majority."

Thomas Jefferson

One of the Best in the World

"That the government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the world, I have little doubt."

George Washington

A Melancholy Reflection

"It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the Government have too much or too little power.

James Madison

Good Government

"It is not enough to constitute a good government; it is equally indispensable to adopt such methods as may assure the permanency of a good government"

Thomas Paine

The Guardian of our Common Rights

"We have established a common Government, which, being free in its principles, being founded in our own choice, being intended as the guardian of our common rights and the patron of our common interests, and wisely containing within itself a provision for its own amendment as experience may point out its errors, seems to promise everything that can be expected from such an institution; and if supported by wise counsels, by virtuous conduct, and by mutual and friendly allowances, must approach as near to perfection as any human work can aspire, and nearer than any which the annals of mankind have recorded."

James Madison

Two Choices

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."

Benjamin Franklin

Preservation of Liberty

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people, for they are the
only sure reliance for the preservation of liberty.

~Thomas Jefferson

A Wise and Frugal Government

"With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."

~Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

Unremitting Vigilance

"Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance."

Thomas Jefferson

Greatest of Evils

“A simple democracy . . . is one of the greatest of evils.”

~Benjamin Rush (Signer of the Declaration, Letter to John Adams on July 21, 1789)

Transmuting the Very Nature of Limited Government

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union;
they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown un...der the power of Congress…. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America."

James Madison

A Republic, If You Can Keep It

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

John Adams

A Frame of Mind

‎"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances..."
~Martha Washington

High Time

"Is it not High Time for the People of this Country explicitly to declare, whether they will be Freemen or Slaves? It is an important Question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more than any thing in this Life. The Salvation of our Souls is interested in the Event: For wherever Tyranny is establish'd, Immorality of every Kind comes in like a Torrent. It is in the interest of Tyrants to reduce the people to Ignorance and Vice. For they cannot live in any Country where Virtue and Knowledge prevail. The Religion and public Liberty of a People are intimately connected; their Interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this Reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the People's Liberties, practice every Art to poison their Morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all Events, to put a Stop to the Progress of Tyranny."

Samuel Adams; Boston Gazette October 1772

Participation

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."


Thomas Jefferson

Restraint

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."

Patrick Henry

Where to Stand

"Always stand on principle....even if you stand alone."

John Adams

Limited Government

"It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government."

Alexander Hamilton

Parasites

"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.


Thomas Jefferson

Value

"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly."

Thomas Paine

Two Types of Education

"There are two types of education... One should teach us how to make a living, And the other how to live."

John Adams

A Course of Years

"I believe… that this [the US Constitution] 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

Liberty Lost

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

John Adams

The Cause of America

"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."

Thomas Paine
"Common Sense"; 1776

Only Americans

"There ought to be no New England men, no New Yorker, &c., known on the Continent, but all of us Americans."

Christopher Gadsen
To Charles Garth; 1765

The Seat of Virtue

"May we ever be a people favoured of GOD. May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise in the whole earth, until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the world in one common undistinguished ruin!"

Joseph Warren
Boston Massacre Oration; March, 1772

Obliged

"But we want no excuse for any supposed mistakes of our ancestors. Let us first see it prov'd that they were mistakes. 'Till then we must hold ourselves obliged to them for sentiments transmitted to us so worthy of their character, and so important to our security."

Samuel Adams
Boston Gazette; 1771

The Harder I Work

"I'm a firm believer in luck, and it seems the harder I work the more of it I have."

Thomas Jefferson

Exceedingly Thankful

"When we view this country in its extent and variety of climates, soils, and produce, we ought to be exceeding thankful to divine goodness in bestowing it upon our forefathers, and giving it as an heritage for their children. We may call it the promised land, a good land and a large--a land of hills and vallies, of rivers, brooks and springs of water--a land of milk and honey, and wherin we may eat bread to the full. A land whose stones are iron, the most useful material in all nature, and of other choice mines and minerals; and a land whose rivers and adjacent seas are stored with the best of fish. In a word, no part of the habitable world can boast of so many natural advantages as this northern part of America."

Silas Downer
"A Discourse at the Dedication of the Tree of Liberty"; 1768

A Little Neglect

"A little neglect may breed mischief: for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost."

Benjamin Franklin
"Poor Richard's Almanack; 1745

Wonderous Works of Providence

"See the wonderous works of Providence! The uncertainty of human things!"

George Washington
To Robert Jackson; 1755

An Armed Populace

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States."

Noah Webster
"An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution" 1787

Becoming a Happy People

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy."

Thomas Jefferson
To Thomas Cooper; 1802

Perpetual Debt

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."

Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Samuel Kercheval; 1816

Honesty is the Best Policy

"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."

George Washington
Farewell Address; 1796

"Honest Man"

"I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain...the character of an "Honest Man.""

George Washington
Letter to Hamilton; 1788

The Worth of an Honest Man

"Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the eyes of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived."

Thomas Paine
"Common Sense" 1776

Bound

Not a Founding Father, but a great man:

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to
succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand
with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right."

Abraham Lincoln

Freemen

"The hour is fast approaching on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend.
"Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty--that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."

George Washington
General Orders; August 23, 1776

No Greater Cause

"The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth."

Thomas Paine
"Common Sense" 1776

Hold Fast Liberty

"Banish unmanly fear, acquit yourselves like men, and with firm confidence trust the event with that Almighty and benevolent Being who hath commanded you to hold fast the liberty with which he has made you free; and who is able as well as willing to support you in performing his orders."

John Jay
To the General Committee of Tyron County; 1777

A Noble Rank

"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God...Let it be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliments."

John Adams
"Dissertaion on teh Canon and Feudal Law"; 1765

Jurisdiction

"The Opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under it's jurisdiction."

Thomas Jefferson
Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom 1779

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin

Pretended Patriotism

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism”

George Washington

The Very Nature of Limited Government

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.

Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America."

James Madison
(referring to a bill to subsidize cod fisherman, introduced in the first year of the new Congress)

Reasonable People

"The system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security which a reasonable people can desire"
~Alexander Hamilton; Federalist Papers #85

Gifts from God

"...can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference!"

Thomas Jefferson

Contending with Great Difficulties

"These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues."

Abigail Adams; letter to John Quincy Adams (1780-01-19 )

Governing the Affairs of Men

"I have lived sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing truths I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this, and I also believe without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave, to move that, henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and it's blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business."

Benjamin Franklin