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