The Duty of the Patriot

"The patriot, like the Christian, must learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good example." ~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Judge Sullivan (May 21, 1805)

Fundamental Precpet

"No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian religion...Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of government, this great experiment will then be surely doomed."

~John Jay

The Preservation of Order

"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world, as well as property...Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."

~Thomas Paine

The Patriot's Lot

"The patriot, like the Christian, must learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command."

~Thomas Jefferson

Voluminous Laws

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow."

~James Madison

Natural Divisions

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:

1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.

2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests.

In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, aristocrats and democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still and pursue the same object. The last appellation of aristocrats and democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all."

~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee (August 10, 1824)

Results of Dependence

“Dependence begets subservience, suffocates...virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

~Thomas Jefferson

Ultimate Powers of Society

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

~Thomas Jefferson