The Ground of Our Liberties

“The very Ground of our Liberties, is the freedom of Elections. Every Man has in Politicks as well as Religion, a Right to think and speak and Act for himself. No man either King or Subject, Clergyman or Layman has any Right to dictate to me the Person I shall choose for my Legislator and Ruler.

I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any Man judge, unless his Mind has been opened and enlarged by Reading. A Man who can read, will find in his Bible, in the common sermon Books that common People have by them and even in the Almanack and News Papers, Rules and observations, that will enlarge his Range of Thought, and enable him the better to judge who has and who has not that Integrity of Heart, and that Compass of Knowledge and Understanding, which form the Statesman.”

~John Adams; 1761

Defend the Constitution

“Every member of the state ought diligently to read and to study the Constitution of his country, and to teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.”

~John Jay

Tyrannical Actions

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."

~Thomas Jefferson

Happy Indeed

"Happy indeed would it be, if the convention shall be able to recommend such a firm and permanent government for this Union, that all who live under it may be secure in their lives, liberty, and property; and thrice happy would it be, if such a recommendation should obtain. Every body wishes, every body expects something from the convention; but what will be the final result of its deliberation, the book of fate must disclose. Persuaded I am, that the primary cause of all our disorders lies in the different State governments, and in the tenacity of that power, which pervades the whole of their systems. Whilst independent sovereignty is so ardently contended for, whilst the local views of each State, and separate interests, by which they are too much governed, will not yield to a more enlarged scale of politics, incompatibility in the laws of different States, and disrespect to those of the general government, must render the situation of this great country weak, inefficient, and disgraceful. It has already done so, almost to the final dissolution of it. Weak at home and disregarded abroad is our present condition, and contemptible enough it is."

~George Washington, letter to David Stuart, Philadelphia, July 1, 1787

Giving Your Best

"I cannot...avoid persuading myself, that it is essential to accomplish whatever I have undertaken (though reluctantly) to the best of my abilities."

~George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, New York, June 3, 1790

The Source of Liberty

"Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause."

Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Calvin Coolidge July 5, 1926

Virtue and Knowledge

“If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”

~Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren, 1779

Sovereign States

“In the next place, the state governments are, by the very theory of the constitution, essential constituent parts of the general government. They can exist without the latter, but the latter cannot exist without them.”

~Joseph Story Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Spirit of the Republic

"Virtue is the spirit of a republic; for where all power is derived from the people, all depends on their good disposition. If they are impious, factious and selfish; if they are abandoned to idleness, dissipation, luxury, and extravagance; if they are lost to the fear of God, and the love of their country, all is lost."

~Samuel Cooper, Oct. 25, 1780

A Sermon on the Commencement of the Constitution

Requirement of Neutrality

“The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power.

A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”

~Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 11, 1787

Liberality of Thought

“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.”

~Thomas Jefferson

Parental Duty

“It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.”

~James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791

Full Superintendence

“The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population.

They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens.”

~Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Stale Artifices

“I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people.

It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful.”

~Fisher Ames

Virtue Promotes Happiness

“If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?”

~John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

We Must Not Yield

“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire.

If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.”

~John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776

The Whole Truth

“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth – and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts.

Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”

~Patrick Henry

Securing Liberty

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."

~Thomas Paine

Duty Owed

"That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other."

~James Madison (with George Mason); Virginia Declaration of Rights, Article XVI

Seed of Revolution

"What do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."

~John Adams