Posted on Friday, May 04, 2012 - 07:17 am:

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quote:

"The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."

-- James Madison, 1788

"The Battle of Athens (Tennessee)"
By Mark Alexander · Thursday, May 3, 2012:
http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2012/05/03/the-bat tle-of-athens-tennessee/

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Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2012 - 06:34 am:

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quote:

Thomas Paine, 1776:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (91)

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Posted on Monday, May 07, 2012 - 09:47 am:

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quote:

"Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind."

– James Wilson, 1791

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Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - 07:34 am:

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quote:

"There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

– George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

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Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2012 - 07:47 am:

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quote:

James Madison, 1822

"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

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Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 07:37 am:

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quote:

John Jay, Federalist No. 2:

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties."

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Posted on Friday, May 11, 2012 - 07:49 am:

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quote:

Thomas Jefferson, 1805 — Second Inaugural Address
Re: The Press

"During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety."

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Posted on Friday, May 11, 2012 - 10:58 am:

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quote:

Nathan Hale, 1776 — remark to Captain William Hull, who had attempted to dissuade him from volunteering for a spy mission for General Washington:

"I am not influenced by the expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary for the public good, become honorable by being necessary."

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Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2012 - 12:42 pm:

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quote:

James Madison, 1787 — Federalist No. 14:

"In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any."

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Posted on Monday, May 14, 2012 - 08:16 am:

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quote:

"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

– James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

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Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - 07:03 am:

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quote:

John Adams, 1776:

"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude and measure, in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations."

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (307); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (391)

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Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - 07:13 am:

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quote:

"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."

— Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801

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Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 06:59 am:

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quote:

"There is no part of the administration of government that requires extensive information and a thorough knowledge of the principles of political economy, so much as the business of taxation. The man who understands those principles best will be least likely to resort to oppressive expedients, or sacrifice any particular class of citizens to the procurement of revenue. It might be demonstrated that the most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome."

— Alexander Hamilton: Federalist No. 35

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Posted on Friday, May 18, 2012 - 07:39 am:

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quote:

"If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior."

— James Madison, Federalist No. 39

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Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 07:19 am:

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quote:

Noah Webster, 1787: An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution:

"In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected -- the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason."

Reference: The Life and Times of Noah Webster, Unger (1998), p 136.

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Posted on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 07:15 am:

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quote:

Samuel Adams, 1775:

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters."

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Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 08:00 am:

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quote:

Benjamin Franklin

A lady asked Dr. Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got - a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it."

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Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 08:20 am:

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quote:

John Jay:

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties."

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Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 06:26 am:

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quote:

Albert Gallatin, 1789:

"The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals...It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of."

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Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - 07:37 am:

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quote:

"Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset telling our children and our children's children what is was once like in the United States where men were free."

-- Ronald Reagan

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Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 08:21 am:

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quote:

John Adams, 1765:

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."

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Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2012 - 06:58 am:

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quote:

John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms — 1775:

"With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves."

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Posted on Friday, June 01, 2012 - 08:07 am:

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quote:

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."

– Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781

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Posted on Saturday, June 02, 2012 - 05:33 am:

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quote:

Alexander Hamilton
Federalist No. 69 — 1788
Category: The Presidency

"A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government."

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Posted on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 07:48 am:

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quote:

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence."

– Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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Posted on Tuesday, June 05, 2012 - 07:19 am:

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quote:

George Washington, 1783:

"The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field -- the object is attained -- and it now remains to be my earnest wish and prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them."

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