Some of my favorite quotes from our nation's history...
"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny."
~ Thomas Paine ~
"If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread."
"In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
~ Thomas Jefferson ~
"A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal."
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 17, 1775
"I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!"
John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, November 2, 1800
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave."
John Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
"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, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814
"Here sir, the people govern."
Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788
"If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last.... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government."
Alexander Hamilton, Essay in the American Daily Advertiser, Aug 28, 1794
"If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify."
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, January 3, 1788
