The wisdom of our fathers…
George Washington: Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth. Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it. My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein. Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure. The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good. To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace. Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light. We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience. Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble. Thomas Jefferson: A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also. Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor. He who knows best knows how little he knows. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If God is just, I tremble for my country. If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Happy Fourth Everyone!!!
Love, -Richard. :)
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