Founding Fathers

I thought a few quotes from our founding fathers might be appropriate: "Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Ben Franklin, Respectfully Quoted, p. 201, Suzy Platt, Barnes & Noble, 1993

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too." -- William Somerset Maughan, 1941 "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -- Alexander Tyler WOW does this one sound like whats happening today?

A wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise 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." -- Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801 The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers." -- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration and Protest of Virginia, 1825. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 17:445

I submit these!!

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." --Samuel Adams

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things:
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight
- nothing he cares about more than his own personal
safety - is a miserable creature who has no chance of
being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and
blood of better men than himself."
- John Stuart Mill

Because of the terror situation the patriot act has a place just don't want it instituted as a forever thing--however most of the things used in the act are already in use to battle organized crime. I am for limited government but that does not mean that I believe the government should abdicate responsibilites of national security. And for your information I do not want to live in a true democracy but the repersenative republic set up by our founding fathers.

Here's another one.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

It may not be popular, but it is true nonetheless.

The Rose Tree
"O words are lightly spoken",
said Pearse to Connolly;
"Maybe a breath of politic words
Has withered our Rose Tree;
Ore maybe but a wind that blows
Across the bitter sea."
"It needs to be but watered",
James Connolly replied,
"To make the green come out again
And spread on every side,
And shake the blossom from the bud
To be the garden's pride."
But where can we draw water",
Said Pearse to Connolly,
"When all the wells are parched away?
O plain as plain can be
There's nothing but our own red blood
Can make a right Rose Tree."
-W.B. Yeats

Even though Yeats wrote this about the Easter Rising in Ireland, I think it appropriate here as well.

I was never one for civics and American history. When I was in high school studying them, they just seemed old and dusty and I didn't pay much attention to the Federalist Papers or the writings of our Founding Fathers. Much to my present day shame and disgust.

Nowdays, I read and re-read the words of wisdom set down by those magnificent men and I often cannot hardly read them for the tears welling up in my eyes. I am - and have been for some years - in absolute awe of their foresight and knowledge, and the absolute sacrifices they made to give us - and to the world- this country, as a shining example of freedom.

And I cannot bear to look at what the last 40 years of socialism and communism - here in this great land of freedom- has done to this country. Again, after the anger and frustration of seeing this, comes the tears for the perversions that have been wrought on these brave Founder's sacrifices and triumph's by the socialist left.

As your quotes show, the Founders also foresaw not only the possibility, but the probability of these things happening. They did their best and they created something that will stand forever in the history of the world- both as a tribute to the concept and ideal of freedom and - in its demise - an indicator of what the greed for power and tyranny of small men who cannot understand morals and ethics, good and evil, right and wrong, can do to even the most well thought out and executed plan for freedom and the rights of man.

Those small men will rightfully take their places in history alongside the great tyrants and murderers, while the Founders of the Unites States of America will be forever enshrined in history with the most noble philosphers and saints.

I'm constantly reminded of the words of Daniel Webster: "There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

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