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James Madison - Limiting Government - Founders' Quotes
On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties. ^ | 2/3/1792 | James Madison

Posted on 11/17/2008 10:44:04 AM PST by Loud Mime

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To: M Kehoe

They’re not spinning....they are screaming at us from beyond.


21 posted on 11/17/2008 8:51:44 PM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: Loud Mime
I haven't seen that book but the Franklin speech I wanted to quote was the one he made on the second of June 1787 that was in opposition to executive salaries. I have it in my “Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates”. A great book that when paired with “The Federalist Papers” gives you great insight into what the founders were thinking and how we have gotten to where we are today.

Unfortunately many of the evils that we overthrew back then have been reimposed on us by our own elected while we neglected to over see them because trusted our press to inform us. When they claimed to be unbiased we trusted them, all the while they were getting into bed with those elected and they have formed a partnership whose goal, it appears, is to enslave us all through force of laws designed to take away our natural rights as spelled out in the supposedly unalterable amendments.

22 posted on 11/17/2008 11:45:44 PM PST by fella (.He that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Pv.28:19')
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To: MamaTexan

ping


23 posted on 11/19/2008 7:30:07 AM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: TR Jeffersonian

ping


24 posted on 11/19/2008 7:31:08 AM PST by kalee
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To: Loud Mime
Because of the presentation, he would never become popular in today’s celebrity politics. Looks and presentation account for more than content and virtue. We have inverted our search criteria.

'Celebrity Politics', what an apt phrase! I agree with your post wholeheartedly.

Here's another Madison favorite of mine-

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. James Madison - Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822

25 posted on 11/19/2008 10:18:50 AM PST by MamaTexan (* I am not an administrative, political, legal, corporate or collective entity *)
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To: MamaTexan; Loud Mime
These are not from Madison but are fitting never-the-less.

No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.

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

26 posted on 11/20/2008 5:31:15 AM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Bigun

Every time I read Samuel Adams I wish I could join him at a pub for some conversation; he had a great mind.

It is sad that our government is now showing all the signs that the founders warned us about. If they saw the debates on same-sex marriage they would be horrified. Even they did not foresee such a perverted event.


27 posted on 11/20/2008 5:42:46 AM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: Loud Mime

If they could speak to us directly, what do you suppose those great men would say to us about now?


28 posted on 11/20/2008 5:53:32 AM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Bigun

That’s easy.

1) Go back to the basics

2) Get off your ass and get to work.

I’m a frequent letter-writer and have a website (now undergoing remake) that’s political in nature. All of these efforts start from the basics: our Constitution.


29 posted on 11/20/2008 8:19:24 AM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: Bigun
Beautiful words. All the Founders were master wordsmiths, but they lived in a time when the People knew what words like Liberty and Sovereignty meant.

IMHO, if you want to find the true meaning of the Constitution, you need to read the first of the 4 (or is it 5?) legal treaties written after ratification.

View of the Constitution of the United States
NOTE B.
OF THE SEVERAL FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
SOVEREIGNTY

As the sovereign power hath no limits to its authority, so hath the government of a state no rights, but such as are purely derivative, and limited; the union of the SOVEREIGNTY of a state with the GOVERNMENT, constitutes a state of USURPATION and absolute TYRANNY, over the PEOPLE.

[snip]

Since the union of the sovereignty with the government, constitutes a state of absolute power, or tyranny, over the people, every attempt to effect such an union is treason against the sovereignty, in the actors; and every extension of the administrative authority beyond its just constitutional limits, is absolutely an act of usurpation in the government, of that sovereignty, which the people have reserved to themselves.

30 posted on 11/20/2008 2:28:09 PM PST by MamaTexan (* I am not an administrative, political, legal, corporate or collective entity *)
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To: Bigun; Loud Mime
If they could speak to us directly, what do you suppose those great men would say to us about now?

They wouldn't be asking us anything.

They would be to out of breath from smacking us upside our silly heads. :-)

31 posted on 11/20/2008 2:30:03 PM PST by MamaTexan (* I am not an administrative, political, legal, corporate or collective entity *)
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To: MamaTexan

LOL!

I strongly suspect you are correct!


32 posted on 11/20/2008 2:51:16 PM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Loud Mime
The highlighted Madison quote is the very essence of conservatism, and going forward should be the first principle of either the Republican Party or whatever new party arises to replace it.

Everything else is politically irrelevant.

33 posted on 11/20/2008 2:55:39 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." -- Robert Heinlein)
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To: MamaTexan

Thanks for an EXCELLENT link!

It is a shame that there are so few these days who are the slightest bit interested in how our nation was created and what those who managed to get that done thought about what they had accomplished.


34 posted on 11/20/2008 2:56:00 PM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: MamaTexan

A great link.....I’m looking at the main page and the library they are offering......


35 posted on 11/20/2008 3:03:52 PM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

I have maintained for some time that the 17th Amendment allowed two sections of the legislature to be guided by greed and government growth. The State-appointed Senators were the guardians of the 10th Amendment. Once removed, the 10th lost its function, losing to the will of the popular senators who were willing to fund their re-election with benefits from the treasury.

What is conservative? Conservative is a belief in the other C-word: the Constitution. Madison stayed to the letter of the Constitution, something we do not see from any politician at present.


36 posted on 11/20/2008 3:09:05 PM PST by Loud Mime (Good is Evil and Evil is now good. The alarm has rung.)
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To: Loud Mime; Mr. Jeeves

The 17th amendment effectively cut one leg off of a three legged stool and we ALL know that two legged stools just do not work well.

The founder’s genius in creating our form of government has been subverted. They intended that the House would be the peoples house with it’s members directly elected by the people. The Senate was to be the house which represented the interests of the individual states and the executive was to ensure that the laws were faithfully executed.

Because of the 17th amendment the individual states are no longer represented and that is a HUGE problem!.


37 posted on 11/20/2008 5:32:03 PM PST by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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