Posted on 08/12/2009 3:47:50 PM PDT by Loud Mime
Who Are the Best Keepers of the People's Liberties?
National Gazette, December 22, 1792
Republican. The people themselves. The sacred trust can be no where so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it.
Anti-republican. The people are stupid, suspicious, licentious. They cannot safely trust themselves. When they have established government they should think of nothing but obedience, leaving the care of their liberties to their wiser rulers.
Republican. Although all men are born free, and all nations might be so, yet too true it is, that slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant they have been cheated; asleep they have been surprized; divided the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? That because the people may betray themselves, they ought to give themselves up, blindfold, to those who have an interest in betraying them? Rather conclude that the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it, as well as obey it.
Anti-republican. You look at the surface only, where errors float, instead of fathoming the depths where truth lies hid. It is not the government that is disposed to fly off from the people; but the people that are ever ready to fly off from the government. Rather say then, enlighten the government, warn it to be vigilant, enrich it with influence, arm it with force, and to the people never pronounce but two words Submission and Confidence.
Republican. The centrifugal tendency then is in the people, not in the government, and the secret art lies in restraining the tendency, by augmenting the attractive principle of the government with all the weight that can be added to it. What a perversion of the natural order of things! to make power the primary and central object of the social system, and Liberty but its satellite.
Anti-republican. The science of the stars can never instruct you in the mysteries of government. Wonderful as it may seem, the more you increase the attractive force of power, the more you enlarge the sphere of liberty; the more you make government independent and hostile towards the people, the better security you provide for their rights and interests. Hence the wisdom of the theory, which, after limiting the share of the people to a third of the government, and lessening the influence of that share by the mode and term of delegating it, establishes two grand hereditary orders, with feelings, habits, interests, and prerogatives all inveter-ately hostile to the rights and interests of the people, yet by a mysterious operation all combining to fortify the people in both.
Republican. Mysterious indeed! But mysteries belong to religion, not to government; to the ways of the Almighty, not to the works of man. And in religion itself there is nothing mysterious to its author; the mystery lies in the dimness of the human sight. So in the institutions of man let there be no mystery, unless for those inferior beings endowed with a ray perhaps of the twilight vouchsafed to the first order of terrestrial creation.
Anti-republican. You are destitute, I perceive, of every quality of a good citizen, or rather of a good subject. You have neither the light of faith nor the spirit of obedience. I denounce you to the government as an accomplice of atheism and anarchy.
Republican. And I forbear to denounce you to the people, though a blasphemer of their rights and an idolater of tyranny. Liberty disdains to persecute.
BUMP! BUMP!
I don’t understand how Hamilton could’ve first said, Enlighten the government, warn it to be vigilant, give it influence and arm it with force. To the people I have only one word Obey and then followed it up with, Colonel Gilman, the more you increase the attractive force of power, the more you enlarge the sphere of liberty.
What am I missing?
That was his big blind spot.
Check Post #17.
>>> Perhaps its now time to add term limits to the list, hmmmm? <<<<<
Absolutely.
The sociopaths and senile old coots on Capitol Hill - and I mean Democrats AND Republicans, all 525 of them - are completely out of control and must be stopped.
Even in your quotations above it is implicit that the Founders intended that limited tenure in office act as a primary bulwark against tyranny.
“...those intrusted with [political power] should be kept in dependence on the people, by a short duration of their appointments.” . . . . James Madison, The Federalist 37
“....elections, sufficiently frequent, is essential to a free government.” ... John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 10, 1817
Years ago I wrote that the state-appointed senators were the guardians of the 10th Amendment. At least the State legislatures could stop the wastes of time and taxpayer money that we're seeing now.
My old congressman argued that term limits were a small part of the problem; the bigger part was the entrenched bureaucrats. He claimed that they controlled so much that they ended up calling some shots....and they had no limits.
>>>>> My old congressman argued that term limits were a small part of the problem; the bigger part was the entrenched bureaucrats. <<<<<<
I don’t believe this or agree with it.
The last thing a government bureaucrat wants is to be on the bad side of an elected official who’s term limited and has no particular interest in the bureaucrat’s career or future.
I wondered about that too, but realized that even though you may be a congressman you still have to deal with the bureaucracy. You have layer after layer; a couple of slowdowns can make your work, at best, harder.
In addition, can they be friends with other members of congress, or even a party? There is no doubt of that in my mind.
Fascinating!
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.