A Worthy Quote

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"'Tis done.  We have become a nation."

-- Benjamin Rush (on the ratification of the Constitution, letter
to Boudinot, 9 July 1788 )

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general
government our foreign ones.  I wish, therefore...never to see
all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn
from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought
and sold at market."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Judge William Johnson, 12 June 1823)

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original Memoir,
Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the
collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not
so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate
bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material
oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself
a natural limitation of the power of imposing them."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 21, 1787)

Reference: The Federalist

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by
the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters
appreciated by the trial of adversity."

-- George Washington (letter to the people of South Carolina,
Circa 1790)

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (16);
original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Fitzpatrick, ed.,
vol. 31 (67)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country,
by their conduct and example, to decide the important question,
whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing
good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are
forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on
accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the
crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded
as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong
election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to
be considered as the general misfortune of mankind."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 1, 27 October 1787)

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 1.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain
these blessings than United America.  Wondrously strange, then,
and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect
the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed
us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass."

-- George Washington (letter to Benjamin Lincoln, 29 June 1788 )

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (403)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The citizens of the United States of America have the right to
applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an
enlarged and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess
alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It
is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by
the indulgence of one class of citizens that another enjoyed
the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily
the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no
sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they
who live under its protection should demean themselves as good
citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

-- George Washington (letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport,
Rhode Island, 9 September 1790)

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (330)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society,
publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the
great Creator and Preserver of the universe.  And no subject shall
be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate,
for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the
dictates of his own conscience; or for his religion profession
of sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace,
or obstruct others in their religious worship...."

Massachusetts Bill of Rights, Part the First, 1780

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1
(107)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes
oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its
name, and becomes licentiousness."

-- James Wilson (Of the Study of the Law in the United States,
Circa 1790)

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, Andrews, ed., vol. 1 (7)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private
families. . . . How is it possible that Children can have any
just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if,
from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in
habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as
constant Infidelity to their Mothers?"

-- John Adams (Diary, 2 June 1778 )

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 3 (171)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"If, for instance, the president is required to do any act, he is
not only authorized, but required, to decide for himself, whether,
consistently with his constitutional duties, he can do the act."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 124.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Statesmen by dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it
is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles
upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation
of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be
inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it
now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government,
but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty."

-- John Adams (letter to Zabdiel Adams, 21 June 1776)

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, pg. 371.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are,
first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an adequate provision
for its support; fourthly, competent powers. ... The ingredients
which constitute safety in the republican sense are, first,
a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due responsibility."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 70, 14 March 1788 )

Reference: The Federalist

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of
liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined
not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave
the rest of mankind."

-- Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 5, 21 March 1778 )

Reference: Paine Writings, Foner, 169.

[nChrist]

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of
servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in
peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen!" -- Samuel Adams