A Worthy Quote

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported.  We have a right to it,
derived from our Maker.  But if we had not, our fathers have earned
and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates,
their pleasure, and their blood."

-- John Adams (A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765)

Reference: The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Thompson,
ed. ( 28 )

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof - Lev. XXV, v. X"

Inscription on the Liberty Bell, from Leviticus 25:10

Reference: TK

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"Thomas Jefferson still lives."

-- John Adams (after waking momentarily, afternoon July 4 1826)

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 1 (636)

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"Is it the Fourth?"

-- Thomas Jefferson (evening July 3; Jefferson died the next
morning, July 4th 1826)

Reference: Thomas Jefferson: A Life, Randal (594)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an
eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may
be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some
instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes.  Should,
hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by
the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the
known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable
rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact
among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in
its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable,
and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no
mound of parchm[en]t can be so formed as to stand against the
sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the
sapping current of corrupted morals on the other."

-- George Washington (fragments of the Draft First Inaugural
Address, April 1789)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall
see the Senate has no similitude to nobles.  First, not being
hereditary, their collective knowledge, wisdom, and virtue are
not precarious.  For by these qualities alone are they to obtain
their offices, and they will have none of the peculiar qualities
and vices of those men who possess power merely because their
father held it before them."

-- Tench Coxe (An American Citizen, No.2, 28 September 1787)

Reference: Independent Gazeteer,

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition
of good government. It is essential to the protection of the
community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential
to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of
property against those irregular and high-handed combinations
which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to
the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of
ambition, of faction, and of anarchy."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 69, 14 March 1788 )

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 69.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"We are confirmed in the opinion, that the present age would be
deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves,
if they do not establish an American republic.  This is the
only form of government we wish to see established; for we can
never be willingly subject to any other King than He who, being
possessed of infinite wisdom, goodness and rectitude, is alone
fit to possess unlimited power."

Instructions of Malden, Massachusetts for a Declaration of
Independence, 27 May 1776

Reference: Documents of American Histroy, Commager, vol. 1 (97)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom;
and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech."

-- Benjamin Franklin (writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, 9 July
1722)

Reference: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Labaree, ed., vol. 1
(27)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"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, 4 August 1822)

Reference: Letters and other Writings of James Madison, vol. 3
(276)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the
freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the
most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver
of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of
education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity
than those you have received from your ancestors."

-- John Adams (letter to the young men of the Philadelphia,
7 May 1798 )

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 ( 188 )

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"It is not necessary to enumerate the many advantages, that arise
from this custom of early marriages.  They comprehend all the
society can receive from this source; from the preservation, and
increase of the human race.  Every thing useful and beneficial
to man, seems to be connected with obedience to the laws of
his nature, the inclinations, the duties, and the happiness
of individuals, resolve themselves into customs and habits,
favourable, in the highest degree, to society.  In no case is this
more apparent, than in the customs of nations respecting marriage."

-- Samuel Williams (The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 1794)

Reference: American Political Writing during the Founding Era:
1760-1805, Hyneman and Lutz, ed., vol. 2 (952)

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form a part
of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same
obligation, operating universally and perpetually."

-- James Wilson (Of the Law of Nature, 1804)

Reference: The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Wilson, ed.,
vol. 1 ( 137-138 )

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of
THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought
to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate
authority."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 22, 14 December 1787)

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 22.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered
to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve
it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our
descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy
lot and an abhorrence of slavery."

-- Patrick Henry (letter to Robert Pleasants, 18 January 1773)

Reference: The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six, Henry Commager and Richard
Morris, 402.

[/b]

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"To exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,
so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to
foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of
others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge
unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to look down
upon them in others; to hold the union of the States on the basis
of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution, which
is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its
authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to
the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and
essential to the success of the general... as far as sentiments
and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty,
they will be a resource which can not fail me."

-- James Madison (Second Inaugural Address, March 1813)

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United
States.

[nChrist]

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the
press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most
sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the
greatest of all earthly blessings - give us that precious jewel,
and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention
the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel."

-- Patrick Henry (Speech to the Virginia Convention, 5 June 1788 )