This is a post from last April…but with all of the stuff going on in Congress – Spendulous Bill, Health Care, Senator Byrd serving 56 years – I thought this needed to be posted again; America needs to stop and think!!!
Hello America!! As a lot of people did, I watched a lot of the coverage of the Tea Parties on the 15th…and even had the opportunity to attend one. One of the things that amazed me was the plethora of quotes that people had come up with to show their disdain, their anger and their frustration at the Government and the current policies.
I decided to go through and find out what our Founding Fathers were thinking when they wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Since I can’t really sit down with them, I thought I would look at some of their quotes and get an idea of what they stood for; what they wanted the United States of America to turn into. These are just a few samples of the thousands of things these very intelligent men had to say; you make your own judgment if we are holding to their ideals today…or if we are completely off base and misled.
George Washington
It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.
My Favorite of Washington’s: Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.
Benjamin Franklin
It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income.
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
My Favorite of Franklin’s: When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them.
The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.
The revolution of 1800… was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.
[No] degree of power in the hands of government [will] prevent insurrections.
The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.
My Favorite of Jefferson’s: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Thomas Paine
That government is best which governs least.
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
My Favorite of Payne’s: If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
In addition to our founding fathers, I thought I would add a few other quotes from a couple of my favorites Presidents…
Abraham Lincoln
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
My Favorite of Lincoln’s: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, “What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.” But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success — only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.
We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
My Favorite of Reagan’s: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’
America, open your mind and think about what is best for this country. Don’t think about yourself, but, think of your neighbors, your children and those people on the other side of the country that you don’t even know. I challenge you not to think of just the act itself (be it political, economical, military, etc), but think of the 2nd and 3rd order effects of the policy. Think about where this country is heading and ask yourself one thing: Is this the country I want my children to grow up in???
– The Defender
