Martin Luther - 16th century Reformation language
"I am much
afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell unless they
diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures...I advise no one to place
his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount".
Samuel Adams: (
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your
counsels or arms. Crouch down, and lick the hands which feed you. May your
chains set light upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen.
On
"And I do recommend that together with our
thanksgiving, humble prayer may be offered to
God, that we may be enabled, by the subsequent obedience of our hearts and
manners, to testify the sincerity of our
profession of gratitude, in the sight of God and man; and thus be prepared for the reception of future
blessings. That God would be pleased to guide
and direct the administration of the Federal government, and those of the
several states, in union, so that
the whole people may continue to be safe and happy in the constitutional enjoyment of their
rights, liberties and privileges, and our governments be greatly respected at home and abroad...
"
Thomas Jefferson:
To consider the judges as the ultimate
arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed,
and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. The
exemption of the judges from [re-election concerns] is quite dangerous enough
. The people themselves
. [are] the true corrective
of abuses of constitutional power.
Thomas Jefferson said
in 1821:
The germ
of destruction of our nation is in the power of the judiciary, an irresponsible
body working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a
little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field
of jurisdiction, until all shall render powerless the checks of one branch over
the other and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which
we separated.
Chief Justice John Marshall:
....`that the power to tax involves the power
to destroy, and that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the
power to create.'
George Mason:
No method of
procedure has ever been devised by which liberty could be divorced from
local self‑government. No plan of centralization has ever been adopted
which did not result in bureaucracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction and
decline.
James Madison:
A Man is said to have a right to his
property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an
excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No Man is safe
in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
Daniel Webster {Not
Noah Webster}
"Good intentions will always
be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say
that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good
intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to
govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
Patrick Henry: {our countrys greatest
proponent of
"you ought to be extremely cautious, watchful,
jealous of your liberty;
for instead of securing your rights, you may lose them forever."
"You are not to inquire how your trade may be
increased, nor how you are to
become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties
can be secured; for
liberty ought to be the direct end of your government."
"Will the
abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to security of your
liberty?
jewel, and you may take everything else."
"suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the
preservation of the
public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds:"
"Guard with
jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who
approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will
preserve it but downright
force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
"Will the
oppressor let go the oppressed? Was there ever an instance? Can
the annals of mankind exhibit one single
example, where rulers, overcharged
with power, willingly let go the oppressed,
though solicited and requested most
earnestly?"
"I am not well
versed in history; but I will submit to your recollection,
whether liberty has been destroyed by the
licentiousness of the people, or by
the tyranny of the rulers. I imagine sir, you will find the balance on the side
of Tyranny. Happy will you be, if you miss the
fate of those nations, who
omitting to resist their oppressors, or negligently
suffering their liberty to
be wrested from them, have groaned under intolerable despotism."
"The most
valuable end of government is the liberty of the inhabitants. No
possible advantages can compensate for the loss of this right."
"Show me that age
and country where the rights and liberties of the people
were placed on the sole chance of their rulers
being good men, without the
consequent loss of liberty. I say that the loss
of that dearest privilege has
ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt."
"where and when did freedom exist, when the
sword and purse were given up
by the people? Unless a miracle in human affairs
interposed, no nation ever
retained its liberty after the loss of the sword and purse."
"The great and direct end of government is liberty.
Secure our liberty and
privileges, and the end of government is answered."
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Near his last will, Patrick Henry left a small envelope
sealed with wax. Inside was a single sheet of paper on which he had copied his
Resolutions against the Stamp Act. On the back, Patrick Henry left a message
that he knew could only be read after his death. It began with a short history
of his Resolutions against the Stamp Act, which had spread throughout
On the reverse of The Stamp Act Resolves (which passed in the House of
Burgesses, May 1765) Patrick Henry wrote:
"This {in reference to the Stamp
Act} brought on the war which finally
separated the two countries and gave independence to ours. Whether this {
Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader! Whoever thou art, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others."