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Every Measure Of Prudence, Therefore, Ought To Be Assumed For The Eventual Total Extirpation Of Slavery From The United States ... I Have, Throughout My Whole Life, Held The Practice Of Slavery In ... Abhorrence.

-John Adams

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Every Measure Of Prudence,

John Adams

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Every Measure Of Prudence, Therefore, Ought To Be Assumed For The Eventual Total Extirpation Of Slavery From The United States ... I Have, Throughout My Whole Life, Held The Practice Of Slavery In ... Abhorrence.

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Posterity! You Will Never Know How Much It Cost The Present Generation To Preserve Your Freedom! I Hope You Will Make A Good Use Of It.

One Useless Man Is A Shame, Two Is A Law Firm, And Three Is A Congress.

Children Should Be Educated And Instructed In The Principles Of Freedom. Aristotle Speaks Plainly To This Purpose, Saying, 'that The Institution Of Youth Should Be Accommodated To That Form Of Government Under Which They Live; Forasmuch As It Makes Exceedingly For The Preservation Of The Present Government, Whatsoever It Be.

The Christian Religion Is, Above All The Religions That Ever Prevailed Or Existed In Ancient Or Modern Times, The Religion Of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity And Humanity.

Admit That The Press Transferred The Pontificate Of Rome To Henry Viii-admit That The Press Demolished In Some Sort The Feudal System, And Set The Serfs And Villains Free; Admit That The Press Demolished The Monasteries, Nunneries, And Religious Houses; Into Whose Hands Did All These Alienated Baronies, Monasteries, And Religious Houses And Lands Fall? Into The Hands Of The Democracy? Into The Hands Of Serfs And Villains? Serfs And Villains Were The Only Real Democracy In Those Time. No. They Fell Into The Hands Of Other Aristocrats. . . .

You Will Never Be Alone With A Poet In Your Pocket.

Our Constitution Was Made Only For A Moral And Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate To The Government Of Any Other.

Before Any Great Things Are Accomplished, A Memorable Change Must Be Made In The System Of Education...to Raise The Lower Ranks Of Society Nearer To The Higher.

Fear Is The Foundation Of Most Governments; But It Is So Sordid And Brutal A Passion, And Renders Men In Whose Breasts It Predominates So Stupid And Miserable, That Americans Will Not Be Likely To Approve Of Any Political Institution Which Is Founded On It.

Liberty, According To My Metaphysics Is A Self-determining Power In An Intellectual Agent. It Implies Thought And Choice And Power.

During The Whole Time I Sat With Him In Congress, I Never Heard Him Utter Three Sentences Together.

By My Physical Constitution I Am But An Ordinary Man ... Yet Some Great Events, Some Cutting Expressions, Some Mean Hypocracies, Have At Times Thrown This Assemblage Of Sloth, Sleep, And Littleness Into Rage Like A Lion.

The General Principles On Which The Fathers Achieved Independence Were The General Principles Of Christianity

The People "have A Right, An Indisputable, Unalienable, Indefeasible, Divine Right To That Most Dreaded And Envied Kind Of Knowledge- I Mean Of The Character And Conduct Of Their Rulers."

Honor Is Truly Sacred, But Holds A Lower Rank In The Scale Of Moral Excellence Than Virtue. Indeed The Former Is Part Of The Latter, And Consequently Has Not Equal Pretensions To Support A Frame Of Government Productive Of Human Happiness.

Ambition Is One Of The Ungovernable Passions Of The Human Heart. The Love Of Power Is Insatiable And Uncontrollable.

The Good Of The Governed Is The End, And Rewards And Punishments Are The Means, Of All Government. The Government Of The Supreme And All-perfect Mind, Over All His Intellectual Creation, Is By Proportioning Rewards To Piety And Virtue, And Punishments To Disobedience And Vice. ... The Joys Of Heaven Are Prepared, And The Horrors Of Hell In A Future State, To Render The Moral Government Of The Universe Perfect And Complete. Human Government Is More Or Less Perfect, As It Approaches Nearer Or Diverges Further From An Imitation Of This Perfect Plan Of Divine And Moral Government.

This Is A Revolution, Damn It! We're Going To Have To Offend Somebody!

The Arts And Sciences, In General, During The Three Or Four Last Centuries, Have Had A Regular Course Of Progressive Improvement. The Inventions In Mechanic Arts, The Discoveries In Natural Philosophy, Navigation And Commerce, And The Advancement Of Civilization And Humanity, Have Occasioned Changes In The Condition Of The World And The Human Character Which Would Have Astonished The Most Refined Nations Of Antiquity. A Continuation Of Similar Exertions Is Everyday Rendering Europe More And More Like One Community, Or Single Family.

Suppose A Nation, Rich And Poor, High And Low, Ten Millions In Number, All Assembled Together; Not More Than One Or Two Millions Will Have Lands, Houses, Or Any Personal Property; If We Take Into The Account The Women And Children, Or Even If We Leave Them Out Of The Question, A Great Majority Of Every Nation Is Wholly Destitute Of Property, Except A Small Quantity Of Clothes, And A Few Trifles Of Other Movables.

The United States Is Not A Christian Nation Any More Than It Is A Jewish Or A Mohammedan Nation.

When Philosophic Reason Is Clear And Certain By Intuition Or Necessary Induction, No Subsequent Revelation Supported By Prophecies Or Miracles Can Supersede It.

The Divine Science Of Government Is The Science Of Social Happiness, And The Blessings Of Society Depend Entirely On The Constitutions Of Government.

The World Grows More Enlightened. Knowledge Is More Equally Diffused.

The Universal Object And Idol Of Men Of Letters Is Reputation.

Thanks Be To God, That He Gave Me Stubborness, When I Know I Am Right.

The Rich, The Well-born, And The Able, Acquire An Influence Among The People That Will Soon Be Too Much For Simple Honesty And Plain Sense, In A House Of Representatives. The Most Illustrious Of Them Must, Therefore, Be Separated From The Mass, And Placed By Themselves In A Senate; This Is, To All Honest And Useful Intents, An Ostracism.

The Public Negotiations And Secret Intrigues Of The English (jews) And The French (jews) Have Been Employed For Centuries In Every Court And Country In Europe. Look Back To The History Of Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy And Turkey For The Last Hundred Years...all The Power Of Europe Will Be Continually Maneuvering With Us To Work Us Into The Real Or Imaginary Balance Of Power.

If It Be The Pleasure Of Heaven That My Country Shall Require The Poor Offering Of My Life, The Victim Shall Be Ready, At The Appointed Hour Of Sacrifice, Come When That Hour May. But While I Do Live, Let Me Have A Country, And That A Free Country!

Tacitus Appears To Have Been As Great An Enthusiast As Petrarch For The Revival Of The Republic And Universal Empire. He Has Exerted The Vengeance Of History Upon The Emperors, But Has Veiled The Conspiracies Against Them, And The Incorrigible Corruption Of The People Which Probably Provoked Their Most Atrocious Cruelties. Tyranny Can Scarcely Be Practised Upon A Virtuous And Wise People.

The Essence Of A Free Government Consists In An Effectual Control Of Rivalries.

The Constitution Is ...the Greatest Single Effort Of National Deliberation That The World Has Ever Seen

Always Stand On Principle Even If You Stand Alone.

A Single Assembly Is Apt To Grow Ambitious, And After A Time Will Not Hesitate To Vote Itself Perpetual. This Was One Fault Of The Long Parliament; But More Remarkably Of Holland, Whose Assembly First Voted Themselves From Annual To Septennial, Then For Life, And After A Course Of Years, That All Vacancies Happening By Death Or Otherwise, Should Be Filled By Themselves, Without Any Application To Constituents At All.

Let Us Hear The Dangers Of Thralldom To Our Consciences From Ignorance, Extreme Poverty, And Dependence; In Short, From Civil And Political Slavery. Let Us See Delineated Before Us The True Map Of Man. Let Us Hear The Dignity Of His Nature, And The Noble Rank He Holds Among The Works Of God-that Consenting To Slavery Is A Sacrilegious Breach Of Trust, As Offensive In The Sight Of God As It Is Derogatory From Our Own Honor Or Interest Or Happiness-and That God Almighty Has Promulgated From Heaven Liberty, Peace, And Goodwill To Man!

We Electors Have An Important Constitutional Power Placed In Our Hands: We Have A Check Upon Two Branches Of The Legislature, As Each Branch Has Upon The Other Two; The Power I Mean Of Electing At Stated Periods, One Branch, Which Branch Has The Power Of Electing Another. It Becomes Necessary To Every Subject Then, To Be In Some Degree A Statesman: And To Examine And Judge For Himself Of The Tendencies Of Political Principles And Measures.

I Must Study War And Politics So That My Children Shall Be Free To Study Commerce, Agriculture And Other Practicalities, So That Their Children Can Study Painting, Poetry And Other Fine Things.

What Is To Become Of An Independent Statesman, One Who Will Bow The Knee To No Idol, Who Will Worship Nothing As A Divinity But Truth, Virtue, And His Country? I Will Tell You; He Will Be Regarded More By Posterity Than Those Who Worship Hounds And Horses; And Although He Will Not Make His Own Fortune, He Will Make The Fortune Of His Country.

The Education Here Intended In Not Merely That Of The Children Of The Rich And Noble, But Of Every Rank And Class Of People, Down To The Lowest And The Poorest. It Is Not Too Much To Say That Schools For The Education Of All Should Be Placed At Convenient Distances, And Maintained At The Public Expense.

This Oration Will Be Read Five Hundred Years Hence With As Much Rapture As It Was Heard. It Ought To Be Read At The End Of Every Century, And Indeed At The End Of Every Year, Forever And Ever.

Whenever Serious Art Loses Track Of Its Roots In The Vernacular, Then It Begins To Atrophy.

But I Must Submit All My Hopes And Fears, To An Overruling Providence, In Which, Unfashionable As The Faith May Be, I Firmly Believe.

America Is Destined To Be Peopled By One Nation, Speaking One Language, Professing One General System Of Religious And Political Principles, And Accustomed To One General Tenor Of Social Usages And Customs.

Numberless Have Been The Systems Of Iniquity Contrived By The Great For The Gratification Of This Passion In Themselves; But In None Of Them Were They Ever More Successful Than In The Invention And Establishment Of The Canon And The Feudal Law.

A Representative Assembly, Although Extremely Well Qualified, And Absolutely Necessary, As A Branch Of The Legislative, Is Unfit To Exercise The Executive Power, For Want Of Two Essential Properties, Secrecy And Dispatch.

Objects Of The Most Stupendous Magnitude, And Measure In Which The Lives And Liberties Of Millions Yet Unborn Are Intimately Interested, Are Now Before Us. We Are In The Very Midst Of A Revolution The Most Complete, Unexpected And Remarkable Of Any In The History Of Nations.

The Study And Practice Of Law ... Does Not Dissolve The Obligations Of Morality Or Of Religion.

The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

Second Amendment

Tom, Had You And I Been 40 Days With Moses, And Beheld The Great God, And Even If God Himself Had Tried To Tell Us That Three Was One ... And One Equals Three, You And I Would Never Have Believed It. We Would Never Fall Victims To Such Lies.

Abuse Of Words Has Been The Great Instrument Of Sophistry And Chicanery, Of Party, Faction, And Division Of Society.

Unnecessary War

The Way To Secure Liberty Is To Place It In The People's Hands, That Is, To Give Them The Power At All Times To Defend It In The Legislature And In The Courts Of Justice.

When Economic Power Became Concentrated In A Few Hands, Then Political Power Flowed To Those Possessors And Away From The Citizens, Ultimately Resulting In An Oligarchy Or Tyranny.

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.

My History Of The Jesuits Is In Four Volumes.... This Society Has Been A Greater Calamity To Mankind Than The French Revolution, Or Napoleon's Despotism Or Ideology. It Has Obstructed Progress Of Reformation And The Improvement Of The Human Mind In Society Much Longer And More Fatally.

I Request That They May Be Considered In Confidence, Until The Members Of Congress Are Fully Possessed Of Their Contents, And Shall Have Had Opportunity To Deliberate On The Consequences Of Their Publication; After Which Time, I Submit Them To Your Wisdom.

Be Not Intimidated... Nor Suffer Yourselves To Be Wheedled Out Of Your Liberties By Any Pretense Of Politeness, Delicacy, Or Decency. These, As They Are Often Used, Are But Three Different Names For Hypocrisy, Chicanery And Cowardice.

The Holy Ghost Carries On The Whole Christian System In This Earth. Not A Baptism, Not A Marriage, Not A Sacrament Can Be Administered But By The Holy Ghost... There Is No Authority Civil Or Religious: There Can Be No Legitimate Government But What Is Administered By This Holy Ghost. There Can Be No Salvation Without It. All, Without It Is Rebellion And Perdition, Or In More Orthodox Words Damnation.

But What Do We Mean By The American Revolution? Do We Mean The American War? The Revolution Was Effected Before The War Commenced. The Revolution Was In The Minds And Hearts Of The People; A Change In Their Religious Sentiments, Of Their Duties And Obligations ... This Radical Change In The Principles, Opinions, Sentiments, And Affections Of The People Was The Real American Revolution.

Did You Ever See A Portrait Of A Great Man Without Perceiving Strong Traits Of Pain And Anxiety?

The Consequences Arising From The Continual Accumulation Of Public Debts In Other Countries Ought To Admonish Us To Prevent Their Growth In Our Own.

Have You Considered That System Of Holy Lies And Pious Frauds That Has Raged And Triumphed For 1,500 Years?

Founding Fathers Religion

Politics Are The Divine Science, After All.

Nothing Is More Dreaded Than The National Government Meddling With Religion.

The Date Will Be The Most Memorable Epoch In The History Of America. I Am Apt To Believe That It Will Be Celebrated By Succeeding Generations As The Great Anniversary Festival. It Ought To Be Commemorated As The Day Of Deliverance, By Solemn Acts Of Devotion To God Almighty. It Ought To Be Solemnized With Pomp And Parade, With Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, And Illuminations, From One End Of This Continent To The Other, From This Time Forward Forever More.

A Desire To Be Observed, Considered, Esteemed, Praised, Beloved, And Admired By His Fellows Is One Of The Earliest As Well As The Keenest Dispositions Discovered In The Heart Of Man.

When People Talk Of The Freedom Of Writing, Speaking Or Thinking I Cannot Choose But Laugh. No Such Thing Ever Existed. No Such Thing Now Exists; But I Hope It Will Exist. But It Must Be Hundreds Of Years After You And I Shall Write And Speak No More.

In General, Our Generals Were Outgeneralled.

Remember, Democracy Never Lasts Long. It Soon Wastes, Exhausts, And Murders Itself. There Never Was A Democracy Yet That Did Not Commit Suicide. It Is In Vain To Say That Democracy Is Less Vain, Less Proud, Less Selfish, Less Ambitious, Or Less Avaricious Than Aristocracy Or Monarchy. It Is Not True, In Fact, And Nowhere Appears In History. Those Passions Are The Same In All Men, Under All Forms Of Simple Government, And When Unchecked, Produce The Same Effects Of Fraud, Violence, And Cruelty.

But Before Any Great Things Are Accomplished, A Memorable Change Must Be Made In The System Of Education And Knowledge Must Become So General As To Raise The Lower Ranks Of Society Nearer To The Higher. The Education Of A Nation, Instead Of Being Confined To A Few Schools & Universities, For The Instruction Of The Few, Must Become The National Care And Expence, For The Information Of The Many.

I Am Determined To Control Events, Not Be Controlled By Them.

Children Should Be Educated And Instructed In The Principles Of Freedom.

There Are Persons Whom In My Heart I Despise, Others I Abhor. Yet I Am Not Obliged To Inform The One Of My Contempt, Nor The Other Of My Detestation. This Kind Of Dissimulation...is A Necessary Branch Of Wisdom, And So Far From Being Immoral...that It Is A Duty And A Virtue.

The Only Thing Most People Do Better Than Anyone Else Is Read Their Own Handwriting.

To Suppose Arms In The Hands Of Citizens, To Be Used At Individual Discretion, Except In Private Self-defense, Or By Partial Orders Of Towns, Counties Or Districts Of A State, Is To Demolish Every Constitution, And Lay The Laws Prostrate, So That Liberty Can Be Enjoyed By No Man; It Is A Dissolution Of The Government. The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

Let Frugality And Industry Be Our Virtues.

Elections, Especially Of Representatives And Counselors, Should Be Annual, There Not Being In The Whole Circle Of The Sciences A Maxim More Infallible Than This, "where Annual Elections End, There Slavery Begins." These Great Men ... Should Be (chosen) Once A Year-like Bubbles On The Sea Of Matter Bourne, They Rise, They Break, And To The Sea Return. This Will Teach Them The Great Political Virtues Of Humility, Patience, And Moderation, Without Which Every Man In Power Becomes A Ravenous Beast Of Prey.

You Are A Virginian, And A Virginian Ought To Appear At The Head Of This Business. I Am Obnoxious, Suspected And Unpopular; You Are Very Much Otherwise. And You Can Write Ten Times Better Than I Can.

What A Pity It Is That Our Congress Had Not Known This Discovery, And That Alexander Hamilton’s Projects Of Raising An Army Of Fifty Thousand Men, Ten Thousand Of Them To Be Cavalry And His Projects Of Sedition Laws And Alien Laws And Of New Taxes To Support His Army, All Arose From A Superabundance Of Secretions Which He Could Not Find Whores Enough To Draw Off! And That The Same Vapours Produced His Lyes And Slanders By Which He Totally Destroyed His Party Forever And Finally Lost His Life In The Field Of Honor.

It Would Be An Absurdity For Jurors To Be Required To Accept The Judge's View Of The Law, Against Their Own Opinion, Judgment, And Conscience.

We Electors Have An Important Constitutional Power Placed In Our Hands; We Have A Check Upon Two Branches Of The Legislature.

Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, And Public Virtue Is The Only Foundation Of Republics. There Must Be A Positive Passion For The Public Good, The Public Interest, Honour, Power And Glory, Established In The Minds Of The People, Or There Can Be No Republican Government, Nor Any Real Liberty: And This Public Passion Must Be Superiour To All Private Passions.

If There Is Ever An Amelioration Of The Condition Of Mankind, Philosophers, Theologians, Legislators, Politicians And Moralists Will Find That The Regulation Of The Press Is The Most Difficult, Dangerous And Important Problem They Have To Resolve. Mankind Cannot Now Be Governed Without It, Nor At Present With It.

Those Who Trade Liberty For Security Have Neither.

Here, Every Private Person Is Authorized To Arm Himself, And On The Strength Of This Authority, I Do Not Deny The Inhabitants Had A Right To Arm Themselves At That Time, For Their Defense, Not For Offense.

It May Be The Will Of Heaven That America Shall Suffer Calamities Still More Wasting, And Distresses Yet More Dreadful. If This Is To Be The Case, It Will Have The Good Effect At Least. It Will Inspire Us With Many Virtues, Which We Have Not, And Correct Many Errors, Follies And Vices. But I Must Submit All My Hopes And Fears To An Overruling Providence, In Which, Unfashionable As The Faith May Be, I Firmly Believe.

As Good Government Is An Empire Of Laws, How Shall Your Laws Be Made? In A Large Society, Inhabiting An Extensive Country, It Is Impossible That The Whole Should Assemble To Make Laws. The First Necessary Step, Then, Is To Depute Power From The Many To A Few Of The Most Wise And Good.

I Will Insist The Hebrews Have [contributed] More To Civilize Men Than Any Other Nation. If I Was An Atheist And Believed In Blind Eternal Fate, I Should Still Believe That Fate Had Ordained The Jews To Be The Most Essential Instrument For Civilizing The Nations. They Are The Most Glorious Nation That Ever Inhabited This Earth. The Romans And Their Empire Were But A Bubble In Comparison To The Jews. They Have Given Religion To Three-quarters Of The Globe And Have Influenced The Affairs Of Mankind More And More Happily Than Any Other Nation, Ancient Or Modern.

No Good Government But What Is Republican... The Very Definition Of A Republic Is 'an Empire Of Laws, And Not Of Men.'

Resistance To Sudden Violence, For The Preservation Not Only Of My Person, My Limbs, And Life, But Of My Property, Is An Indisputable Right Of Nature Which I Have Never Surrendered To The Public By The Compact Of Society, And Which Perhaps, I Could Not Surrender If I Would.

Whether They Be Old Or Young, Rich Or Poor, High Or Low, Wise Or Foolish, Ignorant Or Learned, Every Individual Is Seen To Be Strongly Actuated By A Desire To Be Seen, Heard, Talked Of, Approved And Respected... A Passion For Distinction.

I Didn't Grow Up Imagining Myself As An Opera Composer. Only Once In My Entire Adolescence Did I Attend An Opera. I Went And Saw Aida At The Old Met, Didn't Understand A Thing About It, And Thought It Was Pretty Awful. But I Think I Had It In My Genes Without Even Realising It.

As Unbalanced Parties Of Every Description Can Never Tolerate A Free Inquiry Of Any Kind, When Employed Against Themselves, The License, And Even The Most Temperate Freedom Of The Press, Soon Excite Resentment And Revenge.

The Dignity And Stability Of Government In All Its Branches, The Morals Of The People, And Every Blessing Of Society Depend So Much Upon An Upright And Skillful Administration Of Justice, That The Judicial Power Ought To Be Distinct From Both The Legislative And Executive, And Independent Upon Both, That So It May Be A Check Upon Both, As Both Should Be Checks Upon That.

The Rights Of Englishmen Are Derived From God, Not From King Or Parliament, And Would Be Secured By The Study Of History, Law, And Tradition.

The Real Fabric Of American Society Is Not All Those Flags You See On People's Cars...it's In The Bill Of Rights And In Our Constitutional Form Of Government.

I Almost Shudder At The Thought Of Alluding To The Most Fatal Example Of The Abuses Of Grief Which The History Of Mankind Has Preserved - The Cross. Consider What Calamities That Engine Of Grief Has Produced!

Negro Slavery Is An Evil Of Colossal Magnitude.

There Is Danger From All Men. The Only Maxim Of A Free Government Ought To Be To Trust No Man Living With Power To Endanger The Public Liberty.

Property Must Be Secured, Or Liberty Cannot Exist.

The Declaration Of Independence I Always Considered As A Theatrical Show. Jefferson Ran Away With All The Stage Effect Of That... And All The Glory Of It.

A Question Arises Whether All The Powers Of Government, Legislative, Executive, And Judicial, Shall Be Left In This Body? I Think A People Cannot Be Long Free, Nor Ever Happy, Whose Government Is In One Assembly.

There Exists, I Believe, Throughout The Whole Christian World, A Law Which Makes It Blasphemy To Deny Or Doubt The Divine Inspiration Of All The Books Of The Old And New Testaments, From Genesis To Revelations. In Most Countries Of Europe It Is Punished By Fire At The Stake, Or The Rack, Or The Wheel... Now, What Free Inquiry, When A Writer Must Surely Encounter The Risk Of Fine Or Imprisonment For Adducing Any Argument For Investigating The Divine Authority Of Those Books?

Without Religion This World Would Be Something Not Fit To Be Mentioned In Polite Company, I Mean Hell.

If My Superiors Shall Permit Me To Come Home, I Hope It Will Be Soon; If They Mean I Should Stay Abroad, I Am Not Able To Say What I Shall Do, Until I Know In What Capacity. One Thing Is Certain, That I Will Not Live Long Without My Family.

Can A Free Government Possibly Exist With The Roman Catholic Religion?

Catholic Religion

By The Former Of These (canon Law), The Most Refined, Sublime, Extensive, And Astonishing Constitution Of Policy That Ever Was Conceived By The Mind Of Man Was Framed By The Romish Clergy For The Aggrandizement Of Their Own Order.

The Right Of A Nation To Kill A Tyrant In Case Of Necessity Can No More Be Doubted Than To Hang A Robber, Or Kill A Flea.

Oh! The Wisdom, The Foresight And The Hindsight And The Rightsight And The Leftsight, The Northsight And The Southsight, And The Eastsight And The Westsight That Appeared In That August Assembly.

I Had Heard My Father Say That He Never Knew A Piece Of Land Run Away Or Break.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof.

And Liberty Cannot Be Preserved Without A General Knowledge Among The People Who Have A Right From The Frame Of Their Nature To Knowledge, As Their Great Creator Who Does Nothing In Vain, Has Given Them Understandings And A Desire To Know. But Besides This They Have A Right, An Indisputable, Unalienable, Indefeasible Divine Right To The Most Dreaded And Envied Kind Of Knowledge, I Mean Of The Characters And Conduct Of Their Rulers.

We May Please Ourselves With The Prospect Of Free And Popular Governments. But There Is Great Danger That Those Governments Will Not Make Us Happy. God Grant They May. But I Fear That In Every Assembly, Members Will Obtain An Influence By Noise, Not Sense. By Meanness, Not Greatness. By Ignorance, Not Learning. By Contracted Hearts, Not Large Souls.

This Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It.

If There Is A God

All Sober Inquirers After Truth, Ancient And Modern, Pagan And Christian, Have Declared That The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

The Europeans Are All Deeply Tainted With Prejudices, Both Ecclesiastical And Temporal, Which They Can Never Get Rid Of. They Are All Infected With Episcopal And Presbyterian Creeds, And Confessions Of Faith. They All Believe That Great Principle Which Has Produced This Boundless Universe, Newton's Universe And Herschell's Universe, Came Down To This Little Ball, To Be Spit Upon By Jews. And Until This Awful Blasphemy Is Got Rid Of, There Never Will Be Any Liberal Science In The World.

The Form Of Government Which Communicates Ease, Comfort, Security, Or, In One Word, Happiness, To The Greatest Number Of Persons, And In The Greatest Degree, Is The Best.

If "thou Shalt Not Covet," And "thou Shalt Not Steal," Were Not Commandments Of Heaven, They Must Be Made Inviolable Precepts In Every Society, Before It Can Be Civilized Or Made Free.

My God! This Is A Revolution! We Have To Offend Someone!

Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, And Public Virtue Is The Only Foundation Of Republics.

Human Government Is More Or Less Perfect As It Approaches Nearer Or Diverges Farther From The Imitation Of This Perfect Plan Of Divine And Moral Government.

When Legislature Is Corrupted, The People Are Undone.

Admire And Adore The Author Of The Telescopic Universe, Love And Esteem The Work, Do All In Your Power To Lessen Ill, And Increase Good, But Never Assume To Comprehend.

We Shall, By And By, Want A World Of Hemp More For Our Own Consumption.

We Have No Government Armed With Power Capable Of Contending With Human Passions Unbridled By Morality And Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge Or Gallantry Would Break The Strongest Cords Of Our Constitution As A Whale Goes Through A Net. Our Constitution Is Designed Only For A Moral And Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate For Any Other.

The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

Swim Or Sink, Live Or Die, Survive Or Perish With My Country Was My Unalterable Determination.

There Never Was Yet A People Who Must Not Have Somebody Or Something To Represent The Dignity Of The State.

I Will Insist That The Hebrews Have Done More To Civilize Man Than Any Other Nation.

Nip The Shoots Of Arbitrary Power In The Bud, Is The Only Maxim Which Can Ever Preserve The Liberties Of Any People. When The People Give Way, Their Deceivers, Betrayers And Destroyers Press Upon Them So Fast That There Is No Resisting Afterwards. The Nature Of The Encroachments Is To, Grow Every Day More Encroaching; Like A Cancer, It Eats Faster And Faster Every Hour.

Let Them Revere Nothing But Religion, Morality And Liberty.

Founding Fathers Religion

Power Must Never Be Trusted Without A Check.

I Do Not Like The Late Resurrection Of The Jesuits. . . . If Ever Any Congregation Of Men Could Merit Eternal Perdition On Earth, And In Hell, According To These Historians, Though, Like Pascal, True Catholics, It Is This Company Of Loyolas.

It Is 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 Most Agreeable To The Dictates Of His Own Conscience; Or For His Religious Profession Or Sentiments; Provided He Doth Not Disturb The Public Peace, Or Obstruct Others In Their Religious Worship.

Let Us Dare To Read, Think, Speak And Write.

No Truth Is More Clearly Taught In The Volume Of Inspiration, Nor Any More Fully Demonstrated By The Experience Of All Ages, Than That A Deep Sense And A Due Acknowledgment Of The Governing Providence Of A Supreme Being And The Accountableness Of Men To Him As The Searcher Of Hearts And Righteous Distributor Of Rewards And Punishments Are Conducive Equally To The Happiness And Rectitude Of Individuals And To The Well Being Of Communities.

I Do Not Say That Democracy Has Been More Pernicious On The Whole, And In The Long Run, Than Monarchy Or Aristocracy. Democracy Has Never Been And Never Can Be So Durable As Aristocracy Or Monarchy; But While It Lasts, It Is More Bloody Than Either.

Democracies Have

My History Of The Jesuits Is Not Elegantly Written, But Is Supported By Unquestionable Authorities, Is Very Particular And Very Horrible. Their Restoration Is Indeed "a Step Toward Darkness," Cruelty, Perfidy, Despotism, Death And I Wish We Were Out Of Danger Of Bigotry And Jesuitism.

Each Individual Of The Society Has A Right To Be Protected By It In The Enjoyment Of His Life, Liberty, And Property, According To Standing Laws.

I Wish I Could Lay Down Beside Her And Die Too.

They Shall Not Be Expected To Acknowledge Us Until We Have Acknowledged Ourselves.

The Deliberate Union Of So Great And Various A People In Such A Place, Is Without All Partiality Or Prejudice, If Not The Greatest Exertion Of Human Understanding, The Greatest Single Effort Of National Deliberation That The World Has Ever Seen.

A Pen Is Certainly An Excellent Instrument To Fix A Man's Attention And To Inflame His Ambition.

As The Safety And Prosperity Of Nations Ultimately And Essentially Depend On The Protection And The Blessing Of Almighty God, And The National Acknowledgment Of This Truth Is Not Only An Indispensable Duty Which The People Owe To Him.

As The Happiness Of The People Is The Sole End Of Government, So The Consent Of The People Is The Only Foundation Of It.

The Frightful Engines Of Ecclesiastical Councils, Of Diabolical Malice, And Calvinistical Good-nature Never Failed To Terrify Me Exceedingly Whenever I Thought Of Preaching.

Individuals Have Conquered Themselves. Nations And Large Bodies Of Men, Never.

Democracies Have

Human Nature Itself Is Evermore An Advocate For Liberty. There Is Also In Human Nature A Resentment Of Injury, And Indignation Against Wrong. A Love Of Truth And A Veneration Of Virtue. These Amiable Passions, Are The "latent Spark" . . . If The People Are Capable Of Understanding, Seeing And Feeling The Differences Between True And False, Right And Wrong, Virtue And Vice, To What Better Principle Can The Friends Of Mankind Apply Than To The Sense Of This Difference?

Banks Have Done More Injury To The Religion, Morality, Tranquility, Prosperity, And Even Wealth Of The Nation Than They Can Have Done Or Ever Will Do Good.

It Is More Important That Innocence Be Protected Than It Is That Guilt Be Punished, For Guilt And Crimes Are So Frequent In This World That They Cannot All Be Punished. But If Innocence Itself Is Brought To The Bar And Condemned, Perhaps To Die, Then The Citizen Will Say, "whether I Do Good Or Whether I Do Evil Is Immaterial, For Innocence Itself Is No Protection," And If Such An Idea As That Were To Take Hold In The Mind Of The Citizen That Would Be The End Of Security Whatsoever.

He Is Too Illiterate, Unread, Unlearned For His Station And Reputation.

I Am A Revolutionary, So My Son Can Be A Farmer, So His Son Can Be A Poet.

What Havoc Has Been Made Of Books Through Every Century Of The Christian Era? Where Are Fifty Gospels, Condemned As Spurious By The Bull Of Pope Gelasius? Where Are The Forty Wagon-loads Of Hebrew Manuscripts Burned In France, By Order Of Another Pope, Because Suspected Of Heresy? Remember The 'index Expurgatorius', The Inquisition, The Stake, The Axe, The Halter And The Guillotine.

It Is Folly To Anticipate Evils, And Madness To Create Imaginary Ones.

The Executive Shall Never Exercise The Legislative And Judicial Powers, Or Either Of Them, To The End That It May Be A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men.

But America Is A Great, Unwieldy Body. Its Progress Must Be Slow. It Is Like A Large Fleet Sailing Under Convoy. The Fleetest Sailors Must Wait For The Dullest And Slowest. Like A Coach And Six-the Swiftest Horses Must Be Slackened And The Slowest Quickened, That All May Keep An Even Pace.

The Happiness Of Society Is The End Of Government.

There Are Two Ways To Conquer And Enslave A Country. One Is By The Sword. The Other Is By Debt.

The Idea Of Infidelity [a Disbelief In The Inspiration Of The Scriptures Or The Divine Origin Of Christianity] Cannot Be Treated With Too Much Resentment Or Too Much Horror. The Man Who Can Think Of It With Patience Is A Traitor In His Heart And Ought To Be Execrated [denounced] As One Who Adds The Deepest Hypocrisy To The Blackest Treason.

The Christian Religion As I Understand It Is The Best.

What Other Form Of Government, Indeed, Can So Well Deserve Our Esteem And Love?

An Honest, Sensible, Humane Man, . . . Laboring To Do Good Rather Than Be Rich, To Be Useful Rather Than Make A Show, Living In Modest Simplicity . . . Is Really The Most Respectable Man In Society, [and] Makes Himself And All About Him Most Happy.

Rulers Are No More Than Attorneys, Agents, And Trustees, For The People; And If The Cause, The Interest And Trust, Is Insidiously Betrayed, Or Wantonly Trifled Away, The People Have A Right To Revoke The Authority That They Themselves Have Deputed, And To Constitute Abler And Better Agents, Attorneys, And Trustees.

That The Said Constitution Shall Never Be Construed To Authorize Congress To Infringe The Just Liberty Of The Press Or The Rights Of Conscience.

Second Amendment

Modesty Is A Virtue That Can Never Thrive In Public.

If The Multitude Is Possessed Of The Balance Of Real Estate, The Multitude Will Have The Balance Of Power, And In That Case The Multitude Will Take Care Of The Liberty, Virtue, And Interest Of The Multitude In All Acts Of Government.

Mankind Will In Time Discover That Unbridled Majorities Are As Tyrannical And Cruel As Unlimited Despots.

Libertarian Party

The Government Of The United States Of America Has In Itself No Character Of Enmity Against The Laws, Religion Or Tranquility Of Muslims.

People And Nations Are Forged In The Fires Of Adversity.

The Whole Drama Of The World Is Such Tragedy That I Am Weary Of The Spectacle.

Ambition Is The Subtlest Beast Of The Intellectual And Moral Field. It Is Wonderfully Adroit In Concealing Itself From Its Owner.

I Would Define Liberty To Be A Power To Do As We Would Be Done By. The Definition Of Liberty To Be The Power Of Doing Whatever The Law Permits, Meaning The Civil Laws, Does Not Seem Satisfactory.

The Fundamental Article Of My Political Creed Is That Despotism, Or Limited Sovereignty, Or Absolute Power Is The Same [whether] In A Majority Of A Popular Assembly; An Aristocratic Council; Or Oligarchical Junto And A Single Emperor - Equally Arbitrary, Cruel, Bloody And In Every Respect Diabolical.

The Die Is Cast. The People Have Passed The River And Cut Away The Bridge. Last Night Three Cargoes Of Tea Were Emptied Into The Harbor. This Is The Grandest Event Which Has Ever Yet Happened Since The Controversy With Britain Opened.

My Best Wishes, In The Joys, And Festivities, And The Solemn Services Of That Day On Which Will Be Completed The Fiftieth Year From Its Birth, The Independence Of The United States. A Remarkable Epoch In The Annals Of The Human Race, Destined In Future History To Form The Brightest Or The Blackest Page, According To The Use Or The Abuse Of Those Political Institutions By Which They Shall, In Time To Come, Be Shaped By The Human Mind.

Every Measure Of Prudence, Therefore, Ought To Be Assumed For The Eventual Total Extirpation Of Slavery From The United States ... I Have, Throughout My Whole Life, Held The Practice Of Slavery In ... Abhorrence.

All The Perplexities, Confusion And Distress In America Arise, Not From Defects In Their Constitution Or Confederation, Not From Want Of Honor Or Virtue, So Much As From The Downright Ignorance Of The Nature Of Coin, Credit And Circulation.

We Cannot Insure Success, But We Can Deserve It.

But How Has It Happened That Millions Of Fables, Tales, Legends Have Been Blended With Both Jewish And Christian Revelation That Have Made Them The Most Bloody Religion That Ever Existed?

I Consider A Decent Respect For Christianity Among The Best Recommendations For Public Service.

Old Minds Are Like Old Horses; You Must Exercise Them If You Wish To Keep Them In Working Order.

Griefs Upon Griefs! Disappointments Upon Disappointments. What Then? This Is A Gay, Merry World Notwithstanding.

There Never Was Yet A People Who Must Not Have Somebody Or Something To Represent The Dignity Of The State, The Majesty Of The People, Call It What You Will - A Doge, An Avoyer, An Archon, A President, A Consul, A Syndic; This Becomes At Once An Object Of Ambition And Dispute, And, In Time, Of Division, Faction, Sedition, And Rebellion.

The Dons, The Bashaws, The Grandees, The Patricians, The Sachems, The Nabobs, Call Them By What Names You Please, Sigh And Groan And Fret, And Sometimes Stamp And Foam And Curse, But All In Vain. The Decree Is Gone Forth, And It Cannot Be Recalled, That A More Equal Liberty Than Has Prevailed In Other Parts Of The Earth Must Be Established In America.

Facts Are Stubborn Things; And Whatever May Be Our Wishes, Our Inclinations, Or The Dictates Of Our Passions, They Cannot Alter The State Of Facts And Evidence: Nor Is The Law Less Stable Than The Fact.

Laws For The Liberal Education Of Youth, Especially Of The Lower Class Of People, Are So Extremely Wise And Useful, That, To A Humane And Generous Mind, No Expense For This Purpose Would Be Thought Extravagant.

The Question Before The Human Race Is, Whether The God Of Nature Shall Govern The World By His Own Laws, Or Whether Priests And Kings Shall Rule It By Fictitious Miracles?

I Am Quite Content To Come Home And Go To Farming, Be A Select Man, And Owe No Man Any Thing But Good Will. There I Can Get A Little Health And Teach My Boys To Be Lawyers.

A Taste For Literature And A Turn For Business, United In The Same Person, Never Fails To Make A Great Man.

Twenty Times, In The Course Of My Late Reading, Have I Been On The Point Of Breaking Out, 'this Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It!' But In This Exclamation, I Should Have Been As Fanatical As Bryant Or Cleverly. Without Religion, This World Would Be Something Not Fit To Be Mentioned In Public Company-i Mean Hell.

No Man Who Ever Held The Office Of President Would Congratulate A Friend On Obtaining It.

I Shall Have The Liberty To Think For Myself.

Ideology Is The Science Of Idiots.

If We Do Not Lay Out Ourselves In The Service Of Mankind Whom Should We Serve?

Property Monopolized Or In The Possession Of A Few Is A Curse To Mankind.

. . . Thirteen Governments [of The Original States] Thus Founded On The Natural Authority Of The People Alone, Without A Pretence Of Miracle Or Mystery, And Which Are Destined To Spread Over The Northern Part Of That Whole Quarter Of The Globe, Are A Great Point Gained In Favor Of The Rights Of Mankind.

Negro Slavery Is An Evil Of Colossal Magnitude. I Am Therefore Utterly Averse To The Admission Of Slavery Into The Missouri Territory, And Heartily Wish That Every Constitutional Measure May Be Adopted For The Preservation Of It.

But A Constitution Of Government Once Changed From Freedom, Can Never Be Restored. Liberty, Once Lost, Is Lost Forever.

Liberty, According To My Metaphysics, Is An Intellectual Quality, An Attribute That Belongs Not To Fate Nor Chance. Neither Possesses It, Neither Is Capable Of It. There Is Nothing Moral Or Immoral In The Idea Of It. The Definition Of It Is A Self-determining Power In An Intellectual Agent. It Implies Thought And Choice And Power; It Can Elect Between Objects, Indifferent In Point Of Morality, Neither Morally Good Nor Morally Evil.

Elections To Office, Which Are The Great Objects Of Ambition, I Look At With Terror!

In Every Society Where Property Exists There Will Ever Be A Struggle Between Rich And Poor. Mixed In One Assembly, Equal Laws Can Never Be Expected; They Will Either Be Made By The Member To Plunder The Few Who Are Rich, Or By The Influence To Fleece The Many Who Are Poor.

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