Founders Quote, 7 June 2025

With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves. - John Dickinson & Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms — 1775

There's a pair of individuals on opposing sides of the American Revolution, figuratively speaking - Thomas Jefferson was one of the individuals most closely involved in the writing of the Declaration of Independence while John Dickinson worked until the very last to try and bring peace between the colonists and the British Crown before joining Jefferson and the others.

Founders Quote, 2 June 2025

Okay, I gotta catch on these....

Commerce: The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of its political cares. - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 12, 1787

Hamilton's right there; the best way for a country to prosper is to unleash the economic commerce engine to full blast and then, after making sure there's a fair system of laws/regulations, getting well the hell outta' the way.

Founders Quotes, 31 May-1 June 2025

A pair of quotes from America's first president, George Washington, on the topics of character and citizenship...

Character: Your love of liberty - your respect for the laws - your habits of industry - and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness. - letter to the residents of Boston, Mass., 1789

Citizenship: 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. - letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island — 1790

Two of the hallmarks of America are the ideas of character and citizenship - the American character (love of liberty/freedom, respect for the law, a strong work ethic) and citizenship (just as Romans took pride in being citizens of Rome, "Civis Romanus sum", Americans still take pride in being a citizen of the United States - "Civis Americanus sum."

Founders Quotes, 29-30 May 2025

Quotes on the budget and on that eternal bane of elected officials, bureaucracy, both courtesy of Thomas Jefferson....

Budget: A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive. - letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, 1823

Bureaucracy: I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. - letter to William Ludlow, 1824

Both quotes are very prescient for today's times, given how hard Elon Musk and DOGE have worked to work just the $150bn or so thus far from the federal budget...and bureaucracies are, next to death and taxes, the absolute bane of humanity.

Founders' Quotes, 27-28 May 2025

A pair of quotes from Thomas Jefferson on the subject of arms...

(1) One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them. - letter to George Washington, 1796

(2) No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands]. - Draft Constitution for the State of Virginia — 1776

One of the things that makes America such a unique place is the freedom of individual to possess firearms (within certain historical limits) without the government's meddling or forbiddance. Heck, the first shots of the American Revolution were precisely because the British government wanted to seize the weapons and ammunition of the colonists in Lexington and Concord.

Charlton Heston had it right after all...."I'll give you my gun when you pry (or take) it from my cold, dead hands."

Founders Quote, 26 May 2025

Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness. - James Madison, Federalist No. 14, 1787

America is many many wonderful things but it is also an idea, an idea that says in essence that you can live your life as you see fit (w/in the bounds of the law, of course) without government or private busybodies meddling in your affairs. It is the spirit of the pioneer going forth to reach new worlds, new boundaries, of piercing the unknown. It is the soldier defending their country from threats near and far, of the farmer tending to the land, of the homesteader caring for and managing their lands, etc.

Most of all, America is an idea - that when you are born, your whole life is free to do with as you wish, without concern of class or gender or race. In most countries, when you are born, your life, depending on the country, is all-but-laid out for you; here? The only limits are the limits of one's imagination.

Founder's Quote, 25 May 2025

It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual, or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage. - George Washington, Eighth Annual Message to Congress — 1796

Agriculture has long been a staple of America; from the farms of the Midwest to the vineyards of California and the yeoman farmers of Appalachia, farming and the products yielded from them not only feed America but the world.

Founders Quotes, 5-6 May 2025

Two quotes on virtue from Benjamin Franklin and George Washington....

Franklin: Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. - letter to John Alleyne — 1768

Washington: There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. - First Inaugural Address, 1789

Virtue is a dying art in modern society; too many of us seek out the vices but not the virtues...and you wonder why things are so rotten at times? That's one reason of many.

Founders' Quote, 4 May 2025

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify. - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, 1788

Federalist #33 is one of the more interesting Federalist Papers in that it discusses and balances out the concerns of the people in giving government the power of taxation ("no taxation without representation") with the government's powers in collecting taxes (and the passing of laws in order to do so). Hamilton posits that if Congress is given the power of taxation, it must also be allowed to craft laws in order for the Executive Branch to carry out the powers given to it.

Hamilton's response to the people's concerns is that while the branches of government have a responsibility in checking & balancing each other, it is ultimately the American people who exercise the final checks & balances on the government.

Founders' Quotes, 2-3 May 2025

A pair of quotes on two very mutually exclusive things: the Press and Truth.

-the Press: No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, 1792

-Truth: In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend. - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31, 1788

Why would the Press and truth be mutually exclusive? Has anyone been watching the Mainstream Lying Snake Media these past recent years?

Founders Quote, 28-29 April 2025

A pair of quotes on we, the People, by Alexander Hamilton...

(1) 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. - Federalist No. 22, 1787

(2) It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it. - Federalist No. 71, 1788

On the first quote, I agree; all power in government (and the rights of the people) must arise from the consent of the governed. On the second, I also agree; Hamilton reminds us that even the worst ideas can come from good intentions.

Founders' Quotes, 26-27 April 2025

A pair of quotes on the necessary evil of taxation...

Hamilton: It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed - that is, an extension of the revenue. - Federalist No. 21, 1787

Jefferson: A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive. - letter to Lafayette, 1823

...as spoken above, taxation is a necessary, the price, as Oliver Wendall Holmes once said, we pay for a functioning society. The trick, as Arthur Laffer points out, isn't the taxation itself but at what point on the 0-100 scale you put it. At a certain point you get the maximum amount of taxes avaialbe.

Anything less and people will save. Another more and people will spend recklessly.

Founders' Quotes, 22-23 April 2025

A pair of quotes on the question and issue of separation of powers from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison....

Jefferson: [T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established...are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering. - letter to Judge William Johnson, 1823

Madison: An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others. - Federalist No. 48, 1788

One of the hallmarks of the Constitution is the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches; each has specific powers, each cannot encroach upon the other branches and each in theory are supposed to be co-equal branches of government.

In reality, the theory went that Congress has the most power, then the Executive and finally the Judiciary...what ended up happening is that the Executive wields most of the power, then Congress and the Judiciary fight for whatever is left.

Not the system the Founders' and Framers' had in mind...

Founders Quote, 21 April 2025

The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire and 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. - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol 1 — 1787

Reading the above quote, I'm honestly not sure if Adams meant the above as a backhanded compliment to the Upper Chamber or as an insult; God only knows what he'd say nowadays...

Founders' Quotes, 19-20 April 2025

A couple of quotes on rights from Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson....

Hamilton: The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. (The Farmer Refuted, 1775)

Jefferson: The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. (Rights of British America, 1774)

The beauty of rights, especially under the Constitution, is that while they can be restricted under certain circumstances, they cannot be taken away without due process (i.e. according to the 13th Amendment). These are known as negative rights, rights inborn to all individuals, and not positive rights, rights granted by government. (Rights that can be granted by government to its' people can also be taken away by government - remember the Covid lockdowns, folks?)

Founders' Quote, 18 April 2025

Although a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis C. Gray, 1815

Republican (little-r) government is a hallmark of America, the idea that the people reign supreme through their elected leaders. A rare thing at the time of the Revolution, democratic (little-d) governance is as common around the world as the sands of the shore.

It is a testament to those who brought freedom to these shores 250 years ago....

Founders' Quotes, 16-17 April 2025

Two quotes on one of the bedrocks of American society, religious liberty...

(1) I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience. - George Washington, letter to the General Committee of the United Baptist Churches in Virginia — 1789

(2) That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages amoung some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business, - James Madison, letter to William Bradford, 1774

In these two quotes above we're reminded of how religious liberty serves as a bedrock in society, for without it we are liable to go back to our fallen natures. Not a good place to be most days...

Founders' Quotes, 14-15 April 2025

Two quotes concerning religion & morality to contemplate and think about....

(1) Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness. - Samuel Adams, letter to John Trumbull, 1778

(2) Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness. - George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

'Religion & morality are bedrocks of any civil society for without them, we're headed pretty much back to the world of John Hobbes' Leviathan, a short brutish and nasty life without anything redeeming inside it whatsoever.

Founders' Quote, 13 April 2025

I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as preeminent specimens of logic, taste and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory. - Thomas Jefferson, a letter to David Harding, 1824

Public speaking is an important part of a civic society yet many of us fail to appreciate how words can have an effect on us a society. Just think about some of the great speeches and how they influenced society, politics, diplomacy...and try to strive for emulating the best parts every chance you get.

Founders Quotes, 10-12 April 2025

Good tidings on this evening for you, my dear readers, get a trio of quotes from some of America's founding fathers on the topics of power, property and public service..,.yay.

Power: Responsibility, in order to be reasonable, must be limited to objects within the power of the responsible party, and in order to be effectual, must relate to operations of that power, of which a ready and proper judgment can be formed by the constituents. - Alexander Hamilton & James Madison, Federalist #63, 1788

Property: The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. 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. - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitution, 1788

Public Service: I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love. - George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

All three quotes are vital in understanding America; in regards to power, both Hamilton and Madison point out that with power comes responsibility, for the two are not separate or exclusive. In terms of property, the right of private property and what goes with it is as vital a right protected by the Constitution as any other and must be protected within the bounds of the Constitution.

Finally, public service should be an honor, not a stepping stone to greater things for as Washington points out, there is no greater service than working on behalf and in the stead of his/her fellow Americans.