The 2nd Amendment: The Militia and the Right of the People to Bear Arms

U. S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S., 542 2nd Amendment Militia and Right to Bear Arms [Click to enlarge]

What this is saying is our Rights are not given by the Constitution or men, they are our birthright given by God, we can neither give them away, nor can they be taken from us, Thomas Jefferson said as much himself. The constitution only enumerates those rights and spells out in the 2nd amendment the government is prohibited from restricting those rights in any way what-so-ever. This includes any legislation of any form that tries to enforce any gun control laws, or restrict the peoples able to possess any type of firearm available or the ammunition needed to use those firearms in the protection of our selves, our families, our rights, our property and our country etc.

THE MILITIA.

1319. Right to bear arms.—A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. (See Note 1) Constitution of the United States, second amendment.

NOTE 1: The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for Its existence. The second amendment means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National [i.e. Federal] Government. (U. S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S., 542.)

[Cite as United States v. Cruikshank, 25 F. Cas. 707 (C.C.D. La. 1874) (No. 14,897), aff’d, 92 U.S. 542 (1876). NOTE: This is the district court decision which was appealed to the Supreme Court (United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876)). This case concerns an enforcement of rights under the fourteenth amendment including the first amendment right to assemble and second amendment right to arms. The Supreme Court decision held that these rights are not granted by the constitution and do not depend upon it for their existance. The lower court used similar reasoning on P. 710: “With regard to those acknowledged rights and privileges of the citizen, which form a part of his political inheritance derived from the mother country, and which were challenged and vindicated by centuries of stubborn resistance to arbitrary power, they belong to him as his birthright, and it is the duty of the particular state of which he is a citizen to protect and enforce them, and to do naught to deprive him of their full enjoyment. When any of these rights and privileges are secured in the constitution of the United States only by a declaration that the state or the United States shall not violate or abridge them, it is at once understood that they are not created or conferred by the constitution, but that the constitution only guaranties that they shall not be impaired by the state, or the United States, as the case may be.”

1321. Defining terms.—Whenever the words ” State or Territory” are used in the “Act to promote the efficiency of the militia, and for other purposes,” approved January twenty-first, nineteen hundred and three, as amended, they shall be held to apply to and include the District of Columbia. Sec. 74, Act of Feb. 18,1909 (35 Stat. 636).

1322. Composition of the organized.—The militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States and Territories and the District of Columbia, and every able-bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, and shall be divided into two classes: The organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State, Territory, or District of Columbia, or by such other designations as may be given them by the laws of the respective States or Territories; the remainder to be known as the Reserve Militia: Provided. That the provisions of this Act and of section sixteen hundred and sixty-one, Revised Statutes, as amended, shall apply only to the militia organized as a land force. Sec. 1, Act of May 87,1908 (35 Stat. 309).

1323. Exemptions.—The Vice-President of the United States, the officers, judicial and executive, of the Government of the United States, the members and officers of each House of Congress, persons in the military or naval service of the United States, all custom-house officers, with their clerks, postmasters and persons employed by the United States in the transmission of the mail, ferrymen employed at any ferry on a post road, artificers and workmen employed in the armories and arsenals of the United States, pilots, mariners actually employed in the sea service of any citizen or merchant within the United States, and all persons who are exempted by the laws of the respective States or Territories shall be exempted from militia duty, without regard to age. Sec. 8, Act of Jan. SI, 1903 (32 Stat. 775).

1324. The same.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require or compel any member of any well-recognized religious sect or organization at present organized and existing whose creed forbids its members to participate in war in any form, and whose religious convictions are against war or participation therein, in accordance with the creed of said religious organizations, to serve in the militia or any other armed or volunteer force under the jurisdiction and authority of the United States. Sec. 8, Act of Jan. SI, 1903 (38 Stat. 775).

1325. Organization.—The regularly enlisted, organized, and uniformed active militia in the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia who have heretofore participated or shall hereafter participate in the apportionment of the annual appropriation provided by section sixteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended, whether known and designated as National Guard, militia, or otherwise, shall constitute the organized militia. On and after January twenty-first, nineteen hundred and ten, the organization, armament, and discipline of the organized militia in the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia shall be the same as that which is now or may hereafter be prescribed for the Regular Army of the United States, subject in time of peace to such general exceptions as may be authorized by the Secretary of War. Sec. 2, Act of May 27, 1908 (SB Stat. 399).

Source: The Military Laws of the United States, 1915; By the United States War Department

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For a people who are free, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security ~ Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Regarding the 2nd Amendment [Click to enlarge}

THOMAS JEFFERSON; EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

November 8, 1808.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much gratification if our last communications from Europe had enabled me to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral rights has been so destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be omitted to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole or in part, of the several embargo laws. Our ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain to the respective Governments there our disposition to exercise the authority in such manner as would withdraw the pretext on which the aggressions were originally founded and open the way for a renewal of that commercial intercourse which it was alleged on all sides had been reluctantly obstructed. As each of those Governments had pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure which reached its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and as the measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized by both for evincing the sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom. The instructions to our ministers with respect to the different belligerents were necessarily modified with a reference to their different circumstances, and to the condition annexed by law to the Executive power of suspension, requiring a decree of security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal of the decrees of France. Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a suspension of the embargo as to her in case of such a repeal, it was presumed that a sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just demands by one belligerent and a refusal by the other in the relations between the other and the United States. To Great Britain, whose power on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsistent with that condition to state explicitly that on her rescinding her orders in relation to the United States their trade would be opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy in case of his failure to rescind his decrees also. From France no answer has been received, nor any indication that the requisite change in her decrees is contemplated. The favorable reception of the proposition to Great Britain was the less to be doubted, as her orders of council had not only been referred for their vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United States no longer to be pretended, but as the arrangement proposed, whilst it resisted the illegal decrees of France, involved, moreover, substantially the precise advantages professedly aimed at by the British orders. The arrangement has nevertheless been rejected.

This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other event having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by the Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect that in return for the privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow-citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our mariners and our vast mercantile property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted, involved war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence.

Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in defiance of laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course best adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, as they do, from every part of the Union the sentiments of our constituents, my confidence is strengthened that in forming this decision they will, with an unerring regard to the essential rights and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which on other occasions have marked the character of our fellow-citizens if I did not cherish an equal confidence that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis ought to inspire.

The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of the foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given to our ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before you.

The communications made to Congress at their last session explained the posture in which the close of the discussions relating to the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate Chesapeake left a subject on which the nation had manifested so honorable a sensibility. Every view of what had passed authorized a belief that immediate steps would be taken by the British Government for redressing a wrong which the more it was investigated appeared the more clearly to require what had not been provided for in the special mission. It is found that no steps have been taken for the purpose. On the contrary, it will be seen in the documents laid before you that the inadmissible preliminary which obstructed the adjustment is still adhered to, and, moreover, that it is now brought into connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders in council. The instructions which had been given to our minister at London with a view to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation claimed by the United States are included in the documents communicated.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material changes since your last session. The important negotiations with Spain which had been alternately suspended and resumed necessarily experience a pause under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which distinguishes her internal situation.

With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the exception of an unjustifiable proceeding of the Dey of Algiers toward our consul to that Regency. Its character and circumstances are now laid before you, and will enable you to decide how far it may, either now or hereafter, call for any measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.

With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained. Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other times, taken place, but in no wise implicating the will of the nation. Beyond the Mississippi the Ioways, the Sacs, and the Alabamas have delivered up for trial and punishment individuals from among themselves accused of murdering citizens of the United States. On this side of the Mississippi the Creeks are exerting themselves to arrest offenders of the same kind, and the Choctaws have manifested their readiness and desire for amicable and just arrangements respecting depredations committed by disorderly persons of their tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily—is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced toward them. Husbandry and household manufacture are advancing among them more rapidly with the Southern than Northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate, and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee Nation have now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us in laws and government in such progressive manner as we shall think best.

In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of Congress for the security of our seaport towns and harbors, such works of defense have been erected as seemed to be called for by the situation of the several places, their relative importance, and the scale of expense indicated by the amount of the appropriation. These works will chiefly be finished in the course of the present season, except at New York and New Orleans, where most was to be done; and although a great proportion of the last appropriation has been expended on the former place, yet some further views will be submitted to Congress for rendering its security entirely adequate against naval enterprise. A view of what has been done at the several places, and of what is proposed to be done, shall be communicated as soon as the several reports are received.

Of the gunboats authorized by the act of December last, it has been thought necessary to build only 103 in the present year. These, with those before possessed, are sufficient for the harbors and waters most exposed, and the residue will require little time for their construction when it shall be deemed necessary.

Under the act of the last session for raising an additional military force so many officers were immediately appointed as were necessary for carrying on the business of recruiting, and in proportion as it advanced others have been added. We have reason to believe their success has been satisfactory, although such returns have not yet been received as enable me to present you a statement of the numbers engaged.

I have not thought it necessary in the course of the last season to call for any general detachments of militia or of volunteers under the laws passed for that purpose. For the ensuing season, however, they will be required to be in readiness should their service be wanted. Some small and special detachments have been necessary to maintain the laws of embargo on that portion of our northern frontier which offered peculiar facilities for evasion, but these were replaced as soon as it could be done by bodies of new recruits. By the aid of these and of the armed vessels called into service in other quarters the spirit of disobedience and abuse, which manifested itself early and with sensible effect while we were unprepared to meet it, has been considerably repressed.

Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defense, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country’s security will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation.

Under the acts of March 11 and April 23 respecting arms, the difficulty of procuring them from abroad during the present situation and dispositions of Europe induced us to direct our whole efforts to the means of internal supply. The public factories have therefore been enlarged, additional machineries erected, and, in proportion as artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by the latter act have been directed to the encouragement of private factories of arms, and contracts have been entered into with individual undertakers to nearly the amount of the first year’s appropriation.

The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent. The commerce with the Indians, too, within our own boundaries is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same internal source, and will secure to them peace and the progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to both.

The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year ending the 30th of September last being not yet made up, a correct statement will hereafter be transmitted from the Treasury. In the meantime it is ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near $18,000,000, which, with the eight millions and a half in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after meeting the current demands and interest incurred, to pay $2,300,000 of the principal of our funded debt, and left us in the Treasury on that day near $14,000,000. Of these, $5,350,000 will be necessary to pay what will be due on the 1st day of January next, which will complete the reimbursement of the 8 per cent stock. These payments, with those made in the six years and a half preceding, will have extinguished $33,580,000 of the principal of the funded debt, being the whole which could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and of our contracts, and the amount of principal thus discharged will have liberated the revenue from about $2,000,000 of interest and added that sum annually to the disposable surplus. The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt whenever the freedom and safety of our commerce shall be restored merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be reduced? Or shall it not rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union under the powers which Congress may already possess or such amendment of the Constitution as may be approved by the States? While uncertain of the course of things, the time may be advantageously employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a system of improvement, should that be thought best.

Availing myself of this the last occasion which will occur of addressing the two Houses of the Legislature at their meeting, I can not omit the expression of my sincere gratitude for the repeated proofs of confidence manifested to me by themselves and their predecessors since my call to the administration and the many indulgences experienced at their hands. The same grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow-citizens generally, whose support has been my great encouragement under all embarrassments. In the transaction of their business I can not have escaped error. It is incident to our imperfect nature. But I may say with truth my errors have been of the understanding, not of intention, and that the advancement of their rights and interests has been the constant motive for every measure. On these considerations I solicit their indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public authorities I see a sure guaranty of the permanence of our Republic; and, retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.

TH: JEFFERSON

Source: United States Congressional serial set, Issue 1; Issue 3265

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Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms July 6, 1775

June 23, 1775, John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Livingston of New Jersey, Franklin, Jay, and Thomas Johnson of Maryland, were appointed & committee ” to draw up a declaration, to be published by General Washington, upon his arrival at the camp before Boston.” The report was brought in the next day, and on the 26th, after debate, was recommitted, and Dickinson and Jefferson added to the committee. A draft prepared by Jefferson being thought by Dickinson too outspoken, the latter prepared a new one, retaining, however, the closing paragraphs as drawn by Jefferson. In this form the declaration was reported June 27, and agreed to July 6.

References.— Text in Journals of Congress (ed. 1800), I., 134-139. The case for the colonies in 1775 is best stated in John Adams’s Novanglus (Works, IV., 11-177), in reply to a series of newspaper articles by Daniel Leonard, over the signature of Massachusettensis. The two series were printed together at Boston in 1819. See also Chamberlain’s John Adams, the Statesman of the Revolution.

A declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, now met in Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.

IF it was possible for men, who exercise their reason to believe, that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of Great Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them, has been granted to that body. But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. The legislature of Great-Britain, however, stimulated by an inordinate passion for a power not only unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very constitution of that kingdom, and desperate of success in any mode of contest, where regard should be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of enslaving these colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us to close with their last appeal from reason to arms.—Yet, however blinded that assembly may be, by their intemperate rage for unlimited domination, so to slight justice and the opinion of mankind, we esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the rest of the world, to make known the justice of our cause.

Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians. — Societies or governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in a short time so extraordinary, as to excite astonishment. It is universally confessed, that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength, and navigation of the realm, arose from this source; and the minister, who so wisely and successfully directed the measures of Great-Britain in the late war, publicly declared, that these colonies enabled her to triumph over her enemies. —-Towards the conclusion of that war, it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. — From that fatal moment, the affairs of the British empire began to fall into confusion, and gradually sliding from the summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had been advanced by the virtues and abilities of one man, are at length distracted by the convulsions, that now shake it to its deepest foundations. —The new ministry finding the brave foes of Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still contending, took up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace, and of then subduing her faithful friends.

These devoted colonies were judged to be in such a state, as to present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of statuteable plunder. —The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and respectful behaviour from the beginning of colonization, their dutiful, zealous, and useful services during the war, though so recently and amply acknowledged in the most honourable manner by his majesty, by the late king, and by parliament, could not save them from the meditated innovations. — Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious project, and assuming a new power over them, have in the course of eleven years, given such decisive specimens of the spirit and consequences attending this power, as to leave no doubt concerning the effects of acquiescence under it. They have undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have” ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our own property; statutes have been passed for extending the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty beyond their ancient limits; for depriving us of the accustomed and inestimable privilege of trial by jury, in cases affecting both life and property; for suspending the legislature of one of the colonies; for interdicting all commerce to the capital of another; and for altering fundamentally the form of government established by charter, and secured by acts of its own legislature solemnly confirmed by the crown; for exempting the “murderers” of colonists from legal trial, and in effect, from punishment; for erecting in a neighbouring province, acquired by the joint arms of Great-Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our very existence; and for quartering soldiers upon the colonists in time of profound peace. It has also been resolved in parliament, that colonists charged with committing certain offences, shall be transported to England to be tried.

But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one statute it is declared, that parliament can “of right make laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever.” What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it, is chosen by us; or is subject to our controul or influence; but, on the contrary, they are all of them exempt from the operation of such laws, and an American revenue, if not diverted from the ostensible purposes for which it is raised, would actually lighten their own burdens in proportion, as they increase ours. We saw the misery to which such despotism would reduce us. We for ten years incessantly and ineffectually besieged the throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated with parliament, in the most mild and decent language.

Administration sensible that we should regard these oppressive measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies to enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is true; but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and affectionate people. A Congress of delegates from the United Colonies was assembled at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of last September. We resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful petition to the king, and also addressed our fellow-subjects of Great-Britain. We have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure: we have even proceeded to break off our commercial intercourse with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable admonition, that our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. —This, we flattered ourselves, was the ultimate step of the controversy: but subsequent events have shewn, how vain was this hope of finding moderation in our enemies.

Several threatening expressions against the colonies were inserted in his majesty’s speech; our petition, tho’ we were told it was a decent one, and that his majesty had been pleased to receive it graciously, and to promise laying it before his parliament, was huddled into both houses among a bundle of American papers, and there neglected. The lords and commons in their address, in the month of February, said, that “a rebellion at that time actually existed within the province of Massachusetts Bay; and that those concerned in it, had been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into by his majesty’s subjects in several of the other colonies; and therefore they besought his majesty, that he would take the most effectual measures to inforce due obedience to the laws and authority of the supreme legislature.” — Soon after, the commercial intercourse of whole colonies, with foreign countries, and with each other, was cut off by an act of parliament; by another several of them were intirely prohibited from the fisheries in the seas near their co[a]sts, on which they always depended for their sustenance; and large reinforcements of ships-and troops were immediately sent over to general Gage..

Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an illustrious band of the most distinguished peers, and commoners, who nobly and strenously asserted the justice of our cause, to stay, or even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these accumulated and unexampled outrages were hurried on. — Equally fruitless was the interference of the city of London, of Bristol, and many other respectable towns in our favour. Parliament adopted an insidious manoeuvre calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual auction of taxations where colony should bid against colony, all of them uninformed what ransom would redeem their lives; and thus to extort from us, at the point of the bayonet, the unknown sums that should be sufficient to gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, with the miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode, the prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could have been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered enemies? in our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve them.

Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this continent, general Gage, who in the course of the last year had taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, and still occupied it is a garrison, on the 19th day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by the affidavits of a great number of persons, some of whom were officers and soldiers of that detachment, murdered eight of the inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence the troops proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, have been since prosecuted by them without regard to faith or reputation.— The inhabitants of Boston being confined within that town by the general their governor, and having, in order to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with him, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrates, should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honour, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, to leave their most valuable effects behind.

By this perfidy wives are separated from their husbands, children from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations and friends, who wish to attend and comfort them; and those who have been used to live in plenty and even elegance, are reduced to deplorable distress.

The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a proclamation bearing date on the i2th day of June, after venting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to “declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede the course of the common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and exercise of the law martial.” — His troops have butchered our countrymen, have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our ships and vessels are seized; the necessary supplies of provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power to spread destruction and devastation around him.

We have received certain intelligence, that general Carelton [Carleton], the governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province and the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to apprehend, that schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us. In brief, a part of these colonies now feel, and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengeance of administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of fire, sword, and famine. We [From this point the declaration follows Jefferson’s draft.]  are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. —The latter is our choice. —We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. — Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. —We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. 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 been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather then to live slaves.

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. — Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. — We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.

Copyright © 2014 © 2015 TeaPartyEdu http://teapartyedu.net Foundation Truths http://captainjamesdavis.net The Patriot Brotherhood @CaptainJDavis ™

BENEFITS OF THE REPUBLICAN EXPERIMENT IN AMERICA by Thomas G. Alvord 1810- 1897

The ideas of the American Republicanism of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America in the History of the World is essentially brand new. Never before in the history of mankind, nor in any other place on the globe has a government been founded on the principles of a government of the people, by the people been attempted. We are unique among nations and among civilizations in the history of mankind. When you hear politicians talk about the “failed policies of the past” they cannot be talking about the policies and principles on which these United States of America were founded. Since they cannot be talking about the policies and principles of our Founders then they must be talking about those that have so apparently failed in our present history.

See more about the failed policies of the past:

The Failure of Marxism and Socialism

Obama’s Nazi Youth Campaign Slogan “Forward”

The Doctrine of Fascism, Fascism Defined by Benito Mussolini

The United States of America Jubilee An Oration By Hon. Thomas G. Alvord. Delivered At The Centennial Celebration, Syracuse, New York, July 4th 1876.

People Of The City Of Syracuse And County Of Onondaga.— We in common with every portion of our wide extended Union, have come together to recognize with suitable observance and commemoration the solemn act which one hundred years ago, gave form, shape and solidity to our government by declaring us a nation independent, self-reliant and free.

In the performance of this duty we might relate the political history of the unwise legislation, the oppressive execution of tyrannical laws, the coercive power of irresponsible government which compelled our fathers first to passive, next to armed resistance, and finally culminated in a severance of our political dependence on the mother country, and gave to us that Declaration of Independence whose one hundreth anniversary we have met to honor. We might rehearse the names and virtues of the patriots of the revolution in the forum and in the field, the courage, endurance and trials of those who participated in that protracted and bloody controversy which ended in making our Declaration of Independence a perfect deed, indefeasible, guaranteeing forever to those worthy to enjoy it, the rich inheritance of a free government. We might portray the battle fields of the past, brightening the dark gloom of defeat with the view of unflinching courage, indomitable endurance and an undying determination to struggle ever for success, and we might paint victory as it perched on the banner of our fathers with that halo of glory which time has not dimmed, neither will history forget the undying results of which, which in the final triumph (as we use them) may and we trust will endure for the benefit of all mankind, until the last trump shall summons the inhabitants of earth to another world, and this habitation of ours shall pass away forever. We might content ourselves with a plain and simple historical relation of all the events which clustered around, mingled with and made up the panorama of our revolutionary struggle, the intelligence of our people alive to all the minutiae of event, individuality and result of that memorable period, would lend a glow, kindle an ardor and inspire a joy palpable and demonstrative, making bare recital radiant, with all the fire of enthusiasm celebrating with mental and physical rejoicings, the dry record alone.

One of the marked features of this year is to be a full historical record of each town, city and county of the Union, embracing the geographical, municipal and personal history of each; of course more prominently relating of its earlier history, its marked and distinguished men and women—its pre-eminence or prominence in any direction of art, science, intellectual advantages or natural specialty; all these locally preserved in appropriate depositories, are to be duplicated and gathered in one mass at the seat of the general government to be an illuminated column upon which will be inscribed, “the one hundredth mile of our nation’s progress in the race of peoples toward the ultimate goal of humanity.”

The duty of performing our portion of that work has also been imposed upon me, but with the consent and approbation of your Committee, I have deemed best to postpone to another period the historical recital contemplated, and you must be content with my wearying you with an oration rather than history on the present occasion.

I am impressed with the belief that it would be better to treat the subject before us very briefly, but also in a manner different from the common acceptation of the necessities of a Fourth day of July celebration. I would not have us to lack in all or any of the essential demonstrations of a joyful acknowledgment of its great significance, and a ringing acceptation of its glorious results, but let us endeavor by a calm and conscientious consideration of our government and ourselves to learn more and better what there is for us to do, to preserve and keep alive all the benefits and advantages we have derived from the past, transmitting those great blessing undiminished to our immediate successors, aye, not alone to them but also how best we may by precept and example, pave the way to an indefinite prolongation and increased enjoyment, to the latest time of the legitimate results of the solved problem of our national declaration.

We are one hundred years old to-day; true that the mental strife of contention against and antagonism to aggression commenced earlier, true that organized and bloody opposition, antedated this day—April 19, 1775, and Lexington physically declared as July 4th, 1776, politically decreed the independence and freedom of America.

I repeat, we as a distinct people and nation are one hundred years old to-day, we have only to recollect for a moment to find however that while we are jubilant and rejoicing, that our eyes behold this day, yet in the light of the history of the nations of the world, our nation is an infant brought up in a school of our own, and setting forth to find our way among the nations of the earth in a new and untried pathway ; the peculiar and particular form of government which we enjoy, is in every essential particular now on trial for the first time; it is true, that theoretical republicanism, attempts at freedom have existed, but never in all human history has there been any other government so completely the government of the whole people such as ours.

Kingdoms, principalities and powers enduring for centuries have risen, flourished and fallen into decay ; governments to-day powerful and great in territorial extent, in wealth and physical power, have their record of birth in the “Dark Ages”—but we with a breadth of country surpassed by none—with a population in numbers exceeded by few, with an intellectual wealth as diffused and distributed among the masses enjoyed by no other people—with a physical power fearing no foe—we are but of yesterday.

The vivid memories of many still active and alive to the work of the day, reach back almost to the very beginning of our Republic, and here and there on our soil, men and women yet linger whose infant eyes opened to life ere the dawn of our nation’s morning; we depend not as others on tradition, on the lays of minstrels or the sayings of the wise men, to rescue from the shadowy and dim past, our country’s history—it is but of a day, and the scenes in cabinet, council and camp, are as familiar to all as household words.

Should we not then pause here and ask ourselves the significant question, why our fathers were successful in the establishment, and we so far fortunate in the present stability of the government of the people by the people, while a long list of futile attempts and terrible failures mark every spot wherever else the experiment has been tried; we have to-day among the kingdoms of the earth so-called republics, but we know they are so only in name—they lack the essential engredient of equality to all men before the law—their masses want an intelligent appreciation of their rights and duties—subject to popular frenzy or ambitious personal design, the republics of the past and (I am afraid) most of the present have no elements of either right, justice, or endurance.

No ignorant, no indolent, no irreligious people can ever be permanently a free people, and I hold that the foundations of our nation were laid wide and deep, by intelligence, industry and religion, and upon the adherence to and practice of those great cardinal virtues by our people depend wholly the stability and perpetuity of our government.

I do not wish to be understood when speaking of the intelligence, as meaning the mere learning of the school, nor that so far as such education is concerned, all should have the highest attainable—what I mean is, a practical and thorough knowledge of all necessary to make man and women useful—not useless—good citizens, understanding and practicing all the duties incumbent upon them for their own good and as parts of families, communities and States—above all else I would have every American citizen well grounded in a comprehensive knowledge of the theory, principles and by an honest, virtuous and continuous exercise of his knowledge and his duty as one of the government as well as one of the governed, so help to form, mould and cast public opinion—for upon public opinion alone the stability and efficacy of our people, stolidity, strength and endurance to our nation may be enjoyed and perpetuated.

Indolence engenders vice, disease, poverty, death—labor promotes virtue, health, wealth and long life—what is true of the individual holds good applied to the nation—show me a lazy, indolent, shiftless race, and I will show a nation of slaves; if not so practically, yet mentally slaves to vice and strangers to virtue.

Our fathers by hardy toil, by unwearied thought, calculation and invention, wrung from the wilderness the bright land you gaze on to-day—its great, almost miraculous advancement has boen owing to the combined action of intelligence and physical labor, but that labor, whether of the body or the mind has been persistent and unceasing.

The extent of our territory is greater by far than the whole continent of Europe, but our widely scattered population scarcely measures a tithe of its teeming multitudes; natnre while piling up our chains of mountains towards the sky, scooping out the habitations of our inland oceans, and scouring wide and deep throughout our land, our magnificent net-work of water highways, has planted everywhere for the use and enjoyment of educated as well as directed industry in no scanty store, the natural mineral riches of every clime and people, every known vegetable production is either indegenous, or owing to the variety of climate and soil under our control, can be transplanted and made to grow in sufficient abundance to feed the necessities and supply the luxuries of the world.

In this land of ours, with such a present inheritance and future prospect we are not only blessed above all other people, but we have evidently been chosen by an overruling Providence to do the great and final work for man’s elevation to and permanent enjoyment of the highest civilization to which human nature can attain, and it behooves us to shape our action and direct our energies towards the earliest realization and not the retardation of the completion of this evident design.

Independent of and radically separated from all other nations in our governmental policy, seeking no entangling alliance with powers, but opening wide our gates to all people who desire assimilation with us and enjoyment of our privileges,— I bold that we should be, as far as possible,—physically as well as politically,—independent of and separate from all other people, until at least the common right of a common humanity to equality of privilege and position, is universally acknowledged and accorded.

Would we keep our inheritance untarnished? Would we add to its worth the wealth of experience and invention? In this land of ours, where labor ennobles, docs not degrade, where the changes of worldly position depend upon individual action and are as variable as the waves of the restless sea—where the legitimate tendency of labor is to elevate and enlighten, and not to depress and keep down, let us and our children continue to labor to the end, that the blessings following its wise application will endure to the good of ourselves and our country.

Glance for a moment at one of the results of our comparative poverty coupled with our intelligence and willingness to labor —in all countries but ours labor ignorant is impoverished and helpless with us labor educated is well paid and commanding. Other countries through the ignorance of labor are comparatively non-inventive—we by the intelligence and independence of labor are incited to invention, and our record in the field of useful inventions is a prouder one than the annals of all other nations combined can show—it is the outgrowth of our independence of both political and physical need—cherish and foster labor, for it is a precious jewel in the diadem of our people’s sovereignty.

The body perishes—the soul is immortal. In discussing my third proposition—the need of religion in a community for the maintenance of perpetuation of republican institutions, I must be understood as firmly and conscientiously believing that a morality founded upon the belief in a future and higher life of the soul, to be more or less moulded by and dependent upon virtuous action in the body, is a necessary ingredient in the fitness for and possibility of man’s enjoyment of a free government.

I can not conceive what motive, beyond the sensuous enjoyment of the passing hour, with no thought for that higher and better life on earth, ennobling the individual and benefiting his kind, can ever inspire to virtuous deeds or heroic action the man or woman who believes death is an eternal sleep—the beauty and simplicity of our Constitution, which with proper regulations as to the rights of all, leaves to the conscience and judgment of each the matter of religious belief and observance, is one of the grandest and most noble precepts of its text and character—but with no proscription in its requirements, with no sectarian bias in its action, public opinion has so far demanded and had in our legislative halls, in our State and National gatherings upon all great public occasions, the recognition of the need of the countenance and support of an overruling Providence—sad for us, for our children, for our beloved country, will that day be when that “altar to an unknown God,” erected in pagan Athens, shall be overthrown in Christian America.

More than two hundred years ago on the banks of our beautiful lake Onondaga, the first banner of civilization was unfurled to the breeze—it was the banner of the Cross, and I pray that so long as the stars and stripes of our country shall wave over us as a nation, the hearts of our people may ding to the emblems of an immortal life.

I would not mar the pleasure or dampen the joy of this happy hour by any unkind allusion to the more immediate past, but it would seem proper while we are celebrating the birth, we should rejoice also over the preservation of our Union. Our recent internecine strife was a legitimate result of a want of the practical application of the written theory of our Declaration of Independence—in that instrument human rights were made as broad as humanity itself, and no clime, race, color or condition of men were excluded from the broad and sweeping declaration ” All men are created equal.” It was the practical departure from the annunciation of a political axiom which required our return to the allegiance due our creed, through the carnage and waste of civil war—that strife is over—the victory of principle over selfishness, though bloody, is won, and the nation rejoices through its wide extent at the solution is favor of freedom and right, but, like all wars, it has left wounds open, dangerous, unhealed— not, I trust the wounds of embittered and lasting hate between the contending masses, for God in his infinite mercy grant that this anniversary may bind Maine to Georgia.link Virginia with California, not alone with bands of iron, but with bonds of brotherly love and loyal submission to the rights of humanity individualized as well as compacted,and that long before another hundred or even any years shall have passed in oblivion, shall be buried all recolleotion of the struggle to maintain and preserve our Union, save the sweet and undying memory of brave deeds and heroic endurance, and the proud recollection, dear alike to sunny South and the warm-hearted North—our country is undivided and indivisible.

But we are suffering the wounds always inflicted by ruthless war—a lower scale of both public and private morality—an irksome feeling at lawful constraint—a distaste for honest labor —a reckless extravagance in living—a want of recognition of moral responsibility, not alone in the administration of public affairs, but in the transactions of ordinary business life, and in social relations of neighbors and families.

I warn you, my countrymen, that we must return to the primitive virtues of our fathers—education, labor, religion, must again take the places of greed, speculation, corruption, indolence and vice? We may talk of the corruption of our chosen rulers—we may stand at th6 street corners, and publicly proclaim the venality and crime in high places; this availeth not, what we must first do is—” Physician heal thyself,” “Remove the beam from thine own eye ere you cast out the mote from your brother.” “Purify the fountain that the stream may be pure.” Under the theory and practice our system of government, when administered with the spirit and intent of its founders, our rulers are the people’s servants, and if the people are indifferent and corrupt, so likewise will be their rulers—if the constituency is active and honest, the government will reflect it .

A desire by the voter to profit pecuniarly and socially by the prostitution of political principles to personal ends; the indiscriminate trade by all classes in the enactments of municipality, State and nation, engendered by base cupidity either pecuniary or personal—above and beyond all the utter neglect by the enlightened, educated and wealthy of their sacred miner as well as higher political duties—all combine not only to make our politics disreputable—but to demoralize and will finally destroy our government unless we speedily return more nearly to the dimple habits, rigid morality, and conscientious respect to all political duty which characterized our fathers.

I have thus very briefly discussed our position and our duty on this our hundredth anniversary—I have not considered it wise or profitable to rehearse the familiar story of our struggle for and success in the achievement of a national existence. I have not in studied words painted the rapid strides in our progress as a people. You know it all, and memory would not be quickened nor patriotism intensified by any recital of mine.

But I deem it appropriate, before I shall have concluded the discharge of the duty imposed upon me, to address more particularly the people of my city and my native county.

On the 4th of July, 1776, our county was the abode of the hostile savages, an unbroken wilderness, within whose borders no white man had found a home—it remained so until four years after our revolutionary struggle, when the first white settler, Ephraim Webster, sojourned with the Indian, and following in his path others slowly settled within our present borders—while true that no hostile army has ever invaded our soil—no hearths desolated—no roof-tree obliterated—no historic battle-field marked or distinguished our territorial limits, yet still it is sacred ground.

As early as 1792, a grateful State, reserving a small portion of the land adjoining and surrounding our celebrated salt springs, dedicated and allotted the remainder to the surviving soldiers of its contingent in the armies of the Revolution; many of those war-worn veterans with their surviving households found in long, wearisome and dangerous journey their way highther and entered upon the lands alike the recognition of and reward for their services, and the records of not a few of the towns of our county, show to-day among their worthiest citizens, the honored names of their descendants.

“Beating their swords into plough shares—their spears into pruning hooks,” they attacked with the same unyielding courage, determination and endurance of labor, toil and privation, which had marked their struggle for liberty, the native ruggedness of our unbroken soil—the lonely cabin of logs their dwelling—the biased but tangled wood path their highway, they battled with forest-crowned hill and wooden glen, until peaceful pasture and yielding grain-field displaced the lair of the wild beast and the hunting grounds of the wilder savage.

We cannot now linger to detail the progress of each passing year, to name the conspicuous actor in each scene, but we can for a moment contrast the extremes of 1776 and 1876, look at the pictures before us—1776 the wigwam of the savage and his trackless path in the unbroken forest—1876, six score thousand human souls basking in the sunshine of a free civilization enjoying all the social, intellectual and political advantages ever yet allotted to humanity.

Compared with the huts of our fathers—our habitations are palaces—they dot every hill top, they nestle in every valley— they stand in the seried ranks in our beautiful and growing city, and cluster together around the school and the church, in all our smiling and thriving villages—our thrifty husbandmen look upon countless herds of lowing cattle—on seas of waving grain —on graneries bursting with the rich and bounteous yield of their fertile acres; our merchants in their stately marts of commerce gather from the ends of the earth, the produce of every soil—the handiwork of savage and civilized—all creations of nature and art to satisfy the wants or gratify the tastes of our people—the unceasing hum of the manufacturers’ wheel, the continuous blow of the sturdy artisan and stalwart laborer chase solitude from all our borders—our water highways link us with the ocean lakes of our own West, and give us peaceful entrance to that great sea which rolls between us and the land of our father’s fathers—highways of iron rib our country North, West, South, and East—broad avenues run by the door of the humblest, and commerce with its white wings of peace, has blotted out forever the warpath of the savage and the tree-marked way of the hardy pioneer. Religion dwells in more than an hundred temples of beauty dedicated to the service of the living God. Education from the lordly towers of the princely university to the more humble school-house at the cross roads, boasts its many habitations. We are the central county of the Empire State, which ranks first in wealth, first in population, first in representation among her sister States of our Union. Of sixty, our county is seventh in population and wealth, and in the fifth rank in State representation.

The pioneers of our country and their sons have been distinguished on every stage of life in all the years of our history —side by side with them, many who have here sought a new home, a new country, have over and again reflected honor and glory on the home of their adoption. Distinction in the pulpit at the bar, in the forum, on battle field, in the broad field of human endeavor—wherever honor, distinction, wealth and place were to be gained—high rank, deserved places of merit and worth have been won by many whose earliest training for usefulness and busy life, was by the fireside of their homes among the beautiful hills and smiling valleys of our beloved Onondaga.

I cannot speak to-day of battle scenes or individuals, but we know that on many a well stricken field, in many a still and silent city of the dead, lie to-day the mortal remains of hundreds of Onondaga’s bravest sons, who battling for the right, from Bull Run to Appomattox, left their record of bravery and patriotism in all the conflicts of the late struggle for national existence. We rejoice in the life and presence to-day of the brave survivors of that terrible conflict. From the Generals with title won on the field, to the private soldier whose unflinching valor and great endurance fought and won the contest for our second independence—all have reflected honor upon and won undying glory for the country of their nativity and adoption.

Children of the soil—adopted sons and daughters of old Onondaga—is this noble heritage of our fathers, this free and equal government given us to enjoy by the brave, good and wise men of an hundred years ago worth preserving another hundred years? No human being I now address will witness the scene at that celebration; the voice of him who now addresses you will be silent in the grave, the beating hearts and active limbs of this vast multitude will have gone to their last quiet mortal sleep forever. The men of the revolution gave us and our children this day at the cost of suffering and tears, wounds and death. Where are they? The lasb surviving warrior and statesman who stood on the battlements of freedom’s citadel and conquered for us the banded hordes of tyranny and oppression, has gone to join the hosts of heaven’s freemen in another and a better world. Can we not take their finished work—keep and preserve it untarnished, unbroken, beautiful enlarged, and more glorious and endearing, for our children’s children? Though dead in the body yet living in the spirit, we may then hear, mingling with the rejoicings of 1976, and blessings and praise to our names as well as to the deeds of our fathers, in that we have made of the talent committed to our charge other talents of honor, glory and prosperity for our country.

Let us to this end from this day practice economy, industry —cultivate intelligence, make virtue the rule and guide of our private and public life.

Triumphant armies inscribe their banners with the names of their victorious fields of battle. May we give as our legacy to the next great anniversary of our country’s birth, the stars of our nation’s banner undimmed—its stripes untarnished, rightfully inscribing thereon as our faith kept pure and unsullied— our motto, won by our acts—Religion, Education, Free Labor, the only sure foundation on which to build, for perpetuity, Republican Institutions.

See also: THE GENIUS OF AMERICA by Hon. Dr. Felix R. Brunot July 4, 1876

AMERICAN FREE INSTITUTIONS; THE JOY AND GLORY OF MANKIND by Dr. J. Sellman 1876

THE POWER OF HISTORY by Horatio Seymour (1810–1886)

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP! by Colonel Henry A. Gildersleve July 4th 1876 NYC

THE HAND OF GOD IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Rev Morgan Dix July 4th 1876 NYC

OUR NOBLE HERITAGE by Hon. George W. Curtis (1824 –1892)

Political Evils and the Remedy for them by Noah Webster 1834

Wide Spread And Growing Corruption In The Public Service Of The States And Nation

THE COST OF POPULAR LIBERTY by Brooks Adams July 4th 1876

The Practical Advance Of Human Freedom Under The Trumpet Call Made In 1776 by Charles F Adams

THE SOURCE AND SECURITY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM AND PROGRESS by Courtlandt Parker 1876

True American Patriotism Defined by Hon. Curtis Guild and H. F. Kinnerney 1876

The Consequence of Bad Legal Precedent in American Legislation

The Consequence of Bad Legal Precedent in American Legislation

Keep in mind every law the Congress and the President of the United States pass, sets what is called “Precedent“. Which in common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule i.e. Law established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.

“The better the constitution of a State is, the more do public affairs encroach on private in the minds of the citizens. Private affairs are even of much less importance, because the aggregate of the common happiness furnishes a greater proportion of that of each individual, so that there is less for him to seek in particular cares. In a well-ordered city every man flies to the assemblies: under a bad government no one cares to stir a step to get to them, because no one is interested in what happens there, because it is foreseen that the general will will not prevail, and lastly because domestic cares are all-absorbing. Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse. As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State What does it matter to me? the State may be given up for lost.

The lukewarmness of patriotism, the activity of private interest, the vastness of States, conquest and the abuse of government suggested the method of having deputies or representatives of the people in the national assemblies. These are what, in some countries, men have presumed to call the Third Estate. Thus the individual interest of two orders is put first and second; the public interest occupies only the third place.” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau “The Social Contract” 1762

Stare Decisis: [Latin, Let the decision stand.] The policy of courts to abide by or adhere to principles established by decisions in earlier cases.

In the United States and England, the Common Law has traditionally adhered to the precedents of earlier cases as sources of law. This principle, known as stare decisis, distinguishes the common law from civil-law systems, which give great weight to codes of laws and the opinions of scholars explaining them. Under stare decisis, once a court has answered a question, the same question in other cases must elicit the same response from the same court or lower courts in that jurisdiction.

For stare decisis to be effective, each jurisdiction must have one highest court to declare what the law is in a precedent-setting case. The U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme courts serve as precedential bodies, resolving conflicting interpretations of law or dealing with issues of first impression. Whatever these courts decide becomes judicial precedent.

Black’s Law Dictionary defines “precedent” as a “rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases.”

When you let the government pass laws that allow them to confiscate peoples private property without the benefit of a trial, simply by being charged with a crime.

Or, When you let the government pass laws that allow them to confiscate peoples private property without their consent, as in Eminent Domain abuse.

When you let government confiscate all the gold bullion and pass legislation to outlaw the possession of it in private hands, or sign executive orders to accomplish the same, as liberal hero Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1933.

When you let the government inter thousands of Americans simply because of the race of their ancestors as FDR did in WWII.

When you let the government pass laws to require you to wear seat belts in your personal vehicles.

When you let government pass laws that force American’s to buy auto insurance, you open the door to them forcing you to buy health insurance, i.e., Obamacare.

When you let government pass laws to ban smoking in various areas.

These ALL set “Precedent” to further “Infringe” on your rights, liberties and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution!

Example: The confiscation of gold set the precedent for the government to confiscate your IRA’s and/or 401(k) as the democrats have suggested doing.

Example: The internment of American’s of Japanese ancestry set the precedent for the government internment of others without benefit of legal charges, or trial. The FEMA camps come to mind that we have all heard about.

Example: The Supreme Court had the Legal Precedent to Strike Down the Onerous Obama Health Care Bill. It chose not to, thereby setting another precedent for the government to have even more control over our lives, liberties, freedoms and happiness.

Just as the IRS has shown, the potential for abuse should be taken into consideration and shown high regard when Congress is contemplating what legislation they vote for. The NSA data mining and Obamacare are ripe for abuse. As a matter of record the Tea Party Patriots were against the Patriot Act and the immigration debate, Obamacare, the Patriot Act, and countless other un-constitutional laws passed by our government, especially when the majority of the American people are saying “NO”, the disregard and lack of deference to the people by our government shows the imperative need for We The People to hold our government accountable.

I never could think that a bad Precedent was a good Argument for a bad Proceeding: No Precedent ought to be blindly followed; it ought to be examined by the Rules of Law and of Reason, and if it be found to be against either, a contrary Precedent cannot be made too soon.

“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. In such a country as this, they are of all bad things the worst, worse by far than any where else; and they derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom and soundness of the rest of our institutions. For very obvious reasons you cannot trust the Crown with a dispensing power over any of your laws” – Edmund Burke Speech previous to the Election at Bristol.

Of all Tyranny, that Tyranny is the worst, which has the Formalities of Law for its Support. Every other Tyranny is the Effect of misguided and ungoverned Passions: this is the Result of Deliberation, and even Reason is prostituted to its Purposes. The former may find Motives for its Excuse: the latter is out of the Reach of Absolution. Lawless Tyranny is confessedly lawless. Legal Tyranny adds Treachery to Tyranny: for it acts in Disguise, and deceives with the Appearance of Truth. But this Argument applies to the superior Baseness of this Tyranny only. The Absurdity of it is almost too preposterous to mention. Tyranny clothed in the Forms of the Constitution! How irreconcilable the Terms with the Ideas! And how little able to stand the Test of Examination! -Edmund Burke excerpt from letter to the sheriffs of Bristol

It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill success of first oppressions; on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigour. Then they redouble the efforts of their impotent cruelty; which producing, as they must ever produce, new disappointments, they grow irritated against the objects of their rapacity; and then rage, fury, and malice (implacable because unprovoked) recruiting and reinforcing their avarice, their vices are no longer human. From cruel men they are transformed into savage beasts, with no other vestiges of reason left but what serves to furnish the inventions and refinements of ferocious subtlety for purposes, of which beasts are incapable, and at which fiends would blush. – Edmund Burke Speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Esq.

“The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights. So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community.” – William Blackstone

“Self-defense is justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defense. Free men have arms; slaves do not.” – William Blackstone

If Congress and the President do what they do without precedent, if it appear their duty, it argues the more wisdom, virtue, and magnanimity, that they know themselves able to be a precedent to others. Who perhaps in future ages, if they prove not too degenerate, will look up with honor, and aspire toward these exemplary and matchless deeds of their Ancestors, as to the highest top of their civil glory and emulation. Which heretofore, in the pursuance of fame and foreign dominion, spent itself vain-gloriously abroad; but henceforth may learn a better fortitude, to dare execute highest Justice on them that shall by force of Arms endeavor the oppressing and bereaving of Religion and their liberty at home: that no unbridled Potentate or Tyrant, but to his sorrow for the future, may presume such high and irresponsible license over mankind, to havoc and turn upside-down whole Kingdoms of men, as though they were no more in respect of his perverse will.  Excerpt from The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: John Milton 1690

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”- Thomas Paine

“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” – Samuel Adams

See also:

Joseph Baldwin: Address 1892, to National Teachers Association in New York

PATRIOT SONS OF PATRIOT SIRES by Rev. Samuel Francis Smith 1808-1895

THE SOURCE AND SECURITY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM AND PROGRESS by Courtlandt Parker 1876

THE GENIUS OF AMERICA by Hon. Dr. Felix R. Brunot July 4, 1876

A PRAYER FOR THE NATION by Rev. William Bacon Stevens July 4, 1876

The Wisdom of Founder John Adams Part 1: Novanglus Papers

True American Patriotism Defined by Hon. Curtis Guild and H. F. Kinnerney 1876

Christianity and the Founding of the United States the Simple Truth

Christianity and the Founding of the United States of America. Some claim that the USA was not founded on Christian principles, or that religion has no place in political life. Each of these assertions is counter to the intent of the founders of the United States.

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The reason the Framers did not address Christianity in the federal Constitution is because it was already addressed by the states and they left it to the states to address it. The founding fathers were far from being anti-christian, indeed, they were all very much Pro-Christian.

See also: The History and Events that Led to the Founding of the United States by Courtlandt Parker 1876

The Wisdom and Love of God as Shown by His Creation by Noah Webster

Non-Revisionist Politically Incorrect History of the World With Biblical References Part 1

The Excellence of the Christian Religion by Noah Webster Published 1834 Part 1

Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God

Why our Forefathers firmly believed that Freedom and Liberty came from God

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Historian Verna Hall said, and it is the truth, “The concept of a secular state was virtually non-existent in 1776 as well as in 1787, when the Constitution was written, and no less so when the Bill of Rights was adopted. To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to misread history, and to misread it radically. The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order.”

At the first Constitutional Convention, the delegates were frustrated due to the burdens of the hour. They were burdened and harassed by tremendous crisis. They were so fragmented and divided that they were just about to throw out the whole concept of a constitution completely. Then Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and said: “Gentlemen, if it is true that not one single petal from any flower falls to the ground without escaping God’s attention, will the distress of this nation go unheeded? Let us therefore determine to seek His face.”

“We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all our heart” ~ James Madison

“From the time of the Declaration of Independence, the American People were bound by the laws of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which they all acknowledge as the root of their conduct. We all came together to obey the word of God.” ~ John Quincy Adams

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“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand them in the national legislature. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation, it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” ~ James Abram Garfield

“Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.” ~ George Washington

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest to our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians to be their rulers.” ~ John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States

“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! For this very reason people of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here!” ~ Patrick Henry

“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 was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” ~ John Adams

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion. No men shall…suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Life than that these people are to be free. The precepts of philosophy and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. Jesus pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the regions of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” ~ James Madison

“If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him….Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”  ~ William Penn

“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth–that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” ~Benjamin Franklin

“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, some say, is the king of America? I’ll tell you, friend, He reigns above.” ~ Thomas Paine

“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.” ~ Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence

“He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man….The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.” ~ Samuel Adams

“Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“My  country, ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims’ pride, From every mountainside Let freedom ring. My native country, thee, Land of the noble free, Thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills. My heart with rapture thrills, Like that above. Let music swell the breeze, And ring from all the trees, Sweet freedom’s song; Let mortal tongues awake; Let all that breathe partake; Let rocks their silence break, The sound prolong. Our fathers’ God, to thee, Author of liberty, To thee I sing; Long may our land be bright, With freedom’s holy light; Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King!”  — Samuel Francis Smith

“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few his precepts! O! ’tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.” — Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1757

“The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.” — Noah Webster

Quotes from prior to 1776:
“Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”
The Mayflower Compact

“Whereby our said People, Inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderly Conversation, may win and incite the Natives of Country, to the KnowIedge and Obedience of the only true God and Savior of Mankind, and the Christian Faith, which is our Royal Intention, and the Adventurers free Profession, is the principall End of this Plantation.”
The First Charter of Massachusetts, March 1629

“Whereas we all came into these parts with one and the same end and aim, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel of purity and peace.” – New England Confederation 1643

Rhode Island Charter of 1683 began with these words:
“We submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given to us in His Holy Word.”

Various Founders Quotes:

“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.” ~ George Washington

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible” ~ George Washington

“Without a humble imitation of the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, we can never hope to be a happy nation.” ~ George Washington

“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, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” ~ George Washington

“I have always said, and always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume [Bible] will make us better citizens.” ~Thomas Jefferson

“Religion I have disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give to them, and that is the Christian religion. If they had that and I had not given them one cent, they would be rich. If they have not that, and I had given them the world, they would be poor.” ~Patrick Henry

“A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society, corrupting the Morals of Youth, and by his bad example injuring the very Country he professes to patronize more than he can possibly compensate by intrepidity, generosity and honour? Scriptures tell us ‘righteousness exalteth a Nation.” ~Abigail Adams, (wife of the 2nd President and mother of the 6th President), letter to Mercy Otis Warren on Nov. 5, 1775

“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 the government of any other.” ~ John Adams

“It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.” ~ John Adams

“Religion and virtue are the only foundations…. of republicanism and of all free government.” ~ John Adams

“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

“The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.”  ~ John Quincy Adams

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” ~ John Quincy Adams

“So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society…” ~ John Quincy Adams

“It is essential, my Son, in order that you may go through this life with comfort to yourself and usefulness to your fellow creatures, that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles for the Government of your own conduct, and temper… It is in the Bible that you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practice them. Those duties are to God to your fellow creatures,__ and to yourself. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thy self.”(Luke x.27 / Matt xxii.40) “On these two commandments (Jesus Christ expressly says) hang all the law and the prophets”_ that is to say that the whole purpose of divine revelation is to inculcate them efficaciously upon the minds of men…Let us then search the Scriptures…The Bible contains the Revelation of the Will of God, it contains the History of the Creation of the World and of mankind, and afterward the History of one peculiar Nation, certainly the most extraordinary Nation that has ever appeared upon Earth._ It contains a System of Religion, and Morality, which we may examine upon its own merits, independent of the sanction it receives from being the Word of God…” ~John Quincy Adams, letter to his son

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” ~ James Madison

“While we give praise to God, the supreme disposer of all events, for His interposition on our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in, or boasting of, an arm of flesh…If your cause is just, if your principles are pure, and if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts. What follows from this?  That he is the best friend to american liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not [do not hesitate] to call him an enemy of his country.” ~ John Witherspoon

“Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion. No men shall…suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Life than that these people are to be free. The precepts of philosophy and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. Jesus pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the regions of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“I could dwell on the importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all which are essential to the well-being of a family. But I have not Time. I cannot however help repeating Piety, because I think it indispensable. Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security. The first Point of Justice, says a Writer I have met with, consists in Piety; Nothing certainly being so great a Debt upon us, as to render to the Creator & Preserver those Acknowledgments which are due to Him for our Being, and the hourly Protection he affords us.” ~ Samuel Adams, Letter to Thomas Wells, his daughter’s fiancé, November 22, 1780

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” ~ Samuel Adams, Essay in the Boston Gazette, April 16, 1781

“Every citizen will see, and I hope be deeply impressed with a sense of it, how exceedingly important it is to himself, and how intimately the welfare of his children is connected with it, that those who are to have a share in making as well as in judging and executing the laws should be men of singular wisdom and integrity.” ~ Samuel Adams, Boston Gazette, April 2, 1781

“Let Divines, and Philosophers, Statesmen and Patriots unite their endeavours to renovate the Age, by impressing the Minds of Men with the importance of educating their little boys, and girls – of inculcating in the Minds of youth the fear, and Love of the Deity, and universal Phylanthropy; and in subordination to these great principles, the Love of their Country – of instructing them in the Art of self government, without which they never can act a wise part in the Government of Societys great, or small – in short of leading them in the Study, and Practice of the exalted Virtues of the Christian system, which will happily tend to subdue the turbulent passions of Men, and introduce that Golden Age beautifully described in figurative language; when the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard lie down with the Kid – the Cow, and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the Lyon shall eat straw like the Ox – none shall then hurt, or destroy; for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord.” ~ Samuel Adams, Letter to John Adams, October 4, 1790

“He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.” ~Benjamin Franklin, Letter to the French Ministry, March 1778

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. It is to be regretted, but so I believe the fact to be, that except the Bible there is not a true history in the world. Whatever may be the virtue, discernment, and industry of the writers, I am persuaded that truth and error (though in different degrees) will imperceptibly become and remain mixed and blended until they shall be separated forever by the great and last refining fire.” ~ John Jay, letter to Jedidiah Morse 1797

“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism.” ~ Jedediah Morse, Founding educator, 1799

“Christianity is the only true and perfect religion, and that in proportion as mankind adopts its principles and obeys its precepts, they will be wise and happy.” ~ Benjamin Rush Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Ratifier of the US Constitution

“Our business is to make them men, citizens, and Christians” ~ Benjamin Rush, Founding educator

“Mothers and schools plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exists in the world.” ~ Benjamin Rush

The Founding of the Ivy League:
Harvard (1638) was founded by the Puritans just 18 years after they first set foot at Plymouth Rock. The Puritans had specifically set out to establish a government based on the Bible. The Puritans were among the most educated people of their day.

“After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and led the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning, there living among us) to give the one-half of his estate (it being in all about £700) toward the ing of a college, and all his library. After him, another gave £300; others after them cast in more; and the public hand of the state added the rest. The college was, by common consent, appointed to be at Cambridge (a place very pleasant and accommodate) and is called (according to the name of the first founder) Harvard College. The edifice is very fair and comely within and without, having in it a spacious hall where they daily meet at commons, lectures, and exercises; and a large library with some books to it, the gifts of diverse of our friends, their chambers and studies also fitted for and possessed by the students, and all other rooms of office necessary and convenient with all needful offices thereto belonging. And by the side of the college, a fair grammar school, for the training up of young scholars and fitting of them for academical learning, that still as they are judged ripe they may be received into the college of this school. Master Corlet is the master who has very well approved himself for his abilities, dexterity, and painfulness in teaching and education of the youths under him. Over the college is Master Dunster placed as president, a learned, a conscionable, and industrious man, who has so trained up his pupils in the tongues and arts, and so seasoned them with the principles of divinity and Christianity, that we have to our great comfort (and in truth) beyond our hopes, beheld their progress in learning and godliness also. The former of these has appeared in their public declamations in Latin and Greek, and disputations logic and philosophy which they have been wonted (besides their ordinary exercises in the college hall) in the audience of the magistrates, ministers, and other scholars for the probation of their growth in learning, upon set days, constantly once every month to make and uphold. The latter has been manifested in sundry of them by the savory things of their spirits in their godly versation; insomuch that we are confident, if these early blossoms may be cherished and warmed with the influence of the friends of learning and lovers of this pious work, they will, by the help of God, come to happy maturity in a short time.Over the college are twelve overseers chosen by the General Court, six of them are of the magistrates, the other six of the ministers, who are to promote the best good of it and (having a power of influence into all persons in it) are to see that every-one be diligent and proficient in his proper place.”

Harvard’s “Rules and Precepts” adopted in 1646 by the school’s leaders stated, “Everyone shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, everyone shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of Him. Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths”

Yale 1701 was created as an alternative to Harvard by Christians in Connecticut. Many thought that Harvard was too far and the spiritual climate at Harvard wasn’t what it had once been.

Princeton 1746 (originally “The College of New Jersey”) Founded by evangelicals as a part of the impact of the First Great Awakening in the USA.

Dartmouth 1754 Royal charter, signed by King George III of England, specified that Dartmouth’s intent was to reach the Indian tribes, and to educate and Christianize the English youth as well.

Other Christian colleges: Columbia (originally “King’s College”) served as missionary to America under the English based “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.”

College of William and Mary was founded by the Church of England.

Rutgers University (originally Queen’s College) founded by Dutch Reformed revivalists.

Brown University as started by Baptist churches which were scattered along the Atlantic seaboard.

Quotes by other famous Americans:

“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.” — Gouverneur Morris

“The church must take right ground in regard to politics. Do not suppose, now, that I am going to preach a political sermon, or that I wish to have you join and get up a Christian party in politics. No, I do not believe in that. But the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them. They must be honest men themselves, and instead of voting for a man because he belongs to their party, Bank or Anti-Bank, Jackson, or Anti-Jackson, they must find out whether he is honest and upright, and fit to be trusted. They must let the world see that the church will uphold no man in office, who is known to be a knave, or an adulterer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler. Such is the spread of intelligence and the facility of communication in our country, that every man can know for whom he gives his vote. And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers. . . . As on the subject of slavery and temperance, so on this subject, the church must act right or the country will be ruined. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you, he does see it, and he will bless or curse this nation, according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics]” — Charles G. Finney

God is Lord of a nation when its laws and lawmakers acknowledge the truths and principles of the Bible as the supreme standard. This was certainly true in the formative year of our great nation. What a spiritual deterioration in our present day Supreme Court from the Supreme Court in 1811, when it said, “Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends to destroy civil government.” And in 1892, it said: “Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based on and must include the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind.”

“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.” — Daniel Webster

“Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.” — Daniel Webster

“If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy, If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.” — Daniel Webster

“Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.” — Daniel Webster

“”Man is not only an intellectual, but he is also a religious being, and his religious feelings and habits require cultivation. Let the religious element in man’s nature be neglected, let him be influenced by no higher motives than low self-interest, and subjected to no stronger restraint than the limits of civil authority, and he becomes the creature of selfish passions or blind fanaticism. The spectacle of a nation powerful and enlightened, but without Christian faith, has been presented, almost within our own day, as a warning beacon for the nations. {note: He’s referring to the bloody and godless French Revolution – by comparing ours to theirs} On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousness, incites to general benevolence, and the practical acknowledgment of the brotherhood of man, inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being..” — Daniel Webster

Noah Webster declared government was responsible to: “Discipline our youth in early life in sound maxims of moral, political, and religious duties.”

“Education is useless without the Bible.” — Noah Webster Our Christian Heritage p.5

“The Bible was America’s basic text book in all fields.” — Noah Webster Our Christian Heritage p.5

“God’s Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.” — Noah Webster

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed….No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” — Noah Webster 1828, in the preface to his American Dictionary of the English Language

“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.” — Noah Webster 1832, History of the United States

“If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” — Noah Webster

“578. Origin of Civil Liberty. Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion. Men began to understand their natural rights, as soon as the reformation from popery began to dawn in the sixteenth century; and civil liberty has been gradually advancing and improving, as genuine Christianity has prevailed. By the principles of the christian religion we are not to understand the decisions of ecclesiastical councils, for these are the opinions of mere men; nor are we to suppose that religion to be any particular church established by law, with numerous dignitaries, living in stately palaces, arrayed in gorgeous attire, and rioting in luxury and wealth,squee>zed from the scanty earnings of the laboring poor; nor is it a religion which consists in a round of forms, and in pompous rites and ceremonies. No; the religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.” and “Character of the Puritans. For the progress and enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, in modern times, the world is more indebted to the Puritans in Great Britain and America, than to any other body of men, or to any other cause. They were not without their failings and errors. Emerging from the darkness of despotism, they did not at once see the full light of Christian liberty; their notions of civil and religious rights were narrow and confined, and their principles and behavior were too rigid. These were the errors of the age. But they were pious and devout; they endeavored to model their conduct by the principles of the Bible and by the example of Christ and his apostles. They avoided all crimes, vices, and corrupting amusements; they read the scriptures with care, observed the sabbath, and attended public and private worship. They rejected all ostentatious forms and rites; they were industrious in their callings, and plain in their apparel. They rejected all distinctions among men, which are not warranted by the scriptures, or which are created by power or policy, to exalt one class of men over another, in rights or property.” — Noah Webster History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 300, Sec. 578

“579. Character of the Puritans. For the progress and enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, in modern times, the world is more indebted to the Puritans in Great Britain and America, than to any other body of men, or to any other cause. They were not without their failings and errors. Emerging from the darkness of despotism, they did not at once see the full light of Christian liberty; their notions of civil and religious rights were narrow and confined, and their principles and behavior were too rigid. These were the errors of the age. But they were pious and devout; they endeavored to model their conduct by the principles of the Bible and by the example of Christ and his apostles. They avoided all crimes, vices, and corrupting amusements; they read the scriptures with care, observed the sabbath, and attended public and private worship. They rejected all ostentatious forms and rites; they were industrious in their callings, and plain in their apparel. They rejected all distinctions among men, which are not warranted by the scriptures, or which are created by power or policy, to exalt one class of men over another, in rights or property.” — Noah Webster History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 300, Sec.579

580. Institutions of the Puritans in America. The Puritans who planted the first colonies in New England, established institutions on republican principles. They admitted no superiority in ecclesiastical orders, but formed churches on the plan of the independence of each church. They distributed the land among all persons, in free hold, by which every man, lord of his own soil, enjoyed independence of opinion and of rights. They founded governments on the principle that the people are the sources of power; the representatives being elected annually, and of course responsible to their constituents. And especially they made early, provision for schools for diffusing knowledge among all the members of their communities, that the people might learn their rights and their duties. Their liberal and wise institutions, which were then novelties in the world, have been the foundation of our republican governments. — Noah Webster History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 300, Sec.580

581. Effects of the principles and institutions of the Puritans. The principles of the Puritans fortified them to resist all invasions of their rights; and prepared them to vindicate their independence in the war of the revolution. That war ended in the establishment of the independence of the United States. The manifestoes, or public addresses of the first American congress, and the act declaring independence, proclaimed to all the world the principles of free governments. These papers circulated extensively in foreign countries. The French officers who assisted in the defense of American rights, became acquainted in this country with the principles of our statesmen, and the blessings of our free institutions; and this circumstance was the germ of a revolution in France. The constitution of the United States is made the model of the new governments in South America; and it is not without its influence in Greece, and in Liberia in Africa. It is thus that the principles of free government, borrowed from the Puritans, have been conveyed to foreign countries, and are gradually undermining arbitrary governments, with all their oppressive institutions, civil and ecclesiastical. — Noah Webster History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 300, Sec.581

Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21]…. If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted…If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. Corruption of morals is rapid enough in any country without a bounty from government. And…the Chief Magistrate of the United States should be the last man to accelerate its progress. — Noah Webster, The History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, 49

“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws….All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”  — Noah Webster History of the United States p. 339

“The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion. Noah Webster, 1832, History of the United States

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. ” — Noah Webster

“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.” — Noah Webster

“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws…All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” and “The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be assessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer.” — Noah Webster

“There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet.” — Noah Webster

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed….No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” — Noah Webster

The Religious belief of many of the Founding Fathers were that of Congregationalists.—A sect formerly known by the name “Independents.” Its fundamental principle is, that every particular congregation of Christians is an independent body, which has within itself the right of electing and deposing its pastors, settling its faith, and exercising discipline over its members. It is “Autocephalous” which means self-governing, self-headed. There is no organized unity among the Congregations that can, in any way, interfere with their perfect independence of one another. Robert Browne was the first to formulate the Congregational principles which he carved out of the Puritan system over three centuries ago, and his sect was known by the name of Brownists down to 1642. His principles of church government were accepted by large numbers of the Puritans, and the sect increased rapidly. The idea of absolute independence is not strictly carried out, the “Congregational Union,” in 1831, adopting a “Declaration of the Faith, Order, and Discipline of the Congregational, or Independent Dissenters,” which consists of thirty-three articles, twenty on religion and the remainder on church government.

Their belief has a near relation to the peculiar doctrines of Calvin, in that “all who will be saved were the objects of God’s eternal and electing love, and were given by an act of Divine sovereignty t0 the son of God: which in no way interferes with the system of means, nor with the grounds of human responsibility; being wholly unrevealed as to its objects, and not a rule of human duty. They held that the New Testament authorizes every Christian church to elect its own officers, to manage all its own affairs, and to stand independent of, and irresponsible to, all authority saving that only of the Supreme and Divine Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ

The Framers of the Constitution:
Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention only 5 were possible Deists. The other 50 were all members of established religions and Bible believers. Following is a list of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and their religious affiliation:

Name of Signer               State                           Religious Affiliation
Daniel Carroll                  Maryland                   Catholic
Thomas Fitzsimons        Pennsylvania             Catholic
Roger Sherman               Connecticut               Congregationalist
Nathaniel Gorham          Massachusetts          Congregationalist
John Langdon                  New Hampshire        Congregationalist
Nicholas Gilman              New Hampshire        Congregationalist
Abraham Baldwin           Georgia                       Congregationalist; Episcopalian
William Samuel Johnson        Connecticut        Episcopalian; Presbyterian
James Madison Jr.           Virginia                      Episcopalian
George Read                     Delaware                    Episcopalian
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer    Maryland         Episcopalian
David Brearly                    New Jersey               Episcopalian
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr.    North Carolina     Episcopalian
Robert Morris                      Pennsylvania            Episcopalian
John Morton                        Pennsylvania            Episcopalian
John Rutledge                      South Carolina         Episcopalian
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney    South Carolina        Episcopalian
Charles Pinckney                 South Carolina         Episcopalian
Pierce Butler                         South Carolina        Episcopalian
George Washington              Virginia                    Episcopalian
Benjamin Franklin                Pennsylvania          Episcopalian
William Blount                       North Carolina       Episcopalian; Presbyterian
James Wilson                         Pennsylvania          Episcopalian; Presbyterian
Rufus King                              Massachusetts       Episcopalian; Congregationalist
Jacob Broom                          Delaware                 Lutheran
William Few                           Georgia                    Methodist
Richard Bassett                     Delaware                 Methodist
Gunning Bedford Jr.             Delaware                 Presbyterian
James McHenry                   Maryland                 Presbyterian
William Livingston               New Jersey              Presbyterian
William Paterson                  New Jersey             Presbyterian
Hugh Williamson                  North Carolina        Presbyterian
Jared Ingersoll                     Pennsylvania           Presbyterian
Alexander Hamilton            New York                Huguenot; Presbyterian; Episcopalian
Jonathan Dayton                 New Jersey              Presbyterian; Episcopalian
John Blair                             Virginia                     Presbyterian; Episcopalian
John Dickinson                    Delaware                  Quaker; Episcopalian
George Clymer                    Pennsylvania           Quaker; Episcopalian
Thomas Mifflin                    Pennsylvania           Quaker; Lutheran

Name of Non-Signing Delegates        State        Religious Affiliation
Oliver Ellsworth            Connecticut        Congregationalist
Caleb Strong            Massachusetts        Congregationalist
John Lansing, Jr.        New York        Dutch Reformed
Robert Yates            New York        Dutch Reformed
William Houstoun        Georgia            Episcopalian
William Leigh Pierce        Georgia            Episcopalian
Luther Martin            Maryland        Episcopalian
John F. Mercer            Maryland        Episcopalian
Elbridge Gerry            Massachusetts        Episcopalian
George Mason            Virginia            Episcopalian
Edmund J. Randolph        Virginia            Episcopalian
George Wythe            Virginia            Episcopalian
James McClurg            Virginia            Presbyterian
William C. Houston        New Jersey        Presbyterian
William R. Davie            North Carolina        Presbyterian
Alexander Martin        North Carolina        Presbyterian

Religious Affiliation of the Signers of the Articles of Confederation:

Name of Signer        State        Religious Affiliation
Daniel Carroll        Maryland        Catholic
Andrew Adams        Connecticut        Congregationalist
Richard Hutson        South Carolina        Congregationalist
Samuel Adams        Massachusetts        Congregationalist
Josiah Bartlett        New Hampshire        Congregationalist
William Ellery        Rhode Island        Congregationalist
John Hancock        Massachusetts        Congregationalist
Samuel Huntington    Connecticut        Congregationalist
Roger Sherman        Connecticut        Congregationalist
Oliver Wolcott        Connecticut        Congregationalist
Thomas Heyward Jr.    South Carolina        Episcopalian
John Penn        North Carolina        Episcopalian
Francis Lightfoot Lee    Virginia            Episcopalian
Richard Henry Lee    Virginia            Episcopalian
Francis Lewis        New York        Episcopalian
Elbridge Gerry        Massachusetts        Episcopalian
John Banister        Virginia            Episcopalian
James Duane        New York        Episcopalian
Edward Langworthy    Georgia            Episcopalian
Gouverneur Morris    New York        Episcopalian
Nicholas Van Dyke    Delaware        Episcopalian
Robert Morris        Pennsylvania        Episcopalian
Cornelius Harnett    North Carolina        Episcopalian (Deist)
John Dickinson        Delaware        Quaker; Episcopalian
Henry Laurens        South Carolina        Huguenot
John Hanson        Maryland        Lutheran
Thomas McKean    Delaware        Presbyterian
John Witherspoon    New Jersey        Presbyterian
John Walton        Georgia            Presbyterian
Nathaniel Scudder    New Jersey        Presbyterian
William Clingan        Pennsylvania        Protestant, denomination unknown
Joseph Reed        Pennsylvania        Protestant, denomination unknown
Daniel Roberdeau    Pennsylvania        Protestant, denomination unknown
Jonathan Bayard Smith    Pennsylvania        Protestant, denomination unknown
Francis Dana        Massachusetts        Protestant, denomination unknown
Samuel Holten        Massachusetts        Protestant, denomination unknown
James Lovell        Massachusetts        Protestant, denomination unknown
Henry Marchant        Rhode Island        Protestant, denomination unknown
John Collins        Rhode Island        Protestant, denomination unknown
Thomas Adams        Virginia            Protestant, denomination unknown
John Harvie        Virginia            Protestant, denomination unknown
John Mathews        South Carolina        Protestant, denomination unknown
William Henry Drayton    South Carolina        Protestant, denomination unknown
William Duer        New York        Protestant, denomination unknown
Titus Hosmer        Connecticut        Protestant, denomination unknown
Edward Telfair        Georgia            Protestant, denomination unknown
John Wentworth Jr.    New Hampshire        Protestant, denomination unknown
John Williams        North Carolina        Protestant, denomination unknown

Religious Affiliation of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence:

Name of Signer        State        Religious Affiliation
Charles Carroll        Maryland        Catholic
Samuel Huntington    Connecticut        Congregationalist
Roger Sherman        Connecticut        Congregationalist
William Williams    Connecticut        Congregationalist
Oliver Wolcott        Connecticut        Congregationalist
Lyman Hall        Georgia            Congregationalist
Samuel Adams        Massachusetts        Congregationalist
John Hancock        Massachusetts        Congregationalist
Josiah Bartlett        New Hampshire        Congregationalist
William Whipple        New Hampshire        Congregationalist
William Ellery        Rhode Island        Congregationalist
John Adams        Massachusetts        Congregationalist; Unitarian
Robert Treat Paine    Massachusetts        Congregationalist; Unitarian
George Walton        Georgia             Episcopalian
John Penn        North Carolina        Episcopalian
George Ross        Pennsylvania        Episcopalian
Thomas Heyward Jr.    South Carolina        Episcopalian
Thomas Lynch Jr.    South Carolina        Episcopalian
Arthur Middleton        South Carolina        Episcopalian
Edward Rutledge    South Carolina        Episcopalian
Francis Lightfoot Lee    Virginia            Episcopalian
Richard Henry Lee    Virginia            Episcopalian
George Read        Delaware        Episcopalian
Caesar Rodney        Delaware        Episcopalian
Samuel Chase        Maryland        Episcopalian
William Paca        Maryland        Episcopalian
Thomas Stone        Maryland        Episcopalian
Elbridge Gerry        Massachusetts        Episcopalian
Francis Hopkinson    New Jersey        Episcopalian
Francis Lewis        New York        Episcopalian
Lewis Morris        New York        Episcopalian
William Hooper        North Carolina        Episcopalian
Robert Morris        Pennsylvania        Episcopalian
John Morton        Pennsylvania        Episcopalian
Stephen Hopkins    Rhode Island        Episcopalian
Carter Braxton        Virginia            Episcopalian
Benjamin Harrison    Virginia            Episcopalian
Thomas Nelson Jr.    Virginia            Episcopalian
George Wythe        Virginia            Episcopalian
Thomas Jefferson    Virginia            Episcopalian
Benjamin Franklin    Pennsylvania        Episcopalian
Button Gwinnett        Georgia            Episcopalian; Congregationalist
James Wilson        Pennsylvania        Episcopalian; Presbyterian
Joseph Hewes        North Carolina        Quaker, Episcopalian
George Clymer        Pennsylvania        Quaker, Episcopalian
Thomas McKean    Delaware        Presbyterian
Matthew Thornton    New Hampshire        Presbyterian
Abraham Clark        New Jersey        Presbyterian
John Hart        New Jersey        Presbyterian
Richard Stockton    New Jersey        Presbyterian
John Witherspoon    New Jersey        Presbyterian
William Floyd        New York        Presbyterian
Philip Livingston        New York        Presbyterian
James Smith        Pennsylvania        Presbyterian
George Taylor        Pennsylvania        Presbyterian
Benjamin Rush        Pennsylvania        Presbyterian

Now hear what other American presidents have said about God and the Bible.

“I do believe in Almighty God! And I believe also in the Bible…Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribed for our motto: “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” and exclaim, Christ first, our country next!” – Andrew Johnson

“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” — Abraham Lincoln

“The only assurance of a nation’s safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion” — Abraham Lincoln

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in Holy Scripture, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch (sic) as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” — Abraham Lincoln, in his Proclamation for a Day of Prayer and Fasting, called the nation to find spiritual strength through prayer: 1863

“In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to men. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.” — Abraham Lincoln, upon receiving a gift of a Bible from a group of African-Americans from Baltimore 1864

“My concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” — Abraham Lincoln on the Civil war.

“It is the duty of nations as well as men to recognize the truth announced in Holy Scripture and proven by all of history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” — Abraham Lincoln

“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong” — Abraham Lincoln

“I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation: And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord…” — Abraham Lincoln

“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about…..The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God, and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.” — Woodrow Wilson

“That book [the Bible], sir, is the rock on which our republic rests” — Andrew Jackson, also, Upon hearing a man defaming God’s Word, Jackson rebuked him with the following well-chosen words: “Sir, that Book is the Rock on which our Republic rests!”

“The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of the law for the virtues of men” — Calvin Coolidge

“The strength of our country is the strength of its religious convictions. The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.” — Calvin Coolidge

“If you take out of your statutes, your constitution, your family life all that is taken from the Sacred Book, what would there be left to bind society together?” — Benjamin Harrison

“Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, of which our people are proud, almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible” — Theodore Roosevelt

FDR quote you’ll never hear from the progressives and liberals:

“There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments and their very foundations are set. The defense of religion, of democracy and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one, we must now make up our minds to save all.” Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), U.S. president, in his second annual address to Congress, January 4, 1939.

“We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State!” —Harry Truman

“The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope.” — Dwight Eisenhower

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties. Write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” —Ulysses S. Grant

“Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.” ~ Herbert Hoover

Quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville an early French traveler to America spent nine months in the United States during 1831 and 1832

Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention …. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united. Freedom sees religion as the companion of its struggles and triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its rights. ~ Alexis de Tocquevill

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other …. They brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion. ~ Alexis de Tocquevill

Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America … In the United States … Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it. ~ Alexis de Tocquevill

Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. ~ Alexis de Tocquevill

Tocqueville asserted that, at that time, America was a democracy, where the fundamental principle of government was “the sovereignty of the people.” He said “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, 1682

“When all is said, there is hardly one frame of government in the world so ill designed by its first founders that, in good hands, would not do well enough; and story tells us, the best, in ill ones, can do nothing that is great or good; witness the Jewish and Roman states. Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let the government be ever so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn.

I know some say, “Let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them”; but let them consider that, though good laws do well, good men do better, for good laws may want good men and be abolished or evaded [invaded in Franklin’s print] by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer ill ones. It is true, good laws have some awe upon ill ministers, but that is where they have not power to escape or abolish them, and the people are generally wise and good, but a loose and depraved people (which is the question) love laws and an administration like themselves.

That, therefore, which makes a good constitution, must keep it, viz.: men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth; for which after ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders, and the successive magistracy, than to their parents, for their private patrimonies.

These considerations of the weight of government, and the nice and various opinions about it, made it uneasy to me to think of publishing the ensuing frame and conditional laws, foreseeing both the censures they will meet with from men of differing humors and engagements and the occasion they may give of discourse beyond my design.

But, next to the power of necessity (which is a solicitor that will take no denial), this induced me to a compliance: that we have (with reverence to God, and good conscience to men), to the best of our skill, contrived and composed the frame and laws of this government, to the great end of all government, viz.: To support power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power; that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honorable, for their just administration; for liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery. To carry this evenness is partly owing to the constitution and partly to the magistracy; where either of these fail, government will be subject to convulsions; but, where both are wanting, it must be totally subverted; then where both meet, the government is like to endure. Which I humbly pray and hope God will please to make the lot of this of Pennsylvania. Amen.” — William Penn

Excepts from the Preambles of all 50 states:

Alabama 1901, Preamble. “We the people of the State of Alabama,
invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and
establish the following Constitution … ”

Alaska 1956, Preamble. “We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and
To those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land . ”

Arizona 1911, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Arizona,
grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this
Constitution… ”

Arkansas 1874, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Arkansas,
Grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form
of government… ”

California 1879, Preamble. “We, the People of the State of
California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom…”

Colorado 1876, Preamble. “We, the people of Colorado, with profound
Reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe .. ”

Connecticut 1818, Preamble. “The People of Connecticut, acknowledging
With gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to
enjoy … ”

Delaware 1897, Preamble. “Through Divine Goodness all men have, by
nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according
to the dictates of their consciences .. ”

Florida 1885, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Florida,
grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty … establish
this Constitution…”

Georgia 1777, Preamble. “We, the people of Georgia, relying upon
Protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this
Constitution… ”

Hawaii 1959, Preamble. “We, the people of Hawaii, Grateful for Divine
Guidance .. establish this Constitution ”

Idaho 1889, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Idaho, grateful
To Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings .. ”

Illinois 1870, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Illinois,
Grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious
liberty which He hath So long permitted us to enjoy and looking to
Him for a blessing on our endeavors… ”

Indiana 1851, Preamble. “We, the People of the State of Indiana,
grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to chose
our form of government . ..”

Iowa 1857, Preamble. “We, the People of the State of Iowa, grateful
to The Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling
our Dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings …
establish this Constitution ”

Kansas 1859, Preamble. “We, the people of Kansas, grateful to
Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges … establish
this Constitution. ”

Kentucky 1891, Preamble. “We, the people of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and
religious liberties… ”

Louisiana 1921, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Louisiana,
Grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious
liberties we enjoy ….”

Maine 1820, Preamble. “We the People of Maine .. acknowledging with
Grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe
in affording us an opportunity … and imploring His aid and
direction . .”

Maryland 1776, Preamble. “We, the people of the state of Maryland,
Grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty… ”

Massachusetts 1780, Preamble. “We…the people of Massachusetts,
acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great
Legislator of The Universe… in the course of His Providence, an
opportunity ..and Devoutly imploring His direction … ”

Michigan 1908, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Michigan,
Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom … establish
this Constitution ”

Minnesota, 1857, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Minnesota,
grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to
perpetuate its blessings . ”

Mississippi 1890, Preamble. “We, the people of Mississippi in
Convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His
blessing on our work…..”

Missouri 1845, Preamble “We, the people of Missouri, with profound
Reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His
goodness …establish this Constitution …”

Montana 1889, Preamble. “We, the people of Montana, grateful to
Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this
Constitution .. ”

Nebraska 1875, Preamble. “We, the people, grateful to Almighty God
for Our freedom .. establish this Constitution .. .”

Nevada 1864, Preamble. “We the people of the State of Nevada,
grateful to Almighty God for our freedom … establish this
Constitution . .”

New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V. “Every individual has a
Natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the
dictates of his own conscience . ”

New Jersey 1844, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of New
Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty
which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a
blessing on our endeavors…..”
New Mexico 1911, Preamble. “We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to
Almighty God for the blessings of liberty .. ”

New York 1846, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of New York,
Grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its
blessings . ”

North Carolina 1868, Preamble. “We the people of the State of North
Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations,
for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging
our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those . .”

North Dakota 1889, Preamble. “We, the people of North Dakota,
grateful To Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious
liberty, do ordain… ”

Ohio 1852, Preamble. “We the people of the state of Ohio, grateful to
Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote
Our common .. ”

Oklahoma 1907, Preamble. “Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in
order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty …..
establish this… ”

Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I. Section 2. “All men shall be
Secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the
dictates of their consciences . ”

Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble. “We, the people of Pennsylvania,
grateful To Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious
liberty, and Humbly invoking His guidance . …”

Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. “We the People of the State of Rhode
Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty
which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a
blessing .”

South Carolina 1778, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of South
Carolina . grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish
This Constitution .. ”

South Dakota 1889, Preamble. “We, the people of South Dakota,
grateful To Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties …
establish this ….”

Tennessee 1796, Art. XI.III. “That all men have a natural and
Indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates
of their conscience… ”

Texas 1845, Preamble. “We the People of the Republic of Texas,
acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God .. ”

Utah 1896, Preamble. “Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty,
We establish this Constitution .. ”

Vermont 1777, Preamble. “Whereas all government ought to … enable
The individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and
other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on
man ….. ”

Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI .. “Religion, or the Duty which we
Owe our Creator … can be directed only by Reason .. and that it is
the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and
Charity towards each other
”
Washington 1889, Preamble. “We the People of the State of Washington,
grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do
ordain this Constitution .. ”

West Virginia 1872, Preamble. “Since through Divine Providence we
enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we,
the people of West Virginia .. reaffirm our faith in and constant
reliance upon God .. ”

Wisconsin 1848, Preamble. “We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to
Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility … ”

Wyoming 1890, Preamble. “We, the people of the State of Wyoming,
grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties …
establish This Constitution .. ”

See also:

Advice to Young People from Noah Webster Father of American Education

Political Evils and the Remedy for them by Noah Webster 1834

Non Revisionist Politically Incorrect History of Jesus Christ by Johannes von Müller 1832

 

The Christian Patriot 2011

What The Founding Fathers Said About the 2nd Amendment (Original Intent)

Just a note, when the Bill of Rights were written and the 2nd amendment was written, the colonists, i.e. the people, were armed with the very same arms i.e. cannons and muskets, that were available to the government military, i.e. British Tories

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.” -Patrick Henry

“No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.” ~ John Milton

“When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.” ~ John Milton

“Self-defense is justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defense. Free men have arms; slaves do not.” – William Blackstone

“No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God.” – William Blackstone

“The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights. So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community.” – William Blackstone

The Statists, Marxist, Leftist, Progressives, Socialist, i.e. those elements of the country that wish the federal/central government to control everything, would have you believe that the second amendment pertains simply to the military. The Democrats have made this argument for years. Clearly they lie and/or are wrong as you will see as you educate yourself here on exactly what the Founder’s and others said on the subject at the time of the founding.

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”- Thomas Paine

“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” – Samuel Adams

“The law of self-preservation overrules the laws of obligation to others.” ~ Thomas Jefferson 1793

The 2nd Amendment ensures the 1st Amendment.

The Second Amendment states:
“A  well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

definitions of key words:

Right: noun; 1. something to which one has a just claim, 2. the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled, 3. something that one may properly claim as due, 4. the cause of truth or justice

People: plural; any one, of a number of human beings making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest.

People is plural for person, people therefore according to the Founder’s original intent, meant every single citizen that make up the people of the United States of America.

Keep: verb; 1. to retain in one’s possession or power, 2. to continue to maintain, 3. to cause to remain in a given place, situation, or condition, 4. to preserve in an unspoiled condition.

Bear: verb: 1. to be equipped or furnished with, 2.to carry or possess

Shall: verb: 1. used to express a command or exhortation, 2. used in laws, regulations, or directives to express what is mandatory

Not: adverb: 1. never, 2. not ever, 3. at no time, 4. not in any degree, 5. not under any condition

Be: verb: 1. to have, maintain, or occupy a place, situation, or position; 2. to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted

Infringed: Infringe; verb: to encroach upon in a way that violates law or the rights of another, Encroach; 1. to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another, 2. to advance beyond the usual or proper limits

See the following links also: Political Evils and the Remedy for them by Noah Webster 1834,

Constitution of the United States and it’s Governmental Operations (In Plain English so even lawyers and politicians can understand) ,

POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS by Johannes Von Muller (1832),

Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God

Barack Obama’s 10 Point Plan to “Change” The Second Amendment

If the government believes they should provide everyone with healthcare because it is a “Right”, why is it they do not provide us all with guns, because that has been a true “Right” to “Keep and Bear” for much longer than healthcare!

Founder’s quotes on 2nd amendment

”The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” (George Washington)

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” (George Washington)

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence … From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and  pistol are equally indispensable . . . The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference  – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good” (George Washington)

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” (George Mason Co-author of the Second Amendment during Virginia’s Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788)

“On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p. 322)

“No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution)

“The right of the people to keep and bear…arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country…” (James Madison, I Annals of Congress)

What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that [the] people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms…The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Col. William S. Smith, Paris; 1787 see bottom of post for full letter)

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“It is the duty of a Patriot to protect his country from its government” (Thomas Paine)

“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” (Samuel Adams)

“On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms… The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to William S. Smith, 1787)

Thomas Jefferson In his Commonplace Book, Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.” (Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson)

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”, Proposal for a Virginia Constitution, (Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.” (Patrick Henry )

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” (Patrick Henry, Elliot Debates)

“The people have a right to keep and bear arms.” and “The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.” (Patrick Henry, Elliot Debates)

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.  (Thomas Paine)

“The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals…. It establishes some rights of the individual  as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right  to deprive them of.” (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)

“The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible limits…and [when] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.” (Sir George Tucker, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court and U.S. District Court of Virginia, in I Blackstone Commentaries)

“The  right of the people to keep and bear…arms shall not be infringed. A well  regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to  arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country…”  (James Madison,  I Annals of Congress 434 [June 8, 1789])

“As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia.” (James Madison, notes of debates in the 1787 Federal Convention)

Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. […] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.
(Senator Richard Henry Lee, 1788, on “militia” in the 2nd Amendment writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic)

“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …”
(Richard Henry Lee writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic, Letter XVIII, May, 1788.)

“Whenever, therefore, the profession of arms becomes a distinct order in the state….the end of the social compact is defeated… No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its liberty without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state…Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.” (Richard Henry Lee)

“What, Sir, is the use of a militia?  It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty….Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second  Amendment  [ I Annals of Congress at 750 August17, 1789])

“…if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and who have arms in their hands?” (Delegate Sedgwick, during the Massachusetts Convention, rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail, Jonathan Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol.2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888))

“…to disarm the people – that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”  (George Mason)

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the  citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

“the ultimate authority … resides in the people alone,” (James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper #46.)

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost  every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense,  raised in the United States” (Noah Webster in An Examination  into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution’, 1787, a pamphlet aimed at swaying Pennsylvania toward ratification,  in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at 56(New York, 1888))

“…but  if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form  an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties  of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights…”  (Alexander Hamilton speaking of standing armies in Federalist 29.)

“Besides  the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess  over the people of almost every other nation. . .Notwithstanding the military  establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the  people with arms.” (James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist  Paper No. 46.)

“As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear  their private arms.”  (Tench Coxe in Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution’ under the Pseudonym A  Pennsylvanian’ in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

“The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? are they not ourselves. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American…the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people. (Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)

“The  prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any  rule of construction be conceived to give to Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both.” [William Rawle, A View of the Constitution 125-6 (2nd ed. 1829)

“Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789.)

“What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.” (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts:, I Annals of Congress at 750 August 17, 1789)

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials.”  (George Mason,)

“The  Constitution shall never be construed….to prevent the people of  the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms” (Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87)

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use  them.” (Richard  Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, Walter Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, at 21,22,124 (Univ. of Alabama Press,1975)..)

“The great object is that every man be armed” and “everyone who is able may have a gun.” (Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution. Debates and other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia,…taken in shorthand by David Robertson of Petersburg, at 271,  275 2d ed.  Richmond, 1805. Also 3 Elliot, Debates at 386)

“The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.” (Zachariah Johnson, Elliot’s Debates, vol. 3)

“Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?  Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” (Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836)

“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”  (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8)

“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience;  or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from  keeping their own arms…” (Samuel Adams,  Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Peirce  & Hale,  eds.,  Boston, 1850))

“And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not  warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of  resistance? Let them take arms….The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants” (Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William S. Smith in 1787.  Taken from Jefferson, On Democracy 20, S. Padover ed.,1939)

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined”  (Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836)

“The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  –(Thomas Jefferson)

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence … From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and  pistol are equally indispensable . . . The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference  – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good” (George Washington)

“The supposed quietude of a good mans allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside…Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them…” (Thomas Paine, [Writings of Thomas Paine])

“A strong body makes the mind strong.  As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.(Thomas  Jefferson, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318 [Foley,  Ed.,  reissued 1967])

“The supposed quietude of a good mans allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and  preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance  would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside…Horrid  mischief  would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them…” (Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 [1894])

(The  American Colonies were) “all democratic governments, where the power is in the hands of the people and where there is not the  least difficulty or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the country. (European countries should not) be ignorant of the strength and the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in defense of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and contests with them.” [George Mason, “Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company” in The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792, ed Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970)]

“It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes.  But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the  legions which surround it.” (James Madison, “Federalist No. 46”)

“Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that ‘if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.’ It is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.” (Samuel Adams speech, 1771)

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”  (Thomas Paine)

“We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions — The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them.” (George Washington, General Orders, July 2, 1776.)

Court rulings on the subject

“To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege.” [Wilson vs. State, 33  Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. (1878)]

For, in principle, there is no difference between a law prohibiting the wearing  of concealed arms, and a law forbidding the wearing such as are  exposed; and if the former be unconstitutional, the latter must be so likewise. But it should not be forgotten, that it is not only a part of the right that is secured by the constitution; it is the right entire and complete, as it existed at the adoption of the constitution; and if any portion of that right be impaired, immaterial how small the part may be, and immaterial the order of time at which it be done, it is equally forbidden by the constitution.” [Bliss  vs. Commonwealth, 12 Ky. (2 Litt.) 90, at 92, and 93, 13 Am. Dec. 251 (1822)] ”

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State. Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right.” [Nunn vs. State, 1 Ga (1 Kel.)  (1846)]

“The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The  exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution  cannot  be made subject to the will of the sheriff.” [People vs. Zerillo, 219 Mich. 635, 189 N.W. (1922)]

“The  maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free  people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions.”[State vs. Kerner, 181 N.C. 574, 107 S.E. (1921)]

“The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or  the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the “high powers” delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government.’ A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.” [Cockrum vs. State, 24 Tex.394, at (1859)]

Other quotes on the subject of bearing arms from American history

“The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals…. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.” (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States….Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America”  (Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.)

“…the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to  keep and bear their private arms” (from article in the Philadelphia  Federal Gazette June 18, 1789 at 2, col.2,)

“The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them. And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised, that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burdens, to be rid of all regulations. How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger, that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.” (Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice and U.S. House Representative from Massachusetts. Commentaries on the  Constitution of the United States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of the Constitution [Boston, 1833])

“The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military  are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only  the police, the secret police, the military. The hired servants of our rulers. Only the government-and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.” (Edward  Abbey, “The Right to Arms,” Abbey’s Road [New York, 1979])

Quotes from international figures

“Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed  by the fear of an armed people.” (Aristotle, as quoted by John Trenchard and Water Moyle, An Argument Shewing, That a Standing Army Is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy [London, 1697])

“No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people.  The possession  of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave.  He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion.” (James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors,  Defects, and Abuses [London, 1774-1775])

“The difficulty here has been to persuade the citizens to keep arms, not  to prevent them from being employed for violent purposes.” (Timothy Dwight,  Travels in New-England)

“To trust arms in the hands of the people at large has, in Europe, been believed…to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has been proved to be perfectly harmless…If the government be  equitable; if it be reasonable in its exactions; if proper attention be paid to the  education of children in knowledge and religion, few men will be disposed to use arms, unless for their amusement, and for the defense of themselves and their country.” (Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [London 1823]

“You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed because, among other reasons, people despise you….There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed. In the latter case, there will be  suspicion on the one hand and contempt on the other, making cooperation impossible.” (Niccolo Machiavelli in “The Prince”)

“You must understand, therefore, that there are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. The first way is natural to men, and the second to beasts. But as the first way often proves inadequate one must needs have recourse to the second.” (Niccolo Machiavelli in “The Prince”)

Thomas Jefferson “Tree of Liberty” quote:

“I do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: and very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a Chief magistrate eligible for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: and what we have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independant 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their 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. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusets: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen yard in order. I hope in god this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.” – Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 178

Other posts that may be of interest:

The Wisdom of Founder John Adams Part 2: Novanglus Papers

The Failure of Marxism and Socialism

The Doctrine of Fascism, Fascism Defined by Benito Mussolini

Christianity and the Founding of the United States

Non-Revisionist Politically Incorrect History of America from the Ancient Authors Part 1

Non-Revisionist Politically Incorrect History of the World With Biblical References Part 1

“Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem (Translation: I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery) Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government.” (Thomas Jefferson letter to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787)

“Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.

I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will.

The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

Here, without contemplating consequences, before high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love.

And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take?

Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country’s freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending.” (From The Entire Writings of Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln)