Common Sense II
By Jim Fauzey and Colleen Hayden
For the People of the
Copyright 2009
Introduction
In 1776 an obscure colonial writer penned a pamphlet in plain common language that spoke to a nation in revolution. That nation in some respects is not that far removed from present day when viewed during these uncertain times. The author Thomas Paine called his pamphlet Common Sense and I too believe that is what we need right now so I have usurped his title for this rendition, please forgive me for that and I do hope that I can in some small way do justice to his great work.
I have read Common Sense numerous times during the five decades of my life, starting back in grade school, when learning about our great nation’s history and being taught to be proud, rather than ashamed of being an American, was still in fashion. During my early years it was not politically incorrect to portray
As Paine stated in his pamphlet’s introduction, “Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
These words ring as true today as they did in 1776, but for a different reason. Not because of an intolerant King in
I will strive to bring to your attention, along with my fellow author, the things today that threaten our three main national premises. I will strive with God’s guidance to show you the perils of “a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG!”
“A popular government, without proper information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
-James Madison, 1822
The Design of our New Age Government, with Remarks on the Constitution
Our society has been conditioned into believing that only our government is the answer to the woes of our nation. We have allowed generation after generation to be taught in all levels of education that only government can make things happen; only government can make things better; and only government can provide you, the citizen, with security and prosperity. Paine stated, “…society is produced to satisfy our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness in a POSITIVE way and the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining us. The first is a patron and the last is a punisher.”
Society is truly a blessing, the interaction between friends, family, neighbors, and strangers alike knit us into a cohesive community that supplies us with all the necessities of life. However government, on the other hand, is in its best state a necessary evil and in its worst state an intolerable subjugator. To add insult to injury we as a society must face the fact that our own freedoms have placed this same intolerable government upon us. We voted this government into being and then walked away, naively believing it would operate as we wish. We today have been so seduced, no, programmed into believing that our elected officials will truly lead our nation in her best interests; however, it is now painfully obvious that our government does not operate as we desire it too.
“A vote is like a rifle its usefulness depends on the character of the user.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
The Federal Government in collusion with our voice to the masses, the voice which has been the watchmen for free thought and opinion, the FREE PRESS, has so blindly fallen into the fold of the single ideology that government is the answer that they may not be able to come back from the abyss. Our Founding Fathers who struggled so long after our Revolution to come up with a system of government that would allow us to remain free would be ashamed of that same government today and their lap dog, the Free Press. The Founding Fathers were keenly aware that what we are facing today could happen if we as citizens, and the press, did not stand vigilant. However, because we as a nation have been indoctrinated into thinking that our government and not ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ is the answer to our problems, we now find ourselves wandering blind in the wilderness.
The first line of text in our Constitution is so important to any discussion concerning our freedoms and liberties and lays the foundation of our American system that it is worth repeating here:
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
This singular eloquent line sums up all that is, and was envisioned to be, required for a viable system of government, a government whose power is derived from the people who elected it; a government based on the rule of law and not the rule of those elected. We were given a REPUBLIC, not a Democracy; not a government that functions on majority rule (i.e., mob rule) but rather on the Rule of Law only so that everyone is treated EQUAL. Justice is supposed to be blind for a reason, the LAW does not see anything but the LAW, and that is truly just and fair to all. However, we now have a government system which has forgotten that they are here to serve this nation, not themselves, and that they operate under the Rule of Law. We now have a government which has never been given the right to take from you or me and give it to another without our consent. Our government now acts with total indifference to the voice of the citizenry which placed it into power; it passes laws to make itself more powerful, laws that turn its nose at the U.S. Constitution.
When a government views itself as omnipotent solely because you voted them to office and yet refuses to listen to the will of those same voters that same government is no longer a viable government. How does a government justify, in any manner, the over taxing of those who have worked hard to improve their lives and the lives of their loved ones, only to redistribute those earnings to others in society for whom that government deems worthy of those stolen funds? Yes, stolen is the right word or correctly stated legally stolen; legally stolen under the law which the aforementioned government passes so as to be Subjugator and Punisher. The subjugation and punishment of the few in order to benefit a certain portion of citizens for whom the government deems fit; that is how our government now thinks. If these actions are allowed, what is to stop this government from becoming the Subjugator and Punisher of ALL? Do not all citizens use the benefits supplied by government, such as: interstate transportation systems; free commerce and trade; and national security equally? Does one American citizen use more than another in their daily lives? With this question in mind, where does our government make the distinction between which American deserves more than another and which of these Americans should be paying more? Our government, without consulting those who elected them, makes the decision that they should raise the taxes on one sector of our society so as to pay for the things that same government turns over to another sector of our society. This tax increase was not initiated by those taxed but instead solely by the prerogative of the elected and ONLY the elected; regardless of the fact the WE THE PEOPLE are in total opposition to these actions. Is this taxation WITH representation any less intolerable than taxation WITHOUT representation 233 years ago when we still were under the King of England? The answer to that is NO! Once a government starts taking from one to give to another it fractures society and creates chasms which we will not be able to bridge. These types of government actions serve no purpose but to create class warfare - set one citizen against the other. It is obvious now that this course of action by our government is, or was, planned and calculated. Such government action does not work to form a more perfect union, establish justice, or insure domestic tranquility.
“A house divided against it self cannot stand.”
- Abraham Lincoln, 1858
That house does not necessarily have to be the house of government, it can be our society in general and if the instrument which we elect to provide the items in the first line of the Constitution drives wedges between our citizens, then we are undoubtedly doomed to fail.
Redistribution of wealth or the process of taking from the hardworking citizen and giving it to another citizen, who for whatever reason is not being a productive member of society is not the purpose of government. The action of taking from one to give to another without the consent of the losing party is the surest way to plant the seeds of animosity towards one’s fellow man. The process of helping our fellow citizens in need is for society to accomplish not government. There is a distinction between these two; however, due to the indoctrination of generations through the years, we as a people have started to believe that government is SOCIETY and in that lays the danger. The danger that liberty and freedom no longer belongs with you, your family, your neighbor, or your community; instead it lays in the malevolent hands of GOVERNMENT.
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.” -Thomas Jefferson, 1781
Choices that a person makes along the road of life do not give any one citizen within a free society the excuse to take from their neighbor’s success to better their own circumstance. The current administration’s idea of redistributing your hard earned money and prudent investments is the total antithesis to the Pursuit of Happiness we hold to so dear as Americans. The creation of a Welfare State where the citizenry are solely dependent on government for their needs is not, nor never was the intent of our Founding Fathers and is totally against the precepts of our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Is it wrong or incorrect a thought that when you recognize that government is over stepping its mandated authority that it may, if not checked, be time for the government to start anew? No, it is not wrong or incorrect it is perfectly natural and is mandated to think as such from a source higher than ourselves.
As our Patriot Fathers stated in our Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Once your government becomes oppressive whether heavy of hand physically or simply through regulatory polices or law, at which time it infringes on your unalienable Rights, it has for all pretense reached its level of usefulness. In the due course of time do not free men and women begin to recognize the source from which their suffering springs; know likewise the remedy for their suffering?
It is neither prudent nor fair to paint with a broad stroke that all within our government have chosen a path which leads away from the Republic for which our Founding Fathers envisioned and strove so hard to establish. However, it would be naïve to not recognize that our government has lost sight of the Constitution under which it was established and is trying to instill a form of collective society for which we as a nation was not predicated upon. This path for which the government has alighted upon is not from the will of the PEOPLE, but rather from the desire of those GOVERNING. This path is solely desired from the stand point of power and influence, derived from a perverse ideology which only subjugates its people. Our elected officials have crossed the river from the shore of prosperity of the ‘nation first’ to the shore of their own prosperity first and foremost.
The Constitution is very clear on the responsibilities and requirements of all three branches of our government, but today two branches (the Legislative and the Executive) believe they can operate outside of these responsibilities and requirements, while the third branch (the Judicial) sits idly by.
“An ELECTED DEPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectively checked and restrained by the others.”
- James Madison, 1788
Our Founding Fathers, with great deliberation and compromise, hammered out the Constitution of our Republic with total intent that the three branches of our government would be self-checking and neither would allow the other to over step its bounds. Today, however, we have an Executive Branch and Legislative Branch working hand-in-hand believing that beyond a shadow of a doubt they (and only they!) know what is precisely good for the nation. They press forward in total abandonment of our country’s traditions and ethos and turn a deaf ear to the multitudes who scream NO, we do not want this. Both of these branches swore an oath to uphold our Constitution; however it is obvious now that has become nothing more than a hallow oath. Both of these branches in their actions demonstrate a total disregard for the foundational document of our system of government.
Then there is the Judicial Branch whose purpose is to interpret the Constitution, ensuring that the other branches do not violate that said document, sitting idly by on their hands and dismisses any questions that cast doubt on the other two branches. This third branch is now so divided into ideological camps that its own ability for logical and deliberate thought has come into question. As the branch of government whose purpose is to be the Gate Keeper of our great Constitution and the branch for which their only yard stick is that same Constitution, it has become so out of touch with that document that we must have grave concerns for its jurisprudence.
“And it proves, in the last place, that liberty can have nothing to fear from the Judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.”
- Alexander Hamilton, 1788
My fellow Americans, this is an out of control government, a government whose purpose seems now hell bent to subjugate you and me into blind submission to their will.
We must now ask ourselves a question; is what is described above any different than what the American colonists faced in 1776? The answer is that there is NO DIFFERENCE-subjugation is subjugation-whether under a King or under an ELECTED government! However, we, as our Founding Fathers faced in 1776, have choices to make and actions to take.
Socialistic Government vs. the Individual Citizen
As we struggle with the problems that face our nation today it is obvious that our government is turning away from a tried and true process that has served our nation well for over 233 years. That process for which I speak is the one in which the individual citizen finds the solutions through capital venture or in other terms ‘Free Market Capitalism.’ Our government leadership is throwing caution to the wind and dancing down the road of Socialism which will be the death of the INDIVIDUAL as we know it today. The freedoms and liberties as defined by our country since 1776 will cease to exist and the American Dream will end. If we as a nation sit by and allow our system of government to morph into one monolithic socialist system where business, commerce, and the actions of its citizenry are dictated by the government, then the engines which have driven our country through two centuries will grind to a screeching halt. If our economic basis becomes controlled by the government, how much longer will it be before all aspects of our daily lives will fall under the influence of a selected few in government; at which point, FREEDOM WILL DIE?
Since we have seen the financial institutions, mortgage lending houses, auto industry, and both State and Local governments accept bailouts and stimulus package funds, we can see them all falling under the thumb of the Federal Government. The government will now feel free to push its socialistic agenda. The old adage of “if you take my money then you work for me” now SCREAMS from the highest pinnacles of our society.
The many institutions who accepted these bailouts and stimulus funds, along with those Americans who supported both, have prostrated themselves to a succubus—a life and hope draining DEMIGOD known also as the Federal Government. Now that same DEMIGOD desires to convince the individual citizen that this dependence on government is not only the correct action to take, but the only prudent course to take in these troubled times.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”
- Thomas Jefferson
It was not a strong armed government which made this country great in the first place. It was a government which stayed out of the way of the individual citizen and allowed them to either succeed or fail of their own accord. Now, however, we are to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars to save entities who obviously could not mange their own houses, and now they are trusted to somehow better manage the taxpayers’ money—what a contradiction! Of course you must first believe that your country is great to accept my premise that she is GREAT. I do hope that we Americans still believe our country to be GREAT and the INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN is the well spring from which our greatness comes. For this lack of belief in the greatness of our nation by both our government and some of our citizenry is a major factor in why we have willingly strayed onto this path of socialistic thinking. Our Federal Government was never intended by the Constitution to become as large as it is today and it certainly was not intended to be involved in the day-to-day lives of the citizens or the businesses of this nation. Additionally, the federal system was not meant to be so involved in dictating the processes of our local and state governments as it is doing today. These processes were to be up to us—the individual citizen. The States are, per the Constitution, to remain the focus of government for meeting the people’s needs and requirements, yet now it is evident that the Federal Government desires to be the total focus and take this responsibility from our States and subsequently away from YOU THE CITIZEN. If this mindset is allowed to continue then the dissolution of the Union will be inevitable and the
If you believe the venomous mantra of our free press, entertainment and media sources and the leadership in
“[T]he principle - which is quite true in itself – that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily.”
- Adolf Hitler – Mien Kampf
The quote above, from this infamous despot, is indicative of the mindset that has fermented in the halls of Congress, the White House, and throughout the Free Press within our nation. It is praying upon your emotions, it is feeding on your fears; it is convincing you that it must be true since everyone is saying it. We are being told time and time again, a lie, a BIG LIE, which if we allow ourselves to start believing the LIE, we as a nation are being seduced. Seduced no differently than
A government detached from the will of the people, who governs from afar dictating what their citizenry can or cannot do, will or will not do, while doling out at its choosing what it deems you need is not a government at all—it is a TYRANT and a DANGEROUS TYRANT at that! How is allowing your government the right to dictate your basic needs any different from the tyranny that we as a nation experienced before the Revolution from the King and Parliament of England? How is a government which is slowly and methodically nationalizing the major financial institutions and major spheres of labor within our country any more diabolical than the tyrants that swept
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
- Lord Acton, 1887
When we as individual citizens have the freedoms and liberties to risk our earned fortunes and reputations to promote a new idea or refine an existing one, we as a nation and a civilization have all to gain. We should not and cannot allow this sense of adventure and reward be repressed by a government whose misguided intentions will turn a nation of DOERS into a nation of TAKERS.
If government was making the decisions and taxing to death the fortunes of some of our great inventors and entrepreneurs through history, only to redistribute their earnings to those who did not put the same effort forth, where would
If we bow as a people and allow our government to dictate to us, then who in our society will take a risk, who will want to try to become more than they are, who will want to bring forth the next best mouse trap? The answer is no one will, especially if this same government will punish an individual for their success. Eventually our cherished American spirit of freedom and adventure will perish on the limb of the Liberty Tree, never to return.
After World War II our world settled into two camps of thought—free market capitalism and socialist communism. One camp’s people grew exponentially successful as compared to the other camp. One camp’s society brimmed over with the necessities of life and individual fulfillment. The other camp stayed stagnant and stale, it languished under the heel of an overburdening government who tried to convince its populace that the
Our government now speaks of Civilian Security Forces with equal power and abilities as our current military forces. Why would a free society need to have security forces within its own borders? Who or what are we to be protected from that our military forces are not already protecting us from? We are also being told that we need to establish a mandatory volunteer system for our young people, i.e., our children, making it mandatory that they provide service to the community and the
America is at a crossroads, we can chose to follow a path of a socialistic government where the DEMIGOD decides, not the individual, where, what, and how we live or we can stay the course, keep believing in the American Dream, encourage our countrymen to continue to take risk and possibly gain big rewards. We can allow our government to take over our lives, becoming a
“I’ve spoken of the Shining City all my political life….In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”
- Ronald Reagan
It is the individual citizen who has made our country what it is and still makes it the one country that oppressed people around the world will risk all to come to. It is not the promises of a benevolent government that attracts people to our shores, it is the opportunities afforded them to become more than they could in their homelands. The individual is the engine which makes a free nation a success. Americans have been blessed to have individuals who are willing to risk it all time and time again.
Will this be the age that a dream dies, a dream that all men and women have been dreaming since time immortal or will we as a people stand and in one voice shout from the highest heights; NO WE WILL NOT ALLOW THIS DREAM TO DIE, WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE LIGHTS TO GO OUT IN OUR SHINING CITY?
I ask the question, will we allow our great nation to fall upon the ash heap of history because of the misguided views of a minority thought?
It is up to YOU, it is up to ME, it is up to US and only US!
Patriot or Seditionist
I have heard from many that speaking as such in this document makes me a seditionist and anti-American, that it is not patriotic to speak out against your government in such a way as to put reasonable doubt in the minds of your countrymen. It is spoken with hushed words that they can take you away for what you are saying. Countrymen, is this not testimony enough that reasonable doubt in the viability or eligibility of our elected leadership in
Rather I say that if you have the courage, shout out the wrongs that you see in your nation’s government. If you stand and shout out then you stand in good company; you stand on the same footing as our Patriot Fathers long ago. Did John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Patrick Henry, or Thomas Paine shrink from the task of calling out the King of England before and during our American Revolution? NO, they did not; they did not become “sunshine soldiers” in the cause of
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
- Edmund Burke
Yes, what our nation is experiencing is nothing short of evil, an evil against our Liberties and Freedoms. When your government bankrupts your economic system and imposes upon its citizenry a system for which that same citizenry is diametrically opposed, then that my fellow countrymen is nothing short of EVIL. So I say yes, to speaking out against those who desire to transform our country into any type of welfare nanny state at the cost of our children, their children, and generations to come. You are not patriotic if you stand silently by and do not speak out. If our forefathers would have shrunk from the duty at hand during their times we today would not be here to enjoy this great nation nor would our country have become the beacon of
So I stand before my fellow countrymen shouting as a Patriot of Old, STOP THIS MADNESS! Stop spending the fortunes of our nation and its people for the sole purpose of securing power and influence. We do not desire to be socialist like
“If ye Love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams
The sentiments of Sam Adams speak across the void of time to ring in the ears of anyone who will take the time and effort to listen. No, my friends I do not believe that we have reached the point that a call to arms is necessary, as
However my fellow countrymen, you must stand guard as the Minuteman of yesteryear and be ready. You may, as our Revolutionary Fathers experienced, be forced to fight, though not to secure
Let us first try to take back our government in the manner for which our Constitution was designed, at the BALLOT BOX.
Yes,
Course of Action
Now is the time to set out ideas for our course of action as a people. It is clear that those elected to power today are incapable of providing an escape plan from our current tribulations and we must then take the reigns to save our nation from certain peril. If we do not elicit our beliefs into an immediate, meaningful course of action, WE will not sustain, we will NOT succeed.
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
– Alexander Hamilton
The course of action is now in the hands of the people—a people who truly deserve and desire the country which our Founders risked their lives to establish and uphold. We now have to be willing to put our ‘money where our mouth is’ and stand up and shout for what we believe in. The propaganda poured out by this current administration and the media states that the November 4, 2008 election was a ‘mandate for change.’ The indoctrination of the masses did not allow for this to truly be as it is implied. Change would have been once again finding our roots and reverting back to our principles as a nation. Checks and balances of each branch of government would have been a welcomed ‘mandate for change’; instead, we see an increase in their federal powers. States would have demanded that their rights protected within the Constitution be once again restored—let them control education, not the bureaucrats and those in their pockets. A true ‘mandate for change’ would be a welcoming back to the days of controlled spending and laissez-faire economics. Pork barreling would be a thing of the past. Future generations would not be forced to clean up an ‘inherited’ mess. That is the ‘mandate for change’ we are now tasked to fulfill.
This will not be an easy task. The severe indoctrination of the masses by the government and their fellow propagandists- the mass media and our public education system- have given us a very daunting charge. But we must be willing to sacrifice as our Founding Fathers did for what we believe in. The Pursuit of Happiness is being strangled by the current conditions of our times. Our government is the muscle constricting it to the point of unconsciousness. We cannot, no, we must not allow for this to come to absolute fruition!
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
-Declaration of
The Declaration of Independence lays out the basis for why we now must take action to stop those in power from destroying our
Following our course of action for 2010, the same will be even more pressing and vital come 2012—the peacefully, democratic removal of Barack Hussein Obama from the position of President of the
We must start today! Mr. Obama has already begun his 2012 re-election campaign only days into his presidency. His goal for this nation to become a socialist, DEMIGOD state can be summed up in two very sinister, laden words: FINAL SOLUTION. The ends outweigh the means for this president. Fulfilling a ‘socialist manifesto’ within the bounds of the American state is his one, true purpose. He will stop at nothing to succeed. The trillion dollar budgets and billion dollar stimulus plans are no more than a full-out, methodical commencement down this catastrophic path. He has enlisted around him those who share wholly in this diabolical aim for our nation. They use fear tactics and current economic turmoil to gain popularity and support. This has been seen in past history many times, and it has failed. The man surrounding the aforementioned FINAL SOLUTION was the ultimate failure in his ambition and goal for the state of
A real ‘mandate for change’ is our course of action—using our strength at the ballots in November! We must take back our country! We must demand the end to deficit spending, earmarks, and government supremacy! We must demand that socialism not prevail in our capitalist society! We must, with our voices and our votes, save our nation—the land of the free, because of the brave! We must stand up for our beliefs and not allow ourselves to be silenced or intimidated by those who seek to shut us down! We must be the brave!
I pose one final question to you my fellow countrymen and I will leave you to contemplate the words of this pamphlet and the wisdom of our Founding Fathers…
Will you be the instrument used to preserve our Liberties and Freedoms, or the instrument which stands by unstrung and silent while Life,
The time is ours and the time is now!
(Following is a collection of quotes form our Founding Fathers. Some are prophetic in nature when reading them in context to our nation’s troubles today)
Thoughts of our Founding Fathers
History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy.
- Benjamin Franklin, 1774
They that can give up essential
- Benjamin Franklin, 1798
A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice a bad government.
- Alexander Hamilton, 1798
If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.
- Alexander Hamilton, 1788
The fabric of American Empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from the pure original fountain of all legitimate authority.
- Alexander Hamilton, 1787
A people…who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.
- George Washington, 1784
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
- George Washington, 1784
A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1823
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Excessive taxation…will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1798
But a Constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored.
- John Adams, 1775
They define a Republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.
- John Adams, 1775
A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.
- John Adams, 1792
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
- Thomas Paine, 1777
I know no way of judging the future but by the past.
- Patrick Henry, 1775
United we stand, divided we fall, Let us not split into factions which must destroy that which our existence hangs.
- Patrick Henry, 1799
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain government – lest it comes to dominate our lives and interests.
- Patrick Henry, 1799
If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true Republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honor of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.
- Samuel Adams, 1780
No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road providence has pointed us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass.
- George Washington, 1788
Please fell free to reprint this pamphlet and distribute it as needed to help spread the word to all you care to unite in this cause to save our
If you would like to have a copy of this pamphlet, please contact Jim at jfauzey1@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your support!
Excellent, excellent, excellent!
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