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"Common
Ground"
The American
Vision
American Leaders
Comments on Liberty,
Power, Conquest, and Dissent
George
Washington
"Freedom , not
safety , is the highest good."
"Overgrown
military
establishments are under any
form
of government inauspicious to
liberty, and are to be regarded
as
particularly hostile to
republican liberty."
John Adams
"Liberty
can
not be preserved without a general
knowledge among the
people."
Thomas Jefferson
"Experience
hath
shewn, that even under
the best forms of
government
those entrusted with
power have, in time, and
by slow operations,
perverted it into
tyranny."
"I would
rather be exposed to the inconveniences
attending too much
liberty than those attending too small a
degree of it."
"An elective
despotism was not the government
we fought for, but one which should not only
be founded on true free
principles, but in which the powers of
government should be so divided
and balanced among general bodies of
magistracy, as that no one could
transcend their legal limits without being
effectually checked and
restrained by the others." - Notes
on
Virginia Q. XIII, 1782
“What
country
can preserve its liberties if its
rulers are not warned from time to
time that their people preserve the
spirit of resistance?”
"Conquest
is
not in our
principles. It
is inconsistent
with our
government."
"I abhor
war
and view it as
the greatest
scourge of
mankind."
"It
behoves
every man who values liberty of conscience
for himself, to
resist invasions of it in the case of
others: or their case may, by
change of circumstances, become his own. "
"It is more
dangerous that even
a guilty person
should be punished
without the forms of
law than that he
should escape."
"Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty."
"All
tyranny
needs to gain a foothold is for
people of good conscience
to remain silent."
"Educate and inform the whole mass
of the people... They are the only
sure reliance for the preservation
of our liberty."
"For here we are not afraid to
follow truth wherever it may lead."
"Great innovations should not be
forced on slender majorities."
"Honesty is the first chapter in the
book of wisdom."
"I was
bold in
the pursuit of knowledge, never
fearing to follow truth
and reason to whatever results
they led, and bearding every
authority
which stood in their way."
"Resort is had to ridicule only
when reason is against us."
"Dissent
is
the highest form of patriotism."
"The
essential
principles of our
Government... form the bright
constellation which has gone
before us
and guided our steps through an
age of revolution and
reformation. The
wisdom of our sages and blood of
our heroes have been devoted to
their
attainment. They should be the
creed of our political faith,
the text
of civic instruction, the
touchstone by which to try the
services of
those we trust; and should we
wander from them in moments of
error or
of alarm, let us hasten to
retrace our steps and to regain
the road
which alone leads to peace,
liberty and safety." --1st
Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1801
primary
author, Declaration
of Independence
James Madison
Madison
contributed to the Virginia
Bill of
Rights , along with John Jay
and Alexander Hamilton was an
author of The
Federalist
Papers, is widely regarded as the
father of the U.S.
Constitution, and worked for the
passage of the Bill
of
Rights .
"All men
having power ought to be mistrusted."
"No
nation
could preserve its freedom in
the midst of continual warfare."
"If
Tyranny
and Oppression come to this land, it will be
in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy."
"Knowledge
will
forever govern ignorance; and a
people who mean to be
their own governors must arm
themselves with the power which
knowledge
gives."
"It is a
universal truth that the loss of liberty at
home is to be
charged to the provisions against danger,
real or pretended, from
abroad."
"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war
is perhaps the most to be
dreaded, because it comprises and develops
the germ of every other."
"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge
is the only guardian of
true
liberty."
"The executive
has no right, in any case, to decide the
question,
whether there is or is not cause for
declaring war."
"The essence of Government is power; and
power, lodged as it must be in
human hands, will ever be liable to
abuse."
"The means of defense against foreign
danger historically have become
the instruments of tyranny at home."
"We are right to take alarm at the first
experiment upon our liberties."
John Quincy Adams
"But (America) goes not abroad, in search of
monsters to destroy.
She is the
well-wisher to the freedom and
independence of all.
She is the
champion and vindicator only of
her own.
She will
commend the general cause by the
countenance of her voice, and the benignant
sympathy of her example.
She well
knows that by once enlisting under
other banners than her own, were they even the
banners of foreign
independence, she would involve herself beyond
the power of
extrication, in all the wars of interest and
intrigue, of individual
avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the
colors and usurp the
standard of freedom.
The
fundamental maxims of her policy would
insensibly change from liberty to force....
She might
become the dictatress of the world.
She would be no longer the ruler of her own
spirit...."
Excerpted from the
speech given by John Quincy Adams to the U.
S. House of
Representatives, July 4, 1821, in
celebration of American Independence
Day. This speech is sometimes referred
to as the "Monsters
to
Destroy" speech. In 1821, John
Quincy Adams was serving as
Secretary of State, and between 1825-1829
served as the 6th President
of the United States.
Benjamin Franklin
"Those who
would give up essential liberty to
purchase a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty
nor safety."
Thomas Paine
"When men
yield up the privilege of thinking,
the last shadow of liberty
quits the horizon."
On Torture:
"They
may
introduce the practice of
France, Spain, and Germany--of
torturing, to extort a confession of
the crime. They will say that they
might as well draw examples from
those countries as from Great
Britain,
and they will tell you that there is
such a necessity of strengthening
the arm of government, that they
must have a criminal equity, and
extort confession by torture, in
order to punish with still more
relentless severity. We are then
lost and undone ..."
Debate
in
the Virginia Ratifying Convention,
June 16, 1788
Common
Sense, 1776
The
Rights of
Man, 1791-1792
Theodore
Roosevelt
"To announce
that there should be no
criticism of the president, or that we are
to stand by the president,
right or wrong, it is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally
treasonable to the American people" -
"Roosevelt in the Kansas
City
Star", 149, May 7, 1918
"No man is
above the law and no man is below it; nor do
we ask any man's
permission when we require him to obey
it.""Obedience to the law is
demanded as a right; not asked as a favor."
Third Annual Message to Congress, December
7, 1903
Harry S. Truman
"Once
a
government is committed to the principle of silencing
the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down
the path of
increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a
source of terror
to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone
lives in
fear."
General
Douglas Macarthur
"The object
and practice of liberty lies in the
limitation of
governmental power."
Dwight
Eisenhower
"We know that
freedom cannot be served by the devices of the
tyrant. As it is an
ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into
existence, so it
is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored
into existence. And
any who act as if freedom's defenses are to found in
suppression and
suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien
to America."
“The problem in defense is how far you can go
without destroying from
within what you are trying to defend from without.”
“There is no way in which a country can satisfy the
craving for
absolute security, but it can bankrupt itself
morally and economically
in attempting to reach that illusory goal through
arms alone.”
“If all that Americans want is security, they can go
to prison. They'll
have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their
heads”-- as president
of Colombia University, 12/8/49
“A preventive war, to my mind, is an impossibility.
I don’t believe
there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn’t even
listen to anyone
seriously that came in and talked about such a
thing.”-- Press
conference in 1954
“When it comes to the matter of war, there is only
one place that I
would go, and that is to the Congress of the United
States.” --January
1956 [A few months later, he explained]”I am not
going to order any
troops into anything that can be interpreted as war,
until Congress
directs it.”
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can,
only as one who has
seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
“The total
influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is
felt in
every city, every statehouse, every office of the
federal
government……..The potential for the disastrous rise
of misplaced power
exists and will persist. We must never let the
weight of this
combination endanger our liberties or democratic
processes. We should
take nothing for granted. Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry can
compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and
military machinery
of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so
that security and
liberty may prosper together.”
General
Omar Bradley
"Ours
is
a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we
continue to
develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our
servant may
prove to be our executioner."
John
F.
Kennedy
"Without
debate, without criticism, no
administration and no country can
succeed
-- and no republic can survive."
Sen. J. William Fulbright
"We must
dare
to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We
must learn to explore all the
options and possibilities that
confront us in a complex and rapidly
changing world. We must learn to
welcome and not to fear the voices
of
dissent. We must dare to think about
'unthinkable things' because when
things become unthinkable, thinking
stops and action becomes mindless."
Justice William O. Douglas
"Restriction
of
free thought and free speech
is the most dangerous of all
subversions. It is the one
un-American act
that could most easily defeat
us."
Judge
Gideon
J. Tucker
"No
man's
life, liberty or property
are safe
while the legislature is in
session."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"Experience
should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty
when the government's purposes are beneficent.
"
American
Leaders on Dissent
"Dissent
is
the highest form of
patriotism."
-
Thomas Jefferson
"To announce that
there should be no
criticism of the president, or that we are
to stand by the president,
right or wrong, it is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally
treasonable to the American people"
- Theodore
Roosevelt, in the Kansas
City
Star", 149, May 7, 1918
"Once
a government is committed to
the principle of silencing the
voice of
opposition, it has only one
way to go, and that is down
the path of
increasingly repressive
measures, until it becomes a
source of terror
to all its citizens and
creates a country where
everyone lives in
fear."
-
Harry S.
Truman
"We
know that
freedom cannot be served
by the devices of the
tyrant. As it is an
ancient truth that freedom
cannot be legislated into
existence, so it
is no less obvious that
freedom cannot be censored
into existence. And
any who act as if
freedom's defenses are to
found in suppression and
suspicion and fear confess
a doctrine that is alien
to America."
-
Dwight D.
Eisenhower
"Without
debate,
without
criticism, no
administration
and no country
can succeed
-- and no
republic can
survive."
- John
F.
Kennedy
"We must
dare
to think 'unthinkable' thoughts.
We must learn to explore all the
options and possibilities that
confront us in a complex and
rapidly
changing world. We must learn to
welcome and not to fear the voices
of
dissent. We must dare to think
about 'unthinkable things' because
when
things become unthinkable,
thinking stops and action becomes
mindless."
-
Sen.
J. William Fulbright
"Restriction
of
free thought
and free
speech
is the most
dangerous of
all
subversions.
It is the one
un-American
act
that could
most easily
defeat
us."
-
U.S.
Supreme Court
Justice
William O.
Douglas
American
Leaders on Executive Power
"The executive
has no right, in any case, to decide the
question,
whether there is or is not cause for
declaring war."
- James
Madison
“When it
comes
to the matter of war, there is only
one place that I
would go, and that is to the
Congress of the United States.”
- Dwight
D. Eisenhower, January
1956
"An
elective
despotism was not the
government
we fought for, but one
which should not only be
founded on true free
principles, but in which
the powers of government
should be so divided
and balanced among
general bodies of
magistracy, as that no
one could
transcend their legal
limits without being
effectually checked and
restrained by the
others."
" Experience
hath
shewn, that
even under the
best forms of
government
those
entrusted with
power have, in
time, and by
slow
operations,
perverted it
into tyranny."
-
Thomas
Jefferson
"All
men
having power
ought to be
mistrusted."
- James
Madison
“What
country
can preserve
its liberties
if its rulers
are not warned
from time to
time that
their people
preserve the
spirit of
resistance?”
-
Thomas
Jefferson
[America
is]
".... a nation of laws, not of men"
- John Adams
"No
man is above the law and no man is below it;
nor do we ask any man's
permission when we require him to obey
it.""Obedience to the law is
demanded as a right; not asked as a favor."
- Theodore
Roosevelt, Third Annual Message to
Congress, December 7, 1903
"To announce
that there should be no
criticism of the president, or
that we are to stand by the
president,
right or wrong, it is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is
morally
treasonable to the American
people"
The
legal
principle that no man, not even the King, is above the
law was
established with the signing of the Magna
Carta in 1215 at Runnymeade. the signing of
the Magna Carta
established principles that were reflected in the
American Revolution,
in the declaration of Independence, the U.S.
Constitution, and the Bill
of Rights. Winston Churchill said of the Magna
Carta in 1956,
"...here is a law which is above the King and which even
he must not
break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its
expression in a
general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and
this alone
justifies the respect in which men have held it."
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