Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Because of the primary elections, I’ve been talking about politics with friends and acquaintances more than usual. I’ve explained to a number of people that I believe in the liberty of individuals predominant over all other considerations, I believe in Federalism and, by necessary consequence, our Constitutional Republic as established by our founders. Despite what others may assert, I define this belief as conservatism, in the sense that government power, in this case Federal power, should be used sparingly.

I’m posting this for two reasons. One is to record these quotes for my future use. Second, the people who established our republic are the foremost authorities when it comes to their intentions and motivations behind the Constitution and the roles and duties of the Federal government. They should speak for themselves.

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“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“[T]he powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.”
– James Madison, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention [June 6, 1788]

…[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
–James Madison

“…the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.”
– Thomas Jefferson

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
– Benjamin Franklin

“No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous.”
– Benjamin Franklin, Principles of Trade, 1774

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
–Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
– Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”
– John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787

“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
– George Washington, First Annual Message, January 8, 1790

“One single object. . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Livingston, March 25, 1825

“Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
– John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”
– Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1776

“The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia [1782]