"Liberty has never come from the government.
Liberty has always come from the subjects of government.
The history of liberty is the history of resistance.
The history of liberty is a history
of the limitation of governmental power,
not the increase of it."
by:
Woodrow Wilson
(1856-1924) 28th US President
Date:
Speech, 1912
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10 stars if it were possible, ahhh that the understanding and application of such was reality.
 -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    I have mixed feelings about this one - I'll take honorable liberty from any quarter, though I do agree with the last statement.
     -- Robert, Sarasota     
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    HERE HERE!!!!
     -- Bob, Eugene OR.     
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    It's ironic this came from Woodrow Wilson, champion of the income tax and banana republics. If only he had practiced what he preached.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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     -- J Carlton, Calgary      
    Tell this to the French, Iraq'is, Afghans, and American slaves during the Civil War, all of whom were liberated by government soldiers. Don't tell it to me who was born in an America liberated by The Continental Congress and its rag tag government army led by Geo Washington. The world is full of images of cheering throngs who welcomed relief from the government against tyranny. Woodrow is being a little shallow here and non-thinking. I understand the other point of view that government is always the problem but that is a shallow and unthinking point of view. PS: Tell it to the Southern black children who were able to go to school in freedom and liberty thanks to the government.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    Completely on your own planet aren't you Waff?
     -- J Carlton, Calgary     
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    What hypocrisy from the govcrim who gave us WWI, a Federal Income Tax/IRS, the Federal Reserve banksters, etc., Great quote though we are going the other way.
     -- libertyjack, anywhere, uSA     
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    Waff, tell the Jews in Nazi Germany, the millions in Stalins slave labor camps, the thousands in Fidels prisons, the people in Rawanda being slaughtered, the millions starving to death in N Korea, etc, tell them about freedom and liberty thanks to the government. Our Bill of Rights was designed to protect us against the excesses of government, which are legend.
     -- jim k, austin     
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     -- Brethrenunited      
    Waffler, just a quick couple of questions. Did the French, Iraqis, Afghans, and American slaves have inalienable rights that were being oppressed by a government before military intervention by a foreign power? What is the source of freedom and liberty? Is liberty endowed by our Creator or, is liberty what the majority with the biggest guns says it is?
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    It's true that when a people create a government above them they are asking it to govern them wisely and with justice. And then the inevitable happens. The government, because of it's existence as a tool of control is infiltrated by those who don't care for anyone but themselves and their cronies. History repeats itself again and again and again and..... Will the cycle ever be broken? Our forefathers broke it in grand style with the means to keep it broken. The cycle began again and America jumped on the bandwagon with nary a thought but the wealth they could get from the system. Now we are paying for our greed. Either mankind will break the cycle for good this time or die trying because this time the whole world is at stake because of its interdependancy through the world economic system. Not just a portion of it or the "known" world. This is a unique situation with technology not had in the past. The possible ramifications of it are not known to us so it won't be the average despotism. New techniques of slavery will bring the art of enslavement to levels we can only imagine until the reality of them take effect. Won't that be exciting Waff? Just what you've been wanting for America.
     -- Anon     
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    Mike we think it is endowed by our creator and thus we enforce it. As no one has ever been to heaven and returned we have no direct knowledge of heaven or of inalienable rights creation. It is a construction and a good construction. I love it. If you cannot answer your simplistic questions you have a real thinking problem and know nothing of histroy.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    Waffler, the simplistic question was for a simpleton that cannot follow the concept through to fruition. I have answered the question and didn't need to go to heaven to observe the cause and effects of history. I understand Natural Law and rights as they pertain to life, liberty and property. I understand the need for a limited representative republic defined by a hard and fast Constitution in maintaining individual rights. If rights are inalienably endowed from a Creator (a faculty of birth) then they cannot be altered or eliminated by a collective or democracy's majority. More than just the Judeo-Christian experience, most religions expound on inalienable rights apart from the/their political application's denial thereof. I was just wondering how your split personality (-;duality of mental totalitarianism;-) justified inalienable rights with the majority's right to doll out its prejudice and despotism (calling them rights) as circumstance necessitates.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Waffler, I'm still laughing at your heaven story. You evidently have to do a one on one - face to face with the Sovereign of the Universe to even get a glimpse of what most on this blog see in day to day life. hmm
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Anon you stated your analytical problem of perception in your very first sentence and a problem that many like Mike and others seem to have. You stated, "when people create a government above them". This has never happened in the USA, the government is not above us. the government is US. Do you vote for city, state, and national legislators and executives or don't you? If you do whoever wins is of by and for the people. Bitch all you want but you have had your say. Now if you do not like representative democracy which it appears that you don't thus I assume that you would like a more direct democracy where you could vote on any issue before the public. I would accept that with some reservations. Many on this site would prefer a government of Natural Law dictated by I know not whom.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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     -- T Edwards, Houston      
    It is amazingly ironic that this GREAT quote came from a liberal demonrat. (misspelling intentional)
     -- Ken, Williams Bay, WI.     
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    Waffler, regarding your last comment, yeah . . . you seem to forget that is who has enslaved them in the first place. Oh yes, and I am a veteran, so you can save the propoganda speech. Thx.
     -- Jennifer Huber, Buffalo, NY     
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    Waffler FYI, Voting, in and of itself does not make a body politic that represents individual sovereign's inalienable rights. Concerning the occupying statist theocracy infesting this land, A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years (Lysander Spooner). In large part, voting in the current statist theocracy empowers larceny by entitlement or, as explained by Ambrose Bierce: An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods. The only people created government that is above the creator is a form of democracy - and, that is unconstitutional. A body politic organized for the administration of natural law is not dictated by anyone. A democracy through dictate of mob rule claims ability to create law with a right to enforce its tyranny. A representative republic with administrations limited to life, liberty and property recognizes the natural law that already exists and We The People decide on how best to order the execution of inalienable rights.

    Liberty is: The power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. (Bouviers Law Dictionary) Liberty: exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons. Liberty is the right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men. (Blacks Law Dictionary 1st ed.) Liberty: "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." (Thomas Jefferson) SO! ! by definition, Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Miss-direction, Wilson preferring England's parliamentary system, voicing that the United States Constitution being cumbersome. A good disciple of Walter Bagehot from England, " Stuckey's Banking Company." Favored removing charity from private to governmental control. Laying the ground work for the current welfare state ! A socialist, a socialist a socialist. A treasonous dog, knowing the power of the presidency would only be limited by the individual holding the office. The quote is of a truth, spoken by a double tongued snake !!! Not one star for the worthless man who would be a little "g" god. The smell of Waffler's ignorance enters the room, prior to the opening of his democratic socialistic idiotic treasonous mouth !
     -- Ronw13, Yachats OR     
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    Waffler is so full of #$%^&, you could smell him if he were sitting on the moon !
     -- Ronw13, Yachats OR     
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    Well, DUH !! The "history" of government ( are there any of which this is not true ? ) is restriction; rules and regulations. If there were none, there'd be no reason for government and it would fail.
     -- Bobble, No. Ferrisburgh, VT     
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    Great words ... Sadly they ring hollow coming from the Big Brother Government Woodrow Wilson and the unholy era of 1913 that visited upon us all the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Income Tax ... as well as U.S. Senators elected by the people instead of as formerly appointed by each states representatives.
     -- Mary - MI     
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    Wasn't Wilson the one that created the Federal Reserve banking system and thereby enslaved is all?
     -- Marc, West Newfield, Maine     
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    This is what gets progressive liberals elected.  Once in office they then do exactly what they warned the opposition would do.  1913 was a bad year for the world, in no small thanks to Wilson and his ushering in central banking upon the Western world.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Waffler, after reading my comments below, then consider, a democratic process is not the same as a democracy. By example: once an individual is elected (democratic process) what are they elected to, and to do? If the government be a democracy; the elected was not selected as a right of a sovereign's choice but rather, a chattel slave's difference to masters to lord over the democracy god's carnal beasts. If the elected was chosen to serve in a representative republic (democratic process), the servant solely represents the the rights and liberty at "the laws of nature and of nature's God" (Declaration of Independence) of the individual sovereign(s) (not the individual himself). A democracy lords over its collective chattel while a representative republic serves its master's inalienable rights, liberty at natural law. A democracy makes laws. A representative republic uses tools such as codes, ordinances, regulations, rules, statutes, etc. to order administration of such laws that already exist.

     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Well said, Mike.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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