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2010 December 24
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"The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." |
"And Jesus went into the temple of God,
and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple,
and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,
and the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, 'It is written,
My house shall be called the house of prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves.'" |
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." |
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2010 December 23
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"All the public business in Congress
now connects itself with intrigues, and
there is great danger that the whole government
will degenerate into a struggle of cabals." |
"A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law." |
"By the power to lay and collect imposts Congress may impose duties on any or every article of commerce imported into these states to what amount they please. By the power to lay excises, a power very odious in its nature, since it authorizes officers to examine into your private concerns, the Congress may impose duties on every article of use or consumption: On the food that we eat, on the liquors we drink, on the clothes that we wear, the glass which enlighten our houses, or the hearths necessary for our warmth and comfort. By the power to lay and collect taxes, they may proceed to direct taxation on every individual either by a capitation tax on their heads or an assessment on their property. By this part of the section, therefore, the government has a power to tax to what amount they choose and thus to sluice the people at every vein as long as they have a drop of blood left." |
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2010 December 22
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"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.
Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.
Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined....
O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants,
it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" |
"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny." |
"Parties are... censors of the conduct of each other, and useful watchmen for the public.
Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise, depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves.
Call them, therefore,... Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object." |
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2010 December 21
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"Any one of the strange laws we suffer is a
compromise between a fad and a vested interest." |
"With respect to the words general welfare,
I have always regarded them as qualified
by the detail of powers connected with them.
To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be
a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which
there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." |
"The power of the legislative being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws, and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands." |
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2010 December 20
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"I never liked the atmosphere of Washington.
I early saw that it was impossible to build up a race
of which the leaders were spending most of their time,
thought and energy in trying to get into office, or
in trying to stay there after they were in." |
"We now have so many regulations that
everyone is guilty of some violation." |
"Considering the natural lust for power so inherent in man,
I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people." |
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