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February 02, 2008 11:16 PM UTC

Remembering the "Big-Picture"

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Haners

Given the heated exchanges between some Rayburn supporters and myself over the last day and a half, I offer this collection of quotes that Mark Levin shared on his radio show a couple nights ago.  Though we may disagree on candidates, hopefully we can remember what keeps us under the same tent.

Enjoy!

“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]  

Comments

25 thoughts on “Remembering the “Big-Picture”

  1. I like the whole list, but my favorites are:

    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

    And…

    ” 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

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

    — Thomas Jefferson

  2. “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session”

    Ouoted by Will Rogers, it is a classic political phrase that popularly began with a New York court decision in 1866. The phrase has been applied to the legislatures of other states as well.

    Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society. -Benjamin Franklin

    “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” – Barry Goldwater.

    “Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” – Barry Goldwater.

    The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.” – Barry Goldwater.  

  3. reading the Bentley Battle diary.

    William Clayton was a scribe (Secretary) to the Profit Joesph Smith during the Nauvoo period 1840-1844. He wrote the 132nd section of your doctrine & covenants as dictated by JS. He attended the sealing of his friend “Roxie” in 1843.  Her friends called her Roxie, you know her as Elisa R. Snow.

    After the profits death, he was with Brigham Young in the first company to cross the ice covered Mississippi river and start the trek for the west. He invented the first crude odometer fixed to the wheel of his wagon to measure the distance.

    Assigned to write a guide and road map for future parties of saints to follow, he wrote “The immigrants guide” a book so valuable in its day it is said that those that used it on the trek to SLC would not have taken $50.00 to part with it before safely in Zion.

    A copy of the guide is in the reference section at the main pikes peak library.

    He played in a band and their performances in the towns the saints traveled through helped make friends and earn supplies and money for the travelers with the non Mormon residents of the towns they traveled through.

    His 16 year old wife Diantha was pregnant and too far along to go with him and his extended family.  She remained back in Nauvoo with her parents to travel at a later time.  

    About 3 weeks after leaving Nauvoo with the first wagon train, a rider came in to the camp with news from Nauvoo. He was the father of a healthy baby boy. He celebrated with his friends around the camp fire that night. The next morning as he watched the wagon train pack up to move west again, he wrote a poem, Called All is well.  You know it as the LDS hymn Come Come Ye Saints.

    The thing that always strikes me about that song is that when it was written, not a single LDS person had every seen the Salt Lake Valley.

    They were only 3 weeks into the trip.  Winter Quarters and “this is the place” were months, many months ahead.

    Every time I hear that song, I think of that new father, full of faith, dreaming of the place he could raise his family, far away where none shall come or make afraid.

    It is a moving inspiring song that was sung by many tired pioneers that needed to “Fresh courage take” along the Mormon trail.

    So yes, I do know a little bit of LDS history.  Not an expert by any means.

      1. as I re-read this, that you are LDS and probably know all this and much more.  I didn’t mean to be presumptuous.

        You asked why I was drawn to him or what I liked about WC.

        Well, first that he left a day by day account (diary) that gives a peek into 1840-50’s life in his community.  It helps to understand LDS , Missouri and Illinois history with the Mormon’s to see his perspective on all this.

        Clayton is an unsung little known average guy hero of Americas pioneer period.

        He is a favorite Mormon prophet from his time period. I know, he is not a prophet, in the called by God, official church prophet sense.

        But he is in the dictionary sense of prophet. …”one gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight;

        especially : an inspired poet” or ” one who foretells future events”

        Whether you are a member of the LDS church or just a student of history, If you know Clayton’s story, and happen to be in SLC on Temple square on a warm summer night when the doors to the Tabernacle are open and the voices of the Choir are echoing off the tall buildings, its hard not to think of his profound prophecy’s.

        Speaking of the destination of his party that we now know as the SL valley, he said:

        (Confidently)We’ll find the place (were we can live in peace)(If we die trying, we did all that was expected of us, happy day)(But if, when, we succeed)

        “We’ll make the air with music ring”

        ” Oh how we’ll make this chorus swell, All is well All is Well”  

        At the time he penned these words, the saints were thought to be a defeated group of less than a few thousand soon to be scattered to the fringes of history.  But that chorus has “swelled” to over 15 million members in well over 100 countries.

        I know that Clayton himself had only a very little to do with it, he was just a foot soldier in the Mormon story.

        But I was on Temple Sq on such an evening taking a visitors tour with my family when it hit me that this obscure man who’s diary I had read in his own penmanship years before, his prophecy had in fact come true.

        You kind of never forget little moments like that.

        1. I really appreciate you sharing that, I really do.

          Even though I’m a member, you taught me something today-for one I never knew that that song was penned before WC got to the Salt Lake Valley.

          I don’t think I’ll ever forget the experience you shared.  It’s changed the meaning of that hymn for me.

  4. Is all of the people quoted:

    1) Lived over 200 years ago discussing a much smaller country with very localized economies.

    2) Were guessing as they had just created the first democracy in over 1,000 years. Most of them figured that the odds of the U.S. being successful were well under 50%.

    3) With the exception of Thomas Paine, every person quoted was a member of the top of the power structure. Life tended to be better for them than the average person.

    Not to say there’s not a lot of wisdom in the above, it’s just that when someone looks only to the wisdom of 200 years ago, they are way too mired in the past to address the problems of today.

    1. Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society. -Benjamin Franklin

      1. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

        And I still claim that on some things they got it wrong.

        “One single object. . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.”

        And yet the supreme court with it’s ability to find laws unconstitutional, while not always getting it right, has tended to protect our constitutional right from legislation that would abrogate them.

        1. Look at history.  The 3/5 compromise was there for a reason.  Does it make it right?  Not really-but it was a necessary evil at the time.  

          Take a look at constitutional history and it’ll make sense.

          1. I’m just saying that we should not take statements from the founding fathers as gospel that is always correct even now 200 years later in a very different world.

            One of the biggest things they missed, understandably so, was corporations that not only spanned all states, but spanned the globe. Big difference in where the federal government needs to stick it’s nose in.

            1. In fact, I can’t think of one that’s not.  That’s not to say that the government needs to be run in the exact way that it was in it’s early days, but the fact that government can be intrusive, that we can help each other better than government could ever help us, that we maintain peace through strength, and that liberty should be the foundation of our country hold as true today as it ever did.

              Some of them actually sound like they could have been written in our time.  For instance, the poor among us today are a lot less poor than those who exsisted in the times of these quotes, however the push to make people easy in poverty as opposed to helping them escape it sounds right in line with our time.

              I offered these statements as they were originally presented to me: a macro explaination of what drives conservativism.

              Just out of curiousity and were there any that you liked?

              1. and most of them a lot. I just don’t find them all perfect.

                I do think it’s the job of government to try and provide decent opportunity for all – but that does mean as you said enabling people to work their way out of poverty, not to make it comfortable.

  5. because I like Haners and he’s innocent where this is concerned. But most of the rest of you cons have it coming…

    Kum-by-ya, lord, Kum-by-ya….

    Love,

    Aristotle

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