| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
12 Jan 2004 01:21:09 PM |
| Object: |
Founder's Religious quote 12 |
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Edited by Paul Leicester Ford, 1895 - ten
vols. Vol. V, p. 75. THOMAS JEFFERSON
to Francis Hopkinson
Paris, March 13, 1789.
Dear Sir, -- You say that I have been dished up to you as an
anti-federalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never worthy
enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will tell it you.
I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my
opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in
philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of
thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free
and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not
go there at all. . . .
What I disapproved from the first moment also was the
want of a bill of rights to guard liberty against the legislative as
well as executive branches of the government, that is to say to
secure freedom in religion, freedom of the press, freedom from
monopolies, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, freedom from
a permanent military, and a trial by jury in all cases determinable
by the law of the land. . .
Th: Jefferson
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This miht be taken into consideration for those the think in terms of
Congress only:
"What I disapproved from the first moment also was the
want of a bill of rights to guard liberty against the legislative as
well as executive branches of the government, . . "
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: Founder's quote for Monday |
12 Jan 2004 01:26:38 PM |
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Today's Founder Quote, ripped from context and posted on
www.federalist.com
"In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."
--George Washington
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/farewell/transcript.html
has context of the Farewell address of Washington.
-------------excerpt--------------
Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength & security, cherish public credit.
One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible:
avoiding occasions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering also
that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much
greater disbursements to repel it--avoiding likewise the accumulation of
debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vigorous exertions
in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have
occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we
ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your
Representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate.
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: Founder's Quote for January 19 |
19 Jan 2004 12:35:29 PM |
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Today's Founder Quote, ripped from context, comes to us courtesy of
www.federalist.com
"The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and
for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the
power to which the care of it is committed."
--Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some context:
The principal purposes to be answered by union are these -- the common
defense of the members; the preservation of the public peace as well
against internal convulsions as external attacks; the regulation of
commerce with other nations and between the States; the superintendence of
our intercourse, political and commercial, with foreign countries.
The authorities essential to the common defense are these: to raise
armies; to build and equip fleets; to prescribe rules for the government
of both; to direct their operations; to provide for their support. These
powers ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to
foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the
correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to
satisfy them. The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are
infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be
imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed. This power
ought to be coextensive with all the possible combinations of such
circumstances; and ought to be under the direction of the same councils
which are appointed to preside over the common defense.
This is one of those truths which, to a correct and unprejudiced mind,
carries its own evidence along with it; and may be obscured, but cannot be
made plainer by argument or reasoning. It rests upon axioms as simple as
they are universal; the means ought to be proportioned to the end; the
persons, from whose agency the attainment of any end is expected, ought to
possess the means by which it is to be attained.
More context here:
http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa23.htm
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: Founder's Quote for January 20 |
20 Jan 2004 11:50:05 PM |
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Today's Founder Quote inappropriately cited and ripped from context by
www.federalist.com , which attributes it to Muhlenberg, but this is
apparently not true.
"There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but
those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has
now come."
--Peter Muhlenberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://snipurl.com/3yks says:
AUTHOR: John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-1807)
QUOTATION: There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to
pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that
time has now come.
ATTRIBUTION: PETER MUHLENBERG. The precise text of this Lutheran
clergyman's sermon in Woodstock, Virginia, in January 1776, does not
exist. The quotation above is from Edward W. Hocker, The Fighting Parson
of the American Revolution, p. 61 (1936).
Muhlenberg served in Congress 1789-1791, 1793-1795, and 1799-1801.
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