"In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man,but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." - Thomas Jefferson "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporarysafety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom ofthe people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than byviolent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison "I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, toomany parasites living on the labor of the industrious." - Thomas Jefferson Letter to William Ludlow, 1824 "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men thegreat difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government tocontrol the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself." - Alexander Hamilton The Federalist; Feb.8, 1788 "No government is respectable which is not just. Without unspottedpurity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, andhonor, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society." - Daniel Webster "I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men maybe trusted to govern themselves without a master." - Thomas Jefferson Letter to David Hartley; 1787 "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,religion and morality are indispensable supports. It is impossible torightly govern the world without God and the Bible." - George Washington "Our ancestors established their system of government on morality andreligious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely beentrusted on any other foundation than religious principle, not anygovernment secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makesmen good Christians, makes them good citizens." - Daniel Webster "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected, inone indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with theprinciples of Christianity." - John Quincy Adams "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this greatnation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not onreligions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoplesof other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom ofworship here." - Patrick Henry "We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon thecapacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and allof us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselvesaccording to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, chief architect of the Constitution "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought toform the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseriesand evil men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression,slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the preceptscontained in the Bible." - Noah Webster "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state ofcivilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson "No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongestreason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as alast resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government." - Thomas Jefferson "The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize congress toprevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens fromkeeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able mayhave a gun." - Patrick Henry "Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage ofbeing armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost everyother nation." - James Madison "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price ofchains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what courseothers may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the peoplealways possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to usethem." - Richard Henry Lee Founding Father "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with humanpassions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, orgallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whalegoes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral andreligious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." - John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798 Address to the military "Delay is preferable to error." - Thomas Jefferson "Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its beststage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one." - Thomas Paine Common Sense; 1776 "Character is much easier kept than recovered." - Thomas Paine The American Crisis, no. 13; 1783 "Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." - William Penn "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whetherAmericans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have anyproperty they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to bepillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchednessfrom which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millionswill now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our crueland unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or themost abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die." - George Washington; 1776 "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and thesunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of theircountry; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man andwoman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have thisconsolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious thetriumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows howto put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if socelestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated." - Thomas Paine; 1776 "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitudebetter than the animating contest of freedom... go home from us in peace.We ask not your counsels nor arms. May your chains set lightly upon you andmay posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams; 1776 "No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he sufferor if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution of his country." - Daniel Webster "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations becomecorrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Benjamin Franklin "Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moralcharacter of a people once degenerate, their political character must soonfollow." - Elias Boudinot, president of the Continental Congress, later acongressman from NJ, and president of the American Bible Society "A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surelyoverthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the commonenemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but oncethey lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties tothe first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge arediffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be theirgreat security." - Samuel Adams "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nationbe thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction inthe minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they arenot to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my countrywhen I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson "He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere andactive in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who set himself withthe greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of everykind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemyto his country." - John Witherspoon, the only clergyman in the Continental Congress "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among thepeople, who have...a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible,divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean thecharacters and conduct of their rulers." - John Adams "Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it isthe duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation toselect and prefer Christians for their rulers." - John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of threemen most responsible for our Constitution "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." - William Penn; Thomas Jefferson's personal seal "A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district- all studied and appreciated as they merit - are the principle support ofvirtue, morality, and civil liberty." - Benjamin Franklin; March 1778 "Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for whichit stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if theAmerican Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout theworld." - Daniel Webster, 1851 "Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint." - Daniel Webster; 1847 "Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion andmorality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom cansecurely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue." - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; theytherefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is sosublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, areundermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for theduration of free governments." - Charles Carroll signer of the Declaration of Independence "The rights essential to happiness.... We claim them from a highersource - from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth." - John Dickinson signed the Constitution and a member of the Continental Congress "The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth:'that God governs in the affairs of men.' And if a sparrow cannot fall tothe ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can risewithout His aid?" - Benjamin Franklin "The only foundation for... a republic is to be laid in Religion.Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be noliberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." - Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence "A patriot without religion, in my estimation, is as great a paradox asan honest man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moralobligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be apatriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds ofSociety? ...The Scriptures tell us righteousness exalteth a Nation." - Abigail Adams wife of John Adams "Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty." - John Adams advise to his wife, in concern for his sons "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men,undergo the fatigue of supporting it." - Thomas Paine

Contributed by Henley King - Texas

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