GEORGE WASHINGTON STATED

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty teeth.



First Inaugural Address of George Washington...April 30, 1789

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Abraham Lincoln said:

"In this age, and in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it nothing can suceed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions."

James Madison Declared

The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the PEOPLE altogether in their reasonings on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ULTIMATE AUTHORITY, wherever the derivative may be found, RESIDES IN THE PEOPLE ALONE. (Federalist Papers, No. 46, p.294; emphasis added.)

Monday, May 24, 2010

The Chains that keep us free

Sounds strange that "chains" should "keep us free"; sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it. Nothing however could be truer. George Washington and the Founding Fathers looked at a centralized government as a potential for great good or great evil; just like human nature there is the potential for doing great good or being the instrument for great evil. The question was how to constrain the evil and expand the good. The answer was that the government had to be harnessed by the people who where handing over to it the permission to rule and enforce in their name; in other words to govern them.

The best answer they came up with was the Constitution of the United States. It harnessed the powers of the Federal Government within the confines of a strictly interpreted Constitution. If the Constitution was malleable and easily changeable it would destroy the freedom it was designed to preserve.

Washington said:

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
(Quoted in Jacop M. Braude, Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia, 2 vols. , Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962, 1:326)
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