- “[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
Charity is no part of Government
Restraint of the House of Representatives . . .
- “If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.” –Federalist No. 57, February 19, 1788
The greedy hand of government . . .
- “If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.” –Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
The principle of spending money . . .
- “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” –Thomas Jefferson
Historical Insights
- “To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.” –American teacher, writer and philosopher Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)
- “Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” –German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1834)
- “Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.” –American author and commentator William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008)
Our president bears no resemblance to a king . . .
- “As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles.” –Tench Coxe, An American Citizen, No. 2, 1787
The house of representatives can make no law . . .
- “The house of representatives … can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.” –Federalist No. 57, February 19, 1788
Too much machinery of government . . .
- “I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” –Thomas Jefferson
The falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart . . .
- “There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” –Thomas Jefferson
