A Free and Independent State

• That we will, at all times hereafter, consider ourselves as a free and independent state, capable of regulating our internal police, in all and every respect whatsoever — and that the people on said Grants have the sole and exclusive and inherent right of ruling and governing themselves in such manner and form as in their own wisdom they shall think proper…” ~Vermont Declaration of Independence, January 15, 1777
  

Summation of Constitution Interpretation

• Let me explain the division among conservative legal thinkers. Some conservative legal thinkers like justice Scalia and Justice Thomas think that the Constitution means what it originally meant –Cass Sunstein
  

Ruined by trade . . .

• “No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous.” –Benjamin Franklin and George Whaley, Principles of Trade, 1774
  

Historical Insights

• “A man’s most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.” –Greek playwright Euripides (485-406 B.C.)

• “The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people’s minds.” –British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
  

I do solemnly swear . . .

• “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” –Article II, Section I, U.S. Constitution
  

To enslave, disarm the people . . .

• “[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, – who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.” –George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

• “[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.” –Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

• “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” –James Madison, Federalist No. 46

• “If a well-regulated militia be the most natural defense of a free country, it ought certainly to be under the regulation and at the disposal of that body which is constituted the guardian of the national security. If standing armies are dangerous to liberty, an efficacious power over the militia in the same body ought, as far as possible, to take away the inducement and the pretext to such unfriendly institutions. If the federal government can command the aid of the militia in those emergencies which call for the military arm in support of the civil magistrate, it can the better dispense with the employment of a different kind of force. If it cannot avail itself of the former, it will be obliged to recur to the latter. To render an army unnecessary will be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand prohibitions upon paper.” –Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 29

Whereas, to preserve liberty . . .

• “[W]hereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.” –Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, No.18
  

Historical Insights

• “The malice of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous” –British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

• “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” –Irish novelist C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) “If you are afraid to speak against tyranny, then you are already a slave.” –author John “Birdman” Bryant (1943-2009)

• “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” –American author Mark Twain (1835-1910)

A democracy cannot exist . . .

• “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship” –Professor Alexander Tytler over 200 years ago

   

Historic Insights

• “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.” –John Stuart Mill

• “A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of national honor.” –Theodore Roosevelt

• “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” –George S. Patton

• “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” –Sir Winston S. Churchill

• “It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country … in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their country, for us. All we can do is remember.” –Ronald Reagan