The Deterioration of Government

The deterioration of every government begins with
the decay of the principles on which it was founded
~Charles-Louis de Secondat

• “The Constitution has enemies, secret and professed” ~Daniel Webster
  

• “Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence.” ~Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
  

• “It is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government… Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.” ~Thomas Jefferson (1801)
  

• “No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the contrary, when people are universally ignorant, and debauched in their manners, they will sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign invaders.” ~Samuel Adams (1775)
  

• “If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.” ~Thomas Jefferson (1811)
  

• The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people. ~James A. Garfield
  

• “I had always hoped that the younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every breast … would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of it.” ~Thomas Jefferson (1814)
  

• “National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” ~John Adams (1815)
  

• “It is very imprudent to deprive America of any of her privileges. If her commerce and friendship are of any importance to you, they are to be had on no other terms than leaving her in the full enjoyment of her rights.” ~Benjamin Franklin, Political Observations
  

• “In times of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in war, to the executive solely.” ~Thomas Jefferson (1810)