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

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• “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” ~Thomas Jefferson (1820)
  

• “It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” ~Thomas Jefferson (1781)
  

• “Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” ~John Adams (1777)
  

• “It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.” ~James Madison (1816)
  

• “Even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.” —Thomas Paine (1776)
  

• “The present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes.” ~Alexander Hamilton (1802)
  

• “If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds.” ~Alexander Hamilton (1787)
  

• “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” ~George Washington
  

• “War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.” ~Alexander Hamilton (1787)
  

• “The policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the Language, habits and principles which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.” ~George Washington (1794)