Each day I will post various remarks from our Founders on
what they thought about on various subjects. Since our inception as a country it
seems, at least to me America looks very different today than then. Many of
their beliefs shaped the beginning. In many respects we have set ourselves up
for collapse from within. Not from all people, but from those who wish America
to change it's face or to fail outright. It is because of the latter that I
decided to launch this series. Please feel free to discuss these remarks that
were made so long ago. I believe this information is very important, especially
for the military since they are the armed protectors of our nation, the front
lines of our defense and as to our very survival as a nation in this world.


Adams, John Thoughts on Government
1776
Topic: Constitution

A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.


Washington, George letter to Chevalier de LaLuzerne
August 1, 1786
Topic: Constitution

[T]he foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.


Webster, Noah An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution
1787
Topic: Constitution

In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected--the legislators are antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason.


Madison, James Federalist No. 41
1788
Topic: Constitution

It is in vain to oppose constitutional barriers to the impulse of self-preservation. It is worse than in vain; because it plants in the Constitution itself necessary usurpations of power, every precedent of which is a germ of unnecessary and multiplied repetitions.


Hamilton, Alexander Federalist No. 65
1788
Topic: Constitution

To answer the purpose of the adversaries of the Constitution, they ought to prove, not merely, that particular provisions in it are not the best, which might have been imagined; but that the plan upon the whole is bad and pernicious.



Hamilton, Alexander and Madison, James Federalist No. 57
February 19, 1788
Topic: Constitution

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virture to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.


Madison, James Federalist No. 37
January 11, 1788
Topic: Constitution

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.


Hamilton, Alexander Federalist No. 34
January 4, 1788
Topic: Constitution

Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs. Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to infer the extent of any power, proper to be lodged in the national government, from an estimate of its immediate necessities.


Hamilton, Alexander speech to the New York Ratifying Convention
June, 1788
Topic: Constitution

I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.


Washington, George letter to Marquis de Lafayette
May 28, 1788
Topic: Constitution

Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come.



George Washington fragments of the Draft First Inaugural Address
April, 1789
Topic: Constitution

The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes. Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchm[en]t can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.


Hamilton, Alexander Essay in the American Daily Advertiser
Aug 28, 1794
Topic: Constitution

If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws - the first growing out of the last. . . . A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.


Washington, George Farewell Address
1796
Topic: Constitution

If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.


George Washington Farewell Address
September 19, 1796
Topic: Constitution

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.



Washington, George Farewell Address
September 19, 1796
Topic: Constitution

The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.


Jefferson, Thomas fair copy of the drafts of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
1798
Topic: Constitution

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.


Thomas Jefferson letter to Amos Marsh
November 20, 1801
Topic: Constitution

I join cordially in admiring and revering the Constitution of the United States, the result of the collected wisdom of our country. That wisdom has committed to us the important task of proving by example that a government, if organized in all its parts on the Representative principle unadulterated by the infusion of spurious elements, if founded, not in the fears & follies of man, but on his reason, on his sense of right, on the predominance of the social over his dissocial passions, may be so free as to restrain him in no moral right, and so firm as to protect him from every moral wrong.


Hamilton, Alexander letter to James Bayard
April, 1802
Topic: Constitution

[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.


Our Founders Thoughts Day 3: Congress/Legislature

Socialism: Does it Fit Mankind?