George's Axe: July 2010

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, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1781

Is it the Fourth?Thomas Jefferson, evening July 3; Jefferson died the next morning, July 4, 1826

It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Sinclair, 1791

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Rush, October 20, 1820

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Holmes, Apr 22, 1820----------------------------------------------------------

Ben Franklin

"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy."Ben Franklin (submitted by a visitor)

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749

He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.Benjamin Franklin, from his writings, 1758

How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself.Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.Benjamin Franklin (attributed), at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746

Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757----------------------------------------------------------

George Wasington

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.George Washington, The Rules of Civility, Circa 1748

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Paine

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 13, 1783

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776 ---------------------------------------------------------------

various

Give me liberty or give me death.Patrick Henry

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

I am not a Virginian, but an American.Patrick Henry, speech in the First Continental Congress, September 6, 1774

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.Nathan Hale, before being hanged by the British, September 22, 1776

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.John Paul Jones, letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont, November 16, 1778

In my judgment it is not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of becoming rotten for the want of it.John Witherspoon (attributed), debate over the Declaration, July, 1776

It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge.James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, Circa 1790

My hand trembles, but my heart does not.Stephen Hopkins(attributed), Rhode Island delegate, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.Benjamin Rush, letter to His Fellow Countrymen: On Patriotism, October 20, 1773

Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.Leviticus 25:10, Inscription on the Liberty Bell

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, Circa 1790

The law of nature and the law of revelation are both Divine: they flow, though in different channels, from the same adorable source. It is indeed preposterous to separate them from each other.James Wilson, Of the Law of Nature, 1804

The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.Peter Muhlenberg, from a Lutheran sermon read at Woodstock, Virginia, Jan, 1776

Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, Circa 1790

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787

There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!John Hancock, upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Help Me to Understand

Folks, I sometimes really don't understand how logical, considerate, and above all good-hearted individuals in our midst are so easily manipulated. True, those who seek to control are often astute in the ways of persuasion and misinformation, but why is this ruse so difficult for so many to recognize? Politz bureau, Nazi party, both pale in comparison to the compassionate left in their abilities to use the most human of concepts to achieve the most inhumane results.

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Help Me to Understand

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What do you believe to have been the pivotal moment in American history?