Warnings From History

By Alan Sexton

Compelled by current events, I present for your objective consideration the following. Make of these observations and warnings from history whatever you will, folks:

The American Crisis, No. I. Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

The Founding Fathers on the Second Amendment

Benjamin Franklin

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

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Thomas Jefferson, Legislators, Laws, and Natural Rights

Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power;  that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.  No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another;  and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him;

~Thomas Jefferson, Letter To Francis W. Gilmer, at Monticello, June 7, 1816.

Farewell Address of President Ronald Reagan

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts

~ From the Farewell Address of President Ronald Reagan, delivered from the Oval Office on January 11, 1989

Speech by Calvin Coolidge Marking the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. 

~ Calvin Coolidge, Speech on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926

Madison, Paine, and Franklin Talk Liberty and Courage

From James Madison:

Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations;

Self-Made Men By Frederick Douglass

We are sometimes dazzled by the gilded show of aristocratic and monarchical institutions, and run wild to see a prince. We are willing that the nations which enjoy these superstitions and follies shall enjoy them in peace. But, for ourselves, we want none of them and will have none of them and can have none of them while the spirit of liberty and equality animates the Republic.

 Excerpted from Self-Made Men, by Frederick Douglass, 1872

1796 Farewell Address of President George Washington

The Farewell Address of George Washington, the first president and the only unanimously elected president in the history of the United States.

“Obsta principiis”!

“Obsta principiis*, nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast,