On July 4th, as a nation, we have an opportunity to review where we have come from. The Founding Fathers left a plethora of writings and quotes that give us a window on some of their thoughts. This is where they saw the United States of America coming from and going to… and leaves us a great deal to think about when considering where we are going and what we have made of their legacy.
The Founding Fathers were aware of their position as the witnesses to the birth of America. Even in their lifetimes, many of the Founders were concerned that Americans had already started to forget the why and what of the Revolution.
Fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams lay dying at his home. Reportedly, his last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Unfortunately, Jefferson had already died earlier that day. Both men, knowing that they were near death, had struggled to hold on to see the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the country.
That July 4th, the last of the signers of the Declaration were gone. What would the next generations make of America?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
- Declaration of Independence
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Adams
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent. It is force. Like fire, it is a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
- George Washington
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people’ (10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition.
- Thomas Jefferson
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
- Samuel Adams
When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
- Benjamin Franklin
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds…[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers… And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]… till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery… And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
- Thomas Jefferson
Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
- Benjamin Franklin
When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny.
- Thomas Jefferson
