American Government

Free Republic cites some quotes from the Patriot Post dealing with the proper (Constitutional?) role of government. With the widespread and profound ignorance over the kind of nation America was to be and was until about 50 years ago, they should be repeated at every opportunity to dispel the lies:

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense. In these are comprehended the regulation of commerce that is, the whole system of foreign intercourse; the support of armies and navies, and of the civil administration. - Alexander Hamilton remarks to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 1788

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.” - John Adams


Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political. - Thomas Jefferson (First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801)

“This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ... Plutarch warned, ‘The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.’ The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.” - Ronald Reagan

We must re-discover and re-embrace these truths so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."