 George Washington |
 James Madison |
 John |
 Thomas Jefferson |
 Thomas Paine |
 Samuel Adams |
 Benjamin Rush |
 Abraham Lincoln |
“Know the Truth, and the Truth will Make you Free” – John 8:32
WISDOM FROM OUR FOREFATHERS,
IN THEIR OWN WORDS – ON:
TRUTH & KNOWLEDGE – ESSENTIAL FOR A FREE COUNTRY
George Washington
First President of the United States
“There is but one straight course,
and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.”
– George Washington
* * *
James Madison
Fourth President of the United States
“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge
is the only guardian of true liberty.”
– James Madison
* * *
Dr. Benjamin Rush
Statesman, Physician, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Treasurer of the United States Mint, 1797 to 1813
“Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge.
Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights,
and where learning is confined to a few people,
liberty can be neither equal nor universal.”
– Benjamin Rush, 1786
* * *
James Madison
Fourth President of the United States
“[T]here are particular moments in public affairs,
when the people stimulated by some irregular passion,
or some illicit advantage, or
misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men,
may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards
be the most ready to lament and condemn.
– James Madison: Federalist No. 63, 1788
* * *
George Washington
First President of the United States
“Truth will ultimately prevail
where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”
– George Washington
* * *
COUNTRY OVER PARTY
George Washington
First President of the United States
“Citizens by birth or choice of a common country,
that country has a right to concentrate your affections.
The name of American, which belongs to you,
in your national capacity,
must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism,
more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”
– George Washington
* * *
George Washington
First President of the United States
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends,
they are likely in the course of time and things, to become
potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men
will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and
to usurp for themselves the reins of government,
destroying afterwards the very engines
which have lifted them to unjust dominion….
The alternate domination of one faction over another,
sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension,
which in different ages and countries
has perpetrated the most horrid enormities,
is itself a frightful despotism.”
– George Washington, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796
* * *
George Washington
First President of the United States
“Let me now . . . warn you in the most solemn manner
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party . . .
It serves always to distract the public councils
and enfeebles the public administration.
It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies
and false alarms;
foments occasionally riot and insurrection.
It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption . . .
A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance
to prevent its bursting into flame . . .”
– George Washington, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796
* * *
John Adams
Second President of the United States
“There is nothing which I dread so much as
a division of the republic into two great parties,
each arranged under its leader,
and concerting measures in opposition to each other.
This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded
as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
– John Adams in letter to Johnathan Jackson, 1780.
* * *
Thomas Jefferson
Third President of the United States
“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions
to the creed of any party of men whatever
in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else
where I was capable of thinking for myself.
Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.
If I could not go to heaven but with a political party,
I would decline to go.”
– Thomas Jefferson letter to Francis Hopkinson, 1789
* * *
Thomas Paine
Philosopher, Revolutionary, and a Founding Father of the United States
“Party knows no impulse but spirit, no prize but victory.
It is blind to truth, and hardened against conviction.
It seeks to justify error by perseverance,
and denies to its own mind the operation of its own judgment.
A man under the tyranny of party spirit
is the greatest slave upon the earth,
for none but himself can deprive him of the freedom of thought.”
– Thomas Paine, The Opposers of the Bank, 1787.
* * *
“Our fellow citizens of a different party or persuasion
are not our enemies –
no matter how fervently the cunning misrepresentations
of interested men attempt to cast them as such.
The true enemies of the people are those
who by such false means attempt to sew fear,
hatred, and divisions among us,
for their own purposes and selfish gains.
But united together, with truth as our compass and
compassion for our fellow man in our hearts,
those who would tear us asunder and thereby rob us of
our liberty, our livelihood, and our self-government
will not prevail.”
– Unknown
* * *
UNITY – ONE COUNTRY – GOVERNMENT
BY THE PEOPLE & FOR THE PEOPLE
“We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defense,
promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America.”
– Preamble to the United States Constitution
* * *
George Washington
First President of the United States
“We are either a United people, or we are not.
If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation,
which have national objects to promote,
and a national character to support.”
– George Washington
* * *
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
– Abraham Lincoln
* * *
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained it must not break our
bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching
from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature.”
– Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861
* * *
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
“With malice toward none; with charity for all;
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in;
to bind up the nation’s wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle,
and for his widow, and his orphan —
to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just, and a lasting peace,
among ourselves, and with all nations.”
– Abraham Lincoln
* * *
EQUALITY – LIBERTY – JUSTICE – MORALITY
“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.”
– United States Declaration of Independence
* * *
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– First Amendment of the United States Constitution
* * *
Samuel Adams
Statesman, Signer of the Declaration of Independence &
a Founding Father of the United States
“If men of wisdom and knowledge,
of moderation and temperance,
of patience, fortitude and perseverance,
of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners,
of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being
and the welfare of the commonwealth;
if men possessed of these excellent qualities
are chosen to fill the seats of government,
we may expect that our affairs
will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.”
– Samuel Adams, November 27, 1780
* * *
George Washington
First President of the United States
“Let your heart feel for the afflictions and the distress of everyone,
and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.”
– George Washington
* * *
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, Indivisible,
with Liberty and Justice for all.”
