Daily Quote 12/4-8/2006

Mon. 12/4/2006.
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."

--Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX, 1787)

That is all we've been trying to say.

Wed. 12/6/2006.
"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates... to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them."

--John Adams (Thoughts on Government, 1776); Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 259.

Thursday, 12/7/2006.
"I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the judicial. But I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in marking out the limits of the powers of the several departments."

-- James Madison (speech in the Congress of the United States, 17 June 1789); Reference: Original Intent, Barton (264); original The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, vol. 1 (520)

Friday, 12/8/2006.
"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others."

--Alexander Hamilton (speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 1788); Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 26.