Quotes Of The Founding Fathers, Insight into their hopes for the country

The objects of... primary education [which] determine its character and limits [are]:

To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business;

to enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing;

to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties;

to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either;

to know his rights;

to exercise with order and justice those he retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates;

and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment;

and in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.

Thomas Jefferson: Report for University of Virginia, 1818.


What is REALLY meant by "no child left behind": no child (or adult) left in ignorance either of his rights or of his responsibilities, and to take both equally seriously. And to take the child and the young person seriously, at last, as a citizen too.

Let's see where it goes from Inauguration Day.

"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it. After discriminating, therefore, in theory, the several classes of power, as they may in their nature be legislative, executive, or judiciary, the next and most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each, against the invasion of the others."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 48, 1 February 1788

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"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position."

--George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

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"Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve."

--Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771

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"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be to-morrow."

--James Madison (likely), Federalist No. 62, 1788

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"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper, 29 November 1802

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I always think of this Ben Franklin quote when hearing about all of these spending bills especially with all of the "pork"

The king's cheese is half wasted in parings;
but no matter, 'tis made of the people's milk.

"To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted."

--Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, December 1791

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"Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent."

--John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

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"[The President] is the dignified, but accountable magistrate of a free and great people. The tenure of his office, it is true, is not hereditary; nor is it for life: but still it is a tenure of the noblest kind: by being the man of the people, he is invested; by continuing to be the man of the people, his investiture will be voluntarily, and cheerfully, and honourably renewed."

--James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791

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"On the other hand, the duty imposed upon him to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will 'preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.' The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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"There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

--George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

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"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

Thomas Paine

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."

Thomas Jefferson

MacEoghainn;

If I may make so bold as to say That when Thomas Jefferson said "That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves"
must have been in his cups for Man is a creature of chaos and will not learn discipline , self or otherwise , less forced. Prime example :- deregulation.


Camac

So therefore man can only be governed by the "enlightened Elites"?

And what is it that makes the "Elites" so morally superior that they will not "lie, cheat, and steal" from their fellow man also?