The Notes (2 page)
John Stuart Mill & Daniel Webster
T
he Pres. has ltd. power. He may err without causing great mischief to the state. Cong. may decide amiss without destroying the union because the people may retract their decision by changing the members. But if the Sup. Ct. is ever compounded of imprudent men the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.
T
he Despotism America will face will degrade even men without tormenting them. Above this race of men will stand an immense and tutelary power which takes upon itself alone to secure man’s gratifications and to watch over their fate. The power which this govt. shall exert shall be absolute, minute, regular, prudent & mild. For the happiness of this race of men such a govt. willingly labors. But in return it elects to be their sole agent and the only arbiter of their happiness. The govt. provides for this race security, it foresees & supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their prim. concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of their property and sub divides their inheritance. What can remain for this races govt. but to spare them the care of thinking and the trouble of living. Thus through its regulations—
N
othing will ruin the country if the people themselves will undertake its safety; and nothing can save it if they leave that safety in any hand but their own.
B
ut who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished govt. Who shall rear again the well proportioned cols. of constitutional lib. Who shall frame together the skillful architecture which unites nat. sovereignty with states rts. individ. security & pub. prosperity.
H
old on to the constitution of the U.S. of Am. & to the Rep. for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster what has happened once in 6000 yrs. may never happen again. Hold on to your const. for if the Am. Const. shall fall there will be anarchy throughout the world.
Alexis de Tocqueville
I
t sometimes happens in a people among whom various opinions prevail that the balance of parties is lost & one of them obtains an irresistible preponderance, overpowers all obstacles, annihilates its opponents & the vanquished despair of success, hide their heads and are silent. (Detoc. explaining the disappearance of the Fed. Party in the 1820’s)
D
em. will last until the people in power learn they can perpetuate themselves in power through taxation.
Francis Lieber (Prof. U Columbia [1859] “On Civil Lib & Self Govt.”)
W
oe to the country in which pol. hypocrisy first calls the people almighty, then teaches that the voice of the people is divine, then pretends to take a mere clamor for the true voice of the people & lastly gets up the desired clamor. (Getting up the desired clamor is what we call rocket engineering)
John Winthrop, Deck of Arbella, 1630, off Massachusetts Coast
W
e shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken & so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story & a byword throughout the world.
Whittaker Chambers