A New Year's Eve Remembrance of Timeless Wisdom

On this New Year's Eve it is time to turn back the pages of time to consider the timeless wisdom of the Founding Fathers of this great nation. Some of my favorite quotations from the Founders are listed here, with brief commentary. Enjoy....

"The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
--George Washington (Farewell Address, September 17, 1796)

In this statement President Washington laid out the standard for all law in this country--the U.S. Constitution. Though the powers not specifically designated to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved for the states, the U.S. Constitution has ultimate authority over any state law on those matters it specifically addresses, such as the First and Second Amendments, among others.

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
--Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Archibald Stuart - 1791)

Freedom can be messy. The most orderly and tidy societies are totalitarian where the people have little individual freedom. Here, Jefferson outlines his belief that it is better to be inconvenienced by too much liberty than to have too little of it.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
--Wendell Phillips (speech in Boston, Massachusetts, January 28, 1852, citing Thomas Jefferson, though it has also been attributed to Patrick Henry)

Jefferson had maintained that the creeping crawl of government is a given and that citizens must forever be diligent lest that government gradually remove their rights.

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."
--Thomas Jefferson (attributed to Jefferson, by his contemporaries)

I am not sure our government fears citizens any longer. Jefferson referred to this as tyranny. It is time for Americans to rise up to make sure our elected officials and those in government bureaucracy fear the power of THE PEOPLE.

"It is not only [the juror's] right, but his duty...to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."
--John Adams, 1771 (2nd US President)

Adams was convinced that sometimes courts mistakenly direct jurors in such as way as to lead them to violate their own conscience. Adams admonishes jurors to vote according to their judgment and conscience, no matter what judges or attorneys say.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
--Thomas Jefferson (attributed to Jefferson, by his contemporaries)

Jefferson feared the power of big government more than anything else. He believed that the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms was key to their preventing government tyranny. Such a notion is astounding when you think about it. This is one of the reasons I like Jefferson so much.

"... rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our own will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual"
--Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany - 1819)

Here Jefferson maintains that sometimes the law is plain wrong. In those cases it is necessary for citizens to act according to the limits of the rights of others rather than the limits of the law. The law can be tyrannical. Therefore, citizens are to be guided by the fact that other citizens have equal rights to their own.

In other words, my rights end where yours begin. Your rights end where mine begin.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
--James Madison (attributed to Madison, by his contemporaries)

Madison nailed it here. Liberty is in much more danger from the creeping crawl of gradual government restrictions on rights than from sudden outside forces.

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution], let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
--Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Johnson) June 12, 1823

This is the grand-daddy of them all. Jefferson in this statement is laying out the basic, core principle of Constitutional interpretation (something that most modern jurists never quite learned). In interpreting the Constitution, says Jefferson, we MUST go back to the time it was ratified. The meaning must conform to the ORIGINAL INTENT OF THE FOUNDERS. Anything less than this is tantamount to rule by judicial pronouncement, or, 'legislating from the bench.'

In short, Jefferson would never tolerate revisionists such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg or Stephen Breyer. Original intent is NEVER their ultimate goal in interpreting the Constitution. 'Strict constructionism' is a Jeffersonian principle that maintains that any interpretation of the Constitution that runs contrary to the original context and intent is invalid, unauthoritative, and therefore, tyrannical.