Warnings From The Wise

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He That Has Ears To Hear, Let Him Hear (Matthew 11:15-30)
Challenging both secular wisdom and religious doctrines. - Will our descendants know moral virtue?

Warnings From The Wise
Distinguishing between Patriots and cowards
Last Updated Thursday May 15, 2008 03:17:26 PM -0400

The Patriot Post Founders' Quote Daily: "It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise." -- Alexander Hamilton (speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York, June 1788) Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 42.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." Thomas Paine, 1776

Samuel F.B. Morse was the son of educator Jedediah Morse, known as "Father of American Geography." Jedediah Morse stated in Charleston, Massachusetts, April 25, 1799: "Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them." American Minute

He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 1958

"Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power." Lewis Cass, A Brigadier-General in the War of 1812, Cass was Governor of the Michigan Territory where he made Indian treaties, organized townships and built roads. Appointed Secretary of War by President Andrew Jackson, Lewis Cass was a Senator, Secretary of State for President James Buchanan and the 1848 Democrat Presidential Candidate. The State of Michigan placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. American Minute

"It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating." Calvin Coolidge Address Before the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C. April 19th, 1926

"As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another." James Madison (Federalist No. 55, 15 February 1788) Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 55.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Ben Franklin - April 17, 1787

"Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue." John Witherspoon (The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776) Reference: The Selected Writings of John Witherspoon, Miller ed. (140-1)

"A trained intelligence can do much, but there is no substitute for morality, character and religious conviction." President Calvin Coolidge, 1924

"Freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction." ...“The moral underpinnings of our country must be able to bear the weight of today if we’re to pass on to the next generation an America worth having.” Ronald Reagan

"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license, which never hath more scope than under tyrants." John Milton (1608-1674) English Poet, Scholar, Writer, Patriot

"...man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts." Ronald Reagan

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” George Washington

Note to secular humanists: Before inaccurately and inadequately dismissing these pages falsely as promoting theocracy, see Theocracy? Numerous blog discussions and commentaries have weakly dismissed the HISTORY presented here as promoting a theocracy as an excuse to escape and avoid the challenge to secular wisdom. (BTW - What new and improved foundation do secular humanists use to justify violating "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God?")

"Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouraged by the Government. For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." Samuel Adams (letter to James Warren, 4 November 1775) Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 261.

“We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty... It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms... It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it.” Fisher Ames

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave." Patrick Henry

Distinguishing between Patriots and cowards, our favorite Founder, Samuel Adams, said: "Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom...crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" PatriotPost.us

"Death is more eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their liberties..." The men of Marlborough, Massachusetts who took part in the Boston Tea Party

"Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Patrick Henry

"A compromise which results in a half-step toward evil is all wrong." Theodore Roosevelt

“All of us denounce war—all of us consider it man’s greatest stupidity. And yet wars happen and they involve the most passionate lovers of peace because there are still barbarians in the world who set the price for peace at death or enslavement and the price is too high.” Ronald Reagan

Addressing the New York Historical Society, 1852, Daniel Webster stated: "If we and our posterity...live always in the fear of God and shall respect His Commandments...we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country.... But if we...neglect religious instruction and authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

President Harry S Truman stated in his address to the Attorney General's Conference, February 1950: "The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except for the State."

American Minute for October 27th: His wife and mother died on Valentine's Day, 1884. Depressed, he left to ranch in the Dakotas. Returning to New York, he entered politics and rose to Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned during the Spanish-American War, organized the first Volunteer Cavalry-the "Rough Riders"-and captured Cuba's San Juan Hill. Elected Vice-President under William McKinley, he became America's youngest President in 1901. This was Theodore Roosevelt, born OCTOBER 27, 1858. In 1909, Roosevelt warned: "The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining. The choice between the two is upon us." In his book "Fear God and Take Your Own Part and Other Essays," 1916, Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "The 7th century Christians of Asia and Africa...had trained themselves not to fight, whereas the Moslems were trained to fight. Christianity was saved in Europe solely because the peoples of Europe fought the Mohammedans who invaded." Teddy Roosevelt continued: "The civilization of Europe, America and Australia exists today only because the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization...that is, to beat back the Moslem invader."

Choices

"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." George Washington (Fifth Annual Message, 3 December 1793) Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (488)

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and what never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." Daniel Webster

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Thomas Paine

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." General MacArthur

Therefore, to those who would forgo the fatigue of supporting the blessings of freedom:

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom...crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

“Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised! in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous then their arms. Let us then renounce all treaty with them upon any score but that of total separation, and under God trust our cause to our swords.” Samuel Adams

"[In war], there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory." General Douglas MacArthur

"[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." -- John Adams (An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, 29 August 1763) Reference: Original Intent, Barton (338); original The Papers of John Adams, Taylor, ed., vol. 1 (83)

"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God." John F. Kennedy

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” Winston Churchill

Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, NOVEMBER 5, 1775: (AmericanMinute.com) "A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society, corrupting the Morals of Youth, and by his bad example injuring the very Country he professes to patronize more than he can possibly compensate by intrepidity, generosity and honour? The Scriptures tell us 'righteousness exalteth a Nation.'"

British Statesman Edmund Burke told the National Assembly, 1791: "What is liberty without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils...madness without restraint. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites."

American Minute with Bill Federer

American Minute for May 4th: Selling a million copies a year for over 100 years, McGuffey's Readers were the mainstay of public education in America. Generations of school children read them, making them some of the most influential books of all time. They were written by William McGuffey, who died MAY 4, 1873. A professor at the University of Virginia and president of Ohio University, he began one of nation's first teachers' associations. In the foreword of McGuffey's Reader, 1836, he wrote: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions." In McGuffey's 5th Eclectic Reader, 1879, is a lesson by William Ellery Channing, titled Religion The Only Basis of Society: "How powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God...Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint...would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws... Man would become...what the theory of atheism declares him to be-a companion for brutes."

On September 21, 1924, America's 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, addressed the Holy Name Society in Washington, D.C., saying: "The worst evil that could be inflicted upon the youth of the land would be to leave them without restraint and completely at the mercy of their own uncontrolled inclinations. Under such conditions education would be impossible, and all orderly development intellectually or morally would be hopeless." Coolidge continued: "The Declaration of Independence...claims...the ultimate source of authority by stating...they were...'appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of' their 'intentions.'... The foundations of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal." President Coolidge concluded: "It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive."

The director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, died May 2, 1972. For 48 years, under eight Presidents, he oversaw the Federal Bureau of Investigation, becoming famous for his dramatic campaigns to stop gangsters and organized crime. He established the use of fingerprints in law enforcement and successfully tracked down well-known criminals. FDR gave him the task of investigating foreign espionage and left-wing activist groups. J. Edgar Hoover stated: "The criminal is the product of spiritual starvation. Someone failed miserably to bring him to know God, love Him and serve Him." In the introduction to Edward L.R. Elson's book, America's Spiritual Recovery, 1954, J. Edgar Hoover wrote: "We can see all too clearly the devastating effects of Secularism on our Christian way of life. The period when it was smart to 'debunk' our traditions undermined...high standards of conduct. A rising emphasis on materialism caused a decline of 'God-centered' deeds and thoughts. The American home...ceased to be a school of moral and spiritual education. When spiritual guidance is at a low ebb, moral principles are in a state of deterioration. Secularism advances when men forget God."

Foundation

"Unalienable rights" are "entitled" if they do not violate "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" which lays out the boundaries and rules for America's Laws, just as athletes are "entitled" to play according to the boundaries and rules of their sport. Otherwise there would be chaos. Civil Rights and Liberties are "entitled" by "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Yet marriage is being redefined and schools are now teaching our children that which "goes against nature" is normal. What then is the real "hate crime?" Being out of the boundaries of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," as is homosexuality, depicts the chaos in the facts and consequences of that lifestyle. Or did Thomas Jefferson write the opening paragraph in vain, but not a letter to the Baptists?

"Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power." Lewis Cass A member of the Democrat Party, served as a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State for President Buchanan and was the Democrat Party's Presidential Candidate in 1848. He fought in the War of 1812, being promoted to Brigadier-General. President Andrew Jackson appointed him Secretary of War.

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stuart Mill, a British Philosopher

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." President Gerald Ford

Apathy may result in our American descendents becoming unrepresented UN drones. The choice is either a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a government of the unelected UN Security Council, by the Security Council, for the Security Council.

"My ardent desire is, and my aim has been...to comply strictly with all our engagements foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free from political connections with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." Letter to Partick Henry, 9 October 1775 - Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 34 (335)

...“But if we are to be told by a foreign Power... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.” ... “There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness.” George Washington letter to Alexander Hamilton, 8 May 1796 - Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 35 (40)

"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence." and... “There is nothing absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league or alliance between independent nations for certain defined purposes precisely stated in a treaty regulating all the details of time, place, circumstance, and quantity; leaving nothing to future discretion; and depending for its execution on the good faith of the parties.” Alexander Hamilton

Some are now asking that instead of supporting a blatantly obvious corrupt and weak United Nations where a consensus on almost all issues appears impossible, that instead, the U.S. should form alliances with like-minded nations encompassing virtue.

"Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard." George Washington (Farewell Address, 19 September 1796) Reference: Washington's Maxims, 71.

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." Joseph Story

Noah Webster provided the text book, History of the United States, used for over 60 years in public schools contained this statement: "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws." And " All the miseries and evils which men suffer from - vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war - proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." Martin Luther

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." Theodore Roosevelt

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time. They therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure and which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." United States Senator Charles Carroll in a letter to James McHenry, a signer of the Constitution. Charles Carroll was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and he outlived all the other signers.

"I believe we have a deficit of moral courage in the United States Congress. We have many learned individuals who know what is right but have not the courage to stand against the moral corruption that is now attempting to undermine our republic." Dr. Tom Coburn

With any battle worth fighting, there comes suffering and sacrifice - a price to pay for our cherished freedom. The Founding Fathers of this nation, in another fight for freedom from tyranny, signed their names to the Declaration of Independence just below these words of commitment: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers 'just men who will rule in the fear of God.' The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes; Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a Republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." Noah Webster

“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” Samuel Adams

"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader." Samuel Adams

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” Thomas Jefferson

"If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner." Terry Goodkind in "Naked Empire"

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves." Joseph Warren

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” James Madison

"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

"One of the troubles with humanity is that it is oftimes too lazy to do its own thinking." Charles S. Price

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Thomas Paine

"Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Jay

"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." William Penn

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just." Abraham Lincoln

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." Napoleon Bonaparte

"Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." John Quincy Adams

"The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause us to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world." John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Colony

"Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks...Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly. Albert Einstein

"`The World is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." Albert Einstein

"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.

Scripture and Nations

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. Psalm 33:12

Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, And those nations shall be utterly ruined. Isaiah 60:12

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.2 Chronicles 7:14

"I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:1-4

Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel 12:2

"Who has ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why do you speak to them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them." Jesus, Matthew 13:9-17, Isaiah 6:9-10

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2 Corinthians 4:1-4

And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Jeremiah 9:5-9

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” George Washington

"In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Edmund Burke

"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong." John G. Diefenbaker

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776) Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (6)

Click here for quotes from America's "leaders."