Saturday, December 10, 2011

A little something to remember.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington, 1797.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favorite founders quote....

Though I've also heard it as "eloquence" instead of "eloquent".

Eloquence has a nicer ring, me thinks.

Sean

Uncle Al said...

This immediately brought to mind one of my favorite quotations of 2011 from a fine English blogger / commentator / analyst:

"Govt as our servant is just about tolerable. Govt as our master...is our enemy." - Richard North
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Our representatives have allowed misguided Supreme Court rulings to circumvent our Constitution, preferring stare decisis over the rule of law.

Let's rein this bad boy back in:

"The rules of legal interpretation are rules of common sense, adopted by the courts in the construction of the laws. The true test, therefore, of a just application of them is its conformity to the source from which they are derived."
- Federalist Paper #83

"The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.

"Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental."
- Federalist Paper #78

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite quotes. I posted it on David's site once and was promptly and severely beaten about the head and shoulders by the host. I was traumatized and probably scarred for life! ;-) It seems that the folks at Mount Vernon have never been able to find that quote in any of GW's papers.

Jeez! What the hell would people at Mount Vernon know about George Washington anyway!