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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. 

In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

George Washington--President and deputy from Virginia
New Hampshire: John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman
Massachusetts: Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King
Connecticut: William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman
New York: Alexander Hamilton
New Jersey: William Livingston, David Brearly, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton
Pennsylvania: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas FitzSimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris
Delaware: George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom
Maryland: James McHenry, Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll
Virginia: John Blair, James Madison, Jr.
North Carolina: William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson
South Carolina: John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler
Georgia: William Few, Abraham Baldwin
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, September 19, 1787

Complete text of the U.S. Constitution. The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.

 

Declaration of Independence

[Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776]

---

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
• He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
• He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
• He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
• He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
• For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
• For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
• For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
• For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
• For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
• For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
• He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
• He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levey war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. 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.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Redistribution of Wealth & Education

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.
I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.
In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer.
And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Immigration:

"The importation of foreigners into a country that has as many inhabitants as the present employments and provisions for subsistence will bear, will be in the end no increase of people, unless the new comers have more industry and frugality than the natives, and then they will provide more subsistence, and increase in the country; but they will gradually eat the natives out. Nor is it necessary to bring in foreigners to fill up any occasional vacancy in a country for such vacancy will soon be filled by natural generation."
("Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries," 1751)

Political Parties

"History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy.
An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy...
These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened."


Benjamin Franklin was frequently consulted by Thomas Paine for advice and suggestions regarding his political writings, and Franklin assisted Paine with some of his famous essays. This letter is Franklin's response to a manuscript Paine sent him that advocated against the concept of a providential God.

TO THOMAS PAINE.
[Date uncertain.]
DEAR SIR,

I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection.

I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtile and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.

But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations.

But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security.

And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.

I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours,

B. Franklin

more about this great man: 
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Sponsored by The American Philosophical Society and Yale University
Benjamin Franklin on PBS 
Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” (1758) 
A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain

On January 30, 1770, an anonymous missive, entitled A Conversation on Slavery appeared in the Public Advertiser, a Philadelphia newspaper. Written in the style of three individuals -- an Englishman, an American, and a Scotsman -- having a discussion concerning the problem of slavery and the slave trade, the three present a damning testimony of the moral failings of each participant's society.

The American character is forced to deflect criticisms from his two companions about the practice of keeping slaves while still clamoring for political liberty at home, turns the tables on the Scot and Englishman by pointing out that their own societies kept men in bondage in the same manner as Americans kept African-Americans.

A Conversation would remain an anonymous writing until 1934, when its authorship was proven to belong to one of America's Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin. The conversation is considered the turning point in Franklin's long relationship with the institution of slavery away from his younger years as a slave owner, to an abolitionist.

Benjamin Franklin Petitions Congress to Abolish slavery
Benjamin Franklin - Resume - Experience You can Trust 

Benjamin Franklin - Fast Facts

John Paul Jones, who became the premier American naval hero by raiding British merchant and military ships, named his vessel Bonhomme Richard -- French for "Poor Richard" -- in honor of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack.

At the Constitutional Convention, Franklin, who was 81, was the most senior delegate. In fact, the wise Philadelphian, suffering from so many ailments, was often transported to the meetings by means of a sedan chair, the burden of which was supported by the sturdy shoulders of four convicts.

In the 1780's, part of Wrentham, Massachusetts split off from Wrentham.
As was common, this group of rural Massachusetts farmers used their church as the cultural, social, religous and governmental center of the town.
Unfortunately, they had no bell in the church.
There was no way to summon the farmers for services, or for emergencies such as fire.
As a result, they came up with a clever plan.
They named their new town "Franklin", and wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin asking him to donate a bell.
However, Dr. Franklin was not so inclined.
"Sense being preferable to sound,"
Dr. Franklin sent the good farmers a crate of books instead, and suggested they start a library.
It is the oldest public library in the United States.

He wrote to the French physician, Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, describing it thus: “I rise early almost every morning and sit in my chamber, without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing.

As a scientist he was tantalized by the prospect of future progress, and speculated on everything from population growth (author Philip Dray notes that the 1890 census differed from Franklin’s predictions by only 0.13%) to flying. Writing to his friend, Joseph Priestley, Franklin said, “We may perhaps learn to deprive large Masses of their Gravity & give them absolute Levity, for the sake of easy Transport. Agriculture may diminish its Labour & double its Produce. All Diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured.” He hoped he might still witness these marvels, writing to a friend at the end of his life that, “I believe I shall, in some Shape or other, always exist.”

To his life's end, Ben Franklin remained a printer and took pride in it. Wherever he lived in Europe or America, he managed to have a printing press at his disposal. It is no accident that his last will and testament, written at age eighty-three (the year before he died) begins "I, Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, printer…".

Ben Franklin taught himself to read French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian. His passion for self-improvement extended to public projects; he organized the first fire company in the colonies, made designs for paving and lighting Philadelphia streets and for expanding the city watch to a force of police.

Ben Franklin organized the first volunteer fire company in 1736: The Union Fire Company. He wrote articles telling citizens how to prevent fires, stressing that an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and he even told them to carry coals from one floor to another in a closed warming pan. Otherwise, he said, "scraps of fire may fall in to the chinks, and make no appearance until midnight, when your stairs being in flames, you may be forced (as I once was) to leap out of your windows and hazard your necks to avoid being over-roasted".

In 1751 Ben Franklin was instrumental in founding the first hospital in America. He raised ten thousand pounds from the Pennsylvania Assembly and a matching amount from the public.


NEXT PAGE ---> George Washington

George Washington

Geroge Washington

Quoted from Letter to Col. Burwell Bassett,  George Washington's brother-in-law , June 19, 1775

"I am now embarked on a tempestuous ocean, from whence perhaps no friendly labor is to be found. I have been called upon by the unanimous voice of the Colonies to the command of the Continental Army.

It is an honor I by no means aspired to. It is an honor I wished to avoid, as well as from an unwillingness to quit the peaceful enjoyment of my Family, as from a thorough conviction of my own Incapacity & want of experience in the conduct of so momentous a concern; but the partiallity of the Congress, added to some political motives, left me without a choice.

May God grant, therefore, that my acceptance of it, may be attended with some good to the common cause, & without injury (from want of knowledge) to my own reputation.

I can answer but for three things: a firm belief of the justice of our cause, close attention in the prosecution of it, and the strictest Integrity.

If these cannot supply the place of ability & Experience, the cause will suffer, & more than probable my character along with it, as reputation derives its principal support from success."

Political Parties:

"All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency.

They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

"However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion." 

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.

But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty."

Immigration:

"My opinion, with respect to emigration, is that except of useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men or professions, there is no need of encouragement, while the policy or advantage of its taking place in a body...may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the Language, habits, and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them."

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment."

Education

"The best means of forming a manly, virtuous, and happy people will be found in the right education of youth. Without this foundation, every other means, in my opinion, must fail."

Banks and Money

"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. 
Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. 
They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. 
Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." 

War

Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

"Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren who have fallen into their hands"

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport 

Gentlemen:

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.

If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
 
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

More about this great man:
Washington's Inaugural Address
Washington's Farewell Address 1796
The Papers of George Washington 

George Washington - Fast Facts

 It was said by John Adams that George Washington lost all his teeth by cracking Brazil nuts between his jaws.


He freed all of his slaves, and left enough money in his estate to care for all of them for decades after his death.

As the commander of Virginia's militia in the 1750s, Washington designed his soldiers' uniforms himself. The unit became known as "The Virginia Blues".

From the time he was a young man, George Washington was renowned for his towering stature – he was well over six feet tall – and his remarkable strength.
He was able to hunt on horseback for as many as seven hours straight, and on one occasion, threw a rock to the top of a famous Virginia landmark, a 215-foot-high rock formation known as the Natural Bridge.
The shot was roughly the equivalent of a quarterback tossing a touchdown pass from his own 30 yard-line into his opponent's end zone ... a 70-yard throw.

During his early twenties, Washington found himself in a heated argument with a man known to history only as "a Virginia landowner and politician."
The dispute turned violent when the man knocked George to the floor with a stick.
Though George was much taller than his assailant – and almost certainly stronger – he chose not to retaliate. Instead, he left the room, collected his thoughts, returned and apologized ... even though the other man was at fault.

 

Many Americans, including members of congress and officers in the Continental Army, wanted George Washington to become King of America.
To one such suggestion, Washington responded in no uncertain terms. "Be assured Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army ...
If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable ...
if you have any regard for your Country ...or respect for me ...banish these thoughts from your Mind. ..."

NEXT PAGE ---> Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Redistribution of Wealth

"A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness.

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." 

"What more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?

Still one thing more, fellow citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.   
This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to  close the circle of our felicities."

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

Size of Government and Government Spending 

"I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.  I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it."

Banks

 "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.  Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."  

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Educating the People on Liberty

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, (A)nd if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

"Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind." 

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press."

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 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"

Immigration

"Yet from such [absolute monarchies], we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. Their principles with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us in the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass."

  

Wall of Separation Letter

Mr. President
To messers Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association assurances of my high respect & esteem.

(signed) Thomas Jefferson
Jan.1.1802.

more about this great man: 
The Thomas Jefferson Papers 
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson 
Thomas Jefferson - Resume - Experience You can Trust

NEXT PAGE ---> Alexander Hamilton

Minutemen and Militia

Minutemen and Militia

"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?  Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." - Tenche Coxe

Minutemen were teams of select men from the American colonial militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name.

Minuteman and Sons of Liberty member Paul Revere was among those who spread the news that the British were coming.
Minutemen From Wikipedia
The Minutemen playing a crucial role not only in the Revolutionary War, but in earlier conflicts

They were usually drawn from settlers of each town, and so it was very common for them to be fighting alongside relatives and friends.

"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good." George Washington
 

 

"There is something so far fetched and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or raillery. Where, in the name of common sense, are our fears to end if we may not trust our sons, our brothers, our neighbors, our fellow citizens?
What shadow of danger can there be from men who are daily mingling with the rest of their countrymen and who participate with them in the same feelings, sentiments, habits and interests?" Alexander Hamilton
 
"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?  Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction and having them under the management of Congress?
If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" Patrick Henry

 

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." - Tench Coxe - delegate to the Continental Congress

"A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."- James Madison

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms. - Tench Coxe

"As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia." - James Madison

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. - Jefferson's "Commonplace Book,"

A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive." - Noah Webster

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that … it is their right and duty to be at all times armed… " Thomas Jefferson

 

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.  The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States." Noah Webster

Minutemen In Action

In September of 1774, Patriot leaders initiated a system of alarms and express riders to warn area towns whenever British troops marched out of Boston.

On April 18th, at about 10:00 in the evening, two riders set out from Boston ahead of 700 British troops. William Dawes took the land route south of Boston.

Paul Revere crossed the Charles River, obtained a horse, and began his ride. They stopped in Lexington to warn Patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams, then headed on to Concord, where military supplies for the colony were stored.

As the two men alerted the countryside, other towns sent more riders out into the night. About 4,000 Massachusetts Militia and Minute Men took up arms and arrived in time to fight on April 19th. By day's end, about 20,000 were on the march.

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." George Washington

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

Political Parties and Politicians:

"The republican principle demands that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs;
but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to betray their interests."

"On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.
History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people;
commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

"And a further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists.
Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.
For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword.
Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms:

"The constitution shall never be construed...to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

"Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others. ... The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
"But if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..."

Immigration:

"The opinion advanced [by Jefferson,] is undoubtedly correct, that foreigners will generally be apt to bring with them attachments to the persons they have left behind; to the country of their nativity, and to its particular customs and manners.
They will also entertain opinions on government congenial with those under which they have lived; or, if they should be led hither from a preference to ours, how extremely unlikely is it that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, [italics in original] so essential to real republicanism?
There may, as to particular individuals, and at particular times, be occasional exceptions to these remarks, yet such is the general rule.
The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities.
In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency."

more about this great man:
Writings and speeches by Alexander Hamilton
The Federalist Papers
Men Who Created the American Constitution

Alexander Hamilton - Revolutionary patriot, and delegate to the Continental Congress, made these notes in preparation for a major speech delivered on 18 June 1787 at the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Alexander Hamilton's notes for a speech proposing a plan of government at the Federal Convention

NEXT PAGE ---> James Madison

James Madison

James Madison

Politicians

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."

"We may define a republic to be... a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior."

"The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be universally maintained but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great barrier which defends the rights of the people.
The rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are tyrants.
The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them and are slaves."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."

Redistribution of Wealth

“With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”
In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object saying,

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.”

To William Bradford About Boston Tea Party, Etc...

Jan 24. 1774

My worthy friend,

Yours of the 25 of last month came into my hands a few days past. It gave singular pleasure not only because of the kindness expressed in it but because I had reason to apprehend the letter you recd, last from me had miscarried and I should fail in procuring the intelligence I wanted before the Trip I design in the Spring.

I congratulate you on your heroic proceedings in Philada. with regard to the Tea.
I wish Boston may conduct matters with as much discretion as they seem to do with boldness: They seem to have great Tryals and difficulties by reason of the obduracy and ministerialism of their Governour.

However Political Contests are necessary sometimes as well as military to afford excercise and practise and to instruct in the Art of defending Liberty and property.
I verily believe the frequent Assaults that have been made on America, Boston especially, will in the end prove of real advantage.

If the Church of England had been the established, and general Religion in all the Northern Colonies as it has been among us here, and uninterrupted tranquility had prevailed throughout the Continent, It is clear to me that slavery and Subjection might and would have been gradually insinuated among us.

Union of Religious Sentiments begets a surprizing confidence, and Ecclesiastical Establishments tend to great ignorance and Corruption, all of which facilitate the Execution of mischievous Projects.
But away with Politicks!

Let me address you as a Student and Philosopher & not as a Patriot now.
I am pleased that you are going to converse with the Edwards and Henry's & Charles &c &c who have swayed the British Sceptre, though I believe you will find some of them dirty and unprofitable Companions, unless you will glean Instruction from their follies and fall more in love with Liberty by beholding such detestable pictures of Tyranny and Cruelty.

I was afraid you would not easily have loosened your Affections from the Belles Lettres.
A Delicate Taste and warm imagination like yours must find it hard to give up such refined & exquisite enjoyments for the coarse and dry study of the Law.

It is like leaving a pleasant flourishing field for a barren desert, perhaps I should not say barren either because the Law does bear fruit, but it is sour fruit that must be gathered and pressed and distilled before it can bring pleasure or profit.

I perceive I have made a very awkward Comparison but I got the thought by the end and had gone too far to quit it before I perceived that it was too much entangled in my brain to run it through.
And so you must forgive it.

I myself use to have too great a hankering after those amusing Studies, Poetry wit and Criticism Romances, Plays &c. captivated me much, but I begin to discover that they deserve but a moderate portion of a mortal's Time and that something more substantial, more durable, more profitable befits a riper Age.

It would be exceeding improper for a labouring man to have nothing but flowers in his Garden, or to determine to eat nothing but sweet meats and Confections.
Equally absurd would it be for a Scholar and man of Business to make up his whole Library with Books of Fancy and feed his Mind with nothing but such Luscious performances.

When you have an Opportunity and write to Mr Brackinridge pray tell him I often think of him and long to see him, and am resolved to do so in the Spring. George Luckey was with me at Christmas and we talked so much about old Affairs & Old Friends that I have a most insatiable desire to see you all. Luckey will accompany me, and we are to set off on the 10th of April if no disaster befalls either of us.

I want again to breathe your free Air.

I expect it will mend my Constitution & confirm my principles.
I have indeed as good an Atmosphere at home as the Climate will allow but have nothing to brag of as to the State and Liberty of my Country.
Poverty and Luxury prevail among all sorts.

Pride, ignorance and Knavery among the Priesthood, and Vice and Wickedness among the Laity.

This is bad enough.
But It is not the worst.
I have to tell you That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some, and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business.

This vexes me the most of any thing whatever.
There are at this in the adjacent County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in close Goal for publishing their religious Sentiments, which in the main are very orthodox.

I have neither patience to hear talk or think of any thing relative to this matter, for I have squabbled and scolded, abused, and ridiculed so long about it, to so little purpose, that I am without common patience.
So I leave you to pity me and pray for Liberty of Conscience to revive among us.
I expect to hear from you once more before I see you if time will admit and want to know when the Synod meets & where, What the Exchange is at, and as much about my friends and other Matters as you can and think worth notice.

Till I see you,
Adieu
NB. Our Correspondence is too far advanced to require apologies for bad writing & blots.

more about this great man:
Federalist papers

Selected Works of  James Madison 

Federalist # 10 
The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison
 
NEXT PAGE ---> John Adams

 

John Adams

John Adams

Politicians and Political Parties

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

 

"No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life. 
Men of the most exalted genius and active minds are generally most perfect slaves to the love of fame. 
They sometimes descend to as mean tricks and artifices in pursuit of honor or reputation as the miser descends to in pursuit of gold."

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.”

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers."
 
"Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it."

Banking

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."  

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which perhaps, I could not surrender if I would."

Constitutional (NATURAL)  "Rights" aren't "Granted" and Can NOT be "Denied"

"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave."

more about this great man: 

 The Works of John Adams

NEXT PAGE ---> Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Patriots

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


"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government."


"Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read in it full grown characters."

Government

"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."

Liberty (Freedom)

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."

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

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"These people are either too superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms; they either can not or dare not defend; their property is open to anyone who has the courage to attack them.
The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like law, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.
The balance of power is the scale of peace.
The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside.
Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong"

War

"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death."


More about this great man: 
Common Sense By Thomas Paine   
The Rights of Man By Thomas Paine

NEXT PAGE ---> Patrick Henry
 

Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry

Politicians

"When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object. "

 

"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. 

"This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. 

Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting; it squints toward monarchy, and does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American? 

Your president may easily become king. 

Your Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed to what may be a small minority; and a very small minority may continue for ever unchangeably this government, altho horridly defective.

Where are your checks in this government? 
Your strongholds will be in the hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition that your American governors shall be honest that all the good qualities of this government are founded; but its defective and imperfect construction puts it in their power to perpetrate the worst of mischiefs should they be bad men; and, sir, would not all the world, blame our distracted folly in resting our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or bad?

Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men without a consequent loss of liberty! 

I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.

If your American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy is it for him to render himself absolute! The army is in his hands, and if he be a man of address, it will be attached to him, and it will be the subject of long meditation with him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his design, and, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens?"

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary.
But when shall we be stronger?
Will it be the next week, or the next year?
Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?
Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?
Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?"

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defence, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?"

"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defence?
Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress?
If our defence be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands? "

More about this great man:
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" A speech delivered by Patrick Henry on March 23, 1775
Shall Liberty or Empire be Sought? Patrick Henry, 1788

NEXT PAGE ---> Samuel Adams