Some Gave All

It's Memorial Day. We are a nation born in sword and flame. Our ancestors shook off the world’s super-power of the day because they determined in their hearts that it is better to die free men than to live as slaves. And because of that idea their freedom was won. Because of those who died defending it through the generations, that freedom was kept. Now the torch of liberty is passed to us.

America is not just a patch of soil, a political entity, or even a certain group of people. America is an idea- an idea that men are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights. An idea that men and women of virtue are fit to be their own masters, and that under God they need no other.

We cannot remain true to the ideas that birthed this country unless we know what they are. And how can we know what they are without reading the words of those who first forged these ideas into a new nation? With that in mind, I want to celebrate Memorial Day with a series of quotes from the Founders of our country.

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?" Thomas Jefferson

"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." Thomas Jefferson

"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." Thomas Jefferson

"A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army." "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." - Thomas Jefferson

The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place. - James Madison

"Republics...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

"It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains."- Patrick Henry

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service, when it is
violating all His laws." --John Adams

"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." -James Madison

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams 1776

"Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" -- John Stark at the Battle of Bennington in 1777