divided we fall

-Alexander Hamilton-Federalist-
All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom determine rightly. Give, therefore, to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second.

-John Locke-The Second Treatise-
...Or else when by the miscarriages of those in authority, it is forfeited...it reverts to the society, and the people have the right to act as Supreme, and continue the Legislative in themselves (in new hands), or erect a new form.


-James Madison-The Federalist No.51-
The constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other

-John Stuart Mill-On Liberty-
...But when they are sure, it is not conscientiousness but cowardice to shrink from acting on their opinions, and allow doctrines which they honestly think dangerous to the welfare of mankind, either in this life or another to be scattered abroad without restraint, because other people, in less enlightened times, have persecuted opinions now believed to be true.

-James Q Wilson-Bureaucracy-
(American Paradoxical Bureaucracy)...two qualities ordinarily quite seperate: the multiplication of rules and the opportunity for access. We have a system laden with rules; elsewhere that is a sure sign that the bureaucracy is aloof from the people, distant from their concerns, preoccupied with power and privileges. We also have a system suffused with participation- councils, citizen groups, investigators, journalists, and lawyers,- elsewhere this popular involvement would be seen as evidence that the administration system is no good, inefficient and shot through with corruption and favoritism. These two traits- rules and openness- co-existing eludes many contemporary students of the subject.

-Thomas Jefferson-
"Given the choice between having a government without a press, or a press without a government, I would prefer the latter." While in office, though, he bitterly resented the press.

-Jefferson Davis-Inaugural Address 1861-
...I approach the discharge of the duties assigned to me with humble distrusting of my abilities, but with a sustaining confidence in the wisdom of those who are to guide and aid me in the administration of public affairs, and an abiding faith in the virtue and patriotism of the people... Our present political position has been achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations. It illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is a right of the people to alter or abolish them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established. (this right is inalienable)

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-No man, the radicals urged in the most American of all arguements, ought to forget what level he came from; when he does, he ought to be led back and shown the mortifying picture of originality.
-Public virtue is not so active as private love of gain.
-Rulers, the constitution makers of 1776 realized, must be conceived as creatures of the people, made for their use, accountable to them, and subject to removal as soon as they act inconsistent with the purpose for which they are formed.

As Americans, we used to seek the removal of barriers. That day is gone. Rules and license has taken over. Fullest individual expression has been retarded due to ignorance and false morals. A true young American, convinced that he-a chosen one-stood on the threshold of true greatness-would feed others of his world democratic ideals.