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, President of The United States, farewell address, Jan. 11, 1989
If the courts permit those in control of the executive and legislative branches of government to tax without due regard to the constitutional limitations, particularly to impose discriminatory taxes, constitutional liberty is dead, whatever forms may survive, the government will be, in fact, absolute. Here lies our greatest and most immediate danger. The tide today is setting toward that shore. The only hope lies in revitalizing the oath, solemnly taken by every judge of every court, to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States. Walter K. Tuller, THE TAXING POWER/STATE INCOME TAXES(Callaghan & Co. 1937)
Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. Patrick Henry
When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny. Thomas Paine
In a free society, the government’s job is simply to protect liberty – the people do the rest. Let’s not give up on a grand experiment that has provided so much for so many. Let’s reject the police state. Ron Paul, June 27, 2002 (Rep, R- Texas)
The first principle of a free society is that each person owns himself. You are your private property, and I am mine. Most Americans probably accept that first principle. Those who disagree are obliged to inform the rest of us just who owns us, at least here on earth. This vision of self-ownership is one of those ‘self-evident’ truths to which the Founders referred to in the Declaration of Independence, 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.’ Like John Locke and other philosophers who influenced them, the Founders saw these rights as preceding government, and they said, ‘That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted.’ Dr. Walter E. Williams, May 7, 2003, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20030507.shtml
The Framers of the Constitution recognized that while government was necessary to secure liberty, it was also liberty’s greatest threat. Having this deep suspicion of government, they loaded our Constitution with a host of anti-congressional phrases, such as: “Congress shall make no law,” “shall not be infringed” and “shall not be violated.” Dr. Walter E. Williams, May 7, 2003, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20030507.shtml
The United States was founded on the principle that we are a country of enumerated government powers not of enumerated liberty. Anyone in grade school knows the theory. Anyone in the real world knows that the practice has no bearing on the theory. The Founders created a system to protect that liberty, however as the 20th century showed, a tireless minority in search of power will pervert that system. Christian H F Riley, Court.com, November 2, 2004
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