The Notes (11 page)

I
do not dread those corps. as instruments of power to destroy this country, because there are 1000 agencies which can regulate, restrain and control them; but there is a corp. we may all dread. That corp. is the Fed. govt. From the aggression of this corp. there can be no safety, if it is allowed to go beyond the bounds, the well defined limits of its power. I dread nothing so much as the exercise of ungranted & doubtful power by this govt. It is in my opinion, the danger of dangers to the future of this country. Let us be sure we keep it always within its limits. If this great, ambitious, ever growing corp. becomes oppressive, who shall check it? If it becomes wayward, who shall control it? If it becomes unjust, who shall trust it? As sentinels of the country’s watchtower, Senators, I beseech you to watch & guard with sleepless dread that corp. which can make all property & hope its playthings in an hour & its victims forever. Regulations once imposed, are never withdrawn but usually made tighter & tighter.

Herbert Aptheker, “Daily World,” Communist Paper

T
his capitalism—this system born of the slave trade & centuries of slavery, of child labor & the abuse of women, of contempt for those who labor & produce, with its adornments of male supremacy & elitism & racism and its products of colonialism & robber wars—this capitalism, through its politicians & its pen men, dares to lecture the world of socialism about morality & human rights. This system with its ghettos & barriers, its colonies & unemployment its impoverishments & hunger, its slums & closed libraries, its massage parlors & closed hospitals—this putrid system literally stinking up the atmosphere gives lessons in ethics to Communists!

S.D.S. Leader During Campus Riots in the 1960s

I
t’s not reform we’re after. It’s the destruction of your stinking rotten society & you’d better learn that fast.

James Madison, The Federalist Papers

T
he 1st question that offers itself is whether the general form & aspect of the govt. be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of Am.; with the fundamental principles of the revolution or with that honorable determination which animates every notary of freedom to rest all our pol. experiments on the capacity of mankind for self govt.

Thomas Jefferson, 1st 18 Words Only Are Engraved On Memorial

N
othing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain, that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same govt. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degree, as that the evil will wear off insensibly, and their place be, pari passu, filled up by free white “laborers.”

Aesop

B
ad as any govt. may be it is seldom worse than anarchy.

Thomas Paine

G
ovt. is a necessary evil—let us have as little of it as possible.

Justice O. W. Holmes

S
trike for the jugular. Reduce taxes
and spending
. Keep govt. poor and remain free.

“Take sides”—Phil. Romulo

F
reedom is precious—defend it—it is not cheap, nor easy, nor neutral. It is dear & hard & real—take sides for frdm. or you will lose it.

Abraham Lincoln

T
he people are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Const. but to overthrow the men who pervert the Const.

Herbert Hoover

T
he key is that among us there is greater frdm. for the individ. man & woman than in any other great nat. In the Const. & in the Bill of Rts. are enumerated the specific frdms. Then there are a doz. other frdms. which are not a matter of specific law—such as frdm. to choose our own callings, frdm. to quit a job & seek another, frdm. to buy or not to buy, frdm. for each man to venture & to protect his success,
always
subject to the rise of his neighbors. In short we have frdm. of choice.