The Notes (3 page)

I
t is idle to speak of saving western civ. because western civ. is already a wreck from within. That is why we can hope to do little more now than snatch a fingernail of a saint from the rock or a handful of ashes from the fagots, & bury them secretly in a flower point against the day, ages hence, when a few men begin again to dare to believe that there was once something else, that something else is thinkable & need some evidence of what it was & the fortifying knowledge that there were those who at the great nitefall, took loving thought to preserve the tokens of hope & truth.

Former P.M.—Australia

I
wonder if anybody has thought what the situation of the comparatively small nat’s. of the world would be if there were not in existence the U.S.—if there were not this giant country prepared to make so many sacrifices.

Letter by Samuel Adams (1789)

I
have always been apprehensive that through the weakness of the human mind often discovered even in the wisest & best of men, or the perverseness of the interested & designing, in as well as out of govt., misconstruction would be given to the Fed. Const.—hazard the liberty, independence & happiness of the people—would gradually, but swiftly & imperceptibly run into a consolidated govt. pervading & legislating through all the States, not for federal purposes only as it professes, but in all cases whatsoever. Such a govt. would soon totally annihilate the Sovereignty of the several states not necessary to the support of the confederated Commonwealth, & sink both in despotism.

Anonymous

T
oo many Americans today have little or no faith in Social Freedom. They put their trust in govt. as the distributor of material goods preferring laws passed by their legislators to the works of the mkt. place.

Sen. Fulbright at Stanford U.

T
he Pres. is our moral teacher & our leader he should be freed from the shackles of ill informed pub. opinion. He is hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by a Const. system designed for an 18th century agrarian society.

Henry Steele Commager, 1953

O
nly the Pres. because he is the chief exec. is in a position to know all the facts. Only the Pres. and his advisors are in a position to weigh all the facts. Therefore the Pres. alone can lead the country.

Alex Hamilton on Impeachment

T
he greatest danger is that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties than by a real demonstration of innocence or guilt.

Thomas Jefferson

T
he germ of dissolution of our Fed. govt. is in the Fed. Judiciary, an irresponsible body working like gravity, gaining a little today & a little tomorrow, & advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the states & the govt. of all be consolidated into one.

1813: The same pol. parties that agitate the U.S. have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people or of the elite should prevail were questions which kept the states of Greece & Rome in eternal convulsions.

T
he policy of the Am. govt. is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

A
character of good faith is of as much value to a nation as to an individual. The moral obligations constitute the law of nations as well as individuals.