The Birds Have Eaten All The Crumbs
Congress has seen fit to compromise our liberties to an extent that most of our founders would find unacceptable.
Patrick Henry said:
There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength but irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
While Barack Obama says:
I will try to remove the immunity.
John Adams said:
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.(journal entry on advice he planned to give his son, John Quincy)
Senator Kit Bond said:
When the Government tells you to do something, I think you all recognize, uh, that that is something that you need to do.
I really don't know if there is a way back from this. I'm certain that, as a fashion statement, jumpsuits have always sucked. I look horrible in orange.
Pretty soon anyone with a conscience, anyone with a thirst for liberty, will be in a jumpsuit and a prisoner. I hope I have the good sense to die before I have to watch the rest of this disgusting charade.
Hope? Not much anymore.
"When I was young I walked all over this country, east and west, and saw no other people than the Apaches. After many summers I walked again and found another race of people had come to take it. How is it?"
Cochise.
3B's
posted by The Minstrel Boy at 10:14 AM
12 Comments:
Adams said that in 1772. Twenty-six years later, when he was himself president, he pushed for the Alien & Sedition Acts, in which it in essence became a crime to publish criticism of the government.
Wholly trust no one.
and later in his life, in public letters published, in letters with jefferson, and in private in his journal he repented that act, which he felt was the biggest mistake and the biggest black mark on his record.
at the time of the alien and sedition act he was being assaulted on all sides, by the republican press, by jefferson's minions, by the french (both governmental and secret agents), by the british (who were wanting to force america to choose sides in their continuing war with the french).
while it was an understandable mistake, it was still a mistake, and a mistake adams regretted and owned.
unlike our current crop of politicians whose favorite first words at press conferences seem to be
nobody could have anticipated. . .
I'm always confused when it comes to the founding Fathers. How was it that with all of the different beliefs on how it should be they could come with this plan. The thinkers since then have been children is this sense.
jo6pac
No they weren't the best at the time
Yes, they have been children in comparison. There has been the occasional grown-up now & then, here & there, but not enough, and not influential enough.
And now! In comparison? To borrow from Mencken, the place is run by downright morons.
(BTW, thanks on filling me in on Adams' regret. I'm not surprised by that, but I didn't know it, although it doesn't change my point that one ought not to wholly trust anyone, not even ourselves, in such positions of power. There is always a seemingly noble reason to circumvent liberty.
Always.)
To expand on what Oddjob said, what amazes me is not the stupor of the American sheeple today. In the slavery days, the age of the Robber Barons during the 1870s-80s, during the heyday of the Klan as a political force in the 1920s, the sleepy 1950s, Americans have been perfectly content to daze away in the face of internal evils. he real wonder is that during the American Revolution, and the Civil War, that there was a critical mass of people that was enough to stage a violent rebellion. As much as Americans would like to believe that the Founding Fathers were the rule, they were actually the exception.
MB, the telecoms were merely craven and weak; we know who was evil. Don't be too hard on Obama -- the wind was blowing, and his short comment represented all that was possible from his standpoint. I think often on the Hill it comes down to "hold your nose and vote." Patrick Henry, by the way, spoke eloquently but accomplished little.
Bucko, neither the "American Revolution" nor the "American Civil War" were actual wars or for that matter even *civil wars*. Rather, they were wars of secession, where one region of a country fought to secede from another region of the country. In the "American Revolution", the colonial governments of the American colonies fought to secede from the Crown. This was not a revolution (a fight to overthrow the lawful government), this was one set of governments (the colonial governments) fighting against another government (the English Crown). In the American Civil War, one set of governments (the governments of the Southern states) fought against another government (the U.S. government) for the right to secede.
In both cases the war arose with the leadership, not the people. It was the leadership who had the courage to start the wars, not the people, who simply followed their leaders wherever their leaders led (sometimes with a bit of help -- e.g., the "Sons of Liberty" terrorist group which made sure that folks who did NOT want to follow their leaders ended up with their homes burned down and their businesses smashed and looted). There was no violent rebellion by "the people" in either war of secession, there was just one set of governments set against another government, with formal armies on the field and all that. To call them revolutions is thus completely wrong. If you want revolutions, look at things like the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, etc. where people rose up against their government (rather than one government fighting another government in a war of secession)... and I'll point out what I've pointed out before, that violent revolutions *never* turn out well because the most violent, venal people always come out on top because they're, well, more violent.
- Badtux the History Penguin
Err, first sentence should say "were actual rebellions"... gah! I wish Blogger let me edit stuff!
MB,
You say, "I hope I have the good sense to die before I have to watch the rest of this disgusting charade."
Ranger says you cannot go anywhere--he needs you out guarding his flank.
What really bothers me is that I doubt if many of todays generation even know who Patrick Henry, John Adams, or Cochise are.
TW: they're faces on paper placemats at the diner every July Fourth, sheesh!
Didn't you ever play connect the dots?
Dude, you nailed this one. I couldn't agree with you more. Had a fight with a good friend the other night over Obama's temporizing on this FISA issue. Quoth I: "No one fucking temporizes with the Constitution, dammit."
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