Category Archives: First Principles

First Principles: We Should Better Follow the Commandments Than the Holidays

“How many observe Christ’s birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! ’tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.” – Benjamin Franklin (1743)    

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First Principles: Power Is of An Encroaching Nature That Must Be Restrained

“It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.” – James Madison (1788)      

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First Principles: If Persons Leading America Stick To Our Republican Values, Our Nation Will Have A Solid Foundation

“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men … Continue reading

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First Principles: The Essential Principles of the United States Are Equal and Exact Justice To All Persons

“It is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government… Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.” – Thomas Jefferson (1801)        

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First Principles: Ours Is A Noble Inheritance Gained By the Blood and Sweat Of Our Ancestors

“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors.” – Justice Joseph Story (1833)      

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First Principles: To Be An American Is To Have A Just Sense of Patriotism

“The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.” – George Washington      

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First Principles: The Ways and Means Needed By Our Government Must Equal Appropriations Hand In Hand

“There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises.” – James Madison (1790) … Continue reading

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First Principles: A Breakdown In the People’s Manners and Spirit Leads To the Destruction of Its Laws and Constitution

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”  – Thomas Jefferson (1781)      

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First Principles: Our Leaders Should Possess Distinguished Character

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” – Samuel Adams (1775)    

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First Principles: The Judiciary Branch Does Not Decide Constitutionality of Laws Solely Nor Fully Independent of the Executive and Legislative Branches

“The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make … Continue reading

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