Tag Archives: First Principles

First Principles: Good and Wise Government Is Dependent On Family

“[T]hat important and respectable, though small and sometimes neglected establishment, which is denominated a family…[The family is] the principle of the community; it is that seminary, on which the commonwealth, for its manners as well as its numbers, must ultimately … Continue reading

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First Principles: Constitutional Law Is A Noble Inheritance

“If these Commentaries shall but inspire in the rising generation a more ardent love of their country, an unquenchable thirst for liberty, and a profound reverence for the constitution and the union, then they will have accomplished all that their … Continue reading

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First Principles: United We Stand

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”  – Benjamin Franklin        

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First Principles: Parents Have A Duty to Their Children

“It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for … Continue reading

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First Principles: Expenditures Should Not Exceed Ability To Pay

“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.  To say that the … Continue reading

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First Principles: Giving Up the Right of Property Delivers the Conscience Into Bondage

“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.” –John Witherspoon, The … Continue reading

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First Principles: Republics Fail When The Profligates Are Rewarded

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, … Continue reading

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First Principles: The Importance of Assimilation

“I often note with equal pleasure that God gave this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in manners … Continue reading

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First Principles: The Power Of the Nation Belongs To The People

“The power of the people pervading the proposed system, together with the strong confederation of the states, will form an adequate security against every danger that has been apprehended.” – John Dickinson, Letters of Fabius, 1788 The Letters of Fabius … Continue reading

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First Principles: A Pure Democracy Is Often the Most Tyrannical and Rash

“A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, it is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.” –  Noah Webster, in The Original Blue Back Speller (an instruction book … Continue reading

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