‘Liberty Letters’ Archives
The First Pillar in the Temple of Republicanism
LIBERTY LETTERS, DANIEL WEBSTER The first pillar in the temple of Republicanism is correct and stabile morality. All republics are predicated upon this principle; without it they cannot exist. Without virtue, honesty, and tolerance in rulers, and obedience and respect in people Constitutions are waste paper and laws of mockery. When ambition, [...]
Sam Adams: Right to Life, Liberty, Property Under God
LIBERTY LETTERS, SAMUEL ADAMS, 1772 Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called [...]
“Never was an Assembly of Men … More Pure in Their Motives”—Madison
Liberty Letters, James Madison Whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the [...]
Europe Must Look to God, Moral Refinement, and a New Political Science to Guide Democratic Impulse
Liberty Letters, Alexis de Tocqueville ... Nor is this phenomenon at all peculiar to France. Whithersoever we turn our eyes we shall witness the same continual revolution throughout the whole of Christendom. The various occurrences of national existence have everywhere turned to the advantage of democracy; all men have aided it by their [...]
Daniel Webster: Other Misfortunes May Be Borne
LIBERTY LETTERS, DANIEL WEBSTER Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again, [...]
George Washington: Representation: Local, State, National
LIBERTY LETTERS, GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1786 That representatives ought to be the mouth of their Constituents, I do not deny, nor do I mean to call in question the right of the latter to instruct them. It is to the embarrassment, into which they may be thrown by these instructions in national matters that my objections lie. In speaking of national [...]
John Adams in 1776—Constituting the Best of Governments
LIBERTY LETTERS, JOHN ADAMS: 1776 If I was equal to the task of forming a plan for the government of a colony, I should be flattered with your request, and very happy to comply with it; because as the divine science of politics is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government, [...]
Abraham Lincoln: My Proudest Plume
Liberty Letters, Abraham Lincoln: 1839 Many free countries have lost their liberty; and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, belching forth the lava [...]
Madison to Jefferson on the Need for a More Perfect Union
Liberty Letters, James Madison On March 18, 1786, James Madison wrote Thomas Jefferson regarding the Constitutional Convention's warm-up, a commercial convention in Annapolis, discussing the desperate need for a more unified nation, focusing this letter on the matter of commerce: A quorum of the deputies appointed by the Assembly for a [...]
Putting Down the Mob, Defending Law and Order
Liberty Letters, Samuel Adams, 1766 This Town has always been very careful during the late Times of Calamity to preserve as much as possible Good order among its Inhabitants, of which they gave an Early Proof when a dangerous Mob arose and some Outrages were committed by Persons as yet unknown. A good deal of Mischief was done as all the World [...]
Suggestions on Improving the Union by Thomas Jefferson: 1786
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Thomas Jefferson, 16 December 1786 Five months before the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison, offers some advice on improving the struggling Union: "I find by the public papers that your Commercial Convention failed in point of representation. If it [...]
Union A Main Prop of Our Liberty—George Washington
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, George Washington While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent [...]
Jefferson: The Monroe Doctrine and America’s Foreign Policy
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson in 1823, being consulted by Monroe, who had drawn the great statement known as the Monroe Doctrine, the document being submitted by Monroe to Jefferson, replied: "Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe; our second, never [...]
Madison: Limits on Treaty Making Power
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, James Madison I do not conceive that power is given to the President and Senate to dismember the empire, or to alienate any great, essential right. I do not think the whole legislative authority have this power. Source: Jonathan Elliot, ed. and comp., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the [...]
Nothing Can Deter Us From Asserting Our Rights: Sam Adams
Liberty Letters, Samuel Adams, 1766 The House have fully considered your Excellency's speech of the third instant, and beg leave to observe, that as on the one hand no consideration shall ever induce us to remit in the least our loyalty and gratitude to the best of Kings, so on the other, no unprovoked asperity of expression on the part of [...]
Message to Congress in Special Session: Abraham Lincoln
Liberty Letters, Abraham Lincoln, July 4, 1861 Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not called to any ordinary subject of legislation. At the beginning of the present Presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the Federal Government were found to be generally [...]
James Wilson on Constitution, State Sovereignty, and Consolidation
Liberty Letters, James Wilson Convention of Philadelphia, December 1, 1787 Mr. WILSON. The secret is now disclosed, and it is discovered to be a dread, that the boasted state sovereignties will, under this system, be disrobed of part of their power. Before I go into the examination of this point, let me ask one important question. Upon what [...]
Sam Adams: On Just Opposition to Law
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams, 1766 An Opposition to an Act of Parliament merely from a regard to the Constitution cannot surely be looked upon as a Contempt of the Authority of Government since Government itself is built upon and circumscribed by the Constitution, or in other Words to contend for the grand Design and Ends for [...]
Ronald Reagan On Our Duty to Our Children
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Ronald Reagan Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once [...]
More Harm Than Good
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Abraham Lincoln Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently [...]
Samuel Adams On the Right to Trial By Jury
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams (1764) And it is also certain that this Law admits of our Properties being tried, in Controversies arising from internal Concerns, by Courts of Admiralty, without a Jury. It follows, that at once, it annihilates the most valuable Privileges of our Charter, deprives us of the most essential Rights [...]
Ben Franklin: Imitators v. Counterfeiters
Liberty Letters, Benjamin Franklin There is much difference between imitating a good man, and counterfeiting him. Source: Benjamin Franklin: Sayings of Poor Richard from Poor Richard's Almanack. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1960. Liberty Letters are researched, compiled, and edited (with occasional commentary, explanatory notes, [...]
Samuel Adams: The Basis of Public Happiness
Liberty Letters, Samuel Adams, 1764 Being Members of the Legislative Body, you will have a special Regard to the Morals of this People, which are the Basis of public Happiness; and endeavor to have such Laws made if any are still wanting as shall be best adapted to secure them. Source: Samuel Adams, “Instructions of the Town of [...]
Honest Abe
Liberty Letters, Abraham Lincoln (age 27) Letter to Colonel Robert Allen. June 21, 1836 Dear Colonel, I am told that during my absence last week you passed through this place, and stated publicly that you were in possession of a fact or facts which, if known to the public, would entirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Edwards and myself [...]
Sam Adams: Preserving Morals, Property & Right
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams As the Preservation of Morals as well as Property and Right, so much depends upon the impartial Distribution of Justice, agreeable to good and wholesome Law: and as the Judges of the Land do depend upon the free Grants of the General Assembly for Support; It is incumbent upon you at all times to [...]
Slavery & Secession: Treason Against the Hopes of the World
Liberty Letters, Thomas Jefferson, 1820 Editor's Introduction: In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Furthermore, with the exception of Missouri, this law prohibited slavery in the [...]
Abraham Lincoln: Eulogy on Henry Clay
July 6, 1852, Springfield, Illinois, Address by Abraham Lincoln Editor's Introduction: Via this inspiring eulogy of Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, a decade before his election as President, outlines what was and would be his position on slavery, a practice that was morally wrong, that was religiously wrong, that was politically wrong. But not [...]
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address: A Plea for Union
Lincoln was chosen to be the Republican candidate in the 1860 presidential election, which he won on November 6 with 180 electoral votes. Between this time and his inauguration on March 4, seven states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas—would secede from the Union. Lincoln's predecessor in office, James [...]
On Orchestrated Character Assaults
Liberty Letters with Steve Farrell I do not know Herman Cain, and so I cannot say whether he is guilty or not of the politically motivated character assassinations that are machine gun-like firing upon him, but I can't help but suspect that those who are ultimately behind them are living according to the rules of that "dark system" American [...]
George Washington: The Sin My Soul Abhors
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, George Washington Nothing is a greater stranger to my breast, or a sin that my soul more abhors, than that black and detestable one, ingratitude. Source: George Washington letter to Governor Dinwiddie, May 29, 1754. Liberty Letters are researched, compiled, and edited (with occasional commentary, [...]
John Jay on the Holy Bible: The Best of All Books
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, John Jay The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts. Source: John Jay letter to Peter Augustus Jay, April 9, 1784. John Jay (1745 – 1829) was [...]
Samuel Adams: Regarding the Truest Friend of Liberty and Country
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man's [...]
Anarchy is Not the State of Nature—Alexander Hamilton
Liberty Letters, Alexander Hamilton, February 23, 1775 On February 23, 1775, as part of a larger discussion, young Alexander Hamilton hones in on a point by "The Farmer" (A. H. Farmer) to which he disagrees. Hamilton begins: The first thing that presents itself is a wish, that “I had, explicitly, declared to the public my ideas of the [...]
Democracy Corrupted: John Adams
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, John Adams 1786 But when a new race of men grows up, these, no longer regarding equality and liberty, from being accustomed to them, aim at a greater share of power than the rest, particularly those of the greatest fortunes, who, grown now ambitious, and being unable to obtain the power they aim at by their own [...]
Remonstration Against The Least Infringement of Our Rights
Liberty Letters, Samuel Adams, 1771 TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.1 June 29, 1771. SIR, Your letter of the 5th of February2 has been laid before the House: The contents are important and claim our fixed attention. We cannot think the doctrine of the right of Parliament to tax us is given up, while an act remains in force for that purpose, and [...]
Unbridled Executive Power: The Ruin of Free Constitutions
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams The charter of this province recognizes the natural Right of all men to dispose of their property: And the governor here, like all other governors, kings and potentates, is to be supported by the free grants of the Representatives of the people. Every one sees the necessity of this to preserve the [...]
John Dickinson: Look Unto God Not the Charter for Our Rights
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, John Dickinson To talk of your "charter" gentlemen, on this occasion, is but weakening the cause by relying on false aids. Your opinion on this head seems to be borrowed from the doctrine of the unhappy Stuarts. They thought, or pretended to think, all the liberties of the subject were mere favours granted by [...]
Gouverneur Morris: The Only Solid Base of Free Governments
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Gouverneur Morris For avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy ... the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. Source: United States Founding Father, Signer [...]
Patrick Henry on Right and Wrong
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Patrick Henry The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate. It is immutable. Source: Patrick Henry. Virginia Ratifying Convention: June 9, 1788
Samuel Adams: A Biographical Sketch, by Frank Moore
Americanist History SAMUEL ADAMS: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, BY FRANK MOORE Source: American Eloquence: A Collection of Speeches and Addresses by the Most Eminent Orators of America, with Biographical Sketches and Illustrative Notes, by Frank Moore. New York: D Appleton and Company, 346 & 348 Broadway. London: 16 Little Britain. 1858. [...]
John Adams: A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, Letter 28
Liberty Letters, John Adams, 1786 Mixed Governments: MONTESQUIEU, SPIRIT OF LAWS, B. II. C. VI. OF THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND. My dear Sir, IN every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative, the executive in respect of things dependent on the law of nations, and the executive in regard to things that depend on the [...]
Sam Adams: Political Protestantism: The Next Honor of Heaven
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, Samuel Adams Our forefathers through off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is reserved the honor of leveling the popery of politics. They opened the Bible to all and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of the sublimest spiritual [...]
George Washington on Christian Soldiery
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, George Washington The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. Source: George Washington: General Order, (9 July 1776) George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, [...]
If Men Were Angels: James Madison
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, James Madison If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government [...]
Madison: War and the Degeneracy of Manners, Morals & Liberty
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, James Madison Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the [...]
John Adams: A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, Letter 27
Liberty Letters, John Adams, 1786 Mixed Governments: MACHIAVELLI'S DISCOURSES UPON THE FIRST DECADE OF LIVY. BOOK I. CHAP. 2 My dear Sir, THE whole chapter is very much to the purpose, but the following paragraphs more particularly so. — According to some authors, there are but three sorts of governments, viz. monarchy or [...]
The Anti-Federalist Papers No. 71: Agrippa, and A Customer
The Presidential Term of Office Agrippa, February 5, 1788; A Customer, March 13, 1788 Part 1: Luther Martin, The Genuine Information. Part 2: An excerpt from the 18th letter of "Agrippa" appearing in The Massachusetts Gazette on February 5, 1788. Part 3: From by "A Customer" in the Maine Cumberland Gazette, March 13, 1788. .... [...]
John Adams: A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, Letter 26
Liberty Letters, John Adams, 1786 Ancient Republics, and Opinions of Philosophers: DR RICHARD PRICE Dear Sir, TO demonstrate the necessity of two assemblies in the legislature, as well as of a third branch in it, to defend the executive authority; it may be laid down as a first principle, that neither liberty nor justice can be [...]
The Anti-Federalist Papers No. 61: The Federal Farmer
Questions and Comments on the Constitutional Provisions Regarding the Election of Congressmen The Federal Farmer The "Federal Farmer" comments on the election of Congressmen. . . . . It is well observed by Montesquieu, that in republican governments the forms of elections are fundamental; and that it is an essential part of the [...]
The Anti-Federalist Papers No. 55: The Federal Farmer
Will the House of Representatives Be Genuinely Representative? (Part 1) The Federal Farmer Following are four essays by "The Federal Farmer." .... It being impracticable for the people to assemble to make laws, they must elect legislators, and assign men to the different departments of the government. In the representative branch [...]
