Last week I drew attention to the fact that our Founders had an exceptional understanding of human nature, and I communicated that by using their own words. This article will demonstrate their understanding of group behavior and how that could lead to the breakdown of the government of their new Republic. They foresaw how the downfall would progress and what was needed to prevent it. Once again, in their own words.
Their Reality
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” ~ George Washington“History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.” ~ George Washington“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.” ~ Thomas Jefferson“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” ~ Thomas Jefferson“When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state” ~ Thomas Jefferson“Trade liberty for safety or money and you’ll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves. The power of questioning – not simply believing – has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know…. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.” ~ Benjamin Franklin“One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are.” ~ Alexander Hamilton“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” ~ Thomas Jefferson“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.” ~ Thomas Jefferson“The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.” ~ George Washington“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” ~ George Washington“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” ~ George Washington
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Their 18th Century Solution
Remembering that our Founders were doing their work at the end of the 18th century and what they had just experienced, the options they envisioned in the event of a catastrophe were somewhat limited, but again, in their own words.
"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die." ~ George Washington"When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson"A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired." ~ Alexander Hamilton"When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil." ~ Thomas Jefferson"When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense — to fight the government." ~ Alexander Hamilton
"Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God." ~ Thomas Jefferson"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves." ~ George Washington
Our Founding Fathers saw it coming in the 18th century. We experienced the collapse of law and order in the form of a coup in the 21st century. Will the 18th Century solution be needed or are we now able to make the changes necessary in a more reasoned manner in the 21st century?
Will “We the People” retain our liberty as a free people or will we bow to tyranny and become slaves of socialism? Only time will tell.
After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.
In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Last week I drew attention to the fact that our Founders had an exceptional understanding of human nature, and I communicated that by using their own words. This article will demonstrate their understanding of group behavior and how that could lead to the breakdown of the government of their new Republic. They foresaw how the downfall would progress and what was needed to prevent it. Once again, in their own words.
