A Jefferson Top 7

clipped from wethefree.blogspot.com The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. clipped from wethefree.blogspot.com I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. clipped from wethefree.blogspot.com The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. (Back then!) When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.