The ONLY MEANS by which wee save our beloved Republic.
"Give me liberty, or give me death!" Patrick Henry “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention 1775
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
George Washington, Farewell Address 1796:
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
Samuel Adams, speech in Philadelphia 1776:
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
Benjamin Franklin: Pennsylvania Evening Post (14 Dec. 1775)
Silence becomes a kind of crime when it operates as a cover or an encouragement to the guilty.
Thomas Paine: Pennsylvania Packet, January 23, 1779
It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.
Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
Thomas Paine
Well give me peace in my day… If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my children may have peace."
Thomas Paine: The American Crisis (1776 - 1783)
There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition, to the grave.
Thomas Paine: Rights of Man, 1792
[TO BE CONTINUED]