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Samuel Adams quote - Important today!
University of Chicago - The Founder's Constitution ^ | 11/4/1775 | Samuel Adams

Posted on 04/28/2010 5:18:13 AM PDT by Loud Mime

The excerpt:

For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

The Full Letter:

18

Epilogue: Securing the Republic

CHAPTER 18 | Document 6

Samuel Adams to James Warren

4 Nov. 1775Writings 3:235--37

Let me talk with you a little about the Affairs of our own Colony. I perswade my self, my dear Friend, that the greatest Care and Circumspection will be used to conduct its internal Police with Wisdom and Integrity. The Eyes of Mankind will be upon you to see whether the Government, which is now more popular than it has been for many years past, will be productive of more Virtue moral and political. We may look up to Armies for our Defence, but Virtue is our best Security. It is not possible that any State shd long remain free, where Virtue is not supremely honord. This is as seasonably as it is justly said by one of the most celebrated Writers of the present time. Perhaps the Form of Governmt now adopted & set up in the Colony may be permanent. Should it be only temporary the golden opportunity of recovering the Virtue & reforming the Manners of our Country should be industriously improvd. Our Ancestors in the most early Times laid an excellent Foundation for the security of Liberty by setting up in a few years after their Arrival a publick Seminary of Learning; and by their Laws they obligd every Town consisting of a certain Number of Families to keep and maintain a Grammar School. I shall be very sorry, if it be true as I have been informd, that some of our Towns have dismissd their Schoolmasters, alledging that the extraordinary Expence of defending the Country renders them unable to support them. I hope this Inattention to the Principles of our Forefathers does not prevail. If there should be any Danger of it, would not the leading Gentlemen do eminent Service to the Publick, by impressing upon the Minds of the People, the Necessity & Importance of encouraging that System of Education, which in my opinion is so well calculated to diffuse among the Individuals of the Community the Principles of Morality, so essentially necessary to the Preservation of publick Liberty.

There are Virtues & vices which are properly called political. "Corruption, Dishonesty to ones Country Luxury and Extravagance tend to the Ruin of States." The opposite Virtues tend to their Establishment. But "there is a Connection between Vices as well as Virtues and one opens the Door for the Entrance of another." Therefore "Wise and able Politicians will guard against other Vices," and be attentive to promote every Virtue. He who is void of virtuous Attachments in private Life, is, or very soon will be void of all Regard for his Country. There is seldom an Instance of a Man guilty of betraying his Country, who had not before lost the Feeling of moral Obligations in his private Connections. Before [Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr.] was detected of holding a criminal Correspondence with the Enemies of his Country, his Infidelity to his Wife had been notorious. Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of Children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise Institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouragd by the Government. For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 1, Chapter 18, Document 6
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s6.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Writings of Samuel Adams. Edited by Harry Alonzo Cushing.
4 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904--8.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: quote; samueladams
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1 posted on 04/28/2010 5:18:13 AM PDT by Loud Mime
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To: Bokababe; fieldmarshaldj; Pollster1; Rummyfan; eyedigress; AlmaKing; Islaminaction; TigersEye; ...

ping


2 posted on 04/28/2010 5:18:44 AM PDT by Loud Mime (initialpoints.net - - The Constitution as the center of politics -- Download the graph)
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To: Loud Mime

Deserves a bump


3 posted on 04/28/2010 5:19:21 AM PDT by Tribune7 (It is immoral to claim the tea parties to be racist)
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To: Vision; definitelynotaliberal; Mother Mary; FoxInSocks; 300magnum; NonValueAdded; sauropod; ...

ping


4 posted on 04/28/2010 5:21:08 AM PDT by Loud Mime (initialpoints.net - - The Constitution as the center of politics -- Download the graph)
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To: Loud Mime
On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

A perfect snapshot of current America.

5 posted on 04/28/2010 5:21:42 AM PDT by highlander_UW (First we take down the Democrats, then we clean the Augean stable that is the GOP.)
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Bookmark


6 posted on 04/28/2010 5:24:17 AM PDT by jersey117
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To: Loud Mime

A most fitting piece of writing for our times.


7 posted on 04/28/2010 5:27:05 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
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To: Loud Mime
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious.
But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.
He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
A murderer is less to be feared."

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero
8 posted on 04/28/2010 5:28:04 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: highlander_UW
The President Who Won't Grow Up

What does this make his followers?

9 posted on 04/28/2010 5:28:12 AM PDT by Loud Mime (initialpoints.net - - The Constitution as the center of politics -- Download the graph)
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To: sickoflibs; mkjessup

PING


10 posted on 04/28/2010 5:28:14 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
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To: Diogenesis

You beat me to it. (Although I planned to include the picture of a certain person temporarily living on Pennsylvania Avenue.)


11 posted on 04/28/2010 5:32:23 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( - Free Men will always be armed with the Truth. - [ me ] -)
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To: smokingfrog

I think you should post that anyway!


12 posted on 04/28/2010 5:36:53 AM PDT by Loud Mime (initialpoints.net - - The Constitution as the center of politics -- Download the graph)
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To: Loud Mime
Virtue is our best Security
13 posted on 04/28/2010 5:37:56 AM PDT by Loud Mime (initialpoints.net - - The Constitution as the center of politics -- Download the graph)
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To: Loud Mime

14 posted on 04/28/2010 5:38:15 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms. - Aristotle)
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To: Loud Mime

15 posted on 04/28/2010 5:38:40 AM PDT by steelyourfaith (Warmists as "traffic light" apocalyptics: "Greens too yellow to admit they're really Reds."-Monckton)
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To: Diogenesis

16 posted on 04/28/2010 5:41:03 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( Ridicule is the best test of truth. - Philip Dormer Shanhope, Lord Chesterfield)
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To: Loud Mime

Adams argues that public schools are the best means of promoting virtue? Clearly, the schools are promoting their concept of virtue. How’s that working out for us?


17 posted on 04/28/2010 5:42:15 AM PDT by Huck (Q: How can you tell a party is in the majority? A: They're complaining about the fillibuster.)
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To: Loud Mime

“When People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders”

A bit long for a bumper sticker....but I’ll think of something.


18 posted on 04/28/2010 5:49:17 AM PDT by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
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To: Loud Mime

Democratic and Democracy are two words not found anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.. for good reason.. No democracy has ever been democratic.. There is always an elite running things in a democracy.. Mob Rule by mobsters.. or a loose amalgam of mobs.. with an elite Mob at the top..


19 posted on 04/28/2010 5:50:57 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: Loud Mime

My favorite of his....

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

Samuel Adams


20 posted on 04/28/2010 6:02:10 AM PDT by NavyCanDo
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