That is, by far, one of the finest posts I've ever read on Free Republic. Please consider posting it as a vanity.
Please share if you wish.
The Founders understood human nature, and they warned of the dire consequences if "the People" who, according to Justice Story, are the "only Keepers" of the Constitution should fail in their duty to oversee those whom they elected as their representatives.
As we have allowed the so-called "progressive" regressives to systematically censor the Founders' ideas from our textbooks and public discourse over the past several decades, generations have grown up without understanding of their role as "watchmen on the walls of liberty."
Perhaps the blatant overreach of the current Administration, along with Reid, Pelosi and the other Democrat hierarchy with their coercive and abusive ACA have captured the attention of enough Americans that there will be a rediscovery of the Founders' wisdom and understanding of the nature of liberty and the means to preserve it.
Our best weapon is contained in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution which leaves all the power in "the People's" hands. Read them, amplify upon their principles and ideas by accessing the Founders' writings and speeches.
For a quick review of those principles and the nation's first 50 years under its Constitution, consult John Quincy Adams' "Jubilee" Address here, or a recent reprint of a 1987 Bicentennial collection of the Founders' principles, here.
James Madison stated: "Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant—they have been cheated; asleep—they have been surprised; divided—the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ... the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government, they should watch over it ... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." - James Madison
And, speaking of Justice Story:
"If these Commentaries shall but inspire in the rising generation a more ardent love of their country, an unquenchable thirst for liberty, and a profound reverence for the constitution and the Union, then they will have accomplished all, that their author ought to desire. Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capable, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful, as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; and its defences are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, THE PEOPLE. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." - Justice Joseph Story, Final Paragraph of "Commentaries on the Constitution"
Note: Underlining added for emphasis