You got that right.....

“If the guarantees of the Constitution can be broken provisionally to serve a temporary purpose, and in a part only of the country, we can destroy them everywhere and for all time. Arbitrary measures often change, but they generally change for the worse. It is the curse of despotism that it has no halting place. The intermitted exercise of its power brings no sense of security to its subjects, for they can never know what more they will be called to endure when its red right hand is armed to plague them again. Nor is it possible to conjecture how or where power, unrestrained by law, may seek its next victims. The States that are still free may be enslaved at any moment; for if the Constitution does not protect all, it protects none. . . . .This, to the minds of some persons, is so important that a violation of the Constitution is justified as a means of bringing it about. The morality is always false which excuses a wrong because it proposes to accomplish a desirable end. We are not permitted to do evil that good may come. But in this case the end itself is evil. as well as the means.”
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- Andrew Johnson, Message to the U.S. Senate, Washington, December 3, 1867

Riflemen, Attention!

"Recruits having Rifles to which they are accustomed...", Sept. 16, 1861

The Pistol Waving Judge, Georgia Republican Extra, 25th April 1804

(Click on image to read full article)

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"... Because, your conduct during the present visit for the session of the court, has not added respect to your important office.

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"Because, the outrage of presenting a pistol in open court, while sitting in a judicial capacity, is degrading to the character of a judge, and argues a degree of impropriety I want words to express...."
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Sure, they can have a pistol......

What Irony....

Apparently, New York used to have some decent politicians....

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCLXV.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1878.

I.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

By Horatio Seymour.
(Governor of New York State from 1853-1854 and from 1863-1864).

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"...There are many things that the majority and Government cannot do. The writ of habeas corpus cannot be suspended unless in cases of rebellion or invasion; no bill of attainder can be passed; no tax laid upon any article exported from any State; no laws can be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right to assemble and petition Government for a redress of grievances. The right to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed; the right to be secure in their persons and houses against unreasonable searches and seizures cannot be violated. No person can be held to answer for capital or other infamous crimes, unless upon indictment of a grand-jury, etc...."

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I know, I know, it was hard for me to accept as well. But, there it is nonetheless. Who would have thought?

George Washington to Continental Congress, April 18, 1783....

“...Notwithstanding the length of this Letter, I must beg the Liberty to suggest to Congress an Idea which has been hinted to me, and which has affected my Mind very forcibly. That is, that at the Discharge of the Men engaged for the War, Congress should be pleased to suffer those Men, non Commissd Officers and Soldiers, to take with them as their own property, and as a Gratuity, the Arms and Accoutrements they now hold. This Act would raise pleasing Sensations in the Minds of those worthy and faithfull Men, who, from their early engaging in the War, at moderate Bounties, and from their patient continuing, under innumerable distresses, have not only deserved nobly from their Country, but have obtained an honorable Distinction over those, who, with shorter Terms, have gained large pecuniary Rewards. This Act, at a comparative small Expence, would be deemed an honorable Testimonial from Congress of the Regard they bear to those distinguished Worthies, and the Sense they have of their suffering Virtues and Services, which have been so happily instrumental towards the security and Establishment of the Rights Liberties and Independence of this rising Empire. These constant companions of their Toils and Dangers, preserved with sacred Care, would be handed down from the present possessors, to their Children, as honorable Badges of Bravery and military Merit; and would probably be bro't forth, on some future Occasion, with Pride and Exultation, to be improved, with the same military Ardor and Emulation, in the Hands of posterity, as they have been used by their forefathers in the present Establishment and foundation of our National Independence and Glory....”
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- The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799