Happy Semiquincentennial, America!

America has come a long way in 250 years! We’ve seen progress and advancements that have made life much easier for us. Sometimes, it is important to remember the trials and tribulations of those who played a role in getting us here.

I would image that when the Declaration of Independence was signed, that it wasn’t all cheers and happiness. Think about it. These men had been labeled traitors by the King of England. By signing, it was in outright rebellion. It was like signing their own death warrant, especially if this “declaration” was not accepted by the King.

War, of course, followed and America won its independence. Afterward, there were years of decisions. The things discussed and finally agreed upon were not things taken lightly. They could have easily just moved forward and appointed a king and continued like before, but they didn’t.

I can’t imagine how these men weighed all the options and scenarios they could come up with and craft the inner workings of a government. It was something that they worked hard at to get it right – or as right as humanly possible.

The three branches of government and the checks and balances system still amazes me. These men also allowed for “amendments” to the Constitution if necessary. They had every intention of this government lasting long past their life times – and it has.

Today, I celebrate not only the birth of our country, but the men and women who helped keep it alive for 250 years.

Thomas Paine: “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” 

Thomas Jefferson: “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…”

John Adams: “Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”

James Madison: “In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example … of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.”

George Washington: “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

James Madison: “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”

Thomas Jefferson: “The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution …”

James Madison: “We may define a republic to be … a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.”

Benjamin Franklin: “The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy.”

Samuel Adams: “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.”

Thomas Jefferson: “When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state.”

John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Thomas Paine: “Government is best which governs least.”

Alexander Hamilton: “It has been observed… that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved, that no position in politics is more false than this… Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”

James Madison: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be pronounced as the very definition of tyranny.”

Thomas Jefferson: “Born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies. By living in peace, we can help and prosper one another; by waging war, we can kill and destroy many on both sides; but those who survive will not be the happier for that.”

Benjamin Rush: “The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”