Having a Constitution helps us define our values, our ideologies, our sacred rights. It reminds us who we are, where we have been and where we can go. Having these national views we as a country are more unified and know what it means to be an "American."
The purpose of a national government should be to:
Preserve Peace
Relieve Distress
Provide Happiness (allow the freedom for the pursuit thereof)
Powerful Leaders (for better or worse) have a BIGGER picture of what they want accomplished.
The purpose for Americans to own guns is for self-defense.
James Wilson, Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention
"With what propriety can we hope our flag [nation/constitution/values] will be respected while we have not a single gun to fire in its defense?"
"There are not on any part of the globe finer qualities, for forming a national character, than those possessed by the children of America. Activity, perseverance, industry, laudable emulation, docility in acquiring information, firmness in adversity, and patience and magnanimity under the greatest hardships; from these materials, what a respectable national character may be raised! In addition to this character, I think there is strong reason to believe that America may take the lead in literary improvements and national importance. This is a subject which I confess I have spent much pleasing time in considering. That language, Sir, which shall become most generally known in the civilized world, will impart great importance over the nation that shall use it. The language of the United States will in future times be diffused over a greater extent of country than any other that we now know."
*Knowing and speaking the English language is something to take seriously and take pride in, as it is one of the last things that tie Americans together.*
Despotism- a country or political system where the ruler holds absolute power.
*A properly educated person uses logic and support form great minds of history to come to conclusions, while an unintelligent person uses threats, absolutes, and belittlement.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (signer of the Constitution), South Carolina House of Representatives
"We ought to date that invaluable blessing [the Dec of Ind]... our babes should be taught to lisp in their cradles; which our youth should learn as a carmen necessarium, or indispensable lesson; which our young men should regard as their compact of freedom; and which our old should repeat with ejaculations of gratitude for the bounties it is about to bestow on their posterity: I mean the Declaration of Independence, made in Congress the 4th of July, 1776."
#Wow. How far we have come... Teach it to my children!
*Without the unity of our states, we would be neither free nor independent.
*Call America: The United States of America. Give respect and recognition to the power of the states!
*Congress should have what is termed "the powers of the purse and the sword." Which to many = total power.
* A great politician = a great salesman! He creates urgency!
#Teach Children: persuasion power
The Founder's (John Jay) frequently quote scripture- also part of our national spirit, "You cannot but be sensible that this plan or Constitution will always be in the hands and power of the people..."
What DESTROYS our National Unity/ Spirit:
John Jay, An Address to the People of the State of New York
"Let us all be mindful that the cause of freedom depends on the use we make of the singular opportunities we enjoy of governing ourselves wisely; for, if the event should prove that the people of this country either cannot or will not govern themselves, who will hereafter be advocates for systems which, however charming in theory and prospect, are not reducible to practice? If the people of our nation, instead of consenting to be governed by laws of their own making and rulers of their own choosing, should let licentiousness, disorder, and confusion reign over them, the minds of men everywhere will insensibly become alienated from republican forms, and prepared to prefer and acquiesce in governments which, though less friendly to liberty, afford more peace and security."
John Quincy Adams to William Plumer
"The spirit of party has become so inveterate and so virulent in our country, it has so totally absorbed the understanding and the heart of almost all the distinguished men among us, that I, who cannot cease to consider all the individuals of both parties as my countrymen, who can neither approve nor disapprove in a lump either of the men or the measures of either party, who see both sides claiming an exclusive privilege of patriotism, and using against each other weapons of political warfare which I never can handle, cannot but cherish that congenial spirit, which has always preserved itself pure from the infectious vapors of faction, which considers temperance as one of the first political duties, and which can perceive a very distinct shade of difference between political candor and political hypocrisy."
*NEVER associate with a particular party. I am an AMERICAN.*
