The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
That government is best which governs least.
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it gets out of its way.
If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.
It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone. . . .
Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are NOT good.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Government is at best but an expedient but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts -- a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories