We Have More Machinery of Government Than is Necessary…

Thomas Jefferson

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow, 1824

The Accumulation of All Powers in the Same Hands is the Definition of Tyranny…

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 justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”  ― James Madison, Federalist Papers

We Are Running the Next Generation into Debt…

Thomas Paine

“As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure anything which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.” — Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

When a Government Becomes Powerful…

Marcus Tullius Cicero

“We are taxed in our bread and our wine, in our incomes and our investments, on our land and on our property not only for base creatures who do not deserve the name of men, but for foreign nations, complaisant nations who will bow to us and accept our largesse and promise us to assist in the keeping of the peace — these mendicant nations who will destroy us when we show a moment of weakness or our treasury is bare, and surely it is becoming bare! … When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.” — Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Where an Excess of Power Prevails…

James Madison

“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.” — James Madison

How Prone All Human Institutions Have Been to Decay & Despotism

James Monroe

“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.” — James Monroe, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

The Power Who is Jealous of Our Prosperity…

Thomas Paine

“Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No, to this question, is an Independant for independency means no more than this, whether we shall make our own laws, or, whether the King, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us there shall be no laws but such as I like.” — Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

The Government is No Longer a Limited One…

James Madison

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” — James Madison, Letter to Edmund Pendelton, 1792.

The Greedy Hand of Government Thrusting Itself into Every Corner and Crevice of Industry…

Thomas Paine

“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.” — Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us with Perpetual Debt!

Thomas Jefferson

“[T]o preserve … independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.” ― Thomas Jefferson, 1816