It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of right.

Source: Ludwig von Mises
The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 454 (1912).

Topics: Uncategorized

I should like to express gratitude in this thanksgiving season for this great country, for the Constitution of the United States that grants to each individual liberty, freedom to think and to speak and to act as you please, just so long as each gives to the other man that same privilege. I am thankful for this country, and to use the words of Benjamin Decasseres that for a hundred and fifty years this country has raised the level of wages and living to the highest point ever attained in all historic time; thankful that this country has given more persons opportunity to raise themselves under individualistic, capitalistic, free enterprise system from menial to commanding positions than any other nation in the world, past or present. Then I repeat in his words: “Grateful that this country guarantees to each and all, native and foreign, free speech, free pen, freedom of religion, and trial by jury.

Source: President David O. McKay
CN-11/27/54

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Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive blame or praise for them. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.

Source: Friedrich A. Hayek
The Constitution of Liberty

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Another not unimportant consideration is, that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse, and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state.

Source: Joseph Story
Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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[July 4th] ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Source: John Adams
letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776

Topics: Uncategorized

Some believe that while freedom is a good thing, it has a precondition in good government and state institutions that bring about the core conditions of liberty. This is a view that freedom cannot care for itself and that society and civilization cannot arise on their own. Freedom needs government police, judges, legislatures, and presidents, they believe, to establish the conditions that make freedom possible in the first place.

So that we are clear, we are not speaking here of merely the belief in limited government, or what is sometimes called “minarchism.” There is a difference between believing in the need for government to preserve and protect freedom, and the view that government is the first condition of society, responsible for giving birth to freedom. In one view, some government is unavoidable; in the other view, power is the benefactor of freedom, the force to which all liberty owes its conception. There is a difference between seeing government as a necessary evil, and viewing liberty as the offspring of power.

Source: Lew Rockwell
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/regime-libs.html

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In the United States as soon as a man has acquired some education and pecuniary resources, he either endeavors to get rich by commerce or industry, or he buys land in the bush and turns pioneer. All that he asks of the State is not to be disturbed in his toil, and to be secure of his earnings. Amongst the greater part of European nations, when a man begins to feel his strength and to extend his desires, the first thing that occurs to him is to get some public employment. These opposite effects, originating in the same cause, deserve our passing notice.

Source: Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America, volume 2, chapter 20

Topics: Education

...one of the Fifth Amendment’s “basic functions ... is to protect innocent men ... ‘who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’”. In Grunewald, we recognized that truthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as those of a wrongdoer, may provide the government with incriminating evidence from the speaker’s own mouth.

Source: US Supreme Court
Ohio v. Reiner, 532 U.S. 17.20 (2001)

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May the Lord bless this great work in which we are engaged, and fit and prepare us for the great events which I believe are pending in the world, and which are in progress—revolutionary changes, changes all over the world. I have no sympathy with the anti-Christian socialism of Russia, or of Europe, but the time is coming when the Latter-day Saints will have impressed upon them more and more, and we will see more clearly, the beauties of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been revealed in these the last days, and will sense the responsibility that is upon us. May we realize it.

Source: Elder James H. Moyle
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Uncategorized

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