Northwest Indiana Discussion

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religous people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - Samuel Adams

"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 the laborer the bread he has earned. This is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson

Can anybody please tell me what about these words of wisdom from those who founded and pioneered our country is being heeded today?

Mirage, it has all been flushed down the toilet, and the Constitution has become the toilet paper.

It really has Tiger. And if the new President keeps only part of his promises it will likely become easier to scrap the Constitution and start over with a new form of government than to get back to what the Founders intended.

As one of the quotes states "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religous people" which we are no longer either in the majority. It has only taken the last 40 years or so to undo all the hard fought progress of the previous 192+, all ironically in the name of progress.

Say Mirage, are these the same "moral and religous" Founding Fathers that had slaves?

Say Troll, do you know anything at all, and I mean ANYTHING at all about the history of this country besides your slanted, racist, bigoted view that you were indoctrinated with from your 10 years in grade school....?

Typical.

Jefferson and slavery
Jefferson portrayed
on the U.S. Nickel

1938–2004

2005

2006–present
Jefferson owned many slaves over his lifetime. Some find it baffling that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves yet was outspoken in saying that slavery was immoral and it should be abolished. Biographers point out that Jefferson was deeply in debt and had encumbered his slaves by notes and mortgages; he chose not to free them until he finally was debt-free, which he never was.[72] Jefferson seems to have suffered pangs and trials of conscience as a result.[73] He wrote about slavery, "We have the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."[74]

During his long career in public office, Jefferson attempted numerous times to abolish or limit the advance of slavery. He sponsored and encouraged Free-State advocates like James Lemen.[75] According to a biographer, Jefferson "believed that it was the responsibility of the state and society to free all slaves."[76]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

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Samuel Adams

John Adams cousin Samuel Adams apparently received a slave named Surry as a gift in 1765. Some sources say she remained a slave; others say Samuel freed her immediately. In any case she stayed on as Samuel's family cook for several decades - even after slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts by a bill Samuel introduced.
http://www.nas.com/~lopresti/ps.htm

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James Madison, Memorandum on an African Colony for Freed Slaves

ca. 20 Oct. 1789Papers 12:437--38
Without enquiring into the practicability or the most proper means of establishing a Settlement of freed blacks on the Coast of Africa, it may be remarked as one motive to the benevolent experiment that if such an asylum was provided, it might prove a great encouragement to manumission in the Southern parts of the U. S. and even afford the best hope yet presented of putting an end to the slavery in which not less than 600,000 unhappy negroes are now involved.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders ... 15s43.html

That's where they stood on slavery.

Now, just who will rise to free us from the crushing slavery of taxation?