We Were Warned

Our founding fathers warned us of the character of fallen human nature and the necessity of retaining high standards and values to avoid descent into an immoral and corruption society.

Thomas Jefferson, skilled thinker and wise observer of humankind, said:

"Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right." —Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1806.
"The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the seductions of self-love." —Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. 
"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others." —Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811.
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people." —Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1816.
"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." —Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes... But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is [the people's] right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." —Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
"Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society." —Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1825.
"Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society." —Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1825.
"No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their charge." —Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.  This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." —Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.
"If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves.  It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions." —Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.
"Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them." —Thomas Jefferson to Annapolis Citizens, 1809.
"It is a happy truth that man is capable of self-government, and only rendered otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced on him by the wicked acts of his tyrant." —Thomas Jefferson to M. de Marbois, 1817.
"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." —Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." —Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1802
"We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude." —Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.

Jefferson’s exhortations and cautionary comments serve to highlight some of the problems in the devolution of our society that must be addressed in public forum and seriously considered in the legislature. The moral degradation and corruption cited by Jefferson is endemic among our representatives today.

We can no longer sit idly by and allow morally weak men and women to make decisions for the population of the United States.

Samuel Adams said:

• “He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.”
  
• “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”
  
• “The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.”
  

As Adams said so well, “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”

John Adams said:

• "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." —October 11, 1798
  

Did John Adams imply that when society’s values drop so low, we must change our constitution to allow for the moral devolution and corruption of society to set new, lower standards for our nation? By no means!! Standing in the muck and mire of our so-called “modern” world, we must instead raise our eyes to the heavens and begin again the journey of rediscovery of the principles God designed us to be guided by.

An example from history should suffice to give us pause as we head into a new regime in our federal government.

When the Israelites became enamored with the nations surrounding them, they demanded a king so they could be just like the other nations. Samuel, Judge and Prophet, after discussing it with God in prayer, warned them:

^{“. . .} This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."” 1 Samuel 8:11-18 ^NIV

Beware of the promises of morally bankrupt deceivers!