"Respect for [the Constitution's] authority, compliance with its Laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all...
All obstructions . . . with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the Constituted authorities, are destructive and are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People, and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
--George Washington
cf.
(Alabama Law Review
Winter, 1998
49 Ala. L. Rev. 607
"We the People" or "We the Judges": A Reply to Robert R. Baugh's Response
By William P. Gray, Jr.)
1 comment:
Kind of scary...almost as if Washington was a prophet or somethin'!
~M
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