Quotes of the Day - role of government

It's the start of the Fourth of July holiday and I'm going to play a bit this weekend.

I hope to see many of my readers at the We The People Convention in Columbus which is today and tomorrow. I know they have confirmed Herman Cain as the speaker for Saturday's PAC dinner and, having heard him in person several times, I know he will deliver an excellent keynote address. He's going to be at the convention during the afternoon to meet attendees and perhaps participate in some of the breakout sessions. So this is a chance to have personal access to him.

I'm heading there later tonight and will be introducing Saturday's lunch speaker, John Fund from the Wall Street Journal. I'll also be moderating and participating in the blogger panel during the Americans For Prosperity-Ohio mini Right On Line break-out session following lunch.

So, in anticipation of a patriotic event that encourages us to take responsibility for our governance, and celebration of the birth of our nation, here are two quotes relating to the role of government. The first, from our founding father, Thomas Jefferson, on the limits of government and the second from Sir Richard John Cartwright, a member of the Canadian Parliament and Senator, taken from his comments during Canada's founding debates.


"It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. [The Constitution] was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"I think that every true reformer, every real friend of liberty, will agree with me in saying that if we must erect safeguards, they should be rather for the security of the individual than of the mass, and that our chiefest care must be to train the majority to respect the rights of the minority, to prevent the claims of the few from being trampled under foot by the caprice or passion of the many." ~ Sir Richard John Cartwright