If it be asked, ‘What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic?’ the answer would be, an inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.
Category: laws
Unlawful commands
Because of what appears to be a lawful command on the surface, many Citizens, because of their respect for what appears to be law, are cunningly coerced into waiving their rights due to ignorance.
Changing and voluminous laws
The internal effects of a mutable policy are […] calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow.
Limiting government power
Government should never be able to do anything you can’t do. If you can’t steal from your neighbor, you can’t send the government to steal for you.
Danger: Government at work
No man’s life, liberty, or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session.
Government must be just
No government is respectable which is not just. Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society.
The importance of law and justice
For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with the arms of intelligence and with moral qualities which he may use for the worst ends.
The importance of accountability
You can’t run a society or cope with its problems if people are not held accountable for what they do.
Law and freedom
Where there is no law there is no freedom.
More laws for more control
There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.