“The King used his prerogative to pamper and flatter his vanity by plundering our wealth and heaping unto himself the products of our labor. Some of your public servants, particularly in the last several decades, have rediscovered that ancient craft. Do you not see that they defraud you of your riches and gratify their own conceits? They abuse the necessary power of taxation to take your wealth, then use it upon you to plan and regulate your economic, social, educational, and even your moral and religious life. These high-minded politicians fancy themselves wiser than you. They would transform our republic into an aristocracy!”

“For our ruler, it was the most presumptuous vanity to think th...

“The King used his prerogative to pamper and flatter his vanity by plundering our wealth and heaping unto himself the products of our labor. Some of your public servants, particularly in the last several decades, have rediscovered that ancient craft. Do you not see that they defraud you of your riches and gratify their own conceits? They abuse the necessary power of taxation to take your wealth, then use it upon you to plan and regulate your economic, social, educational, and even your moral and religious life. These high-minded politicians fancy themselves wiser than you. They would transform our republic into an aristocracy!”

“For our ruler, it was the most presumptuous vanity to think that because he was King he was judge and lawgiver, that his will had the weight of natural law. Your rulers today suffer under a similar but more subtle delusion. They have put their noses to the books (with all their high-flown and complicated ways of describing the simplest things) and studied law, science, economics, sociology, statistics, and the science of politics, yet they, with all that learning, have more than anything else learned the conceit to fancy themselves better prepared than you to govern your life.”

“They have not comprehended the most fundamental of truths; that the essence of the republic we gave you (which they persist to call a democracy, a government we carefully shunned) was, that only the people have the right to govern the people; that whatsoever is more or less than this is either oppression on the one hand or anarchy on the other.”

“Now stand back here with me, if you will, and view our nation as I see it. When the Constitution was first applied, a sense of order, unity, confidence, and peace came upon the land that far surpassed our most eager expectations. It was sublime beyond our ability to describe. The new nation rose powerfully and majestically; the eyes of the world were upon it. In a few decades that laughing stock of governments became the

.......became the most compelling political mecca. It was the hand of Divine Providence made manifest to the great blessing of the society of mankind.”

“Now observe how, as the fundamental principles of the Constitution were tampered with (by amendment and by what I must call judicial usurpation), the workings of that carefully balanced engine of state began to falter. That faltering seemed to demand yet more change. And more rapidly and frequently the changes have come, and always they have brought you more troubles and only made matters worse. Can you see how, through the years your despair has grown in ratio with your alterations and violations of the Constitution?”

“There are men among...

.......became the most compelling political mecca. It was the hand of Divine Providence made manifest to the great blessing of the society of mankind.”

“Now observe how, as the fundamental principles of the Constitution were tampered with (by amendment and by what I must call judicial usurpation), the workings of that carefully balanced engine of state began to falter. That faltering seemed to demand yet more change. And more rapidly and frequently the changes have come, and always they have brought you more troubles and only made matters worse. Can you see how, through the years your despair has grown in ratio with your alterations and violations of the Constitution?”

“There are men among you with that requisite wisdom and integrity to lead you back to the full freedom whence you have come; but of even greater significance, these men, when you find them, will lack the presumption to seek to be your protector and savior and to have the glory and honor of caring for your every need. These men will desire only to be free men, and to allow all men the opportunity to lift themselves (with the help of Divine Providence only) by their own diligence, even though that opportunity must also give them the equal chance to falter and fail. Yes, there is the substance of your choice and the essence of your challenge. And in that connection I will remind you that we gave you for the symbol of our nation, not a well-tended goose in a cage, but an eagle: free, unfettered, independent, and close to God.”