Quote of the Day

With the U.S. President playing fast and loose with the law, any means justified if it purportedly keeps us "safe," it's worth remembering this quote:

I know the American people are much attached to their government; -- I know they would suffer much for its sake; -- I know they would endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of the mob, the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural consequence...

...the question recurs, "how shall we fortify against it?" The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; -- let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.

-- Abraham Lincoln, 1/27/1838, Springfield, Illinois