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Constitution of New Jersey; 1776 WHEREAS all the constitutional authority ever possessed by the kings of Great Britain over these colonies, or their other dominions, was, by compact, derived from the people, and held of them, for the common interest of the whole society; allegiance and protection are, in the nature of things, reciprocal ties; each equally depending upon the other, and liable to be dissolved by the others being refused or withdrawn. And whereas George the Third, king of Great Britain, has refused protection to the good people of these colonies; and, by assenting to sundry acts of the British parliament, attempted to subject them to the absolute dominion of that body; and has also made war upon them, in the most cruel and unnatural manner, for no other cause, than asserting their just rights-all civil authority under him is necessarily at an end, and a dissolution of government in each colony has consequently taken place. And whereas, In the present deplorable situation of these colonies, exposed to the fury of a cruel and relentless enemy, some form of government is absolutely necessary, not only for the preservation of good order, but also the more effectually to unite the people, and enable them to exert their whole force in their own necessary defence: and as the honorable the continental congress, the supreme council of the American colonies, has advised such of the colonies as have not yet gone into measures, to adopt for themselves, respectively, such government as shall best conduce to their own happiness and safety, and the well-being of America in general:-We, the representatives of the colony of New Jersey, having been elected by all the counties, in the freest manner, and in congress assembled, have, after mature deliberations, agreed upon a set of charter rights and the form of a Constitution, in manner following, viz. I. That the government of this Province shall be vested in a Governor, Legislative Council, and General Assembly. II. That the Legislative Council, and General Assembly, shall be chosen, for the first time, on the second Tuesday in August next; the members whereof shall be the same in number and qualifications as are herein after mentioned; and shall be and remain vested with all the powers and authority to be held by any future Legislative Council and Assembly of this Colony, until the second Tuesday in October, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven. III. That on the second Tuesday in October yearly, and every year forever (with the privilege of adjourning from day to day as occasion may require) the counties shall severally choose one person, to be a member of the Legislative Council of this Colony, who shall be, and have been, for one whole year next before the election, an inhabitant and freeholder in the county in which he is chosen, and worth at least one thousand pounds proclamation money, of real and personal estate, within the same county; that, at the same time, each county shall also choose three members of Assembly; provided that no person shall be entitled to a seat in the said Assembly unless he be, and have been, for one whole year next before the election, an inhabitant of the county he is to represent, and worth five hundred pounds proclamation money, in real and personal estate, in the same county: that on the second Tuesday next after the day of election, the Council and Assembly shall separately meet; and that the consent of both Houses shall be necessary to every law; provided, that seven shall be a quorum of the Council, for doing business, and that no law shall pass, unless there be a majority of all the Representatives of each body personally present, and agreeing thereto. Provided always, that if a majority of the representatives of this Province, in Council and General Assembly convened, shall, at any time or times hereafter, judge it equitable and proper, to add to or diminish the number or proportion of the members of Assembly for any county or counties in this Colony, then, and in such case, the same may, on the principles of more equal representation, be lawfully done; anything in this Charter to the contrary notwithstanding: so that the whole number of Representatives in Assembly shall not, at any time, be less than thirty-nine. IV. That all inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money, clear estate in the same, and have resided within the county in which they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the election, shall be entitled to vote for Representatives in Council and Assembly; and also for all other public officers, that shall be elected by the people of the county at large. V. That the Assembly, when met, shall have power to choose a Speaker, and other their officers; to be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members; sit upon their own adjournments; prepare bills, to be passed into laws; and to empower their Speaker to convene them, whenever any extraordinary occurrence shall render it necessary. VI. That the Council shall also have power to prepare bills to pass into laws, and have other like powers as the Assembly, and in all respects be a free and independent branch of the Legislature of this Colony; save only, that they shall not prepare or alter any money bill-which shall be the privilege of the Assembly; that the Council shall, from time to time, be convened by the Governor or Vice-President, but must be convened, at all times, when the Assembly sits; for which purpose the Speaker of the House of Assembly shall always, immediately after an adjournment, give notice to the Governor, or Vice-President, of the time and place to which the House is adjourned. VII. That the Council and Assembly jointly, at their first meeting after each annual election, shall, by a majority of votes, elect some fit person within the Colony, to be Governor for one year, who shall be constant President of the Council, and have a casting vote in their proceedings; and that the Council themselves shall choose a Vice-President who shall act as such in the absence of the Governor. VIII. That the Governor, or, in his absence, the Vice-President of the Council, shall have the supreme executive power, be Chancellor of the Colony, and act as captain-general and commander in chief of all the militias and other military force in this Colony; and that any three or more of the Council shall, at all times, be a privy-council, to consult them; and that the Governor be ordinary or surrogate general. IX. That the Governor and Council, (seven whereof shall be a quorum) be the Court of Appeals, in the last resort, in all clauses of law, as heretofore; and that they possess the power of granting pardons to criminals, after condemnation, in all cases of treason, felony, or other offences. X. That captains, and all other inferior officers of the militia, shall be chosen by the companies, in the respective counties; but field and general officers, by the Council and Assembly. XI. That the Council and Assembly shall have power to make the (treat Seal of this Colony, which shall be kept by the Governor, or, in his absence, by the V3ce-President of the Council, to be used by them as occasion may require: and it shall be called, The Great Seal of the Colony of New-Jersey. XII. That the Judges of the Supreme Court shall continue in office for seven years: the Judges of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in the several counties, Justices of the Peace, Clerks of the Supreme Court, Clerks of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, the Attorney-General, and Provincial Secretary, shall continue in office for five years: and the Provincial Treasurer shall continue in office for one year; and that they shall be severally appointed by the Council and Assembly, in manner aforesaid, and commissioned by the Governor, or, in his absence, the Vice-President of the Council. Provided always, that the said officers, severally, shall be capable of being re-appointed, at the end of the terms severally before limited; and that any of the said officers shall be liable to be dismissed, when adjudged guilty of misbehaviour, by the Council, on an impeachment of the Assembly. XIII. That the inhabitants of each county, qualified to vote as aforesaid' shall at the title and place of electing their Representatives, annually elect one Sheriff, and one or more Coroners; and that they may re-elect the same person to such offices, until he shall have served three years, but no longer; after which, three years must elapse before the same person is capable of being elected again. When the election is certified to the Governor, or Vice-President, under the hands of six freeholders of the county for which they were elected, they shall be immediately commissioned to serve in their respective offices. XIV. That the townships, at their annual town meetings for electing other officers, shall choose constables for the districts respectively; and also three or more judicious freeholders of good character, to hear and finally determine all appeals, relative to unjust assessments, in cases of public taxation; which commissioners of appeal shall, for that purpose, sit at some suitable time or times, to be by them appointed, and made know n to the people by advertisements. XV. That the laws of the Colony shall begin in the following style, viz. " Be it enacted by the Council and General Assembly of this Colony, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same: " that all commissions, granted by the Governor or Vice-President, shall run thus-" The Colony of New-Jersey to A. B. &c. greeting: " and that all writs shall likewise run in the name of the Colony: and that all indictments shall conclude in the following manner, viz. "Against the peace of this Colony, the government and dignity of the same. XVI. That all criminals shall be admitted to the same privileges of witnesses and counsel, as their prosecutors are or shall be entitled to. XVII. That the estates of such persons as shall destroy their own lives, shall not, for that offence, be forfeited; but shall descend in the same manner, as they would have done, had such persons died in the natural way; nor shall any article, which may occasion accidentally the death of any one, be henceforth deemed, a deodand, or in anywise forfeited, on account of such misfortune. XVIII. That no person shall ever, within this Colony, be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God in a manner, agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; nor, under any presence whatever, be compelled to attend any place of worship, contrary to his own faith and judgment; nor shall any person, within this Colony, ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or any other rates, for the purpose of building or repairing any other church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or has deliberately or voluntarily engaged himself to perform. XIX. That there shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this Province, in preference to another; and that no Protestant inhabitant of this Colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right, merely on account of his religious principles; but that all persons, professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect. who shall demean themselves peaceably under the government, as hereby established, shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the Legislature, and shall fully and freely enjoy every privilege and immunity, enjoyed by others their fellow subjects. XX. That the legislative department of this government may, as much as possible, be preserved from all suspicion of corruption, none of the Judges of the Supreme or other Courts, Sheriffs, or any other person or persons possessed of any post of profit under the government, other than Justices of the Peace, shall be entitled to a seat in the Assembly: but that, on his being elected, and taking his seat, his office or post shall be considered as vacant. XXI. That all the laws of this Province, contained in the edition lately published by Mr. Allinson, shall be and remain in full force, until altered by the Legislature of this Colony (such only excepted, as are incompatible with this Charter) and shall be, according as heretofore, regarded in all respects, by all civil officers, and others, the good people of this Province. XXII. That the common law of England, as well as so much of the statute law, as have been heretofore practiced in this Colony, shall still remain in force, until they shall be altered by a future law of the Legislature; such parts only excepted, as are repugnant to the rights and privileges contained in this Charter; and that the inestimable right of trial by jury shall remain confirmed as a part of the law of this Colony, without repeal, forever. XXIII. That every person, who shall be elected as aforesaid to be a member of the Legislative Council, or House of Assembly, shall, previous to his taking his seat in Council or Assembly, take the following oath or affirmation, viz: " I, A. B., do solemnly declare, that, as a member of the Legislative Council, [or Assembly, as the case may be,] of the Colony of New-Jersey, I will not assent to any law, vote or proceeding, which shall appear to me injurious to the public welfare of said Colony, nor that shall annul or repeal that part of the third section in the Charter of this Colony, which establishes, that the elections of members of the Legislative Council and Assembly shall be annual; nor that part of the twenty-second section in said Charter, respecting the trial by jury, nor that shall annul, repeal, or alter any part or parts of the eighteenth or nineteenth sections of the same." And any person or persons, who shall be elected as aforesaid, is hereby empowered to administer to the said members the said oath or affirmation. Provided always, and it is the true intent and meaning of this Congress, that if a reconciliation between Great-Britain and these Colonies should take place, and the latter be taken again under the protection and government o f the crown of Britain, this Charter shall be null and void-otherwise to remain firm and inviolable. In Provincial Congress, New Jersey, Burlington. July 2, 1776. By order of Congress. SAMUEL TUCKER, Pres. WILLIAM PATTERSON, Secretary. Source: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nj15.asp

THE CONSTITUTION OR FORM OF GOVERNMENT, AGREED TO AND RESOLVED UPON BY THE DELEGATES AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES AND CORPORATIONS OF VIRGINIA Whereas George the third, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in this government, hath endeavoured to prevent, the same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny, by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good: By denying his Governors permission to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent, and, when so suspended neglecting to attend to them for many years: By refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to be benefited by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in the legislature: By dissolving legislative Assemblies repeatedly and continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people: When dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time, thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head: By endeavouring to prevent the population of our country, and, for thatpurpose, obstructing, the laws for the naturalization of foreigners: By keeping among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war: By effecting to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power: By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever: By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and destroying the lives of our people: By inciting insurrections of our fellow subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation: By prompting our negroes to rise in arms against us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law: By endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence: By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation: By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of injuries: And finally, by abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection. By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is TOTALLY DISSOLVED. We therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people of Virginia, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable conditions to which this once happy country must be reduced, unless some regular, adequate mode of civil polity is speedily adopted, and in compliance with a recommendation of the (general Congress, do ordain and declare the future form of government of Virginia to be as followeth: The legislative, executive, and judiciary department, shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to the other: nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than one of them, at the same time; except that the Justices of the County (courts shall be eligible to either House of Assembly The legislative shall be formed of two distinct branches, who, together, shall be a complete Legislature. They shall meet once, or oftener, every year, and shall be called, The General Assembly of Virginia. One of these shall be called, The House of Delegates, and consist of two Representatives, to be chosen for each county, and for the district of West-Augusta, annually, of such men as actually reside in, and are freeholders of the same, or duly qualified according to law, and also of one Delegate or Representative, to be chosen annually for the city of Williamsburgh, and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a Representative for each of such other cities and boroughs, as may hereafter be allowed particular representation by the legislature; but when any city or borough shall so decrease, as that the number of persons, having right of suffrage therein, shall have been, for the space of seven Years successively, less than half the number of voters in some one county in Virginia, such city or borough thenceforward shall cease to send a Delegate or Representative to the Assembly. The other shall be called The Senate, and consist of twenty-four members, of whom thirteen shall constitute a House to proceed on business; for whose election, the different counties shall be divided into twenty-four districts; and each county of the respective district, at the time of the election of its Delegates, shall vote for one Senator, who is actually a resident and freeholder within the district, or duly qualified according to law, and is upwards of twenty-five years of age; and the Sheriffs of each county, within five days at farthest, after the last county election in the district, shall meet at some convenient place, and from the poll, so taken in their respective counties, return, as a Senator, the man who shall have the greatest number of votes in the whole district. To keep up this Assembly by rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classes and numbered by lot. At the end of one year after the general election, the six members, elected by the first division, shall be displaced, and the vacancies thereby occasioned supplied from such class or division, by new election, in the manner aforesaid. This rotation shall be applied to each division, according to its number, and continued in due order annually. The right of suffrage in the election of members for both Houses shall remain as exercised at present; and each House shall choose its own Speaker, appoint its own officers, settle its own rules of proceeding, and direct writs of election, for the supplying intermediate vacancies. All laws shall originate in the House of Delegates, to be approved of or rejected by the Senate, or to be- amended, with consent of the House of Delegates; except money-bills, which in no instance shall be altered by the Senate, but wholly approved or rejected A Governor, or chief magistrate, shall be chosen annually by joint ballot of both Houses (to be taken in each House respectively) deposited in the conference room; the boxes examined jointly by a committee of each House, and the numbers severally reported to them, that the appointments may be entered (which shall be the mode of taking the joint ballot of both Houses, in all cases) who shall not continue in that office longer than three years successively. nor be eligible, until the expiration of four years after he shall have been out of that office. An adequate, but moderate salary shall be settled on him, during his continuance in office; and he shall, with the advice of a Council of State, exercise the executive powers of government, according to the laws of this Commonwealth; and shall not, under any presence, exercise any power or prerogative, by virtue of any law, statute or custom of England. But he shall, with the advice of the Council of State, have the power of granting reprieves or pardons, except where the prosecution shall have been carried on by the House of Delegates, or the law shall otherwise particularly direct: in which cases, no reprieve or pardon shall be granted, but by resolve of the House of Delegates. Either House of the General Assembly may adjourn themselves respectively. The Governor shall not prorogue or adjourn the Assembly, during their sitting, nor dissolve them at any time; but he shall, if necessary, either by advice of the Council of State, or on application of a majority of the House of Delegates, call them before the time to which they shall stand prorogued or adjourned. A Privy Council, or Council of State, consisting of eight members, shall be chosen, by joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, either from their own members or the people at large, to assist in the administration of government. They shall annually choose, out of their own members, a President, who, in case of death, inability, or absence of the Governor from the government, shall act as Lieutenant-Governor. Four members shall be sufficient to act, and their advice and proceedings shall be entered on record, and signed by the members present, (to any part whereof, any member may enter his dissent) to be laid before the General Assembly, when called for by them. This Council may appoint their own Clerk, who shall have a salary settled by law, and take an oath of secrecy, in such matters as he shall be directed by the board to conceal. A sum of money, appropriated to that purpose, shall be divided annually among the members' in proportion to their attendance; and they shall be incapable, during their continuance in office, of sitting in either House of Assembly. Two members shall be removed, by Joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, at the end of every three years, and be ineligible for the three next years. These vacancies, as well as those occasioned by death or incapacity, shall be supplied by new elections, in the same manner. The Delegates for Virginia to the Continental Congress shall be chosen annually, or superseded in the mean time, by joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly. The present militia officers shall be continued, and vacancies supplied by appointment of the Governor, with the advice of the Privy Council, on recommendations from the respective County Courts; but the Governor and Council shall have a power of suspending any officer, and ordering a Court Martial, on complaint of misbehaviour or inability, or to supply vacancies of officers, happening when in actual service. The Governor may embody the militia, with the advice of the Privy Council; and when embodied, shall alone have the direction of the militia, under the laws of the country. The two Houses of Assembly shall, by joint ballot, appoint Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and General Court, Judges in Chancery, Judges of Admiralty, Secretary, and the Attorney-General, to be commissioned by the Governor, and continue in office during good behaviour. In case of death, incapacity, or resignation, the Governor, with the advice of the Privy Council, shall appoint persons to succeed in office, to be approved or displaced by both Houses. These officers shall have fixed and adequate salaries, and, together with all others, holding lucrative offices, and all ministers of the gospel, of every denomination, be incapable of being elected members of either House of Assembly or the Privy Council. The Governor, with the advice of the Privy Council, shall appoint Justices of the Peace for the counties; and in case of vacancies, or a necessity of increasing the number hereafter, such appointments to be made upon the recommendation of the respective County Courts. The present acting Secretary in Virginia, and Clerks of all the County Courts, shall continue in office. In case of vacancies, either by death, incapacity, or resignation, a Secretary shall be appointed, as before directed; and the Clerks, by the respective Courts. The present and future Clerks shall hold their offices during good behaviour, to be judged of, and determined in the General Court. The Sheriffs and Coroners shall be nominated by the respective Courts, approved by the Governor, with the advice of the Privy Council, and commissioned by the Governor. The Justices shall appoint Constables; and all fees of the aforesaid officers be regulated by law. The Governor, when he is out of office, and others, offending against theState, either by mar-administration, corruption, or other means, by which the safety of the State may be endangered, shall be impeachable by the House of Delegates. Such impeachment to be prosecuted by the Attorney- General, or such other person or persons, as the House may appoint in theGeneral Court, according to the laws of the land. If found guilty, he or they shall be either forever disabled to hold any office under government, or be removed from such office pro tempore, or subjected to such pains or penalties as the laws shall direct. If all or any of the Judges of the General Court should on good grounds (to be judged of by the House of Delegates) be accused of any of the crimes or offences above mentioned, such House of Delegates may, in like manner, impeach the Judge or Judges so accused, to be prosecuted in the Court of Appeals; and he or they, if found guilty, shall be punished in the same manner as is prescribed in the preceding clause. Commissions and grants shall run, "In the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia," and bear test by the Governor, with the seal of the Commonwealth annexed. Writs shall run in the same manner, and bear test by the Clerks of the several Courts. Indictments shall conclude, "Against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth." A Treasurer shall be appointed annually, by joint ballot of both Houses. All escheats, penalties, and forfeitures, heretofore going to the King, shall go to the Commonwealth, save only such as the Legislature may abolish, or otherwise provide for. The territories, contained within the Charters, erecting the Colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are hereby ceded, released, and forever confirmed, to the people of these Colonies respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction and government, and all other rights whatsoever, which might, at any time heretofore, have been claimed by Virginia, except the free navigation and use of the rivers Patomaque and Pokomoke, with the property of the Virginia shores and strands, bordering on either of the said rivers, and all improvements, which have been, or shall be made thereon. The western and northern extent of Virginia shall, in all other respects, stand as fixed by the Charter of King James I. in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, and by the public treaty of peace between the Courts of Britain and France, in the Year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; unless by act of this Legislature, one or more governments be established westward of the Alleghany mountains. And no purchases of lands shall be made of the Indian natives, but on behalf of the public, by authority of the General Assembly. In order to introduce this government, the Representatives of the people met in the convention shall choose a Governor and Privy Council, also such other officers directed to be chosen by both Houses as may be judged necessary to be immediately appointed. The Senate to be first chosen by the people to continue until the last day of March next, and the other officers until the end of the succeeding session of Assembly. In case of vacancies, the Speaker of either House shall shall issue writs for new elections. Text Source: https://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/academics/founders/VA-Constitution.pdf   Image Source: https://rosetta.virginiamemory.com/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE2924481&_ga=2.11114480.553370929.1725910782-123149150.1725910188

Bill of Rights; June 12, 1776 A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention; which rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. SECTION 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. SEC. 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. SEC. 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, an indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. SEC. 4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary SEC. 3. That the legislative and executive powers of the State should be separate and distinct from the judiciary; and that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burdens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct. SEC. 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assembled, for the public good. SEC. 7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. SEC. 8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. SEC. 9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. SEC. 10. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted. SEC. 11. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. SEC. 12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. SEC. 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. SEC. 14. That the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof. SEC. 15. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. SEC. 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other. Source: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/virginia-declaration-of-rights

Lee's Resolutions June 7, 1776 Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation. Source: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/lee.asp

Thoughts on Government John Adams 1776  My dear Sir, If I was equal to the task of forming a plan for the government of a colony, I should be flattered with your request, and very happy to comply with it; because, as the divine science of politics is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government, which are generally institutions that last for many generations, there can be no employment more agreeable to a benevolent mind than a research after the best. Pope flattered tyrants too much when he said, "For forms of government let fools contest, That which is best administered is best." Nothing can be more fallacious than this. But poets read history to collect flowers, not fruits; they attend to fanciful images, not the effects of social institutions. Nothing is more certain, from the history of nations and nature of man, than that some forms of government are better fitted for being well administered than others. We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best. All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue. Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Mahomet, not to mention authorities really sacred, have agreed in this. If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form? Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it. Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed, the former is buta part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness. The foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people. The noblest principles and most generous affections in our nature, then, have the fairest chance to support the noblest and most generous models of government. A man must be indifferent to the sneers of modern Englishmen, to mention in their company the names of Sidney, Harrington, Locke,Milton, Nedham, Neville, Burnet, and Hoadly. No small fortitude is necessary to confess that one has read them. The wretched condition of this country, however, for ten or fifteen years past, has frequently reminded me of their principles and reasonings. They will convince any candid mind, that there is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is "an empire of laws, and not of men." That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or, in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of republics. Of republics there is an inexhaustible variety, because the possible combinations of the powers of society are capable of innumerable variations. As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good. But by what rules shall you choose your representatives? Agree upon the number and qualifications of persons who shall have the benefit of choosing, or annex this privilege to the inhabitants of a certain extent of ground. The principle difficulty lies, and the greatest care should be employed in constituting this representative assembly. It should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason and act like them. That it may be the interest of this assembly to do strict justice at all times, it should be an equal representation, or, in other words, equal interests among the people should have equal interests in it. Great care should be taken to effect this, and to prevent unfair, partial, and corrupt elections. Such regulations, however, may be better made in times of greater tranquility than the present; and they will spring up themselves naturally, when all the powers of government come to be in the hands of the people’s friends. At present, it will be safest to proceed in all established modes, to which the people have been familiarized by habit. A representation of the people in one assembly being obtained, a question arises, whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one assembly. My reasons for this opinion are as follow:— 1. A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual; subject to fits of humor, starts of passion, flights of enthusiasm, partialities, or prejudice, and consequently productive of hasty results and absurd judgments. And all these errors ought to be corrected and defects supplied by some controlling power. 2. A single assembly is apt to be avaricious, and in time will not scruple to exempt itself from burdens, which it will lay, without compunction, on its constituents. 3. A single assembly is apt to grow ambitious, and after a time will not hesitate to vote itself perpetual. This was one fault of the Long Parliament; but more remarkably of Holland, whose assembly first voted themselves from annual to septennial, then for life, and after a course of years, that all vacancies happening by death or otherwise, should be filled by themselves, without any application to constituents at all. 4. A representative assembly, although extremely well qualified, and absolutely necessary, as a branch of the legislative, is unfit to exercise the executive power, for want of two essential properties, secrecy and dispatch. 5. A representative assembly is still less qualified for the judicial power, because it is too numerous, too slow, and too little skilled in the laws. 6. Because a single assembly, possessed of all the powers of government, would make arbitrary laws for their own interest, execute all laws arbitrarily for their own interest, and adjudge all controversies in their own favor. But shall the whole power of legislation rest in one assembly? Most of the foregoing reasons apply equally to prove that the legislative power ought to be more complex; to which we may add, that if the legislative power is wholly in one assembly, and the executive in another, or in a single person, these two powers will oppose and encroach upon each other, until the contest shall end in war, and the whole power, legislative and executive, be usurped by the strongest. The judicial power, in such case, could not mediate, or hold the balance between the two contending powers, because the legislative would undermine it. And this shows the necessity, too, of giving the executive power a negative upon the legislative, otherwise this will be continually encroaching upon that. To avoid these dangers, let a distinct assembly be constituted, as a mediator between the two extreme branches of the legislature, that which represents the people, and that which is vested with the executive power. Let the representative assembly then elect by ballot, from among themselves or their constituents, or both, a distinct assembly, which, for the sake of perspicuity, we will call a council. It may consist of any number you please, say twenty or thirty, and should have a free and independent exercise of its judgment, and consequently a negative voice in the legislature. These two bodies, thus constituted, and made integral parts of the legislature, let them unite, and by joint ballot choose a governor, who, after being stripped of most of those badges of domination, called prerogatives, should have a free and independent exercise of his judgment, and be made also an integral part of the legislature. This, I know, is liable to objections; and, if you please, you may make him only president of the council, as in Connecticut. But as the governor is to be invested with the executive power, with consent of council, I think he ought to have a negative upon the legislative. If he is annually elective, as he ought to be, he will always have so much reverence and affection for the people, their representatives and counselors, that, although you give him an independent exercise of his judgment, he will seldom use it in opposition to the two houses, except in cases the public utility of which would be conspicuous; and some such cases would happen. In the present exigency of American affairs, when, by an act of Parliament, we are put out of the royal protection, and consequently discharged from our allegiance, and it has become necessary to assume government for our immediate security, the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, commissary, attorney-general, should be chosen by joint ballot of both houses. And these and all other elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, "where annual elections end, there slavery begins." These great men, in this respect, should be, once a year, "Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return." This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey. This mode of constituting the great offices of state will answer very well for the present; but if by experiment it should be found inconvenient, the legislature may, at its leisure, devise other methods of creating them, by elections of the people at large, as in Connecticut, or it may enlarge the term for which they shall be chosen to seven years, or three years, or for life, or make any other alterations which the society shall find productive of its ease, its safety, its freedom, or, in one word, its happiness. A rotation of all offices, as well as of representatives and counselors, has many advocates, and is contended for with many plausible arguments. It would be attended, no doubt, with many advantages; and if the society has a sufficient number of suitable characters to supply the great number of vacancies which would be made by such a rotation, I can see no objection to it. These persons may be allowed to serve for three years, and then be excluded three years, or for any longer or shorter term. Any seven or nine of the legislative council may be made a quorum, for doing business as a privy council, to advise the governor in the exercise of the executive branch of power, and in all acts of state. The governor should have the command of the militia and of all your armies. The power of pardons should be with the governor and council. Judges, justices, and all other officers, civil and military, should be nominated and appointed by the governor, withthe advice and consent of council, unless you choose to have a government more popular; if you do, all officers, civil and military, may be chosen by joint ballot of both houses; or, in order to preserve the independence and importance of each house, by ballot of one house, concurred in by the other. Sheriffs should be chosen by the freeholders of counties; so should registers of deeds and clerks of counties. All officers should have commissions, under the hand of the governor and seal of the colony. The Dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that. The judges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men. To these ends, they should hold estates for life in their offices; or, in other words, their commissions should be during good behavior, and their salaries ascertained and established by law. For misbehavior, the grand inquest of the colony, the house of representatives, should impeach them before the governor and council, where they should have time and opportunist y to make their defense; but, if convicted, should be removed from their offices, and subjected to such other punishment as shall be proper. A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and ammunition, to be trained at certain seasons; and requiring counties, towns, or other small districts, to be provided with public stocks of ammunition and entrenching utensils, and with some settled plans for transporting provisions after the militia, when.marched to defend their country against sudden invasions; and requiring certain districts to be provided with field-pieces, companies of matrosses, and perhaps some regiments of light-horse, is always a wise institution, and, in the present circumstances of our country, indispensable. Laws for liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant. The very mention of sumptuary laws will excite a smile. Whether our countrymen have wisdom and virtue enough to submit to them, I know not; but the happiness of the people might be greatly promoted by them, and a revenue saved sufficient to carry on this war forever. Frugality is a great revenue, besides curing us of vanities, levities, and fopperies, which are real antidotes to all great, manly, and warlike virtues. But must not all commissions run in the name of a king? No. Why may they not as well run thus, "The colony of to A.B. greeting," and be tested by the governor? Why may not writs, instead of running in the name of the king, run thus, "The colony of —to the sheriff," &c., and be tested by the chief justice? Why may not indictments conclude, "against the peace of the colony of —and the dignity of the same?" A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal. You will find among them some elegance, perhaps, but more solidity; a little pleasure, but a great deal of business; some politeness, but more civility. If you compare such a country with the regions of domination, whether monarchical or aristocratical, you will fancy yourself in Arcadia or Elysium. If the colonies should assume governments separately, they should be left entirely to their own choice of the forms; and if a continental constitution should be formed, it should be a congress, containing a fair and adequate representation of the colonies, and its authority should sacredly be confined to those cases, namely, war, trade, disputes between colony and colony, the post-office, and the unappropriated lands of the crown, as they used to be called. These colonies, under such forms of government, and in such a union, would be unconquerable by all the monarchies of Europe. You and I, my dear friend, have been sent into life at a time when the greatest lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to live. How few of the human race have ever enjoyed an opportunity of making an election of government, more than of air, soil, or climate, for themselves or their children! When, before the present epocha, had three millions of people full power and a fair opportunity to form and establish the wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive? I hope you will avail yourself and your country of that extensive learning and indefatigable industry which you possess, to assist her in the formation of the happiest governments and the best character of a great people. For myself, I must beg you to keep my name out of sight; for this feeble attempt, if it should be known to be mine, would oblige me to apply to myself those lines of the immortal John Milton, in one of his sonnets:— "I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs." Text Source: https://www.nps.gov/inde/upload/Thoughts-on-Government-John-Adams-2.pdf   Image Source: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/cph/3b10000/3b12000/3b12200/3b12298r.jpg

To the Editor of the Federal Gazette March 23d, 1790. Sir, Reading last night in your excellent Paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their meddling with the Affair of Slavery, or attempting to mend the Condition of the Slaves, it put me in mind of a similar One made about 100 Years since by Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be seen in Martin’s Account of his Consulship, anno 1687. It was against granting the Petition of the Sect called Erika , or Purists who pray’d for the Abolition of Piracy and Slavery as being unjust. Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its Reasonings are to be found in his eloquent Speech, it may only show that men’s Interests and Intellects operate and are operated on with surprising similarity in all Countries and Climates, when under similar Circumstances. The African’s Speech, as translated, is as follows. “Allah Bismillah, &c. God is great, and Mahomet is his Prophet. “Have these Erika considered the Consequences of granting their Petition? If we cease our Cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the Commodities their Countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make Slaves of their People, who in this hot Climate are to cultivate our Lands? Who are to perform the common Labours of our City, and in our Families? Must we not then be our own Slaves? And is there not more Compassion and more Favour due to us as Mussulmen, than to these Christian Dogs? We have now about 50,000 Slaves in and near Algiers. This Number, if not kept up by fresh Supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering the Infidel Ships, and making Slaves of the Seamen and Passengers, our Lands will become of no Value for want of Cultivation; the Rents of Houses in the City will sink one half; and the Revenues of Government arising from its Share of Prizes be totally destroy’d! And for what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical Sect, who would have us, not only forbear making more Slaves, but even to manumit those we have. “But who is to indemnify their Masters for the Loss? Will the State do it? Is our Treasury sufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think Justice to the Slaves, do a greater Injustice to the Owners? And it we set our Slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their Countries; they know too well the great Hardships they must there be subject to; they will not embrace our holy Religion; they will not adopt our Manners; our People will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as Beggars in our Streets, or suffer our Properties to be the Prey of their Pillage? For men long accustom’d to Slavery will not work for a Livelihood when not compell’d. And what is there so pitiable in their present Condition? Were they not Slaves in their own Countries? “Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states govern’d by Despots, who hold all their Subjects in Slavery, without Exception? Even England treats its Sailors as Slaves; for they are, whenever the Government pleases, seiz’d, and confin’d in Ships of War, condemn’d not only to work, but to fight, for small Wages, or a mere Subsistence, not better than our Slaves are allow’d by us. Is their Condition then made worse by their falling into our Hands? No; they have only exchanged on Slavery for another, and I may say a better; for here they are brought into a land where the Sun of Islamism gives forth its Light, and shines in full Splendor, and they have an Opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true Doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal Souls. Those who remain at home have not that Happiness. Sending the Slaves home then would be sending them out of Light into Darkness. “I repeat the Question, What is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested, that they may be planted in the Wilderness, where there is plenty of Land for them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as a free State; but they are, I doubt, to little dispos’d to labour without Compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to provide them with every thing, and they are treated with Humanity. The Labourers in their own Country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and cloathed. The Condition of most of them is therefore already mended, and requires no further Improvement. Here their Lives are in Safety. They are not liable to be impress’d for Soldiers, and forc’d to cut one another’s Christian throats, as in the Wars of their own Countries. If some of the religious mad Bigots, who now teaze us with their silly Petitions, have in a Fit of blind Zeal freed their Slaves, it was not Generosity, it was not Humanity, that mov’d them to the Action; it was from the conscious Burthen of a Load of Sins, and Hope, from the supposed Merits of so good a Work, to be excus’d Damnation. “How grossly are they mistaken in imagining Slavery to be disallow’d by the Alcoran? Are not the two Precepts, to quote no more, ‘Masters, treat your Slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve your Masters with Cheerfulness and Fidelity,’ clear Proofs to the contrary? Nor can the Plundering of Infidels be in that sacred Book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the World, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of Right as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable Proposition, the Manumission of Christian Slaves, the Adoption of which would, by depreciating our Lands and Houses, and thereby depriving so many good Citizens of their Properties, create universal Discontent, and provoke Insurrections, to the endangering of Government and producing general Confusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise Council will prefer the Comfort and Happiness of a whole Nation of true Believers to the Whim of a few Erika, and dismiss their Petition.” The Result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this Resolution; “The Doctrine, that Plundering and Enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best problematical; but that it is the Interest of this State to continue the Practice, is clear; therefore let the Petition be rejected.” And it was rejected accordingly. And since like Motives are apt to produce in the Minds of Men like Opinions and Resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this Account, that the Petitions to the Parliament of England for abolishing the Slave-Trade, to say nothing of other Legislatures, and the Debates upon them, will have a similar Conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant Reader and humble Servant, HISTORICUS.

Paris Sep. 1. 1785. Dear Sir My last to you was dated May 11. by Monsr. de Doradour. Since that I have received yours of Jan. 22. with 6. copies of the revisal, and that of Apr. 27. by Mr. Mazzei. All is quiet here. The Emperor and Dutch are certainly agreed tho’ they have not published their agreement. Most of his schemes in Germany must be postponed, if they are not prevented, by the confederacy of many of the Germanic body at the head of which is the K. of Prussia, and to which the Elector of Hanover is supposed to have acceded. The object of the league is to preserve the members of the empire in their present state. I doubt whether the jealousy entertained of this prince, and which is so fully evidenced by this league, may not defeat the election of his nephew to be king of the Romans, and thus produce an instance of breaking the lineal succession. Nothing is as yet done between him and the Turks. If any thing is produced in that quarter it will not be for this year. The court of Madrid has obtained the delivery of the crew of the brig Betsy taken by the Emperor of Marocco. The Emperor had treated them kindly, new-cloathed them, and delivered them to the Spanish minister who sent them to Cadiz. This is the only American vessel ever taken by the Barbary states. The Emperor continues to give proofs of his desire to be in friendship with us, or in other words, of receiving us into the number of his tributaries. Nothing further need be feared from him. I wish the Algerines may be as easily dealt with. I fancy the peace expected between them and Spain is not likely to take place. I am well informed that the late proceedings in America have produced a wonderful sensation in England in our favour. I mean the disposition which seems to be becoming general to invest Congress with the regulation of our commerce, and in the mean time the measures taken to defeat the avidity of the British government, grasping at our carrying business. I can add with truth that it was not till these symptoms appeared in America that I have been able to discover the smallest token of respect towards the United states in any part of Europe. There was an enthusiasm towards us all over Europe at the moment of the peace. The torrent of lies published unremittingly in every day’s London paper first made an impression and produced a coolness. The republication of these lies in most of the papers of Europe (done probably by authority of the governments to discourage emigrations) carried them home to the belief of every mind. They supposed every thing in America was anarchy, tumult, and civil war. The reception of the M. Fayette gave a check to these ideas. The late proceedings seem to be producing a decisive vibration in our favour. I think it possible that England may ply before them. It is a nation which nothing but views of interest can govern. If it produces us good there, it will here also. The defeat of the Irish propositions is also in our favor. I have at length made up the purchase of books for you, as far as it can be done for the present. The objects which I have not yet been able to get, I shall continue to seek for. Those purchased, are packed this morning in two trunks, and you have the catalogue and prices herein inclosed. The future charges of transportation shall be carried into the next bill. The amount of the present is 1154 livres 13 sous which reckoning the French crown of 6. livres at 6/8 Virginia money is £64–3. which sum you will be so good as to keep in your hands to be used occasionally in the education of my nephews when the regular resources disappoint you. To the same use I would pray you to apply twenty five guineas which I have lent the two Mr. Fitzhughs of Marmion, and which I have desired them to repay into your hands. You will of course deduct the price of the revisals and any other articles you may have been so kind as to pay for me. Greek and Roman authors are dearer here than I believe any where in the world. No body here reads them, wherefore they are not reprinted. Don Ulloa in the original not to be found. The collection of tracts on the œconomics of different nations we cannot find; nor Amelot’s travels into China. I shall send these two trunks of books to Havre there to wait a conveiance to America; for as to the fixing the packets there it is as incertain as ever. The other articles you mention shall be procured as far as they can be. Knowing that some of them would be better got in London, I commissioned Mr. Short, who was going  there, to get them. He is not yet returned. They will be of such a nature as that I can get some gentleman who may be going to America to take them in his portmanteau. Le Maire being now able to stand on his own legs there will be no necessity for your advancing him the money I desired if it is not already done. I am anxious to hear from you on the subject of my Notes on Virginia. I have been obliged to give so many of them here that I fear their getting published. I have received an application from the Directors of the public buildings to procure them a plan for their Capitol. I shall send them one taken from the best morsel of antient architecture now remaining. It has obtained the approbation of fifteen or sixteen centuries, and is therefore preferable to any design which might be newly contrived. It will give more room, be more convenient and cost less than the plan they sent me. Pray encourage them to wait for it, and to execute it. It will be superior in beauty to any thing in America, and not inferior to any thing in the world. It is very simple. Have you a copying press? If you have not, you should get one. Mine (exclusive of paper which costs a guinea a ream) has cost me about 14. guineas. I would give ten times that sum that I had had it from the date of the stamp act. I hope you will be so good as to continue your communications both of the great and small kind which are equally useful to me. Be assured of the sincerity with which I am Dr. Sir Your friend & servt., Th: Tefferson Enclosure livres sous den Dictionnaire de Trevoux. 5. vol. fol. @ 5f12 28– 0-0 La Conquista di Mexico. De Solis. fol. 7f10. relieure 7f 14–10 Traité de morale et de bonheur. 12mo. 2. v. in 1 2– 8 Wicquefort de l’Ambassadeur. 2. v. 4to 7– 4 Burlamaqui. Principes du droit Politique 4to. 3f12 relieure 2f5 5–17 Conquista de la China por el Tartaro por Palafox. 12mo. 3 Code de l’humanité de Felice. 13. v. 4to 104– 0 13. first livraisons of the Encyclopedie 47. vols. 4to. 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Chronologie des empires anciennes de la Combe. 1. v. 8vo. 5– 0–0 de l’histoire universelle de Hornot. 1. v. 8vo. 4f 4–0–0 de l’histoire universelle de Berlié 1. v. 8vo. 2f10 rel. 1f5 3–15 des empereurs Romains par Richer 2. v. 8vo. 8f rel. 2f10 10–10 des Juifs. 1. v. 8vo. 3f10. rel. 1f5 4–15 de l’histoire universelle par Du Fresnoy. 2. v. 8vo. 13f rel. 2f10 15–10 de l’histoire du Nord. par La Combe 2. v. 8vo. 10f. rel. 2f10 12–10 de France. par Henault. 3. v. 8vo. 12f rel. 3f15 15–15 Memoires de Voltaire. 2. v. in 1. 2f10 rel. 15s. 3– 5–0 Linnaei Philosophia Botanica. 1 v. 8vo. 7f rel. 1f5 8– 5 Genera plantarum 1. v. 8vo. 8f rel. 1f5 9– 5 Species plantarum. 4. v. 8vo. 32f rel. 5f 37– 0 Systema naturae 4. v. 8vo. 26f rel. 5f 31– 0 Clayton. 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Lettres de Pascal. 12mo. 2f. rel. 15s. 2–15 Le sage à la cour et le roi voiageur (prohibited) 10–15 Principes de legislation universelle 2. v. 8vo. 12–0 Ordonnances de la Marine par Valin. 2. v. 4to. 22 Diderot sur les sourds and muets 12mo.} 3f12. sur les } 4. v. 12m 13– 7 aveugles 3f. sur la nature 3f. sur la } morale 3f15 } Mariana’s history of Spain 11. v. 12mo. 21 2 trunks & packing paper 43–0 ----------------- 1154–13                                                             Text Source: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0360 Image Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj1.004_0246_0251/?sp=1&st=image

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Huey Long Radio Address May 2, 1935 Ladies and Gentlemen: Whether you do or do not believe in the divine rule of the Scriptures or in the precepts of the Founders of this country or in the history of philosophy of all nations, if you will believe the four tables of arithmetic -- those of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division -- you will agree with me that the wealth of this land must be immediately redistributed to among our 125 million people, if America is to be saved as a country. For a moment ladies and gentlemen, let me turn to the last radio address  by our President, the honorable Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was delivered to the people of our country on last Sunday night. Now the President says that the people cannot understand just how good he has got them coming along. Here are his words (quote): The job of creating a program for the nation's welfare is in some respects like the building of a ship. At different points on the coast where I often visit they build great seagoing ships. (End quotations). You see, what the President is talking about there is that when he goes out on that five million dollar yacht they call the Nourmahal -- owed by brother Vincent Astor, who does lots of ship subsidy business for the United States, where they get as much as a thousand dollars for carrying one three cent letter -- he sometimes sees them building a ship. Now let us quote further from the President (quote): When one of these ships is under construction and the steel frames have been set in the keel, it is difficult for a person who does not know ships to tell how it will finally look when it is sailing the high seas. It is that way with the making of a national policy. So we see our President of the United States -- some of us call him the Knight of the Nourmahal -- says we're confused because we cannot see just how this thing is going to look when he gets through making it. Why to be sure: all those millions of hogs they killed, all those cattle they shot down, the milk they poured into the rivers with the people starving for it, all of the cotton they plowed under and wool that they burned up with the people naked because they could not get it -- none of us can see just how that is working out. But the President says it is going to look pretty when he gets the picture made up. Surely it will look pretty. It may not look exactly like a song, but it would be something like a dance: the Saint Vitus dance. Now the President says this (quote): "They know that the process of constructive rebuilding of America cannot be done in a day or a year" (end quote). No, and if he is a fair sample of it, they know it cannot be done in a hundred years. His process of construction, if you call it construction, is to start out repairing the automobile by first tearing off the top and then when the rain begins to beat in, to hammer the engine to pieces, pare down the chassis, and then wind up by taking off the wheels. That leaves only one thing to do, he sends the bill for the work. That bill has now reached the size of over 30 billions of dollars, six times more than all the money in circulation in the United States. But now we're going to get to something. The President takes you into his confidence. Here is what he says next (quote:): The most difficult place in the world to get a clear and open perspective of the country as a whole is in Washington. That is why I occasionally leave this scene of action for a few days to go fishing. I'm going to read that again from the President (quote): The most difficult place in the world to get a clear and open perspective of the country as a whole is in Washington. That is why I occasionally leave this scene of action for a few days to go fishing. (End quote.) Now if you will observe closely, ladies and gentlemen, our President remarks that he could not find out about the people of the country in Washington. So he betook himself on board the five million dollar yacht called the Nourmahal, owned by Vincent Astor, where he was dead certain to find out just how things were getting along. This Nourmahal yacht sailed out into the British waters with the President on board and soon thereafter was boarded by the son and daughter-in-law of the King of England, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and now after some several days or week’s tour on the briny British waters, enthroned on a five million dollar yacht in company with the multi-millionaire Astor and the Duke and Duchess of Kent right out of England, our great and benevolent President returns and says he went on this fishing trip to find out what it is all about. This would be great comfort to the cotton hands who are not allowed to plant cotton this year and who are naked because they can't get cotton goods and can't make any money to buy it either. It would do a great deal of help among the starving who are told they must make contracts to reduce the quantity of food stuffs, so that there will not be too much to eat. Hooray for President Roosevelt's fishing trip! Let's send him off again. If he doesn't get any better understanding of the conditions in this country then he has had in the last two years, it'd be a fine thing if Congress made a contract with Mr. Vincent Astor and his five million dollar yacht, not only to take the President out in the British waters to fish for a week or two, but to keep him there for several more months, then trust in luck that the country would find its way back to normal before he got back. I didn't get to hear the message of our President -- It was delivered over the radio -- because I was on board a train returning from Des Moines, Iowa, where I had made a speech on last Saturday. But I would say to you that at the place of Des Moines, I took a vote of the crowd -- some 20 thousand highly educated and intelligent people --  and without one single exception, every hand was raised into the air favoring the plan for redistribution of wealth, and not one hand was raised against it. But to get back to my point, not having heard the President speak, as I returned to Washington, I stepped over to my office where I was approached by an officer. He said to me, he says, "I heard the President speak last night." And I asked him, I said, "What did he say?" He said, "He said to just keep waiting." But the President of the United States has long since forgotten the pledge and promise which he made and on which he was nominated and elected to President. He promised in terms that were certain, in language which could not be misunderstood, that he would break up the size of the big fortunes of this country and use it to build the common people up from the ground to where they had something on which to live in comfort. He made that promise in the speech that he delivered in Atlanta, Georgia, and it was that speech that was the basis on which I declared for him as President. I gave him the Louisiana delegation and helped him to get several others on the promises that he made in that Atlanta speech. He made that promise when he accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party at the Chicago convention. He made that promise in other speeches which he delivered during the campaign for President. I was sent into state after state, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and into Kansas, directly from the then candidate for President, Mr. Roosevelt. And I was sent there to tell the people that when Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the President of the United States, that the big fortunes would be whittled down to a reasonable limit in size and that thereby the common run of mankind would be built up from the bottom, at least to the point where all of our people had a home and the comforts of life for their families, with steady employment to all labor and profit over production costs to all the farmers. What I say as to these promises by our President will not be disputed by him or by anyone else. They are in indelible type. They are in letters and pamphlets that cannot be disputed or questioned. But now in the third year of his Administration, we find more of our people unemployed than at any other time. We find our houses empty and our people hungry, many of them half-clothed and many of them not clothed at all. Mr. Hopkins announced 22 millions on the dole, a new high water mark in that particular sum a few weeks ago. We find not only the people going further into debt but that the United States is going further into debt. The states are going further into debt and the cities and towns are even going into bankruptcy. The condition has become deplorable. Instead of his promises, the only remedy that Mr. Roosevelt has prescribed is to borrow more money if he can and to go further into debt. The last move was to borrow five billion dollars more on which we must pay interest for the balance of our lifetime and probably during the lifetime of our children. And with it all there stalks the slimy specter of want, hunger, destitution, and pestilence -- all because of the fact that in the land of too much to eat and of too much to wear, our President has failed in his promise to have these necessities of life distributed into the hands of the people who have need of them. Now the jet black shadow of our want and misery came upon us step by step with certain precision, day after day, month after month, and year after year. There were investigations and studies made both by private bodies and governmental agencies to find out the cause of our trouble. The whole matter was studied very seriously up to as late as the year 1916, 1920. The departments of the United States government and many of our statesmen and newspapers and other journals openly stated that our growing trouble was caused by too much of our wealth getting into the hands of too few of our people. All of them said that we had to turn things around the other way, so as to have the people owning less and less, so as to have the masses owning more and more. That is that the few should own less and the more people should own more. But such things were said at a time before the money masters had muzzled the public journals and before they had stifled the agencies of our government's research and publicity. Here is what the government report rendered to Congress in 1916 by the Industrial Relations Commission said (quote): The sources through which industrial unrest springs are, when stated in full detail, almost numerous, but upon careful analysis of their real character, they would be found to group themselves almost without exception under four main sources which include all the others. These four are: 1. Unjust distribution of wealth and income. (End quotation). Now the United States Industrial Relations Commission said this thing further (quote): The rich two percent of the people own 60 percent of the wealth. The middle class, 33 percent of the people, own 35 percent of the wealth. The poor, 65 percent of the people, own five percent of the wealth. This means in brief that a little less than two million people who would make up a city smaller than Chicago own 20 percent more of the nation's wealth than all the other 90 million people (Close quotation). But at about this time of 1916, when these studies were being made, our country was thrown into the European war in the next year 1917. And when the shades of 1919 were lowered on the Peace Conference in Paris, the billionaires and multi-millionaires of our finances had begun to apply their pressure throughout America. They sought to it thereafter that nothing more was said about too few people owning too much or about too many people owning too little. They muzzled down on everything as tight as a drum. From 1920 to 1929, they changed businesses and banks and roped in all the businesses and institutions of this country four times as tight as they had ever held them. In the first year of Hoover's reign with more food stuffs and more wearing apparel, more manufactured articles, more houses, and more of everything else than this country had ever seen in all of its history, notwithstanding all our abundance of everything for which our people had any need, there began to come about the first wave of our greatest hunger, nakedness, homelessness, and destitution in this land where there was too much of everything. Why was that? It was because of the fact that in spite of those conditions of too few owning too much as we found to exist in 1916, that is a matter of fact in the 14 years time which followed from 1916 to 1930, those conditions grew to be two times as bad as they were when they were complained about in 1916. The study of the Federal Trade Commission made in 1930 said this (quote): The foregoing table shows that about one percent of the estimated number of decedents owned about 59 percent of the estimated wealth and that more than 90 percent was owned by about 13 percent of this number. So you will see from a comparison, ladies and gentlemen, of these two government reports, one in 1916 and one in 1930, 14 years apart, that one percent of the people owned as much in 1930 as two percent of the people owned in 1916. So it proved that the government was correct in 1916 when it warned that too much of the wealth in the hands of too few people was bringing on calamity. For when we reached 1930 with the conditions growing from bad to worst, the whole country collapsed and misery was brought about upon the population in the land that was flowing with milk and honey. From the studies which I have made, I charged in the United States Senate along about 1933 and 1934 that four percent of the people owned 85 percent of the wealth and that 96 percent of our people owned less than 16 percent of the wealth. I charged that 70 percent of the people of the United States didn't own enough to pay their debts. There was considerable ridicule made against the figures which I gave. During the last month of April of this very year, about three or four weeks ago, the newspaper in New York City with the largest daily circulation called The Daily News  announced that it would send a special representative to Washington to investigate the figures that I'd given out. So it sent here a gentleman named Lowell Limpus and in the issue of The Daily News  of Monday, April 8th, 1935, just three weeks ago, here is what that great newspaper said. I quote, I now quote their own words (quote): "Four percent own 87 percent of the United States, News Survey Shows” (end quotation). Now that is the headline of this newspaper. I will read you from the article of this newspaper of April 8th, 1935, three weeks old. This biggest paper of the world (quote): The News recently suggested editorially that figures quoted in current discussions on the distribution of wealth ought to be proved or disproved by an official survey. No figures being available, The News instituted a survey of its own. The results are covered in a series of articles of which this is the first. Now I continue to quote from this article of The Daily News . Here is what they said (quote again): The News survey simply brings a picture up to date or as nearly so as figures permit. It reveals the following facts: Less than four percent are getting 38 and a half percent of the aggregate national income. They, this four percent own and control more than 87 percent of the national wealth. The poor are getting poorer. The national income is steadily draining into fewer and fewer pockets. The nation's wealth is rapidly coming under the control of a mere handful of men. (End quotations from that newspaper.) Now I'm going to quote further from this same article in The Daily News . I start again (quote): "The facts were there but they were ignored. It remained for Senator Huey Long...." Now notice -- this Daily News  has ridiculed me for all these many years -- what it says: The facts were there but they were ignored. It remained for Senator Huey Long and his ilk to force them to the attention of the public. Huey Long opened books.... -- I'm still quoting this paper -- He adopted a technique which had never occurred to the students. Huey mounted a soapbox and beat a bass drum. The public stopped to listen. The News survey reveals that he knew what he was talking about but so did the students who preceded him. (Close quotations.) Yes, my friends but if you knew the mire and the ridicule and the -- and the distress that I had to come through in order to get those figures before the people, you'd know what a public life might mean. But now I will not take the time to read you further what this big newspaper which checked up on my figures had said, but it took the time to write a big editorial and here is an editorial of April the 11th, 1935 that they addressed to the balance of the newspapers of the United States to say this. Quote -- it's April 11th, 1935: When Huey Long in his Share the Wealth reply to General Johnson said that one percent of Americans own 59 percent of America’s wealth, while four percent own between 85 percent and 95 percent of the wealth, we knew he was a liar. We intimated as much and added that somebody ought to look into this question and get the true figures on American wealth distribution in order to refute this demagogue Long. The News then assigned one of its most competent investigators Lowell Limpus to the job of digging up the figures. And so Lowell Limpus went to Washington and worked for weeks in the Library of Congress and elsewhere to root up the true figures with which to confound Long. The results of that research are now being published in The News and to the consternation of many people (including ourselves when we first heard of them), the results of that research show that Long had essentially the correct dope. The gist of the Limpus finding is this, more than 96 percent of the workers in the United States receive less than the two thousand dollars a year which is regarded as sufficient only for bare necessities. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, in 1926 one percent of the people dying did own 59 percent of the wealth reported and since that time the rich have been getting richer in proportion and the poor have been getting poorer. When Limpus discovered that such was the picture of wealth distribution in the United States, he wired The News that his data would prove very startling and that probably his findings could not be published. It was decided after some deliberation to publish them nevertheless. In other words, they decided to tell the truth in spite of themselves. I continue to quote: That decision was made on the ground that the ostrich act of sticking our heads in the sand, blinding ourselves to facts will only do us harm in the long run. To suppress these facts might dampen down some unrest for a while. But it is these facts which are causing the unrest. The eventual kickback would be much more serious if the facts continued to be kept under cover. And they are ominous facts. This is still quoting: It has happened time and again that when a nation's wealth has become concentrated into too few hands and ways of redistributing part of it peaceably have not been worked out -- Hear that? They say: It has happened time and again that when a nation's wealth has become concentrated into a few hands and ways of redistributing part of it peaceably have not been worked out, ways of redistributing it by violence have been adopted in time as in France and Russia. That's why you better pay attention to what I'm advocating, ladies and gentlemen. I'm trying to do it peaceably. This newspaper says it'll be done otherwise, if you don't do it. Quote again from The New York Daily News   editorial: And as long as mass purchasing power stays down and continues to shrink, there will be over productions of bathtubs, cars, radios, and so forth, which we like to think are elements in the American standard of living. Will the balance of the newspapers do what this newspaper has done now? I've finished quoting from it. Or will they continue to be blind and lead the balance of the blind into the mire of distress and ruin. The brave journalistic souls of the present day refuses to see the light. The Saturday Evening Post  of this week dated May 4th, 1935 has an editorial about me as follows. Headline says: "Facts are Stubborn.” “Rarely does any subject receive so much attention as Honorable Huey Long,” they say. Continuing to quote: There's grave discussion as to how he will affect the fortunes of both the New Deal and the Republican Party. Everyone has an opinion as to whether he is a menace or not, the view taken depending on many different factors. The core of Senator Long's plan is to take away from all persons such wealth as they have in excess of one million dollars giving them the right to choose what particular kinds of property they would keep within the maximum permitted. Of the total wealth that's appropriated he suggests that something less than half be used to educate young people and that something over half be used to bring families having less than five thousand dollars of property up to that figure. I'm continuing to quote from The Saturday Evening Post  editorial (quote): "This country has no official figures or even accurate estimates concerning the distribution of wealth." Now that's what The Saturday Evening Post  said. Well now I'm going to read to you from the same Saturday Evening Post  of September 23rd, 1916. They say we have no figures on it. Now let me read to [you] from the same paper 19 years ago, September 23rd, 1916 (quote): "The man who studies wealth in the United States from statistics only," -- quoting The Saturday Evening Post (quote further) --   will get nowhere with the subject because all of the statistics support only an inconclusive suggestion. Along one statistical line you can figure out a nation bustling with wealth. Along another a bloated plutocracy comprising one percent. Listen to that: Along another line a bloated plutocracy comprising one percent of the population, lording it over a starveling hoard with only a thin margin of merely well-to-do in between. (End quotation.) What is the matter with The Saturday Evening Post ? Here it is saying there are no figures to show any such thing as I am saying. And yet 20 years ago, when you were allowed to be honest, Mr. Saturday Evening Post,  you told the people that one percent of the people had a stranglehold on nearly everything the country had in it. Why this magazine doesn't know that I was its scholar in 1916. That magazine taught me to make this fight in part and now after 20 years of effort it has failed to remember what it knew way back yonder which everybody else has begun to find out at this late date. Now my friends you have heard me read how a great New York newspaper after investigations declared that all I have said about the bad distribution of this nation's wealth is true. But we have been about our work to correct this situation. That is why the Share our Wealth societies are forming in every nook and corner of America. They'll be meeting tonight. Soon there will be Share our Wealth societies for everyone to meet. They have a great work to perform. Here is what we stand for in a nutshell. Number one: We propose that every family in America shall at least own a homestead equal in value to not less than one-third the average family wealth. The average family wealth of America at normal values is approximately 16 thousand dollars. So our first proposition means that every family will have a home and the comforts of a home up to a value of not less than around five thousand dollars or a little more than that. Number two: We propose that no family shall own more than 300 times the average family wealth. Which means that no family shall possess more than a wealth of approximately five million dollars. None to own less than five thousand. None to own more than five million. We think that's too much to allow to own, but at least it's extremely conservative. Number three: We propose that every family shall have an income equal to at least one-third of the average family income in America. If all were allowed to work there'd be an income of from five thousand to 10 thousand dollars per family. We propose that one-third would be the minimum. We propose that no family will have an earning of less than around two thousand to 25 hundred dollars and that none will have more than 300 times the average less the ordinary income taxes, which means that a million dollars would be the limit on the highest income. We also propose to give the old age pensions to the old people -- not by taxing them or their children, but by levying the taxes upon the excess fortunes to whittle them down and on the excess incomes and excess inheritances so that the people who reach the age of 60 can be retired from the active labor of life and given an opportunity to have surcease and ease in the balance of the life that they have on earth. We also propose the care for the veterans including the cash payment of the soldiers' bonus. We likewise propose that there should be an education for every youth in this land; and that no youth would be dependent upon the financial means of his parents in order to have a college education. But the children will have as much right to claim an education in order that they can be trained to do their full service in this life through college as they have the right now to claim through grammar school and through high school; and that includes the living cost, that children's education shall not depend upon the financial capacity of their parents, but it shall depend upon their own energy and upon their own ability to consume what they're taught in these schools and which they need to have taught to them. My plan is that our government should call in this surplus wealth above a few million to any one family and then distribute out to those who have the need of the same. Some criticize that plan but it is -- but it is prescribed by the Bible. I read you the words of the Scripture (quote): And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own. But they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that lacked. For as many as were possessors of land or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles' feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had needs. See Acts: chapter 4, verses 32 to 36. Now you may criticize what I'm saying but there it is written in the Bible. It is our purpose that every man should pursue a calling that means a living to himself and his family in peace and comfort --  that the shelter and home of every family should be every man and his family. That is as the Bible says it should be. I read to you the words of the Scripture again (quote): And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid. That's from Micah: chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. We also say that none shall be too rich and none shall be too poor. That's the philosophy of our Share our Wealth societies. The Bible says that such is as it should be. I read you the words of the Scripture (quote): Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord. Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. That's from Proverbs: chapter 20, verses 8 and 9. And we say that if the statutes of God are observed our people shall live in peace and in comfort forever, and that in this land of plenty none will sorrow. The Bible says so. I read you the words again (quote): If ye walk in my statutes ye shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your lands safely and I will give peace in the land and ye shall lie there and nothing shall make you afraid. That's from Leviticus: chapter 26, verses 3 to 17. Now my friends let no one tell you that it is difficult to redistribute the wealth of this land. It matters not how rich or how great one may be. When he dies his wealth must be distributed anyway. If Rockefeller died today, they'd had to distribute his wealth. The law of God shows how it has been done throughout time. See Nehemiah: chapter 5. Nothing is more sensible or better understood than the redistribution of property. The laws of God command it. It is required of all nations that are permitted to live under the laws of the Lord. See Leviticus: chapter 26. Today our nation is cursed with an overload of debt. Public and private debts aggregate 262 billions of dollars. That is more than two thousand dollars to every person that they never will be able to pay. Under the present set up this burden of debt can never be paid. It will forever condemn our people. The laws of our Lord command that such burden of debt must be wiped out of existence, so that a people may have a fair chance of life. See Deuteronomy: chapter 15, verses 1 and 2. So let us be about our work. It is simple. Why lie ye here idle? There is enough for all. Let there be peace in the land. Let our children be happy. Our fight is old! Here in the United States Senate we're trying to pay the soldiers' bonus . It is a debt which is due the soldiers who fought our wars. We're fighting to keep the Patman Bill2 which actually pays this bonus from being sidetracked. The bill is already passed in the House of Representatives. Maybe you would like to wire your United States senator tonight to ask him to stand for the Patman Bill tomorrow morning. I would like to hear from any of you if you wish to concern yourself with the work that we have in hand, the Share our Wealth society. If you want a copy of my speech I will send it upon request. You can write to me here in Washington D.C., care of the United States Senate. Well, my friends, how wonderful and how great, how fruitful to all this great American land of ours can actually be. We only have to eliminate useless greed and provide that none shall be too big and none too small. Beautiful America can rise to the opportunity before it. It means to us all, every man a king. I thank you. Text Source: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hueyplongstvitusdancegovernment.htm Audio Source: https://youtu.be/8vf9x3fXlSw?si=XTwtXsMabBCyRMLG

LBJ’s Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress After the Assassination of President JFK November 27, 1963 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House, Members of the Senate, my fellow Americans: All I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today. The greatest leader of our time has been struck down by the foulest deed of our time. Today John Fitzgerald Kennedy lives on in the immortal words and works that he left behind. He lives on in the mind and memories of mankind. He lives on in the hearts of his countrymen. No words are sad enough to express our sense of loss. No words are strong enough to express our determination to continue the forward thrust of America that he began. The dream of conquering the vastness of space--the dream of partnership across the Atlantic--and across the Pacific as well--the dream of a Peace Corps in less developed nations--the dream of education for all of our children--the dream of jobs for all who seek them and need them--the dream of care for our elderly--the dream of an all-out attack on mental illness--and above all, the dream of equal rights for all Americans, whatever their race or color--these and other American dreams have been vitalized by his drive and by his dedication. And now the ideas and the ideals which he so nobly represented must and will be translated into effective action. Under John Kennedy's leadership, this Nation has demonstrated that it has the courage to seek peace, and it has the fortitude to risk war. We have proved that we are a good and reliable friend to those who seek peace and freedom. We have shown that we can also be a formidable foe to those who reject the path of peace and those who seek to impose upon us or our allies the yoke of tyranny. This Nation will keep its commitments from South Viet-Nam to West Berlin. We will be unceasing in the search for peace; resourceful in our pursuit of areas of agreement even with those with whom we differ; and generous and loyal to those who join with us in common cause. In this age when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war, we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint. We must be prepared at one and the same time for both the confrontation of power and the limitation of power. We must be ready to defend the national interest and to negotiate the common interest. This is the path that we shall continue to pursue. Those who test our courage will find it strong, and those who seek our friendship will find it honorable. We will demonstrate anew that the strong can be just in the use of strength; and the just can be strong in the defense of justice. And let all know we will extend no special privilege and impose no persecution. We will carry on the fight against poverty and misery, and disease and ignorance, in other lands and in our own. We will serve all the Nation, not one section or one sector, or one group, but all Americans. These are the United States--a united people with a united purpose. Our American unity does not depend upon unanimity. We have differences; but now, as in the past, we can derive from those differences strength, not weakness, wisdom, not despair. Both as a people and a government, we can unite upon a program, a program which is wise and just, enlightened and constructive. For 32 years Capitol Hill has been my home. I have shared many moments of pride with you, pride in the ability of the Congress of the United States to act, to meet any crisis, to distill from our differences strong programs of national action. An assassin's bullet has thrust upon me the awesome burden of the Presidency. I am here today to say I need your help; I cannot bear this burden alone. I need the help of all Americans, and all America. This Nation has experienced a profound shock, and in this critical moment, it is our duty, yours and mine, as the Government of the United States, to do away with uncertainty and doubt and delay, and to show that we are capable of decisive action; that from the brutal loss of our leader we will derive not weakness, but strength; that we can and will act and act now. From this chamber of representative government, let all the world know and none misunderstand that I rededicate this Government to the unswerving support of the United Nations, to the honorable and determined execution of our commitments to our allies, to the maintenance of military strength second to none, to the defense of the strength and the stability of the dollar, to the expansion of our foreign trade, to the reinforcement of our programs of mutual assistance and cooperation in Asia and Africa, and to our Alliance for Progress in this hemisphere. On the 20th day of January, in 1961, John F. Kennedy told his countrymen that our national work would not be finished "in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But," he said, "let us begin." Today, in this moment of new resolve, I would say to all my fellow Americans, let us continue. This is our challenge--not to hesitate, not to pause, not to turn about and linger over this evil moment, but to continue on our course so that we may fulfill the destiny that history has set for us. Our most immediate tasks are here on this Hill. First, no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long. We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law. I urge you again, as I did in 1957 and again in 1960, to enact a civil rights law so that we can move forward to eliminate from this Nation every trace of discrimination and oppression that is based upon race or color. There could be no greater source of strength to this Nation both at home and abroad. And second, no act of ours could more fittingly continue the work of President Kennedy than the early passage of the tax bill for which he fought all this long year. This is a bill designed to increase our national income and Federal revenues, and to provide insurance against recession. That bill, if passed without delay, means more security for those now working, more jobs for those now without them, and more incentive for our economy. In short, this is no time for delay. It is a time for action--strong, forward-looking action on the pending education bills to help bring the light of learning to every home and hamlet in America--strong, forward-looking action on youth employment opportunities; strong, forward-looking action on the pending foreign aid bill, making clear that we are not forfeiting our responsibilities to this hemisphere or to the world, nor erasing Executive flexibility in the conduct of our foreign affairs--and strong, prompt, and forward-looking action on the remaining appropriation bills. In this new spirit of action, the Congress can expect the full cooperation and support of the executive branch. And in particular, I pledge that the expenditures of your Government will be administered with the utmost thrift and frugality. I will insist that the Government get a dollar's value for a dollar spent. The Government will set an example of prudence and economy. This does not mean that we will not meet our unfilled needs or that we will not honor our commitments. We will do both. As one who has long served in both Houses of the Congress, I firmly believe in the independence and the integrity of the legislative branch. And I promise you that I shall always respect this. It is deep in the marrow of my bones. With equal firmness, I believe in the capacity and I believe in the ability of the Congress, despite the divisions of opinions which characterize our Nation, to act--to act wisely, to act vigorously, to act speedily when the need arises. The need is here. The need is now. I ask your help. We meet in grief, but let us also meet in renewed dedication and renewed vigor. Let us meet in action, in tolerance, and in mutual understanding. John Kennedy's death commands what his life conveyed--that America must move forward. The time has come for Americans of all races and creeds and political beliefs to understand and to respect one another. So let us put an end to the teaching and the preaching of hate and evil and violence. Let us turn away from the fanatics of the far left and the far right, from the apostles of bitterness and bigotry, from those defiant of law, and those who pour venom into our Nation's bloodstream. I profoundly hope that the tragedy and the torment of these terrible days will bind us together in new fellowship, making us one people in our hour of sorrow. So let us here highly resolve that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not live--or die--in vain. And on this Thanksgiving eve, as we gather together to ask the Lord's blessing, and give Him our thanks, let us unite in those familiar and cherished words: America, America, God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good With brotherhood From sea to shining sea. Source: https://www.pbs.org/ladybird/epicenter/epicenter_doc_speech.html

President John F. Kennedy West Berlin June 26, 1963 I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner." I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind. Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner." Source: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/berlin-w-germany-rudolph-wilde-platz-19630626

January 20, 1972 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: Twenty-five years ago I sat here as a freshman Congressman--along with Speaker Albert--and listened for the first time to the President address the State of the Union. I shall never forget that moment. The Senate, the diplomatic corps, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet entered the Chamber, and then the President of the United States. As all of you are aware, I had some differences with President Truman. He had some with me. But I remember that on that day--the day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected Republican 80th Congress, he spoke not as a partisan, but as President of all the people-calling upon the Congress to put aside partisan considerations in the national interest. The Greek-Turkish aid program, the Marshall Plan, the great foreign policy initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war for over 25 years were approved by the 80th Congress, by a bipartisan majority of which I was proud to be a part. Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in which to accomplish good for the Nation. We must not waste it. I know the political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great. There are more candidates for the Presidency in this Chamber today than there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the Republic. And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between the parties, but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic policy issues. However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our honest differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest first. Let us join in making sure that legislation the Nation needs does not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any person. There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you with a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day. I shall not do that. I have presented to the leaders of the Congress today a message of 15,000 words discussing in some detail where the Nation stands and setting forth specific legislative items on which I have asked the Congress to act. Much of this is legislation which I proposed in 1969, in 1970, and also in the first session of this 92d Congress and on which I feel it is essential that action be completed this year. I am not presenting proposals which have attractive labels but no hope of passage. I am presenting only vital programs which are within the capacity of this Congress to enact, within the capacity of the budget to finance, and which I believe should be above partisanship--programs which deal with urgent priorities for the Nation, which should and must be the subject of bipartisan action by this Congress in the interests of the country in 1972. When I took the oath of office on the steps of this building just 3 years ago today, the Nation was ending one of the most tortured decades in its history. The 1960's were a time of great progress in many areas. But as we all know, they were also times of great agony--the agonies of war, of inflation, of rapidly rising crime, of deteriorating titles, of hopes raised and disappointed, and of anger and frustration that led finally to violence and to the worst civil disorder in a century. I recall these troubles not to point any fingers of blame. The Nation was so torn in those final years of the sixties that many in both parties questioned whether America could be governed at all. The Nation has made significant progress in these first years of the seventies: Our cities are no longer engulfed by civil disorders. Our colleges and universities have again become places of learning instead of battlegrounds. A beginning has been made in preserving and protecting our environment. The rate of increase in crime has been slowed--and here in the District of Columbia, the one city where the Federal Government has direct jurisdiction, serious crime in 1971 was actually reduced by 13 percent from the year before. Most important, because of the beginnings that have been made, we can say today that this year 1972 can be the year in which America may make the greatest progress in 25 years toward achieving our goal of being at peace with all the nations of the world. As our involvement in the war in Vietnam comes to an end, we must now go on to build a generation of peace. To achieve that goal, we must first face realistically the need to maintain our defense. In the past 3 years, we have reduced the burden of arms. For the first time in 20 years, spending on defense has been brought below spending on human resources. As we look to the future, we find encouraging progress in our negotiations with the Soviet Union on limitation of strategic arms. And looking further into the future, we hope there can eventually be agreement on the mutual reduction of arms. But until there is such a mutual agreement, we must maintain the strength necessary to deter war. And that is why, because of rising research and development costs, because of increases in military and civilian pay, because of the need to proceed with new weapons systems, my budget for the coming fiscal year will provide for an increase in defense spending. Strong military defenses are not the enemy of peace; they are the guardians of peace. There could be no more misguided set of priorities than one which would tempt others by weakening America, and thereby endanger the peace of the world. In our foreign policy, we have entered a new era. The world has changed greatly in the 11 years since President John Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address, "... we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Our policy has been carefully and deliberately adjusted to meet the new realities of the new world we live in. We make today only those commitments we are able and prepared to meet. Our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable. But others must bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world. And so this, then, is our policy: --We will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to the security of the United States or of our allies. --We will help other nations develop the capability of defending themselves. --We will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments. --We will act to defend our interests, whenever and wherever they are threatened anyplace in the world. --But where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved, our role will be limited. --We will not intervene militarily. --But we will use our influence to prevent war. --If war comes, we will use our influence to stop it. --Once it is over, we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds of those who have participated in it. As you know, I will soon be visiting the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. I go there with no illusions. We have great differences with both powers. We shall continue to have great differences. But peace depends on the ability of great powers to live together on the same planet despite their differences. We would not be true to our obligation to generations yet unborn if we failed to seize this moment to do everything in our power to insure that we will be able to talk about those differences, rather than to fight about them, in the future. As we look back over this century, let us, in the highest spirit of bipartisanship, recognize that we can be proud of our Nation's record in foreign affairs. America has given more generously of itself toward maintaining freedom, preserving peace, alleviating human suffering around the globe, than any nation has ever done in the history of man. We have fought four wars in this century, but our power has never been used to break the peace, only to keep it; never been used to destroy freedom, only to defend it. We now have within our reach the goal of insuring that the next generation can be the first generation in this century to be spared the scourges of war. Turning to our problems at home, we are making progress toward our goal of a new prosperity without war. Industrial production, consumer spending, retail sales, personal income all have been rising. Total employment, real income are the highest in history. New home building starts this past year reached the highest level ever. Business and consumer confidence have both been rising. Interest rates are down. The rate of inflation is down. We can look with confidence to 1972 as the year when the back of inflation will be broken. Now, this a good record, but it is not good enough--not when we still have an unemployment rate of 6 percent. It is not enough to point out that this was the rate of the early peacetime years of the sixties, or that if the more than 2 million men released from the Armed Forces and defense-related industries were still in their wartime jobs, unemployment would be far lower. Our goal in this country is full employment in peacetime. We intend to meet that goal, and we can. The Congress has helped to meet that goal by passing our job-creating tax program last month. The historic monetary agreements, agreements that we have reached with the major European nations, Canada, and Japan, will help meet it by providing new markets for American products, new jobs for American workers. Our budget will help meet it by being expansionary without being inflationary-a job-producing budget that will help take up the gap as the economy expands to full employment. Our program to raise farm income will help meet it by helping to revitalize rural America, by giving to America's farmers their fair share of America's increasing productivity. We also will help meet our goal of full employment in peacetime with a set of major initiatives to stimulate more imaginative use of America's great capacity for technological advance, and to direct it toward improving the quality of life for every American. In reaching the moon, we demonstrated what miracles American technology is capable of achieving. Now the time has come to move more deliberately toward making full use of that technology here on earth, of harnessing the wonders of science to the service of man. I shall soon send to the Congress a special message proposing a new program of Federal partnership in technological research and development--with Federal incentives to increase private research, federally supported research on projects designed to improve our everyday lives in ways that will range from improving mass transit to developing new systems of emergency health care that could save thousands of lives annually. Historically, our superior technology, and high productivity have made it possible for American workers to be the highest paid in the world by far, and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets. Now we face a new situation. As other nations move rapidly forward in technology, the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall around America, but rather to remain competitive by improving our own technology still further and by increasing productivity in American industry. Our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for American goods to compete fairly in the world's markets--but they still must compete. The new technology program will put to use the skills of many highly trained Americans, skills that might otherwise be wasted. It will also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad, and it will thus help to create new industries, as well as creating more jobs for America's workers in producing for the world's markets. This second session of the 92d Congress already has before it more than 90 major Administration proposals which still await action. I have discussed these in the extensive written message that I have presented to the Congress today. They include, among others, our programs to improve life for the aging; to combat crime and drug abuse; to improve health services and to ensure that no one will be denied needed health care because of inability to pay; to protect workers' pension rights; to promote equal opportunity for members of minorities, and others who have been left behind; to expand consumer protection; to improve the environment; to revitalize rural America; to help the cities; to launch new initiatives in education; to improve transportation, and to put an end to costly labor tie-ups in transportation. The west coast dock strike is a case in point. This Nation cannot and will not tolerate that kind of irresponsible labor tie-up in the future. The messages also include basic reforms which are essential if our structure of government is to be adequate in the decades ahead. They include reform of our wasteful and outmoded welfare system--substitution of a new system that provides work requirements and work incentives for those who can help themselves, income support for those who cannot help themselves, and fairness to the working poor. They include a $17 billion program of Federal revenue sharing with the States and localities as an investment in their renewal, an investment also of faith in the American people. They also include a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch of the Federal Government so that it will be more efficient, more responsive, and able to meet the challenges of the decades ahead. One year ago, standing in this place, I laid before the opening session of this Congress six great goals. One of these was welfare reform. That proposal has been before the Congress now for nearly 2 1/2 years. My proposals on revenue sharing, government reorganization, health care, and the environment have now been before the Congress for nearly a year. Many of the other major proposals that I have referred to have been here that long or longer. Now, 1971, we can say, was a year of consideration of these measures. Now let us join in making 1972 a year of action on them, action by the Congress, for the Nation and for the people of America. Now, in addition, there is one pressing need which I have not previously covered, but which must be placed on the national agenda. We long have looked in this Nation to the local property tax as the main source of financing for public primary and secondary education. As a result, soaring school costs, soaring property tax rates now threaten both our communities and our schools. They threaten communities because property taxes, which more than doubled in the 10 years from 1960 to '70, have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory of all taxes, hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired; and they threaten schools, as hard-pressed voters understandably reject new bond issues at the polls. The problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court decisions, which have held that the conventional method of financing schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Nearly 2 years ago, I named a special Presidential commission to study the problems of school finance, and I also directed the Federal departments to look into the same problems. We are developing comprehensive proposals to meet these problems. This issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems: support of the schools and the basic relationships of Federal, State, and local governments in any tax reforms. Under the leadership of the Secretary of the Treasury, we are carefully reviewing all of the tax aspects, and I have this week enlisted the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in addressing the intergovernmental relations aspects. I have asked this bipartisan Commission to review our proposals for Federal action to cope with the gathering crisis of school finance and property taxes. Later in the year, when both Commissions have completed their studies, I shall make my final recommendations for relieving the burden of property taxes and providing both fair and adequate financing for our children's education. These recommendations will be revolutionary. But all these recommendations, however, will be rooted in one fundamental principle with which there can be no compromise: Local school boards must have control over local schools. As we look ahead over the coming decades, vast new growth and change are not only certainties, they will be the dominant reality of this world, and particularly of our life in America. Surveying the certainty of rapid change, we can be like a fallen rider caught in the stirrups-- r we can sit high in the saddle, the masters of change, directing it on a course we choose. The secret of mastering change in today's world is to reach back to old and proven principles, and to adapt them with imagination and intelligence to the new realities of a new age. That is what we have done in the proposals that I have laid before the Congress. They are rooted in basic principles that are as enduring as human nature, as robust as the American experience; and they are responsive to new conditions. Thus they represent a spirit of change that is truly renewal. As we look back at those old principles, we find them as timely as they are timeless. We believe in independence, and self-reliance, and the creative value of the competitive spirit. We believe in full and equal opportunity for all Americans and in the protection of individual rights and liberties. We believe in the family as the keystone of the community, and in the community as the keystone of the Nation. We believe in compassion toward those in need. We believe in a system of law, justice, and order as the basis of a genuinely free society. We believe that a person should get what he works for--and that those who can, should work for what they get. We believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in their own lives, in their own communities--and we believe in their right to make those decisions. In applying these principles, we have done so with the full understanding that what we seek in the seventies, what our quest is, is not merely for more, but for better for a better quality of life for all Americans. Thus, for example, we are giving a new measure of attention to cleaning up our air and water, making our surroundings more attractive. We are providing broader support for the arts, helping stimulate a deeper appreciation of what they can contribute to the Nation's activities and to our individual lives. But nothing really matters more to the quality of our lives than the way we treat one another, than our capacity to live respectfully together as a unified society, with a full, generous regard for the rights of others and also for the feelings of others. As we recover from the turmoil and violence of recent years, as we learn once again to speak with one another instead of shouting at one another, we are regaining that capacity. As is customary here, on this occasion, I have been talking about programs. Programs are important. But even more important than programs is what we are as a Nation--what we mean as a Nation, to ourselves and to the world. In New York Harbor stands one of the most famous statues in the world--the Statue of Liberty, the gift in 1886 of the people of France to the people of the United States. This statue is more than a landmark; it is a symbol--a symbol of what America has meant to the world. It reminds us that what America has meant is not its wealth, and not its power, but its spirit and purpose--a land that enshrines liberty and opportunity, and that has held out a hand of welcome to millions in search of a better and a fuller and, above all, a freer life. The world's hopes poured into America, along with its people. And those hopes, those dreams, that have been brought here from every corner of the world, have become a part of the hope that we now hold out to the world. Four years from now, America will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its founding as a Nation. There are those who say that the old Spirit of '76 is dead---that we no longer have the strength of character, the idealism, the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents. Those who say this do not know America. We have been undergoing self-doubts and self-criticism. But these are only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of want in the midst of plenty, of our impatience with the slowness with which age-old ills are being overcome. If we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society, or complacent about our institutions, or blind to the lingering inequities--then we would have lost our way. But the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals, deep down, are still strong. Indeed, they remind us that what is really best about America is its compassion. They remind us that in the final analysis, America is great not because it is strong, not because it is rich, but because this is a good country. Let us reject the narrow visions of those who would tell us that we are evil because we are not yet perfect, that we are corrupt because we are not yet pure, that all the sweat and toil and sacrifice that have gone into the building of America were for naught because the building is not yet done. Let us see that the path we are traveling is wide, with room in it for all of us, and that its direction is toward a better Nation and a more peaceful world. Never has it mattered more that we go forward together. Look at this Chamber. The leadership of America is here today--the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives. Together, we hold the future of the Nation, and the conscience of the Nation in our hands. Because this year is an election year, it will be a time of great pressure. If we yield to that pressure and fail to deal seriously with the historic challenges that we face, we will have failed the trust of millions of Americans and shaken the confidence they have a right to place in us, in their Government. Never has a Congress had a greater opportunity to leave a legacy of a profound and constructive reform for the Nation than this Congress. If we succeed in these tasks, there will be credit enough for all--not only for doing what is right, but doing it in the right way, by rising above partisan interest to serve the national interest. And if we fail, more than any one of us, America will be the loser. That is why my call upon the Congress today is for a high statesmanship, so that in the years to come Americans will look back and say because it withstood the intense pressures of a political year, and achieved such great good for the American people and for the future of this Nation, this was truly a great Congress. Source: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-state-the-union-delivered-before-joint-session-the-congress-0