Joyworks Library

War is the Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty

From:Joyworks
Date: Saturday, 16 October 2004

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

Wow! Eloquent, yes? Either James Madison was clarivoyant or wisdom is, indeed, timeless. It as if Madison actually knew our current GW (Bush)... and those around him... and us. Or we could vote for Kerry and increase the odds that we'll regain the freedoms we have lost.

Joyce Thomas
http://joyworks.net/

~ Return to "What'd She Say Now!"

In 1795, James Madison said, "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people."

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war . . . and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both.