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Good intentions will always be pleaded, for every assumption of power but they cannot justify it ... It is hardly too strong to say, that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real or pretended.

Daniel Webster

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Daniel Webster
Age: 70 †
Born: 1782
Born: January 18
Died: 1852
Died: October 25
Diplomat
Former United States Senator
Lawyer
Politician
Salisbury
New Hampshire
Power
Tyranny
Forefathers
Real
Gun
Dangers
Made
Intention
Intentions
Every
Constitution
Guard
Good
Danger
Libertarian
Always
Liberty
Justify
People
Strong
Assumption
Pleaded
Cannot
Hardly
Pretended

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If you divorce capital from labor, capital is hoarded, and labor starves.
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A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
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The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.
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Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.
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Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
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Gentlemen, the character of Washington is among the most cherished contemplations of my life. It is a fixed star in the firmament of great names, shining without twinkling or obscuration, with clear, steady, beneficent light.
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The States are nations.
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On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like another morn, Risen on mid-noon and the sky on which you closed your eye was cloudless.
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No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.
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Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an over-ruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain and positive. Respect the laws of your country.
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The hand that destroys the Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.
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Every breeze wafts intelligence from country to country, every wave rolls it and gives it forth, and all in turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas, there are marts and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and a wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligences which make up the minds and opinions of the age.
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When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself.
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If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn.
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The farmers are the founders of civilization.
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America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
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The dignity of history consists in reciting events with truth and accuracy, and in presenting human agents and their actions in an interesting and instructive form. The first element in history, therefore, is truthfulness and this truthfulness must be displayed in a concrete form.
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Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
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Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.
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Keep cool anger is not an argument.
Daniel Webster