U.S. CONSTITUTION
Liberal friendly quotes:
"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence,
and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched.
They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than
human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment…
laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of
the human mind… as that becomes more developed, more enlightened,
as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to
keep pace with the times… We might as well require a man
to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized
society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous
ancestors."
-- Thomas Jefferson, on reform of the Virginia Constitution
"That our Creator made the earth for the use of the living
and not of the dead; that those who exist not can have no use
nor right in it, no authority or power over it; that one generation
of men cannot foreclose or burden its use to another, which comes
to it in its own right and by the same divine beneficence; that
a preceding generation cannot bind a succeeding one by its laws
or contracts; these deriving their obligation from the will of
the existing majority, and that majority being removed by death,
another comes in its place with a will equally free to make its
own laws and contracts; these are axioms so self-evident that
no explanation can make them plainer."
-- Thomas Jefferson to T. Earle, 1823
"Jefferson was a man of many dimensions, and any explanation
of his behavior must contain a myriad of seeming contradictions.
He was a sincere and dedicated foe of the slave trade who bought
and sold men whenever he found it personally necessary. He
believed that all men were entitled to life and liberty regardless
of their abilities, yet he tracked down those slaves who had the
courage to take their rights by running away. He believed that
slavery was morally and politically wrong, but still he wrote a slave
code for his state and opposed a national attempt in 1819 to
limit the further expansion of the institution. He believed that one
hour of slavery was worse than ages of British oppression, yet he
was able to discuss the matter of slave breeding in much the
same terms that one would use when speaking of the propagation
of dogs and horses."
-- William Cohen, Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slavery
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