Gorgeous sunset shot via Matthew Stewart.

Today’s quote comes from Robert Coram:

…it is here where wealthy and dignified mortals roll along the streets in all the parade and trappings of royalty, while the lower class are not half so well fed as the horses of the former. It is this cruel inequality which has given rise to the epithets of nobility, vulgur, mob, canaille, etc. and the degrading but common observation — Man differs more from man, than man from beast — The difference is purely artificial. Thus do men create an artificial inequality among themselves and then cry out that it is natural.

Interesting that some arguments and discussions continue along the same lines, isn’t it? That cause and effect and all the related in betweens and good or ill for society as a whole were questions at our founding.  And continue to be so to this day.

What say you?

Tree at sunset via joiseshowaa. Lovely!

What are the duties of a judge in the federal courts? On the Supreme Court? Let’s go all the way back to Marbury v. Madison for an answer:

‘No person,’ says the constitution, ‘shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.’

Here the language of the constitution is addressed especially to the courts. It prescribes, directly for them, a rule of evidence not to be departed from. If the legislature should change that rule, and declare one witness, or a confession out of court, sufficient for conviction, must the constitutional principle yield to the legislative act?

From these and many other selections which might be made, it is apparent, that the framers of the consti- [5 U.S. 137, 180] tution contemplated that instrument as a rule for the government of courts, as well as of the legislature.

Why otherwise does it direct the judges to take an oath to support it? This oath certainly applies, in an especial manner, to their conduct in their official character. How immoral to impose it on them, if they were to be used as the instruments, and the knowing instruments, for violating what they swear to support!

The oath of office, too, imposed by the legislature, is completely demonstrative of the legislative opinion on this subject. It is in these words: ‘I do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich; and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent on me as according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States.’

Why does a judge swear to discharge his duties agreeably to the constitution of the United States, if that constitution forms no rule for his government? if it is closed upon him and cannot be inspected by him. (more…)

Independence Hall at sunset via DC Digital Photography.

Today’s quote comes, predictably, from the Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States….

Stop and really think about what was risked to gain our freedom. The enormity of that risk is staggering and humbling.

Sunset in Manhattan via slack12.A quick thought from James Joyce “Ulysses:”The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant’s heart on a hillside.What say you?

Burmese sunset via zedzap. Gorgeous photo.Today’s quotes come from two of the Founders, and showcase the tension between security and individual liberty that has always existed in this country. First, from James Madison and Federalist #43:The first question is answered at once by recurring to the absolute necessity of the case; to the great principle of self-preservation; to the transcendent law of nature and of nature’s God, which declares

Photo via SkipSteuart.Today’s quote comes from Abigail Adams, in a letter which was a series of correspondence between her and John Adams.I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives.

Fenced sunset via law_keven.Today’s quote comes from Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man:Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it….

When men are spoken of as kings and subjects, or when Government is mentioned under the

Jefferson Memorial at sunset via Camera Slayer.This evening’s quote is a gem from Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to James Madison regarding the inevitable failure of injustice:No nation however powerful, any more than an individual, can be unjust with impunity. Sooner or later, public opinion, an instrument merely moral in the beginning, will find occasion physically to inflict its sentences on the unjust… The lesson is useful to the weak as