Today is Benjamin Franklin’s birthday, and two quotations of his seem especially appropriate today:
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
-- Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
According to the notes of James McHenry, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, “a lady asked Dr. Franklin, ‘Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’ ‘A republic,’ replied the Doctor, ‘if you can keep it.’”
While we’re at it, let me add this one from Theodore Roosevelt:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
-- Article for the Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
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