NP - Your Evening Jemmy

[David Morris]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Evening_Jemmy_8_27_13

Of all the enemies of true 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 manner and of morals, engendered in both. No nation can
preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. War is in fact the
true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war, a physical force is to be
created; and it is the executive will, which is to direct it.

--* James Madison, Political Observations, April 20, 1795.*
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