by Danielle Ellis

What does it mean to be a good citizen? What do good citizens know and do? What do they look for in their elected officials? To what standard do they hold their government? What is the value of a strong, united nation?

To answer these questions, I turned to those who wrestled with these issues in full force; some of America’s Founding Fathers. They sat through the constitutional convention, heard all sides of the debate, fought or lived through the Revolutionary War to earn their freedom from Great Britain, and were keen observers of human nature. They were also students of history and the Bible, and were said to be the “best spirits the God of Heaven could find on the face of the earth.” (quote from Wilford Woodruff.)

Following are some of their statements on the importance of the system of government they created for us, and our duties in and toward it. All quotes are source-verified and found on Wikiquote.org.

George Washington

“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” –First Inaugural Address

“It is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.” -Farewell address, 1796

Thomas Jefferson

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”

“It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.”

“Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the people.”

Ben Franklin

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

James Madison

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”