The Notes (12 page)
Thomas Wolfe
T
o every man his chance, to very man regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity. To every man the rt. to live, to work, to be himself & to become whatever his manhood & his vision can combine to make him. This is the promise of America.—Rise & Fall
Legend Declaration of Independence
T
hey may turn every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave & yet the words of that parchment can never die . . . To the mechanic in the workshop they will speak hope; to the slaves in the mines freedom . . . Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck—for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom—the Bible of the rights of man forever.
Samuel Gompers Described Govt. Social Insurance
M
enace to the rights, the welfare & the lib. of the working man—cannot remove or prevent poverty—can’t take risk out—without denying freedom of choice.
Rev. Muhlenberg
O
n a bright Sunday morning at the outbreak of the Rev. War—the Rev. was preaching his sermon when he was handed a note.—paused read the note then silently removed his ministerial robe. He was wearing the uniform of Wash’s army. “My friends there is a time to preach and a time to fight. This is a time to fight.”
John Stuart Mill
W
ar is an ugly thing. But not the ugliest of things. The decayed & degraded st. of moral & patriotic feeling which things nothing is worth a war is worse. A man who has nothing he cares about more than his personal safety is a miserable creature & has no chance of being free unless made & kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
Anonymous
I
want to say something about Army. When all the slick pants politicians have finished their work, and all the speeches are finished in the Senate & the House, and all the ultimatums have been issued and rejected, there comes a time when a soldier with a gun stands to defend his country. And so in the final analysis the most important thing we have are the fighting men in this country, because it will be them & no one else who will see that our freedoms are perpetuated for our children & for their children.
O
f all the men who have died in battle to preserve what we have today 88% wore the uniform of the U.S. Army.
Dean of Canterbury, Talking About Civil War, 1863 (Rev. Henry Alford)
D
enounced the U.S. for: “Its reckless and fruitless maintenance of the most cruel and unprincipled war in the history of the world.” (The war that ended slavery)
Thomas Jefferson
I
f we are forced into a war, we must give up differences of opinion and united as one nation to defend our country.
George Washington
D
inner dialogue at Mt. Vernon between Lafayette and GW:
L:
“George you Americans even in war & desperate times have a superb spirit. You are happy & you are confident. Why is it?
GW:
“There is freedom, there is space for a man to be alone & think & there are friends who owe each other nothing but affection.”
Sun Tzu 2500 Years Ago
A
n army is only the instrument which administers the coup de grace to an enemy already defeated by intel. ops which separated the enemy from his allies, corrupted his officials, spread misleading info. & correctly assessed his strengths & weaknesses—winning 100 battles is not the acme of skill—to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Winston Churchill
S
till if you will not fight for the right when you can win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure & not too costly; you may come to the moment when you’ll have to fight with all the odds against you & only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is
no
chance of victory because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
J.F.K.
