Jitterbugging for Jesus

In high school and college I thought seriously about a career in academia as a historian. Every year in the weeks leading up to July 4th I dust off my biographies and history books or go online to read about our Founding Fathers.

This week I’ll be sharing a few nuggets from those refined and enlightened men who envisioned America and made America happen.

For today’s reading . . .

Imagine the reaction if a presidential or congressional candidate from either party today were to say this kind of stuff about war and liberty (with my italics for emphasis):

“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 debt 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.

That was America’s Founding Father James Madison, known as “The Father of the Constitution” for championing the Bill of Rights.

He was also the 4th President and was married to First Lady Dolly.