"They that can given up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Secrecy in a popular government is but a Prologue to a Farce, or a Tragedy, or perhaps both."--James Madison

"When it shall be said in any country in the world, 'My poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets empty of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive'--when these things can be said then may that country boast of its constitution and government."--Thomas Paine

"There never was a good war or bad peace."--Benjamin Franklin

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."--Thomas Jefferson

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate the rights of agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning."--Frederick Douglass

"Corporations have been enthroned ... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people ... until wealth is aggregated in a few hands ... and the Republic is destroyed."--Abraham Lincoln, 1865

"[The] freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much."--U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its STUPIDITY."--Dwight Eisenhower

"The police departments that aren't backing up the FBI--they're more than disgusting, they're unpatriotic."--Former congressman Bob Dornan, attacking the Portland Police Department for its refusal to interrogate men of Middle Eastern descent.

Ed. note: Some of us are considering printing t-shirts with one or more pro-civil liberty quotes from famous early Americans, as a way to put the present threat to our constitutional freedoms into context. Let us know if you have a favorite. Donations (or advance orders) to help cover printing costs would be great, too; send them to ETS!, PO Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, and specify that it's for the t-shirt fund.