GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."

-Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence

"The people know that their liberties and happiness would be in infinitely great danger from the king's unlimited possession of these powers, than from all external enemies and internal commotions to which they might be exposed."

-The Federal Farmer

The Antifederalist Papers

"That these Powers (as the appointment of all Rulers will forever arise from, and, at short stated intervals, recur to the free suffrage of the People) are so distributed among the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, into which the general Government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy."

-George Washington

Letter to Marquis de LaFayette

"But remember, when the people once part with power, they can seldom or never resume it again but by force. Many instances can be produced in which the people have voluntarily increased the powers of their rulers; but few, if any, in which rulers have willingly abridged their authority."

-Brutus

The Antifederalist Papers