The founders knew that power will oppress the people.
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing. ”
— JOHN ADAMS, A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law, No. 3, printed in Boston Gazette, 30 Sept. 1765
George Washington said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master…”
“Men are apt to be deceived both with respect to their own dispositions and those of others. Though this truth is proved by almost every page of the history of nations, to wit, that power, lodged in the hands of rulers to be used at discretion, is almost always exercised to the oppression of the people, and the aggrandizement of themselves; yet most men think if it was lodged in their hands they would not employ it in this manner.”
— Brutus, 29 November 1787