"For in a Republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them." -- Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)

Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) US Founding Father 1787 Source: as recorded by Constitution signer James McHenry in a diary entry.

"A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years." -- Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist Source: The Constitution of No Authority (Boston: 1870), p. 28.