Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded. It comprises and develops the germ of every other.
War is the parent of armies. From these proceed debts and taxes. Armies and debts and taxes are 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. 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 manners and of morals engendered by both.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
The fourth president of the United States, James Madison (b. 1751 – d. 1836; term of office March 4, 1809-March 3, 1817), Father of the U. S. Constitution, quoted
Excerpt from “Political Observations” (1795); and in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491 [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Madison]
Britannica notes:
REPUBLIC (1604): 1 a (1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usu. a president
(2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
REPUBLICAN adj (1690): 1 a: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a republic b : favoring, supporting, or advocating a republic
REPUBLICANISM n (1689): 1 : adherence to or sympathy for a republican form of government 2 : the principles or theory of republican government
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