Historic Views on Government – Boorstin

Honest opinion about government from Daniel Boorstin:

We must return to the ideal of equality. We must recognize that many of the acts committed in the name of equal opportunity are in fact acts of discrimination. We must reject reactionary programs, though they masquerade under slogans of progress, which would carry us back to Old World prejudices, primitive hatreds, and discriminatory quotas. Our cultural federalism, another name for the fellowship of man in America, must once again emphasize what each can give to us. We must reject the clenched fist for the open hand. We must aim, more than ever before, to become color-blind. We must aim to create conditions of equal opportunity�by improving American schools beginning at the very bottom, and by ruthlessly applying the same standards of achievement to all Americans regardless of race, sex, religion, or national origin�the same standards for admission to institutions of higher learning, for graduation, for the Civil Service, for elected office, and for all other American opportunities. We weaken our nation and show disrespect for all our fellow Americans when we make race or sex or poverty a disqualification�and equally so when we make them a qualification.
   Democracy and Its Discontents, 1971, 1974

Senior historian of the Smithsonian Institution, Daniel Boorstin is an extremely versatile intellectual. Until 1969 he was Preston and Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor of American History at the University of Chicago, where he taught for twenty-five years. He earned degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale and practiced law in Massachusetts. He is known for his numerous books, including The Americans (a trilogy), The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1964, 1971), The Genius of American Politics (1953), and The Decline of Radicalism (1969). He also edited the twenty-seven volume Chicago History of American Civilization series.

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.

Historic Views on Government – Washington

Honest opinion about government from George Washington:

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
   First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

It is a maxim founded on the universal experiences of mankind that no nation is to be trusted farther than is bound by its interest.
   Letter to Henry Laurens, 1778

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.
   Farewell Address, 1796

Happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
   Letter to the Jewish Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, 1790

First President of the United States, George Washington was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1759-1774) and became one of the leaders of the colonial opposition to British policies in America. He was a member of the First and Second Constitutional Congresses (1774-1775) and was elected to command all Continental armies on June 15, 1775. Near the end of 1783, he resigned his commission and retired to Mount Vernon, from which he was called from retirement to preside at the federal convention in Philadelphia (1787). He was unanimously chosen president of the United States under the new constitution and took his official oath on April 30, 1789. He was unanimously re-elected in 1793 and later declined a third term.

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.