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| reply to Hangmn
Re: 911? said by Hangmn:Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin A couple things to keep in mind:
1. Franklin can be quoted for just about any position. Just 3-4 years before the revolution he was in England, writing letters about John Wilkes a very popular politician who was imprisoned and elected to parliament three times from prison. His supporters were rioting over his treatment by the king.
Franklin criticized them as deserving a horrible fate. He praised King George as the best King England had ever had. That was just 3-4 years before it became fashionable in the colonies to rail against the King in the same way Wilkes and his supporters were doing.
2. Franklin's quote was first published in 1755, and republished 20 years later (5-6 years after the Wilkes episode mentioned above). Just 12 years after that, the founding generation was fed up with the relatively libertarian life under the Articles of Confederation, and wanted a vastly more powerful constitutional federal government in 1789.
Franklin was a Federalist. He argued in favor of giving up some liberty in exchange for safety.
Mark |
