“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46

“The duties which a police officer owes to the state are of a most exacting nature. No one is compelled to choose the profession of a police officer, but having chosen it, everyone is obliged to live up to the standard of its requirements. To join in that high enterprise means the surrender of much individual freedom.”

President Calvin Coolidge (while serving as Governor of Massachusetts)

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams in a speech to the military, 1798

If the majority of Americans lose their moral compass, our system no longer works…
Sheriff Ray 

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”
– Gen. Douglas MacArthur

“When young men seek to be like you, when lazy men resent you, when powerful men look over their shoulder at you, when cowardly men plot behind your back, when corrupt men wish you were gone and evil men want you dead … Only then will you have done your share.”
– Song lyrics by Phil Messina

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” — Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781

Theodore Roosevelt

I just finished reading a most excellent book, the River of Doubt which chronicles Teddy Roosevelt‘s last adventure, a trip down an uncharted river in South America. It was an incredible account of survival and adventure and will forever be one of my all time favorite books. I gained a healthy new respect for Roosevelt and his character (although not always his policies).

I found this quote from him on the I Command Academy website, an organization that the Police Dynamics Institute is partnering with to bring interactive leadership training to law enforcement agencies throughout the world…

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. — Theodore Roosevelt

“Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power
are feared; but only men of character are trusted.”
— Author Unknown

“There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations … who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. … Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” — Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

Abner Nash

Interestingly (to me at least), I was reading Patriot Sons, Patriot Brothers, a book about two of my ancestors Abner and Francis Nash, and found that their elder brother, John Nash, Jr. was present at Saint John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775 when Patrick Henry made his famous speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Gen. Francis Nash was killed by a British cannonball at the Battle of Germantown. The same cannonball killed the son of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of my favorite Founding Fathers. Thomas Paine passed Gen. Nash as his wounded body was being carried to receive medical attention. He died a few days later and his funeral was attended by none other than Gen. George Washington. Just thought you should know…

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their
sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”
— Sam Ewing