John Hall: “I would like to quote from James Madison, chief author of the Constitution, from remarks he wrote on April 20, 1795…”

“I would like to quote from James Madison, chief author of the Constitution, from remarks he wrote on April 20, 1795, which sound as though they could have been written today. "Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it compromises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies and debts and taxes are the 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; and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of the people. This 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 manner and of morals engendered in both. No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual war. War is, in fact, the true nurse of executive aggrandizement.”