757 – “As to the presidency, the two happiest days of [my] life were those of my entrance upon the office and [my] surrender of it.”

–Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States [Attributed by Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States]

Today is President’s Day in the United States!

731 – “The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”

–anonymous [Often Misattributed, See Source Notes]

654 – Henry Steele Commager on Governments and Criticism

“If government, or those in positions of power and authority, can silence criticism by the argument that such criticism might be misunderstood somewhere, there is an end to all criticism, and perhaps an end to our kind of political system. For men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.”

–Henry Steele Commager

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653 – Grover Cleveland’s Statue of Liberty Dedication

“We are not here today to bow before the representation of a fierce warlike god, filled with wrath and vengeance, but we joyously contemplate instead our own deity keeping watch and ward before the open gates of America and greater than all that have been celebrated in ancient song. Instead of grasping in her hand thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft the light which illumines the way to man’s enfranchisement. We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected. Willing votaries will constantly keep alive its fires and these shall gleam upon the shores of our sister Republic thence, and joined with answering rays a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression, until Liberty enlightens the world.”

–Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States of America

Today is Election Day in the United States, and regardless of who you support it is important that you go vote. Don’t make excuses, as the fewer people who vote, the worse and more partisan our democratic republic becomes, so exercise the fundamental right and vote!