Poems, Quotes for TeaParty07.com

[SwordOfShannarah]

We had a poem for the last site that helped propell the theme. Someone sent me this quote from Sam Adams. Can anyone think of some other quotes or poems that should be featured on the site?

Here is the Sam Adams quote:

"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams

[nathanielyao]

"Excessive taxation… will carry reason and reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election."
--Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 1798

Keep them coming, quotes from the founding fathers would be ideal!

[Wayne Hammond]

I like this one by Thomas Jefferson, even though it's pretty long:


"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

.

[libertygirl]

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.
Samuel Adams

[RockEnds]

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” Samuel Adams

[Energy]

And include a Ron Paul quote alongside to show the similar wisdoms - that RP is basically a Founding Father reincarnate.

[libertygirl]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

[ShowMeLiberty]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Absolutely use this one!

My children and my step-children are all young adults ranging in age from 16 to 22. This quote brings tears to my eyes because I see how extremely hard it is for them to get "started" in life on their own. And there is little any of their parents or step-parents can do because we're all hurting financially.

Jefferson's words are coming true right before our eyes, right now. :(

This is one of the biggest reasons I'm 100% behind Ron Paul. For the future of our children - to give them hope and a fighting chance at success.

[Visual]

'Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. '
Thomas Jefferson

[FreeTraveler]

In the early days of our Nation,
On a dark night long ago,
The people proclaimed a Rebellion,
King George to overthrow.

By night they came by the dozens,
In Indian garb adorned,
And covered the harbor in tea leaves,
And covered King George in scorn.

The years have been over two hundred,
Since that dark night long ago,
Sweet Liberty's torch has been battered,
Her Flame is barely aglow.

So now we come by the thousands,
And reclaim our legacy
By acting as Patriots together
And gathering by the sea.

We'll fight this battle with Dollars,
Donations for Sweet Liberty,
Weapons of Mass Attraction,
For a man who'll keep us free.

So stand side by side together,
Freedom is ours to reclaim,
December Sixteenth of ought-seven
The day we rekindle the Flame.

[Sey.Naci]

In the early days of our Nation,
On a dark night long ago,
The people proclaimed a Rebellion,
King George to overthrow.

By night they came by the dozens,
In Indian garb adorned,
And covered the harbor in tea leaves,
And covered King George in scorn.

The years have been over two hundred,
Since that dark night long ago,
Sweet Liberty's torch has been battered,
Her Flame is barely aglow.

So now we come by the hundreds,
And reclaim our legacy
By acting as Patriots together
And gathering by the sea.

We'll fight this battle with Dollars,
Donations for Sweet Liberty,
Weapons of Mass Attraction,
For a man who'll keep us free.

So stand side by side together,
Freedom is ours to reclaim,
November Sixteenth of ought-seven
The day we rekindle the Flame.
Oooh, that's VERY good. Couple of corrections:

Second last line should read "December (not November) sixteenth of ought-seven" And this line:

"So now we come by the hundreds"

should read

"So now we come by the tens of thousands"

[FreeTraveler]

Corrected the November / December issue, thanks.

unfortunately, "tens of thousands" doesn't scan well. I've changed it to thousands, though. :D

(You need to change my quote in your post, now. :p)

[Paul4Prez]

There once was a man named Ron Paul,
whose supporters kept giving their all.

Four mill in one day,
was a warm up they say,

On the 16th they'll make it look small.

[libertygirl]

Absolutely use this one!

My children and my step-children are all young adults ranging in age from 16 to 22. This quote brings tears to my eyes because I see how extremely hard it is for them to get "started" in life on their own. And there is little any of their parents or step-parents can do because we're all hurting financially.

Jefferson's words are coming true right before our eyes, right now. :(

This is one of the biggest reasons I'm 100% behind Ron Paul. For the future of our children - to give them hope and a fighting chance at success.

I know what you mean. Im the youngest of 5 children, 18, and my parents decided to get a divorce, just this year after 22 years together. Money is really tight. My heart is with you.

[jmhelms]

Corrected the November / December issue, thanks.

unfortunately, "tens of thousands" doesn't scan well. I've changed it to thousands, though. :D

(You need to change my quote in your post, now. :p)

I really like it too, now how to get that in audio? (I wouldn't be good for that no, no, no).

[FreeTraveler]

There once was a man named Ron Paul,
whose supporters kept giving their all.

Four mill in one day,
was a warm up they say,

On the 16th they'll make it look small.

Oh, a limerick, I like it! The only limericks I've ever written were dirty. :p

[FreeTraveler]

I really like it too, now how to get that in audio? (I wouldn't be good for that no, no, no).

Anybody with an acoustic guitar and a good voice that could put a simple tune to this to make it sound like a ballad? It would make a cool background for a video in that case.

[Paul4Prez]

Since it's a Boston theme, how about these from some guy in Boston:

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -- Samuel Adams

“Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty” -- Samuel Adams

"All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they should." -- Samuel Adams

[jmhelms]

For Kids:

America the Beautiful
Land of the Brave
But Socialist are coming!
To take me away!

Out of the darkness
One brave light I see
It's Ron Paul with the Anarchist
Standing up for Liberty!

We shouldn't fear
We too should be brave
Mom & Dad are at the meetup
To take Hillary's chances away

(okay, okay, I am just not so good at this stuff, you guys are doing a great job though:-)

[jmhelms]

Their coming to take me away Ha Ha
Their coming to take me away!!

[Paul.Bearer.of.Injustice]

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

~Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

[Mordechai Vanunu]

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson

[nathanielyao]

If the American People ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered . . . - Thomas Jefferson

[Heather in WI]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Wow! This one is perfect!

[Heather in WI]

The full quote is:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

Thomas Jefferson - letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802).

[nigh_eve]

Not sure which of these is the actual quote:

In times of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. OR
Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell


Ron Paul -- The LIFE of the Party!

[Knightskye]

I saw this in a comment on YouTube:

"Let's party like it's 1773!"

Short and sweet and has "party" in it. I liked it. What do you guys think? :D

[donnay]

Watch all citizens and you shall see...
another historical event to resist tyranny
On the sixteenth of December, in two-thousand seven
A clap of thunder not far from heaven...
But from the people who exercise their right to be free
and live in a country that cherishes liberty.

~Donna


"America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom."
– John Quincy Adams (1821)

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." – Patrick Henry

"On every question of construction, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
– Thomas Jefferson


"The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people." – Congressman Ron Paul, 1987

"The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence. All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals. Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense."
– Congressman Ron Paul, (R) Texas

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction." – Ronald Reagan

[random]

Oh, a limerick, I like it! The only limericks I've ever written were dirty. :pFeel free to contribute :)

Here's Rudy's Nightmare:

As I lay down by wife number three
I dozed and I dreamed of the sea.
Then a man launched a blimp,
Got endorsed by a pimp,
And I woke up drowning in tea!

[ChrisAZ]

TRIBUTE TO BOSTON Liber•TEA PARTY

Remember, Remember, the sixteenth ‘December!
With hearts burning embers, patriots did rally,
Tyranny by despots, they began to dismember.

Sweet Liber-tea brewed in Boston harbor that night.

On pledge of lives, fortunes, sacred honor, and more
Fearless sacrifice, courage, and honor did roar.
America resisted her government, that cold, wintry night
And in those dark icy waters, brewed more than just tea.
From the spirit of patriots, Angel Liberty sprung she.

Sweet Liber-tea brewed in Boston harbor that night.

For eleven score years, she guided these lands
But now tyranny again, spreads his tentacled hands

Patriot acts, boundless surveillance; habeas corpus and judges denied.
Show me your guns and your gold; your phone and email are pried.
Why should you worry, if you’ve nothing to hide?
By all means of know-how, on every chat we will listen.
For claim of triumph and honor, these powers we christen.

You must use our money, this paper is great!
For those who oppose, more prisons await
And when money inflates, more and more shall we make
Your savings evaporates, with the dollars I create,
As the worth of your labor grows smaller each date.

Now your dollar is worthless, your savings all gone
Foreclosures, defaults
Prices keep rising; shortages spawn
Many are desperate; they clamor for safety
Others take arms to protect their belongs
We must mandate order, he commands with glee
These executive orders have been place here for me
I seize your gold, guns, and silver; now receive your ID
Price controls, wage controls, gas quotas, food quotas - for your security

Rise up now you patriots, while her spirit still lives!
Once more Lady Liberty needs you to give
To protect liberties, labors, properties and lives
To protest taxation, oppression, and theft by inflation
Hurry, please hurry; with this hope, save our nation.

Let not Liberty’s spirit ever be forgot.
Let’s Rally once more like Boston patriots of yore!

Remember, Remember, the sixteenth ‘December!
With hearts burnings embers, patriots did rally,
Tyranny by despots, they began to dismember.
-
C. KALABUS[/SIZE]

[freedom-maniac]

From: http://www.daypoems.net/poems/2585.html

A Song written early in the American Revolution.

Tune – The gods of Greece.

In a chariot of light, form the regions of the day,
The Goddess of Liberty came,
Ten thousand celestials directed her way,
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,
And the plant she named Liberty Tree.

The celestial exotic stuck deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourished and bore;
The fame of its fruit drew the nations around,
To seek out this peaceable shore.
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came,
For freemen like brothers agree;
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,
And their temple was Liberty Tree.

Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
Their bread in contentment they ate,
Unvexed with the troubles of silver or gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.

With timber and tar they Old England supplied,
And supported her power on the sea;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
For the honor of Liberty Tree.

But hear, O ye swains (t’is a tale most profane),
How all the tyrannical powers,
Kings, Commons and Lords, are uniting amain
To cut down this guardian of ours.
From the East to the West blow the trumpet to arms,
Thro’ the land let the sound of it flee;
Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer,
In defense of our Liberty Tree.

[freedom-maniac]

From: http://www.eldritchpress.org/owh/tea.html

A Ballad
of the Boston Tea-Party
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
1874



No! never such a draught was poured
Since Hebe served with nectar
The bright Olympians and their Lord,
Her over-kind protector,--
Since Father Noah squeezed the grape
And took to such behaving
As would have shamed our grandsire ape
Before the days of shaving,--
No! ne'er was mingled such a draught
In palace, hall, or arbor,
As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed
That night in Boston Harbor!
It kept King George so long awake
His brain at last got addled,
It made the nerves of Britain shake,
With sevenscore millions saddled;
Before that bitter cup was drained,
Amid the roar of cannon,
The Western war-cloud's crimson stained
The Thames, the Clyde, the Shannon;
Full many a six-foot grenadier
The flattened grass had measured,
And many a mother many a year
Her tearful memories treasured;
Fast spread the tempest's darkening pall,
The mighty realms were troubled,
The storm broke loose, bnt first of all
The Boston teapot bubbled!

An evening party,-- only that,
No formal invitation,
No gold-laced coat, no stiff cravat,
No feast in contemplation,
No silk-robed dames, no fiddling band,
No flowers, no songs, no dancing,--
A tribe of red men, axe in hand,--
Behold the guests advancing!
How fast the stragglers join the throng,
From stall and workshop gathered!
The lively barber skips along
And leaves a chin half-lathered;
The smith has flung his hammer down,--
The horseshoe still is glowing;
The truant tapster at the Crown
Has left a beer-cask flowing;
The cooper's boys have dropped the adze,
And trot behind their master;
Up run the tarry ship-yard lads,--
The crowd is hurrying faster,--
Out from the Millpond's purlieus gush
The streams of white-faced millers,
And down their slippery alleys rush
The lusty young Fort-Hillers;
The rope walk lends its 'prentice crew,--
The tories seize the omen:
"Ay, boys, you'll soon have work to do
For England's rebel foemen,
'King Hancock,' Adams, and their gang,
That fire the mob with treason,--
When these we shoot and those we hang
The town will come to reason."

On-- on to where the tea-ships ride!
And now their ranks are forming,--
A rush, and up the Dartmouth's side
The Mohawk band is swarming!
See the fierce natives! What a glimpse
Of paint and fur and feather,
As all at once the full-grown imps
Light on the deck together!
A scarf the pigtail's secret keeps,
A blanket hides the breeches,--
And out the cursèd cargo leaps,
And overboard it pitches!
O woman, at the evening board
So gracious, sweet, and purring,
So happy while the tea is poured,
So blest while spoons are stirring,
What martyr can compare with thee,
The mother, wife, or daughter,
That night, instead of best Bohea,
Condemned to milk and water!

Ah, little dreams the quiet dame
Who plies with rock and spindle
The patient flax, how great a flame
Yon little spark shall kindle!
The lurid morning shall reveal
A fire no king can smother
Where British flint and Boston steel
Have clashed against each other!
Old charters shrivel in its track,
His Worship's bench has crumbled,
It climbs and clasps the union-jack,
Its blazoned pomp is humbled,
The flags go down on land and sea
Like corn before the reapers;
So burned the fire that brewed the tea
That Boston served her keepers!

The waves that wrought a century's wreck
Have rolled o'er whig and tory;
The Mohawks on the Dartmouth's deck
Still live in song and story;
The waters in the rebel bay
Have kept the tea-leaf savor;
Our old North-Enders in their spray
Still taste a Hyson flavor;
And Freedom's teacup still o'erflows
With ever fresh libations,
To cheat of slumber all her foes
And cheer the wakening nations!

[Heather in WI]

"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all commerce and industry."
President James A. Garfield

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
President John Adams

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
Alan Greenspan

"It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford

"To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the law making majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the system must depend. Unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by the influence of his patronage, will supersede the laws."
~John Calhoun, 1833

"There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire."
~John Witherspoon

"Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings — give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
~Patrick Henry

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."
~President James Madison

[freedom-maniac]

Not necessasarily about the Boston Tea Party, but still on the American history theme:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DdUUywIsIGI

[Chicago Joe]

I especially love the quote presented in the OP... truly moving. This is a Villanelle I wrote about a month ago, just thought I'd share it for kicks or whatever. (Though you have my permission to feel free and repost it if space permits)



Liberty, so painfully achieved
So precious a thing, to grasp it
Liberty, so easily bereaved

A Nation, free of tyranny it was conceived
Our Founding Fathers, who did not quit
Liberty, so painfully achieved

The modern public, daily deceived
We remain ignorant, and so we omit
Liberty, so easily bereaved

A reign of Monarchy, so direly relieved
The reprisal of sovereignty, to which few commit
Liberty, so painfully achieved

Truthful reality, by few perceived
With our modern lives, we often submit
Liberty, so easily bereaved

Freedom is the dream too often believed
Taken for granted, it will become unfit
Liberty, so painfully achieved
Liberty, so easily bereaved

~Joseph Meiners

[curiousobserver]

"First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you WIN."

- Mahatma Gandhi