8 Government is the organized means and power that a State or Nation employs for the purpose of securing the rights of the people, and of perpetuating its own existence.
The real aim and purpose is well stated in the preamble to our Constitution when it says: "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".
Government can never rise higher than the ideals of the people who compose the government. Good governments are the products of good people. Good governments can only exist where the people are intelligent and upright in character, and where each citizen is willing to guard the rights and privileges of others as well as those of himself.
"This government _of the people_, _by the people_, and _for the people_, shall not perish from the earth."--Abraham Lincoln.
9 The object of government is to protect the citizens of a country and to promote their general welfare, and it is composed of the officials who care for the public interests of the citizens.
Under republican government, the weakest citizen enjoys the same rights and privileges as do the strongest citizens, the poorest have the same protection given to the richest, the most humble man or woman has a chance to become the head of his or her government and to lead the Nation among the most powerful Nations in the world.
"Brains and character rule the world. There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character."--Wendell Phillips.
"The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual."--Charles Sumner.
10 "There is always hope in a man that actually and honestly works. In idleness alone is there perpetual despair."--Thomas Carlyle.
"He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor."--Benjamin Franklin.
"If you have the great talents, industry will improve them; if moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies."--Joshua Reynolds.
"Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public."--John Adams.