Welcome to Estrada for Texas!

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"The rights of the individual should be the primary object of all governments."

~Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

"Our Consolation must be this, my dear, that Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it."

~John Adams (*1735 - 1826)

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 July 1775

"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people was the real American Revolution!"

~ John Adams

Letter to H. Niles, February 13, 1818

"We have... given Britain one more chance, one opportunity more, of recovering the friendship of the colonies; which, however, I think she has not sense enough to embrace, and so I conclude she has lost them forever."

~ Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, 7 July 1775

"The battle sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."

~ Patrick Henry (1736 - 1799)

Speech at Second Virginia Convention, St. John's Church in Richmond, VA

on March 23, 1775

"The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism."

~ George Washington (1732 - 1799)

George Washington Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. when they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe."

~ Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Paris Dec. 20. 1787

"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men."

~ John Adams

Adams, thoughts on Government.

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."

~Tench Coxe (1755 - 1824)

(Tench Coxe in ‘Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym ‘A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American.... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."

~Tench Coxe (1755 - 1824)

(Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.)