Gouverneur MorrisGouverneur Morris, (1752-1816) represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, author of large sections of the Constitution for the United States, credited as the author of its Preamble

Gouverneur Morris Quote

“The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did...they always will. They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper spheres.”

Gouverneur MorrisGouverneur Morris
~ Gouverneur Morris


Ratings and Comments


Dave Wilber, Saint Louis

When government takes everything without paying for anything, a slave state exists. There is no branch of government spending money or paying anyone for anything. If you believe that our misleaders spend money, why don't you accept my offer of 100 pounds of money for just describing the money they spend, :I have been making this offer for 29 years. We would have no wars if soldiers and suppliers had to be paid dollars of money. Everyone pretends we are paid with checks that no bank will give money for. All they offer of us is paper and copper tokens. "None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe that they are free."--Johann W. von Goethe

Anon
  • Reply
Anon    2/26/09

Being rich is not the problem if done with good honest hard work, It is the greed for more where the problem is and this is what leads to man's temptation to steal it by laws they create and call them legal. The love of money is the root of all evil and when that love is satisfied power is the next lustful satisfaction they seek.

Waffler, Smith

We all have only 24 hours a day to live. Money beyond some limit be it a million or a billion brings nothing more than power to its controller. Let us not become another serfdom or Euro caste system but ever remain a free people-free of money and power where we can make our own destinies.

Mike, Norwalk

The rich to which Morris references is more identified in other of his writings. He is speaking here more of a ruling class aristocracy (identified by their seeming riches) that through money, debt, and other measures of wealth abuse and put down the laborer and all others not of their esteemed enlightenment, position, and general genre. Keeping them in their proper spheres would mean all are equal before law and justice. There needs be a new and full implementation of the quote as it is more apropos today in the USA (Union of Socialist Amerika) than when he wrote it.

E Archer, NYC

An inconvenient truth. (And I would like to point out that those making $250K a year are NOT the rich. Even Bill Gates is but a newbie in the rich man's world.) The aristocracy to which Mike refers have more than money -- they have the power to make or break nations, they own the currency we pay rent to use. It is beyond Waffler's comprehension.

gasjef, Newark

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