A government — and a nation — of laws…

A FOUNDING FATHER’S FAMOUS USES: “A government of laws and not of men.”        John Adams (1735-1826)         American lawyer, politician and 2nd President of the United States        Although the basic concept of “a government of laws, and not of men” reflects a political philosophy dating back to the ancient Greeks, Adams gave it lasting fame in those exact words, initially by using it in his 7th “Novanglus” letter published in the Boston Gazette in 1775, then more famously by including it in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.       The “Novanglus Letters” were a series of essays Adams wrote for the Boston Gazette under the pseudonym Novanglus (meaning “New Englander”). In them, he argued that Great Britain’s treatment of American colonists violated their rights under British law.        In the seventh Novanglus letter, Adams said:        “If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more nor less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.”         Five years later after he wrote the Novanglus letters, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. Adams was primary author of that historic document. In it, he again used the phrase “a government of laws and not of men.” In the section outlining the crucial principle of the separation of powers, he wrote:        “In the government of this Commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: The judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”         “A government of laws” and the variation “a nation of laws” came to be commonly used in commentaries on legal issues, political disputes and court decisions. They are sometimes used almost simultaneously by people on both sides of such issues, who believe their interpretation of the law is the correct one — often regardless of what the courts decide.

TRUMP TRAVEL BAN QUOTE #1 (BEFORE THE APPEALS COURT DECISION): “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.  As a sovereign country, America has the right to control its border.”        Sen. John Neely Kennedy         Republican politician now serving as U.S. Senator for Louisiana        In a press statement he released on January 30, 2016 in support of President Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order. The order, designed to bar the entry of travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations into the U.S., was soon blocked by a federal judge whose decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.         Presumably, Sen. Kennedy respects that outcome as an example of how the separation of powers works in our nation of laws. (But somehow I doubt it.)

TRUMP TRAVEL BAN QUOTE #2 (AFTER THE APPEALS COURT DECISION): “We are a nation of laws. And, as I have said, as we have said, from day one, that those laws apply to everybody in our country, and that includes the President of the United States.”       Bob Ferguson       Washington State Attorney General       In a press conference on February 9, 2017 after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the state’s favor in a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s “travel ban” executive order. As I write this, it’s unclear whether President Trump will appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.        It also remains to be seen whether supporters or opponents of the ban will be happily (or grumpily) using “a nation of laws” when the legal dust finally settles.

NIXON APPLICATION #1: “Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.”       Archibald Cox (1912-2004)       American lawyer and law professor who served as a Special Prosecutor during the investigation of the Watergate scandal       Comment to the press on October 20, 1973 after President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox from his Special Prosecutor position for zealously pursuing access to the then still-secret Watergate Tapes.        Richardson refused to fire Cox and resigned in protest. Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus also refused to carry out the president’s order and resigned. Nixon then succeeded in getting Robert Bork, who’d been tapped as acting head of the Justice Department, to fire Cox on Saturday, October 20, 1973.        This so-called “The Saturday Night Massacre” didn’t help Nixon. It simply generated negative press, public outrage and even more intense Congressional investigations. Ultimately, Nixon was forced to release the tapes. On August 9, 1974, he became the first American president to resign, knowing he’d be impeached if he didn’t.

NIXON APPLICATION #2: “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”         Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006)        American politician who served as 38th President of the United States        Lines from his speech on August 9, 1974, the day he ascended from being Richard Nixon’s Vice President to be inaugurated as President of the United States after Nixon resigned.        One month later, President Ford gave Nixon a “full, free and absolute pardon” for any crimes he committed while president. Whether “the people” agreed with that decision didn’t matter. In our nation of laws, the president has the legal power to grant such pardons under the powers given to him by the U.S. Constitution.

CYNICAL VARIATION #1: “In our obsessive effort to perfect a government of laws, not of men, we have invented a government of laws against men.”        Philip K. Howard (b. 1948)        American lawyer and conservative political commentator and author         A quote from his 1994 book The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America        In the book, Howard argues that the increasing number of laws and regulations in the United States have reached a point of absurdity that stifles our economy, personal freedom and our quality of life.

CYNICAL VARIATION #2: “The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.”        Frank Zappa (1940-1993)        American rock musician, provocateur and entrepreneur             A famous quotation widely attributed to Zappa, though it’s unclear if and when he said it         On his excellent Big Apple language history site, Barry Popik notes that in a 1992 interview journalist Jon Winokur reminded Zappa that he “once said” the line.       Zappa didn’t actually confirm that he’d said those words in the interview. But the quote does seem consistent with his typically critical view of the American political and legal system.

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Facts are stubborn things – but not half so stubborn as fallacies...

JOHN ADAMS’ FAMOUS USE: “Facts are stubborn things.”        John Adams (1735-1826)        American lawyer and Founding Father who became the second President of the United States        Adams famously used this saying on December 4, 1770, during his defense of the British soldiers on trial for the March 5, 1770 incident popularly called the “Boston Massacre.”        That incident started when a Boston man got into an argument with a British soldier. Eight other soldiers who came to protect their comrade were soon surrounded by a large crowd of hostile Americans, who pelted them with snowballs and ice chunks. The soldiers panicked and shot into the crowd, killing five men. When the soldiers were arrested and put on trial for murder a Tory merchant asked John Adams to defend them. He accepted the case.         Many irate Bostonians wanted the soldiers executed for murder. Adams argued they’d been provoked and were not cold-blooded killers. During his summation he said: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence...This was a provocation, for which the law reduces the offence of killing down to manslaughter.” The jury agreed. Six of the soldiers were acquitted. Two were found guilty of manslaughter and punished by having their thumbs branded.         “Facts are stubborn things” became one of Adams’ best-known quotations. Some people think he coined it. In fact, it was already a proverbial saying. (For more background see the post on my ThisDayinQuotes.com site at this link.)

THE RUSSIAN HACKING APPLICATION: “I don’t know what to make of it because it’s clear the Russians interfered. Whether they intended to interfere to the degree that they were trying to elect a certain candidate, I think that’s a subject of investigation, but the facts are stubborn things.”        John McCain        American Republican politician who has long served as US Senator for Arizona         Comment in an interview on the CBS news show “Face the Nation,” December 11, 2016        This was McCain’s response when asked about Donald Trump’s recent dismissal of reports by US intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the hacking of emails on servers of the Democratic National Committee, with the apparent intent of hurting Hillary Clinton’s campaign and helping Trump win the November 2016 presidential election. Earlier that day, Trump told Fox News he didn’t believe it.

THE FAKE NEWS ERA APPLICATION: “Zombie claims are stubborn things. No matter how many times you debunk them, they keep rising from the dead.”        Michelle Ye Hee Lee        Washington D.C.- based reporter for the Washington Post        In her May 8, 2016 column in the Post        Lee was commenting on the type of claims that seem increasingly common in the realm of politics nowadays; claims that continue to be spread and believed by many people even after they have been proven false.

A FAKE NEWS ERA PRECURSOR: “Facts are stubborn things, but as someone has wisely said, not half so stubborn as fallacies.”        Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)        Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables, written under her pen name L.M. Montgomery         This line, from Montgomery’s book Anne of the Island (1915), is in a letter written by the character Stella Maynard.

A FAKE MARK TWAIN QUOTE: “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”        Attributed (wrongly) to Mark Twain (1835-1910)        This quip is credited to Twain by thousands of internet posts and many books.         One problem: the facts don't support that claim. As noted by language maven Barry Popik in his post about the quote on his Big Apple site, there’s no evidence Twain ever said it. It appears to be one of the many fake Mark Twain quotes that float around.

REAGAN’S (IN)FAMOUS SLIP OF THE TONGUE: “Facts are stupid things.”        Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)        American actor-turned-politician; 40th President of the United States        In his speech at the August 15, 1988 Republican National Convention        Reagan made this unfairly-mocked slip in the part of his speech that focused on the economic problems he blamed on his Democratic predecessor, President Jimmy Carter. “Before we came to Washington,” Reagan said, “Americans had just suffered the two worst back-to-back years of inflation in 60 years...Fuel costs jumped through the atmosphere, more than doubling. Then people waited in gas lines as well as unemployment lines. Facts are stupid things.”        Reagan immediately corrected himself, adding: “Stubborn things, I should say.” But once the word stupid came out of his mouth, that’s the version that was picked up and satirized by his critics.

THE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION REVELATION: “January is the month of broken resolutions. The gyms are packed for a week, Jenny Craig is full of new recruits and houses are cleaned for the first time in ages. We pledge to finally become the person we want to be: svelte, neat and punctual. Alas, it doesn’t take long before the stairmasters are once again sitting empty and those same dirty T-shirts are piling up at the back of the closet… Human habits, in other words, are stubborn things, which helps explain why 88 percent of all resolutions end in failure, according to a 2007 survey of over 3,000 people conducted by the British psychologist Richard Wiseman.”        Jonah Lehrer        American writer and speaker         In an article he wrote for Wired.com in January 2012

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“Hearts and minds” – from the Bible to Vietnam to the Middle East…

THE FAMOUS BIBLICAL QUOTE: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.”         St. Paul         A famous line from his Epistle to the Philippians, c. 62 A.D.          This Biblical verse from Philippians 4:7 helped popularize two famous phrases: “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” and “hearts and minds.”

JOHN ADAMS’ REVOLUTIONARY WAR QUOTE: “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         Second President of the United States        From a letter he wrote to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818

LBJ’S VIETNAM WAR QUOTE: “We must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there.”        Lyndon Baines Johnson        36th President of the United States        His famous (and infamous) “Hearts and Minds” speech (May 4, 1965)

THE GREEN BERETS’ VIETNAM WAR COUNTERQUOTE: “If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”         U.S. Green Berets slogan during the Vietnam War

AN IRAQ WAR VARIATION: “What have you done to win Iraqi hearts and minds today?.”         Headline on posters that US General David Petraeus ordered to be posted in American military facilities in Iraq in 2003. The line reflected policies in the “Counterinsurgency Manual” he wrote, which were supposed to help to gain Iraqi support for the continued US presence in their country and to reduce attacks on US troops by “insurgents.”

AN AFGHANISTAN WAR VARIATION: “[General] Petraeus’s counterinsurgency manual, with all its talk of winning hearts and minds, is pure Vietnam.”         Jonathan Schell (1924-2014)                American columnist and author         In a 2009 commentary in The Nation about the “counterinsurgency” policies created by Gen. Petraeus, which were then being applied in Afghanistan.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S QUOTE ABOUT ISLAMIC EXTREMISM: “We know that military force alone cannot solve this problem…Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalized to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.”        Barack Obama        44th President of the United States        In an op-ed he wrote about the recent wave of killings by Islamic extremists, fist published in the L.A. Times on February 17, 2015

A RESPONSE TO OBAMA'S QUOTE: “Anytime I see the ‘win their hearts and minds’ as the key driver of our warfare strategy I know we’re screwed.”         Reader comment posted on a PoliticalHotwire.com thread titled “Obama administration solution to stop ISIS...get them jobs!”

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