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Quotation of the Day…

… is from pages 256-257 of Frank Chodorov’s November 1950 essay, in analysis, titled “The Revolution of 1913,” as this essay is reprinted in Liberty Fund’s excellent 1980 collection, Fugitive Essays, of Chodorov’s writings, edited by Charles H. Hamilton:

The principal preoccupation of the framers of the Constitution was with restraints on authority, and those who opposed it argued the insufficiency of these restraints. Much has been said about the “checks and balances” incorporated in the Constitution, but entirely too little emphasis is put on the temper of the times that made these provisions necessary. In the light of the present abdication of social power in favor of political power, the early American attitude toward government is most striking. True, there were some who favored a strong centralized government, and some went so far as to advocate monarchy; but it is doubtful whether even these envisioned a concentration of power such as our present government wields. It was simply unthinkable.

DBx: Happy Constitution Day, fellow Americans.