Arthur Ekirch Jr. on the major trend in American history

Since the time of the American Revolution the major trend in our history has been in the direction of ever-greater centralization and concentration of control - politically, economically, and socially.  As part of this drift toward 'state capitalism' or 'socialism,' the liberal values associated with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment - and especially that of individual freedom - have slowly lost their primary importance in American life and thought.

~ Arthur A. Ekirch Jr., The Decline of American Liberalism (1967)

Alexis de Tocqueville on the features of despotism

I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world.  The first thing that strikes the eye is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike...  Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and watch over their fate.  That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild.  It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people whould rejoice, provided that they think of nothing but rejoicing.  For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry... what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and the trouble of living?

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2

Philip Duffy on centralization

If you commit yourself to centralization, you doom yourself to conflict.

~ Philip Duffy, June 27, 2021

Phil Duffy with daughter Erin
Linderhof Palace in Ettal Germany
May, 2009

Brion McClanahan on how John Marshall believed in an "aggressive central authority"

[John] Marshall distrusted the people's capacity to govern and believed that liberty was best secured by an aggressive central authority and not by local or state governments.  John Randolph of Roanoke, a friend and bitter rival, agreed with Marshall on the dangers of democracy, or "King Numbers" as he called it.  Marshall truly believed the Constitution was, as Madison argued in Federalist No. 10, the only safeguard against the "demagoguery" of Patrick Henry and other state factions.  But, he unknowingly set the stage for the rapid growth of the central government in the twentieth century.  His goal was a conservative one - but in the end he only established the precedents for an over-mighty central government that was as subject to demagogues as any state or local faction.

~ Brion McClanahan, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers, pp. 293-294

Tom DiLorenzo on the political agenda of Henry Clay

When Henry Clay entered national politics in 1811 as a member of Congress, on the eve of the War of 1812 one of his first acts was to try to convince his colleagues to invade Canada, which they did, three times.  He waged a thirty-year political battle with the likes of James Madison, James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, Andrew Jackson, and the other defenders of the Jeffersonian philosophy of limited, decentralized, constitutional government.  Clay was the political heir to Alexander Hamilton and so championed centralized government power driven by political patronage for the benefit of what U.S. Senator John Taylor of Virginia called the "monied aristocracy."

~ Tom DiLorenzo, The Real Lincoln, p. 62

Henry Clay
1873

John Marshall on federalism

No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.

~ John Marshall, 4th U.S. Chief Justice from 1801-1835

John Marshall
1902-1903

Daniel Henninger on government centralization hitting a wall, epitomized by NIRP

The "administrative state" hasn't been a phrase known to drive people into the street.  Until now.  What we are witnessing is a global government fail - across Europe, the Middle East, in Beijing, Delphi, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

[...]

No better symptom exists of the compact breaking apart than the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the Bank of Japan.  They epitomize the exhaustion of elite administrative intelligence.  For seven years, they failed at restoring even average economic strength, disappearing now into a black hole called negative interest rates.

~ Daniel Henninger, "Government Hits the Wall," The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2016

Katniss Everdeen on centralized systems

It must be a fragile system if it can be brought down by just a few berries.

~ Katniss Everdeen, visit from President Snow in Catching Fire

Alexis de Tocqueville on centralization and war

All military geniuses love centralization, which increases their strength, and all centralizing geniuses love war, which obliges nations to concentrate all powers in the hands of the state.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 2 (1840)

Thomas Jefferson on centralized government

When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Charles Hammond (1821)

Thomas Jefferson
1922-1925