Some words of wisdom from John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers, (who the Republicans love to cite):

About the British soldiers quartered in Boston prior to the Revolution:

"Soldiers quartered in a populous town will always occasion two mobs where they prevent one. They are wretched conservators of the peace."

From his journal:

"Ambition is one of the more unforgivable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.... There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with the power to endanger the public liberty."

From David McCullough's John Adams