Quote for Then, but especially Now

"I believe there are more instances
of the abridgment of the freedom of the people
by gradual and silent encroachments
of those in power
than by violent and sudden usurpations."

James Madison
4th President of the US

In the words of the 4th President

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow.

Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed? Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people."

--James Madison, 4th President of the United States,
from "The Federalist Papers No. 10", page 304