Finished reading "Freedom and Federalism"

I just finished reading "Freedom and Federalism" today. This book was written by Felix Morley and published in 1959. I have had it on my "to read" list since at least October 2003. Ron Paul cites it favorably in his book, "The Manifesto: A Manifesto."

It sat on my bookshelf for several years until I began to read it in earnest in June 2010. I read a chapter here, and chapter there, intermingled with reading many other things that caught my fancy along the way.

I thought I'd quote a few thoughts from the final few pages that jumped out at me.

"Individualized liberty... is an elusive flame, continuously rekindling, in unexpected places and among all sorts of 'trouble makers,' regardless of the will and generally contrary to the wishes of Big Government. And to seek the source of this flame is to find it, with Saint Paul, 'where the spirit of the Lord is.' "

"... the founding fathers put restraints on government so that the governed might be free."

"Without faith, the Constitution falls. Whether or not our Federal Republic will be maintained is therefore at bottom a moral issue. It depends as much on the churches and synagogues as on the legislatures and the law courts. The growth of Big Government goes hand in hand with the loss of Big Conviction."