A few thoughts

Some words from my sidebar:

We cannot defend freedom abroad by abandoning it at home.
—Edward R. Murrow

Constitutions are chains with which men bind themselves in their sane moments that they may not die by a suicidal hand in the day of their frenzy.
—Sen. John Stockton

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
—Thomas Paine

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
—James Madison

I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.
—Abraham Lincoln