Arm Themselves

A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both.  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

-- James Madison (1751-1836), Fourth US President (1809-1817), co-author, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, of the Federalist Papers, Letter to W.T. Barry (4 August 1822)