I think his ideas about government are very simple: a government will take as much power as we, the people, will give them. If we're not careful, they will take it all. The founders of our country were keenly aware of this.
"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Thomas Jefferson
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.
There are many more such quotes, but they point to the reality that Orwell was only too aware of. Orwell seemed to sense our willingness to trade in our freedom for security, and we were warned about this a long time ago by Benjamin Franklin:
"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
It is clear that the Founding Fathers were interested in protecting US from the government (Orwell's government?), since they had just fought a war to free themselves from tyranny.
Many more thoughts of the founders are available at the ite below.
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