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Politics and government. --- 1849-1870. --- Italy --- Italy. --- Politics and government
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France --- History --- Politics and government
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This volume contains the results of my grandfather's best thought upon public questions throughout his life. The first essay was written before he reached his fortieth year, when his mind was fully matured and in the first vigor of its working power. The dates of the successive speeches and papers show how constantly his attention was directed to human affairs with an ever widening interest. The fragmentary article on the Tariff which closes the volume was written in his eighty-fifth year, and was the last paper from his busy pen. The secret of this activity, this never-failing interest, is not hard to find. He was a seeker after truth, in ethics, in politics, in the conduct of life. A sentence in one of his speeches, written in his fiftieth year, nobly expresses his belief: "I have ever had too much faith in the practical workings of correct general principles to apprehend even individual injury from them. But, above all this, I believe there is that within me which prompts me fearlessly and faithfully to search out these general principles, and which, when they are found, impels me to give them utterance regardless of my own or any other narrow and temporary interests." The principles enunciated in the Railroad articles my grandfather lived to see accepted as lying at the root of railroad legislation. The Tariff articles also had their effect. The Financial articles, published at the close of the war, were issued in London. Some of them were translated into Dutch and published in Amsterdam, where they did much toward inspiring confidence in our resources. The clearness and keenness of my grandfather's vision made the dangers which menaced our country and our institutions very real to him and drew from him these cogent arguments, these earnest protests, and these burning appeals. "If by the blessing of Heaven," he says, "there be aught of power within me, either for warning or for resistance, the will to exert it shall not be wanting.
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Pliny, --- Trajan, --- Bithynia --- Rome --- Politics and government
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Politics and government. --- Louisiana --- New Orleans (La.)
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But the objection to this latter statement is that the haz ards were too great to be encountered by demagogues, for the sake of office. Demagogues, by their very nature, as the term implies, are a pliant, accommodating race; and are prone to yield to circumstances, rather than conquer them. It has been well said that the same elements of character which constitute the demagogues in a popular government enter into and make up the courtier under a monarchy. The men who led our armies to victory during the Revolution, and who framed our free constitutions and laws, were, many of them, foremost in the esteem of the rulers of Great Britain before they thought of resistance. All the older officers of the army had served with honor under the King, and their names were held in high respect at court. Franklin was Postmaster-general of the Colonies; and hundreds besides him were in high favor as civilians. They had therefore no occasion to revolt and set up a new form of government in order to secure the offices. By their heroic self-sacrifice, by their courage and perseverance in what for years seemed an almost hopeless enterprise, and by the wisdom displayed on the tented field and in the council, they gained, among friends and foes the world over, the highest reputation for virtue. The idea of such men being actuated by a low ambi tion to secure places for themselves is therefore simply pre posterons.
United States --- Politics and government --- History --- Sources.
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