Be the state of the people what it may, they shall not
rise; be the government what it will, it shall not be opposed.
The practical commentary has corresponded with the plain language of the
text. Look at Spain, and at Greece. If men may not resist the Spanish
Inquisition, and the Turkish cimeter, what is there to which humanity
must not submit? Stronger cases can never arise. Is it not proper for
us, at all times, is it not our duty, at this time, to come forth, and
deny, and condemn, these monstrous principles? Where, but here, and in
one other place, are they likely to be resisted? They are advanced with
equal coolness and boldness; and they are supported by immense power.
The timid will shrink and give way, and many of the brave may be
compelled to yield to force. Human liberty may yet, perhaps, be obliged
to repose its principal hopes on the intelligence and the vigor of the
Saxon race. As far as depends on us, at least, I trust those hopes will
not be disappointed; and that, to the extent which may consist with our
own settled, pacific policy, our opinions and sentiments may be brought
to act on the right side, and to the right end, on an occasion which is,
in truth, nothing less than a momentous question between an intelligent
age, full of knowledge, thirsting for improvement, and quickened by a
thousand impulses, on one side, and the most arbitrary pretensions,
sustained by unprecedented power, on the other.
This asserted right of forcible intervention in the affairs of other
nations is in open violation of the public law of the world.
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