Or, if his views and feelings are of a more extensive and liberal
nature, he has it greatly in his power to do good, and to have that
good immediately reflected back upon himself. He can render essential
services to his country, by assisting in the disinterested
administration of the laws; by watching over the opinions and
principles of the lower orders around him; by diffusing among them
those lights which may be important to their welfare; by mingling
frankly among them, gaining their confidence, becoming the immediate
auditor of their complaints, informing himself of their wants, making
himself a channel through which their grievances may be quietly
communicated to the proper sources of mitigation and relief; or by
becoming, if need be, the intrepid and incorruptible guardian of their
liberties--the enlightened champion of their rights.
All this, it appears to me, can be done without any sacrifice of
personal dignity, without any degrading arts of popularity, without
any truckling to vulgar prejudices or concurrence in vulgar clamour;
but by the steady influence of sincere and friendly counsel, of fair,
upright, and generous deportment. Whatever may be said of English mobs
and English demagogues, I have never met with a people more open to
reason, more considerate in their tempers, more tractable by argument
in the roughest times, than the English.
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