There are some differences, however, which they cannot be
expected to overlook. Whoever feels the amount of interest in the
government of his country which befits a freeman, has some convictions
on national affairs which are like his life-blood; which the
strength of his belief in their truth, together with the importance he
attaches to them, forbid him to make a subject of compromise, or
postpone to the judgment of any person, however greatly his
superior. Such convictions, when they exist in a people, or in any
appreciable portion of one, are entitled to influence in virtue of
their mere existence, and not solely in that of the probability of
their being grounded in truth. A people cannot be well governed in
opposition to their primary notions of right, even though these may be
in some points erroneous. A correct estimate of the relation which
should subsist between governors and governed, does not require the
electors to consent to be represented by one who intends to govern
them in opposition to their fundamental convictions. If they avail
themselves of his capacities of useful service in other respects, at a
time when the points on which he is vitally at issue with them are not
likely to be mooted, they are justified in dismissing him at the first
moment when a question arises involving these, and on which there is
not so assured a majority for what they deem right as to make the
dissenting voice of that particular individual unimportant.
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