The
smartness of debate will say that this knowledge ought to teach them more
clearly the rights of legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the
penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honorable and
learned friend on the floor, who condescends to mark what I say for
animadversion, will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that
when great honors and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to
the service of the state, it is a formidable adversary to government. If
the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn
and litigious. _Abeunt studia in mores_. This study renders men
acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of
resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, and of a less
mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual
grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the
grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a
distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.
The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the Colonies is hardly less
powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the
natural constitution of things.
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