And we can better estimate the
political education which the times furnished, when we consider that the
revolutionary war was made logical and necessary through a knowledge of
positions, facts, and arguments, scattered over the history of the
colonies. But, when our Independence had been established and
recognized, constitutions had been framed, and the governments of the
states and nation set in motion, the beauty and harmony of our political
system seemed to render continued attention to political principles and
the rights of individual men unnecessary. Hence, we may anticipate the
judgment of impartial history in the admission that public attention was
gradually given to contests for office which did not always involve the
maintenance of a fundamental principle of government, or the recognition
of an essential human right. It does not, however, follow, from this
admission, that we are indifferent to our political lot,--occasional
contests upon principle refute such a conjecture,--but that men are not
anxious concerning those things which appear to be secure. And the
differences of political parties of the last fifty years have not been
so much concerning the nature of human rights, as in regard to the
institutions by which those rights can be best protected. Therefore our
political questions have been questions of expediency rather than of
principle.
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