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The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

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spirit <strong>of</strong> freedom is as <strong>the</strong> red corpuscles in <strong>the</strong><br />

blood; it carries <strong>the</strong> life with it. It makes <strong>the</strong><br />

difference between a society <strong>of</strong> self-respecting men<br />

and women and a society <strong>of</strong> puppets. Your nation<br />

may have art, poetry, and science, all <strong>the</strong><br />

refinements <strong>of</strong> civilized life, all <strong>the</strong> comforts and<br />

safeguards that human ingenuity can devise, but if<br />

it lose this spirit <strong>of</strong> personal and local<br />

independence, it is doomed, and deserves its<br />

doom.... Of <strong>the</strong> two opposite perils which have<br />

perpetually threatened <strong>the</strong> welfare <strong>of</strong> political<br />

society,--anarchy on <strong>the</strong> one hand, loss <strong>of</strong> selfgovernment<br />

on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r,--Jefferson was right in<br />

maintaining that <strong>the</strong> latter is really <strong>the</strong> more to be<br />

dreaded, because its beginnings are so terribly<br />

insidious.”[14]<br />

“Nothing is more dangerous for a free people<br />

than <strong>the</strong> attempt to govern a dependent people<br />

despotically. <strong>The</strong> bad government kills out <strong>the</strong><br />

good government as surely as slave labor destroys<br />

free labor, or as a debased currency drives out a<br />

sound currency.”[15]<br />

177

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