This is carrying the doctrine of
the sacred right of insurrection rather far. It is wonderful how easy
and liberal and complying people can be in other people's concerns.
Because they are willing to surrender their own past, and have no
objection to join in reprobation of their great-grandfathers, they
never put themselves the question what they themselves would do in
circumstances far less trying, under far less pressure of real
national calamity. Would those who profess these ardent revolutionary
principles consent to their being applied to Ireland, or India, or the
Ionian Islands. How have they treated those who did attempt so to
apply them? But the case can dispense with any mere _argumentum ad
hominem_. I am not frightened at the word rebellion. I do not scruple
to say that I have sympathized more or less ardently with most of the
rebellions, successful and unsuccessful, which have taken place in my
time. But I certainly never conceived that there was a sufficient
title to my sympathy in the mere fact of being a rebel; that the act
of taking arms against one's fellow-citizens was so meritorious in
itself, was so completely its own justification, that no question need
be asked concerning the motive.
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