Our neighbors are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls forth my activity?
Burke contemplates the moral obligations of individuals to engage in the affairs of others.
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I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
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