A warrior king depends for his reputation on the vulgar crowd, and must address himself to prejudice and ignorance to obtain the applause of a day, which the pen of the philosopher, the page of the historian, often annul, even before death comes to enshroud the mortal faculties in the nothingness from which they came.
In this passage, Sumner contrasts the fleeting applause of the masses with the enduring judgment of historians and philosophers.
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Let loyalty to one man be exchanged for Love to Man.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
Far above any flickering light or battle-lantern of party is the everlasting sun of Truth, in whose beams are the duties of men.
Without yielding to any of these extreme views with regard to the mischiefs or the benefits of party, all should agree that the only true and legitimate object of such an association is to uphold, advance, and develop certain principles…
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