Excerpt from The Political Questions of the Day: An Address Delivered at Broadway Hall, Oakland, December 24th, 1873
Among the weaknesses of human nature to which all men are subject, and which all wise men deplore, is that of procrastination. The most trivial and common-place affairs are allowed to push aside those serious matters that should be the rule of conduct and guide of life. Of the duties thus deferred, is that of attending to public affairs and of investigating those things which it is everybody"s business to act upon, but which are seldom duly considered and examined till the time for action is close at hand. Then it is when impartial investigation is impossible, when in the heat and excitement of a political canvass the judgment is warped and blinded by partisan prejudice, that most people give any serious attention to the affairs of State; and as they are by this time no longer open to argument or conviction, they follow their old-time leaders in their efforts to glorify their party and justify themselves in adhering to dead issues and party distinctions. The platoons and cohorts of party very seldom change front after the battle has begun, and if we look through the political history of our own times, we may notice that the thoughts of men have crystallized into convictions when neither canvassing nor stump-speaking were availed of to befog the intellect or excite the passions. Revolutions, though sudden in appearance, are years in their growth. It took not only decades and generations, but centuries of tyranny over submission, of bigotry over credulity, of knowledge over ignorance, of luxury in the midst of want, to so surcharge the French nation with that complete sense of their wrongs, which, when it broke forth and first felt its own power, became an engine of atrocities, to be guided at the pleasure of a Couthon, a Robespierre, or a Marat. Men do not become infuriate merciless demons, to combine in large numbers and indulge in brutal crimes, until they have first been subjected to prolonged and cruel injustice. And when they do break forth in revolt, their excesses will be in a ratio corresponding with the oppressions and wrongs that they have suffered.
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