Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes" [Letter to von Humboldt, 1813].