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OLD
WORLD CONDITIONS / PROSPECTS FOR CAUSE OF LIBERTY
Are we to surrender the pleasing hopes of
seeing improvement in the moral and intellectual condition of man?
The events of Naples and Piedmont cast a gloomy cloud over that
hope, and Spain and Portugal are not beyond jeopardy. And what are
we to think of this northern triumvirate, arming their nations to
dictate despotisms to the rest of the world? And the evident
connivance of England, as the price of secret stipulations for
continental armies, if her own should take side with her malcontent
and pulverized people? And what of the poor Greeks, and their small
chance of amelioration even if the hypocritical Autocrat should take
them under the iron cover of his Ukazes. Would this be lighter or
safer than that of the Turk? These, my dear friend, are speculations
for the new generation. …Yet I will not believe our labors are
lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on
steady advance. We have seen, indeed, once within the records of
history, a complete eclipse of the human mind continuing for
centuries. And this, too, by swarms of the same northern barbarians,
conquering and taking possession of the countries and governments of
the civilized world. Should this be again attempted, should the same
northern hordes, allured again by the corn, wine, and nil of the
south, be able again to settle their swarms in the countries of
their growth, the art of printing alone, and the vast dissemination
of books, will maintain the mind where it is, and raise the
conquering ruffians to the level of the conquered, instead of
degrading these to that of their conquerors. And even should the
cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and
liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore
light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th
of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be
extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary,
they will consume these engines and all who work them. |
John
Adams
12 Sep 1821 |
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