They attached their signatures to that significant document
knowing that if they failed it was certain that every one of them would
hang for the failure. They were committing treason in the interest of
the liberty of 3,000,000 people in America. All the rest of the world
was against them and smiled with cynical incredulity at the audacious
undertaking. Do you think that if they could see this great Nation now
they would regret anything that they then did to draw the gaze of a
hostile world upon them? Every idea must be started by somebody, and it
is a lonely thing to start anything. Yet if it is in you, you must start
it if you have a man's blood in you and if you love the country that you
profess to be working for.
I am sometimes very much interested when I see gentlemen supposing that
popularity is the way to success in America. The way to success in this
great country, with its fair judgments, is to show that you are not
afraid of anybody except God and his final verdict. If I did not believe
that, I would not believe in democracy. If I did not believe that, I
would not believe that people can govern themselves.
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