2205. DESPOTISM, Unlimited.—
It delights
me to find that there are persons who
still think that all is not lost in France: that
their retrogradation from a limited to an unlimited
despotism is but to give themselves a
new impulse. But I see not how or when.
The press, the only tocsin of a nation, is completely
silenced there, and all means of a
general effort taken away. However, I am
willing to hope, as long as anybody will hope
with me; and I am entirely persuaded that
the agitations of the public mind advance its
powers, and that at every vibration between
the points of liberty and despotism, something
will be gained for the former. As men
become Letter informed, their rulers must respect
them the more.—
To Thomas Cooper. Washington ed. iv, 452.
Ford ed., viii, 177.
(W.
Nov. 1802)
