7618. RIGHTS OF MAN, Appeal to.—
The appeal to the rights of man, which had
been made in the United States, was taken
up by France, first of the European nations.
From her, the spirit has spread over those of
the South. The tyrants of the North have
allied indeed against it; but it is irresistible.
Their opposition will only multiply its
millions of human victims; their own satellites
will catch it, and the condition of man
through the civilized world will be finally
and greatly ameliorated. This is a wonderful
instance of great events from small causes.
So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes
and consequences in this world, that a twopenny
duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a
sequestered part of it, changes the condition
of all its inhabitants.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 106.
Ford ed., i, 147.
(1821)
