778. BARLOW (Joel), Proposed History by.—[continued].
You owe to republicanism,
and indeed to the future hopes of man, a
faithful record of the march of this government,
which may encourage the oppressed to
go and do likewise. Your talents, your principles,
and your means of access to public and
private sources of information, with the
leisure which is at your command, point you
out as the person who is to do this act of justice
to those who believe in the improvability
of the condition of man, and who have acted
on that behalf, in opposition to those who consider
man as a beast of burthen made to be
ridden by him who has genius enough to get a
bridle into his mouth.—
To Joel Barlow. Washington ed. v, 496.
Ford ed., ix, 269.
(M.
1810)
