
“It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation.”
Source: Letter to T. Attwood, October 1831, after the rejection in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill (7 October 1831).
Letter to John Murray (12 October 1816) as published in The Life of John Jay (1833) by William Jay, Vol. 2, p. 376 http://books.google.com/books?id=V50EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA376&dq=%22Providence+has+given+to+our+people+the+choice+of+their+rulers%22&ei=ePMHR5LDMZXC7AKArImDAg&hl=en
1810s, Letter to John Murray (1816)
Context: It certainly is very desirable that a pacific disposition should prevail among all nations. The most effectual way of producing it, is by extending the prevalence and influence of the gospel. Real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war.
Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect, and who are not always wise or virtuous. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
“It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation.”
Source: Letter to T. Attwood, October 1831, after the rejection in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill (7 October 1831).
Letter to Lord Palmerston (9 October 1833), quoted in E. A. Smith, Lord Grey. 1764-1845 (Alan Sutton, 1996), p. 284.
1830s
Source: Tokyo, Japan, November 13, 2009. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29511.html
Source: Letter to Thomas Attwood, October 1831, after the rejection in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill, 7 October 1831
This is from a letter written to Washington on 9 October 1789 by the synod of the Reformed Dutch Church of North America (image of the letter on the Library of Congress site here http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw2/038/0650049.jpg). Washington quoted the portion in bold in his reply.
Misattributed
Fourth State of the Union Address http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/state-of-the-union/76.html (December 6, 1864)
1860s
Independence Day speech (1828)
Context: If such a patriotism as we have last considered should seem likely to obtain in any country, it should be certainly in this. In this, which is truly the home of all nations, and in the veins of whose citizens flows the blood of every people on the globe. Patriotism, in the exclusive meaning, is surely not made for America. Mischievous every where, it were here both mischievous and absurd. The very origin of the people is opposed to it. The institutions, in their principle, militate against it. The day we are celebrating protests against it. It is for Americans, more especially to nourish a nobler sentiment; one more consistent with their origin, and more conducive to their future improvement. It is for them more especially to know why they love their country, not because it is their country, but because it is the palladium of human liberty — the favoured scene of human improvement. It is for them more especially, to know why they honour their institutions, and feel that they honour them because they are based on just principles. It is for them, more especially, to examine their institutions, because they have the means of improving them; to examine their laws, because at will they can alter them.