This happy day has now arrived, somewhat sooner than it
could be claimed.
To select and depute those, by whom laws are to be made, and taxes to be
granted, is a high dignity, and an important trust; and it is the
business of every elector to consider, how this dignity may be well
sustained, and this trust faithfully discharged.
It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in
this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in
parliament, who is not a patriot. No other man will protect our rights:
no other man can merit our confidence.
A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive,
the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for
himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but
refers every thing to the common interest.
That of five hundred men, such as this degenerate age affords, a
majority can be found thus virtuously abstracted, who will affirm? Yet
there is no good in despondence: vigilance and activity often effect
more than was expected. Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him;
and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish
those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man
may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent
qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
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