In senium, longoque togæ tranquillior usu.
Dedidicit jam pace ducem;...
Nec reparare novas vires, multumque priori
Credere fortunæ: stat magni nominis umbra.[1]

A smaller number, more expedite, awakened, active, vigorous, and
courageous, who make amends for what they want in weight by their
superabundance of velocity, will create an acting power of the greatest
possible strength. When men are furiously and fanatically fond of an
object, they will prefer it, as is well known, to their own peace, to
their own property, and to their own lives: and can there be a doubt, in
such a case, that they would prefer it to the peace of their country? Is
it to be doubted, that, if they have not strength enough at home, they
will call in foreign force to aid them?

Would you deny them _what is reasonable_, for fear they should?
Certainly not. It would be barbarous to pretend to look into the minds
of men. I would go further: it would not be just even to trace
consequences from principles which, though evident to me, were denied by
them. Let them disband as a faction, and let them act as individuals,
and when I see them with no other views than to enjoy their own
conscience in peace, I, for one, shall most cheerfully vote for their
relief.

A tender conscience, of all things, ought to be tenderly handled; for if
you do not, you injure not only the conscience, but the whole moral
frame and constitution is injured, recurring at times to remorse, and
seeking refuge only in making the conscience callous. But the conscience
of faction,--the conscience of sedition,--the conscience of conspiracy,
war, and confusion....