He loved his mother with his strongest affection.

Every one of her sobs wrung his heart.

Was it right to wound and disobey her for the sake of--freedom?
Mother was a certain good; freedom only a glorious promise.

Mother was a living fact; freedom an intangible idea.
Ah, but men have always fought more passionately for ideas than for facts! Tyrants are safe while they touch only silver and gold; but when they try to bind a man's ideals--the freedom of his citizenship--the purity of his faith--he will die to preserve them in their integrity.
Besides, freedom for every generation has but her hour.

If that hour is not seized, no other may come for the men who have suffered it to pass.
But mother would grow more loving as the days went by.