The careful man of affairs, the upright judge, the honest maker of honest laws must needs present an account for maintenance and for that expenditure which shall give offence neither to generosity nor to justice; and the account must be paid, yea, and ungrudgingly! Let us pay, then, each man according to his ability, the tax that is right and fitting; and let us, moreover, give due honour to the vanguard of the people.

It is there that the great flag waves with all the blazonry of the race.

But we want no substituted banner, no private ensign, no conqueror's flapping eagles! Government! Honour the instrument by which we rule ourselves; but worship not a mechanical device, and call not a means an end! Admirable means, but oh, the sorry end! Therefore we'll have no usurping Praetorian, no juggling sophist, no bailiff extravagant and unjust, no spendthrift squandering on idleness that which would pay just debts! A ruler! There's no halo about a ruler's head.

The people--the people are the sacred thing, for they are the seed whence the future is to spring.
He who betrays his trust, which is to guard the seed,--what is that man--Emperor or President, Louis or George, Pharaoh or Caesar--but a traitor and a breaker of the Law?
He may die by the axe, or he may die in a purple robe of a surfeit, but he dies! The people live on, and his memory pays.

He has been a tyrant and a pygmy, and the ages hold him in contempt....