Self-preservation would dictate as much; for, if it be considered the better part of valor to discretely build and maintain arsenals and forts to bar out the invader, to prepare against the assaults of the enemy from without, how much more imperative it is to take timely precautions to counteract the mischief of insidious foes from within?
Are our liberties placed more in jeopardy by the assaults of an enemy who plans our destruction three thousand miles away than of the enemy within our very bosoms?
Was it the puissance of the barbarian arms or the corruption and enervation of the character of her people which worked the downfall of Rome?
Was it influences from _without_ or influences from _within_ which corrupted the integrity of the people of Sparta and led to their subjugation by a more sturdy people?
Let us learn by the striking examples of history.

A people's greatness should be measured, not by its magnificent palaces, decked out in all the gaudy splendors of art and needless luxuries, the price of piracy or direct thievery; not in the number of colossal fortunes accumulated out of the stipend of the orphan and widow and the son of toil; not in the extent and richness of its public buildings and palaces of idle amusement; not in vast aggregations of capital in the coffers of the common treasury--capital unnecessarily diverted from the channels of trade, extorted from the people by the ignorance of their "wise men," who seek in vain for a remedy for the evil, _because they do not want to find one_.[11] A people's greatness should not be measured by these standards, for they are the parasites which eat away the foundations of greatness and stability.

On the contrary, such greatness is to be found in the general diffusion of wealth, the comparative contentment and competency of the masses, and the general virtue and patriotism of the _whole_ people.

It should, therefore, manifestly be the end and aim of legislators to so shape the machinery placed in their hands as to operate with the least possible restraint upon the energies of the people.

It should not be the studied purpose to enrich the few at the expense of the many, to restrain this man and give that one the largest possible immunity.