When a wicked man in power has a mind to glut his appetite in any
respect, innocence, or even merit, is no protection against him. The
cries of justice and the voice of reason are of no effect upon a
conscience hardened in iniquity, and a mind versed in a long practice of
wrong and robbery. Remonstrances, however reasonably urged, or movingly
couched, have no more influence upon the heart of such a one, than the
gentle evening breeze has upon the oak when it whispers among its
branches, or the rising surges upon the deaf rock when they dash and
break against its sides. Power should never be trusted in the hands of
an impious selfish man, and one that has more regard to the
gratification of his own unbounded avarice than to public peace and
justice. Were it not for the tacit consent and heartless compliance of a
great majority of fools, mankind would not be ridden, as oftentimes they
are, by a little majority of knaves, to their great misfortune: for,
whatever people may think of the times, if they were ten times worse
than they are, it is principally owing to their own stupidity. Why do
they trust the man a moment longer who has once injured and betrayed
them?