The love of the People, the conscience of the citizen, the sentiment
which induces the individual to lose himself in the mass, to submit
himself to the community, to sacrifice himself to its needs,--his
interest, his individuality, his egotism, his ambition, his pride, his
fortune, his blood, his life, his reputation even, sometimes, to the
safety of his country, to the happiness of the People, to the good of
humanity, of which he is a member in the sight of God,--in one word,
all these virtues, necessary under every form of government,--useful
under a monarchy, indispensable under a republic,--never have been
derived, and never can be derived, from any thing but that single
sentence, pronounced with religious faith, at the commencement, in the
middle, at the end of all our patriotic acts:--"I believe in God!"
The People who do not believe strongly, efficaciously in this first
principle, in this supreme original, in this last end of all
existence, cannot have a faith superior to their individual
selfishness.
The People who cannot have a principle superior to their individual
selfishness, in their acts as citizens, cannot have national virtue.
The People who cannot have national virtue cannot be free; for they
can have neither the courage which enables them to defend their own
liberty, nor the conscience which forces them to respect the liberty
of others, and to obey the laws, not as an outward force, but as a
second conscience.
The People who can neither defend their liberty, nor restrain it, may
be, by turns, slaves or tyrants, but they can never be republicans.
Therefore, Atheism in the People is the most invincible obstacle to
the establishment and consolidation of that sublime form of
government, the idol of all ages, the tendency of all perfect
civilization, the dream of every sage, the model of all great
souls,--the government of the entire People by the reason and
conscience of each citizen,--otherwise called the REPUBLIC.