ABSTRACT
Discussion, reading, enquiry, perpetual communication; these are my favorite methods for the improvement of mankind, but associations, organized societies, I firmly condemn. You may as well tell the adder not to sting … as tell organized societies of men, associated to obtain their rights and to extinguish oppression … to be innocent, to employ no violence, and calmly to await the progress of truth. I was never at a public dinner, a scene I have now not witnessed for many years, that I did not see how the enthusiasm was lighted up, how the flame caught from man to man, how fast the dictates of reason were obliterated by the gusts of passion, and how near the assembly was, like Alexander’s compatores at Persepolis, to go forth and fire the city, or, like the auditors of Anthony’s oration over the body of Caesar, to apply the flaming brand to the mansion of each several conspirator. 1
