arers,
but because these facts, and such as these, speak trumpet-tongued, as to
the vital interest and the sacred religious duty which every private
man, no matter how humble and obscure,--nay, which every woman has, in
those great questions that agitate nations, in what are designated as
matters of public concern and the public welfare.

I know very well that there are those who deplore it, and consider it a
great grievance, that here, in this country, there is so much agitation
of public matters in private circles, and by private, unofficial
persons. To be sure, one would like to have quiet, if he could. But
there is no help for it. We must take our lot as we find it. And such is
the nature of our social fabric; drawing all the power of the government
from the people, from the individuals that compose the people, that it
is made the direct and plain duty of every man and woman of us to know
about those things, which are public, for this very reason, because they
concern the many,--the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the
security, the happiness, the improvement, the civil and the religious
liberties of every man in the land. A necessity is upon us; and if we
have been accustomed to confine our ideas of duty and religion to the
Church and the Sabbath, the sooner we get our minds sufficiently
enlarged to see the religious obligation which binds us to the great
Public of mankind, the better for us, for our neighbors, and for all
men.

So, then, the fact that private men are interested in public affairs,
even though it be attended with a good deal of excitement,--that is not
the thing to be deplored. But what is to be lamented is, that false way
of thinking, out of place in this country, out of time in this age, by
which thousands justify themselves in continuing ignorant and
indifferent to things of a vital private concern, simply because they
are of a public and general character. What is more common than to hear
men say, in reference to such matters, 'They are no concerns of ours. We
care nothing about them. Let those busy themselves about them who are so
disposed. As for us, we are not going to perplex our brains, and fret
and worry ourselves. We will mind our own business.' And, in the proud
consciousness of this virtuous resolution, they wrap themselves up in
their comforts, and keep aloof and indifferent, and flatter themselves
that they are the wise and the prudent, they are the enlightened,
judicious on