Book Description
Excerpt from The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry The ingratitude of Republics to their distinguished benefactors and heroes, has long been proverbial. But this opinion, like many others with relation to Republican governments, had its origin in the examples of Greece and Rome, and so far as it imparts that ingratitude to those who render important services to their country, is peculiar to, or in any way a consequence of, Republican institutions, is entirely unfounded. We speak of the sense of a nation, not of its policy. That the policy of monarchial and aristocratical governments, is different from that of Republics with relation to this subject, is admitted. The former are governments of men, the latter of laws. They are founded not only upon different principles, but upon those which are directly opposite. The former is established upon the basis of social distinctions - the latter upon that of the equality of mankind. - To exalt and ennoble a few, at the expense of the rest, is not only consistent with the general views and policy of a monarchial government, but forms a part of the government itself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
