rs are men; and who will attempt to dictate the laws
under which it is allowable or forbidden to take a part in the concerns
of men, whether they are considered individually or in a collective
capacity, whenever charity to them, or a care of my own safety, calls
forth my activity? Circumstances perpetually variable, directing a moral
prudence and discretion, the _general_ principles of which never vary,
must alone prescribe a conduct fitting on such occasions. The latest
casuists of public law are rather of a republican cast, and, in my mind,
by no means so averse as they ought to be to a right in the people (a
word which, ill defined, is of the most dangerous use) to make changes
at their pleasure in the fundamental laws of their country. These
writers, however, when a country is divided, leave abundant liberty for
a neighbor to support any of the parties according to his choice.[36]
This interference must, indeed, always be a right, whilst the privilege
of doing good to others, and of averting from them every sort of evil,
is a right: circumstances may render that right a duty. It depends
wholly on this, whether it be a _bona fide_ charity to a party, and a
prudent precaution with regard to yourself, or whether, under the
pretence of aiding one of the parties in a nation, you act in such a
manner as to aggravate its calamities and accomplish its final
destruction. In truth, it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but
iniquitous intermeddling, or treacherous inaction, which is praised or
blamed by the decision of an equitable judge.

It will be a just and irresistible presumption against the fairness of
the interposing power, that he takes with him no party or description of
men in the divided state. It is not probable that these parties should
all, and all alike, be more adverse to the true interests of their
country, and less capable of forming a judgment upon them, than those
who are absolute strangers to their affairs, and to the character of the
actors in them, and have but a remote, feeble, and secondary sympathy
with their interest. Sometimes a calm and healing arbiter may be
necessary; but he is to compose differences, not to give laws. It is
impossible that any one should not feel the full force of that
presumption. Even people, whose politics for the supposed good of their
own country lead them to take advantage of the dissensions of a
neighboring nation in order to ruin it, will not directly propose to
e