From The Con­tem­po­rary Review, Vol. 43, No. 1

[Which I scanned the other day and am cur­rently proof­read­ing at Dis­trib­uted Proof­read­ers.]

It is [an] easy-​​going readi­ness to per­mit small tres­passes, because it would be trou­ble­some or prof­it­less or unpop­u­lar to oppose them, which leads to the habit of acqui­es­cence in wrong, and the decay of free insti­tu­tions. Free insti­tu­tions can be main­tained only by cit­i­zens, each of whom is instant to oppose every ille­git­i­mate act, every assump­tion of supremacy, every offi­cial excess of power, how­ever triv­ial it may seem. As Ham­let says, there is such a thing as “greatly to find quar­rel in a straw,” when the straw implies a prin­ci­ple. If, as you say of the Amer­i­can, he pauses to con­sider whether he can afford the time and trouble–whether it will pay, cor­rup­tion is sure to creep in. All these lapses from higher to lower forms begin in tri­fling ways, and it is only by inces­sant watch­ful­ness that they can be pre­vented. As one of your early states­men said–“The price of lib­erty is eter­nal vig­i­lance.” But it is far less against for­eign aggres­sions upon national lib­erty that this vig­i­lance is required, than against the insid­i­ous growth of domes­tic inter­fer­ences with per­sonal lib­erty. In some pri­vate admin­is­tra­tions which I have been con­cerned with, I have often insisted that instead of assum­ing, as peo­ple usu­ally do, that things are going right until it is proved that they are going wrong, the proper course is to assume that they are going wrong until it is proved that they are going right. “You will find con­tin­u­ally that pri­vate cor­po­ra­tions, such as joint-​​stock bank­ing com­pa­nies, come to grief from not act­ing on this prin­ci­ple; and what holds of these small and sim­ple pri­vate admin­is­tra­tions holds still more of the great and com­plex pub­lic admin­is­tra­tions. Peo­ple are taught, and I sup­pose believe, that the “heart of man is deceit­ful above all things, and des­per­ately wicked;” and yet, strangely enough, believ­ing this, they place implicit trust in those they appoint to this or that func­tion. I do not think so ill of human nature; but, on the other hand, I do not think so well of human nature as to believe it will go straight with­out being watched.