In answer to this I have but a small plea to make - I have done my
best.
I have nothing "extenuated, and have set down naught in
malice." I do feel that my volumes have blown themselves out into
proportions greater than I had intended; greater not in mass of
pages, but in the matter handled. I am frequently addressing my own
muse, who I am well aware is not Clio, and asking her whither she is
wending. "Cease, thou wrong-headed one, to meddle with these
mysteries." I appeal to her frequently, but ever in vain. One
cannot drive one's muse, nor yet always lead her. Of the various
women with which a man is blessed, his muse is by no means the least
difficult to manage.
But again I put in my slight plea. In doing as I have done, I have
at least done my best. I have endeavored to judge without
prejudice, and to hear with honest ears and to see with honest eyes.
The subject, moreover, on which I have written is one which, though
great, is so universal in its bearings that it may be said to admit,
without impropriety, of being handled by the unlearned as well as
the learned; by those who have grown gray in the study of
constitutional lore, and by those who have simply looked on at the
government of men as we all look on at those matters which daily
surround us.
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