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  • It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil. It behooves the well-intentioned, therefore, vigorously to watch the tendency of even their most highly prized institutions, since that which was established in the interests of the right, may so easily become the agent of the wrong.

    "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James F. Cooper (Conclusion, p. 191), 1838.