She was rotten to the heart. Lust of conquest had long ago done its work. Trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other people's liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake in their own persons. The government was irrevocably in the hands of the prodigiously rich and their hangers-on, the suffrage was become a mere machine, which they used as they chose. There was no principle but commercialism, no patriotism but of the pocket.
The passage reflects on the moral decay of a society where the urge for domination has led to a deep-seated corruption. It suggests that the desire to oppress others abroad has made people indifferent to oppression at home. This apathy eventually came back to bite them, as those who once cheered the suppression of others found themselves subject to similar fates. The text highlights how the populace's initial support for tyranny...
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Other quotes in The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire
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Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
