Give, Give

I am more and more convinced, that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries “Give, give.” The great fish swallow up the small; and he, who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power is as eager after the prerogatives of government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but, at the same time, lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances.
      [Abigail Adams to John Adams, letter of November 27, 1775]

To which I might parenthetically add, Let’s hear it for our Founding Mothers!!!

(I found this in Women’s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present, edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J Adler, The Dial Press, 2005.)