I will let the republic alone until the republic comes to me
Yesterday went the letter to V[an]. B[uren]. a letter hated of me. A deliverance that does not deliver the soul. What I do, be sure, is all that concerns my Majesty & not what men great or small think of it. Yet I accept the Dartmouth college invitation to speak to the boys with great delight. I write my journal, I read my lectures with joy—but this stirring in the philanthropic mud, gives me no peace. I will let the republic alone until the republic comes to me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 5:479
