text:  The truth of this fact is extorted from us by all history and may be accounted for first by the circumstance that large bodies of men are less affected than individuals by the feelings of shame and a sense of responsibility; and secondly that conduct the most selfish and oppressive the mere suspicion of which would be enough to brand an individual with everlasting infamy assumes when adopted by popular assemblies the air of statesmanlike wisdom and patriotic inflexibility