"It is not the public but the private interest which influences the generality of mankind nor can the Americans any longer boast of an exception."  -George Washington

 

John Laurens made repeated efforts to free Southern slaves to fight for American independence and thereby gain emancipation.  He was foiled in this effort and died in a "trifling skirmish" at the age of 27.  What man could he have become, though?  We will never know.

 

It is a tendency identified by the late Australian political philosopher Kenneth Minogue as ‘St George in retirement’ syndrome. After slaying the dragon the brave warrior finds himself stalking the land looking for still more glorious fights. He needs his dragons. Eventually, after tiring himself out in pursuit of ever-smaller dragons he may eventually even be found swinging his sword at thin air, imagining it to contain dragons.  If that is a temptation for an actual St George, imagine what a person might do who is no saint, owns no horse or lance and is being noticed by nobody. How might they try to persuade people that, given the historic chance, they too would without question have slain that dragon?  –Douglas Murray