Letter I – On the Cowardice of Convenience
My Fellow Citizens of Conscience,
We live in an age of comfort disguised as conviction. The modern man believes himself principled because he shares a slogan; the modern woman believes herself brave because she posts a sentiment. The conscience of the Republic — once forged in the fires of sacrifice — now flickers in the glow of a touchscreen.
Our ancestors pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. We pledge our Wi-Fi passwords.
Convenience has become our new tyrant, soft in touch yet cruel in consequence. We choose what costs us least and call it virtue. We celebrate ease as progress, and we mistake indulgence for freedom. But liberty, my friends, is not the child of comfort — it is the offspring of struggle. The Republic was not built by those who sought what was easy, but by those who endured what was necessary.
Observe how easily we abandon principle when the price of principle rises. We demand justice, yet recoil from judgment. We invoke freedom, yet fear responsibility. We crave truth, but prefer it wrapped in the pleasant ribbons of affirmation.
Let us not deceive ourselves. A nation that trades conscience for convenience will soon find both bankrupt.
If the spirit of the Founders is to live on — if reason is to rise above noise — then we must each reclaim that old-fashioned courage: the courage to stand when standing is mocked, to speak when silence is safer, and to think when thinking is no longer fashionable.
The Republic does not need more followers. It needs more founders.
— Nathan Sterling, in the voice of Alexander Hamilton
