There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves

From American Democracy in the Brooklyn Eagle (1847)

I have little hope of any man or any community of men, that looks to some civil or military power to defend its vital rights,
There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves, and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
Tyranny may always enter; there is no charm, no bar against it

The only bar against it is a large, resolute breed of men;
If we have it not in ourselves to defend what belongs to us, then the citadel and heart of the towns are taken.