Wars…destroy wealth, divert labor from useful objects, disturb commerce and credit, arrest the progress of internal improvements, shake the confidence of men in one another, and in their government, and paralyze the energy of the wise and good by making them despair of the cause of human advancement.

-Sir George Cornewall Lewis
(Liberal parliamentarian, UK Secretary of War, 1861-1863)
Preface to On the Government of Dependencies
Revised edition, ca 1841

Whatever advantages may belong severally to monarchial, aristocratical, or democratical institutions, it cannot be overlooked that the chief nations of Europe and America now keep nearly abreast in the march of civilization, notwithstanding the diversity in the forms of their supreme governments. Moreover, it can scarcely be denied that the ulterior progress of these nations mainly depends upon the nature of the opinions prevailing among the bulk of the people; that where the public opinion is unenlightened, no political forms can be an effectual security against unwise and mischevious exercises of the powers of government; and that where the public opinion is enlightened, political forms lost a large portion of their meaning and importance.

– Sir George Cornewall Lewis
Preface to On The Government of Dependencies
Revised edition, ca 1841
Emphasis added