Politics & Power Quote by Thomas Francis Meagher

Meagher’s line is a polite slap at the comforting fantasy that politics can do all the heavy lifting. Yes, “a good government” can “redress” wrongs - the language is legalistic, almost bureaucratic, as if grievances are paperwork to be processed and filed away. But he pivots hard on “but,” insisting that repair is not the same thing as creation. Redress is remedial; nation-building is generative. The sentence is structured to demote government from savior to mechanic, and to promote “a strong people” to the only real author of national greatness.

The subtext is a warning to the injured: don’t outsource your future to benevolent administrators. Meagher, an Irish nationalist turned soldier, is speaking out of a 19th-century world where oppressed groups were regularly offered reforms as substitutes for power. The word “alone” matters. It rejects the idea that liberty is something granted from above; it’s something consolidated from below through cohesion, discipline, and shared sacrifice. Strength here isn’t just muscle or militancy. It’s civic stamina: the capacity to organize, endure, and act collectively after injury without being defined by it.

There’s also an implied critique of grievance politics before the term existed. Meagher doesn’t deny injustice; he limits its usefulness as a national identity. A great nation, he suggests, isn’t built by perfect rulers correcting mistakes. It’s built by a populace tough enough that even good government is supplemental, not foundational.