I came across this quote from a Chartist who I didn’t know about, a Methodist minister, the Rev. Joseph Raynor Stephens, hence the religious imagery.
“My friends, never put your trust in, and never follow after, men who pretend to be able to manufacture a revolution. A revolution, a rolling away of the whole from evil to good, from wrong to right, from injustice and oppression to righteousness and equal rule, never yet was manufactured, and never will be manufactured…”
A good place to stop but he goes on to preach,
“…God, who teaches you what your rights are, what the blessings He has endowed you withal, will, in his own good time, if that time should come – God will teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight”
But even Eugene Debs evokes religion when he says if a Moses can lead you into the promised land, another can equally lead you out again