This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
Burke argues that the concept of inherited status fosters a natural dignity, contrasting it with the potential arrogance of those who achieve distinction solely through their own efforts.
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Who could conceive that men who are habitually meddling, daring, subtle, active, of litigious dispositions and unquiet minds, would easily fall back into their old condition of obscure contention, and laborious, low, and unprofitable…
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
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