Edmund Burke: “In effect, it is fundamentally contrary to a relation of amity, whose essence is a perfectly free communication.”

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.

By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.

The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.

We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.