Edmund Burke: “It is the authorized, recorded state of a real, recent transaction.”

They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.