On the record
Until very lately, all authority in America seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Until very lately, all authority in America seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke observes that American authority has historically been perceived as a derivative of British governance.
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Jan 1, 1790
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.
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But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
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Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
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Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.
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