On the record
Yet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of elections, and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the people.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgYet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of elections, and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the people.
Burke argues that the excessive frequency and cost of elections contributed to the downfall of Rome.
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I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
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.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.