Edmund Burke: “This object cannot be obtained but through the medium of popular election; and popular election is a mighty evil.”

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

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

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.

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.