To give them credit for what they have done in virtue of the authority they have usurped, or to excuse them in the crimes by which that authority has been acquired, it must appear that the same things could not have been accomplished without producing such a revolution.
Burke argues that revolutionary actions must be justified by their outcomes.
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More from Edmund Burke
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.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
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