They can have no being in any other state of things; and how can any man claim, under the conventions of civil society, rights which do not so much as suppose its existence,--rights which are absolutely repugnant to it?
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke questions how natural rights can be claimed if they contradict the very existence of civil society.
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Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
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 will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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.
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