On the record
The quarrel in most countries would have gone beyond the law, and come to blows; even in America, the most law-loving of countries, it went as far as possible within the law.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The quarrel in most countries would have gone beyond the law, and come to blows; even in America, the most law-loving of…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot reflects on the legal limits of conflict in America, emphasizing the nation's commitment to law even in times of strife.
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There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
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He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
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