Edmund Burke: “Peace or war are the great hinges upon which the very being of nations turns.”

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.

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.

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

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…