Edmund Burke: “It is an obvious truth that no constitution can defend itself: it must be defended by the wisdom and fortitude of men.”

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.

Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.

This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.

They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…