But they will be late and reluctant in giving any sort of countenance to the operations of a power which has derived its birth from no law and no necessity, but which, on the contrary, has had its origin in those vices and sinister practices by which the social union is often disturbed and sometimes destroyed.
Contrasting with legitimate governance, Burke asserts that a power originating from vice and sinister practices, rather than law or necessity, will struggle to gain public acceptance and support.
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This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
All your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued, who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions, for…
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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