On the record
If the principle of the Declaratory Act was not good, the principle we are contending for this day is monstrous.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “If the principle of the Declaratory Act was not good, the principle we are contending for this day is monstrous.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that if the principle behind the Declaratory Act is flawed, then the principles being debated in his time are equally problematic.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
Jan 1, 1790
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
Jan 1, 1790
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
Jan 1, 1790
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
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