The bended knee, no less than the full prostration to the ground, is a symbol of homage from an inferior to a superior, and if not equally humiliating to the performer, it is only because he has been made familiar by practice with one, and not with the other.
Quincy discusses the symbolic meanings of different forms of homage, emphasizing their implications in power dynamics.
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There is no absolute monarch on earth who is not compelled, by the constitution of his country, to receive the petitions of his people, whosoever they may be.
This error has nowhere been more frequently repeated, nowhere been of more pernicious tendency, than in America itself.
If its operation should turn out more advantageous to them, it will be more honorable for us; and I never can object to entering formally into an obligation to do that which, upon every virtuous principle, ought to be done without it.
That the direct and infallible path to the Presidency is military service, coupled with demagogue policy. 2d.
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