On the record
The constitution of the United States when adopted was so far from being considered as a democracy, that Patrick Henry charged it, in the Virginia Convention, with an awful squinting towards monarchy.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Quincy notes that the U.S. Constitution was initially perceived as leaning towards monarchy rather than democracy.
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More from Josiah Quincy
The seeds of this complicated machine were all sown in the Declaration of Independence; and their fruits can never be eradicated but by the dissolution of the Union.
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.
But circumstances will do more than any negotiation.
These have been, through life, perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it.
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