The infatuating influence of military success over the human mind, and the readiness with which intelligent and well-disposed men, living under a constitution of limited powers, while dazzled by its splendor, endure and encourage acts of despotic power, is at once instructive and suggestive.
Quincy reflects on the dangers of military success influencing governance and the public's perception of power.
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It prolongs life itself, and enlarges the sphere of existence.
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.
He early adopted two principles, as rules of his political conduct, from which he never deviated,--to seek or solicit no public office, and, to whatever station he might be called by his country, to use no instrument for success or…
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