Wild digital books

Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes to
stimulate the people to war and tumult.
Some gentlemen are not terrified by the facility with which government
has been overturned in France. "The people of France," they say, "had
nothing to lose in the destruction of a bad Constitution; but, though
not the best possible, we have still a good stake in ours, which will
hinder us from desperate risks." Is this any security at all against
those who seem to persuade themselves, and who labor to persuade others,
that our Constitution is an usurpation in its origin, unwise in its
contrivance, mischievous in its effects, contrary to the rights of man,
and in all its parts a perfect nuisance? What motive has any rational
man, who thinks in that manner, to spill his blood, or even to risk a
shilling of his fortune, or to waste a moment of his leisure, to
preserve it? If he has any duty relative to it, his duty is to destroy
it. A Constitution on sufferance is a Constitution condemned. Sentence
is already passed upon it. The execution is only delayed.


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