But the cause of all was plain from the beginning.
THIS unforced choice, this fond election of evil, would appear
perfectly unaccountable if we did not consider the composition of
the National Assembly. I do not mean its formal constitution, which,
as it now stands, is exceptionable enough, but the materials of which,
in a great measure, it is composed, which is of ten thousand times
greater consequence than all the formalities in the world. If we
were to know nothing of this assembly but by its title and function,
no colors could paint to the imagination anything more venerable. In
that light the mind of an inquirer, subdued by such an awful image
as that of the virtue and wisdom of a whole people collected into a
focus, would pause and hesitate in condemning things even of the
very worst aspect. Instead of blamable, they would appear only
mysterious. But no name, no power, no function, no artificial
institution whatsoever can make the men of whom any system of
authority is composed any other than God, and nature, and education,
and their habits of life have made them. Capacities beyond these the
people have not to give. Virtue and wisdom may be the objects of their
choice, but their choice confers neither the one nor the other on
those upon whom they lay their ordaining hands. They have not the
engagement of nature, they have not the promise of revelation, for any
such powers.
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