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Quote by Bernard Bailyn

“The wielders of power did not speak for it, nor did they naturally serve it. Their interest was to use and develop power, no less natural and necessary than liberty but more dangerous.”

Quote by Bernard Bailyn

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Work

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

This book delves into the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings that led to the American Revolution, examining the key thinkers and concepts that shaped the revolutionary movement. more

Author

Bernard Bailyn is an American historian renowned for his research on early American history. His works delve into the social, political, and cultural dynamics of the American Revolution and the colonial period. more

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“Everyone knew that democracy - direct rule by all the people - required such spartan, soul-denying virtue on the part of all the people that it was likely to survive only where poverty made upright behavior necessary for the perpetuation of the race.”

People Made Race Poverty Virtue Democracy Behavior Direct

Author:Bernard Bailyn

“That by 1774 the final crisis of the constitution, brought on by political and social corruption, had been reached was, to most informed colonists, evident.”

Political Social Constitution Crisis Finals Corruption Evident Colonists

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“The fact that the ministerial conspiracy against liberty had risen from corruption was of the utmost importance to the colonists.”

Facts Liberty Importance Corruption Conspiracy Risen Colonists

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“It was an elevating, transforming vision: a new, fresh, vigorous, and above all morally regenerate people rising from the obscurity to defend the battlements of liberty and then in triumph standing forth, heartening and sustaining the cause of freedom everywhere.”

People Causes Liberty Vision Standing Triumph Rising Transforming Obscurity Vigorous Sustaining Elevating

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“The ideas that the colonists put forward, rather than creating a new condition of fact, expressed one that has long existed; they articulated and in so doing generalized, systematized, gave moral sanction to what had emerged haphazardly, incompletely and insensibly, from the chaotic factionalism of colonial politics.”

Long Ideas Facts Moral Conditions Creating Sanctions Chaotic Colonists

Author:Bernard Bailyn

“In England the practice of "virtual" representation provided reasonably well for the actual representation of the major interests of the society, and it raised no widespread objection.”

Wells Interest Practice Majors England Raised Representation Objections

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“In effect the people were present through their representatives, and were themselves, step by step and point by point, acting in the conduct of public affairs. No longer merely an ultimate check on government, they were in some sense the government.”

People Government Acting Steps Effects Ultimate Affair Checks Representatives Public Affairs

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“The primary function of a constitution was to mark out the boundaries of governmental powers-hence in England, where there was no constitution , there were no limits (save for the effect of trail by jury) to what the legislature might do.”

Might Effects Limits Function Constitution Mark England Boundaries Primaries Trails Jury Legislature

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“The idea of sovereignty current in the English speaking world of the 1760's was scarcely more than a century old. It had first emerged during the English Civil War, in the early 1640's, and had been established as a canon of Whig political thought in the Revolution of 1688.”

World Firsts Ideas War Political Century Revolution Currents Civil War Sovereignty Canon English Speaking

Author:Bernard Bailyn

“Never had Parliament or the crown, or both together, operated in actuality as theory indicated sovereign powers should.”

Should Together Theory Crowns Sovereign Parliament Actuality

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution