Tea at Trianon: God Save America

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 4, 2021

God Save America

I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live.... Deuteronomy 30:19

Anonymous said...: AMEN !! And also God SAVE America. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to keep silent. Pary for our leaders, speak out against evil.; July 4, 2007 at 4:02:00 PM EDT
May said...: We need to bring the Declaration of Independence back into prominence in our public life. Even many pro-life advocates seem to think that the constitutional right to life of innocent people only comes from the Fourteenth Amendment, forgetting that the entire country was founded, long before the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment, on the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the effect of divorcing the Declaration from the Constitution. Instead, we need to see the Constitution as a means of protecting the rights enumerated in the Declaration, rights deriving not from the state but from God and nature. The whole point of federalism and separation of powers is to safeguard these rights, by making it harder for the government to become tyrannical. If we lose sight of this purpose, the Constitution becomes open to tyrannical interpretations, such as Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade. It also becomes merely an arbitrary set of rules, which there is no intrinsic reason to prefer to another set of rules. It is not surprising that federalism and separation of powers are being abandoned at the same time as abortion is being promoted. It is time to stop shunting the Declaration aside and promoting the Constitution at its expense, as so many jurists seem to do. The Constitution must be interpreted in the light of the Declaration, or else we are to lose the Constitution.; July 4, 2012 at 10:29:00 PM EDT
jean baptiste said...: America is gone barbarism and vulgarity kill her.; July 8, 2013 at 3:18:00 AM EDT