Here is the famed passage, boldfaced in these two contextual paragraphs:
Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination; and what sort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion; in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments?
When Charles Krauthammer noted this on Fox last night, Bill Kristol pointed out that Burke would have each legislator vote his (or her) private conscience, not be pushed into political bargaining, and then yielding to pressure from the Speaker.
All true, and of course too cute to withstand scrutiny. Pelosi, Arch-Tsarina of post-modern Democratic Party elephantine government liberalism has little in common with England's famed icon of conservative governance. And in history no major social reform has passed the Congress without broad bipartisan support; Pelosi's bipartisan idea is a partisan vote on a bill purportedly bipartisan yet unable to attract GOP support.
Bottom Line. Pelosi is more likely to channel Boss Tweed or Jim Wright than Edmund Burke.
Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy, Conservative Politics
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