They believed they could effect every thing by their eloquence and popularity.

Like all who are descending the tide of a revolution, they thought they were able to ascend the stream with equal ease.

They did not see that their strength, of which they were so proud, was not in themselves, but in the current which bore them along.
Events were about to teach them that there is no opposing passions to which concession has been once made.

The strength of a statesman is his power.

One concession, how slight soever, to factions, is an irrevocable engagement with them: when once we consent to become their instrument, we may be made their idol and their victim, never their master.