“One word was sufficient to gain public favour. That word was Constitution, of all words the least precise, the most open to variety of interpretation, and the easiest to make popular, for it acts on the mass of the people through their hopes. Tell men that by means of a single word you will ensure them their rights, a liberty which the mass always confound with licence, a career for their ambition, and success in all their enterprises, and you will have no trouble making them listen to you. The mass once agitated, they give up everything: they listen, but do not care to comprehend. When the people really do care to comprehend, they are the first to re-establish order.”
