Citizen (1789) and its authors. A great deal of Burke's uneasiness of the Declaration lies in the drafter's abandonment of the existing establishment. For Burke, constitutional legitimacy was derived not from the Rousseauian doctrine of general will, but from a form of inherited wisdom. He thought that it was arrogant and limiting for the drafters of the Declaration to cast aside traditional notions that had stood the test of time. Although it may seem to the drafters that they had abandoned the shackles of tradition, for Burke, they had limited their findings to the narrow minded conception of one person or group. This is the grounding from which Burke's attack of the Declaration is based. Burke did not deny the existence of natural rights; rather he thought that the a priori reasoning adopted by the drafters produced notions that were too abstract to have application within the framework of society. In stating that “the pretended right of these theorists are all extremes; and in a proportion as they are metaphysically true, they are morally and politically false”, Burke identified that abstract rights are meaningless without a societal framework: In contrast to Locke, Burke did not believe the purpose of government was to protect pre-existing natural rights; he believed “the primitive rights of man undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction.” For Burke it was the government, as a result of long social evolution, that transformed the meaningless natural rights into the practical advantages afforded to citizens. It was not the rights themselves, as much as the level of abstraction and the placing of them above government which Burke found dangerous. He stated “those who pull down important ancient establishments, who wantonly destroy modes of administration, and public institutions… are the most mischievous, and therefore the wickedest of men”. For Burke politics had no simple answers, and definitely no overarching, universal maxims such as those expressed in the Declaration. Rather the rights afforded to individuals were to be assessed in the context of the social framework. However, he acknowledged that the simplicity of the Declaration was attractive and feared its ability to undermine social order. Burke believed that the absolute nature of these principles of abstraction were inherently revolutionary; they were uncompromising and any derogation from the principles a reason to