Jan 1, 1791
From the Revolutions of America and France, and the symptoms that have appeared in other countries, it is evident that the opinion of the world is changing with respect to systems of Government, and that revolutions are not within the…
Thomas Paine
The Public Record
Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.
gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1791
When those defects, and the means of remedying them, are generally seen by a nation, that nation will reform its government or its constitution in the one case, as the government repealed or reformed the law in the other.
Jan 1, 1791
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
Jan 1, 1791
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind.
Jan 1, 1791
On the contrary, Government, in a well-constituted republic, requires no belief from man beyond what his reason can give.
Jan 1, 1791
He sees the rationale of the whole system, its origin and its operation; and as it is best supported when best understood, the human faculties act with boldness, and acquire, under this form of government, a gigantic manliness.
Jan 1, 1791
A mixed Government is an imperfect everything, cementing and soldering the discordant parts together by corruption, to act as a whole.
Jan 1, 1791
In mixed Governments there is no responsibility: the parts cover each other till responsibility is lost; and the corruption which moves the machine, contrives at the same time its own escape.
Jan 1, 1791
It then descends upon the Minister, who shelters himself under a majority in Parliament, which, by places, pensions, and corruption, he can always command; and that majority justifies itself by the same authority with which it protects the…
Jan 1, 1791
When there is a Part in a Government which can do no wrong, it implies that it does nothing; and is only the machine of another power, by whose advice and direction it acts.
Jan 1, 1791
If taxes are necessary, they are of course advantageous; but if they require an apology, the apology itself implies an impeachment.
Jan 1, 1791
The government of a free country, properly speaking, is not in the persons, but in the laws.