Jan 1, 1791
Where is the propriety of calling such a lad the father of the people?--In all other cases, a person is a minor until the age of twenty-one years.
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
On the contrary, the representative system is always parallel with the order and immutable laws of nature, and meets the reason of man in every part.
Jan 1, 1791
Nature is orderly in all her works; but this is a mode of government that counteracts nature.
Jan 1, 1791
We must shut our eyes against reason, we must basely degrade our understanding, not to see the folly of what is called monarchy.
Jan 1, 1791
It exists not by fraud and mystery; it deals not in cant and sophistry; but inspires a language that, passing from heart to heart, is felt and understood.
Jan 1, 1791
I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity; but when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open--and the company see what it is…
Jan 1, 1791
Whether I have too little sense to see, or too much to be imposed upon; whether I have too much or too little pride, or of anything else, I leave out of the question; but certain it is, that what is called monarchy, always appears to me a…
Jan 1, 1791
It is ridiculous that nations are to wait and government be interrupted till boys grow to be men.
Jan 1, 1791
All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.