Jan 1, 1791
This also is in the natural order of things, because laws must have existence before they can have execution.
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
The French Constitution puts the legislative before the executive, the law before the king; la loi, le roi.
Jan 1, 1791
The House of Commons did not originate as a matter of right in the people to delegate or elect, but as a grant or boon.
Jan 1, 1791
The executive power in each country is in the hands of a person styled the King; but the French Constitution distinguishes between the King and the Sovereign: It considers the station of King as official, and places Sovereignty in the…
Jan 1, 1791
In America, a catholic priest is a good citizen, a good character, and a good neighbour; an episcopalian minister is of the same description: and this proceeds independently of the men, from there being no law-establishment in America.
Jan 1, 1791
Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.
Jan 1, 1791
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is alway the strongly-marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law.
Jan 1, 1791
The inquisition in Spain does not proceed from the religion originally professed, but from this mule-animal, engendered between the church and the state.
Jan 1, 1791
By engendering the church with the state, a sort of mule-animal, capable only of destroying, and not of breeding up, is produced, called the Church established by Law.
Jan 1, 1791
If he believes not as thou believest, it is a proof that thou believest not as he believes, and there is no earthly power can determine between you.
Jan 1, 1791
Who then art thou, vain dust and ashes! by whatever name thou art called, whether a King, a Bishop, a Church, or a State, a Parliament, or anything else, that obtrudest thine insignificance between the soul of man and its Maker?