Jan 1, 1791
A set of childish thinkers, and half-way politicians born in the last century, men who went no farther with any principle than as it suited their purposes as a party; the nation was always left out of the question; and this has been 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
A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.
Jan 1, 1791
But until this be done, I shall so far take the sense of the public for my guide (and the world knows I am not a flatterer) that what they do not think worth while to read, is not worth mine to answer.
Jan 1, 1791
Pardoning the pun, it must be criminal justice indeed that should condemn a work as a substitute for not being able to refute it.
Jan 1, 1791
The greatest condemnation that could be passed upon it would be a refutation.
Jan 1, 1791
It would be an act of despotism, or what in England is called arbitrary power, to make a law to prohibit investigating the principles, good or bad, on which such a law, or any other is founded.
Jan 1, 1791
If a law be bad it is one thing to oppose the practice of it, but it is quite a different thing to expose its errors, to reason on its defects, and to show cause why it should be repealed, or why another ought to be substituted in its…
Jan 1, 1791
It is for the good of nations and not for the emolument or aggrandisement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it.
Jan 1, 1791
The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.
Jan 1, 1791
Mankind are not now to be told they shall not think, or they shall not read; and publications that go no farther than to investigate principles of government, to invite men to reason and to reflect, and to show the errors and excellences…
Jan 1, 1791
Burke may see I have not written on Government without reflecting on what is Law, as well as on what are Rights.--The only effectual jury in such cases would be a convention of the whole nation fairly elected; for in all such cases the…
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.