This instance, like that of the national assembly in France, sufficiently shows, that the strength of government does not consist in any thing itself, but in the attachment of a nation, and the interest which a people feel in supporting it.
Paine argues that the true strength of any government lies not in its inherent power but in the loyalty and support it garners from its citizens.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
But the spirit of the nation was not to be overcome, and it was so fully sensible of the strong ground it had taken--that of withholding taxes--that it contented itself with keeping up a sort of quiet resistance, which effectually…
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.