These outrages were not the effect of the principles of the Revolution, but of the degraded mind that existed before the Revolution, and which the Revolution is calculated to reform.
In his defense of the French Revolution, Paine distinguishes between revolutionary principles and pre-existing societal degradation as causes of violence.
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The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.
But from such opposition the French Revolution, instead of suffering, receives an homage.
He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.