The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
From his first American Crisis pamphlet, this passage defines true patriotism during the difficult early days of the Revolutionary War.
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They form a common policy throughout Europe, detached and separate from the interest of Nations: and while they appear to quarrel, they agree to plunder.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.
Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American Independence, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.