Thomas Paine: “And where wisdom and abilities are not necessary, such an office, whatever it may be, is superfluous or insignificant.”

They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.

A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact.

Why is it that scarcely any are executed but the poor?

The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?