I am confident there are thousands and tens of thousands in America who wonder now that they should ever have thought otherwise; but the sin of that day was the sin of civility; yet it operated against our present good in the same manner that a civil opinion of the devil would against our future peace.
Paine reflects on the past error of excessive civility towards Britain, comparing its detrimental effect to having a polite view of evil.
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Nations, like individuals, who have long been enemies, without knowing each other, or knowing why, become the better friends when they discover the errors and impositions under which they had acted.
Long experience however has shown, that reforms of this kind are not those which old governments wish to promote, and therefore it is to nations, and not to such governments, that these matters present themselves.
As soldiers have hitherto been treated in most countries, they might be said to be without a friend.
By the former, freedom has a national champion in the western world; and by the latter, in Europe.