But in whatever manner the separate parts of a constitution may be arranged, there is one general principle that distinguishes freedom from slavery, which is, that all hereditary government over a people is to them a species of slavery, and representative government is freedom.
In "Rights of Man," Paine asserts a core principle differentiating free and enslaved societies based on their form of government.
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I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
The present age will hereafter merit to be called the Age of Reason, and the present generation will appear to the future as the Adam of a new world.
It is a great standing which they have now universally obtained; and we may hereafter hope to see revolutions, or changes in governments, produced with the same quiet operation by which any measure, determinable by reason and discussion…
By the former, freedom has a national champion in the western world; and by the latter, in Europe.