In all the wars which you have formerly been concerned in you had only armies to contend with; in this case you have both an army and a country to combat with.
Thomas Paine: “In all the wars which you have formerly been concerned in you had only armies to contend with; in this case you have…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine highlights the unique challenge faced by the British in America, contending with both an army and the spirit of the country itself.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and happiness is included.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
The horrid scene that is now acting by the English government in the East-Indies, is fit only to be told of Goths and Vandals, who, destitute of principle, robbed and tortured the world they were incapable of enjoying.
Why may we not suppose, that the great Father of all is pleased with variety of devotion; and that the greatest offence we can act, is that by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable?