War, so much the trade of the world, has here been only the business of necessity; and when the necessity shall cease, her very enemies must confess, that as she drew the sword in her just defence, she used it without cruelty, and sheathed it without revenge.
Paine argues that America's engagement in war has been driven by necessity rather than cruelty or revenge.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?