A nation can have no right to the time and services of any person at his own expense, whom it may choose to employ or entrust in any department whatever; neither can any reason be given for making provision for the support of any one part of a government and not for the other.
Paine argues for the necessity of fair compensation for public servants and equal financial support for all branches of government.
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The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and happiness is included.
If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.
Never did so great an opportunity offer itself to England, and to all Europe, as is produced by the two Revolutions of America and France.
When a nation changes its opinion and habits of thinking, it is no longer to be governed as before; but it would not only be wrong, but bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to be accomplished by reason.