The effect of those cruel spectacles exhibited to the populace is to destroy tenderness or excite revenge; and by the base and false idea of governing men by terror, instead of reason, they become precedents.
In "Rights of Man," Paine analyzes how public displays of cruel punishment destroy empathy or incite revenge, establishing governance by terror as a dangerous precedent.
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I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.
He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.