Passing over, for the present, all the evils and mischiefs which monarchy has occasioned in the world, nothing can more effectually prove its uselessness in a state of civil government, than making it hereditary.
In "Rights of Man," Paine argues that the hereditary nature of monarchy is the ultimate proof of its irrelevance to civil governance.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
I have no idea, considering the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a…
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.