I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
In "The American Crisis," Paine defines the American Revolution as a popular struggle for fundamental rights and property.
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More from Thomas Paine
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
The object, in all such preliminary proceedings, is to find out what the general sense of a nation is, and to be governed by it.
But in England there are no such occasional bodies; and as to those who are now called Representatives, a great part of them are mere machines of the court, placemen, and dependants.
The oppressed soldier will become a freeman; and the tortured sailor, no longer dragged through the streets like a felon, will pursue his mercantile voyage in safety.