Were it possible that the Congress of America could be so lost to their duty, and to the interest of their constituents, as to offer General Washington, as president of America, a million a year, he would not, and he could not, accept it.
Paine uses a hypothetical scenario involving George Washington to illustrate the integrity expected of American public servants compared to European monarchs.
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Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?