On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
That which a whole nation chooses to do it has a right to do.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgThat which a whole nation chooses to do it has a right to do.
In "Rights of Man," Paine asserts the fundamental right of a sovereign nation to determine its own actions and governance.
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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 Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.