By having Britain for our master, we became enemies to the greatest part of Europe, and they to us: and the consequence was war inevitable.
Thomas Paine: “By having Britain for our master, we became enemies to the greatest part of Europe, and they to us: and the consequence…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine explains that being a British colony automatically made America an enemy to many European powers, leading to unavoidable conflict.
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But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.
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…