Those who have said that a republic is not a form of government calculated for countries of great extent, mistook, in the first place, the business of a government, for a form of government; for the res-publica equally appertains to every extent of territory and population.
In "Rights of Man," Paine refutes the idea that republics are unsuitable for large territories, clarifying the nature of government.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American Independence, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression.
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.