The suffering likewise softened the whole body of the people into a degree of pliability, which laid the principal foundation-stone of union, order, and government; and which, at any other time, might only have fretted and then faded away unnoticed and unimproved.
Paine argues that the collective suffering of the American people forged a crucial foundation for union, order, and government.
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But from such opposition the French Revolution, instead of suffering, receives an homage.
The animosity of the English nation, it is very well remembered, ran high; and, had the true principles of Liberty been as well understood then as they now promise to be, it is probable the Nation would not have patiently submitted to so…
To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.
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.