If you openly profess yourselves savages, it is high time we should treat you as such, and if nothing but distress can recover you to reason, to punish will become an office of charity.
During the American Revolution, Paine argues that if the British act barbarically, the colonists are justified in responding in kind, even framing punishment as a necessary act.
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To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.
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