It being proper and necessary, that, in a free country, the people should be as fully informed of the administration of their affairs as the nature of things will admit.
Thomas Paine: “It being proper and necessary, that, in a free country, the people should be as fully informed of the administration of…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine emphasizes the fundamental importance of public knowledge regarding government operations in a free society.
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When men unite in agreeing that a thing is good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half accomplished.
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.
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…