Thomas Paine: “When it is in a constitution, it has the nation for its support, and the natural and the political controlling powers…”

The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.

The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.

It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.

When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.