On the record
It is the nature of law to require obedience, but this demanded servitude; and the condition of an American, under the operation of it, was not that of a subject, but a vassal.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgIt is the nature of law to require obedience, but this demanded servitude; and the condition of an American, under the operation of it, was not that of a subject, but a vassal.
Paine contrasts the nature of law with the oppressive demands of the British government on Americans.
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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.
The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.