There is, therefore, no power but the voluntary will of the people that has a right to act in any matter respecting a general reform; and by the same right that two persons can confer on such a subject, a thousand may.
In "Rights of Man," Paine asserts that the only legitimate power for general reform resides in the voluntary will of the people, emphasizing collective action.
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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.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.
He must now show that every one in the line of hereditary succession was a Solomon, or his title is not good to be a king.