Could our affections forgive, or humanity forget the wounds of an injured country--we might, under the influence of a momentary oblivion, stand still and laugh.
Thomas Paine: “Could our affections forgive, or humanity forget the wounds of an injured country--we might, under the influence of a…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine uses a rhetorical question to emphasize the profound and unforgivable nature of the injuries inflicted upon the country.
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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 aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American Independence, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.