When information is withheld, ignorance becomes a reasonable excuse; and one would charitably hope that the people of England do not encourage cruelty from choice but from mistake.
From "The American Crisis," Paine suggests that the English people's support for cruelty might stem from a lack of accurate information rather than deliberate malice.
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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.
The more it is struck the more sparks it will emit; and the fear is it will not be struck enough.
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
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.