I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness.
Paine reflects on the need to confront those who undermine the American cause, asserting that the greater good cannot be sacrificed for their failings.
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When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
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 object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.
To account for this sudden transition, it is proper to observe that there are two distinct species of popularity; the one excited by merit, and the other by resentment.