Were it possible that the Congress of America could be so lost to their duty, and to the interest of their constituents, as to offer General Washington, as president of America, a million a year, he would not, and he could not, accept it.
Paine uses a hypothetical scenario involving George Washington to illustrate the integrity expected of American public servants compared to European monarchs.
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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.
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.
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.
But from such opposition the French Revolution, instead of suffering, receives an homage.