On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
If there were a Constitution, it certainly could be referred to; and the debate on any constitutional point would terminate by producing the Constitution.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgIf there were a Constitution, it certainly could be referred to; and the debate on any constitutional point would terminate by producing the Constitution.
Paine argues that if a true constitution existed, it would serve as a definitive reference point to resolve any constitutional debate.
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It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.
I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.
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.
In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.