When those defects, and the means of remedying them, are generally seen by a nation, that nation will reform its government or its constitution in the one case, as the government repealed or reformed the law in the other.
This passage from "Rights of Man" describes the natural progression of a nation reforming its government or constitution once its defects are widely recognized.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.
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 more it is struck the more sparks it will emit; and the fear is it will not be struck enough.