My principal design is to form the disposition of the people to the measures which I am fully persuaded it is their interest and duty to adopt, and which need no other force to accomplish them than the force of being felt.
From his series "The American Crisis," Paine explains his primary goal is to shape public opinion towards necessary measures, relying on the power of shared understanding.
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To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.