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Quote of the Day - October 11, 2011

by FSM: QUOTE OF THE DAY October 11, 2011
 
"That men mean distinct and separate things when they speak of constitutions and of governments, is evident; or why are those terms distinctly and separately used? A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution, is power without a right.
 
All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must either be delegated or assumed. There are no other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.
 
In viewing this subject, the case and circumstances of America present themselves as in the beginning of a world; and our enquiry into the origin of government is shortened, by referring to the facts that have arisen in our own day. We have no occasion to roam for information into the obscure field of antiquity, nor hazard ourselves upon conjecture. We are brought at once to the point of seeing government begin, as if we had lived in the beginning of time. The real volume, not of history, but of facts, is directly before us, unmutilated by contrivance, or the errors of tradition."
 
 - Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809), writing in Part Two of The Rights of Man,Chapter IV, (“Of Constitutions) 1792.
 
NOTE: When The Rights of Man was published in America it caused a sensation. In Britain it was popular, but Paine himself was seen by British authorities as having committed an act of treason. He had to flee to France. Though Paine had supported the aims of the French Revolution, he nearly became one of the victims of “The Terror”.
 
 

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