Like most of his supporters- even Jefferson and Franklin- Thomas Paine had failed to recognize fundamental differences between the New World and the Old, differences that made the French, English, and all peoples of the Old World incapable of governing themselves: they had never done so and any constitution that limited the role of government left them helpless and anarchic.
Americans, on the other hand, had, in effect, governed themselves for three, four, and more generations over nearly 200 years before the American Revolution. They had crossed the Atlantic, scattered across a vast untamed wilderness, alone to develop the surrounding world themselves with their bare hands- without government aid or interference.
Americans, on the other hand, had, in effect, governed themselves for three, four, and more generations over nearly 200 years before the American Revolution. They had crossed the Atlantic, scattered across a vast untamed wilderness, alone to develop the surrounding world themselves with their bare hands- without government aid or interference.
- from page 181, Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence