those who may happen to be
first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction
operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct,
not to destroy.

Had a constitution been established two years ago, (as ought to have
been done,) the violences that have since desolated France and injured
the character of the revolution, would, in my opinion, have been
prevented.(1) The nation would then have had a bond of union, and every
individual would have known the line of conduct he was to follow. But,
instead of this, a revolutionary government, a thing without either
principle or authority, was substituted in its place; virtue and crime
depended upon accident; and that which was patriotism one day, became
treason the next. All these things have followed from the want of a
constitution; for it is the nature and intention of a constitution to
_prevent governing by party_, by establishing a common principle that
shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to
all parties, _thus far shalt thou go and no further_. But in the absence
of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle
governing party, party governs principle.

1 The Constitution adopted August 10, 1793, was by the
determination of "The Mountain," suspended during the war
against France. The revolutionary government was thus made
chronic--_Editor._

An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to
stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He
that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine.

Paris, July, 1795.

XXV. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1795.

SPEECH IN THE FRENCH NATIONAL CONVENTION, JULY 7, 1795.

On the motion of Lanthenas, "That permission be granted to Thomas
Paine, to deliver his sentiments on the declaration of rights and the
constitution," Thomas Paine ascended the Tribune; and no opposition
being made to the motion, one of the Secretaries, who stood by Mr.
Paine, read his speech, of which the following is a literal translation:

Citizens:

The effects of a malignant fever, with which I was afflicted during a
rigorous confinement in the Luxembourg, have thus long prevented me from
attending at my post in the bosom of the Convention, and the magnitude
of the subject u