Patriotism

and moral justice

"There is not a vice, nor scarcely a virtue, that has not as the fashion of the moment suited been called by the name of patriotism ... But if we give to patriotism a fixed idea consistent with that of a republic, it would signify a strict adherence to the principles of moral justice, to the equality of civil and political rights, to the system of representative government, and an opposition to every hereditary claim to govern; and of this species of patriotism you know my character."
Thomas Paine to James Monroe - October 26, 1794.

Paine wrote this letter to Monroe from prison in Paris, France. The Montagnard (Jacobin) faction had locked him up during the French Revolution because of his speech against the execution of the king. Paine believed that murdering the king and his family wold bring disrepute on the revolution and that the king should be exiled:

”Let then these United States be the safeguard and asylum of Louis Capet. There, hereafter, far removed from the miseries and crimes of royalty, he may learn from the constant aspect of public prosperity, that the true system of government consists in fair, equal and honorable representation.”
Thomas Paine
Speech in the National Convention, 1792

The king was beheaded with his wife and supporters. Resentful, panicked, and fearful, the Jacobins threw Paine in jail and issued an order for his execution. Paine watched helplessly as the great majority of his friends and allies were marched before him and guillotined ourside his window.

A jailor’s mistake and the care of his cell-mates were said to have saved Paine’s life. Robespierre was himself guillotined a few days later and Paine escaped the blade. Still imprisoned, Paine appealed in writing to James Monroe, the newly appointed Ambassador to France. Shocked to find Paine imprisoned, Monroe worked for and obtained his release.

If, as Paine wrote, democratic republicanism implies moral justice, an equality of civil and political rights, representative government, and opposition to hereditary claims, what then may be said of the republic today?