What rights does each generation have to govern itself?

1. WHAT HE SAID (the record)

Record ledger

• BELIEF (1776-01-10): Thomas Paine believed that the present generation's actions in the contest for independence would affect posterity, implying that each generation has a responsibility and right to shape its own future. He argued that the current proceedings involve not just the present but future generations, suggesting a belief in the self-governance of each generation. "posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now." [1]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that each generation has the right to govern itself, and that no generation has the power or right to govern future generations or dictate how they shall govern themselves. (key quote above) [2]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that every generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. He argued that no previous generation has the right to bind or control the present generation, and that each generation is competent to handle its own purposes. "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it." [3]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, and that the rights of each generation to govern itself originate from the Maker of man. He argued that no generation can claim authority to dictate the mode of governance for all future generations, and that the principle of equal rights applies to all individuals and generations. (key quote above) [4]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that each generation has the right to establish government for itself, and that laws attempting to establish hereditary government are founded on assumption and political fiction. This is based on his argument that hereditary government always means a government yet to come, and those who are to live afterwards have the same right to establish government for themselves as the people who lived before them. (key quote above) [5]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that a generation has no right to subject a future generation to its laws, implying that each generation has the right to govern itself by reforming and altering its Constitution. "A generation has no right to subject a future generation to its laws; and all heredity in offices is absurd and tyrannical." [6]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that every generation is equal in rights to another and must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generation that preceded it. He argued that no generation has a right to establish government by hereditary succession because it would be asserting a superior right over others. "Every age and generation is, and must be, (as a matter of right,) as free to act for itself in all cases, as the age and generation that preceded it." [7]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that every nation, for the time being, has a right to govern itself as it pleases, but he argued that government by hereditary succession is not governance by the current generation, as it governs for another race of people and not for itself. He considered the right to set up such a government for future generations as treason against the right of posterity. "That every nation, for the time being, has a right to govern itself as it pleases, must always be admitted; but government by hereditary succession is government for another race of people, and not for itself;" [8]
• BELIEF (undated): Thomas Paine believed that no generation can transmit a right to govern to another generation, because man has no authority over generations unborn. He argued that people cannot be the slaves of the dead, and that each generation must have its own rights and will. "Man has no authority over generations unborn. I cannot be the slave of the dead, more than of the living." [9]

What cuts against it

• BELIEF (1776-01-10): Thomas Paine believed that the present generation's actions in the contest for independence would affect posterity, implying a belief in the self-governance of each generation. However, this belief does not directly address the specific right of each generation to govern itself independently, but rather the responsibility to future generations. "posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now." [1]

2. HOW IT APPLIES (reasoning; inference is marked)

1. Thomas Paine believed that every generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it." [3]

2. He argued that no previous generation has the right to bind or control the present generation, and that each generation is competent to handle its own purposes. This implies a belief in the self-governance of each generation. [3]

3. Thomas Paine believed that each generation has the right to govern itself, and that no generation has the power or right to govern future generations or dictate how they shall govern themselves. (key quote above) [2]

4. He argued that every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, and that the rights of each generation to govern itself originate from the Maker of man. (key quote above) [4]

5. Thomas Paine believed that each generation has the right to establish government for itself, and that laws attempting to establish hereditary government are founded on assumption and political fiction. This is based on his argument that hereditary government always means a government yet to come, and those who are to live afterwards have the same right to establish government for themselves as the people who lived before them. (key quote above) [5]

3. HIS TAKE

Record coverage: DIRECT

Extrapolation: Thomas Paine believed that each generation has the right to govern itself, free from the constraints imposed by previous generations. He argued that no generation has the authority to bequeath or impose a different form of government on the next generation, as such rights are neither devisable, transferable, nor annihilable, but descendable.

Competing readings: None.

Confidence: High, based on direct statements from Thomas Paine about the right of each generation to govern itself and the illegitimacy of hereditary government.