Thomas Paine, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
It is the strength, and I will say why from what I have set down rather than from a flourish. When I was charged in Philadelphia with being an interested stranger meddling in the affairs of America, my answer was that the objector was ignorant of that ancient and numerous order whose kindred is not formed by place or accident, but in principle and sentiment.
A freeman is a stranger nowhere; a slave, everywhere.1 And when I wrote to General Howe, I met the same suspicion, that I lived in America and wrote from interest, by saying my principle is universal, that my attachment is to all the world and not to any particular part, and that if what I advance is right, no matter where or who it comes from.2
That is the test I ask of any argument. If it is true only for the man who writes it, it was never an argument. As to naivety, look at what the man of no country actually argues. I told Howe that war can never be the interest of a trading nation, any more than quarrelling can profit a man in business, and that to make war on those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door.3
That is not the dream of a man who knows no real society. It is the reasoning of one who has kept a shop, paid an excise, and counted what a war costs against what it can win. The barbarian world had as many nations as persons, each contending to secure something it had or obtain something it had not, because it had no business to follow and no studies to exercise the mind.4
Commerce and science changed that. Science is the partisan of no country but the patroness of all, and the philosopher of one nation sees not an enemy in the philosopher of another.5 The world's condition has made the cosmopolitan view the realistic one. Here is the deeper reason. Reason obeys itself; ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.6
A government resting on hereditary succession requires a belief from man which his reason cannot subscribe to, and so it lives only where men are kept ignorant. A republic requires no belief beyond what reason can give: the citizen sees the whole system, its origin and its operation, and it is best supported when best understood.6 A writer who aims to be understood by every reader, whatever flag he was born under, is doing in prose what the republic does in government, asking for judgment and not for reverence.
The plainness is the doctrine. If there is a weakness in it, I would say only that I have never found it in the argument being too widely addressed. The weakness lies in the reader who prefers to be told what to believe. Against him I have no remedy but to keep writing so that anyone may follow.
The cause of America was the cause of all mankind, and a writer who addresses mankind writes so that any man can follow: short sentences, plain words, an argument that stands on its own legs and asks no reverence. Nations are made enemies by their governments and friends by their commerce; a representative republic has no interest in war and every interest in peace, and when the people govern themselves the quarrels of courts end.
He asked nothing for himself from any government, he refused the profits of his books, and he was a citizen of three nations and at home in none; independence was his happiness and he viewed things as they were without regard to place or person.7891011
A freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere — a slave, everywhere.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 1, 1774-1779
My principle is universal. My attachment is to all the world, and not to any particular part, and if what I advance is right, no matter where or who it comes from.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 1, 1774-1779
War never can be the interest of a trading nation, any more than quarrelling can be profitable to a man in business. But to make war with those who trade with us, is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 1, 1774-1779
there were as many nations as persons, each contending with the other, to secure something which he had, or to obtain something which he had not. The world had then no business to follow, no studies to exercise the mind.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 2, 1779-1792
Science, the partisan of no country, but the beneficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a temple where all may meet.... The philosopher of one country sees not an enemy in the philosopher of another.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 2, 1779-1792
Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 2, 1779-1792
It is the most sacred thing in the constitution of America, and that which every man should be most proud and tender of. Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS — our inferior one varies with the place.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 1, 1774-1779
Bell, in Third Street, mdcclxxvi. Pretensions of both, and equally to reject the Usurpation of either. In the following Sheets, the Author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 1, 1774-1779
My arrival has struck it as with an hydrophobia, it is like the sight of water to canine madness. As this letter is intended to announce my arrival to my friends, and to my enemies if I have any, for I ought to have none in America, and as introductory to others that will occasionally follow, I shall close it by detailing the line of conduct I shall pursue.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 3, 1791-1804
Convinced that the cause of France is the cause of all mankind, and that liberty cannot be purchased by a wish, I gladly share with you the dangers and honours necessary to success.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 3, 1791-1804
Therefore, the writer of this, by way of precluding all such insinuation, thinks it proper to declare, that he can boldly look all men in the face, and challenge them to say or to hint, that he ever made profit, place or power his object. He has studied to be useful, and believing that he has been so, feel all that honest kind of civil independent pride which naturally accompanies a willing disinterested mind.Miscellaneous Pieces Not in Conway, 1777-1808
The cosmopolitanism and the plain style that made him read by millions and dismissed by the learned as shallow; the two are the same thing seen from two sides.