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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: When the calamities of America required a consultation, there was no
method so ready, or at that time so proper, as to appoint persons from
the several Houses of Assembly for that purpose; and the wisdom with
which they have proceeded hath preserved this continent from ruin.
But as it is more than probable that we shall never be without a
CONGRESS, every well wisher to good order, must own, that the mode
for choosing members of that body, deserves consideration. And I put it
as a question to those, who make a study of mankind, whether representation
and election is not too great a power for one and the same body of men
to possess? When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember,
that virtue is not hereditary.
 Common Sense |