[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it ought to have that government. We have no power, and we have no right, to force men to be free.

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The Society of United Irishmen of Dublin to the people of Ireland (3 March 1793), quoted in T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds.), The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, Volume I: Tone's career in Ireland to June 1795 (1998), p. 415

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Theobald Wolfe Tone (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.

[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it ought to have that government. We have no power, and we have no right, to force men to be free.

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