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Thomas Paine in his essay The Rights of Man suggests that the morality of an issue is based on the equality of an issue. For the existence of all men should be seen as equal. The Monarchy and imperial ways detracts from the equality of mankind and creates a suggestive loophole which gives the rights of man to a select few and thus creates an imbalance. The imbalance can be religious, legal, racial or social. Paine believed that only with equality would there be any sort of justice and morality for in every other case there would be a perception of morals but in fact it would be simple injustice. His view of Monarchy can be read through the words, "What is called monarchy always appears to me a silly contemptible thing. I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity; but, when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open, and the...
[Rights of Man, part 2, 1792]
Morals and Moral laws are a social and personal perception derived through religious and cultural basis. That the concepts of morality vary has to be taken into account for justice to be administered or anarchy takes place. Imperialism was a rule of force of one civilization over another and thus could not be considered moral as per the words of Orwell and the founding fathers and it's the equality of being once accepted that creates true morality in terms of individuals.
References:
1. Paine, Thomas The Rights of Man, 1972 accessed http://www.constitution.org/tp/rightsman_pre.htm
2. Orwell, George Shooting an Elephant, 2003 accessed http://www.george-orwell.org/Shooting_an_Elephant/0.html
3. Wills, Garry Inventing America, Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Vintage Books, (1979)pp. 326-27
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