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Common Sense · Common Sense

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  Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Introduction and preface introduction. Perhaps the sentiments contained
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  in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor.
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  A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of
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  being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defensive custom. But
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  the tumult soon subsides time makes more converts than reason. As a long and
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  violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in
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  question, and in matters to which might never have been thought of had not
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  the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry. And as the King of England hath
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  undertaken in his own right to support the Parliament in what he calls theirs,
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  and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination,
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  they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally
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  to reject the usurpations of either. In the following sheets, the author has
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  studiously avoided everything which is personal among ourselves. Compliments, as well as censure
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  to individuals, make no part thereof The wise and the worthy need not the
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  triumph of a pamphlet, and those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly will cease
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  of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion. The cause of
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  America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have
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  and will arise which are not local but universal, and through which the principles
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  of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their
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  affections are interested. The laying of a country desolate with fire and sword,
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  declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof
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  from the face of the earth is the concern of every man, to whom
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  nature hath given the power of feeling, of which class, regardless of party
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  censure is the author PostScript to the preface in the third edition, p.
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  S. The publication of this new edition hath been delayed with a view of
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  taking notice had it been necessary of any attempt to refute the doctrine of independence.
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  As no answer hath yet appeared. It is now presumed that none will
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  the time needful for getting such a performance ready, for the public being considerably
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  passed. Who the author of this presentation is is wholly unnecessary to the public,
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  as the object for attention is the doctrine itself, not the man.
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  Yet it may not be unnecessary to say that he is unconnected with any party,
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  and under no sort of influence, public or private, but the influence
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  of reason and principle. Philadelphia, February fourteenth, seventeen seventy six, end
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  of introduction and preface, Chapter one of the Origin and Design of Government in
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  General, with concise remarks on the English Constitution. Some writers have so confounded
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  society with government as to leave little or no distinction between them, whereas they
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  are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our
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  wants, and government by wickedness. The former promotes our happiness positively by uniting
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  our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse,
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  the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a
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  punisher. Society in every state is a blessing. But government, even in
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  its best state, is but a necessary evil. In its worst state and
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  intolerable one. We suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government
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  which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by
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  reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government like dress is
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  the badge of lost innocence. The palaces of kings are built on the ruins
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  of the bowers of paradise. But where the impulses of conscience clear, uniform,
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  and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver. But that not
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  being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his
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  property to furnish means for the protection of the rest. And this he is
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  induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him,
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  out of two evils, to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the
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  true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears
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  most likely to ensure it to us with the least expense and greatest benefit,
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  is preferable to all others. In order to gain a clear and just idea
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  of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of
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  persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest.
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  They will then represent the first peopling of any country or of the world.
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  In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A
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  thousand motives will excite them hitherto the strength of one man is so unequal to
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  his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is
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  soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who, in his turn
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  requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable
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  dwelling in the midst of a wilderness. But one man might labor out of
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  the common period of his life without accomplishing anything. When he had felled his
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  timber, he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed.
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  Hunger in the meantime would urge him from his work, and every different
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  want call him a different way. Disease, nay, even misfortune, would
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  be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him
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  from living and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said
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  to perish than to die. This necessity, like a gravitating power, would
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  soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessing of which would
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  supersede and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just
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  to each other. But as nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it
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  will unavoidably happen that, in proportion, as they surmount the first difficulties of
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  emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to
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  relax in their duty and attachment to each other. And this remissness will point
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  out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral
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  virtue. Some convenient tree will afford them a state house, under the branches
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  of which the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is
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  more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of regulations,
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  and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament,
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  every man, by natural right will have a seat. But as the
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  colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and a distance at which
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  the members may be separated will render it too inconvenient for all of them to
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  meet on every occasion. As at first, when their number was small,
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  their habituations near, and the public concerns few and trifling, this will point
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  out their convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by
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  a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the
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  same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act
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  in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If
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  the colony continues increasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of the
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  representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended
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  to. It will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts,
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  each part sending its proper number, and that the elected might never form to
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  themselves an interest separate from the electors. Prudence will point out the propriety of
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  having elections often, because as the elected might, by that means return and
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  mix again with the general body of the electors in a few months, their
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  fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflections of not making a
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  rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with
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  every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other.
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  And on this not on the unmeaning name of king, depends the strength of
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  government and the happiness of the governed. Here, then, is the origin
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  and rise of government, namely a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral
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  virtue to govern the world. Here too is the design and end of government,
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  viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with
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  snow, or our ears deceived by sound. However prejudice may warp our wills,
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  or interest darken our understanding. The simple voice of nature and of reason
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  will say it is right. I draw my idea to the form of government
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  from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. That the
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  more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and
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  the easier rep paired wind disordered. And with this maximum view I offer a
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  few remarks on the so much boasted Constitution of England. That it was noble
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  for the mark and slavish times in which it was erected is granted, when
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  the world was overrun with tyranny, the least removed therefrom was a glorious rescue.
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  But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of producing
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  what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated. Absolute governments, through the
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  disgrace of human nature, have this advantage with them, that they are simple.
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  If the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs
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  know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and
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  cures. But the Constitution of England is so exceedingly complex that the nation may
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  suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies.
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  Some will say in one and some in another. Political physician will advise
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  a different medicine. I know it is difficult to get over local or long
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  standing prejudices. Yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of
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  the English Constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two
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  ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new republican materials. First the remains of monarchical
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  tyranny in the person of the king. Secondly the remains of aristocratical tyranny in
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  the persons of the peers. Thirdly, the new republican materials in the persons
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  of the commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England. The two
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  first, by being hereditary are independent of the people, and therefore, in
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  a constitutional sense, they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the state. To
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  say that the Constitution of England is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each
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  other is farcical. Either the words have no meaning or they are flat contradictions.
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  To say that the commons is a check upon the king presupposes two things.
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  First, that the king is not to be trusted without being looked after,
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  or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural
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  disease of monarchy. Secondly, that the commons, by being appointed for that
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  purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the Crown. But
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  as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by
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  withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the King a power to check the commons by
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  empowering him to reject their other bills, it again supposes that the king is
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  wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A
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  mere absurdity. There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy. It
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  first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act
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  in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts
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  him from the world. The bi business of a king requires him to know
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  it thoroughly. Wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other,
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  prove the whole character to be absurd and useless. Some writers have explained
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  the English constitution. Thus the king, they say, is one, the
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  people another. The peers are a house in behalf of the king, the
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  commons in behalf of the people. But this hath all the distinctions of a
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  house divided against itself. And though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when
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  examined they appear idle and ambiguous. And it will always happen that the nicest
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  construction that words are capable of, when applied to the description of something which
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  either cannot exist or is too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description,
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  will be words of sound only. And though they may amuse the ear,
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  they cannot inform the mind. For this explanation includes a previous question, viz.
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  How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to trust
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  and always obliged to check. Such a power could not be the gift of
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  a wise people. Neither can any power which needs checking be from God.
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  Yet the provision which the Constitution makes supposes such a power to exist. But
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  the provision is unequal to the task. The means either cannot or will not
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  accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a philo. D say,
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  the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one. It only remains
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  to know which power in the Constitution has the most weight, for that will
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  govern. And though the others or a part of them may clog, or,
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  as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion. Yet so
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  long as they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual. The first
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  moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed
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  is supplied by time. That the Crown is this overbearing part in the English
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  com Institution needs not be mentioned. And that it derives its whole consequence merely
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  from being the giver of places and pensions is self evident. Wherefore, though
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  we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy,
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  we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the crown in possession
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  of the key. The prejudice of Englishmen in favor of their own government by
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  king, lords and commons arises as much or more from national pride than reason.
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  Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries. But the
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  will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as
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  in France, with this difference that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth,
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  it is handed to the people under the more formidable shape of an Act of
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  Parliament. For the fate of Charles, the first hath only made kings more
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  subtle, not more just. Wherefore, lying aside all national pride and prejudice
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  in faith favor of modes and forms, the plain truth is that it is
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  wholly owing to the constitution of the people and not to the constitution of the
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  government, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as it is in
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  Turkey. An inquiry into the constitutional errors in the English form of government is
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  at this time highly necessary, for as we are never in a proper condition
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  of doing justice to others while we continue under the influence of some leading partiality,
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  so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves. While we remain
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  fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a man who is attached to a
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  prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in
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  favor of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one
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  end of Chapter one two of monarchy and hereditary succession being originally equals in the
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  order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance.
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  The distinction of rich and poor may in a great measure be accounted for,
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  and without having recourse to the harsh, ill sounding names of oppression and avariance.
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  Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches.
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  And though avus will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally
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  makes him too timorous to be wealthy. But there is another and greater distinction
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  for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is
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  the distinction of men into kings and subjects. Male and female are the distinction
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  of nature good and bad, the distinction of heaven. But how a race
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  of men came into the world so exalted above the rest and distinguished like some
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  new species, is worth inquiring into and whether they are the means of happiness
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  or of misery to mankind. In the early ages of the world, according
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  to the Scripture chronology, there were no kings, the consequence of which was
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  there were no wars. It is the pride of kings which throw mankind into
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  confusion. Holland without a king, hath enjoyed more peace for this last century
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  than any of the monarchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark for
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  the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs. Hath a happy something in
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  them which vanishes away. When we come to the history of the Jewish royalty.
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  Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from
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  whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention
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  the devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid
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  divine honors to their deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved upon the
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  plan by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title
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  of sacred majesty applied to a worm who, in the midst of his splendor
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  is crumbling into dust. As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest
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  cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be
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  defended on the authority of scripture. For the will of the Almighty, as
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  declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings.
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  All anti monarchical parts of scripture have been smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments,
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  but they undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments yet to form.
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  Render unto Caesar, the things which are Caesar's is the scripture, doctrine
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  of courts. Yet it is no support of a monarchical government for the Jews,
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  that at that time were without a king and in a state of vassalage
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  to the Romans. Near three thousand year years passed away from the mosaic account
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  of the creation till the Jews, under a national delusion, requested a king.
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  Till then their form of government, except in extraordinary cases where the Almighty
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  interposed, was a kind of republic administered by a judge and the elders of
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  the tribes kings, they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge
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  any being under that title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man
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  seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings,
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  he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of his honor, should
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  disapprove of a form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.
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  Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for
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  such a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of that transaction
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  is worth attending. To the children of Israel being oppressed by the Medeites,
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  Gideon marched against them with a small arm army and victory. Though the divine
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  interposed decided in his favor. The Jews elate with success, and attributing it
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  to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, saying, rule
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  thou over us, thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was
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  temptation in its fullest extent, not a kingdom only, but a hereditary one.
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  But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied, I will
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  not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord
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  shall rule over you. Words need not be more explicit. Gideon doth not
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  decline the honor, but denieth their right to give it. Neither doth he
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  compliment them in inventing declarations of his thanks, but in the positive style of
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  a prophet, charges them with disaffection to their proper sovereign, the King of
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  Heavens. About one hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into
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  the same error. The hank which the Jews had for the idolatrous custom of
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  the Heathens is something exceedingly unaccountable. But so it was that, laying hold
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  of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns,
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  they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, behold,
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  thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now
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  make us a king to judge us like all the other nations. And here
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  we cannot but observe that their motives were bad, viz. That they might
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  be like unto other nations, in other words, the heavens, whereas their
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  true glory lay in being as much unlike them as possible. But the thing
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  displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And
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  Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said, unto Samuel, hearken
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  to the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee For they
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  have not rejected thee but they have reached me that I should not reign over
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  them, according to all the works which they have done since the day that
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  I brought them up out of Egypt, even into this day, whereon they
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  have forsaken me and served other gods. So do they also unto thee.
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  Now therefore hearken unto their voice. Howbi protest solemnly unto them, and show
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  them the manner of the kings that shall reign over them. In other words,
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  not of any particular king, but the general manner of the kings of
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  the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying after. And notwithstanding the great
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  distance of time and difference of manners, the character is still in fashion.
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  And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of
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  him a king, And he said, this shall be the manner of the
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  king. Thou shalt reign over you. He will take your sons, and
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  appoint them for himself for his chariots, and to be his horse, and
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  some shall run before his chariots. This description agrees with the present mode of
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  impressing men. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over
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  fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and to read his
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  harvest, and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.
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  And he will take your daughters to be confectioneries, and to be cooks,
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  and to be bakers. This describes the expense and luxury as well as the
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  oppression of kings. And he will take your fields and your olive yards,
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  even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he
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  will take the tenth of your feed and of your vineyards, and give them
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  to his officers and to his servants, by which we see that bribery,
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  corruption, and favoritism are the standing vices of kings. And he will take
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  the tenth of your men servants, and your maid servants, and your goodliest
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  young men and you, and put them to his work. And he will
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  take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants and ye
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  shall cry out in that day because of your king, which ye shall have
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  chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in that day. This accounts
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  for the continuation of monarchy. Neither do the characters of the few good kings
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  which have lived since either sanctify the title or brought out the sinfulness of the
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  origin. The high ecumen given of David takes no notice of him officially as
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  a king, but only as a man after God's own heart. Nevertheless,
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  the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, nay,
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  but we will have a king over us, that we may be like
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  all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before
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  us and fight our battles. Samuel continued to reason with them, but to
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  no purpose. He set before them their ingratitude, but all would not avail,
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  and seeing them fully bent on their folly, he cried out, I
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  will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and reign, which
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  then was a punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest, that ye
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  may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in
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  the sight of the Lord in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto
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  the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and reign that day, and all
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  the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel, and all the people said,
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  unto Samuel, pray for thy servants, unto the Lord, thy God,
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  that we die not, for we have added unto our sins this evil to
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  ask a king. These portions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit
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  of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical
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  government, is true, or the scripture is false. Man hath good reason
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  to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as priest in withholding the scripture
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  from the public in popish countries. For monarchy, in every instance is the
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  popery of government. To the evil of monarchy, we have added that of
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  hereditary succession. And as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves,
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  so is the second, claimed, as a matter of right, is an
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  insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no
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  one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual
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  preference to all others forever, And though himself might deserve some decent respect of
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  honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit
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  them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in
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  kings is that the nature disproves it, Otherwise she would not so frequently turn
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  it into ridicule by giving mankind and ask for a lion. Secondly, as
• 28:07
  no man at first could possess any other public honors than were bestowed upon him,
• 28:14
  so the givers of those honors could have no power to give away the
• 28:17
  right of posterity. And though they might say, we choose you for our
• 28:22
  head, they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say that
• 28:26
  your children and your children's children shall reign over ours forever, because such an
• 28:32
  unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might perhaps, in the next succession, put
• 28:37
  them under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most Wise, men
• 28:41
  in their private sentiments have ever treated hereditary right with contempt. Yet it is
• 28:48
  one of those evils which, when once established, is not easily removed.
• 28:52
  Many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the most powerful part shares
• 28:57
  with the king the under of the rest. This is supposing the present race
• 29:03
  of kings is in the world to have had an honorable origin, whereas it
• 29:08
  is more than probable that could we take off the dark covering of antiquity and
• 29:15
  trace them to their first rise, that we should find the first of them
• 29:18
  nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless group, whose savage manners or
• 29:23
  pre eminence in suitability obtained him the title of chief among plunderers, and who,
• 29:30
  by increase in power and extending his depretations, overawed the quiet and defenseless
• 29:36
  to purchase their safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no idea
• 29:42
  of giving hereditary right to his descendants, because such a perpetual exclusion of themselves
• 29:48
  was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they profess to live by. Wherefore,
• 29:53
  hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take place as a
• 29:59
  matter of claim, but as something casual or complemental. But as few or
• 30:04
  no records were extant in those days, and traditionally history stuffed with fables,
• 30:11
  it was very easy, after the lapse of a few generations, to trump
• 30:17
  up some superstitious tale conveniently timed Mahomet like to cram hereditary right down the throats
• 30:23
  of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which threatened or seemed to threaten on the
• 30:30
  decease of a leader and the choice of a new one for elections among Ruffians
• 30:36
  could not be very orderly induced many at first to favor hereditary pretensions, by
• 30:41
  which means it happened as it hath happened, since that what at first was
• 30:47
  submitted to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right. England since the
• 30:53
  conquest hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number
• 31:00
  of bad ones. Yet no man in his senses can say that their claim
• 31:03
  under William the Conqueror is a very honorable one. A French bastard landing with
• 31:10
  an armed banditti and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives
• 31:15
  is, in plain terms, a very paltry, rascally original. It certainly
• 31:22
  hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend much time
• 31:26
  in exposing the folly of hereditary right. If there are any so weak as
• 31:32
  to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome.
• 31:37
  I shall neither copy their humility nor disturb their devotion. Yet I should
• 31:45
  be glad to ask how they suppose kings came at first? The question admits
• 31:48
  but of three answers, viz. Either by lot, by election, or
• 31:52
  by usurption. If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a
• 31:57
  precedent for the next, excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot, Yet
• 32:02
  the succession was not hereditary. Neither does it appear from that transaction there was
• 32:08
  any intention it ever should If the first king of any country was by election,
• 32:15
  that likewise establishes a precedent for the next. For to say that the
• 32:19
  right of all future generations is taken away by the act of the first electors
• 32:25
  in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings.
• 32:29
  Forever hath no parallel in or out of scripture. But the doctrine of
• 32:34
  original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in atom and
• 32:38
  from such comparison, and it will admit of no other. Hereditary succession can
• 32:44
  derive no glory, For as in Adam all sinned, and as in the
• 32:49
  first Electors, all men obeyed, as in the one, all mankind were
• 32:54
  subjected to satan, and in the other to sovereignty inner since was lost in
• 33:00
  the first and our authority in the last, and as both disable us from
• 33:06
  resuming some former state and privilege, it unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary
• 33:13
  succession are parallels dishonorable rank in glorious connection. Yet the most subtle sophist cannot
• 33:22
  produce a just simile as to usurpation. No man will be so hardy as
• 33:27
  to defend it. And that William the Conqueror was a usurper is a fact
• 33:32
  not to be contradicted. The plain truth is that the antiquity of English monarchy
• 33:37
  will not bear looking into. But it is not so much the absurdity as
• 33:43
  the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of
• 33:47
  good and wise men, it would have the seal of divine authority. But
• 33:52
  as it opens the door to the foolish, the wicked, and the improper,
• 33:58
  it hath in the nature of opreshire. Men who look upon themselves born
• 34:01
  to reign and others to obey, soon grow insolent. Selected from the rest
• 34:07
  of mankind, Their minds are early poisoned by importance, and the world they
• 34:15
  act in differs so materially from the world at large that they have but little
• 34:20
  opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government,
• 34:24
  are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions. Another evil
• 34:30
  which attends hereditary succession is that the throne is subject to be possessed by a
• 34:36
  miner at any age, all which time the regency, acting under the cover
• 34:40
  of a king, have every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust. The
• 34:45
  same national misfortune happens when a king, worn out with age and infirmity,
• 34:51
  enters the last stage of human weakness. In both these cases, the public
• 34:54
  becomes a prey to every miscreant who can temper successfully with the fall either of
• 35:00
  age or infancy. The most plausible plea which hath ever offended in favor of
• 35:06
  hereditary succession is that it preserves a nation from civil wars, and were this
• 35:12
  true, it would be weighty, whereas it is the most bare faced falsity
• 35:16
  ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of England disowns the fact thirty kings
• 35:23
  and two miners have reigned in the distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which
• 35:29
  time there have been, including the Revolution, no less than eight civil wars
• 35:34
  and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore, instead of making for peace, it makes against
• 35:38
  it and destroys the very foundation it seems to stand on. The contest for
• 35:44
  monarchy and succession between the Houses of York and Lancaster laid England in a scene
• 35:50
  of blood. For many years, twelve pitched battles, besides skirmishes and sieges,
• 35:54
  were fought between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward,
• 36:00
  who in his turn was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate
• 36:04
  of war and the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal matters are
• 36:07
  the ground of a quarrel. That Henry was taken in triumph from a prison
• 36:12
  to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign
• 36:16
  land. Yet as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting, Henry, in
• 36:22
  his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward recalled to succeed him,
• 36:28
  the Parliament always following the strongest side. This contest began in the reign of
• 36:34
  Henry the sixth, and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the seventh, in
• 36:39
  whom the families were united, including a period of sixty seven years viz.
• 36:45
  From fourteen twenty two to fourteen eighty nine. In short, monarchy and succession
• 36:51
  have laid not this or that kingdom only, but the world in blood and
• 36:55
  ashes. Tis a form of government which the world of God barres testimony against,
• 37:00
  and blood will attend it. If we inquire into the business of a
• 37:05
  king, we shall find that in some countries they have none, and,
• 37:08
  after sauntering away their lives, without pleasure to themselves or advantage to the nation,
• 37:14
  withdrawn from the scene, and leave their successors to tread the same idle
• 37:19
  round. In absolute monarchies, the whole weight of business, civil and military
• 37:24
  lies on the king. The children of Israel, in their request for a
• 37:29
  king, urged this plea, that he may judge us and go out before
• 37:34
  us and fight our battles. But in countries where he is neither a judge
• 37:38
  nor a general, as in England, a man would be puzzled to know
• 37:43
  what is his business. The nearer any government approaches to a republic, the
• 37:47
  less business there is for a king. It is somewhat difficult to find a
• 37:52
  proper name for the government of England, so William Meredith calls it a republic.
• 37:57
  But in his present state it is is unworthy of the name, because
• 38:01
  the corrupt influence of the Crown, by having all the places in its disposal,
• 38:07
  hath so effectually swallowed up the power and eaten out the virtue of the
• 38:12
  House of Commons, the republican part in the Constitution, that the government of
• 38:16
  England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out
• 38:22
  with names without understanding them, for it is the republican and not the monarchical
• 38:28
  part of the Constitution of England, which Englishmen glory in viz. The liberty
• 38:32
  of choosing an House of Commons from out of their own body. And it
• 38:37
  is easy to see when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is the
• 38:44
  Constitution of England sickly But because monarchy hath poisoned the republic. The crown hath
• 38:50
  engrossed the commons in England. The king hath little more to do than to
• 38:54
  make war and give away places, which in plain terms is to impoverish the
• 39:00
  nation and set it together by the years a pretty business. Indeed, for
• 39:06
  a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year four and worshiped into
• 39:10
  the bargain of more Worth is one honest man to society, and in the
• 39:15
  sight of God, than all the crowned Ruffians that ever lived. End of
• 39:22
  Chapter two, Chapter three, Thoughts on the present state of American Affairs,
• 39:28
  Part one in the following pages. I offer nothing more than simple facts,
• 39:32
  plain arguments, and common sense, and have no other preliminaries to settle with
• 39:37
  the reader than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer
• 39:44
  his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves, that he will put on,
• 39:50
  or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a
• 39:53
  man, and generously enlarge his views. Beyond the present day, volumes have
• 39:59
  been written on the sub of the struggle between England and America. Men of
• 40:02
  all ranks have embarked on the controversy from different motives and with various designs,
• 40:07
  but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms
• 40:14
  as the last resource decide the contest. The appeal was the choice of the
• 40:19
  king and the continent hath accepted the challenge. It hath been reported of the
• 40:24
  late mister Pelham, who, though an able minister, was not without his
• 40:30
  faults, that, on his being attacked in the House of Commons on the
• 40:35
  score that his measures were only of a temporary kind, he replied, they
• 40:40
  will last my time. Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies
• 40:46
  in the present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations
• 40:52
  with detestation. The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. It
• 40:57
  is not like the affair of a city, country, a province, or
• 41:00
  a kingdom, but of a continent of at least one eighth part of the
• 41:05
  habitable globe. Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or
• 41:08
  an age. Posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more
• 41:15
  or less affected even to the end of time by the proceedings. Now now
• 41:21
  is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture
• 41:27
  now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the
• 41:30
  tender rind of a young oak. The wound will enlarge with a tree and
• 41:36
  posterity read in it full grown characters. By referring the matter from argument to
• 41:43
  arms, A new era for politics is struck, a new method of thinking
• 41:46
  hath arisen. All planes, proposals, et cetera prior to the nineteenth of
• 41:52
  April, in other words, to the commencement of hostilities, are like the
• 41:58
  almanacs of the last, which, though proper then, are superseded and useless
• 42:04
  now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then
• 42:09
  terminated in one and the same point, viz. A union with Great Britain.
• 42:15
  The only difference between the parties was the method of effectuating it, the
• 42:20
  one proposing force, the other friendship. But it hath so far happened that
• 42:25
  the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence. As much
• 42:30
  hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which like an agreeable dream,
• 42:36
  hath passed away and left us as we are. It is but right that
• 42:39
  we should examine the contrary side of the argument and inquire into some of the
• 42:45
  many material injuries which these colonies sustain and always will sustain, by being connected
• 42:51
  with and dependent upon Great Britain. To examine that connection and dependence on the
• 42:58
  principles of nature and common sense to see what we have to trust to if
• 43:01
  separated, and what we are to expect if dependent. I have heard it
• 43:07
  asserted by some that, as America hath flourished under the former connection with Great
• 43:12
  Britain, that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness and will always
• 43:16
  have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument.
• 43:22
  We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk,
• 43:25
  that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of
• 43:29
  our lives is to become precedent for the next twenty. But even this is
• 43:34
  admitting more than is true. For I answer roundly that America would have flourished
• 43:39
  as much and probably much more, had no European power had anything to do
• 43:44
  with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessities of
• 43:49
  life, and will always have a market, while eating is the custom of
• 43:52
  Europe. But she has protected us. Some say that she hath engrossed us
• 43:57
  is true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her own,
• 44:01
  is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive,
• 44:06
  viz. The sake of trade and dominion. Alas we have been long led
• 44:10
  away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the
• 44:16
  protection of Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest, not attachment,
• 44:23
  that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from
• 44:30
  her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us
• 44:35
  on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same
• 44:39
  account. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or to the continent,
• 44:45
  throw off the dependents, and we should be at peace with France and
• 44:49
  Spain, were they at war with Britain. The miseries of hanover last war
• 44:54
  ought to warn us against connections. It hath lately been asserted in Parliament that
• 45:00
  the colonies have no relation to each other but through the parent country. In
• 45:04
  other words, that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys and so on for the rest are
• 45:08
  sister colonies by way of England. This is certainly a very roundabout way of
• 45:13
  proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way of proving enemy
• 45:17
  ship. If I may so call it. France and Spain never were,
• 45:21
  nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but as our being
• 45:25
  the subject of Great Britain. Yet Britain is the parent country. Some say,
• 45:31
  then, the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour
• 45:36
  their young, nor savages make war upon their families. Where therefore the assertion,
• 45:42
  if true, turns to her reproach. But it happens not to be
• 45:45
  true, or only partly so, that the phrase parent or mother country have
• 45:52
  been justiciously adopted by the King and his parasites, with a low papistical design
• 46:00
  of gaining an unfair bias on the credulious weakness of our minds. Europe and
• 46:05
  not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been
• 46:09
  the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of
• 46:15
  Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother,
• 46:21
  but from the cruelty of the monster. And it is so far true
• 46:24
  of England that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their
• 46:30
  descendants still in this extensive quarter of the globe. We forgot the narrow limits
• 46:37
  of three hundred and sixty miles the extent of England, and carry our friendship
• 46:42
  on a large scale. We claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph
• 46:46
  in the generosity of the sentiment. It is pleasant to observe by what regular
• 46:52
  gradulations we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the
• 46:59
  world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes will naturally
• 47:04
  associate both with his fellow parishioners, because their interests, in many cases will
• 47:08
  be common, and distinguished him by the name of neighbour. But if he
• 47:15
  meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of
• 47:19
  a street and salutes him by the name of townsmen. If he travel out
• 47:23
  of the country and meet him in any other he forgets the minor division of
• 47:28
  street and town and calls him countrymen, in other words, country man.
• 47:34
  But if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France or any other part
• 47:39
  of Europe, their local remembrance would be enlarged to that of Englishmen, and
• 47:45
  by a just parody of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America or any other
• 47:51
  quarter of the globe are countrymen for England, Holland, Germany or Sweden,
• 47:55
  when compared with the whole stand in the same place on the larger scale,
• 48:00
  which the division of street, town and country do on the smaller ones,
• 48:06
  distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even
• 48:12
  of this province are of English descent. Whetherfore, I reprobate the phrase of
• 48:17
  parent or mother country applied to England only as being false, selfish, narrow,
• 48:23
  and ungenerous. But admitting that we were all of English descent, what
• 48:30
  does it amount to nothing? Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes
• 48:35
  every other civil name and title, and to say that reconciliation is our duty
• 48:39
  is truly farcical. The first King of England of the present line, William
• 48:45
  the Conqueror, was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants
• 48:49
  from the same country. Wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England
• 48:53
  ought to be governed by France. Much hath been said of the united strength
• 48:58
  of Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the
• 49:02
  world. But this is mere presumption the fate of war is uncertain. Neither
• 49:07
  do the expressions mean anything, for this continent would never suffer itself to be
• 49:14
  drained of inhabitants to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa or Europe.
• 49:20
  Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance.
• 49:23
  Our plan is commerce, and that well attended to will secure us the peace
• 49:29
  and friendship of all Europe. Because it is the interests of all Europe to
• 49:34
  have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and
• 49:39
  her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders. I challenge the warmest
• 49:45
  advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent may reap by being
• 49:52
  connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge. Not a single advantage is
• 49:57
  derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and
• 50:01
  our imported goods must be paid for by them where we will. But the
• 50:06
  injuries and disadvantages we sustain by the connection are without number, and our duty
• 50:12
  to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us to renounce
• 50:15
  the alliance, because any submission to or dependence on Great Britain tends directly to
• 50:22
  involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and sets us at variance with
• 50:28
  nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger
• 50:34
  nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form
• 50:37
  no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of
• 50:43
  America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do. While
• 50:47
  her dependence on Britain, she is made the make weight in the scale on
• 50:53
  British politics. Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace,
• 51:00
  and where never a war breaks out between England and any foreign power,
• 51:04
  the trade of America goes to ruin. Because of her connection with Britain,
• 51:08
  the next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not,
• 51:13
  the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for separation then, because neutrality,
• 51:17
  in that case would be a safer convoy than a man of war.
• 51:22
  Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain,
• 51:28
  the weeping voice of nature cries tis time to part, even the distance
• 51:34
  at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof
• 51:38
  that the authority of the one over the other was never the design of Heaven.
• 51:44
  The time likewise at which the continent was discovered adds weight to the argument,
• 51:49
  and the manner in which it was peopled increases the force of it.
• 51:53
  The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, and if the Almighty graciously
• 52:00
  meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years when home should afford
• 52:06
  neither friendship nor safety, the authority of Great Britain over this continent is a
• 52:10
  form of government which, sooner or later must have an end. And a
• 52:15
  serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward under the painful and positive
• 52:21
  conviction that what he calls the present Constitution is merely temporary. As parents,
• 52:27
  we can have no joy knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure
• 52:32
  anything which we may bequeathed to posterity. And by a plain method of argument,
• 52:37
  as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do
• 52:42
  the work of it. Otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order
• 52:46
  to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in
• 52:51
  our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life, that
• 52:55
  eminence will present a prospect few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
• 53:04
  Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am inclined to believe
• 53:09
  that all those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the following
• 53:15
  descriptions interested men who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see,
• 53:22
  prejudiced men who will not see. And a certain set of moderate men
• 53:27
  who think better of the European world than it deserves. And this last class,
• 53:32
  by an ill judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to
• 53:37
  this continent than all the other three. It is the good fortune of many
• 53:42
  to live distant from the scene of sorrow. The evil is not sufficiently brought
• 53:46
  to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is
• 53:52
  possessed. But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston.
• 53:58
  That seat of wretchedness will teach just wisdom and instruct us forever to renounce a
• 54:02
  power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city,
• 54:08
  who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now
• 54:14
  no other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg endangered
• 54:20
  by the fire of their friends. If they continue within the city and plundered
• 54:24
  by the soldiery. If they leave it in their present condition, they are
• 54:29
  prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief,
• 54:34
  they would be exposed to the fury of both armies. Men of passive
• 54:37
  tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Britain, and still hoping for the
• 54:43
  best, are apt to call out, Come, Come, we shall be
• 54:45
  friends again. For all this, but examine the passions and feelings of mankind,
• 54:52
  bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell
• 54:57
  me whether you can thereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that
• 55:01
  hath carried fire and sword into your land. If you cannot do all these,
• 55:07
  then are you only deceiving yourselves by your delay, bringing ruin upon posterity.
• 55:13
  Your future connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor,
• 55:16
  will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plain of present
• 55:22
  convenience, will in a little time fall to a relapse more wretched than the
• 55:27
  first. But if you say you can still pass the violations over, then
• 55:32
  I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed?
• 55:37
  Before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie
• 55:42
  on or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child
• 55:45
  by their hands? And yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have
• 55:51
  not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if
• 55:53
  you have and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy
• 55:59
  of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover. And whatever
• 56:01
  may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a
• 56:05
  coward and the spirit of a sickophant. It is not inflaming or exaggerating matters,
• 56:10
  but trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
• 56:15
  which we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of life or enjoying the
• 56:21
  felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking
• 56:25
  revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may
• 56:31
  pursue determinately some fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or
• 56:37
  of Europe to conquer America if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity.
• 56:44
  The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost
• 56:49
  or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune. And there is
• 56:53
  no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what,
• 56:59
  or or where he will. That may be the means of sacrificing a
• 57:04
  season so precious and useful. It is repugnant to reason, to the universal
• 57:08
  order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this
• 57:15
  continent can longer remain subject to any external power. The most seguine in Britain
• 57:20
  does not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot at this time
• 57:25
  compass a plan short of separation, which can promise the continent even a year's
• 57:30
  security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection,
• 57:37
  and art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, never
• 57:45
  can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep every quiet
• 57:52
  method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain,
• 57:57
  and only intended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings
• 58:04
  more than repeated petitioning. And nothing hath contributed more than that ary measure to
• 58:10
  make the kings of Europe absolute witness Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing
• 58:16
  but blows will do for God's sake, let us come to a final separation
• 58:22
  and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under the violated, unmeaning
• 58:29
  names of parent and child. To say that they will never attempt it again
• 58:35
  is idle and illusionary. We thought so at the repeal of the Stamp Act.
• 58:39
  Yet a year or two undeceived us as well as we supposed that nations
• 58:45
  which have been once defeated will never renew the quarrel as to government matters.
• 58:51
  It is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice. The
• 58:55
  business of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be manned with any
• 59:00
  tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant.
• 59:06
  Of us, For if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us.
• 59:10
  To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tail or a
• 59:15
  petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when obtained,
• 59:20
  requires five or six more to explain it in will in a few years
• 59:25
  be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was
• 59:30
  proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease. Small islands,
• 59:36
  not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under
• 59:39
  their care. But there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be
• 59:45
  perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger
• 59:51
  than its primary planet. And as England and America with respect to each other,
• 59:57
  reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different
• 1:00:01
  systems, England to Europe, America to itself. I am not induced by
• 1:00:07
  motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and
• 1:00:12
  independence. I am clearly, positively and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true
• 1:00:17
  interest of this continent to be so that everything short of that is mere patchwork,
• 1:00:24
  that it can afford no lasting felicity, that it is leaving the sword
• 1:00:30
  to our children, and chirking back at a time when a little more,
• 1:00:35
  a little farther would have rendered this continent the glory of the Earth. End
• 1:00:40
  of Part one of Chapter three, Chapter three Thoughts on the present state of
• 1:00:46
  American affairs Part two. As Britain hath not manifest the least inclination towards a
• 1:00:54
  compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy of the
• 1:00:59
  exception of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense of blood and
• 1:01:04
  treasure we have been already put to the object contended for ought always to bear
• 1:01:09
  some just proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the whole
• 1:01:15
  detestable Guntu, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary
• 1:01:21
  stoppage of trade was an inconvenience which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all
• 1:01:27
  the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained. But if the whole
• 1:01:32
  continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, it
• 1:01:37
  is scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry. Only dearly,
• 1:01:43
  dearly do we pay for the repeal of the axe, if that is all
• 1:01:46
  we fight for for In a just estimation, it is as great a folly
• 1:01:52
  to pay a bunker hill price for law as for land. As I have
• 1:01:58
  always considered the end dependency of the continent as an event which sooner or later
• 1:02:04
  must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the continent to maturity,
• 1:02:09
  the event could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of
• 1:02:14
  hostilities, it was not worth the while to have disputed a matter which time
• 1:02:20
  would have finally redressed, unless we meant it to be in earnest. Otherwise,
• 1:02:25
  it is like wasting an estate on a suit at law to regulate the
• 1:02:30
  trespass of a tenant whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer
• 1:02:37
  wisher for reconciliation than myself before the fatal nineteenth of April seventeen seventy five.
• 1:02:44
  But the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the
• 1:02:49
  hardened, sullen, tempered pharaoh of England forever and disdain the wretch that,
• 1:02:54
  with the pretended title of father of his people, can unfeel willingly hear of
• 1:03:00
  their slaughter and composedly sleep with their blood on his soul. But admitting that
• 1:03:07
  matters were now made up, what would be the event? I answer,
• 1:03:12
  the ruin of the continent, And that, for several reasons. First,
• 1:03:15
  the powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the King, he will
• 1:03:21
  have a negative over the whole legislation of this continent. And as he hath
• 1:03:25
  shown himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary
• 1:03:31
  power, is he or is he not a proper man to say to these
• 1:03:37
  colonies, you shall make no laws but what I please? And is there
• 1:03:43
  any inhabitant in America so ignorant as not to know that, according to what
• 1:03:49
  is called the present Constitution, that this continent can make no laws but what
• 1:03:53
  the King gives it leave to. And is there any man so unwise as
• 1:03:59
  not to see that, considering what has happened, he will suffer no law
• 1:04:03
  to be made here, but such as suits his purpose. He may be
• 1:04:09
  as ineffectually enslaved by the want of laws in America as by submitting to laws
• 1:04:15
  made for us in England. After matters are made up, as it is
• 1:04:19
  called, can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown
• 1:04:25
  will be exerted to keep this continent as low and humble as possible. Instead
• 1:04:29
  of going forward, we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously
• 1:04:34
  petitioning. We are always greater than the King wishes us to be, and
• 1:04:40
  will he not thereafter endeavor to make us less. To bring the matter to
• 1:04:45
  one point, is the power who is jealous of our prosperity a proper power
• 1:04:53
  to govern us. Whoever says no to this question is an independent. For
• 1:04:58
  independency means means no more than whether we shall make our own laws, or
• 1:05:04
  whether the King, that greatest enemy this continent hath or can have, shall
• 1:05:11
  tell us there shall be no laws but such as I like. But the
• 1:05:15
  King, you will say, has a negative. In England, the people
• 1:05:18
  there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and good
• 1:05:23
  order, there is something very ridiculous that a youth of twenty one, which
• 1:05:27
  hath often happened, shall say to several millions of people older and wiser than
• 1:05:32
  himself, I forbid this or that act of yours to be law. But
• 1:05:36
  in this place I decline this sort of reply, though I will never cease
• 1:05:42
  to expose the absurdities of it, and only answer that England, being the
• 1:05:45
  King's residence, and America not so, make quite another case. The King's
• 1:05:50
  negative here is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England,
• 1:05:57
  for there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England
• 1:06:02
  into as strong a state of defense as possible, and in America he would
• 1:06:08
  never suffer such a bill to be passed. America is only a secondary object
• 1:06:14
  in the system of British politics. England consults the good of this country no
• 1:06:18
  farther than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore her own interest leads her to
• 1:06:25
  suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage,
• 1:06:30
  or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state we should soon be
• 1:06:34
  in under such a secondhand government. Considering what has happened, Men do not
• 1:06:40
  change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name. And in order
• 1:06:44
  to show that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm that it would
• 1:06:49
  be policy in the King at this time to repeal the acts for the sake
• 1:06:55
  of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in order that he may
• 1:07:00
  accomplish by craft and subtlety in the long run what he cannot do by force
• 1:07:05
  and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related. Secondly,
• 1:07:13
  that, as ever, the best terms which we can expect to obtain,
• 1:07:17
  can amount to no more than a temporary expedient or a kind of government
• 1:07:23
  by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the colonies come of age.
• 1:07:28
  So the general face and state of things in the interim will be unsettled
• 1:07:32
  and unpromising. Emigrants of property will not choose to come to a country whose
• 1:07:38
  form of government hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering
• 1:07:43
  on the brink of commotion and disturbance, and numbers of the present inhabitants would
• 1:07:48
  lay hold of the interval, to dispose of their effects and quit the continent.
• 1:07:55
  But the most powerful of all arguments is that nothing but independence. In
• 1:08:00
  other words, a continental form of government can keep the peace of the continent
• 1:08:03
  and preserve it in violate from civil wars. I dread the event of a
• 1:08:09
  reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than probable that it will be
• 1:08:14
  followed by a revolt somewhere or other, the consequences of which may be far
• 1:08:19
  more fatal than all the malice of Britain. Thousands are already ruined by British
• 1:08:26
  barbarity. Thousands more will probably suffer the same fate. Those men have other
• 1:08:31
  feelings than us, who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty.
• 1:08:38
  What they therefore enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having nothing more
• 1:08:43
  to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general temper of the colonies
• 1:08:48
  toward a British government will be like that of a youth who is nearly out
• 1:08:53
  of his time. They will care very little about her. And a government
• 1:08:58
  which cannot preserve the peace is no government at all. And in that case
• 1:09:03
  we pay our money for nothing, and pray, what is it that Britain
• 1:09:09
  can do? Whose power will be wholly on paper? Should a civil tumult
• 1:09:14
  break out the very day after reconciliation. I have heard some men say,
• 1:09:19
  many of whom I believe spoke without thinking that they dreaded an independence, fearing
• 1:09:26
  that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts
• 1:09:30
  are truly correct, And that is the case here, for there are ten
• 1:09:34
  times more to dread from a patched up connection than from independence. I make
• 1:09:42
  the sufferers case my own, and I protest that were I driven from house
• 1:09:46
  and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as a
• 1:09:51
  man sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation or consider
• 1:09:59
  myself bound thereby the colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience
• 1:10:05
  to continental government as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and happy.
• 1:10:12
  On that head, no man can assign least pretense for his fears on any
• 1:10:16
  other ground. That such are truly childish and ridiculous, viz. That one
• 1:10:23
  colony will be striving for superiority over another. Where there are no distinctions,
• 1:10:28
  there can be no superiority. Perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of
• 1:10:33
  Europe are all, and we may say always in peace. Holland and Switzerland
• 1:10:41
  are without wars. Foreign or domestic. Monarchical governments, it is true,
• 1:10:46
  are never long at rest. The crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians
• 1:10:51
  at home, and that degree of pride and insolence, ever attendant on regal
• 1:10:58
  authority, swells to a rupture with foreign powers in instances, or a republican
• 1:11:03
  government, by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.
• 1:11:10
  If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no
• 1:11:15
  plan has yet been laid down. Men do not see their way out.
• 1:11:18
  Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following hints,
• 1:11:25
  at the same time, modestly affirming that I have no other opinion of them
• 1:11:29
  myself than that they may be means of giving rise to something better. Could
• 1:11:34
  the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise
• 1:11:42
  and able men to improve into useful matter. Let the assemblies be annual,
• 1:11:47
  with a president only the representation more equal, their business wholly domestic, and
• 1:11:54
  subject to the authority of a continental Congress. Let each colony be divided into
• 1:12:00
  six, eight or ten convenient districts. Each district to send a proper number
• 1:12:04
  of delegates to Congress, so that each colony sent at least thirty, the
• 1:12:10
  whole number in Congress will be leased three hundred and ninety each Congress to sit
• 1:12:15
  and to choose a president by the following method. When the delegates are met,
• 1:12:18
  let a colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after
• 1:12:21
  which let the whole Congress choose by ballot a president from out of the delegates
• 1:12:28
  of that province. In the next congress, let a colony be taken by
• 1:12:32
  lot from twelve, only omitting that colony from which the president was taken in
• 1:12:38
  the former Congress, and so proceeding on until the whole thirteen shall have had
• 1:12:45
  their proper rotation, in order that nothing may pass into the law. But
• 1:12:49
  what is satisfactorily just not less than three fifths of the Congress to be called
• 1:12:56
  a majority he that will promote discord under a government so equally formed as this
• 1:13:02
  would have joined Lucifer in his revolts. But as there is a peculiar delicacy
• 1:13:10
  from whom or in what manner this business must first arise, and as it
• 1:13:15
  seems most agreeable and consistent that it should come from some intermediate body between the
• 1:13:21
  governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and the people,
• 1:13:26
  let a continental conference be held in the following manner and for the following purpose,
• 1:13:31
  a committee of twenty six members of Congress viz. Two from each colony,
• 1:13:35
  two members for each House of Assembly or provincial convention, and five representatives
• 1:13:41
  of the people at large, to be chosen at the capital city or town
• 1:13:45
  of each province for and in behalf of the whole province, by as many
• 1:13:49
  qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from all parts of the province for
• 1:13:55
  that purpose, or, if more convenient, the representative may be chosen in
• 1:14:00
  two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus
• 1:14:04
  assembled, will be united the two grand principles of business, knowledge and power.
• 1:14:12
  The members of Congress, assemblies or conventions, by having had experience in
• 1:14:17
  national concerns, will be able and useful counselors, and the whole, being
• 1:14:23
  empowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority. The conferring members
• 1:14:29
  being met, let their business be to frame a continental Charter or a Charter
• 1:14:33
  of the United Colonies, answering to what is called the Magna Carta of England.
• 1:14:40
  Fixing the number and manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly,
• 1:14:45
  with their dates of sitting and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between
• 1:14:48
  them, always remembering that our strength is continental, not provincial, securing freedom
• 1:14:56
  and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of
• 1:15:00
  religion according to the dictates of Conscience, which such other matter as is necessary
• 1:15:08
  for a charter to contain, immediately after which the said conference to dissolve,
• 1:15:14
  and the bodies which shall be chosen conformable to the said Charter to be legislators
• 1:15:20
  and governors of this continent for the time being, whose peace and happiness may
• 1:15:27
  God preserve. Amen, should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this
• 1:15:32
  or some similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer
• 1:15:39
  on governments Dragonetti. The science, says he of the politician, consists in
• 1:15:45
  fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude
• 1:15:50
  of ages who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of
• 1:15:57
  individual happiness and the lead east national expense Dragonette, on virtue and rewards.
• 1:16:04
  But where says some is the king of America, I'll tell you friend,
• 1:16:10
  he reigns above and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of
• 1:16:15
  Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors.
• 1:16:20
  Let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter. Let it
• 1:16:26
  be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God. Let
• 1:16:31
  a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know that, so
• 1:16:35
  far as we approve as monarchy, that in America the law is king.
• 1:16:42
  For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the
• 1:16:46
  law ought to be king, and there ought to be no other. But
• 1:16:51
  least any ill use should afterward arise. Let the crown at this conclusion of
• 1:16:57
  the ceremony be demolished and scattered am among the people whose right it is.
• 1:17:01
  A government of our own is our natural right. And when a man seriously
• 1:17:05
  reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced that it is
• 1:17:12
  infinitely wiser and safer to form a constitution of our own in a cool,
• 1:17:16
  deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such
• 1:17:20
  an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some
• 1:17:28
  mazanello may hereafter arise, who lay hold of popular disquietudes may collect together the
• 1:17:35
  desperate and contented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may
• 1:17:42
  sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the government of
• 1:17:47
  America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things will
• 1:17:53
  be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune. And in such
• 1:17:58
  a case, what really chief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the
• 1:18:02
  news the fatal business might be done, and ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons
• 1:18:09
  under the oppression of the conqueror. Ye that oppose independence, now ye know
• 1:18:14
  not what ye do? Ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny by keeping
• 1:18:19
  vacant the seat of government. There are thousands and tens of thousands who would
• 1:18:25
  think it glorious to expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish power which hath
• 1:18:31
  stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us, and cruelly hath a double
• 1:18:36
  guilt. It is dealing brutally by us and treacherously by them to talk of
• 1:18:44
  friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith and our affections,
• 1:18:49
  wounded through a thousand pores, instructs us to detest is madness and folly.
• 1:18:56
  Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them?
• 1:19:00
  And can there be any reason to hope that as the relationship expires, the
• 1:19:04
  affection will increase, or that we shall agree better when we have ten times
• 1:19:10
  more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever? Ye that tell us of
• 1:19:15
  harmony and reconciliation? Can ye restore us to the time that is past?
• 1:19:20
  Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain in
• 1:19:26
  America. The last chord now is broken. The people of England are presenting
• 1:19:31
  addresses against us. There are injuries which Nature cannot forgive. She would cease
• 1:19:36
  to be nature if she did. As well? Can the lover forgive the
• 1:19:41
  ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murderers of Britain. The
• 1:19:45
  Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They
• 1:19:53
  are the guardians of His image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the
• 1:19:58
  herd of common animals. Social compact would dissolve and justice be extirpated from the
• 1:20:04
  earth, or have only a casual existence where we callous to the touches of
• 1:20:10
  affection, the robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished. Did not the
• 1:20:15
  injuries which our tempters sustain provoke us into justice? Oh, ye that love
• 1:20:21
  mankind, Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny, but the tyrant stand
• 1:20:28
  forth. Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath
• 1:20:33
  been hunted around the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe
• 1:20:40
  regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart.
• 1:20:45
  Oh, receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. End
• 1:20:53
  of part two of chapter three. End of chapter three, Chapter four of
• 1:20:59
  the present Ability of America, with some miscellaneous reflections. I have never met
• 1:21:05
  with a man, either in England or America, who hath not confessed his
• 1:21:10
  opinion that a separation between the countries would take place one time or other.
• 1:21:16
  And there is no instance in which we have shown less judgment than in endeavoring
• 1:21:21
  to describe what we call the ripeness or fitness of the continent for independence.
• 1:21:29
  As all men allow the measure and vary only in their opinion of the time,
• 1:21:33
  let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of
• 1:21:39
  things, and endeavor, if possible, to find out the very time.
• 1:21:44
  But we need not go far. The inquiry ceases at once, for that
• 1:21:49
  time hath found us the general concurrence, the glorious union of all things,
• 1:21:56
  prove the fact. It is not in numbers, but a unity that our
• 1:21:59
  god great strength lies. Yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force
• 1:22:03
  of all the world. The continent hath at this time the largest body of
• 1:22:09
  armed and disciplined men of any power under heaven, and is just arrived at
• 1:22:15
  the pitch of strength in which no single colony is able to support itself,
• 1:22:20
  and the whole, when united, can accomplish the matter. And either more
• 1:22:25
  or less than this might be fatal in its effects. Our land force is
• 1:22:30
  already sufficient. And as to naval affairs, we cannot be insensible that Britain
• 1:22:36
  could never suffer an American man of war to be built while the continent remained
• 1:22:42
  in her hands. Wherefore we should be no forwarder and one hundred years Hence,
• 1:22:47
  in that branch than we are now. But the truth is we should
• 1:22:51
  be less so, because the timber of the country is every day diminishing,
• 1:22:57
  and that which will remain at least will be are off and difficult to procure.
• 1:23:02
  Where the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under the present circumstances would
• 1:23:08
  be intolerable. The more seaport towns we had, the more should we have,
• 1:23:13
  both to defend and to lose. Our present numbers are so happily proportioned
• 1:23:17
  to our wants that no man need be idle. The diminution of trade affords
• 1:23:24
  an army, and the necessities of an army create a new trade debts we
• 1:23:29
  have none, and whatever we may contract on this account will serve as a
• 1:23:33
  glorious memento to our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with a settled form
• 1:23:39
  of government, an independent constitution of its own. The purchase at any price
• 1:23:44
  will be cheap. But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few
• 1:23:47
  vile acts repealed and routing the present military only is unworthy the charge, and
• 1:23:55
  is using Posterity with the utmost cruelty, because it is leaving them the great
• 1:24:00
  work to do, and a debt upon their backs from which they derive no
• 1:24:04
  advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honor, and is the
• 1:24:10
  true characteristic of a narrow heart and a peddling politician. The debt we may
• 1:24:16
  contract doth not deserve our regard, if the work be but accomplished. No
• 1:24:21
  nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond,
• 1:24:26
  and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.
• 1:24:30
  Britain is oppressed with a debt of upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling,
• 1:24:35
  for which she pays upwards of four millions interest, And as a compensation
• 1:24:42
  for her debt, she has a large navy. America is without a debt
• 1:24:45
  and without a navy. Yet for the twentieth part of the English national debt
• 1:24:50
  could have a navy as large. Again, the navy of England is not
• 1:24:55
  worth at this time more than three millions and a half sterling. The first
• 1:25:00
  and second editions of this pamphlet were published without the following calculations, which are
• 1:25:04
  now given as a proof that the above estimation of the navy is a just
• 1:25:11
  one. From Etic's naval history introduction the charge of building a ship of each
• 1:25:17
  rate and furnishing her with masts, yards, nails and ringing, together with
• 1:25:23
  a proportion of eight months boastain's and carpenter's sea stores, as calculated by mister
• 1:25:29
  Burchett, Secretary to the Navy, for a ship of one hundred guns,
• 1:25:33
  thirty five thousand, five hundred fifty three pounds ninety guns, twenty nine thousand,
• 1:25:40
  eight hundred eighty six pounds, eighty guns, twenty three thousand, six
• 1:25:44
  hundred thirty eight pounds, seventy guns, seventeen thousand, seven hundred eighty five
• 1:25:48
  pounds, sixty guns, fourteen thousand, one hundred ninety seven pounds, fifty
• 1:25:55
  guns, ten thousand, six hundred and six pounds, forty guns, seven
• 1:26:00
  thousand, five hundred fifty eight pounds, thirty guns, five thousand, eight
• 1:26:04
  hundred forty six pounds, twenty guns, three thousand, seven hundred ten pounds,
• 1:26:12
  And from hence it is easy to sum up the value or cost rather
• 1:26:15
  of the whole British Navy, which in the year seventeen fifty seven, when
• 1:26:19
  it was at its greatest glory, consisted of the following ships and guns.
• 1:26:26
  Six ships, one hundred guns thirty five thousand, five hundred fifty three pounds
• 1:26:31
  for one two hundred and thirteen thousand, three hundred eighteen pounds for all ships
• 1:26:38
  twelve guns ninety cost of one twenty nine thousand, eight hundred eighty six cost
• 1:26:44
  of all three hundred fifty eight thousand, six hundred thirty two ships twelve guns
• 1:26:49
  eighty, cost of one twenty three thousand, six hundred thirty eight, cost
• 1:26:55
  of all two hundred eighty three thousand, six hundred fifty six ships forty three
• 1:27:00
  guns seventy. Cost of one seventeen thousand, seven hundred eighty five. Cost
• 1:27:04
  of all seven hundred and forty six thousand, seven hundred fifty five ships thirty
• 1:27:10
  five guns sixty cost of one fourteen thousand, one hundred ninety seven cost of
• 1:27:15
  all four hundred ninety six thousand, eight hundred ninety five ships forty guns fifty
• 1:27:21
  cost of one ten thousand, six hundred six cost of all four hundred twenty
• 1:27:27
  four thousand, two hundred forty ships forty five guns forty cost of one seven
• 1:27:32
  thousand, five fifty eight cost of all three hundred forty thousand, one hundred
• 1:27:38
  ten ships fifty eight guns twenty cost of one three thousand, seven hundred and
• 1:27:44
  ten pounds, cost of all two hundred and fifteen thousand, one hundred eighty
• 1:27:48
  pounds ships, eighty five sloops, bombs and fire ships one with another at
• 1:27:56
  two thousand pounds each one hundred seventy thousand pounds cost three million, two hundred
• 1:28:01
  sixty six thousand, seven hundred eighty six pounds. Remains for guns two hundred
• 1:28:08
  and thirty three thousand, two hundred fourteen pounds total three million, five hundred
• 1:28:13
  thousand pounds Sterling. No country on the globe is so happily situated, so
• 1:28:18
  internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron and
• 1:28:24
  cordage are her natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing, Whereas the
• 1:28:29
  Dutch, who makes large profits by hiring out their ships of war to the
• 1:28:32
  Spaniards and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of the materials they use.
• 1:28:38
  We ought to view the building of a fleet as an article of commerce.
• 1:28:42
  It being the natural manufactory of this country, it is the best money we
• 1:28:46
  can lay out. A navy whind furnished is worth more than it cost.
• 1:28:51
  And is that nice point in national policy in which commerce and protection are united.
• 1:28:57
  Let us build if we want them not, we can sell, and
• 1:29:00
  by that means replace our paper currency with ready gold and silver. In point
• 1:29:06
  of manning a fleet, people in general run into great errors. It is
• 1:29:10
  not necessary that one fourth part should be sailor. The terrible privateer Captain Death
• 1:29:15
  stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors
• 1:29:20
  on board, though her complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A
• 1:29:26
  few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landsmen in
• 1:29:30
  the common work of a ship. Wherefore, we never can be more capable
• 1:29:34
  to begin our maritime matters than now, while our timber is standing, our
• 1:29:40
  fisheries blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of employ men of War
• 1:29:45
  of seventy and eighty guns were built forty years ago in New England, and
• 1:29:48
  why not the same now. Ship Building is America's greatest pride, and in
• 1:29:54
  which she will in time excel the whole world. The great empires of the
• 1:29:59
  East are mo mostly inland, and consequently excluded from the possibility of rivaling her.
• 1:30:04
  Africa is in a state of barbarism, and no power in Europe hath
• 1:30:10
  either such an extent of coast or such an internal supply of materials. Where
• 1:30:15
  nature hath given the one, she hath withheld the other to America only hath
• 1:30:20
  she been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is almost shut out
• 1:30:26
  from the sea, wherefore her boundless forests, her tar, iron, and
• 1:30:30
  cordage are only articles of commerce. In point of safety, ought we be
• 1:30:35
  without a fleet. We are not the little people now which we were sixty
• 1:30:40
  years ago. At that time we might have trusted our property in the streets
• 1:30:45
  or fields rather and slept securely without locks or bolts on our doors or windows.
• 1:30:49
  The case now is altered, and our methods of defense ought to improve
• 1:30:54
  with our increase of prosperity. A common pirate twelve months ago might have come
• 1:30:59
  up the Delaware and laid the city of Philadelphia under instant contribution for what sums
• 1:31:05
  he pleased, And the same might have happened to other places. Nay,
• 1:31:10
  any darling fellow in a brig of fourteen or sixteen guns might have robbed the
• 1:31:15
  whole continent and carried off half a million of money. These are circumstances which
• 1:31:20
  demand our attention and point out the necessity of naval protection. Some people will
• 1:31:26
  say that after we have made it up with Britain, she will protect us.
• 1:31:30
  Can we be so unwise as to mean that she shall keep a navy
• 1:31:34
  in our harbors for that purpose? Common sense will tell us that the power
• 1:31:40
  which hath endeavored to subdue us is, of all others the most improper to
• 1:31:45
  defend us. Conquest may be affected under the pretense of friendship, and ourselves,
• 1:31:50
  after a long and brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery.
• 1:31:56
  And if her ships are not to be admitted into our harbor, I would
• 1:32:00
  ask how is she to protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles
• 1:32:05
  off can be of little use, and on sudden emergencies none at all.
• 1:32:10
  Wherefore, if we must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves?
• 1:32:16
  Why do it for another? The English list of ships of war is
• 1:32:20
  long and formidable, but not a tenth part of them are in any time
• 1:32:25
  fit for service, numbers of them not in being. Yet their names are
• 1:32:30
  pompously continued in the list. If only a plank be left of the ship,
• 1:32:34
  and not a fifth part of such as are fit for service, can
• 1:32:40
  be spared on any one station at any one time. The East and West
• 1:32:44
  Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain extends her claim
• 1:32:49
  make large demands upon her navy. From a mixture of prejudice and in attention,
• 1:32:55
  we have contracted a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have
• 1:33:00
  talked as if we should have the whole of it to encounter at once,
• 1:33:03
  and for that reason supposed that we must have one as large, which,
• 1:33:09
  not being instantly practicable, have been made use of by a set of distinguished
• 1:33:15
  tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be farther from the truth than
• 1:33:19
  this, For if America had only a twentieth part of the naval force of
• 1:33:24
  Britain, she would be by far an overmatch for her, because as we
• 1:33:28
  neither have nor claim any foreign dominion, our whole force could be employed on
• 1:33:32
  our own coast, where we should, in the long run have two to
• 1:33:38
  one the advantage of those who had three or four thousand miles to sail over
• 1:33:44
  before they could attack us, and the same distance to return in order to
• 1:33:47
  refit and recruit. And although Britain, by her fleet, hath a check
• 1:33:53
  over our trade to Europe. We have as large a one over her trade
• 1:33:57
  to the West Indies, which, by laying in the neighborhood of the continent,
• 1:34:01
  is entirely at its mercy. Some method might be fallen on to keep
• 1:34:06
  up a naval force in time of peace, if we should not judge it
• 1:34:11
  necessary to support a constant navy. If premiums are to be given to merchants
• 1:34:15
  to build an employ in their service ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty
• 1:34:19
  or fifty guns, the premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk
• 1:34:24
  to the merchants, fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guard
• 1:34:28
  ships on constant duty, would keep up a sufficient navy, And that without
• 1:34:31
  burdening ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England, of suffering their
• 1:34:36
  fleet in time of peace to lie rotting in the docks. To unite the
• 1:34:40
  seuans of commerce and defense is sound policy, for when our strength and our
• 1:34:45
  riches play into each other's hand, we need fear no external enemy. In
• 1:34:50
  almost every article of defense we abound hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that
• 1:34:56
  We need not want cordage. Our iron is superior to them of other countries.
• 1:35:00
  Are small arms equal to any in the world. Cannons we can cast
• 1:35:04
  at pleasure, saltpeter, and gunpowder we are every day producing. Our knowledge
• 1:35:10
  is hourly improving. Resolution is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet
• 1:35:15
  forsaken us. Wherefore, what is it that we want? Why is it
• 1:35:20
  that we hesitate from Britain? We can expect nothing but ruin. If she
• 1:35:26
  is once admitted to the government of America again, this continent will not be
• 1:35:30
  worth living in. Jealousies will be always arising, Insurrections will be constantly happening.
• 1:35:36
  And who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his life
• 1:35:40
  to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience? The difference between Pennsylvania and
• 1:35:45
  Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands, shows the insignificance of a British government and
• 1:35:51
  fully proves that nothing but continental authority can regulate continental matters. Another reason why
• 1:35:59
  the present time is preferable to all others is that the fewer our numbers are,
• 1:36:02
  the more land there is yet unoccupied, which, instead of being lavished
• 1:36:06
  by the king on his worthless. Dependence may be hereafter applied not only to
• 1:36:12
  the discharge of the present debt, but to the constant support of government.
• 1:36:15
  No nation under Heaven hath such an advantage as this. The infant state of
• 1:36:20
  the colonies, as it is called, so far from being against, is
• 1:36:26
  an argument in favor of independence. We are sufficiently numerous, and were we
• 1:36:30
  more so, we might be less united. It is a matter worthy of
• 1:36:34
  observation that the more a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are.
• 1:36:40
  In military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns, and the reason is
• 1:36:45
  evident, for trade being the consequence of population. Men become too much absorbed
• 1:36:50
  thereby to attend to anything else. Commerce diminishes the spirit both of patriotism and
• 1:36:58
  military defense, and history sufficiently informs us that the bravest achievements are always accomplished
• 1:37:03
  in the non age of a nation. With the increase of commerce, England
• 1:37:08
  have lost its spirit. The city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits
• 1:37:13
  to continued insults with the patience of a coward. The more men have to
• 1:37:16
  lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general
• 1:37:21
  slaves to fear and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel.
• 1:37:27
  Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as
• 1:37:31
  in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to form the
• 1:37:35
  continent into one government half a century. Hence, the vast variety of interests
• 1:37:42
  occasioned by an increase of trade and population would create confusion. Colony would be
• 1:37:46
  against colony, each being able, might scorn each other's assistance. And while
• 1:37:53
  the proud and foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament that
• 1:37:57
  the union had not been formed before. Wherefore the present time is the true
• 1:38:02
  time for establishing it. The intimacy which is contracted in infancy and the friendship
• 1:38:09
  which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting
• 1:38:13
  and unalterable. Our present union is marked with both these characters. We are
• 1:38:17
  young, and we have been distressed. But our concord hath withstood our troubles
• 1:38:24
  and fixes a memorable area for posterity to glory in the present time. Likewise,
• 1:38:30
  is that particular time which never happens to a nation, but once viz.
• 1:38:35
  The time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip
• 1:38:40
  the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their
• 1:38:45
  conquerors instead of making laws for themselves. First they had a king and then
• 1:38:49
  a form of government, whereas the articles or charter of government should be formed
• 1:38:55
  first, and men delegated to execute them afterwards. But from the error of
• 1:39:00
  other nations, let us learn wisdom and lay hold to the present opportunity to
• 1:39:04
  begin government at the right end. When William the conqueror subdued England, he
• 1:39:11
  gave them law at the point of the sword. And until we consent that
• 1:39:15
  the seat of government in America be legally and authoritatively occupied, we shall be
• 1:39:19
  in danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian who may treat us in
• 1:39:25
  the same manner. And then where will be our freedom, where our property?
• 1:39:30
  As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all
• 1:39:33
  government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, And I know of no other business
• 1:39:40
  which government hath to do therewith let a man throw aside that narrowness of soul,
• 1:39:46
  that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all professions are so unwilling
• 1:39:51
  to part with, and he will be at once delivered of his fears.
• 1:39:56
  On that head, suspicion is the companion of means, souls, and the
• 1:40:00
  bane of all good society. For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe that
• 1:40:06
  it is the will of the Almighty that there should be diversity of religious opinions
• 1:40:11
  among us. It affords a large field for our Christian kindness. Were we
• 1:40:15
  all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions would want matter for probation.
• 1:40:23
  And on this liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us
• 1:40:28
  to be like children of the same family, differing only in what is called
• 1:40:33
  their Christian names. I threw out a few thoughts on the property of a
• 1:40:38
  continental charter, for I only presume to offer hints, not plans. And
• 1:40:43
  in this place I take the liberty of rementioning the subject by observing that a
• 1:40:48
  charter is to be understood as a bond of solemn obligation, which the whole
• 1:40:54
  enters into to support the right of every separate part, whether religion, no
• 1:41:00
  freedom, or property. A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends.
• 1:41:05
  In a former page, I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large and
• 1:41:11
  equal representation, and there is no political matter which more deserves our attention.
• 1:41:15
  A small number of electors or a small number of representatives are equally dangerous.
• 1:41:21
  But if the number of the representatives be not only small but unequal, the
• 1:41:27
  danger is increased. As an instance of this, I mention the following,
• 1:41:30
  when the associator's petition as before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania, twenty eight
• 1:41:36
  members only were present, all the Bucks County members being eight, voted against
• 1:41:43
  it, and had seven of the Chester members done the same. This whole
• 1:41:46
  province had been governed by two counties only. And this danger it is always
• 1:41:51
  exposed to the unwarrantable stretch, likewise, which that House made in their last
• 1:41:59
  sitting to gain an undue authority over the delegates of that province. Ought to
• 1:42:02
  warn the people at large how they trust power out of their own hands.
• 1:42:09
  A set of instructions for the delegates were put together, which, in point
• 1:42:13
  of sense and business, would have dishonored a schoolboy, and after being approved
• 1:42:17
  by a few of very few without doors, were carried into the House and
• 1:42:24
  there passed in behalf of the whole colony. Whereas did the whole colony know
• 1:42:30
  with what ill will that house hath entered on some necessary public measures, they
• 1:42:34
  would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a trust. Immediate
• 1:42:40
  necessity makes many things convenient, which, if continued, would grow into oppressions.
• 1:42:46
  Expedients and right are different things. When the calamities of America required a
• 1:42:50
  consultation, there was no method so ready, or at that time so proper
• 1:42:57
  as to appoint persons from the several houses of assets for that purpose. And
• 1:43:01
  the wisdom with which they have proceeded hath preserved this continent from ruin. But
• 1:43:06
  as it is more than probable that we shall never be without a Congress,
• 1:43:12
  every well wisher to good order must own that the mode for choosing members of
• 1:43:17
  that body deserves consideration. And I put it as a question to those who
• 1:43:23
  make a study of mankind whether representation and election is not too great a power
• 1:43:29
  for one and the same body of men to possess. When we are planning
• 1:43:32
  for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. It is
• 1:43:39
  from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into
• 1:43:45
  reason by their mistakes. Mister Cornwall, one of the Lords of the Treasury,
• 1:43:50
  treated the petition of New York Assembly with contempt because that house, he
• 1:43:55
  said, consisted but of twenty six members. Such trifling number, he argued,
• 1:44:00
  could not with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for
• 1:44:03
  his involuntary honesty To conclude, however strange it may appear to some, or
• 1:44:10
  however unwilling they may be, to think so, matters not. But many
• 1:44:15
  strong and striking reasons may be given to show that nothing can settle our affairs
• 1:44:20
  so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independence, some of which are.
• 1:44:28
  First, it is the custom of nations, when any two are at
• 1:44:30
  war, for some other power not engaged in the quarrel, to step in
• 1:44:34
  as mediators and to bring about the preliminaries of a peace. But while America
• 1:44:40
  calls herself the subject of Great Britain, no power, however well disposed she
• 1:44:45
  may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore, in our present state we
• 1:44:50
  may quarrel on forever. Secondly, it is unreasonable to suppose that France or
• 1:44:56
  Spain will give us any kind of assistance, if if we mean only to
• 1:45:00
  make use of that assistance for the purpose of repairing the breach and strengthening the
• 1:45:05
  connection between Britain and America, because those powers would be sufferers by the consequences.
• 1:45:14
  Thirdly, while we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must,
• 1:45:17
  in the eye of foreign nations, be considered as rebels. The precedent is
• 1:45:23
  somewhat dangerous to their race. For men to be in arms under the name
• 1:45:28
  of subjects. We on the spot can solve the paradox, but to unite
• 1:45:32
  resistance and subjugation requires an idea much too refined for the common understanding. Fourthly,
• 1:45:40
  we're a manifesto to be published and dispatched to foreign courts, setting forth
• 1:45:45
  the miseries we have endured and the peaceable methods we have ineffectually used for redress,
• 1:45:49
  declaring at the same time that, not being able any longer to live
• 1:45:55
  happily or safely under the cruel disposition of the British Court, we had been
• 1:46:00
  driven to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her, at the same
• 1:46:04
  time assuring all such courts of our peaceable disposition towards them, and of our
• 1:46:11
  desire of entering into trade with them. Such a memorial would produce more good
• 1:46:15
  effects to this continent than if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain.
• 1:46:21
  Under our present denomination of British subjects, we can neither be received nor heard
• 1:46:28
  abroad. The custom of all courts is against us, and will be so
• 1:46:31
  until, by an independence we take rank with other nations. These proceedings may
• 1:46:39
  at first appear strange and difficult, but like all other steps which we have
• 1:46:43
  already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable. And
• 1:46:48
  until an independence is declared, the continent will feel itself like a man who
• 1:46:53
  continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must
• 1:46:59
  be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is
• 1:47:02
  continually haunted with the thoughts of his necessities. Note one, Those who would
• 1:47:10
  fully understand of what great consequence a large and equal representation is to a state
• 1:47:15
  should read Bergh's political Disquintations, end of Chapter four Appendix. Since the publication
• 1:47:26
  of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather on the same day on
• 1:47:30
  which it came out, the King's speech made its appearance in this city,
• 1:47:33
  had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this production. It could not
• 1:47:39
  have brought it forth at a more seasonable juncture or a more necessary time.
• 1:47:45
  The bloody mindedness of the one show the necessity of pursuing the doctrine of the
• 1:47:49
  other men read by way of revenge, and the speech, instead of terrifying,
• 1:47:56
  prepared a way for the manly principles of independence. Ceremony, and even
• 1:48:01
  silence, from whatever motive they may arise, have a hurtful tendency when they
• 1:48:08
  give the least degree of countenance to base and wicked performances. Wherefore, if
• 1:48:14
  this maximum be admitted, it naturally follows that the King's speech, as being
• 1:48:18
  a piece of finished villainy, deserved and still deserves a general execration, both
• 1:48:25
  by the Congress and the people. Yet, as the domestic tranquility of a
• 1:48:30
  nation depends greatly on the chastity of what may properly be called national manners,
• 1:48:35
  it is often better to pass some things over in silent disdain than to make
• 1:48:42
  use of such new methods of dislike as might introduce the least innovation on that
• 1:48:47
  guardian of our peace and safety. And perhaps it is chiefly owing to this
• 1:48:53
  prudent delicacy that the King's speech hath not before now suffered a public execution.
• 1:49:00
  The speech, if it may be called one, is nothing better than a
• 1:49:02
  wilful, audacious libel against the truth, the common good, and the existence
• 1:49:09
  of mankind, and is a formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices
• 1:49:14
  to the pride of tyrants. But this general massacre of mankind is one of
• 1:49:20
  the privileges and the certain consequences of kings. For as nature knows them not,
• 1:49:27
  they know not her. And although they are beings of our own creation,
• 1:49:31
  they know not us, and are become the gods of their creators.
• 1:49:36
  The speech hath one good quality, which is that it is not calculated to
• 1:49:42
  deceive. Neither can we even if we would be deceived by it. Brutality
• 1:49:47
  and tyranny appear on the face of it, it leaves us at no loss.
• 1:49:50
  And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading, that he
• 1:49:55
  who hunts the woods for prey the naked and untutored Indian, is less savage
• 1:50:00
  than the King of Britain. Sir John Dollywimple, the punitive Father and whining
• 1:50:05
  jesuitical peace falliciously called the Address of the People of England to the inhabitants of
• 1:50:13
  America. Hath, perhaps from a vain supposition, that the people here were
• 1:50:17
  to be frightened at the pomp and description of a king, given, though
• 1:50:23
  very unwisely on his part, the real character of the present one. But
• 1:50:28
  says this writer, if you are inclined to pay compliments to an administration which
• 1:50:32
  we do not complain of, meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the repeal of
• 1:50:38
  the Stamp Act, it is very unfair in which to withhold them from that
• 1:50:43
  prince. If those who nod alone they were permitted to do anything. This
• 1:50:48
  is toryism with a witness. Here is idolatry, even without a mask.
• 1:50:54
  And he who can so calmly hear and digest such doctrine hath forfeited his claim
• 1:50:59
  to rationality and apostate from the order of manhood, and ought to be considered
• 1:51:04
  as one who hath not only given up the proper dignity of a man,
• 1:51:10
  but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals, and contemptuously crawls through the world
• 1:51:15
  like a worm. However, it matters very little now what the king of
• 1:51:18
  England, either says or does, he hath wickedly broken through every moral and
• 1:51:23
  human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet, and by a steady
• 1:51:30
  and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty, procured for himself a universal hatred.
• 1:51:35
  It is now the interests of America to provide for herself. She hath already
• 1:51:40
  a large and young family, whom it is more her duty to take care
• 1:51:44
  of than to be granting away her property to support a power who is become
• 1:51:48
  a reproach to the names of men and Christians. Ye whose office it is
• 1:51:54
  to watch over the morals of a nation, of whatsoever sect or denomination ye
• 1:51:59
  areof, as well as ye who are more immediately the guardians of the public
• 1:52:04
  liberty. If ye wish to preserve your native country uncontaminated by European corruption,
• 1:52:12
  ye must in secret wish a separation. But leaving the moral part to private
• 1:52:16
  reflection, I shall chiefly confine my further remarks to the following heads. First,
• 1:52:23
  that it is the interest of America to be separated from Britain. Secondly,
• 1:52:29
  which is the easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or independence with some occasional
• 1:52:35
  remarks in support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper,
• 1:52:41
  produce the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men on this
• 1:52:45
  continent, and whose sentiments on that head are not yet publicly known. It
• 1:52:50
  is in reality a self evident position, for no nation in a state of
• 1:52:55
  foreign dependence, limited in its commerce and cramped and fettered in its legislative powers,
• 1:53:00
  can ever arrive at any material eminence. America doth not yet know what
• 1:53:06
  opulence is, and although the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the
• 1:53:12
  history of other nations, it is but childhood compared with what she would be
• 1:53:16
  capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought, to have the
• 1:53:21
  legislative powers in her own hands. England is at this time proudly coveting what
• 1:53:28
  would do her no good were she to accomplish it, and the continent hesitating
• 1:53:33
  on a matter which will be her final ruin if neglected. It is the
• 1:53:38
  commerce, and not the conquest of America, by which England is to be
• 1:53:42
  benefited, and that would in a great measure continue where the countries as independent
• 1:53:46
  of each other as France and Spain, Because in many articles, neither can
• 1:53:50
  go to a better market. But it is the independence of this country of
• 1:53:56
  Britain or any other, which is now the main and only object worthy of
• 1:54:00
  contention, and which, like all other truths discovered by necessity, will appear
• 1:54:05
  clearer and stronger every day. First because it will come to that one time
• 1:54:11
  or other. Secondly, because the longer it is delayed, the harder it
• 1:54:15
  will be to accomplish. I have frequently amused myself, both in public and
• 1:54:18
  private companies, with silently remarking the specious errors of those who speak without reflecting,
• 1:54:26
  And among the many which I have heard, the following seems most general,
• 1:54:30
  viz. That had this rupture happened forty or fifty years hence instead of
• 1:54:35
  now, the continent would have been more able to have shaken off the dependence,
• 1:54:41
  to which I reply that our military ability at this time arises from the
• 1:54:45
  experience gained in the last war, and which in forty or fifty years time
• 1:54:49
  would have been totally extinct. The continent would not by that time have had
• 1:54:55
  a general or even a military officer left, and we or those who may
• 1:55:00
  succeed us, would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the ancient Indians,
• 1:55:05
  and this single position closely attended to, will unanswerably prove that the present
• 1:55:12
  time is preferable to all others. The argument turns thus, at the conclusion
• 1:55:17
  of the last war, we had experience, but wanted numbers, and forty
• 1:55:21
  or fifty years. Hence we should have numbers without experience. Wherefore the proper
• 1:55:27
  point of time must be some particular point between the two extremes, in which
• 1:55:31
  a sufficiency of the former remains and a proper increase of the latter is obtained.
• 1:55:36
  And that point of time is the present time. The reader will pardon
• 1:55:41
  this digression, as it does not properly come under the head I first set
• 1:55:45
  out with, and to which I again return by the following position, vise
• 1:55:49
  should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain the governing and
• 1:55:54
  sovereign power of America, which, as matters are now circumstanced, is giving
• 1:55:59
  up the point in time. Hirely we shall deprive ourselves of the very means
• 1:56:02
  of sinking the debt we have, or may contract the value of the back
• 1:56:06
  lands which some of the provinces are clandestinely deprived of by the unjust extension of
• 1:56:13
  the limits of Canada, valued only at five pounds sterling per one hundred acres
• 1:56:17
  amount to upwards of twenty five millions Pennsylvania currency, and the quit rents at
• 1:56:24
  one penny sterling per acre to two millions yearly. It is by the sale
• 1:56:29
  of those lands that the debt may be sunk without burden to any and the
• 1:56:33
  quit rent reserved thereof will always lessen, and in time will wholly support the
• 1:56:40
  yearly expense of the government. It matters not how long the debt is in
• 1:56:45
  paying, so that the lands, when sold, be applied to the discharge
• 1:56:47
  of it, and for the extinction of which the Congress for the time being
• 1:56:53
  will be Continental trustees. I proceed now to second head, viz. Which
• 1:56:58
  is the easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or independence? With some occasional remarks,
• 1:57:04
  he who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his
• 1:57:09
  argument, And on that ground I answer generally that independence being a single simple
• 1:57:15
  line contained within ourselves, and reconciliation a matter exceedingly perplexed and complicated, and
• 1:57:24
  in which a treacherous, capricious court is to interfere, gives the answer without
• 1:57:30
  a doubt. The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who
• 1:57:33
  is capable of reflection without law, without government, without any other mode of
• 1:57:38
  power than what is found on and granted by courtesy, held together by an
• 1:57:44
  unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which is nevertheless subject to change, and which every
• 1:57:50
  secret enemy is endeavoring to dissolve. Our present condition is legislation without law,
• 1:57:58
  wisdom without a plan, constitution without a name, and what is strangely astonishing,
• 1:58:03
  perfect independence contending for dependence. The instance is without precedent, the case
• 1:58:11
  never existed before, and who can tell what may be the event. The
• 1:58:15
  property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The
• 1:58:19
  mind of the multitude is left at random, and, seeing no fixed object
• 1:58:24
  before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal.
• 1:58:29
  There is no such thing as treason. Wherefore every one thinks himself at
• 1:58:32
  liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories dare not have assembled offensively had
• 1:58:39
  they known that their lives, by that act were forfeited to the laws of
• 1:58:43
  the state. A line of distinction should be made between English soldiers taken in
• 1:58:48
  battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms. The first are prisoners,
• 1:58:54
  but the latter traitors. The one forfeits his liberty and the other his head.
• 1:59:00
  Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of our proceedings
• 1:59:04
  which gives encouragement to dissensions. The continental belt is too loosely buckled, and
• 1:59:10
  if something is not done in time, we will be too late to do
• 1:59:14
  anything, and we shall fall into a state in which neither reconciliation nor independence
• 1:59:20
  will be practicable. The King and his worthless adherents are got at their old
• 1:59:26
  game of dividing the continent, and there are not wanting among us printers who
• 1:59:30
  will be busy spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a
• 1:59:36
  few months ago in two of the New York papers, and likewise in two
• 1:59:42
  others, is an evidence that there are men who want either judgment or honesty.
• 1:59:47
  It is easy getting into holes and corners and talking of reconciliation. But
• 1:59:53
  do such men seriously consider how difficult the task is and how dangerous it may
• 1:59:58
  prove should the continent divide theirs? Do they take within their view all the
• 2:00:02
  various orders of men, whose situation and circumstances, as well as their own
• 2:00:08
  are to be considered. Therein do they put themselves in the place of the
• 2:00:12
  sufferer, whose all is already gone, and of the soldier who hath quitted
• 2:00:17
  all for the defense of his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited
• 2:00:23
  to their own private situations only, regardless of others, the event will convince
• 2:00:28
  them that they are reckoning without their host. Put us, some say,
• 2:00:32
  on the footing we were on in sixty three, to which I answer,
• 2:00:36
  the request is not now in the power of Britain to comply with, neither
• 2:00:43
  will she propose it. But if it were, and even should be granted,
• 2:00:46
  I ask, as a reasonable question, by what means is such a
• 2:00:50
  corrupt and faithless court to be kept to its engagements? Another parliament, nay,
• 2:00:57
  even the present, may hereafter repeal the obligosation on the pretense of its
• 2:01:01
  being violently obtained or unwisely granted. And in that case, where is our
• 2:01:08
  redress? No going to the law with nations canon are the barristers of crowns,
• 2:01:15
  And the sword not of justice but of war decides the suit to be
• 2:01:19
  on the footing of sixty three. It is not sufficient that the laws only
• 2:01:25
  be put on the same state, but that our circumstances likewise be put on
• 2:01:29
  the same state. Our burnt and destroyed towns, repaired or built up,
• 2:01:33
  our private losses, made good, our public debts, contracted for defense discharged.
• 2:01:40
  Otherwise we shall be millions worse than we were at that enviable period.
• 2:01:45
  Such a request, had it been complied with a year ago, would of
• 2:01:48
  what the heart and soul of the continent. But now it is too late.
• 2:01:54
  The rubicon is passed. Besides, the taking up arms merely to enforce
• 2:01:59
  the repeal of appear cuniary law seems as unwarrantable as the divine law, and
• 2:02:03
  as repugnant to human feelings as the taking up arms to enforce obedience. There
• 2:02:10
  too, the object on either side does not justify the means, for the
• 2:02:14
  lives of men are too valuable to be cast away on such trifles. It
• 2:02:17
  is the violence which is done and threatened to our persons, the destruction of
• 2:02:23
  our property by the armed force, the invasion of our country by fire and
• 2:02:27
  sword, which conscientiously qualifies the use of arms, and the instant in which
• 2:02:31
  such a mode of defense became necessary, all subjugation to Britain ought to have
• 2:02:38
  ceased, and the independency of America should have been considered as dating its era
• 2:02:45
  from and published by the first musket that was fired against her. This line
• 2:02:49
  is a line of consistency, neither drawn by caprice nor extended by ambition,
• 2:02:56
  but produced by a chain of events of which the colonies were not the authors.
• 2:03:00
  I shall conclude these remarks with the following timely and well intended hints.
• 2:03:04
  We ought to reflect that there are three different ways by which an independency may
• 2:03:10
  hereafter be affected, and that one of those three will, one day or
• 2:03:15
  other be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice of the
• 2:03:18
  people in Congress, by a military power, or by a mob. It
• 2:03:23
  may not always happen that our soldiers are citizens and the multitude a body of
• 2:03:28
  reasonable men. Virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary,
• 2:03:32
  neither is it perpetual. Should an independency be brought about by the first of
• 2:03:36
  those means, we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us to form the
• 2:03:43
  noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in
• 2:03:46
  our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present.
• 2:03:51
  Hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of
• 2:03:57
  a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as
• 2:04:00
  numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the
• 2:04:04
  event of a few months. The reflection is awful, and in this point
• 2:04:10
  of view, how trifling, how ridiculous do the little, partly caverlings of
• 2:04:15
  a few, weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of
• 2:04:20
  a world. Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting period, and an
• 2:04:26
  independence be hereafter effected by any other means, we must charge the consequence to
• 2:04:31
  ourselves, or to those rather whose narrow and prejudiced souls are habitually opposing the
• 2:04:38
  measure, without either inquiring or reflecting. There are reasons to be given in
• 2:04:43
  support of independence, which men should rather privately think of than be publicly told
• 2:04:48
  of. We ought not now to be debating whether we shall be independent or
• 2:04:54
  not, but anxious to accomplish it on a firm, secure and honorable basis,
• 2:05:00
  and uneasy rather than it is not yet begun upon every day convinces us
• 2:05:05
  of its necessity, even the Tories, if such beings yet remain among us,
• 2:05:11
  should of all men be the most solicitous to promote it. For as
• 2:05:15
  the appointment of committees at first protected them from popular rage, so a wise
• 2:05:21
  and well established form of government will be the only certain means of continuing it
• 2:05:26
  securely to them. Wherefore, if they have not virtue enough to be Whigs,
• 2:05:31
  they ought to have prudence enough to wish for independence. In short,
• 2:05:35
  independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us together. We shall
• 2:05:41
  see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of
• 2:05:45
  an intriguing, as well as a cruel enemy. We shall then too be
• 2:05:48
  on a proper footing to treat with Britain. For there is reason to conclude
• 2:05:54
  that the pride of that court will be less hurt by treating with the American
• 2:05:58
  States for terms of peace than with those whom she denominates rebellious subjects for terms
• 2:06:04
  of accommodation. It is our delaying it that encourages her to hope for conquest,
• 2:06:11
  and our backwardness tends only to prolong the war, as we have without
• 2:06:15
  any good effect. Therefrom withheld our trade to obtain a redress of our aggrievances.
• 2:06:21
  Let us now try the alternative, by independently redressing them ourselves, and
• 2:06:27
  then offering to open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part in England will
• 2:06:32
  be still with us, because peace with trade is preferable to war without it.
• 2:06:39
  And if the offer be not accepted, other courts may be applied to
• 2:06:44
  on these grounds. I rest the matter. And as no offer hath yet
• 2:06:47
  been made to refute the doctrine contained in the former editions of this pamphlet,
• 2:06:53
  it is a negative proof that either the doctrine cannot be refuted, or that
• 2:06:58
  the party in favor of it are too numerous to be opposed. Wherefore,
• 2:07:01
  instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of
• 2:07:08
  us hold out to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in
• 2:07:13
  drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion, shall bury in
• 2:07:16
  forgetfulness every former dissension. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct,
• 2:07:23
  and let none other be heard among us than those of a good citizen,
• 2:07:28
  an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the rights of mankind
• 2:07:32
  and of the Free and Independent States of America. End of Appendix, end
• 2:07:41
  of Common Sense by Thomas Paine,