Common Sense - Thomas Paine - Literary Tales Collection

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Introduction and preface introduction. Perhaps
the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet
sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor. A long habit
of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial
appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable

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outcry in defensive custom. But the tumult soon subsides time
makes more converts than reason. As a long and violent
abuse of power is generally the means of calling the
right of it in question, and in matters to which
might never have been thought of had not the sufferers
been aggravated into the inquiry. And as the King of

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England hath undertaken in his own right to support the
Parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good
people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination,
they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions
of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.

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In the following sheets, the author has studiously avoided everything
which is personal among ourselves. Compliments, as well as censure
to individuals, make no part thereof The wise and the
worthy need not the triumph of a pamphlet, and those
whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly will cease of themselves

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unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion. The
cause of America is in a great measure the cause
of all mankind. Many circumstances have and will arise which
are not local but universal, and through which the principles
of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the
event of which their affections are interested. The laying of

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a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against
the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders
thereof from the face of the earth is the concern
of every man, to whom nature hath given the power
of feeling, of which class, regardless of party censure is

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the author PostScript to the preface in the third edition, p. S.
The publication of this new edition hath been delayed with
a view of taking notice had it been necessary of
any attempt to refute the doctrine of independence. As no
answer hath yet appeared. It is now presumed that none

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will the time needful for getting such a performance ready,
for the public being considerably passed. Who the author of
this presentation is is wholly unnecessary to the public, as
the object for attention is the doctrine itself, not the man.
Yet it may not be unnecessary to say that he
is unconnected with any party, and under no sort of influence,

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public or private, but the influence of reason and principle. Philadelphia,
February fourteenth, seventeen seventy six, end of introduction and preface,
Chapter one of the Origin and Design of Government in General,
with concise remarks on the English Constitution. Some writers have

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so confounded society with government as to leave little or
no distinction between them, whereas they are not only different,
but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants,
and government by wickedness. The former promotes our happiness positively
by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.

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The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first
is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every
state is a blessing. But government, even in its best state,
is but a necessary evil. In its worst state and
intolerable one. We suffer or are exposed to the same

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miseries by a government which we might expect in a
country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that
we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government like
dress is the badge of lost innocence. The palaces of
kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.

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But where the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed,
man would need no other lawgiver. But that not being
the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a
part of his property to furnish means for the protection
of the rest. And this he is 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 true design and end of government, it unanswerably
follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure
it to us with the least expense and greatest benefit,
is preferable to all others. In order to gain a
clear and just idea of the design and end of government,

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let us suppose a small number of persons settled in
some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest.
They will then represent the first peopling of any country
or of the world. In this state of natural liberty,
society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will
excite them hitherto the strength of one man is so

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unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for
perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance
and relief of another, who, in his turn requires the same.
Four or five united would be able to raise a
tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness. But one
man might labor out of the common period of his

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life without accomplishing anything. When he had felled his timber,
he could not remove it, nor erect it after it
was removed. Hunger in the meantime would urge him from
his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay,
even misfortune, would be death, for though neither might be mortal,

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yet either would disable him from living and reduce him
to a state in which he might rather be said
to perish than to die. This necessity, like a gravitating power,
would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the
reciprocal blessing of which would 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 will unavoidably happen that, in proportion, as
they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them
together in a common cause, they will begin to relax
in their duty and attachment to each other. And this
remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form

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of government to supply the defect of moral virtue. Some
convenient tree will afford them a state house, under the
branches of which the whole colony may assemble to deliberate
on public matters. It is more than probable that their
first laws will have the title only of regulations, and
be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In

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this first parliament, every man, by natural right will have
a seat. But as the colony increases, the public concerns
will increase likewise, and a distance at which the members
may be separated will render it too inconvenient for all
of them to meet on every occasion. As at first,
when their number was small, their habituations near, and the

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public concerns few and trifling, this will point out their
convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to
be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body,
who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake
which those have who appointed them, and who will act
in the same manner as the whole body would act

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were they present. If the colony continues increasing, it will
become necessary to augment the number of the representatives, and
that the interest of every part of the colony may
be attended to. It will be found best to divide
the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number,
and that the elected might never form to themselves an

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interest separate from the electors. Prudence will point out the
propriety of having elections often, because as the elected might,
by that means return and mix again with the general
body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity
to the public will be secured by the prudent reflections
of not making a rod for themselves. And as this

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frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part
of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other.
And on this not on the unmeaning name of king,
depends the strength of government and the happiness of the governed. Here, then,
is the origin and rise of government, namely a mode

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rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern
the world. Here too is the design and end of government, viz.
Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled
with snow, or our ears deceived by sound. However prejudice
may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding. The

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simple voice of nature and of reason will say it
is right. I draw my idea to the form of
government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz.
That the more simple anything is, the less liable it
is to be disordered, and the easier rep paired wind disordered.

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And with this maximum view I offer a few remarks
on the so much boasted Constitution of England. That it
was noble for the mark and slavish times in which
it was erected is granted, when the world was overrun
with tyranny, the least removed therefrom was a glorious rescue.
But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable

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of producing what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated.
Absolute governments, through the disgrace of human nature, have this
advantage with them, that they are simple. If the people suffer,
they know the head from which their suffering springs know
likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety
of causes and cures. But the Constitution of England is

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so exceedingly complex that the nation may suffer for years
together without being able to discover in which part the
fault lies. Some will say in one and some in another.
Political physician will advise a different medicine. I know it
is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices.
Yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component

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parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to
be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with
some new republican materials. First the remains of monarchical tyranny
in the person of the king. Secondly the remains of
aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers. Thirdly, the

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new republican materials in the persons of the commons, on
whose virtue depends the freedom of England. The two first,
by being hereditary are independent of the people, and therefore,
in a constitutional sense, they contribute nothing towards the freedom
of the state. To say that the Constitution of England
is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each other

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is farcical. Either the words have no meaning or they
are flat contradictions. To say that the commons is a
check upon the king presupposes two things. First, that the
king is not to be trusted without being looked after,
or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power
is the natural disease of monarchy. Secondly, that the commons,

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by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or
more worthy of confidence than the Crown. But as the
same constitution which gives the commons a power to check
the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the King
a power to check the commons by empowering him to
reject their other bills, it again supposes that the king
is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to

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be wiser than him. A mere absurdity. There is something
exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy. It first excludes
a man from the means of information, yet empowers him
to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.
The state of a king shuts him from the world.
The bi business of a king requires him to know
it thoroughly. Wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and

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destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd
and useless. Some writers have explained the English constitution. Thus
the king, they say, is one, the people another. The
peers are a house in behalf of the king, the
commons in behalf of the people. But this hath all
the distinctions of a house divided against itself. And though

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the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they appear
idle and ambiguous. And it will always happen that the
nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to
the description of something which either cannot exist or is
too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will
be words of sound only. And though they may amuse

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the ear, they cannot inform the mind. For this explanation
includes a previous question, viz. How came the king by
a power which the people are afraid to trust and
always obliged to check. Such a power could not be
the gift of a wise people. Neither can any power
which needs checking be from God. Yet the provision which

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the Constitution makes supposes such a power to exist. But
the provision is unequal to the task. The means either
cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole
affair is a philo. D say, the wheels of a
machine are put in motion by one. It only remains
to know which power in the Constitution has the most weight,

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for that will govern. And though the others or a
part of them may clog, or, as the phrase is,
check the rapidity of its motion. Yet so long as
they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual. The
first moving power will at last have its way, and
what it wants in speed is supplied by time. That

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the Crown is this overbearing part in the English com
Institution needs not be mentioned. And that it derives its
whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and
pensions is self evident. Wherefore, though we have been wise
enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy,
we at the same time have been foolish enough to

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put the crown in possession of the key. The prejudice
of Englishmen in favor of their own government by king,
lords and commons arises as much or more from national
pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than
in some other countries. But the will of the king
is as much the law of the land in Britain

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as in France, with this difference that instead of proceeding
directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people
under the more formidable shape of an Act of Parliament.
For the fate of Charles, the first hath only made
kings more subtle, not more just. Wherefore, lying aside all
national pride and prejudice in faith favor of modes and forms,

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the plain truth is that it is wholly owing to
the constitution of the people and not to the constitution
of the government, that the crown is not as oppressive
in England as it is in Turkey. An inquiry into
the constitutional errors in the English form of government is
at this time highly necessary, for as we are never
in a proper condition of doing justice to others while

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we continue under the influence of some leading partiality, so
neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves. While
we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a
man who is attached to a 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 end of Chapter one two
of monarchy and hereditary succession being originally equals in the
order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by

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some subsequent circumstance. The distinction of rich and poor may
in a great measure be accounted for, and without having
recourse to the harsh, ill sounding names of oppression and avariance.
Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the
means of riches. And though avus will preserve a man

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from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous
to be wealthy. But there is another and greater distinction
for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned,
and that is the distinction of men into kings and subjects.
Male and female are the distinction of nature good and bad,

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the distinction of heaven. But how a race of men
came into the world so exalted above the rest and
distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into and
whether they are the means of happiness or of misery
to mankind. In the early ages of the world, according
to the Scripture chronology, there were no kings, the consequence

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of which was there were no wars. It is the
pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion. Holland without
a king, hath enjoyed more peace for this last century
than any of the monarchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favors
the same remark for the quiet and rural lives of
the first patriarchs. Hath a happy something in them which

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vanishes away. When we come to the history of the
Jewish royalty. Government by kings was first introduced into the
world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel
copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the
devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry.
The Heathens paid divine honors to their deceased kings, and

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the Christian world hath improved upon the plan by doing
the same to their living ones. How impious is the
title of sacred majesty applied to a worm who, in
the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust. As
the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot
be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither

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can it be defended on the authority of scripture. For
the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and
the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings. All
anti monarchical parts of scripture have been smoothly glossed over
in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of
countries which have their governments yet to form. Render unto Caesar,

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the things which are Caesar's is the scripture, doctrine of courts.
Yet it is no support of a monarchical government for
the Jews, that at that time were without a king
and in a state of vassalage to the Romans. Near
three thousand year years passed away from the mosaic account
of the creation till the Jews, under a national delusion,

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requested a king. Till then their form of government, except
in extraordinary cases where the Almighty interposed, was a kind
of republic administered by a judge and the elders of
the tribes kings, they had none, and it was held
sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the
Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on

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the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings,
he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of
his honor, should disapprove of a form of government which
so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven. Monarchy is ranked
in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews,
for such a curse in reserve is denounced against them.

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The history of that transaction is worth attending. To the
children of Israel being oppressed by the Medeites, Gideon marched
against them with a small arm army and victory. Though
the divine interposed decided in his favor. The Jews elate
with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon,
proposed making him a king, saying, rule thou over us,

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thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was
temptation in its fullest extent, not a kingdom only, but
a hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied,
I will not rule over you, neither shall my son
rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Words
need not be more explicit. Gideon doth not decline the honor,

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but denieth their right to give it. Neither doth he
compliment them in inventing declarations of his thanks, but in
the positive style of a prophet, charges them with disaffection
to their proper sovereign, the King of Heavens. About one
hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into
the same error. The hank which the Jews had for

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the idolatrous custom of the Heathens is something exceedingly unaccountable.
But so it was that, laying hold of the misconduct
of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns,
they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, behold,
thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.

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Now make us a king to judge us like all
the other nations. And here we cannot but observe that
their motives were bad, viz. That they might be like
unto other nations, in other words, the heavens, whereas their
true glory lay in being as much unlike them as possible.

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But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us
a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
and the Lord said, unto Samuel, hearken to the voice
of the people in all that they say unto thee
For they have not rejected thee but they have reached
me that I should not reign over them, according to
all the works which they have done since the day

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that I brought them up out of Egypt, even into
this day, whereon they have forsaken me and served other gods.
So do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto
their voice. Howbi protest solemnly unto them, and show them
the manner of the kings that shall reign over them.

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In other words, not of any particular king, but the
general manner of the kings of the earth, whom Israel
was so eagerly copying after. And notwithstanding the great distance
of time and difference of manners, the character is still
in fashion. And Samuel told all the words of the
Lord unto the people that asked of him a king,

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And he said, this shall be the manner of the king.
Thou shalt reign over you. He will take your sons,
and appoint them for himself for his chariots, and to
be his horse, and some shall run before his chariots.
This description agrees with the present mode of impressing men.
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains

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over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground,
and to read his harvest, and to make his instruments
of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will
take your daughters to be confectioneries, and to be cooks,
and to be bakers. This describes the expense and luxury
as well as the oppression of kings. And he will

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take your fields and your olive yards, even the best
of them, and give them to his servants. And he
will take the tenth of your feed and of your vineyards,
and give them to his officers and to his servants,
by which we see that bribery, corruption, and favoritism are
the standing vices of kings. And he will take the

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tenth of your men servants, and your maid servants, and
your goodliest young men and you, and put them to
his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep,
and ye shall be his servants and ye shall cry
out in that day because of your king, which ye
shall have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you

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in that day. This accounts for the continuation of monarchy.
Neither do the characters of the few good kings which
have lived since either sanctify the title or brought out
the sinfulness of the origin. The high ecumen given of
David takes no notice of him officially as 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, but we will have a king over us,
that we may be like all the nations, and that
our king may judge us and go out before us
and fight our battles. Samuel continued to reason with them,
but to no purpose. He set before them their ingratitude,

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but all would not avail, and seeing them fully bent
on their folly, he cried out, I will call unto
the Lord, and he shall send thunder and reign, which
then was a punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest,
that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great,
which ye have done in the sight of the Lord
in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord,

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and the Lord sent thunder and reign that day, and
all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel, and
all the people said, unto Samuel, pray for thy servants,
unto the Lord, thy God, that we die not, for
we have added unto our sins this evil to ask
a king. These portions of scripture are direct and positive.

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They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath
here entered his protest against monarchical government, is true, or
the scripture is false. Man hath good reason to believe
that there is as much of kingcraft as priest in
withholding the scripture from the public in popish countries. For monarchy,

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in every instance is the popery of government. To the
evil of monarchy, we have added that of hereditary succession.
And as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves,
so is the second, claimed, as a matter of right,
is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all
men being originally equals, no one by birth could have

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a right to set up his own family in perpetual
preference to all others forever, And though himself might deserve
some decent respect of honors of his contemporaries, yet his
descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One
of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary

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right in kings is that the nature disproves it, Otherwise
she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by
giving mankind and ask for a lion. Secondly, as no
man at first could possess any other public honors than
were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honors
could have no power to give away the right of posterity.

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And though they might say, we choose you for our head,
they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say
that your children and your children's children shall reign over
ours forever, because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might perhaps,
in the next succession, put them under the government of
a rogue or a fool. Most Wise, men in their

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private sentiments have ever treated hereditary right with contempt. Yet
it is one of those evils which, when once established,
is not easily removed. Many submit from fear, others from superstition,
and the most powerful part shares with the king the
under of the rest. This is supposing the present race

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of kings is in the world to have had an
honorable origin, whereas it is more than probable that could
we take off the dark covering of antiquity and trace
them to their first rise, that we should find the
first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of
some restless group, whose savage manners or pre eminence in

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suitability obtained him the title of chief among plunderers, and who,
by increase in power and extending his depretations, overawed the
quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions.
Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary
right to his descendants, because such a perpetual exclusion of

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themselves was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they
profess to live by. Wherefore, hereditary succession in the early
ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter
of claim, but as something casual or complemental. But as
few or no records were extant in those days, and

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traditionally history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after
the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some
superstitious tale conveniently timed Mahomet like to cram hereditary right
down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which
threatened or seemed to threaten on the decease of a

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leader and the choice of a new one for elections
among Ruffians could not be very orderly induced many at
first to favor hereditary pretensions, by which means it happened
as it hath happened, since that what at first was
submitted to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right.

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England since the conquest hath known some few good monarchs,
but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones.
Yet no man in his senses can say that their
claim under William the Conqueror is a very honorable one.
A French bastard landing with an armed banditti and establishing
himself king of England against the consent of the natives is,

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in plain terms, a very paltry, rascally original. It certainly
hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to
spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right.
If there are any so weak as to believe it,
let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome.

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I shall neither copy their humility nor disturb their devotion.
Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose
kings came at first? The question admits but of three answers, viz.
Either by lot, by election, or by usurption. If the
first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent

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for the next, excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot,
Yet the succession was not hereditary. Neither does it appear
from that transaction there was any intention it ever should
If the first king of any country was by election,
that likewise establishes a precedent for the next. For to

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say that the right of all future generations is taken
away by the act of the first electors in their
choice not only of a king, but of a family
of kings. Forever hath no parallel in or out of scripture.
But the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free
will of all men lost in atom and from such comparison,

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and it will admit of no other. Hereditary succession can
derive no glory, For as in Adam all sinned, and
as in the first Electors, all men obeyed, as in
the one, all mankind were subjected to satan, and in
the other to sovereignty inner since was lost in the

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first and our authority in the last, and as both
disable us from resuming some former state and privilege, it
unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels
dishonorable rank in glorious connection. Yet the most subtle sophist

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cannot produce a just simile as to usurpation. No man
will be so hardy as to defend it. And that
William the Conqueror was a usurper is a fact not
to be contradicted. The plain truth is that the antiquity
of English monarchy will not bear looking into. But it
is not so much the absurdity as the evil of

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hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race
of good and wise men, it would have the seal
of divine authority. But as it opens the door to
the foolish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in
the nature of opreshire. Men who look upon themselves born
to reign and others to obey, soon grow insolent. Selected

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from the rest of mankind, Their minds are early poisoned
by importance, and the world they act in differs so
materially from the world at large that they have but
little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they
succeed to the government, are frequently the most ignorant and
unfit of any throughout the dominions. Another evil which attends

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hereditary succession is that the throne is subject to be
possessed by a miner at any age, all which time
the regency, acting under the cover of a king, have
every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust. The same
national misfortune happens when a king, worn out with age
and infirmity, enters the last stage of human weakness. In

(34:54):
both these cases, the public becomes a prey to every
miscreant who can temper successfully with the fall either of
age or infancy. The most plausible plea which hath ever
offended in favor of hereditary succession is that it preserves
a nation from civil wars, and were this true, it
would be weighty, whereas it is the most bare faced

(35:17):
falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of England
disowns the fact thirty kings and two miners have reigned
in the distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time
there have been, including the Revolution, no less than eight
civil wars and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore, instead of making for peace,

(35:38):
it makes against it and destroys the very foundation it
seems to stand on. The contest for monarchy and succession
between the Houses of York and Lancaster laid England in
a scene of blood. For many years, twelve pitched battles,
besides skirmishes and sieges, were fought between Henry and Edward.
Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn

(36:00):
was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate
of war and the temper of a nation, when nothing
but personal matters are the ground of a quarrel. That
Henry was taken in triumph from a prison to a palace,
and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a
foreign land. Yet as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting, Henry,

(36:23):
in his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward
recalled to succeed him, the Parliament always following the strongest side.
This contest began in the reign of Henry the sixth,
and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the seventh, in
whom the families were united, including a period of sixty

(36:43):
seven years viz. From fourteen twenty two to fourteen eighty nine.
In short, monarchy and succession have laid not this or
that kingdom only, but the world in blood and ashes.
Tis a form of government which the world of God
barres testimony against, and blood will attend it. If we

(37:04):
inquire into the business of a king, we shall find
that in some countries they have none, and, after sauntering
away their lives, without pleasure to themselves or advantage to
the nation, withdrawn from the scene, and leave their successors
to tread the same idle round. In absolute monarchies, the
whole weight of business, civil and military lies on the king.

(37:27):
The children of Israel, in their request for a king,
urged this plea, that he may judge us and go
out before us and fight our battles. But in countries
where he is neither a judge nor a general, as
in England, a man would be puzzled to know what
is his business. The nearer any government approaches to a republic,

(37:48):
the less business there is for a king. It is
somewhat difficult to find a proper name for the government
of England, so William Meredith calls it a republic. But
in his present state it is is unworthy of the name,
because the corrupt influence of the Crown, by having all
the places in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up

(38:09):
the power and eaten out the virtue of the House
of Commons, the republican part in the Constitution, that the
government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of
France or Spain. Men fall out with names without understanding them,
for it is the republican and not the monarchical part
of the Constitution of England, which Englishmen glory in viz.

(38:33):
The liberty of choosing an House of Commons from out
of their own body. And it is easy to see
when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is the Constitution
of England sickly But because monarchy hath poisoned the republic.
The crown hath engrossed the commons in England. The king

(38:53):
hath little more to do than to make war and
give away places, which in plain terms is to impoverish
the nation and set it together by the years a
pretty business. Indeed, for a man to be allowed eight
hundred thousand sterling a year four and worshiped into the
bargain of more Worth is one honest man to society,

(39:16):
and in the sight of God, than all the crowned
Ruffians that ever lived. End of Chapter two, Chapter three,
Thoughts on the present state of American Affairs, Part one
in the following pages. I offer nothing more than simple facts,
plain arguments, and common sense, and have no other preliminaries

(39:37):
to settle with the reader than that he will divest
himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and
his feelings to determine for themselves, that he will put on,
or rather that he will not put off, the true
character of a man, and generously enlarge his views. Beyond
the present day, volumes have been written on the sub

(40:00):
of the struggle between England and America. Men of all
ranks have embarked on the controversy from different motives and
with various designs, but all have been ineffectual, and the
period of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource
decide the contest. The appeal was the choice of the
king and the continent hath accepted the challenge. It hath

(40:24):
been reported of the late mister Pelham, who, though an
able minister, was not without his faults, that, on his
being attacked in the House of Commons on the score
that his measures were only of a temporary kind, he replied,
they will last my time. Should a thought so fatal

(40:45):
and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the
name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.
It is not like the affair of a city, country,
a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent of
at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. Tis

(41:07):
not the concern of a day, a year, or an age.
Posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be
more or less affected even to the end of time
by the proceedings. Now now is the seed time of
continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will

(41:28):
be like a name engraved with the point of a
pin on the tender rind of a young oak. The
wound will enlarge with a tree and posterity read in
it full grown characters. By referring the matter from argument
to arms, A new era for politics is struck, a
new method of thinking hath arisen. All planes, proposals, et

(41:51):
cetera prior to the nineteenth of April, in other words,
to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of
the last, which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now.
Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of
the question then terminated in one and the same point, viz.

(42:14):
A union with Great Britain. The only difference between the
parties was the method of effectuating it, the one proposing force,
the other friendship. But it hath so far happened that
the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation,

(42:34):
which like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left
us as we are. It is but right that we
should examine the contrary side of the argument and inquire
into some of the many material injuries which these colonies
sustain and always will sustain, by being connected with and
dependent upon Great Britain. To examine that connection and dependence

(42:57):
on the principles of nature and common sense to see
what we have to trust to if separated, and what
we are to expect if dependent. I have heard it
asserted by some that, as America hath flourished under the
former connection with Great Britain, that the same connection is
necessary towards her future happiness and will always have the
same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind

(43:21):
of argument. We may as well assert that because a
child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to
have meat, or that the first twenty years of our
lives is to become precedent for the next twenty. But
even this is admitting more than is true. For I
answer roundly that America would have flourished as much and
probably much more, had no European power had anything to

(43:44):
do with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched
herself are the necessities of life, and will always have
a market, while eating is the custom of Europe. But
she has protected us. Some say that she hath engrossed
us is true, and defended the continent at our expense
as well as her own, is admitted, and she would

(44:04):
have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. The sake
of trade and dominion. Alas we have been long led
away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition.
We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering
that her motive was interest, not attachment, that she did

(44:25):
not protect us from our enemies on our account, but
from her enemies on her own account, from those who
had no quarrel with us on any other account, and
who will always be our enemies on the same account.
Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or to
the continent, throw off the dependents, and we should be

(44:47):
at peace with France and Spain, were they at war
with Britain. The miseries of hanover last war ought to
warn us against connections. It hath lately been asserted in
Parliament that the colonies have no relation to each other
but through the parent country. In other words, that Pennsylvania
and the Jerseys and so on for the rest are

(45:09):
sister colonies by way of England. This is certainly a
very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it is the
nearest and only true way of proving enemy ship. If
I may so call it. France and Spain never were,
nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but
as our being the subject of Great Britain. Yet Britain

(45:30):
is the parent country. Some say, then, the more shame
upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young,
nor savages make war upon their families. Where therefore the assertion,
if true, turns to her reproach. But it happens not
to be true, or only partly so, that the phrase

(45:50):
parent or mother country have been justiciously adopted by the
King and his parasites, with a low papistical design of
gaining an unfair bias on the credulious weakness of our minds.
Europe and not England, is the parent country of America.
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted

(46:12):
lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.
Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of
the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster. And
it is so far true of England that the same
tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their
descendants still in this extensive quarter of the globe. We

(46:35):
forgot the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles
the extent of England, and carry our friendship on a
large scale. We claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and
triumph in the generosity of the sentiment. It is pleasant
to observe by what regular gradulations we surmount the force

(46:55):
of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.
A man born in any town in England divided into
parishes will naturally associate both with his fellow parishioners, because
their interests, in many cases will be common, and distinguished
him by the name of neighbour. But if he meet

(47:16):
him but a few miles from home, he drops the
narrow idea of a street and salutes him by the
name of townsmen. If he travel out of the country
and meet him in any other he forgets the minor
division of street and town and calls him countrymen, in
other words, country man. But if in their foreign excursions

(47:37):
they should associate in France or any other part of Europe,
their local remembrance would be enlarged to that of Englishmen,
and by a just parody of reasoning, all Europeans meeting
in America or any other quarter of the globe are
countrymen for England, Holland, Germany or Sweden, when compared with

(47:58):
the whole stand in the same place on the larger scale,
which the division of street, town and country do on
the smaller ones, distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not
one third of the inhabitants, even of this province are
of English descent. Whetherfore, I reprobate the phrase of parent

(48:19):
or mother country applied to England only as being false, selfish, narrow,
and ungenerous. But admitting that we were all of English descent,
what does it amount to nothing? Britain, being now an
open enemy, extinguishes every other civil name and title, and
to say that reconciliation is our duty is truly farcical.

(48:41):
The first King of England of the present line, William
the Conqueror, was a Frenchman, and half the peers of
England are descendants from the same country. Wherefore, by the
same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.
Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain
and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance

(49:03):
to the world. But this is mere presumption the fate
of war is uncertain. Neither do the expressions mean anything,
for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained
of inhabitants to support the British arms in either Asia,
Africa or Europe. Besides, what have we to do with
setting the world at defiance. Our plan is commerce, and

(49:26):
that well attended to will secure us the peace and
friendship of all Europe. Because it is the interests of
all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade
will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold
and silver secure her from invaders. I challenge the warmest
advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this

(49:51):
continent may reap by being connected with Great Britain. I
repeat the challenge. Not a single advantage is derived. Our
corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe,
and our imported goods must be paid for by them
where we will. But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain
by the connection are without number, and our duty to

(50:12):
mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us
to renounce the alliance, because any submission to or dependence
on Great Britain tends directly to involve this continent in
European wars and quarrels, and sets us at variance with
nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom

(50:33):
we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our
market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection
with any part of it. It is the true interest
of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she
never can do. While her dependence on Britain, she is
made the make weight in the scale on British politics.

(50:55):
Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long
at peace, and where never a war breaks out between
England and any foreign power, the trade of America goes
to ruin. Because of her connection with Britain, the next
war may not turn out like the last, and should
it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing

(51:16):
for separation then, because neutrality, in that case would be
a safer convoy than a man of war. Everything that
is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries tis time
to part, even the distance at which the Almighty hath
placed England and America is a strong and natural proof

(51:39):
that the authority of the one over the other was
never the design of Heaven. The time likewise at which
the continent was discovered adds weight to the argument, and
the manner in which it was peopled increases the force
of it. The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America,
and if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary

(52:02):
to the persecuted in future years when home should afford
neither friendship nor safety, the authority of Great Britain over
this continent is a form of government which, sooner or
later must have an end. And a serious mind can
draw no true pleasure by looking forward under the painful
and positive conviction that what he calls the present Constitution

(52:24):
is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy
knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure
anything which we may bequeathed to posterity. And by a
plain method of argument, as we are running the next
generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it.
Otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to

(52:47):
discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take
our children in our hand, and fix our station a
few years farther into life, that eminence will present a
prospect few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I

(53:08):
am inclined to believe that all those who espouse the
doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions
interested men who are not to be trusted, weak men
who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see. And
a certain set of moderate men who think better of

(53:28):
the European world than it deserves. And this last class,
by an ill judged deliberation, will be the cause of
more calamities to this continent than all the other three.
It is the good fortune of many to live distant
from the scene of sorrow. The evil is not sufficiently
brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness

(53:50):
with which all American property is possessed. But let our
imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston. That
seat of wretchedness will teach just wisdom and instruct us
forever to renounce a power in whom we can have
no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but
a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have

(54:13):
now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or
turn out to beg endangered by the fire of their friends.
If they continue within the city and plundered by the soldiery.
If they leave it in their present condition, they are
prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general
attack for their relief, they would be exposed to the

(54:35):
fury of both armies. Men of passive tempers look somewhat
lightly over the offenses of Britain, and still hoping for
the best, are apt to call out, Come, Come, we
shall be friends again. For all this, but examine the
passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation
to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether

(54:57):
you can thereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power
that hath carried fire and sword into your land. If
you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving
yourselves by your delay, bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future
connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor,

(55:17):
will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on
the plain of present convenience, will in a little time
fall to a relapse more wretched than the first. But
if you say you can still pass the violations over,
then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your
property been destroyed? Before your face? Are your wife and

(55:40):
children destitute of a bed to lie on or bread
to live on? Have you lost a parent or a
child by their hands? And yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
If you have not, then you are not a judge
of those who have. But if you have and still
can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy
of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover. And

(56:01):
whatever may be your rank or title in life, you
have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
a sickophant. It is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but
trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies,
and without which we should be incapable of discharging the
social duties of life or enjoying the felicities of it.

(56:23):
I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of
provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers,
that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is
not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
conquer America if she do not conquer herself by delay

(56:43):
and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if
rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent
will partake of the misfortune. And there is no punishment
which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what,
or or where he will. That may be the means
of sacrificing a season so precious and useful. It is

(57:07):
repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to
all examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent
can longer remain subject to any external power. The most
seguine in Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch
of human wisdom cannot at this time compass a plan
short of separation, which can promise the continent even a

(57:30):
year's security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath
deserted the connection, and art cannot supply her place. For,
as Milton wisely expresses, never 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, and only intended to convince us that
nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings more than
repeated petitioning. And nothing hath contributed more than that ary
measure to make the kings of Europe absolute witness Denmark

(58:15):
and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do for
God's sake, let us come to a final separation and
not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under
the violated, unmeaning names of parent and child. To say
that they will never attempt it again is idle and illusionary.

(58:37):
We thought so at the repeal of the Stamp Act.
Yet a year or two undeceived us as well as
we supposed that nations which have been once defeated will
never renew the quarrel as to government matters. It is
not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice.
The business of it will soon be too weighty and

(58:58):
intricate to be manned with any tolerable degree of convenience
by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant.
Of us, For if they cannot conquer us, they cannot
govern us. To be always running three or four thousand
miles with a tail or a petition, waiting four or
five months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires five

(59:21):
or six more to explain it in will in a
few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There
was a time when it was proper, and there is
a proper time for it to cease. Small islands, not
capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms
to take under their care. But there is something very

(59:42):
absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by
an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite
larger than its primary planet. And as England and America
with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature,
it is evident they belong to different systems, England to Europe,

(01:00:04):
America to itself. I am not induced by motives of pride, party,
or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence.
I am clearly, positively and conscientiously persuaded that it is
the true interest of this continent to be so that
everything short of that is mere patchwork, that it can

(01:00:26):
afford no lasting felicity, that it is leaving the sword
to our children, and chirking back at a time when
a little more, a little farther would have rendered this
continent the glory of the Earth. End of Part one
of Chapter three, Chapter three Thoughts on the present state

(01:00:47):
of American affairs Part two. As Britain hath not manifest
the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured
that no terms can be obtained worthy of the exception
of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense
of blood and treasure we have been already put to

(01:01:07):
the object contended for ought always to bear some just
proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the
whole detestable Guntu, is a matter unworthy the millions we
have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience
which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the

(01:01:27):
acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained. But if
the whole continent must take up arms, if every man
must be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our while
to fight against a contemptible ministry. Only dearly, dearly do
we pay for the repeal of the axe, if that
is all we fight for for In a just estimation,

(01:01:50):
it is as great a folly to pay a bunker
hill price for law as for land. As I have
always considered the end dependency of the continent as an
event which sooner or later must arrive, so from the
late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event

(01:02:11):
could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out
of hostilities, it was not worth the while to have
disputed a matter which time would have finally redressed, unless
we meant it to be in earnest. Otherwise, it is
like wasting an estate on a suit at law to
regulate the trespass of a tenant whose lease is just expiring.

(01:02:35):
No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself
before the fatal nineteenth of April seventeen seventy five. But
the moment the event of that day was made known,
I rejected the hardened, sullen, tempered pharaoh of England forever
and disdain the wretch that, with the pretended title of

(01:02:57):
father of his people, can unfeel willingly hear of their
slaughter and composedly sleep with their blood on his soul.
But admitting that matters were now made up, what would
be the event? I answer, the ruin of the continent,
And that, for several reasons. First, the powers of governing

(01:03:18):
still remaining in the hands of the King, he will
have a negative over the whole legislation of this continent.
And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy
to liberty and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power,
is he or is he not a proper man to
say to these colonies, you shall make no laws but

(01:03:41):
what I please? And is there any inhabitant in America
so ignorant as not to know that, according to what
is called the present Constitution, that this continent can make
no laws but what the King gives it leave to.
And is there any man so unwise as not to
see that, considering what has happened, he will suffer no

(01:04:03):
law to be made here, but such as suits his purpose.
He may be as ineffectually enslaved by the want of
laws in America as by submitting to laws made for
us in England. After matters are made up, as it
is called, can there be any doubt, but the whole
power of the crown will be exerted to keep this

(01:04:26):
continent as low and humble as possible. Instead of going forward,
we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously petitioning.
We are always greater than the King wishes us to be,
and will he not thereafter endeavor to make us less.
To bring the matter to one point, is the power

(01:04:49):
who is jealous of our prosperity a proper power to
govern us. Whoever says no to this question is an independent.
For independency means means no more than whether we shall
make our own laws, or whether the King, that greatest
enemy this continent hath or can have, shall tell us

(01:05:11):
there shall be no laws but such as I like.
But the King, you will say, has a negative. In England,
the people there can make no laws without his consent.
In point of right and good order, there is something
very ridiculous that a youth of twenty one, which hath
often happened, shall say to several millions of people older

(01:05:32):
and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act
of yours to be law. But in this place I
decline this sort of reply, though I will never cease
to expose the absurdities of it, and only answer that England,
being the King's residence, and America not so, make quite
another case. The King's negative here is ten times more

(01:05:54):
dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for
there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill
for putting England into as strong a state of defense
as possible, and in America he would never suffer such
a bill to be passed. America is only a secondary
object in the system of British politics. England consults the

(01:06:17):
good of this country no farther than it answers her
own purpose. Wherefore her own interest leads her to suppress
the growth of ours in every case which doth not
promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with it.
A pretty state we should soon be in under such
a secondhand government. Considering what has happened, Men do not

(01:06:40):
change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name.
And in order to show that reconciliation now is a
dangerous doctrine, I affirm that it would be policy in
the King at this time to repeal the acts for
the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces,
in order that he may accomplish by craft and subtlety

(01:07:03):
in the long run what he cannot do by force
and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are
nearly related. Secondly, that, as ever, the best terms which
we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more
than a temporary expedient or a kind of government by guardianship,

(01:07:24):
which can last no longer than till the colonies come
of age. So the general face and state of things
in the interim will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of
property will not choose to come to a country whose
form of government hangs but by a thread, and who
is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance,

(01:07:46):
and numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of
the interval, to dispose of their effects and quit the continent.
But the most powerful of all arguments is that nothing
but independence. In other words, a continental form of government
can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it
in violate from civil wars. I dread the event of

(01:08:09):
a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than
probable that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere
or other, the consequences of which may be far more
fatal than all the malice of Britain. Thousands are already
ruined by British barbarity. Thousands more will probably suffer the

(01:08:29):
same fate. Those men have other feelings than us, who
have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty. What
they therefore enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having
nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general
temper of the colonies toward a British government will be

(01:08:51):
like that of a youth who is nearly out of
his time. They will care very little about her. And
a government which cannot preserve the peace is no government
at all. And in that case we pay our money
for nothing, and pray, what is it that Britain can do?
Whose power will be wholly on paper? Should a civil

(01:09:13):
tumult break out the very day after reconciliation. I have
heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke
without thinking that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it
would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our
first thoughts are truly correct, And that is the case here,

(01:09:34):
for there are ten times more to dread from a
patched up connection than from independence. I make the sufferers
case my own, and I protest that were I driven
from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined,
that as a man sensible of injuries, I could never

(01:09:55):
relish the doctrine of reconciliation or consider myself bound thereby
the colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order
and obedience to continental government as is sufficient to make
every reasonable person easy and happy. On that head, no
man can assign least pretense for his fears on any

(01:10:17):
other ground. That such are truly childish and ridiculous, viz.
That one colony will be striving for superiority over another.
Where there are no distinctions, there can be no superiority.
Perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all,
and we may say always in peace. Holland and Switzerland

(01:10:41):
are without wars. Foreign or domestic. Monarchical governments, it is true,
are never long at rest. The crown itself is a
temptation to enterprising ruffians at home, and that degree of
pride and insolence, ever attendant on regal authority, swells to
a rupture with foreign powers in instances, or a republican government,

(01:11:05):
by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.
If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence,
it is because no plan has yet been laid down.
Men do not see their way out. Wherefore, as an
opening into that business, I offer the following hints, at
the same time, modestly affirming that I have no other

(01:11:28):
opinion of them myself than that they may be means
of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts
of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
wise and able men to improve into useful matter. Let
the assemblies be annual, with a president only the representation

(01:11:50):
more equal, their business wholly domestic, and subject to the
authority of a continental Congress. Let each colony be divided
into six, eight or ten convenient districts. Each district to
send a proper number of delegates to Congress, so that
each colony sent at least thirty, the whole number in
Congress will be leased three hundred and ninety each Congress

(01:12:14):
to sit and to choose a president by the following method.
When the delegates are met, let a colony be taken
from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let
the whole Congress choose by ballot a president from out
of the delegates of that province. In the next congress,
let a colony be taken by lot from twelve, only

(01:12:35):
omitting that colony from which the president was taken in
the former Congress, and so proceeding on until the whole
thirteen shall have had their proper rotation, in order that
nothing may pass into the law. But what is satisfactorily
just not less than three fifths of the Congress to

(01:12:55):
be called a majority he that will promote discord under
a government so equally formed as this would have joined
Lucifer in his revolts. But as there is a peculiar
delicacy from whom or in what manner this business must
first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and consistent

(01:13:19):
that it should come from some intermediate body between the
governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and
the people, let a continental conference be held in the
following manner and for the following purpose, a committee of
twenty six members of Congress viz. Two from each colony,
two members for each House of Assembly or provincial convention,

(01:13:40):
and five representatives of the people at large, to be
chosen at the capital city or town of each province
for and in behalf of the whole province, by as
many qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from
all parts of the province for that purpose, or, if
more convenient, the representative may be chosen in two or

(01:14:01):
three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference,
thus assembled, will be united the two grand principles of business,
knowledge and power. The members of Congress, assemblies or conventions,
by having had experience in national concerns, will be able
and useful counselors, and the whole, being empowered by the people,

(01:14:25):
will have a truly legal authority. The conferring members being met,
let their business be to frame a continental Charter or
a Charter of the United Colonies, answering to what is
called the Magna Carta of England. Fixing the number and
manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with
their dates of sitting and drawing the line of business

(01:14:47):
and jurisdiction between them, always remembering that our strength is continental,
not provincial, securing freedom and property to all men, and
above all things, the free exercise of religion according to
the dictates of Conscience, which such other matter as is
necessary for a charter to contain, immediately after which the

(01:15:12):
said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be
chosen conformable to the said Charter to be legislators and
governors of this continent for the time being, whose peace
and happiness may God preserve. Amen, should any body of
men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose,

(01:15:35):
I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer
on governments Dragonetti. The science, says he of the politician,
consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom.
Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages who should
discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum

(01:15:57):
of individual happiness and the lead east national expense Dragonette,
on virtue and rewards. But where says some is the
king of America, I'll tell you friend, he reigns above
and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal
brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to

(01:16:18):
be defective even in earthly honors. Let a day be
solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter. Let it be
brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God.
Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world
may know that, so far as we approve as monarchy,

(01:16:39):
that in America the law is king. For as in
absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries
the law ought to be king, and there ought to
be no other. But least any ill use should afterward arise.
Let the crown at this conclusion of the ceremony be
demolished and scattered am among the people whose right it is.

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A government of our own is our natural right. And
when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs,
he will become convinced that it is infinitely wiser and
safer to form a constitution of our own in a cool,
deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than
to trust such an interesting event to time and chance.

(01:17:25):
If we omit it now, some mazanello may hereafter arise,
who lay hold of popular disquietudes may collect together the
desperate and contented, and by assuming to themselves the powers
of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent

(01:17:45):
like a deluge. Should the government of America return again
into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things
will be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try
his fortune. And in such a case, what really chief
can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news the
fatal business might be done, and ourselves suffering like the

(01:18:08):
wretched Britons under the oppression of the conqueror. Ye that
oppose independence, now ye know not what ye do? Ye
are opening a door to eternal tyranny by keeping vacant
the seat of government. There are thousands and tens of
thousands who would think it glorious to expel from the
continent that barbarous and hellish power which hath stirred up

(01:18:32):
the Indians and Negroes to destroy us, and cruelly hath
a double guilt. It is dealing brutally by us and
treacherously by them to talk of friendship with those in
whom our reason forbids us to have faith and our affections,
wounded through a thousand pores, instructs us to detest is

(01:18:54):
madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains
of kindred between us and them? And can there be
any reason to hope that as the relationship expires, the
affection will increase, or that we shall agree better when
we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel
over than ever? Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation?

(01:19:17):
Can ye restore us to the time that is past?
Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can
ye reconcile Britain in America. The last chord now is broken.
The people of England are presenting addresses against us. There
are injuries which Nature cannot forgive. She would cease to

(01:19:37):
be nature if she did. As well? Can the lover
forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive
the murderers of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us
these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are
the guardians of His image in our hearts. They distinguish
us from the herd of common animals. Social compact would

(01:20:01):
dissolve and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have
only a casual existence where we callous to the touches
of affection, the robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished.
Did not the injuries which our tempters sustain provoke us
into justice? Oh, ye that love mankind, Ye that dare

(01:20:24):
oppose not only the tyranny, but the tyrant stand forth.
Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression.
Freedom hath been hunted around the globe. Asia and Africa
have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger,
and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh, receive

(01:20:46):
the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
End of part two of chapter three. End of chapter three,
Chapter four of the present Ability of America, with some
miscellaneous reflections. I have never met with a man, either

(01:21:07):
in England or America, who hath not confessed his opinion
that a separation between the countries would take place one
time or other. And there is no instance in which
we have shown less judgment than in endeavoring to describe
what we call the ripeness or fitness of the continent
for independence. As all men allow the measure and vary

(01:21:32):
only in their opinion of the time, let us, in
order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things,
and endeavor, if possible, to find out the very time.
But we need not go far. The inquiry ceases at once,
for that time hath found us the general concurrence, the

(01:21:54):
glorious union of all things, prove the fact. It is
not in numbers, but a unity that our god great
strength lies. Yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel
the force of all the world. The continent hath at
this time the largest body of armed and disciplined men
of any power under heaven, and is just arrived at

(01:22:15):
the pitch of strength in which no single colony is
able to support itself, and the whole, when united, can
accomplish the matter. And either more or less than this
might be fatal in its effects. Our land force is
already sufficient. And as to naval affairs, we cannot be

(01:22:35):
insensible that Britain could never suffer an American man of
war to be built while the continent remained in her hands.
Wherefore we should be no forwarder and one hundred years Hence,
in that branch than we are now. But the truth
is we should be less so, because the timber of
the country is every day diminishing, and that which will

(01:22:58):
remain at least will be are off and difficult to procure.
Where the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under the
present circumstances would be intolerable. The more seaport towns we had,
the more should we have, both to defend and to lose.
Our present numbers are so happily proportioned to our wants

(01:23:19):
that no man need be idle. The diminution of trade
affords an army, and the necessities of an army create
a new trade debts we have none, and whatever we
may contract on this account will serve as a glorious
memento to our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with
a settled form of government, an independent constitution of its own.

(01:23:43):
The purchase at any price will be cheap. But to
expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile
acts repealed and routing the present military only is unworthy
the charge, and is using Posterity with the utmost cruelty,
because it is leaving them the great work to do,
and a debt upon their backs from which they derive

(01:24:05):
no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honor,
and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and
a peddling politician. The debt we may contract doth not
deserve our regard, if the work be but accomplished. No
nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt
is a national bond, and when it bears no interest,

(01:24:28):
is in no case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with
a debt of upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling,
for which she pays upwards of four millions interest, And
as a compensation for her debt, she has a large navy.
America is without a debt and without a navy. Yet
for the twentieth part of the English national debt could

(01:24:51):
have a navy as large. Again, the navy of England
is not worth at this time more than three millions
and a half sterling. The first and second editions of
this pamphlet were published without the following calculations, which are
now given as a proof that the above estimation of
the navy is a just one. From Etic's naval history

(01:25:14):
introduction the charge of building a ship of each rate
and furnishing her with masts, yards, nails and ringing, together
with a proportion of eight months boastain's and carpenter's sea stores,
as calculated by mister Burchett, Secretary to the Navy, for
a ship of one hundred guns, thirty five thousand, five

(01:25:35):
hundred fifty three pounds ninety guns, twenty nine thousand, eight
hundred eighty six pounds, eighty guns, twenty three thousand, six
hundred thirty eight pounds, seventy guns, seventeen thousand, seven hundred
eighty five pounds, sixty guns, fourteen thousand, one hundred ninety
seven pounds, fifty guns, ten thousand, six hundred and six pounds,

(01:25:59):
forty guns, seven thousand, five hundred fifty eight pounds, thirty guns,
five thousand, eight hundred forty six pounds, twenty guns, three thousand,
seven hundred ten pounds, And from hence it is easy
to sum up the value or cost rather of the
whole British Navy, which in the year seventeen fifty seven,

(01:26:20):
when it was at its greatest glory, consisted of the
following ships and guns. Six ships, one hundred guns thirty
five thousand, five hundred fifty three pounds for one two
hundred and thirteen thousand, three hundred eighteen pounds for all
ships twelve guns ninety cost of one twenty nine thousand,

(01:26:43):
eight hundred eighty six cost of all three hundred fifty
eight thousand, six hundred thirty two ships twelve guns eighty,
cost of one twenty three thousand, six hundred thirty eight,
cost of all two hundred eighty three thousand, six hundred
fifty six ships forty three guns seventy. Cost of one
seventeen thousand, seven hundred eighty five. Cost of all seven

(01:27:06):
hundred and forty six thousand, seven hundred fifty five ships
thirty five guns sixty cost of one fourteen thousand, one
hundred ninety seven cost of all four hundred ninety six thousand,
eight hundred ninety five ships forty guns fifty cost of
one ten thousand, six hundred six cost of all four

(01:27:26):
hundred twenty four thousand, two hundred forty ships forty five
guns forty cost of one seven thousand, five fifty eight
cost of all three hundred forty thousand, one hundred ten
ships fifty eight guns twenty cost of one three thousand,
seven hundred and ten pounds, cost of all two hundred

(01:27:47):
and fifteen thousand, one hundred eighty pounds ships, eighty five sloops,
bombs and fire ships one with another at two thousand
pounds each one hundred seventy thousand pounds cost three million,
two hundred sixty six thousand, seven hundred eighty six pounds.
Remains for guns two hundred and thirty three thousand, two

(01:28:09):
hundred fourteen pounds total three million, five hundred thousand pounds Sterling.
No country on the globe is so happily situated, so
internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber,
iron and cordage are her natural produce. We need go
abroad for nothing, Whereas the Dutch, who makes large profits

(01:28:31):
by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards
and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of the materials
they use. We ought to view the building of a
fleet as an article of commerce. It being the natural
manufactory of this country, it is the best money we
can lay out. A navy whind furnished is worth more
than it cost. And is that nice point in national

(01:28:54):
policy in which commerce and protection are united. Let us
build if we want them not, we can sell, and
by that means replace our paper currency with ready gold
and silver. In point of manning a fleet, people in
general run into great errors. It is not necessary that
one fourth part should be sailor. The terrible privateer Captain

(01:29:16):
Death stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war,
yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her complement
of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able
and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of
active landsmen in the common work of a ship. Wherefore,
we never can be more capable to begin our maritime

(01:29:37):
matters than now, while our timber is standing, our fisheries
blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of employ
men of War of seventy and eighty guns were built
forty years ago in New England, and why not the
same now. Ship Building is America's greatest pride, and in
which she will in time excel the whole world. The

(01:29:57):
great empires of the East are mo mostly inland, and
consequently excluded from the possibility of rivaling her. Africa is
in a state of barbarism, and no power in Europe
hath either such an extent of coast or such an
internal supply of materials. Where nature hath given the one,

(01:30:18):
she hath withheld the other to America only hath she
been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is
almost shut out from the sea, wherefore her boundless forests,
her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce.
In point of safety, ought we be without a fleet.
We are not the little people now which we were

(01:30:40):
sixty years ago. At that time we might have trusted
our property in the streets or fields rather and slept
securely without locks or bolts on our doors or windows.
The case now is altered, and our methods of defense
ought to improve with our increase of prosperity. A common
pirate twelve months ago might have come up the Delaware

(01:31:01):
and laid the city of Philadelphia under instant contribution for
what sums he pleased, And the same might have happened
to other places. Nay, any darling fellow in a brig
of fourteen or sixteen guns might have robbed the whole
continent and carried off half a million of money. These
are circumstances which demand our attention and point out the

(01:31:23):
necessity of naval protection. Some people will say that after
we have made it up with Britain, she will protect us.
Can we be so unwise as to mean that she
shall keep a navy in our harbors for that purpose?
Common sense will tell us that the power which hath
endeavored to subdue us is, of all others the most

(01:31:44):
improper to defend us. Conquest may be affected under the
pretense of friendship, and ourselves, after a long and brave resistance,
be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships
are not to be admitted into our harbor, I would
ask how is she to protect us? A navy three

(01:32:04):
or four thousand miles off can be of little use,
and on sudden emergencies none at all. Wherefore, if we
must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves?
Why do it for another? The English list of ships
of war is long and formidable, but not a tenth
part of them are in any time fit for service,

(01:32:26):
numbers of them not in being. Yet their names are
pompously continued in the list. If only a plank be
left of the ship, and not a fifth part of
such as are fit for service, can be spared on
any one station at any one time. The East and
West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain

(01:32:49):
extends her claim make large demands upon her navy. From
a mixture of prejudice and in attention, we have contracted
a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have
talked as if we should have the whole of it
to encounter at once, and for that reason supposed that
we must have one as large, which, not being instantly practicable,

(01:33:12):
have been made use of by a set of distinguished
tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be farther
from the truth than this, For if America had only
a twentieth part of the naval force of Britain, she
would be by far an overmatch for her, because as
we neither have nor claim any foreign dominion, our whole

(01:33:32):
force could be employed on our own coast, where we should,
in the long run have two to one the advantage
of those who had three or four thousand miles to
sail over before they could attack us, and the same
distance to return in order to refit and recruit. And
although Britain, by her fleet, hath a check over our

(01:33:54):
trade to Europe. We have as large a one over
her trade to the West Indies, which, by laying in
the neighborhood of the continent, is entirely at its mercy.
Some method might be fallen on to keep up a
naval force in time of peace, if we should not
judge it necessary to support a constant navy. If premiums

(01:34:15):
are to be given to merchants to build an employ
in their service ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty or
fifty guns, the premiums to be in proportion to the
loss of bulk to the merchants, fifty or sixty of
those ships, with a few guard ships on constant duty,
would keep up a sufficient navy, And that without burdening
ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England,

(01:34:36):
of suffering their fleet in time of peace to lie
rotting in the docks. To unite the seuans of commerce
and defense is sound policy, for when our strength and
our riches play into each other's hand, we need fear
no external enemy. In almost every article of defense we
abound hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that We need

(01:34:57):
not want cordage. Our iron is superior to them of
other countries. Are small arms equal to any in the world.
Cannons we can cast at pleasure, saltpeter, and gunpowder we
are every day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution
is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Wherefore,

(01:35:18):
what is it that we want? Why is it that
we hesitate from Britain? We can expect nothing but ruin.
If she is once admitted to the government of America again,
this continent will not be worth living in. Jealousies will
be always arising, Insurrections will be constantly happening. And who
will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his

(01:35:40):
life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience?
The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands,
shows the insignificance of a British government and fully proves
that nothing but continental authority can regulate continental matters. Another
reason why the present time is preferable to all others

(01:36:01):
is that the fewer our numbers are, the more land
there is yet unoccupied, which, instead of being lavished by
the king on his worthless. Dependence may be hereafter applied
not only to the discharge of the present debt, but
to the constant support of government. No nation under Heaven
hath such an advantage as this. The infant state of
the colonies, as it is called, so far from being against,

(01:36:26):
is an argument in favor of independence. We are sufficiently numerous,
and were we more so, we might be less united.
It is a matter worthy of observation that the more
a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In
military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns, and the
reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population.

(01:36:49):
Men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to anything else.
Commerce diminishes the spirit both of patriotism and military defense,
and history sufficiently informs us that the bravest achievements are
always accomplished in the non age of a nation. With
the increase of commerce, England have lost its spirit. The

(01:37:10):
city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults
with the patience of a coward. The more men have
to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The
rich are in general slaves to fear and submit to
courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel. Youth
is the seed time of good habits, as well in

(01:37:31):
nations as in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible,
to form the continent into one government half a century. Hence,
the vast variety of interests occasioned by an increase of
trade and population would create confusion. Colony would be against colony,
each being able, might scorn each other's assistance. And while

(01:37:53):
the proud and foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the
wise would lament that the union had not been formed before.
Wherefore the present time is the true time for establishing it.
The intimacy which is contracted in infancy and the friendship
which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the
most lasting and unalterable. Our present union is marked with

(01:38:17):
both these characters. We are young, and we have been distressed.
But our concord hath withstood our troubles and fixes a
memorable area for posterity to glory in the present time. Likewise,
is that particular time which never happens to a nation,
but once viz. The time of forming itself into a government.

(01:38:39):
Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that
means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors
instead of making laws for themselves. First they had a
king and then a form of government, whereas the articles
or charter of government should be formed first, and men
delegated to execute them afterwards. But from the error of

(01:39:00):
other nations, let us learn wisdom and lay hold to
the present opportunity to begin government at the right end.
When William the conqueror subdued England, he gave them law
at the point of the sword. And until we consent
that the seat of government in America be legally and
authoritatively occupied, we shall be in danger of having it

(01:39:21):
filled by some fortunate ruffian who may treat us in
the same manner. And then where will be our freedom,
where our property? As to religion, I hold it to
be the indispensable duty of all government to protect all
conscientious professors thereof, And I know of no other business
which government hath to do therewith let a man throw

(01:39:44):
aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which
the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to part with,
and he will be at once delivered of his fears.
On that head, suspicion is the companion of means, souls,
and the bane of all good society. For myself, I
fully and conscientiously believe that it is the will of

(01:40:08):
the Almighty that there should be diversity of religious opinions
among us. It affords a large field for our Christian kindness.
Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious
dispositions would want matter for probation. And on this liberal principle,
I look on the various denominations among us to be

(01:40:29):
like children of the same family, differing only in what
is called their Christian names. I threw out a few
thoughts on the property of a continental charter, for I
only presume to offer hints, not plans. And in this
place I take the liberty of rementioning the subject by
observing that a charter is to be understood as a

(01:40:51):
bond of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into to
support the right of every separate part, whether religion, no freedom,
or property. A firm bargain and a right reckoning make
long friends. In a former page, I likewise mentioned the
necessity of a large and equal representation, and there is

(01:41:13):
no political matter which more deserves our attention. A small
number of electors or a small number of representatives are
equally dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be
not only small but unequal, the danger is increased. As
an instance of this, I mention the following, when the
associator's petition as before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania,

(01:41:37):
twenty eight members only were present, all the Bucks County
members being eight, voted against it, and had seven of
the Chester members done the same. This whole province had
been governed by two counties only. And this danger it
is always exposed to the unwarrantable stretch, likewise, which that

(01:41:57):
House made in their last sitting to gain an undue
authority over the delegates of that province. Ought to warn
the people at large how they trust power out of
their own hands. A set of instructions for the delegates
were put together, which, in point of sense and business,
would have dishonored a schoolboy, and after being approved by

(01:42:18):
a few of very few without doors, were carried into
the House and there passed in behalf of the whole colony.
Whereas did the whole colony know with what ill will
that house hath entered on some necessary public measures, they
would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of
such a trust. Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which,

(01:42:44):
if continued, would grow into oppressions. Expedients and right are
different things. When the calamities of America required a consultation,
there was no method so ready, or at that time
so proper as to appoint persons from the several houses
of assets for that purpose. And the wisdom with which
they have proceeded hath preserved this continent from ruin. But

(01:43:07):
as it is more than probable that we shall never
be without a Congress, every well wisher to good order
must own that the mode for choosing members of that
body deserves consideration. And I put it as a question
to those who make a study of mankind whether representation
and election is not too great a power for one

(01:43:30):
and the same body of men to possess. When we
are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue
is not hereditary. It is from our enemies that we
often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason
by their mistakes. Mister Cornwall, one of the Lords of
the Treasury, treated the petition of New York Assembly with

(01:43:53):
contempt because that house, he said, consisted but of twenty
six members. Such trifling number, he argued, could not with
decency be put for the whole. We thank him for
his involuntary honesty To conclude, however strange it may appear
to some, or however unwilling they may be, to think so,

(01:44:13):
matters not. But many strong and striking reasons may be
given to show that nothing can settle our affairs so
expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independence, some
of which are. First, it is the custom of nations,
when any two are at war, for some other power
not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as mediators

(01:44:36):
and to bring about the preliminaries of a peace. But
while America calls herself the subject of Great Britain, no power,
however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore,
in our present state we may quarrel on forever. Secondly,
it is unreasonable to suppose that France or Spain will

(01:44:57):
give us any kind of assistance, if if we mean
only to make use of that assistance for the purpose
of repairing the breach and strengthening the connection between Britain
and America, because those powers would be sufferers by the consequences. Thirdly,
while we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must,

(01:45:18):
in the eye of foreign nations, be considered as rebels.
The precedent is somewhat dangerous to their race. For men
to be in arms under the name of subjects. We
on the spot can solve the paradox, but to unite
resistance and subjugation requires an idea much too refined for
the common understanding. Fourthly, we're a manifesto to be published

(01:45:42):
and dispatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we
have endured and the peaceable methods we have ineffectually used
for redress, declaring at the same time that, not being
able any longer to live happily or safely under the
cruel disposition of the British Court, we had been driven
to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her,

(01:46:04):
at the same time assuring all such courts of our
peaceable disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering
into trade with them. Such a memorial would produce more
good effects to this continent than if a ship were
freighted with petitions to Britain. Under our present denomination of
British subjects, we can neither be received nor heard abroad.

(01:46:29):
The custom of all courts is against us, and will
be so until, by an independence we take rank with
other nations. These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult,
but like all other steps which we have already passed over,
will in a little time become familiar and agreeable. And

(01:46:49):
until an independence is declared, the continent will feel itself
like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business
from day to day, yet knows it must be done,
hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is
continually haunted with the thoughts of his necessities. Note one,

(01:47:09):
Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a
large and equal representation is to a state should read
Bergh's political Disquintations, end of Chapter four Appendix. Since the
publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather

(01:47:29):
on the same day on which it came out, the
King's speech made its appearance in this city, had the
spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this production. It
could not have brought it forth at a more seasonable
juncture or a more necessary time. The bloody mindedness of
the one show the necessity of pursuing the doctrine of

(01:47:50):
the other men read by way of revenge, and the speech,
instead of terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles
of independence. Ceremony, and even silence, from whatever motive they
may arise, have a hurtful tendency when they give the
least degree of countenance to base and wicked performances. Wherefore,

(01:48:14):
if this maximum be admitted, it naturally follows that the
King's speech, as being a piece of finished villainy, deserved
and still deserves a general execration, both by the Congress
and the people. Yet, as the domestic tranquility of a
nation depends greatly on the chastity of what may properly

(01:48:34):
be called national manners, it is often better to pass
some things over in silent disdain than to make use
of such new methods of dislike as might introduce the
least innovation on that guardian of our peace and safety.
And perhaps it is chiefly owing to this prudent delicacy

(01:48:54):
that the King's speech hath not before now suffered a
public execution. The speech, if it may be called one,
is nothing better than a wilful, audacious libel against the truth,
the common good, and the existence of mankind, and is
a formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices
to the pride of tyrants. But this general massacre of

(01:49:19):
mankind is one of the privileges and the certain consequences
of kings. For as nature knows them not, they know
not her. And although they are beings of our own creation,
they know not us, and are become the gods of
their creators. The speech hath one good quality, which is

(01:49:40):
that it is not calculated to deceive. Neither can we
even if we would be deceived by it. Brutality and
tyranny appear on the face of it, it leaves us
at no loss. And every line convinces, even in the
moment of reading, that he who hunts the woods for
prey the naked and untutored Indian, is less savage than

(01:50:01):
the King of Britain. Sir John Dollywimple, the punitive Father
and whining jesuitical peace falliciously called the Address of the
People of England to the inhabitants of America. Hath, perhaps
from a vain supposition, that the people here were to
be frightened at the pomp and description of a king, given,

(01:50:23):
though very unwisely on his part, the real character of
the present one. But says this writer, if you are
inclined to pay compliments to an administration which we do
not complain of, meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the
repeal of the Stamp Act, it is very unfair in
which to withhold them from that prince. If those who

(01:50:45):
nod alone they were permitted to do anything. This is
toryism with a witness. Here is idolatry, even without a mask.
And he who can so calmly hear and digest such
doctrine hath forfeited his claim to rationality and apostate from
the order of manhood, and ought to be considered as

(01:51:05):
one who hath not only given up the proper dignity
of a man, but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals,
and contemptuously crawls through the world like a worm. However,
it matters very little now what the king of England,
either says or does, he hath wickedly broken through every
moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet,

(01:51:29):
and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty,
procured for himself a universal hatred. It is now the
interests of America to provide for herself. She hath already
a large and young family, whom it is more her
duty to take care of than to be granting away
her property to support a power who is become a

(01:51:49):
reproach to the names of men and Christians. Ye whose
office it is to watch over the morals of a nation,
of whatsoever sect or denomination ye areof, as well as
ye who are more immediately the guardians of the public liberty.
If ye wish to preserve your native country uncontaminated by

(01:52:10):
European corruption, ye must in secret wish a separation. But
leaving the moral part to private reflection, I shall chiefly
confine my further remarks to the following heads. First, that
it is the interest of America to be separated from Britain. Secondly,
which is the easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or

(01:52:34):
independence with some occasional remarks in support of the first,
I could, if I judged it proper, produce the opinion
of some of the ablest and most experienced men on
this continent, and whose sentiments on that head are not
yet publicly known. It is in reality a self evident position,
for no nation in a state of foreign dependence, limited

(01:52:57):
in its commerce and cramped and fettered in its legislative powers,
can ever arrive at any material eminence. America doth not
yet know what opulence is, and although the progress which
she hath made stands unparalleled in the history of other nations,
it is but childhood compared with what she would be

(01:53:17):
capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought, to
have the legislative powers in her own hands. England is
at this time proudly coveting what would do her no
good were she to accomplish it, and the continent hesitating
on a matter which will be her final ruin if neglected.

(01:53:38):
It is the commerce, and not the conquest of America,
by which England is to be benefited, and that would
in a great measure continue where the countries as independent
of each other as France and Spain, Because in many articles,
neither can go to a better market. But it is
the independence of this country of Britain or any other,
which is now the main and only object worthy of contention,

(01:54:01):
and which, like all other truths discovered by necessity, will
appear clearer and stronger every day. First because it will
come to that one time or other. Secondly, because the
longer it is delayed, the harder it will be to accomplish.
I have frequently amused myself, both in public and private companies,
with silently remarking the specious errors of those who speak

(01:54:24):
without reflecting, And among the many which I have heard,
the following seems most general, viz. That had this rupture
happened forty or fifty years hence instead of now, the
continent would have been more able to have shaken off
the dependence, to which I reply that our military ability
at this time arises from the experience gained in the

(01:54:47):
last war, and which in forty or fifty years time
would have been totally extinct. The continent would not by
that time have had a general or even a military
officer left, and we or those who may succeed us,
would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the
ancient Indians, and this single position closely attended to, will

(01:55:09):
unanswerably prove that the present time is preferable to all others.
The argument turns thus, at the conclusion of the last war,
we had experience, but wanted numbers, and forty or fifty years.
Hence we should have numbers without experience. Wherefore the proper
point of time must be some particular point between the

(01:55:30):
two extremes, in which a sufficiency of the former remains
and a proper increase of the latter is obtained. And
that point of time is the present time. The reader
will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come
under the head I first set out with, and to
which I again return by the following position, vise should

(01:55:51):
affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain
the governing and sovereign power of America, which, as matters
are now circumstanced, is giving up the point in time.
Hirely we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of
sinking the debt we have, or may contract the value
of the back lands which some of the provinces are
clandestinely deprived of by the unjust extension of the limits

(01:56:13):
of Canada, valued only at five pounds sterling per one
hundred acres amount to upwards of twenty five millions Pennsylvania currency,
and the quit rents at one penny sterling per acre
to two millions yearly. It is by the sale of
those lands that the debt may be sunk without burden
to any and the quit rent reserved thereof will always lessen,

(01:56:38):
and in time will wholly support the yearly expense of
the government. It matters not how long the debt is
in paying, so that the lands, when sold, be applied
to the discharge of it, and for the extinction of
which the Congress for the time being will be Continental trustees.
I proceed now to second head, viz. Which is the

(01:56:59):
easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or independence? With some
occasional remarks, he who takes nature for his guide is
not easily beaten out of his argument, And on that
ground I answer generally that independence being a single simple
line contained within ourselves, and reconciliation a matter exceedingly perplexed

(01:57:22):
and complicated, and in which a treacherous, capricious court is
to interfere, gives the answer without a doubt. The present
state of America is truly alarming to every man who
is capable of reflection without law, without government, without any
other mode of power than what is found on and
granted by courtesy, held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment,

(01:57:47):
which is nevertheless subject to change, and which every secret
enemy is endeavoring to dissolve. Our present condition is legislation
without law, wisdom without a plan, constitution without a name,
and what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence.

(01:58:08):
The instance is without precedent, the case never existed before,
and who can tell what may be the event. The
property of no man is secure in the present unbraced
system of things. The mind of the multitude is left
at random, and, seeing no fixed object before them, they
pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal.

(01:58:29):
There is no such thing as treason. Wherefore every one
thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The
Tories dare not have assembled offensively had they known that
their lives, by that act were forfeited to the laws
of the state. A line of distinction should be made
between English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America

(01:58:51):
taken in arms. The first are prisoners, but the latter traitors.
The one forfeits his liberty and the other his head.
Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some
of our proceedings which gives encouragement to dissensions. The continental
belt is too loosely buckled, and if something is not

(01:59:11):
done in time, we will be too late to do anything,
and we shall fall into a state in which neither
reconciliation nor independence will be practicable. The King and his
worthless adherents are got at their old game of dividing
the continent, and there are not wanting among us printers

(01:59:31):
who will be busy spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and
hypocritical letter which appeared a few months ago in two
of the New York papers, and likewise in two others,
is an evidence that there are men who want either
judgment or honesty. It is easy getting into holes and
corners and talking of reconciliation. But do such men seriously

(01:59:54):
consider how difficult the task is and how dangerous it
may prove should the continent divide theirs? Do they take
within their view all the various orders of men, whose
situation and circumstances, as well as their own are to
be considered. Therein do they put themselves in the place
of the sufferer, whose all is already gone, and of

(02:00:16):
the soldier who hath quitted all for the defense of
his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited to
their own private situations only, regardless of others, the event
will convince them that they are reckoning without their host.
Put us, some say, on the footing we were on
in sixty three, to which I answer, the request is

(02:00:38):
not now in the power of Britain to comply with,
neither will she propose it. But if it were, and
even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question,
by what means is such a corrupt and faithless court
to be kept to its engagements? Another parliament, nay, even
the present, may hereafter repeal the obligosation on the pretense

(02:01:02):
of its being violently obtained or unwisely granted. And in
that case, where is our redress? No going to the
law with nations canon are the barristers of crowns, And
the sword not of justice but of war decides the
suit to be on the footing of sixty three. It

(02:01:22):
is not sufficient that the laws only be put on
the same state, but that our circumstances likewise be put
on the same state. Our burnt and destroyed towns, repaired
or built up, our private losses, made good, our public debts,
contracted for defense discharged. Otherwise we shall be millions worse
than we were at that enviable period. Such a request,

(02:01:46):
had it been complied with a year ago, would of
what the heart and soul of the continent. But now
it is too late. The rubicon is passed. Besides, the
taking up arms merely to enforce the repeal of appear
cuniary law seems as unwarrantable as the divine law, and
as repugnant to human feelings as the taking up arms

(02:02:08):
to enforce obedience. There too, the object on either side
does not justify the means, for the lives of men
are too valuable to be cast away on such trifles.
It is the violence which is done and threatened to
our persons, the destruction of our property by the armed force,
the invasion of our country by fire and sword, which

(02:02:28):
conscientiously qualifies the use of arms, and the instant in
which such a mode of defense became necessary, all subjugation
to Britain ought to have ceased, and the independency of
America should have been considered as dating its era from
and published by the first musket that was fired against her.

(02:02:50):
This line is a line of consistency, neither drawn by
caprice nor extended by ambition, but produced by a chain
of events of which the colonies were not the authors.
I shall conclude these remarks with the following timely and
well intended hints. We ought to reflect that there are
three different ways by which an independency may hereafter be affected,

(02:03:12):
and that one of those three will, one day or
other be the fate of America, viz. By the legal
voice of the people in Congress, by a military power,
or by a mob. It may not always happen that
our soldiers are citizens and the multitude a body of
reasonable men. Virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary,

(02:03:33):
neither is it perpetual. Should an independency be brought about
by the first of those means, we have every opportunity
and every encouragement before us to form the noblest, purest
constitution on the face of the earth. We have it
in our power to begin the world over again. A
situation similar to the present. Hath not happened since the

(02:03:54):
days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new
world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps
as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their
portion of freedom from the event of a few months.
The reflection is awful, and in this point of view,
how trifling, how ridiculous do the little, partly caverlings of

(02:04:16):
a few, weak or interested men appear, when weighed against
the business of a world. Should we neglect the present
favorable and inviting period, and an independence be hereafter effected
by any other means, we must charge the consequence to ourselves,
or to those rather whose narrow and prejudiced souls are

(02:04:37):
habitually opposing the measure, without either inquiring or reflecting. There
are reasons to be given in support of independence, which
men should rather privately think of than be publicly told of.
We ought not now to be debating whether we shall
be independent or not, but anxious to accomplish it on
a firm, secure and honorable basis, and uneasy rather than

(02:05:02):
it is not yet begun upon every day convinces us
of its necessity, even the Tories, if such beings yet
remain among us, should of all men be the most
solicitous to promote it. For as the appointment of committees
at first protected them from popular rage, so a wise
and well established form of government will be the only

(02:05:25):
certain means of continuing it securely to them. Wherefore, if
they have not virtue enough to be Whigs, they ought
to have prudence enough to wish for independence. In short,
independence is the only bond that can tie and keep
us together. We shall see our object, and our ears
will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing,

(02:05:46):
as well as a cruel enemy. We shall then too
be on a proper footing to treat with Britain. For
there is reason to conclude that the pride of that
court will be less hurt by treating with the American
States for terms of peace than with those whom she
denominates rebellious subjects for terms of accommodation. It is our

(02:06:07):
delaying it that encourages her to hope for conquest, and
our backwardness tends only to prolong the war, as we
have without any good effect. Therefrom withheld our trade to
obtain a redress of our aggrievances. Let us now try
the alternative, by independently redressing them ourselves, and then offering

(02:06:28):
to open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part in
England will be still with us, because peace with trade
is preferable to war without it. And if the offer
be not accepted, other courts may be applied to on
these grounds. I rest the matter. And as no offer
hath yet been made to refute the doctrine contained in

(02:06:51):
the former editions of this pamphlet, it is a negative
proof that either the doctrine cannot be refuted, or that
the party in favor of it are too numerous to
be opposed. Wherefore, instead of gazing at each other with
suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of us hold out
to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship, and unite

(02:07:13):
in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion,
shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissension. Let the names
of Whig and Tory be extinct, and let none other
be heard among us than those of a good citizen,
an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of
the rights of mankind and of the Free and Independent

(02:07:35):
States of America. End of Appendix, end of Common Sense
by Thomas Paine,

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