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- The Project Gutenberg eBook of Common Sense
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-
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- This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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- most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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- whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
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- of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
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- at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
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- you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
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- before using this eBook.
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-
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- Title: Common Sense
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-
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-
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- Author: Thomas Paine
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-
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- Release date: July 1, 1994 [eBook #147]
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- Most recently updated: August 9, 2021
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-
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- Language: English
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-
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-
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-
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- *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMON SENSE ***
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-
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-
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-
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-
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- COMMON SENSE;
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-
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- addressed to the
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-
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- INHABITANTS
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-
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- of
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-
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- AMERICA,
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-
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- On the following interesting
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-
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- SUBJECTS
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-
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- Of the Origin and Design of Government in general,
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- with concise Remarks on the English Constitution.
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- Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession
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- Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs
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- Of the present Ability of America, with some
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- miscellaneous Reflections
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-
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- A new edition, with several additions in the body of the work. To
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- which is added an appendix; together with an address to the people
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- called Quakers.
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-
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- Man knows no Master save creating Heaven
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- Or those whom choice and common good ordain.
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-
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- Thomson.
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-
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- PHILADELPHIA
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-
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- Printed and sold by W. & T. Bradford, February 14, 1776.
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-
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- MDCCLXXVI
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-
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-
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-
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- Common Sense
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- By Thomas Paine
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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- INTRODUCTION.
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-
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- Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet
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- sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit
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- of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of
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- being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of
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- custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than
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- reason.
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-
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- As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of
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- calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might
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- never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated
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- into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his
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- own Right, to support the Parliament in what he calls Theirs, and as
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- the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the
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- combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the
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- pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
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-
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- In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every
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- thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as
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- censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the
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- worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose
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- sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves
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- unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.
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-
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- The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.
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- Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but
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- universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind
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- are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are
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- interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword,
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- declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and
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- extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the
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- Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling;
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- of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the
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-
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- AUTHOR
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-
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- P.S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a
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- View of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any Attempt to
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- refute the Doctrine of Independance: As no Answer hath yet appeared,
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- it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such
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- a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past.
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-
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- Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the
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- Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the
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- Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected
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- with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private,
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- but the influence of reason and principle.
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-
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- Philadelphia, February 14, 1776
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-
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-
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-
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- OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL,
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- WITH CONCISE REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
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-
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- Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave
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- little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only
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- different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our
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- wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our
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- happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter
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- negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse,
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- the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a
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- punisher.
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-
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- Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its
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- best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an
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- intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same
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- miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without
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- government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish
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- the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge
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- of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of
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- the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear,
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- uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver;
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- but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a
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- part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest;
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- and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every
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- other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least.
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- Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it
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- unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely
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- to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is
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- preferable to all others.
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-
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- In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of
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- government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some
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- sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will
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- then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world.
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- In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first
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- thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength
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- of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for
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- perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and
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- relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five
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- united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a
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- wilderness, but one man might labour out of the common period of
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- life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber
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- he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in
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- the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want
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- call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be
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- death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable
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- him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather
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- be said to perish than to die.
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-
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- Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly
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- arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which,
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- would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government
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- unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as
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- nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably
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- happen, that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties
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- of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they
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- will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other; and
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- this remissness, will point out the necessity, of establishing some
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- form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.
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-
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- Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the
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- branches of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on
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- public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will
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- have the title only of Regulations, and be enforced by no other
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- penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man,
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- by natural right, will have a seat.
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-
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- But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase
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- likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated,
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- will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every
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- occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations
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- near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out
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- the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to
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- be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are
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- supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those who
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- appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole
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- body would act were they present. If the colony continue increasing,
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- it will become necessary to augment the number of the
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- representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony
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- may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into
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- convenient parts, each part sending its proper number; and that the
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- elected might never form to themselves an interest separate from the
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- electors, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections
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- often; because as the elected might by that means return and mix
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- again with the general body of the electors in a few months, their
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- fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflexion of
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- not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange
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- will establish a common interest with every part of the community,
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- they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this
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- (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the strength of
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- government, and the happiness of the governed.
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-
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- 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
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- world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom
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- and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our
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- ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or
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- interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of
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- reason will say, it is right.
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-
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- I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature,
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- which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is,
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- the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired when
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- disordered; and with this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks on
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- the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for
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- the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When
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- the world was over run with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a
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- glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions,
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- and incapable of producing what it seems to promise, is easily
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- demonstrated.
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-
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- Absolute governments (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this
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- advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer,
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- they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise
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- the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures.
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- But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the
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- nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover
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- in which part the fault lies, some will say in one and some in
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- another, and every political physician will advise a different
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- medicine.
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-
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- I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices,
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- yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of
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- the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains
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- of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new republican
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- materials.
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-
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- First.--The remains of monarchical tyranny in the person of the king.
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-
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- Secondly.--The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the persons of
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- the peers.
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-
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- Thirdly.--The new republican materials, in the persons of the
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- commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.
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-
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- The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people;
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- wherefore in a constitutional sense they contribute nothing towards
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- the freedom of the state.
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-
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- To say that the constitution of England is a union of three powers
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- reciprocally checking each other, is farcical, either the words have
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- no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.
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-
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- To say that the commons is a check upon the king, presupposes two
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- things:
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-
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- First.--That the king is not to be trusted without being looked
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- after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the
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- natural disease of monarchy.
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-
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- Secondly.--That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose,
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- are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the crown.
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-
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- But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to
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- check the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the
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- king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their
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- other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those
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- whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!
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-
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- There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of
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- monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet
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- empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.
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- The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a
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- king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different
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- parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the
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- whole character to be absurd and useless.
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-
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- Some writers have explained the English constitution thus; the king,
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- say they, is one, the people another; the peers are an house in
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- behalf of the king; the commons in behalf of the people; but this
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- hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself; and
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- though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined
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- they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the
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- nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to the
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- description of some thing which either cannot exist, or is too
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- incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will be
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- words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot
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- inform the mind, for this explanation includes a previous question,
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- viz. How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to
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- trust, and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the
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- gift of a wise people, neither can any power, which needs checking,
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- be from God; yet the provision, which the constitution makes,
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- supposes such a power to exist.
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-
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- But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or
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- will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de se;
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- for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all
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- the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to
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- know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that
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- will govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or,
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- as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as
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- they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual; the first
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- moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed
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- is supplied by time.
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-
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- That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution
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- needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole consequence
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- merely from being the giver of places and pensions is self-evident,
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- wherefore, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door
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- against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish
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- enough to put the crown in possession of the key.
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-
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- The prejudice of Englishmen, in favour of their own government by
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- king, lords and commons, arises as much or more from national pride
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- than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in
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- some other countries, but the will of the king is as much the law of
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- the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead
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- of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people
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- under the more formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the
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- fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle--not
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- more just.
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-
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- Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour
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- of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it is wholly owing to
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- the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the
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- government that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in
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- Turkey.
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-
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- An inquiry into the constitutional errors in the English form of
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- government is at this time highly necessary, for as we are never in
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- a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue
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- under the influence of some leading partiality, so neither are we
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- capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any
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- obstinate prejudice. And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute,
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- is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in
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- favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from
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- discerning a good one.
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-
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-
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-
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- OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION.
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-
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- Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the
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- equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance;
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- the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be
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- accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh ill
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- sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often the
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- consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches; and though
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- avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it
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- generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.
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-
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- But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly
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- natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the
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- distinction of men into kings and subjects. Male and female are the
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- distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but
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- how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and
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- distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and
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- whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.
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-
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- In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture
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- chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there
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- were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into
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- confusion. Holland without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this
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- last century than any of the monarchial governments in Europe.
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- Antiquity favors the same remark; for the quiet and rural lives of
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- the first patriarchs hath a happy something in them, which vanishes
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- away when we come to the history of Jewish royalty.
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-
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- Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the
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- Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was
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- the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the
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- promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honors to their
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- deceased kings, and the christian world hath improved on the plan by
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- doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of
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- sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor
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- is crumbling into dust!
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-
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- As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be
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- justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be
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- defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty,
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- as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves
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- of government by kings. All anti-monarchical parts of scripture have
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- been very smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments, but they
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- undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their
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- governments yet to form. "Render unto Cæsar the things which are
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- Cæsar's" is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no support
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- of monarchical government, for the Jews at that time were without a
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- king, and in a state of vassalage to the Romans.
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-
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- Near three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the
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- creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king.
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- Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases,
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- where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administred by
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- a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it
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- was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the
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- Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous
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- homage which is paid to the persons of Kings, he need not wonder,
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- that the Almighty ever jealous of his honor, should disapprove of a
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- form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of
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- heaven.
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-
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- Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for
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- which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of
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- that transaction is worth attending to.
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-
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- The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon
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- marched against them with a small army, and victory, thro' the
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- divine interposition, decided in his favour. The Jews elate with
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- success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed
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- making him a king, saying, Rule thou over us, thou and thy son and
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- thy son's son. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a
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- kingdom only, but an hereditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his
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- soul replied, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule
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- over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Words need not be more
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- explicit; Gideon doth not decline the honor, but denieth their right
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- to give it; neither doth he compliment them with invented
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- declarations of his thanks, but in the positive stile of a prophet
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- charges them with disaffection to their proper Sovereign, the King
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- of heaven.
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-
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- About one hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into
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- the same error. The hankering which the Jews had for the idolatrous
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- customs of the Heathens, is something exceedingly unaccountable; but
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- so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons,
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- who were entrusted with some secular concerns, they came in an
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- abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, Behold thou art old,
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- and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king to judge us
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- like all other nations. And here we cannot but observe that their
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- motives were bad, viz. that they might be like unto other nations,
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- i.e. the Heathens, whereas their true glory laid in being as much
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- unlike them as possible. But the thing displeased Samuel when they
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- said, Give us a king to judge us; and Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
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- and the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people
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- in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but
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- they have rejected me, THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM. According
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- to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought
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- them up out of Egypt, even unto this day; wherewith they have
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- forsaken me and served other Gods; so do they also unto thee. Now
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- therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit, protest solemnly unto
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- them and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them,
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- i.e. not of any particular king, but the general manner of the kings
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- of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying after. And
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- notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference of manners,
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- the character is still in fashion. And Samuel told all the words of
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- the Lord unto the people, that asked of him a king. And he said,
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- This shall be the manner of the king that shall reign over you; he
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- will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots,
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- and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots (this
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- description agrees with the present mode of impressing men) and he
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- will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties,
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- and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest, and to
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- make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots; and he
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- will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks and
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- to be bakers (this describes the expence and luxury as well as the
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- oppression of kings) and he will take your fields and your olive
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- yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants; and he
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- will take the tenth of your feed, and of your vineyards, and give
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- them to his officers and to his servants (by which we see that
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- bribery, corruption and favoritism are the standing vices of kings)
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- and he will take the tenth of your men servants, and your maid
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- servants, and your goodliest young men and your asses, and put them
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- to his work; and he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall
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- be his servants, and ye shall cry out in that day because of your
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- king which ye shall have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in
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- that day. This accounts for the continuation of monarchy; neither do
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- the characters of the few good kings which have lived since, either
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- sanctify the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the origin; the
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- high encomium given of David takes no notice of him officially as a
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- king, but only as a man after God's own heart. Nevertheless the
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- People refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but
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- we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations,
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- and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our
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- battles. Samuel continued to reason with them, but to no purpose; he
489
- set before them their ingratitude, but all would not avail; and
490
- seeing them fully bent on their folly, he cried out, I will call
491
- unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain (which then was a
492
- punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest) that ye may perceive
493
- and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the
494
- sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the
495
- Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the
496
- people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said
497
- unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die
498
- not, for we have added unto our sins this evil, to ask a king. These
499
- portions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no
500
- equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his
501
- protest against monarchical government is true, or the scripture is
502
- false. And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much
503
- of king-craft, as priest-craft, in withholding the scripture from
504
- the public in Popish countries. For monarchy in every instance is
505
- the Popery of government.
506
-
507
- To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession;
508
- and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the
509
- second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition
510
- on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth
511
- could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference
512
- to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent
513
- degree of honors of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be
514
- far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural
515
- proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature
516
- disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into
517
- ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.
518
-
519
- Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other public honors
520
- than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honors could
521
- have no power to give away the right of posterity, and though they
522
- might say "We choose you for our head," they could not, without
523
- manifest injustice to their children, say "that your children and
524
- your children's children shall reign over ours for ever." Because
525
- such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the
526
- next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool.
527
- Most wise men, in their private sentiments, have ever treated
528
- hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which
529
- when once established is not easily removed; many submit from fear,
530
- others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the
531
- king the plunder of the rest.
532
-
533
- This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had
534
- an honorable origin; whereas it is more than probable, that could we
535
- take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace them to their
536
- first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better
537
- than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage
538
- manners or pre-eminence in subtility obtained him the title of chief
539
- among plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his
540
- depredations, over-awed the quiet and defenceless to purchase their
541
- safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no
542
- idea of giving hereditary right to his descendants, because such a
543
- perpetual exclusion of themselves was incompatible with the free and
544
- unrestrained principles they professed to live by. Wherefore,
545
- hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take
546
- place as a matter of claim, but as something casual or complimental;
547
- but as few or no records were extant in those days, and traditional
548
- history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after the lapse of a
549
- few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale, conveniently
550
- timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of
551
- the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which threatened, or seemed to
552
- threaten, on the decease of a leader and the choice of a new one
553
- (for elections among ruffians could not be very orderly) induced
554
- many at first to favor hereditary pretensions; by which means it
555
- happened, as it hath happened since, that what at first was
556
- submitted to as a convenience, was afterwards claimed as a right.
557
-
558
- England, since the conquest, hath known some few good monarchs, but
559
- groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones; yet no man in his
560
- senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a
561
- very honorable one. A French bastard landing with an armed banditti,
562
- and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the
563
- natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original.--It
564
- certainly hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend
565
- much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right; if there are
566
- any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass
567
- and lion, and welcome. I shall neither copy their humility, nor
568
- disturb their devotion.
569
-
570
- Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose kings came at first?
571
- The question admits but of three answers, viz. either by lot, by
572
- election, or by usurpation. If the first king was taken by lot, it
573
- establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary
574
- succession. Saul was by lot, yet the succession was not hereditary,
575
- neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention
576
- it ever should. If the first king of any country was by election,
577
- that likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say, that
578
- the right of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the
579
- first electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family
580
- of kings for ever, hath no parrallel in or out of scripture but the
581
- doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men
582
- lost in Adam; and from such comparison, and it will admit of no
583
- other, hereditary succession can derive no glory. For as in Adam all
584
- sinned, and as in the first electors all men obeyed; as in the one
585
- all mankind were subjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty;
586
- as our innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the
587
- last; and as both disable us from reassuming some former state and
588
- privilege, it unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary
589
- succession are parellels. Dishonorable rank! Inglorious connexion!
590
- Yet the most subtile sophist cannot produce a juster simile.
591
-
592
- As to usurpation, no man will be so hardy as to defend it; and that
593
- William the Conqueror was an usurper is a fact not to be
594
- contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of English
595
- monarchy will not bear looking into.
596
-
597
- But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary
598
- succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and
599
- wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens
600
- a door to the foolish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in it
601
- the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign,
602
- and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of
603
- mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world
604
- they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they
605
- have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when
606
- they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and
607
- unfit of any throughout the dominions.
608
-
609
- Another evil which attends hereditary succession is, that the throne
610
- is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age; all which time the
611
- regency, acting under the cover of a king, have every opportunity
612
- and inducement to betray their trust. The same national misfortune
613
- happens, when a king worn out with age and infirmity, enters the
614
- last stage of human weakness. In both these cases the public becomes
615
- a prey to every miscreant, who can tamper successfully with the
616
- follies either of age or infancy.
617
-
618
- The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favour of
619
- hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil
620
- wars; and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the
621
- most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history
622
- of England disowns the fact. Thirty kings and two minors have
623
- reigned in that distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time
624
- there have been (including the Revolution) no less than eight civil
625
- wars and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace,
626
- it makes against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems to
627
- stand on.
628
-
629
- The contest for monarchy and succession, between the houses of York
630
- and Lancaster, laid England in a scene of blood for many years.
631
- Twelve pitched battles, besides skirmishes and sieges, were fought
632
- between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in
633
- his turn was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war
634
- and the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal matters are
635
- the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph from a
636
- prison to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a
637
- foreign land; yet, as sudden transitions of temper are seldom
638
- lasting, Henry in his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward
639
- recalled to succeed him. The parliament always following the
640
- strongest side.
641
-
642
- This contest began in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and was not
643
- entirely extinguished till Henry the Seventh, in whom the families
644
- were united. Including a period of 67 years, viz. from 1422 to 1489.
645
-
646
- In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that
647
- kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of
648
- government which the word of God bears testimony against, and blood
649
- will attend it.
650
-
651
- If we inquire into the business of a king, we shall find that in
652
- some countries they have none; and after sauntering away their lives
653
- without pleasure to themselves or advantage to the nation, withdraw
654
- from the scene, and leave their successors to tread the same idle
655
- round. In absolute monarchies the whole weight of business, civil
656
- and military, lies on the king; the children of Israel in their
657
- request for a king, urged this plea "that he may judge us, and go
658
- out before us and fight our battles." But in countries where he is
659
- neither a judge nor a general, as in England, a man would be puzzled
660
- to know what is his business.
661
-
662
- The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business
663
- there is for a king. It is somewhat difficult to find a proper name
664
- for the government of England. Sir William Meredith calls it a
665
- republic; but in its present state it is unworthy of the name,
666
- because the corrupt influence of the crown, by having all the places
667
- in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up the power, and
668
- eaten out the virtue of the house of commons (the republican part in
669
- the constitution) that the government of England is nearly as
670
- monarchical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out with names
671
- without understanding them. For it is the republican and not the
672
- monarchical part of the constitution of England which Englishmen
673
- glory in, viz. the liberty of choosing a house of commons from out
674
- of their own body--and it is easy to see that when republican virtue
675
- fails, slavery ensues. Why is the constitution of England sickly,
676
- but because monarchy hath poisoned the republic, the crown hath
677
- engrossed the commons?
678
-
679
- In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give
680
- away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and
681
- set it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to
682
- be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and
683
- worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man to
684
- society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that
685
- ever lived.
686
-
687
-
688
-
689
- THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS.
690
-
691
- In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain
692
- arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to
693
- settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of
694
- prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings
695
- to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he
696
- will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously
697
- enlarge his views beyond the present day.
698
-
699
- Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between
700
- England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the
701
- controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but
702
- all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms,
703
- as the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the choice
704
- of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
705
-
706
- It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham (who tho' an able
707
- minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in
708
- the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a
709
- temporary kind, replied "they will last my time." Should a thought
710
- so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest,
711
- the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with
712
- detestation.
713
-
714
- The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the
715
- affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a
716
- continent--of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis
717
- not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually
718
- involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to
719
- the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of
720
- continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be
721
- like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a
722
- young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read
723
- it in full grown characters.
724
-
725
- By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new æra for
726
- politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans,
727
- proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i.e. to the
728
- commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacks of the last year;
729
- which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now. Whatever
730
- was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then,
731
- terminated in one and the same point, viz. a union with Great-
732
- Britain; the only difference between the parties was the method of
733
- effecting it; the one proposing force, the other friendship; but it
734
- hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath
735
- withdrawn her influence.
736
-
737
- As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which,
738
- like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were, it
739
- is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the
740
- argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which
741
- these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected
742
- with, and dependant on Great-Britain. To examine that connexion and
743
- dependance, on the principles of nature and common sense, to see
744
- what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect,
745
- if dependant.
746
-
747
- I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished
748
- under her former connexion with Great-Britain, that the same
749
- connexion is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always
750
- have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind
751
- of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived
752
- upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty
753
- years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But
754
- even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer roundly, that
755
- America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had
756
- no European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce, by
757
- which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and
758
- will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.
759
-
760
- But she has protected us, say some. That she has engrossed us is
761
- true, and defended the continent at our expence as well as her own
762
- is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive,
763
- viz. the sake of trade and dominion.
764
-
765
- Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made
766
- large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of
767
- Great-Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not
768
- attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our
769
- account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had
770
- no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our
771
- enemies on the same account. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the
772
- continent, or the continent throw off the dependance, and we should
773
- be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The
774
- miseries of Hanover last war ought to warn us against connexions.
775
-
776
- It has lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have no
777
- relation to each other but through the parent country, i.e. that
778
- Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister
779
- colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very round-about
780
- way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way
781
- of proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France and Spain never
782
- were, nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as Americans, but as our
783
- being the subjects of Great-Britain.
784
-
785
- But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame
786
- upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages
787
- make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true,
788
- turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly
789
- so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically
790
- adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design
791
- of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds.
792
- Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new
793
- world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and
794
- religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled,
795
- not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of
796
- the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny
797
- which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants
798
- still.
799
-
800
- In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow limits
801
- of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and carry
802
- our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with every
803
- European christian, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.
804
-
805
- It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the
806
- force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the
807
- world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will
808
- naturally associate most with his fellow parishioners (because their
809
- interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the
810
- name of neighbour; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he
811
- drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of
812
- townsman; if he travel out of the county, and meet him in any other,
813
- he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls him
814
- countryman, i.e. county-man; but if in their foreign excursions they
815
- should associate in France or any other part of Europe, their local
816
- remembrance would be enlarged into that of Englishmen. And by a just
817
- parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or any other
818
- quarter of the globe, are countrymen; for England, Holland, Germany,
819
- or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on
820
- the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do
821
- on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for continental minds.
822
- Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of
823
- English descent. Wherefore I reprobate the phrase of parent or
824
- mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish,
825
- narrow and ungenerous.
826
-
827
- But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it
828
- amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes
829
- every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our
830
- duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present
831
- line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of
832
- England are descendants from the same country; therefore, by the
833
- same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.
834
-
835
- Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the
836
- colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world.
837
- But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither
838
- do the expressions mean any thing; for this continent would never
839
- suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants, to support the British
840
- arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.
841
-
842
- Besides what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our
843
- plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the
844
- peace and friendship of all Europe; because, it is the interest of
845
- all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a
846
- protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from
847
- invaders.
848
-
849
- I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a
850
- single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected
851
- with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage
852
- is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe,
853
- and our imported goods must be paid for buy them where we will.
854
-
855
- But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection,
856
- are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to
857
- ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any
858
- submission to, or dependance on Great-Britain, tends directly to
859
- involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and sets us at
860
- variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and
861
- against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our
862
- market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any
863
- part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of
864
- European contentions, which she never can do, while by her
865
- dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of
866
- British politics.
867
-
868
- Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and
869
- whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the
870
- trade of America goes to ruin, because of her connection with
871
- Britain. The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it
872
- not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for
873
- separation then, because, neutrality in that case, would be a safer
874
- convoy than a man of war. Every thing that is right or natural
875
- pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of
876
- nature cries, 'Tis time to part. Even the distance at which the
877
- Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural
878
- proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the
879
- design of Heaven. The time likewise at which the continent was
880
- discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it
881
- was peopled encreases the force of it. The reformation was preceded
882
- by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to
883
- open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should
884
- afford neither friendship nor safety.
885
-
886
- The authority of Great-Britain over this continent, is a form of
887
- government, which sooner or later must have an end: And a serious
888
- mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful
889
- and positive conviction, that what he calls "the present
890
- constitution" is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy,
891
- knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure
892
- any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method
893
- of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we
894
- ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and
895
- pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we
896
- should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few
897
- years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect,
898
- which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
899
-
900
- Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offence, yet I am
901
- inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of
902
- reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions.
903
- Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who cannot see;
904
- prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men,
905
- who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this
906
- last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more
907
- calamities to this continent, than all the other three.
908
-
909
- It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of
910
- sorrow; the evil is not sufficient brought to their doors to make
911
- them feel the precariousness with which all American property is
912
- possessed. But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments
913
- to Boston, that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and
914
- instruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom we can have no
915
- trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few
916
- months ago were in ease and affluence, have now, no other
917
- alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered
918
- by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city, and
919
- plundered by the soldiery if they leave it. In their present
920
- condition they are prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in
921
- a general attack for their relief, they would be exposed to the fury
922
- of both armies.
923
-
924
- Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of
925
- Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come,
926
- come, we shall be friends again, for all this." But examine the
927
- passions and feelings of mankind, Bring the doctrine of
928
- reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me,
929
- whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully serve the
930
- power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot
931
- do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your
932
- delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future connection with
933
- Britain, whom you can neither love nor honour, will be forced and
934
- unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience,
935
- will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the
936
- first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then
937
- I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed
938
- before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to
939
- lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by
940
- their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you
941
- have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you
942
- have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you
943
- unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and
944
- whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a
945
- coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.
946
-
947
- This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by
948
- those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
949
- which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of
950
- life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror
951
- for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal
952
- and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed
953
- object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer
954
- America, if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The
955
- present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or
956
- neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune; and
957
- there is no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who,
958
- or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a
959
- season so precious and useful.
960
-
961
- It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things to all
962
- examples from former ages, to suppose, that this continent can
963
- longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in
964
- Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot,
965
- at this time, compass a plan short of separation, which can promise
966
- the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is now a
967
- fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connexion, and Art cannot
968
- supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, "never can true
969
- reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so
970
- deep."
971
-
972
- Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have
973
- been rejected with disdain; and only tended to convince us, that
974
- nothing flatters vanity, or confirms obstinacy in Kings more than
975
- repeated petitioning--and nothing hath contributed more than that
976
- very measure to make the Kings of Europe absolute: Witness Denmark
977
- and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's
978
- sake, let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next
979
- generation to be cutting throats, under the violated unmeaning names
980
- of parent and child.
981
-
982
- To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we
983
- thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two
984
- undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations, which have been
985
- once defeated, will never renew the quarrel.
986
-
987
- As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do
988
- this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty,
989
- and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of
990
- convenience, by a power, so distant from us, and so very ignorant of
991
- us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be
992
- always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
993
- petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when
994
- obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
995
- years be looked upon as folly and childishness--There was a time
996
- when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.
997
-
998
- Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper
999
- objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is
1000
- something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually
1001
- governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite
1002
- larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with
1003
- respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is
1004
- evident they belong to different systems: England to Europe, America
1005
- to itself.
1006
-
1007
- I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to
1008
- espouse the doctrine of separation and independance; I am clearly,
1009
- positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true
1010
- interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of that
1011
- is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,--that it
1012
- is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time,
1013
- when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this
1014
- continent the glory of the earth.
1015
-
1016
- As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a
1017
- compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy
1018
- the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expence of
1019
- blood and treasure we have been already put to.
1020
-
1021
- The object, contended for, ought always to bear some just proportion
1022
- to the expence. The removal of North, or the whole detestable junto,
1023
- is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary
1024
- stoppage of trade, was an inconvenience, which would have
1025
- sufficiently ballanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had
1026
- such repeals been obtained; but if the whole continent must take up
1027
- arms, if every man must be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our while
1028
- to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly, do we
1029
- pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for in
1030
- a just estimation, it is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price
1031
- for law, as for land. As I have always considered the independancy
1032
- of this continent, as an event, which sooner or later must arrive,
1033
- so from the late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the
1034
- event could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of
1035
- hostilities, it was not worth the while to have disputed a matter,
1036
- which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be in
1037
- earnest; otherwise, it is like wasting an estate on a suit at law,
1038
- to regulate the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring.
1039
- No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself, before
1040
- the fatal nineteenth of April 1775, but the moment the event of that
1041
- day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh
1042
- of England for ever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended
1043
- title of father of his people can unfeelingly hear of their
1044
- slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.
1045
-
1046
- But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the event?
1047
- I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several reasons.
1048
-
1049
- First. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the
1050
- king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this
1051
- continent. And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy to
1052
- liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or
1053
- is he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, "You shall make no
1054
- laws but what I please." And is there any inhabitant in America so
1055
- ignorant, as not to know, that according to what is called the
1056
- present constitution, that this continent can make no laws but what
1057
- the king gives leave to; and is there any man so unwise, as not to
1058
- see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to
1059
- be made here, but such as suit his purpose. We may be as effectually
1060
- enslaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws
1061
- made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called)
1062
- can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be
1063
- exerted, to keep this continent as low and humble as possible?
1064
- Instead of going forward we shall go backward, or be perpetually
1065
- quarrelling or ridiculously petitioning.--We are already greater
1066
- than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavour
1067
- to make us less? To bring the matter to one point. Is the power who
1068
- is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever
1069
- says No to this question is an independant, for independancy means
1070
- no more, than, whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the
1071
- king, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall
1072
- tell us "there shall be no laws but such as I like."
1073
-
1074
- But the king you will say has a negative in England; the people
1075
- there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and
1076
- good order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of
1077
- twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several millions
1078
- of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act
1079
- of yours to be law. But in this place I decline this sort of reply,
1080
- though I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and only
1081
- answer, that England being the King's residence, and America not so,
1082
- makes quite another case. The king's negative here is ten times more
1083
- dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will
1084
- scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as
1085
- strong a state of defence as possible, and in America he would never
1086
- suffer such a bill to be passed.
1087
-
1088
- America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics,
1089
- England consults the good of this country, no farther than it
1090
- answers her own purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to
1091
- suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her
1092
- advantage, or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state we
1093
- should soon be in under such a second-hand government, considering
1094
- what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the
1095
- alteration of a name: And in order to shew that reconciliation now
1096
- is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm, that it would be policy in the
1097
- king at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating
1098
- himself in the government of the provinces; in order, that he may
1099
- accomplish by craft and subtilty, in the long run, what he cannot do
1100
- by force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are
1101
- nearly related.
1102
-
1103
- Secondly. That as even the best terms, which we can expect to obtain,
1104
- can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of
1105
- government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the
1106
- colonies come of age, so the general face and state of things, in
1107
- the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of
1108
- property will not choose to come to a country whose form of
1109
- government hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on
1110
- the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present
1111
- inhabitants would lay hold of the interval, to dispense of their
1112
- effects, and quit the continent.
1113
-
1114
- But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but
1115
- independance, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep the
1116
- peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I
1117
- dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more
1118
- than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere or
1119
- other, the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the
1120
- malice of Britain.
1121
-
1122
- Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more
1123
- will probably suffer the same fate) Those men have other feelings
1124
- than us who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty,
1125
- what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having
1126
- nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general
1127
- temper of the colonies, towards a British government, will be like
1128
- that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time; they will care very
1129
- little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace,
1130
- is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for
1131
- nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will
1132
- be wholly on paper, should a civil tumult break out the very day
1133
- after reconciliation? I have heard some men say, many of whom I
1134
- believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independance,
1135
- fearing that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our
1136
- first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for
1137
- there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connexion than
1138
- from independance. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest,
1139
- that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and
1140
- my circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could
1141
- never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself
1142
- bound thereby.
1143
-
1144
- The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and
1145
- obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make every
1146
- reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the
1147
- least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds, than such as are
1148
- truly childish and ridiculous, viz. that one colony will be striving
1149
- for superiority over another.
1150
-
1151
- Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority, perfect
1152
- equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all (and
1153
- we may say always) in peace. Holland and Swisserland are without
1154
- wars, foreign or domestic: Monarchical governments, it is true, are
1155
- never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation to enterprizing
1156
- ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever
1157
- attendant on regal authority, swells into a rupture with foreign
1158
- powers, in instances, where a republican government, by being formed
1159
- on more natural principles, would negociate the mistake.
1160
-
1161
- If there is any true cause of fear respecting independance, it is
1162
- because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out--
1163
- Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following
1164
- hints; at the same time modestly affirming, that I have no other
1165
- opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving
1166
- rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of
1167
- individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
1168
- wise and able men to improve into useful matter.
1169
-
1170
- Let the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The
1171
- representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and
1172
- subject to the authority of a Continental Congress.
1173
-
1174
- Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient
1175
- districts, each district to send a proper number of delegates to
1176
- Congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number
1177
- in Congress will be at least 390. Each Congress to sit and to choose
1178
- a president by the following method. When the delegates are met, let
1179
- a colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after
1180
- which, let the whole Congress choose (by ballot) a president from
1181
- out of the delegates of that province. In the next Congress, let a
1182
- colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that colony from
1183
- which the president was taken in the former Congress, and so
1184
- proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper
1185
- rotation. And in order that nothing may pass into a law but what is
1186
- satisfactorily just, not less than three fifths of the Congress to
1187
- be called a majority.--He that will promote discord, under a
1188
- government so equally formed as this, would have joined Lucifer in
1189
- his revolt.
1190
-
1191
- But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner,
1192
- this business must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and
1193
- consistent that it should come from some intermediate body between
1194
- the governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and
1195
- the people, let a Continental Conference be held, in the following
1196
- manner, and for the following purpose.
1197
-
1198
- A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each
1199
- colony. Two members from each House of Assembly, or Provincial
1200
- Convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be
1201
- chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for, and in
1202
- behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall
1203
- think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that
1204
- purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen
1205
- in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this
1206
- conference, thus assembled, will be united, the two grand principles
1207
- of business, knowledge and power. The members of Congress,
1208
- Assemblies, or Conventions, by having had experience in national
1209
- concerns, will be able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being
1210
- impowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority.
1211
-
1212
- The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a
1213
- Continental Charter, or Charter of the United Colonies; (answering
1214
- to what is called the Magna Charta of England) fixing the number and
1215
- manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with
1216
- their date of sitting, and drawing the line of business and
1217
- jurisdiction between them: (Always remembering, that our strength is
1218
- continental, not provincial:) Securing freedom and property to all
1219
- men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according
1220
- to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is
1221
- necessary for a charter to contain. Immediately after which, the
1222
- said Conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be chosen
1223
- comformable to the said charter, to be the legislators and governors
1224
- of this continent for the time being: Whose peace and happiness, may
1225
- God preserve, Amen.
1226
-
1227
- Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some
1228
- similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise
1229
- observer on governments Dragonetti. "The science" says he "of the
1230
- politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and
1231
- freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should
1232
- discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of
1233
- individual happiness, with the least national expense.
1234
-
1235
- Dragonetti on virtue and rewards."
1236
-
1237
- But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he
1238
- reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal
1239
- Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in
1240
- earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the
1241
- charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word
1242
- of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know,
1243
- that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is
1244
- king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free
1245
- countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.
1246
- But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the
1247
- conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the
1248
- people whose right it is.
1249
-
1250
- A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man
1251
- seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will
1252
- become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a
1253
- constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have
1254
- it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and
1255
- chance. If we omit it now, some Massanello ¹ may hereafter arise,
1256
- who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the
1257
- desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the
1258
- powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent
1259
- like a deluge. Should the government of America return again into
1260
- the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will be a
1261
- temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in
1262
- such a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the
1263
- news, the fatal business might be done; and ourselves suffering like
1264
- the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that
1265
- oppose independance now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a
1266
- door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government.
1267
- There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it
1268
- glorious to expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish
1269
- power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us,
1270
- the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and
1271
- treacherously by them.
1272
-
1273
- ¹ Thomas Anello, otherwise Massanello, a fisherman of Naples, who
1274
- after spiriting up his countrymen in the public market place,
1275
- against the oppressions of the Spaniards, to whom the place was then
1276
- subject, prompted them to revolt, and in the space of a day became
1277
- king.
1278
-
1279
- To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to
1280
- have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores
1281
- instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the
1282
- little remains of kindred between us and them, and can there be any
1283
- reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will
1284
- increase, or that we shall agree better, when we have ten times more
1285
- and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?
1286
-
1287
- Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us
1288
- the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former
1289
- innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last
1290
- cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses
1291
- against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she
1292
- would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive
1293
- the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders
1294
- of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable
1295
- feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his
1296
- image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common
1297
- animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be
1298
- extirpated the earth, or have only a casual existence were we
1299
- callous to the touches of affection. The robber, and the murderer,
1300
- would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our
1301
- tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.
1302
-
1303
- O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny,
1304
- but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun
1305
- with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and
1306
- Africa, have long expelled her--Europe regards her like a stranger,
1307
- and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the
1308
- fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
1309
-
1310
-
1311
-
1312
- OF THE PRESENT ABILITY OF AMERICA,
1313
- WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS REFLEXIONS.
1314
-
1315
- I have never met with a man, either in England or America, who hath
1316
- not confessed his opinion, that a separation between the countries,
1317
- would take place one time or other: And there is no instance, in
1318
- which we have shewn less judgment, than in endeavouring to describe,
1319
- what we call, the ripeness or fitness of the Continent for
1320
- independance.
1321
-
1322
- As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their opinion of the
1323
- time, let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of
1324
- things, and endeavour, if possible, to find out the very time. But
1325
- we need not go far, the inquiry ceases at once, for, the time hath
1326
- found us. The general concurrence, the glorious union of all things
1327
- prove the fact.
1328
-
1329
- It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies;
1330
- yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the
1331
- world. The Continent hath, at this time, the largest body of armed
1332
- and disciplined men of any power under Heaven; and is just arrived
1333
- at that pitch of strength, in which no single colony is able to
1334
- support itself, and the whole, when united, can accomplish the
1335
- matter, and either more, or, less than this, might be fatal in its
1336
- effects. Our land force is already sufficient, and as to naval
1337
- affairs, we cannot be insensible, that Britain would never suffer an
1338
- American man of war to be built, while the continent remained in her
1339
- hands. Wherefore, we should be no forwarder an hundred years hence
1340
- in that branch, than we are now; but the truth is, we should be less
1341
- so, because the timber of the country is every day diminishing, and
1342
- that, which will remain at last, will be far off and difficult to
1343
- procure.
1344
-
1345
- Were the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under
1346
- the present circumstances would be intolerable. The more sea port
1347
- towns we had, the more should we have both to defend and to lose.
1348
- Our present numbers are so happily proportioned to our wants, that
1349
- no man need be idle. The diminution of trade affords an army, and
1350
- the necessities of an army create a new trade.
1351
-
1352
- Debts we have none; and whatever we may contract on this account
1353
- will serve as a glorious memento of our virtue. Can we but leave
1354
- posterity with a settled form of government, an independant
1355
- constitution of its own, the purchase at any price will be cheap.
1356
- But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts
1357
- repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is unworthy the
1358
- charge, and is using posterity with the utmost cruelty; because it
1359
- is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs,
1360
- from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a
1361
- man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and a
1362
- pedling politician.
1363
-
1364
- The debt we may contract doth not deserve our regard if the work be
1365
- but accomplished. No nation ought to be without a debt. A national
1366
- debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no
1367
- case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with a debt of upwards of one
1368
- hundred and forty millions sterling, for which she pays upwards of
1369
- four millions interest. And as a compensation for her debt, she has
1370
- a large navy; America is without a debt, and without a navy; yet for
1371
- the twentieth part of the English national debt, could have a navy
1372
- as large again. The navy of England is not worth, at this time, more
1373
- than three millions and an half sterling.
1374
-
1375
- The first and second editions of this pamphlet were published
1376
- without the following calculations, which are now given as a proof
1377
- that the above estimation of the navy is just. See Entic's naval
1378
- history, intro. page 56.
1379
-
1380
- The charge of building a ship of each rate, and furnishing her with
1381
- masts, yards, sails and rigging, together with a proportion of eight
1382
- months boatswain's and carpenter's sea-stores, as calculated by Mr.
1383
- Burchett, Secretary to the navy.
1384
-
1385
- £
1386
- [pounds
1387
- sterling]
1388
- For a ship of 100 guns = 35,553
1389
- 90 = 29,886
1390
- 80 = 23,638
1391
- 70 = 17,785
1392
- 60 = 14,197
1393
- 50 = 10,606
1394
- 40 = 7,558
1395
- 30 = 5,846
1396
- 20 = 3,710
1397
-
1398
- And from hence it is easy to sum up the value, or cost rather, of
1399
- the whole British navy, which in the year 1757, when it was at its
1400
- greatest glory consisted of the following ships and guns:
1401
-
1402
- Ships. Guns. Cost of one. Cost of all.
1403
- Cost in £ [pounds sterling]
1404
- 6 100 35,553 213,318
1405
- 12 90 29,886 358,632
1406
- 12 80 23,638 283,656
1407
- 43 70 17,785 764,755
1408
- 35 60 14,197 496,895
1409
- 40 50 10,606 424,240
1410
- 45 40 7,558 340,110
1411
- 58 20 3,710 215,180
1412
- 85 Sloops, bombs
1413
- and fireships, one
1414
- with another, at } 2,000 170,000
1415
- ------------
1416
- Cost 3,266,786
1417
- Remains for Guns 233,214
1418
- ------------
1419
- 3,500,000
1420
-
1421
- No country on the globe is so happily situated, or so internally
1422
- capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron, and
1423
- cordage are her natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing.
1424
- Whereas the Dutch, who make large profits by hiring out their ships
1425
- of war to the Spaniards and Portuguese, are obliged to import most
1426
- of the materials they use. We ought to view the building a fleet as
1427
- an article of commerce, it being the natural manufactory of this
1428
- country. It is the best money we can lay out. A navy when finished
1429
- is worth more than it cost. And is that nice point in national
1430
- policy, in which commerce and protection are united. Let us build;
1431
- if we want them not, we can sell; and by that means replace our
1432
- paper currency with ready gold and silver.
1433
-
1434
- In point of manning a fleet, people in general run into great errors;
1435
- it is not necessary that one fourth part should be sailors. The
1436
- Terrible privateer, Captain Death, stood the hottest engagement of
1437
- any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her
1438
- complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able and social
1439
- sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landmen in
1440
- the common work of a ship. Wherefore, we never can be more capable
1441
- to begin on maritime matters than now, while our timber is standing,
1442
- our fisheries blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of
1443
- employ. Men of war, of seventy and eighty guns were built forty
1444
- years ago in New-England, and why not the same now? Ship-building is
1445
- America's greatest pride, and in which, she will in time excel the
1446
- whole world. The great empires of the east are mostly inland, and
1447
- consequently excluded from the possibility of rivalling her. Africa
1448
- is in a state of barbarism; and no power in Europe, hath either such
1449
- an extent of coast, or such an internal supply of materials. Where
1450
- nature hath given the one, she has withheld the other; to America
1451
- only hath she been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is
1452
- almost shut out from the sea; wherefore, her boundless forests, her
1453
- tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce.
1454
-
1455
- In point of safety, ought we to be without a fleet? We are not the
1456
- little people now, which we were sixty years ago; at that time we
1457
- might have trusted our property in the streets, or fields rather;
1458
- and slept securely without locks or bolts to our doors or windows.
1459
- The case now is altered, and our methods of defence, ought to
1460
- improve with our increase of property. A common pirate, twelve
1461
- months ago, might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of
1462
- Philadelphia under instant contribution, for what sum he pleased;
1463
- and the same might have happened to other places. Nay, any daring
1464
- fellow, in a brig of fourteen or sixteen guns, might have robbed the
1465
- whole Continent, and carried off half a million of money. These are
1466
- circumstances which demand our attention, and point out the
1467
- necessity of naval protection.
1468
-
1469
- Some, perhaps, will say, that after we have made it up with Britain,
1470
- she will protect us. Can we be so unwise as to mean, that she shall
1471
- keep a navy in our harbours for that purpose? Common sense will tell
1472
- us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all
1473
- others, the most improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected
1474
- under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves, after a long and
1475
- brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships
1476
- are not to be admitted into our harbours, I would ask, how is she to
1477
- protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles off can be of little
1478
- use, and on sudden emergencies, none at all. Wherefore, if we must
1479
- hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves? Why do it
1480
- for another?
1481
-
1482
- The English list of ships of war, is long and formidable, but not a
1483
- tenth part of them are at any one time fit for service, numbers of
1484
- them not in being; yet their names are pompously continued in the
1485
- list, if only a plank be left of the ship: and not a fifth part, of
1486
- such as are fit for service, can be spared on any one station at one
1487
- time. The East and West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other
1488
- parts over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon
1489
- her navy. From a mixture of prejudice and inattention, we have
1490
- contracted a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have
1491
- talked as if we should have the whole of it to encounter at once,
1492
- and for that reason, supposed, that we must have one as large; which
1493
- not being instantly practicable, have been made use of by a set of
1494
- disguised Tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be
1495
- farther from truth than this; for if America had only a twentieth
1496
- part of the naval force of Britain, she would be by far an over
1497
- match for her; because, as we neither have, nor claim any foreign
1498
- dominion, our whole force would be employed on our own coast, where
1499
- we should, in the long run, have two to one the advantage of those
1500
- who had three or four thousand miles to sail over, before they could
1501
- attack us, and the same distance to return in order to refit and
1502
- recruit. And although Britain by her fleet, hath a check over our
1503
- trade to Europe, we have as large a one over her trade to the West-
1504
- Indies, which, by laying in the neighbourhood of the Continent, is
1505
- entirely at its mercy.
1506
-
1507
- Some method might be fallen on to keep up a naval force in time of
1508
- peace, if we should not judge it necessary to support a constant
1509
- navy. If premiums were to be given to merchants, to build and employ
1510
- in their service ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty or fifty
1511
- guns, (the premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the
1512
- merchants) fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guardships on
1513
- constant duty, would keep up a sufficient navy, and that without
1514
- burdening ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England,
1515
- of suffering their fleet, in time of peace to lie rotting in the
1516
- docks. To unite the sinews of commerce and defense is sound policy;
1517
- for when our strength and our riches play into each other's hand, we
1518
- need fear no external enemy.
1519
-
1520
- In almost every article of defense we abound. Hemp flourishes even
1521
- to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior
1522
- to that of other countries. Our small arms equal to any in the world.
1523
- Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every
1524
- day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our
1525
- inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us.
1526
- Wherefore, what is it that we want? Why is it that we hesitate? From
1527
- Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to
1528
- the government of America again, this Continent will not be worth
1529
- living in. Jealousies will be always arising; insurrections will be
1530
- constantly happening; and who will go forth to quell them? Who will
1531
- venture his life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience?
1532
- The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some
1533
- unlocated lands, shews the insignificance of a British government,
1534
- and fully proves, that nothing but Continental authority can
1535
- regulate Continental matters.
1536
-
1537
- Another reason why the present time is preferable to all others, is,
1538
- that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there is yet
1539
- unoccupied, which instead of being lavished by the king on his
1540
- worthless dependants, may be hereafter applied, not only to the
1541
- discharge of the present debt, but to the constant support of
1542
- government. No nation under heaven hath such an advantage as this.
1543
-
1544
- The infant state of the Colonies, as it is called, so far from being
1545
- against, is an argument in favour of independance. We are
1546
- sufficiently numerous, and were we more so, we might be less united.
1547
- It is a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is
1548
- peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the
1549
- ancients far exceeded the moderns: and the reason is evident. For
1550
- trade being the consequence of population, men become too much
1551
- absorbed thereby to attend to anything else. Commerce diminishes the
1552
- spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. And history
1553
- sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always
1554
- accomplished in the non-age of a nation. With the increase of
1555
- commerce, England hath lost its spirit. The city of London,
1556
- notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults with the
1557
- patience of a coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing
1558
- are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and
1559
- submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a Spaniel.
1560
-
1561
- Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in
1562
- individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to form the
1563
- Continent into one government half a century hence. The vast variety
1564
- of interests, occasioned by an increase of trade and population,
1565
- would create confusion. Colony would be against colony. Each being
1566
- able might scorn each other's assistance: and while the proud and
1567
- foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament,
1568
- that the union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the present
1569
- time is the true time for establishing it. The intimacy which is
1570
- contracted in infancy, and the friendship which is formed in
1571
- misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting and unalterable.
1572
- Our present union is marked with both these characters: we are young
1573
- and we have been distressed; but our concord hath withstood our
1574
- troubles, and fixes a memorable area for posterity to glory in.
1575
-
1576
- The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never
1577
- happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming itself into a
1578
- government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that
1579
- means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors,
1580
- instead of making laws for themselves. First, they had a king, and
1581
- then a form of government; whereas, the articles or charter of
1582
- government, should be formed first, and men delegated to execute
1583
- them afterward: but from the errors of other nations, let us learn
1584
- wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity--To begin government
1585
- at the right end.
1586
-
1587
- When William the Conqueror subdued England, he gave them law at the
1588
- point of the sword; and until we consent, that the seat of
1589
- government, in America, be legally and authoritatively occupied, we
1590
- shall be in danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian,
1591
- who may treat us in the same manner, and then, where will be our
1592
- freedom? where our property?
1593
-
1594
- As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all
1595
- government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I
1596
- know of no other business which government hath to do therewith. Let
1597
- a man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of
1598
- principle, which the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to
1599
- part with, and he will be at once delivered of his fears on that head.
1600
- Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good
1601
- society. For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is
1602
- the will of the Almighty, that there should be diversity of
1603
- religious opinions among us: It affords a larger field for our
1604
- Christian kindness. Were we all of one way of thinking, our
1605
- religious dispositions would want matter for probation; and on this
1606
- liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us, to
1607
- be like children of the same family, differing only, in what is
1608
- called, their Christian names.
1609
-
1610
- In page forty, I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety of a
1611
- Continental Charter, (for I only presume to offer hints, not plans)
1612
- and in this place, I take the liberty of re-mentioning the subject,
1613
- by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond of solemn
1614
- obligation, which the whole enters into, to support the right of
1615
- every separate part, whether of religion, personal freedom, or
1616
- property. A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends.
1617
-
1618
- In a former page I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large and
1619
- equal representation; and there is no political matter which more
1620
- deserves our attention. A small number of electors, or a small
1621
- number of representatives, are equally dangerous. But if the number
1622
- of the representatives be not only small, but unequal, the danger is
1623
- increased. As an instance of this, I mention the following; when the
1624
- Associators petition was before the House of Assembly of
1625
- Pennsylvania; twenty-eight members only were present, all the Bucks
1626
- county members, being eight, voted against it, and had seven of the
1627
- Chester members done the same, this whole province had been governed
1628
- by two counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to. The
1629
- unwarrantable stretch likewise, which that house made in their last
1630
- sitting, to gain an undue authority over the delegates of that
1631
- province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power
1632
- out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates were
1633
- put together, which in point of sense and business would have
1634
- dishonoured a schoolboy, and after being approved by a few, a very
1635
- few without doors, were carried into the House, and there passed in
1636
- behalf of the whole colony; whereas, did the whole colony know, with
1637
- what ill-will that House hath entered on some necessary public
1638
- measures, they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of
1639
- such a trust.
1640
-
1641
- Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued
1642
- would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different
1643
- things. When the calamities of America required a consultation,
1644
- there was no method so ready, or at that time so proper, as to
1645
- appoint persons from the several Houses of Assembly for that purpose;
1646
- and the wisdom with which they have proceeded hath preserved this
1647
- continent from ruin. But as it is more than probable that we shall
1648
- never be without a Congress, every well wisher to good order, must
1649
- own, that the mode for choosing members of that body, deserves
1650
- consideration. And I put it as a question to those, who make a study
1651
- of mankind, whether representation and election is not too great a
1652
- power for one and the same body of men to possess? When we are
1653
- planning for posterity, we ought to remember, that virtue is not
1654
- hereditary.
1655
-
1656
- It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are
1657
- frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes. Mr. Cornwall
1658
- (one of the Lords of the Treasury) treated the petition of the New-
1659
- York Assembly with contempt, because that House, he said, consisted
1660
- but of twenty-six members, which trifling number, he argued, could
1661
- not with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for his
1662
- involuntary honesty. ¹
1663
-
1664
- ¹ Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a large
1665
- and equal representation is to a state, should read Burgh's
1666
- political disquisitions.
1667
-
1668
- To Conclude, however strange it may appear to some, or however
1669
- unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, but many strong and
1670
- striking reasons may be given, to shew, that nothing can settle our
1671
- affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for
1672
- independance. Some of which are,
1673
-
1674
- First.--It is the custom of nations, when any two are at war, for
1675
- some other powers, not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as
1676
- mediators, and bring about the preliminaries of a peace: but while
1677
- America calls herself the Subject of Great-Britain, no power,
1678
- however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore,
1679
- in our present state we may quarrel on for ever.
1680
-
1681
- Secondly.--It is unreasonable to suppose, that France or Spain will
1682
- give us any kind of assistance, if we mean only, to make use of that
1683
- assistance for the purpose of repairing the breach, and
1684
- strengthening the connection between Britain and America; because,
1685
- those powers would be sufferers by the consequences.
1686
-
1687
- Thirdly.--While we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we
1688
- must, in the eye of foreign nations, be considered as rebels. The
1689
- precedent is somewhat dangerous to their peace, for men to be in
1690
- arms under the name of subjects; we, on the spot, can solve the
1691
- paradox: but to unite resistance and subjection, requires an idea
1692
- much too refined for common understanding.
1693
-
1694
- Fourthly.--Were a manifesto to be published, and despatched to
1695
- foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured, and the
1696
- peaceable methods we have ineffectually used for redress; declaring,
1697
- at the same time, that not being able, any longer, to live happily
1698
- or safely under the cruel disposition of the British court, we had
1699
- been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connections with
1700
- her; at the same time, assuring all such courts of our peaceable
1701
- disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering into trade
1702
- with them: Such a memorial would produce more good effects to this
1703
- Continent, than if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain.
1704
-
1705
- Under our present denomination of British subjects, we can neither
1706
- be received nor heard abroad: The custom of all courts is against us,
1707
- and will be so, until, by an independance, we take rank with other
1708
- nations.
1709
-
1710
- These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult; but,
1711
- like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a
1712
- little time become familiar and agreeable; and, until an
1713
- independance is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man
1714
- who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day,
1715
- yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over,
1716
- and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.
1717
-
1718
-
1719
-
1720
- APPENDIX.
1721
-
1722
- Since the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or
1723
- rather, on the same day on which it came out, the King's Speech made
1724
- its appearance in this city. Had the spirit of prophecy directed the
1725
- birth of this production, it could not have brought it forth, at a
1726
- more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time. The bloody
1727
- mindedness of the one, shew the necessity of pursuing the doctrine
1728
- of the other. Men read by way of revenge. And the Speech, instead of
1729
- terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles of Independance.
1730
-
1731
- Ceremony, and even, silence, from whatever motive they may arise,
1732
- have a hurtful tendency, when they give the least degree of
1733
- countenance to base and wicked performances; wherefore, if this
1734
- maxim be admitted, it naturally follows, that the King's Speech, as
1735
- being a piece of finished villainy, deserved, and still deserves, a
1736
- general execration both by the Congress and the people. Yet, as the
1737
- domestic tranquillity of a nation, depends greatly, on the chastity
1738
- of what may properly be called national manners, it is often better,
1739
- to pass some things over in silent disdain, than to make use of such
1740
- new methods of dislike, as might introduce the least innovation, on
1741
- that guardian of our peace and safety. And, perhaps, it is chiefly
1742
- owing to this prudent delicacy, that the King's Speech, hath not,
1743
- before now, suffered a public execution. The Speech if it may be
1744
- called one, is nothing better than a wilful audacious libel against
1745
- the truth, the common good, and the existence of mankind; and is a
1746
- formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices to the
1747
- pride of tyrants. But this general massacre of mankind, is one of
1748
- the privileges, and the certain consequence of Kings; for as nature
1749
- knows them not, they know not her, and although they are beings of
1750
- our own creating, they know not us, and are become the gods of their
1751
- creators. The Speech hath one good quality, which is, that it is not
1752
- calculated to deceive, neither can we, even if we would, be deceived
1753
- by it. Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it. It leaves us
1754
- at no loss: And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading,
1755
- that He, who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored
1756
- Indian, is less a Savage than the King of Britain.
1757
-
1758
- Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining jesuitical
1759
- piece, fallaciously called, "The Address of the people of England to
1760
- the inhabitants of America," hath, perhaps, from a vain supposition,
1761
- that the people here were to be frightened at the pomp and
1762
- description of a king, given, (though very unwisely on his part) the
1763
- real character of the present one: "But" says this writer, "if you
1764
- are inclined to pay compliments to an administration, which we do
1765
- not complain of," (meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the repeal
1766
- of the Stamp Act) "it is very unfair in you to withhold them from
1767
- that prince, by whose nod alone they were permitted to do any
1768
- thing." This is toryism with a witness! Here is idolatry even
1769
- without a mask: And he who can calmly hear, and digest such doctrine,
1770
- hath forfeited his claim to rationality--an apostate from the order
1771
- of manhood; and ought to be considered--as one, who hath not only
1772
- given up the proper dignity of man, but sunk himself beneath the
1773
- rank of animals, and contemptibly crawls through the world like a
1774
- worm.
1775
-
1776
- However, it matters very little now, what the king of England either
1777
- says or does; he hath wickedly broken through every moral and human
1778
- obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet; and by
1779
- a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty,
1780
- procured for himself an universal hatred. It is now the interest of
1781
- America to provide for herself. She hath already a large and young
1782
- family, whom it is more her duty to take care of, than to be
1783
- granting away her property, to support a power who is become a
1784
- reproach to the names of men and christians--Ye, whose office it is
1785
- to watch over the morals of a nation, of whatsoever sect or
1786
- denomination ye are of, as well as ye, who are more immediately the
1787
- guardians of the public liberty, if ye wish to preserve your native
1788
- country uncontaminated by European corruption, ye must in secret
1789
- wish a separation--But leaving the moral part to private reflection,
1790
- I shall chiefly confine my farther remarks to the following heads.
1791
-
1792
- First. That it is the interest of America to be separated from
1793
- Britain.
1794
-
1795
- Secondly. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan,
1796
- reconciliation or independance? with some occasional remarks.
1797
-
1798
- In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper, produce the
1799
- opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men on this
1800
- continent; and whose sentiments, on that head, are not yet publicly
1801
- known. It is in reality a self-evident position: For no nation in a
1802
- state of foreign dependance, limited in its commerce, and cramped
1803
- and fettered in its legislative powers, can ever arrive at any
1804
- material eminence. America doth not yet know what opulence is; and
1805
- although the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the
1806
- history of other nations, it is but childhood, compared with what
1807
- she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought to have,
1808
- the legislative powers in her own hands. England is, at this time,
1809
- proudly coveting what would do her no good, were she to accomplish
1810
- it; and the Continent hesitating on a matter, which will be her
1811
- final ruin if neglected. It is the commerce and not the conquest of
1812
- America, by which England is to be benefited, and that would in a
1813
- great measure continue, were the countries as independant of each
1814
- other as France and Spain; because in many articles, neither can go
1815
- to a better market. But it is the independance of this country of
1816
- Britain or any other, which is now the main and only object worthy
1817
- of contention, and which, like all other truths discovered by
1818
- necessity, will appear clearer and stronger every day.
1819
-
1820
- First. Because it will come to that one time or other.
1821
-
1822
- Secondly. Because, the longer it is delayed the harder it will be to
1823
- accomplish.
1824
-
1825
- I have frequently amused myself both in public and private companies,
1826
- with silently remarking, the specious errors of those who speak
1827
- without reflecting. And among the many which I have heard, the
1828
- following seems the most general, viz. that had this rupture
1829
- happened forty or fifty years hence, instead of now, the Continent
1830
- would have been more able to have shaken off the dependance. To
1831
- which I reply, that our military ability, at this time, arises from
1832
- the experience gained in the last war, and which in forty or fifty
1833
- years time, would have been totally extinct. The Continent, would
1834
- not, by that time, have had a General, or even a military officer
1835
- left; and we, or those who may succeed us, would have been as
1836
- ignorant of martial matters as the ancient Indians: And this single
1837
- position, closely attended to, will unanswerably prove, that the
1838
- present time is preferable to all others. The argument turns thus--
1839
- at the conclusion of the last war, we had experience, but wanted
1840
- numbers; and forty or fifty years hence, we should have numbers,
1841
- without experience; wherefore, the proper point of time, must be
1842
- some particular point between the two extremes, in which a
1843
- sufficiency of the former remains, and a proper increase of the
1844
- latter is obtained: And that point of time is the present time.
1845
-
1846
- The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come
1847
- under the head I first set out with, and to which I again return by
1848
- the following position, viz.
1849
-
1850
- Should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain the
1851
- governing and sovereign power of America, (which, as matters are now
1852
- circumstanced, is giving up the point intirely) we shall deprive
1853
- ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have, or may
1854
- contract. The value of the back lands which some of the provinces
1855
- are clandestinely deprived of, by the unjust extention of the limits
1856
- of Canada, valued only at five pounds sterling per hundred acres,
1857
- amount to upwards of twenty-five millions, Pennsylvania currency;
1858
- and the quit-rents at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions
1859
- yearly.
1860
-
1861
- It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk, without
1862
- burthen to any, and the quit-rent reserved thereon, will always
1863
- lessen, and in time, will wholly support the yearly expence of
1864
- government. It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that
1865
- the lands when sold be applied to the discharge of it, and for the
1866
- execution of which, the Congress for the time being, will be the
1867
- continental trustees.
1868
-
1869
- I proceed now to the second head, viz. Which is the easiest and most
1870
- practicable plan, reconciliation or independance; with some
1871
- occasional remarks.
1872
-
1873
- He who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his
1874
- argument, and on that ground, I answer generally--That independance
1875
- being a single simple line, contained within ourselves; and
1876
- reconciliation, a matter exceedingly perplexed and complicated, and
1877
- in which, a treacherous capricious court is to interfere, gives the
1878
- answer without a doubt.
1879
-
1880
- The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is
1881
- capable of reflexion. Without law, without government, without any
1882
- other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courtesy.
1883
- Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which is
1884
- nevertheless subject to change, and which every secret enemy is
1885
- endeavouring to dissolve. Our present condition, is, Legislation
1886
- without law; wisdom without a plan; constitution without a name; and,
1887
- what is strangely astonishing, perfect Independance contending for
1888
- dependance. The instance is without a precedent; the case never
1889
- existed before; and who can tell what may be the event? The property
1890
- of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The
1891
- mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object
1892
- before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is
1893
- criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore, every one
1894
- thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories dared not
1895
- have assembled offensively, had they known that their lives, by that
1896
- act, were forfeited to the laws of the state. A line of distinction
1897
- should be drawn, between, English soldiers taken in battle, and
1898
- inhabitants of America taken in arms. The first are prisoners, but
1899
- the latter traitors. The one forfeits his liberty, the other his
1900
- head.
1901
-
1902
- Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of
1903
- our proceedings which gives encouragement to dissensions. The
1904
- Continental Belt is too loosely buckled. And if something is not
1905
- done in time, it will be too late to do any thing, and we shall fall
1906
- into a state, in which, neither Reconciliation nor Independance will
1907
- be practicable. The king and his worthless adherents are got at
1908
- their old game of dividing the Continent, and there are not wanting
1909
- among us, Printers, who will be busy in spreading specious
1910
- falsehoods. The artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a few
1911
- months ago in two of the New-York papers, and likewise in two others,
1912
- is an evidence that there are men who want either judgment or
1913
- honesty.
1914
-
1915
- It is easy getting into holes and corners and talking of
1916
- reconciliation: But do such men seriously consider, how difficult
1917
- the task is, and how dangerous it may prove, should the Continent
1918
- divide thereon. Do they take within their view, all the various
1919
- orders of men whose situation and circumstances, as well as their
1920
- own, are to be considered therein. Do they put themselves in the
1921
- place of the sufferer whose all is already gone, and of the soldier,
1922
- who hath quitted all for the defence of his country. If their ill
1923
- judged moderation be suited to their own private situations only,
1924
- regardless of others, the event will convince them, that "they are
1925
- reckoning without their Host."
1926
-
1927
- Put us, say some, on the footing we were on in sixty-three: To which
1928
- I answer, the request is not now in the power of Britain to comply
1929
- with, neither will she propose it; but if it were, and even should
1930
- be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question, By what means is such a
1931
- corrupt and faithless court to be kept to its engagements? Another
1932
- parliament, nay, even the present, may hereafter repeal the
1933
- obligation, on the pretence, of its being violently obtained, or
1934
- unwisely granted; and in that case, Where is our redress?--No going
1935
- to law with nations; cannon are the barristers of Crowns; and the
1936
- sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit. To be on the
1937
- footing of sixty-three, it is not sufficient, that the laws only be
1938
- put on the same state, but, that our circumstances, likewise, be put
1939
- on the same state; Our burnt and destroyed towns repaired or built
1940
- up, our private losses made good, our public debts (contracted for
1941
- defence) discharged; otherwise, we shall be millions worse than we
1942
- were at that enviable period. Such a request, had it been complied
1943
- with a year ago, would have won the heart and soul of the Continent-
1944
- -but now it is too late, "The Rubicon is passed."
1945
-
1946
- Besides, the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a
1947
- pecuniary law, seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as
1948
- repugnant to human feelings, as the taking up arms to enforce
1949
- obedience thereto. The object, on either side, doth not justify the
1950
- means; for the lives of men are too valuable to be cast away on such
1951
- trifles. It is the violence which is done and threatened to our
1952
- persons; the destruction of our property by an armed force; the
1953
- invasion of our country by fire and sword, which conscientiously
1954
- qualifies the use of arms: And the instant, in which such a mode of
1955
- defence became necessary, all subjection to Britain ought to have
1956
- ceased; and the independancy of America, should have been considered,
1957
- as dating its æra from, and published by, the first musket that was
1958
- fired against her. This line is a line of consistency; neither drawn
1959
- by caprice, nor extended by ambition; but produced by a chain of
1960
- events, of which the colonies were not the authors.
1961
-
1962
- I shall conclude these remarks, with the following timely and well
1963
- intended hints. We ought to reflect, that there are three different
1964
- ways, by which an independancy may hereafter be effected; and that
1965
- one of those three, will one day or other, be the fate of America,
1966
- viz. By the legal voice of the people in Congress; by a military
1967
- power; or by a mob: It may not always happen that our soldiers are
1968
- citizens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men; virtue, as I
1969
- have already remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it perpetual.
1970
- Should an independancy be brought about by the first of those means,
1971
- we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form
1972
- the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it
1973
- in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to
1974
- the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The
1975
- birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as
1976
- numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of
1977
- freedom from the event of a few months. The Reflexion is awful--and
1978
- in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do the little,
1979
- paltry cavellings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when
1980
- weighed against the business of a world.
1981
-
1982
- Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting period, and an
1983
- Independance be hereafter effected by any other means, we must
1984
- charge the consequence to ourselves, or to those rather, whose
1985
- narrow and prejudiced souls, are habitually opposing the measure,
1986
- without either inquiring or reflecting. There are reasons to be
1987
- given in support of Independance, which men should rather privately
1988
- think of, than be publicly told of. We ought not now to be debating
1989
- whether we shall be independant or not, but, anxious to accomplish
1990
- it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and uneasy rather that it
1991
- is not yet began upon. Every day convinces us of its necessity. Even
1992
- the Tories (if such beings yet remain among us) should, of all men,
1993
- be the most solicitous to promote it; for, as the appointment of
1994
- committees at first, protected them from popular rage, so, a wise
1995
- and well established form of government, will be the only certain
1996
- means of continuing it securely to them. Wherefore, if they have not
1997
- virtue enough to be Whigs, they ought to have prudence enough to
1998
- wish for Independance.
1999
-
2000
- In short, Independance is the only Bond that can tye and keep us
2001
- together. We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally
2002
- shut against the schemes of an intriguing, as well, as a cruel enemy.
2003
- We shall then too, be on a proper footing, to treat with Britain;
2004
- for there is reason to conclude, that the pride of that court, will
2005
- be less hurt by treating with the American states for terms of peace,
2006
- than with those, whom she denominates, "rebellious subjects," for
2007
- terms of accommodation. It is our delaying it that encourages her to
2008
- hope for conquest, and our backwardness tends only to prolong the
2009
- war. As we have, without any good effect therefrom, withheld our
2010
- trade to obtain a redress of our grievances, let us now try the
2011
- alternative, by independantly redressing them ourselves, and then
2012
- offering to open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part in
2013
- England, will be still with us; because, peace with trade, is
2014
- preferable to war without it. And if this offer be not accepted,
2015
- other courts may be applied to.
2016
-
2017
- On these grounds I rest the matter. And as no offer hath yet been
2018
- made to refute the doctrine contained in the former editions of this
2019
- pamphlet, it is a negative proof, that either the doctrine cannot be
2020
- refuted, or, that the party in favour of it are too numerous to be
2021
- opposed. Wherefore, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious
2022
- or doubtful curiosity; let each of us, hold out to his neighbour the
2023
- hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like
2024
- an act of oblivion shall bury in forgetfulness every former
2025
- dissension. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none
2026
- other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and
2027
- resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the rights of mankind
2028
- and of the FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA.
2029
-
2030
- To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People called
2031
- Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned in publishing the
2032
- late piece, entitled "The Ancient Testimony and Principles of the
2033
- People called Quakers renewed, with Respect to the King and
2034
- Government, and touching the Commotions now prevailing in these and
2035
- other parts of America addressed to the People in General."
2036
-
2037
- The Writer of this, is one of those few, who never dishonours
2038
- religion either by ridiculing, or cavilling at any denomination
2039
- whatsoever. To God, and not to man, are all men accountable on the
2040
- score of religion. Wherefore, this epistle is not so properly
2041
- addressed to you as a religious, but as a political body, dabbling
2042
- in matters, which the professed Quietude of your Principles instruct
2043
- you not to meddle with.
2044
-
2045
- As you have, without a proper authority for so doing, put yourselves
2046
- in the place of the whole body of the Quakers, so, the writer of
2047
- this, in order to be on an equal rank with yourselves, is under the
2048
- necessity, of putting himself in the place of all those, who,
2049
- approve the very writings and principles, against which your
2050
- testimony is directed: And he hath chosen this singular situation,
2051
- in order, that you might discover in him that presumption of
2052
- character which you cannot see in yourselves. For neither he nor you
2053
- can have any claim or title to Political Representation.
2054
-
2055
- When men have departed from the right way, it is no wonder that they
2056
- stumble and fall. And it is evident from the manner in which ye have
2057
- managed your testimony, that politics, (as a religious body of men)
2058
- is not your proper Walk; for however well adapted it might appear to
2059
- you, it is, nevertheless, a jumble of good and bad put unwisely
2060
- together, and the conclusion drawn therefrom, both unnatural and
2061
- unjust.
2062
-
2063
- The two first pages, (and the whole doth not make four) we give you
2064
- credit for, and expect the same civility from you, because the love
2065
- and desire of peace is not confined to Quakerism, it is the natural,
2066
- as well the religious wish of all denominations of men. And on this
2067
- ground, as men labouring to establish an Independant Constitution of
2068
- our own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and aim. Our plan
2069
- is peace for ever. We are tired of contention with Britain, and can
2070
- see no real end to it but in a final separation. We act consistently,
2071
- because for the sake of introducing an endless and uninterrupted
2072
- peace, do we bear the evils and burthens of the present day. We are
2073
- endeavoring, and will steadily continue to endeavour, to separate
2074
- and dissolve a connexion which hath already filled our land with
2075
- blood; and which, while the name of it remains, will be the fatal
2076
- cause of future mischiefs to both countries.
2077
-
2078
- We fight neither for revenge nor conquest; neither from pride nor
2079
- passion; we are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies,
2080
- nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Beneath the shade of our own
2081
- vines are we attacked; in our own houses, and on our own lands, is
2082
- the violence committed against us. We view our enemies in the
2083
- character of Highwaymen and Housebreakers, and having no defence for
2084
- ourselves in the civil law, are obliged to punish them by the
2085
- military one, and apply the sword, in the very case, where you have
2086
- before now, applied the halter--Perhaps we feel for the ruined and
2087
- insulted sufferers in all and every part of the continent, with a
2088
- degree of tenderness which hath not yet made its way into some of
2089
- your bosoms. But be ye sure that ye mistake not the cause and ground
2090
- of your Testimony. Call not coldness of soul, religion; nor put the
2091
- Bigot in the place of the Christian.
2092
-
2093
- O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged principles. If the
2094
- bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by
2095
- all the difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence.
2096
- Wherefore, if ye really preach from conscience, and mean not to make
2097
- a political hobby-horse of your religion, convince the world thereof,
2098
- by proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they likewise bear
2099
- arms. Give us proof of your sincerity by publishing it at St.
2100
- James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the Admirals and
2101
- Captains who are piratically ravaging our coasts, and to all the
2102
- murdering miscreants who are acting in authority under him whom ye
2103
- profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul of Barclay ¹ ye would
2104
- preach repentance to your king; Ye would tell the Royal Wretch his
2105
- sins, and warn him of eternal ruin. Ye would not spend your partial
2106
- invectives against the injured and the insulted only, but, like
2107
- faithful ministers, would cry aloud and spare none. Say not that ye
2108
- are persecuted, neither endeavour to make us the authors of that
2109
- reproach, which, ye are bringing upon yourselves; for we testify
2110
- unto all men, that we do not complain against you because ye are
2111
- Quakers, but because ye pretend to be and are not Quakers.
2112
-
2113
- ¹"Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest what it
2114
- is to be banished thy native country, to be over-ruled as well as to
2115
- rule, and set upon the throne; and being oppressed thou hast reason
2116
- to know how hateful the oppressor is both to God and man: If after
2117
- all these warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto the
2118
- Lord with all thy heart, but forget him who remembered thee in thy
2119
- distress, and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity, surely
2120
- great will be thy condemnation.--Against which snare, as well as the
2121
- temptation of those who may or do feed thee, and prompt thee to evil,
2122
- the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be, to apply thyself to
2123
- that light of Christ which shineth in thy conscience, and which
2124
- neither can, nor will flatter thee, nor suffer thee to be at ease in
2125
- thy sins."
2126
-
2127
- --Barclay's address to Charles II.
2128
-
2129
- Alas! it seems by the particular tendency of some part of your
2130
- testimony, and other parts of your conduct, as if, all sin was
2131
- reduced to, and comprehended in, the act of bearing arms, and that
2132
- by the people only. Ye appear to us, to have mistaken party for
2133
- conscience; because, the general tenor of your actions wants
2134
- uniformity: And it is exceedingly difficult to us to give credit to
2135
- many of your pretended scruples; because, we see them made by the
2136
- same men, who, in the very instant that they are exclaiming against
2137
- the mammon of this world, are nevertheless, hunting after it with a
2138
- step as steady as Time, and an appetite as keen as Death.
2139
-
2140
- The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, in the third page of
2141
- your testimony, that, "when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh
2142
- even his enemies to be at peace with him"; is very unwisely chosen
2143
- on your part; because, it amounts to a proof, that the king's ways
2144
- (whom ye are desirous of supporting) do not please the Lord,
2145
- otherwise, his reign would be in peace.
2146
-
2147
- I now proceed to the latter part of your testimony, and that, for
2148
- which all the foregoing seems only an introduction, viz.
2149
-
2150
- "It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since we were called
2151
- to profess the light of Christ Jesus, manifested in our consciences
2152
- unto this day, that the setting up and putting down kings and
2153
- governments, is God's peculiar prerogative; for causes best known to
2154
- himself: And that it is not our business to have any hand or
2155
- contrivance therein; nor to be busy bodies above our station, much
2156
- less to plot and contrive the ruin, or overturn of any of them, but
2157
- to pray for the king, and safety of our nation, and good of all men:
2158
- That we may live a peaceable and quiet life, in all godliness and
2159
- honesty; under the government which God is pleased to set over us."-
2160
- -If these are really your principles why do ye not abide by them?
2161
- Why do ye not leave that, which ye call God's Work, to be managed by
2162
- himself? These very principles instruct you to wait with patience
2163
- and humility, for the event of all public measures, and to receive
2164
- that event as the divine will towards you. Wherefore, what occasion
2165
- is there for your political testimony if you fully believe what it
2166
- contains: And the very publishing it proves, that either, ye do not
2167
- believe what ye profess, or have not virtue enough to practise what
2168
- ye believe.
2169
-
2170
- The principles of Quakerism have a direct tendency to make a man the
2171
- quiet and inoffensive subject of any, and every government which is
2172
- set over him. And if the setting up and putting down of kings and
2173
- governments is God's peculiar prerogative, he most certainly will
2174
- not be robbed thereof by us; wherefore, the principle itself leads
2175
- you to approve of every thing, which ever happened, or may happen to
2176
- kings as being his work. Oliver Cromwell thanks you. Charles, then,
2177
- died not by the hands of man; and should the present Proud Imitator
2178
- of him, come to the same untimely end, the writers and publishers of
2179
- the Testimony, are bound, by the doctrine it contains, to applaud
2180
- the fact. Kings are not taken away by miracles, neither are changes
2181
- in governments brought about by any other means than such as are
2182
- common and human; and such as we are now using. Even the dispersion
2183
- of the Jews, though foretold by our Saviour, was effected by arms.
2184
- Wherefore, as ye refuse to be the means on one side, ye ought not to
2185
- be meddlers on the other; but to wait the issue in silence; and
2186
- unless ye can produce divine authority, to prove, that the Almighty
2187
- who hath created and placed this new world, at the greatest distance
2188
- it could possibly stand, east and west, from every part of the old,
2189
- doth, nevertheless, disapprove of its being independant of the
2190
- corrupt and abandoned court of Britain, unless I say, ye can shew
2191
- this, how can ye on the ground of your principles, justify the
2192
- exciting and stirring up the people "firmly to unite in the
2193
- abhorrence of all such writings, and measures, as evidence a desire
2194
- and design to break off the happy connexion we have hitherto enjoyed,
2195
- with the kingdom of Great-Britain, and our just and necessary
2196
- subordination to the king, and those who are lawfully placed in
2197
- authority under him." What a slap of the face is here! the men, who
2198
- in the very paragraph before, have quietly and passively resigned up
2199
- the ordering, altering, and disposal of kings and governments, into
2200
- the hands of God, are now, recalling their principles, and putting
2201
- in for a share of the business. Is it possible, that the conclusion,
2202
- which is here justly quoted, can any ways follow from the doctrine
2203
- laid down? The inconsistency is too glaring not to be seen; the
2204
- absurdity too great not to be laughed at; and such as could only
2205
- have been made by those, whose understandings were darkened by the
2206
- narrow and crabby spirit of a despairing political party; for ye are
2207
- not to be considered as the whole body of the Quakers but only as a
2208
- factional and fractional part thereof.
2209
-
2210
- Here ends the examination of your testimony; (which I call upon no
2211
- man to abhor, as ye have done, but only to read and judge of fairly;)
2212
- to which I subjoin the following remark; "That the setting up and
2213
- putting down of kings," most certainly mean, the making him a king,
2214
- who is yet not so, and the making him no king who is already one.
2215
- And pray what hath this to do in the present case? We neither mean
2216
- to set up nor to put down, neither to make nor to unmake, but to
2217
- have nothing to do with them. Wherefore, your testimony in whatever
2218
- light it is viewed serves only to dishonor your judgement, and for
2219
- many other reasons had better have been let alone than published.
2220
-
2221
- First, Because it tends to the decrease and reproach of all religion
2222
- whatever, and is of the utmost danger to society, to make it a party
2223
- in political disputes.
2224
-
2225
- Secondly, Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow
2226
- the publishing political testimonies, as being concerned therein and
2227
- approvers thereof.
2228
-
2229
- Thirdly, Because it hath a tendency to undo that continental harmony
2230
- and friendship which yourselves by your late liberal and charitable
2231
- donations hath lent a hand to establish; and the preservation of
2232
- which is of the utmost consequence to us all.
2233
-
2234
- And here without anger or resentment I bid you farewell. Sincerely
2235
- wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and
2236
- uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religious right; and be, in
2237
- your turn, the means of securing it to others; but that the example
2238
- which ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion with politics, may
2239
- be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.
2240
-
2241
-
2242
-
2243
- F I N I S.
2244
-
2245
-
2246
-
2247
-
2248
- On Common Sense
2249
-
2250
- "No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in
2251
- perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple
2252
- and unassuming language."
2253
-
2254
- Thomas Jefferson
2255
-
2256
- "A pamphlet called 'Commonsense' makes a great noise. One of the
2257
- vilest things that ever was published to the world. Full of false
2258
- representations, lies, calumny, and treason, whose principles are to
2259
- subvert all Kingly Governments and erect an Independent Republic."
2260
-
2261
- Nicholas Cresswell
2262
-
2263
- "I dreaded the effect so popular a pamphlet might have among the
2264
- people, and determined to do all in my Power to counteract the
2265
- effect of it."
2266
-
2267
- John Adams
2268
-
2269
- "Its effects were sudden and extensive upon the American mind. It
2270
- was read by public men."
2271
-
2272
- Dr. Benjamin Rush
2273
-
2274
- "Have you read the pamphlet Common Sense? I never saw such a
2275
- masterful performance.... In short, I own myself convinced, by the
2276
- arguments, of the necessity of separation."
2277
-
2278
- General Charles Lee
2279
-
2280
-
2281
-
2282
-
2283
- Transcriber's Notes
2284
-
2285
- This production of the Bradford edition of Common Sense retains the
2286
- original characteristics of the document--the author's use of
2287
- capitalization (large and small), spelling, and italics.
2288
-
2289
- The page numbers of this version of the book were my invention, for
2290
- ease in reading the HTML document. The page numbers can more
2291
- accurately be called paragraph numbers. They match the paragraph
2292
- numbers in the edited text of 'Common Sense' from the National
2293
- Humanities Center.
2294
-
2295
- In one case, the text refers to page forty (see our Page 130). We
2296
- provided a link to the appropriate part of our document but retained
2297
- the page number specified by Paine. Our page numbers are not carried
2298
- over to the Kindle, E-PUB, and text documents produced by Project
2299
- Gutenberg.
2300
-
2301
- The section "On Common Sense," containing quotes about Common Sense,
2302
- have been added by this transcriber.
2303
-
2304
-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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- *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMON SENSE ***
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