THOMAS PAINE

COMMON SENSE (excerpts)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was born in England to a poor Quaker father and an Anglican mother and left
school at the age of 13 to work with his father as a corset maker. He tried a variety of occupations
(including collecting excise duties on liquor and tobacco), none successfully. After meeting Benjamin
Franklin in London, he emigrated to the colonies in late 1774 and got a job editing the Pennsylvania
Magazine. Tensions between England and the colonies were high, and Paine soon leapt into the fray. After
the Battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, Paine concluded that the revolt should be aimed
not against unjust taxation but in favor of full independence. His arguments were spelled our in Common
Sense, a fifty-page pamphlet that was published January 10, 1776. It was an immediate sensation. More
than 100,000 copies were sold within three months, and possibly as many as 500,000 copies altogether,
to a colonial population of but two and a half million people. More than any other single publication,
Paine's Common Sense persuaded public opinion of the case for independence from Britain.

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks
have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs: but all have been
ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed....

I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great
Britain, the same connection is neccessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same
effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a
child has thriven upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to
become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly,
that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken
any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will
always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at
our expense as well as her own is admitted; and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive,
viz., for the sake of trade and dominion.

Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We
have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest, not
attachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on
her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, but who will always be our
enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw
off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain....

But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not
devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to
her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country
hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low, papistical design of gaining an
unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of
America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from
every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of a mother, but from the
cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first
emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still....
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap,
by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn
will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we
will.

But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection are without number; and our duty to
mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instructs us to renounce the alliance: because any submission
to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels,
and sets us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have
neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with
any part of it. 'Tis the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can
do while by her dependence on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.

Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between
England and any foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, because of ber connection with Britain.
The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be
wishing for separation then, because neutrality in that case would be a safer convoy than a man of war.
Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature
cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a
strong and natural proof that the authority of the one over the other, was never the design of heaven....

It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of present sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently
brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed.
But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us
wisdom, and instruct us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that
unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than
to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city,
and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it, in their present situation they are prisoners without the hope
of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they would be exposed to the fury of both armies....

But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your
property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread
to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with
the murderers, then you are unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover; and whatever may be
your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant....

Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and have
tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings more than repeated
petitioning--and nothing hath contributed more than that very measure to make the kings of Europe
absolute. Witness Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake let us
come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under the violated
unmeaning names of parent and child.

To say they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary; we thought so as the repeal of the stamp act,
yet a year or two undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations which have been once defeated will
never renew the quarrel.
As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: the business of it will
soon be too weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so
distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be
always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an
answer, which, when obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon
as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.

Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their
care; but there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.
In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet; and as England and America,
with respect to each other, reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they belong to different
systems. England to Europe: America to itself....

But where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc
of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly
honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the
divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as
we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the king is
law, so in free countries the law ought to BE king, and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should
afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the
people whose right it is.

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

Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is passed? Can ye give to
prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken;
the people of England are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive;
she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the
continent forgive the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings
for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from
the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth,
or have only a casual existence, were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer
would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of
the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have
long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O
receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.