Speaker 1: Part two of common Sense. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: by Bobnefeld. Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Part two of
Speaker 1: Monarchy and hereditary succession. Mankind being originally equals in the
Speaker 1: order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by
Speaker 1: some subsequent circumstance. The distinctions of rich and poor may,
Speaker 1: in the great measure, be accounted for, and that without
Speaker 1: having recourse to the harsh, ill sounding names of oppression
Speaker 1: and avarice. Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or
Speaker 1: never the means of riches. And though avarice will preserve
Speaker 1: a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him
Speaker 1: too timorous to be wealthy. But there is another and
Speaker 1: greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason
Speaker 1: can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men
Speaker 1: into kings and subjects. Male and female are the distinctions
Speaker 1: of nature, good and bad, the distinctions of heaven. But
Speaker 1: how a race of men came into the world so
Speaker 1: exalted above the rest and distinguished like some new species,
Speaker 1: is worth inquiring into and whether they are the means
Speaker 1: of happiness or of misery to mankind. In the early
Speaker 1: ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology, there
Speaker 1: were no kings, the consequence of which was there were
Speaker 1: no wars. It is the pride of kings which throw
Speaker 1: mankind into confusion. Holland without a king, hath enjoyed more
Speaker 1: peace for this last century than any of the monarchial
Speaker 1: governments in Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark, for the
Speaker 1: quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs have a
Speaker 1: happy something in them which vanishes away. When we come
Speaker 1: to the history of Jewish royalty. Government by kings was
Speaker 1: first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom
Speaker 1: the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the
Speaker 1: most prosperous invention the devil ever set on foot for
Speaker 1: the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honors to
Speaker 1: their deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved on
Speaker 1: the plan by doing the same to their living ones.
Speaker 1: How impious is the title of sacred majesty applied to
Speaker 1: the worm, who, in the midst of his splendor, is
Speaker 1: crumbling into dust, as the exalting one man so greatly
Speaker 1: above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights
Speaker 1: of nature, So neither can it be defended on the
Speaker 1: authority of scripture. For the will of the Almighty, as
Speaker 1: declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of
Speaker 1: government by kings. All anti monarchical parts of scripture have
Speaker 1: been very smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments. But they
Speaker 1: undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments
Speaker 1: yet to form. Render unto Caesar, the things which are
Speaker 1: Caesar's is the scriptured doctrine of courts. Yet it is
Speaker 1: no support of monarchical government, for the Jews at that
Speaker 1: time were without a king and in a state of
Speaker 1: vassalage to the Romans. Now three thousand years passed away
Speaker 1: from the mosaic account of the creation till the Jews,
Speaker 1: under the national delusion, requested a king. Till then their
Speaker 1: form of government, except in extraordinary cases where the Almighty interposed,
Speaker 1: was a kind of republic administered by a judge and
Speaker 1: the elders of the tribes king, they had none, and
Speaker 1: it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that
Speaker 1: title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man
Speaker 1: seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to
Speaker 1: the persons of kings, he need not wonder that the Almighty,
Speaker 1: ever jealous of his honor, should disapprove of a form
Speaker 1: of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.
Speaker 1: Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins
Speaker 1: of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is
Speaker 1: denounced against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending.
Speaker 1: To the children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites,
Speaker 1: Gideon marched against them with a small army, and victory
Speaker 1: through the divine into position decided in his favor. The
Speaker 1: Jews elate with success, and attributing it to the generalship
Speaker 1: of Gideon, propose making him a king. Rule thou over us,
Speaker 1: thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was
Speaker 1: temptation in its fullest extent, not a kingdom only, but
Speaker 1: an hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied,
Speaker 1: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son
Speaker 1: rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Words
Speaker 1: need not be more explicit. Gideon doth not decline the honor,
Speaker 1: but denieth their right to give it. Neither doth he
Speaker 1: compliment them with invented decorations of their thanks, but in
Speaker 1: the positive style of a prophet, charges them with disaffection
Speaker 1: to their proper sovereign, the King of Heaven. About one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into
Speaker 1: the same error. The hankering which the Jews had for
Speaker 1: the idolatrous customs of the Heathens is something exceedingly unaccountable.
Speaker 1: But so it was that, laying hold of the misconduct
Speaker 1: of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns,
Speaker 1: they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, behold,
Speaker 1: thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.
Speaker 1: Now make us a king to judge us like all
Speaker 1: other nations. And here we cannot but observe that their
Speaker 1: motives were bad, that is, that they might be like
Speaker 1: unto other nations, in other words, the Heathens, whereas their
Speaker 1: true glory laid in being as much unlike them as possible.
Speaker 1: But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us
Speaker 1: a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
Speaker 1: and the Lord said, unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice
Speaker 1: of the people in all that they say unto thee.
Speaker 1: For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,
Speaker 1: that I should not reign over them, according to all
Speaker 1: the world works which they have since the day that
Speaker 1: I brought them out of Egypt, even unto this day,
Speaker 1: wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods. So
Speaker 1: do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice,
Speaker 1: howbeit protests solemnly unto them, and show them the manner
Speaker 1: of the king that shall reign over them, not of
Speaker 1: any particular king, but the general manner of the kings
Speaker 1: of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying after
Speaker 1: and notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference of manners,
Speaker 1: the character is still in fashion. And Samuel told all
Speaker 1: the words of the Lord unto the people that asked
Speaker 1: of him a king. And he said, this shall be
Speaker 1: the manner of the king that shall reign over you.
Speaker 1: He will take your sons and appoint them for himself
Speaker 1: for his chariots and be his horsemen, and some shall
Speaker 1: run before his chariots. This description agrees with the present
Speaker 1: mode of impressing men. And he will appoint him captains
Speaker 1: over thousands, and captains over fifties, and will set them
Speaker 1: to ear his ground and reap his harvest, and to
Speaker 1: make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.
Speaker 1: And he will take your daughters to be confectioneries, and
Speaker 1: to be cooks, and to be beggars. This describes the
Speaker 1: expense and luxury, as well as the oppression of kings.
Speaker 1: And he will take your fields and your olive yards,
Speaker 1: even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
Speaker 1: And he will take the tenth of your seed and
Speaker 1: of your vineyards, and give them to his officers and
Speaker 1: to his servants, by which we see that bribery, corruption,
Speaker 1: and favoritism are the standing vices of kings. And he
Speaker 1: will take the tenth of your men servants, and your
Speaker 1: maid servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses,
Speaker 1: and put them to his work. And he will take
Speaker 1: the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants.
Speaker 1: And ye shall cry out in that day because of
Speaker 1: your king, which ye shall have chosen, and the Lord
Speaker 1: will not hear you in that day. This accounts for
Speaker 1: the continuation of monarchy. Neither do the characters of the
Speaker 1: few good kings which have lived since either sanctify the
Speaker 1: title or blot out the sinfulness of the origin. The
Speaker 1: high Encomian given of David takes no notice of him
Speaker 1: officially as a king, but only as a man after
Speaker 1: God's own heart. Nevertheless, the people refuse to obey the
Speaker 1: voice of Samuel, and they said, nay, but we will
Speaker 1: have a king over us, that we may be like
Speaker 1: all other nations, that our king may judge us and
Speaker 1: go out before us and fight our battles. Samuel continued
Speaker 1: to reason with them, but to no purpose. He set
Speaker 1: before them their ingratitude, but all would not a veil,
Speaker 1: and seeing them bent fully on their folly, he cried out,
Speaker 1: I will call under the Lord, and he shall send
Speaker 1: thunder and reign, which then was a punishment, being in
Speaker 1: the time of wheat harvest, that ye may perceive and
Speaker 1: see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done
Speaker 1: in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord sent
Speaker 1: thunder and reigned that day, and all the people greatly
Speaker 1: feared the Lord and Samuel, and all the people said,
Speaker 1: unto Samuel, pray for thy servants, unto the Lord thy God,
Speaker 1: that we die not, for we have added, unto our
Speaker 1: sins this evil to ask a king. These portions of
Speaker 1: scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction.
Speaker 1: That the Almighty hath here entered. His protest against monarchical
Speaker 1: government is true, for the scripture is false, And a
Speaker 1: man have good reason to believe that there is as
Speaker 1: much of kingcraft as priestcraft withholding the scripture from the
Speaker 1: public in popish countries. For monarchy, in every instance is
Speaker 1: the popery of government. To the evil of monarchy, we
Speaker 1: have added that of hereditary succession. And as the first
Speaker 1: as a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second,
Speaker 1: claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and
Speaker 1: an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals,
Speaker 1: no one by birth could have a right to set
Speaker 1: up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever.
Speaker 1: And though himself might deserve some decent degree of honors
Speaker 1: of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too
Speaker 1: unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs
Speaker 1: of the folly of hereditary right in kings is that
Speaker 1: nature disapproves it, Otherwise she would not so frequently turn
Speaker 1: it into ridicule by giving mankind and asks for a lion. Secondly,
Speaker 1: as no man at first could possess any other public
Speaker 1: honors than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of
Speaker 1: those honors could have no power to give away the
Speaker 1: right of posterity. And though they might say, we choose
Speaker 1: you for our head, they could not, without manifest injustice
Speaker 1: to their children, say that your children and your children's
Speaker 1: children shall reign over ours forever, because such an unwise, unjust,
Speaker 1: unnatural compact might perhaps, in the next succession, put them
Speaker 1: under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most wise,
Speaker 1: men in their private sentiments have ever treated heredity right
Speaker 1: with contempt. Yet it is one of those evils which,
Speaker 1: when once established, is not easily removed. Many submit from fear,
Speaker 1: others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with
Speaker 1: the king the plunder of the rest. This is supposing
Speaker 1: the present race of kings in the world to have
Speaker 1: had an honorable origin, whereas it is more than probable that,
Speaker 1: could we take off the dark covering of antiquities and
Speaker 1: trace them to their first rise, that we should find
Speaker 1: the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian
Speaker 1: of some restless gang, whose savage manners or pre eminence
Speaker 1: in subtlety obtained the title of chief among plunderers, and who,
Speaker 1: by increasing in power and extending his depredations, overawed the
Speaker 1: quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions.
Speaker 1: Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary
Speaker 1: right to his descendants, because such a perpetual exclusion of
Speaker 1: themselves was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they
Speaker 1: professed to live by. Wherefore, hereditary succession in the early
Speaker 1: ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter
Speaker 1: of lame, but as something casual or complemental. But as
Speaker 1: few or no records were extant in those days, and
Speaker 1: traditional history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after
Speaker 1: the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some
Speaker 1: superstitious tale, conveniently timed mohammet like to cram hereditary rights
Speaker 1: down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which
Speaker 1: threatened or seemed to threaten on the decease of a leader,
Speaker 1: and the choice of a new one for elections among
Speaker 1: Ruffians could not be very orderly induced many at first
Speaker 1: to favor hereditary pretensions, by which means it happened as
Speaker 1: it hath happened, since that what at first was submitted
Speaker 1: to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right.
Speaker 1: England since the conquest hath known some few good monarchs,
Speaker 1: but groaned beneath them much larger number of bad ones.
Speaker 1: Yet no man in his senses can say that their
Speaker 1: claim under William the conqueror is a very honorable one.
Speaker 1: A French bastard landing with an armed banditi and establishing
Speaker 1: himself king of England against the consent of the natives is,
Speaker 1: in plain terms, a very paltry, rascally original. It certainly
Speaker 1: hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to
Speaker 1: spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right.
Speaker 1: If there are any so weak as to believe it,
Speaker 1: Let them promiscuously worship the ass and Lion, and welcome.
Speaker 1: I shall neither copy their humility nor disturb their devotion.
Speaker 1: The most plausible plea which hath ever been offered in
Speaker 1: favor of hereditary succession, is that it preserves a nation
Speaker 1: from civil wars. And were this true, it would be weighty.
Speaker 1: Whereas it is the most bare faced falsity ever imposed
Speaker 1: upon mankind. The whole history of England disowns the fact
Speaker 1: thirty kings and two miners have reigned in that distracted
Speaker 1: kingdom since the Conquest, in which time there have been,
Speaker 1: including the Revolution, no less than eight civil wars and
Speaker 1: nineteen rebellions. Wherefore, instead of making for peace, it makes
Speaker 1: against it and destroys the very foundation it seems to
Speaker 1: stand on. The contest for monarchy and succession between the
Speaker 1: Houses of York and Lancaster laid England in a scene
Speaker 1: of blood. For many years, twelve pitched battles, besides skirmishes
Speaker 1: and sieges, were fought between Henry and Edward. Twice was
Speaker 1: Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn was prisoner
Speaker 1: to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war
Speaker 1: and the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal
Speaker 1: matters are the ground of the quarrel. That Henry was
Speaker 1: taken in triumph from a prison to a palace and
Speaker 1: Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign land. Yes,
Speaker 1: as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting. Henry, in
Speaker 1: his turn, was driven from the throne, and Edward recalled
Speaker 1: to succeed him, the Parliament always following the strongest side.
Speaker 1: This contest began in the reign of Henry the sixth
Speaker 1: and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the seventh, in
Speaker 1: whom the families were united, including a period of sixty
Speaker 1: seven years, that is, from fourteen twenty two to fourteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine. In short, monarchy and succession have laid not
Speaker 1: this or that kingdom only, but the world in blood
Speaker 1: and ashes. Tis a form of government which the word
Speaker 1: of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it.
Speaker 1: If we inquire into the business of a king, we
Speaker 1: shall find that in some countries they have none, and,
Speaker 1: after sauntering away their lives, without pleasure to themselves or
Speaker 1: advantage to the nation, withdraw from the scene and leave
Speaker 1: their successors to tread the same idle ground. In absolute monarchies,
Speaker 1: the whole weight of business, civil and military lies on
Speaker 1: the king. The children of Israel, in their request for
Speaker 1: a king urge this plea, that he might judge us,
Speaker 1: and go out before us and fight our battles. But
Speaker 1: in countries where he is neither a judge nor a general,
Speaker 1: as in England, a man would be puzzled to know
Speaker 1: what is his business. The nearer any government approaches to
Speaker 1: a republic, the less business there is for a king.
Speaker 1: It is somewhat difficult to find a proper name for
Speaker 1: the government of England. Sir William Meredith calls it a republic,
Speaker 1: but in its present state it is unworthy of the name,
Speaker 1: because the corrupt influence of the Crown, by having all
Speaker 1: the places in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up
Speaker 1: the power and eaten out the virtue of the House
Speaker 1: of Commons, the republican part in the Constitution, that the
Speaker 1: government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of
Speaker 1: France or Spain. Men fall out with names without understanding them,
Speaker 1: for it is the republican and not the monarchical part
Speaker 1: of the Constitution of England which Englishmen glory in. That
Speaker 1: is the liberty of choosing an House of Commons from
Speaker 1: out of their own body. And it is easy to
Speaker 1: see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is
Speaker 1: the constitution of England sickly? But because monarchy hath poisoned
Speaker 1: the republic. The crown hath engrossed the commons in England.
Speaker 1: The King hath little more to do than to make
Speaker 1: war and give away places, which in plain terms is
Speaker 1: to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.
Speaker 1: A pretty business. Indeed, for a man to be allowed
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand sterling a year for and worshiped into
Speaker 1: the bargain of more Worth, is one honest man in
Speaker 1: society and in the sight of God, than all the
Speaker 1: crowned Ruffians that ever lived. And of Part two