Speaker 1: Part three of Common Sense by Thomas Paine. This is
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Speaker 1: Read by Babneufeld. Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Part three
Speaker 1: Thoughts on the present state of American affairs in the
Speaker 1: following pages. I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments,
Speaker 1: and common sense, and have no other preliminaries to settle
Speaker 1: with the reader than that he will divest himself of
Speaker 1: prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings
Speaker 1: to determine for themselves, that he will put on, or
Speaker 1: rather that he will not put off, the true character
Speaker 1: of a man, and generously enlarge his views. Beyond the
Speaker 1: present day, volumes have been written on the subject of
Speaker 1: the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks
Speaker 1: have embarked in the controversy from different motives and with
Speaker 1: various designs, but all have been ineffectual, and the period
Speaker 1: of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource decide
Speaker 1: this contest. The appeal was the choice of the King
Speaker 1: and the continent. Hath accepted the challenge. It hath been
Speaker 1: reported of late mister Pelham, who, though an able minister,
Speaker 1: was not without his faults, that, on his being attacked
Speaker 1: in the House of Commons on the score that his
Speaker 1: measures were only of a temporary kind, replied, they will
Speaker 1: last my time. The name of ancestors will be remembered
Speaker 1: by future generations with detestation. The sun never shined on
Speaker 1: a cause of greater worth. Tis not the affair of
Speaker 1: a city or count, a province, or a kingdom, but
Speaker 1: of a continent of at least one eighth part of
Speaker 1: the habitable globe. Tis not the concern of a day,
Speaker 1: a year, or an age. Posterity are virtually involved in
Speaker 1: the contest, and will be more or less affected even
Speaker 1: to the end of time by the proceedings. Now. Now
Speaker 1: is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor.
Speaker 1: The least fractured now will be like a name engraved
Speaker 1: with the point of a pin on the tender rind
Speaker 1: of a young oak. The wound will enlarge with the tree,
Speaker 1: and posterity read it in full grown characters. By referring
Speaker 1: the matter from argument to arms, a new era for
Speaker 1: politics is struck, A new method of thinking hath arisen.
Speaker 1: All plans, proposals, et cetera prior to the nineteenth of April,
Speaker 1: that is, to the commencement of hostilities, are like the
Speaker 1: almanacs of the last year, which so proper then are
Speaker 1: superseded and useless. Now, whatever was advanced by the advocates
Speaker 1: on either side of the question then terminated in one
Speaker 1: and the same point, that is, a union with Great Britain.
Speaker 1: The only difference between the parties was the method of
Speaker 1: affecting it, the one proposing force, the other friendship. But
Speaker 1: it hath so far happened that the first hath failed,
Speaker 1: and the second hath withdrawn her influence. As much hath
Speaker 1: been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which like an
Speaker 1: agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were.
Speaker 1: It is but right that we should examine the contrary
Speaker 1: side of the argument and inquire into some of the
Speaker 1: many material injuries which these colonies sustain and will always
Speaker 1: sustain by being connected with and dependent on Great Britain.
Speaker 1: To examine that connection and dependence on the principle of
Speaker 1: nature and common sense, to see what we have trust
Speaker 1: to if separated, and what we are to expect if dependent.
Speaker 1: I have heard it asserted by some that, as America
Speaker 1: hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, that
Speaker 1: the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness and
Speaker 1: will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more
Speaker 1: fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well
Speaker 1: assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that
Speaker 1: it is never to have meat, or that the first
Speaker 1: twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent
Speaker 1: for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more
Speaker 1: than is true. For I answer roundly that America would
Speaker 1: have flourished as much and probably much more, had no
Speaker 1: European power had anything to do with her. The commerce
Speaker 1: by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life,
Speaker 1: and will always have a market, while eating is the
Speaker 1: custom of Europe. But she has protected us, say some
Speaker 1: that she has engrossed us is true, and defended the
Speaker 1: continent at our expense as well as her own, is admitted,
Speaker 1: and she would have defended Turkey with the same motive,
Speaker 1: that is the sake of trade and dominion. Alas we
Speaker 1: have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made
Speaker 1: large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of
Speaker 1: Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest, not attachment.
Speaker 1: That she did not protect us from our enemies on
Speaker 1: our account, but from her enemies on her own account,
Speaker 1: from those who had no quarrel with us on any
Speaker 1: other account, and who will always be our enemies on
Speaker 1: the same account. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the
Speaker 1: continent or the continent, throw off the dependents, and we
Speaker 1: should be at peace with France and Spain were they
Speaker 1: at war with Britain. The miseries of hanover last war
Speaker 1: are to warn us against connections. It has lately been
Speaker 1: asserted in Parliament that the colonies have no relation to
Speaker 1: each other but through the parent country. That is that
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and the Jerseys and so on for the rest
Speaker 1: are sister colonies by the way of England. This is
Speaker 1: certainly a very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it
Speaker 1: is the nearest and only true way of proving enemy ship,
Speaker 1: if I may so call it. France and Spain never were,
Speaker 1: nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but
Speaker 1: as our being the subjects of Great Britain. But Britain
Speaker 1: is the parent country. Some say, then, the more shame
Speaker 1: upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young,
Speaker 1: nor savages make war upon their families. Wherefore the assertion,
Speaker 1: if true to turns to her reproach. But it happens
Speaker 1: not to be true, or only partly so. And the
Speaker 1: phrase parents or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by
Speaker 1: the King and his parasites, with a low papistical design
Speaker 1: of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of
Speaker 1: our minds. Europe and not England, is the parent country
Speaker 1: of America. This new world hath been the asylum for
Speaker 1: the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every
Speaker 1: part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the
Speaker 1: tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of
Speaker 1: the monster. And it is so far true of England
Speaker 1: that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from
Speaker 1: home pursues their descendants still in this extensive quarter of
Speaker 1: the globe. We forget the narrow limits of three hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty miles the extent of England, and carry our
Speaker 1: friendship on a larger scale. We claim brotherhood with every
Speaker 1: European Christian and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.
Speaker 1: It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we
Speaker 1: surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our
Speaker 1: acquaintance with the world. A man born in any town
Speaker 1: in England divided into parishes will naturally associate most with
Speaker 1: his fellow parishioners, because their interests, in many cases will
Speaker 1: be common, and distinguish him by the name of neighbor.
Speaker 1: If he meet him but a few miles from home,
Speaker 1: he drops the narrow idea of a street and salutes
Speaker 1: him by the name of townsmen. If he travel out
Speaker 1: of the county and meet him in any other he
Speaker 1: forgets the minor divisions of street and town and calls
Speaker 1: him countrymen, that is, countrymen. But if in their foreign
Speaker 1: excursions they should associate in France or any other part
Speaker 1: of Europe, their local remembrance would be enlarged in to
Speaker 1: that of Englishmen. And by a just parody of reasoning,
Speaker 1: all Europeans meeting in America or any other quarter of
Speaker 1: the globe are countrymen for England, Harland, Germany or Sweden,
Speaker 1: when compared with the whole stand in the same places
Speaker 1: on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town
Speaker 1: and county do on the smaller ones, distinctions too limited
Speaker 1: for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even
Speaker 1: of this province are of English descent. Wherefore I reprobate
Speaker 1: the phrase of parents or mother country applied to England
Speaker 1: only as being false, selfish, narrow, and ungenerous. But admitting
Speaker 1: that we are all of English descents, what does it
Speaker 1: amount to nothing? Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes
Speaker 1: every other name and title, and to say that a
Speaker 1: reconciliation is our duty is truly farcical. The first King
Speaker 1: of England of the present line, William the Conqueror, was
Speaker 1: a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants
Speaker 1: from the same country. Therefore, by the same method of reasoning,
Speaker 1: England ought to be governed by France. Much has been
Speaker 1: said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies,
Speaker 1: that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world.
Speaker 1: But this is a mere presumption. The fate of war
Speaker 1: is uncertain. Neither do the expressions mean anything, for this
Speaker 1: continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants
Speaker 1: to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa or Europe. Besides,
Speaker 1: what have we to do with setting the world at defiance.
Speaker 1: Our plan is commerce, and that well attended to, will
Speaker 1: secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe. Because
Speaker 1: it is the interest of all Europe to have America
Speaker 1: a free port. Her trade will always be a protection,
Speaker 1: and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.
Speaker 1: I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a
Speaker 1: single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected
Speaker 1: with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge. Not a single
Speaker 1: advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in
Speaker 1: any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be
Speaker 1: paid for by them where you will. But the injuries
Speaker 1: and disadvantages we sustain by that connection are without number,
Speaker 1: and our duty to mankind at large, as well as
Speaker 1: to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance, because any
Speaker 1: submission to or dependence on Great Britain tends directly to
Speaker 1: involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and sets
Speaker 1: us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship,
Speaker 1: and against too, we have neither anger nor complaint. As
Speaker 1: Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form
Speaker 1: no partial connection with any part of it. It is
Speaker 1: the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions,
Speaker 1: which she can never do, while by her dependence on
Speaker 1: Britain she has made the make weight in the scale
Speaker 1: of British politics. Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms
Speaker 1: to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks
Speaker 1: out between England and any foreign power, the trade of
Speaker 1: America goes to ruin. Because of her connection with England,
Speaker 1: the next war may not turn out like the last,
Speaker 1: and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will
Speaker 1: be wishing for separation then, because neutrality, in that case
Speaker 1: would be a safer convoy than a man of war.
Speaker 1: Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The
Speaker 1: blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries
Speaker 1: tis time to part. Even the distance at which the
Speaker 1: Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and
Speaker 1: natural proof that the authority of the one over the
Speaker 1: other was never the design of Heaven. The time likewise
Speaker 1: at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument,
Speaker 1: and the manner in which it was peopled increases the
Speaker 1: force of it. The Reformation was preceded by the discovery
Speaker 1: of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open
Speaker 1: a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home
Speaker 1: should afford neither friendship nor safety. The authority of Great
Speaker 1: Britain over this continent is a form of governments which,
Speaker 1: sooner or later must have an end, And a serious
Speaker 1: mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward under
Speaker 1: the painful and positive conviction that what he calls the
Speaker 1: present Constitution is merely temporary. Parents, we can have no
Speaker 1: joy knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to
Speaker 1: assure anything which we might bequeath to posterity. And by
Speaker 1: a plain method of arguments, as we are running the
Speaker 1: next generation into debt, we ought to do the work
Speaker 1: of it. Otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In
Speaker 1: order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we
Speaker 1: should take our children in our hand and fix our station.
Speaker 1: A few years farther into life, that eminence will present
Speaker 1: a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal
Speaker 1: from our sight. Though I will carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense.
Speaker 1: Yet I am inclined to believe that all those who
Speaker 1: espouse the doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the
Speaker 1: following descriptions. Interested men who are not to be trusted,
Speaker 1: weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see.
Speaker 1: And a certain set of moderate men who think better
Speaker 1: of the European world than it deserves. And this last class,
Speaker 1: by an ill judged deliberation, will be the cause of
Speaker 1: more calamities to this continent than all the other three.
Speaker 1: It is the good fortune of many to live distant
Speaker 1: from the scene of sorrow. The evil is not sufficient
Speaker 1: brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness
Speaker 1: with which all American property is possessed. But let our
Speaker 1: imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston. That
Speaker 1: seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom and instruct us
Speaker 1: forever to renounce a power in whom we can have
Speaker 1: no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but
Speaker 1: a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have
Speaker 1: now no other alternative than to stay and starve. Or
Speaker 1: turn and beg endangered by the fire of their friends.
Speaker 1: If they continue within the city and plunder by the soldiery.
Speaker 1: If they leave it in their present condition, they are
Speaker 1: prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general
Speaker 1: attack for their relief they would be exposed to the
Speaker 1: fury of both armies. Men of passive tempers look somewhat
Speaker 1: lightly over the offenses of Britain, and still hoping for
Speaker 1: the best, are apt to call out, Come, Come, we
Speaker 1: shall be friends again for all this, But examine the
Speaker 1: passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation
Speaker 1: to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether
Speaker 1: you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power
Speaker 1: that hath carried fire and sword into your land. If
Speaker 1: you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves,
Speaker 1: and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future
Speaker 1: connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor,
Speaker 1: will be forced and unnatural, and, being formed only on
Speaker 1: the plan of present convenience, will in a little time
Speaker 1: fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But
Speaker 1: if you say you can still pass the violations over
Speaker 1: then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your
Speaker 1: property been destroyed? Before your face? Are your wife and
Speaker 1: children destitute of a bed to lie on or bread
Speaker 1: to live on? Have you lost a parent or a
Speaker 1: child by their hands? And yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
Speaker 1: If you have not, then are you not a judge
Speaker 1: of those who have? But if you have and still
Speaker 1: can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy
Speaker 1: of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover? And
Speaker 1: whatever may be your rank or title in life? You
Speaker 1: have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
Speaker 1: a sycophant. This is not inflaming or exaggerate matters, but
Speaker 1: trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies,
Speaker 1: and without which we should be incapable of discharging the
Speaker 1: social duties of life or enjoying the felicities of it.
Speaker 1: I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of
Speaker 1: provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers,
Speaker 1: that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is
Speaker 1: not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
Speaker 1: conquer America. If she do not conquer herself by delay intimidity.
Speaker 1: The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed,
Speaker 1: but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake
Speaker 1: of the misfortune. And there is no punishment which that
Speaker 1: man will deserve, be he who, or what or where
Speaker 1: he will. That may be the means of sacrificing a
Speaker 1: season so precious and useful. It is repugnant to reason,
Speaker 1: to the universal order of things, to all examples from
Speaker 1: former ages, to suppose that this continent can longer remain
Speaker 1: subject to an external power. The most sanguine in Britain
Speaker 1: does not think so. The utmost stretch of a human
Speaker 1: wisdom cannot at this time compass a plan short of separation,
Speaker 1: which can promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation
Speaker 1: is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection,
Speaker 1: and art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses,
Speaker 1: never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate
Speaker 1: have pierced so deep. Every quiet method for peace hath
Speaker 1: been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain, and
Speaker 1: only tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or
Speaker 1: confirms obstinacy in kings more than repeated petitioning, And nothing
Speaker 1: hath contry libit more than that very measure to make
Speaker 1: the kings of Europe absolute witness Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore,
Speaker 1: since nothing but blows will do for God's sake, let
Speaker 1: us come to a final separation and not leave the
Speaker 1: next generation to be cutting throats under the violated, unmeaning
Speaker 1: names of parents and child. To say they will never
Speaker 1: attempt it again is idle and visionary. We thought so
Speaker 1: at the repeal of this Stampact, Yet a year or
Speaker 1: two undeceived us as well. May we suppose that nations
Speaker 1: which have been once defeated will never renew the quarrel
Speaker 1: As to government matters. It is not in the power
Speaker 1: of Britain to do this continent justice. The business of
Speaker 1: it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be
Speaker 1: managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power
Speaker 1: so distant from us and so very ignorant of us.
Speaker 1: For if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern. To
Speaker 1: be always running three or four thousand miles with a
Speaker 1: tail or, a petition waiting four or five months for
Speaker 1: an answer which, when obtained, requires five or six more
Speaker 1: to explain it in will in a few years be
Speaker 1: looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time
Speaker 1: when it was proper, and there is a proper time
Speaker 1: for it to cease. Small islands, not capable of protecting
Speaker 1: themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under
Speaker 1: their care. But there is something very absurd in supposing
Speaker 1: a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In
Speaker 1: no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its
Speaker 1: primary planet. And as England and America with respect to
Speaker 1: each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is
Speaker 1: evident they belong to different systems, England to Europe, America
Speaker 1: to itself. I am not induced by motives of pride,
Speaker 1: party or resentments to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence.
Speaker 1: I am clearly, positively and conscientiously persuaded that it is
Speaker 1: the true interest of this continent to be so that
Speaker 1: everything short of that is mere patchwork, that it can
Speaker 1: afford no lasting felicity, That it is leaving the sword
Speaker 1: to our children, and shrinking back at a time when
Speaker 1: a little more a little farther would have rendered this
Speaker 1: continent the glory of the earth, as Britain hath not
Speaker 1: manifested the least inclination towards a compromise. We may be
Speaker 1: assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the acceptance
Speaker 1: of the continent, or in any ways equal to the
Speaker 1: expense of blood and treasure we have already been put to.
Speaker 1: The object contended for ought always to bear some just
Speaker 1: proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the
Speaker 1: whole detestable junto is a matter unworthy the millions we
Speaker 1: have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience
Speaker 1: which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all acts
Speaker 1: complained of, had such repeals been obtained. But if the
Speaker 1: whole continent must take up arms, if every man must
Speaker 1: be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our while to
Speaker 1: fight against a contemptible ministry. Only dearly, dearly do we
Speaker 1: pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is
Speaker 1: all we fight for for. In a just estimation, it
Speaker 1: is as great a folly to pay a bunker hill
Speaker 1: prize for law as for land. As I have always
Speaker 1: considered the independency of this continent as an event which
Speaker 1: sooner or later must arrive. So from the late rapid
Speaker 1: progress of the continent to maturity, the event could not
Speaker 1: be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of hostilities,
Speaker 1: it was not worth while to have disputed the matter,
Speaker 1: which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant it
Speaker 1: to be in earnest. Otherwise it is like wasting an
Speaker 1: estates on a suit at law to regulate the trespasses
Speaker 1: of a tenant whose lease is just expiring. No man
Speaker 1: was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself before the
Speaker 1: fatal nineteenth of April seventeen seventy five. But the moment
Speaker 1: the event of that day was made known, I rejected
Speaker 1: the hardened, sullen, tempered pharaoh of England forever and disdain
Speaker 1: the wretch that, with the pretended title of father of
Speaker 1: his people can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter and composedly
Speaker 1: sleep with their blood upon his soul. But admitting that
Speaker 1: matters were now made up, what would be the event?
Speaker 1: I answer the ruin of the continent, and that, for
Speaker 1: several reasons. First, the powers of governing still remaining in
Speaker 1: the hands of the king, he will have a negative
Speaker 1: of the whole legislation of this continent. And as he
Speaker 1: hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty and
Speaker 1: discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, is he or
Speaker 1: is he not a proper man to say to these colonies,
Speaker 1: you shall make no laws but what I please? And
Speaker 1: is there any inhabitant in America so ignorant as not
Speaker 1: to know that, according to what is called the present Constitution,
Speaker 1: that this continent can make no laws but what the
Speaker 1: King gives leave to. And is there any man so
Speaker 1: unwise as not to see that, considering what has happened,
Speaker 1: he will suffer no law to be made here, but
Speaker 1: such as suit his purpose. We may be as effectually
Speaker 1: enslaved by the want of laws in America as by
Speaker 1: submitting to laws made for us in England. After matters
Speaker 1: are made up, as it is called, can there be
Speaker 1: any doubts, but the whole power of the Crown will
Speaker 1: be exerted to keep this continent as low and humble
Speaker 1: as possible. Instead of going forward, we shall go backward,
Speaker 1: or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously petitioning. We are already
Speaker 1: greater than the King wishes us to be, and will
Speaker 1: he not hereafter endeavor to make us less. To bring
Speaker 1: the matter to one point, is the power who is
Speaker 1: jealous of our prosperity a proper power to govern us.
Speaker 1: Whoever says no to this question is an independent. For
Speaker 1: independency means no more than whether we shall make our
Speaker 1: own laws, or whether the King, the greatest enemy this
Speaker 1: continent hath or can have, shall tell us there shall
Speaker 1: be no laws but such as I like. But the King,
Speaker 1: you will say, has a negative in England, the people
Speaker 1: there can make no laws without his consent. In point
Speaker 1: of right and good order, there is something very ridiculous
Speaker 1: that a youth of twenty one one, which hath often happened,
Speaker 1: shall say to several millions of people older and wiser
Speaker 1: than himself, I forbid this or that act of yours
Speaker 1: to be law. But in this place I decline this
Speaker 1: sort of reply. But in this place I decline this
Speaker 1: sort of reply, though I will never cease to expose
Speaker 1: the absurdity of it, and only answer that England, being
Speaker 1: the King's residence, and America not so, makes quite another case.
Speaker 1: The King's negative here is ten times more dangerous and
Speaker 1: fatal than it can be in England, for there he
Speaker 1: will scarcely refuse his consents to a bill for putting
Speaker 1: England into as strong a state of defense as possible,
Speaker 1: And in America he would never suffer such a bill
Speaker 1: to be passed. America is only a secondary object in
Speaker 1: the system of British politics. England consults the good of
Speaker 1: this country no farther than it answers her own purpose.
Speaker 1: Wherefore her own interests leads her to suppress the growth
Speaker 1: of ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage,
Speaker 1: or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state
Speaker 1: we should soon be in under such a secondhand government,
Speaker 1: Considering what has happened. Men do not change from enemies
Speaker 1: to friends by the alteration of a name. And in
Speaker 1: order to show that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine,
Speaker 1: I affirm that it would be policy in the King
Speaker 1: at this time to repeal the acts for the sake
Speaker 1: of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in
Speaker 1: order that he may accomplish by craft and subtlety in
Speaker 1: the long run what he cannot do by force and
Speaker 1: violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related. Secondly,
Speaker 1: that as even the best terms which we can expect
Speaker 1: to obtain can amount to know more than a temporary
Speaker 1: expedient or a kind of government by guardianship, which last
Speaker 1: no longer than till the colonies come of age, so
Speaker 1: the general face and state of things in the interim
Speaker 1: will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of property will not
Speaker 1: choose to come to a country whose form of government
Speaker 1: hangs but by a thread, and who is every day
Speaker 1: tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance, and numbers
Speaker 1: of the present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval,
Speaker 1: to dispense of their effects, and quit the continent. But
Speaker 1: the most powerful of all arguments is that nothing but independence,
Speaker 1: that is a continental form of government, can keep the
Speaker 1: peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars.
Speaker 1: I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now,
Speaker 1: as it is more than probable that it will be
Speaker 1: followed by a revolt somewhere or other, the consequences of
Speaker 1: which may be far more fatal than all the malice
Speaker 1: of Britain. Thousands are all ready ruined by British barbarity.
Speaker 1: Thousands more will suffer the same fate. Those men who
Speaker 1: have other feelings that us have nothing suffered. All they
Speaker 1: now possess is liberty. What they before enjoyed is sacrificed
Speaker 1: to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they
Speaker 1: disdain submission. Besides, the general temper of the Cottonies towards
Speaker 1: a British government will be like that of a youth
Speaker 1: who is nearly out of his time. They will care
Speaker 1: very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve
Speaker 1: the peace is no government at all. And in that
Speaker 1: case we pay our money for nothing, and pray, what
Speaker 1: is it that Britain can do? Whose power will be
Speaker 1: wholly on paper? Should a civil tumult break out the
Speaker 1: very day after reconciliation, I have heard some men say,
Speaker 1: many of whom I believe, spoke without thinking that they
Speaker 1: are dreaded and independents, fearing that it would produce civil wars.
Speaker 1: It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct,
Speaker 1: And that is the case here, for there are ten
Speaker 1: times more to dread from a patched up connection than
Speaker 1: from independence. I make the sufferer's case my own and
Speaker 1: I protest that were I driven from house and home,
Speaker 1: my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that, as man
Speaker 1: sensible of injuries, I would never relish the doctrine of
Speaker 1: reconciliation or consider myself bound Thereby the colonies have manifested
Speaker 1: such a spirit of good order and obedience to continental
Speaker 1: governments as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy
Speaker 1: and happy. On that head, no man can assign the
Speaker 1: least pretense for his fears on any other grounds than
Speaker 1: such as truly childish and ridiculous. That is, that one
Speaker 1: colony will be striving for superiority over another. Where there
Speaker 1: are no distinctions, there can be no superiority. Perfect equality
Speaker 1: affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all, and
Speaker 1: we may say always in peace. Harland and Switzerland are
Speaker 1: without wars, foreign or domestic. Monarchical governments, it is true,
Speaker 1: are never long at rest. The crown itself is a
Speaker 1: temptation to enterprising ruffians at home, and that degree of
Speaker 1: pride and insolence, ever attendant on regal authority, swells into
Speaker 1: a rupture with foreign powers. In instances where a republican government,
Speaker 1: by being formed on more natural principles would negotiate the mistake.
Speaker 1: If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence,
Speaker 1: it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men
Speaker 1: do not see their way out. Wherefore, as an opening
Speaker 1: into that business, I offer the following hints, at the
Speaker 1: same time, modestly affirming that I have no other opinion
Speaker 1: of them myself than that they may be the means
Speaker 1: of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts
Speaker 1: of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
Speaker 1: wise and able men to improve into useful matter. Let
Speaker 1: the assemblies be annual, with a president only the representation
Speaker 1: more equal, their business wholly domestic, and subject to the
Speaker 1: authority of a continental Congress. Let each colony be divided
Speaker 1: into six, eight or ten convenient districts. Each district to
Speaker 1: send a proper number of delegates to Congress, so that
Speaker 1: each colony send at least thirty. The whole number in
Speaker 1: Congress will be at least three hundred ninety. Each Congress
Speaker 1: to sit and choose a president by the following method.
Speaker 1: When the delegates are met, Let a colony be taken
Speaker 1: from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let
Speaker 1: the whole Congress choose by ballot a president from out
Speaker 1: of the delegates of that province. In the next Congress,
Speaker 1: Let a call only be taken by lot from twelve,
Speaker 1: only omitting that colony from which the president was taken
Speaker 1: in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till the
Speaker 1: whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation, and in
Speaker 1: order that nothing may pass into law. But what is
Speaker 1: satisfactorily just not less than three fifths of the Congress
Speaker 1: to be called a majority he that will promote discord
Speaker 1: under a government so equally formed as this would have
Speaker 1: joined Lucifer in his revolt. But as there is a
Speaker 1: peculiar delicacy from whom or in what manner this business
Speaker 1: must first arise, and as it seems almost agreeable and
Speaker 1: consistent that it should come from some intermediate body between
Speaker 1: the government and the governors, that is, between Congress and
Speaker 1: the people, Let a continental conference be held in the
Speaker 1: following manner, and for the following purpose. A committee of
Speaker 1: twenty six members of Congress, that is, two for each colony,
Speaker 1: two members from each House Assembly or provincial convention, and
Speaker 1: five representatives of the people at large to be chosen
Speaker 1: in the capital city or town of each province, for
Speaker 1: and in behalf of the whole province, by as many
Speaker 1: qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from all
Speaker 1: parts of the province for that purpose, or, if more convenient,
Speaker 1: the representatives may be chosen in two or three of
Speaker 1: the most populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus assembled,
Speaker 1: will be united the two grand principles of business, knowledge
Speaker 1: and power. The members of Congress, assemblies or conventions, by
Speaker 1: having had experience in national concerns, will be able and
Speaker 1: useful counselors, and the whole, being empowered by the people,
Speaker 1: will have a truly legal authority. The conferring members, being mets,
Speaker 1: let their business be to frame a continental Charter or
Speaker 1: Charter of the United Colonies, answering to what is called
Speaker 1: the Magna Carter of England, fixing the number and manner
Speaker 1: of choosing members of Congress members of Assembly, with their
Speaker 1: date sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction
Speaker 1: between them, always remembering that our strength is continental, not provincial,
Speaker 1: Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things,
Speaker 1: the free exercise of religion according to the Dictates of Conscience,
Speaker 1: with such other matter as is necessary for a charter
Speaker 1: to contain, immediately after which the said conference to dissolve,
Speaker 1: and the bodies which shall be chosen conformable to the
Speaker 1: said charter to be the legislators and governors of this
Speaker 1: continent for the time being. Whose peace and happiness may
Speaker 1: God preserve? Aremen? Should any body of men be hereafter
Speaker 1: delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them
Speaker 1: the following extracts from that wise observer on Government's Dragonetti.
Speaker 1: The science says he of the politician consists in fixing
Speaker 1: the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would
Speaker 1: deserve the gratitude of ages who should discover a mode
Speaker 1: of government that contain the greatest sum of individual happiness
Speaker 1: with the least national expense. But where says some is
Speaker 1: the King of America, I'll tell you friend, he reigns
Speaker 1: above and doth not make havoc of mankind like the
Speaker 1: royal brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear
Speaker 1: to be defective even in earthly honors, that a day
Speaker 1: be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter, Let it
Speaker 1: be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word
Speaker 1: of God let a crown be placed thereon, by which
Speaker 1: the world may know that so far as we approve
Speaker 1: in America, that in America the law is king. For
Speaker 1: as in absolute governments the king is law, so in
Speaker 1: free countries the law ought to be king, and there
Speaker 1: ought to be no other. But lest any ill use
Speaker 1: should afterwards arise, let the crown, at the conclusion of
Speaker 1: the ceremony be demolished and scattered among the people, whose
Speaker 1: right it is. A government of our own is our
Speaker 1: natural rights. And when a man seriously reflects on the
Speaker 1: precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced that it
Speaker 1: is infinitely wiser and safer to form a constitution of
Speaker 1: our own in a cool, deliberate manner while we have
Speaker 1: it in our power, than to trust such an interesting
Speaker 1: event to time and chance. If we omit it now,
Speaker 1: some massanello may hereafter arise, who, laying hold of popular disquietudes,
Speaker 1: may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by
Speaker 1: assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away
Speaker 1: the liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the
Speaker 1: government of America return again into the hands of Britain,
Speaker 1: the tottering situation of things will be a temptation for
Speaker 1: some disparate adventurer to try his fortune. And in such
Speaker 1: a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could
Speaker 1: hear the news the fatal business might be done, and
Speaker 1: ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons under the oppression of
Speaker 1: the conqueror. Ye that oppose independence, now ye know not
Speaker 1: what ye do? Ye are opening a door to eternal
Speaker 1: tyranny by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are
Speaker 1: thousands and tens of thousands who would think it glorious
Speaker 1: to expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish power
Speaker 1: which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us.
Speaker 1: The cruelty hath a double guilt. It is dealing brutally
Speaker 1: by us and treacherously by them to talk of friendship
Speaker 1: with those in whom our reason forbids us to have
Speaker 1: faith and our affections wounded through a thousand the pores
Speaker 1: instruct us to detest is madness and folly. Every day.
Speaker 1: Whares are the little remains of kindred between us and them?
Speaker 1: And can there be any reason to hope that as
Speaker 1: the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we
Speaker 1: shall agree better when we have ten times more and
Speaker 1: greater concerns to quarrel over than ever ye that tell
Speaker 1: us of harmony and reconciliation. Can ye restore us to
Speaker 1: the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution
Speaker 1: its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America.
Speaker 1: The last chord now is broken. The people of England
Speaker 1: are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which Nature
Speaker 1: cannot forgive. She would cease to be nature if she did.
Speaker 1: As well? Can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress,
Speaker 1: as the continent forgive the murders of Britain? The Almighty
Speaker 1: hath implanted in us those inextinguishable things, feelings for good
Speaker 1: and wise purposes. They are the guardians of His image
Speaker 1: in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of
Speaker 1: common animals. The social compact would dissolve and justice be
Speaker 1: extirpated the earth or have only a casual existence. Were
Speaker 1: we callous to the touches of affection, the robber and
Speaker 1: the murderer would often escape unpunished. Did not the injuries
Speaker 1: which our temper sustain, provoke us into justice. Oh, ye
Speaker 1: that love mankind, Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny,
Speaker 1: but the tyrant stand forth. Every spot of the old
Speaker 1: world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round
Speaker 1: the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her, Europe
Speaker 1: regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her
Speaker 1: warning to depart. Oh receive the fugitive and prepare in
Speaker 1: time an asylum from mankind. End of Part three