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1. Thomas Paine, Common Sense (January 1776) [Excerpts]
Introduction:
Common Sense was the first American best seller. It sold 120,000 copies in the first three months after its
publication in January 1776. An estimated 500,000 copies were sold that year. Such sales were phenomenal,
considering that the population of the entire country was only about 1.5 million.
Although the Revolutionary War began in April of 1775, its aims were ill-defined. Prior to the publication of
Common Sense, not one of the thirteen colonies had instructed its delegation to the Continental Congress to
vote in favor of independence. The best estimates are that only one-third of the delegates to Congress favored
independence. Certainly other writings and events helped shift public opinion in favor of independence, but no
single writing or event had the profound effect of the arguments advanced by Paine in Common Sense.
The first edition of Common Sense was published on January 10, 1776, in Philadelphia. This is the second,
enlarged edition, which was published on February 14, 1776.
Born Tom Pain in the town of Thetford, Norfolk, England, on January 29, 1737, Paine was the son of a
Quaker staymaker. He went to school from age six until he was thirteen, when he became an apprentice in his
father's shop. Paine practiced his trade of making women's corsets until 1761, when he became an exciseman -a customs official who collected the internal taxes levied on various items.
In 1772 Paine wrote a pamphlet, The Case of the Officers of Excise, arguing for higher salaries for
excisemen. The cause failed, and the time that Paine diverted from his duties as an exciseman cost him his job.
Bankrupt, unemployed, and separated from his wife, Paine went to London in 1774. There he met Benjamin
Franklin, who gave him a letter of introduction to his son-in-law in Philadelphia, and left England for America
at the age of 37.
In Philadelphia Paine taught for a short time, and then began writing for magazines and newspapers. When
Common Sense first appeared in January 1776, the byline was "written by an Englishman." The second edition
was also published anonymously, but at that time Paine started adding the "e" to his name.
Paine joined the American army in July 1776, and combined soldering and journalism for the next seven
years. In December of 1773, he published a pamphlet, The Crisis. Its opening lines are the most frequently
quoted of all of Paine's writings: These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.
After the Revolutionary War, Paine devoted most his time to scientific projects, chief of which was his desire
to build an iron bridge. His pursuit of these projects took him to England and France, where he became
embroiled in European politics. In 1791 Paine's The Rights of Man was published in England. In it he defended
the French revolution and attacked the British aristocracy. The book was widely read, but it led to Paine being
charged with seditious writings. After Paine fled to France, he was tried in absentia, found guilty, and outlawed
from ever returning to England.
Paine spent ten years in France as an active participant in the tumultuous politics of the era. He served as a
delegate to the National Convention until December of 1793, when he and other foreign delegates were
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imprisoned. He was released from prison after ten months, largely due to the efforts of James Monroe, the
American ambassador. Paine was re-elected to the Assembly, and continued writing, although his health was
failing.
One of Paine's later works, The Age of Reason, was an attack on Christian theology and the Bible. It was well
reasoned, but not well received.
Paine returned to America in 1802, settling on a farm in New Rochelle, outside of New York City. Instead of
being regarded as a great patriot, Paine was ostracized as the author of the "godless" Age of Reason. He died
on June 8, 1809, lonely, bitter, and forgotten.
Chapter 1: Of the Origin and Design of Government in General. With Concise Remarks on the English
Constitution.
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them;
whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and
government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The
first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst
state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we
might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the
means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built
on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly
obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a
part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same
prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being
the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely
to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of
persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first
peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A
thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so
unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn
requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness,
but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled
his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him
from his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death,
for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which
he might rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the
reciprocal blessings of which, would supercede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary
while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will
unavoidably happen, that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them
together in common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other; and this
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remissness, will point out the necessity, of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral
virtue.
Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the branches of which, the whole colony may
assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of
REGULATIONS, and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man,
by natural right will have a seat.
But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and the distance at which the members
may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their
number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the
convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the
whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and
who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If the colony continue
increasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of the representatives, and that the interest of every
part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part
sending its proper number; and that the elected might never form to themselves an interest separate from the
electors, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often; because as the elected might by that
means return and mix again with the general body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity to the public
will be secured by the prudent reflexion of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange
will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support
each other, and on this (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the strength of government, and the
happiness of the governed.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral
virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security. And
however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our
wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.
I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the
more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered; and with
this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for
the dark and slavish times in which it was erected is granted. When the world was over-run with tyranny the
least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of
producing what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated.
Absolute governments (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are
simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise the remedy,
and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the constitution of England is so exceedingly
complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies,
some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine.
I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine
the component parts of the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient
tyrannies, compounded with some new republican materials.
First.-The remains of monarchical tyranny in the person of the king.
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Secondly.-The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers.
Thirdly.-The new republican materials, in the persons of the commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom
of England.
The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people; wherefore in a constitutional sense they
contribute nothing towards the freedom of the state.
To say that the constitution of England is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each other, is farcical,
either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.
To say that the commons is a check upon the king, presupposes two things.
First.-That the king is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute
power is the natural disease of monarchy.
Secondly.-That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of
confidence than the crown.
But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the supplies,
gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again
supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere
absurdity!
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the
means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a
king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the
different parts, unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and
useless.
Some writers have explained the English constitution thus; the king, say they, is one, the people another; the
peers are an house in behalf of the king; the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of
an house divided against itself; and though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they
appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capable of,
when applied to the description of some thing which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within
the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot
inform the mind, for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. How came the king by a power which
the people are afraid to trust, and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people,
neither can any power, which needs checking, be from God; yet the provision, which the constitution makes,
supposes such a power to exist.
But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole
affair is felo de se; for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are
put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will
govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion,
yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavours will be ineffectual; the first moving power will at last have
its way, and what it wants in speed is supplied by time.
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That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution needs not be mentioned, and that it derives
its whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and pensions is self-evident, wherefore, though we
have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been
foolish enough to put the crown in possession of the key.
The prejudice of Englishmen, in favour of their own government by king, lords, and commons, arises as much
or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other
countries, but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that
instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the most formidable shape of an
act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First, hath only made kings more subtle -- not more just.
Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it
is wholly owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government that the crown is
not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.
An inquiry into the constitutional errors in the English form of government is at this time highly necessary;
for as we are never in a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under the influence of
some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any
obstinate prejudice. And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so
any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.
Chapter 3: Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs
In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have
no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession,
and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he will not
put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.
Volumes have been written on the 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. Arms, as the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the
choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
It hath been reported of the late Mr Pelham (who tho' an able minister was not without his faults) that on his
being attacked in the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied,
`they will last my time.' Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the
name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. `Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a
kingdom, but of a continent-of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. `Tis not the concern of a day, a
year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end
of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture
now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will
enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.
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By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new aera for politics is struck; a new method of thinking
hath arisen. All plans, proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i.e. to the commencement of hostilities,
are like the almanacks of the last year; which, though proper then, are superceded and useless now. Whatever
was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point, viz. a
union with Great Britain; the only difference between the parties was the method of effecting it; the one
proposing force, the other friendship; but it hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath
withdrawn her influence.
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which, like an agreeable dream, hath passed away
and left us as we were, it is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the argument, and inquire into
some of the many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected
with, and dependant on Great Britain. To examine that connexion and dependance, on the principles of nature
and common sense, to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect, if dependant.
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connexion with GreatBritain, that the same connexion is necessary 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 thrived 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 had any thing to do with 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
expence as well as her own is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. the
sake of trade and dominion.
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have
boasted the protection of Great-Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not attachment; that
she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those
who had no quarrel with us on any other account and who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let
Britain wave her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off the dependance, and we should be at
peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover last war ought to warn us
against connexions.
It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have no relation to each other but through the
parent country, i.e. that Pensylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister colonies by the way of
England; this is certainly a very round-about way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way
of proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France and Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as
Americans, but as our being the subjects of Great 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 -- 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 the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far
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true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants
still.
In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent
of England) and carry our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with eve-European christian, and
triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudice, as we enlarge
our acquaintance with the world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will naturally
associate most with his fellow parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be common) and
distinguish him by the name of neighbour; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea
of a street, and salutes him by the name of townsman; if he travels out of the county, and meet him in any other,
he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls him countryman, i.e. countyman; but if in their
foreign excursions they should associate in France or any other part of Europe, their local remembrance would
be enlarged into that of Englishmen. And by a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or
any other quarter of the globe, are countrymen; for England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden, when compared
with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do
on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this
province, are of English descent. Wherefore I reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to
England only, as being false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous.
But admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an
open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical.
The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of
England are descendants from the same country; wherefore by the same method of reasoning, England ought to
be governed by France.
Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid
defiance to the world. But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither do the expressions
mean any thing; for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants to support the British
arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.
Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended
to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America
a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from
invaders.
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, 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, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any submission to, or
dependance 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. It
is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while by her
dependance on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.
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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 her connection with Britain. The
next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing
for separation then, because, neutrality in that case, would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Every thing 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. The time likewise at which
the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled encreases
the force of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant
to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.
The authority of Great-Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have
an end: And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the gainful and positive
conviction, that what he calls `the present constitution' is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy,
knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to
posterity:
And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of
it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take
our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect,
which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offence, yet I am inclined to believe, that all those who
espouse the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions. Interested men, who
are not to be trusted; weak men who cannot see; prejudiced men who will not see; and a certain set of moderate
men, who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this last class by an ill-judged deliberation,
will be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three.
It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to
their doors to make them feel the precariousness 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 for ever 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 condition 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.
Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are
apt to call out, `Come we shall be friends again for all this.' But examine the passions and feelings of mankind.
Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter
love, honour, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot do all
these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future
connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honour, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed
only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But
if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property
been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and 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 are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then
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are you 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.
This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by those feelings and affections which nature
justifies, and without which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of life, or enjoying the
felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provokmg revenge, but to awaken us from fatal
and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or
of Europe to conquer America, if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The present winter is worth
an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune; and there
is no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means
of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from the former ages, to suppose,
that this continent can longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in Britain does not think
so.
The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot, at this time compass a plan short of separation, which can
promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is was a falacious dream. Nature hath deserted the
connexion, and Art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, `never can true reconcilement
grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.'
Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and only
tended to convince us, that nothing flatters vanity, or confirms obstinancy 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 at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet
a year or two undeceived us; as well me we may 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 pertpetually governed by an island. In
no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with
respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems:
England to Europe, America to itself.
I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and
independance; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent
to be so; that every thing short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,-that it is leaving
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the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered
this continent the glory of the earth.
As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured that no terms
can be obtained worthy the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expence of blood and treasure
we have been already put to.
The object contended for, ought always to bear some just proportion to the expence. The removal of N -- , or
the whole detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade,
was an inconvenience, which would have sufficiently ballanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had
such repeals been obtained; but if the whole continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, it is
scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly, do we pay for the repeal
of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for in a just estimation, it is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for
law, as for land. As I have always considered the independancy of this continent, as an event, which sooner or
later must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event could not be far off.
Wherefore, on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not worth the while to have disputed a matter, which time
would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise, it is like wasting an estate on a suit at
law, to regulate the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for
reconciliation than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April 1775 *, * Massacre at Lexington. but the moment
the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharoah of -- for ever; and
disdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE can unfeelingly hear of their
slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.
But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the event? I answer, the ruin of the continent.
And that for several reasons.
First. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the k -- , he will have a negative over the whole
legislation of this continent. And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered
such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or is he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, `You shall make no
laws but what I please.' And is there any inhabitants in America so ignorant, as not to know, that according to
what is called the present constitution, that this continent can make no laws but what the king gives leave to;
and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no Law to be
made here, but such as suit his purpose. We may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws in America, as
by submitting to laws made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called) can there be any doubt
but the whole power of the crown will be exerted, to keep this continent as low and humble as possible? Instead
of going forward we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarrelling or ridiculously petitioning. We are already
greater than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavour to make us less? To bring the matter
to one point. Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to
this question is an independant, for independancy means no more, than, whether we shall make our own laws,
or, whether the -- , the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us `there shall be no laws but
such as I like.'
But the k -- you will say has a negative in England; the people there can make no laws without his consent. In
point of right and good order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of twenty-one (which hath often
happened) shall say to several millions of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act of yours
to be law. But in this place I decline this sort of reply, tho' I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and
only answer, that England being the king's residence, and America not so, makes quite another case. The k -- 's
negative here is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will scarcely refuse
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his consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defence as possible, and in America he would
never suffer such a bill to be passed.
America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics. England consults the good of this
country, no farther than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to suppress the
growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interfere with it. A pretty
state we should soon be in under such a second-hand government, considering what has happened! Men do not
change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name: And in order to shew that reconciliation now is a
dangerous doctrine, I affirm, that it would be policy in the k -- at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of
reinstating himself in the government of the provinces; in order, that HE MAY ACCOMPLISH BY CRAFT
AND SUBTILTY, IN THE LONG RUN, WHAT HE CANNOT DO BY FORCE AND VIOLENCE IN THE
SHORT ONE. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.
Secondly, That as even the best terms, which we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more than a
temporary expedient, or a kind of government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the colonies
come of age, so the general face and state of things, in the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising.
Emigrants of property will not choose to come to a country whose form of government hangs but by a thread,
and who is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present
inhabitants would lay hold of the interval, to dispose of their effects, and quit the continent.
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independance, i.e. a continental form of
government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I dread the event of a
reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere or
other, the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the malice of Britain.
Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more will probably suffer the same fate.) Those
men have other feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty, what they before
enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the
general temper of the colonies, towards a British government, will he like that of a youth, who is nearly out of
his time, they will care very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace, is no
government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose
power will be wholly on paper, should a civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation? I have heard
some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independance, fearing that
it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for
there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connexion than from independance. I make the sufferers
case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my
circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or
consider myself bound thereby.
The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience to continental government, as is
sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the least pretence
for his fears, on any other grounds, that such as are truly childish and ridiculous, that one colony will be striving
for superiority over another.
Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority, perfect equality affords no temptation. The
republics of Europe are all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Swisserland are without wars,
foreign or domestic: Monarchical governments, it is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation
to enterprizing ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells
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into a rupture with foreign powers, in instances, where a republican government, by being formed on more
natural principles, would negociate the mistake.
If there is any true cause of fear respecting independance, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not
see their way out-Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following hints; at the same time
modestly affirming, that I have no other opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving rise
to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form
materials for wise and able men to improve to useful matter.
LET the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The representation more equal. Their business wholly
domestic, and subject to the authority of a Continental Congress.
Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient districts, each district to send a proper number of
delegates to Congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number in Congress will be at least
390. Each Congress to sit and to choose a president by the following method. When the delegates are met, let a
colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let the whole Congress choose (by ballot) a
president from out of the delegates of that province. In the next Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from
twelve only, omitting that colony from which the president was taken in the former Congress, and so
proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And in order that nothing may pass
into a law but what is satisfactorily just, not less than three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority.-He
that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed as this, would join Lucifer in his revolt.
But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner, this business must first arise, and as it
seems most agreeable and consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body between the governed
and the governors, that is between the Congress and the people, let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held,
in the following manner, and for the following purpose.
A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each colony. Two members for each house of
assembly, or Provincial convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be chosen in the capital
city or town of each province, for, and in behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall
think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives
may be chosen in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus assembled, will be
united, the two grand principles of business, knowledge and power. The members of Congress, Assemblies, or
Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be able and useful counsellors, and the whole,
being impowered by the people will have a truly legal authority.
The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, or Charter
of the United Colonies; (answering to what is called the Magna Charta of England) fixing the number and
manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with their date of sitting, and drawing the
line of business and jurisdiction between them: (Always remembering, that our strength is continental, not
provincial:) Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things the free exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a charter to contain.
Immediately after which, the said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall he chosen conformable to
the said charter, to be the legislators and governors of this continent for the time being: Whose peace and
happiness, may God preserve, Amen.
Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them the following
extracts from that wise observer on governments Dragonetti. `The science' says he, of the politician consists in
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fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should
discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national
expence. Dragonetti on Virtue and Rewards.'
But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havock
of mankind like the Royal -- of 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 constitution of our own
in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and
chance. If we omit it now, some * Massenello may hereafter arise, * Thomas Anello, otherwise Massenello, a
fisherman of Naples, who after spiriting up his countrymen in the public market place, against the oppression of
the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject, prompted them to revolt, and in the space of a day became
King. who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by
assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.
Should the government of America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will
be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in such a case, what relief can Britain
give? Ere she could hear the news the fatal business might be done, and ourselves suffering like the wretched
Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independance now, ye know not what ye do; ye
are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are thousands and tens
of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which
hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us; the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us,
and treacherously by them.
To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded
through a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of
kindred between us and them, and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection
will increase, or that we shall agree better, when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over
than ever?
Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? 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 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 over-run with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have
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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.
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20080516215808/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PaiComm.html
2.Charles Inglis, The Costs of Revolution (1776)
This essay by loyalist Charles Inglis is a response to Thomas Paine’s extremely successful pamphlet Common
Sense. It takes an economic stance in arguing against the impending American Revolution. Inglis states that
expenses would double if the American colonies achieved independence, and that the new nation would soon be
left in debt. This work underscores the vast differences in opinion in the pre-Revolutionary colonies.
Where the money is to come from which will defray this enormous annual expense of three millions sterling,
and all those other debts, I know not; unless the author of Common Sense, or some other ingenious projector,
can discover the Philosopher’s Stone, by which iron and other base metals may be transmuted into gold. Certain
I am that our commerce and agriculture, the two principal sources of our wealth, will not support such an
expense. The whole of our exports from the Thirteen United Colonies, in the year 1769, amounted only to
£2,887,898 sterling; which is not so much, by near half a million, as our annual expense would be were we
independent of Great Britain. Those exports; with no inconsiderable part of the profits arising from them, it is
well known, centered finally in Britain to pay the merchants and manufacturers there for goods we had imported
thence—and yet left us still in debt! What then must our situation be, or what the state of our trade, when
oppressed with such a burden of annual expense! When every article of commerce, every necessary of life,
together with our lands, must be heavily taxed to defray that expense!
—Charles Inglis, 1776, Pennsylvania
Source: Teresa O’Neill, ser. ed., Opposing Viewpoints: The American Revolution, American History Series (San
Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1992).
3. William Smith, Reconciliation Better than Independence (1776)
Anglican clergyman and educator William Smith wrote a series of public letters in 1776 under the name
“Cato” in reply to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Smith writes that the American colonies would do better to
seek reconciliation rather than independence. A last-minute attempt to prevent the impending war, Smith argues
that, in time, the colonies will again enjoy a prosperous and pleasant relationship with Great Britain.
We have already declared ourselves independent, as to all useful purposes, by resisting our oppressors upon our
own foundation. And while we keep upon this ground, without connecting ourselves with any foreign nations,
to involve us in fresh difficulties and endanger our liberties still further, we are able, in our own element (upon
the shore), to continue this resistance; and it is our duty to continue it till Great Britain is convinced (as she must
soon be) of her fatal policy, and open her arms to reconciliation, upon the permanent and sure footing of mutual
interests and safety.
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Upon such a footing, we may again be happy. Our trade will be revived. Our husbandmen, our mechanics, our
artificers will flourish. Our language, our laws, and manners being the same with those of the nation with which
we are again to be connected, that connection will be natural; and we shall the more easily guard against future
innovations. Pennsylvania has much to lose in this contest and much to hope from a proper settlement of it. We
have long flourished under our charter government. What may be the consequences of another form we cannot
pronounce with certainty; but this we know, that it is a road we have not traveled and may be worse than it is
described.
Source: Teresa O’Neill, ser. ed., Opposing Viewpoints: The American Revolution, American History Series (San
Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1992), p.151.
4. The Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards
for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an
absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would
relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants
only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of
their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
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He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the
rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative
powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in
the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary
powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out
their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by
our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the
Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our
Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
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He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation
and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous
ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to
become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our
frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated
Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act
which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of
attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity,
and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of
consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them,
as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right
ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and
that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;
and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,
establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to
each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Georgia
South Carolina
William Paca
Button Gwinnett
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Stone
Lyman Hall
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Walton
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Virginia
George Wythe
North Carolina
William Hooper
Massachusetts
Richard Henry Lee
Joseph Hewes
John Hancock
Thomas Jefferson
John Penn
Maryland
Benjamin Harrison
Samuel Chase
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
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Francis Lightfoot Lee
New York
Massachusetts
Carter Braxton
William Floyd
Samuel Adams
Philip Livingston
John Adams
Pennsylvania
Francis Lewis
Robert Treat Paine
Robert Morris
Lewis Morris
Elbridge Gerry
Benjamin Franklin
New Jersey
Rhode Island
John Morton
Richard Stockton
Stephen Hopkins
George Clymer
John Witherspoon
William Ellery
James Smith
Francis Hopkinson
George Taylor
John Hart
Connecticut
James Wilson
Abraham Clark
Roger Sherman
Benjamin Rush
George Ross
Samuel Huntington
Delaware
New Hampshire
William Williams
Caesar Rodney
Josiah Bartlett
Oliver Wolcott
George Read
William Whipple
Thomas McKean
New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton
18
U.S. HISTORY
Chapter 6 America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
PowerPoint Image Slideshow
FIGURE 6.1
This famous 1819 painting by John Trumbull shows members of the committee
entrusted with drafting the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the
Continental Congress in 1776. Note the British flags on the wall. Separating from the
British Empire proved to be very difficult as the colonies and the Empire were linked
with strong cultural, historical, and economic bonds forged over several generations.
This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC-BY 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified but must be attributed to OpenStax,
Rice University and any changes must be noted. Any images credited to other sources are similarly available for reproduction, but must be attributed to their sources.
FIGURE 6.2
This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC-BY 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified but must be attributed to OpenStax,
Rice University and any changes must be noted. Any images credited to other sources are similarly available for reproduction, but must be attributed to their sources.
FIGURE 6.3
In “The Alternative of Williams-Burg”
(1775), a merchant has to sign a nonimportation agreement or risk being
covered with the tar and feathers
suspended behind him.
This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC-BY 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified but must be attributed to OpenStax,
Rice University and any changes must be noted. Any images credited to other sources are similarly available for reproduction, but must be attributed to their sources.
FIGURE 6.4
Amos Doolittle was an American printmaker who volunteered to fight against the British.
His engravings of the battles of Lexington and Concord—such as this detail from The
Battle of Lexington, April 19th 1775—are the only contemporary American visual
records of the events there.
This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC-BY 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified but must be attributed to OpenStax,
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FIGURE 6.5
This 1779 map shows details of the British and Patriot troops in and around Boston,
Massachusetts, at the beginning of the war.
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FIGURE 6.6
The British cartoon “Bunkers Hill or America’s Head Dress” (a) depicts the initial rebellion as an
elaborate colonial coiffure. The illustration pokes fun at both the colonial rebellion and the overdone
hairstyles for women that had made their way from France and Britain to the American colonies.
Despite gaining control of the high ground after the colonial militias ran out of ammunition, General
Thomas Gage (b), shown here in a painting made in 1768–1769 by John Singleton Copley, was
unable to break the siege of the city.
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FIGURE 6.7
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (a) helped convince many colonists of the need for
independence from Great Britain. Paine, shown here in a portrait by Laurent Dabos (b),
was a political activist and revolutionary best known for his writings on both the
American and French Revolutions.
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FIGURE 6.8
The Dunlap Broadsides, one of which is
shown here, are considered the first
published copies of the Declaration of
Independence. This one was printed on
July 4, 1776.
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FIGURE 6.9
General William Howe, shown here in a
1777 portrait by Richard Purcell, led
British forces in America in the first years
of the war.
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FIGURE 6.10
This 1775 etching shows George Washington taking command of the Continental Army
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, just two weeks after his appointment by the Continental
Congress.
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FIGURE 6.11
Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet The
American Crisis, the first page of which is
shown here, in 1776.
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FIGURE 6.12
Prussian soldier Friedrich Wilhelm von
Steuben, shown here in a 1786 portrait
by Ralph Earl, was instrumental in
transforming Washington’s Continental
Army into a professional armed force.
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FIGURE 6.13
This German engraving, created by
Daniel Chodowiecki in 1784, shows
British soldiers laying down their arms
before the American forces.
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FIGURE 6.14
This 1780 map of Charleston (a), which shows details of the Continental defenses, was
probably drawn by British engineers in anticipation of the attack on the city. The Siege of
Charleston was one of a series of defeats for the Continental forces in the South, which led the
Continental Congress to place General Nathanael Greene (b), shown here in a 1783 portrait by
Charles Wilson Peale, in command in late 1780. Greene led his troops to two crucial victories.
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FIGURE 6.15
The 1820 painting above, by John Trumbull, is titled Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, but
Cornwallis actually sent his general, Charles O’Hara, to perform the ceremonial
surrendering of the sword. The painting depicts General Benjamin Lincoln holding out
his hand to receive the sword. General George Washington is in the background on the
brown horse, since he refused to accept the sword from anyone but Cornwallis himself.
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FIGURE 6.16
In many of the images in this popular print, entitled “The World Turned Upside Down or
the Folly of Man,” animals and humans have switched places. In one, children take
care of their parents, while in another, the sun, moon, and stars appear below the
earth.
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FIGURE 6.17
The last page of the Treaty of Paris,
signed on September 3, 1783, contained
the signatures and seals of
representatives for both the British and
the Americans. From right to left, the
seals pictured belong to David Hartley,
who represented Great Britain, and John
Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay
for the Americans.
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FIGURE 6.18
The Coming of the Loyalists, a ca. 1880
work that artist Henry Sandham created
at least a century after the Revolution,
shows Anglo-American colonists arriving
by ship in New Brunswick, Canada.
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FIGURE 6.19
Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger created this 1781 watercolor, which depicts American
soldiers at the Siege of Yorktown. Verger was an officer in Rochambeau’s army, and his
diary holds firsthand accounts of his experiences in the campaigns of 1780 and 1781.
This image contains one of the earliest known representations of a black Continental
soldier.
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FIGURE 6.20
What similarities can you see in these two portraits of Joseph Brant, one by Gilbert
Stuart in 1786 (a) and one by Charles Wilson Peale in 1797 (b)? What are the
differences? Why do you think the artists made the specific choices they did?
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