Common Sense – Excerpts(https://www.thomaspaine.org/major-works/common-sense.

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INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them
general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and
raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more
converts than reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in
matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry)
and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the Parliament in what he calls
theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an
undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.

…The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will
arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are
affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire
and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof
from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of
which class, regardless of party censure, is THE AUTHOR.

OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL. WITH CONCISE REMARKS ON

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 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 calamity 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 expense 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 labor out of 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 supersede, 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 a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each
other; and this 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 who
appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act, were they present. If the
colony continues 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 reflection 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 show, 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 overrun 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.

…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 monarchial tyranny in the person of the king.

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, by 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 a house in behalf of the king, the Commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the
distinctions of a 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 the 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.

…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 more
formidable shape of an act of Parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle
- not more just.

…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 a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from
discerning a good one.

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS

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 this contest; the appeal was
the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.

…The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, 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.

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 dependent on Great Britain: To examine that connection and dependence, 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 connection with Great
Britain that the same connection 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 taken
any notice of her. The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself, are the necessaries of life, and will
always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

…Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Britain, and, still hoping for the best,
are apt to call out, Come, come, we shall be friends again for all of 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, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into
your land? If yon 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 honor 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 still can shake hands with the murderers, then 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.

A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reacts 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 [Thomas Anello otherwise Massanello a fisherman of Naples, who
after spiriting up his countrymen in the public marketplace, against the oppressions of the Spaniards, to
whom the place was then subject prompted them to revolt, and in the space of a day became king.]
Massanello may hereafter arise, 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, that 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 independence 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.

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.