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BY MONCURE D. CONWAY 
 
 Omitted Chapters of History, Disclosed in the Life 
 
 and Papers of Edmund Randolph. — By Moncure 
 
 D. Conway. With portrait, 8vo - - - $3 oo 
 
 "Mr. Conway is a thorough student, a careful thinker, and an 
 exact writer, and in this bool£ he has produced an admirable mono- 
 graph." — Book Buyer. 
 
 The Life of Thomas Paine. — By Moncure D. Con- 
 way, author of " Omitted Chapters of History, Dis- 
 closed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph." 
 2 volumes, 8vo. Illustrated - - - - $5 00 
 
 " Biographical labors of this class are not too common in these 
 times. Mr. Conway's volumes afford such ample testimony of 
 thorough and unresting devotion that they stand somewhat apart. 
 They make up a storehouse of facts from which alone any true 
 estimate can be formed of the life of Paine. . . ." — N, Y. Times. 
 
 The Writings of Thomas Paine — Political, Sociological, 
 Religious, and Literary. Edited by Moncure D. Con- 
 way, V(fith introduction and notes. To be complete 
 in four volumes, uniform with Mr. Conway's " Life of 
 Paine." Price per volume - - - - - $2 50 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York & London. 
 
THE WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE 
 
 COLLECTED AND EDITED BY 
 
 MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE," " OMITTED CHAPTERS OF HISTORV 
 DISCLOSED IN THE LIFE AND PAPERS OF EDMUND RANDOLPH," 
 "GEORGE WASHINGTON AND MOUNT VERNON," ETC. 
 
 VOLUME 1. 
 1774-1779 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24. BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 J^ititkErbockcr '^ress 
 1894 
 
COPYRIGHT, i8g4 
 
 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 By G. p. Putnam's Sons 
 
 Electrotyped. Printed and Bound by 
 
 Ube Iknfcfecrbocficr preBS, mew Igotft 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 Prefatory Note to Paine's First Essay . . i 
 
 I. — African Slavery in America .... 4 
 II. — A Dialogue between General Wolfe and 
 
 General Gage in a Wood near Boston . 10 
 
 III. — The Magazine in America 14 
 
 IV, — Useful and Entertaining Hints ... 20 
 v. — New Anecdotes of Alexander the Great . 26 
 
 VI. — Reflections on the Life and Death of Lord 
 
 Clive 29 
 
 VII. — Cupid and Hymen 36 
 
 VIII. — Duelling 40 
 
 IX. — Reflections on Titles 46 
 
 X. — The Dream Interpreted 48 
 
 XI. — Reflections on Unhappy Marriages . . 51 
 
 XII. — Thoughts on Defensive War .... 55 
 
 XIII. — An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex . 59 
 
 XIV. — A Serious Thought 65 
 
 XV. — Common Sense 67 
 
 XVI. — Epistle to Quakers 121 
 
 XVII. — The Forester's Letters 127 
 
 iii 
 
iv 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XVIII —A Dialogue i6i 
 
 XIX. — The American Crisis i68 
 
 XX. — Retreat across the Delaware . . . 381 
 
 XXI. — Letter to Franklin, in Paris .... 384 
 
 XXII. — The Affair of Silas Deane .... 395 
 
 XXIII. — To the Public on Mr. Deane's Affair . . 409 
 
 XXIV. — Messrs. Deane, Jay, and Gerard . . . 438 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 No apology is needed for an edition of Thomas Paine's 
 writings, but rather for the tardiness of its appearance. For 
 although there have been laborious and useful collections of 
 his more famous works, none of them can be fairly described 
 as adequate. The compilers have failed to discover many 
 characteristic essays, they printed from imperfect texts, and 
 were unable to find competent publishers courageous enough 
 to issue in suitable form the Works of Paine. It is not credit- 
 able that the world has had to wait so long for a complete 
 edition of writings which excited the gratitude and admira- 
 tion of the founders of republican liberty in America and 
 Europe ; nevertheless those writings, so far as accessible, 
 have been read and pondered by multitudes, and are to-day 
 in large and increasing demand. 
 
 This indeed is not wonderful. Time, which destroys much 
 literature, more slowly overtakes that which was inspired by 
 any great human cause. " It was the cause of America that 
 made me an author," wrote Paine at the close of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution ; and in the preface to his first pamphlet he 
 had said : " The cause of America is in a great measure the 
 cause of all mankind." In the presence of such great argu- 
 ment he made no account of the poems and magazine essays 
 published before the appearance of his first pamphlet, " Com- 
 mon Sense," — the earliest plea for an independent American 
 Republic. The magazine essays, which are printed in this 
 volume, and the poems, reserved for the last, while they 
 prove Paine's literary ability, also reveal in him an over- 
 powering moral sentiment and human sympathy which must 
 necessarily make his literary art their organ. Paine knew 
 
vi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the secret of good writing. In criticising a passage from the 
 Abb6 Raynal's " Revolution of America " he writes : 
 
 " In this paragraph the conception is lofty, and the expression 
 elegant ; but the colouring is too high for the original, and the 
 likeness fails through an excess of graces. To fit the powers of 
 thinking and the turn of language to the subject, so as to bring 
 out a clear conclusion that shall hit the point in question, and 
 nothing else, is the true criterion of writing. But the greater part 
 of the Abbe's writings (if he will pardon me the remark) appear 
 to me un central, and burthened with variety. They represent a 
 beautiful wilderness without paths ; in which the eye is diverted 
 by every thing, without being particularly directed to any thing ; 
 and in which it is agreeable to be lost, and difficult to find the 
 way out." 
 
 One cannot but wonder how Paine acquired his literary 
 equipment, almost as complete in his first work as in his last. 
 In his thirty-second year, when exciseman at Lewes, he made 
 on the intelligent gentlemen of the White Hart Club an im- 
 pression which led one of them, Mr. Lee, to apostrophize him 
 in such lines as these : 
 
 " Thy logic vanquish'd error, and thy mind 
 
 No bounds but those of right and truth confined. 
 Thy soul of fire must sure ascend the sky, 
 Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die." 
 
 This was written of a man who had never published a 
 word, and who, outside his club, was one of the poorest and 
 most obscure men in England. He must in some way have 
 presently gained reputation for superior intelligence among 
 his fellow-excisemen, who appointed him to write their plea 
 to Parliament for an increase of salary. This document, 
 printed but not published in 1772 (reserved for an appendix 
 to our last volume), is written in the lucid and simple style 
 characteristic of all Paine's works, — " hitting the point in 
 question and nothing else." But with all of this power he 
 would appear to have been without literary ambition, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vii 
 
 writes to Goldsmith : " It is my first and only attempt, and 
 even now I should not have undertaken it had I not been 
 particularly applied to by some of my superiors in office." 
 Such, when nearly thirty-six, was the man who three years 
 later published in America the book which made as much 
 history as any ever written. 
 
 These facts suggest some explanation of the effectiveness 
 of Paine's work. Possessed of a style which, as Edmund 
 Randolph said, insinuated itself into the hearts of learned 
 and unlearned, he wrote not for the sake of writing, penned 
 no word for personal fame, cared not for the morrow of his 
 own reputation. His Quaker forerunner, George Fox, was 
 never more surrendered to the moving spirit of the moment. 
 Absorbed in the point to be carried, discarding all rhetoric 
 that did not feather his arrow, dealing with every detail as 
 well as largest events and principles, his works are now in- 
 valuable to the student of American history. In them the 
 course of political events from 1774 to 1787 may be followed 
 almost from hour to hour, and even his military narratives 
 are of great importance. Previous editors of Paine's works, 
 concerned mainly with his theories, have overlooked many 
 of these occasional writings ; but the historian, for whom 
 such occasions are never past, will find in these recovered 
 writings testimony all the more valuable because not meant 
 for any day beyond that which elicited it. Chief-Justice 
 Jay confided to a friend his belief that the history of the 
 American Revolution would never be written, on account of 
 the reputations that would be affected were the truth fully 
 told. That the history has not been really written is known 
 to those who have critically examined the Stevens " Fac- 
 similes," the Letters of George III. and of George Washing- 
 ton. To these actual materials, awaiting the competent and 
 courageous historian, are now added the writings of Thomas 
 Paine, second to none in importance. Certainly there was 
 no witness with better opportunities of information, one 
 more sleeplessly vigilant, or more thoroughly representative 
 of public sentiment during the twelve momentous years in 
 which the American government was founded. 
 
viii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 While Paine's American writings are historical documents, 
 their value as such is not limited to the mere record or in- 
 terpretation of events. They possess very great value for 
 the student of political institutions and constitutional de- 
 velopment. Although there are no indications in Paine's 
 writings of direct indebtedness to other writers, such as 
 Rousseau and Locke, he breathes their philosophical atmos- 
 phere ; but his genius is from the first that of an inventor. 
 His utilitarian schemes, following statements of great prin- 
 ciples, are sometimes even somewhat droll, as if a wood- 
 cutter should describe gravitation as a law for bringing down 
 his axe upon its log. It was, however, this union in Paine 
 of the theocratic-democratic Quaker visionary with the prac- 
 tical ironworker and engineer which, had made him so repre- 
 sentative of the theoretical and the concrete, the religious 
 and the political, forces at work in the American Revolution. 
 He utters the pertinent word, whether of sentiment or 
 finance, ethics or gunpowder, local government or national 
 organization, at every stage up to the formation of the 
 federal Union which he was the first to devise. The United 
 States Constitution departed, indeed, from several of the 
 principles maintained by Paine, — as in its bicameral legisla- 
 ture, its disproportionate representation in the Senate, and 
 the degree of non-amenability accorded to the States ; but 
 Paine's ideas on these subjects harmonize more nearly with 
 much of the advanced political philosophy of the present 
 day, and his arguments are often used by writers and states- 
 men who seem unacquainted with his works. The writings 
 of Thomas Paine are therefore of living interest, not only for 
 the light they shed on important events, but as studies and 
 illustrations of political and constitutional evolution. 
 
 The present editor has followed the earliest editions, and 
 has preserved Paine's own spelling. Nothing is suppressed, 
 and nothing altered except manifest misprints, and, in a 
 very few cases, punctuations which might impair the sense. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 TO PAINE'S FIRST ESSAY. 
 
 This essay is here for the first time printed since its origi- 
 nal appearance in the Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal 
 and the Weekly Advertiser, Philadelphia, March 8, 1775. 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was much impressed by the essay, 
 says, " He [Paine] told me the essay to which I alluded was 
 the first thing he had ever published in his life." Dr. Rush, 
 writing thirty-four years after the interview, and in extreme 
 age, must have reported Paine's remark inexactly, for sev- 
 eral articles by Paine were published a little earlier in 1775. 
 But there are indications that this antislavery essay was 
 written at the close of 1774, immediately after Paine's arrival 
 in America (November 30). It was therefore the first essay 
 he wrote for publication, though its appearance was delayed 
 by the editor. Probably there was hesitation about pub- 
 lishing it at all. It was given a place in the Postscript. 
 In the same issue " a stout health)' young negro man " is 
 offered for sale, for whom those interested may " enquire of 
 the Printers." Slavery existed in all of the colonies, — there 
 were nearly 6,000 slaves in Pennsylvania — nor had any one 
 proposed immediate abolition of the system in America. 
 
 Attention was called to the Slave Trade by an anonymous 
 pamphlet, small and cheap, entitled " A Short Account of 
 that Part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes, etc." This 
 was published in Philadelphia^ the second edition (probably 
 the first also) dated 1762. In 1767 the Quaker Anthony 
 Benezet wrote " A Caution and Warning to Great Britain 
 
2 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1774- 
 
 ancl Her Colonies, etc." (Philadelphia), in which the English 
 denunciations of the Slave Trade were quoted. In 1772 
 the eminent Dr. Benjamin Rush published two brief pam- 
 phlets inveighing against the Slave Trade, and the cruelties 
 of some masters. Although Dr. Rush recognized the in- 
 justice of Slavery he made no suggestion for its abolition. 
 In the preface to his " Essays, literary, moral, and philo- 
 sophical" (Philadelphia, 1798), Dr. Rush says: " The author 
 has omitted in this Collection two pamphlets which he 
 published in the year 1772 upon the Slavery of the Negroes, 
 because he conceived the object of them had been in part 
 accomplished, and because the Citizens of the United States 
 have since that time been furnished from Great Britain and 
 other countries with numerous tracts upon that subject 
 more calculated to complete the effect intended by the 
 author, than his early publications." When this was written 
 Slavery was more powerful than in 1772, and the only 
 object " in part accomplished " was the approaching end of 
 the Slave Trade (1808). It will be seen therefore that the 
 few antislavery protests in America preceding Paine's essay 
 by no means anticipated it. Their aim was to excite horror 
 of the traffic in Africans abroad, but they did not propose 
 to restrict the home traffic, much less to emancipate the 
 slaves. So far as I can discover, to Thomas Paine belongs 
 the honor of being the first American abolitionist. Unnoted 
 as this fact has been from that period to the present, the 
 blow seems to have had far-reaching effects. " This," says 
 Dr. Rush, " excited my desire to be better acquainted with 
 him. We met soon afterwards in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore, 
 where I did homage to his principles and pen upon the sub- 
 ject of the enslaved Africans." Those who know anything 
 of the high position and influence of Dr. Rush can hardly 
 doubt that the " essay with which [he] was much pleased " 
 must have produced some agitation in the small circle of 
 persons interested in the subject, among whom Rush was 
 supreme. Soon after the appearance of Paine's antislavery 
 essay the first American Anti-slavery Society was organized. 
 It was founded at Philadelphia, in the Sun Tavern, Second 
 
1775 J PREFA TOR V NO TE TO PAINE' S FIRST ESSA Y. 
 
 3 
 
 Street, April 14, 1775, under title of " The Society for the 
 Relief of Free Negroes, unlawfully held in bondage." There 
 can be little doubt that Paine was among these founders, 
 and it will be seen on a farther page that he partly drafted, 
 and signed, the Act of Pennsylvania abolishing Slavery, 
 March i, 1780, — the first legislative measure of negro- 
 emancipation in Christendom. 
 
I. 
 
 AFRICAN SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 
 
 Messrs. BRADFORD, 
 
 Please to insert the following, and oblige yours 
 
 A. B. 
 
 To Americans. 
 
 That some desperate wretches should be willing to steal 
 and enslave men by violence and murder for gain, is rather 
 lamentable than strange. But that many civilized, nay, 
 christianized people should approve, and be concerned in the 
 savage practice, is surprising ; and still persist, though it has 
 been so often proved contrary to the light of nature, to 
 every principle of Justice and Humanity, and even good 
 policy, by a succession of eminent men,* and several late 
 publications. 
 
 Our Traders in MEN {an unnatural commodity!^ must 
 know the wickedness of that Slave-Trade, if they attend 
 to reasoning, or the dictates of their own hearts ; and such 
 as shun and stiffie all these, wilfully sacrifice Conscience, and 
 the character of integrity to that golden Idol. 
 
 The Managers of that Trade themselves, and others, 
 testify, that many of these African nations inhabit fertile 
 
 * Dr. Ames, Baxter, Durham, Locke, Carmichael, Hutcheson, Montesquieu, 
 and Blackstone, Wallace, etc., etc. Bishop of Gloucester. — Author. 
 
 [What work of Dr. (? William) Ames is referred to I have not found. The 
 others are Baxter's " Christian Directory " ; James Durham's " Law Unsealed " ; 
 John Locke's "Of Government"; Gerschomus Carmichael's " Puffendorf " ; 
 Francis Hutcheson's " System of Moral Philosophy"; Montesquieu's " Spirit 
 of the Laws"; Blackstone's "Commentaries"; Dr. George Wallace on the 
 ancient peerages of Scotland ; ' ' Sermon before the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel, 21 February 1766," by the Bishop of Gloucester (Warburton). 
 — Editor. 
 
 4 
 
I77S] AFRICAN SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 5 
 
 countries, are industrious farmers, enjoy plenty, and lived 
 quietly, averse to war, before the Europeans debauched 
 them with liquors, and bribing them against one another ; 
 and that these inoffensive people are brought into slavery, 
 by stealing them, tempting Kings to sell subjects, which they 
 can have no right to do, and hiring one tribe to war against 
 another, in order to catch prisoners. By such wicked and 
 inhuman ways the English are said to enslave towards one 
 hundred thousand yearly ; of which thirty thousand are 
 supposed to die by barbarous treatment in the first year; 
 besides all that are slain in the unnatural wars excited to 
 take them. So much innocent blood have the Managers 
 and Supporters of this inhuman Trade to answer for to the 
 common Lord of all ! 
 
 Many of these were not prisoners of war, and redeemed 
 from savage conquerors, as some plead ; and they who were 
 such prisoners, the English, who promote the war for that 
 very end, are the guilty authors of their being so ; and if 
 they were redeemed, as is alleged, they would owe nothing 
 to the redeemer but what he paid for them. 
 
 They show as little Reason as Conscience who put the 
 matter by with saying — " Men, in some cases, are lawfully 
 made Slaves, and why may not these? " So men, in some 
 cases, are lawfully put to death, deprived of their goods, 
 without their consent ; may any man, therefore, be treated so, 
 without any conviction of desert ? Nor is this plea mended 
 by adding — " They are set forth to us as slaves, and we buy 
 them without farther inquiry, let the sellers see to it." Such 
 men may as well join with a known band of robbers, buy 
 their ill-got goods, and help on the trade ; ignorance is no 
 more pleadable in one case than the other; the sellers 
 plainly own how they obtain them. But none can lawfully buy 
 without evidence that they are not concurring with Men- 
 Stealers ; and as the true owner has a right to reclaim his 
 goods that were stolen, and sold ; so the slave, who is proper 
 owner of his freedom, has a right to reclaim it, however often 
 sold. 
 
 Most shocking of all is alledging the Sacred Scriptures to 
 
6 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1774- 
 
 favour this wicked practice. One would have thought none 
 but infidel cavillers would endeavour to make them appear 
 contrary to the plain dictates of natural light, and Con- 
 science, in a matter of common Justice and Humanity ; 
 which they cannot be. Such worthy men, as referred to 
 before, judged otherways ; Mr. Baxter declared, the Slave- 
 Traders should be called Devils, rather than Christians ; and 
 that it is a heinous crime to buy them. But some say, " the 
 practice was permitted to the Jews." To which may be 
 replied, 
 
 1. The example of the Jews, in many things, may not be 
 imitated by us ; they had not only orders to cut off several 
 nations altogether, but if they were obliged to war with 
 others, and conquered them, to cut off every male ; they 
 were suffered to use polygamy and divorces, and other 
 things utterly unlawful to us under clearer light. 
 
 2. The plea is, in a great measure, false ; they had no per- 
 mission to catch and enslave people who never injured them. 
 
 3. Such arguments ill become us, since the time of reforma- 
 tion came, under Gospel light. All distinctions of nations, 
 and privileges of one above others, are ceased ; Christians 
 are taught to account all men their neighbours ; and love 
 their neighbours as themselves ; and do to all men as they 
 would be done by ; to do good to all men ; and Man-stealing is 
 ranked with enormous crimes. Is the barbarous enslaving 
 our inoffensive neighbours, and treating them like wild beasts 
 subdued by force, reconcilable with all these Divine precepts ? 
 Is this doing to them as we would desire they should do to 
 us? If they could carry off and enslave some thousands of 
 us, would we think it just ? — One would almost wish they 
 could for once ; it might convince more than Reason, or the 
 Bible. 
 
 As much in vain, perhaps, will they search ancient history 
 for examples of the modern Slave-Trade. Too many nations 
 enslaved the prisoners they took in war. But to go to 
 nations with whom there is no war, who have no way pro- 
 voked, without farther design of conquest, purely to catch 
 inoffensive people, like wild beasts, for slaves, is an hight of 
 
1775] 
 
 7 
 
 outrage against Humanity and Justice, that seems left by 
 Heathen nations to be practised by pretended Christians. 
 How shameful are all attempts to colour and excuse it ! 
 
 As these people are not convicted of forfeiting freedom, 
 they have still a natural, perfect right to it ; and the Gov- 
 ernments whenever they come should, in justice set them 
 free, and punish those who hold them in slavery. 
 
 So monstrous is the making and keeping them slaves at 
 all, abstracted from the barbarous usage they suffer, and 
 the many evils attending the practice ; as selling husbands 
 away from wives, children from parents, and from each 
 other, in violation of sacred and natural ties ; and opening 
 the way for adulteries, incests, and many shocking conse- 
 quences, for all of which the guilty Masters must answer to 
 the final Judge. 
 
 If the slavery of the parents be unjust, much more is 
 their children's ; if the parents were justly slaves, yet the 
 children are born free ; this is the natural, perfect right of 
 all mankind ; they are nothing but a just recompense to 
 those who bring them up : And as much less is commonly 
 spent on them than others, they have a right, in justice, to 
 be proportionably sooner free. 
 
 Certainly one may, with as much reason and decency, 
 plead for murder, robbery, lewdness, and barbarity, as for 
 this practice : They are not more contrary to the natural 
 dictates of Conscience, and feelings of Humanity ; nay, they 
 are all comprehended in it. 
 
 But the chief design of this paper is not to disprove it, 
 which many have sufficiently done ; but to entreat Ameri- 
 cans to consider. 
 
 1. With what consistency, or decency they complain so 
 loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many 
 hundred thousands in slavery ; and annually enslave many 
 thousands more, without any pretence of authority, or claim 
 upon them ? 
 
 2. How just, how suitable to our crime is the punishment 
 with which Providence threatens us ? We have enslaved 
 multitudes, and shed much innocent blood in doing it : and 
 
8 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1774- 
 
 now are threatened with the same. And while other evils 
 are confessed, and bewailed, why not this especially, and 
 publicly ; than which no other vice, if all others, has brought 
 so much guilt on the land ? 
 
 3. Whether, then, all ought not immediately to discon- 
 tinue and renounce it, with grief and abhorrence ? Should 
 not every society bear testimony against it, and account 
 obstinate persisters in it bad men, enemies to their country, 
 and exclude them from fellowship ; as they often do for 
 much lesser faults? 
 
 4. The great Question may be — What should be done 
 with those who are enslaved already ? To turn the old and 
 infirm free, would be injustice and cruelty ; they who 
 enjoyed the labours of their better days should keep, and 
 treat them humanely. As to the rest, let prudent men, with 
 the assistance of legislatures, determine what is practicable 
 for masters, and best for them. Perhaps some could give 
 them lands upon reasonable rent, some, employing them in 
 their labour still, might give them some reasonable allow- 
 ances for it ; so as all may have some property, and fruits of 
 their labours at their own disposal, and be encouraged to 
 industry ; the family may live together, and enjoy the natu- 
 ral satisfaction of exercising relative affections and duties, 
 with civil protection, and other advantages, like fellow men. 
 Perhaps they might sometime form useful barrier settle- 
 ments on the frontiers. Thus they may become interested 
 in the public welfare, and assist in promoting it ; instead of 
 being dangerous, as now they are, should any enemy prom- 
 ise them a better condition. 
 
 5. The past treatment of Africans must naturally fill them 
 with abhorrence of Christians ; lead them to think our reli- 
 gion would make them more inhuman savages, if they' 
 embraced it ; thus the gain of that trade has been pursued in 
 opposition to the Redeemer's cause, and the happiness of 
 men : Are we not, therefore, bound in duty to him and to 
 them to repair these injuries, as far as possible, by taking 
 some proper measures to instruct, not only the slaves here, 
 but the Africans in their own countries? Primitive Chris- 
 
1775] 
 
 AI-KICAN SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 
 
 9 
 
 tians laboured always to spread their Divine Religion ; and 
 this is equally our duty while there is an Heathen nation : 
 But what singular obligations are we under to these injured 
 people ! 
 
 These arc the sentiments of 
 
 Justice and Humanity. 
 
II. 
 
 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN GENERAL WOLFE AND 
 GENERAL GAGE IN A WOOD NEAR BOSTON.' 
 
 Gen. Wolfe. Welcome my old friend to this retreat. 
 
 Gett. Gage. I am glad to see you my dear Mr. Wolfe, 
 but what has brought you back again to this world ? 
 
 Gen. Wolfe. I am sent by a group of British heroes to 
 remonstrate with you upon your errand to this place. You 
 are come upon a business unworthy a British soldier, and a 
 freeman. You have come here to deprive your fellow sub- 
 jects of their liberty. 
 
 Gen. Gage. God forbid ! I am come here to execute 
 the orders of my Sovereign, — a Prince of unbounded wis- 
 dom and goodness, and who aims at no higher honor than 
 that of being the King of a free people. 
 
 Gen. Wolfe. Strange language from a British soldier ! 
 I honour the crown of Great-Britain as an essential part of 
 her excellent constitution. I served a Sovereign to whom 
 the impartial voice of posterity has ascribed the justice of 
 the man as well as the magnanimity o'' a King, and yet such 
 was the free spirit of the troops under my command, that I 
 could never animate them with a proper martial spirit with- 
 out setting before them the glorious objects, of their King 
 and their COUNTRY. 
 
 Gen. Gage. The orders of my Sovereign have been sanc- 
 tified by the Parliament of Great-Britain. All the wisdom 
 and liberty of the whole empire are collected in that august 
 Assembly. My troops therefore cannot want the same 
 glorious motives which animated yours, in the present ex- 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania yournal, January 4, 1775. 
 10 
 
1775] DIALOGUE BETWEEN WOLFE AND GAGE. II 
 
 pedition. They will fight for their country as well as their 
 King. 
 
 Gen. Wolfe. The wisest assemblies of men are as 
 liable as individuals, to corruption and error. The greatest 
 ravages which have ever been committed upon the liberty 
 and happiness of mankind have been by weak and corrupted 
 republics. The American colonies are entitled to all the 
 privileges of British subjects. Equality of liberty is the 
 glory of every Briton. He does not forfeit it by crossing 
 the Ocean. He carries it with him into the most distant 
 parts of the world, because he carries with him the immu- 
 table laws of nature. A Briton or an American ceases to 
 be a British subject when he ceases to be governed by rulers 
 chosen or approved of by himself. This is the essence of 
 liberty and of the British constitution. 
 
 Gen. Gage. The inhabitants of the province of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, have not only thrown off the jurisdiction of 
 the British Parliament, but they are disaffected to the British 
 crown. They cannot even bear with that small share of 
 regal power and grandeur which have been delegated to the 
 Governors of this province. They traduced Sir Francis 
 Bernard, and petitioned the King to remove Mr. Hutchin- 
 son from the seat of government. But their opposition to 
 my administration has arisen to open rebellion. They have 
 refused to obey my proclamations. They have assembled 
 and entered into associations to eat no mutton and to wear 
 clothes manufactured in this country, — they have even 
 provided themselves with arms and ammunition, and have 
 acquired a complete knowledge of the military exercises, in 
 direct opposition to my proclamations. 
 
 Gen. Wolfe. The inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay 
 were once a brave and loyal people. If they are disaffected 
 to his present Majesty, it is because his Ministers have sent 
 counterfeit impressions of his royal virtues to govern them. 
 Bernard and Hutchinson must have been a composition of 
 all the base and wicked qualities in human nature to have 
 diminished the loyalty of those illustrious subjects, or weak- 
 ened their devotion to every part of the British constitution. 
 
12 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 — I must add here that the late proceedings of the British 
 ParHament towards the American colonists have reached the 
 British heroes in Elysium, and have produced a suspen- 
 sion of their happiness. The Quebec Bill in a particular 
 manner has roused their resentment. It was once the glory 
 of Englishmen to draw the sword only in defence of liberty 
 and the protestant religion, or to extend the blessings of 
 both to their unhappy neighbours. These godlike motives 
 reconciled me to all the hardships of that campaign which 
 ended in the reduction of Canada. These godlike motives 
 likewise reconciled me to the horror I felt in being obliged 
 to shed the blood of those brave Frenchmen, who opposed 
 me on the plains of Abraham. I rejoiced less in the hour 
 of my death, in the honor of my victory, than in the glory 
 of having communicated to an inslaved people the glorious 
 privileges of an English constitution. While my fellow 
 soldiers hailed me as their conqueror, I exulted only in being 
 their Deliverer. But popery and French laws in Canada 
 are but a part of that system of despotism, which has been 
 prepared for the colonies. The edicts of the British Parlia- 
 ment (for they want the sanction of British laws) which 
 relate to the province of Massachusetts Bay are big with 
 destruction to the whole British empire. I come therefore 
 in the name of Blakeney — Cumberland — Granby — and an 
 illustrious band of English heroes to whom the glory of Old 
 England is still dear, to beg you to have no hand in the 
 execution of them. Remember Sir you are a man as well 
 as a soldier. You did not give up your privileges as a citizen 
 when you put on your sword. British soldiers are not 
 machines, to be animated only with the voice of a Minister 
 of State. They disdain those ideas of submission which 
 preclude them from the liberty of thinking for themselves, 
 and degrade them to an equality with a war horse, or an 
 elephant. If you value the sweets of peace and liberty, — 
 if you have any regard to the glory of the British name, and 
 if you prefer the society of Grecian, Roman-, and British 
 heroes in the world of spirits, to the company of Jeffries, 
 Kirk, and other royal executioners, I conjure you imme- 
 
1775] DIALOGUE BETWEEN WOLFE AND GAGE. 13 
 
 diately to resign your commission. Assign the above rea- 
 sons to your Sovereign for your conduct, and you will have 
 the Jij/i* glory of performing an action which would do honour 
 to an angel. You will restore perpetual harmony between 
 Britain and her colonies. 
 
III. 
 
 THE MAGAZINE IN AMERICA.' 
 
 In a country whose reigning character is the love of 
 science, it is somewhat strange that the channels of com- 
 munication should continue so narrow and limited. The 
 weekly papers are at present the only vehicles of public 
 information. Convenience and necessity prove that the 
 opportunities of acquiring and communicating knowledge 
 ought always to inlarge with the circle of population. 
 America has now outgrown the state of infancy : her 
 strength and commerce make large advances to manhood ; 
 and science in all its branches has not only blossomed, but 
 even ripened on the soil. The cottages as it were of yester- 
 day have grown to villages, and the villages to cities ; and 
 while proud antiquity, like a skeleton in rags, parades the 
 streets of other nations, their genius, as if sickened and dis- 
 gusted with the phantom, comes hither for recovery. 
 
 The present enlarged and improved state of things gives 
 
 ' Introductory of the Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Museum, 
 Philadelphia, published by Robert Aitkin. Paine was its first editor, and Dr. 
 Rush says that some of his writings in it " gave it a sudden currency which few 
 works of the kind have since had in our country." His salary was fifty pounds. 
 I conclude to omit several brief articles in it by Paine, giving descriptions of 
 scientific machines, as they require reproduction of the plates, and are technical. 
 Several of Paine's poems were first published in this magazine, including the 
 Song on " The Death of General Wolfe " (with music), which, though written 
 in England, was not published in the Gentleman's Magazine (as some have 
 stated), or elsewhere in that country. Paine wrote under various signatures in 
 his magazine, but I feel certain, after careful investigation, that the articles 
 reproduced from the magazine in this volume are from his pen. It may be 
 remarked that in the September number (1775) a picture of the battle of Bunker 
 Hill appears, displaying for the first time, I believe, the stripes of the American 
 flag. — Editor. 
 
 14 
 
THE MAGAZINE IN AMERICA. 
 
 15 
 
 every encouragement which the editor of a New Magazine 
 can reasonably hope for. The failure of former ones cannot 
 be drawn as a parallel now. Change of times adds propriety 
 to new measures. In the early days of colonization, when 
 a whisper was almost sufficient to have negotiated all our 
 internal concerns, the publishing even of a newspaper would 
 have been premature. Those times are past ; and popula- 
 tion has established both their use and their credit. But 
 their plan being almost wholly devoted to news and com- 
 merce, affords but a scanty residence to the Muses. Their 
 path lies wide of the field of science, and has left a rich and 
 unexplored region for new adventurers. 
 
 It has always been the opinion of the learned and curious, 
 that a magazine, when properly conducted, is the nursery of 
 genius ; and by constantly accumulating new matter, be- 
 comes a kind of market for wit and utility. The opportuni- 
 ties which it affords to men of abilities to communicate their 
 studies, kindle up a spirit of invention and emulation. An 
 unexercised genius soon contracts a kind of mossiness, which 
 not only checks its growth, but abates its natural vigour. 
 Like an untenanted house it falls into decay, and frequently 
 ruins the possessor. 
 
 The British magazines, at their commencement, were the 
 repositories of ingenuity : They are now the retailers of tale 
 and nonsense. From elegance they sunk to simplicity, from 
 simplicity to folly, and from folly to voluptuousness. The 
 Gentleman's, the London, and the Universal, Magazines, 
 bear yet some marks of their originality ; but the Town 
 and Country, the Covent-Garden, and the Westminster, are 
 no better than incentives to profligacy and dissipation. They 
 have added to the dissolution of manners, and supported 
 Venus against the Muses. 
 
 America yet inherits a large portion of her first-imported 
 virtue. Degeneracy is here almost a useless word. Those 
 who are conversant with Europe would be tempted to be- 
 lieve that even the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the 
 constitution of foreign vices ; if they survive the voyage, 
 they either expire on their arrival, or linger away in an in- 
 
l6 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 curable consumption. There is a happy something in the 
 climate of America, which disarms them of all their power 
 both of infection and attraction. 
 
 But while we give no encouragement to the importation 
 of foreign vices, we ought to be equally as careful not to 
 create any. A vice begotten might be worse than a vice 
 imported. The latter, depending on favour, would be a 
 sycophant ; the other, by pride of birth, would be a tyrant : 
 To the one we should be dupes, to the other slaves. 
 
 There is nothing which obtains so general an influence 
 over the manners and morals of a people as the Press ; from 
 that, as from a fountain, the streams of vice or virtue are 
 poured forth over a country : And of all publications, none 
 are more calculated to improve or infect than a periodical 
 one. All others have their rise and their exit ; but this 
 renews the pursuit. If it has an evil tendency, it debauches 
 by the power of repetition ; if a good one, it obtains favor 
 by the gracefulness of soliciting it. Like a lover, it woos 
 its mistress with unabated ardor, nor gives up the pursuit 
 without a conquest. 
 
 The two capital supports of a magazine are Utility and 
 Entertainment : The first is a boundless path, the other an 
 endless spring. To suppose that arts and sciences are ex- 
 hausted subjects, is doing them a kind of dishonour. The 
 divine mechanism of creation reproves such folly, and shews 
 us by comparison, the imperfection of our most refined 
 inventions. I cannot believe that this species of vanity is 
 peculiar to the present age only. I have no doubt but that 
 it existed before the flood, and even in the wildest ages of 
 antiquity. 'Tis folly we have inherited, not created ; and 
 the discoveries which every day produces, have greatly con- 
 tributed to dispossess us of it. Improvement and the world 
 will expire together : And till that period arrives, we may 
 plunder the mine, but can never exhaust it ! That " We have 
 found out every thing,'' has been the motto of every age. 
 Let our ideas travel a little into antiquity, and we shall 
 find larger portions of it than now ; and so unwilling were 
 our ancestors to descend from this mountain of perfection. 
 
1775] 
 
 THE MAGAZINE IN AMERICA. 
 
 •7 
 
 that when any new discovery exceeded the common stand- 
 ard, the discoverer was believed to be in alHancc with the 
 devil. It was not the ignorance of the age only, but the 
 vanity of it, which rendered it dangerous to be ingenious. 
 The man who first planned and erected a tenable hut, with 
 a hole for the smoke to pass, and the light to enter, was 
 perhaps called an able architect, but he who first improved 
 it with a chimney, could be no less than a prodigy ; yet had 
 the same man been so unfortunate as to have embellished it 
 with glass windows, he might probably have been burnt for 
 a magician. Our fancies would be highly diverted could we 
 look back, and behold a circle of original Indians harranguing 
 on the sublime perfection of the age : Yet 'tis not impossi- 
 ble but future times may exceed us almost as much as we 
 have exceeded them. 
 
 I would wish to extirpate the least remains of this im- 
 politic vanity. It has a direct tendency to unbrace the 
 nerves of invention, and is peculiarly hurtful to young 
 colonies. A magazine can never want matter in America, 
 if the inhabitants will do justice to their own abilities. Agri- 
 culture and manufactures owe much of their improvement 
 in England, to hints first thrown out in some of their maga- 
 zines. Gentlemen whose abilities enabled them to make 
 experiments, frequently chose that method of communica- 
 tion, on account of its convenience. And why should not 
 the same spirit operate in America? I have no doubt of 
 seeing, in a little time, an American magazine full of more 
 useful matter than I ever saw an English one : Because we 
 are not exceeded in abilities, have a more extensive field for 
 enquiry ; and, whatever may be our political state, Our hap- 
 piness will always depend upon ourselves. 
 
 Something useful will always arise from exercising the 
 invention, though perhaps, like the witch of Endor, we shall 
 raise up a being we did not expect. We owe many of our 
 noblest discoveries more to accident than wisdom. In quest 
 of a pebble we have found a diamond, and returned enriched 
 with the treasure. Such happy accidents give additional 
 encouragement to the making experiments ; and the con- 
 
 VOL. I.— 2 
 
i8 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 venience which a magazine affords of collecting and con- 
 veying them to the public, enhances their utility. Where 
 this opportunity is wanting, many little inventions, the fore- 
 runners of improvement, are suffered to expire on the spot 
 that produced them ; and, as an elegant writer beautifully 
 -expresses on another occasion, 
 
 " They waste their sweetness on the desert air." — Gray. 
 
 In matters of humour and entertainment there can be no 
 reason to apprehend a deficiency. Wit is naturally a volun- 
 teer, delights in action, and under proper discipline is capa- 
 ble of great execution. 'Tis a perfect master in the art of 
 bush-fighting ; and though it attacks with more subtility 
 than science, has often defeated a whole regiment of heavy 
 artillery. — Though I have rather exceeded the line of gravity 
 in this description of wit, I am unwilling to dismiss it with- 
 out being a little more serious. — 'Tis a qualification which, 
 like the passions, has a natural wildness that requires govern- 
 ing. Left to itself, it soon overflows its banks, mixes with 
 common filth, and brings disrepute on the fountain. We 
 have many valuable springs of it in America, which at present 
 run purer streams, than the generality of it in other countries. 
 In France and Italy, 'tis froth highly fomented : In England 
 it has much of the same spirit, but rather a browner com- 
 plexion. European wit is one of the worst articles we can 
 import. It has an intoxicating power with it, which 
 debauches the very vitals of chastity, and gives a false colour- 
 ing to every thing it censures or defends. We soon grow 
 fatigued with the excess, and withdraw like gluttons sickened 
 with intemperance. On the contrary, how happily are the 
 sallies of innocent humour calculated to amuse and sweeten 
 the vacancy of business ! We enjoy the harmless luxury 
 without surfeiting, and strengthen the spirits by relaxing 
 them. 
 
 The Press has not only a great influence over our manners 
 and morals, but contributes largely to our pleasures ; and a 
 magazine when properly enriched, is very conveniently cal- 
 culated for this purpose. Voluminous works weary the 
 
I77S] '^^^^ MAGAZINE IN AMERICA. 1 9 
 
 patience, but here we are invited by conciseness and variety. 
 As I have formerly received much pleasure from perusing 
 these kind of publications, I wish the present success ; and 
 have no doubt of seeing a proper diversity blended so 
 agreeably together, as to furnish out an Olio worthy of the 
 company for whom it is designed. 
 
 I consider a magazine as a kind of bee-hive, which both 
 allures the swarm, and provides room to store their sweets. 
 Its division into cells, gives every bee a province of its own ; 
 and though they all produce honey, yet perhaps they differ 
 in their taste for flowers, and extract with greater dexterity 
 from one than from another. Thus, we are not all PHI- 
 LOSOPHERS, all Artists, nor all Poets. 
 
IV. 
 
 USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING HINTS.' 
 
 " The real value of a thing, 
 Is as much money as 'twill bring." 
 
 In the possession of the Philadelphia Library Company- 
 is a cabinet of fossils,* with several specimens of earth, clay, 
 sand, etc., with some account of each, and where brought 
 from. 
 
 I have always considered these kinds of researches as pro- 
 ductive of many advantages, and in a new country they are 
 particularly so. As subjects for speculation, they afford 
 entertainment to the curious ; but as objects of utility they 
 merit a closer attention. The same materials which delight 
 the Fossilist, enrich the manufacturer and the merchant. 
 While the one is scientifically examining their structure and 
 composition, the others, by industry and commerce, are 
 transmuting them to gold. Possessed of the power of pleas- 
 ing, they gratify on both sides ; the one contemplates their 
 natural beauties in the cabinet, the others, their re-created 
 ones in the coffer. 
 
 'Tis by the researches of the virtuoso that the hidden 
 parts of the earth are brought to light, and from his dis- 
 coveries of its qualities, the potter, the glassmaker, and 
 numerous other artists, are enabled to furnish us with their 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, Feb., 1775. — Editor. 
 
 * In the catalogue it is called a collection of American fossils, etc., but a 
 considerable part of them are foreign ones. I presume that the collector, in 
 order to judge the better of such as he might discover here, made first a collec- 
 tion of such foreign ones whose value were knovi'n, in order to compare by : as 
 his design seems rather bent towards discovering the treasures of America than 
 merely to make a collection. — Author. 
 
 20 
 
1775] USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING HINTS. 
 
 21 
 
 productions. Artists considered merely as such, would have 
 made but a slender progress, had they not been led on by 
 the enterprising spirit of the curious. I am unwilling to 
 dismiss this remark without entering my protest against 
 that unkind, ungrateful, and impolitic custom of ridiculing 
 unsuccessful experiments. And of informing those unwise 
 or overwise pasquinaders, that half the felicities they enjoy 
 sprung originally from generous curiosity. 
 
 Were a man to propose or set out to bore his lands as a 
 carpenter does a board, he might probably bring on himself 
 a shower of witticisms ; and tho' he could not be jested at for 
 building castles in the air, yet many magnanimous laughs 
 might break forth at his expence, and vociferously predict 
 the explosion of a mine in his subterraneous pursuits. I am 
 led to this reflection by the present domestic state of 
 America, because it will unavoidably happen, that before 
 we can arrive at that perfection of things which other nations 
 have acquired, many hopes will fail, many whimsical attempts 
 will become fortunate, and many reasonable ones end in air 
 and expence. The degree of improvement ivhich America has 
 already arrived at is unparalleled and astonishing, but 'tis 
 miniature to what she will one day boast of, if heaven con- 
 tinue her happiness. We have nearly one whole region yet 
 unexplored : I mean the internal region of the earth. By 
 industry and tillage we have acquired a considerable knowl- 
 edge of what America will produce, but very little of what 
 it contains. The bowels of the earth have been only slightly 
 inquired into : We seem to content ourselves with such parts 
 of it as are absolutely necessary, and cannot well be imported ; 
 as brick, stone, etc., but have gone very little further, except 
 in the article of iron. The glass and the pottery manufac- 
 tures are yet very imperfect, and will continue so, till some 
 curious researcher finds out the proper material. 
 
 Copper, Lead, ' and Tin articles valuable both in their 
 simple state, and as being the component parts of other 
 metals (viz. brass and pewter) are at present but little known 
 
 ' A footnote explaining the preparation of white lead, and correcting an 
 error in the Philadelphia catalogue, is omitted. — Editor. 
 
22 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 throughout the continent in their mineral form : yet I doubt 
 not, but very valuable mines of them, are daily travelled 
 over in the western parts of America. Perhaps a few feet of 
 surface conceal a treasure sufficient to enrich a kingdom. 
 
 The value of the interior part of the earth (like ourselves) 
 cannot be judged certainly of by the surface, neither do the 
 corresponding strata lie with the unvariable order of the 
 colours of the rainbow, and if they ever did (which I do not 
 believe) age and misfortune have now broken in upon their 
 union ; earthquakes, deluges, and volcanoes have so dis- 
 united and re-united them, that in their present state they 
 appear like a world in ruins. — Yet the ruins are beautiful. 
 — The caverns, museums of antiquities. 
 
 Tho' nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is 
 sullen, rude, and niggardly at home : Return the visit, and 
 she admits you with all the suspicion of a miser, and all the 
 reluctance of an antiquated beauty retired to replenish her 
 charms. Bred up in antediluvian notions, she has not yet 
 acquired the European taste of receiving visitants in her 
 dressing-room : she locks and bolts up her private recesses 
 with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve 
 her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of 
 a face that was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He 
 that would view nature in her undress, and partake of her 
 internal treasures, must proceed with the resolution of a 
 robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation to follow 
 her to the cavern. — The external earth makes no proclama- 
 tion of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry, 
 the discovery of the whole. In such gifts as nature can 
 annually re-create, she is noble and profuse, and entertains 
 the whole world with the interest of her fortunes ; but 
 watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her gold 
 and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter dark- 
 ness ; and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the 
 chests, like the riches of a Necromancer's cell. It must be 
 very pleasant to an adventurous speculist to make excursions 
 into these Gothic regions ; and in his travels he may possi- 
 bly come to a cabinet locked up in some rocky vault, whose 
 
1775] 
 
 USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING HINTS. 
 
 23 
 
 treasures shall reward his toil, and enable him to shine on 
 his return, as splendidly as nature herself. 
 
 By a small degree of attention to the order and origin of 
 things, we shall perceive, that though the surface of the 
 earth produce us the necessaries of life, yet 'tis from the 
 mine we extract the conveniences thereof. Our houses would 
 diminish to wigwams, furnished in the Indian style, and our- 
 selves resemble the building, were it not for the ores of the 
 earth. Agriculture and manufactures would wither away 
 for want of tools and implements, and commerce stand still 
 for want of materials. The beasts of the field would elude 
 our power, and the birds of the air get beyond our reach. 
 Our dominion would shrink to a narrow circle, and the mind 
 itself, partaking of the change, would contract its prospects, 
 and lessen into almost animal instinct. Take away but the 
 single article of iron, and half the felicities of life fall with it. 
 Little as we may prize this common ore, the loss of it would 
 cut deeper than the use of it : And by the way of laughing 
 off misfortunes 'tis easy to prove, by this method of investi- 
 gation, that an iron age is better than a golden one. 
 
 Since so great a portion of our enjoyments is drawn from 
 the mine, it is certainly an evidence of our prudence to 
 inquire and know what our possessions are. Every man's 
 landed property extends to the [centre] ' of the earth. Why 
 then should he sit down contented with a part, and practise 
 upon his estate those fashionable follies in life, which prefer 
 the superfice to the solid ? Curiosity alone, should the 
 thought occur conveniently, would move an active mind to 
 examine (tho' not to the bottom) at least to a considerable 
 depth. 
 
 The propriety and reasonableness of these internal enqui- 
 ries are continually pointed out to us by numberless occur- 
 rences. Accident is almost every day turning out some 
 new secret from the earth. How often has the plow-share 
 or the spade broken open a treasure, which for ages, perhaps 
 for ever, had lain just beneath the surface ? And tho' every 
 estate have not mines of gold or silver, yet they may contain 
 
 ' " Surface " in the original, but surely a clerical error. — Editor. 
 
24 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [17 75 
 
 some strata of valuable earth, proper for manufactures ; 
 and if they have not those, there is a great probability of 
 their having chalk, marl, or some rich soil proper for manure, 
 which only requires to be removed to the surface. 
 
 I have been informed of some land in England being 
 raised to four times its former value by the discovery of a 
 chalk or marl pit, in digging a hole to fix a post in ; and in 
 embanking a meadow in the Jerseys, the laborers threw 
 out with the soil, a fine blue powderly earth, resembling 
 indigo, which, when mixed with oil, was used for paint. I 
 imagine the vein is now exhausted. ' 
 
 Many valuable ores, clays, etc. appear in such rude forms 
 in their natural state, as not even to excite curiosity, much 
 less attention. A true knowledge of their different value 
 can only be obtained by experiment : As soil proper for 
 manure, they may be judged of by the planter; but as mat- 
 ter, they come under the enquiry of the philosopher. This 
 leads me to reflect with inexpressible pleasure, on the num- 
 berless benefits arising to a community, by the institution 
 of societies for promoting useful knowledge. 
 
 The American Philosophical Society, like the Royal 
 Society in England, by having public spirit for its support, 
 and public good for its object, is a treasure we ought to 
 glory in. Here the defective knowledge of the individual is 
 supplied by the common stock. Societies without en- 
 dangering private fortunes, are enabled to proceed in their 
 enquiries by analysis and experiment : But individuals are 
 seldom furnished with conveniences for so doing, and gen- 
 erally rest their opinion on reasonable conjecture. 
 
 I presume that were samples of different soils from differ- 
 ent parts of America, presented to the society for their 
 inspection and examination, it would greatly facilitate our 
 knowledge of the internal earth, and give a new spring both 
 to agriculture and manufactures. 
 
 These hints are not intended to lament any loss of time, 
 or remissness in the pursuit of useful knowledge, but to 
 
 ' A description of the boring apparatus, inserted here by Paine, is omitted. — 
 
 Editor. 
 
USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING HINTS. 
 
 25 
 
 furnish matter for future studies ; that while we glory in 
 what we are, we may not neglect what we arc to be. 
 
 Of the present state we may justly say, that no nation 
 under heaven ever struck out in so short a time, and with so 
 much spirit and reputation, into the labyrinth of art and 
 science ; and that, not in the acquisition of knowledge only, 
 but in the happy advantages flowing from it. The world 
 does not at this day exhibit a parallel, neither can history 
 produce its equal. 
 
 Atlanticus. 
 
 Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 
 
V. 
 
 NEW ANECDOTES OF ALEXANDER THE 
 GREAT.' 
 
 In one of those calm and gloomy days,which have a strange 
 effect in disposing the mind to pensiveness, I quitted the 
 busy town and withdrew into the country. As I passed 
 towards the Schuylkill, my ideas enlarged with the prospect, 
 and sprung from place to place with an agility for which 
 nature had not a simile. Even the eye is a loiterer, when 
 compared with the rapidity of the thoughts. Before I could 
 reach the ferry, I had made the tour of the creation, and 
 paid a regular visit to almost every country under the sun ; 
 and while I was crossing the river, I passed the Styx, and 
 made large excursions into the shadowy regions ; but my 
 ideas relanded with my person, and taking a new flight in- 
 spected the state of things unborn. This happy wildnessof 
 imagination makes a man a lord of the world, and discovers 
 to him the value and the vanity of all it possesses. 
 
 Having discharged the two terrestrial Charons, who ferried 
 me over the Schuylkill, I took up my staff and walked into 
 the woods. Every thing conspired to hush me into a pleas- 
 ing kind of melancholy — the trees seemed to sleep — and the 
 air hung round me with such unbreathing silence, as if listen- 
 ing to my very thoughts. Perfectly at rest from care or 
 business, I suffered my ideas to pursue their own unfettered 
 fancies ; and in less time than what is required to express it 
 in, they had again passed the Styx and toured many miles 
 into the new country. 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, February, 1775. 
 26 
 
1 775 J ANECDOTES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 27 
 
 As the servants of great men always imitate their masters 
 abroad, so my ideas, habiting themselves in my likeness, 
 figured away with all the consequence of the person they 
 belonged to ; and calling themselves when united, I and Mc, 
 wherever they went, brought me on their return the follow- 
 ing anecdotes of Alexander, viz. 
 
 Having a mind to see in what manner Alexander lived in 
 the Plutonian world, I crossed the Styx, (without the help 
 of Charon, for the dead only are his fare,) and enquired of a 
 melancholy looking shade, who was sitting on the banks of 
 the river, if he could give me any account of him. Yonder he 
 comes, replied the shade, get out of the way or you 'II be run over. 
 Turning myself round I saw a grand equipage rolling towards 
 me, which filled the whole avenue. Bless me ! thought I, 
 the gods still continue this man in his insolence and pomp ! 
 The chariot was drawn by eight horses in golden harness, 
 and the whole represented his triumphal return, after he had 
 conquered the world. It passed me with a splendour I had 
 never seen before, and shined so luminously up into the 
 country, that I discovered innumerable shades sitting under 
 the trees, which before were invisible. As there were two 
 persons in the chariot equally splendid, I could not distin- 
 guish which was Alexander, and on requiring that informa- 
 tion of the shade, who still stood by, he replied, Alexander 
 is not there. Did you not, continued I, tell me that Alex- 
 ander was coming, and bid me get out of the way ? Yes, 
 answered the shade, because he was the forehorse on the side 
 next to us. Horse ! I mean Alexander the Emperor. / 
 mean the same, replied the shade, for whatever he was on the 
 other side of the water is nothing now, he is a HORSE here ; 
 and not always that, for when he is apprehensive that a good 
 licking is intended for him, he watches his opportunity to roll 
 out of the stable in the shape of a piece of dung, or in any other 
 disguise he can escape by. On this information I turned in- 
 stantly away, not being able to bear the thought of such as- 
 tonishing degradation, notwithstanding the aversion I have 
 to his character. But curiosity got the better of my compas- 
 sion, and having a mind to see what sort of a figure the con- 
 
28 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ['775 
 
 queror of the world cut in the stable, I directed my flight 
 thither ; he was just returned with the rest of the horses from 
 the journey, and the groom was rubbing him down with a 
 large furz bush, but turning himself round to get a still larger 
 and more prickly one that was newly brought in, Alexander 
 catched the opportunity, and instantly disappeared, on which 
 I quitted the place, lest I should be suspected of stealing 
 him : when I had reached the bands of the river, and was 
 preparing to take my flight over, I perceived that I had 
 picked up a bug among the Plutonian gentry, and thinking 
 it was needless to increase the breed on this side the water, 
 was going to dispatch it, when the little wretch screamed out. 
 Spare Alexander the GREAT. On which I withdrew the vio- 
 lence I was offering to his person, and holding up the em- 
 peror between my finger and thumb, he exhibited a most 
 contemptible figure of the downfall of tyrant greatness. Af- 
 fected with a mixture of concern and compassion {which he 
 was always a stranger to) I suffered him to nibble on a pim- 
 ple that was newly risen on my hand, in order to refresh 
 him ; after which I placed him on a tree to hide him, but a 
 Tom Tit coming by, chopped him up with as little ceremony 
 as he put whole kingdoms to the sword. On which I took 
 my flight, reflecting with pleasure, — That I was not ALEX- 
 ANDER THE Great. 
 
 Esop. 
 
VI. 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 
 LORD CLIVE.' 
 
 Ah ! The tale is told — The scene is ended — and the cur- 
 tain falls. As an emblem of the vanity of all earthly pomp, 
 let his Monument be a globe, but be that globe a bubble ; 
 let his Effigy be a man walking round it in his sleep ; and let 
 Fame, in the character of a shadow, inscribe his honours on 
 the air. 
 
 I view him but as yesterday on the burning plains of 
 Plassey,* doubtful of life, health, or victory. I see him in 
 the instant when " To be or not to be," were equal chances to 
 a human eye. To be a lord or a slave, to return loaded with 
 the spoils, or remain mingled with the dust of India. — Did 
 necessity always justify the severity of a conqueror, the rude 
 tongue of censure would be silent, and however painfully he 
 might look back on scenes of horror, the pensive reflection 
 would not alarm him. Though his feelings suffered, his 
 conscience would be acquitted. The sad remembrance would 
 move serenely, and leave the mind without a wound. — But 
 Oh India ! thou loud proclaimer of European cruelties, 
 thou bloody monument of unnecessary deaths, be tender in 
 the day of enquiry, and show a Christian world thou canst 
 suffer and forgive. 
 
 Departed from India, and loaded with plunder, I see him 
 doubling the Cape and looking wistfully to Europe. I see him 
 
 ' From the Pejinsylvania Magazine, March, 1775. 
 
 * Battle of Plassey, in the East Indies, where Lord Clive, at that time Colonel 
 Clive, acquired an immense fortune, and from which place his title is taken. — 
 A uthor. 
 
 29 
 
30 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 contemplating on years of pleasure, and gratifying his ambi- 
 tion with expected honours. I see his arrival pompously 
 announced in every newspaper, his eager eye rambling thro' 
 the crowd in quest of homage, and his ear listening lest an 
 applause should escape him. Happily for him he arrived 
 before his fame, and the short interval was a time of rest. 
 From the crowd I follow him to the court, I see him en- 
 veloped in the sunshine of sovereign favour, rivalling the great 
 in honours, the proud in splendour, and the rich in wealth. 
 From the court I trace him to the country, his equipage 
 moves like a camp ; every village bell proclaims his coming ; 
 the wondering peasants admire his pomp, and his heart runs 
 over with joy. 
 
 But, alas ! not satisfied with uncountable thousands, I 
 accompany him again to India. I mark the variety of coun- 
 tenances which appear at his landing. Confusion spreads 
 the news. Every passion seems alarmed. The wailing 
 widow, the crying orphan, and the childless parent remember 
 and lament ; the rival Nabobs court his favour ; the rich 
 dread his power, and the poor his severity. Fear and terror 
 march like pioneers before his camp, murder and rapine 
 accompany it, famine and wretchedness follow in the rear. 
 
 Resolved on accumulating an unbounded fortune, he 
 enters into all the schemes of war, treaty, and intrigue. The 
 British sword is set up for sale ; the heads of contending 
 Nabobs are offered at a price, and the bribe taken from both 
 sides. Thousands of men or money are trifles in an India 
 bargain. The field is an empire, and the treasure almost 
 without end. The wretched inhabitants are glad to com- 
 pound for offences never committed, and to purchase at any 
 rate the privilege to breathe ; while he, the sole lord of their 
 lives and fortunes, disposes of either as he pleases, and 
 prepares for Europe.* 
 
 * In April, 1773, a Committee of the House of Commons, under the name of 
 the Select Committee, were appointed by the House to enquire into the state of 
 the East India affairs, and the conduct of the several Governors of Bengal. The 
 Committee having gone through the examinations. General Burgoyne, the chair- 
 man, prefaced their report to the House, informing them, "that the reports 
 
1775] ^^^^ DEATH OF LORD CLIVE. 3 1 
 
 Uncommon fortunes require an uncommon date of life to 
 enjoy them in. The usual period is spent in preparing to 
 live: And unless nature prolongs the time, fortune bestows 
 her excess of favours in vain. 
 
 The conqueror of the cast having nothing more to expect 
 from the one, has all his court to make to the other. Anxiety 
 for wealth gives place to anxiety for life ; and wisely recol- 
 lecting that the sea is no respecter of persons, resolves on 
 taking his route to Europe by land. Little beings move 
 unseen, or unobserved, but he engrosses whole kingdoms in 
 his march, and is gazed at like a comet. The burning desert, 
 the pathless mountains, and the fertile valleys, are in their 
 turns explored and passed over. No material accident dis- 
 tresses his progress, and England once more receives the 
 spoiler. 
 
 How sweet is rest to the weary traveller ; the retrospect 
 heightens the enjoyment ; and if the future prospect be 
 serene, the days of ease and happiness are arrived. An un- 
 inquiring observer might have been inclined to consider Lord 
 
 contained accounts shocking to human nature, that the most infamous designs 
 had been carried into execution by perfidy and murder." He recapitulated the 
 wretched situation of the East-Indian princes, who held their dignities on the 
 precarious condition of being the highest bribers. No claim, however just on 
 their part, he said, eould be admitted without being introduced with enormous 
 sums of rupees, nor any prince suffered to reign long, who did not quadrate with 
 this idea ; and that Lord Clive, over and above the enormous sums he might 
 with some appearance of justice lay claim to, had obtained others to which he 
 could have no title. He (General Burgoyne) therefore moved, "That it appears 
 to this house, that Robert Lord Clive, baron of Plassey, about the time of de- 
 posing Surajah Dowla, Nabob of Bengal, and establishing Meer Jaffier in his 
 room, did, through the influence of the power with which he was intrusted, as 
 member of the Select Committee in India, and Commander in Chief of the 
 British forces there, obtain and possess himself of two lacks of rupees, as 
 member of the Select Committee ; a further sum of two lacks and 80,000 
 rupees, as member of the Select Committee ; a further sum of two lacks of 
 rupees, as Commander in Chief; a further sum of 16 lacks of rupees, or 
 more, under the denomination of private donations ; which sums, amounting 
 together to 20 lacks and 80,000 rupees, were of the value, in English money, 
 of ;,{^234,ooo,* and that in so doing, the said Robert Lord Clive abused the 
 powers with which he was intrusted, to the evil example of the servants of 
 the public." — Author. 
 
 * Equal to ;i^340,ooo Pennsylvania currency. — Author. 
 
32 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i775 
 
 Clive, under all these agreeable circumstances, one whose 
 every care was over, and who had nothing to do but sit down 
 and say, Soul, take tJiinc ease, thou hast goods laid up in store 
 for many years. 
 
 The reception which he met with on his second arrival, was 
 in every instance equal to, and in many exceeded, the honours 
 of the first. 'Tis the peculiar temper of the English to 
 applaud before they think. Generous of their praise, they 
 frequently bestow it unworthily : but when once the truth 
 arrives, the torrent stops, and rushes back again with the 
 same violence.* Scarcely had the echo of applause ceased 
 upon the ear, than the rude tongue of censure took up the 
 
 * Lord Clive, in the defence which he made in the House of Commons, 
 against the charges mentioned in the preceding note, very positively insists on 
 his innocence, and very pathetically laments his situation ; and after informing 
 the House of the thanks which he had some years before received, for the same 
 actions which they are now endeavouring to censure him for, he says, 
 
 " After such certificates as these, Sir, am I to be brought here like a criminal, 
 and the very best part of my conduct construed into crimes against the state ? Is 
 this the reward that is now held out to persons who have performed such im- 
 portant services to their country ? If it is, Sir, the future consequences that will 
 attend the execution of any important trust, committed to the persons who have 
 the care of it, will be fatal indeed ; and I am sure the noble Lord upon the 
 treasury bench, whose great humanity and abilities I revere, would never have 
 consented to the resolutions that passed the other night, if he had thought on the 
 dreadful consequences that would attend them. Sir, I cannot say that I either 
 sit or rest easy, when I find that all I have in the world is likely to be confis- 
 cated, and that no one will take my security for a shilling. These, Sir, are 
 dreadful apprehensions to remain under, and I cannot but look upon myself as a 
 bankrupt. I have not anything left which I can call my own, except my 
 paternal fortune of ;^500 per annum, and which has been in the family for ages 
 past. But upon this I am contented to live, and perhaps I shall find more real 
 content of mind and happiness than in the trembling affluence of an unsettled 
 fortune. But, Sir, I must make one more observation, that, if the definition of 
 the Hon. Gentleman, [General Burgoyne,] and of this House, is that the State, 
 as expressed in these resolutions is, quoad hoc, the Company, then, Sir, every 
 farthing that I enjoy is granted to me. But to be called, after sixteen years 
 have elapsed, to account for my conduct in this manner, and after an uninter- 
 rupted enjoyment of my property, to be questioned and considered as obtaining 
 it unwarrantably, is hard indeed ! and a treatment I should not think the 
 British Senate capable of. But if it should be the case, I have a conscious in- 
 nocence within me, that tells me my conduct is irreproachable. Frangas, non 
 Jlectes. They may take from me what I have ; they may, as they think, make 
 
1775] 
 
 THE LIFE AND DEA TH OF LORD CLIVE. 
 
 33 
 
 talc. The newspapers, fatal enemies to ill-gotten wealth ! 
 began to buz a general suspicion of his conduct, and the in- 
 quisitive public soon refined it into particulars. Every post 
 gave a stab to his fame — a wound to his peace — and a nail 
 to his coffin. Like spectres from the grave they haunted 
 him in every company, and whispered murder in his ear. 
 A life chequered with uncommon varieties is seldom a 
 lone one. Action and care will in time wear down the 
 strongest frame, but guilt and melancholy are poisons of 
 quick despatch. 
 
 Say, cool deliberate reflection was the prize, though ab- 
 stracted from the guilt, worthy of the pains? Ah no! 
 Fatigued with victory he sat down to rest, and while he 
 was recovering breath he lost it. A conqueror more fatal 
 than himself beset him, and revenged the injuries done 
 to India. 
 
 As a cure fo*' avarice and ambition let us take a view of 
 him in his latter years. Hah ! what gloomy being wanders 
 yonder? How visibly is the melancholy heart delineated 
 on his countenance. He mourns no common care — His 
 very steps are timed to sorrow — He trembles with a kind of 
 mental palsy. Perhaps 'tis some broken hearted parent, 
 some David mourning for his Absalom, or some Heraclitus 
 weeping for the world. — I hear him mutter something 
 about wealth. — Perhaps he is poor, and hath not where- 
 withal to hide his head. Some debtor started from his 
 sleepless pillow, to ruminate on poverty, and ponder on the 
 horrors of a jail. Poor man ! I'll to him and relieve him. 
 Hah! 'tis Lord Clive himself! Bless me, what a change! 
 He makes, I see, for yonder cypress shade — fit scene for 
 melancholy hearts !— I'll watch him there and listen to 
 his story. 
 
 Lord Clive. " Can I but suffer when a beggar pities 
 me. Erewhile I heard a ragged wretch, who every mark of 
 
 me poor, but I will be happy ! I mean not this as my defence. My defence 
 will be made at the bar ; and before I sit down, I have one request to make to 
 the House, thai when ihey come to decide upon my honour, they will not forget 
 their own. " — Author. 
 VOL. I.— 3 
 
34 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775 
 
 poverty had on, say to a sooty sweep, Ah, poor Lord Clive! 
 while he the negro-coloured vagrant, more mercifully cruel, 
 curst me in my hearing. 
 
 " There was a time when fortune, like a yielding mistress, 
 courted me with smiles — She never waited to be told my 
 wishes, but studied to discover them, and seemed not happy 
 to herself, but when she had some favour to bestow. Ah ! 
 little did I think the fair enchantress would desert me thus; 
 and after lavishing her smiles upon me, turn my reproacher, 
 and publish me in folio to the world. Volumes of morality 
 are dull and spiritless compared to me. Lord Clive is him- 
 self a treatise upon vanity, printed in a golden type. The 
 most unlettered clown writes explanatory notes thereon, 
 and reads them to his children. Yet I could bear these 
 insults could I but bear myself. — A strange unwelcome 
 something hangs about me. In company I seem no com- 
 pany at all. — The festive board appears to me a stage, the 
 crimson coloured port resembles blood — Each glass is 
 strangely metamorphosed to a man in armour, and every 
 bowl appears a Nabob. The joyous toast is like the 
 sound of murder, and the loud laughs are groans of dying 
 men. The scenes of India are all rehearsed, and no one sees 
 the tragedy but myself. — Ah ! I discover things which are 
 not, and hear unuttered sounds 
 
 " O peace, thou sweet companion of the calm and inno- 
 cent ! Whither art thou fled ? Here take my gold, and 
 all the world calls mine, and come thou in exchange. Or 
 thou, thou noisy sweep, who mix thy food with soot and 
 relish it, who canst descend from lofty heights and walk 
 the humble earth again, without repining at the change, 
 come teach that mystery to me. Or thou, thou ragged 
 wandering beggar, who, when thou canst not beg success- 
 fully, will pilfer from the hound, and eat the dirty morsel 
 sweetly ; be thou Lord Clive, and I will beg, so I may laugh 
 like thee. 
 
 " Could I unlearn what I've already learned — unact what 
 I've already acted — or would some sacred power convey me 
 ,back to youth and innocence, I'd act another part — I'd 
 
1775] ^^-^ ^-^P^ "^^^ DEATH OF LORD CLIVE. 35 
 
 keep within the vale of humble life, nor wish for what the 
 world calls pomp. 
 
 " But since this cannot be, 
 And only a few days and sad remain for me, 
 I'll haste to quit the scene ; for what is life 
 When every passion of the soul 's at strife ? " * 
 
 Atlanticus. 
 
 * Some time before his death he became very melancholy — subject to strange 
 imaginations — and was found dead at last. — Author. 
 
VII. 
 
 CUPID AND HYMEN.' 
 An Original. 
 
 As the little amorous deity was one day winging his way 
 over a village in Arcadia, he was drawn by the sweet sound 
 of the pipe and tabor, to descend and see what was the 
 matter. The gods themselves are sometimes ravished with 
 the simplicity of mortals. The groves of Arcadia were 
 once the country seats of the celestials, where they relaxed 
 from the business of the skies, and partook of the diversions 
 of the villagers. Cupid being descended, was charmed with 
 the lovely appearance of the place. Every thing he saw had 
 an air of pleasantness. Every shepherd was in his holyday 
 dress, and every shepherdess was decorated with a profusion 
 of flowers. The sound of labour was not heard among 
 them. The little cottages had a peaceable look, and were 
 almost hidden with arbours of jessamine and myrtle. The 
 way to the temple was strewed with flowers, and enclosed 
 with a number of garlands and green arches. Surely, quoth 
 Cupid, here is a festival today. I'll hasten and enquire the 
 matter. 
 
 So saying, he concealed his bow and quiver, and took a 
 turn thro' the village : As he approached a building distin- 
 guished from all the rest by the elegance of its appearance, 
 he heard a sweet confusion of voices mingled with instru- 
 mental music. What is the matter, said Cupid to a swain 
 who was sitting under a sycamore by the way-side, and 
 humming a very melancholy tune, why are you not at the 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, April, 1775. 
 36 
 
1775] 
 
 CUPID AND HYMEN. 
 
 37 
 
 feast, and why are you so sad ? I sit here, answered the 
 swain, to see a sight, and a sad sight 'twill be. What is it, 
 said Cupid, come tell me, for perhaps I can help you. I was 
 once happier than a king, replied the swain, and was envied 
 by all the shepherds of the place, but now everything is dark 
 and gloomy, because — Because what ? said Cupid — Because 
 I am robbed of my Ruralinda ; Gothic, the Lord of the 
 manor, hath stolen her from me, and this is to be the 
 nuptial day. A wedding, quoth Cupid, and I know nothing 
 of it, you must be mistaken, shepherd, I keep a record of 
 marriages, and no such thing has come to my knowledge. 
 'Tis no wedding, I assure you, if I am not consulted about 
 it. The Lord of the manor, continued the shepherd, con- 
 sulted nobody but Ruralinda's mother, and she longed to 
 see her fair daughter the Lady of the manor: He hath spent 
 a deal of money to make all this appearance, for money will 
 do anything ; I only wait here to see her come by, and then 
 farewell to the hills and dales. Cupid bade him not be 
 rash, and left him. This is another of Hymen's tricks, 
 quoth Cupid to himself, he hath frequently served me 
 thus, but I'll hasten to him, and have it out with him. 
 So saying, he repaired to the mansion. Everything there 
 had an air of grandeur rather than of joy, sumptuous but 
 not serene. The company were preparing to walk in pro- 
 cession to the temple. The Lord of the manor looked like 
 the father of the village, and the business he was upon gave 
 a foolish awkwardness to his age and dignity. Ruralinda 
 smiled, because she would smile, but in that smile was sor- 
 row. Hymen with a torch faintly burning on one side only 
 stood ready to accompany them. The gods when they 
 please can converse in silence, and in that language Cupid 
 began on Hymen. 
 
 Know, Hymen, said he, that I am your master. Indul- 
 gent Jove gave you to me as a clerk, not as a rival, much less 
 a superior. 'Tis my province to form the union, and yours 
 to witness it. But of late you have treacherously assumed 
 to set up for yourself. 'Tis true you may chain couples to- 
 gether like criminals, but you cannot yoke them like lovers; 
 
38 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 besides you are such a dull fellow when I am not with you, 
 that you poison the felicities of life. You have not a grace 
 but what is borrowed from me. As well may the moon 
 attempt to enlighten the earth without the sun, as you to 
 bestow happiness when I am absent. At best you are but 
 a temporal and a temporary god, whom Jove has appointed 
 not to bestow, but to secure happiness, and restrain the in- 
 fidelity of mankind. But assure yourself that I'll complain 
 of you to the Synod. 
 
 This is very high indeed, replied Hymen, to be called to 
 an account by such a boy of a god as you are. You are not 
 of such importance in the world as your vanity thinks; for 
 my own part I have enlisted myself with another master, 
 and can very well do without you. Plutus * and I are greater 
 than Cupid ; you may complain and welcome, for Jove him- 
 self descended in a silver shower and conquered : and by the 
 same power the Lord of the manor hath won a damsel, in 
 spite of all the arrows in your quiver. 
 
 Cupid, incensed at this reply, resolved to support his 
 authority, and expose the folly of Hymen's pretentions to 
 independance. As the quarrel was carried on in silence, the 
 company were not interrupted by it. The procession began 
 to set forward to the temple, where the ceremony was to be 
 performed. The Lord of the manor led the beautiful Rura- 
 linda like a lamb devoted to sacrifice. Cupid immediately 
 despatched a petition for assistance to his mother on one of 
 the sun-beams, and the same messenger returning in an in- 
 stant, informed him that whatever he wished should be done. 
 He immediately cast the old Lord and Ruralinda into one 
 of the most extraordinary sleeps ever known. They con- 
 tinued walking in the procession, talking to each other, and 
 observing every ceremony with as much order as if they had 
 been awake ; their souls had in a manner crept from their 
 bodies, as snakes creep from their skin, and leave the perfect 
 appearance of themselves behind : And so rapidly does 
 imagination change the landscape of life, that in the same 
 space of time which passed over while they were walking to 
 
 * God of riches. — Author. 
 
CUPID AND HYMEN. 
 
 39 
 
 the temple, they both ran through, in a strange variety of 
 dreams, seven years of wretched matrimony. In which 
 imaginary time, Gothic experienced all the mortification 
 which age wedded to youth must expect ; and she all the 
 infelicity which such a sale and sacrifice of her person justly 
 deserved. 
 
 In this state of reciprocal discontent they arrived at the 
 temple : Cupid still continued them in their slumber, and in 
 order to expose the consequences of such marriages, he 
 wrought so magically on the imaginations of them both, that 
 he drove Gothic distracted at the supposed infidelity of his 
 wife, and she mad with joy at the supposed death of her 
 husband ; and just as the ceremony was about to be per- 
 formed, each of them broke out into such passionate solilo- 
 quies, as threw the whole company into confusion. He 
 exclaiming, she rejoicing; he imploring death to relieve him, 
 and she preparing to bury him ; gold, quoth Ruralinda, may 
 be bought too dear, but the grave has befriended me. — The 
 company believing them mad, conveyed them away, Gothic 
 to his mansion, and Ruralinda to her cottage. The next 
 day they awoke, and being grown wise without loss of time, 
 or the pain of real experience, they mutually declined pro- 
 ceeding any farther. — The old Lord continued as he was, 
 and generously bestowed a handsome dowry on Ruralinda, 
 who was soon after wedded to the young shepherd, that had 
 piteously bewailed the loss of her. — The authority of Cupid 
 was re-established, and Hymen ordered never more to ap- 
 pear in the village, unless Cupid introduced him. 
 
 ESOP. 
 
VIII. 
 
 DUELLING." 
 
 " Cursory Reflections o?i the Single Combat or Modern Duel. 
 Addressed to Gentlemen in every Class of Life" 
 
 Gothic and absurd as the custom of duelling is generally 
 allowed to be, there are advocates for it on principle ; 
 reasoners, who coolly argue for the necessity and even con- 
 venience, of this mode of accommodating certain kinds of 
 personal differences, and of redressing certain species of in- 
 juries, for which the laws have not provided proper or 
 adequate remedies : they conclude, therefore, that an appeal 
 to the sword is a requisite supplement to the law, and that 
 this sort of satisfaction for extra judicial offences, must take 
 place, till some other mode shall be devised and established. 
 The learned Dr. Robertson has observed, in favour of this 
 practice — even while he condemns it — that its influence on 
 modern manners, has been found, in some respects, beneficial 
 to mankind. 
 
 " To this absurd custom," says he, " we must ascribe, in some 
 degree, the extraordinary gentleness and complaisance of modern 
 manners, and that respectful attention of one man to another, 
 which, at present, render the social intercourses of life far more 
 agreeable and decent than amongst the most civilized nations of 
 antiquity." " 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, May, 1775. I have not discovered the 
 author of the pamphlet reviewed, " Cursory Reflections," etc. — Editor. 
 
 ' " Reign of Emperor Charles V.," Book V. (Dr. William Robertson). — Editor. 
 
 40 
 
'775] 
 
 DUELLING. 
 
 41 
 
 The author of these considerations [" Cursory Reflec- 
 tions "] reduces the arguments which have been offered in 
 behalf of the private combat to these two. 
 
 I. That the duel is the only expedient to obtain satisfaction for 
 those injuries of which the laws take no cognizance. 
 
 II. That a man of honour is bound on pain of infamy to resent 
 every indignity that may be offered to him with the point of his 
 sword or with a pistol. 
 
 These positions our sensible author undertakes to refute ; 
 and we shall give a specimen of his reasoning: but, first, it 
 will not be improper to lay before our readers part of what 
 he has said on the origin of the single combat, or duel. 
 
 "The ancient states," says he, "of Greece and Rome, from 
 whence we derive the noblest models of heroism, supported pri- 
 vate honour, without delivering down to us any evidences of this 
 baneful custom of demanding so severe a decision of private 
 affronts ; which, considering the military spirit of these nations, 
 must, if it obtained at all, have proved more destructive to them 
 at home, than the united swords of their enemies abroad. The 
 practice is in fact of later and more ignoble birth ; the judicial 
 combat, the parent of modern duels, springing from monkish 
 superstition, grafted on feudal barbarism. Whoever reads Kurd's 
 entertaining and ingenious " Letters on Chivalry and Romance," 
 with Robertson's elaborate "History of the Emperor Charles V.," 
 will no longer hesitate concerning the clear fact. 
 
 " The judicial combat obtained in ignorant ages, on a conclu- 
 sion that in this appeal to Providence, innocence and right would 
 be pointed out by victory, and guilt stigmatised and punished by 
 defeat. But alas ! experience at length taught us not to expect a 
 miraculous interposition, whenever superior strength, superior 
 skill, and superior bravery or ferocity, either or all of them, hap- 
 pened to appear on the side of injustice." 
 
 Dr. Robertson, above quoted, denies the fashion (as the 
 writer of these reflections has observed) of terminating pri- 
 vate differences by the sword, or pistol, by the illustrious 
 example of the challenge sent by Francis I. of France to the 
 Emperor Charles V. This was not, indeed, the first instance 
 
42 
 
 of such challenges, among princes ; but, as our author 
 remarks, the dignity of the parties, in the present case, 
 afforded a sufficient sanction for extending this mode of 
 deciding differences ; to which we may add, that the spirit 
 of chivalry and romantic knighthood still prevailing in those 
 fighting times, was continually exciting the heroes of the 
 age to this mode of proving their personal prowess and 
 valour. 
 
 We now return to our author's manner of reasoning upon 
 the postulata before stated : 
 
 " With respect to the first argument," says he, " if we annex any 
 determined ideas to our words, by satisfaction we are to under- 
 stand redress, compensation, amends or atonement. Now, Gen- 
 tlemen ! for the sake of all that is valuable in life, condescend for 
 a minute to bring down your refined notions to the sure standard 
 of common sense, and then weigh the satisfaction to be obtained 
 in a duel. 
 
 " Is satisfaction to be enforced from an adversary by putting a 
 weapon into his hand, and standing a contention with him, life for 
 life, upon an equal chance ? 
 
 " Is an offender against the rules of gentility, or against the ob- 
 ligations of morality, a man presumptively destitute of honour 
 himself, fairly entitled to this equal chance of extending an injury 
 already committed, to the irreparable degree of taking the life 
 also from an innocent man ? 
 
 " If a gentleman is infatuated enough to meet a person who has 
 degraded himself from the character of a gentleman, upon these 
 equal terms, and loses a limb, or his life, what species of satisfac- 
 tion can that be called ? — But it is better to suffer death than in- 
 dignity. What, from the injurious hand ? Correct your ideas, 
 and you will esteem life too valuable to be complimented away 
 for a mistaken notion. 
 
 " If the aggressor falls, the full purpose of the injured person is 
 thus answered, but what is the satisfaction ? The survivor be- 
 comes a refugee, like a felon ; or if he should be cleared by the 
 equivocal tenderness of a court of justice, must he not be a 
 barbarian instead of a gentleman, who can feed upon this inhuman 
 bloody satisfaction, without experiencing the pangs of self-re- 
 proach, for having sacrificed the life of a fellow creature to a 
 
1775] 
 
 DUELLING. 
 
 43 
 
 mere punctilio ; and perhaps involved the ruin of an innocent 
 family by the brutal deed ? If, on the other hand, he is really a 
 mistaken man of humanity, what has he obtained ? The satisfac- 
 tion of imbittering all the remainder of his life with the keenest 
 sorrow ; of having forfeited all his future peace of mind by a 
 consciousness of guilt, from which his notions of honour can 
 never release him, till the load drags him down to the grave ! 
 
 " If a man of strict honour is reduced to beg his life of a mere 
 pretender to honour, a scoundrel ; what satisfaction can this be 
 esteemed ? Is not this a mortifying, a painful aggravation of a 
 wrong already sustained ? What consolation can honour afford 
 for such a disgrace ? " 
 
 Our author has some other very sensible animadversions 
 on this first branch of the argument in defence of duelling ; 
 after vi^hich, he proceeds to the second plea, viz. " The 
 obligation of resenting affronts in this manner, founded on 
 the infamy of suspected courage"; and, in our opinion, he 
 satisfactorily proves that this argument is by no means irre- 
 fragable : but for his reasoning on this delicate point, v^^e 
 must refer to his pamphlet, and proceed to take notice of 
 his plan for putting a stop to the practice of duelling. 
 
 In the first place, he recommends that a Xzm be passed, 
 " declaring the act of sending a challenge, or the reducing a 
 person to defend his life with sword or pistol, to be felony ; 
 and the killing a person in a duel, to be punished as murder, 
 without benefit of clergy, unless sufficient proof is made that 
 the party killed, really urged the combat." 
 
 As this first part of his proposal relates rather to the 
 mode of punishing, than the means of preventing duels, he 
 proceeds : 
 
 " In every quarrel between two gentlemen where satisfaction is 
 thought necessary, let the parties be empowered to summon a 
 jury of honour from among their friends, six to be appointed by 
 one gentleman, and six by the other, or in case of a refusal of 
 either party, let the six chosen by the other complete the number 
 by their own appointment, each nominating one ; and finally, let 
 all this be done, if possible, free from the embarrassing interven- 
 tion of lawyers. 
 
44 
 
 " Let this jury of honour, when duly assembled, discuss the 
 merits of the dispute in question, and form their opinion by a 
 majority of votes ; but to guard against generating fresh quarrels 
 by the discovery of the votes on either side, let the whole twelve 
 be bound to secrecy upon their honour, and the whole twelve sign 
 the verdict of the majority. Let a copy of this verdict be deliv- 
 ered to the gentleman whose conduct is condemned ; and if he 
 refuses to make the required concession or due satisfaction, let 
 this opinion be published in such a manner as may be thought 
 proper, and be understood to divest him of his character as a 
 gentleman so long as he remains contumacious. 
 
 " By this single expedient, conveyed in few words, it is hoped 
 the necessity of duels may be effectually superseded, the practice 
 suppressed, and ample satisfaction enforced for all injuries of 
 honour. In the examination of subjects of importance we are 
 often tempted to overlook the thing we want, on a supposition 
 that it cannot be near at hand. This plan may perhaps admit of 
 amendment, but it is feared the more complicated it is rendered, 
 the more difficult it may prove to carry into execution : and it is 
 hoped, as it is, it will not be the worse thought of, for coming 
 from an unknown pen." 
 
 With respect to the practicability of this scheme, we ap- 
 prehend that the great difficulty would lie in obliging the 
 quarrelling parties, or either of them (who by the author's 
 plan are merely empowered), to refer the matter to a court 
 of honour. But the writer does not give this as a finished 
 plan : he barely suggests the hint ; leaving others to improve 
 upon it, if thought worthy of farther consideration. 
 
 As to the proposed act for punishing the survivor, where 
 one of the parties has fallen in the conflict, it is, indeed, a 
 melancholy truth, that our laws in being have been found 
 inadequate to the purpose of preventing duels by the dread 
 of legal consequences. The King of Sweden's method was 
 virtually the same which is here recommended ; and it is 
 said to have been effectual in that Kingdom. 
 
 The great Gustavus Adolphus, finding that the custom of 
 duelling was becoming alarmingly prevalent among the 
 officers in his army, was determined to suppress, if possible, 
 
i77S] 
 
 DUELLING. 
 
 45 
 
 those false notions of honour. Soon after the King had 
 formed this resolution, and issued some very rigorous 
 edicts against the practice, a quarrel arose between two of 
 his generals ; who agreed to crave His Majesty's pardon to 
 decide the quarrel by the laws of honour. The King con- 
 sented, and said he would be a spectator of the combat ; he 
 went, accordingly, to the place appointed, attended by a 
 body of guards, and the public executioner. He then told 
 the combatants that " they must fight till one of them 
 died " ; and turning to the executioner, he added, " Do you 
 immediately strike off the head of the survivor." The mon- 
 arch's inflexibility had the desired effect : the difference be- 
 tween the two officers was adjusted ; and no more challenges 
 were heard of in the army of Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 From the peculiar prevalence of this custom in countries 
 where the religious system is established, which, of all others, 
 most expressly prohibits the gratification of revenge, with 
 every species of outrage and violence, we too plainly see, 
 how little mankind are, in reality, influenced by the princi- 
 ples of the religion by which they profess to be guided, and 
 in defence of which they will occasionally risk even their 
 lives. 
 
IX. 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON TITLES.' 
 
 Ask me what 's honour? I '11 the truth impart : 
 Know, honour then, is Honesty of Heart. 
 
 Whitehead. 
 
 When I reflect on the pompous titles bestowed on un- 
 worthy men, I feel an indignity that instructs me to despise 
 the absurdity. The Honourable plunderer of his country, or 
 the Right Honoiirable murderer of mankind, create such a 
 contrast of ideas as exhibit a monster rather than a man. 
 Virtue is inflamed at the violation, and sober reason calls it 
 nonsense. 
 
 Dignities and high sounding names have different effects 
 on different beholders. The lustre of the Star and the title 
 of My Lord, over-awe the superstitious vulgar, and forbid 
 them to inquire into the character of the possessor: Nay 
 more, they are, as it were, bewitched to admire in the great, 
 the vices they would honestly condemn in themselves. This 
 sacrifice of common sense is the certain badge which distin- 
 guishes slavery from freedom ; for when men yield up the 
 privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the 
 horizon. 
 
 But the reasonable freeman sees through the magic of a 
 title, and examines the man before he approves him. To 
 him the honours of the worthless serve to write their 
 masters' vices in capitals, and their stars shine to no other 
 end than to read them by. The possessors of undue honours 
 are themselves sensible of this ; for when their repeated 
 guilt renders their persons unsafe, they disown their rank, 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, May, 1775. — Editor. 
 46 
 
1775] 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON TITLES. 
 
 47 
 
 and, like glow-worms, extinguish themselves into common 
 reptiles, to avoid discovery. Thus Jeffries sunk into a 
 fisherman, and his master escaped in the habit of a peasant. 
 
 Modesty forbids men, separately or collectively, to assume 
 titles. But as all honours, even that of Kings, originated 
 from the public, the public may justly be called the fountain 
 of true honour. And it is with much pleasure I have heard 
 the title of Honourable applied to a body of men, who nobly 
 disregarding private ease and interest for public welfare, 
 have justly merited the address of The Honourable Conti- 
 nental Congress. 
 
 Vox POPULI. 
 
X. 
 
 THE DREAM INTERPRETED.' 
 
 Parched with thirst and wearied with a fatiguing journey 
 to Virginia, I turned out of the road to shelter myself 
 among the shades ; in a little time I had the good fortune to 
 light on a spring, and the refreshing draught went sweetly 
 down. How little of luxury does nature want ! This cool- 
 ing stream administered more relief than all the wines of 
 Oporto ; I drank and was satisfied ; my fatigue abated, my 
 wasted spirits were reinforced, and 'tis no wonder after such 
 a delicious repast that I sunk insensibly into slumber. The 
 wildest fancies in that state of forgetfulness always appear 
 regular and connected ; nothing is wrong in a dream, be it 
 ever so unnatural. I am apt to think that the wisest men 
 dream the most inconsistently: for as the judgment has 
 nothing or very little to do in regulating the circumstances 
 of a dream, it necessarily follows that the more powerful and 
 creative the imagination is, the wilder it runs in that state 
 of unrestrained invention : While those who are unable to 
 wander out of the track of common thinking when awake, 
 never exceed the boundaries of common nature when asleep. 
 
 But to return from my digression, which in this place is 
 nothing more than that wandering of fancy which every 
 dreamer is entitled to, and which cannot in either case be 
 applied to myself, as in the dream I am about to relate I 
 was only a spectator, and had no other business to do than 
 to remember. 
 
 To what scene or country my ideas had conveyed them- 
 selves, or whether they had created a region on purpose to 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, June, 1775. — Editor. 
 48 
 
1775] 
 
 THE DREAM INTERPRETED. 
 
 49 
 
 explore, I know not, but I saw before me one of the most 
 pleasing landscapes I have ever beheld. I gazed at it, till my 
 mind partaking of the prospect became incorporated there- 
 with, and felt all the tranquillity of the place. In this state 
 of ideal happiness I sat down on the side of a mountain, 
 totally forgetful of the world I had left behind me. The 
 most delicious fruits presented themselves to my hands, and 
 one of the clearest rivers that ever watered the earth rolled 
 along at the foot of the mountain, and invited me to drink. 
 The distant hills were blue with the tincture of the skies, 
 and seemed as if they were the threshold of the celestial 
 region. But while I gazed the whole scene began to change, 
 by an almost insensible gradation. The sun, instead of 
 administering life and health, consumed everything with an 
 intolerable heat. The verdure withered. The hills appeared 
 burnt and black. The fountains dried away ; and the at- 
 mosphere became a motionless lake of air, loaded with 
 pestilence and death. After several days of wretched suf- 
 focation, the sky grew darkened with clouds from every 
 quarter, till one extended storm excluded the face of heaven. 
 A dismal silence took place, as if the earth, struck with a 
 general panic, was listening like a criminal to the sentence 
 of death. The glimmering light with which the sun feebly 
 penetrated the clouds began to fail, till Egyptian darkness 
 added to the horror. The beginning of the tempest was 
 announced by a confusion of distant thunders, till at length 
 a general discharge of the whole artillery of heaven was 
 poured down upon the earth. Trembling I shrunk into 
 the side of a cave, and dreaded the event. The mountain 
 shook, and threatened me with instant destruction. The 
 rapid lightning at every blaze exhibited the landscape of a 
 world on fire, while the accumulating torrent, not in rain, 
 but floods of water, resembled another deluge. 
 
 At length the fury of the storm abated, and nature, fatigued 
 with fear and watching, sank into rest. But when the morn- 
 ing rose, and the universal lamp of heaven emerged from 
 the deep, how was I struck with astonishment ! I expected 
 to have seen a world in ruins, which nothing but a new 
 
 VOL. I.— 4 
 
50 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 creation could have restored. Instead of which, the pros- 
 pect was lovely and inviting, and had all the promising ap- 
 pearance of exceeding its former glory. The air, purged of 
 its poisonous vapours, was fresh and healthy. The dried 
 fountains were replenished, the waters sweet and wholesome. 
 The sickly earth, recovered to new life, abounded with vege- 
 tation. The groves were musical with innumerable song- 
 sters, and the long-deserted fields echoed with the joyous 
 sound of the husbandman. All, all was felicity ; and what 
 I had dreaded as an evil, became a blessing. At this happy 
 reflection I awoke ; and having refreshed myself with 
 another draught from the friendly spring, pursued my 
 journey. 
 
 After travelling a few miles I fell in with a companion, 
 and as we rode through a wood but little frequented by 
 travellers, I began, for the sake of chatting away the tedious- 
 ness of the journey, to relate my dream. I think, replied 
 my friend, that I can interpret it : That beautiful country 
 which you saw is America. The sickly state you beheld her 
 in, has been coming on her for these ten years past. Her 
 commerce has been drying up by repeated restrictions, till 
 by one merciless edict the ruin of it is compleated. The 
 pestilential atmosphere represents that ministerial corrup- 
 tion which surrounds and exercises its dominion over her, 
 and which nothing but a storm can purify. The tempest is 
 the present contest, and the event will be the same. She 
 will rise with new glories from the conflict, and her fame be 
 established in every corner of the globe ; while it will be 
 remembered to her eternal honour, that she has not sought 
 the quarrel, but has been driven into it. He who guides the 
 natural tempest will regulate the political one, and bring 
 good out of evil. In our petition to Britain we asked but 
 for peace ; but the prayer was rejected. The cause is now 
 before a higher court, the court of providence, before whom 
 the arrogance of kings, the infidelity of ministers, the general 
 corruption of government, and all the cobweb artifice of 
 courts, will fall confounded and ashamed. 
 
 Bucks County. 
 
XL 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON UNHAPPY MARRIAGES.' 
 
 Though 't is confessed on all hands that the weal or woe 
 of life depends on no one circumstance so critical as matri- 
 mony, yet how few seem to be influenced by this universal 
 acknowledgement, or act with a caution becoming the danger. 
 
 Those that are undone this way, are the young, the rash 
 and amorous, whose hearts are ever glowing with desire, 
 whose eyes are ever roaming after beauty ; these doat on the 
 first amiable image that chance throws in their way, and 
 when the flame is once kindled, would risk eternity it- 
 self to appease it. — But, still like their first parents, they no 
 sooner taste the tempting fruit, but their eyes are opened : 
 the folly of their intemperance becomes visible ; shame suc- 
 ceeds first, and then repentance ; but sorrow for themselves 
 soon returns to anger with the innocent cause of their 
 unhappiness. Hence flow bitter reproaches, and keen in- 
 vectives, which end in mutual hatred and contempt : Love 
 abhors clamour and soon flies away, and happiness finds no 
 entrance when love is gone; Thus for a few hours of dalli- 
 ance, I will not call it affection, the repose of all their 
 future days are sacrificed ; and those who but just before 
 seem'd to live only for each other, now would almost cease 
 to live, that the separation might be eternal. 
 
 But hold, says the man of phlegm and economy, all are 
 not of this hasty turn — I allow it — there are persons in the 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Magazine, June, 1775, where it is appended to a 
 series of papers (" The Old Bachelor") which Paine did not write. The 
 writer says he has "transcribed" it. — Editor. 
 
52 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 world who arc young without passions, and in health with- 
 out appetite : these hunt out a wife as they go to Smithfield 
 for a horse ; and inter-marry fortunes, not minds, or even 
 bodies : In this case the Bridegroom has no joy but in 
 taking possession of the portion, and the bride dreams of 
 little beside new clothes, visits and congratulations. Thus, 
 as their expectations of pleasure are not very great, neither 
 is the disappointment very grievous ; they just keep each 
 other in countenance, live decently, and are exactly as fond 
 the twentieth year of matrimony, as the first. But I would 
 not advise any one to call this state of insipidity happiness, 
 because it would argue him both ignorant of its nature, and 
 incapable of enjoying it. Mere absence of pain will un- 
 doubtedly constitute ease ; and, without ease, there can be 
 no happiness: Ease, however, is but the medium, through 
 which happiness is tasted, and but passively receives what 
 the last actually bestows ; if therefore the rash who marry 
 inconsiderately, perish in the storms raised by their own 
 passions, these slumber away their days in a sluggish calm, 
 and rather dream they live, than experience it by a series of 
 actual sensible enjoyments. 
 
 As matrimonial happiness is neither the result of insipidity, 
 or ill-grounded passion, surely those, who make their court 
 to age, ugliness, and all that 's detestable both in mind and 
 body, cannot hope to find it, tho' qualified with all the riches 
 that avarice covets, or Plutus could bestow. Matches of 
 this kind are downright prostitution, however softened by 
 the letter of the law; and he or she who receives the golden 
 equivalent of youth and beauty, so wretchedly bestowed, can 
 never enjoy what they so dearly purchased : The shocking 
 incumbrance would render the sumptuous banquet tasteless, 
 and the magnificent bed loathsome ; rest would disdain 
 the one, and appetite sicken at the other ; uneasiness wait 
 upon both ; even gratitude itself would almost cease to be 
 obliging, and good-manners grow such a burden, that the 
 best bred or best-natured people breathing, would be often 
 tempted to throw it down. 
 
 But say we should not wonder that those who either 
 
1775] REFLECTIONS ON UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 
 
 53 
 
 marry gold without love, or love without gold, should be 
 miserable : I can't forbear being astonished, if such whose 
 fortunes are affluent, whose desires were mutual, who equally 
 languished for the happy moment before it came, and 
 seemed for a while to be equally transported when it had 
 taken place : If even these should, in the end, prove as un- 
 happy as either of the others ! And yet how often is this 
 the melancholy circumstance ! As extasy abates, coolness 
 succeeds, which often makes way for indifference, and that 
 for neglect : Sure of each other by the nuptial band, they 
 no longer take any pains to be mutually agreeable ; careless 
 if they displease ; and yet angry if reproached ; with so lit- 
 tle relish for each other's company, that anybody's else is 
 welcome, and more entertaining. Their union thus broke, 
 they pursue separate pleasures ; never meet but to wrangle, 
 or part but to find comfort in other society. After this the 
 descent is easy to utter aversion, which having wearied itself 
 out with heart-burnings, clamours, and affronts, subsides 
 into a perfect insensibility ; when fresh objects of love step 
 in to their relief on either side, and mutual infidelity makes 
 way for mutual complaisance, that each may be the better 
 able to deceive the other. 
 
 I shall conclude with the sentiments of an American sav- 
 age on this subject, who being advised by one of our coun- 
 trymen to marry according to the ceremonies of the church, 
 as being the ordinance of an infinitely wise and good God, 
 briskly replied, "That either the Christians' God was not 
 so good and wise as he was represented, or he never med- 
 dled with the marriages of his people ; since not one in a 
 hundred of them had anything to do either with happiness 
 or common sense. Hence," continued he, " as soon as ever 
 you meet you long to part ; and, not having this relief in 
 your power, by way of revenge, double each other's misery : 
 Whereas in ours, which have no other ceremony than mutual 
 affection, and last no longer than they bestow mutual pleas- 
 ures, we make it our business to oblige the heart we are 
 afraid to lose ; and being at liberty to separate, seldom or 
 never feel the inclination. But if any should be found so 
 
54 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i775 
 
 wretched among us, as to hate where the only commerce 
 ought to be love, we instantly dissolve the band : God made 
 us all in pairs ; each has his mate somewhere or other ; and 
 't is our duty to find each other out, since no creature was 
 ever intended to be miserable." 
 
XII. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON DEFENSIVE WAR.' 
 
 Could the peaceable principle of the Quakers be univer- 
 sally established, arms and the art of war would be wholly 
 extirpated : But we live not in a world of angels. The 
 reign of Satan is not ended ; neither are we to expect to be 
 defended by miracles. The pillar of the cloud existed only 
 in the wilderness. In the nonage of the Israelites. It pro- 
 tected them in their retreat from Pharaoh, while they were 
 destitute of the natural means of defence, for they brought 
 no arms from Egypt ; but it neither fought their battles nor 
 shielded them from dangers afterwards. 
 
 I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all 
 the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by 
 negotiation ; but unless the whole will, the matter ends, and 
 I take up my musket and thank heaven he has put it in my 
 power. 
 
 Whoever considers the unprincipled enemy we have to 
 cope with, will not hesitate to declare that nothing but arms 
 or miracles can reduce them to reason and moderation. 
 They have lost sight of the limits of humanity. The portrait 
 of a parent red with the blood of her children is a picture fit 
 only for the galleries of the infernals. From the House of 
 Commons the troops of Britain have been exhorted to fight, 
 not for the defence of their natural rights, not to repel the 
 invasion or the insult of enemies ; but on the vilest of all 
 pretences, gold. " Ye fight for solid revenue " was vocifer- 
 ated in the House. Thus America must suffer because she 
 
 'From the Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1775. Probably by Paine — Editor. 
 
 55 
 
56 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i775 
 
 has something to lose. Her crime is property. That which 
 allures the Highwayman has allured the ministry under a 
 gentler name. But the position laid down by Lord Sand- 
 wich, is a clear demonstration of the justice of defensive 
 arms. The Americans, quoth this Quixote of modern days, 
 will not fight ; therefore we will. His Lordship's plan when 
 analized amounts to this. These people are either too 
 superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms ; they 
 either cannot or dare ?iot defend ; their property is open to 
 any one who has the courage to attack them. Send but your 
 troops and the prize is ours. Kill a few and take the whole. 
 Thus the peaceable part of mankind will be continually over- 
 run by the vile and abandoned, while they neglect the 
 means of self defence. The supposed quietude of a good 
 man allures the rufifian ; while on the other hand, arms like 
 laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in 
 awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. 
 The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same 
 balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of 
 arms, for all would be alike ; but since some will not, others 
 dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses 
 to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. 
 Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world de- 
 prived of the use of them ; for while avarice and ambition 
 have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a 
 prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation 
 establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments 
 when they prove themselves. 
 
 But there is a point to view this matter in of superior 
 consequence to the defence of property ; and that point is 
 Liberty in all its meanings. In the barbarous ages of the 
 world, men in general had no liberty. The strong governed 
 the weak at will ; 'till the coming of Christ there was no 
 such thing as political freedom in any known part of the 
 earth. The Jewish kings were in point of government as 
 absolute as the Pharaohs. Men were frequently put to 
 death without trial at the will of the Sovereign. The 
 
1775] 
 
 THOUGHTS ON DEFENSIVE WAR. 
 
 57 
 
 Romans held the world in slavery, and were themselves the 
 slaves of their emperors. The madman of Macedon governed 
 by caprice and passion, and stridcd as arrogantly over the 
 world as if he had made and peopled it ; and it is needless 
 to imagine that other nations at that time were more 
 refined. Wherefore political as well as spiritual freedom is 
 the gift of God through Christ. The second in the catalogue 
 of blessings ; and so intimately related, so sympathetically 
 united with the first, that the one cannot be wounded with- 
 out communicating an injury to the other. Political liberty 
 is the visible pass which guards the religions. It is the 
 outwork by which the church militant is defended, and the 
 attacks of the enemy are frequently made through this 
 fortress. The same power which has established a restrain- 
 ing Port Bill in the Colonies, has established a restraining 
 Protestant Church Bill in Canada. 
 
 I had the pleasure and advantage of hearing this matter 
 wisely investigated, by a gentleman, in a sermon to one of 
 the battalions of this city ; and am fully convinced, that 
 spiritual freedom is the root of political liberty. 
 
 First. Because till spiritual freedom was made manifest, 
 political liberty did not exist. 
 
 Secondly, because in proportion that spiritual freedom 
 has been manifested, liberty has encreased. 
 
 Thirdly. Whenever the visible church has been oppressed, 
 political freedom has suffered with it. Read the history of 
 Mary and the Stuarts. The popish world at this day by not 
 knowing the full manifestation of spiritual freedom, enjoy 
 but a shadow of political liberty. — Though I am unwilling 
 to accuse the present government of popish principles, they 
 cannot, I think, be clearly acquitted of popish practices ; the 
 facility with which they perceive the dark and ignorant are 
 governed, in popish nations, will always be a temptation to 
 the lovers of arbitrary power to adopt the same methods. 
 
 As the union between spiritual freedom and political 
 liberty seems nearly inseparable, it is our duty to defend 
 both. And defence in the first instance is best. The lives 
 
58 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 of hundreds of both countries had been preserved had 
 America been in arms a year ago. Our enemies have mis- 
 taken our peace for cowardice, and supposing us unarmed 
 have begun the attack. 
 
 A Lover of Peace. 
 
XIII. 
 
 AN OCCASIONAL LETTER ON THE FEMALE SEX." 
 
 O Woman ! lovely Woman ! 
 Nature made thee to temper man, 
 We had been Brutes without you. 
 
 Otway. 
 
 If we take a survey of ages and of countries, we shall find 
 the women, almost — without exception — at all times and in 
 all places, adored and oppressed. Man, who has never 
 neglected an opportunity of exerting his power, in paying 
 homage to their beauty, has always availed himself of their 
 weakness. He has been at once their tyrant and their 
 slave. 
 
 Nature herself, in forming beings so susceptible and 
 tender, appears to have been more attentive to their charms 
 than to their happiness. Continually surrounded with griefs 
 and fears, the women more than share all our miseries, 
 and are besides subjected to ills which are peculiarly their 
 own. They cannot be the means of life without exposing 
 themselves to the loss of it ; every revolution which they 
 undergo, alters their health, and threatens their existence. 
 Cruel distempers attack their beauty — and the hour, which 
 confirms their release from those, is perhaps the most melan- 
 choly of their lives. It robs them of the most essential 
 characteristic of their sex. They can then only hope for 
 protection from the humiliating claims of pity, or the feeble 
 voice of gratitude. 
 
 Society, instead of alleviating their condition, is to them 
 the source of new miseries. More than one half of the globe 
 
 'From the Pennsylvania Magazine, August, 1775. — Editor. 
 59 
 
€o THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 is covered with savages ; and among all these people women 
 are completely wretched. Man, in a state of barbarity, 
 equally cruel and indolent, active by necessity, but naturally 
 inclined to repose, is acquainted with little more than the 
 physical effects of love ; and, having none of those moral 
 ideas which only can soften the empire of force, he is led to 
 consider it as his supreme law, subjecting to his despotism 
 those whom reason had made his equal, but whose imbecility 
 betrayed them to his strength. " Nothing " (says Professor 
 Miller, speaking of the women of barbarous nations) " can 
 exceed the dependence and subjection in which they are 
 kept, or the toil and drudgery which they are obliged to 
 undergo. The husband, when he is not engaged in some 
 warlike exercise, indulges himself in idleness, and devolves 
 upon his wife the whole burden of his domestic affairs. He 
 disdains to assist her in any of those servile employments. 
 She sleeps in a different bed, and is seldom permitted to have 
 any conversation or correspondence with him." 
 
 The women among the Indians of America are what the 
 Helots were among the Spartans, a vanquished people, 
 obliged to toil for their conquerors. Hence on the banks of 
 the Oroonoko, we have seen mothers slaying their daughters 
 out of compassion, and smothering them in the hour of their 
 birth. They consider this barbarous pity as a virtue. 
 
 " The men (says Commodore Byron, in his account of the in- 
 habitants of South-America) exercise a most despotic authority 
 over their wives, whom they consider in the same view they do 
 any other part of their property, and dispose of them accord- 
 ingly : P2ven their common treatment of them is cruel ; for 
 though the toil and hazard of procuring food lies entirely on the 
 women, yet they are not suffered to touch any part of it till the 
 husband is satisfied ; and then he assigns them their portion, 
 which is generally very scanty, and such as he has not a stomach 
 for himself." 
 
 Among the nations of the East we find another kind of 
 despotism and dominion prevail — the Seraglio, and the 
 domestic servitude of woman, authorised by the manners 
 
1775] OCCASIONAL LETTER ON THE FEMALE SEX. 6l 
 
 and established by the laws. In Turkey, in Persia, in India, 
 in Japan, and over the vast empire of China, one half of 
 the human species is oppressed by the other. 
 
 The excess of oppression in those countries springs from 
 the excess of love. 
 
 All Asia is covered with prisons, where beauty in bondage 
 waits the caprices of a master. The multitude of women 
 there assembled have no will, no inclinations but his : Their 
 triumphs are only for a moment ; and their rivalry, their 
 hate, and their animosities, continue till death. There the 
 lovely sex are obliged to repay even their servitude with the 
 most tender affections ; or, what is still more mortifying, 
 with the counterfeit of an affection, which they do not feel : 
 There the most gloomy tyranny has subjected them to 
 creatures, who, being of neither sex, are a dishonour to 
 both : There, in short, their education tends only to debase 
 them ; their virtues are forced ; their very pleasures are in- 
 voluntary and joyless ; and after an existence of a few years 
 — till the bloom of youth is over — their period of neglect 
 commences, which is long and dreadful. In the temperate 
 latitude where the climates, giving less ardour to passion, 
 leave more confidence in virtue, the women have not been 
 deprived of their liberty, but a severe legislation has, at all 
 times, kept them in a state of dependence. One while, they 
 were confined to their own apartments, and debarred at 
 once from business and amusement ; at other times, a tedious 
 guardianship defrauded their hearts, and insulted their 
 understandings. Affronted in one country by polygamy, 
 which gives them their rivals for their inseparable compan- 
 ions ; inslaved in another by indissoluble ties, which often 
 join the gentle to the rude, and sensibility to brutality : 
 Even in countries where they may be esteemed most happy, 
 constrained in their desires in the disposal of their goods, 
 robbed of freedom of will by the laws, the slaves of opinion, 
 which rules them with absolute sway, and construes the 
 slightest appearances into guilt ; surrounded on all sides by 
 judges, who are at once tyrants and their seducers, and who, 
 after having prepared their faults, punish every lapse with 
 
62 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 dishonour — nay, usurp the right of degrading them on sus- 
 picion ! Who does not feel for the tender sex? Yet such, 
 I am sorry to say, is the lot of woman over the whole earth. 
 Man with regard to them, in all climates, and in all ages, 
 has been either an insensible husband or an oppressor ; but 
 they have sometimes experienced the cold and deliberate 
 oppression of pride, and sometimes the violent and terrible 
 tyranny of jealousy. When they are not beloved they are 
 nothing ; and, when they are, they are tormented. They 
 have almost equal cause to be afraid of indifference and of 
 love. Over three quarters of the globe nature has placed 
 them between contempt and misery. 
 
 " The melting desires, or the fiery passions," says Professor 
 Ferguson, " which in one climate take place between the sexes, 
 are, in another, changed into a sober consideration, or a patience 
 of mutual disgust. This change is remarked in crossing the 
 Mediterranean, in following the course of the Mississippi, in 
 ascending the mountains of Caucasus, and in passing from the 
 Alps and the Pyrenees to the shores of the Baltic. 
 
 " The burning ardours and torturing jealousies of the Seraglio 
 and Harem, which have reigned so long in Asia and Africa, and 
 which, in the southern parts of Europe, have scarcely given way 
 to the differences of religion and civil establishments, are found, 
 however, with an abatement of heat in the climate, to be more 
 easily changed, in one latitude, into a temporary passion, which 
 engrosses the mind without infeebling it, and which excites to 
 romantic atchievments. By a farther progress to the north it is 
 changed into a spirit of gallantry, which employs the wit and 
 fancy more than the heart, which prefers intrigue to enjoyment, 
 and substitutes affection and vanity where sentiment and desire 
 have failed. As it departs from the sun, the same passion is far- 
 ther composed into a habit of domestic connection, or frozen into 
 a state of insensibility, under which the sexes at freedom scarcely 
 choose to unite their society." 
 
 Even among people where beauty received the highest 
 homage, we find men who would deprive the sex of every 
 kind of reputation: "The most virtuous woman," says a 
 celebrated Greek, " is she who is least talked of." That 
 
I77S] OCCASIONAL LETTER ON THE FEMALE SEX. 63 
 
 morose man, while he imposes duties upon women, would 
 deprive them of the sweets of public esteem, and in exact- 
 ing virtues from them, would make it a crime to aspire at 
 honour. 
 
 If a woman were to defend the cause of her sex, she 
 might address him in the following manner : 
 
 " How great is your injustice ? If we have an equal right 
 with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right 
 to praise ? The public esteem ought to wait upon merit. 
 Our duties are different from yours, but they are not there- 
 fore less difificult to fulfil, or of less consequence to society : 
 They are the fountains of your felicity, and the sweetness of 
 life. We are wives and mothers. 'T is we who form the 
 union and the cordiality of families : 'T is we who soften 
 that savage rudeness which considers everything as due to 
 force, and which would involve man with man in eternal 
 war. We cultivate in you that humanity which makes you 
 feel for the misfortunes of others, and our tears forewarn 
 you of your own danger. Nay, you cannot be ignorant that 
 we have need of courage not less than you : More feeble in 
 ourselves, we have perhaps more trials to encounter. Na- 
 ture assails us with sorrow, law and custom press us with 
 constraint, and sensibility and virtue alarm us with their 
 continual conflict. Sometimes also the name of citizen de- 
 mands from us the tribute of fortitude. When you offer 
 your blood to the State think that it is ours. In giving it 
 our sons and our husbands we give more than ourselves. 
 You can only die on the field of battle, but we have the 
 misfortune to survive those whom we love most. Alas ! 
 while your ambitious vanity is unceasingly labouring to 
 cover the earth with statues, with monuments, and with 
 inscriptions to eternize, if possible, your names, and give 
 yourselves an existence, when this body is no more, why 
 must we be condemned to live and to die unknown ? Would 
 that the grave and eternal forgetfulness should be our lot. 
 Be not our tyrants in all : Permit our names to be some- 
 times pronounced beyond the narrow circle in which we 
 live : Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its em- 
 
64 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 blems on the tomb where our ashes repose ; and deny us not 
 that public esteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is 
 the sweetest reward of well doing." 
 
 All men, however, it must be owned, have not been 
 equally unjust to their fair companions. In some countries 
 public honours have been paid to women. Art has erected 
 them monuments. Eloquence has celebrated their virtues, 
 and History has collected whatever could adorn their 
 character. 
 
XIV. 
 
 A SERIOUS THOUGHT.' 
 
 When I reflect on the horrid cruelties exercised by Britain 
 in the East Indies — How thousands perished by artificial 
 famine — How religion and every manly principle of honour 
 and honesty were sacrificed to luxury and pride — When I 
 read of the wretched natives being blown away, for no other 
 crime than because, sickened with the miserable scene, they 
 refused to fight — When I reflect on these and a thousand 
 instances of similar barbarity, I firmly believe that the Al- 
 mighty, in compassion to mankind, will curtail the power of 
 Britain. 
 
 And when I reflect on the use she hath made of the dis- 
 covery of this new world — that the little paltry dignity of 
 earthly kings hath been set up in preference to the great 
 cause of the King of kings — That instead of Christian ex- 
 amples to the Indians, she hath basely tampered with their 
 passions, imposed on their ignorance, and made them tools 
 of treachery and murder — And when to these and many 
 other melancholy reflections I add this sad remark, that 
 ever since the discovery of America she hath employed her- 
 self in the most horrid of all trafifics, that of human flesh, un- 
 known to the most savage nations, hath yearly (without 
 provocation and in cold blood) ravaged the hapless shores of 
 Africa, robbing it of its unoffending inhabitants to cultivate 
 her stolen dominions in the West — When I reflect on these, 
 I hesitate not for a moment to believe that the Almighty 
 
 ' Pennsylvania Journal, October l8, 1775. This was probably the earliest 
 anticipation of the Declaration of Independence written and published in 
 America. — Editor. 
 
 VOL. I. — 5 
 
 65 
 
66 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775 
 
 will finally separate America from Britain. Call it Inde- 
 pendence or what you will, if it is the cause of God and 
 humanity it will go on. 
 
 And when the Almighty shall have blest us, and made us 
 a people dcpc7ident only upon Him, then may our first grati- 
 tude be shown by an act of continental legislation, which 
 shall put a stop to the importation of Negroes for sale, soften 
 the hard fate of those already here, and in time procure their 
 freedom. 
 
 HUMANUS. 
 
XV. 
 
 COMMON SENSE." 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, 
 are notj'et sufficiently fashionable to procure them general 
 Favor; along Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives 
 it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at 
 first a formidable outcry in defence 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 Combina- 
 tion, they have an undoubted privilege to enquire into the 
 
 ' This pamphlet, whose effect has never been paralleled in literary history, 
 was published January lo, 1776, with the following title ; 
 
 Common Sense : Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the following 
 Interesting Subjects, viz.: I. Of the Origin and Design of Government in 
 General ; with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution. II. Of Mon- 
 archy and Hereditary Succession. III. Thoughts on the Present State of 
 American Affairs. IV. Of the Present Ability of America ; with some'^Iiscel- 
 laneous Reflections. 
 
 Man knows no master save creating HEAVEN, 
 Or those whom choice and common good ordain. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 Philadelphia : Printed, and Sold, by R. Bell, in Third Street, mdcclxxvi. 
 
 67 
 
68 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 Pretensions of both, and equally to reject the Usurpation of 
 either. 
 
 In the following Sheets, the Author hath studiously 
 avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. 
 Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part 
 thereof. The wise and the worthy need not the triumph of 
 a Pamphlet ; and those whose sentiments are injudicious or 
 unfriendly will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is 
 bestowed upon their conversions. 
 
 The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of 
 all mankind. Many circumstances have, 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 de- 
 fenders 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. 
 
 Postscript to Preface in the third edition. 
 
 P. S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been 
 delayed, with a view of taking notice (had it been necessary) 
 of any attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independence : As 
 no answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none 
 will, the time needful for getting such a Performance ready 
 for the Public being considerably past. 
 
 Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unneces- 
 sary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine 
 itself, not the Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, 
 That he is unconnected with any party, and under no sort 
 of Influence, public or private, but the influence of reason 
 and principle. 
 
 Philadelphia, February 14, 1776. 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 ON THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GEN- 
 ERAL, 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 possitivelyhy 
 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 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 upon the ruins of the bowers of 
 paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uni- 
 form and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other law- 
 giver ; 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. 
 
 69 
 
70 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and 
 end of government, let us suppose a small number of per- 
 sons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, uncon- 
 nected with the rest ; they will then represent the first 
 peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of nat- 
 ural 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 per- 
 petual 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 dwell- 
 ing 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 to quit his work, and every different want 
 would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfor- 
 tune, 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 obliga- 
 tions of law and government unnecessary while they re- 
 mained 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 dif?iculties 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. 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 71 
 
 But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will en- 
 crease 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 con- 
 senting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a se- 
 lect 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 encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the 
 number of 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 : be- 
 cause 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 natur- 
 ally 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 reason will 
 say, 'tis right. 
 
 I draw my idea of the form of government from a princi- 
 ple in nature which no art can overturn, viz. that the more 
 simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and 
 
72 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 the easier repaired when disordered ; and with this maxim 
 in view I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted consti- 
 tution 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. 
 
 Absolute governments, (tho' the disgrace of human na- 
 ture) have this advantage with them, 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 difificult 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, com- 
 pounded with some new Republican materials. 
 
 First. — The remains of Monarchical 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 independant 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 an 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, pre- 
 supposes two things. 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. 73 
 
 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 em- 
 powering him to reject their other bills ; it again supposes 
 that the King is wiser than those whom it has already sup- 
 posed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity ! 
 
 There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the compo- 
 sition 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 construc- 
 tion that words are capable of, when applied to the description 
 of something which either cannot exist, or is too incompre- 
 hensible 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 alzvays obliged to check? 
 Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither 
 can any power, zvJiich needs checking, be from God ; yet the 
 provision which the constitution makes supposes such a 
 power to exist. 
 
74 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 But the provision is unequal to the task ; the means either 
 cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair 
 is a Fclo dese : 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 
 tho' 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 can- 
 not 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. 
 
 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 pro- 
 ceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people 
 under the 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 constitu- 
 tion 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 our- 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 75 
 
 selves 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. 
 
 OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 
 
 Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, 
 the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent 
 circumstance : the distinctions of rich and poor may in a 
 great measure be accounted for, and that without having 
 recourse to the harsh ill-sounding names of oppression and 
 avarice. Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or 
 never the means of riches ; and tho' avarice will preserve a 
 man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him 
 too timorous to be wealthy. 
 
 But there is another and greater distinction for which no 
 truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that 
 is the distinction of men into Kings and SUBJECTS. Male 
 and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the 
 distinctions of Heaven ; but how a race of men came into the 
 world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some 
 new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the 
 means of happiness or of misery to mankind. 
 
 In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture 
 chronology there were no kings ; the consequence of which 
 was, there were no wars ; it is the pride of kings which 
 throws mankind into confusion. Holland, without a king 
 hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any of 
 the monarchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favours 
 the same remark ; for the quiet and rural lives of the first 
 Patriarchs have a happy something in them, which vanishes 
 when we come to the history of Jewish royalty. 
 
 Government by kings was first introduced into the world 
 by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied 
 the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the 
 Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The 
 
76 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 Heathens paid divine honours to their deceased kings, and 
 the Christian World hath improved on the plan by doing 
 the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of 
 sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his 
 splendor is crumbling into dust ! 
 
 As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot 
 be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it 
 be defended on the authority of scripture ; for the will of 
 the Almighty as declared by Gideon, and the prophet 
 Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by Kings. 
 All anti-monarchical parts of scripture, have been very 
 smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments, but they 
 undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their 
 governments yet to form. Render unto Cesar the tilings which 
 are Cesar's, is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no sup- 
 port of monarchical government, for the Jews at that time 
 were without a king, and in a state of vassalage to the Romans. 
 
 Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic 
 account of the creation, till the Jews under a national delu- 
 sion requested a king. Till then their form of government 
 (except in extraordinary cases where the Almighty inter- 
 posed) was a kind of Republic, administered by a judge and 
 the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was 
 held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but 
 the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on 
 the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings, 
 he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of his 
 honour, should disapprove a form of government which so 
 impiously invades the prerogative of Heaven. 
 
 Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the 
 Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against 
 them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to. 
 
 The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, 
 Gideon marched against them with a small army, and 
 victory thro' the divine interposition decided in his favour. 
 The Jews, elate with success, and attributing it to the 
 generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, saying, 
 Ru/c thou over 11s, thou and thy son, and thy sons son. Here 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 77 
 
 was temptation in its fullest extent ; not a kingdom only, 
 but an hereditary one ; but Gideon in the piety of his soul 
 replied, I luill not rule over yoji, neitlier shall my so7i rule over 
 you. THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU. Words need 
 not be more explicit ; Gideon doth not decline the honour, 
 but denieth their right to give it ; neither doth he compli- 
 ment them with invented declarations of his thanks, but in 
 the positive stile of a prophet charges them with disafTection 
 to their proper Sovereign, the King of Heaven. 
 
 About one hundred and thirty years after this, they fell 
 again into the same error. The hankering which the Jews 
 had for the idolatrous customs of the Heathens, is some- 
 thing exceedingly unaccountable ; but so it was, that laying 
 hold of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons, who were 
 intrusted with some secular concerns, they came in an 
 abrupt and. clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, Behold thou 
 art old, and thy sons zvalk not m thy ways, tioiv make us a 
 king to judge us like all the other nations. And here we can- 
 not but observe that their motives were bad, viz. that they 
 might be like unto other nations, i. e. the Heathens, whereas 
 their true glory lay in being as much unlike them as possible. 
 But the tiling displeased Samuel when they said, give us a 
 King to judge us ; and Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the 
 Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice oj the people in 
 all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but 
 they have rejected me, THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER 
 THEM. According to all the works wJiich they have done since 
 the day that I brought them tip out of Egypt even unto this 
 day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other Gods : 
 so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their 
 voice, howbeit, protest solemnly unto them and show them the 
 mamier of the King that shall reign over them, i. e. not of 
 any particular King, but the general manner of the Kings 
 of the earth whom Israel was so eagerly copying after. And 
 notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference of 
 manners, the character is still in fashion. And Samuel told 
 all the words of the Lord unto the people, that asked of him a 
 King. And he said, This shall be the manner of the King that 
 
78 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them 
 for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and some 
 shall run before his chariots (this description agrees with the 
 present mode of impressing men) and he will appoint him 
 captains over thousands and captains over fifties, will set them 
 to ear his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his 
 instruments of zvar, and instruments of his chariots. And he 
 will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, 
 and to be bakers (this describes the expense and luxury as 
 well as the oppression of Kings) and he will take your fields 
 and your viticyards, and your olive yards, even the best of 
 thcni, and give them to his servants. And he will take the 
 tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give them to his 
 officers and to his servaitts (by which we see that bribery, cor- 
 ruption, and favouritism, are the standing vices of Kings) 
 and he will take the tenth of your men servants, and your 
 maid servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, 
 and put them to his work : and he will take the tenth of your 
 sheep, and ye shall be his servants, and ye shall cry out in that 
 day because of your king luJiich ye shall have chosen, AND THE 
 LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU IN THAT DAY. This accounts 
 for the continuation of Monarchy ; neither do the characters 
 of the few good kings which have lived since, either sanctify 
 the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the origin ; the high 
 encomium given of David takes no notice of him officially as 
 a King, but only as a Man after God's own heart. Never- 
 theless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they 
 said, Nay but zve will have a king over us, that we may be 
 like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go 
 out before us and fight our battles. Samuel continued to 
 reason with them but to no purpose ; he set before them 
 their ingratitude, but all would not avail ; and seeing them 
 fully bent on their folly, he cried out, / ivill call unto the 
 Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain (which was then a 
 punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest) that ye may 
 perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have 
 done in the sight of the Lord, IN ASKING YOU A KING. So 
 Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 79 
 
 rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and 
 Samuel. Attd all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy 
 servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for WE HAVE 
 ADDED UNTO OUR SINS THIS EVIL, TO ASK A KING. These 
 portions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit 
 of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here 
 entered his protest against monarchical government is true, 
 or the scripture is false. And a man hath good reason to 
 believe that there is as much of kingcraft as priestcraft in 
 withholding the scripture from the public in popish coun- 
 tries. For monarchy in every instance is the popery of 
 government. 
 
 To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary 
 succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of 
 ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is 
 an insult and imposition on posterity. For all men being 
 originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set 
 up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for 
 ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of 
 honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be 
 far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest 
 natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, 
 is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so 
 frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an Ass 
 for a Lion. 
 
 Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other pub- 
 lic honors than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of 
 those honors could have no power to give away the right of 
 posterity, and though they might say " We choose you 
 for our head," they could not without manifest injustice to 
 their children say "that your children and your children's 
 children shall reign over ours forever." Because such an un- 
 wise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next 
 succession put them under the government of a rogue or a 
 fool. Most wise men in their private sentiments have ever 
 treated hereditary right with contempt ; yet it is one of 
 those evils which when once established is not easily re- 
 moved : many submit from fear, others from superstition, 
 
8o 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder 
 of the rest. 
 
 This is supposing the present race of kings in the world 
 to have had an honorable origin : whereas it is more than 
 probable, that, could we take off the dark covering of anti- 
 quity and trace them to their first rise, we should find the 
 first of them nothing better than the principal rufifian of some 
 restless gang, whose savage manners or pre-eminence in 
 subtilty obtained him the title of chief among plunderers : 
 and who by increasing in power and extending his depreda- 
 tions, overawed the quiet and defenceless to purchase their 
 safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could 
 have no idea of giving hereditary right to his descendants, 
 because such a perpetual exclusion of themselves was in- 
 compatible with the free and unrestrained principles they 
 professed to live by. Wherefore, hereditary succession in 
 the early ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter 
 of claim, but as something casual or complemental ; but as 
 few or no records were extant in those days, and traditionary 
 history stuff'd with fables, it was very easy, after the lapse 
 of a few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale 
 conveniently timed, Mahomet-like, to cram hereditary right 
 down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders 
 which threatened, or seemed to threaten, on the decease of 
 a leader and the choice of a new one (for elections among 
 ruffians could not be very orderly) induced many at first to 
 favour hereditary pretensions ; by which means it happened, 
 as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted 
 to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right. 
 
 England since the conquest hath known some few good 
 monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number of 
 bad ones: yet no man in his senses can say that their claim 
 under William the Conqueror is a very honourable one. A 
 French bastard landing with an armed Banditti and estab- 
 lishing himself king of England against the consent of the 
 natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It 
 certainly hath no divinity in it. However it is needless 
 to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. 8 1 
 
 right ; if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them 
 promiscuously worship the Ass and the Lion, and welcome. I 
 shall neither copy their humility, nor disturb their devotion. 
 
 Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose kings came 
 at first ? The question admits but of three answers, viz. 
 either by lot, by election, or by usurpation. If the first 
 king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, 
 which excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot, yet 
 the succession was not hereditary, neither does it appear 
 from that transaction that there was any intention it ever 
 should. If the first king of any country was by election, 
 that likewise establishes a precedent for the next ; for to say, 
 that the right of all future generations is taken away, by the 
 act of the first electors, in their choice not only of a king but 
 of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of 
 scripture but the doctrine of original sin, which supposes 
 the free will of all men lost in Adam ; and from such com- 
 parison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary succession 
 can derive no glory. For as in Adam all sinned, and as in the 
 first electors all men obeyed ; as in the one all mankind were 
 subjected to Satan, and in the other to sovereignty ; as our 
 innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the last ; 
 and as both disable us from re-assuming some former state 
 and privilege, it unanswerably follows that original sin and 
 hereditary succession are parallels. Dishonourable rank ! 
 inglorious connection ! yet the most subtle sophist cannot 
 produce a juster simile. 
 
 As to usurpation, no man will be so hardy as to defend it ; 
 and that William the Conqueror was an usurper is a fact not 
 to be contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of 
 English monarchy will not bear looking into. 
 
 But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary 
 succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of 
 good and wise men it would have the seal of divine author- 
 ity, but as it opens a door to the foolish, the wicked, and the 
 improper, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who 
 look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, 
 soon grow insolent. Selected from the rest of mankind, their 
 
 VOL. I. — 6 
 
82 
 
 minds are early poisoned by importance ; and the world they 
 act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they 
 have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and 
 when they succeed to the government are frequently the 
 most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions. 
 
 Another evil which attends hereditary succession is, that 
 the throne is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age ; 
 all which time the regency acting under the cover of a king 
 have every opportunity and inducement to betray their 
 trust. The same national misfortune happens when a king 
 worn out with age and infirmity enters the last stage of 
 human weakness. In both these cases the public becomes 
 a prey to every miscreant who can tamper successfully with 
 the follies either of age or infancy. 
 
 The most plausible plea which hath ever been offered in 
 favor of hereditary succession is, that it preserves a nation 
 from civil wars ; and were this true, it would be weighty ; 
 whereas it is the most bare-faced falsity ever imposed upon 
 mankind. The whole history of England disowns the fact. 
 Thirty kings and two minors have reigned in that distracted 
 kingdom since the conquest, in which time there has been 
 (including the revolution) no less than eight civil wars and 
 nineteen Rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace, 
 it makes against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems 
 to stand upon. 
 
 The contest for monarchy and succession, between the 
 houses of York and Lancaster, laid England in a scene of 
 blood for many years. Twelve pitched battles besides skir- 
 mishes and sieges were fought between Henry and Edward. 
 Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn was 
 prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war and 
 the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal matters 
 are the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph 
 from a prison to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a 
 palace to a foreign land ; yet, as sudden transitions of tem- 
 per are seldom lasting, Henry in his turn was driven from 
 the throne, and Edward re-called to succeed him. The par- 
 liament always following the strongest side. 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 83 
 
 This contest began in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and 
 was not entirely extinguished till Henry the Seventh, in 
 whom the families were united. Including a period of 67 
 years, viz. from 1422 to 1489. 
 
 In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or 
 that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis 
 a form of government which the word of God bears testimony 
 against, and blood will attend it. 
 
 If we enquire into the business of a King, we shall find that 
 in some countries they may have none ; and after sauntering 
 away their lives without pleasure to themselves or advantage 
 to the nation, withdraw from the scene, and leave their suc- 
 cessors to tread the same idle round. In absolute monarchies 
 the whole weight of business civil and military lies on the 
 King; the children of Israel in their request for a king urged 
 this plea, " that he may judge us, and go out before us and 
 fight our battles." But in countries where he is neither a 
 Judge nor a General, as in England, a man would bepuzzled 
 to know what is his business. 
 
 The nearer any government approaches to a Republic, the 
 less business there is for a King. It is somewhat difficult to 
 find a proper name for the government of England. Sir Wil- 
 liam Meredith calls it a Republic ; but in its present state it 
 is unworthy of the name, because the corrupt influence of 
 the Crown, by having all the places in its disposal, hath so 
 effectually swallowed up the power, and eaten out the virtue 
 of the House of Commons (the Republican part in the con- 
 stitution) that the government of England is nearly as mon- 
 archical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out with names 
 without understanding them. For 'tis the Republican and 
 not the Monarchical part of the constitution of England 
 which Englishmen glory in, viz. the liberty of choosing an 
 House of Commons from out of their own body — and it is 
 easy to see that when Republican virtues fails, slavery en- 
 sues. Why is the constitution of England sickly, but because 
 monarchy hath poisoned the Republic ; the Crown hath 
 engrossed the Commons. 
 
 In England a King hath little more to do than to make 
 
 VOL. I. — 6 
 
84 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 war and give away places ; which, in plain terms, is to em- 
 poverish the nation and set it together by the ears. A pretty 
 business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thou- 
 sand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain ! 
 Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight 
 of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived. 
 
 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 em- 
 barked 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 has 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 wilt 
 last my timey Should a thought so fatal and unmanly 
 possess the Colonies in the present contest, the name of an- 
 cestors 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 County, a Province, or a Kingdom ; 
 but of a Continent — of at least one eighth part of the habi- 
 table Globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an 
 age ; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and wilt 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 85 
 
 be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the pro- 
 ceedings now. Now is the seed-time of Continental union, 
 faith and honour. 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 would enlarge with the tree, and 
 posterity read it in full grown characters. 
 
 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 tho' 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 reconcilia- 
 tion, 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 enquire into some 
 of the many material injuries which these Colonies sustain, 
 and always will sustain, by being connected with and de- 
 pendant on Great-Britain. To examine that connection 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 has 
 flourished under her former connection with Great-Britain, 
 the same connection is necessary towards her future happi- 
 ness, 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 
 
 ' At Lexington, Massachusetts, 1775. — Editor. 
 
86 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and 
 probably much more, had no European power taken any 
 notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched 
 herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a 
 market while eating is the custom of Europe. 
 
 But she has protected us, say some. That she hath en- 
 grossed us is true, and defended the Continent at our ex- 
 pense as well as her own, is admitted ; and she would have 
 defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. for the sake of 
 trade and dominion. 
 
 Alas ! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices 
 and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted 
 the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that 
 her motive was interest not attachment ; and that she did not 
 protect us from our enemies on our account ; but from her 
 enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel 
 with us on any other account, and who will always be our 
 enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her preten- 
 sions to the Continent, or the Continent throw off the de- 
 pendance, 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 connections. 
 
 It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the Colo- 
 nies have no relation to each other but through the Parent 
 Country, i. e. that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on 
 for the rest, are sister Colonies by the way of England ; this 
 is certainly a very roundabout way of proving relationship, 
 but it is the nearest and only true way of proving enmity 
 (or 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 King and his parasites, with a low papistical design of 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 87 
 
 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 mon- 
 ster ; and it is so far 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 nar- 
 row limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of 
 England) and carry our friendship on a larger scale ; we claim 
 brotherhood with every 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 prejudices, as we enlarge our ac- 
 quaintance 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 travel 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 in- 
 habitants, even of this province, [Pennsylvania], are of Eng- 
 lish descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of Parent 
 or Mother Country applied to England only, as being false, 
 selfish, narrow and ungenerous. 
 
88 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 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 des- 
 cendants 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 in- 
 habitants, to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa, 
 or Europe. 
 
 Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at de- 
 fiance ? Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, 
 will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe ; be- 
 cause it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free 
 port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her bar- 
 renness of gold and silver secure her from invaders. 
 
 I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show 
 a single advantage that this continent can reap by being 
 connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge ; not 
 a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price 
 in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be 
 paid for buy them where we will. 
 
 But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by 
 that connection, are without number; and our duty to man- 
 kind 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 set us at variance with na- 
 tions 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 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 89 
 
 steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, 
 while, by her depcndance on Britain, she is made the make- 
 weight in the scale of British politics. 
 
 Europe is too thickly planted with Kingdoms to be long 
 at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between England 
 and any foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, 
 because of 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 reasonable 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 like- 
 wise at which the Continent was discovered, adds weight to 
 the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled, en- 
 creases 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 painful 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 piti- 
 fully. 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 of- 
 
90 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 fence, yet I am inclined to believe, that all those who es- 
 pouse the doctrine of reconciliation, maj' 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 delib- 
 eration, 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 present sorrow ; the evil is not sufficiently brought 
 to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with 
 which all American property is possessed. But let our im- 
 aginations transport us 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 afifluence, have now no other 
 alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. En- 
 dangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within 
 the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it, in 
 their present situation they are prisoners without the hope 
 of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they 
 would be exposed to the fury of both armies. 
 
 Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the 
 ofYences of Great Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are 
 apt to call out, Cotne, 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 na- 
 ture, and then tell me whether you can hereafter love, hon- 
 our, 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 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. 9 1 
 
 the violations over, then I ask, hath your house been burnt ? 
 Hath your property been destroyed before your face ? Arc 
 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 murder- 
 ers, 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. 
 
 This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying 
 them by those feelings and afTections 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 provoking revenge, 
 but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we 
 may pursue determinately some fixed object. 'Tis not in the 
 power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she 
 doth not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The pres- 
 ent winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or 
 neglected the whole Continent will partake of the misfor- 
 tune ; and there is no punishment which that man doth not 
 deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be 
 the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful. 
 
 'Tis repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, 
 to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this Con- 
 tinent can long remain subject to any external power. The 
 most sanguine in Britain doth 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 now a fallacious 
 dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, 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 hath tended to 
 
92 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy 
 in Kings more than repeated petitioning — and nothing hath 
 contributed more than that very measure to make the 
 Kings of Europe absolute. Witness Denmark and Sweden. 
 Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake 
 let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next gen- 
 eration to be cutting throats under the violated unmeaning 
 names of parent and child. 
 
 To say they will never attempt it again is idle and vision- 
 ary ; we thought so at the repeal of the stamp act, yet a 
 year or two undeceived us ; as well may we suppose that 
 nations which have been once defeated will never renew the 
 quarrel. 
 
 As to government matters, 'tis 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 government ' to take under their care ; 
 but there is something absurd, in supposing a Continent to 
 be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath 
 nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet ; 
 and as England and America, with respect to each other, 
 reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they 
 belong to different systems. England to Europe : America 
 to itself. 
 
 I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resent- 
 ment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independ- 
 ence ; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded 
 that it is the true interest of this Continent to be so ; that 
 
 ' In some later editions " kingdoms." — Editor. 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 93 
 
 every thing short of tJiat is mere patchwork, that it can afford 
 no lasting felicity, — that it is leaving the sword to our children, 
 and shrinking back at a time when a little more, a little 
 further, 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 expense. The removal of North, 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, 'tis 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 'tis as great a folly to pay a 
 Bunker-hill price for law as for land. As I have always con- 
 sidered 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 cannot 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 a reconciliation 
 than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775, but 
 the moment the event of that day was made known, I re- 
 jected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England 
 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. 
 
94 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 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 King, he will have a negative over the whole 
 legislation of this Continent. And as he hath shown him- 
 self such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such 
 a thirst for arbitrary power, is he, or is he not, a proper person 
 to say to these colonies, Yoii shall make no laws but what I 
 please ! ? And is there any inhabitant of America so igno- 
 rant as not to know, that according to what is called the 
 present constitution, this Continent can make no laws but 
 what the king gives leave to ; and is there any man so un- 
 wise as not to see, that (considering what has happened) 
 he will suffer no law to be made here but such as suits 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 endeavor 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 
 independency means no more than this, whether we shall 
 make our own laws, or, whether the King, the greatest 
 enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us there 
 shall be no laws but such as I like. 
 
 But the King, 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, it 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. 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 95 
 
 though 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 
 King's negative here is ten times more dangerous and 
 fatal than it can be in England ; for there he will scarcely 
 refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as 
 strong a state of defense 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 further 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 interferes 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 
 show that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I 
 affirm, that it would be policy in the King at this time to 
 repeal the acts, for the sake of reinstating himself in the 
 government of the provinces ; In order that HE MAY ACCOM- 
 PLISH BY CRAFT AND SUBTLETY, 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 tempo- 
 rary 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 
 
96 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 from civil wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with 
 Britain now, as it is more than probable that it will be fol- 
 lowed by a revolt some where or other, the consequences of 
 which may be far more fatal than all the malice of Britain. 
 
 Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity ; (thou- 
 sands more will probably suf¥er 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 sacri- 
 ficed to its service, and having nothing more to lose they dis- 
 dain submission. Besides, the general temper of the Colonies, 
 towards a British government will be 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 gov- 
 ernment 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 is ten times more to dread from a 
 patched up connection than from independance. I make the 
 sufferer's case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from 
 house and home, my property destroyed, and my circum- 
 stances ruined, that as a 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, than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, 
 viz., 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 Switzerland are without wars, foreign or domestic: 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 97 
 
 Monarchical governments, it is true, are never long at rest : 
 the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians at 
 home ; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant 
 on regal authority, swells 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 
 into 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, con- 
 venient 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 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 have joined 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 inter- 
 
98 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 mediate 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 from each House of 
 Assembly, or Provincial Convention ; and five Representa- 
 tives 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 con- 
 ference, thus assembled, will be united the two grand prin- 
 ciples of business, knowledge and power. The Members of 
 Congress, Assemblies, or Conventions, by having had ex- 
 perience in national concerns, will be able and useful coun- 
 sellors, 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 Conti- 
 nental, 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 mat- 
 ter as it is necessary for a charter to contain. Immediately 
 after which, the said conference to dissolve, and the bodies 
 which shall be 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 
 
1776] 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 99 
 
 science," says he, " of the Politician consists in 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 expense." (Dragonetti 
 on " Virtues and Reward.") 
 
 But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell 
 you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of 
 mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. Yet that 
 we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honours, 
 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 delib- 
 erate 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 Massanello'* may hereafter arise, who, laying 
 hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the 
 desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to them- 
 selves the powers of government, finally sweep away the 
 liberties of the Continent like a deluge. Should the govern- 
 ment 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, 
 
 * Thomas Anello, otherwise Massanello, 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. — Author. 
 
 VOL. I. — 7 
 
lOO 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 what relief can Britain give ? Ere she could hear the news, 
 the fatal business might be clone ; and ourselves suffering 
 like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Con- 
 queror. 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 thou- 
 sands 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 the 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 for- 
 bids us to have faith, and our affections wounded thro' 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 encrease, 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 prosti- 
 tution 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 in- 
 juries 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 unex- 
 tinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are 
 the Guardians of his Image in our hearts. They distinguish 
 us from the herd of common animals. The social compact 
 would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or 
 have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches 
 of affection. The robber and the murderer would often 
 escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers 
 sustain, provoke us into justice. 
 
 O ! ye that love mankind ! Ye that dare oppose not only 
 the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth ! Every spot of the 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. 1 01 
 
 old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been 
 hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have lon'g ex- 
 pelled 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. 
 
 OF THE PRESENT ABILITY OF AMERICA : WITH SOME 
 MISCELLANEOUS REFLECTIONS. 
 
 I HAVE never met with a man, either in England or 
 America, who hath not confessed his opinion, that a separa- 
 tion between the countries would take place one time or 
 other : And there is no instance in which we have shown 
 less judgment, than in endeavoring to describe, what we call, 
 the ripeness or fitness of the Continent for independance. 
 
 As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their 
 opinion of the time, let us, in order to remove mistakes, 
 take a general survey of things, and endeavor if possible to 
 find out the very time. But I need not go far, the inquiry 
 ceases at once, for the time hath found us. The general 
 concurrence, the glorious union of all things, proves the 
 fact. 
 
 'Tis not in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies : 
 yet our present numbers are sufificient to repel the force of 
 all the world. The Continent hath at this time the largest 
 body of armed and disciplined men of any power under 
 Heaven: and is just arrived at that pitch of strength, in 
 which no single colony is able to support itself, and the 
 whole, when united, is able to do anything. Our land force 
 is more than sufficient, and as to Naval affairs, we cannot be 
 insensible that Britain would never suffer an American man 
 of waF to be built, while the Continent remained in her 
 hands. Wherefore, we should be no forwarder an hundred 
 years hence in that branch than we are now ; but the truth 
 is, we should be less so, because the timber of the Country 
 is every day diminishing, and that which will remain at last, 
 will be far off or difficult to procure. 
 
102 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 Were the Continent crowded with inhabitants, her suffer- 
 ings 'under the present circumstances would be intolerable. 
 The more seaport-towns we had, the more should we have 
 both to defend and to lose. Our present numbers are so 
 happily proportioned to our wants, that no man need be 
 idle. The diminution of trade affords an army, and the 
 necessities of an army create a new trade. 
 
 Debts we have none : and whatever we may contract on 
 this account will serve as a glorious memento of our virtue. 
 Can we but leave posterity with a settled form of govern- 
 ment, an independant constitution of its own, the purchase 
 at any price will be cheap. But to expend millions for the 
 sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the 
 present ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using 
 posterity with the utmost cruelty ; because it is leaving 
 them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs 
 from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought 's 
 unworthy a man of honour, and is the true characteristic of 
 a narrow heart and a pidling politician. 
 
 The debt we may contract doth not deserve our regard if 
 the work be but accomplished. No nation ought to be 
 without a debt. A national debt is a national bond ; and 
 when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance. Britain 
 is oppressed with a debt of upwards of one hundred and 
 forty millions sterling, for which she pays upwards of four 
 millions interest. And as a compensation for her debt, she 
 has a large navy ; America is without a debt, and without a 
 navy ; yet for the twentieth part of the English national 
 debt, could have a navy as large again. The navy of Eng- 
 land is not worth at this time more than three millions and 
 a half sterling. 
 
 The first and second editions of this pamphlet were pub- 
 lished without the following calculations, which are now 
 given as a proof that the above estimation of the navy is a 
 just one. See Entic's " Naval History," Intro., p. 56. 
 
 The charge of building a ship of each rate, and furnishing 
 her with masts, yards, sails, and rigging, together with a 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. 103 
 
 proportion of eight months boatswain's and carpenter's sea- 
 stores, as calculated by Mr. Burchett, Secretary to the navy. 
 
 For a ship of loo guns, . . 35,553 ^. 
 
 90 . . 29,886 
 
 80 . . 23,638 
 
 70 . . 17,785 
 
 60 . . 14,197 
 
 50 . . 10,606 
 
 40 • . 7,558 
 
 30 . . 5,846 
 
 20 . . 3,710 
 
 And hence it is easy to sum up the value, or cost, rather, 
 of the whole British navy, which, in the year 1757, when it 
 was at its greatest glory, consisted of the following ships 
 and guns. 
 
 Skips, Guns. 
 
 
 Cost of one. 
 
 Cost of all. 
 
 6 . 100 
 
 
 55.553/. 
 
 213,318 /. 
 
 12 . 90 
 
 
 29,886 
 
 358,632 
 
 12 . 80 
 
 
 23,638 
 
 283,656 
 
 43 . 70 
 
 
 17.785 
 
 764.755 
 
 35 • 60 
 
 
 14.197 
 
 496,895 
 
 40 . 50 
 
 
 10,605 
 
 424,240 
 
 45 ■ 40 
 
 
 7,558 
 
 340,110 
 
 58 . 20 
 
 
 3.710 
 
 215,180 
 
 85 Sloops, bombs, and 
 
 
 
 fireships, one 
 
 with 
 
 1 2,000 
 
 170,000 
 
 another, at 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cost, 
 
 3,266,786/. 
 
 
 Remains for guns, 
 
 233.214 
 
 
 
 Total, 
 
 3,500,000/. 
 
 No country on the globe is so happily situated, or so 
 internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, 
 iron, and cordage are her natural produce. We need go 
 abroad for nothing. Whereas the Dutch, who make large 
 profits by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards and 
 Portugese, are obliged to import most of the materials they 
 use. We ought to view the building a fleet as an article of 
 commerce, it being the natural manufactory of this country. 
 
104 ^^-^ WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 'Tis the best money we can lay out. A navy when finished 
 is worth more than it cost : And is that nice point in na- 
 tional policy, in which commerce and protection are united. 
 Let us build ; if we want them not, we can sell ; and by that 
 means replace our paper currency with ready gold and silver. 
 
 In point of manning a fleet, people in general run into 
 great errors ; it is not necessary that one fourth part should 
 be sailors. The Terrible privateer, captain Death, stood the 
 hottest engagement of any ship last war, yet had not twenty 
 sailors on board, though her complement of men was up- 
 wards of two hundred. A few able and social sailors will 
 soon instruct a sufificient number of active landsmen in the 
 common work of a ship. Wherefore we never can be more 
 capable of beginning on maritime matters than now, while 
 our timber is standing, our fisheries blocked up, and our 
 sailors and shipwrights out of employ. Men of war, of 
 seventy and eighty guns, were built forty years ago in New 
 England, and why not the same now? Ship building is 
 America's greatest pride, and in which she will, in time, 
 excel the whole world. The great empires of the east are 
 mostly inland, and consequently excluded from the possi- 
 bility of rivalling her. Africa is in a state of barbarism ; and 
 no power in Europe, hath either such an extent of coast, or 
 such an internal supply of materials. Where nature hath 
 given the one, she hath withheld the other ; to America 
 only hath she been liberal to both. The vast empire of 
 Russia is almost shut out from the sea ; wherefore her 
 boundless forests, her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles 
 of commerce. 
 
 In point of safety, ought we to be without a fleet ? We 
 are not the little people now, which we were sixty years ago; 
 at that time we might have trusted our property in the 
 streets, or fields rather, and slept securely without locks or 
 bolts to our doors and windows. The case is now altered, 
 and our methods of defence ought to improve with our en- 
 crease of property. A common pirate, twelve months ago, 
 might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of 
 Philadelphia under contribution for what sum he pleased ; 
 
 t 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. I05 
 
 and the same might have happened to other places. Nay, 
 any daring fellow, in a brig of fourteen or sixteen guns, 
 might have robbed the whole Continent, and carried off half 
 a million of money. These are circumstances which de- 
 mand our attention, and point out the necessity of naval 
 protection. 
 
 Some perhaps will say, that after we have made it up with 
 Britain, she will protect us. Can they be so unwise as to 
 mean, that she will keep a navy in our Harbours for that 
 purpose ? Common sense will tell us, that the power which 
 hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most 
 improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected under 
 the pretence of friendship; and ourselves, after a long and 
 brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery. And if her 
 ships are not to be admitted into our harbours, I would ask, 
 how is she to protect us ? A navy three or four thousand 
 miles off can be of little use, and on sudden emergencies, 
 none at all. Wherefore if we must hereafter protect our- 
 selves, why not do it for ourselves ? Why do it for 
 another ? 
 
 The English list of ships of war, is long and formidable, 
 but not a tenth part of them are at any one time fit for ser- 
 vice, numbers of them are not in being; yet their names are 
 pompously continued in the list, if only a plank be left of the 
 ship : and not a fifth part of such as are fit for service, can be 
 spared on any one station at one time. The East and West 
 Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts, over which 
 Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon her 
 navy. From a mixture of prejudice and inattention, we 
 have contracted a false notion respecting the navy of Eng- 
 land, and have talked as if we should have the whole of it to 
 encounter at once, and, for that reason, supposed that we 
 must have one as large ; which not being instantly practi- 
 cable, has been made use of by a set of disguised Tories to 
 discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be further 
 from truth than this ; for if America had only a twentieth 
 part of the naval force of Britain, she would be by far an 
 over-match for her; because, as we neither have, nor claim 
 
io6 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 any foreign dominion, our whole force would be employed on 
 our own coast, where we should, in the long run, have two to 
 one the advantage of those who had three or four thousand 
 miles to sail over, before they could attack us, and the same 
 distance to return in order to refit and recruit. And although 
 Britain, by her fleet, hath a check over our trade to Europe, 
 we have as large a one over her trade to the West Indies, 
 which, by laying in the neighborhood of the Continent, lies 
 entirely at its mercy. 
 
 Some method might be fallen on to keep up a naval force 
 in time of peace, if we should not judge it necessary to sup- 
 port a constant navy. If premiums were to be given to 
 Merchants to build and employ in their service, ships 
 mounted with twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty guns, (the pre- 
 miums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the mer- 
 chant,) fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guardships on 
 constant duty, would keep up a sufificient navy, and that 
 without burdening ourselves with the evil so loudly com- 
 plained of in England, of suffering their fleet in time of peace 
 to lie rotting in the docks. To unite the sinews of commerce 
 and defence is sound policy ; for when our strength and our 
 riches play into each other's hand, we need fear no external 
 enemy. 
 
 In almost every article of defence we abound. Hemp 
 flourishes even to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. 
 Our iron is superior to that of other countries. Our small 
 arms equal to any in the world. Cannon we can cast at 
 pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every day pro- 
 ducing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is 
 our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken 
 us. Wherefore, what is it that we want ? Why is it that we 
 hesitate ? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If 
 she is once admitted to the government of America again, 
 this Continent will not be worth living in. Jealousies will 
 be always arising ; insurrections will be constantly happening ; 
 and who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his 
 life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience? 
 The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, 
 
I776j COMMON SENSE. I07 
 
 respecting some unlocated lands, shows the insignificance of 
 a British government, and fully proves that nothing but Con- 
 tinental authority can regulate Continental matters. 
 
 Another reason why the present time is preferable to all 
 others, is, that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there 
 is yet unoccupied, which, instead of being lavished by the 
 king on his worthless dependants, may be hereafter applied, 
 not only to the discharge of the present debt, but to the con- 
 stant support of government. No nation under Heaven hath 
 such an advantage as this. 
 
 The infant state of the Colonies, as it is called, so far from 
 being against, is an argument in favour of independance. We 
 are sufificiently numerous, and were we more so we might be 
 less united. 'Tis a matter worthy of observation, that the 
 more a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In 
 military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns : 
 and the reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of 
 population, men became too much absorbed thereby to attend 
 to any thing else. Commerce diminishes the spirit both of 
 patriotism and military defence. And history sufificiently 
 informs us, that the bravest achievements were always 
 accomplished in the non-age of a nation. With the increase 
 of commerce England hath lost its spirit. The city of Lon- 
 don, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued 
 insults with the patience of a coward. The more men have 
 to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in 
 general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the 
 trembling duplicity of a spaniel. 
 
 Youth is the seed-time of good habits as well in nations as 
 in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 form the Continent into one Government half a century 
 hence. The vast variety of interests, occasioned by an in- 
 crease of trade and population, would create confusion. 
 Colony would be against Colony. Each being able would 
 scorn each other's assistance : and while the proud and foolish 
 gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament that 
 the union had not been formed before. Wherefore the 
 • present time is the true time for establishing it. The inti- 
 
I08 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 macy which is contracted in infancy, and the friendship which 
 is formed in misfortune, are of all others the most lasting and 
 unalterable. Our present union is marked with both these 
 characters : we are young, and we have been distressed ; but 
 our concord hath withstood our troubles, and fixes a mem- 
 orable ^ra for posterity to glory in. 
 
 The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time which 
 never happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming 
 itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the 
 opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to 
 receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws 
 for themselves. First, they had a king, and then a form of 
 government ; whereas the articles or charter of government 
 should be formed first, and men delegated to execute them 
 afterwards : but from the errors of other nations let us learn 
 wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity — to begin 
 governnic7it at the right end. 
 
 When William the Conqueror subdued England, he gave 
 them law at the point of the sword ; and, until we consent 
 that the seat of government in America be legally and 
 authoritatively occupied, we shall be in danger of having it 
 filled by some fortunate ruf¥ian, who may treat us in the 
 same manner, and then, where will be our freedom ? where 
 our property ? 
 
 As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of 
 government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, 
 and I know of no other business which government hath to 
 do therewith. Let a man throw aside that narrowness of 
 soul, that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all 
 professions are so unwilling to part with, and he will be at 
 once delivered of his fears on that head. Suspicion is the 
 companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. 
 For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is the 
 will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of re- 
 ligious opinions among us. It affords a larger field for our 
 Christian kindness : were we all of one way of thinking, our 
 religious dispositions would want matter for probation ; and 
 on this liberal principle I look on the various denominations 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. IO9 
 
 among us, to be like children of the same family, differing 
 only in what is called their Christian names. 
 
 In page [97] I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety 
 of a Continental Charter (for I only presume to offer hints, 
 not plans) and in this place, I take the liberty of re-mention- 
 ing the subject, by observing, that a charter is to be under- 
 stood as a bond of solemn obligation, which the whole enters 
 into, to support the right of every separate part, whether of 
 religion, professional freedom, or property. A firm bargain 
 and a right reckoning make long friends. 
 
 I have heretofore likewise mentioned the necessity of a 
 large and equal representation ; and there is no political 
 matter which more deserves our attention. A small number 
 of electors, or a small number of representatives, are equally 
 dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be not 
 only small, but unequal, the danger is encreased. As an in- 
 stance of this, I mention the following ; when the petition 
 of the associators was before the House of Assembly of 
 Pennsylvania, twenty-eight members only were present ; all 
 the Bucks county members, being eight, voted against it, 
 and had seven of the Chester members done the same, this 
 whole province had been governed by two counties only ; 
 and this danger it is always exposed to. The unwarrantable 
 stretch likewise, which that house made in their last sitting, 
 to gain an undue authority over the Delegates of that 
 Province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust 
 power out of their own hands. A set of instructions for 
 their Delegates were put together, which in point of sense 
 and business would have dishonoured a school-boy, and after 
 being approved by a few, a very few, without doors, were 
 carried into the house, and there passed in behalf of the 
 zvhole Colony ; whereas, did the whole colony know with 
 what ill will that house had entered on some necessary pub- 
 lic measures, they would not hesitate a moment to think 
 them unworthy of such a trust. 
 
 Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which 
 if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and 
 right are different things. When the calamities of America 
 
no THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 required a consultation, there was no method so ready, or at 
 that time so proper, as to appoint persons from the several 
 houses of Assembly for that purpose ; and the wisdom with 
 which they have proceeded hath preserved this Continent 
 from ruin. But as it is more than probable that we shall 
 never be without a CONGRESS, every well wisher to good 
 order must own that the mode for choosing members of 
 that body, deserves consideration. And I put it as a ques- 
 tion to those who make a study of mankind, whether repre- 
 sentation and election is not too great a power for one and 
 the same body of men to possess? When we are planning 
 for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not 
 hereditary. 
 
 It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent 
 maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their 
 mistakes. Mr. Cornwall (one of the Lords of the Treasury) 
 treated the petition of the New York Assembly with con- 
 tempt, because that house, he said, consisted but of twenty- 
 six members, which trifling number, he argued, could not 
 with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for his 
 involuntary honesty.* 
 
 To CONCLUDE, however strange it may appear to some, 
 or however unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, 
 but many strong and striking reasons may be given to show, 
 that nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an 
 open and determined declaration for independance. Some 
 of which are. 
 
 First — It is the custom of Nations, when any two are at 
 war, for some other powers, not engaged in the quarrel, to 
 step in as mediators, and bring about the preliminaries of a 
 peace: But while America calls herself the subject of Great 
 Britain, no power, however well disposed she may be, can 
 offer her mediation. Wherefore, in our present state we 
 may quarrel on for ever. 
 
 Secondly — It is unreasonable to suppose, that France or 
 
 * Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a large and 
 equal representation is to a state, should read Burgh's Political Disquisitions . — 
 A uthor. 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. Ill 
 
 Spain will give us any kind of assistance, if we mean only to 
 make use of that assistance for the purpose of repairing the 
 breach, and strengthening the connection between Britain 
 and America ; because, those powers would be sufferers by 
 the consequences. 
 
 Thirdly — While we profess ourselves the subjects of 
 Britain, we must, in the eyes of foreign nations, be consid- 
 ered as Rebels. The precedent is somewhat dangerous to 
 their peace, for men to be in arms under the name of sub- 
 jects : we, on the spot, can solve the paradox ; but to unite 
 resistance and subjection, requires an idea much too refined 
 for common understanding. 
 
 Fourthly — Were a manifesto to be published, and des- 
 patched to foreign Courts, setting forth the miseries we have 
 endured, and the peaceful methods which we have ineffectu- 
 ally used for redress ; declaring at the same time, that not 
 being able any longer to live happily or safely under the cruel 
 disposition of the British Court, we had been driven to the 
 necessity of breaking off all connections with her ; at the 
 same time, assuring all such Courts of our peaceable disposi- 
 tion towards them, and of our desire of entering into trade 
 with them : such a memorial would produce more good 
 effects to this Continent, than if a ship were freighted with 
 petitions to Britain. 
 
 Under our present denomination of British subjects, we 
 can neither be received nor heard abroad : the custom of all 
 Courts is against us, and will be so, until by an independance 
 we take rank with other nations. 
 
 These proceedings may at first seem strange and difficult, 
 but like all other steps which we have already passed over, 
 will in a little time become familiar and agreeable : and 
 until an independance is declared, the Continent will feel 
 itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant 
 business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates 
 to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted 
 with the thoughts of its necessity. 
 
APPENDIX TO COMMON SENSE. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, 
 or rather, on the same day on which it came out, the King's 
 Speech made its appearance in this city [Philadelphia]. 
 Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this 
 production, it could not have brought it forth at a more 
 seasonable juncture, or at a more necessary time. The 
 bloody-mindedness of the one, shows the necessity of pur- 
 suing the doctrine of the other. Men read by way of 
 revenge. And the Speech, instead of terrifying, prepared a 
 way for the manly principles of Independance. 
 
 Ceremony, and even silence, from whatever motives they 
 may arise, have a hurtful tendency when they give the least 
 degree of countenance to base and wicked performances; 
 wherefore, if this maxim be admitted, it naturally follows, 
 that the King's Speech, as being a piece of finished villany, 
 deserved and still deserves, a general execration, both by 
 the Congress and the people. Yet, as the domestic tran- 
 quillity of a nation, depends greatly on the chastity of what 
 might properly be called NATIONAL MANNERS, it is often 
 better to pass some things over in silent disdain, than to 
 make use of such new methods of dislike, as might introduce 
 the least innovation on that guardian of our peace and 
 safety. And, perhaps, it is chiefly owing to this prudent 
 delicacy, that the King's Speech hath not before now suffered 
 a public execution. The Speech, if it may be called one, is 
 nothing better than a wilful audacious libel against the 
 truth, the common good, and the existence of mankind ; 
 and is a formal and pompous method of offering up human 
 sacrifices to the pride of tyrants. But this general massacre 
 of mankind, is one of the privileges and the certain con- 
 sequences of Kings ; for as nature knows them not, they 
 know not her, and although they are beings of our own 
 
 112 
 
1776] COMMON SENSE. II3 
 
 creating, they know not us, and are beconne the Gods of 
 their creators. The speech hath one good quality, which is, 
 that it is not calculated to deceive, neither can we, even if 
 we would, be deceived by it. Brutality and tyranny appear 
 on the face of it. It leaves us at no loss : And every line 
 convinces, even in the moment of reading, that he who 
 hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, 
 is less Savage than the King of Britain. 
 
 Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining 
 Jesuitical piece, fallaciously called, " The address of the people 
 of England to the inhabitants of America," hath perhaps 
 from a vain supposition that the people here were to be 
 frightened at the pomp and description of a king, given 
 (though very unwisely on his part) the real character of the 
 present one: " But," says this writer, "if you are inclined 
 to pay compliments to an administration, which we do not 
 complain of (meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act) it is very unfair in you to withhold 
 them from that prince, by whose NOD ALONE they were per- 
 mitted to do any thitig^ This is toryism with a witness ! 
 Here is idolatry even without a mask : And he who can 
 calmly hear and digest such doctrine, hath forfeited his claim 
 to rationality — an apostate from the order of manhood— and 
 ought to be considered as one who hath not only given up 
 the proper dignity of man, but sunk himself beneath the 
 rank of animals, and contemptibly crawls through the world 
 like a worm. 
 
 However, it matters very little now what the king of 
 England either says or does ; he hath wickedly broken 
 through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature 
 and conscience beneath his feet, and by a steady and con- 
 stitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty procured for him- 
 self an universal hatred. It is now the interest of America 
 to provide for herself. She hath already a large and young 
 family, whom it is more her duty to take care of, than to be 
 granting away her property to support a power who is be- 
 come a reproach to the names of men and christians — Ye, 
 whose ofifice it is to watch the morals of a nation, of what- 
 
 vot,. I — 8 
 
114 Tfi^ WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 soever sect or denomination ye are of, as well as ye who are 
 more immediately the guardians of the public liberty, if ye 
 wish to preserve your native country uncontaminated by 
 European corruption, ye must in secret wish a separation. 
 But leaving the moral part to private reflection, I shall 
 chiefly confine my further remarks to the following heads : 
 First, That it is the interest of America to be separated 
 from Britain. 
 
 Secondly, Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, 
 RECONCILIATION or INDEPENDENCE? with some occasional 
 remarks. 
 
 In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper, pro- 
 duce the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced 
 men on this continent : and whose sentiments on that head, 
 are not yet publicly known. It is in reality a self-evident 
 position : for no nation in a state of foreign dependance, 
 limited in its commerce, and cramped and fettered in its 
 legislative powers, can ever arrive at any material eminence. 
 America doth not yet know what opulence is ; and although 
 the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the 
 history of other nations, it is but childhood compared with 
 what she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she 
 ought to have, the legislative powers in her own hands. 
 England is at this time proudly coveting what would do her 
 no good were she to accomplish it ; and the continent 
 hesitating on a matter which will be her final ruin if neg- 
 lected. It is the commerce and not the conquest of America 
 by which England is to be benefited, and that would in a 
 great measure continue, were the countries as independant 
 of each other as France and Spain ; because in many articles 
 neither can go to a better market. But it is the indepen- 
 dance of this country of Britain, or any other, which is now 
 the main and only object worthy of contention, and which, 
 like all other truths discovered by necessity, will appear clear 
 and stronger every day. 
 
 First, Because it will come to that one time or other. 
 
 Secondly, Because the longer it is delayed, the harder it 
 will be to accomplish. 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 I have frequently amused myself both in public and private 
 companies, with silently remarking the specious errors of 
 those who speak without reflecting. And among the many 
 which I have heard, the following seems the most general, 
 viz. that had this rupture happened forty or fifty years hence, 
 instead of now, the continent would have been more able to 
 have shaken off the dependance. To which I reply, that our 
 military ability, at tins tivie, arises from the experience gained 
 in the last war, and which in forty or fifty years time, would 
 be totally extinct. The continent would not, by that time, 
 have a general, or even a military officer left ; and we, or 
 those who may succeed us, would be as ignorant of martial 
 matters as the ancient Indians : and this single position, 
 closely attended to, will unanswerably prove that the present 
 time is preferable to all others. The argument turns thus : 
 At the conclusion of the last war, we had experience, but 
 wanted numbers ; and forty or fifty years hence, we shall 
 have numbers, without experience ; wherefore, the proper 
 point of time, must be some particular point between the 
 two extremes, in which a sufificiency of the former remains, 
 and a proper increase of the latter is obtained : And that 
 point of time is the present time. 
 
 The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not 
 properly come under the head I first set out with, and to 
 which I again return by the following position, viz. : 
 
 Should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to re- 
 main the governing and sovereign power of America, (which, 
 as matters are now circumstanced, is giving up the point 
 entirely) we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of 
 sinking the debt we have, or may contract. The value of 
 the back lands, which some of the provinces are clandestinely 
 deprived of, by the unjust extension of the limits of Canada, 
 valued only at five pounds sterling per hundred acres, amount 
 to upwards of twenty-five millions, Pennsylvania currency ; 
 and the quit-rents, at one penny sterling per acre, to two mil- 
 lions yearly. 
 
 It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk, 
 without burthen to any, and the quit-rent reserved thereon 
 
ii6 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 will always lessen, and in time will wholly support, the yearly 
 expense of government. It matters not how long the debt 
 is in paying, so that the lands when sold be applied to the 
 discharge of it, and for the execution of which the Congress 
 for the time being will be the continental trustees. 
 
 I proceed now to the second head, viz. Which is the 
 easiest and most practicable plan, Reconciliation or Inde- 
 pendence ; with some occasional remarks. 
 
 He who takes nature for his guide, is not easily beaten out 
 of his argument, and on that ground, I answer generally — 
 Thai independance being a single simple line, contained within 
 ourselves ; and reconciliation, a matter exceedingly perplexed 
 and complicated, and in tvhich a treacherous capricioiis court is 
 to interfere, gives the anszvcr without a doubt. 
 
 The present state of America is truly alarming to every 
 man who is capable of reflection. Without law, without 
 government, without any other mode of power than what is 
 founded on, and granted by, courtesy. Held together by an 
 unexampled occurrence of sentiment, which is nevertheless 
 subject to change, and which every secret enemy is endeavor- 
 ing to dissolve. Our present condition is, Legislation without 
 law; wisdom without a plan ; a constitution without a name ; 
 and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independance con- 
 tending for dependance. The instance is without a precedent, 
 the case never existed before, and who can tell what may be 
 the event ? The property of no man is secure in the present 
 unbraced system of things. The mind of the multitude is 
 left at random, and seeing no fixed object before them, they 
 pursue such as fancy or opinion presents. Nothing is criminal ; 
 there is no such thing as treason ; wherefore, every one 
 thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories 
 would not have dared to assemble offensively, had they 
 known that their lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws 
 of the state. A line of distinction should be drawn between 
 English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America 
 taken in arms. The first are prisoners, but the latter traitors. 
 The one forfeits his liberty, the other his head. 
 
 Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 117 
 
 in some of our proceedings which gives encouragement to 
 dissentions. The Continental Belt is too loosely buckled : 
 And if something is not done in time, it will be too late to do 
 any thing, and we shall fall into a state, in which neither 
 Reconciliation nor Independance will be practicable. The 
 king and his worthless adherents are got at their old game of 
 dividing the Continent, and there are not wanting among us 
 Printers who will be busy in spreading specious falsehoods. 
 The artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a few 
 months ago in two of the New-York papers, and likewise in 
 two others, is an evidence that there are men who want both 
 judgment and honesty. 
 
 It is easy getting into holes and corners, and talking of 
 reconciliation : But do such men seriously consider how 
 difficult the task is, and how dangerous it may prove, should 
 the Continent divide thereon ? Do they take within their 
 view all the various orders of men whose situation and cir- 
 -cumstances, as well as their own, are to be considered therein ? 
 Do they put themselves in the place of the sufferer whose all 
 is already gone, and of the soldier, who hath quitted all for 
 the defence of his country? If their ill-judged moderation 
 be suited to their own private situations oitly, regardless of 
 others, the event will convince them that " they are reckon- 
 ing without their host." 
 
 Put us, say some, on the footing we were in the year 1763 : 
 To which I answer, the request is not now in the power of 
 Britain to comply with, neither will she propose it ; but if it 
 were, and even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable 
 question, By what means is such a corrupt and faithless court 
 to be kept to its engagements? Another parliament, nay, 
 even the present, may hereafter repeal the obligation, on the 
 pretence of its being violently obtained, or unwisely granted ; 
 and, in that case. Where is our redress? No going to law 
 with nations ; cannon are the barristers of crowns ; and the 
 sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit. To be on 
 the footing of 1763, it is not sufficient, that the laws only be 
 put in the same state, but, that our circumstances likewise be 
 put in the same state ; our burnt and destroyed towns re- 
 
ii8 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 paired or built up, our private losses made good, our public 
 debts (contracted for defence) discharged ; otherwise we shall 
 be millions worse than we were at that enviable period. 
 Such a request, had it been complied with a year ago, would 
 have won the heart and soul of the Continent, but now it is 
 too late. " The Rubicon is passed." 
 
 Besides, the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal 
 of a pecuniary law, seems as unwarrantable by the divine 
 law, and as repugnant to human feelings, as the taking up 
 arms to enforce obedience thereto. The object, on either 
 side, doth not justify the means ; for the lives of men are too 
 valuable to be cast away on such trifles. It is the violence 
 which is done and threatened to our persons ; the destruc- 
 tion of our property by an armed force ; the invasion of our 
 country by fire and sword, which conscientiously qualifies 
 the use of arms : and the instant in which such mode of de- 
 fence became necessary, all subjection to Britain ought to 
 have ceased ; and the independance of America should have 
 been considered as dating its era from, and published by, 
 tJie first musket that was fired against her. This line is a 
 line of consistency ; neither drawn by caprice, nor extended 
 by ambition ; but produced by a chain of events, of which 
 the colonies were not the authors. 
 
 I shall conclude these remarks, with the following timely 
 and well-intended hints. We ought to reflect, that there 
 are three different ways by which an independancy may 
 hereafter be effected ; and that one of those three, will, one 
 day or other, be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice 
 of the people in Congress ; by a military power ; or by a 
 mob : It may not always happen that our soldiers are citi- 
 zens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men ; virtue, 
 as I have already remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it 
 perpetual. Should an independancy be brought about by 
 the first of those means, we have every opportunity and 
 every encouragement before us, to form the noblest, purest 
 constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our 
 power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar 
 to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah 
 
COMMON SENSE. 
 
 119 
 
 until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a 
 race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, 
 are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a 
 few months. The reflection is awful, and in this point of 
 view, how trifling, how ridiculous, do the little paltry cavil- 
 ings of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed 
 against the business of a world. 
 
 Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting pe- 
 riod, and independance be hereafter effected by any other 
 means, we must charge the consequence to ourselves, or to 
 those rather whose narrow and prejudiced souls are habitu- 
 ally opposing the measure, without either inquiring or 
 reflecting. There are reasons to be given in support of inde- 
 pendance which men should rather privately think of, than 
 be publicly told of. We ought not now to be debating 
 whether we shall be independant or not, but anxious to ac- 
 complish it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and un- 
 easy rather that it is not yet began upon. Every day 
 convinces us of its necessity. Even the Tories (if such be- 
 ings yet remain among us) should, of all men, be the most 
 solicitous to promote it ; for as the appointment of com- 
 mittees at first protected them from popular rage, so, a wise 
 and well established form of government will be the only 
 certain means of continuing it securely to them. Where- 
 fore, if they have not virtue enough to be Whigs, they 
 ought to have prudence enough to wish for independance. 
 
 In short, Independance is the only BOND that tye and 
 keep us together. We shall then see our object, and our 
 ears will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing, 
 as well as cruel, enemy. We shall then, too, be on a proper 
 footing to treat with Britain ; for there is reason to conclude, 
 that the pride of that court will be less hurt by treating 
 with the American states for terms of peace, than with 
 those, whom she denominates " rebellious subjects," for 
 terms of accommodation. It is our delaying in that, en- 
 courages her to hope for conquest, and our backwardness 
 tends only to prolong the war. As we have, without any 
 good effect therefrom, withheld our trade to obtain a redress 
 
120 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 of our grievances, let us now try the alternative, by inde- 
 pendantly redressing them ourselves, and then offering to 
 open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part of 
 England, will be still with us ; because, peace, with trade, is 
 preferable to war without it. And if this offer be not ac- 
 cepted, other courts may be applied to. 
 
 On these grounds I rest the matter. And as no offer 
 hath yet been made to refute the doctrine contained in the 
 former editions of this pamphlet, it is a negative proof, 
 that either the doctrine cannot be refuted, or, that the party 
 in favor of it are too numerous to be opposed. WHERE- 
 FORE, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or 
 doubtful curiosity, let each of us hold out to his neighbor 
 the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, 
 which, like an act of oblivion, shall bury in forgetfulness 
 every former dissention. Let the names of Whig and Tory 
 be extinct ; and let none other be heard among us, than 
 those of a good citizen ; an open and resolute friend ; and a 
 virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of mankind, and of the 
 FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
XVI. 
 
 EPISTLE TO QUAKERS. 
 
 To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People 
 called Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned 
 in publishing a late piece, entitled "The Ancient Testi- 
 mony and Principles of the people called Quakers 
 renewed, with respect to the King and Government, 
 and touching the COMMOTIONS now prevailing in these 
 and other parts of America, addressed to the People in 
 General." ' 
 
 The writer of this is one of those few who never dis- 
 honors religion either by ridiculing or cavilling at any de- 
 nomination whatsoever. To God, and not to man, are all 
 men accountable on the score of religion. Wherefore, this 
 epistle is not so properly addressed to you as a religious, but 
 as a political body, dabbling in matters which the professed 
 Quietude of your Principles instruct you not to meddle 
 with. 
 
 As you have, without a proper authority for so doing, put 
 yourselves in the place of the whole body of the Quakers, 
 so the writer of this, in order to be in an equal rank with 
 yourselves, is under the necessity of putting himself in the 
 place of all those who approve the very writings and princi- 
 ples against which your testimony is directed : And he hath 
 chosen this singular situation, in order that you might dis- 
 cover in him that presumption of character which you can- 
 
 ' The " Testimony " was issued by a general meeting of Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey Friends held in Philadelphia, January 20, 1776. Paine's " Epistle" 
 was part of the Appendix to the third edition of " Common Sense." — Editor. 
 
 121 
 
122 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 not see in yourselves. For neither he nor you have any 
 claim or title to Political Representation. 
 
 When men have departed from the right way, it is no 
 wonder that they stumble and fall. And it is evident from 
 the manner in which ye have managed your testimony, that 
 politics (as a religious body of men) is not your proper 
 Walk ; for however well adapted it might appear to you, it 
 is, nevertheless, a jumble of good and bad unwisely put to- 
 gether, and the conclusion drawn therefrom both unnatural 
 and unjust. 
 
 The first two pages (and the whole doth make but four) 
 we give you credit for, and expect the same civility from 
 you, because the love and desire of peace is not confined to 
 Quakerism, it is the natural as well as the religious wish of 
 all denominations of men. And on this ground, as men 
 laboring to establish an Independant Constitution of our 
 own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and aim. 
 Our plan is peace for ever. We are tired of contention with 
 Britain, and can see no real end to it but in a final separation. 
 We act consistently, because for the sake of introducing an 
 endless and uninterrupted peace, do we bear the evils and 
 the burthens of the present day. We are endeavoring, and 
 will steadily continue to endeavor, to separate and dissolve 
 a connection which has already filled our land with blood ; 
 and which, while the name of it remains, will be the fatal 
 cause of future mischiefs to both countries. 
 
 We fight neither for revenge nor conquest ; neither from 
 pride nor passion ; we are not insulting the world with our 
 fleets and armies, nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Be- 
 neath the shade of our own vines are we attacked ; in our 
 own houses, and on our own lands, is the violence committed 
 against us. We view our enemies in the characters of High- 
 waymen and Housebreakers, and having no defence for our- 
 selves in the civil law, are obliged to punish them by the 
 military one, and apply the sword, in the very case where 
 you have before now applied the halter. Perhaps we feel 
 for the ruined and insulted sufferers in all and every part of 
 the Continent, with a degree of tenderness which hath not 
 
1776] 
 
 EPISTLE TO QUAKERS. 
 
 123 
 
 yet made its way into some of your bosoms. But be ye sure 
 that ye mistake not the cause and ground of your Testi- 
 mony. Call not coldness of soul, religion ; nor put the Bigot 
 in the place of the Christian. 
 
 O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged princi- 
 ples. If the bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war 
 must be more so, by all the difference between wilful attack 
 and unavoidable defence. Wherefore, if ye really preach 
 from conscience, and mean not to make a political hobby- 
 horse of your religion, convince the world thereof, by pro- 
 claiming your doctrine to our enemies, they likewise bear 
 ARMS. Give us proof of your sincerity, by publishing it at 
 St. James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the 
 admirals and captains who are piratically ravaging our 
 coasts, and to all the murdering miscreants who are acting 
 in authority under him whom ye profess to serve. Had ye 
 the honest soul of Barclay * ye would preach repentance to 
 your king : ye would tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and 
 warn him of eternal ruin. Ye would not spend your partial 
 invectives against the injured and insulted only, but, like 
 faithful ministers, would cry aloud and spare none. Say not 
 that ye are persecuted, neither endeavor to make us the 
 authors of that reproach which ye are bringing upon your- 
 selves ; for we testify unto all men, that we do not complain 
 against you because ye are Quakers, but because ye pretend 
 to be and are not Quakers. 
 
 Alas ! it seems by the particular tendency of some part of 
 your testimony, and other parts of your conduct, as if all sin 
 
 * " Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity ; thou knowest what it is to 
 be banished thy native country, to be over-ruled as well as to rule, and sit upon 
 the throne : and being oppressed thou hast reason to know how hateful the 
 oppressor is both to God and man ; If after all these warnings and advertise- 
 ments, thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, but forget him who 
 remembered thee in thy distress, and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity, 
 surely, great will be thy condemnation. — Against which snare, as well as the 
 temptation of those who may or do feed thee, and prompt thee to evil, the most 
 excellent and prevalent remedy will be, to apply thyself to that light of Christ 
 which shineth in thy conscience, and which neither can nor will flatter thee, nor 
 suffer thee to be at ease in thy sins." — Barclay s Address to Charles II. 
 
124 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 was reduced to, and comprehended in, the act of bearing arms, 
 and that by the people only. Ye appear to us to have mis- 
 taken party for conscience ; because the general tenor of 
 your actions wants uniformity : And it is exceedingly diffi- 
 cult for us to give credit to many of your pretended scruples ; 
 because we see them made by the same men, who, in the 
 very instant that they are exclaiming against the mammon 
 of this world, are nevertheless hunting after it with a step as 
 steady as Time, and an appetite as keen as Death. 
 
 The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, in the 
 third page of your testimony, that *' when a man's ways 
 please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace 
 with him ; " is very unwisely chosen on your part ; because 
 it amounts to a proof that the king's ways (whom ye are so 
 •desirous of supporting) do not please the Lord, otherwise his 
 reign would be in peace. 
 
 I now proceed to the latter part of your testimony, and that 
 for which all the foregoing seems only an introduction, viz. 
 
 " It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since we were 
 •called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, manifested in our con- 
 sciences unto this day, that the setting up and putting down kings 
 and governments, is God's peculiar prerogative ; for causes best 
 known to himself : And that it is not our business to have any- 
 hand or contrivance therein ; nor to be busy bodies above our 
 station, much less to plot and contrive the ruin, or overturn of 
 any of them, but to pray for the king, and safety of our nation, 
 and good of all men : That we may live a quiet and peaceable life, 
 in all godliness and honesty ; under the government which God is 
 pleased to set over us." 
 
 If these are really your principles why do ye not abide 
 by them ? Why do ye not leave that, which ye call God's 
 work, to be managed by himself? These very principles 
 instruct you to wait with patience and humility, for the 
 event of all public measures, and to receive that event as 
 the divine will towards you. Wherefore, what occasion is 
 there for your political testimony, if you fully believe what 
 it contains? And the very publishing it proves that either 
 
EPISTLE TO QUAKERS. 
 
 125 
 
 ye do not believe what ye profess, or have not virtue 
 enough to practice what ye believe. 
 
 The principles of Quakerism have a direct tendency to 
 make a man the quiet and inoffensive subject of any, and 
 every government which is set over him. And if the setting 
 up and putting down of kings and governments is God's 
 peculiar prerogative, he most certainly will not be robbed 
 thereof by us ; wherefore, the principle itself leads you to 
 approve of every thing which ever happened, or may happen 
 to kings, as being his work. Oliver Cromwell thanks you. 
 Charles, then, died not by the hands of man ; and should 
 the present proud Imitator of him come to the same un- 
 timely end, the writers and publishers of the testimony are 
 bound, by the doctrine it contains, to applaud the fact. 
 Kings are not taken away by miracles, neither are changes 
 in governments brought about by any other means than 
 such as are common and human ; and such as we now are 
 using. Even the dispersing of the Jews, though foretold by 
 our Saviour, was effected by arms. Wherefore, as ye refuse 
 to be the means on one side, ye ought not to be medlers on 
 the other ; but to wait the issue in silence ; and, unless you 
 can produce divine authority to prove that the Almighty, 
 who hath created and placed this new world at the greatest 
 distance it could possibly stand, east and west, from every 
 part of the old, doth, nevertheless, disapprcfve of its being 
 independant of the corrupt and abandoned court of Britain ; 
 unless, I say, ye can show this, how can ye, on the ground 
 of your principles, justify the exciting and stirring up the 
 people " firmly to unite in the abhorrence of all such writings, 
 and measures, as evidence a desire and design to break off the 
 happy connection we have hitherto enjoyed with the kingdom 
 of Great Britain, and our just and necessary subordination 
 to the king, and those who are lawfully placed in authority 
 under him." What a slap in the face is here ! The men, 
 who, in the very paragraph before, have quietly and pas- 
 sively resigned up the ordering, altering and disposal of 
 kings and governments, into the hands of God, are now 
 recalling their principles, and putting in for a share of the 
 
126 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 business. Is it possible, that the conclusion, which is here 
 justly quoted, can any ways follow from the doctrine laid 
 down ! The inconsistency is too glaring not to be seen ; the 
 absurdity too great not to be laughed at ; and such as could 
 only have been made by those whose understandings were 
 darkened by the narrow and crabbed spirit of a despairing 
 political party ; for ye are not to be considered as the whole 
 body of the Quakers, but only as a factional and fractional 
 part thereof. 
 
 Here ends the examination of your Testimony ; (which I 
 call upon no man to abhor, as ye have done, but only to 
 read and judge of fairly ;) to which I subjoin the following 
 remark " That the setting up and putting down of kings " 
 must certainly mean, the making him a king who is yet not 
 so, and the making him no king who is already one. And 
 pray what hath this to do in the present case ? We neither 
 mean to set up nor to pull down, neither to make nor to 
 unmake, but to have nothing to do with them. Wherefore, 
 your testimony, in whatever light it is viewed, serves only to 
 dishonor your judgment, and for many other reasons had 
 better have been let alone than published. 
 
 First, Because it tends to the decrease and reproach of all 
 religion whatever, and is of the utmost danger to society, to 
 make it a party in political disputes. 
 
 Secondly, Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of 
 whom disavow the publishing of political testimonies, as 
 being concerned therein and approvers thereof. 
 
 Thirdly, Because it hath a tendency to undo that con- 
 tinental harmony and friendship which yourselves, by your 
 late liberal and charitable donations, hath lent a hand to 
 establish ; and the preservation of which is of the utmost 
 consequence to us all. 
 
 And here, without anger or resentment, I bid you fare- 
 well. Sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may 
 always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and 
 religious right, and be, in your turn, the means of securing 
 it to others ; but that the example which ye have unwisely 
 set, of mingling religion with politics, may be disavowed and 
 reprobated by every inhabitant ij/" AMERICA. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE FORESTER'S LETTERS.' 
 I. 
 
 TO CATO. 
 
 To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right. 
 Only let the error be disinterested — let it wear not the mask, 
 but the mark of principle, and 'tis pardonable. It is on this 
 large and liberal ground, that we distinguish between men 
 and their tenets, and generously preserv-e our friendship for 
 the one, while we combat with every prejudice of the other. 
 But let not Cato take this compliment to himself; he stands 
 excluded from the benefit of the distinction ; he deserves it 
 not. And if the sincerity of disdain can add a cubit to the 
 stature of my sentiments, it shall not be wanting. 
 
 ' "The writer of ' Common Sense' and ' The Forester' is the same person," 
 wrote John Adams to his wife. " His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years 
 from England, — a man who, Gen. Lee says, has genius in his eyes." The let- 
 ters signed " The Forester" are four, and originally appeared in the Pennsyl- 
 vania yournal, the dates of issue being April 3, 10, 24, May 8, 1776. The 
 April letters were replies to " Cato," who was writing a series of letters, in the 
 Pennsylvania Gazette, vigorously combating the republican doctrines of Paine's 
 "Common Sense," and its pleas for Independence. " Cato" was the Rev. Dr. 
 William Smith, a Scotch clergyman of the English Church, Provost of the Col- 
 lege of Philadelphia, and the most influential preacher in that city until his fall 
 with the royalist cause which he had espoused. The letters of these disputants 
 were widely copied in the country, and the controversy was the most exciting 
 and important immediately preceding the Declaration of Independence. The 
 proposal of such a Declaration was really the issue. It was vehemently opposed 
 by the wealth and aristocracy of Philadelphia, headed by Dr. Smith, and the 
 discussion was almost a battle. This may explain its acrimony, on which neither 
 writer, probably, reflected with satisfaction in after years. The " Cato" letters 
 are not included in the collected Works of Dr. Smith (Philadelphia, 1803), nor 
 have the letters of " The Forester " appeared hitherto in any edition of Paine's 
 Writings. They are, however, of much historical interest. The fourth letter of 
 ■" The Forester," it will be seen, has no reference to Cato. — Editor. 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 It is indifferent to me who the writer of Cato's letters is, 
 and sufificient for me to know, that they are gorged with 
 absurdity, confusion, contradiction, and the most notorious 
 and wilful falsehoods. Let Cato and his faction be against 
 Independence and welcome ; their consequence will not now 
 turn the scale : But let them have regard to justice, and pay 
 some attention to the plain doctrine of reason. Where these 
 are wanting, the sacred cause of truth applauds our anger, 
 and dignifies it with the name of Virtue. 
 
 Four letters have already appeared under the specious 
 name of Cato. What pretensions the writer of them can 
 have to the signature, the public will best determine ; while, 
 on my own part, I prophetically content myself with con- 
 templating the similarity of their exits. The first of those 
 letters promised a second, the second a third, the third a 
 fourth ; the fourth hath since made its appearance, and still 
 the writer keeps wide of the question. Why doth he thus 
 loiter in the suburbs of the dispute? Why hath he not 
 shewn us what the numerous blessings of reconciliation [with 
 Great Britain] are, and proved tliem practicable? But he 
 cunningly avoids the point. He cannot but discover the 
 rock he is driving on. The fate of the Roman Cato is before 
 his eyes : And that the public may be prepared for his funeral, 
 and for his funeral oration, I will venture to predict the time 
 and the manner of his exit. The moment he explains his terms 
 of reconciliation the typographical Cato dies. If they be cal- 
 culated to please the [British] Cabinet they will not go down 
 with the Colonies: and if they be suited to the Colonies they 
 will be rejected by the Cabinet : The line of no-variation is 
 yet unfound ; and, like the philosopher's stone, doth not 
 exist. " I am bold," says Cato, " to declare and yet hope to 
 make it evident to every honest man, that the true interest of 
 America lies in reconciliation with Great Britain on constitu- 
 tional principles y 
 
 This is a curious way of lumping the business indeed ! 
 And Cato may as well attempt to catch lions in a mouse- 
 trap as to hope to allure the public with such general and 
 unexplained expressions. It is now a mere bugbear to talk 
 
129 
 
 of reconciliation on constitutional principles unless the terms 
 of the first be produced and the sense of the other be de- 
 fined; and unless he does this he does nothing. 
 
 To follow Cato through every absurdity and falsehood in 
 the compass of a * letter is impossible ; neither is it now 
 necessary. Cassandra (and I thank him) hath saved me 
 much trouble ; there is a spirit in his remarks which honesty 
 only can inspire, and a uniformity in the conduct of his 
 letters which the want of principle can never arrive at.' 
 Mark that, Cato. 
 
 One observation which I cannot help making on Cato's 
 letters, is that they are addressed " To the People of Pennsyl- 
 vajiia " only : In almost any other writer this might have 
 passed unnoticed, but we know it hath mischief in its mean- 
 ing. The particular circumstance of a convention is un- 
 doubtedly Provincial, but the great business of the day is 
 Continental. And he who dares to endeavour to withdraw 
 this province from the glorious union by which all are sup- 
 ported, deserves the reprobation of all men. It is the true 
 interest of the whole to go hand in hand ; and dismal in 
 every instance would be the fate of that Colony which should 
 retreat from the protection of the rest. 
 
 The first of Cato's letters is insipid in its stile, language 
 and substance ; crowded with personal and private innuen- 
 dues and directly levelled against " the Majesty of the People 
 of Pennsylvania.'' The Committee could only call, propose, 
 or recommend a Convention ; ' but, like all other public 
 measures, it still rested with the people at large, whether 
 they would approve it or not ; and Cato's reasoning on the 
 right or wrong of that choice is contemptible ; because, if 
 
 * The writer intended at first to have contained his remarks in one letter. — 
 Author. 
 
 ' The letter " On sending Commissioners to treat with the Congress," signed 
 ' ' Cassandra," was particularly dealt with by ' 'Cato" in his second letter. — Editor. 
 
 ^ This committee was appointed by the Assembly of Pennsylvania in pur- 
 suance of a recommendation, by the Continental Congress, that the Colonies 
 should impose on their officers, civil and military, a new patriotic oath. The 
 course of events led the Committee to summon a Provincial Convention by 
 which Pennsylvania was entirely reorganized. — Editor. 
 
 VOL. I. — 9 
 
I30 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 the body of the people had thought, or should still think 
 that the Assembly (or any of their Delegates in Congress) 
 by setting under the embarrassment of oaths, and entangled 
 with government and Governors, are not so perfectly free as 
 they ought to be, they undoubtedly had and still have both 
 the right and the power to place even the whole authority of 
 the Assembly in any body of men they please ; and whoever 
 is hardy enough to say to the contrary is an enemy to man- 
 kind. The constitution of Pennsylvania hath been twice 
 changed through the cunning of former Proprietors; surely, 
 the people, whose right, power, and property is greater than 
 that of any single man, may make such alterations in their 
 mode of government as the change of times and things 
 require. Cato is exceedingly fond of impressing us with the 
 importance of our " chartered constitution," Alas ! We are 
 not now. Sir, to be led away by the jingle of a phrase. Had 
 we framed our conduct by the contents of the present char- 
 ters, we had ere now been in a state of helpless misery. 
 That very assembly you mention hath broken it, and been 
 obliged to break it, in almost every instance of their pro- 
 ceedings. Hold it up to the Public, and it is transparent 
 with holes ; pierced with as many deadly wounds as the 
 body of M'Leod.' Disturb not its remains, Cato, nor dis- 
 honour it with another funeral oration. 
 
 There is nothing in Cato's first letter worthy of notice 
 but the following insinuating falsehood : " Grievous as the 
 least restraint of the press must always be to a people enti- 
 tled to freedom, it must be the more so, when it is not only 
 unwarranted hy those to whom have committed the care 
 of their liberties but cannot be warranted by them, consistent 
 with liberty itself." The rude and unscholastical confusion 
 of persons in the above paragraph, though it throws an 
 obscurity on the meaning, still leaves it discoverable. Who, 
 Sir, hath laid any restraint on the liberty of the press ? I 
 know of no instance in which the press hath ever been the 
 
 ■ News had reached Philadelphia of the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, North 
 Carolina, in which the " Tory" forces were defeated, and their temporary com- 
 mander, M'Leod, fell "pierced with twenty balls." — Editor, 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 object of notice in this province, except on account of the 
 tory letter from Kent county, which was first published last 
 spring in the. Pcniisylvafiia Ledger, a.nd which it was the duty 
 of every good man to detect because the honesty of the press 
 is as great an object to society as the freedom of it. If this 
 is the restraint you complain of, we know your true char- 
 acter at once ; and that it is so, appears evident from the 
 expression which immediately follows the above quotation : 
 your words are, " Nevertheless, we readily submitted to 
 it while the least colourable pretence could be offered for 
 requiring such a submission." Who submitted, Cato ? we 
 Whigs, or we Tories ? Until you clear up this. Sir, you must 
 content yourself with being ranked among the rankest of the 
 writing Tories ; because no other body of men can have any 
 pretence to complain of want of freedom of the press. It is 
 not your throwing out, now and then, little popular phrases 
 which can protect you from suspicion ; they are only the 
 gildings under which the poison is conveyed, and without 
 which you dared not to renew your attempts on the virtue 
 of the people. 
 
 Cato's second letter, or the greatest part thereof, is taken 
 up with the reverence due from us to the persons and author- 
 ity of the Commissioners, whom Cato vainly and ridiculously 
 stiles Ambassadors coming to jtegociate a peace. How came 
 Cato not to be let a little better into the secret ? The act of 
 parliament which describes the powers of these men hath 
 been in this city upwards of a month, and in the hands too 
 of Cato's friends. No, Sir, they are not the Ambassadors of 
 peace, but the distributors of pardons, mischief, and insult. 
 Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British constitution 
 in supposing that these men can be empowered to act as 
 Ambassadors. To prevent his future errors I will set him 
 right. The present war differs from every other, in this 
 instance, viz. that it is not carried under the prerogative of 
 the crown as other wars have always been, but under the 
 authority of the whole legislative power united ; and as the 
 barriers which stand in the way of a negociation are not 
 proclamations but acts of parliament, it evidently follows, 
 
132 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 that were even the King of England here in person, he could 
 not ratify the terms or conditions of a reconciliation ; be- 
 cause, in the single character of King he could not stipulate 
 for the repeal of any acts of parliament, neither can the Par- 
 liament stipulate for him. There is no body of men more 
 jealous of their privileges than the Commons : Because they 
 sell them. Mark that, Cato. 
 
 I have not the least doubt upon me but that their busi- 
 ness (exclusive of granting us pardons) is downright bribery 
 and corruption. It is the machine by which they effect all 
 their plans. We ought to view them as enemies of a most 
 dangerous species, and he who means not to be corrupted 
 by them will enter his protest in time. Are they not the 
 very men who are paid for voting in every measure against 
 us, and ought we not to suspect their designs? Can we 
 view the barbarians as friends ? Would it be prudent to 
 trust the viper in our very bosoms? Or to suffer them to 
 ramble at large among us while such doubtful characters as 
 Cato have a being upon the continent ? Yet let their per- 
 sons be safe from injury and outrage — but trust them not. 
 Our business with them is short and explicit, viz. : We are 
 desirous of peace, gentlemen ; we are ready to ratify the 
 terms, and will virtuously fulfil the conditions thereof; but 
 we should deserve all and every misery which tyranny can 
 inflict, were we, after suffering such a repetition of savage 
 barbarities, to come under your government again. 
 
 Cato, by way of stealing into credit, says, " that the con- 
 test we are engaged in is founded on the most noble and 
 virtuous principles which can animate the mind of man. We 
 are contending (says he) against an arbitrary ministry for the 
 rights of Englishmen." No, Cato, we are nozv contending 
 against an arbitrary King to get clear of his tyranny. While 
 the dispute rested in words only, it might be called " con- 
 tending with the ministry," but since it is broken out into 
 open war, it is high time to have done with such silly and 
 water-gruel definitions. But it suits not Cato to speak the 
 truth. It is his interest to dress up the sceptred savage in 
 the mildest colors. Cato's patent for a large tract of land is 
 yet unsigned. Alas poor Cato ! 
 
1776] 
 
 THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 Cato proceeds very importantly to tell us, " tJiat the eyes 
 of all Europe are upon us." This stale and hackneyed phrase 
 hath had a regular descent, from many of the King's speeches 
 down to several of the speeches in Parliament ; from thence 
 it took a turn among the little wits and bucks of St. James's ; 
 till after suffering all the torture of senseless repetition, and 
 being reduced to a state of vagrancy, it was charitably 
 picked up to embellish the second letter of Cato. It is 
 truly of the bug-bear kind, contains no meaning, and the very 
 using it discovers a barrenness of invention. It signifies 
 nothing to tell us " that the eyes of all Europe are upon us," 
 unless he had likewise told us what they are looking at us 
 for : which as he hath not done, I will. They are looking at 
 us, Cato, in hopes of seeing a final separation between 
 Britain and the Colonies, that they, the lookers-on, may par- 
 take of a free and uninterrupted trade with the whole Con- 
 tinent of America. Cato, thou reasonest wrong. 
 
 For the present. Sir, farewell. I have seen thy soliloquy 
 and despise it. Remember thou hast thrown me the glove, 
 Cato, and either thee or I must tire. I fear not the field of 
 fair debate, but thou hast stepped aside and made it personal. 
 Thou hast tauntingly called on me by name ; and if I cease 
 to hunt thee from every lane and lurking hole of mischief, 
 and bring thee not a trembling culprit before the public bar, 
 then brand me with reproach, by naming me in the list of 
 your confederates. 
 
 The Forester. 
 
 Philadelphia, March 28, 1776. 
 
 II. 
 
 TO CATO. 
 
 Before I enter on the more immediate purpose of this 
 letter, I think it necessary, once for all, to endeavour to settle 
 as clearly as I can, the following point, viz : How far per- 
 sonality is concerned in any political debate. The general 
 maxim is, that measures and not men are the thing in ques- 
 tion, and the maxim is undeniably just when rightly under- 
 
134 THE WAITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 stood. Cato as a refuge for himself, hath quoted the author 
 of Common Sense who in his preface says, "That the object 
 for attention is the doctrine itself not the man," that is, not 
 the rank or condition of the man. For whether he is with 
 those whose fortune is already made, or with those whose 
 fortune is yet to make, or among those who seldom think or 
 care whether they make any, is a matter wholly out of the 
 question and entirely confined to himself. But the political 
 characters, political dependencies, and political connections 
 of men, being of a public nature, differ exceedingly from the 
 circumstances of private life ; and are in many instances so 
 nearly related to the measures they propose, that to prevent 
 our being deceived by the last, we mtcst be acquainted with 
 the first. A total ignorance of men lays us under the danger 
 of mistaking plausibility for principle. Could the wolf bleat 
 like the lamb the flock would soon be enticed into ruin ; 
 wherefore to prevent the mischief, he ought to be seett as 
 well as heard. There never was nor ever will be, nor ever 
 ought to be, any important political debate carried on, in 
 which a total separation in all cases between men and meas- 
 ures could be admitted with sufficient safety. When hypoc- 
 risy shall be banished from the earth, the knowledge of men 
 will be unnecessary, because their measures cannot then be 
 fraudulent ; but until that time come (which never will 
 come) they ought, under proper limitations, to go together. 
 We have already too much secrecy in some things and too 
 little in others. Were men more known, and measures 
 more concealed, we should have fewer hypocrites and more 
 security. 
 
 As the chief design of these letters is to detect and expose 
 the falsehoods and fallacious reasonings of Cato, he must not 
 expect (when detected) to be treated like one who had de- 
 bated fairly ; for I will be bold to say and to prove, that a 
 grosser violation of truth and reason scarcely ever came from 
 the pen of a writer ; and the explanations which he hath 
 endeavoured to impose on the passages which he hath 
 quoted from Common Sense, are such as never existed in the 
 mind of the author, nor can they be drawn from the words 
 
135 
 
 themselves. Neither must Cato expect to be spared where 
 his carelessness of expression, and visible want of compassion 
 and sentiment, shall give occasion to raise any moral or phil- 
 osophical reflection thereon. These things being premised, 
 I now proceed to review the latter part of Cato's second 
 letter. 
 
 In this place Cato begins his first attack on Common 
 Sense, but as he only discovers his ill will, and neither offers 
 any arguments against it, nor makes any quotations from it, 
 I should in this place pass him by, were it not for the follow- 
 ing strange assertion : " If little notice," says Cato {little 
 opposition he means) " has yet been taken of the publications 
 concerning Independance, it is neither owing to the popu- 
 larity of the doctrine, the unanswerable nature of the argu- 
 ments, nor the fear of opposing them, as the vanity of the 
 author would suggest." As Cato has given us the negative 
 reasons, he ought to have given us the real ones, for as he 
 positively tells what it was not owing to, he undoubtedly 
 knows what it was owing to that he delayed his answers so 
 long ; but instead of telling us that, (which perhaps is not 
 proper to be told) he flies from the argument with the fol- 
 lowing plump declarations, " Nine tenths of the people of 
 Pennsylvania," says he, " yet abhor the doctrine." But sto|3, 
 Cato! not quite so fast, friend ! If this be true, how came 
 they, so late as the second of March last, to elect for a Bur- 
 gess of this city, a gentleman of known Independant Principles, 
 and one of the very few to whom the author of Common 
 Sense shewed some part thereof while in manuscript.' 
 
 Cato is just as unfortunate in the following paragraph. 
 " Those," says he, " who made the appeal (that is, published 
 the pamphlet) have but little cause to triumph in its success. 
 Of this they seem sensible : and, like true quacks, are con- 
 stantly pestering us with additional doses till the stomachs 
 of their patients begin tvholly to revolt." It is Cato's hard 
 fate to be always detected : for perhaps there never was a 
 pamphlet, since the use of letters were known, about which 
 
 ' David Rittenhouse, elected in the place of Franklin, who had left for 
 France. — Editor. 
 
136 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 SO little pains were taken, and of which so great a number 
 went off in so short a time ; I am certain that I am within 
 compass when I say one hundred and twenty thousand. 
 The book was turned upon the world like an orphan to shift 
 for itself ; no plan was formed to support it, neither hath 
 the author ever published a syllable on the subject, from that 
 time till after the appearance of Cato's fourth letter ; where- 
 fore what Cato says of additional doses administered by 
 the author is an absolute falsity ; besides which, it comes 
 with an ill grace from one, who frequently publishes two 
 letters in a week, and often puts them both into one paper — 
 Cato here, Cato there, look where you will. 
 
 At the distance of a few lines from the above quotations, 
 Cato presents us with a retrospective view of our former 
 state, in which, says he, " we considered our connection with 
 Great Britain as our chief happiness — we flourished, grew 
 rich, and populous to a degree not to be paralleled in his- 
 tory." This assertion is truly of the legerdemain kind, ap- 
 pearing at once both right and wrong. All writers on Cato's 
 side have used the same argument and conceived themselves 
 invincible ; nevertheless, a single expression properly placed 
 dissolves the charm, for the cheat lies in putting the time 
 for the cause. For the cheat lies in putting the consequence 
 for the cause ; for had we not flourished the connection had 
 never existed or never been regarded, and this is fully proved 
 by the neglect shewn to the first settlers who had every dif- 
 ficulty to struggle with, unnoticed and unassisted by the 
 British Court. 
 
 Cato proceeds very industriously to sum up the former 
 declarations of Congress and other public bodies, some of 
 which were made upwards of a year ago, to prove, that the 
 doctrine of Independance hath no sanction from them. To 
 this I shall give Cato one general answer which is, that had 
 he produced a thousand more such authorities they would 
 now amount to nothing, they are out of date ; times and 
 things are altered ; the true character of the King was but 
 little known among the body of the poeple of America a 
 year ago ; willing to believe him good, they fondly called 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 him so, but have since found that Cato's Royal Sovereign, 
 is a Royal Savage. 
 
 Cato hath introduced the above-mentioned long quotation 
 of authorities against independance, with the following 
 curious preface. " Nor have many weeks," says he, " yet 
 elapsed since the first open proposition for independance 
 was published to the world. By what men of consequence 
 this scheme is supported or whether by any, may possibly 
 be the subject of future enquiry. Certainly it hath no coun- 
 tenance from the Congress, to whose sentiments we look up 
 with reverence. On the contrary, it is directly repugnant to 
 every declaration of that respectable body." Now Cato, 
 thou hast nailed thyself with a witness ! Directly repug- 
 nant to every declaration of that respectable body ! Mind 
 that, Cato, and mark what follows. It appears by an ex- 
 tract from the resolves of the Congress, printed in the front 
 of the oration delivered by Dr. Smith, in honor of that 
 brave man General Montgomery, that he, the Doctor, was 
 appointed by that honorable body to compose and deliver 
 the same ; in the execution of which, the orator exclaimed 
 loudly against the doctrine of independance ; but when a 
 motion was afterwards made in Congress, (according to 
 former usage) to return the orator thanks, and request a 
 copy for the press, the motion was rejected from every part 
 of the house and thrown out without a division.* 
 
 I now proceed to Cato's third letter, in the opening of 
 which he deserts the subject of independance, and renews 
 
 ' "An Oration in memory of General Montgomery, and of the Officers who 
 fell with him, December 31, 1775, before Quebec ; drawn up (and delivered Feb- 
 ruary 19th, 1776,) at the desire of the Honourable Continental Congress. By 
 William Smith, D.D., Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia. 
 Philadelphia, printed : London, reprinted for J. Almon, opposite Burlington- 
 house, Picadilly. MDCCLXXVI." On p. 24 Dr. Smith quotes the petition of 
 Congress " for a ' restoration of the former harmony between Great Britain and 
 these Colonies ' etc." In a footnote Dr. Smith refers to the censures of this 
 passage, and adds that since the petition the situation had changed. It was well 
 known that Dr. Smith was " Cato," and Paine's reference to the resentment of 
 Congress was an especially severe thrust, because " Cato " in his second letter 
 (dated March 11) had repeated his offence, recapitulating all the conciliatory 
 efforts of Congress at an earlier period. — Editor. 
 
138 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 his attack on the Committee.' Cato's manner of writing^ 
 has as much order in it as the motion of a squirrel. He 
 frequently writes as if he knew not what to write next, just 
 as the other jumps about, only because it cannot stand still. 
 Though I am sometimes angry with him for his unprincipled 
 method of writing and reasoning, I cannot help laughing at 
 other times for his want of ingenuity : One instance of which 
 he gives us in kindly warning us against " the foul pages of 
 interested writers, and strangers inter medling in our affair sT 
 Were I to reply seriously my answer would be this : Thou 
 seemest then ignorant, Cato, of that ancient and numerous 
 order which are related to each other in all and every part 
 of the globe — with whom the kindred is not formed by place 
 or accident, but in principle and sentiment. A freeman, 
 Cato, is a stranger nowhere — a slave, everywhere. But 
 were I disposed to answer merrily, I should tell him, that as 
 his notions of friendship were so very narrow and local, he 
 obliges me to understand, that when he addresses the people 
 with the tender title of " my dear countrymeft " which fre- 
 quently occurs in his letters, he particularly means the long 
 list of Macs published in Donald M'Donald's Commission.' 
 
 In this letter Cato recommends the pamphlet called Plain 
 Truth, a performance which hath withered away like a sickly 
 unnoticed weed, and which even its advocates are displeased 
 at, and the author ashamed to own.' About the middle of 
 this third letter, Cato gives notice of his being ready to take 
 the field. " I now proceed," says he, " to give my reasons." 
 
 ' See note in the preceding letter, p. 129. — Editor. 
 
 ^ M'Donald was Brigadier-General of the Highlanders who were defeated by 
 the North Carolinians on February 27, 1776, at Moore's Creek Bridge. M'Donald 
 being ill on that day the command devolved on M'Leod, who fell, as mentioned 
 in the preceding letter. Dr. William Smith, a pronounced Scotchman, in 
 alluding to Paine as a "stranger," could hardly have been aware that his 
 identity with " Cato" was known. — Editor. 
 
 '"Plain Truth: addressed to the Inhabitants of America, containing Re- 
 marks on a late Pamphlet, intitled Common Sense : etc. Written by Candidus. 
 Will ye turn from Flattery and attend to this Side ? " This pamphlet of 37 
 pages, published in Philadelphia and London, was the most elaborate of many 
 replies to "Common Sense." It was dull, however, and was out of date 
 almost as soon as it appeared. — Editor. 
 
1776] 
 
 139 
 
 How Cato hath managed the attack we are now to examine ; 
 and the first remark I shall offer on his conduct is, that he 
 hath most unluckily entered the list on the wrong side, and 
 discharged his first fire among the tories. 
 
 In order to prove this, I shall give the paragraph entire : — 
 " Agriculture and Commerce," says Cato, " have hitherto 
 been the happy employments, by which these middle colonies 
 have risen into wealth and importance. By tJiein the face of 
 the country has been changed from a barren wilderness, into 
 the hospitable abodes of peace and plenty. Without thern 
 we had either never existed as Americans, or existed only 
 as savages. The oaks would still have possessed their 
 native spots of cart Ji, and never have appeared in the form of 
 ships and houses. What are now well cultivated fields, or 
 flourishing cities, would have remained only the solitary 
 haunts of wild beasts or of men equally wild." The reader 
 cannot help perceiving that through this whole paragraph 
 our connexion with Britain is left entirely out of the question, 
 and our present greatness attributed to external causes, 
 agriculture and commerce. This is a strange way, Cato, of 
 overturning Common Sense, which says, " I challenge the 
 warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew a single advan- 
 tage which this continent can reap by being connected with 
 Great-Britain ; I repeat," says he, " 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 ive will.'' Cato introduces his next para- 
 graph with saying, " that much of our former felicity was 
 owing to the protection of England is not to be denied.''' 
 Yes, Cato, I deny it wholly, and for the following clear and 
 simple reasons, viz., that our being connected with, and sub- 
 mitting to be protected by her, made, and will still make, 
 all her enemies, our enemies, or as Common Sense says, " sets 
 us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our 
 friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor 
 complaint." 
 
 The following passage is so glaringly absurd that I shall 
 make but a short comment upon it. " And if hereafter," 
 
14© 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 says Cato, " in the fulness of time, it shall be necessary to 
 separate from the land that gave birth to [some of] our 
 ancestors, it will be in a state of perfect manhood, when we 
 can fully wield our oivn arms, and protect our commerce and 
 coasts by our own fleets." But how are we to come by fleets, 
 Cato, while Britain hath the government of the Continent ? 
 Unless we are to suppose, as you have hinted in the former 
 paragraph, that our oaks are to grow into ships, and be 
 launched self-built from their " native spots of earth." It is 
 Cato's misfortune as a writer, not to distinguish justly be- 
 tween magic and imagination ; while on the other hand there 
 are many passages in his letters so seriously and deliberately 
 false, that nothing but the most hardened effrontery, and a 
 cast of mind bordering upon impiety, would have uttered. 
 He frequently forces me out of the common track of civil 
 language, in order to do him justice ; moderation and 
 temper being really unequal to the task of exposing him. 
 
 Cato, unless he meant to destroy the ground he stood 
 upon, ought not to have let the following paragraph be seen. 
 " If our present differences,'' says he, " can be accommodated, 
 there is scarce a probability that Britain will ever renew her 
 late fatal system of policy, or attempt again to employ force 
 against us." How came Cato to admit the probability of our 
 being brought again into the same bloody and expensive 
 situation ? But it is worth remarking, that those who write 
 without principle, cannot help sometimes blundering 
 upon truth. Then there is no real security, Cato, in this 
 reconciliation of yours on constitutional principles ? It still 
 amounts to nothing ; and after all this expence of life and 
 wealth, we are to rest at last upon hope, hazard, and uncer- 
 tainty. Why then, by all that is sacred, " it is time to part." 
 
 But Cato, after .admitting the probability of our being 
 brought again into the same situation, proceeds to tell us 
 how we are to conduct ourselves in the second quarrel ; and 
 that is, by the very same methods we have done the present 
 one, viz., to expend millions of treasure, and thousands of 
 lives, in order to patch up a second utiion, that the way may 
 be open for a third quarrel ; and in this endless and 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 141 
 
 chequered round of blood and treacherous peace, hath Cato 
 disposed of the Continent of America. That I may not be 
 thought to do Cato injustice, I have quoted the whole pass- 
 age: "But should Britain be so infatuated," says he, '* at 
 any future period, as to think of subjugating us, either by 
 the arts of corruption, or oppressive exertions of power, can 
 we entertain a doubt but we shall Again, with a virtue equal 
 to the present and with the weapons of defence in our hands 
 (when necessary) convince her that we are willing by a con- 
 stitutional cofineciion with her, to afford and receive reciprocal 
 benefits ; but although subjects of the same King, we will 
 not consent to be her slaves." — Come hither, ye little ones, 
 whom the poisonous hand of Cato is rearing for destruction, 
 and remember the page that warns ye of your ruin. 
 
 Cato, in many of his expressions, discovers all that calm 
 command over the passions and feelings which always dis- 
 tinguishes the man who hath expelled them from his heart. 
 Of this careless kind is the before mentioned phrase, " our 
 present differences," and the same unpardonable negligence 
 is conveyed in the following one : " Although I consider 
 her," says he, " as having in her late conduct toward us, 
 acted the part of a cruel stepdame." Wonderful sensibility 
 indeed ! All the havoc and desolation of unnatural war ; 
 the destruction of thousands ; the burning and depopulating 
 of towns and cities ; the ruin and separation of friends and 
 families, are just sufficient to extort from Cato, this one 
 callous confession. But the cold and creeping soul of Cato 
 is a stranger to the manly powers of sympathetic sorrow. 
 He moves not, nor can he move in so pure an element. Ac- 
 customed to lick the hand that hath made him visible, and to 
 breathe the gross atmosphere of servile and sordid depend- 
 ence, his soul would now starve on virtue, and suffocate in 
 the clear region of disinterested friendship. 
 
 Surely when Cato sat down to write, he either did not 
 expect to be called to an account, or was totally regardless 
 of reputation, otherwise he would not have endeavoured to 
 persuade the public that the doctrine of Independance was 
 broached in a kind of seditious manner, at a time " when." 
 
142 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 says he, some gleams of reconciliation began first to break in 
 upon us.'' Come forth, Cato, and prove the assertion ! 
 Where do these gleams of reconciliation spring from ? Are 
 they to be found in the King's speech, in the address of 
 either House of Parliament, or in the act which lets loose a 
 whole kennel of pirates upon our property, and commissions 
 another set to insult with pardons the very men whom their 
 own measures had sought to ruin ? Either prove the asser- 
 tion, Cato, or take the reward of it, for it is the part of an 
 incendiary to endeavour with specious falsehoods to mislead 
 the credulity of unwary readers. Cato likewise says, that, 
 while we continue united, and renounce all thoughts of In- 
 dependance, " we have the utmost assurance of obtaining a 
 full redress of owx grievances, and an ample security against 
 any future violation of our just rights'' If Cato means to 
 insinuate that we have received such an assurance, let him 
 read the conclusion of the preceeding paragraph again. The 
 same answer will serve for both. 
 
 Perhaps when we recollect the long and unabated cruelty 
 of the British court towards us, and remember the many 
 prayers which we have put up both to them and for them, 
 the following piece of declamation of Cato can hardly be 
 equalled either for absurdity or insanity : " If we now 
 effect independance," says he, " we must be considered as a 
 faithless people in the sight of all mankind, and could scarcely 
 expect the confidence of any nation upon earth, or look up to 
 Heaven for its approving sentence." Art thou mad, Cato, or 
 art thou foolish — or art thou both — or art thou worse than 
 both? In this passage thou hast fairly gone beyond me. I 
 have not language to bring thee back. Thou art safely 
 intrenched indeed ! Rest therefore in thy stronghold till 
 He who fortified thee in it shall come and fetch thee out. 
 
 Cato seems to be possessed of that Jesuitical cunning 
 which always endeavours to disgrace what it cannot dis- 
 prove ; and this he sometimes effects, by unfairly intro- 
 ducing our terms into his arguments, and thereby begets a 
 monster which he sends round the country for a show, and 
 tells the good people that the name of it is independance. 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 Of this character are several passages in his fourth and 
 fifth letters, particularly when he quotes the term ''foreign 
 assistance" which he ungenerously explains into a surrender 
 of the Continent to France and Spain. Such an unfair and 
 sophistical reasoner doth not deserve the civility of good 
 manners. He creates, likewise, the same confusion by fre- 
 quently using the word peace for union, and thereby charges 
 us falsely by representing us as being determined to " reject 
 all proposition of peace." Whereas, our wish is peace but 
 not rc-union ; and though we would gladly listen to the 
 former, we are determined to resist every proposal for the 
 latter, come from where it will ; being fully persuaded, that 
 in the present state of affairs separation of governments is 
 the only and best thing that can be done for both countries. 
 
 The following case is unjustly put. " There never was a 
 war," says Cato, " so implacable, even among states naturally 
 rivals and enemies, or among savages themselves, as not to 
 peace for its object as well as the end." But was there 
 ever a war, Cato, which had Mwzfw for its object ? No. What 
 Cato means by states naturally rivals and enemies, I shall 
 not enquire into, but this I know (for myself at least) that it 
 was not in the power of France or Spain, or all the other 
 powers in Europe, to have given such a wound, or raised us 
 to such a mortal hatred as Britain hath done. We feel the 
 same kind of undescribed anger at her conduct, as we would 
 at the sight of an animal devouring its young ; and this par- 
 ticular species of anger is not generated in the transitory 
 temper of the man, but in the chaste and undefiled womb 
 of nature. 
 
 Cato, towards the conclusion of his third letter, (at which 
 place I shall leave him for the present,) compares the state 
 of Britain and America to the quarrels of lovers, and from 
 thence infers a probability, that our affections will be re- 
 newed thereby. This I cannot help looking on as one of 
 the most unnatural and distorted similes that can be drawn. 
 Come hither ye that are lovers, or ye that have been lovers, 
 and decide the controversy between us ! What comparison 
 is there between the soft murmurs of an heart mourning in 
 
144 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 secret, and the loud horrors of war — between the silent tears 
 of pensive sorrow, and rivers of wasted blood — between 
 the szvcet strife of affection, and the bitter strife of death — 
 between the curable calamities of pettish lovers, and the sad 
 sight of a thousand slain ! " Get thee behind me," Cato, for 
 thou hast not the feelings of a man. 
 
 The Forester. 
 
 Philadelphia, April 8, 1776. 
 
 III. 
 TO CATO. 
 
 Cato'S partizans may call me furious ; I regard it not. 
 There are men, too, who have not virtue enough to be angry 
 and that crime perhaps is Cato's. He who dares not offend 
 cannot be honest. Having thus balanced the charge, I pro- 
 ceed to Cato's 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th letters, all of which, as 
 they contain but little matter, I shall dismiss with as little 
 trouble and less formality. 
 
 His fourth letter is introduced with a punning Soliloquy — 
 Cato's title to soliloquies is indisputable ; because no man 
 cares for his company.* However, he disowns the writing 
 it, and assures his readers that it " was really put into his 
 hands." I always consider this confirming mode of expres- 
 sion as betraying a suspicion of one's self ; and in this place 
 it amounts to just as much as if Cato had said, "you know 
 my failing, Sirs, but what I tell you now is really true." 
 Well, be it so, Cato ; you shall have all the credit you ask 
 for ; and as to when or where or how you got it, who was 
 the author, or who the giver, I shall not enquire after ; being 
 fully convinced, by the poetical merit of the performance, 
 that tho' the writer of it may be an Allen^ he '11 never be a 
 Ramsay. f Thus much for the soliloquy; and if this gentle 
 
 * As this piece may possibly fall into the hands of some who are not acquainted 
 with the word Soliloquy, for their information the sense of it is given, viz. 
 " talking to one's self." — Author. 
 
 ■ Allen was a prominent opponent of Independence in Philadelphia. — Editor. 
 
 f Allan Ramsay a famous Scotch poet of genuine wit and humour. — Author. 
 
1776] 
 
 THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 chastisement should be the means of preventing Cato or his 
 colleague from mingling their punning nonsense with sub- 
 jects of such a serious nature as the present one truly is, it 
 will answer one of the ends it was intended for. 
 
 Cato's fourth, and the greatest part of his fifth letter, are 
 constructed on a false meaning uncivilly imposed on a pas- 
 sage quoted from Common Sense ; and for which, the author 
 of that pamphlet hath a right to expect from Cato the usual 
 concessions. I shall quote the passage entire, with Cato's 
 additional meaning, and the inferences which he draws there- 
 from. He introduces it with saying, " In my remarks on 
 the pamphlet before me I shall first consider those argu- 
 ments on which, he (the author) appears to lay his chief 
 stress ; and these are' collected under four heads in his con- 
 clusion, one of which is, * // is the custom of nations when 
 any two are at war, for some other powers not engaged in the 
 quarrel, to step in by way of Mediators, and bring about the 
 prelimenaries of a peace; but while America calls herself the 
 subject of Great-Britain, no power, however well disposed she 
 may be, can offer her mediation.' " The meaning contained in 
 this passage is so exceedingly plain, and expressed in such 
 easy and familiar terms, that it scarcely admits of being 
 made plainer. No one, I think, could have understood it 
 any other wise, than that while we continue to call our- 
 selves British Subjects, the quarrel between us can only be 
 called a family quarrel, in which, it would be just as indeli- 
 cate for any other nation to advise, or any ways to meddle 
 or make, even with their offers of mediation, as it would 
 be for a third person to interfere in a quarrel between a man 
 and his wife. Whereas were we to make use of that natural 
 right which all other nations have done before us, and erect a 
 government of our own, independant of all the world, the 
 quarrel could then be no longer called a family qtiarrel, but 
 a regular war between the two powers of Britain and Amer- 
 ica, in the same manner as one carried on between England 
 and France; and in this state of political separation, the 
 neutral powers might kindly render their mediation, (as hath 
 always been the practice) and bring about the prehminaries 
 
 VOL. I. — 10 
 
146 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 of a peace, — not a union, Cato, that is quite another thing. 
 But instead of Cato's taking it in this easy and natural 
 sense, he flies away on a wrong scent, charges the author 
 with proposing to call in foreign assistance; and under this 
 willful falsehood raises up a mighty cry after nothing at all. 
 He begins his wild and unintelligible comment in the follow- 
 ing manner : " Is this," says he, (meaning the passage already 
 quoted) " common sense, ox comni07i nonsense ? Surely peace * 
 with Great Britain cannot be the object of this writer, after 
 the horrible character he has given of the people of that 
 country, and telling us, that reconciliation with them would 
 be our ruin. The latter part of the paragraph seems to cast 
 some light upon the former, although it contradicts it, for 
 these mediators are not to interfere for making up the quar- 
 rel, but to widen it by supporting us in a declaration, That 
 we are not the subjects of Great Britain. A new sort of 
 business truly for mediators. But this," continues Cato, 
 " leads us directly to the main enquiry — What foreign power 
 is able to give us this support ? " What support, Cato ? The 
 passage you have quoted neither says a syllable, nor insinu- 
 ates a hint about support :— It speaks only oi neutral powers 
 in the neighbourly character of mediators between those 
 which are at war ; and says it is the custom of European 
 courts to do so. Cato hath already raised Commissioners 
 into Ambassadors ; but how he could transform mediators 
 into men in arms, and mediation into military alliance, is sur- 
 passingly strange. Read the part over again, Cato ; if you 
 find I have charged you wrongfully, and will point it out, I 
 will engage that the author of Common Sense shall ask your 
 pardon in the public papers, with his name to it : but if the 
 error be yours, the concession on your part follows as a 
 duty. 
 
 Though I am fully persuaded that Cato does not believe 
 one half of what himself has written, he nevertheless takes 
 amazing pains to frighten his readers into a belief of the 
 whole. Tells them of foreign troops (which he supposes we 
 
 * It is a strange thing that Cato cannot be taught to distinguish between peace 
 and union. — Author. 
 
1776] 
 
 THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 H7 
 
 are going to send for) ravaging up and down the country ; 
 of their " bloody massacres, unrelenting persecutions, which 
 would liarrow tip (says he) tJie very souls of protestants and 
 freemen.'' Were they coming, Cato, which no one ever 
 dreamed of but yourself (for thank God, we want them not,) 
 it would be impossible for them to exceed, or even to equal, 
 the cruelties practised by the British army in the East-In- 
 dies : The tying men to the mouths of cannon and " blow- 
 ing them away " was never acted by any but an English Gen- 
 eral, or approved by any but a British Court.* Read the 
 proceedings of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs. 
 
 From temporal fears Cato proceeds to spiritual ones, and 
 in a hypocritical panic, asks, " To whose share will Pennsyl- 
 vania fall — that of his most Catholic, or his most Christian 
 King ? I confess," continues he, " that these questions 
 stagger me." I don't wonder at it, Cato — I am glad to 
 hear that some kind of remorse hath overtaken you — that 
 you begin to feel that you are " heavy laden." You have 
 had a long run, and the stoutest heart must fail at last. 
 
 Cato perceiving that the falsehoods in his fourth letter past 
 unreproved, ventured boldly on a fifth, in which he continues, 
 enlarging on the same convenient bugbear. " In my last," 
 says he, "some notice was taken of the dangerous proposi- 
 tion held up by the author of Common Sense, for having re- 
 course to foreign assistance." When will Cato learn to 
 speak the truth ! The assistance which we hope for from 
 France is not armies, (we want them not) but arms and 
 ammunition. We have already received into this province 
 only, near two hundred tons of saltpetre and gunpowder, 
 besides muskets. Surely we may continue to cultivate a 
 useful acquaintance, without such malevolent beings as Cato 
 raising his barbarous slander thereon. At this time it is not 
 only illiberal, but impolitic, and perhaps dangerous to be 
 pouring forth such torrents of abuse, as his fourth and fifth 
 letters contain, against the only power that in articles of 
 defence hath supplied our hasty wants. 
 
 * Lord Clive, the chief of Eastern plunderers, received the thanks of Parlia- 
 ment for " his honourable conduct in the East-Indies. — Author. 
 
148 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 Cato, after expending near two letters in beating down an 
 idol which himself only had set up, proudly congratulates 
 himself on the defeat, and marches off to new exploits, ' 
 leaving behind him the following proclamation : " Having 
 thus," says Cato, " dispatched his (the author of Common 
 Sense's) main argument for independence, which he founds on 
 the necessity of calling in foreign assistance, I proceed to 
 examine some other parts of his work." Not a syllable, 
 Cato, doth any part of the pamphlet in question say of call- 
 ing in foreign assistance, or even forming military alliances. 
 The dream is wholly your own, and is directly repugnant 
 both to the letter and spirit of every page in the piece. The 
 idea which Common Sense constantly holds up, is to have 
 nothing to do with the political affairs of Europe. " As 
 Europe," says the pamphlet, " is our market for trade, we 
 ought to form no political connections with any part of it. 
 It is the true interest of America to steer clear of all Euro- 
 pean contentions." And where it proposes sending a mani- 
 festo to foreign courts (which it is high time to do) it 
 recommends it only for the purpose of announcing to them 
 the impossibility of our living any longer under the British 
 government, and of ^'■assuring such Courts of our peaceable 
 disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering into 
 trade with them." Learn to be an honest man, Cato, and 
 then thou wilt not be thus exposed. — I have been the more 
 particular in detecting Cato here, because it is on this bubble 
 that his air-built battery against independance is raised — a 
 poor foundation indeed ! which even the point of a pin, or a 
 pen, if you please, can demolish with a touch, and bury the 
 formidable Cato beneath the ruins of a vapour. 
 
 From this part of his fifth letter to the end of his seventh 
 he entirely deserts the subject of independance, and sets up 
 the proud standard of Kings, in preference to a Republican 
 form of Government. My remarks on this part of the sub- 
 ject will be general and concise. 
 
 In this part of the debate Cato shelters himself chiefly in 
 quotations from other authors, without reasoning much on 
 
1776] THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 149 
 
 the matter himself ; * in answer to which, I present him with 
 a string of maxims and reflexions, drawn from the nature of 
 things, without borrowing from any one. Cato may ob- 
 serve, that I scarcely ever quote ; the reason is, I always 
 think. But to return. 
 
 Government should always be considered as a matter of 
 convenience, not of right. The scripture institutes no par- 
 ticular form of government, but it enters a protest against 
 the monarchical form ; and a negation on one thing, where 
 two only are offered, and one must be chosen, amounts to an 
 affirmative on the other. Monarchical government was first 
 set up by the Heathens, and the Almighty permitted it to the 
 Jews as a punishment. " I gave them a King in mine anger." 
 — Hosea xiii. 11. A Republican form of government is 
 pointed out by nature — Kingly governments by an unequal- 
 ity of power. In Republican governments, the leaders of 
 the people, if improper, are removable by vote ; Kings only 
 by arms : an unsuccessful vote in the first case, leaves the 
 voter safe ; but an unsuccessful attempt in the latter, is 
 death. Strange, that that which is our right in the one, 
 should be our rtii7i in the other. From which reflexion 
 follows this maxim. That that mode of government in 
 which our right becomes our ruin, cannot be the right one. 
 If all human nature be corrupt, it is needless to strengthen 
 the corruption by establishing a succession of Kings, who, 
 be they ever so base, are still to be obeyed ; for the manners 
 of a court will always have an influence over the morals of a 
 people. A Republican government hath more true grandeur 
 in it than a Kingly one. On the part of the public it is 
 
 * Tke following is an instance of Cato's method of conducting an argument : 
 " Jf hereditary succession, says Common Sense, f meaning succession of monarch- 
 ial governtnents J did ensure a race of good and wise men, it would have the seal 
 of divine authority "thus we find him," says Cato, " with his own hand 
 affixing the seal of heaven to what he before told us the Devil invented and the 
 Almighty entered his protest against." Catds yth letter. — This is a strange 
 argument indeed. Cato, or rather it is no argument at all, for hereditary succes- 
 sion does not ensure a race of good and wise men, consequently has not the seal of 
 divine authority." — Author. 
 
I50 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 more consistent with freemen to appoint their rulers than to 
 have them born ; and on the part of those who preside, it is 
 far nobler to be a ruler by the choice of the people, than a 
 King by the chance of birth. Every honest Delegate is more 
 than a Monarch. Disorders will unavoidably happen in all 
 states, but monarchical governments are the most subject 
 thereto, because the balance hangs uneven. " Nineteen re- 
 bellions and eight civil wars in England since the conquest" 
 Whatever commotions are produced in Republican states, 
 are not produced by a Republican spirit, but by those who 
 seek to extinguish it. A Republican state cannot produce 
 its own destruction, it can only suffer it. No nation of 
 people, in their true senses, when seriously reflecting on the 
 rank which God hath given them, and the reasoning facul- 
 ties he hath blessed them with, would ever, of their own 
 consent, give any one ina7i a negative power over the whole : 
 No man since the fall hath ever been equal to the trust, 
 wherefore 'tis insanity in us to entrust them with it ; and in 
 this sense, all those who have had it have done us right by 
 abusing us into reason. Nature seems sometimes to laugh 
 at mankind, by giving them so many fools for Kings ; at 
 other times, she punishes their folly by giving them tyrants; 
 but England must have offended highly to be curst with both 
 in one. Rousseau proposed a plan for establishing a perpetual 
 European peace ; which was, for every State in Europe to 
 send Ambassadors to form a General Council, and when any 
 difference happened between any two nations, to refer the 
 matter to arbitration instead of going to arms. This would 
 be forming a kind of European Republic : But the proud and 
 plundering spirit of Kings hath not peace for its object. 
 They look not at the good of mankind. They set not out 
 upon that plan : And if the history of the Creation and the 
 history of Kings be compared together the result will be 
 this — that God hath made a world, and Kings have robbed 
 him of it. 
 
 But that which sufficiently establishes the Republican 
 mode of government, in preference to a Kingly one, even 
 when all other arguments are left out, is this simple truth, 
 
1776] THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 151 
 
 that all men are Republicans by nature, and Royalists only 
 by fashion. And this is fully proved by that passionate 
 adoration which all men shew to that great and almost only 
 remaining bulwark of natural rights, trial by juries, which is 
 founded on a pure Republican basis. Here the power of 
 Kings is shut out. No Royal negative can enter this Court. 
 The Jury, which is here supreme, is a Republic, a body of 
 Judges chosen from among the people. 
 
 The charter which secures this freedom in England, was 
 formed, not in the senate, but in the field ; and insisted on 
 by the people, not granted by the crown ; the crown in that 
 instance granted nothing, but only renounced its former 
 tyrannies, and bound itself over to its future good behaviour. 
 It was the compromise, by which the wearer of it made his 
 peace with the people, and the condition on which he was 
 suffered to reign. 
 
 Here ends my reply to all the letters which have at present 
 appeared under the signature of Cato, being at this time 
 seven in number. I have made no particular remarks on his 
 last two, which treat only of the mode of government, but 
 answered them generally. In one place I observe, he accuses 
 the writer of Common Sense with inconsistency in having 
 declared, " That no man was a warmer wisher for reconcilia- 
 tion than himself, before the fatal 19th of April, 1775 " ' ; 
 " that is," (says Cato) reconciliation to monarchical govern- 
 ment." To which I reply that war ought to be no man's 
 wish, neither ought any man to perplex a state, already 
 formed, with his private opinions ; " the mode of government 
 being a proper consideration for those countries " only 
 " which have their governments yet to form." {Common 
 Sense). 
 
 On a review of the ground which I have gone over in 
 Cato's letters, (exclusive of what I have omitted) I find the 
 following material charges against him : 
 
 First. He hath accused the Committee with crimes gener- 
 ally ; stated none, nor proved, nor attempted to prove any. 
 
 ' The " Massacre at Lexington," as it was generally called. — Editor. 
 
152 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 N. B. The pretence of charging the acts of a body of men 
 on individuals, is too slender to be admitted.* 
 
 Secondly. He hath falsely complained to the public of the 
 restraint of the press. 
 
 Thirdly. He hath wickedly asserted that " gleams of rec- 
 onciliation hath lately broken in upon us," thereby grossly 
 deceiving the people. 
 
 Fourthly. He hath insinuated, as if he wished the public 
 to believe, that we had received " the utmost assurance of 
 having all our grievances redressed, and an ample security 
 against any future violation of our just rights." 
 
 Fifthly. He hath spread false alarms of calling in foreign 
 troops. 
 
 Sixthly. He hath turned the scripture into a jest. Ez. 35. 
 
 These falsehoods, if uncontradicted, might have passed for 
 truths, and the minds of persons remote from better intelli- 
 gence might have been greatly embarrassed thereby. Let 
 our opinions be what they will, truth as to facts should be 
 strictly adhered to. It was this affecting consideration that 
 drew out the Forester (a perfect volunteer) to the painful 
 task of writing three long letters, and occasioned to the 
 public the trouble of reading them. 
 
 Having for the present closed my correspondence with 
 Cato, I shall conclude this letter with a well meant affec- 
 tionate address 
 
 To the People. 
 
 It is not a time to trifle. Men, who know they deserve 
 nothing from their country, and whose hope is on the arm 
 that hath fought to enslave ye, may hold out to you, as Cato 
 hath done, the false light of reconciliation. There is no such 
 
 * Cato and I differ materially in our opinion of Committees ; I consider them 
 as the only constitutional bodies at present in this province, and that for the fol- 
 lowing reason ; they were duly elected by the people, and chearfuUy do the 
 service for which they were elected. The House of Assembly were likewise 
 elected by the people, but do the business for which they were not elected. 
 Their authority is truly unconstitutional, being self-created. My charge is as a 
 body, and not as individuals. — Author. The Committee referred to is that 
 mentioned in a note to the Forester's first letter, p. 129. — Editor. 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 thing. 'Tis gone ! 'Tis past ! The grave hath parted us 
 — and death, in the persons of the slain, hath cut the thread 
 of life between Britain and America. 
 
 Conquest, and not reconciliation is the plan of Britain. 
 But admitting even the last hope of the Tories to happen, 
 which is, that our enemies after a long succession of losses, 
 wearied and disabled, should despairingly throw down their 
 arms and propose a re-union ; in that case, what is to be 
 ■done ? Are defeated and disappointed tyrants to be con- 
 sidered like mistaken and converted friends? Or would it 
 be right, to receive those for Governors, who, had they been 
 conquerors, would have hung us up for traitors ? Certainly 
 not. Reject the offer then, and propose another ; which is, 
 we will make peace with you as with enemies, but we will never 
 re-unite with you as friends. This effected, and ye secure 
 to yourselves the pleasing prospect of an eternal peace. 
 America, remote from all the wrangling world, may live at 
 ease. Bounded by the ocean, and backed by the wilderness, 
 who hath she to fear, but her GOD ? 
 
 Be not deceived. It is not a little that is at stake. Rec- 
 onciliation will not now go down, even if it were offered. 
 'Tis a dangerous question ; for the eyes of all men begin to 
 open. There is now no secret in the matter ; there ought 
 to be none. It is a case that concerns every man, and every 
 man ought to lay it to heart. He that is here and he that 
 was born here are alike concerned. It is needless, too, to 
 split the business into a thousand parts, and perplex it with 
 endless and fruitless investigations, in the manner that a 
 writer signed a Common Man hath done. This unparalleled 
 contention of nations is not to be settled like a schoolboy's 
 task of pounds, shillings, pence, and fractions. That writer, 
 though he may mean well, is strangely below the mark : for 
 the first and great question, and that which involves every 
 other in it, and from which every other will flow, is happi- 
 ness. Can this continent be happy under the government of 
 Great Britain or not ? Secondly, Can she be happy under 
 a government of our own ? To live beneath the authority 
 of those whom we cannot love, is misery, slavery, or what 
 
154 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 name you please. In that case, there will never be peace. 
 Security will be a thing unknown, because a treacherous 
 friend in power is the most dangerous of enemies. The 
 answer to the second question, Can America be happy under 
 a government of her own, is short and simple, viz. As happy 
 as she please ; she hath a blank sheet to write upon. Put 
 it not off too long.* 
 
 Painful as the task of speaking truth must sometimes be, 
 yet I cannot avoid giving the following hint, because much, 
 nay almost every thing depends upon it ; and that is, a 
 tJiorough knowledge of the persons whom we trust. It is the 
 duty of the public, at this time, to scrutinize closely into the 
 conduct of their Committee Members, Members of Assem- 
 bly, and Delegates in Congress ; to know what they do, and 
 their motives for so doing. Without doing this, we shall 
 never know who to confide in ; but shall constantly mistake 
 friends for enemies, and enemies for friends, till in the con- 
 fusion of persons we sacrifice the cause. I am led to this re- 
 flexion by the following circumstance. That the Gentleman 
 to whom the unwise and arbitrary instructions to the Dele- 
 gates of this province owe their being, and who hath bestowed 
 all his power to support them, is said to be the same person 
 who, when the ships now on the stocks were wanting timber, 
 refused to sell it, and thus by preventing our strength to cry 
 out of our insufficiency. — But his hour of fame is past — he 
 is hastening to his political exit. 
 
 The Forester. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Whoever will take the trouble of attending to the pro- 
 gress and changeability of times and things, and the conduct 
 of mankind thereon, will find, that extraordinary circumstan- 
 ces do sometimes arise before us, of a species, either so purely 
 natural or so perfectly original, that none but the man of 
 
 * Forget not the hapless African. — Author. 
 
THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 '55 
 
 nature can understand them. When precedents fail to spirit 
 us, we must return to the first principles of things for infor- 
 mation ; and think, as if we were the first men that t/might. 
 And this is the true reason that, in the present state of affairs, 
 the wise are become foolish, and the foolish wise. I am led 
 to this reflexion by not being able to account for the con- 
 duct of the Quakers on any other : for although they do not 
 seem to perceive it themselves, yet it is amazing to hear with 
 what unanswerable ignorance many of that body, wise in 
 other matters, will discourse on the present one. Did they 
 hold places or commissions under the King, were they Gov- 
 ernors of provinces, or had they any interest apparently dis- 
 tinct from us, the mystery would cease ; but as they have 
 not, their folly is best attributed to that superabundance of 
 worldly knowledge which in original matters is too cunning to 
 be wise. Back to the first plain path of nature, friends, and 
 begin anew: for in this business your first footsteps were 
 wrong. You have now travelled to the summit of inconsis- 
 tency, and that with such accelerated rapidity as to acquire 
 autumnal ripeness by the first of May. Now your resting 
 time comes on. You have done your utmost and must abide 
 the consequences. Yet who can reflect on such conduct 
 without feeling concern ! Who can look, unaffected, on a 
 body of thoughtful men, undoing in otie rash hour the labour 
 of seventy years : Or what can be said in their excuse, more, 
 than that they have arrived at their second childhood, the 
 infancy of threescore and ten.* 
 
 But my chief design, in this letter, is to set forth the in- 
 consistency, partiality, and injustice of the dependant faction,^ 
 
 * The Quakers in 1704 who then made up ihe whole house of assembly [in Penn- 
 sylvania] zealously guarded iheir own and ihe people' s rights against the encroach- 
 ing power of the Proprietor, who nevertheless submitted them by finding means to 
 abolish the original charter and introduce another , of which they complained in the 
 following words. "And then by a subtle contrivance and artifice, 'of thine,' 
 laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, or the circumstances of inatiy 
 could admit time to consider of, a way was found out to lay the first charter aside 
 and introduce another." — Query. Would these t?ien have elected the proprietary 
 persons 7vhich you have done ? — A uthor. 
 
 ' Opponents of American Independence. — Editor. 
 
156 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 and like an honest man, who courts no favor, to shew to 
 them the dangerous ground they stand upon ; in order to do 
 which, I must refer to the business, event, and probable conse- 
 quences of the late election. 
 
 The business of that day was to do what ? Why, to elect 
 four burgesses to assist those already elected, in conducting 
 the military proceedings of this province, against the power 
 of tliat crown by whose authority they pretend to sit : and 
 those gentlemen when elected, are according to the rules of 
 that House (as the rest have done) to take an oath of alle- 
 giance to serve the same King against whom this province, 
 with themselves at the head thereof, are at war : and a 
 necessary qualification required of many voters was, that they 
 likewise should swear allegiance to the same King against 
 whose power the same house of assembly had just before 
 obliged them either to fine or take up arms. Did ever na- 
 tional hypocrisy arise to such a pitch as this! Under the 
 pretence of moderation we are running into the most damna- 
 ble sins. It is now the duty of every man from the pulpit 
 and from the press, in his family and in the street to cry out 
 against it. Good God ! Have we no remembrance of duty 
 left to the King of Heaven ! No conscientious awe to restrain 
 this sacrifice of sacred things ? Is this our chartered privilege ? 
 This our boasted constitution, that we can sin and feel it not ? 
 The clergy of the English church, of which I profess myself 
 a member, complain of their situation, and wish relief ; in 
 short, every thinking man must feel distress. Yet, to the 
 credit of the people be it spoken, the sin lies not at their 
 door. We can trace the iniquity in this province to the foun- 
 tain head, and see by what delusions it has imposed on others. 
 The guilt centres in a few, and flows from the same source, 
 that a few years ago avariciously suffered the frontiers of 
 this province to be deluged in blood ; and though the ven- 
 geance of Heaven hath slept since, it may awake too soon 
 for their repose. 
 
 A motion was sometime ago made to elect a convention 
 to take into consideration the state of the province. A 
 more judicious proposal could not be thought of. Our pres- 
 
1776] 
 
 THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 
 
 ent condition is alarming. We are worse off then other 
 provinces, and such an enquiry is highly necessary. The 
 House of Assembly in its present form is disqualified for 
 such business, because it is a branch from that power against 
 whom we are contending. Besides, they are in inter- 
 course with the King's representative, and the members 
 which compose the house have, as members thereof taken an 
 oath to discover to the King of England the very business 
 which, in that inquiry, would unavoidably come before them. 
 Their minds too are warped and prejudiced by the provin- 
 cial instructions they have arbitrarily and without right is- 
 sued forth. They are again improper because the enquiry 
 would necessarily extend to them as a body, to see how far it 
 is proper to trust men with such unlimited power as they 
 have lately assumed. In times like these, we must trace to 
 the root and origin of things ; It being the only way to be- 
 come right, when we are got systematically wrong. The 
 motion for a Convention alarmed the crown and proprietary 
 dependants ; ' but, to every man of reflexion, it had a cordial 
 and restorative quality. The case is, first, we are got wrong — 
 Secondly, how shall we get right ? Not by a House of 
 Assembly ; because tJiey cannot sit as Judges, in a case, where 
 their own existence under their present form and authority is 
 to be judged of. However, the objectors found out a way, 
 as they thought, to supercede the necessity of a Convention, 
 by promoting a bill for augmenting the number of repre- 
 sentatives ; not perceiving at the same time that such an 
 augmentation would encrease the necessity of a Convention ; 
 because, the more any power is augmented, which derives 
 it's authority from our enemies, the more unsafe and danger- 
 ous it becomes to us. Far be it from the writer of this to 
 censure the individuals which compose that House ; his aim 
 being only against the chartered authority under which it 
 acts. However, the bill passed into a law, (which shews, 
 that in Pennsylvania, as well as in England, there is no con- 
 stitution, but only a temporary form of government.*') While, 
 
 ' Opponents of American Independence. — Editor. 
 
 * This distinction -will be more fully explained in some future letter. — A uthor. 
 
158 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 in order to show the inconsistency of the House in its pres- 
 ent state, the motion for a convention was postponed, and 
 four conscientious independent gentlemen were proposed 
 as candidates, on the augmentation, who, had they been 
 elected would not have taken the oaths necessary to admit 
 a person as member of that Assembly. And in that case, 
 the house would have had neither one kind of authority or 
 another, while the old part remained sworn to divulge to 
 the King what the new part thought it their duty to declare 
 against him. Thus matters stood on the morning of 
 election. 
 
 On our side we had to sustain the loss of those good 
 citizens who are now before the walls of Quebec, and other 
 parts of the continent ; while the tories by never stirring out 
 remain at home to take the advantage of elections ; and this 
 evil prevails more or less from the Congress down to the 
 Committees. A numerous body of Germans of property, 
 zealots in the cause of freedom, were likewise excluded for 
 non-allegiance. Notwithstanding which, the tory non-con- 
 formists, that is those who are advertised as enemies to their 
 country, were admitted to vote on the other side. A strange 
 contradiction indeed ! To which were added the testimon- 
 izing Quakers, who, after suffering themselves to be duped 
 by the meanest of all passions, religious spleen, endeavour 
 in a vague uncharitable manner to possess the Roman 
 Catholics of the same disease. These parties, with such 
 others as they could influence, were headed by the proprie- 
 tary dependants to support the British and Proprietary 
 power against the public. They had pompously given out 
 that nine tenths of the people were on their side. A vast 
 majority truly ! But it so happened that, notwithstanding 
 the disadvantages we laid under of having many of our 
 votes rejected, others disqualified for non-allegiance, with 
 the great loss sustained by absentees, the manoeuvre of shut- 
 ting up the doors between seven and eight o'clock, and cir- 
 culating the report of adjourning, and finishing the next 
 morning, by which several were deceived, — it so happened, 
 I say, that on casting up the tickets, the first in numbers on 
 
1776] THE FORESTER'S LETTERS. 1 59 
 
 the dependant side, and the first on the independant side, 
 viz. Clymer and Allen, were a tye : 923 each.* 
 
 To the description which I have already given of those 
 who are against us, I may add, that they have neither asso- 
 ciated nor assisted, or but very few of them ; that they are a 
 collection of different bodies blended by accident, having no 
 natural relation to each other ; that they have agreed rather 
 out of spite than right ; and that, as they met by chance, 
 they will dissolve away again for the want of a cement. 
 
 On our side, our object was single, our cause was one ; 
 wherefore, we cannot separate, neither ivill v/q separate. We 
 have stood the experiment of the election, for the sake of 
 knowing the men who were against us. Alas, what are they ? 
 One half of them ought to be now asking public pardon for 
 their former offences ; and the other half may think them- 
 selves well off that they are let alone. When the enemy 
 enters the country, can they defend themselves? Or will 
 they defend themselves ? And if not, are they so foolish as 
 to think that, in times like these, when it is our duty to 
 search the corrupted wound to the bottom, that we, with ten 
 times their strength and number (if the question were put 
 to the people at large) will submit to be governed by cowards 
 and tories ? 
 
 He that is wise will reflect, that the safest asylum, es- 
 pecially in times of general convulsion when no settled form 
 of government prevails, is, the love of the people. All prop- 
 erty is safe under their protection. Even in countries 
 where the lowest and most licentious of them have risen into 
 outrage they have never departed from the path of natural 
 honor. Volunteers unto death in defence of the person or 
 fortune of those who had served or defended them, division 
 of property never entered the mind of the populace. It is 
 incompatible with that spirit which impels them into action. 
 An avaricious mob was never heard of ; nay, even a miser 
 pausing in the midst of them, and catching their spirit, 
 would from that instant cease to be covetous. 
 
 * Mr. Samuel Howell, though in their ticket, was never considered by us a 
 proprietary dependant. — Author. 
 
i6o 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 I shall conclude this letter with remarking, that the Eng- 
 lish fleet and army have of late gone upon a different plan 
 of operation to what they first set out with ; for instead of 
 going against those Colonies where independence prevails 
 most, they go against tJwse only where they suppose it pre- 
 vails least. They have quitted Massachusetts-Bay and gone 
 to North-Carolina, supposing they had many friends there. 
 Why are they expected at New-York ? But because they 
 imagine the inhabitants are 7iot generally independents, (yet 
 that province hath a large share of virtue, notwithstanding 
 the odium which its House of Assembly brought upon it.) 
 From which I argue that the electing the King's Attorney 
 for a Burgess of this city, is a fair invitation for them to 
 come here ; and in that case, will those who have invited 
 them turn out to repulse them ? I suppose not, for in their 
 923 votes there will not be found more than sixty armed 
 men, perhaps not so many. Wherefore, should such an 
 event happen, which probably will, I here give my first vote 
 to levy the expence attending the expedition against them, 
 on the estates of those who have invited them. 
 
 The Forester. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 A DIALOGUE' 
 
 Between the GHOST of General MONTGOMERY just arrived 
 fom the Elysian Fields ; and an American DELEGATE, in a 
 wood near Philadelphia. 
 
 Delegate. Welcome to this retreat, my good friend. If I 
 mistake not, I now see the ghost of the brave General 
 Montgomery. 
 
 General Montgomery. I am glad to see you. I still love 
 liberty and America, and the contemplation of the future 
 greatness of this Continent now forms a large share of my 
 present happiness. I am here upon an important errand, to 
 warn you against listening to terms of accommodation from 
 the court of Britain. 
 
 Del. I shall be happy in receiving instruction from you 
 in the present trying exigency of our public affairs. But 
 suppose the terms you speak of should be just and honor- 
 able? 
 
 Gen. Mont. How can you expect these, after the King 
 has proclaimed you rebels from the throne, and after both 
 houses of parliament have resolved to support him in carry- 
 ing on a war against you ? No, I see no offers from Great 
 Britain but of Pardon. The very word is an insult upon 
 our cause. To whom is pardon offered ? — to virtuous free- 
 men. For what ? — for flying to arms in defence of the rights 
 of humanity : And from whom do these offers come ? — 
 From a Royal Criminal. You have furnished me with a 
 
 ' Printed in pamphlet form about the time of the appointment by Congress 
 of a Committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. — Editor. 
 
 VOL. I. — II 
 
 i6i 
 
THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 new reason for triumphing in my death, for I had rather 
 have it said that I died by his vengeance, than Hvcd by his 
 mercy. 
 
 Del. But you think nothing of the destructive conse- 
 quences of war. How many cities must be reduced to 
 ashes ! how many famihes must be ruined ! and how many 
 widows and orphans must be made, should the present war 
 be continued any longer with Great Britain. 
 
 Gen. Mont. I think of nothing but the destructive conse- 
 quences of slavery. The calamities of war are transitory 
 and confined in their effects. But the calamities of slavery 
 are extensive and lasting in their operation. I love man- 
 kind as well as you, and I could never restrain a tear when 
 my love of justice has obliged me to shed the blood of a 
 fellow creature. It is my humanity that makes me urge you 
 against a reconciliation with Great Britain, for if this takes 
 place, nothing can prevent the American Colonies from 
 being the seat of war as often as the King of Great Britain 
 renews his quarrels with any of the Colonies, or with any of 
 the belligerent powers of Europe. 
 
 Del. I tremble at the doctrine you have advanced. I 
 see you are for the independence of the Colonies on Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Gen. Mont. I am for permanent liberty, peace, and 
 security to the American Colonies. 
 
 Del. These can only be maintained by placing the 
 Colonies in the situation they were in the year 1763. 
 
 Gen. Mont. And is no satisfaction to be made to the 
 Colonies for the blood and treasure they have expended in 
 resisting the arms of Great Britain ? Who can soften the 
 prejudices of the King — the parliament — and the nation, 
 each of whom will be averse to maintain a peace with you in 
 proportion to the advantages you have gained over them? 
 Who shall make restitution to the widows — the mothers — 
 and the children of the men who have been slain by their 
 arms? Can no hand wield the sceptre of government in 
 America except that which has been stained with the blood 
 of your countrymen ? For my part if I thought this Conti- 
 
1776] 
 
 A DIALOGUE. 
 
 nent would ever acknowledge the sovereignty of the Crown 
 of Britain again, I should forever lament the day in which I 
 offered up my life for its salvation. 
 
 Del. You should distinguish between the King and his 
 ministers. 
 
 Gen. Mont. I live in a world where all political supersti- 
 tion is done away. The King is the author of all the meas- 
 ures carried on against America. The influence of bad 
 ministers is no better apology for these measures, than the 
 influences of bad company is for a murderer, who expiates 
 his crimes under a gallows. You all complain of the corrup- 
 tion of the parliament, and of the venality of the nation, and 
 yet you forget that the Crown is the source of them both. 
 You shun the streams, and yet you are willing to sit down 
 at the very fountain of corruption and venality. 
 
 Del. Our distance and charters will protect us from the 
 influence of the crown. 
 
 Gen. Mont. Your distance will only render your danger more 
 imminent, and your ruin more irretrievable. Charters are 
 no restraints against the lust of power. The only reason why 
 you have escaped so long is, because the treasure of the 
 nation has been employed for these fifty years in buying up 
 the virtue of Britain and Ireland. Hereafter the reduction of 
 the representatives of the people of America will be the only 
 aim of administration should you continue to be connected 
 with them. 
 
 Del. But I foresee many evils from the independence of 
 the Colonies. Our trade will be ruined from the want of a 
 navy to protect it. Each Colony will put in its claim for 
 superiority, and we shall have domestic wars without end. 
 
 Gen. Mont. As I now know that Divine Providence in- 
 tends this country to be the asylum of persecuted virtue 
 from every quarter of the globe, so I think your trade 
 will be the vehicle that will convey it to you. Heaven has 
 furnished you with greater resources for a navy than any 
 nation in the world. Nothing but an ignorance of your 
 strength could have led you to sacrifice your trade for the 
 protection of a foreign navy. A freedom from the restraints 
 
164 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 of the acts of navigation I foresee will produce such immense 
 additions to the wealth of this country that posterity will 
 wonder that ever you thought your present trade worth its 
 protection. As to the supposed contentions between sister 
 colonies, they have no foundation in truth. But supposing 
 they have, will delaying the independance of the Colonies 
 50 years prevent them ? No — the weakness of the Colonies, 
 which at first produced their union, will always preserve it, 
 'till it shall be their interest to be separated. Had the Colony 
 of Massachuset's-bay been possessed of the military resources 
 which it would probably have had 50 years hence, would she 
 have held out the signal of distress to her sister colonies, 
 upon the news of the Boston port-bill ! No — she would 
 have withstood all the power of Britain alone, and afterwards 
 the neutral colonies might have shared the fate of the 
 colony of Canada. Moreover, had the connection with 
 Great-Britain been continued 50 years longer, the progress of 
 British laws, customs and manners (now totally corrupted) 
 would have been such that the Colonies would have been 
 prepared to welcome slavery. But had it been otherwise, 
 they must have asserted their independance with arms. 
 This is nearly done already. It will be cruel to bequeath 
 another contest to your posterity. 
 
 Del. But I dread all innovations in governments. They 
 are very dangerous things. 
 
 Gen. Mont. The revolution, which gave a temporary 
 stability to the liberties of Britain, was an innovation in 
 government, and yet no ill consequences have arisen from 
 it. Innovations are dangerous only as they shake the preju- 
 dices of a people ; but there are now, I believe, but few 
 prejudices to be found in this country, in favor of the old 
 connection with Great-Britain. I except those men only 
 who are under the influence of their passions and offices. 
 
 Del. But is it not most natural for us to wish for a con- 
 nection with a people who speak the same language with us, 
 and possess the same laws, religion, and forms of government 
 with ourselves. 
 
 Gen. Mont. The immortal Montesquieu says, that nations 
 
A DIALOGUE. 
 
 should form alliances with those nations only which are as 
 unlike to themselves as possible in religion, laws and man- 
 ners, if they mean to preserve their own constitutions. Your 
 dependance upon the crown is no advantage, but rather an 
 injury to the people of Britain, as it increases the power and 
 influence of the King. The people are benefited only by 
 your trade, and this they may have after you are indepen- 
 dant of the crown. Should you be disposed to forgive the 
 King and the nation for attempting to enslave you, they 
 will never forgive you for having baffled them in the 
 attempt. 
 
 Del. But we have many friends in both Houses of 
 Parliament. 
 
 Gen. Mont. You mean the ministry have many enemies 
 in Parliament who connect the cause of America with their 
 clamours at the door of administration. Lord Chatham's 
 conciliatory bill would have ruined you more effectually than 
 Lord North's motion. The Marquis of Rockingham was 
 the author of the declaratory bill.' Mr. Wilkes has added 
 infamy to the weakness of your cause, and the Duke of 
 Grafton and Lord Lyttleton have rendered the minority 
 junto, if possible, more contemptible than ever. 
 
 Del. But if we become independant we shall become a 
 commonwealth. 
 
 Gen. Mont. I maintain that it is your interest to be inde- 
 pendant of Great Britain, but I do not recommend any new 
 form of government to you. I should think it strange that 
 a people who have virtue enough to defend themselves 
 against the most powerful nation in the world should want 
 wisdom to contrive a perfect and free form of government. 
 You have been kept in subjection to the crown of Britain by 
 a miracle. Your liberties have hitherto been suspended by a 
 
 ' The Act of February, 1766, declaratory of the right of Parliament " to 
 bind America in all cases whatsoever." In a letter of George III. to Lord 
 North (February 5, 1778) he remarks that Lord George Germaine "said this 
 day unto me that the Declaratory Act, though but waste paper, was what galled 
 them (the Americans) most." (Donne, ii. p. 131.) It was indeed the costliest 
 bit of waste paper known to history. — Editor. 
 
l66 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 thread. Your connection with Great-Britain is unnatural 
 and unnecessary. All the wheels of a government should 
 move within itself. I would only beg leave to observe to 
 you, that monarchy and aristocracy have in all ages been the 
 vehicles of slavery. 
 
 Del. Our governments will want force and authority if 
 we become independant of Great-Britain. 
 
 Gen. Mont. I beg leave to contradict that assertion. No 
 royal edicts or acts of assembly have ever been more faith- 
 fully or universally obeyed than the resolves of the Con- 
 gress. I admire the virtue of the colonies, and did not some 
 of them still hang upon the haggard breasts of Great-Britain, 
 I should think the time now come in which they had virtue 
 enough to be happy under any form of government. Re- 
 member that it is in a commonwealth only that you can 
 expect to find every man a patriot or a hero. Aristides, 
 Epaminondas, Pericles, Scipio, Camillus, and a thousand 
 other illustrious Grecian and Roman heroes, would never 
 have astonished the world with their names, had they lived 
 under royal governments. 
 
 Del. Will not a declaration of independance lessen the 
 number of our friends, and increase the rage of our enemies 
 in Britain ? 
 
 Gen. Mont. Your friends (as you call them) are too few — 
 too divided — and too interested to help you. And as for 
 your enemies, they have done their worst. They have called 
 upon Russians — Hanoverians — Hessians — Canadians — Sav- 
 ages and Negroes to assist them in burning your towns — des- 
 olating your country — and in butchering your wives and 
 children. You have nothing further to fear from them. Go, 
 then, and awaken the Congress to a sense of their importance ; 
 you have no time to lose. France waits for nothing but a 
 declaration of your independance to revenge the injuries 
 they sustained from Britain in the last war. But I forbear to 
 reason any further with you. The decree is finally gone forth. 
 Britain and America are now distinct empires. Your coun- 
 try teems with patriots — heroes — and legislators, who are 
 impatient to burst forth into light and importance. Here- 
 
1776] 
 
 A DIALOGUE. 
 
 167 
 
 after your achievements shall no more swell the page of 
 British history. God did not excite the attention of all 
 Europe — of the whole world — nay of angels themselves to 
 the present controversy for nothing. The inhabitants of 
 Heaven long to see the ark finished, in which all the liberty 
 and true religion of the world are to be deposited. The day 
 in which the Colonies declare their independance will be a 
 jubilee to Hampden — Sidney — Russell — Warren — Gardiner 
 — Macpherson — Cheeseman, and all the other heroes who 
 have offered themselves as sacrifices upon the altar of liberty. 
 It was no small mortification to me when I fell upon the Plains 
 of Abraham, to reflect that I did not expire like the brave 
 General Wolfe, in the arms of victory. But I now no longer 
 envy him his glory, I would rather die in attemptmg to ob- 
 tain permanent freedom for a handful of people, than survive 
 a conquest which would serve only to extend the empire of 
 despotism. A band of heroes now beckon to me. I can 
 only add that America is the theatre where human nature 
 will soon receive its greatest military, civil, and literary 
 honours. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 editor's preface. 
 
 Thomas Paine, in his Will, speaks of this work as The 
 American Crisis, remembering perhaps that a number of 
 political pamphlets had appeared in London, 1775-1776, 
 under general title of " The Crisis." By the blunder of an 
 early English publisher of Paine's writings, one essay in 
 the London " Crisis " was attributed to Paine, and the error 
 has continued to cause confusion. This publisher was D. I. 
 Eaton, who printed as the first number of Paine's " Crisis " 
 an essay taken from the London publication. But his pref- 
 atory note says : " Since the printing of this book, the pub- 
 lisher is informed that No. i, or first Crisis in this publication, 
 is not one of the thirteen which Paine wrote, but a letter 
 previous to them." Unfortunately this correction is sufifi- 
 ciently equivocal to leave on some minds the notion that 
 Paine did write the letter in question, albeit not as a number 
 of his " Crisis " ; especially as Eaton's editor unwarrantably 
 appended the signature " C. S.," suggesting " Common 
 Sense." There are, however, no such letters in the London 
 essay, which is signed " Casca." It was published August 
 9, 1775, in the form of a letter to General Gage, in answer to 
 his Proclamation concerning the affair at Lexington. It was 
 certainly not written by Paine. It apologizes for the Amer- 
 icans for having, on April 19, at Lexington, made " an attack 
 upon the King's troops from behind walls and lurking 
 holes." The writer asks : " Have not the Americans been 
 driven to this frenzy ? Is it not common for an enemy to 
 take every advantage ? " Paine, who was in America when 
 the affair occurred at Lexington, would have promptly de- 
 
 168 
 
1776] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 169 
 
 nounced Gage's story as a falsehood, but the facts known to 
 every one in America were as yet not before the London 
 writer. The English " Crisis " bears evidence throughout of 
 having been written in London. It derived nothing from 
 Paine, and he derived nothing from it, unless its title, and 
 this is too obvious for its origin to require discussion. I 
 have no doubt, however, that the title was suggested by the 
 English publication, because Paine has followed its scheme 
 in introducing a "Crisis Extraordinary." His work consists 
 of thirteen numbers, and, in addition to these, a " Crisis 
 Extraordinary" and a "Supernumerary Crisis." In some 
 modern collections all of these have been serially numbered, 
 and a brief newspaper article added, making sixteen numbers. 
 But Paine, in his Will, speaks of the number as thirteen, 
 wishing perhaps, in his characteristic way, to adhere to the 
 number of the American Colonies, as he did in the thirteen 
 ribs of his iron bridge. His enumeration is therefore followed 
 in the present volume, and the numbers printed successively, 
 although other writings intervened. 
 
 The first " Crisis " was printed in Xh^ Pennsylvania Journal, 
 December 19, 1776, and opens with the famous sentence, 
 " These are the times that try men's souls " ; the last 
 " Crisis " appeared April 19, 1783, (eighth anniversary of the 
 first gun of the war, at Lexington,) and opens with the 
 words, " The times that tried men's souls are over." The great 
 effect produced by Paine's successive publications has been 
 attested by Washington and Franklin, by every leader of the 
 American Revolution, by resolutions of Congress, and by 
 every contemporary historian of the events amid which they 
 were written. The first " Crisis " is of especial historical in- 
 terest. It was written during the retreat of Washington 
 across the Delaware, and by order of the Commander was 
 read to groups of his dispirited and suffering soldiers. Its 
 opening sentence was adopted as the watchword of the 
 movement on Trenton, a few days after its publication, and 
 is believed to have inspired much of the courage which won 
 that victory, which, though not imposing in extent, was of 
 great moral effect on Washington's little army. 
 
THE CRISIS. 
 
 I. 
 
 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 their country ; but he that stands it noiv, 
 deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, 
 like hell, is not easily conquered ; yet we have this consola- 
 tion with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious 
 the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too 
 lightly : it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. 
 Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods ; 
 and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as 
 FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army 
 to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right 
 {not only to tax) but " to BIND us in all cases whatso- 
 ever," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, 
 then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even 
 the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can 
 belong only to God. 
 
 Whether the independence of the continent was declared 
 too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as 
 an argument ; my own simple opinion is, that had it been 
 eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We 
 did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, 
 while we were in a dependant state. However, the fault, if 
 it were one, was all our own * ; we have none to blame but 
 
 * The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed ; but, if lost or 
 neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil ; and there is no punish- 
 ment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that 
 may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful. — Author's 
 note, — a citation from his " Common Sense." 
 
 170 
 
1776] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 171 
 
 ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe 
 has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than 
 a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, 
 would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little 
 resolution will soon recover. 
 
 I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but 
 my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God 
 Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, 
 or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly 
 and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by 
 every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither 
 have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He 
 has relinquished the government of the world, and given us 
 up to the care of devils ; and as I do not, I cannot see on 
 what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for 
 help against us : a common murderer, a highwayman, or a 
 house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he. 
 
 'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes 
 run through a country. All nations and ages have been 
 subject to them : Britain has trembled like an ague at the 
 report of a French fleet of fiat bottomed boats ; and in the 
 fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after 
 ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men 
 petrified with fear ; and this brave exploit was performed by 
 a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan 
 of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid 
 to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow suffer- 
 ers from ravage and ravishment ! Yet panics, in some cases, 
 have their uses ; they produce as much good as hurt. Their 
 duration is always short ; the mind soon grows through 
 them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their 
 peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of 
 sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, 
 which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In 
 fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an 
 imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. 
 They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them 
 up in public to the world. Many a disguised tory has lately 
 
172 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with 
 curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware. 
 
 As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with 
 them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted 
 with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance 
 know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was 
 exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land 
 between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force 
 was inconsiderable, being not one fourth so great as Howe 
 could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have 
 relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood 
 on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the 
 best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehen- 
 sion that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in 
 which case fort Lee could be of no use to us ; for it must 
 occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, 
 that these kind of field forts are only for temporary pur- 
 poses, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his 
 force against the particular object, which such forts are raised 
 to defend. Such was our situation and condition at fort Lee 
 on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer 
 arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had 
 landed about seven miles above : Major General [Nathaniel] 
 Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered 
 them under arms, and sent express to General Washington 
 at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry 
 = six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over 
 the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy 
 and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. Gen- 
 eral Washington arrived in about three quarters of an hour, 
 and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, 
 which place I expected we should have a brush for; how- 
 ever, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the 
 greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest 
 over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a 
 small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made 
 their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of 
 Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as 
 
1776] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 1 73 
 
 much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was 
 lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and 
 march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey 
 or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. 
 We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with 
 some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet 
 the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, 
 though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, 
 in my Httle opinion, committed a great error in generalship 
 in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten Island 
 through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all 
 our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into 
 Pennsylvania ; but if we believe the power of hell to be 
 limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under 
 some providential controul. 
 
 I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our 
 retreat to the Delaware ; suffice it for the present to say, 
 that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and 
 fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the 
 inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a 
 manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centred in one, 
 which was, that the country would turn out and help them 
 to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked that king 
 William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties 
 and in action ; the same remark may be made on General 
 Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural 
 firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, 
 but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude ; 
 and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which 
 we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with 
 uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even 
 flourish upon care. 
 
 I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous re- 
 marks on the state of our affairs ; and shall begin with ask- 
 ing the following question, Why is it that the enemy have 
 left the New-England provinces, and made these middle ones 
 the seat of war? The answer is easy : New-England is not 
 infested with tories, and we are. I have been tender in 
 
174 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1776 
 
 raising the cry against these men, and used numberless 
 arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to 
 sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The 
 period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change 
 our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a 
 tory ? Good God ! what is he ? I should not be afraid to 
 go with a hundred whigs against a thousand tories, were 
 they to attempt to get into arms. Every tory is a coward ; 
 for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of 
 toryism ; and a man under such influence, though he may be 
 cruel, never can be brave. 
 
 But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn 
 between us, let us reason the matter together : Your con- 
 duct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand 
 of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much de- 
 ceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He 
 expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, 
 with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no 
 use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis sol- 
 diers, and not tories, that he wants. 
 
 I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to 
 feel, against the mean principles that are held by the tories: 
 a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, ' was standing at 
 his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or 
 nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind 
 as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this un- 
 fatherly expression, " Well ! give me peace in rtiy day.'' Not 
 a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separa- 
 tion must some time or other finally take place, and a gen- 
 erous parent should have said, If there must be trouble, let 
 it be in my day, that my child may have peace ; " and this 
 single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every 
 man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy 
 as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling 
 world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A 
 
 ' Early in August, 1776, Paine enlisted in a Pennsylvania division of the 
 Flying Camp, under Gen. Roberdeau, and was first stationed at Amboy, New 
 J ersey . — Editor. 
 
1776] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, 
 and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, 
 that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign 
 dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that 
 period arrives, and the continent must in the end be con- 
 queror ; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease 
 to shine, the coal can never expire. 
 
 America did not, nor does not want force ; but she wanted 
 a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the pur- 
 chase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at 
 the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were 
 unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the 
 temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer's 
 experience has now taught us better ; yet with those troops, 
 while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the 
 progress of the enemy, and, thank God ! they are again 
 assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops 
 in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for 
 a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt 
 on this city ; ' should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is 
 ruined : if he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes 
 all on his side against a part on ours ; admitting he succeeds, 
 the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the 
 continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the 
 middle states ; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. 
 I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the tories have ; 
 he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not 
 been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear 
 of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion 
 of a Christian, that the names of whig and tory may never 
 more be mentioned ; but should the tories give him en- 
 couragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely 
 wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the 
 continent, and the congress appropriate their possessions to 
 the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single 
 successful battle next year will settle the whole. America 
 
 ' Philadelphia, whither Paine had gone to publish this first " Crisis." — 
 Editor. 
 
176 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 could carry on a two years war by the confiscation of the 
 property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their 
 expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the 
 soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object 
 in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a 
 seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against 
 determined hardness ; eloquence may strike the ear, and 
 the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, 
 but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with preju- 
 dice. 
 
 Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a 
 friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined 
 to stand the matter out : I call not upon a few, but upon all: 
 not on this state or that state, but on every state : up and 
 help us ; lay your shoulders to the wheel ; better have too 
 much force than too little, when so great an object is at 
 stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth 
 of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, 
 that the city and the country, alarmed at one common dan- 
 ger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that 
 thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands ; throw 
 not the burden of the day upon Providence, but " show your 
 faith by your zvorksj' that God may bless you. It matters 
 not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or 
 the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the 
 home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer 
 or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now, is dead : the 
 blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks 
 back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, 
 and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in 
 trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow 
 brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to 
 shrink ; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience 
 approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. 
 My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear 
 as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far 
 as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive 
 war, for I think it murder ; but if a thief breaks into my 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 177 
 
 house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens 
 to kill me, or those that are in it, and to " bind me in all cases 
 whatsoever'' ' to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What 
 signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a 
 common man ; my countryman or not my countryman ; 
 whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of 
 them ? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no 
 difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we 
 should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let 
 them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it ; 
 but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a 
 whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose char- 
 acter is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish 
 man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy 
 from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the 
 rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror 
 from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America. 
 
 There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, 
 and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the 
 full extent of the evil which threatens them ; they solace 
 themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will 
 be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy 
 from those who have refused to do justice ; and even mercy, 
 where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war ; the cun- 
 ning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, 
 and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first 
 object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify 
 or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive 
 mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, 
 and this is what the tories call making their peace, " a peace 
 which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which 
 would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any 
 we have yet thought of. Yemen of Pennsylvania, do reason 
 upon these things ! Were the back counties to give up 
 their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who 
 are all armed : this perhaps is what some tories would not 
 
 I ' From the Declaratory Act of Parliament, February 24, 1766, concerning 
 
 British authority over the American Colonies. See post p. 199. — Editor. 
 
 VOL. I. — 12 
 
 I 
 
178 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776 
 
 be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their 
 arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back 
 counties, who would then have it in their power to chastise 
 their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give 
 up its arms, tJiat state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army 
 of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the 
 rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual 
 love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. 
 Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, 
 and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. 
 I dwell not upon the vapours of imagination ; I bring reason 
 to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up 
 truth to your eyes. 
 
 I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. 
 I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. 
 While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; 
 and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White 
 Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the de- 
 fenceless Jerseys ; but it is great credit to us, that, with a 
 handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an 
 hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field 
 pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to 
 pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we 
 were near three weeks in performing it, that the country 
 might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to 
 meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of 
 fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cow- 
 ardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through 
 the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once 
 more we are again collected and collecting ; our new army at 
 both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be 
 able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, 
 well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will 
 may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the 
 prospect of a glorious issue ; by cowardice and submission, 
 the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a 
 depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery 
 without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy- 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 179 
 
 houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose 
 fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep 
 over it ! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who 
 believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 December 23, 1776.' 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 II. 
 
 TO LORD HOWE." 
 
 " What's in the name of lord, that I should fear 
 To bring my grievance to the public ear ? " 
 
 Churchill. 
 
 Universal empire is the prerogative of a writer. His 
 concerns are with all mankind, and though he cannot com- 
 mand their obedience, he can assign them their duty. The 
 Republic of Letters is more ancient than monarchy, and of 
 far higher character in the world than the vassal court of 
 Britain ; he that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he 
 that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny, has a 
 better title to '■'■Defender of the Faith,'' than George the 
 third. 
 
 As a military man your lordship may hold out the sword 
 of war, and call it the " ultima ratio regum : " the last reason 
 of Kings ; we in return can show you the sword of justice, 
 and call it " the best scourge of tyrants." The first of these 
 two may threaten, or even frighten for a while, and cast a 
 sickly languor over an insulted people, but reason will soon 
 recover the debauch, and restore them again to tranquil for- 
 
 ' This was the date of the pamphlet. The essay had appeared on December 
 19 in the Pennsylvania youmal. — Editor. 
 
 Richard Viscount Howe had been sent with a view to negotiation with Con- 
 gress. He had been a friend of Franklin in London, and it was supposed 
 would find favor in America. He issued a Proclamation from H. M. S. " The 
 Eagle," June 20, another from New York Nov. 30, 1776. — Editor. 
 
l8o THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 titude. Your lordship, I find, has now commenced author, 
 and published a Proclamation ; I have published a Crisis : as 
 they stand, they are the antipodes of each other ; both can- 
 not rise at once, and one of them must descend ; and so quick 
 is the revolution of things, that your lordship's performance, 
 I see, has already fallen many degrees from its first place, 
 and is now just visible on the edge of the political horizon. 
 
 It is surprising to what a pitch of infatuation, blind folly 
 and obstinacy will carry mankind, and your lordship's drowsy 
 proclamation is a proof that it does not even quit them in 
 their sleep. Perhaps you thought America too was taking 
 a nap, and therefore chose, like Satan to Eve, to whisper 
 the delusion softly, lest you should awaken her. This con- 
 tinent, sir, is too extensive to sleep all at once, and too 
 watchful, even in its slumbers, not to startle at the unhallowed 
 foot of an invader. You may issue your proclamations, and 
 welcome, for we have learned to " reverence ourselves," and 
 scorn the insulting ruffian that employs you. America, for 
 your deceased brother's sake, would gladly have shown you 
 respect, and it is a new aggravation to her feelings, that Howe 
 should be forgetful, and raise his sword against those, who 
 at their own charge raised a monument to his brother.' But 
 your master has commanded, and you have not enough of 
 nature left to refuse. Surely there must be something 
 strangely degenerating in the love of monarchy, that can so 
 completely wear a man down to an ingrate, and make him 
 proud to lick the dust that kings have trod upon. A few 
 more years, should you survive them, will bestow on you 
 the title of " an old man : " and in some hour of future re- 
 flection you may probably find the fitness of Wolsey's 
 despairing penitence — " had I served my God as faithfully 
 as I have served my king, he would not thus have forsaken 
 me in my old age." 
 
 The character you appear to us in, is truly ridiculous. 
 Your friends, the tories, announced your coming, with high 
 descriptions of your unlimited powers ; but your proclama- 
 tion has given them the lie, by showing you to be a com- 
 
 ' George Augustus Howe. See Crisis V., p. 233, note. — Editor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 I8l 
 
 missioner without authority. Had your powers been ever 
 so great they were nothing to us, further than we pleased ; 
 because we had the same right which other nations had, to 
 do what we thought was best. " The UNITED STATES of 
 AMERICA," will sound as pompously in the world or in his- 
 tory, as " the kingdom of Great Britain ; " the character of 
 General Washington will fill a page with as much lustre as 
 that of Lord Howe: and the congress have as much right to 
 command the king and parliament in London to desist from 
 legislation, as they or yoii have to command the congress. 
 Only suppose how laughable such an edict would appear 
 from us, and then, in that merry mood, do but turn the tables 
 upon yourself, and you will see how your proclamation is 
 received here. Having thus placed you in a proper position 
 in which you may have a full view of your folly, and learn to 
 despise it, I hold up to you, for that purpose, the following 
 quotation from your own lunarian proclamation. — " And we 
 (lord Howe and general Howe) do command (and in his 
 majesty's name forsooth) all such persons as are assembled 
 together, under the name of general or provincial congresses, 
 committees, conventions or other associations, by whatever 
 name or names known and distinguished, to desist and cease 
 from all such treasonable actings and doings." 
 
 You introduce your proclamation by referring to your 
 declarations of the 14th of July and 19th of September. In 
 the last of these you sunk yourself below the character of a 
 private gentleman. That I may not seem to accuse you un- 
 justly, I shall state the circumstance : by a verbal invitation 
 of yours, communicated to congress by General Sullivan, 
 then a prisoner on his parole, you signified your desire of 
 conferring with some members of that body as private gen- 
 tlemen. It was beneath the dignity of the American con- 
 gress to pay any regard to a message that at best was but a 
 genteel affront, and had too much of the ministerial com- 
 plexion of tampering with private persons ; and which might 
 probably have been the case, had the gentlemen who were 
 deputed on the business possessed that kind of easy virtue 
 which an English courtier is so truly distinguished by. Your 
 
1 82 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 request, however, was complied with, for honest men are 
 naturally more tender of their civil than their political fame. 
 The interview ended as every sensible man thought it would ; 
 for your lordship knows, as well as the writer of the Crisis, 
 that it is impossible for the king of England to promise the 
 repeal, or even the revisal of any acts of parliament ; where- 
 fore, on your part, you had nothing to say, more than to 
 request, in the room of demanding, the entire surrender of 
 the continent ; and then, if that was complied with, to 
 promise that the inhabitants should escape with their lives. 
 This was the upshot of the conference. You informed the 
 conferees that you were two months in soliciting these 
 powers. We ask, what powers? for as commissioner you 
 have none. If you mean the power of pardoning, it is an 
 oblique proof that your master was determined to sacrifice 
 all before him ; and that you were two months in dissuading 
 him from his purpose. Another evidence of his savage 
 obstinacy ! From your own account of the matter we may 
 justly draw these two conclusions: ist. That you serve a 
 monster ; and 2d, That never was a messenger sent on a 
 more foolish errand than yourself. This plain language may 
 perhaps sound uncouthly to an ear vitiated by courtly re- 
 finements, but words were made for use, and the fault lies 
 in deserving them, or the abuse in applying them unfairly. 
 
 Soon after your return to New-York, you published a very 
 illiberal and unmanly handbill against the congress ; for it 
 was certainly stepping out of the line of common civility, 
 first to screen your national pride by soliciting an interview 
 with them as private gentlemen, and in the conclusion to 
 endeavor to deceive the multitude by making a handbill 
 attack on the whole body of the congress ; you got them 
 together under one name, and abused them under another. 
 But the king you serve, and the cause you support, afford 
 you so few instances of acting the gentleman, that out of 
 pity to your situation the congress pardoned the insult by 
 taking no notice of it. 
 
 You say in that handbill, " that they, the congress, dis- 
 avowed every purpose for reconciliation not consonant with 
 
1/77] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 183 
 
 their extravagant and inadmissable claim of independence." 
 Why, God bless me ! what have you to do with our inde- 
 pendence ? We ask no leave of yours to set it up ; we ask 
 no money of yours to support it ; we can do better without 
 your fleets and armies than with them ; you may soon have 
 enough to do to protect yourselves without being burdened 
 with us. We are very willing to be at peace with you, to 
 buy of you and sell to you, and, like young beginners in the 
 world, to work for our living ; therefore, why do you put 
 yourselves out of cash, when we know you cannot spare it, 
 and we do not desire you to run into debt? I am willing, 
 sir, that you should see your folly in every point of view I 
 can place it in, and for that reason descend sometimes to tell 
 you in jest what I wish you to see in earnest. But to be 
 more serious with you, why do you say, " their independ- 
 ence ? " To set you right, sir, we tell you, that the inde- 
 pendancy is ours, not theirs. The congress were authorised 
 by every state on the continent to publish it to all the 
 world, and in so doing are not to be considered as the in- 
 ventors, but only as the heralds that proclaimed it, or the 
 office from which the sense of the people received a legal 
 form ; and it was as much as any or all their heads were 
 worth, to have treated with you on the subject of submission 
 under any name whatever. But we know the men in whom 
 we have trusted ; can England say the same of her parlia- 
 ment ? 
 
 I come now more particularly to your proclamation of the 
 30th of November last. Had you gained an entire conquest 
 over all the armies of America, and then put forth a proc- 
 lamation, offering (what you call) mercy, your conduct would 
 have had some specious show of humanity ; but to creep by 
 surprise into a province, and there endeavor to terrify and 
 seduce the inhabitants from their just allegiance to the rest 
 by promises, which you neither meant nor were able to ful- 
 fil, is both cruel and unmanly : cruel in its effects ; because, 
 unless you can keep all the ground you have marched over, 
 how are you, in the words of your proclamation, to secure 
 to your proselytes "the enjoyment of their property?" 
 
1 84 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 What is to become either of your new adopted subjects, or 
 your old friends, the tories, in Burlington, Bordentown, 
 Trenton, Mount Holly, and many other places, where you 
 proudly lorded it for a few days, and then fled with the pre- 
 cipitation of a pursued thief ? What, I say, is to become of 
 those wretches? What is to become of those who went 
 over to you from this city and state ? What more can 
 you say to them than " shift for yourselves ? " Or what 
 more can they hope for than to wander like vagabonds over 
 the face of the earth ? You may now tell them to take their 
 leave of America, and all that once was theirs. Recommend 
 them, for consolation, to your master's court ; there perhaps 
 they may make a shift to live on the scraps of some dangling 
 parasite, and choose companions among thousands like them- 
 selves. A traitor is the foulest fiend on earth. 
 
 In a political sense we ought to thank you for thus be- 
 queathing estates to the continent ; we shall soon, at this 
 rate, be able to carry on a war without expense, and grow 
 rich by the ill policy of lord Howe, and the generous defec- 
 tion of the tories. Had you set your foot into this city, you 
 would have bestowed estates upon us which we never 
 thought of, by bringing forth traitors we were unwilling to 
 suspect. But these men, you '11 say, " are his majesty's 
 most faithful subjects; " let that honour, then, be all their 
 fortune, and let his majesty take them to himself. 
 
 I am now thoroughly disgusted with them ; they live in 
 ungrateful ease, and bend their whole minds to mischief. It 
 seems as if God had given them over to a spirit of infidelity, 
 and that they are open to conviction in no other line but that 
 of punishment. It is time to have done with tarring, feath- 
 ering, carting, and taking securities for their future good 
 behaviour ; every sensible man must feel a conscious shame 
 at seeing a poor fellow hawked for a show about the streets, 
 when it is known he is only the tool of some principal vil- 
 lain, biassed into his offence by the force of false reasoning, 
 or bribed thereto, through sad necessity. We dishonor our- 
 selves by attacking such trifling characters while greater ones 
 are suffered to escape ; 'tis our duty to find them out, and 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 185 
 
 their proper punishment would be to exile them from the 
 continent for ever. The circle of them is not so great as 
 some imagine ; the influence of a few have tainted many 
 who are not naturally corrupt. A continual circulation of 
 lies among those who are not much in the way of hearing 
 them contradicted, will in time pass for truth ; and the crime 
 lies not in the believer but the inventor. I am not for de- 
 claring war with every man that appears not so warm as 
 myself : difference of constitution, temper, habit of speaking, 
 and many other things, will go a great way in fixing the 
 outward character of a man, yet simple honesty may remain 
 at bottom. Some men have naturally a military turn, and 
 can brave hardships and the risk of life with a cheerful face ; 
 others have not ; no slavery appears to them so great as the 
 fatigue of arms, and no terror so powerful as that of personal 
 danger. What can we say ? We cannot alter nature, neither 
 ought we to punish the son because the father begot him in 
 a cowardly mood. However, I believe most men have more 
 courage than they know of, and that a little at first is enough 
 to begin with. I knew the time when I thought that the 
 whistling of a cannon ball would have frightened me almost 
 to death : but I have since tried it, and find that I can stand 
 it with as little discomposure, and, I believe, with a much 
 easier conscience than your lordship. The same dread would 
 return to me again were I in your situation, for my solemn 
 belief of your cause is, that it is hellish and damnable, and, 
 under that conviction, every thinking man's heart must fail 
 him. 
 
 From a concern that a good cause should be dishonored 
 by the least disunion among us, I said in my former paper. 
 No. I. " That should the enemy now be expelled, I wish, 
 with all the sincerity of a Christian, that the names of whig 
 and tory might never more be mentioned ; " but there is a 
 knot of men among us of such a venomous cast, that they 
 will not admit even one's good wishes to act in their favor. 
 Instead of rejoicing that heaven had, as it were, providen- 
 tially preserved this city from plunder and destruction, by 
 delivering so great a part of the enemy into our hands with 
 
1 86 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 SO little effusion of blood, they stubbornly affected to disbe- 
 lieve it till within an hour, nay, half an hour, of the prisoners 
 arriving ; and the Quakers put forth a testimony, dated the 
 20th of December, signed "John Pemberton," declaring 
 their attachment to the British government.* These men 
 are continually harping on the great sin of our bearing arms, 
 but the king of Britain may lay waste the world in blood and 
 famine, and they, poor fallen souls, have nothing to say. 
 
 In some future paper I intend to distinguish between the 
 different kind of persons who have been denominated tories ; 
 for this I am clear in, that all are not so who have been called 
 so, nor all men whigs who were once thought so ; and as I 
 mean not to conceal the name of any true friend when there 
 shall be occasion to mention him, neither will I that of an 
 enemy, who ought to be known, let his rank, station or 
 religion be what it may. Much pains have been taken by 
 some to set your lordship's private character in an amiable 
 light, but as it has chiefly been done by men who know 
 nothing about you, and who are no ways remarkable for 
 their attachment to us, we have no just authority for believ- 
 ing it. George the third has imposed upon us by the same 
 arts, but time, at length, has done him justice, and the same 
 fate may probably attend your lordship. Your avowed pur- 
 pose here is to kill, conquer, plunder, pardon, and enslave : 
 and the ravages of your army through the Jerseys have been 
 marked with as much barbarism as if you had openly pro- 
 fessed yourself the prince of ruffians ; not even the appear- 
 ance of humanity has been preserved either on the march or 
 the retreat of your troops ; no general order that I could 
 ever learn, has ever been issued to prevent or even forbid 
 
 * I have ever been careful of charging offences upon whole societies of men, 
 but as the paper referred to is put forth by an unknown set of men, who claim 
 to themselves the right of representing the whole : and while the whole society 
 of Quakers admit its validity by a silent acknowledgment, it is impossible that 
 any distinction can be made by the public : and the more so, because the New 
 York paper of the 30th of December, printed by permission of our enemies, 
 says that "the Quakers begin to speak openly of their attachment to the 
 British constitution." We are certain that we have many friends among them, 
 and wish to know them. — Author. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 your troops from robbery, wherever they came, and the only 
 instance of justice, if it can be called such, which has 
 distinguished you for impartiality, is, that you treated and 
 plundered all alike ; what could not be carried away has been 
 destroyed, and mahogany furniture has been deliberately 
 laid on fire for fuel, rather than the men should be fatigued 
 with cutting wood.* There was a time when the whigs con- 
 fided much in your supposed candor, and the tories rested 
 themselves in your favor ; the experiments have now been 
 made, and failed ; in every town, nay, every cottage, in the 
 Jerseys, where your arms have been, is a testimony against 
 you. How you may rest under this sacrifice of character I 
 know not ; but this I know, that you sleep and rise with the 
 daily curses of thousands upon you ; perhaps the misery 
 which the tories have suffered by your proffered mercy may 
 give them some claim to their country's pity, and be in the 
 end the best favor you could show them. 
 
 In a folio general-order book belonging to Col. Rhal's 
 battalion, taken at Trenton, and now in the possession of 
 the council of safety for this state, the following barbarous 
 order is frequently repeated, " His excellency the comman- 
 der-in-chief orde.YS, that all inhabitants who shall be found 
 with arms, not having an officer with them, shall be imme- 
 diately taken and hung up." ' How many you may thus 
 have privately sacrificed, we know not, and the account can 
 only be settled in another world. Your treatment of pris- 
 oners, in order to distress them to enlist in your infernal 
 service, is not to be equalled by any instance in Europe. 
 Yet this is the humane lord Howe and his brother, whom 
 
 * As some people may doubt the truth of such wanton destruction, I think it 
 necessary to inform them, that one of the people called Quakers, who lives at 
 Trenton, gave me this information, at the house of Mr. Michael Hutchinson, 
 (one of the same profession,) who lives near Trenton ferry on the Pennsylvania 
 side, Mr. Hutchinson being present. — Author. 
 
 ' Col. Johann Gottlieb Rahl, or Rail (as the name is now written), a Hes- 
 sian, had distinguished himself in compelling the Americans to evacuate Forts 
 Washington and Lee, and in the pursuit of Washington to the Delaware ; for 
 such service he had been placed in chief command at Trenton, where he fell. — 
 Editor. 
 
1 88 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 the tories and their three-quarter kindred, the Quakers, or 
 some of them at least, have been holding up for patterns of 
 justice and mercy ! 
 
 A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and 
 bad men ; and whoever will be at the pains of examining 
 strictly into things, will find that one and the same spirit of 
 oppression and impiety, more or less, governs through 3''our 
 whole party in both countries : not many days ago, I acci- 
 dentally fell in company with a person of this city noted for 
 espousing your cause, and on my remarking to him, " that it 
 appeared clear to me, by the late providential turn of afTairs, 
 that God Almighty was visibly on our side," he replied, 
 " We care nothing for that, you may have Him, and wel- 
 come ; if we have but enough of the devil on our side, we 
 shall do." However carelessly this might be spoken, mat- 
 ters not, 'tis still the insensible principle that directs all your 
 conduct and will at last most assuredly deceive and ruin you. 
 
 If ever a nation was mad and foolish, blind to its own 
 interest and bent on its own destruction, it is Britain. There 
 are such things as national sins, and though the punishment 
 of individuals may be reserved to another world, national 
 punishment can only be inflicted in this world. Britain, as 
 a nation, is, in my inmost belief, the greatest and most un- 
 grateful offender against God on the face of the whole earth: 
 blessed with all the commerce she could wish for, and fur- 
 nished, by a vast extension of dominion, with the means of 
 civilizing both the eastern and western world, she has made 
 no other use of both than proudly to idolize her own 
 " thunder," and rip up the bowels of whole countries for 
 what she could get : Like Alexander, she has made war her 
 sport, and inflicted misery for prodigality's sake. The blood 
 of India is not yet repaid, nor the wretchedness of Africa 
 yet requited. Of late she has enlarged her list of national 
 cruelties by her butcherly destruction of the Caribbs of St. 
 Vincent's, and returning an answer by the sword to the meek 
 prayer for " Peace, liberty and safety^ These are serious 
 things, and whatever a foolish tyrant, a debauched court, a 
 trafficking legislature, or a blinded people may think, the 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 national account with heaven must some day or other be 
 settled : all countries have sooner or later been called to 
 their reckoning ; the proudest empires have sunk when the 
 balance was struck ; and Britain, like an individual penitent, 
 must undergo her day of sorrow, and the sooner it happens 
 to her the better : as I wish it over, I wish it to come, but 
 withal wish that it may be as light as possible. 
 
 Perhaps your lordship has no taste for serious things ; by 
 your connexions in England I should suppose not ; there- 
 fore I shall drop this part of the subject, and take it up in a 
 line in which you will better understand me. 
 
 By what means, may I ask, do you expect to conquer 
 America? If you could not effect it in the summer, when 
 our army was less than yours, nor in the winter, when we 
 had none, how are you to do it ? In point of generalship 
 you have been outwitted, and in point of fortitude outdone; 
 your advantages turn out to your loss, and show us that it 
 is in our power to ruin you by gifts : like a game of drafts, 
 we can move out of ojte square to let you come in, in order 
 that we may afterwards take two or three for one ; and as 
 we can always keep a double corner for ourselves, we can 
 always prevent a total defeat. You cannot be so insensible 
 as not to see that we have two to one the advantage of you, 
 because we conquer by a drawn game, and you lose by it. 
 Burgoyne might have taught your lordship this knowledge ; 
 he has been long a student in the doctrine of chances. 
 
 I have no other idea of conquering countries than by sub- 
 duing the armies which defend them : have you done this, 
 or can you do it ? If you have not, it would be civil in you 
 to let your proclamations alone for the present ; otherwise, 
 you will ruin more tories by your grkce and favor, than you 
 will whigs by your arms. 
 
 Were you to obtain possession of this city, you would not 
 know what to do with it more than to plunder it. To hold 
 it in the manner you hold New-York, would be an additional 
 dead weight upon your hands : and if a general conquest is 
 your object, you had better be without the city than with it. 
 When you have defeated all our armies, the cities will fall 
 
igo THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 into your hands of themselves ; but to creep into them in 
 the manner you got into Princeton, Trenton, &c. is like rob- 
 bing an orchard in the night before the fruit be ripe, and 
 running away in the morning. Your experiment in the 
 Jerseys is sufficient to teach you that you have something 
 more to do than barely to get into other people's houses ; 
 and your new converts, to whom you promised all manner 
 of protection, and seduced into new guilt by pardoning them 
 from their former virtues, must begin to have a very con- 
 temptible opinion both of your power and your policy. 
 Your authority in the Jerseys is now reduced to the small 
 circle which your army occupies, and your proclamation is 
 no where else seen unless it be to be laughed at. The 
 mighty subduers of the continent have retreated into a nut- 
 shell, and the proud forgivers of our sins are fled from those 
 they came to pardon ; and all this at a time when they were 
 despatching vessel after vessel to England with the great 
 news of every day. In short, you have managed your 
 Jersey expedition so very dexterously, that the dead only 
 are conquerors, because none will dispute the ground with 
 them. 
 
 In all the wars which you have formerly been concerned 
 in you had only armies to contend with ; in this case you 
 have both an army and a country to combat with. In 
 former wars, the countries followed the fate of their capitals; 
 Canada fell with Quebec, and Minorca with Port Mahon or 
 St. Phillips ; by subduing those, the conquerors opened a 
 way into, and became masters of the country : here it is 
 otherwise ; if you get possession of a city here, you are 
 obliged to shut yourselves up in it, and can make no other 
 use of it, than to spend your country's money in. This is 
 all the advantage you have drawn from New-York ; and 
 you would draw less from Philadelphia, because it requires 
 more force to keep it, and is much further from the sea. A 
 pretty figure you and the tories would cut in this city, with 
 a river full of ice, and a town full of fire ; for the immediate 
 consequence of your getting here would be, that you would 
 be cannonaded out again, and the tories be obliged to 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 191 
 
 make good the damage ; and this sooner or later will be the 
 fate of New-York. 
 
 I wish to see the city saved, not so much from military as 
 from natural motives. 'Tis the hiding place of women and 
 children, and lord Howe's proper business is with our armies. 
 When I put all the circumstances together which ought to be 
 taken, I laugh at your notion of conquering America, Be- 
 cause you lived in a little country, where an army might run 
 over the whole in a few days, and where a single company 
 of soldiers might put a multitude to the rout, you expected 
 to find it the same here. It is plain that you brought over 
 with you all the narrow notions you were bred up with, and 
 imagined that a proclamation in the king's name was to do 
 great things ; but Englishmen always travel for knowledge, 
 and your lordship, I hope, will return, if you return at all, 
 much wiser than you came. 
 
 We may be surprised by events we did not expect, and in 
 that interval of recollection you may gain some temporary 
 advantage : such was the case a few weeks ago, but we soon 
 ripen again into reason, collect our strength, and while you 
 are preparing for a triumph, we come upon you with a de- 
 feat. Such it has been, and such it would be were you to 
 try it a hundred times over. Were you to garrison the 
 places you might march over, in order to secure their sub- 
 jection, (for remember you can do it by no other means,) 
 your army would be like a stream of water running to 
 nothing. By the time you extended from New-York to 
 Virginia, you would be reduced to a string of drops not 
 capable of hanging together ; while we, by retreating from 
 state to state, like a river turning back upon itself, would 
 acquire strength in the same proportion as you lost it, and 
 in the end be capable of overwhelming you. The country, 
 in the meantime, would suffer, but it is a day of suffering, 
 and we ought to expect it. What we contend for is worthy 
 the affliction we may go through. If we get but bread to 
 eat, and any kind of raiment to put on, we ought not only 
 to be contented, but thankful. More than that we ought 
 not to look for, and less than that heaven has not yet suf- 
 
192 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 fered us to want. He that would sell his birthright for a 
 little salt, is as worthless as he who sold it for pottage with- 
 out salt ; and he that would part with it for a gay coat, or a 
 plain coat, ought for ever to be a slave in buf?. What are 
 salt, sugar and finery, to the inestimable blessings of 
 " Liberty and Safety ! " Or what are the inconveniences of 
 a few months to the tributary bondage of ages? The 
 meanest peasant in America, blessed with these sentiments, 
 is a happy man compared with a New- York tory ; he can eat 
 his morsel without repining, and when he has done, can 
 sweeten it with a repast of wholesome air ; he can take his 
 child by the hand and bless it, without feeling the conscious 
 shame of neglecting a parent's duty. 
 
 In publishing these remarks I have several objects in 
 view. 
 
 On your part they are to expose the folly of your pre- 
 tended authority as a commissioner ; the wickedness of your 
 cause in general ; and the impossibility of your conquering 
 us at any rate. On the part of the public, my intention is, 
 to show them their true and solid interest ; to encourage them 
 to their own good, to remove the fears and falsities which 
 bad men have spread, and weak men have encouraged ; 
 and to excite in all men a love for union, and a cheerfulness 
 for duty. 
 
 I shall submit one more case to you respecting your 
 conquest of this country, and then proceed to new obser- 
 vations. 
 
 Suppose our armies in every part of this continent were 
 immediately to disperse, every man to his home, or where 
 else he might be safe, and engage to re-assemble again on a 
 certain future day ; it is clear that you would then have no 
 army to contend with, yet you would be as much at a loss 
 in that case as you are now ; you would be afraid to send 
 your troops in parties over to the continent, either to disarm 
 or prevent us from assembling, lest they should not return ; 
 and while you kept them together, having no arms of ours to 
 dispute with, you could not call it a conquest ; you might 
 furnish out a pompous page in the London Gazette or a 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 New-York paper, but when we returned at the appointed 
 time, you would have the same work to do that you had 
 at first. 
 
 It has been the folly of Britain to suppose herself more 
 powerful than she really is, and by that means has arrogated 
 to herself a rank in the world she is not entitled to: for more 
 than this century past she has not been able to carry on a 
 war without foreign assistance. In Marlborough's campaigns, 
 and from that day to this, the number of German troops and 
 ofificers assisting her have been about equal with her own ; 
 ten thousand Hessians were sent to England last war to 
 protect her from a French invasion ; and she would have cut 
 but a poor figure in her Canadian and West-Indian expedi- 
 tions, had not America been lavish both of her money and 
 men to help her along. The only instance in which she was 
 engaged singly, that I can recollect, was against the rebellion 
 in Scotland, in the years 1745 and 1746, and in that, out of 
 three battles, she was twice beaten, till by thus reducing their 
 numbers, (as we shall yours) and taking a supply ship that 
 was coming to Scotland with clothes, arms and money, (as 
 we have often done,) she was at last enabled to defeat them. 
 England was never famous by land ; her officers have gener- 
 ally been suspected of cowardice, have more of the air of a 
 dancing-master than a soldier, and by the samples which we 
 have taken prisoners, we give the preference to ourselves. 
 Her strength, of late, has lain in her extravagance ; but as her 
 finances and credit are now low, her sinews in that line begin 
 to fail fast. As a nation she is the poorest in Europe ; for 
 were the whole kingdom, and all that is in it, to be put up 
 for sale like the estate of a bankrupt, it would not fetch as 
 much as she owes ; yet this thoughtless wretch must go to 
 war, and with the avowed design, too, of making us beasts 
 of burden, to support her in riot and debauchery, and to 
 assist her afterwards in distressing those nations who are now 
 our best friends. This ingratitude may suit a tory, or the 
 unchristian peevishness of a fallen Quaker, but none else. 
 
 'Tis the unhappy temper of the English to be pleased 
 with any war, right or wrong, be it but successful ; but they 
 
 VOL. I— 13 
 
194 ^'^A^ WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 soon grow discontented with ill fortune, and it is an even 
 chance that they are as clamorous for peace next summer, 
 as the king and his ministers were for war last winter. In 
 this natural view of things, your lordship stands in a very 
 critical situation : your whole character is now staked upon 
 your laurels ; if they wither, you wither with them ; if they 
 flourish, you cannot live long to look at them ; and at any 
 rate, the black account hereafter is not far off. What lately 
 appeared to us misfortunes, were only blessings in disguise; 
 and the seeming advantages on your side have turned out 
 to our profit. Even our loss of this city, as far as we can see, 
 might be a principal gain to us : the more surface you spread 
 over, the thinner you will be, and the easier wiped away ; 
 and our consolation under that apparent disaster would be, 
 that the estates of the tories would become securities for the 
 repairs. In short, there is no old ground we can fail upon, 
 but some new foundation rises again to support us. " We 
 have put, sir, our hands to the plough, and cursed be he that 
 looketh back." 
 
 Your king, in his speech to parliament last spring, declared, 
 "That he had no doubt but the great force they had enabled 
 him to send to America, would effectually reduce the rebel- 
 lious colonies." It has not, neither can it ; but it has done 
 just enough to lay the foundation of its own next year's ruin. 
 You are sensible that you left England in a divided, distracted 
 state of politics, and, by the command you had here, you 
 became a principal prop in the court party ; their fortunes 
 rest on yours ; by a single express you can fix their value 
 with the public, and the degree to which their spirits shall 
 rise or fall ; they are in your hands as stock, and you have the 
 secret of the alley with you. Thus situated and connected, 
 you become the unintentional mechanical instrument of your 
 own and their overthrow. The king and his ministers put 
 conquest out of doubt, and the credit of both depended on 
 the proof. To support them in the interim, it was necessary 
 that you should make the most of every thing, and we can 
 tell by Hugh Gaine's New- York paper what the complexion 
 of the London Gazette is. With such a list of victories the 
 nation cannot expect you will ask new supplies ; and to 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 confess your want of them would give the He to your triumphs, 
 and impeach the king and his ministers of treasonable decep- 
 tion. If you make the necessary demand at home, your 
 party sinks ; if you make it not, you sink yourself ; to ask it 
 now is too late, and to ask it before was too soon, and unless 
 it arrive quickly will be of no use. In short, the part you 
 have to act, cannot be acted ; and I am fully persuaded that 
 all you have to trust to is, to do the best you can with what 
 force you have got, or little more. Though we have greatly 
 ■exceeded you in point of generalship and bravery of men, 
 yet, as a people, we have not entered into the full soul of 
 enterprise ; for I, who know England and the disposition of 
 the people well, am confident, that it is easier for us to effect 
 a revolution there, than you a conquest here ; a few thousand 
 men landed in England with the declared design of deposing 
 the present king, bringing his ministers to trial, and setting 
 up the Duke of Gloucester in his stead, would assuredly carry 
 their point, while you are grovelling here, ignorant of the 
 matter. As I send all my papers to England, this, like Com- 
 mon Sense, will find its way there ; and though it may put 
 one party on their guard, it will inform the other, and the 
 nation in general, of our design to help them. 
 
 Thus far, sir, I have endeavored to give you a picture of 
 present affairs : you may draw from it what conclusions you 
 please. I wish as well to the true prosperity of England as 
 you can, but I consider INDEPENDANCE as America s natural 
 right and interest, and never could see any real disservice it 
 would be to Britain. If an English merchant receives an 
 order, and is paid for it, it signifies nothing to him who 
 governs the country. This is my creed of politics. If I 
 have any where expressed myself over-warmly, 'tis from a 
 fixed, immovable hatred I have, and ever had, to cruel men 
 and cruel measures. I have likewise an aversion to monar- 
 chy, as being too debasing to the dignity of man ; but I 
 never troubled others with my notions till very lately, nor 
 ever published a syllable in England in my life.' What I 
 
 ' This disposes of the notion that Paine was " Junius." He wrote a petition 
 to Parliament for the Excisemen, but it was not published until 1793. His 
 " Wolfe " did not appear in the Gentleman' s Magazine, as Mr. Burr supposes. 
 — Editor. 
 
196 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 write is pure nature, and my pen and my soul have ever 
 gone together. My writings I have always given away, 
 reserving only the expense of printing and paper, and some- 
 times not even that. I never courted either fame or interest, 
 and my manner of life, to those who know it, will justify 
 what I say. My study is to be useful, and if your lordship 
 loves mankind as well as I do, you would, seeing you cannot 
 conquer us, cast about and lend your hand towards accom- 
 plishing a peace. Our independance with God's blessing we 
 will maintain against all the world ; but as we wish to avoid 
 evil ourselves, we wish not to inflict it on others. I am 
 never over-inquisitive into the secrets of the cabinet, but I 
 have some notion that, if you neglect the present oppor- 
 tunity, it will not be in our power to make a separate peace 
 with you afterwards ; for whatever treaties or alliances we 
 form, we shall most faithfully abide by ; wherefore you may 
 be deceived if you think you can make it with us at any 
 time. A lasting independent peace is my wish, end and 
 aim ; and to accomplish that, " / pray God the Americans 
 may never be defeated, and I trust while they have good officers, 
 and are well commanded,'' and willing to be commanded, 
 that they'ii'E.N'EK will be." 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jan. 13, 1777. 
 
 THE CRISIS." 
 III. 
 
 In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences 
 of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have 
 travelled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experi- 
 ence as we go. We expend, if I may so say, the knowledge 
 of every day on the circumstances that produce it, and 
 
 ' This Crisis is dated April 19, 1777, the second anniversary of the collision 
 at Lexington. Two days before (April 17, 1777) Paine had been appointed by 
 Congress Secretary of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, on its constitution.— 
 Editor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 197 
 
 journey on in search of new^ matter and new refinements : 
 but as it is pleasant and sometimes useful to look back, even 
 to the first periods of infancy, and trace the turns and wind- 
 ings through which we have passed, so we may likewise 
 derive many advantages by halting a while in our political 
 career, and taking a review of the wondrous complicated 
 labyrinth of little more than yesterday. 
 
 Truly may we say, that never did men grow old in so 
 short a time ! We have crowded the business of an age 
 into the compass of a few months, and have been driven 
 through such a rapid succession of things, that for the want 
 of leisure to think, we unavoidably wasted knowledge as we 
 came, and have left nearly as much behind us as we brought 
 with us : but the road is yet rich with the fragments, and, 
 before we finally lose sight of them, will repay us for the 
 trouble of stopping to pick them up. 
 
 Were a man to be totally deprived of memory, he would 
 be incapable of forming any just opinion ; every thing about 
 him would seem a chaos : he would have even his own his- 
 tory to ask from every one ; and by not knowing how the 
 world went in his absence, he would be at a loss to know 
 how it ought to go on when he recovered, or rather, returned 
 to it again. In like manner, though in a less degree, a too 
 great inattention to past occurrences retards and bewilders our 
 judgment in everything ; while, on the contrary, by com- 
 paring what is past with what is present, we frequently hit 
 on the true character of both, and become wise with very 
 little trouble. It is a kind of counter-march, by which we 
 get into the rear of time, and mark the movements and 
 meaning of things as we make our return. There are certain 
 circumstances, which, at the time of their happening, are a 
 kind of riddles, and as every riddle is to be followed by its 
 answer, so those kind of circumstances will be followed by 
 their events, and those events are always the true solution. 
 A considerable space of time may lapse between, and unless 
 we continue our observations from the one to the other, the 
 harmony of them will pass away unnoticed : but the misfor- 
 tune is, that partly from the pressing necessity of some 
 
198 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i777 
 
 instant things, and partly from the impatience of our own 
 tempers, we are frequently in such a hurry to make out the 
 meaning of everything as fast as it happens, that we there- 
 by never truly understand it ; and not only start new diffi- 
 culties to ourselves by so doing, but, as it were, embarrass 
 Providence in her good designs. 
 
 I have been civil in stating this fault on a large scale, for, 
 as it now stands, it does not appear to be levelled against 
 any particular set of men ; but were it to be refined a little 
 further, it might afterwards be applied to the tories with a 
 degree of striking propriety : those men have been remark- 
 able for drawing sudden conclusions from single facts. The 
 least apparent mishap on our side, or the least seeming ad- 
 vantage on the part of the enemy, have determined with 
 them the fate of a whole campaign. By this hasty judg- 
 ment they have converted a retreat into a defeat ; mistook 
 generalship for error ; while every little advantage purposely 
 given the enemy, either to weaken their strength by dividing 
 it, embarrass their councils by multiplying their objects, or 
 to secure a greater post by the surrender of a less, has been 
 instantly magnified into a conquest. Thus, by quartering 
 ill policy upon ill .principles, they have frequently promoted 
 the cause they designed to injure, and injured that which 
 they intended to promote. 
 
 It is probable the campaign may open before this number 
 comes from the press. The enemy have long lain idle, and 
 amused themselves with carrying on the war by proclama- 
 tions only. While they continue their delay our strength 
 increases, and were they to move to action now, it is a cir- 
 cumstantial proof that they have no reinforcement coming; 
 wherefore, in either case, the comparative advantage will be 
 ours. Like a wounded, disabled whale, they want only time 
 and room to die in ; and though in the agony of their exit, 
 it may be unsafe to live within the flapping of their tail, yet 
 every hour shortens their date, and lessens their power of 
 mischief. If any thing happens while this number is in the 
 press, it will afford me a subject for the last pages of it. At 
 present I am tired of waiting ; and as neither the enemy, nor 
 
177?] T^^^ AMERICAN CRISIS. 1 99 
 
 the state of politics have yet produced any thing new, I am 
 thereby left in the field of general matter, undirected by any 
 striking or particular object. This Crisis, therefore, will be 
 made up rather of variety than novelty, and consist more of 
 things useful than things wonderful. 
 
 The success of the cause, the union of the people, and the 
 means of supporting and securing both, are points which 
 cannot be too much attended to. He who doubts of the 
 former is a desponding coward, and he who wilfully dis- 
 turbs the latter is a traitor. Their characters are easily 
 fixed, and under these short descriptions I leave them for 
 the present. 
 
 One of the greatest degrees of sentimental union which 
 America ever knew, was in denying the right of the British 
 parliament " to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." ' 
 The Declaration is, in its form, an almighty one, and is the 
 loftiest stretch of arbitrary power that ever one set of men 
 or one country claimed over another. Taxation was nothing 
 more than the putting the declared right into practice ; and 
 this failing, recourse was had to arms, as a means to estab- 
 lish both the right and the practice, or to answer a worse 
 purpose, which will be mentioned in the course of this 
 number. And in order to repay themselves the expense of 
 an army, and to profit by their own injustice, the colonies 
 were, by another law, declared to be in a state of actual 
 rebellion, and of consequence all property therein would fall 
 to the conquerors. 
 
 The colonies, on their part, Jirst, denied the right ; secondly, 
 they suspended the use of taxable articles, and petitioned 
 against the practice of taxation : and these failing, they, 
 thirdly, defended their property by force, as soon as it was 
 forcibly invaded, and, in answer to the declaration of rebel- 
 
 ' "That the King's Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords spiritual 
 and temporal, and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, had, 
 hath, and of right ought to have full power aud authority to make laws and 
 statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of 
 America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." 
 Paragraph first of the Declaratory Act repealing the Stamp Act, February, 1766. 
 — Editor. 
 
200 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 lion and non-protection, published their Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and right of self-protection. 
 
 These, in a few words, are the different stages of the 
 quarrel ; and the parts are so intimately and necessarily con- 
 nected with each other as to admit of no separation. A 
 person, to use a trite phrase, must be a whig or a tory in a 
 lump. His feelings, as a man, may be wounded ; his charity, 
 as a Christian, may be moved ; but his political principles 
 must go through all the cases on one side or the other. He 
 cannot be a whig in stage, and a tory in that. If he says 
 he is against the united independence of the continent, he is 
 to all intents and purposes against her in all the rest ; be- 
 cause this last comprehends the whole. And he may just as 
 well say, that Britain was right in declaring us rebels ; right 
 in taxing us ; and right in declaring her " right to bind the 
 colonies in all cases whatsoever." It signifies nothing what 
 neutral ground, of his own creating, he may skulk upon for 
 shelter, for the quarrel in no stage of it hath afforded any 
 such ground ; and either we or Britain are absolutely right 
 or absolutely wrong through the whole. 
 
 Britain, like a gamester nearly ruined, hath now put all 
 her losses into one bet, and is playing a desperate game for 
 the total. If she wins it, she wins from me my life; she 
 wins the continent as the forfeited property of rebels ; the 
 right of taxing those that are left as reduced subjects ; and 
 the power of binding them slaves : and the single die which 
 determines this unparalleled event is, whether we support 
 our independence or she overturn it. This is coming to the 
 point at once. Here is the touchstone to try men by. 
 He that is not a supporter of the independent states of Ainerica 
 in the same degree that his religious and political principles 
 would suffer him to support the government of any other coun- 
 try, of which he called himself a subject, is, in the American 
 sense of the word, A TORY ; and the instant that he endeavors 
 to bring his toryism into practice, he becomes A TRAITOR. The 
 first can only be detected by a general test, and the law hath 
 already provided for the latter. 
 
 It is unnatural and impolitic to admit men who would 
 
^777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 20 1 
 
 root up our independence to have any share in our legisla- 
 tion, either as electors or representatives ; because the sup- 
 port of our independence rests, in a great measure, on the 
 vigor and purity of our public bodies. Would Britain, even 
 in time of peace, much less in war, suffer an election to be 
 carried by men who professed themselves to be not her 
 subjects, or allow such to sit in parliament? Certainly not. 
 
 But there are a certain species of tories with whom con- 
 science or principle hath nothing to do, and who are so from 
 avarice only. Some of the first fortunes on the continent, 
 on the part of the whigs, are staked on the issue of our 
 present measures. And shall disaffection only be rewarded 
 with security ? Can any thing be a greater inducement to a 
 miserly man, than the hope of making his mammon safe ? 
 And though the scheme be fraught with every character of 
 folly, yet, so long as he supposes, that by doing nothing 
 materially criminal against America on one part, and by ex- 
 pressing his private disapprobation against independence, as 
 palliative with the enemy, on the other part, he stands in a 
 safe line between both ; while, I say, this ground be suffered 
 to remain, craft, and the spirit of avarice, will point it out, 
 and men will not be wanting to fill up this most contemptible 
 of all characters. 
 
 These men, ashamed to own the sordid cause from whence 
 their disaffection springs, add thereby meanness to mean- 
 ness, by endeavoring to shelter themselves under the mask 
 of hypocrisy ; that is, they had rather be thought to be tories 
 from some kind of principle, than tories by having no princi- 
 ple at all. But till such time as they can show some real 
 reason, natural, political, or conscientious, on which their ob- 
 jections to independence are founded, we are not obliged to 
 give them credit for being tories of the first stamp, but must 
 set them down as tories of the last. 
 
 In the second number of the Crisis, I endeavored to show 
 the impossibility of the enemy's making any conquest of 
 America, that nothing was wanting on our part but patience 
 and perseverance, and that, with these virtues, our success, 
 as far as human speculation could discern, seemed as certain 
 
202 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 as fate. But as there are many among us, who, influenced 
 by others, have regularly gone back from the principles they 
 once held, in proportion as we have gone forward ; and as it 
 is the unfortunate lot of many a good man to live within the 
 neighborhood of disaffected ones ; I shall, therefore, for the 
 sake of confirming the one and recovering the other, endeavor, 
 in the space of a page or two, to go over some of the leading 
 principles in support of independence. It is a much pleas- 
 anter task to prevent vice than to punish it, and, however our 
 tempers may be gratified by resentment, or our national 
 expenses eased by forfeited estates, harmony and friendship 
 is, nevertheless, the happiest condition a country can be 
 blest with. 
 
 The principal arguments in support of independence may 
 be comprehended under the four following heads. 
 
 1st, The natural right of the continent to independence. 
 2d, Her interest in being independent. 
 3d, The necessity, — and 
 
 4th, The moral advantages arising therefrom. 
 
 I. The natural right of the continent to independence, is 
 a point which never yet was called in question. It will not 
 even admit of a debate. To deny such a right, would be a 
 kind of atheism against nature : and the best answer to such 
 an objection would be, " The fool hath said in his heart there 
 is no God." 
 
 II. The interest of the continent in being independent is 
 a point as clearly right as the former. America, by her own 
 internal industry, and unknown to all the powers of Europe, 
 was, at the beginning of the dispute, arrived at a pitch of 
 greatness, trade and population, beyond which it was the 
 interest of Britain not to suffer her to pass, lest she should 
 grow too powerful to be kept subordinate. She began to 
 view this country with the same uneasy malicious eye, with 
 which a covetous guardian would view his ward, whose estate 
 he had been enriching himself by for twenty years, and saw 
 him just arriving at manhood. And America owes no more 
 to Britain for her present maturity, than the ward would to 
 the guardian for being twenty-one years of age. That Amer- 
 
1 777] T'//^' AMERICAN CRISIS. 203 
 
 ica hath flourished at the time she was under the government 
 of Britain, is true ; but there is every natural reason to be- 
 lieve, that had she been an independent country from the 
 first settlement thereof, uncontrolled by any foreign power, 
 free to make her own laws, regulate and encourage her own 
 commerce, she had by this time been of much greater worth 
 than now. The case is simply this : the first settlers in the 
 different colonies were left to shift for themselves, unnoticed 
 and unsupported by any European government : but as the 
 tyranny and persecution of the old world daily drove num- 
 bers to the new, and as, by the favor of heaven on their 
 industry and perseverance, they grew into importance, so, in 
 a like degree, they became an object of profit to the greedy 
 eyes of Europe. It was impossible, in this state of infancy, 
 however thriving and promising, that they could resist the 
 power of any armed invader that should seek to bring them 
 under his authority. In this situation, Britain thought it 
 worth her while to claim them, and the continent received 
 and acknowledged the claimer. It was, in reality, of no 
 very great importance who was her master, seeing, that from 
 the force and ambition of the different powers of Europe, 
 she must, till she acquired strength enough to assert her 
 own right, acknowledge some one. As well, perhaps, Britain 
 as another ; and it might have been as well to have been 
 under the states of Holland as any. The same hopes of 
 engrossing and profiting by her trade, by not oppressing it 
 too much, would have operated alike with any master, and 
 produced to the colonies the same effects. The clamour 
 of protection, likewise, was all a farce ; because, in order to 
 make that protection necessary, she must first, by her own 
 quarrels, create us enemies. Hard terms indeed ! 
 
 To know whether it be the interest of the continent to be 
 independent, we need only ask this easy, simple question : 
 Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life ? The an- 
 swer to one will be the answer to both. America hath been 
 one continued scene of legislative contention from the first 
 king's representative to the last ; and this was unavoidably 
 founded in the natural opposition of interest between the 
 
204 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 old country and the new. A governor sent from England, 
 or receiving his authority therefrom, ought never to have 
 been considered in any other light than that of a genteel 
 commissioned spy, whose private business was information, 
 and his public business a kind of civilized oppression. In the 
 first of these characters he was to watch the tempers, senti- 
 ments and disposition of the people, the growth of trade, 
 and the increase of private fortunes ; and, in the latter, to 
 suppress all such acts of the assemblies, however beneficial 
 to the people, which did not directly or indirectly throw 
 some increase of power or profit into the hands of those 
 that sent him. 
 
 America, till now, could never be called a free country, be- 
 cause her legislation depended on the will of a man three 
 thousand miles distant, whose interest was in opposition to 
 ours, and who, by a single " no," could forbid what law he 
 pleased. 
 
 The freedom of trade, likewise, is, to a trading country, an 
 article of such importance, that the principal source of 
 wealth depends upon it ; and it is impossible that any coun- 
 try can flourish, as it otherwise might do, whose commerce is 
 engrossed, cramped and fettered by the laws and mandates 
 of another — yet these evils, and more than I can here enu- 
 merate, the continent has suffered by being under the gov- 
 ernment of England. By an independence we clear the 
 whole at once — put an end to the business of unanswered 
 petitions and fruitless remonstrances — exchange Britain for 
 Europe — shake hands with the world — live at peace with the 
 world — and trade to any market where we can buy and sell. 
 
 III. The necessity, likewise, of being independent, even 
 before it was declared, became so evident and important, 
 that the continent ran the risk of being ruined every day 
 that she delayed it. There was reason to believe that Brit- 
 ain would endeavor to make an European matter of it, 
 and, rather than lose the whole, would dismember it, like 
 Poland, and dispose of her several claims to the highest bid- 
 der. Genoa, failing in her attempts to reduce Corsica, made 
 a sale of it to the French, and such trafficks have been com- 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 205 
 
 mon in the old world. We had at that time no ambassador 
 in any part of Europe, to counteract her negociations, and 
 by that means she had the range of every foreign court un- 
 contradicted on our part. We even knew nothing of the 
 treaty for the Hessians till it was concluded, and the troops 
 ready to embark. Had we been independent before, we 
 had probably prevented her obtaining them. We had no 
 credit abroad, because of our rebellious dependancy. Our 
 ships could claim no protection in foreign ports, because we 
 afforded them no justifiable reason for granting it to us. 
 The calling ourselves subjects, and at the same time fight- 
 ing against the power which we acknowledged, was a dan- 
 gerous precedent to all Europe. If the grievances justified 
 the taking up arms, they justified our separation ; if they 
 did not justify our separation, neither could they justify our 
 taking up arms. All Europe was interested in reducing us 
 as rebels, and all Europe (or the greatest part at least) is in- 
 terested in supporting us as independent states. At home 
 our condition was still worse ; our currency had no founda- 
 tion, and the fall of it would have ruined whig and tory 
 alike. We had no other law than a kind of moderated pas- 
 sion ; no other civil power than an honest mob ; and no 
 other protection than the temporary attachment of one man 
 to another. Had independence been delayed a few months 
 longer, this continent would have been plunged into irrecov- 
 erable confusion : some violent for it, some against it, till, 
 in the general cabal, the rich would have been ruined, and 
 the poor destroyed. It is to independence that every tory 
 owes the present safety which he lives in ; for by that, and 
 that only, we emerged from a state of dangerous suspense, 
 and became a regular people. 
 
 The necessity, likewise, of being independent, had there 
 been no rupture between Britain and America, would, in a 
 little time, have brought one on. The increasing impor- 
 tance of commerce, the weight and perplexity of legislation, 
 and the entangled state of European politics, would daily 
 have shown to the continent the impossibility of continuing 
 subordinate ; for, after the coolest reflections on the matter, 
 
206 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 this must be allowed, that Britain was too jealous of America 
 to govern it justly ; too ignorant of it to govern it well ; and 
 too far distant from it to govern it at all. 
 
 IV. But what weigh most with all men of serious reflec- 
 tion are, the moral advantages arising from independence : 
 war and desolation have become the trade of the old world ; 
 and America neither could nor can be under the govern- 
 ment of Britain without becoming a sharer of her guilt, and 
 a partner in all the dismal commerce of death. The spirit 
 of duelling, extended on a national scale, is a proper char- 
 acter for European wars. They have seldom any other 
 motive than pride, or any other object than fame. The 
 conquerors and the conquered are generally ruined alike, 
 and the chief difference at last is, that the one marches 
 home with his honors, and the other without them. 'Tis 
 the natural temper of the English to fight for a feather, if 
 they suppose that feather to be an affront ; and America, 
 without the right of asking why, must have abetted in 
 every quarrel, and abided by its fate. It is a shocking situ- 
 ation to live in, that one country must be brought into all 
 the wars of another, whether the measure be right or wrong, 
 or whether she will or not ; yet this, in the fullest extent, 
 was, and ever would be, the unavoidable consequence of the 
 connexion. Surely the Quakers forgot their own principles 
 when, in their late Testimony, they called this connexion, 
 with these military and miserable appendages hanging to it 
 — " the happy constitution!' 
 
 Britain, for centuries past, has been nearly fifty years out 
 of every hundred at war with some power or other. It cer- 
 tainly ought to be a conscientious as well as political consid- 
 eration with America, not to dip her hands in the bloody 
 work of Europe. Our situation affords us a retreat from 
 their cabals, and the present happy union of the states bids 
 fair for extirpating the future use of arms from one quarter 
 of the world ; yet such have been the irreligious politics of 
 the present leaders of the Quakers, that, for the sake of they 
 scarce know what, they would cut off every hope of such a 
 blessing by tying this continent to Britain, like Hector to 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 207 
 
 the chariot wheel of Achilles, to be dragged through all the 
 miseries of endless European wars. 
 
 The connexion, viewed from this ground, is distressing to 
 every man who has the feelings of humanity. By having 
 Britain for our master, we became enemies to the greatest 
 part of Europe, and they to us : and the consequence was 
 war inevitable. By being our own masters, independent of 
 any foreign one, we have Europe for our friends, and the 
 prospect of an endless peace among ourselves. Those who 
 were advocates for the British government over these colo- 
 nies, were obliged to limit both their arguments and their 
 ideas to the period of an European peace only : the moment 
 Britain became plunged in war, every supposed convenience 
 to us vanished, and all we could hope for was not to be 
 ruined. Could this be a desirable condition for a young 
 country to be in ? 
 
 Had the French pursued their fortune immediately after 
 the defeat of Braddock last war, this city and province had 
 then experienced the woful calamities of being a British sub- 
 ject. A scene of the same kind might happen again ; for 
 America, considered as a subject to the crown of Britain, 
 would ever have been the seat of war, and the bone of con- 
 tention between the two powers. 
 
 On the whole, if the future expulsion of arms from one 
 quarter of the world would be a desirable object to a peace- 
 able man ; if the freedom of trade to every part of it can 
 engage the attention of a man of business ; if the support or 
 fall of millions of currency can affect our interests; if the 
 entire possession of estates, by cutting off the lordly claims 
 of Britain over the soil, deserves the regard of landed prop- 
 erty ; and if the right of making our own laws, uncontrolled 
 by royal or ministerial spies or mandates, be worthy our care 
 as freemen ; — then are all men interested in the support of 
 independence ; and may he that supports it not, be driven 
 from the blessing, and live unpitied beneath the servile suf- 
 ferings of scandalous subjection ! 
 
 We have been amused with the tales of ancient wonders ; 
 we have read, and wept over the histories of other nations : 
 
2o8 
 
 THE IVRI TINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 applauded, censured, or pitied, as their cases affected us. 
 The fortitude and patience of the sufferers — the justness of 
 their cause — the weight of their oppressions and oppressors 
 — the object to be saved or lost — with all the consequences 
 of a defeat or a conquest — have, in the hour of sympathy, 
 bewitched our hearts, and chained it to their fate : but 
 where is the power that ever made war upon petitioners? 
 Or where is the war on which a world was staked till now ? 
 
 We may not, perhaps, be wise enough to make all the 
 advantages we ought of our independence ; but they are, 
 nevertheless, marked and presented to us with every charac- 
 ter of great and good, and worthy the hand of him who 
 sent them. I look through the present trouble to a time of 
 tranquillity, when we shall have it in our power to set an 
 example of peace to all the world. Were the Quakers really 
 impressed and influenced by the quiet principles they pro- 
 fess to hold, they would, however they might disapprove 
 the means, be the first of all men to approve of independence, 
 because, by separating ourselves from the cities of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, it affords an opportunity never given to 
 man before of carrying their favourite principle of peace 
 into general practice, by establishing governments that shall 
 hereafter exist without wars. O ! ye fallen, cringing, priest- 
 and-Pemberton-ridden people ! What more can we say of 
 ye than that a religious Quaker is a valuable character, and 
 a political Quaker a real Jesuit. 
 
 Having thus gone over some of the principal points in 
 support of independence, I must now request the reader to 
 return back with me to the period when it first began to be 
 a public doctrine, and to examine the progress it has made 
 among the various classes of men. The area I mean to 
 begin at, is the breaking out of hostilities, April 19th, 1775. 
 Until this event happened, the continent seemed to view 
 the dispute as a kind of law-suit for a matter of right, 
 litigating between the old country and the new ; and she 
 felt the same kind and degree of horror, as if she had seen 
 an oppressive plaintiff, at the head of a band of ruffians, 
 enter the court, while the cause was before it, and put the 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 209 
 
 judge, the jury, the defendant and his counsel, to the sword. 
 Perhaps a more heart-felt convulsion never reached a 
 country with the same degree of power and rapidity before, 
 and never may again. Pity for the sufferers, mixed with 
 indignation at the violence, and heightened with apprehen- 
 sions of undergoing the same fate, made the affair of Lexing- 
 ton the afTair of the continent. Every part of it felt the 
 shock, and all vibrated together. A general promotion of 
 sentiment took place : those who had drank deeply into 
 whiggish principles, that is, the right and necessity not only 
 of opposing, but wholly setting aside the power of the 
 crown as soon as it became practically dangerous (for in 
 theory it was always so), stepped into the first stage of inde- 
 pendence ; while another class of whigs, equally sound in 
 principle, but not so sanguine in enterprise, attached them- 
 selves the stronger to the cause, and fell close in with the 
 rear of the former ; their partition was a mere point. Num- 
 bers of the moderate men, whose chief fault, at that time, 
 arose from entertaining a better opinion of Britain than she 
 deserved, convinced now of their mistake, gave her up, and 
 publicly declared themselves good whigs. While the tories, 
 seeing it was no longer a laughing matter, either sank into 
 silent obscurity, or contented themselves with coming forth 
 and abusing General Gage : not a single advocate appeared 
 to justify the action of that day ; it seemed to appear to 
 every one with the same magnitude, struck every one with 
 the same force, and created in every one the same abhor- 
 rence. From this period we may date the growth of inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 If the many circumstances which happened at this memor- 
 able time, be taken in one view, and compared with each 
 other, they will justify a conclusion which seems not to have 
 been attended to, I mean a fixed design in the king and 
 ministry of driving America into arms, in order that they 
 might be furnished with a pretence for seizing the whole 
 continent, as the immediate property of the crown. A noble 
 plunder for hungry courtiers ! 
 
 It ought to be remembered, that the first petition from 
 
 VOL. I. — 13 
 
2IO THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. \m11 
 
 the congress was at this time unanswered on the part of the 
 British king. That the motion, called lord North's motion, 
 of the 20th of February, 1775, arrived in America the latter 
 end of March. This motion was to be laid, by the several 
 governors then in being, before the assembly of each pro- 
 vince ; and the first assembly before which it was laid, was 
 the assembly of Pennsylvania, in May following. This 
 being a just state of the case, I then ask, why were hostili- 
 ties commenced between the time of passing the resolve in 
 the house of commons, of the 20th of February, and the 
 time of the assemblies meeting to deliberate upon it ? De- 
 grading and famous as that motion was, there is nevertheless 
 reason to believe that the king and his adherents were afraid 
 the colonies would agree to it, and lest they should, took 
 effectual care they should not, by provoking them with hos- 
 tilities in the interim. They had not the least doubt at that 
 time of conquering America at one blow; and what they 
 ■expected to get by a conquest being infinitely greater than 
 any thing they could hope to get either by taxation or ac- 
 commodation, they seemed determined to prevent even the 
 possibility of hearing each other, lest America should disap- 
 point their greedy hopes of the whole, by listening even to 
 their own terms. On the one hand they refused to hear 
 the petition of the continent, and on the other hand took 
 effectual care the continent should not hear them. 
 
 That the motion of the 20th February and the orders for 
 commencing hostilities were both concerted by the same 
 person or persons, and not the latter by general Gage, as was 
 falsely imagined at first, is evident from an extract of a letter 
 of his to the administration, read among other papers in the 
 house of commons; in which he informs his masters, " That 
 though their idea of his disarming certaiji counties was a right 
 one, yet it required him to be master of the country, in order 
 to enable hhn to execute it." This was prior to the com- 
 mencement of hostilities, and consequently before the motion 
 of the 20th February could be deliberated on by the several 
 assemblies. 
 
 Perhaps it may be asked, why was the motion passed, if 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 211 
 
 there was at the same time a plan to aggravate the Americans 
 not to Hsten to it ? Lord North assigned one reason himself, 
 which was a hope of dividing them. This was publicly tempt- 
 ing them to reject it ; that if, in case the injury of arms should 
 fail in provoking them sufficiently, the insult of such a 
 declaration might fill it up. But by passing the motion and 
 getting it afterwards rejected in America, it enabled them, 
 in their wicked idea of politics, among other things, to hold 
 up the colonies to foreign powers, with every possible mark 
 of disobedience and rebellion. They had applied to those 
 powers not to supply the continent with arms, ammunition, 
 etc., and it was necessary they should incense them against 
 us, by assigning on their own part some seeming reputable 
 reason why. By dividing, it had a tendency to weaken the 
 states, and likewise to perplex the adherents of America in 
 England. But the principal scheme, and that which has 
 marked their character in every part of their conduct, was a 
 design of precipitating the colonies into a state which they 
 might afterwards deem rebellion, and, under that pretence, 
 put an end to all future complaints, petitions and remon- 
 strances, by seizing the whole at once. They had ravaged 
 one part of the globe, till it could glut them no longer ; their 
 prodigality required new plunder, and through the East 
 India article tea they hoped to transfer their rapine from 
 that quarter of the world to this. Every designed quarrel 
 had its pretence ; and the same barbarian avarice accompanied 
 the plant to America, which ruined the country that pro- 
 duced it. 
 
 That men never turn rogues without turning fools is a 
 maxim, sooner or later, universally true. The commence- 
 ment of hostilities, being in the beginning of April, was, of 
 all times the worst chosen : the congress were to meet the 
 tenth of May following, and the distress the continent felt at 
 this unparalleled outrage gave a stability to that body which 
 no other circumstance could have done. It suppressed too 
 all inferior debates, and bound them together by a neces- 
 sitous affection, without giving them time to differ upon 
 trifles. The suffering likewise softened the whole body of 
 
212 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 the people into a degree of pliability, which laid the principal 
 foundation-stone of union, order, and government ; and 
 which, at any other time, might only have fretted and then 
 faded away unnoticed and unimproved : but Providence, who 
 best knows how to time her misfortunes as well as her im- 
 mediate favors, chose this to be the time, and who dare dis- 
 pute it ? 
 
 It did not seem the disposition of the people, at this crisis, 
 to heap petition upon petition, while the former remained 
 unanswered : the measure however was carried in congress, 
 and a second petition was sent ; of which I shall only remark 
 that it was submissive even to a dangerous fault, because 
 the prayer of it appealed solely to what it called the pre- 
 rogative of the crown, while the matter in dispute was con- 
 fessedly constitutional. But even this petition, flattering as 
 it was, was still not so harmonious as the chink of cash, and 
 consequently not sufficiently grateful to the tyrant and his 
 ministry. From every circumstance it is evident, that it was 
 the determination of the British court to have nothing to do 
 with America but to conquer her fully and absolutely. They 
 were certain of success, and the field of battle was the only 
 place of treaty. I am confident there are thousands and tens 
 of thousands in America who wonder now that they should 
 ever have thought otherwise ; but the sin of that day was the 
 sin of civility ; yet it operated against our present good in 
 the same manner that a civil opinion of the devil would against 
 our future peace. 
 
 Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare, even towards 
 the conclusion of the year 1775 ; all our politics had been 
 founded on the hope of expectation of making the matter 
 up — a hope, which, though general on the side of America, 
 had never entered the head or heart of the British court. 
 Their hope was conquest and confiscation. Good heavens! 
 what volumes of thanks does America owe to Britain ? What 
 infinite obligation to the tool that fills, with paradoxical 
 vacancy, the throne ! Nothing but the sharpest essence of 
 villany, compounded with the strongest distillation of folly, 
 could have produced a menstruum that would have effected 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 213 
 
 a separation. The congress in 1774 administered an abortive 
 medicine to independence, by prohibiting the importation 
 of goods, and the succeeding congress rendered the dose 
 still more dangerous by continuing it. Had independence 
 been a settled system with America, (as Britain has ad- 
 vanced,) she ought to have doubled her importation, and 
 prohibited in some degree her exportation. And this single 
 circumstance is sufficient to acquit America before any jury 
 of nations, of having a continental plan of independence in 
 view : a charge which, had it been true, would have been 
 honorable, but is so grossly false, that either the amazing 
 ignorance or the wilful dishonesty of the British court is 
 effectually proved by it. 
 
 The second petition, like the first, produced no answer ; 
 it was scarcely acknowledged to have been received ; the 
 British court were too determined in their villainy even to 
 act it artfully, and in their rage for conquest neglected the 
 necessary subtleties for obtaining it. They might have 
 divided, distracted and played a thousand tricks with us, 
 had they been as cunning as they were cruel. 
 
 This last indignity gave a new spring to independence. 
 Those who knew the savage obstinacy of the king, and the 
 jobbing, gambling spirit of the court, predicted the fate of 
 the petition, as soon as it was sent from America ; for the 
 men being known, their measures were easily foreseen. As 
 politicians we ought not so much to ground our hopes on the 
 reasonableness of the thing we ask, as on the reasonableness 
 of the person of whom we ask it : who would expect discre- 
 tion from a fool, candor from a tyrant, or justice from a 
 villain ? 
 
 As every prospect of accommodation seemed now to fail 
 fast, men began to think seriously on the matter ; and their 
 reason being thus stripped of the false hope which had long 
 encompassed it, became approachable by fair debate : yet 
 still the bulk of the people hesitated ; they startled at the 
 novelty of independence, without once considering that our 
 getting into arms at first was a more extraordinary novelty, 
 and that all other nations had gone through the work of in- 
 
214 "^^^ WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 dependence before us. They doubted likewise the ability 
 of the continent to support it, without reflecting that it re- 
 quired the same force to obtain an accommodation by arms 
 as an independence. If the one was acquirable, the other 
 was the same ; because, to accomplish either, it was neces- 
 sary that our strength should be too great for Britain to 
 subdue ; and it was too unreasonable to suppose, that with 
 the power of being masters, we should submit to be servants.* 
 Their caution at this time was exceedingly misplaced ; for 
 if they were able to defend their property and maintain their 
 rights by arms, they, consequently, were able to defend and 
 support their independence ; and in proportion as these men 
 saw the necessity and correctness of the measure, they hon- 
 estly and openly declared and adopted it, and the part that 
 they had acted since has done them honor and fully estab- 
 lished their characters. Error in opinion has this peculiar 
 advantage with it, that the foremost point of the contrary 
 ground may at any time be reached by the sudden exertion 
 of a thought ; and it frequently happens in sentimental dif- 
 ferences, that some striking circumstance, or some forcible 
 reason quickly conceived, will effect in an instant what 
 neither argument nor example could produce in an age. 
 I find it impossible in the small compass I am limited to, 
 
 * In this state of political suspense the pamphlet Common Sense made its 
 appearance, and the success it met with does not become me to mention. 
 Dr. I'ranklin, Mr. Samuel and John Adams, were severally spoken of as the 
 supposed author. I had not, at that time, the pleasure either of personally know- 
 ing or being known to the two last gentlemen. The favour of Dr. Franklin's 
 friendship I possessed in England, and my introduction to this part of the world 
 was through his patronage. I happened, when a school-boy, to pick up a 
 pleasing natural history of Virginia, and my inclination from that day of seeing 
 the western side of the Atlantic never left me. In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin 
 proposed giving me such materials as were in his hands, towards completing a 
 history of the present transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first 
 volume out the next spring. I had then formed the outlines of Common Sense, 
 and finished nearly the first part ; and as I supposed the doctor's design in get- 
 ting out a history, was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to 
 surprise him with a production on that subject, much earlier than he thought of ; 
 and without informing him what I was doing, got it ready for the press as 
 fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the first pamphlet that was printed 
 off. — A uthor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 215 
 
 to trace out the progress which independence has made on 
 the minds of the different classes of men, and the several 
 reasons by which they were moved. With some, it was a 
 passionate abhorrence against the king of England and his 
 ministry, as a set of savages and brutes ; and these men, 
 governed by the agony of a wounded mind, were for trusting 
 every thing to hope and heaven, and bidding defiance at once. 
 With others, it was a growing conviction that the scheme of 
 the British court was to create, ferment and drive on a 
 quarrel, for the sake of confiscated plunder: and men of this 
 class ripened into independence in proportion as the evi- 
 dence increased. While a third class conceived it was the 
 true interest of America, internally and externally, to be her 
 own master, and gave their support to independence, step 
 by step, as they saw her abilities to maintain it enlarge. 
 With many, it was a compound of all these reasons ; while 
 those who were too callous to be reached by either, re- 
 mained, and still remain tories. 
 
 The legal necessity of being independent, with several col- 
 lateral reasons, is pointed out in an elegant masterly manner, 
 in a charge to the grand jury for the district of Charleston, 
 by the Hon. William Henry Drayton, chief justice of South 
 Carolina.' This performance, and the address of the con- 
 vention of New York, are pieces, in my humble opinion, of 
 the first rank in America. 
 
 The principal causes why independence has not been so 
 universally supported as it ought, are fear and indolence, and 
 the causes why it has been opposed, are, avarice, down-right 
 villany, and lust of personal power. There is not such a being 
 in America as a tory from conscience ; some secret defect or 
 other is interwoven in the character of all those, be they men 
 or women, who can look with patience on the brutality, 
 luxury and debauchery of the British court, and the viola- 
 tions of their army here. A woman's virtue must sit very 
 lightly on her who can even hint a favorable sentiment in 
 their behalf. It is remarkable that the whole race of prosti- 
 tutes in New York were tories ; and the schemes for support- 
 
 ' April 23, 1776. — Editor. 
 
2l6 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ing the tory cause in this city, for which several are now in 
 jail, and one hanged, were concerted and carried on in com- 
 mon bawdy-houses, assisted by those who kept them.' 
 
 The connexion between vice and meanness is a fit subject 
 for satire, but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with the irre- 
 sistible power of a diamond. If a Quaker, in defence of his 
 just rights, his property, and the chastity of his house, takes 
 up a musket, he is expelled the meeting ; but the present 
 king of England, who seduced and took into keeping a sister 
 of their society, is reverenced and supported by repeated 
 Testimonies, while the friendly noodle from whom she was 
 taken (and who is now in this city) continues a drudge in 
 the service of his rival, as if proud of being cuckolded by a 
 creature called a king. ' 
 
 Our support and success depend on such a variety of men 
 and circumstances, that every one who does but wish well, 
 is of some use : there are men who have a strange aversion 
 to arms, yet have hearts to risk every shilling in the cause, 
 or in support of those who have better talents for defending 
 it. Nature, in the arrangement of mankind, has fitted some 
 for every service in life : were all soldiers, all would starve 
 and go naked, and were none soldiers, all would be slaves. 
 As disaffection to independence is the badge of a tory, so 
 affection to it is the mark of a whig ; and the different services 
 of the whigs, down from those who nobly contribute every 
 thing, to those who have nothing to render but their wishes, 
 tend all to the same centre, though with different degrees of 
 merit and ability. The larger we make the circle, the more 
 we shall harmonize, and the stronger we shall be. All we 
 
 ' In Philadelphia, the only American city with which Paine was then familiar. 
 " Toryism " was of an exceptionally snobbish and self-interested type. It is 
 certain, though not then recognized, that some excellent men made heavy sacri- 
 fices for their loyalty to the Crown. Some of these, while sympathizing with 
 the colonies, regarded as sacred official oaths which they had taken to serve the 
 King. — Editor. 
 
 ' The Quaker " sister " was of course Hannah Lightfoot, and it would appear 
 that Axford, to whom she was said to have been married, was in Philadelphia. — 
 Editor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 217 
 
 want to shut out is disaffection, and, that excluded, we must 
 accept from each other such duties as we are best fitted to 
 bestow. A narrow system of politics, like a narrow system 
 of religion, is calculated only to sour the temper, and be at 
 variance with mankind. 
 
 All we want to know in America is simply this, who is for 
 independence, and who is not ? Those who are for it, will 
 support it, and the remainder will undoubtedly see the 
 reasonableness of paying the charges ; while those who 
 oppose or seek to betray it, must expect the more rigid fate 
 of the jail and the gibbet. There is a bastard kind of generos- 
 ity, which being extended to all men, is as fatal to society, on 
 one hand, as the want of true generosity is on the other. A 
 lax manner of administering justice, falsely termed modera- 
 tion, has a tendency both to dispirit public virtue, and pro- 
 mote the growth of public evils. Had the late committee 
 of safety taken cognizance of the last Testimony of the 
 Quakers and proceeded against such delinquents as were 
 concerned therein, they had, probably, prevented the treason- 
 able plans which have been concerted since. When one 
 villain is suffered to escape, it encourages another to pro- 
 ceed, either from a hope of escaping likewise, or an appre- 
 hension that we dare not punish. It has been a matter of 
 general surprise, that no notice was taken of the incendiary 
 publication of the Quakers, of the 20th of November last : a 
 publication evidently intended to promote sedition and 
 treason, and encourage the enemy, who were then within a 
 day's march of this city, to proceed on and possess it. I 
 here present the reader with a memorial which was laid be- 
 fore the board of safety a few days after the Testimony 
 appeared. Not a member of that board, that I conversed 
 with, but expressed the highest detestation of the perverted 
 principles and conduct of the Quaker junto, and a wish that 
 the board would take the matter up ; notwithstanding which, 
 it was suffered to pass away unnoticed, to the encourage- 
 ment of new acts of treason, the general danger of the cause, 
 and the disgrace of the state. 
 
2l8 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 To the honorable the Council of Safety of the State of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 At a meeting of a reputable number of the inhabitants of the city 
 of Philadelphia, impressed with a proper sense of the justice of 
 the cause which this continent is engaged in, and animated with 
 a generous fervor for supporting the same, it was resolved, that 
 the following be laid before the board of safety : 
 
 " We profess liberality of sentiment to all men ; with this dis- 
 tinction only, that those who do not deserve it would become wise 
 and seek to deserve it. We hold the pure doctrines of universal 
 liberty of conscience, and conceive it our duty to endeavor to 
 secure that sacred right to others, as well as to defend it for 
 ourselves ; for we undertake not to judge of the religious rectitude 
 of tenets, but leave the whole matter to Him who made us. 
 
 " We persecute no man, neither will we abet in the persecution 
 of any man for religion's sake ; our common relation to others 
 being that of fellow-citizens and fellow-subjects of one single 
 community ; and in this line of connexion we hold out the right 
 hand of fellowship to all men. But we should conceive ourselves 
 to be unworthy members of the free and independent states of 
 America, were we unconcernedly to see or to suffer any treason- 
 able wound, public or private, directly or indirectly, to be given 
 against the peace and safety of the same. We inquire not into 
 the rank of the offenders, nor into their religious persuasion ; we 
 have no business with either, our part being only to find them out 
 and exhibit them to justice. 
 
 " A printed paper, dated the 20th of November, and signed 
 ' "jFohn Femberton,' whom we suppose to be an inhabitant of this 
 city, has lately been dispersed abroad, a copy of which accom- 
 panies this.' Had the framers and publishers of that paper con- 
 ceived it their duty to exhort the youth and others of their society, 
 to a patient submission under the present trying visitations, and 
 humbly to wait the event of heaven towards them, they had therein 
 shown a Christian temper, and we had been silent ; but the anger 
 and political virulence with which their instructions are given, and 
 
 ' John Pemberton, an eminent Quaker, had been associated with the founding 
 of the Antislavery Society, April 14, 1775, but afterwards led the Quakers into 
 their unpatriotic position, and with more than twenty others was sent to Vir- 
 ginia and confined for some months, at a critical period of the Revolution. — 
 Editor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 219 
 
 the abuse with which they stigmatize all ranks of men not think- 
 ing like themselves, leave no doubt on our minds from what spirit 
 their publication proceeded : and it is disgraceful to the pure 
 cause of truth, that men can dally with words of the most sacred 
 import, and play them off as mechanically as if religion consisted 
 only in contrivance. We know of no instance in which the 
 Quakers have been compelled to bear arms, or to do any thing 
 which might strain their conscience ; wherefore their advice, ' to 
 withstand and refuse to submit to the arbitrary instructions and 
 ordinances of men,' appear to us a false alarm, and could only be 
 treasonably calculated to gain favor with our enemies, when they 
 are seemingly on the brink of invading this state, or, what is still 
 worse, to weaken the hands of our defence, that their entrance 
 into this city might be made practicable and easy. 
 
 " We disclaim all tumult and disorder in the punishment of 
 offenders ; and wish to be governed, not by temper but by reason, 
 in the manner of treating them. We are sensible that our cause 
 has suffered by the two following errors : first, by ill-judged lenity 
 to traitorous persons in some cases ; and, secondly, by only a 
 passionate treatment of them in others. For the future we dis- 
 own both, and wish to be steady in our proceedings, and serious 
 in our punishments. 
 
 " Every state in America has, by the repeated voice of its in- 
 habitants, directed and authorised the continental congress to 
 publish a formal Declaration of Independence of, and separation 
 from, the oppressive king and parliament of Great Britain ; and 
 we look on every man as an enemy, who does not in some line 
 or other, give his assistance towards supporting the same ; at the 
 same time we consider the offence to be heightened to a degree 
 of unpardonable guilt, when such persons, under the show of 
 religion, endeavor, either by writing, speaking, or otherwise, to 
 subvert, overturn, or bring reproach upon the independence of 
 this continent as declared by congress. 
 
 " The publishers of the paper signed ' John Pemberton,' have 
 called in a loud manner to their friends and connexions, ' to with- 
 stand or refuse ' obedience to whatever ' instructions or ordinan- 
 ces ' may be published, not warranted by (what they call) ' that 
 happy constitution under which they and others long enjoyed 
 tranquillity and peace.' If this be not treason, we know not what 
 may properly be called by that name. 
 
220 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 " To US it is a matter of surprise and astonishment, that men 
 with the word '' peace, peace,' continually on their lips, should be so 
 fond of living under and supporting a government, and at the 
 same time calling it ' happy,' which is never better pleased than 
 when at war — that hath filled India with carnage and famine, 
 Africa with slavery, and tampered with Indians and negroes to 
 cut the throats of the freemen of America. We conceive it a dis- 
 grace to this state, to harbor or wink at such palpable hypocrisy. 
 But as we seek not to hurt the hair of any man's head, when we 
 can make ourselves safe without, we wish such persons to restore 
 peace to themselves and us, by removing themselves to some part 
 of the king of Great Britain's dominions, as by that means they 
 may live unmolested by us and we by them ; for our fixed opinion 
 is, that those who do not deserve a place among us, ought not to 
 have one. 
 
 " We conclude with requesting the Council of Safety to take 
 into consideration the paper signed ' John Pemberton,' and if it 
 shall appear to them to be of a dangerous tendency, or of a trea- 
 sonable nature, that they would commit the signer, together with 
 such other persons as they can discover were concerned therein, 
 into custody, until such time as some mode of trial shall ascertain 
 the full degree of their guilt and punishment ; in the doing of 
 which, we wish their judges, whoever they may be, to disregard 
 the man, his connexions, interest, riches, poverty, or principles 
 of religion, and to attend to the nature of his offence only." 
 
 The most cavilling sectarian cannot accuse the foregoing 
 with containing the least ingredient of persecution. The 
 free spirit on which the American cause is founded, disdains 
 to mix with such an impurity, and leaves it as rubbish fit 
 only for narrow and suspicious minds to grovel in. Sus- 
 picion and persecution are weeds of the same dunghill, and 
 flourish together. Had the Quakers minded their religion 
 and their business, they might have lived through this dis- 
 pute in enviable ease, and none would have molested them. 
 The common phrase with these people is, ' Our principles are 
 peace.' To which may be replied, and your practices are the 
 reverse ; for never did the conduct of men oppose their own 
 doctrine more notoriously than the present race of the 
 Quakers. They have artfully changed themselves into a 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 221 
 
 different sort of people to what they used to be, and yet 
 have the address to persuade each other that they are not 
 altered ; like antiquated virgins, they see not the havoc de- 
 formity has made upon them, but pleasantly mistaking 
 wrinkles for dimples, conceive themselves yet lovely and 
 wonder at the stupid world for not admiring them. 
 
 Did no injury arise to the public by this apostacy of the 
 Quakers from themselves, the public would have nothing to 
 do with it ; but as both the design and consequences are 
 pointed against a cause in which the whole community are 
 interested, it is therefore no longer a subject confined to the 
 cognizance of the meeting only, but comes, as a matter of 
 criminality, before the authority either of the particular state 
 in which it is acted, or of the continent against which it 
 operates. Every attempt, now, to support the authority of 
 the king and parliament of Great Britain over America, is 
 treason against every state ; therefore it is impossible that 
 any one can pardon or screen from punishment an offender 
 against all. 
 
 But to proceed : while the infatuated tories of this and 
 other states were last spring talking of commissioners, ac- 
 commodation, making the matter up, and the Lord knows 
 what stuff and nonsense, their good king and ministry were 
 glutting themselves with the revenge of reducing America 
 to unconditional submission, and solacing each other with the 
 certainty of conquering it in one campaign. The following 
 quotations are from the parliamentary register of the debates 
 of the house of lords, March 5th, 1776: 
 
 "The Americans," says lord Talbot,* "have been obstinate, 
 undutiful, and ungovernable from the very beginning, from their 
 first early and infant settlements ; and I am every day more and 
 more convinced that this people never will be brought back to 
 their duty, and the subordinate relation they stand in to this 
 country, till reduced to mtconditional, effectual submission j no 
 concession on our part, no lenity, no endurance, will have any other 
 effect but that of increasing their insolence." 
 
 * Steward of the king's household. — Author. 
 
222 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 "The struggle," says lord Townsend,* " is now a struggle for 
 power ; the die is cast, and the only point which now remains to 
 be determined is, in what manner the war can be most effec- 
 tually prosecuted and speedily finished, in order to procure that 
 unconditional subtnission, which has been so ably stated by the noble 
 earl with the white staff " (meaning lord Talbot ;) " and I have no 
 reason to doubt that the measures now pursuing will put an end to 
 the war in the course of a single campaign. Should it linger longer, 
 we shall then have reason to expect that some foreign power will 
 interfere, and take advantage of our domestic troubles and civil 
 distractions." 
 
 Lord Littleton. " My sentiments are pretty well known. I 
 shall only observe now that lenient measures have had no other 
 effect than to produce insult after insult ; that the more we con- 
 ceded, the higher America rose in her demands, and the more 
 insolent she has grown. It is for this reason that I am now for the 
 most effective and decisive measures ; and am of opinion that no 
 alternative is left us, but to relinquish America for ever, or finally 
 determine to compel her to acknowledge the legislative authority 
 of this country ; and it is the principle of an unconditional submis- 
 sion I would be for maintaining." 
 
 Can w^ords be more expressive than these? Surely the 
 tories will believe the tory lords ! The truth is, they do 
 believe them and know as fully as any whig on the continent 
 knows, that the king and ministry never had the least design 
 of an accommodation with America, but an absolute, uncon- 
 ditional conquest. And the part which the tories were to 
 act, was, by downright lying, to endeavor to put the continent 
 off its guard, and to divide and sow discontent in the minds 
 of such whigs as they might gain an influence over. In short, 
 to keep up a distraction here, that the force sent from Eng- 
 land might be able to conquer in " one campaign.'' They and 
 the ministry were, by a different game, playing into each 
 other's hands. The cry of the tories in England was, " No 
 reconciliation, no accommodation" in order to obtain the 
 greater military force ; while those in America were crying 
 
 * Formerly, general Townsend, at Quebec, and late lord-lieutenant of Ireland. 
 — A uthor. 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 223 
 
 nothing but " reconciliation and accommodation" that the force 
 sent might conquer with the less resistance. 
 
 But this " single campaign " is over, and America not con- 
 quered. The whole work is yet to do, and the force much 
 less to do it with. Their condition is both despicable and 
 deplorable : out of cash — out of heart, and out of hope. A 
 country furnished with arms and ammunition as America 
 now is, with three millions of inhabitants, and three thou- 
 sand miles distant from the nearest enemy that can approach 
 her, is able to look and laugh them in the face. 
 
 Howe appears to have two objects in view, either to go up 
 the North river, or come to Philadelphia. 
 
 By going up the North river, he secures a retreat for his 
 army through Canada, but the ships must return if they re- 
 turn at all, the same way they went ; as our army would be 
 in the rear, the safety of their passage down is a doubtful 
 matter. By such a motion he shuts himself from all supplies 
 from Europe, but through Canada, and exposes his army and 
 navy to the danger of perishing. The idea of his cutting off 
 the communication between the eastern and southern states, 
 by means of the North river, is merely visionary. He can- 
 not do it by his shipping ; because no ship can lay long at 
 anchor in any river within reach of the shore ; a single gun 
 would drive a first rate from such a station. This was fully 
 proved last October at forts Washington and Lee, where one 
 gun only, on each side of the river, obliged two frigates to 
 cut and be towed off in an hour's time. Neither can he cut 
 it off by his army ; because the several posts they must 
 occupy would divide them almost to nothing, and expose 
 them to be picked up by ours like pebbles on a river's bank; 
 but admitting that he could, where is the injury? Because, 
 while his whole force is cantoned out, as sentries over the 
 water, they will be very innocently employed, and the 
 moment they march into the country the communication 
 opens. 
 
 The most probable object is Philadelphia, and the reasons 
 are many. Howe's business is to conquer it, and in propor- 
 tion as he finds himself unable to the task, he will employ his 
 
224 ^^^^ WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 Strength to distress women and weak minds, in order to ac- 
 complish through their fears what he cannot accompHsh by 
 his otmi force. His coming or attempting to come to Phila- 
 delphia is a circumstance that proves his weakness : for no 
 general that felt himself able to take the field and attack his 
 antagonist would think of bringing his army into a city in the 
 summer time ; and this mere shifting the scene from place to 
 place, without effecting any thing, has feebleness and cowar- 
 dice on the face of it, and holds him up in a contemptible 
 light to all who can reason justly and firmly. By several in- 
 formations from New York, it appears that their army in 
 general, both officers and men, have given up the expecta- 
 tion of conquering America ; their eye now is fixed upon the 
 spoil. They suppose Philadelphia to be rich with stores, and 
 as they think to get more by robbing a town than by attack- 
 ing an army, their movement towards this city is probable. 
 We are not now contending against an army of soldiers, but 
 against a band of thieves, who had rather plunder than fight, 
 and have no other hope of conquest than by cruelty. 
 
 They expect to get a mighty booty, and strike another 
 general panic, by making a sudden movement and getting 
 possession of this city ; but unless they can march i??^/ as well 
 as in, or get the entire command of the river, to remove off 
 their plunder, they may probably be stopped with the stolen 
 goods upon them. They have never yet succeeded where- 
 ever they have been opposed, but at fort Washington. At 
 Charleston their defeat was effectual. At Ticonderoga they 
 ran away. In every skirmish at Kingsbridge and the White 
 Plains they were obliged to retreat, and the instant that our 
 arms were turned upon them in the Jerseys, they turned like- 
 wise, and those that turned not were taken. 
 
 The necessity of always fitting our internal police to the 
 circumstances of the times we live in, is something so strik- 
 ingly obvious, that no sufficient objection can be made against 
 it. The safety of all societies depends upon it ; and where 
 this point is not attended to, the consequences will either be 
 a general languor or a tumult. The encouragement and pro- 
 tection of the good subjects of any state, and the suppression 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 225 
 
 and punishment of bad ones, are the principal objects for 
 which all authority is instituted, and the line in which it 
 ought to operate. We have in this city a strange variety of 
 men and characters, and the circumstances of the times 
 require that they should be publicly known ; it is not the 
 number of tories that hurt us, so much as the not finding out 
 who they are ; men must now take one side or the other, and 
 abide by the consequences : the Quakers, trusting to their 
 short-sighted sagacity, have, most unluckily for them, made 
 their declaration in their last Testimony, and we ought now 
 to take them at their word. They have involuntarily read 
 themselves out of the continental meeting, and cannot hope 
 to be restored to it again but by payment and penitence. 
 Men whose political principles are founded on avarice, are 
 beyond the reach of reason, and the only cure of toryism of 
 this cast is to tax it. A substantial good drawn from a real 
 evil, is of the same benefit to society, as if drawn from a vir- 
 tue ; and where men have not public spirit to render them- 
 selves serviceable, it ought to be the study of government to 
 draw the best use possible from their vices. When the gov- 
 erning passion of any man, or set of men, is once known, the 
 method of managing them is easy ; for even misers, whom no 
 public virtue can impress, would become generous, could a 
 heavy tax be laid upon covetousness. 
 
 The tories have endeavored to insure their property with 
 the enemy, by forfeiting their reputation with us ; from 
 which may be justly inferred, that their governing passion is 
 avarice. Make them as much afraid of losing on one side as 
 on the other, and you stagger their toryism ; make them 
 more so, and you reclaim them ; for their principle is to 
 worship the power which they are most afraid of. 
 
 This method of considering men and things together, 
 opens into a large field for speculation, and affords me an 
 opportunity of offering some observations on the state of 
 our currency, so as to make the support of it go hand in 
 hand with the suppression of disaffection and the encourage- 
 ment of public spirit. 
 
 The thing which first presents itself in inspecting the state 
 
 VOL. I. — 15 
 
226 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 of the currency, is, that we have too much of it, and that 
 there is a necessity of reducing the quantity, in order to in- 
 crease the value. Men are daily growing poor by the very 
 means that they take to get rich ; for in the same proportion 
 that the prices of all goods on hand are raised, the value of 
 all money laid by is reduced. A simple case will make this 
 clear ; let a man have 100/. in cash, and as many goods on 
 hand as will to-day sell for 20/. ; but not content with the 
 present market price, he raises them to 40/. and by so doing 
 obliges others, in their own defence, to raise cent, per cent, 
 likewise ; in this case it is evident that his hundred pounds 
 laid by, is reduced fifty pounds in value ; whereas, had the 
 market lowered cent, per cent., his goods would have sold 
 but for ten, but his hundred pounds would have risen in 
 value to two hundred ; because it would then purchase as 
 many goods again, or support his family as long again as be- 
 fore. And, strange as it may seem, he is one hundred and 
 fifty pounds the poorer for raising his goods, to what he 
 would have been had he lowered them ; because the forty 
 pounds which his goods sold for, is, by the general raise of 
 the market cent, per cent., rendered of no more value than 
 the ten pounds would be had the market fallen in the same 
 proportion ; and, consequently, the whole difference of gain 
 or loss is on the difference in value of the hundred pounds 
 laid by, viz. from fifty to two hundred. This rage for raising 
 goods is for several reasons much more the fault of the tories 
 than the whigs ; and yet the tories (to their shame and con- 
 fusion ought they to be told of it) are by far the most noisy 
 and discontented. The greatest part of the whigs, by being 
 now either in the army or employed in some public service, 
 ai'c buyers only and not sellers, and as this evil has its origin 
 in trade, it cannot be charged on those who are out of it. 
 
 But the grievance has now become too general to be 
 remedied by partial methods, and the only effectual cure is 
 to reduce the quantity of money : with half the quantity we 
 should be richer than we are now, because the value of it 
 would be doubled, and consequently our attachment to it 
 increased ; for it is not the number of dollars that a man 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 227 
 
 has, but how far they will go, that makes him either rich or 
 poor. 
 
 These two points being admitted, viz. that the quantity 
 of money is too great, and that the prices of goods can 
 only be effectually reduced by reducing the quantity of 
 the money, the next point to be considered is, the method 
 how to reduce it. 
 
 The circumstances of the times, as before observed, re- 
 quire that the public characters of all men should now be 
 fully understood, and the only general method of ascertain- 
 ing it is by an oath or afifirmation, renouncing all allegiance 
 to the king of Great Britain, and to support the independ- 
 ence of the United States, as declared by congress. Let, at 
 the same time, a tax of ten, fifteen, or twenty per cent, per 
 annum, to be collected quarterly, be levied on all property. 
 These alternatives, by being perfectly voluntary, will take in 
 all sorts of people. Here is the test ; here is the tax. He 
 who takes the former, conscientiously proves his affection to 
 the cause, and binds himself to pay his quota by the best 
 services in his power, and is thereby justly exempt from the 
 latter ; and those who choose the latter, pay their quota in 
 money, to be excused from the former, or rather, it is the 
 price paid to us for their supposed, though mistaken, 
 insurance with the enemy. 
 
 But this is only a part of the advantage which would arise 
 by knowing the different characters of men. The whigs 
 stake every thing on the issue of their arms, while the 
 tories, by their disaffection, are sapping and undermining 
 their strength ; and, of consequence, the property of the 
 whigs is the more exposed thereby; and whatever injury 
 their estates may sustain by the movements of the enemy, 
 must either be borne by themselves, who have done every 
 thing which has yet been done, or by the tories, who have 
 not only done nothing, but have, by their disaffection, 
 invited the enemy on. 
 
 In the present crisis we ought to know, square by square 
 and house by house, who are in real allegiance with the 
 United Independent States, and who are not. Let but the 
 
228 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i777 
 
 line be made clear and distinct, and all men will then know 
 what they are to trust to. It would not only be good 
 policy but strict justice, to raise fifty or one hundred 
 thousand pounds, or more, if it is necessary, out of the 
 estates and property of the king of England's votaries, 
 resident in Philadelphia, to be distributed, as a reward to 
 those inhabitants of the city and state, who should turn out 
 and repulse the enemy, should they attempt to march this 
 way ; and likewise, to bind the property of all such persons 
 to make good the damages which that of the whigs might 
 sustain. In the undistinguishable mode of conducting a 
 war, we frequently make reprisals at sea, on the vessels of 
 persons in England, who are friends to our cause compared 
 with the resident tories among us. 
 
 In every former publication of mine, from Common Sense 
 down to the last Crisis, I have generally gone on the chari- 
 table supposition, that the tories were rather a mistaken than 
 a criminal people, and have applied argument after argu- 
 ment, with all the candor and temper which I was capable 
 of, in order to set every part of the case clearly and fairly 
 before them, and if possible to reclaim them from ruin to 
 reason. I have done my duty by them and have now done 
 with that doctrine, taking it for granted, that those who yet 
 hold their disaffection are either a set of avaricious mis- 
 creants, who would sacrifice the continent to save themselves, 
 or a banditti of hungry traitors, who are hoping for a division 
 of the spoil. To which may be added, a list of crown or 
 proprietary dependants, who, rather than go without a por- 
 tion of power, would be content to share it with the devil. 
 Of such men there is no hope ; and their obedience will 
 only be according to the danger set before them, and the 
 power that is exercised over them. 
 
 A time will shortly arrive, in which, by ascertaining the 
 characters of persons now, we shall be guarded against their 
 mischiefs then ; for in proportion as the enemy despair of 
 conquest, they will be trying the arts of seduction and the 
 force of fear by all the mischiefs which they can inflict. But 
 in war we may be certain of these two things, viz. that cruelty 
 in an enemy, and motions made with more than usual parade. 
 
17771 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 229 
 
 are always signs of weakness. He that can conquer, finds his 
 mind too free and pleasant to be brutish ; and he that intends 
 to conquer, never makes too much show of his strength. 
 
 We now know the enemy we have to do with. While 
 drunk with the certainty of victory, they disdained to be 
 civil ; and in proportion as disappointment makes them 
 sober, and their apprehensions of an European war alarm 
 them, they will become cringing and artful ; honest they 
 cannot be. But our answer to them, in either condition they 
 may be in, is short and full — "As free and independent 
 states we are willing to make peace with you to-morrow, but 
 we neither can hear nor reply in any other character." 
 
 If Britain cannot conquer us, it proves that she is neither 
 able to govern nor protect us, and our particular situation 
 now is such, that any connexion with her would be unwisely 
 exchanging a half-defeated enemy for two powerful ones. 
 Europe, by every appearance, is now on the eve, nay, on the 
 morning twilight of a war, and any alliance with George the 
 third, brings France and Spain upon our backs; a separation 
 from him attaches them to our side ; therefore, the only road 
 to peace, honour, and commerce, in Independence. 
 
 Written this fourth year of the UNION,' which God preserve. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, April 19, 1777. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, 
 must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. The 
 event of yesterday " was one of those kind of alarms which is 
 just sufficient to rouse us to duty, without being of conse- 
 quence enough to depress our fortitude. It is not a field of 
 
 ' Paine would seem to date from the formation of the intercolonial commit- 
 tee, in 1773. — Edilor. 
 
 ' Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. For the circumstances under 
 which this brief " Crisis " was written, see Paine's letter to Franklin (XXI. of 
 this volume). — Editor. 
 
230 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777 
 
 a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, 
 and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by de- 
 grees, the consequences will be the same. 
 
 Look back at the events of last winter and the present 
 year, there you will find that the enemy's successes always 
 contributed to reduce them. What they have gained in 
 ground, they paid so dearly for in numbers, that their vic- 
 tories have in the end amounted to defeats. We have al- 
 ways been masters at the last push, and always shall be 
 while we do our duty. Howe has been once on the banks 
 of the Delaware, and from thence driven back with loss and 
 disgrace : and why not be again driven from the Schuylkill ? 
 His condition and ours are very different. He has everybody 
 to fight, we have only his one army to cope with, and which 
 wastes away at every engagement : we can not only reinforce, 
 but can redouble our numbers ; he is cut off from all supplies, 
 and must sooner or later inevitably fall into our hands. 
 
 Shall a band of ten or twelve thousand robbers, who are 
 this day fifteen hundred or two thousand men less in 
 strength than they were yesterday, conquer America, or 
 subdue even a single state? The thing cannot be, unless 
 we sit down and suffer them to do it. Another such a 
 brush, notwithstanding we lost the ground, would, by still 
 reducing the enemy, put them in a condition to be after- 
 wards totally defeated. 
 
 Could our whole army have come up to the attack at one 
 time, the consequences had probably been otherwise ; but 
 our having different parts of the Brandywine creek to guard, 
 and the uncertainty which road to Philadelphia the enemy 
 would attempt to take, naturally afforded them an opportu- 
 nity of passing with their main body at a place where only a 
 part of ours could be posted ; for it must strike every think- 
 ing man with conviction, that it requires a much greater 
 force to oppose an enemy in.several places, than is sufficient 
 to defeat him in any one place. 
 
 Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will al- 
 ways feel concern at every circumstance which seems to make 
 against them ; it is the natural and honest consequence of 
 
1777] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 231 
 
 all affectionate attachments, and the want of it is a vice. 
 But the dejection lasts only for a moment ; they soon rise 
 out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage 
 and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every 
 inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism. 
 
 There is a mystery in the countenance of some causes, 
 which we have not always present judgment enough to ex- 
 plain. It is distressing to see an enemy advancing into a 
 country, but it is the only place in which we can beat them, 
 and in which we have always beaten them, whenever they 
 made the attempt. The nearer any disease approaches to a 
 crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance 
 make their advances together, and it is only the last push, in 
 which one or the other takes the lead. 
 
 There are many men who will do their duty when it is 
 not wanted ; but a genuine public spirit always appears 
 most when there is most occasion for it. Thank God ! our 
 army, though fatigued, is yet entire. The attack made by 
 us yesterday, was under many disadvantages, naturally 
 arising from the uncertainty of knowing which route the 
 enemy would take ; and, from that circumstance, the whole 
 of our force could not be brought up together time enough 
 to engage all at once. Our strength is yet reserved ; and it 
 is evident that Howe does not think himself a gainer by the 
 affair, otherwise he would this morning have moved down 
 and attacked General Washington. 
 
 Gentlemen of the city and country, it is in your power, 
 by a spirited improvement of the present circumstance, to 
 turn it to a real advantage. Howe is now weaker than 
 before, and every shot will contribute to reduce him. You 
 are more immediately interested than any other part of the 
 continent : your all is at stake ; it is not so with the general 
 cause ; you are devoted by the enemy to plunder and de- 
 struction : it is the encouragement which Howe, the chief of 
 plunderers, has promised his army. Thus circumstanced, 
 you may save yourselves by a manly resistance, but you can 
 have no hope in any other conduct. I never yet knew our 
 brave general, or any part of the army, officers or men, out 
 
232 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i777 
 
 of heart, and I have seen them in circumstances a thousand 
 times more trying than the present. It is only those that are 
 not in action, that feel languor and heaviness, and the best 
 way to rub it off is to turn out, and make sure work of it. 
 
 Our army must undoubtedly feel fatigue, and want a rein- 
 forcement of rest though not of valour. Our own interest 
 and happiness call upon us to give them every support in 
 our power, and make the burden of the day, on which the 
 safety of this city depends, as light as possible. Remember, 
 gentlemen, that we have forces both to the northward and 
 southward of Philadelphia, and if the enemy be but stopped 
 till those can arrive, this city will be saved, and the enemy 
 finally routed. You have too much at stake to hesitate. You 
 ought not to think an hour upon the matter, but to spring 
 to action at once. Other states have been invaded, have 
 likewise driven off the invaders. Now our time and turn is 
 come, and perhaps the finishing stroke is reserved for us. 
 When we look back on the dangers we have been saved from, 
 and reflect on the success we have been blessed with, it would 
 be sinful either to be idle or to despair. 
 
 I close this paper with a short address to general Howe. 
 You, sir, are only lingering out the period that shall bring 
 with it your defeat. You have yet scarce began upon the 
 war, and the further you enter, the faster will your troubles 
 thicken. What you now enjoy is only a respite from ruin; 
 an invitation to destruction ; something that will lead on to 
 our deliverance at your expense. We know the cause which 
 we are engaged in, and though a passionate fondness for it 
 may make us grieve at every injury which threatens it, yet, 
 when the moment of concern is over, the determination to 
 duty returns. We are not moved by the gloomy smile of a 
 worthless king, but by the ardent glow of generous patriotism. 
 We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make 
 room upon the earth for honest men to live in. In such a 
 case we are sure that we are right ; and we leave to you the 
 despairing reflection of being the tool of a miserable tyrant. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Sept. 12, 1777. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 233 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 V. 
 
 TO GEN. SIR WILLIAM HOWE.' 
 
 To argue with a man who has renounced the use and 
 authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in hold- 
 ing humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to 
 the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. 
 Enjoy, sir, your insensibility of feeling and reflecting. It is 
 the prerogative of animals. And no man will envy you these 
 honors, in which a savage only can be your rival and a bear 
 your master. 
 
 As the generosity of this country rewarded your brother's 
 services last war, with an elegant monument in Westminster 
 Abbey, it is consistent that she should bestow some mark 
 of distinction upon you.' You certainly deserve her notice, 
 and a conspicuous place in the catalogue of extraordinary 
 persons. Yet it would be a pity to pass you from the world 
 in state, and consign you to magnificent oblivion among the 
 tombs, without telling the future beholder why. Judas is as 
 much known as John, yet history ascribes their fame to very 
 different actions. 
 
 Sir William hath undoubtedly merited a monument ; but 
 of what kind, or with what inscription, where placed or how 
 embellished, is a question that would puzzle all the heralds 
 of St James's in the profoundest mood of historical delibera- 
 tion. We are at no loss, sir, to ascertain your real character, 
 
 ' In October, 1777, Howe being, since September 26, in possession of Phila- 
 delphia, Paine was employed by the Pennsylvania Assembly and Council to 
 obtain for it constant intelligence of the movements of Washington's army. 
 (" Life of Paine," i., p. 94.) While writing this, No. V., he saw much of Wash- 
 ington, and the pamphlet was probably to some extent "inspired." It was 
 put into shape at the house of William Henry, Jr. , Lancaster, Pa. , whose son 
 remembered that he was very long at the work. It was printed at York, 
 Pa., where Congress was in session. — Editor. 
 
 George Augustus Howe, born 1724, fell at Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758. The 
 General Court of Massachusetts appropriated £,2,^0 for the monument in West- 
 minster Abbey. — Editor. 
 
234 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 but somewhat perplexed how to perpetuate its identity, and 
 preserve it uninjured from the transformations of time or 
 mistake. A statuary may give a false expression to your 
 bust, or decorate it with some equivocal emblems, by which 
 you may happen to steal into reputation and impose upon 
 the hereafter traditionary world. Ill nature or ridicule may 
 conspire, or a variety of accidents combine to lessen, enlarge, 
 or change Sir William's fame ; and no doubt but he who 
 has taken so much pains to be singular in his conduct, would 
 choose to be just as singular in his exit, his monument and 
 his epitaph. 
 
 The usual honours of the dead, to be sure, are not sufifi- 
 ciently sublime to escort a character like you to the republic 
 of dust and ashes; for however men may differ in their ideas 
 of grandeur or of government here, the grave is nevertheless 
 a perfect republic. Death is not the monarch of the dead, 
 but of the dying. The moment he obtains a conquest he 
 loses a subject, and, like the foolish king you serve, will, in 
 the end, war himself out of all his dominions. 
 
 As a proper preliminary towards the arrangement of your 
 funeral honours, we readily admit of your new rank of 
 knigJithood. The title is perfectly in character, and is your 
 own, more by merit than creation. There are knights of 
 various orders, from the knight of the windmill to the knight 
 of the post. The former is your patron for exploits, and the 
 latter will assist you in settling your accounts. No honorary 
 title could be more happily applied ! The ingenuity is sub- 
 lime ! And your royal master hath discovered more genius 
 in fitting you therewith, than in generating the most finished 
 figure for a button, or descanting on the properties of a 
 button mould. 
 
 But how, sir, shall we dispose of you ? The invention of 
 a statuary is exhausted, and Sir William is yet unprovided 
 with a monument. America is anxious to bestow her funeral 
 favours upon you, and wishes to do it in a manner that shall 
 distinguish you from all the deceased heroes of the last war. 
 The Egyptian method of embalming is not known to the 
 present age, and hieroglyphical pageantry hath outlived the 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 science of decyphering it. Some other method, therefore, 
 must be thought of to immortalise the new knight of the 
 windmill and post. Sir William, thanks to his stars, is not 
 oppressed with very delicate ideas. He has no ambition of 
 being wrapped up and handed about in myrrh, aloes and 
 cassia. Less expensive odours will suffice ; and it fortunately 
 happens that the simple genius of America hath discovered 
 the art of preserving bodies, and embellishing them too, with 
 much greater frugality than the ancients. In balmage, sir, 
 of humble tar, you will be as secure as Pharaoh, and in a 
 hieroglyphic of feathers, rival in finery all the mummies of 
 Egypt. 
 
 As you have already made your exit from the moral 
 world, and by numberless acts both of passionate and delib- 
 erate injustice engraved an " here lyeth " on your deceased 
 honour, it must be mere affectation in you to pretend con- 
 cern at the humours or opinions of mankind respecting you. 
 What remains of you may expire at any time. The sooner 
 the better. For he who survives his reputation, lives out of 
 despite of himself, like a man listening to his own reproach. 
 
 Thus entombed and ornamented, I leave you to the in- 
 spection of the curious, and return to the history of your 
 yet surviving actions. The character of Sir William hath 
 undergone some extraordinary revolutions since his arrival 
 in America. It is now fixed and known ; and we have 
 nothing to hope from your candour or to fear from your 
 capacity. Indolence and inability have too large a share in 
 your composition, ever to suffer you to be anything more 
 than the hero of little villainies and unfinished adventures. 
 That, which to some persons appeared moderation in you at 
 first, was not produced by any real virtue of your own, but 
 by a contrast of passions, dividing and holding you in per- 
 petual irresolution. One vice will frequently expel another, 
 without the least merit in the man ; as powers in contrary 
 directions reduce each other to rest. 
 
 It became you to have supported a dignified solemnity of 
 character ; to have shown a superior liberality of soul ; to 
 have won respect by an obstinate perseverance in maintain- 
 
236 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 ing order, and to have exhibited on all occasions such an 
 unchangeable graciousness of conduct, that while we beheld 
 in you the resolution of an enemy, we might admire in you 
 the sincerity of a man. You came to America under the 
 high sounding titles of commander and commissioner ; not 
 only to suppress what you call rebellion, by arms, but to 
 shame it out of countenance by the excellence of your ex- 
 ample. Instead of which, you have been the patron of low 
 and vulgar frauds, the encourager of Indian cruelties; and 
 have imported a cargo of vices blacker than those which you 
 pretend to suppress. 
 
 Mankind are not universally agreed in their determination 
 of right and wrong ; but there are certain actions which the 
 consent of all nations and individuals hath branded with the 
 unchangeable name of meanness. In the list of human vices we 
 find some of such a refined constitution, they cannot be carried 
 into practice without seducing some virtue to their assist- 
 ance ; but meanness hath neither alliance nor apology. It 
 is generated in the dust and sweepings of other vices, and is 
 of such a hateful figure that all the rest conspire to disown 
 it. Sir William, the commissioner of George the third, hath 
 at last vouchsafed to give it rank and pedigree. He has 
 placed the fugitive at the council board, and dubbed it com- 
 panion of the order of knighthood. 
 
 The particular act of meanness which I allude to in this 
 description, is forgery. You, sir, have abetted and patron- 
 ised the forging and uttering counterfeit continental bills. 
 In the same New- York newspapers in which your own 
 proclamation under your master's authority was published, 
 offering, or pretending to offer, pardon and protection to 
 these states, there were repeated advertisements of counter- 
 feit money for sale, and persons who have come officially 
 from you, and under the sanction of your flag, have been 
 taken up in attempting to put them off. 
 
 A conduct so basely mean in a public character is without 
 precedent or pretence. Every nation on earth, whether 
 friends or enemies, will unite in despising you. 'Tis an in- 
 cendiary war upon society, which nothing can excuse or pal- 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 237 
 
 liate, — an improvement upon beggarly villany — and shows 
 an inbred wretchedness of heart made up between the 
 venomous mahgnity of a serpent and the spiteful imbecility 
 of an inferior reptile. 
 
 The laws of any civilized country would condemn you to 
 the gibbet without regard to your rank or titles, because it 
 is an action foreign to the usage and custom of war; and 
 should you fall into our hands, which pray God you may, it 
 will be a doubtful matter whether we are to consider you as 
 a military prisoner or a prisoner for felony. 
 
 Besides, it is exceedingly unwise and impolitic in you, or 
 any other persons in the English service, to promote or 
 even encourage, or wink at the crime of forgery, in any case 
 whatever. Because, as the riches of England, as a nation, 
 are chiefly in paper, and the far greater part of trade among 
 individuals is carried on by the same medium, that is, by 
 notes and drafts on one another, they, therefore, of all 
 people in the world, ought to endeavour to keep forgery out 
 of sight, and, if possible, not to revive the idea of it. It is 
 dangerous to make men familiar with a crime which they 
 may afterwards practise to much greater advantage against 
 those who first taught them. Several officers in the English 
 army have made their exit at the gallows for forgery on 
 their agents ; for we all know, who know any thing of Eng- 
 land, that there is not a more necessitous body of men, 
 taking them generally, than what the English ofificers are. 
 They contrive to make a show at the expense of the tailors, 
 and appear clean at the charge of the washer-women. 
 
 England, hath at this time, nearly two hundred million 
 pounds sterling of public money in paper, for which she 
 hath no real property : besides a large circulation of bank 
 notes, bank post bills, and promissory notes and drafts of 
 private bankers, merchants and tradesmen. She hath the 
 greatest quantity of paper currency and the least quantity 
 of gold and silver of any nation in Europe ; the real specie, 
 which is about sixteen millions sterling, serves only as 
 change in large sums, which are always made in paper, or 
 for payment in small ones. Thus circumstanced, the nation 
 
238 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 is put to its wit's end, and obliged to be severe almost to 
 criminality, to prevent the practice and growth of forgery. 
 Scarcely a session passes at the Old Bailey, or an execution 
 at Tyburn, but witnesseth this truth, yet you, sir, regardless 
 of the policy which her necessity obliges her to adopt, have 
 made your whole army intimate with the crime. And as all 
 armies at the conclusion of a war, are too apt to carry into 
 practice the vices of the campaign, it will probably happen, 
 that England will hereafter abound in forgeries, to which 
 art the practitioners were first initiated under your authority 
 in America. You, sir, have the honour of adding a new vice 
 to the military catalogue ; and the reason, perhaps, why the 
 invention was reserved for you, is, because no general before 
 was mean enough even to think of it. 
 
 That a man whose soul is absorbed in the low traffic of 
 vulgar vice, is incapable of moving in any superior region, is 
 clearly shown in you by the event of every campaign. Your 
 military exploits have been without plan, object or decision. 
 Can it be possible that you or your employers suppose that 
 the possession of Philadelphia will be any ways equal to the 
 expense or expectation of the nation which supports you ? 
 What advantages does England derive from any achieve- 
 ments of yours? To her it is perfectly indifferent what 
 place you are in, so long as the business of conquest is 
 unperformed and the charge of maintaining you remains the 
 same. 
 
 If the principal events of the three campaigns be attended 
 to, the balance will appear against you at the close of each ; 
 but the last, in point of importance to us, has exceeded the 
 former two. It is pleasant to look back on dangers past, 
 and equally as pleasant to meditate on present ones when 
 the way out begins to appear. That period is now arrived, 
 and the long doubtful winter of war is changing to the 
 sweeter prospects of victory and joy. At the close of the 
 campaign, in 1775, you were obliged to retreat from Boston. 
 In the summer of 1776, you appeared with a numerous fleet 
 and army in the harbor of New-York. By what miracle the 
 continent was preserved in that season of danger is a subject 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 239 
 
 of admiration ! If instead of wasting your time against 
 Long-Island you had run up the North river, and landed 
 any where above New-York, the consequence must have 
 been, that either you would have compelled general Wash- 
 ington to fight you with very unequal numbers, or he must 
 have suddenly evacuated the city with the loss of nearly all 
 the stores of his army, or have surrendered for want of 
 provisions ; the situation of the place naturally producing 
 one or the other of these events. 
 
 The preparations made to defend New-York were, never- 
 theless, wise and military ; because your forces were then at 
 sea, their numbers uncertain ; storms, sickness, or a variety 
 of accidents might have disabled their coming, or so dimin- 
 ished them on their passage, that those which survived 
 would have been incapable of opening the campaign with 
 any prospect of success ; in which case the defence would 
 have been sufificient and the place preserved ; for cities that 
 have been raised from nothing with an infinitude of labour 
 and expense, are not to be thrown away on the bare prob- 
 ability of their being taken. On these grounds the prepara- 
 tions made to maintain New- York were as judicious as the 
 retreat afterwards. While you, in the interim, let slip 
 the very opportunity which seemed to put conquest in your 
 power. 
 
 Through the whole of that campaign you had nearly 
 double the forces which general Washington immediately 
 commanded. The principal plan at that time, on our part, 
 was to wear away the season with as little loss as possible, 
 and to raise the army for the next year. Long-Island, New- 
 York, forts Washington and Lee were not defended after 
 your superior force was known under any expectation of 
 their being finally maintained, but as a range of outworks, in 
 the attacking of which your time might be wasted, your 
 numbers reduced, and your vanity amused by possessing 
 them on our retreat. It was intended to have withdrawn 
 the garrison from fort Washington after it had answered 
 the former of those purposes, but the fate of that day put a 
 prize into your hands without much honor to yourselves. 
 
240 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 Your progress through the Jerseys was accidental ; you 
 had it not even in contemplation, or you would not have sent 
 a principal part of your forces to Rhode-Island beforehand. 
 The utmost hope of America in the year 1776, reached no 
 higher than that she might not then be conquered. She 
 had no expectation of defeating you in that campaign. Even 
 the most cowardly tory allowed, that, could she withstand 
 the shock of that summer, her independence would be past 
 a doubt. You had then greatly the advantage of her. You 
 were formidable. Your military knowledge was supposed to 
 be complete. Your fleets and forces arrived without an acci- 
 dent. You had neither experience nor reinforcements to 
 wait for. You had nothing to do but to begin, and your 
 chance lay in the first vigorous onset. 
 
 America was young and unskilled. She was obliged to 
 trust her defence to time and practice ; and hath, by mere 
 dint of perseverance, maintained her cause, and brought the 
 enemy to a condition, in which she is now capable of meet- 
 ing him on any grounds. 
 
 It is remarkable that in the campaign of 1776 you gained 
 no more, notwithstanding your great force, than what was 
 given you by consent of evacuation, except fort Washington ; 
 while every advantage obtained by us was by fair and hard 
 fighting. The defeat of Sir Peter Parker was complete. ' 
 The conquest of the Hessians at Trenton, by the remains of 
 a retreating army, which but a few days before you affected 
 to despise, is an instance of their heroic perseverance very sel- 
 dom to be met with. And the victory over the British troops 
 at Princeton, by a harassed and wearied party, who had been 
 engaged the day before and marched all night without 
 refreshment, is attended with such a scene of circumstances 
 and superiority of generalship, as will ever give it a place in 
 the first rank in the history of great actions. 
 
 When I look back on the gloomy days of last winter, and 
 see America suspended by a thread, I feel a triumph of joy 
 at the recollection of her delivery, and a reverence for the 
 characters which snatched her from destruction. To doubt 
 
 ' At Cape Fear, April, 1776. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 -'41 
 
 now would be a species of infidelity, and to forget the 
 instruments which saved us then would be ingratitude. 
 
 The close of that campaign left us with the spirit of con- 
 querors. The northern districts were relieved by the retreat 
 of general Carleton over the lakes. The army under your 
 command were hunted back and had their bounds pre- 
 scribed. The continent began to feel its military impor- 
 tance, and the winter passed pleasantly away in preparations 
 for the next campaign. 
 
 However confident you might be on your first arrival, the 
 result of the year 1776 gave you some idea of the difificulty, 
 if not impossibility of conquest. To this reason I ascribe 
 your delay in opening the campaign of 1777. The face of 
 matters, on the close of the former year, gave you no en- 
 couragement to pursue a discretionary war as soon as the 
 spring admitted the taking the field ; for though conquest, 
 in that case, would have given you a double portion of 
 fame, yet the experiment was too hazardous. The minis- 
 try, had you failed, would have shifted the whole blame 
 upon you, charged you with having acted without orders, 
 and condemned at once both your plan and execution. 
 
 To avoid the misfortunes, which might have involved you 
 and your money accounts in perplexity and suspicion, you 
 prudently waited the arrival of a plan of operations from 
 England, which was that you should proceed for Philadel- 
 phia by way of the Chesapeake, and that Burgoyne, after 
 reducing Ticonderoga, should take his route by Albany, 
 and, if necessary, join you. 
 
 The splendid laurels of the last campaign have flourished 
 in the north. In that quarter America has surprised the 
 world, and laid the foundation of this year's glory. The 
 conquest of Ticonderoga, (if it may be called a conquest) 
 has, like all your other victories, led on to ruin. Even the 
 provisions taken in that fortress (which by general Bur- 
 goyne's return was sufificient in bread and flour for nearly 
 5000 men for ten weeks, and in beef and pork for the same 
 number of men for one month) served only to hasten his 
 overthrow, by enabling him to proceed to Saratoga, the 
 
 VOL. I. — 16 
 
242 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 place of his destruction. A short review of the operations 
 of the last campaign will show the condition of affairs on 
 both sides. 
 
 You have taken Ticonderoga and marched into Philadel- 
 phia. These are all the events which the year hath pro- 
 duced on your part. A trifling campaign indeed, compared 
 with the expenses of England and the conquest of the con- 
 tinent. On the other side, a considerable part of your north- 
 ern force has been routed by the New-York militia under 
 general Herkemer. Fort Stanwix has bravely survived a 
 compound attack of soldiers and savages, and the besiegers 
 have fled. The battle of Bennington has put a thousand 
 prisoners into our hands, with all their arms, stores, artillery 
 and baggage. General Burgoyne, in two engagements, has 
 been defeated ; himself, his army, and all that were his and 
 theirs are now ours. Ticonderoga and Independence [forts] 
 are retaken, and not the shadow of an enemy remains in all 
 the northern districts. At this instant we have upwards of 
 eleven thousand prisoners, between sixty and seventy [cap- 
 tured] pieces of brass ordnance, besides small arms, tents, 
 stores, etc. 
 
 In order to know the real value of those advantages, we 
 must reverse the scene, and suppose general Gates and the 
 force he commanded, to be at your mercy as prisoners, and 
 general Burgoyne, with his army of soldiers and savages, to 
 be already joined to you in Pennsylvania. So dismal a 
 picture can scarcely be looked at. It has all the tracings 
 and colorings of horror and despair ; and excites the most 
 swelling emotions of gratitude by exhibiting the miseries we 
 are so graciously preserved from. 
 
 I admire the distribution of laurels around the continent. 
 It is the earnest of future union. South-Carolina has had 
 her day of sufferings and of fame ; and the other southern 
 states have exerted themselves in proportion to the force 
 that invaded or insulted them. Towards the close of the 
 campaign, in 1776, these middle states were called upon and 
 did their duty nobly. They were witnesses to the almost 
 expiring flame of human freedom. It was the close strug- 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 243 
 
 gle of life and death, the Hne of invisible division ; and on 
 which the unabated fortitude of a Washington prevailed, 
 and saved the spark that has since blazed in the north with 
 unrivalled lustre. 
 
 Let me ask, sir, what great exploits have you performed ? 
 Through all the variety of changes and opportunities which 
 the war has produced, I know no one action of yours that 
 can be styled masterly. You have moved in and out, back- 
 ward and forward, round and round, as if valor consisted in 
 a military jig. The history and figure of your movements 
 would be truly ridiculous could they be justly delineated. 
 They resemble the labours of a puppy pursuing his tail ; the 
 end is still at the same distance, and all the turnings round 
 must be done over again. 
 
 The first appearance of affairs at Ticonderoga wore such 
 an unpromising aspect, that it was necessary, in July, to 
 detach a part of the forces to the support of that quarter, 
 which were otherwise destined or intended to act against 
 you ; and this, perhaps, has been the means of postponing 
 your downfall to another campaign. The destruction of 
 one army at a time is work enough. We know, sir, what we 
 are about, what we have to do, and how to do it. 
 
 Your progress from the Chesapeake, was marked by no 
 capital stroke of policy or heroism. Your principal aim was 
 to get general Washington between the Delaware and 
 Schuylkill, and between Philadelphia and your army. In 
 that situation, with a river on each of his flanks, which 
 united about five miles below the city, and your army above 
 him, you could have intercepted his reinforcements and sup- 
 plies, cut off all his communication with the country, and, if 
 necessary, have despatched assistance to open a passage for 
 general Burgoyne. This scheme was too visible to succeed : 
 for had general Washington suffered you to command the 
 open country above him, I think it a very reasonable conjec- 
 ture that the conquest of Burgoyne would not have taken 
 place, because you could, in that case, have relieved him. 
 It was therefore necessary, while that important victory was 
 in suspense, to trepan you into a situation in which you 
 
244 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 could only be on the defensive, without the power of afford- 
 ing him assistance. The manoeuvre had its effect, and Bur- 
 goyne was conquered.' 
 
 There has been something unmilitary and passive in you 
 from the time of your passing the Schuylkill and getting 
 possession of Philadelphia, to the close of the campaign. 
 You mistook a trap for a conquest, the probability of which 
 had been made known to Europe, and the edge of your tri- 
 umph taken off by our own information long before. 
 
 Having got you into this situation, a scheme for a general 
 attack upon you at Germantown was carried into execution 
 on the 4th of October, and though the success was not equal 
 to the excellence of the plan, yet the attempting it proved 
 the genius of America to be on the rise, and her power ap- 
 proaching to superiority. The obscurity of the morning 
 was your best friend, for a fog is always favourable to a 
 hunted enemy. Some weeks after this you likewise planned 
 an attack on general Washington, while at Whitemarsh. 
 You marched out with infinite parade, but on finding him 
 preparing to attack you next morning, you prudently turned 
 about, and retreated to Philadelphia with all the precipita- 
 tion of a man conquered in imagination. 
 
 Immediately after the battle of Germantown, the proba- 
 bility of Burgoyne's defeat gave a new policy to affairs in 
 Pennsylvania, and it was judged most consistent with the 
 general safety of America, to wait the issue of the northern 
 campaign. Slow and sure is sound work. The news of that 
 victory arrived in our camp on the 1 8th of October, and no 
 sooner did that shout of joy, and the report of the thirteen 
 cannon reach your ears, than you resolved upon a retreat, 
 and the next day, that is, on the 19th, you withdrew your 
 drooping army into Philadelphia. This movement was 
 evidently dictated by fear ; and carried with it a positive 
 confession that you dreaded a second attack. It was hiding 
 
 ' This ascription to Washington of a participation in the capture of Burgoyne 
 did him a great and opportune service. The victory at Saratoga had made Gen. 
 Gates such a hero that a scheme on foot to give him Washington's place as 
 Commander-in-Chief. — Editor. 
 
1778] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 245 
 
 yourself among women and children, and sleeping away the 
 choicest part of the campaign in expensive inactivity. An 
 army in a city can never be a conquering army. The situa- 
 tion admits only of defence. It is mere shelter : and 
 every military power in Europe will conclude you to be 
 eventually defeated. 
 
 The time when you made this retreat was the very time 
 you ought to have fought a battle, in order to put yourself 
 in condition of recovering in Pennsylvania what you had 
 lost in Saratoga. And the reason why you did not, must be 
 either prudence or cowardice ; the former supposes your 
 inability, and the latter needs no explanation. I draw no 
 conclusions, sir, but such as are naturally deduced from 
 known and visible facts, and such as will always have a being 
 while the facts which produced them remain unaltered. 
 
 After this retreat a new difficulty arose which exhibited 
 the power of Britain in a very contemptible light ; which 
 was the attack and defence of Mud-Island. For several 
 weeks did that little unfinished fortress stand out against all 
 the attempts of admiral and general Howe. It was the fable 
 of Bender realized on the Delaware. Scheme after scheme, 
 and force upon force were tried and defeated. The garrison, 
 with scarce anything to cover them but their bravery, sur- 
 vived in the midst of mud, shot and shells, and were at last 
 obliged to give it up more to the powers of time and gun- 
 powder than to military superiority of the besiegers.' 
 
 It is my sincere opinion that matters are in much worse 
 condition with you than what is generally known. Your 
 master's speech at the opening of parliament, is like a 
 soliloquy on ill luck. It shows him to be coming a little to 
 his reason, for sense of pain is the first symptom of recovery, 
 in profound stupefaction. His condition is deplorable. He 
 is obliged to submit to all the insults of France and Spain, 
 without daring to know or resent them ; and thankful for the 
 most trivial evasions to the most humble remonstrances. The 
 
 ' Paine himself acted an important part in the affair at Mud Island. See my 
 " Life of Thomas Paine," vol. i., pp. 99, 109 ; also Paine's Letter to Franklin, 
 XXL of this volume. — Editor. 
 
246 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 time was when he could not deign an answer to a petition 
 from America, and the time now is when he dare not give 
 an answer to an affront from France. The capture of 
 Burgoyne's army will sink his consequence as much in 
 Europe as in America. In his speech he expresses his 
 suspicions at the warlike preparations of France and Spain, 
 and as he has only the one army which you command to 
 support his character in the world with, it remains very 
 uncertain when, or in what quarter it will be most wanted, or 
 can be best employed ; and this will partly account for the 
 great care you take to keep it from action and attacks, for 
 should Burgoyne's fate be yours, which it probably will, 
 England may take her endless farewell not only of all 
 America but of all the West-Indies. 
 
 Never did a nation invite destruction upon itself with the 
 eagerness and the ignorance with which Britain has done. 
 Bent upon the ruin of a young and unoffending country, 
 she has drawn the sword that has wounded herself to the 
 heart, and in the agony of her resentment has applied a 
 poison for a cure. Her conduct towards America is a com- 
 pound of rage and lunacy ; she aims at the government of 
 it, yet preserves neither dignity nor character in her methods 
 to obtain it. Were government a mere manufacture or 
 article of commerce, immaterial by whom it should be made 
 or sold, we might as well employ her as another, but when 
 we consider it as the fountain from whence the general 
 manners and morality of a country take their rise, that the 
 persons entrusted with the execution thereof are by their 
 serious example an authority to support these principles, 
 how abominably absurd is the idea of being hereafter 
 governed by a set of men who have been guilty of forgery, 
 perjury, treachery, theft and every species of villainy which 
 the lowest wretches on earth could practise or invent. What 
 greater public curse can befal any country than to be under 
 such authority, and what greater blessing than to be deliv- 
 ered therefrom. The soul of any man of sentiment would 
 rise in brave rebellion against them, and spurn them from 
 the earth. 
 
177^] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 247 
 
 The malignant and venomous tempered general Vaughan 
 has amused his savage fancy in burning the whole town of 
 Kingston, in York government, and the late governor of 
 that state, Mr. Tryon, in his letter to general Parsons, has 
 endeavoured to justify it and declared his wish to burn the 
 houses of every committeeman in the country.' Such a con- 
 fession from one who was once intrusted with the powers of 
 civil government, is a reproach to the character. But it is 
 the wish and the declaration of a man whom anguish and 
 disappointment have driven to despair, and who is daily 
 decaying into the grave with constitutional rottenness. 
 
 There is not in the compass of language a sufficiency of 
 words to express the baseness of your king, his ministry and 
 his army. They have refined upon villany till it wants a 
 name. To the fiercer vices of former ages they have added 
 the dregs and scummings of the most finished rascality, and 
 are so completely sunk in serpentine deceit, that there is not 
 left among them one generous enemy. 
 
 From such men and such masters, may the gracious hand 
 of Heaven preserve America ! And though the sufferings 
 she now endures are heavy, and severe, they are like straws 
 in the wind compared to the weight of evils she would feel 
 under the government of your king, and his pensioned 
 parliament. 
 
 There is something in meanness which excites a species 
 of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty 
 which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human 
 hatred ; Britain Jiath filled up both these characters till no 
 addition can be made, and hath not reputation left with us 
 to obtain credit for the slightest promise. The will of God 
 hath parted us, and the deed is registered for eternity. 
 When she shall be a spot scarcely visible among the nations, 
 America shall flourish the favourite of heaven, and the friend 
 of mankind. 
 
 For the domestic happiness of Britain and the peace of the 
 
 ' General Vaughan had been acting with Cornwallis at Cape Fear. At the 
 beginning of hostilities in North Carolina Tryon was governor there, and on his 
 transfer to New York carried with him a general reputation for cruelty. — Editor. 
 
« 
 
 248 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 world, I wish she had not a foot of land but what is circum- 
 scribed within her own island. Extent of dominion has 
 been her ruin, and instead of civilizing others has brutalized 
 herself. Her late reduction of India, under Clive and his 
 successors, was not so properly a conquest as an extermina- 
 tion of mankind. She is the only power who could practise 
 the prodigal barbarity of tying men to mouths of loaded 
 cannon and blowing them away. It happens that general 
 Burgoyne, who made the report of that horrid transaction, 
 in the house of commons, is now a prisoner with us, and 
 though an enemy, I can appeal to him for the truth of it, 
 being confident that he neither can nor will deny it. Yet 
 Clive received the approbation of the last parliament. 
 
 When we take a survey of mankind, we cannot help cursing 
 the wretch, who, to the unavoidable misfortunes of nature, 
 shall wilfully add the calamities of war. One would think 
 there were evils enough in the world without studying to 
 increase them, and that life is sufficiently short without 
 shaking the sand that measures it. The histories of Alex- 
 ander, and Charles of Sweden, are the histories of human 
 devils ; a good man cannot think of their actions without 
 abhorrence, nor of their deaths without rejoicing. To see 
 the bounties of heaven destroyed, the beautiful face of na- 
 ture laid waste, and the choicest works of creation and art 
 tumbled into ruin, would fetch a curse from the soul of piety 
 itself. But in this country the aggravation is heightened by 
 a new combination of affecting circumstances. America was 
 young, and, compared with other countries, was virtuous. 
 None but a Herod of uncommon malice would have made 
 war upon infancy and innocence : and none but a people of 
 the most finished fortitude, dared under those circumstances, 
 have resisted the tyranny. The natives, or their ancestors, 
 had fled from the former oppressions of England, and with 
 the industry of bees had changed a wilderness into a habi- 
 table world. To Britain they were indebted for nothing. 
 The country was the gift of heaven, and God alone is their 
 Lord and Sovereign. 
 
 The time, sir, will come when you, in a melancholy hour, 
 
1778] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 249 
 
 shall reckon up your miseries by your murders in America. 
 Life, with you, begins to wear a clouded aspect. The vision 
 of pleasurable delusion is wearing away, and changing to the 
 barren wild of age and sorrow. The poor reflection of 
 having served your king will yield you no consolation in 
 your parting moments. He will crumble to the same undis- 
 tinguished ashes with yourself, and have sins enough of his 
 own to answer for. It is not the farcical benedictions of a 
 bishop, nor the cringing hypocrisy of a court of chaplains, 
 nor the formality of an act of parliament, that can change 
 guilt into innocence, or make the punishment one pang the 
 less. You may, perhaps, be unwilling to be serious, but 
 this destruction of the goods of Providence, this havoc of 
 the human race, and this sowing the world with mischief, 
 must be accounted for to him who made and governs it. To 
 us they are only present sufferings, but to him they are deep 
 rebellions. 
 
 If there is a sin superior to every other, it is that of wilful 
 and offensive war. Most other sins are circumscribed within 
 narrow limits, that is, the power of one man cannot give them 
 a very general extension, and many kinds of sins have only 
 a mental existence from which no infection arises ; but he 
 who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of 
 hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. We 
 leave it to England and Indians to boast of these honors ; 
 we feel no thirst for such savage glory ; a nobler flame, a 
 purer spirit animates America. She has taken up the sword 
 of virtuous defence ; she has bravely put herself between 
 Tyranny and Freedom, between a curse and a blessing, de- 
 termined to expel the one and protect the other. 
 
 It is the object only of war that makes it honourable. And 
 if there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this 
 in which America is now engaged. She invaded no land of 
 yours. She hired no mercenaries to burn your towns, nor 
 Indians to massacre their inhabitants. She wanted nothing 
 from you, and was indebted for nothing to you : and thus 
 circumstanced, her defence is honourable and her prosperity 
 is certain. 
 
250 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 Yet it is not on the justice only, but likewise on the im- 
 portmice of this cause that I ground my seeming enthusiasti- 
 cal confidence of our success. The vast extension of America 
 makes her of too much value in the scale of Providence, to 
 be cast like a pearl before swine, at the feet of an European 
 island ; and of much less consequence would it be that 
 Britain were sunk in the sea than that America should mis- 
 carry. There has been such a chain of extraordinary events 
 in the discovery of this country at first, in the peopling and 
 and planting it afterwards, in the rearing and nursing it to 
 its present state, and in the protection of it through the 
 present war, that no man can doubt, but Providence hath 
 some nobler end to accomplish than the gratification of the 
 petty elector of Hanover, or the ignorant and insignificant 
 king of Britain. 
 
 As the blood of the martyrs hath been the seed of the 
 Christian church, so the political persecutions of England 
 will and have already enriched America with industry, ex- 
 perience, union, and importance. Before the present era 
 she was a mere chaos of uncemented colonies, individually 
 exposed to the ravages of the Indians and the invasion of 
 any power that Britain should be at war with. She had 
 nothing that she could call her own. Her felicity depended 
 upon accident. The convulsions of Europe might have 
 thrown her from one conqueror to another, till she had been 
 the slave of all, and ruined by every one ; for until she had 
 spirit enough to become her own master, there was no know- 
 ing to which master she should belong. That period, thank 
 God, is past, and she is no longer the dependant, disunited 
 colonies of Britain, but the Independent and United States 
 of America, knowing no master but heaven and herself. 
 You, or your king, may call this " delusion," " rebellion," or 
 what name you please. To us it is perfectly indifferent. 
 The issue will determine the character, and time will give it 
 a name as lasting as his own. 
 
 You have now, sir, tried the fate of three campaigns, and 
 can fully declare to England, that nothing is to be got on 
 your part, but blows and broken bones, and nothing on hers 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 251 
 
 but waste of trade and credit, and an increase of poverty 
 and taxes. You are now only where you might have been 
 two years ago, without the loss of a single ship, and yet not 
 a step more forward towards the conquest of the continent ; 
 because, as I have already hinted, " an army in a city can 
 never be a conquering army." The full amount of your 
 losses, since the beginning of the war, exceeds twenty thou- 
 sand men, besides millions of treasure, for which you have 
 nothing in exchange. Our expenses, though great, are cir- 
 culated within ourselves. Yours is a direct sinking of money, 
 and that from both ends at once ; first, in hiring troops out 
 of the nation, and in paying them afterwards, because the 
 money in neither case can return to Britain. We are 
 already in possession of the prize, you only in pursuit of it. 
 To us it is a real treasure, to you it would be only an empty 
 triumph. Our expenses will repay themselves with tenfold 
 interest, while yours entail upon you everlasting poverty. 
 
 Take a review, sir, of the ground which you have gone 
 over, and let it teach you policy, if it cannot honesty. You 
 stand but on a very tottering foundation. A change of the 
 ministry in England may probably bring your measures into 
 question, and your head to the block. Clive, with all his 
 successes, had some difficulty in escaping, and yours being 
 all a war of losses, will afford you less pretensions, and your 
 enemies more grounds for impeachment. 
 
 Go home, sir, and endeavour to save the remains of your 
 ruined country, by a just representation of the madness of 
 her measures. A few moments, well applied, may yet pre- 
 serve her from political destruction. I am not one of those 
 who wish to see Europe in a flame, because I am persuaded 
 that such an event will not shorten the war. The rupture, 
 at present, is confined between the two powers of America 
 and England. England finds that she cannot conquer 
 America, and America has no wish to conquer England. 
 You are fighting for what you can never obtain, and we 
 defending what we never mean to part with. A few words, 
 therefore, settle the bargain. Let England mind her own 
 business and we will mind ours. Govern yourselves, and 
 
252 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i??^ 
 
 we will govern ourselves. You may then trade where you 
 please unmolested by us, and we will trade where we please 
 unmolested by you ; and such articles as we can purchase of 
 each other better than elsewhere may be mutually done. If 
 it were possible that you could carry on the war for twenty 
 years you must still come to this point at last, or worse, and 
 the sooner you think of it the better it will be for you. 
 
 My ofificial situation enables me to know the repeated 
 insults which Britain is obliged to put up with from foreign 
 powers, and the wretched shifts that she is driven to, to 
 gloss them over.'- Her reduced strength and exhausted 
 coffers in a three years' war with America, hath given a 
 powerful superiority to France and Spain. She is not now 
 a match for them. But if neither councils can prevail on 
 her to think, nor sufferings awaken her to reason, she must 
 e'en go on, till the honour of England becomes a proverb of 
 contempt, and Europe dub her the Land of Fools. 
 I am. Sir, with every wish for an honourable peace, 
 Your friend, enemy, and countryman, 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 to the inhabitants of america. 
 
 With all the pleasure with which a man exchanges bad 
 company for good, I take my leave of Sir William and 
 return to you. It is now nearly three years since the tyr- 
 rany of Britain received its first repulse by the arms of 
 America. A period which has given birth to a new world, 
 and erected a monument to the folly of the old. 
 
 I cannot help being sometimes surprised at the compli- 
 mentary references which I have seen and heard made to 
 ancient histories and transactions. The wisdom, civil govern- 
 ments, and sense of honor of the states of Greece and Rome, 
 are frequently held up as objects of excellence and imita- 
 
 ' Paine, elected by Congress, April 17, 1777, Secretary of its Committee of 
 Foreign Affairs, was really the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and not improperly 
 so styled in many publications. — Editor, 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 tion. Mankind have lived to very little purpose, if, at this 
 period of the world, they naust go two or three thousand 
 years back for lessons and examples. We do great injustice 
 to ourselves by placing them in such a superior line. We 
 have no just authority for it, neither can we tell why it is 
 that we should suppose ourselves inferior. 
 
 Could the mist of antiquity be cleared away, and men 
 and things be viewed as they really were, it is more than 
 probable that they would admire us, rather than we them. 
 America has surmounted a greater variety and combination 
 of difficulties, than, I believe, ever fell to the share of any 
 one people, in the same space of time, and has replenished 
 the world with more useful knowledge and sounder maxims 
 of civil government than were ever produced in any age 
 before. Had it not been for America, there had been no 
 such thing as freedom left throughout the whole universe. 
 England hath lost hers in a long chain of right reasoning 
 from wrong principles, and it is from this country, now, that 
 she must learn the resolution to redress herself, and the 
 wisdom how to accomplish it. 
 
 The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the 
 spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time that 
 they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they em- 
 ployed their power to enslave the rest of mankind. But this 
 distinguished era is blotted by no one misanthropical vice. 
 In short, if the principle on which the cause is founded, the- 
 universal blessings that are to arise from it, the difficulties 
 that accompanied it, the wisdom with which it has been 
 debated, the fortitude by which it has been supported, the 
 strength of the power which we had to oppose, and the con- 
 dition in which we undertook it, be all taken in one view, 
 we may justly style it the most virtuous and illustrious revo- 
 lution that ever graced the history of mankind. 
 
 A good opinion of ourselves is exceedingly necessary in 
 private life, but absolutely necessary in public life, and of 
 the utmost importance in supporting national character. I 
 have no notion of yielding the palm of the United States 
 to any Grecians or Romans that were ever born. We have 
 
254 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 equalled the bravest in times of danger, and excelled the 
 wisest in construction of civil governments. 
 
 From this agreeable eminence let us take a review of 
 present affairs. The spirit of corruption is so inseparably 
 interwoven with British politics, that their ministry suppose 
 all mankind are governed by the same motives. They have 
 no idea of a people submitting even to temporary inconven- 
 ience from an attachment to rights and privileges. Their 
 plans of business are calculated by the hour and for the hour, 
 and are uniform in nothing but the corruption which gives 
 them birth. They never had, neither have they at this time, 
 any regular plan for the conquest of America by arms. They 
 know not how to go about it, neither have they power to 
 effect it if they did know. The thing is not within the 
 compass of human practicability, for America is too exten- 
 sive either to be fully conquered or passively defended. But 
 she may be actively defended by defeating or making pris- 
 oners of the army that invades her. And this is the only 
 system of defence that can be effectual in a large country. 
 
 There is something in a war carried on by invasion which 
 makes it differ in circumstances from any other mode of 
 war, because he who conducts it cannot tell whether the 
 ground he gains be for him, or against him, when he first 
 obtains it. In the winter of 1776, general Howe marched 
 with an air of victory through the Jerseys, the consequence 
 of which was his defeat ; and general Burgoyne at Saratoga 
 experienced the same fate from the same cause. The Span- 
 iards, about two years ago, were defeated by the Algerines 
 in the same manner, that is, their first triumphs became a 
 trap in which they were totally routed. And whoever will 
 attend to the circumstances and events of a war carried on 
 by invasion, will find, that any invader, in order to be finally 
 conquered must first begin to conquer. 
 
 I confess myself one of those who believe the loss of Phil- 
 adelphia to be attended with more advantages than injuries. 
 The case stood thus : The enemy imagined Philadelphia to 
 be of more importance to us than it really was ; for we all 
 know that it had long ceased to be a port : not a cargo of 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 goods had been brought into it for near a twelvemonth, nor 
 any fixed manufactories, nor even ship-building, carried on 
 in it ; yet as the enemy believed the conquest of it to be 
 practicable, and to that belief added the absurd idea that 
 the soul of all America was centred there, and would be con- 
 quered there, it naturally follows that their possession of it, 
 by not answering the end proposed, must break up the plans 
 they had so foolishly gone upon, and either oblige them to 
 form a new one, for which their present strength is not 
 sufficient, or to give over the attempt. 
 
 We never had so small an army to fight against, nor so 
 fair an opportunity of final success as now. The death 
 wound is already given. The day is ours if we follow it up. 
 The enemy, by his situation, is within our reach, and by his 
 reduced strength is within our power. The ministers of 
 Britain may rage as they please, but our part is to conquer 
 their armies. Let them wrangle and welcome, but let it not 
 draw our attention from the one thing needful. Here, in this 
 spot is our own business to be accomplished, our felicity 
 secured. What we have now to do is as clear as light, and 
 the way to do it is as straight as a line. It needs not to be 
 commented upon, yet, in order to be perfectly understood I 
 will put a case that cannot admit of a mistake. 
 
 Had the armies under generals Howe and Burgoyne been 
 united, and taken post at Germantown, and had the north- 
 ern army under general Gates been joined to that under 
 general Washington, at Whitemarsh, the consequence would 
 have been a general action ; and if in that action we had 
 killed and taken the same number of officers and men, that 
 is, between nine and ten thousand, with the same quantity 
 of artillery, arms, stores, etc. as have been taken at the 
 northward, and obliged general Howe with the remains of 
 his army, that is, with the same number he now commands, 
 to take shelter in Philadelphia, we should certainly have 
 thought ourselves the greatest heroes in the world ; and 
 should, as soon as the season permitted, have collected to- 
 gether all the force of the continent and laid siege to the 
 city, for it requires a much greater force to besiege an enemy 
 
256 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 in a town than to defeat him in the field. The case nozu is 
 just the same as if it had -been produced by the means I 
 have here supposed. Between nine and ten thousand have 
 been killed and taken, all their stores are in our possession, 
 and general Howe, in consequence of that victory, has 
 thrown himself for shelter into Philadelphia.' He, or his 
 trifling friend Galloway, may form what pretences they 
 please, yet no just reason can be given for their going into 
 winter quarters so early as the 19th of October, but their 
 apprehensions of a defeat if they continued out, or their 
 conscious inability of keeping the field with safety. I see 
 no advantage which can arise to America by hunting the 
 enemy from state to state. It is a triumph without a prize, 
 and wholly unworthy the attention of a people deter- 
 mined to conquer. Neither can any state promise itself 
 security while the enemy remains in a condition to transport 
 themselves from one part of the continent to another. 
 Howe, likewise, cannot conquer where we have no army to 
 oppose, therefore any such removals in him are mean and 
 cowardly, and reduces Britain to a common pilferer. If he 
 retreats from Philadelphia, he will be despised ; if he stays, 
 he may be shut up and starved out, and the country, if he 
 advances into it, may become his Saratoga. He has his 
 choice of evils and we of opportunities. If he moves early, 
 it is not only a sign but a proof that he expects no rein- 
 forcement, and his delay will prove that he either waits for 
 the arrival of a plan to go upon, or force to execute it, or 
 both ; in wliicJi case our strength will increase more than 
 his, therefore in any case we cannot be wrong if we do but 
 proceed. 
 
 The particular condition of Pennsylvania deserves the at- 
 tention of all the other states. Her military strength must 
 not be estimated by the number of inhabitants. Here are 
 men of all nations, characters, professions and interests. 
 
 ' In a private letter to Franklin, in Paris, Paine intimated a probable advan- 
 tage from the British occupation of Philadelphia. It is said that Franklin, 
 hearing it said that Howe had taken Philadelphia, remarked, " Philadelphia 
 has taken Howe." — Editor. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 257 
 
 Here are the firmest whigs, surviving, like sparks in the 
 ocean, unquenched and uncooled in the midst of discourage- 
 ment and disaffection. Here are men losing their all with 
 cheerfulness, and collecting fire and fortitude from the 
 flames of their own estates. Here are others skulking in 
 secret, many making a market of the times, and numbers 
 who are changing to whig or tory with the circumstances of 
 every day. 
 
 It is by mere dint of fortitude and perseverance that the 
 whigs of this state have been able to maintain so good a 
 countenance, and do even what they have done. We want 
 help, and the sooner it can arrive the more effectual it will 
 be. The invaded state, be it which it may, will always feel 
 an additional burden upon its back, and be hard set to sup- 
 port its civil power with sufficient authority ; aud this diffi- 
 culty will rise or fall, in proportion as the other states throw 
 in their assistance to the common cause. 
 
 The enemy will most probably make many manoeuvres at 
 the opening of this campaign, to amuse and draw off the 
 attention of the several states from the one thing needful. 
 We may expect to hear of alarms and pretended expedi- 
 tions to this place and tliat place, to the southward, the 
 eastward, and the northward, all intended to prevent our 
 forming into one formidable body. The less the enemy's 
 strength is, the more subtleties of this kind will they make 
 use of. Their existence depends upon it, because the force 
 of America, when collected, is sufficient to swallow their 
 present army up. It is therefore our business to make short 
 work of it, by bending our whole attention to this one prin- 
 cipal point, for the instant that the main body under general 
 Howe is defeated, all the inferior alarms throughout the 
 continent, like so many shadows, will follow his downfall. 
 
 The only way to finish a war with the least possible blood- 
 shed, or perhaps without any, is to collect an army, against 
 the power of which the enemy shall have no chance. By 
 not doing this, we prolong the war, and double both the 
 calamities and expenses of it. What a rich and happy 
 country would America be, were she, by a vigorous exer- 
 
258 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 tion, to reduce Howe as she has reduced Burgoyne. Her 
 currency would rise to miUions beyond its present value. 
 Every man would be rich, and every man would have it in 
 his power to be happy. And why not do these things? 
 What is there to hinder? America is her own mistress and 
 can do what she pleases. 
 
 If we had not at this time a man in the field, we could, 
 nevertheless, raise an army in a few weeks sufficient to over- 
 whelm all the force which general Howe at present com- 
 mands. Vigor and determination will do any thing and 
 every thing. We began the war with this kind of spirit, 
 why not end it with the same? Here, gentlemen, is the 
 enemy. Here is the army. The interest, the happiness of 
 all America, is centred in this half ruined spot. Come and 
 help us. Here are laurels, come and share them. Here are 
 tories, come and help us to expel them. Here are whigs 
 that will make you welcome, and enemies that dread your 
 coming. 
 
 The worst of all policies is that of doing things by halves. 
 Penny-wise and pound-foolish, has been the ruin of thou- 
 sands. The present spring, if rightly improved, will free us 
 from our troubles, and save us the expense of millions. We 
 have now only one army to cope with. No opportunity can 
 be fairer; no prospect more promising. I shall conclude 
 this paper with a few outlines of a plan, either for filling up 
 the battalions with expedition, or for raising an additional 
 force, for any limited time, on any sudden emergency. 
 
 That in which every man is interested, is every man's duty 
 to support. And any burden which falls equally on all men, 
 and from which every man is to receive an equal benefit, is 
 consistent with the most perfect ideas of liberty. I would 
 wish to revive something of that virtuous ambition which 
 first called America into the field. Then every man was 
 eager to do his part, and perhaps the principal reason why 
 we have in any degree fallen therefrom, is because we did 
 not set a right value by it at first, but left it to blaze out of 
 itself, instead of regulating and preserving it by just propor- 
 tions of rest and service. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 259 
 
 Suppose any state whose number of effective inhabitants 
 was 80,000, should be required to furnish 3,200 men towards 
 the defence of the continent on any sudden emergency. 
 
 1st, Let the whole number of effective inhabitants be 
 divided into hundreds ; then if each of those hundreds turn 
 out four men, the whole number of 3,200 will be had. 
 
 2d, Let the name of each hundred men be entered in a 
 book, and let four dollars be collected from each man, with 
 as much more as any of the gentlemen, whose abilities can 
 afford it, shall please to throw in, which gifts likewise shall 
 be entered against the names of the donors. 
 
 3d, Let the sums so collected be offered as a present, over 
 and above the bounty of twenty dollars, to any four who 
 may be inclined to propose themselves as volunteers : if more 
 than four offer, the majority of the subscribers present shall 
 determine which ; if none offer, then four out of the hundred 
 shall be taken by lot, who shall be entitled to the said sums, 
 and shall either go, or provide others that will, in the space 
 of six days. 
 
 4th, As it will always happen, that in the space of ground 
 on which an hundred men shall live, there will be always a 
 number of persons who, by age and infirmity, are incapable 
 of doing personal service, and as such persons are generally 
 possessed of the greatest part of property in any country, 
 their portion of service, therefore, will be to furnish each 
 man with a blanket, which will make a regimental coat, 
 jacket, and breeches, or clothes in lieu thereof, and another 
 for a watch cloak, and two pair of shoes ; for however choice 
 people may be of these things matters not in cases of this 
 kind ; those who live always in houses can find many ways 
 to keep themselves warm, but it is a shame and a sin to 
 suffer a soldier in the field to want a blanket while there is 
 one in the country. 
 
 Should the clothing not be wanted, the superannuated or 
 infirm persons possessing property, may, in lieu thereof, 
 throw in their money subscriptions towards increasing the 
 bounty ; for though age will naturally exempt a person from 
 personal service, it cannot exempt him from his share of the 
 
26o THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 charge, because the men are raised for the defence of prop- 
 erty and liberty jointly. 
 
 There never was a scheme against which objections might 
 not be raised. But this alone is not a sufficient reason for 
 rejection. The only line to judge truly upon, is, to draw out 
 and admit all the objections which can fairly be made, and 
 place against them all the contrary qualities, conveniences 
 and advantages, then by striking a balance you come at the 
 true character of any scheme, principle or position. 
 
 The most material advantages of the plan here proposed 
 are, ease, expedition, and cheapness ; yet the men so raised 
 get a much larger bounty than is any where at present given ; 
 because all the expenses, extravagance, and consequent idle- 
 ness of recruiting are saved or prevented. The country 
 incurs no new debt nor interest thereon ; the whole matter 
 being all settled at once and entirely done with. It is a 
 subscription answering all the purposes of a tax, without 
 either the charge or trouble of collecting. The men are 
 ready for the field with the greatest possible expedition, be- 
 cause it becomes the duty of the inhabitants themselves, in 
 every part of the country, to find their proportion of men 
 instead of leaving it to a recruiting sergeant, who, be he ever 
 so industrious, cannot know always where to apply. 
 
 I do not propose this as a regular digested plan, neither 
 will the limits of this paper admit of any further remarks 
 upon it. I believe it to be a hint capable of much improve- 
 ment, and as such submit it to the public. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Lancaster, March 21, 1778. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICA.'^ CRISIS. 
 
 261 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 VI. 
 
 TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE, GENERAL CLINTON, AND 
 WILLIAM EDEN, ESQ., BRITISH COMMISSIONERS 
 AT NEW YORK.' 
 
 There is a dignity in the warm passions of a whig, which 
 is never to be found in the cold malice of a tory. In the one 
 nature is only heated — in the other she is poisoned. The 
 instant the former has it in his power to punish, he feels a 
 disposition to forgive ; but the canine venom of the latter 
 knows no relief but revenge. This general distinction will, 
 
 ' Five commissioners were originally appointed to " treat, consult, and agree, 
 upon the Means of quieting the Disorders now subsisting in certain of the 
 Colonies, Plantations and Provinces of North America." The commissioners 
 are thus described by Lord Mahon : " Lord Howe and Sir William were in- 
 cluded in the letters patent on the chance of their being still in America when 
 their colleagues should arrive. Of the new commissioners the first was to be 
 Lord Carlisle, with him William Eden and George Johnston. It could not be 
 alleged that the selection of these gentlemen Tiad been made in any narrow 
 spirit of party. George Johnston, who had retained the title of Governor from 
 having filled that post in Florida, was a Member of the House of Commons, and 
 as such a keen opponent of Lord North's. The brother of William Eden had 
 been the last colonial Governor of Maryland. William Eden himself was a 
 man of rising ability on the government side ; in after years, under Mr. Pitt, 
 ambassador in succession to several foreign courts ; and at last a peer with the 
 title of Lord Auckland. Frederick Howard, the fifth Earl of Carlisle, was then 
 only known to the public as a young and not very thrifty man of fashion and 
 pleasure. Against his appointment therefore there were many cavils heard both 
 in and out of Parliament." 
 
 The Commissioners reached America just as the British were evacuating 
 Philadelphia. Johnston having made an effort to approach members of Con- 
 gress privately, and with bribes, that body refused to have anything to do with 
 him, and he had to withdraw from the Commission. General Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton acted in his place. On June 6, 1778, Congress sent the Commissioners its 
 ultimatum, expressing its willingness to " attend to such terms of peace as may 
 consist with the honour of independent nations, the interest of their constituents, 
 and the sacred regard they mean to pay to treaties." On learning this the King 
 wrote to Lord North (Aug. 12, 1778) : " The present accounts from America 
 seem to put a final stop to all negotiations. Farther concession is a joke." 
 Stevens' invaluable Facsimiles shed much light on these events. — Editor. 
 
262 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 I believe, apply in all cases, and suits as well the meridian 
 of England as America. 
 
 As I presume your last proclamation will undergo the 
 strictures of other pens, I shall confine my remarks to only 
 a few parts thereof. All that you have said might have 
 been comprised in half the compass. It is tedious and 
 unmeaning, and only a repetition of your former follies, 
 with here and there an offensive aggravation. Your cargo 
 of pardons will have no market. It is unfashionable to 
 look at them — even speculation is at an end. They have 
 become a perfect drug, and no way calculated for the 
 climate. 
 
 In the course of your proclamation you say, "The policy 
 as well as the benevolence of Great Britain have thus far 
 checked the extremes of war, when they tended to distress 
 a people still considered as their fellow subjects, and to 
 desolate a country shortly to become again a source of 
 mutual advantage." What you mean by " the benevolence 
 of Great Britain " is to me inconceivable. To put a plain 
 question ; do you consider yourselves men or devils? For 
 until this point is settled, no determinate sense can be put 
 upon the expression. You have already equalled and in 
 many cases excelled, the savages of either Indies ; and if 
 you have yet a cruelty in store you must have imported it, 
 unmixed with every human material, from the original ware- 
 house of hell. 
 
 To the interposition of Providence, and her blessings on 
 our endeavours, and not to British benevolence are we in- 
 debted for the short chain that limits your ravages. Re- 
 member you do not, at this time, command a foot of land on 
 the continent of America. Staten-Island, York-Island, a 
 small part of Long-Island, and Rhode-Island, circumscribe 
 your power ; and even those you hold at the expense of the 
 West-Indies. To avoid a defeat, or prevent a desertion of 
 your troops, you have taken up your quarters in holes and 
 corners of inaccessible security ; and in order to conceal 
 what every one can perceive, you now endeavour to impose 
 your weakness upon us for an act of mercy. If you think 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 263 
 
 to succeed by such shadowy devices, you are but infants in 
 the political world ; you have the A, B, C, of stratagem yet 
 to learn, and are wholly ignorant of the people you have 
 to contend with. Like men in a state of intoxication, you 
 forget that the rest of the world have eyes, and that the 
 same stupidity which conceals you from yourselves exposes 
 you to their satire and contempt. 
 
 The paragraph which I have quoted, stands as an intro- 
 duction to the following: "But when that country 
 [America] professes the unnatural design, not only of es- 
 tranging herself from us, but of mortgaging herself and her 
 resources to our enemies, the whole contest is changed : and 
 the question is how far Great Britain may, by every means 
 in her power, destroy or render useless, a connexion 
 contrived for her ruin, and the aggrandizement of 
 France. Under such circumstances, the laws of self-preser- 
 vation must direct the conduct of Britain, and, if the British 
 colonies are to become an accession to France, will direct 
 her to render that accession of as little avail as possible to 
 her enemy." 
 
 I consider you in this declaration, like madmen biting in 
 the hour of death. It contains likewise a fraudulent mean- 
 ness ; for, in order to justify a barbarous conclusion, you 
 have advanced a false position. The treaty we have formed 
 with France is open, noble, and generous. It is true policy, 
 founded on sound philosophy, and neither a surrender or 
 mortgage, as you would scandalously insinuate. I have 
 seen every article, and speak from positive knowledge. In 
 France, we have found an affectionate friend and faithful 
 ally ; in Britain, we have found nothing but tyranny, cruelty, 
 and infidelity. 
 
 But the happiness is, that the mischief you threaten, is not 
 in your power to execute ; and if it were, the punishment 
 would return upon you in a ten-fold degree. The humanity 
 of America hath hitherto restrained her from acts of retalia- 
 tion, and the affection she retains for many individuals in 
 England, who have fed, clothed and comforted her prisoners, 
 has, to the present day, warded ofY her resentment, and opera- 
 
264 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ted as a screen to the whole. But even these considerations 
 must cease, when national objects interfere and oppose them. 
 Repeated aggravations will provoke a retort, and policy 
 justify the measure. We mean now to take you seriously 
 up upon your own ground and principle, and as you do, so 
 shall you be done by. 
 
 You ought to know, gentlemen, that England and Scot- 
 land, are far more exposed to incendiary desolation than 
 America, in her present state, can possibly be. We occupy 
 a country, with but few towns, and whose riches consist in 
 land and annual produce. The two last can suffer but little, 
 and that only within a very limited compass. In Britain it 
 is otherwise. Her wealth lies chiefly in cities and large 
 towns, the depositories of manufactures and fleets of 
 merchantmen. There is not a nobleman's country seat but 
 may be laid in ashes by a single person. Your own may 
 probably contribute to the proof : in short, there is no evil 
 which cannot be returned when you come to incendiary 
 mischief. The ships in the Thames, may certainly be as 
 easily set on fire, as the temporary bridge was a few years 
 ago ; yet of that affair no discovery was ever made ; and the 
 loss you would sustain by such an event, executed at a proper 
 season, is infinitely greater than any you can inflict. The 
 East-India house and the bank, neither are nor can be secure 
 from this sort of destruction, and, as Dr. Price justly ob- 
 serves, a fire at the latter would bankrupt the nation.' It 
 has never been the custom of France and England when at 
 war, to make those havocs on each other, because the ease 
 with which they could retaliate rendered it as impolitic 
 as if each had destroyed his own. 
 
 But think not, gentlemen, that our distance secures you, 
 or our invention fails us. We can much easier accomplish 
 such a point than any nation in Europe. We talk the same 
 language, dress in the same habit, and appear with the same 
 
 ' The Rev. Dr. Price of London, the eminent defender of America, whose 
 discourses excited the gratitude of Congress. His sermon in 1789 "On the 
 Love of our Country," bearing on events in France, was denounced by Burke. 
 — Editor. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 265 
 
 manners as yourselves. We can pass from one part of 
 England to another unsuspected ; many of us are as well 
 acquainted with the country as you are, and should you im- 
 politically provoke us, you will most assuredly lament the 
 effects of it. Mischiefs of this kind require no army to 
 execute them. The means are obvious, and the oppor- 
 tunities unguardable. I hold up a warning to your senses, 
 if you have any left, and " to the unhappy people likewise, 
 whose affairs are committed to you." * I call not with the 
 rancor of an enemy, but the earnestness of a friend, on the 
 deluded people of England, lest, between your blunders 
 and theirs, they sink beneath the evils contrived for us. 
 
 " He who lives in a glass house," says a Spanish proverb, 
 " should never begin throwing stones." This, gentlemen, is 
 exactly your case, and you must be the most ignorant of 
 mankind, or suppose us so, not to see on which side the 
 balance of accounts will fall. There are many other modes 
 of retaliation, which, for several reasons, I choose not to 
 mention. But be assured of this, that the instant you put 
 your threat into execution, a counter-blow will follow it. If 
 you openly profess yourselves savages, it is high time 
 we should treat you as such, and if nothing but distress can 
 recover you to reason, to punish will become an office of 
 charity. 
 
 While your fleet lay last winter in the Delaware, I offered 
 my service to the Pennsylvania navy-board then at Trenton, 
 as one who would make a party with them, or any four or 
 five gentlemen, on an expedition down the river to set fire 
 to it, and though it was not then accepted, nor the thing 
 personally attempted, it is more than probable that your 
 own folly will provoke a much more ruinous act. Say not 
 when mischief is done, that you had not warning, and 
 remember that we do not begin it, but mean to repay it. 
 Thus much for your savage and impolitic threat. 
 
 In another part of your proclamation you say, " But if 
 the honours of a military life are become the object of the 
 Americans, let them seek those honors under the banners of 
 
 * General [Sir H.] Clinton's letter to Congress. — Author. 
 
266 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 their rightful sovereign, and in lighting the battles of the 
 united British empire, against our late mutual and natural 
 enemies." Surely! the union of absurdity with madness 
 was never marked in more distinguishable lines than these. 
 Your rightful sovereign, as you call him, may do well enough 
 for you, who dare not inquire into the humble capacities of 
 the man ; but we, who estimate persons and things by their 
 real worth, cannot suffer our judgments to be so imposed 
 upon ; and unless it is your wish to see him exposed, it 
 ought to be your endeavour to keep him out of sight. The 
 less you have to say about him the better. We have done 
 with him, and that ought to be answer enough. You have 
 been often told so. Strange ! that the answer must be so 
 often repeated. You go a-begging with your king as with 
 a brat, or with some unsaleable commodity you were tired 
 of ; and though every body tells you no, no, still you keep 
 hawking him about. But there is one that will have him in 
 a little time, and as we have no inclination to disappoint 
 you of a customer, we bid nothing for him. 
 
 The impertinent folly of the paragraph that I have just 
 quoted, deserves no other notice than to be laughed at and 
 thrown by, but the principle on which it is founded is 
 detestable. We are invited to submit to a man who has 
 attempted by every cruelty to destroy us, and to join him in 
 making war against France, who is already at war against 
 him for our support. 
 
 Can Bedlam, in concert with Lucifer, form a more mad 
 and devilish request ? Were it possible a people could sink 
 into such apostacy they would deserve to be swept from the 
 earth like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The 
 proposition is an universal affront to the rank which man 
 holds in the creation, and an indignity to him who placed 
 him there. It supposes him made up without a spark of 
 honour, and under no obligation to God or man. 
 
 What sort of men or Christians must you suppose the 
 Americans to be, who, after seeing their most humble peti- 
 tions insultingly rejected ; the most grievous laws passed to 
 distress them in every quarter ; an undeclared war let loose 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 267 
 
 upon them, and Indians and negroes invited to the slaughter ; 
 who, after seeing their kinsmen murdered, their fellow citi- 
 zens starved to death in prisons, and their houses and prop- 
 erty destroyed and burned ; who, after the most serious 
 appeals to heaven, the most solemn abjuration by oath of 
 all government connected with you, and the most heart-felt 
 pledges and protestations of faith to each other ; and who, 
 after soliciting the friendship, and entering into alliances 
 with other nations, should at last break through all these 
 obligations, civil and divine, by complying with your horrid 
 and infernal proposal. Ought we ever after to be considered 
 as a part of the human race ? Or ought we not rather to be 
 blotted from the society of mankind, and become a spec- 
 tacle of misery to the world ? But there is something in 
 corruption, which, like a jaundiced eye, transfers the colour 
 of itself to the object it looks upon, and sees every thing 
 stained and impure ; for unless you were capable of such 
 conduct yourselves, you would never have supposed such a 
 character in us. The offer fixes your infamy. It exhibits 
 you as a nation without faith ; with whom oaths and 
 treaties are considered as trifles, and the breaking them as 
 the breaking of a bubble. Regard to decency, or to rank, 
 might have taught you better ; or pride inspired you, though 
 virtue could not. There is not left a step in the degrada- 
 tion of character to which you can now descend ; you have 
 put your foot on the ground floor, and the key of the dun- 
 geon is turned upon you. 
 
 That the invitation may want nothing of being a complete 
 monster, you have thought proper to finish it with an asser- 
 tion which has no foundation, either in fact or philosophy ; 
 and as Mr. Ferguson, your secretary, is a man of letters, and 
 has made civil society his study, and published a treatise on 
 that subject, I address this part to him.' 
 
 In the close of the paragraph which I last quoted, France 
 is styled the " natural enemy " of England, and by way of 
 
 ' Adam Ferguson (b. 1724, d. 1816), Professor of Moral Philosophy in the 
 University of Edinburgh, author of an " Essay on the History of Civil Society " 
 (1767), and " Institutes of Moral Philosophy" (1769). — Editor. 
 
268 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 lugging US into some strange idea, she is styled " the late 
 mutual and natural enemy " of both countries. I deny that 
 she ever was the natural enemy of either ; and that there 
 does not exist in nature such a principle. The expression 
 is an unmeaning barbarism, and wholly unphilosophical, 
 when applied to beings of the same species, let their station 
 in the creation be what it may. We have a perfect idea of 
 a natural enemy when we think of the devil, because the 
 enmity is perpetual, unalterable and unabateable. It admits, 
 neither of peace, truce, or treaty ; consequently the warfare 
 is eternal, and therefore it is natural. But man with man 
 cannot arrange in the same opposition. Their quarrels are 
 accidental and equivocally created. They become friends 
 or enemies as the change of temper, or the cast of interest 
 inclines them. The Creator of man did not constitute them 
 the natural enemy of each other. He has not made any 
 one order of beings so. Even wolves may quarrel, still they 
 herd together. If any two nations are so, then must all 
 nations be so, otherwise it is not nature but custom, and 
 the offence frequently originates with the accuser. England 
 is as truly the natural enemy of France, as France is of 
 England, and perhaps more so. Separated from the rest of 
 Europe, she has contracted an unsocial habit of manners, 
 and imagines in others the jealousy she creates in herself. 
 Never long satisfied with peace, she supposes the discontent 
 universal, and buoyed up with her own importance, con- 
 ceives herself the only object pointed at. The expression 
 has been often used, and always with a fraudulent design ; 
 for when the idea of a natural enemy is conceived, it pre- 
 vents all other inquiries, and the real cause of the quarrel is 
 hidden in the universality of the conceit. Men start at the 
 notion of a natural enemy, and ask no other question. The 
 cry obtains credit like the alarm of a mad dog, and is one 
 of those kind of tricks, which, by operating on the common 
 passions, secures their interest through their folly. 
 
 But we, sir, are not to be thus imposed upon. We live 
 in a large world, and have extended our ideas beyond the 
 limits and prejudices of an island. We hold out the right 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 269 
 
 hand of friendship to all the universe, and we conceive that 
 there is a sociality in the manners of France, which is much 
 better disposed to peace and negotiation than that of 
 England, and until the latter becomes more civilized, she 
 cannot expect to live long at peace with any power. Her 
 common language is vulgar and offensive, and children suck 
 in with their milk the rudiments of insult — "The arm of 
 Britain ! The mighty arm of Britain ! Britain that shakes 
 the earth to its centre and its poles ! The scourge of France ! 
 The terror of the world ! That governs with a nod, and 
 pours down vengeance like a God." This language 
 neither makes a nation great or little ; but it shows a sav- 
 ageness of manners, and has a tendency to keep national 
 animosity alive. The entertainments of the stage are calcu- 
 lated to the same end, and almost every public exhibition is 
 tinctured with insult. Yet England is always in dread of 
 France, — terrified at the apprehension of an invasion, sus- 
 picious of being outwitted in a treaty, and privately cringing 
 though she is publicly offending. Let her, therefore, reform 
 her manners and do justice, and she will find the idea of a 
 natural enemy to be only a phantom of her own imagination. 
 
 Little did I think, at this period of the war, to see a proc- 
 lamation which could promise you no one useful purpose 
 whatever, and tend only to expose you. One would think 
 that you were just awakened from a four years' dream, and 
 knew nothing of what had passed in the interval. Is this a 
 time to be offering pardons, or renewing the long forgotten 
 subjects of charters and taxation ? Is it worth your while, 
 after every force has failed you, to retreat under the shelter 
 of argument and persuasion ? Or can you think that we, with 
 nearly half your army prisoners, and in alliance with France, 
 are to be begged or threatened into submission by a piece of 
 paper? But as commissioners at a hundred pounds sterling 
 a week each, you conceive yourselves bound to do some- 
 thing, and the genius of ill-fortune told you, that you must 
 write. 
 
 For my own part, I have not put pen to paper these 
 several months. Convinced of our superiority by the issue 
 
270 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 of every campaign, I was inclined to hope, that that which 
 all the rest of the world now see, would become visible to you, 
 and therefore felt unwilling to ruffle your temper by fretting 
 you with repetitions and discoveries. There have been inter- 
 vals of hesitation in your conduct, from which it seemed a 
 pity to disturb you, and a charity to leave you to yourselves. 
 You have often stopped, as if you intended to think, but 
 your thoughts have ever been too early or too late. 
 
 There was a time when Britain disdained to answer, or 
 even hear a petition from America. That time is past and 
 she in her turn is petitioning our acceptance. We now stand 
 on higher ground, and offer her peace ; and the time will 
 come when she, perhaps in vain, will ask it from us. The 
 latter case is as probable as the former ever was. She can- 
 not refuse to acknowledge our independence with greater 
 obstinacy than she before refused to repeal her laws ; and if 
 America alone could bring her to the one, united with France 
 she will reduce her to the other. There is something in 
 obstinacy which differs from every other passion ; whenever 
 it fails it never recovers, but either breaks like iron, or 
 crumbles sulkily away like a fractured arch. Most other 
 passions have their periods of fatigue and rest ; their suf- 
 fering and their cure ; but obstinacy has no resource, and 
 the first wound is mortal. You have already begun to give 
 it up, and you will, from the natural construction of the vice, 
 find yourselves both obliged and inclined to do so. 
 
 If you look back you see nothing but loss and disgrace. 
 If you look forward the same scene continues, and the close 
 is an impenetrable gloom. You may plan and execute little 
 mischiefs, but are they worth the expense they cost you, or 
 will such partial evils have any effect on the general cause ? 
 Your expedition to Egg-Harbour, will be felt at a distance 
 like an attack upon a hen-roost, and expose you in Europe, 
 with a sort of childish phrenzy. Is it worth while to keep 
 an army to protect you in writing proclamations, or to get 
 once a year into winter-quarters ? Possessing yourselves of 
 towns is not conquest, but convenience, and in which you 
 will one day or other be trepanned. Your retreat from 
 
1778] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 27 1 
 
 Philadelphia, was only a timely escape, and your next ex- 
 pedition may be less fortunate. 
 
 It would puzzle all the politicians in the universe to con- 
 ceive what you stay for, or why you should have staid so 
 long. You are prosecuting a war in which you confess you 
 have neither object nor hope, and that conquest, could it be 
 effected, would not repay the charges : in the mean while 
 the rest of your afTairs are running to ruin, and a European 
 war kindling against you. In such a situation, there is 
 neither doubt nor difificulty ; the first rudiments of reason 
 will determine the choice, for if peace can be procured with 
 more advantages than even a conquest can be obtained, he 
 must be an idiot indeed that hesitates. 
 
 But you are probably buoyed up by a set of wretched 
 mortals, who, having deceived themselves, are cringing, with 
 the duplicity of a spaniel, for a little temporary bread. Those 
 men will tell you just what you please. It is their interest 
 to amuse, in order to lengthen out their protection. They 
 study to keep you amongst them for that very purpose ; and 
 in proportion as you disregard their advice, and grow callous 
 to their complaints, they will stretch into improbability, and 
 season their flattery the higher. Characters like these are 
 to be found in every country, and every country will despise 
 them. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 1778. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 VII. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 There are stages in the business of serious life in which 
 to amuse is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy ; and it is of 
 little consequence, in the conclusion, whether men deceive 
 themselves, or submit, by a kind of mutual consent, to the 
 impositions of each other. That England has long been 
 under the influence of delusion or mistake, needs no other 
 proof than the unexpected and wretched situation that she 
 
272 
 
 THE WRITING'S OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 is now involved in : and so powerful has been the influence, 
 that no provision was ever made or thought of against the 
 misfortune, because the possibility of its happening was 
 never conceived. 
 
 The general and successful resistance of America, the con- 
 quest of Burgoyne, and a war in France, were treated in 
 parliament as the dreams of a discontented opposition, or a 
 distempered imagination. They were beheld as objects 
 unworthy of a serious thought, and the bare intimation of 
 them afforded the ministry a triumph of laughter. Short 
 triumph indeed ! For everything which has been predicted 
 has happened, and all that was promised has failed. Along 
 series of politics so remarkably distinguished by a succession 
 of misfortunes, without one alleviating turn, must certainly 
 have something in it systematically wrong. It is sufificient 
 to awaken the most credulous into suspicion, and the most 
 obstinate into thought. Either the means in your power 
 are insufiflcient, or the measures ill planned ; either the 
 execution has been bad, or the thing attempted imprac- 
 ticable ; or, to speak more emphatically, either you are not 
 able or heaven is not willing. For, why is it that you have 
 not conquered us? Who, or what has prevented you ? You 
 have had every opportunity that you could desire, and 
 succeeded to your utmost wish in every preparatory means. 
 Your fleets and armies have arrived in America without an 
 accident. No uncommon fortune hath intervened. No 
 foreign nation hath interfered until the time which you had 
 allotted for victory was passed. The opposition, either in or 
 out of parliament, neither disconcerted your measures, re- 
 tarded or diminished your force. They only foretold your 
 fate. Every ministerial scheme was carried with as high a 
 hand as if the whole nation had been unanimous. Every 
 thing wanted was asked for, and every thing asked for was 
 granted. 
 
 A greater force was not within the compass of your abili- 
 ties to send, and the time you sent it was of all others the 
 most favorable. You were then at rest with the whole world 
 beside. You had the range of every court in Europe un- 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 273 
 
 contradicted by us. You amused us with a tale of com- 
 missioners of peace, and under that disguise collected a 
 numerous army and came almost unexpectedly upon us. 
 The force was much greater than we looked for ; and that 
 which we had to oppose it with, was unequal in numbers, 
 badly armed, and poorly disciplined ; beside which, it was 
 embodied only for a short time, and expired within a few 
 months after your arrival. We had governments to form ; 
 measures to concert ; an army to train, and every necessary 
 article to import or to create. Our non-importation scheme 
 had exhausted our stores, and your command by sea inter- 
 cepted our supplies. We were a people unknown, and un- 
 connected with the political world, and strangers to the 
 disposition of foreign powers. Could you possibly wish for a 
 more favourable conjunction of circumstances ? Yet all these 
 have happened and passed away, and, as it were, left you 
 with a laugh. There are likewise events of such an original 
 nativity as can never happen again, unless a new world 
 should arise from the ocean. 
 
 If any thing can be a lesson to presumption, surely the 
 circumstances of this war will have their effect. Had 
 Britain been defeated by any European power, her pride 
 would have drawn consolation from the importance of her 
 conquerors ; but in the present case, she is excelled by those 
 that she affected to despise, and her own opinions retorting 
 upon herself, become an aggravation of her disgrace. Mis- 
 fortune and experience are lost upon mankind, when they 
 produce neither reflection nor reformation. Evils, like 
 poisons, have their uses, and there are diseases which no 
 other remedy can reach. It has been the crime and folly of 
 England to suppose herself invincible, and that, without 
 acknowledging or perceiving that a full third of her strength 
 was drawn from the country she is now at war with. The 
 arm of Britain has been spoken of as the arm of the Al- 
 mighty, and she has lived of late as if she thought the whole 
 world created for her diversion. Her politics, instead of 
 civilizing, has tended to brutalize mankind, and under the 
 vain, unmeaning title of " Defender of the Faith," she has 
 
 VOL. I. — 18 
 
274 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 made war like an Indian against the religion of humanity.' 
 Her cruelties in the East Indies will never be forgotten, and 
 it is somewhat remarkable that the produce of that ruined 
 country, transported to America, should there kindle up 
 a war to punish the destroyer. The chain is continued, 
 though with a mysterious kind of uniformity both in the 
 crime and the punishment. The latter runs parallel with 
 the former, and time and fate will give it a perfect illustration. 
 
 When information is withheld, ignorance becomes a 
 reasonable excuse ; and one would charitably hope that the 
 people of England do not encourage cruelty from choice 
 but from mistake. Their recluse situation, surrounded by 
 the sea, preserves them from the calamities of war, and 
 keeps them in the dark as to the conduct of their own 
 armies. They see not, therefore they feel not. They tell 
 the tale that is told them and believe it, and accustomed to 
 no other news than their own, they receive it, stripped of its 
 horrors and prepared for the palate of the nation, through 
 the channel of the London Gazette. They are made to 
 believe that their generals and armies differ from those of 
 other nations, and have nothing of rudeness or barbarity in 
 them. They suppose them what they wish them to be. 
 They feel a disgrace in thinking otherwise, and naturally 
 encourage the belief from a partiality to themselves. There 
 was a time when I felt the same prejudices, and reasoned 
 from the same errors ; but experience, sad and painful ex- 
 perience, has taught me better. What the conduct of 
 former armies was, I know not, but what the conduct of the 
 present is, I well know. It is low, cruel, indolent and profli- 
 gate ; and had the people of America no other cause for 
 separation than what the army has occasioned, that alone is 
 cause sufficient. 
 
 The field of politics in England is far more extensive than 
 that of news. Men have a right to reason for themselves, 
 and though they cannot contradict the intelligence in the 
 
 ' This is probably the earliest use of the phrase, " the religion of humanity." 
 By " Indian," is meant the aboriginal American, employed by the British 
 officials. — Editor. 
 
I77i5] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 275 
 
 London Gazette, they may frame upon it what sentiments 
 they please. But the misfortune is, that a general ignorance 
 has prevailed over the whole nation respecting America. 
 The ministry and the minority have both been wrong. The 
 former was always so, the latter only lately so. Politics, to 
 be executively right, must have a unity of means and time, 
 and a defect in either overthrows the whole. The ministry 
 rejected the plans of the minority while they were practi- 
 cable, and joined in them when they became impracticable. 
 From wrong measures they got into wrong time, and have 
 now completed the circle of absurdity by closing it upon 
 themselves. 
 
 I happened to come to America a few months before the 
 breaking out of hostilities. I found the disposition of the 
 people such, that they might have been led by a thread 
 and governed by a reed. Their suspicion was quick and 
 penetrating, but their attachment to Britain was obstinate, 
 and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it, 
 They disliked the ministry, but they esteemed the nation. 
 Their idea of grievance operated without resentment, and 
 their single object was reconciliation. Bad as I believed the 
 ministry to be, I never conceived them capable of a meas- 
 ure so rash and wicked as the commencing of hostilities ; 
 much less did I imagine the nation would encourage it. I 
 viewed the dispute as a kind of law-suit, in which I supposed 
 the parties would find a way either to decide or settle it. I 
 had no thoughts of independence or of arms. The world 
 could not then have persuaded me that I should be either 
 a soldier or an author. If I had any talents for either, they 
 were buried in me, and might ever have continued so, had 
 not the necessity of the times dragged and driven them into 
 action. I had formed my plan of life, and conceiving my- 
 self happy, wished every body else so. But when the 
 country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire 
 about my ears, it was time to stir.' It was time for every 
 
 * " For my own part, I thought it very hard to have the country set on fire 
 about my ears almost the moment I got into it." (Paine's private letter to 
 Franklin.) Paine arrived in America November 30, 1774. — Editor. 
 
276 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 man to stir. Those who had been long settled had some- 
 thing to defend ; those who had just come had something 
 to pursue ; and the call and the concern was equal and uni- 
 versal. For in a country where all men were once adven- 
 turers, the difference of a few years in their arrival could 
 make none in their right. 
 
 The breaking out of hostilities opened a new suspicion in 
 the politics of America, which, though at that time very 
 rare, has since been proved to be very right. What I allude 
 to is, " a secret and fixed determination in the British cabinet 
 to annex America to the crown of England as a conquered 
 country." If this be taken as the object, then the whole 
 line of conduct pursued by the ministry, though rash in its 
 origin and ruinous in its consequences, is nevertheless uni- 
 form and consistent in its parts. It applies to every case 
 and resolves every difificulty. But if taxation, or any thing 
 else, be taken in its room, there is no proportion between 
 the object and the charge. Nothing but the whole soil and 
 property of the country can be placed as a possible equiva- 
 lent against the millions which the ministry expended. No 
 taxes raised in America could possibly repay it. A revenue 
 of two millions sterling a year would not discharge the sum 
 and interest accumulated thereon, in twenty years. 
 
 Reconciliation never appears to have been the wish or the 
 object of the administration ; they looked on conquest as 
 certain and infallible, and, under that persuasion, sought to 
 drive the Americans into what they might style a general 
 rebellion, and then, crushing them with arms in their hands, 
 reap the rich harvest of a general confiscation, and silence 
 them for ever. The dependants at court were too numerous 
 to be provided for in England. The market for plunder in 
 the East-Indies was over ; and the profligacy of government 
 required that a new mine should be opened, and that mine 
 could be no other than America, conquered and forfeited. 
 They had no where else to go. Every other channel was 
 drained ; and extravagance, with the thirst of a drunkard, 
 was gaping for supplies. 
 
 If the ministry deny this to have been their plan, it be- 
 
I77^<] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 277 
 
 comes them to explain what was their plan. For either they 
 have abused us in coveting property they never labored for, 
 or they have abused you in expending an amazing sum upon 
 an incompetent object. Taxation, as I mentioned before, 
 could never be worth the charge of obtaining it by arms ; 
 and any kind of formal obedience which America could have 
 made, would have weighed with the lightness of a laugh 
 against such a load of expense. It is therefore most proba- 
 ble that the ministry will at last justify their policy by their 
 dishonesty, and openly declare, that their original design 
 was conquest : and, in this case, it well becomes the people 
 of England to consider how far the nation would have been 
 benefitted by the success. 
 
 In a general view, there are few conquests that repay the 
 charge of making them, and mankind are pretty well con- 
 vinced that it can never be worth their while to go to war 
 for profit's sake. If they are made war upon, their country 
 invaded, or their existence at stake, it is their duty to defend 
 and preserve themselves, but in every other light, and from 
 every other cause, is war inglorious and detestable. But to 
 return to the case in question — 
 
 When conquests are made of foreign countries, it is sup- 
 posed that the commerce and dominion of the country which 
 made them are extended. But this could neither be the 
 object nor the consequence of the present war. You enjoyed 
 the whole commerce before. It could receive no possible 
 addition by a conquest, but on the contrary, must diminish 
 as the inhabitants were reduced in numbers and wealth. 
 You had the same dominion over the country which you 
 used to have, and had no complaint to make against her for 
 breach of any part of the contract between you or her, or 
 contending against any established custom, commercial, polit- 
 ical or territorial. The country and commerce were both 
 your own when you began to conquer, in the same manner 
 and form as they had been your own an hundred years be- 
 fore. Nations have sometimes been induced to make con- 
 quests for the sake of reducing the power of their enemies, 
 or bringing it to a balance with their own. But this could 
 
2/8 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 be no part of your plan. No foreign authority was claimed 
 here, neither was any such authority suspected by you, or 
 acknowledged or imagined by us. What then, in the name 
 of heaven, could you go to war for ? Or what chance could 
 you possibly have in the event, but either to hold the same 
 country which you held before, and that in a much worse 
 condition, or to lose, with an amazing expense, what you 
 might have retained without a farthing of charges? 
 
 War never can be the interest of a trading nation, any 
 more than quarrelling can be profitable to a man in business. 
 But to make war with those who trade with us, is like setting 
 a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door. The least 
 degree of common sense shows the madness of the latter, 
 and it will apply with the same force of conviction to the 
 former. Piratical nations, having neither commerce or com- 
 modities of their own to lose, may make war upon all the 
 world, and lucratively find their account in it ; but it is 
 quite otherwise with Britain : for, besides the stoppage of 
 trade in time of war, she exposes more of her own property 
 to be lost, than she has the chance of taking from others. 
 Some ministerial gentlemen in parliament have mentioned 
 the greatness of her trade as an apology for the greatness of 
 her loss. This is miserable politics indeed 1 Because it 
 ought to have been given as a reason for her not engaging 
 in a war at first. The coast of America commands the West- 
 India trade almost as effectually as the coast of Africa does 
 that of the Straits ; and England can no more carry on the 
 former without the consent of America, than she can the 
 latter without a Mediterranean pass. 
 
 In whatever light the war with America is considered 
 upon commercial principles, it is evidently the interest of 
 the people of England not to support it ; and why it has 
 been supported so long, against the clearest demonstrations 
 of truth and national advantage, is, to me, and must be to 
 all the reasonable world, a matter of astonishment. Perhaps 
 it may be said that I live in America, and write this from 
 interest. To this I reply, that my principle is universal. 
 My attachment is to all the world, and not to any particular 
 
1778] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 279 
 
 part, and if what I advance is right, no matter where or who 
 it comes from. We have given the proclamation of your 
 commissioners a currency in our newspapers, and I have no 
 doubt you will give this a place in yours. To oblige and be 
 obliged is fair. 
 
 Before I dismiss this part of my address, I shall mention 
 one more circumstance in which I think the people of Eng- 
 land have been equally mistaken : and then proceed to 
 other matters. 
 
 There is such an idea existing in the world, as that of 
 national honour, and this, falsely understood, is oftentimes 
 the cause of war. In a Christian and philosophical sense, 
 mankind seem to have stood still at individual civilization, 
 and to retain as nations all the original rudeness of nature. 
 Peace by treaty is only a cessation of violence for a reforma- 
 tion of sentiment. It is a substitute for a principle that is 
 wanting and ever will be wanting till the idea of national 
 honour be rightly understood. As individuals we profess 
 ourselves Christians, but as nations we are heathens, Romans, 
 and what not. I remember the late admiral Saunders de- 
 claring in the house of commons, and that in the time of 
 peace, " That the city of Madrid laid in ashes was not a 
 sufficient atonement for the Spaniards taking off the rudder 
 of an English sloop of war." I do not ask whether this is 
 Christianity or morality, I ask whether it is decency? 
 whether it is proper language for a nation to use ? In 
 private life we call it by the plain name of bullying, and the 
 elevation of rank cannot alter its character. It is, I think, 
 exceedingly easy to define what ought to be understood by 
 national honour ; for that which is the best character for an 
 individual is the best character for a nation ; and wherever 
 the latter exceeds or falls beneath the former, there is a 
 departure from the line of true greatness. 
 
 I have thrown out this observation with a design of ap- 
 plying it to Great Britain. Her ideas of national honour 
 seem devoid of that benevolence of heart, that universal ex- 
 pansion of philanthropy, and that triumph over the rage of 
 vulgar prejudice, without which man is inferior to himself, 
 
28o 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and a companion of common animals. To know who she 
 shall regard or dislike, she asks what country they are of, 
 what religion they profess, and what property they enjoy. 
 Her idea of national honour seems to consist in national 
 insult, and that to be a great people, is to be neither a Chris- 
 tian, a philosopher, or a gentleman, but to threaten with the 
 rudeness of a bear, and to devour with the ferocity of a lion. 
 This perhaps may sound harsh and uncourtly, but it is too 
 true, and the more is the pity. 
 
 I mention this only as her general character. But towards 
 America she has observed no character at all ; and destroyed 
 by her conduct what she assumed in her title. She set out 
 with the title of parent, or mother country. The association 
 of ideas which naturally accompany this expression, are 
 filled with everything that is fond, tender and forbearing. 
 They have an energy peculiar to themselves, and, overlook- 
 ing the accidental attachment of common affections, apply 
 with infinite softness to the first feelings of the heart. It is 
 a political term which every mother can feel the force of, 
 and every child can judge of. It needs no painting of mine 
 to set it off, for nature only can do it justice. 
 
 But has any part of your conduct to America corresponded 
 with the title you set up ? If in your general national char- 
 acter you are unpolished and severe, in this you are incon- 
 sistent and unnatural, and you must have exceeding false 
 notions of national honour to suppose that the world can 
 admire a want of humanity or that national honour depends 
 on the violence of resentment, the inflexibility of temper, or 
 the vengeance of execution. 
 
 I would willingly convince you, and that with as much 
 temper as the times will suffer me to do, that as you opposed 
 your own interest by quarrelling with us, so likewise your 
 national honor, rightly conceived and understood, was no 
 ways called upon to enter into a war with America ; had 
 you studied true greatness of heart, the first and fairest 
 ornament of mankind, you would have acted directly con- 
 trary to all that you have done, and the world would have 
 ascribed it to a generous cause. Besides which, you had 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 281 
 
 (though with the assistance of this country) secured a power- 
 ful name by the last war. You were known and dreaded 
 abroad ; and it would have been wise in you to have suf- 
 fered the world to have slept undisturbed under that idea. 
 It was to you a force existing without expense. It pro- 
 duced to you all the advantages of real power; and you 
 were stronger through the universality of that charm, than 
 any future fleets and armies may probably make you. Your 
 greatness was so secured and interwoven with your silence 
 that you ought never to have awakened mankind, and had 
 nothing to do but to be quiet. Had you been true politicians 
 you would have seen all this, and continued to draw from 
 the magic of a name, the force and authority of a nation. 
 
 Unwise as you were in breaking the charm, you were still 
 more unwise in the manner of doing it. Samson only told 
 the secret, but you have performed the operation ; you have 
 shaven your own head, and wantonly thrown away the locks. 
 America was the hair from which the charm was drawn that 
 infatuated the world. You ought to have quarrelled with 
 no power; but with her upon no account. You had nothing 
 to fear from any condescension you might make. You might 
 have humored her, even if there had been no justice in her 
 claims, without any risk to your reputation ; for Europe, 
 fascinated by your fame, would have ascribed it to your 
 benevolence, and America, intoxicated by the grant, would 
 have slumbered in her fetters. 
 
 But this method of studying the progress of the passions, 
 in order to ascertain the probable conduct of mankind, is a 
 philosophy in politics which those who preside at St. James's 
 have no conception of. They know no other influence than 
 corruption and reckon all their probabilities from precedent. 
 A new case is to them a new world, and while they are seek- 
 ing for a parallel they get lost. The talents of lord Mans- 
 field can be estimated at best no higher than those of a 
 sophist. He understands the subtleties but not the elegance 
 of nature ; and by continually viewing mankind through the 
 cold medium of the law, never thinks of penetrating into the 
 warmer region of the mind. As for lord North, it is his 
 
282 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 happiness to have in him more philosophy than sentiment, 
 for he bears flogging hke a top, and sleeps the better for it. 
 His punishment becomes his support, for while he suffers 
 the lash for his sins, he keeps himself up by twirling about. 
 In politics, he is a good arithmetician, and in every thing else 
 nothing at all. 
 
 There is one circumstance which comes so much within lord 
 North's province as a financier, that I am surprised it should 
 escape him, which is, the different abilities of the two coun- 
 tries in supporting the expense ; for, strange as it may seem, 
 England is not a match for America in this particular. By 
 a curious kind of revolution in accounts, the people of Eng- 
 land seem to mistake their poverty for their riches ; that is, 
 they reckon their national debt as a part of their national 
 wealth. They make the same kind of error which a man 
 would do, who after mortgaging his estate, should add the 
 money borrowed, to the full value of the estate, in order to 
 count up his worth, and in this case he would conceive that 
 he got rich by running into debt. Just thus it is with Eng- 
 land. The government owed at the beginning of this war 
 one hundred and thirty-five millions sterling, and though the 
 individuals to whom it was due had a right to reckon their 
 shares as so much private property, yet to the nation collec- 
 tively it was so much poverty. There is as effectual limits 
 to public debts as to private ones, for when once the money 
 borrowed is so great as to require the whole yearly revenue 
 to discharge the interest thereon, there is an end to further 
 borrowing ; in the same manner as when the interest of a 
 man's debts amounts to the yearly income of his estate, there 
 is an end to his credit. This is nearly the case with Eng- 
 land, the interest of her present debt being at least equal to 
 one half of her yearly revenue, so that out of ten millions 
 annually collected by taxes, she has but five that she can 
 call her own.' 
 
 The very reverse of this was the case with America ; she 
 
 ' This may appear inconsistent with a passage in " Common Sense," on the 
 advantage of a national debt, but it should be observed that the author there 
 made the advantage dependent on such debt not bearing interest. — Editor. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 283 
 
 began the war without any debt upon her, and in order to 
 carry it on, she neither raised money by taxes, nor borrowed 
 it upon interest, but created it ; and her situation at this 
 time continues so much the reverse of yours that taxing 
 would make her rich, whereas it would make you poor. 
 When we shall have sunk the sum which we have created, 
 we shall then be out of debt, be just as rich as when we be- 
 gan, and all the while we are doing it shall feel no difference, 
 because the value will rise as the quantity decreases. 
 
 There was not a country in the world so capable of bear- 
 ing the expense of a war as America ; not only because she 
 was not in debt when she began, but because the country is 
 young and capable of infinite improvement, and has an 
 almost boundless tract of new lands in store ; whereas Eng- 
 land has got to her extent of age and growth, and has not 
 unoccupied land or property in reserve. The one is like a 
 young heir coming to a large improvable estate ; the other 
 like an old man whose chances are over, and his estate mort- 
 gaged for half its worth. 
 
 In the second number of the Crisis, which I find has been 
 republished in England, I endeavored to set forth the im- 
 practicability of conquering America. I stated every case, 
 that I conceived could possibly happen, and ventured to pre- 
 dict its consequences. As my conclusions were drawn not 
 artfully, but naturally, they have all proved to be true. I 
 was upon the spot ; knew the politics of America, her 
 strength and resources, and by a train of services, the 
 best in my power to render, was honored with the friend- 
 ship of the congress, the army and the people. I considered 
 the cause a just one. I know and feel it a just one, and 
 under that confidence never made my own profit or loss an 
 object. My endeavor was to have the matter well under- 
 stood on both sides, and I conceived myself tendering a 
 general service, by setting forth to the one the impossibility 
 of being conquered, and to the other the impossibility of 
 conquering. Most of the arguments made use of by the 
 ministry for supporting the war, are the very arguments that 
 ought to have been used against supporting it ; and the 
 
284 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 plans, by which they thought to conquer, are the very plans 
 in which they were sure to be defeated. They have taken 
 every thing up at the wrong end. Their ignorance is aston- 
 ishing, and were you in my situation you would see it. 
 They may, perhaps, have your confidence, but I am per- 
 suaded that they would make very indifferent members of 
 congress. I know what England is, and what America is, 
 and from the compound of knowledge, am better enabled to 
 judge of the issue than what the king or any of his minis- 
 ters can be. 
 
 In this number I have endeavored to show the ill policy 
 and disadvantages of the war. I believe many of my re- 
 marks are new. Those which are not so, I have studied to 
 improve and place in a manner that may be clear and striking. 
 Your failure is, I am persuaded, as certain as fate. America 
 is above your reach. She is at least your equal in the world, 
 and her independence neither rests upon your consent, nor 
 can it be prevented by your arms. In short, you spend your 
 substance in vain, and impoverish yourselves without a hope. 
 
 But suppose you had conquered America, what advan- 
 tages, collectively or individually, as merchants, manufac- 
 turers, or conquerors, could you have looked for? This is 
 an object you seemed never to have attended to. Listening 
 for the sound of victory, and led away by the phrenzy of 
 arms, you neglected to reckon either the cost or the conse- 
 quences. You must all pay towards the expense ; the 
 poorest among you must bear his share, and it is both 
 your right and your duty to weigh seriously the matter. 
 Had America been conquered, she might have been parcelled 
 out in grants to the favorites at court, but no share of it 
 would have fallen to you. Your taxes would not have been 
 lessened, because she would have been in no condition to 
 have paid any towards your relief. We are rich by contriv- 
 ance of our own, which would have ceased as soon as you 
 became masters. Our paper money will be of no use in 
 England, and silver and gold we have none. In the last 
 war you made many conquests, but were any of your taxes 
 lessened thereby ? On the contrary, were you not taxed to 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 285 
 
 pay for the charge of making them, and has not the same 
 been the case in every war ? 
 
 To the parliament I wish to address myself in a more 
 particular manner. They appear to have supposed them- 
 selves partners in the chace, and to have hunted with the 
 lion from an expectation of a right in the booty ; but in this 
 it is most probable they would, as legislators, have been dis- 
 appointed. The case is quite a new one, and many unfore- 
 seen difificulties would have arisen thereon. The parliament 
 claimed a legislative right over America, and the war origi- 
 nated from that pretence. But the army is supposed to 
 belong to the crown, and if America had been conquered 
 through their means, the claim of the legislature would have 
 been sufTocated in the conquest. Ceded, or conquered, 
 countries are supposed to be out of the authority of parlia- 
 ment. Taxation is exercised over them by prerogative and 
 not by law. It was attempted to be done in the Grenadas 
 a few years ago, and the only reason why it was not done 
 was because the crown had made a prior relinquishment of 
 its claim. Therefore, parliament have been all this while 
 supporting measures for the establishment of their authority, 
 in the issue of which, they would have been triumphed over 
 by the prerogative. This might have opened a new and 
 interesting opposition between the parliament and the 
 crown. The crown would have said that it conquered for 
 itself, and that to conquer for parliament was an unknown 
 case. The parliament might have replied, that America not 
 being a foreign country, but a country in rebellion, could not 
 be said to be conquered, but reduced ; and thus continued 
 their claim by disowning the term. The crown might have 
 rejoined, that however America might be considered at first, 
 she became foreign at last by a declaration of independence, 
 and a treaty with France ; and that her case being, by that 
 treaty, put within the law of nations, was out of the law of 
 parliament, who might have maintained, that as their claim 
 over America had never been surrendered, so neither could it 
 be taken away. The crown might have insisted, that though 
 the claim of parliament could not be taken away, yet, being 
 
286 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 an inferior, it might be superseded ; and that, whether the 
 claim was withdrawn from the object, or the object taken 
 from the claim, the same separation ensued ; and that 
 America being subdued after a treaty with France, was to 
 all intents and purposes a regal conquest, and of course the 
 sole property of the king. The parliament, as the legal 
 delegates of the people, might have contended against the 
 term " inferior," and rested the case upon the antiquity of 
 power, and this would have brought on a set of very inter- 
 esting and rational questions. 
 
 1st, What is the original fountain of power and honour in 
 any country ? 
 
 2d, Whether the prerogative does not belong to the 
 people ? 
 
 3d, Whether there is any such thing as the English con- 
 stitution ? 
 
 4th, Of what use is the crown to the people ? 
 5th, Whether he who invented a crown was not an enemy 
 to mankind ? 
 
 6th, Whether it is not a shame for a man to spend a 
 million a year and do no good for it, and whether the money 
 might not be better applied ? 
 
 7th, Whether such a man is not better dead than alive? 
 
 8th, Whether a congress, constituted like that of America, 
 is not the most happy and consistent form of government 
 in the world ? — With a number of others of the same import. 
 
 In short, the contention about the dividend might have 
 distracted the nation ; for nothing is more common than to 
 agree in the conquest and quarrel for the prize ; therefore it 
 is, perhaps, a happy circumstance, that our successes have 
 prevented the dispute. 
 
 If the parliament had been thrown out in their claim, 
 which it is most probable they would, the nation, likewise 
 would have been thrown out in their expectation ; for as the 
 taxes would have been laid on by the crown without the 
 parliament, the revenue arising therefrom, if any could have 
 arisen, would not have gone into the exchequer, but into the 
 privy purse, and so far from lessening the taxes, would not 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 287 
 
 even have been added to them, but served only as pocket 
 money to the crown. The more I reflect on this matter, 
 the more I am satisfied at the blindness and ill policy of my 
 countrymen, whose wisdom seems to operate without dis- 
 cernment, and their strength without an object. 
 
 To the great bulwark of the nation, I mean the mercantile 
 and manufacturing part thereof, I likewise present my ad- 
 dress. It is your interest to see America an independent, 
 and not a conquered country. If conquered, she is ruined ; 
 and if ruined, poor; consequently the trade will be a trifle, 
 and her credit doubtful. If independent, she flourishes, and 
 from her flourishing must your profits arise. It matters 
 nothing to you who governs America, if your manufactures 
 find a consumption there. Some articles will consequently 
 be obtained from other places, and it is right that they 
 should ; but the demand for others will increase, by the 
 great influx of inhabitants which a state of independence 
 and peace will occasion, and in the final event you may be 
 enriched. The commerce of America is perfectly free, and 
 ever will be so. She will consign away no part of it to any 
 nation. She has not to her friends, and certainly will not to 
 her enemies ; though it is probable that your narrow-minded 
 politicians, thinking to please you thereby, may some time or 
 other unnecessarily make such a proposal. Trade flourishes 
 best when it is free, and it is weak policy to attempt to 
 fetter it. Her treaty with France is on the most liberal 
 and generous principles, and the French, in their conduct 
 towards her, have proved themselves to be philosophers, 
 politicians, and gentlemen. 
 
 To the ministry I likewise address myself. You, gentle- 
 men, have studied the ruin of your country, from which it is 
 not within your abilities to rescue her. Your attempts to 
 recover her are as ridiculous as your plans which involved 
 her are detestable. The commissioners, being about to de- 
 part, will probably bring you this, and with it my sixth 
 number, addressed to them ; and in so doing they carry back 
 more Common Sense than they brought, and you likewise 
 will have more than when you sent them. 
 
288 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Having thus addressed you severally, I conclude by ad- 
 dressing you collectively. It is a long lane that has no turn- 
 ing. A period of sixteen years of misconduct and misfor- 
 tune, is certainly long enough for any one nation to suffer 
 under; and upon a supposition that war is not declared be- 
 tween France and you, I beg to place a line of conduct before 
 you that will easily lead you out of all your troubles. It has 
 been hinted before, and cannot be too much attended to. 
 
 Suppose America had remained unknown to Europe till 
 the present year, and that Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, in 
 another voyage round the world, had made the first dis- 
 covery of her, in the same condition that she is now in, of 
 arts, arms, numbers, and civilization. What, I ask, in that 
 case, would have been your conduct towards her ? For tJiat 
 will point out what it ought to be now. The problems and 
 their solutions are equal, and the right line of the one is the 
 parallel of the other. The question takes in every circum- 
 stance that can possibly arise. It reduces politics to a simple 
 thought, and is moreover a mode of investigation, in which, 
 while you are studying your interest the simplicity of the 
 case will cheat you into good temper. You have nothing to 
 do but to suppose that you have found America, and she 
 appears found to your hand, and while in the joy of your 
 heart you stand still to admire her, the path of politics rises 
 straight before you. 
 
 Were I disposed to paint a contrast, I could easily set off 
 what you have done in the present case, against what you 
 would have done in that case, and by justly opposing them, 
 conclude a picture that would make you blush. But, as, 
 when any of the prouder passions are hurt, it is much better 
 philosophy to let a man slip into a good temper than to 
 attack him in a bad one, for that reason, therefore, I only 
 state the case, and leave you to reflect upon it. 
 
 To go a little back into politics, it will be found that the 
 true interest of Britain lay in proposing and promoting the 
 independence of America immediately after the last peace ; 
 for the expense which Britain had then incurred by defend- 
 ing America as her own dominions, ought to have shown 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 289 
 
 her the policy and necessity of changing the style of the 
 country, as the best probable method of preventing future 
 wars and expense, and the only method by which she could 
 hold the commerce without the charge of sovereignty. Be- 
 sides which, the title which she assumed, of parent country, 
 led to, and pointed out the propriety, wisdom and advantage 
 of a separation ; for, as in private life, children grow into 
 men, and by setting up for themselves, extend and secure 
 the interest of the whole family, so in the settlement of 
 colonies large enough to admit of maturity, the same policy 
 should be pursued, and the same consequences would follow. 
 Nothing hurts the affections both of parents and children so 
 much, as living too closely connected, and keeping up the 
 distinction too long. Domineering will not do over those, 
 who, by a progress in life, have become equal in rank to 
 their parents, that is, when they have families of their own ; 
 and though they may conceive themselves the subjects of 
 their advice, will not suppose them the objects of their 
 government. I do not, by drawing this parallel, mean to 
 admit the title of parent country, because, if it is due any 
 where, it is due to Europe collectively, and the first settlers 
 from England were driven here by persecution. I mean 
 only to introduce the term for the sake of policy and to show 
 from your title the line of your interest. 
 
 When you saw the state of strength and opulence, and 
 that by her own industry, which America arrived at, you 
 ought to have advised her to set up for herself, and proposed 
 an alliance of interest with her, and in so doing you would 
 have drawn, and that at her own expense, more real advan- 
 tage, and more military supplies and assistance, both of 
 ships and men, than from any weak and wrangling govern- 
 ment that you could exercise over her. In short, had you 
 studied only the domestic politics of a family, you would 
 have learned how to govern the state ; but, instead of this 
 easy and natural line, you flew out into every thing which 
 was wild and outrageous, till, by following the passion and 
 stupidity of the pilot, you wrecked the vessel within sight 
 of the shore, 
 
 >9 
 
290 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 Having shown what you ought to have done, I now pro- 
 ceed to show why it was not done. The caterpillar circle 
 of the court had an interest to pursue, distinct from, and 
 opposed to yours ; for though by the independence of 
 America and an alliance therewith, the trade would have 
 continued, if not increased, as in many articles neither coun- 
 try can go to a better market, and though by defending and 
 protecting herself, she would have been no expense to you, 
 and consequently your national charges would have de- 
 creased, and your taxes might have been proportionably 
 lessened thereby ; yet the striking off so many places from 
 the court calendar was put in opposition to the interest of 
 the nation. The loss of thirteen government ships, with 
 their appendages, here and in England, is a shocking sound 
 in the ear of a hungry courtier. Your present king and min- 
 istry will be the ruin of you ; and you had better risk a 
 revolution and call a congress, than be thus led on from 
 madness to despair, and from despair to ruin. America has 
 set you the example, and you may follow it and be free. 
 
 I now come to the last part, a war with France. This is 
 what no man in his senses will advise you to, and all good 
 men would wish to prevent. Whether France will declare 
 war against you, is not for me in this place to mention, or 
 to hint, even if I knew it ; but it must be madness in you 
 to do it first. The matter is come now to a full crisis, and 
 peace is easy if willingly set about. Whatever you may 
 think, France has behaved handsomely to you. She would 
 have been unjust to herself to have acted otherwise than she 
 did ; and having accepted our offer of alliance she gave you 
 genteel notice of it. There was nothing in her conduct 
 reserved or indelicate, and while she announced her deter- 
 mination to support her treaty, she left you to give the 
 first offence. America, on her part, has exhibited a char- 
 acter of firmness to the world. Unprepared and unarmed, 
 without form or government, she singly opposed a nation 
 that domineered over half the globe. The greatness of the 
 deed demands respect ; and though you may feel resent- 
 ment, you are compelled both to wonder and admire. 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 291 
 
 Here I rest my arguments and finish my address. Such 
 as it is, it is a gift, and you are welcome. It was always my 
 design to dedicate a Crisis to you, when the time should 
 come that would properly make it a Crisis ; and when, like- 
 wise, I should catch myself in a temper to write it, and sup- 
 pose you in a condition to read it. That time has now 
 arrived, and with it the opportunity for conveyance. For 
 the commissioners — poor commissioners ! having proclaimed, 
 that "yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown" have 
 waited out the date, and, discontented with their God, are 
 returning to their gourd. And all the harm I wish them is, 
 that it may not wither about their ears, and that they may 
 not make their exit in the belly of a whale.' 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Nov. 21, 1778. 
 
 P. S. — Though in the tranquillity of my mind I have con- 
 cluded with a laugh, yet I have something to mention to 
 the commissioners, which, to them, is serious and worthy 
 their attention. Their authority is derived from an act of 
 parliament, which likewise describes and limits their official 
 powers. Their commission, therefore, is only a recital, and 
 personal investiture, of those powers, or a nomination and 
 description of the persons who are to execute them. Had 
 it contained any thing contrary to, or gone beyond the line 
 of, the written law from which it is derived, and by which it 
 is bound, it would, by the English constitution, have been 
 treason in the crown, and the king been subject to an im- 
 peachment. He dared not, therefore, put in his commission 
 what you have put in your proclamation, that is, he dared 
 not have authorised you in that commission to burn and 
 
 ' George III. writing to Lord North May 12, 1778, recognizes in the rebuff 
 ■of the Commissioners the end of all negotiation, and begins to abandon the 
 hope of recovering the American Colonies. "All that can now be done is 
 steadily to pursue the plan very wisely adopted in the spring, the providing 
 Nova Scotia, the Floridas, and Canada, with troops." He suggests that New 
 York might be abandoned. — Editor. 
 
292 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 destroy any thing in America. You are both in the act and 
 in the commission styled commissioners for restoring peace, 
 and the methods for doing it are there pointed out. Your 
 last proclamation is signed by you as commissioners under 
 that act. You make parliament the patron of its contents. 
 Yet, in the body of it, you insert matters contrary both to 
 the spirit and letter of the act, and what likewise your king 
 dared not have put in his commission to you. The state of 
 things in England, gentlemen, is too ticklish for you to run 
 hazards. You are accountable to parliament for the execution 
 of that act according to the letter of it. Your heads may pay 
 for breaking it, for you certainly have broke it by exceeding 
 it. And as a friend, who would wish you to escape the paw 
 of the lion, as well as the belly of the whale, I civilly hint to 
 you, to keep within compass. 
 
 Sir Harry Clinton, strictly speaking, is as accountable as 
 the rest ; for though a general, he is likewise a commissioner, 
 acting under a superior authority. His first obedience is due 
 to the act ; and his plea of being a general, will not and 
 cannot clear him as a commissioner, for that would suppose 
 the crown, in its single capacity, to have a power of dispen- 
 sing with an act of parliament. Your situation, gentlemen, 
 is nice and critical, and the more so because England is 
 unsettled. Take heed ! Remember the times of Charles the 
 first ! For Laud and Stafford fell by trusting to a hope like 
 yours. 
 
 Having thus shown you the danger of your proclamation, 
 I now show you the folly of it. The means contradict your 
 design : you threaten to lay waste, in order to render Amer- 
 ica a useless acquisition of alliance to France. I reply, that 
 the more destruction you commit (if you could do it) the 
 more valuable to France you make that alliance. You can 
 destroy only houses and goods; and by so doing you in- 
 crease our demand upon her for materials and merchandize ; 
 for the wants of one nation, provided it has freedom and 
 credit, naturally produce riches to the other ; and, as you 
 can neither ruin the land nor prevent the vegetation, you 
 would increase the exportation of our produce in payment, 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 which would be to her a new fund of wealth. In short, had 
 you cast about for a plan on purpose to enrich your enemies, 
 you could not have hit upon a better. 
 
 C. S. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 "Trusting (says the king of England in his speech of 
 November last,) in the divine providence, and in the justice 
 of my cause, I am firmly resolved to prosecute the war with 
 vigor, and to make every exertion in order to compel our 
 enemies to equitable terms of peace and accommodation." 
 To this declaration the United States of America, and the 
 confederated powers of Europe will reply, if Britain will 
 have war, she shall have enough of it. 
 
 Five years have nearly elapsed since the commencement 
 of hostilities, and every campaign, by a gradual decay, has 
 lessened your ability to conquer, without producing a serious 
 thought on your condition or your fate. Like a prodigal 
 lingering in an habitual consumption, you feel the relics 
 of life, and mistake them for recovery. New schemes, like 
 new medicines, have administered fresh hopes, and pro- 
 longed the disease instead of curing it. A change of gen- 
 erals, like a change of physicians, served only to keep the 
 flattery alive, and furnish new pretences for new extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 "Can Britain fail?"* has been proudly asked at the 
 undertaking of every enterprize ; and that " whatever she 
 wills is fate," f has been given with the solemnity of pro- 
 phetic confidence ; and though the question has been con- 
 stantly replied to by disappointment, and the prediction 
 
 ♦Whitehead's new-year's ode for 1776. — AutJior. 
 
 f Ode at the installation of lord North, for Chancellor of the university of 
 Oxford. — A uthor. 
 
294 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 falsified by misfortune, yet still the insult continued, and 
 your catalogue of national evils increased therewith. Eager 
 to persuade the world of her power, she considered destruc- 
 tion as the minister of greatness, and conceived that the 
 glory of a nation like that of an [American] Indian, lay in 
 the number of its scalps and the miseries which it inflicts. 
 
 Fire, sword and want, as far as the arms of Britain could 
 extend them, have been spread with wanton cruelty along 
 the coast of America ; and while you, remote from the scene 
 of suffering, had nothing to lose and as little to dread, the 
 information reached you like a tale of antiquity, in which 
 the distance of time defaces the conception, and changes the 
 severest sorrows into conversable amusement. 
 
 This makes the second paper, addressed perhaps in vain, 
 to the people of England. That advice should be taken 
 wherever example has failed, or precept be regarded where 
 warning is ridiculed, is like a picture of hope resting on 
 despair : but when time shall stamp with universal currency 
 the facts you have long encountered with a laugh, and the 
 irresistible evidence of accumulated losses, like the hand- 
 writing on the wall, shall add terror to distress, you will 
 then, in a conflict of suffering, learn to sympathize with 
 others by feeling for yourselves. 
 
 The triumphant appearance of the combined fleets in the 
 channel and at your harbor's mouth, and the expedition of 
 captain Paul Jones, on the western and eastern coasts of 
 England and Scotland, will, by placing you in the condition 
 of an endangered country, read to you a stronger lecture on 
 the calamities of invasion, and bring to your minds a truer 
 picture of promiscuous distress, than the most finished 
 rhetoric can describe or the keenest imagination conceive. 
 
 Hitherto you have experienced the expenses, but nothing 
 of the miseries of war. Your disappointments have been 
 accompanied with no immediate suffering, and your losses 
 came to you only by intelligence. Like fire at a distance 
 you heard not even the cry ; you felt not the danger, you 
 saw not the confusion. To you every thing has been foreign 
 but the taxes to support it. You knew not what it was to. 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 295 
 
 be alarmed at midnight with an armed enemy in the streets. 
 You were strangers to the distressing scene of a family in 
 flight, and to the thousand restless cares and tender sorrows 
 that incessantly arose. To see women and children wander- 
 ing in the severity of winter, with the broken remains of a 
 well furnished house, and seeking shelter in every crib and 
 hut, were matters that you had no conception of. You 
 knew not what it was to stand by and see your goods 
 chopped for fuel, and your beds ripped to pieces to make 
 packages for plunder. The misery of others, like a tempes- 
 tuous night, added to the pleasures of your own security. 
 You even enjoyed the storm, by contemplating the differ- 
 ence of conditions, and that which carried sorrow into the 
 breasts of thousands served but to heighten in you a species 
 of tranquil pride. Yet these are but the fainter sufferings 
 of war, when compared with carnage and slaughter, the mis- 
 eries of a military hospital, or a town in flames. 
 
 The people of America, by anticipating distress, had forti- 
 fied their minds against every species you could inflict. They 
 had resolved to abandon their homes, to resign them to de- 
 struction, and to seek new settlements rather than submit. 
 Thus familiarized to misfortune, before it arrived, they bore 
 their portion with the less regret : the justness of their cause 
 was a continual source of consolation, and the hope of final 
 victory, which never left them, served to lighten the load 
 and sweeten the cup allotted them to drink. 
 
 But when their troubles shall become yours, and invasion 
 be transferred upon the invaders, you will have neither their 
 extended wilderness to fly to, their cause to comfort you, 
 nor their hope to rest upon. Distress with them was sharp- 
 ened by no self-reflection. They had not brought it on 
 themselves. On the contrary, they had by every proceeding 
 endeavored to avoid it, and had descended even below the 
 mark of congressional character, to prevent a war. The 
 national honor or the advantages of independence were 
 matters which, at the commencement of the dispute, they 
 had never studied, and it was only at the last moment that 
 the measure was resolved on. Thus circumstanced, they 
 
296 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 naturally and conscientiously felt a dependence upon provi- 
 dence. They had a clear pretension to it, and had they 
 failed therein, infidelity had gained a triumph. 
 
 But your condition is the reverse of theirs. Every thing 
 you suffer you have sought : nay, had you created mischiefs 
 on purpose to inherit therr>, you could not have secured your 
 title by a firmer deed. The world awakens with no pity at 
 your complaints. You felt none for others ; you deserve 
 none for yourselves. Nature does not interest herself in 
 cases like yours, but, on the contrary, turns from them with 
 dislike, and abandons them to punishment. You may now 
 present memorials to what court you please, but so far as 
 America is the object, none will listen. The policy of 
 Europe, and the propensity there in every mind to curb in- 
 sulting ambition, and bring cruelty to judgment, are unitedly 
 against you ; and where nature and interest reinforce with 
 each other, the compact is too intimate to be dissolved. 
 
 Make but the case of others your own, and your own 
 theirs, and you will then have a clear idea of the \lfhole. 
 Had France acted towards her colonies as you have done, 
 you would have branded her with every epithet of abhor- 
 rence ; and had you, like her, stepped in to succour a strug- 
 gling people, all Europe must have echoed with your own 
 applauses. But entangled in the passion of dispute you see 
 it not as you ought, and form opinions thereon which suit 
 with no interest but your own. You wonder that America 
 does not rise in union with you to impose on herself a por- 
 tion of your taxes and reduce herself to unconditional sub- 
 mission. You are amazed that the southern powers of 
 Europe do not assist you in conquering a country which is 
 afterwards to be turned against themselves ; and that the 
 northern ones do not contribute to reinstate you in America 
 who already enjoy the market for naval stores by the separa- 
 tion. You seem surprised that Holland does not pour in her 
 succours to maintain you mistress of the seas, when her own 
 commerce is suffering by your act of navigation ; or that any 
 country should study her own interest while yours is on the 
 carpet. 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 297 
 
 Such excesses of passionate folly, and unjust as well as 
 unwise resentment, have driven you on, like Pharaoh, to un- 
 pitied miseries, and while the importance of the quarrel shall 
 perpetuate your disgrace, the flag of America will carry it 
 round the world. The natural feelings of every rational 
 being will be against you, and wherever the story shall be 
 told, you will have neither excuse nor consolation left. With 
 an unsparing hand, and an insatiable mind, you have deso- 
 lated the world, to gain dominion and to lose it ; and while, 
 in a phrenzy of avarice and ambition, the east and the west 
 are doomed to tributary bondage, you rapidly earned de- 
 struction as the wages of a nation. 
 
 At the thoughts of a war at home, every man amongst 
 you ought to tremble. The prospect is far more dreadful 
 there than in America. Here the party that was against the 
 measures of the continent were in general composed of a 
 kind of neutrals, who added strength to neither army. There 
 does not exist a being so devoid of sense and sentiment as 
 to covet " biconditional submission''' and therefore no man 
 in America could be with you in principle. Several might 
 from a cowardice of mind, prefer it to the hardships and 
 dangers of opposing it ; but the same disposition that gave 
 them such a choice, unfitted them to act either for or against 
 us. But England is rent into parties, with equal shares of 
 resolution. The principle which produced the war divides 
 the nation. Their animosities are in the highest state of 
 fermentation, and both sides, by a call of the militia, are in 
 arms. No human foresight can discern, no conclusion can 
 be formed, what turn a war might take, if once set on foot 
 by an invasion. She is not now in a fit disposition to make 
 a common cause of her own affairs, and having no conquests 
 to hope for abroad, and nothing but expenses arising at 
 home, her everything is staked upon a defensive combat, and 
 the further she goes the worse she is ofT. 
 
 There are situations that a nation may be in, in which 
 peace or war, abstracted from every other consideration, may 
 be politically right or wrong. When nothing can be lost by 
 a war, but what must be lost without it, war is then the 
 
298 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 policy of that country ; and such was the situation of America 
 at the commencement of hostilities : but when no security 
 can be gained by a war, but what may be accomplished by a 
 peace, the case becomes reversed, and such now is the situa- 
 tion of England. 
 
 That America is beyond the reach of conquest, is a fact 
 which experience has shown and time confirmed, and this 
 admitted, what, I ask, is now the object of contention? If 
 there be any honor in pursuing self-destruction with inflexi- 
 ble passion — if national suicide be the perfection of national 
 glory, you may, with all the pride of criminal happiness, 
 expire unenvied and unrivalled. But when the tumult of 
 war shall cease, and the tempest of present passions be suc- 
 ceeded by calm reflection, or when those, who, surviving its 
 fury, shall inherit from you a legacy of debts and misfor- 
 tunes, when the yearly revenue shall scarcely be able to dis- 
 charge the interest of the one, and no possible remedy be 
 left for the other, ideas far different from the present will 
 arise, and imbitter the remembrance of former follies. A 
 mind disarmed of its rage feels no pleasure in contemplating 
 a frantic quarrel. Sickness of thought, the sure consequence 
 of conduct like yours, leaves no ability for enjoyment, no 
 relish for resentment ; and though, like a man in a fit, you 
 feel not the injury of the struggle, nor distinguish between 
 strength and disease, the weakness will nevertheless be pro- 
 portioned to the violence, and the sense of pain increase 
 with the recovery. 
 
 To what persons or to whose system of politics you owe 
 your present state of wretchedness, is a matter of total in- 
 difference to America. They have contributed, however 
 unwillingly, to set her above themselves, and she, in the 
 tranquillity of conquest, resigns the inquiry. The case now 
 is not so properly who began the war, as who continues it. 
 That there are men in all countries to whom a state of war is 
 a mine of wealth, is a fact never to be doubted. Characters 
 like these naturally breed in the putrefaction of distempered 
 times, and after fattening on the disease, they perish with it, 
 or, impregnated with the stench, retreat into obscurity. 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 299 
 
 But there are several erroneous notions to which you like- 
 wise owe a share of your misfortunes, and which, if continued, 
 will only increase your trouble and your losses. An opinion 
 hangs about the gentlemen of the minority, that America 
 would relish measures under their administration, which she 
 would not from the present cabinet. On this rock lord 
 Chatham would have split had he gained the helm, and sev- 
 eral of his survivors are steering the same course. Such dis- 
 tinctions in the infancy of the argument had some degree of 
 foundation, but they now serve no other purpose than to 
 lengthen out a war, in which the limits of a dispute, being 
 fixed by the fate of arms, and guaranteed by treaties, are not 
 to be changed or altered by trivial circumstances. 
 
 The ministry, and many of the minority, sacrifice their 
 time in disputing on a question with which they have noth- 
 ing to do, namely, whether America shall be independent or 
 not? Whereas the only question that can come under their 
 determination is, whether they will accede to it or not ? 
 They confound a military question with a political one, and 
 undertake to supply by a vote what they lost by a battle. 
 Say she shall not be independent, and it will signify as much 
 as if they voted against a decree of fate, or say that she 
 shall, and she will be no more independent than before. 
 Questions, which, when determined, cannot be executed, 
 serve only to show the folly of dispute and the weakness of 
 disputants. 
 
 From a long habit of calling America your own, you sup- 
 pose her governed by the same prejudices and conceits which 
 govern yourselves. Because you have set up a particular 
 denomination of religion to the exclusion of all others, you 
 imagine she must do the same, and because you, with an 
 unsociable narrowness of mind, have cherished enmity 
 against France and Spain, you suppose her alliance must 
 be defective in friendship. Copying her notions of the 
 world from you, she formerly thought as you instructed, but 
 now feeling herself free, and the prejudice removed, she 
 thinks and acts upon a different system. It frequently hap- 
 pens that in proportion as we are taught to dislike persons 
 
300 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 and countries, not knowing why, we feel an ardor of esteem 
 upon the removal of the mistake : it seems as if something 
 was to be made amends for, and we eagerly give in to every 
 office of friendship, to atone for the injury of the error. 
 
 But, perhaps, there is something in the extent of coun- 
 tries, which, among the generality of people, insensibly 
 communicates extension of the mind. The soul of an island- 
 er, in its native state, seems bounded by the foggy con- 
 fines of the water's edge, and all beyond affords to him 
 matters only for profit or curiosity, not for friendship. His 
 island is to him his world, and fixed to that, his every thing 
 centres in it ; while those who are inhabitants of a continent, 
 by casting their eye over a larger field, take in likewise a 
 larger intellectual circuit, and thus approaching nearer to 
 an acquaintance with the universe, their atmosphere of 
 thought is extended, and their liberality fills a wider space. 
 In short, our minds seem to be measured by countries when 
 we are men, as they are by places when we are children, and 
 until something happens to disentangle us from the preju- 
 dice, we serve under it without perceiving it. 
 
 In addition to this, it may be remarked, that men who 
 study any universal science, the principles of which are uni- 
 versally known, or admitted, and applied without distinction 
 to the common benefit of all countries, obtain thereby a 
 larger share of philanthropy than those who only study 
 national arts and improvements. Natural philosophy, 
 mathematics and astronomy, carry the mind from the coun- 
 try to the creation, and give it a fitness suited to the extent. 
 It was not Newton's honour, neither could it be his pride, 
 that he was an Englishman, but that he was a philosopher: 
 the heavens had liberated him from the prejudices of an 
 island, and science had expanded his soul as boundless as 
 his studies. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, March, 1780. 
 
1780] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 301 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 IX. 
 
 Had America pursued her advantages with half the spirit 
 that she resisted her misfortunes, she would, before now, 
 have been a conquering and a peaceful people ; but lulled 
 in the lap of soft tranquillity, she rested on her hopes, and 
 adversity only has convulsed her into action. Whether 
 subtlety or sincerity at the close of the last year induced 
 the enemy to an appearance for peace, is a point not material 
 to know ; it is sufficient that we see the effects it has had on 
 our politics, and that we sternly rise to resent the delusion. 
 
 The war, on the part of America, has been a war of natural 
 feelings. Brave in distress ; serene in conquest ; drowsy 
 while at rest ; and in every situation generously disposed to 
 peace; a dangerous calm, and a most heightened zeal have, 
 as circumstances varied, succeeded each other. Every pas- 
 sion but that of despair has been called to a tour of duty ; 
 and so mistaken has been the enemy, of our abilities and 
 disposition, that when she supposed us conquered, we rose 
 the conquerors. The extensiveness of the United States, 
 and the variety of their resources ; the universality of their 
 cause, the quick operation of their feelings, and the similarity 
 of their sentiments, have, in every trying situation, produced 
 a something, which, favored by providence, and pursued with 
 ardor, has accomplished in an instant the business of a cam- 
 paign. We have never deliberately sought victory, but 
 snatched it ; and bravely undone in an hour the blotted 
 operations of a season. 
 
 The reported fate of Charleston, like the misfortunes of 
 1776, has at last called forth a spirit, and kindled up a flame, 
 which perhaps no other event could have produced. If the 
 enemy has circulated a falsehood, they have unwisely aggra- 
 vated us into life, and if they have told us the truth, they 
 have unintentionally done us a service. We were returning 
 with folded arms from the fatigues of war, and thinking and 
 sitting leisurely down to enjoy repose. The dependence 
 
302 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 that has been put upon Charleston threw a drowsiness over 
 America. We looked on the business done — the conflict 
 over — the matter settled — or that all which remained unfin- 
 ished would follow of itself. In this state of dangerous 
 relaxation, exposed to the poisonous infusions of the enemy, 
 and having no common danger to attract our attention, we 
 were extinguishing, by stages, the ardor we began with, and 
 surrendering by piece-meals the virtue that defended us. 
 
 Afflicting as the loss of Charleston may be, yet if it uni- 
 versally rouse us from the slumber of twelve months past, 
 and renew in us the spirit of former days, it will produce 
 an advantage more important than its loss. America ever 
 is what she thinks herself to be. Governed by sentiment, 
 and acting her own mind, she becomes, as she pleases, the 
 •victor or the victim. 
 
 It is not the conquest of towns, nor the accidental capture 
 of garrisons, that can reduce a country so extensive as this. 
 The sufferings of one part can never be relieved by the 
 exertions of another, and there is no situation the enemy can 
 be placed in that does not afford to us the same advantages 
 which he seeks himself. By dividing his force, he leaves 
 €very post attackable. It is a mode of war that carries 
 with it a confession of weakness, and goes on the principle 
 of distress rather than conquest. 
 
 The decline of the enemy is visible, not only in their 
 operations, but in their plans ; Charleston originally made 
 but a secondary object in the system of attack, and it is now 
 become their principal one, because they have not been able 
 to succeed elsewhere. It would have carried a cowardly 
 appearance in Europe had they formed their grand expe- 
 dition, in 1776, against a part of the continent where there 
 was no army, or not a sufificient one to oppose them ; but 
 failing year after year in their impressions here, and to the 
 eastward and northward, they deserted their capital design, 
 .and prudently contenting themselves with what they can 
 get, give a flourish of honor to conceal disgrace. 
 
 But this piece-meal work is not conquering the continent. 
 It is a discredit in them to attempt it, and in us to suffer 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 303 
 
 it. It is now full time to put an end to a war of aggrava- 
 tions, which, on one side, has no possible object, and on the 
 other has every inducement which honor, interest, safety and 
 happiness can inspire. If we suffer them much longer to 
 remain among us, we shall become as bad as themselves. 
 An association of vice will reduce us more than the sword. 
 A nation hardened in the practice of iniquity knows better 
 how to profit by it, than a young country newly corrupted. 
 We are not a match for them in the line of advantageous 
 guilt, nor they for us on the principles which we bravely set 
 out with. Our first days were our days of honour. They 
 have marked the character of America wherever the story of 
 her wars are told ; and convinced of this, we have nothing 
 to do but wisely and unitedly to tread the well known track. 
 The progress of a war is often as ruinous to individuals, as 
 the issue of it is to a nation ; and it is not only necessary 
 that our forces be such that we be conquerors in the end, but 
 that by timely exertions we be secure in the interim. The 
 present campaign will afford an opportunity which has never 
 presented itself before, and the preparations for it are equally 
 necessary, whether Charleston stand or fall. Suppose the 
 first, it is in that case only a failure of the enemy, not a de- 
 feat. All the conquest that a besieged town can hope for, 
 is, not to be conquered ; and compelling an enemy to raise 
 the siege, is to the besieged a victory. But there must be a 
 probability amounting almost to a certainty, that would 
 justify a garrison marching out to attack a retreat. There- 
 fore should Charleston not be taken, and the enemy aban- 
 don the siege, every other part of the continent should 
 prepare to meet them ; and, on the contrary, should it be 
 taken, the same preparations are necessary to balance the 
 loss, and put ourselves in a position to co-operate with our 
 allies, immediately on their arrival. 
 
 We are not now fighting our battles alone, as we were in 
 1776 ; England, from a malicious disposition to America, has 
 not only not declared war against France and Spain, but, the 
 better to prosecute her passions here, has afforded those 
 powers no military object, and avoids them, to distress us. 
 
304 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 She will suffer her West India islands to be overrun by 
 France, and her southern settlements to be taken by Spain, 
 rather than quit the object that gratifies her revenge. This 
 conduct, on the part of Britain, has pointed out the pro- 
 priety of France sending a naval and land force to co-operate 
 with America on the spot. Their arrival cannot be very 
 distant, nor the ravages of the enemy long. The recruiting 
 the army, and procuring the supplies, are the two things 
 most necessary to be accomplished, and a capture of either 
 of the enemy's divisions will restore to America peace and 
 plenty. 
 
 At a crisis, big, like the present, with expectation and 
 events, the whole country is called to unanimity and exer- 
 tion. Not an ability ought now to sleep, that can produce 
 but a mite to the general good, nor even a whisper to pass 
 that militates against it. The necessity of the case, and the 
 importance of the consequences, admit no delay from a 
 friend, no apology from an enemy. To spare now, would 
 be the height of extravagance, and to consult present ease, 
 would be to sacrifice it perhaps forever. 
 
 America, rich in patriotism and produce, can want neither 
 men nor supplies, when a serious necessity calls them forth. 
 The slow operation of taxes, owing to the extensiveness of 
 collection, and their depreciated value before they arrived 
 in the treasury, have, in many instances, thrown a burden 
 upon government, which has been artfully interpreted by 
 the enemy into a general decline throughout the country. 
 Yet this, inconvenient as it may at first appear, is not only 
 remediable, but may be turned to an immediate advantage; 
 for it makes no real difference, whether a certain number of 
 men, or company of militia (and in this country every man 
 is a militia-man), are directed by law to send a recruit at 
 their own expense, or whether a tax is laid on them for that 
 purpose, and the man hired by government afterwards. 
 The first, if there is any difference, is both cheapest and 
 best, because it saves the expense which would attend col- 
 lecting it as a tax, and brings the man sooner into the field 
 than the modes of recruiting formerly used ; and, on this 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 principle, a law has been passed in this state, for recruiting 
 two men from each company of militia, which will add up- 
 wards of a thousand to the force of the country. 
 
 But the flame which has broke forth in this city since the 
 report from New-York, of the loss of Charleston, not only 
 does honor to the place, but, like the blaze of 1776, will 
 kindle into action the scattered sparks throughout America. 
 The valor of a country may be learned by the bravery of its 
 soldiery, and the general cast of its inhabitants, but confi- 
 dence of success is best discovered by the active measures 
 pursued by men of property ; and when the spirit of enter- 
 prise becomes so universal as to act at once on all ranks 
 of men, a war may then, and not till then, be styled truly 
 popular. 
 
 In 1776, the ardor of the enterprising part was consider- 
 ably checked by the real revolt of some, and the coolness of 
 others. But in the present case, there is a firmness in the 
 substance and property of the country to the public cause. 
 An association has been entered into by the merchants, 
 tradesmen, and principal inhabitants of the city [Philadel- 
 phia], to receive and support the new state money at the 
 value of gold and silver; a measure which, while it does 
 them honor, will likewise contribute to their interest, by 
 rendering the operations of the campaign convenient and 
 effectual. 
 
 Nor has the spirit of exertion stopped here. A voluntary 
 subscription is likewise begun, to raise a fund of hard money, 
 to be given as bounties, to fill up the full quota of the Penn- 
 sylvania line.' It has been the remark of the enemy, that 
 every thing in America has been done by the force of 
 government ; but when she sees individuals throwing in 
 their voluntary aid, and facilitating the public measures 
 in concert with the established powers of the country, it 
 will convince her that the cause of America stands not on 
 the will of a few but on the broad foundation of property 
 and popularity. 
 
 ' Paine, who was now Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, first proposed the 
 subscription, and headed it with $500. — Editor. 
 
306 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 Thus aided and thus supported, disaffection will decline, 
 and the withered head of tyranny expire in America. The 
 ravages of the enemy will be short and limited, and like all 
 their former ones, will produce a victory over themselves. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, June 9, 1780. 
 
 11^^ At the time of writing this number of the Crisis, the 
 loss of Charleston, though believed by some, was more con- 
 fidently disbelieved by others. But there ought to be no 
 longer a doubt upon the matter. Charleston is gone, and I 
 believe for the want of a sufficient supply of provisions. 
 The man that does not now feel for the honor of the best 
 and noblest cause that ever a country engaged in, and exert 
 himself accordingly, is no longer worthy of a peaceable resi- 
 dence among a people determined to be free. C. S. 
 
 THE CRISIS EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF TAXATION. 
 
 It is impossible to sit down and think seriously on the 
 affairs of America, but the original principles upon which 
 she resisted, and the glow and ardor which they inspired, 
 will occur like the undefaced remembrance of a lovely scene. 
 To trace over in imagination the purity of the cause, the 
 voluntary sacrifices that were made to support it, and all the 
 various turnings of the war in its defence, is at once both 
 paying and receiving respect. The principles deserve to be 
 remembered, and to remember them rightly is repossessing 
 them. In this indulgence of generous recollection, we be- 
 come gainers by what we seem to give, and the more we 
 bestow the richer we become. 
 
 So extensively right was the ground on which America 
 proceeded, that it not only took in every just and liberal 
 sentiment which could impress the heart, but made it the 
 direct interest of every class and order of men to defend the 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 country. The war, on the part of Britain, was originally a 
 war of covetousness. The sordid and not the splendid pas- 
 sions gave it being. The fertile fields and prosperous infancy 
 of America appeared to her as mines for tributary wealth. 
 She viewed the hive, and disregarding the industry that had 
 enriched it, thirsted for the honey. But in the present stage 
 of her affairs, the violence of temper is added to the rage of 
 avarice ; and therefore, that which at the first setting out 
 proceeded from purity of principle and public interest, is 
 now heightened by all the obligations of necessity ; for it 
 requires but little knowledge of human nature to discern 
 what would be the consequence, were America again 
 reduced to the subjection of Britain. Uncontrolled power, 
 in the hands of an incensed, imperious, and rapacious con- 
 queror, is an engine of dreadful execution, and woe be to 
 that country over which it can be exercised. The names of 
 whig and tory would then be sunk in the general term of 
 rebel, and the oppression, whatever it might be, would, with 
 very few instances of exception, light equally on all. 
 
 Britain did not go to war with America for the sake of 
 dominion, because she was then in possession ; neither was it 
 for the extension of trade and commerce, because she had 
 monopolized the whole, and the country had yielded to it ; 
 neither was it to extinguish what she might call rebellion, 
 because before she began no resistance existed. It could 
 then be from no other motive than avarice, or a design of 
 establishing, in the first instance, the same taxes in America 
 as are paid in England (which, as I shall presently show, 
 are above eleven times heavier than the taxes we now pay 
 for the present year, 1780) or, in the second instance, to con- 
 fiscate the whole property of America, in case of resistance 
 and conquest of the latter, of which she had then no doubt. 
 
 I shall now proceed to show what the taxes in England 
 are, and what the yearly expense of the present war is to 
 her — what the taxes of this country amount to, and what 
 the annual expense of defending it effectually will be to us; 
 and shall endeavor concisely to point out the cause of our 
 difficulties, and the advantages on one side, and the conse- 
 
308 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 quences on the other, in case we do, or do not, put ourselves 
 in an effectual state of defence. I mean to be open, candid, 
 and sincere. I see a universal wish to expel the enemy from 
 the country, a murmuring because the war is not carried on 
 with more vigor, and my intention is to show, as shortly as 
 possible, both the reason and the remedy. 
 
 The number of souls in England (exclusive of Scotland 
 and Ireland) is seven millions,* and the number of souls in 
 America is three millions. 
 
 The amount of taxes in England (exclusive of Scotland 
 and Ireland) was, before the present war commenced, eleven 
 millions six hundred and forty-two thousand six hundred 
 and fifty-three pounds sterling; which, on an average, is no 
 less a sum than one pound thirteen shillings and three-pence 
 sterling per head per annum, men, women, and children ; 
 besides county taxes, taxes for the support of the poor, and 
 a tenth of all the produce of the earth for the support of 
 the bishops and clergy. f Nearly five millions of this sum 
 went annually to pay the interest of the national debt, con- 
 tracted by former wars, and the remaining sum of six mil- 
 lions six hundred and forty-two thousand six hundred pounds 
 was applied to defray the yearly expense of government, the 
 peace establishment of the army and navy, placemen, pen- 
 sioners, etc. ; consequently the whole of the enormous taxes 
 being thus appropriated, she had nothing to spare out of 
 them towards defraying the expenses of the present war or 
 
 * This is taking the highest number that the people of England have been, 
 or can be rated at. — Author. 
 
 \ The following is taken from Dr. Price's state of the taxes of England, 
 p. 96, 97, 98. 
 
 An account of the money drawn from the public by taxes, annually, being the 
 medium of three years before the year 1776. 
 
 Amount of customs in England 2,528,275/. 
 Amount of the excise in England 4,649,892 
 Land tax at 3^-. 1,300,000 
 Land tax at \s. in the pound 450,000 
 Salt duties 218,739 
 Duties on stamps, cards, dice, advertisements, bonds, leases, 
 
 indentures, newspapers, almanacks, etc. 280,788 
 Duties on houses and windows 385,369 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 309 
 
 any other. Yet had she not been in debt at the beginning 
 of the war, as we were not, and, like us, had only a land and 
 not a naval war to carry on, her then revenue of eleven mil- 
 lions and a half pounds sterling would have defrayed all her 
 annual expenses of war and government within each year. 
 
 But this not being the case with her, she is obliged to bor- 
 row about ten millions pounds sterling, yearly, to prosecute 
 the war that she is now engaged in, (this year she borrowed 
 twelve) and lay on new taxes to discharge the interest ; allow- 
 ing that the present war has cost her only fifty millions ster- 
 ling, the interest thereon, at five per cent., will be two millions 
 and an half; therefore the amount of her taxes now must be 
 fourteen millions, which on an average is no less than forty 
 shillings sterling, per head, men, women and children, through- 
 out the nation. Now as this expense of fifty millions was 
 borrowed on the hopes of conquering America, and as it was 
 avarice which first induced her to commence the war, how 
 truly wretched and deplorable would the condition of this 
 country be, were she, by her own remissness, to suffer an 
 enemy of such a disposition, and so circumstanced, to reduce 
 her to subjection. 
 
 I now proceed to the revenues of America. 
 
 I have already stated the number of souls in America to 
 be three millions, and by a calculation that I have made, 
 which I have every reason to believe is sufficiently correct, 
 the whole expense of the war, and the support of the several 
 
 Post office, seizures, wine licences, hackney coaches, etc. 250,000 
 Annual profits from lotteries 150,000 
 Expense of collecting the excise in England 297,887 
 Expense of collecting the customs in England 468,703 
 Interest of loans an the land tax at 4^. expenses of collec- 
 tion, militia, etc. 250,000 
 Perquisites, etc. to custom-house officers, &c. supposed 250,000 
 Expense of collecting the salt duties in England 10 I-2 
 
 per cent. 27,000 
 Bounties on fish exported 18,000 
 Expense of collecting the duties on stamps, cards, adver- 
 tisements, etc. at 5 and 1-4 per cent. 18,000 
 
 Total 11,642,653/ 
 
310 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 governments, may be defrayed for two million pounds ster- 
 ling annually ; which, on an average, is thirteen shillings and 
 four pence per head, men, women, and children, and the 
 peace establishment at the end of the war will be but three 
 quarters of a million, or five shillings sterling per head. Now, 
 throwing out of the question everything of honor, principle, 
 happiness, freedom, and reputation in the world, and taking 
 it up on the simple ground of interest, I put the following 
 case : 
 
 Suppose Britain was to conquer America, and, as a con- 
 queror, was to lay her under no other conditions than to pay 
 the same proportion towards her annual revenue which the 
 people of England pay : our share, in that case, would be 
 six million pounds sterling yearly. Can it then be a ques- 
 tion, whether it is best to raise two millions to defend the 
 country, and govern it ourselves, and only three quarters of 
 a million afterwards, or pay six millions to have it conquered, 
 and let the enemy govern it ? 
 
 Can it be supposed that conquerors would choose to put 
 themselves in a worse condition than what they granted to 
 the conquered ? In England, the tax on rum is five shillings 
 and one penny sterling per gallon, which is one silver dollar 
 and fourteen coppers. Now would it not be laughable to 
 imagine, that after the expense they have been at, they 
 would let either whig or tory drink it cheaper than them- 
 selves? Coffee, which is so inconsiderable an article of con- 
 sumption and support here, is there loaded with a duty which 
 makes the price between five and six shillings per pound, and 
 a penalty of fifty pounds sterling on any person detected in 
 roasting it in his own house. There is scarcely a necessary 
 of life that you can eat, drink, wear, or enjoy, that is not 
 there loaded with a tax ; even the light from heaven is only 
 permitted to shine into their dwellings by paying eighteen 
 pence sterling per window annually ; and the humblest drink 
 of life, small beer, cannot there be purchased without a tax 
 of nearly two coppers per gallon, besides a heavy tax upon 
 the malt, and another on the hops before it is brewed, exclu- 
 sive of a land-tax on the earth which produces them. In 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 3" 
 
 short, the condition of that country, in point of taxation, is 
 so oppressive, the number of her poor so great, and the ex- 
 travagance and rapaciousness of the court so enormous, that, 
 were they to effect a conquest of America, it is then only 
 that the distresses of America would begin. Neither would 
 it signify anything to a man whether he be whig or tory. 
 The people of England, and the ministry of that country, 
 know us by no such distinctions. What they want is clear, 
 solid revenue, and the modes which they would take to pro- 
 cure it, would operate alike on all. Their manner of reason- 
 ing would be short, because they would naturally infer, that 
 if we were able to carry on a war of five or six years against 
 them, we were able to pay the same taxes which they do. 
 
 I have already stated that the expense of conducting the 
 present war, and the government of the several states, may 
 be done for two millions sterling, and the establishment in 
 the time of peace, for three quarters of a million.* 
 
 As to navy matters, they flourish so well, and are so well 
 attended to by individuals, that I think it consistent on 
 every principle of real use and economy, to turn the navy 
 into hard money (keeping only three or four packets) and 
 apply it to the service of the army. We shall not have a 
 ship the less ; the use of them, and the benefit from them, 
 will be greatly increased, and their expense saved. We are 
 now allied with a formidable naval power, from whom we 
 derive the assistance of a navy. And the line in which we 
 can prosecute the war, so as to reduce the common enemy 
 and benefit the alliance most effectually, will be by attend- 
 ing closely to the land service. 
 
 I estimate the charge of keeping up and maintaining an 
 army, officering them, and all expenses included, sufficient 
 for the defence of the country, to be equal to the expense 
 of forty thousand men at thirty pounds sterling per head, 
 which is one million two hundred thousand pounds. 
 
 * I have made the calculations in sterling, because it is a rate generally known 
 in all the states, and because, likewise, it admits of an easy comparison between 
 our expenses to support the war, and those of the enemy. Four silver dollars 
 and a half is one pound sterling, and three pence over. — Author. 
 
312 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [178° 
 
 I likewise allow four hundred thousand pounds for conti- 
 nental expenses at home and abroad. 
 
 And four hundred thousand pounds for the support of the 
 several state governments — the amount will then be : 
 
 For the army 1,200,000/. 
 Continental expenses at home and abroad 400,000 
 Government of the several states 400,000 
 
 Total 2,000,000/. 
 
 I take the proportion of this state, Pennsylvania, to be an 
 eighth part of the thirteen United States ; the quota then 
 for us to raise will be two hundred and fifty thousand pounds 
 sterling ; two hundred thousand of which will be our share 
 for the support and pay of the army, and continental ex- 
 penses at home and abroad, and fifty thousand pounds for 
 the support of the state government. 
 
 In order to gain an idea of the proportion in which the 
 raising such a sum will fall, I make the following calculation. 
 
 Pennsylvania contains three hundred and seventy-five 
 thousand inhabitants, men, women and children ; which is 
 likewise an eighth of the number of inhabitants of the whole 
 United States : therefore, two hundred and fifty thousand 
 pounds sterling to be raised among three hundred and sev- 
 enty-five thousand persons, is, on an average, thirteen shill- 
 ings and four pence per head, per annum, or something 
 more than one shilling sterling per month. And our pro- 
 portion of three quarters of a million for the government of 
 the country, in time of peace, will be ninety-three thousand 
 seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling ; fifty thousand of 
 which will be for the government expenses of the state, and 
 forty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds for 
 continental expenses at home and abroad. 
 
 The peace establishment then will, on an average, be five 
 shillings sterling per head. Whereas, was England now to 
 stop, and the war cease, her peace establishment would con- 
 tinue the same as it is now, viz. forty shillings per head ; 
 therefore was our taxes necessary for carrying on the war. 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 313 
 
 as much per head as hers now is, and the difference to be 
 only whether we should, at the end of the war, pay at the 
 rate of five shillings per head, or forty shillings per head, the 
 case needs no thinking of. But as we can securely defend 
 and keep the country for one third less than what our bur- 
 den would be if it was conquered, and support the govern- 
 ments afterwards for one eighth of what Britain would levy 
 on us, and could I find a miser whose heart never felt the 
 emotion of a spark of principle, even that man, uninfluenced 
 by every love but the love of money, and capable of no 
 attachment but to his interest, would and must, from the 
 frugality which governs him, contribute to the defence of 
 the country, or he ceases to be a miser and becomes an 
 idiot. But when we take in with it every thing that can 
 ornament mankind ; when the line of our interest becomes 
 the line of our happiness ; when all that can cheer and ani- 
 mate the heart, when a sense of honor, fame, character, at 
 home and abroad, are interwoven not only with the security 
 but the increase of property, there exists not a man in 
 America, unless he be an hired emissary, who does not see 
 that his good is connected with keeping up a sufficient 
 defence. 
 
 I do not imagine that an instance can be produced in the 
 world, of a country putting herself to such an amazing 
 charge to conquer and enslave another, as Britain has done. 
 The sum is too great for her to think of with any tolerable 
 degree of temper ; and when we consider the burden she 
 sustains, as well as the disposition she has shown, it would 
 be the height of folly in us to suppose that she would not 
 reimburse herself by the most rapid means, had she America 
 once more within her power. With such an oppression of 
 expense, what would an empty conquest be to her! What 
 relief under such circumstances could she derive from a 
 victory without a prize ? It was money, it was revenue she 
 first went to war for, and nothing but tJiat would satisfy 
 her. It is not the nature of avarice to be satisfied with any 
 thing else. Every passion that acts upon mankind has a 
 peculiar mode of operation. Many of them are temporary 
 
314 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 and fluctuating; they admit of cessation and variety. But 
 avarice is a fixed, uniform passion. It neither abates of its 
 vigor nor changes its object ; and the reason why it does 
 not, is founded in the nature of things, for wealth has not a 
 rival where avarice is a ruling passion. One beauty may 
 excel another, and extinguish from the mind of man the 
 pictured remembrance of a former one : but wealth is the 
 phoenix of avarice, and therefore it cannot seek a new 
 object, because there is not another in the world. 
 
 I now pass on to show the value of the present taxes, and 
 compare them with the annual expense ; but this I shall 
 preface with a few explanatory remarks. 
 
 There are two distinct things which make the payment of 
 taxes difificult ; the one is the large and real value of the 
 sum to be paid, and the other is the scarcity of the thing in 
 which the payment is to be made ; and although these ap- 
 pear to be one and the same, they are in several instances 
 not only different, but the difificulty springs from different 
 causes. 
 
 Suppose a tax to be laid equal to one half of what a man's 
 yearly income is, such a tax could not be paid, because the 
 property could not be spared ; and on the other hand, sup- 
 pose a very trifling tax was laid, to be collected in pearls, 
 such a tax likewise could not be paid, because they could 
 not be had. Now any person may see that these are dis- 
 tinct cases, and the latter of them is a representation of our 
 own. 
 
 That the difficulty cannot proceed from the former, that 
 is, from the real value or weight of the tax, is evident at the 
 first view to any person who will consider it. 
 
 The amount of the quota of taxes for this state for the 
 year, 1780, (and so in proportion for every other state,) is 
 twenty millions of dollars, which at seventy for one,' is but 
 sixty-four thousand two hundred and eighty pounds three 
 shillings sterling, and on an average, is no more than three 
 shillings and five pence sterling per head, per annum, per 
 man, woman and child, or threepence two-fifths per head per 
 
 ' The depreciation of Pennsylvania currency. — Editor. 
 
1780] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 315 
 
 month. Now here is a clear, positive fact, that cannot be 
 contradicted, and which proves that the difficulty cannot be 
 in the weight of the tax, for in itself it is a trifle, and far 
 from being adequate to our quota of the expense of the war. 
 The quit-rents of one penny sterling per acre on only one 
 half of the state, come to upwards of fifty thousand pounds, 
 which is almost as much as all the taxes of the present year, 
 and as those quit-rents made no part of the taxes then paid, 
 and are now discontinued, the quantity of money drawn 
 for public service this year, exclusive of the militia fines, 
 which I shall take notice of in the process of this work, is 
 less than what was paid and payable in any year preceding 
 the revolution, and since the last war ; what I mean is, that 
 the quit-rents and taxes taken together came to a larger 
 sum then, than the present taxes without the quit-rents do 
 now. 
 
 My intention by these arguments and calculations is to 
 place the difficulty to the right cause, and show that it does 
 not proceed from the weight or worth of the tax, but from 
 the scarcity of the medium in which it is paid ; and to illus- 
 trate this point still further, I shall now show, that if the 
 tax of twenty millions of dollars was of four times the real 
 value it now is, or nearly so, which would be about two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, and would be our 
 full quota, this sum would have been raised with more ease, 
 and have been less felt, than the present sum of only sixty- 
 four thousand two hundred and eighty pounds. 
 
 The convenience or inconvenience of paying a tax in 
 money arises from the quantity of money that can be spared 
 out of trade. 
 
 When the emissions stopped, the continent was left in 
 possession of two hundred millions of dollars, perhaps as 
 equally dispersed as it was possible for trade to do it. And 
 as no more was to be issued, the rise or fall of prices could 
 neither increase nor diminish the quantity. It therefore 
 remained the same through all the fluctuations of trade and 
 exchange. 
 
 Now had the exchange stood at twenty for one, which 
 
3 1 6 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [17S0 
 
 was the rate congress calculated upon when they arranged 
 the quota of the several states, the latter end of last year, 
 trade would have been carried on for nearly four times less 
 money than it is now, and consequently the twenty millions 
 would have been spared with much greater ease, and when 
 collected would have been of almost four times the value 
 that they now are. And on the other hand, was the depre- 
 ciation to be ninety or one hundred for one, the quantity 
 required for trade would be more than at sixty or seventy 
 for one, and though the value of them would be less, the 
 difificulty of sparing the money out of trade would be 
 greater. And on these facts and arguments I rest the 
 matter, to prove that it is not the want of property, but the 
 scarcity of the medium by which the proportion of property 
 for taxation is to be measured out, that makes the embar- 
 rassment which we lie under. There is not money enough, 
 and, what is equally as true, the people will not let there be 
 money enough. 
 
 While I am on the subject of the currency, I shall offer 
 one remark which will appear true to everybody, and can 
 be accounted for by nobody, which is, that the better the 
 times were, the worse the money grew ; and the worse the 
 times were, the better the money stood. It never depre- 
 ciated by any advantage obtained by the enemy. The 
 troubles of 1776, and the loss of Philadelphia in 1777, made 
 no sensible impression on it, and every one knows that the 
 surrender of Charleston did not produce the least alteration 
 in the rate of exchange, which, for long before, and for more 
 than three months after, stood at sixty for one. It seems as 
 if the certainty of its being our own, made us careless of its 
 value, and that the most distant thoughts of losing it made 
 us hug it the closer, like something we were loth to part with ; 
 or that we depreciate it for our pastime, which, when called 
 to seriousness by the enemy, we leave off to renew again at 
 our leisure. In short, our good luck seems to break us, and 
 our bad makes us whole. 
 
 Passing on from this digression, I shall now endeavor 
 to bring into one view the several parts which I have 
 
1780] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 already stated, and form thereon some propositions, and 
 conclude. 
 
 I have placed before the reader, the average tax per head, 
 paid by the people of England ; which is forty shillings sterling. 
 
 And I have shown the rate on an average per head, which 
 will defray all the expenses of the war to us, and support 
 the several governments without running the country into 
 debt, which is thirteen shillings and four pence. 
 
 I have shown what the peace establishment may be con- 
 ducted for, viz. an eighth part of what it would be, if under 
 the government of Britain. 
 
 And I have likewise shown what the average per head 
 of the present taxes is, namely, three shillings and fivepence 
 sterling, or threepence two-fifths per month ; and that their 
 whole yearly value, in sterling, is only sixty-four thousand 
 two hundred and eighty pounds. Whereas our quota, to 
 keep the payments equal with the expenses, is two hundred 
 and fifty thousand pounds. Consequently, there is a defi- 
 ciency of one hundred and eighty-five thousand seven hun- 
 dred and twenty pounds, and the same proportion of defect, 
 according to the several quotas, happens in every other 
 state. And this defect is the cause why the army has been 
 so indifferently fed, clothed and paid. It is the cause, like- 
 wise, of the nerveless state of the campaign, and the in- 
 security of the country. Now, if a tax equal to thirteen and 
 fourpence per head, will remove all these difficulties, and 
 make people secure in their homes, leave them to follow the 
 business of their stores and farms unmolested, and not only 
 drive out but keep out the enemy from the country ; and if 
 the neglect of raising this sum will let them in, and produce 
 the evils which might be prevented — on which side, I ask, 
 does the wisdom, interest and policy lie ? Or, rather, would 
 it not be an insult to reason, to put the question ? The sum, 
 when proportioned out according to the several abilities of 
 the people, can hurt no one, but an inroad from the enemy 
 ruins hundreds of families. 
 
 Look at the destruction done in this city [Philadelphia]. 
 The many houses totally destroyed, and others damaged 
 
THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 the waste of fences in the country round it, besides the 
 plunder of furniture, forage, and provisions. I do not sup- 
 pose that half a million sterling would reinstate the suffer- 
 ers ; and, does this, I ask, bear any proportion to the 
 expense that would make us secure? The damage, on an 
 average, is at least ten pounds sterling per head, which is as 
 much as thirteen shillings and fourpence per head comes to 
 for fifteen years. The same has happened on the frontiers, 
 and in the Jerseys, New-York, and other places where the 
 enemy has been — Carolina and Georgia are likewise suffer- 
 ing the same fate. 
 
 That the people generally do not understand the insufifi- 
 ciency of the taxes to carry on the war, is evident, not only 
 from common observation, but from the construction of 
 several petitions which were presented to the Assembly of 
 this state, against the recommendation of Congress of the 
 1 8th of March last, for taking up and funding the present 
 currency at forty to one, and issuing new money in its 
 stead. The prayer of the petition was, that the currency 
 might be appreciated by taxes (meaning the present taxes) 
 and that part of the taxes be applied to the support of the 
 army, if the army could not be otherwise supported. Now it 
 could not have been possible for such a petition to have 
 been presented, had the petitioners known, that so far from 
 part of the taxes being sufficient for the support of the 
 army, the whole of them falls three-fourths short of the year's 
 expenses. 
 
 Before I proceed to propose methods by which a sufficiency 
 of money may be raised, I shall take a short view of the 
 general state of the country. 
 
 Notwithstanding the weight of the war, the ravages of the 
 enemy, and the obstructions she has thrown in the way of 
 trade and commerce, so soon does a young country outgrow 
 misfortune, that America has already surmounted many that 
 heavily oppressed her. For the first year or two of the war, 
 we were shut up within our ports, scarce venturing to look 
 towards the ocean. Now our rivers are beautified with large 
 and valuable vessels, our stores filled with merchandize, and 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 3'9 
 
 the produce of the country has a ready market, and an 
 advantageous price. Gold and silver, that for a while seemed 
 to have retreated again within the bowels of the earth, have 
 once more risen into circulation, and every day adds new 
 strength to trade, commerce and agriculture. In a pam- 
 phlet, written by Sir John Dalrymple, and dispersed in 
 America in the year 1775, he asserted that tzvo twenty-gun 
 ships, nay, says he, tenders of those ships, stationed between 
 Albermarle sound and Chesapeake bay, would shut up the 
 trade of America for 600 miles. How little did Sir John 
 Dalrymple know of the abilities of America ! 
 
 While under the government of Britain, the trade of this 
 country was loaded with restrictions. It was only a few 
 foreign ports which we were allowed to sail to. Now it is 
 otherwise ; and allowing that the quantity of trade is but 
 half what it was before the war, the case must show the vast 
 advantage of an open trade, because the present quantity 
 under her restrictions could not support itself ; from which 
 I infer, that if half the quantity without the restrictions can 
 bear itself up nearly, if not quite, as well as the whole when 
 subject to them, how prosperous must the condition of 
 America be when the whole shall return open with all the 
 world. By the trade I do not mean the employment of a 
 merchant only, but the whole interest and business of the 
 country taken collectively. 
 
 It is not so much my intention, by this publication, to 
 propose particular plans for raising money, as it is to show 
 the necessity and the advantages to be derived from it. My 
 principal design is to form the disposition of the people to 
 the measures which I am fully persuaded it is their interest 
 and duty to adopt, and which need no other force to ac- 
 complish them than the force of being felt. But as every 
 hint may be useful, I shall throw out a sketch, and leave 
 others to make such improvements upon it as to them may 
 appear reasonable. 
 
 The annual sum wanted is two millions, and the average 
 rate in which it falls, is thirteen shillings and fourpence per 
 head. 
 
320 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Suppose, then, that we raise half the sum and sixty thou- 
 sand pounds over. The average rate thereof will be seven 
 shillings per head. 
 
 In this case we shall have half the supply that we want^ 
 and an annual fund of sixty thousand pounds whereon to 
 borrow the other million ; because sixty thousand pounds is 
 the interest of a million at six per cent. ; and if at the end 
 of another year we should be obliged, by the continuance of 
 the war, to borrow another million, the taxes will be in- 
 creased to seven shillings and sixpence ; and thus for every 
 million borrowed, an additional tax, equal to sixpence per 
 head, must be levied. 
 
 The sum to be raised next year will be one million and 
 sixty thousand pounds: one half of which I would propose 
 should be raised by duties on imported goods, and prize 
 goods, and the other half by a tax on landed property and 
 houses, or such other means as each state may devise. 
 
 But as the duties on imports and prize goods must be the 
 same in all the states, therefore the rate per cent., or what 
 other form the duty shall be laid, must be ascertained and 
 regulated by congress, and ingrafted in that form into the 
 law of each state ; and the monies arising therefrom carried 
 into the treasury of each state. The duties to be paid in 
 gold or silver. 
 
 There are many reasons why a duty on imports is the most 
 convenient duty or tax that can be collected ; one of which 
 is, because the whole is payable in a few places in a country, 
 and it likewise operates with the greatest ease and equality, 
 because as every one pays in proportion to what he con- 
 sumes, so people in general consume in proportion to what 
 they can afford ; and therefore the tax is regulated by the 
 abilities which every man supposes himself to have, or in 
 other words, every man becomes his own assessor, and pays 
 by a little at a time, when it suits him to buy. Besides, it 
 is a tax which people may pay or let alone by not consum- 
 ing the articles ; and though the alternative may have no 
 influence on their conduct, the power of choosing is an 
 agreeable thing to the mind. For my own part, it would be 
 
THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 321 
 
 a satisfaction to me was there a duty on all sorts. of liquors 
 during the war, as in my idea of things it would be an addi- 
 tion to the pleasures of society to know, that when the 
 health of the army goes round, a few drops from every 
 glass becomes theirs. How often have I heard an em- 
 phatical wish, almost accompanied by a tear, "Oh, that our 
 poor fellows in the field had some of this ! " Why then need 
 we suffer under a fruitless sympathy, when there is a way 
 to enjoy both the wish and the entertainment at once. 
 
 But the great national policy of putting a duty upon im- 
 ports is, that it either keeps the foreign trade in our own 
 hands, or draws something for the defence of the country 
 from every foreigner who participates it with us. 
 
 Thus much for the first half of the taxes, and as each state 
 will best devise means to raise the other half, I shall confine 
 my remarks to the resources of this state. 
 
 The quota, then, of this state, of one million and sixty 
 thousand pounds, will be one hundred and thirty-three 
 thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, the half of which 
 is sixty-six thousand six hundred and twenty-five pounds ; 
 and supposing one fourth part of Pennsylvania inhabited, 
 then a tax of one bushel of wheat on every twenty acres of 
 land, one with another, would produce the sum, and all the 
 present taxes to cease. Whereas, the tithes of the bishops 
 and clergy in England, exclusive of the taxes, are upwards 
 of half a bushel of wheat on everj/ sitigle acre of land, good 
 and bad, throughout the nation. 
 
 In the former part of this paper, I mentioned the militia 
 fines, but reserved speaking to the matter, which I shall 
 now do. The ground I shall put it upon is, that two mil- 
 lions sterling a year will support a sufficient army, and all 
 the expenses of war and government, without having re- 
 course to the inconvenient method of continually calling 
 men from their employments, which, of all others, is the 
 most expensive and the least substantial. I consider the 
 revenues created by taxes as the first and principal thing, 
 and fines only as secondary and accidental things. It was 
 not the intention of the militia law to apply the fines to any- 
 
 VOL. I. — 21 
 
322 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780 
 
 thing else but the support of the militia, neither do they 
 produce any revenue to the state, yet these fines amount to 
 more than all the taxes : for taking the muster-roll to be 
 sixty thousand men, the fine on forty thousand who may 
 not attend, will be sixty thousand pounds sterling, and those 
 who muster, will give up a portion of time equal to half that 
 sum, and if the eight classes should be called within the year, 
 and one third turn out, the fine on the remaining forty thou- 
 sand would amount to seventy-two millions of dollars, 
 besides the fifteen shillings on every hundred pounds of 
 property, and the charge of seven and a half per cent, for 
 collecting, in certain instances which, on the whole, would 
 be upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds 
 sterling. 
 
 Now if those very fines disable the country from raising a 
 sufificient revenue without producing an equivalent advan- 
 tage, would it not be for the ease and interest of all parties 
 to increase the revenue, in the manner I have proposed, or 
 any better, if a better can be devised, and cease the opera- 
 tion of the fines ? I would still keep the militia as an 
 organized body of men, and should there be a real necessity 
 to call them forth, pay them out of the proper revenues of 
 the state, and increase the taxes a third or fourth per cent, 
 on those who do not attend. My limits will not allow me 
 to go further into this matter, which I shall therefore close 
 with this remark ; that fines are, of all modes of revenue, 
 the most unsuited to the minds of a free country. When 
 a man pays a tax, he knows that the public necessity re- 
 quires it, and therefore feels a pride in discharging his 
 duty ; but a fine seems an atonement for neglect of duty, 
 and of consequence is paid with discredit, and frequently 
 levied with severity. 
 
 I have now only one subject more to speak of, with which 
 I shall conclude, which is, the resolve of congress of the i8th 
 of March last, for taking up and funding the present currency 
 at forty for one, and issuing new money in its stead. 
 
 Every one knows that I am not the flatterer of congress, 
 but in this instance they are right ; and if that measure is 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS, 
 
 supported, the currency will acquire a value, which, without 
 it, it will not. But this is not all : it will give relief to the 
 finances until such time as they can be properly arranged, 
 and save the country from being immediately double taxed 
 under the present mode. In short, support that measure, 
 and it will support you. 
 
 I have now waded through a tedious course of difficult 
 business, and over an untrodden path. The subject, on 
 every point in which it could be viewed, was entangled with 
 perplexities, and enveloped in obscurity, yet such are the re- 
 sources of America, that she wants nothing but system to 
 secure success. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 6, 1780. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 X. 
 
 ON THE KING OF ENGLAND'S SPEECH.' 
 
 Of all the innocent passions which actuate the human 
 mind there is none more universally prevalent than curi- 
 osity. It reaches all mankind, and in matters which con- 
 cern us, or concern us not, it alike provokes in us a desire to 
 know them. 
 
 Although the situation of America, superior to every effort 
 to enslave her, and daily rising to importance and opulence, 
 hath placed her above the region of anxiety, it has still left 
 her within the circle of curiosity; and her fancy to see 
 the speech of a man who had proudly threatened to bring 
 her to his feet, was visibly marked with that tranquil con- 
 fidence which cared nothing about its contents. It was 
 inquired after with a smile, read with a laugh, and dismissed 
 with disdain. 
 
 ' At the opening of Parliament, November 27, 1781. After the surrender of 
 Comwallis, and the resignation of Lord North, the King, in a letter to North 
 {April 21, 1782), describes himself as " a mind truely tore to pieces." — Editor. 
 
324 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 But, as justice is due, even to an enemy, it is right to say^ 
 that the speech is as well managed as the embarrassed con- 
 dition of their affairs could well admit of; and though 
 hardly a line of it is true, except the mournful story of 
 Cornwallis, it may serve to amuse the deluded commons 
 and people of England, for whom it was calculated. 
 
 "The war," says the speech, " is still unhappily prolonged 
 by that restless ambition which first excited our enemies to 
 commence it, and which still continues to disappoint my 
 earnest wishes and diligent exertions to restore the public 
 tranquillity." 
 
 How easy it is to abuse truth and language, when men, 
 by habitual wickedness, have learned to set justice at defi- 
 ance. That the very man who began the war, who with the 
 most sullen insolence refused to answer, and even to hear 
 the humblest of all petitions, who hath encouraged his 
 ofificers and his army in the most savage cruelties, and the 
 most scandalous plunderings, who hath stirred up the 
 Indians on one side, and the negroes on the other, and 
 invoked every aid of hell in his behalf, should now, with an 
 affected air of pity, turn the tables from himself, and charge 
 to another the wickedness that is his own, can only be 
 equalled by the baseness of the heart that spoke it. 
 
 To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right y 
 is an expression I once used on a former occasion,' and it is 
 equally applicable now. We feel something like respect for 
 consistency even in error. We lament the virtue that is 
 debauched into a vice, but the vice that affects a virtue 
 becomes the more detestable : and amongst the various 
 assumptions of character, which hypocrisy has taught, and 
 men have practised, there is none that raises a higher relish 
 of disgust, than to see disappointed inveteracy twisting it- 
 self, by the most visible falsehoods, into an appearance of 
 piety which it has no pretensions to. 
 
 " But I should not," continues the speech, " answer the trust 
 committed to the sovereign of a free people^ nor make a suitable 
 
 ' Opening sentence of " The Forester's " first letter to " Cato." — Editor. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 return to my subjects for their constant, zealous, and affectionate 
 attachment to my person, family and government, if I consented 
 to sacrifice, either to my own desire of peace, or to their tempo- 
 rary ease and relief, those essential rights and permanent interests, 
 upon the maintenance and preservation of which, the future 
 strength and security of this country must principally depend." 
 
 That the man whose ignorance and obstinacy first in- 
 volved and still continues the nation in the most hopeless 
 and expensive of all wars, should now meanly flatter them 
 with the name of a free people, and make a merit of his 
 crime, under the disguise of their essential rights and per- 
 manent interests, is something which disgraces even the 
 character of perverseness. Is he afraid they will send him 
 to Hanover, or what does he fear? Why is the sycophant 
 thus added to the hypocrite, and the man who pretends 
 to govern, sunk into the humble and submissive memo- 
 rialist ? 
 
 What those essential rights and permanent interests are, 
 on which the future strength and security of England must 
 principally depend, are not so much as alluded to. They are 
 words which impress nothing but the ear, and are calculated 
 only for the sound. 
 
 But if they have any reference to America, then do they 
 amount to the disgraceful confession, that England, who 
 once assumed to be her protectress, has now become her 
 dependant. The British king and ministry are constantly 
 holding up the vast importance which America is of to Eng- 
 land, in order to allure the nation to carry on the war : now, 
 whatever ground there is for this idea, it ought to have 
 •operated as a reason for not beginning it ; and, therefore, 
 they support their present measures to their own disgrace, 
 because the arguments which they now use, are a direct 
 reflection on their former policy. 
 
 " The favorable appearance of affairs," continues the 
 speech, " in the East Indies, and the safe arrival of the 
 numerous commercial fleets of my kingdom, must have 
 given you satisfaction." 
 
326 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 That things are not quite so bad every where as in 
 America may be some cause of consolation, but can be none 
 for triumph. One broken leg is better than two, but still it 
 is not a source of joy : and let the appearance of affairs in 
 the East Indies be ever so favorable, they are nevertheless 
 worse than at first, without a prospect of their ever being 
 better. But the mournful story of Cornwallis was yet to be 
 told, and it was necessary to give it the softest introduction 
 possible. 
 
 " But in the course of this year," continues the speech, 
 "my assiduous endeavors to guard the extensive dominions 
 of my crown have not been attended with success equal to 
 the justice and uprightness of my views." — What justice and 
 uprightness there was in beginning a war with America, the 
 world will judge of, and the unequalled barbarity with which 
 it has been conducted, is not to be worn from the memory 
 by the cant of snivelling hypocrisy. 
 
 " And it is with great concern that I inform you that the 
 events of war have been very unfortunate to my arms in 
 Virginia, having ended in the loss of my forces in that prov- 
 ince." — And our great concern is that they are not all served 
 in the same manner. 
 
 " No endeavors have been wanting on my part," says the 
 speech, " to extinguish that spirit of rebellion which our enemies 
 have found means to foment and maintain in the colonies ; and to 
 restore to my deluded subjects in America that happy and pros- 
 perous condition which they formerly derived from a due obedi- 
 ence to the laws." 
 
 The expression of deluded subjects is become so hacknied 
 and contemptible, and the more so when we see them mak- 
 ing prisoners of whole armies at a time, that the pride of not 
 being laughed at would induce a man of common sense to 
 leave it off. But the most offensive falsehood in the para- 
 graph is the attributing the prosperity of America to a 
 wrong cause. It was the unremitted industry of the settlers 
 and their descendants, the hard labor and toil of persevering 
 fortitude, that were the true causes of the prosperity of 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 America. The former tyranny of England served to people 
 it, and the virtue of the adventurers to improve it. Ask 
 the man, who, with his axe, hath cleared away in the wilder- 
 ness, and now possesses an estate, what made him rich, and 
 he will tell you the labor of his hands, the sweat of his brow, 
 and the blessing of heaven. Let Britain but leave America 
 to herself and she asks no more. She has risen into great- 
 ness without the knowledge and against the will of England, 
 and has a right to the unmolested enjoyment of her own 
 created wealth. 
 
 " I will order," says the speech, " the estimates of the ensuing 
 year to be laid before you. I rely on your wisdom and public 
 spirit for such supplies as the circumstances of our affairs shall 
 be found to require. Among the many ill consequences which 
 attend the continuation of the present war, I most sincerely re- 
 gret the additional burdens which it must unavoidably bring upon 
 my faithful subjects." 
 
 It is strange that a nation must run through such a laby- 
 rinth of trouble, and expend such a mass of wealth to gain 
 the wisdom which an hour's reflection might have taught. 
 The final superiority of America over every attempt that an 
 island might make to conquer her, was as naturally marked 
 in the constitution of things, as the future ability of a giant 
 over a dwarf is delineated in his features while an infant. 
 How far providence, to accomplish purposes which no 
 human wisdom could foresee, permitted such extraordinary 
 errors, is still a secret in the womb of time, and must remain 
 so till futurity shall give it birth. 
 
 " In the prosecution of this great and important contest," says 
 the speech, " in which we are engaged, I retain a firm confidence 
 in the protection of divine providence, and a perfect conviction in 
 the justice of my cause, and I have no doubt, but, that by the 
 concurrence and support of my parliament, by the valour of my 
 fleets and armies, and by a vigorous, animated, and united exer- 
 tion of the faculties and resources of my people, I shall be enabled 
 to restore the blessings of a safe and honorable peace to all my 
 dominions." 
 
328 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 The king of England is one of the readiest believers in 
 the world. In the beginning of the contest he passed an 
 act to put America out of the protection of the crown of 
 England, and though providence, for seven years together, 
 hath put him out of Jier protection, still the man has no 
 doubt. Like Pharaoh on the edge of the Red sea, he sees 
 not the plunge he is making, and precipitately drives across 
 the flood that is closing over his head. 
 
 I think it is a reasonable supposition, that this part of the 
 speech was composed before the arrival of the news of the 
 capture of Cornwallis : for it certainly has no relation to 
 their condition at the time it was spoken. But, be this as 
 it may, it is nothing to us. Our line is fixed. Our lot is 
 cast ; and America, the child of fate, is arriving at maturity. 
 We have nothing to do but by a spirited and quick exertion, 
 to stand prepared for war or peace. Too great to yield, and 
 too noble to insult ; superior to misfortune, and generous in 
 success, let us untaintedly preserve the character which we 
 have gained, and show to future ages an example of un- 
 equalled magnanimity. There is something in the cause and 
 consequence of America that has drawn on her the attention 
 of all mankind. The world has seen her brave. Her love 
 of liberty ; her ardour in supporting it ; the justice of her 
 claims, and the constancy of her fortitude have won her the 
 esteem of Europe, and attached to her interest the first 
 power in that country. 
 
 Her situation now is such, that to whatever point, past, 
 present or to come, she casts her eyes, new matter rises to 
 convince her that she is right. In her conduct towards her 
 enemy, no reproachful sentiment lurks in secret. No sense 
 of injustice is left upon the mind. Untainted with ambition, 
 and a stranger to revenge, her progress hath been marked 
 by providence, and she, in every stage of the conflict, has 
 blest her with success. 
 
 But let not America wrap herself up in delusive hope and 
 suppose the business done. The least remissness in prepara- 
 tion, the least relaxation in execution, will only serve to 
 prolong the war, and increase expenses. If our enemies can 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 329 
 
 draw consolation from misfortune, and exert themselves 
 upon despair, how much more ought we, who are to win a 
 ■continent by the conquest, and have already an earnest of 
 success ? 
 
 Having, in the preceding part, made my remarks on the 
 several matters which the speech contains, I shall now make 
 my remarks on what it does not contain. 
 
 There is not a syllable in it respecting alliances. Either 
 the injustice of Britain is too glaring, or her condition too 
 desperate, or both, for any neighboring power to come to 
 her support. In the beginning of the contest, when she had 
 only America to contend with, she hired assistance from 
 Hesse, and other smaller states of Germany, and for nearly 
 three years did America, young, raw, undisciplined and 
 unprovided, stand against the power of Britain, aided by 
 twenty thousand foreign troops, and made a complete con- 
 quest of one entire army. The remembrance of those things 
 ought to inspire us with confidence and greatness of mind, 
 and carry us through every remaining difificulty with content 
 and cheerfulness. What are the little sufferings of the pres- 
 ent day, compared with the hardships that are past ? There 
 was a time, when we had neither house nor home in safety ; 
 when every hour was the hour of alarm and danger ; when 
 the mind, tortured with anxiety, knew no repose, and every 
 thing, but hope and fortitude, was bidding us farewell. 
 
 It is of use to look back upon these things ; to call to 
 mind the times of trouble and the scenes of complicated 
 anguish that are past and gone. Then every expense was 
 cheap, compared with the dread of conquest and the misery 
 of submission. We did not stand debating upon trifles, or 
 contending about the necessary and unavoidable charges of 
 defence. Every one bore his lot of suffering, and looked 
 forward to happier days, and scenes of rest. 
 
 Perhaps one of the greatest dangers which any country 
 can be exposed to, arises from a kind of trifling which some- 
 times steals upon the mind, when it supposes the danger 
 past ; and this unsafe situation marks at this time the pecu- 
 liar crisis of America. What would she once have given to 
 
330 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 have known that her condition at this day should be what 
 it now is ? And yet we do not seem to place a proper value 
 upon it, nor vigorously pursue the necessary measures to 
 secure it. We know that we cannot be defended, nor yet 
 defend ourselves, without trouble and expense. We have 
 no right to expect it ; neither ought we to look for it. We 
 are a people, who, in our situation, differ from all the world. 
 We form one common floor of public good, and, whatever 
 is our charge, it is paid for our own interest and upon our 
 own account. 
 
 Misfortune and experience have now taught us system 
 and method ; and the arrangements for carrying on the war 
 are reduced to rule and order. The quotas of the several 
 states are ascertained, and I intend in a future publication 
 to show what they are, and the necessity as well as the ad- 
 vantages of vigorously providing for them. 
 
 In the mean time, I shall conclude this paper with an in- 
 stance of British clemency, from Smollett's History of Eng- 
 land, vol. xi., p. 239, printed in London. It will serve to 
 show how dismal the situation of a conquered people is, and 
 that the only security is an effectual defence. 
 
 We all know that the Stuart family and the house of 
 Hanover opposed each other for the crown of England. The 
 Stuart family stood first in the line of succession, but the 
 other was the most successful. 
 
 In July, 1745, Charles, the son of the exiled king, landed 
 in Scotland, collected a small force, at no time exceeding 
 five or six thousand men, and made some attempts to re- 
 establish his claim. The late duke of Cumberland, uncle to 
 the present king of England, was sent against him, and on 
 the i6th of April following, Charles was totally defeated at 
 CuUoden, in Scotland. Success and power are the only 
 situations in which clemency can be shown, and those who 
 are cruel, because they are victorious, can with the same 
 facility act any other degenerate character. 
 
 " Immediately after the decisive action at Culloden, the duke of 
 Cumberland took possession of Inverness ; where six and thirty 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 331 
 
 deserters, convicted by a court martial, were ordered to be exe- 
 cuted : then he detached several parties to ravage the country. 
 One of these apprehended the lady Mackintosh, who was sent 
 prisoner to Inverness, plundered her house, and drove away her 
 cattle, though her husband was actually in the service of the gov- 
 ernment. The castle of lord Lovat was destroyed. The French 
 prisoners were sent to Carlisle and Penrith : Kilmarnock, Bal- 
 merino, Cromartie, and his son, the lord Macleod, were conveyed 
 by sea to London ; and those of an inferior rank were confined in 
 different prisons. The marquis of TuUibardine, together with a 
 brother of the earl of Dunmore, and Murray, the pretender's 
 secretary, were seized and transported to the tower of London, to 
 which the earl of Traquaire had been committed on suspicion ; and 
 the eldest son of lord Lovat was imprisoned in the castle of Edin- 
 burgh. In a word, all the jails in Great Britain, from the capital, 
 northwards, were filled with those unfortunate captives ; and great 
 numbers of them were crowded together in the holds of ships, 
 where they perished in the most deplorable manner, for want of 
 air and exercise. Some rebel chiefs escaped in two French 
 frigates that arrived on the coast of Lochaber about the end of 
 April, and engaged three vessels belonging to his Britannic 
 majesty, which they obliged to retire. Others embarked on board 
 a ship on the coast of Buchan, and were conveyed to Norway, 
 from whence they travelled to Sweden. In the month of May, the 
 duke of Cumberland advanced with the army into the Highlands, 
 as far as fort Augustus, where he encamped ; and sent off detach- 
 ments on all hands, to hunt down the fugitives, and lay waste the 
 country with fire and sword. The castles of Glengary and Lochiel 
 were plundered and burned ; every house, hut, or habitation, met 
 with the same fate, without distinction ; and all the cattle and 
 provision were carried off ; the men were either shot upon the 
 mountains, like wild beasts, or put to death in cold blood, without 
 form of trial ; the women, after having seen their husbands and 
 fathers murdered, were subjected to brutal violation, and then 
 turned out naked, with their children, to starve on the barren 
 heaths. One whole family was enclosed in a barn, and consumed 
 to ashes. Those ministers of vengeance were so alert in the exe- 
 cution of their office, that in a few days there was neither house, 
 cottage, man, nor beast, to be seen within the compass of fifty 
 miles ; all was ruin, silence, and desolation." 
 
332 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 I have here presented the reader with one of the most 
 shocking instances of cruelty ever practised, and I leave it, 
 to rest on his mind, that he may be fully impressed with a 
 sense of the destruction he has escaped, in case Britain had 
 conquered America ; and likewise, that he may see and feel 
 the necessity, as well for his own personal safety, as for the 
 honor, the interest, and happiness of the whole community, 
 to omit or delay no one preparation necessary to secure the 
 ground which we so happily stand upon. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA. 
 
 On the expenses, arrangements and disburseinettts for carrying 
 on the war, and finishing it with honor and advantage. 
 
 When any necessity or occasion has pointed out the con- 
 venience of addressing the public, I have never made it a 
 consideration whether the subject was popular or unpopular, 
 but whether it was right or wrong ; for that which is right 
 will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by 
 mistake it may obtain the cry or fashion of the day, will 
 soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem. 
 
 A remarkable instance of this happened in the case of 
 Silas Deane ; and I mention this circumstance with the 
 greater ease, because the poison of his hypocrisy spread over 
 the whole country, and every man, almost without excep- 
 tion, thought me wrong in opposing him. The best friends 
 I then had, except Mr. [Henry] Laurens, stood at a dis- 
 tance, and this tribute, which is due to his constancy, I pay 
 to him with respect, and that the readier, because he is not 
 here to hear it. If it reaches him in his imprisonment, it 
 will afford him an agreeable reflection. 
 
 "yii' Jie rose like a rocket, lie would fall like a stick,'' is a 
 metaphor which I applied to Mr. Deane, in the first piece 
 which I published respecting him, and he has exactly ful- 
 filled the description. The credit he so unjustly obtained 
 from the public, he lost in almost as short a time. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 333 
 
 The delusion perished as it fell, and he soon saw himself 
 stripped of popular support. His more intimate acquaint- 
 ances began to doubt, and to desert him long before he left 
 America, and at his departure, he saw himself the object of 
 general suspicion. When he arrived in France, he endeav- 
 ored to effect by treason what he had failed to accomplish 
 by fraud. His plans, schemes and projects, together with 
 his expectation of being sent to Holland to negotiate 
 a loan of money, had all miscarried. He then began 
 traducing and accusing America of every crime, which 
 could injure her reputation. " That she was a ruined 
 country ; that she only meant to make a tool of 
 France, to get what money she could out of her, and then 
 to leave her and accommodate with Britain." Of all which 
 and much more, colonel Laurens and myself, when in 
 France, informed Dr. Franklin, who had not before heard 
 of it.' And to complete the character of traitor, he has, by 
 letters to his country since, some of which, in his own hand- 
 writing, are now in the possession of congress, used every 
 expression and argument in his power, to injure the reputa- 
 tion of France, and to advise America to renounce her 
 alliance, and surrender up her independence.* Thus in 
 France he abuses America, and in his letters to America he 
 abuses France ; and is endeavoring to create disunion be- 
 tween two countries, by the same arts of double-dealing by 
 which he caused dissentions among the commissioners in 
 Paris, and distractions in America. But his life has been 
 fraud, and his character has been that of a plodding, plot- 
 ting, cringing mercenary, capable of any disguise that suited 
 
 ' Paine, as Secretary for Col. John Laurens, visited France early in 1781, 
 and obtained from that country six millions of livres, with clothing and mili- 
 tary stores, supplies which resulted in the defeat of Cornwallis. — Editor. 
 
 * Mr. William Marshall, of this city [Philadelphia], formerly a pilot, who 
 had been taken at sea and carried to England, and got from thence to France, 
 brought over letters from Mr. Deane to America, one of which was directed to 
 " Robert Morris, Esq." Mr. Morris sent it unopened to Congress, and ad- 
 vised Mr. Marshall to deliver the others there, which he did. The letters were 
 of the same purport with those which have been already published under the 
 signature of S. Deane, to which they had frequent reference. — Author. 
 
334 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 his purpose. His final detection has very happily cleared 
 up those mistakes, and removed that uneasiness, which his 
 unprincipled conduct occasioned. Every one now sees him 
 in the same light ; for towards friends or enemies he acted 
 with the same deception and injustice, and his name, like 
 that o{ Arnold, ought now to be forgotten among us.' As 
 this is the first time that I have mentioned him since my 
 return from France, it is my intention that it shall be the 
 last. From this digression, which for several reasons I 
 thought necessary to give, I now proceed to the purport of 
 my address. 
 
 I consider the war of America against Britain as the 
 country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in 
 their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, 
 and the protection of their own property. It is not the war 
 of congress, the war of the assemblies, or the war of govern- 
 jnent in any line whatever. The country first, by mutual 
 compact, resolved to defend their rights and maintain their 
 independence, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes ; 
 they elected their representatives, by whom they appointed 
 their members of congress, and said, act you for us, and we 
 ivill support you. This is the true ground and principle of 
 the war on the part of America, and, consequently, there 
 remains nothing to do, but for every one to fulfil his obli- 
 gation. 
 
 It was next to impossible that a new country, engaged in 
 a new undertaking, could set off systematically right at first. 
 She saw not the extent of the struggle that she was involved 
 in, neither could she avoid the beginning. She supposed 
 ■every step that she took, and every resolution which she 
 formed, would bring her enemy to reason and close the con- 
 test. Those failing, she was forced into new measures ; and 
 these, like the former, being fitted to her expectations, and 
 
 ' Deane was actually in London associating with Benedict Arnold. The ex- 
 tent of his treason was not known until the publication, in 1867, of George the 
 Third's correspondence. The importance of printing the series of The Crisis 
 consecutively has rendered it necessary to postpone Paine's articles concerning 
 Deane (1778-9) to a later page of this volume. (See XXII., XXIII.) — 
 Editor. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 335 
 
 failing in their turn, left her continually unprovided, and with- 
 out system. The enemy, likewise, was induced to prosecute 
 the war, from the temporary expedients we adopted for 
 carrying it on. We were continually expecting to see their 
 credit exhausted, and they were looking to see our currency 
 fail ; and thus, between their watching us, and we them, the 
 hopes of both have been deceived, and the childishness of 
 the expectation has served to increase the expense. 
 
 Yet who, through this wilderness of error, has been to 
 blame ? Where is the man who can say the fault, in part, 
 has not been his? They were the natural, unavoidable 
 errors of the day. They were the errors of a whole country, 
 which nothing but experience could detect and time remove. 
 Neither could the circumstances of America admit of sys- 
 tem, till either the paper currency was fixed or laid aside. 
 No calculation of a finance could be made on a medium 
 failing without reason, and fluctuating without rule. 
 
 But there is one error which might have been prevented 
 and was not ; and as it is not my custom to flatter, but to 
 serve mankind, I will speak it freely. It certainly was the 
 duty of every assembly on the continent to have known, at 
 all times, what was the condition of its treasury, and to have 
 ascertained at every period of depreciation, how much the 
 real worth of the taxes fell short of their nominal value. 
 This knowledge, which might have been easily gained, in the 
 time of it, would have enabled them to have kept their con- 
 stituents well informed, and this is one of the greatest duties 
 of representation. They ought to have studied and calcu- 
 lated the expenses of the war, the quota of each state, and 
 the consequent proportion that would fall on each man's 
 property for his defence ; and this must have easily shown 
 to them, that a tax of one hundred pounds could not be 
 paid by a bushel of apples or an hundred of flour, which was 
 often the case two or three years ago. But instead of this, 
 which would have been plain and upright dealing, the little 
 line of temporary popularity, the feather of an hour's dura- 
 tion, was too much pursued ; and in this involved condition 
 of things, every state, for the want of a little thinking, or a 
 
336 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 little information, supposed that it supported the whole ex- 
 penses of the war, when in fact it fell, by the time the tax 
 was levied and collected, above three-fourths short of its own 
 quota. 
 
 Impressed with a sense of the danger to which the coun- 
 try was exposed by this lax method of doing business, and 
 the prevailing errors of the day, I published, last October 
 was a twelvemonth, the Crisis Extraordinary, on the reve- 
 nues of America, and the yearly expense of carrying on the 
 war. My estimation of the latter, together with the civil 
 list of congress, and the civil list of the several states, was 
 two million pounds sterling, which is very nearly nine millions 
 of dollars. 
 
 Since that time, congress have gone into a calculation, and 
 have estimated the expenses of the war department and the 
 civil list of congress (exclusive of the civil list of the several 
 governments) at eight millions of dollars ; and as the remain- 
 ing million will be fully sufficient for the civil list of the 
 several states, the two calculations are exceedingly near each 
 other. 
 
 The sum of eight millions of dollars they have called upon 
 the states to furnish, and their quotas are as follows, which 
 I shall preface with the resolution itself. 
 
 " By ihe United States in congress assembled. 
 
 " October 30, 1781. 
 
 " Resolved, That the respective states be called upon to furnish 
 the treasury of the United States with their quotas of eight mil- 
 lions of dollars, for the war department and civil list for the en- 
 suing year, to be paid quarterly, in equal proportions, the first 
 payxnent to be made on the first day of April next. 
 
 " Resolved, That a committee, consisting of a member from each 
 state, be appointed to apportion to the several states the quota of 
 the above sum. 
 
 " November 2d. The committee appointed to ascertain the 
 proportions of the several states of the monies to be raised for 
 the expenses of the ensuing year, report the following resolu- 
 tions : 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 337 
 
 " That the sum of eight millions of dollars, as required to be 
 raised by the resolutions of the 30th of October last, be paid by 
 the states in the following proportion : 
 
 New-Hampshire $ 373.598 
 
 Massachusetts 1.307,596 
 
 Rhode Island 216,684 
 
 Connecticut 747,196 
 
 New- York 373.598 
 
 New-Jersey 485,679 
 
 Pennsylvania 1,120,794 
 
 Delaware 112,085 
 
 Maryland 933,996 
 
 Virginia 1,307,594 
 
 North Carolina 622,677 
 
 South Carolina 373,598 
 
 Georgia 24,905 
 
 $8,000,000 
 
 Resolved, That it be recommended to the several states, to 
 lay taxes for raising their quotas of money for the United States, 
 separate from those laid for their own particular use." 
 
 On these resolutions I shall offer several remarks. 
 
 1st, On the sum itself, and the ability of the country. 
 
 2d, On the several quotas, and the nature of a union. And, 
 
 3d, On the manner of collection and expenditure. 
 
 1st, On the sum itself, and the ability of the country. As 
 I know my own calculation is as low as possible, and as the 
 sum called for by congress, according to their calculation, 
 agrees very nearly therewith, I am sensible it cannot possibly 
 be lower. Neither can it be done for that, unless there is. 
 ready money to go to market with ; and even in that case, 
 it is only by the utmost management and economy that it 
 can be made to do. 
 
 By the accounts which were laid before the British parlia- 
 ment last spring, it appeared that the charge of only subsist- 
 ing, that is, feeding their army in America, cost annually 
 four million pounds sterling, which is very nearly eighteen 
 millions of dollars. Now if, for eight millions, we can feed, 
 clothe, arm, provide for, and pay an army sufficient for our 
 
338 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 defence, the very comparison shows that the money must 
 be well laid out. 
 
 It may be of some use, either in debate or conversation, 
 to attend to the progress of the expenses of an army, be- 
 cause it will enable us to see on what part any deficiency 
 will fall. 
 
 The first thing is, to feed them and prepare for the sick. 
 Second, to clothe them. 
 Third, to arm and furnish them. 
 
 Fourth, to provide means for removing them from place 
 to place. And, 
 Fifth, to pay them. 
 
 The first and second are absolutely necessary to them as 
 men. The third and fourth are equally as necessary to 
 them as an army. And the fifth is their just due. Now if 
 the sum which shall be raised should fall short, either by the 
 several acts of the states for raising it, or by the manner of 
 collecting it, the deficiency will fall on the fifth head, the 
 soldiers' pay, which would be defrauding them, and eternally 
 disgracing ourselves. It would be a blot on the councils, 
 the country, and the revolution of America, and a man 
 would hereafter be ashamed to own that he had any hand 
 in it. 
 
 But if the deficiency should be still shorter, it would next 
 fall on the fourth head, the meaits of removing the army from 
 place to place ; and, in this case, the army must either stand 
 still where it can be of no use, or seize on horses, carts, 
 wagons, or any means of transportation which it can lay 
 hold of ; and in this instance the country suffers. In short, 
 every attempt to do a thing for less than it can be done for, 
 is sure to become at last both a loss and a dishonor. 
 
 But the country cannot bear it, say some. This has been 
 the most expensive doctrine that ever was held out, and cost 
 America millions of money for nothing. Can the country 
 bear to be overrun, ravaged, and ruined by an enemy? This 
 will immediately follow where defence is wanting, and de- 
 fence will ever be wanting where sufficient revenues are not 
 provided. But this is only one part of the folly. The 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 339 
 
 second is, that when the danger comes, invited in part by 
 our not preparing against it, we have been obliged, in a 
 number of instances, to expend double the sums to do that 
 which at first might have been done for half the money. 
 But this is not all. A third mischief has been, that grain of 
 all sorts, flour, beef, fodder, horses, carts, wagons, or what- 
 ever was absolutely or immediately wanted, have been taken 
 without pay. Now, I ask, why was all this done, but from 
 that extremely weak and expensive doctrine, that the country 
 £ould not bear it ? That is, that she could not bear, in the 
 first instance, that which would have saved her twice as 
 much at last ; or, in proverbial language, that she could not 
 bear to pay a penny to save a pound ; the consequence of 
 which has been, that she has paid a pound for a penny. 
 Why are there so many unpaid certificates in almost every 
 man's hands, but from the parsimony of not providing sufifi- 
 cient revenues? Besides, the doctrine contradicts itself; 
 because, if the whole country cannot bear it, how is it pos- 
 sible that a part should ? And yet this has been the case : 
 for those things have been had ; and they must be had ; but 
 the misfortune is, that they have been obtained in a very 
 unequal manner, and upon expensive credit, whereas, with 
 ready money, they might have been purchased for half the 
 price, and nobody distressed. 
 
 But there is another thought which ought to strike us, 
 which is, how is the army to bear the want of food, clothing 
 and other necessaries ? The man who is at home, can turn 
 himself a thousand ways, and find as many means of ease, 
 convenience or relief: but a soldier's life admits of none of 
 those : their wants cannot be supplied from themselves : for 
 an army, though it is the defence of a state, is at the same 
 time the child of a country, or must be provided for in 
 every thing. 
 
 And lastly, The doctrine is false. There are not three 
 millions of people in any part of the universe, who live so 
 well, or have such a fund of ability, as in America. The 
 income of a common laborer, who is industrious, is equal to 
 that of the generality of tradesmen in England. In the 
 
34° THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 mercantile line, I have not heard of one who could be said 
 to be a bankrupt since the war began, and in England they 
 have been without number. In America almost every farmer 
 lives on his own lands, and in England not one in a hundred 
 does. In short, it seems as if the poverty of that country 
 had made them furious, and they were determined to risk 
 all to recover all. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding those advantages on the part of 
 America, true it is, that had it not been for the operation 
 of taxes for our necessary defence, we had sunk into a state 
 of sloth and poverty : for there was more wealth lost by 
 neglecting to till the earth in the years 1776, '77, and '78, 
 than the quota of taxes amounts to. That which is lost by 
 neglect of this kind, is lost for ever : whereas that which is 
 paid, and continues in the country, returns to us again ; and 
 at the same time that it provides us with defence, it operates 
 not only as a spur, but as a premium to our industry. 
 
 I shall now proceed to the second head, viz. on the several 
 qtiotas, and the nature of a union. 
 
 There was a time when America had no other bond of 
 union, than that of common interest and affection. The 
 whole country flew to the relief of Boston, and, making her 
 cause their own, participated in her cares and administered 
 to her wants. The fate of war, since that day, has carried 
 the calamity in a ten-fold proportion to the southward ; but 
 in the mean time the union has been strengthened by a 
 legal compact of the states, jointly and severally ratified, and 
 that which before was choice, or the duty of affection, is 
 now likewise the duty of legal obligation. 
 
 The union of America is the foundation-stone of her inde- 
 pendence ; the rock on which it is built ; and is something 
 so sacred in her constitution, that we ought to watch every 
 word we speak, and every thought we think, that we injure 
 it not, even by mistake. When a multitude, extended, or 
 rather scattered, over a continent in the manner we were, 
 mutually agree to form one common centre whereon the 
 whole shall move to accomplish a particular purpose, all 
 parts must act together and alike, or act not at all, and a 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 341 
 
 stoppage in any one is a stoppage of the whole, at least for 
 a time. 
 
 Thus the several states have sent representatives to as- 
 semble together in congress, and they have empowered that 
 body, which thus becomes their centre, and are no other 
 than themselves in representation, to conduct and manage 
 the war, while their constituents at home attend to the 
 domestic cares of the country, their internal legislation, their 
 farms, professions or employments, for it is only by reducing 
 complicated things to method and orderly connexion that 
 they can be understood with advantage, or pursued with 
 success. Congress, by virtue of this delegation, estimates 
 the expense, and apportions it out to the several parts of the 
 empire according to their several abilities ; and here the 
 debate must end, because each state has already had its 
 voice, and the matter has undergone its whole portion of 
 argument, and can no more be altered by any particular 
 state, than a law of any state, after it has passed, can be 
 altered by any individual. For with respect to those things 
 which immediately concern the union, and for which the 
 union was purposely established, and is intended to secure, 
 each state is to the United States what each individual is to 
 the state he lives in. And it is on this grand point, this 
 movement upon one centre, that our existence as a nation, 
 our happiness as a people, and our safety as individuals, 
 depend. 
 
 It may happen that some state or other may be somewhat 
 •over or under rated, but this cannot be much. The experi- 
 ence which has been had upon the matter, has nearly ascer- 
 tained their several abilities. But even in this case, it can 
 only admit of an appeal to the United States, but cannot 
 authorise any state to make the alteration itself, any more 
 than our internal government can admit an individual to do 
 so in the case of an act of assembly ; for if one state can do 
 it, then may another do the same, and the instant this is 
 done the whole is undone. 
 
 Neither is it supposable that any single state can be a 
 judge of all the comparative reasons which may influence 
 
342 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 the collective body in arranging the quotas of the continent. 
 The circumstances of the several states are frequently vary- 
 ing, occasioned by the accidents of war and commerce, and 
 it will often fall upon some to help others, rather beyond 
 what their exact proportion at another time might be ; but 
 even this assistance is as naturally and politically included 
 in the idea of a union as that of any particular assigned pro- 
 portion ; because we know not whose turn it may be next to 
 want assistance, for which reason that state is the wisest 
 which sets the best example. 
 
 Though in matters of bounden duty and reciprocal affec- 
 tion, it is rather a degeneracy from the honesty and ardour 
 of the heart to admit any thing selfish to partake in the 
 government of our conduct, yet in cases where our duty, our 
 affections, and our interest all coincide, it may be of some 
 use to observe their union. The United States will become 
 heir to an extensive quantity of vacant land, and their several 
 titles to shares and quotas thereof, will naturally be adjusted 
 according to their relative quotas, during the war, exclusive 
 of that inability which may unfortunately arise to any state 
 by the enemy's holding possession of a part ; but as this is 
 a cold matter of interest, I pass it by, and proceed to my 
 third head, viz., on the manner of collection and expenditure. 
 
 It hath been our error, as well as our misfortune, to blend 
 the affairs of each state, especially in money matters, with 
 those of the United States ; whereas it is our case, con- 
 venience and interest, to keep them separate. The ex- 
 penses of the United States for carrying on the war, and 
 the expenses of each state for its own domestic government, 
 are distinct things, and to involve them is a source of per- 
 plexity and a cloak for fraud. I love method, because I 
 see and am convinced of its beauty and advantage. It 
 is that which makes all business easy and understood, 
 and without which, everything becomes embarrassed and 
 difficult. 
 
 There are certain powers which the people of each state 
 have delegated to their legislative and executive bodies, and 
 there are other powers which the people of every state have 
 
1782] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 343 
 
 delegated to congress, among which is that of conducting 
 the war, and, consequently, of managing the expenses attend- 
 ing it ; for how else can that be managed, which concerns 
 every state, but by a delegation from each ? When a state 
 has furnished its quota, it has an undoubted right to know 
 how it has been applied, and it is as much the duty of con- 
 gress to inform the state of the one, as it is the duty of the 
 state to provide the other. 
 
 In the resolution of congress already recited, it is recom- 
 mended to the several states to lay taxes for raising their 
 quotas of money for the United States, separate frovi those 
 laid for their own particular use. 
 
 This is a most necessary point to be observed, and the 
 distinction should follow all the way through. They should 
 be levied, paid and collected, separately, and kept separate 
 in every instance. Neither have the civil officers of any 
 state, or the government of that state, the least right to 
 touch that money which the people pay for the support of 
 their army and the war, any more than congress has to touch 
 that which each state raises for its own use. 
 
 This distinction will naturally be followed by another. It 
 will occasion every state to examine nicely into the expenses 
 of its civil list, and to regulate, reduce, and bring it into 
 better order than it has hitherto been ; because the money 
 for that purpose must be raised apart, and accounted for to 
 the public separately. But while the monies of both were 
 blended, the necessary nicety was not observed, and the poor 
 soldier, who ought to have been the first, was the last who 
 was thought of. 
 
 Another convenience will be, that the people, by paying 
 the taxes separately, will know what they are for ; and will 
 likewise know that those which are for the defence of the 
 country will cease with the war, or soon after. For although, 
 as I have before observed, the war is their own, and for the 
 support of their own rights and the protection of their own 
 property, yet they have the same right to know, that they 
 have to pay, and it is the want of not knowing that is often 
 the cause of dissatisfaction. 
 
344 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 This regulation of keeping the taxes separate has given 
 rise to a regulation in the ofifice of finance, by which it is 
 directed : 
 
 " That the receivers shall, at the end of every month, make out 
 an exact account of the monies received by them respectively, 
 during such month, specifying therein the names of the persons 
 from whom the same shall have been received, the dates and the 
 sums ; which account they shall respectively cause to be published 
 in one of the newspapers of the state ; to the end that every citi- 
 zen may know how much of the monies collected from him, in 
 taxes, is transmitted to the treasury of the United States for the 
 support of the war ; and also, that it may be known what monies 
 have been at the order of the superintendant of finance. It being 
 proper and necessary, that, in a free country, the people should 
 be as fully informed of the administration of their affairs as the 
 nature of things will admit." 
 
 It is an agreeable thing to see a spirit of order and 
 economy taking place, after such a series of errors and 
 difficulties. A government or an administration, who means 
 and acts honestly, has nothing to fear, and consequently has 
 nothing to conceal ; and it would be of use if a monthly or 
 quarterly account was to be published, as well of the expen- 
 ditures as of the receipts. Eight millions of dollars must be 
 husbanded with an exceeding deal of care to make it do, 
 and, therefore, as the management must be reputable, the 
 publication would be serviceable. 
 
 I have heard of petitions which have been presented to 
 the assembly of this state (and probably the same may have 
 happened in other states) praying to have the taxes lowered. 
 Now the only way to keep taxes low is, for the United 
 States to have ready money to go to market with : and 
 though the taxes to be raised for the present year will fall 
 heavy, and there will naturally be some difificulty in paying 
 them, yet the difificulty, in proportion as money spreads 
 about the country, will every day grow less, and in the end 
 we shall save some millions of dollars by it. We see what 
 a bitter, revengeful enemy we have to deal with, and any 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 345 
 
 expense is cheap compared to their merciless paw. We 
 have seen the unfortunate Carolineans hunted Hke partridges 
 on the mountains, and it is only by providing means for our 
 defence, that we shall be kept from the same condition. 
 When we think or talk about taxes, we ought to recollect 
 that we lie down in peace and sleep in safety ; that we can 
 follow our farms or stores or other occupations, in prosperous 
 tranquillity ; and that these inestimable blessings are pro- 
 cured to us by the taxes that we pay. In this view, our 
 taxes are properly our insurance money ; they are what we 
 pay to be made safe, and, in strict policy, are the best money 
 we can lay out. 
 
 It was my intention to offer some remarks on the impost 
 law of five per cent, recommended by congress, and to be 
 established as a fund for the payment of the loan-of¥ice cer- 
 tificates, and other debts of the United States ; but I have 
 already extended my piece beyond my intention. And as 
 this fund will make our system of finance complete, and is 
 strictly just, and consequently requires nothing but honesty 
 to do it, there needs but little to be said upon it. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, March 5, 1782. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 XI. 
 
 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF NEWS. 
 
 Since the arrival of two, if not three packets in quick 
 succession, at New York, from England, a variety of un- 
 connected news has circulated through the country, and 
 afforded as great a variety of speculation. 
 
 That something is the matter in the cabinet and councils 
 of our enemies, on the other side of the water, is certain — 
 that they have run their length of madness, and are under the 
 necessity of changing their measures may easily be seen 
 into ; but to what this change of measures may amount, or 
 
346 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 how far it may correspond with our interest, happiness and 
 duty, is yet uncertain ; and from what we have hitherto 
 experienced, we have too much reason to suspect them in 
 every thing. 
 
 I do not address this pubHcation so much to the people 
 of America as to the British ministry, whoever they may be, 
 for if it is their intention to promote any kind of negotiation, 
 it is proper they should know beforehand, that the United 
 States have as much honour as bravery ; and that they are 
 no more to be seduced from their alHance than their alle- 
 giance ; that their line of politics is formed and not depen- 
 dant, like that of their enemy, on chance and accident. 
 
 On our part, in order to know, at any time, what the 
 British government will do, we have only to find out what 
 they ought not to do, and this last will be their conduct. 
 Forever changing and forever wrong ; too distant from 
 America to improve in circumstances, and too unwise to fore- 
 see them ; scheming without principle, and executing without 
 probability, their whole line of management has hitherto been 
 blunder and baseness. Every campaign has added to their 
 loss, and every year to their disgrace; till unable to go on, 
 and ashamed to go back, their politics have come to a halt, 
 and all their fine prospects to a halter. 
 
 Could our affections forgive, or humanity forget the 
 wounds of an injured country — we might, under the influence 
 of a momentary oblivion, stand still and laugh. But they 
 are engraven where no amusement can conceal them, and of 
 a kind for which there is no recompense. Can ye restore to 
 us the beloved dead ? Can ye say to the grave, give up the 
 murdered ? Can ye obliterate from our memories those who 
 are no more ? Think not then to tamper with our feelings 
 by an insidious contrivance, nor suffocate our humanity by 
 seducing us to dishonour. 
 
 In March 1780, I published part of the Crisis, No. VIII., 
 in the newspapers, but did not conclude it in the following 
 papers, and the remainder has lain by me till the present 
 day. 
 
 There appeared about that time some disposition in the 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 347 
 
 British cabinet to cease the further prosecution of the war, 
 and as I had formed my opinion that whenever such a design 
 should take place, it would be accompanied by a dishonour- 
 able proposition to America, respecting France, I had sup- 
 pressed the remainder of that number, not to expose the 
 baseness of any such proposition. But the arrival of the 
 next news from England, declared her determination to go 
 on with the war, and consequently as the political object I 
 had then in view was not become a subject, it was unneces- 
 sary in me to bring it forward, which is the reason it was 
 never published. 
 
 The matter which I allude to in the unpublished part, 
 I shall now make a quotation of, and apply it as the more 
 enlarged state of things, at this day, shall make convenient 
 or necessary. 
 
 It was as follows : 
 
 " By the speeches which have appeared from the British 
 parliament, it is easy to perceive to what impolitic and im- 
 prudent excesses their passions and prejudices have, in every 
 instance, carried them during the present war. Provoked at 
 the upright and honourable treaty between America and 
 France, they imagined that nothing more was necessary to 
 be done to prevent its final ratification, than to promise, 
 through the agency of their commissioners (Carlisle, Eden, 
 and Johnstone) a repeal of their once offensive acts of par- 
 liament. The vanity of the conceit, was as unpardonable as 
 the experiment was impolitic. And so convinced am I of 
 their wrong ideas of America, that I shall not wonder, if, in 
 their last stage of political phrenzy, they propose to her to 
 break her alliance with France, and enter into one with them. 
 Such a proposition, should it ever be made, and it has been 
 already more than once hinted at in parliament, would dis- 
 cover such a disposition to perfidiousness, and such disregard 
 of honour and morals, as would add the finishing vice to 
 national corruption. — I do not mention this to put America 
 on the watch, but to put England on her guard, that she do 
 not, in the looseness of her heart, envelop in disgrace every 
 fragment of reputation." — Thus far the quotation. 
 
348 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 By the complexion of some part of the news which has 
 transpired through the New-York papers, it seems probable 
 that this insidious era in the British politics is beginning to 
 make its appearance. I wish it may not ; for that which is 
 a disgrace to human nature, throws something of a shade 
 over all the human character, and each individual feels his 
 share of the wound that is given to the whole. 
 
 The policy of Britain has ever been to divide America in 
 some way or other. In the beginning of the dispute, she 
 practised every art to prevent or destroy the union of the 
 states, well knowing that could she once get them to stand 
 singly, she could conquer them unconditionally. Failing in 
 this project in America, she renewed it in Europe ; and, 
 after the alliance had taken place, she made secret offers to 
 France to induce her to give up America ; and what is still 
 more extraordinary, she at the same time made propositions 
 to Dr. Franklin, then in Paris, the very court to which she 
 was secretly applying, to draw off America from France. 
 But this is not all. 
 
 On the 14th of September, 1778, the British court, through 
 their secretary, lord Weymouth, made application to the 
 marquis d'Almadovar, the Spanish ambassador at London, 
 to " ask the mediation,''' for these were the words, of the 
 court of Spain, for the purpose of negociating a peace with 
 France, leaving America (as I shall hereafter show) out of 
 the question. Spain readily offered her mediation, and like- 
 wise the city of Madrid as the place of conference, but 
 withal, proposed, that the United States of America should 
 be invited to the treaty, and considered as independent 
 during the time the business was negotiating. But this was 
 not the view of England. She wanted to draw France from 
 the war, that she might uninterruptedly pour out all her 
 force and fury upon America ; and being disappointed in 
 this plan, as well through the open and generous conduct of 
 Spain, as the determination of France, she refused the 
 mediation which she had solicited. 
 
 I shall now give some extracts from the justifying memo- 
 Tial of the Spanish court, in which she has set the conduct 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 349 
 
 and character of Britain, with respect to America, in a clear 
 and striking point of light. 
 
 The memorial, speaking of the refusal of the British court 
 to meet in conference with commissioners from the United 
 States, who were to be considered as independent during 
 the time of the conference, says, 
 
 " It is a thing very extraordinary and even ridiculous, that the 
 court of London, who treats the colonies as independent, not only 
 in acting, but of right, during the war, should have a repugnance 
 to treat them as such only in acting during a truce, or suspension 
 of hostilities. The convention of Saratoga ; the reputing general 
 Burgoyne as a lawful prisoner, in order to suspend his trial ; the 
 exchange and liberation of other prisoners made from the colonies ; 
 the having named commissioners to go and supplicate the Ameri- 
 cans, at their own doors, request peace of them, and treat with 
 them and the congress : and, finally, by a thousand other acts of 
 this sort, authorized by the court of London, which have been, 
 and are true signs of the acknowledgment of their independence. 
 
 " In aggravation of all the foregoing, at the same time the British 
 cabinet answered the king of Spain in the terms already men- 
 tioned, they were insinuating themselves at the court of France by 
 means of secret emissaries, and making very great offers to her, 
 to abandon the colonies and make peace with England. But there 
 is yet more ; for at this same time the English ministry were 
 treating, by means of another certain emissary, with Dr. Franklin, 
 minister plenipotentiary from the colonies, residing at Paris, to 
 whom they made various proposals to disunite them from France, 
 and accommodate matters with England. 
 
 " From what has been observed, it evidently follows, that the 
 whole of the British politics was, to disunite the two courts of 
 Paris and Madrid, by means of the suggestions and offers which 
 she separately made to them ; and also to separate the colonies 
 from their treaties and engagements entered into with France, and 
 induce them to arm against the house of Bourbon, or more prob- 
 ably to oppress them when they found, from breaking their engage- 
 ments, that they stood alone and without protection. 
 
 " This, therefore, is the net they laid for the American states ; 
 that is to say, to tempt them with flattering and very magnificent 
 promises to come to an accommodation with them, exclusive of 
 
350 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 any intervention of Spain or France, that the British ministry 
 might always remain the arbiters of the fate of the colonies. 
 
 " But the CathoHc king (the king of Spain) faithful on the one 
 part of the engagements which bind him to the Most Christian 
 king (the king of France) his nephew ; just and upright on the 
 other, to his own subjects, whom he ought to protect and guard 
 against so many insults ; and finally, full of humanity and com- 
 passion for the Americans and other individuals who suffer in the 
 present war ; he is determined to pursue and prosecute it, and to 
 make all the efforts in his power, until he can obtain a solid and 
 permanent peace, with full and satisfactory securities that it shall 
 be observed." 
 
 Thus far the memorial ; a translation of vi^hich into Eng- 
 lish, may be seen in full, under the head of State Papers, in 
 the Annual Register, for 1779, p. 367. 
 
 The extracts I have here given, serve to show the various 
 endeavors and contrivances of the enemy, to draw France 
 from her connexion with America, and to prevail on her to 
 make a separate peace with England, leaving America totally 
 out of the question, and at the mercy of a merciless, un- 
 principled enemy. The opinion, likewise, which Spain has 
 formed of the British cabinet's character for meanness and 
 perfidiousness, is so exactly the opinion of America respect- 
 ing it, that the memorial, in this instance, contains our 
 own statements and language ; for people, however remote, 
 who think alike, will unavoidably speak alike. 
 
 Thus we see the insidious use which Britain endeavoured 
 to make of the propositions of peace under the mediation of 
 Spain. I shall now proceed to the second proposition under 
 the mediation of the emperor of Germany and the empress 
 of Russia ; the general outline of which was, that a congress 
 of the several powers at war should meet at Vienna, in 1781, 
 to settle preliminaries of peace. 
 
 I could wish myself at liberty to make use of all the infor- 
 mation which I am possessed of on this subject, but as there 
 is a delicacy in the matter, I do not conceive it prudent, at 
 least at present, to make references and quotations in the 
 same manner as I have done with respect to the mediation 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 of Spain, who published the whole proceedings herself ; and 
 therefore, what comes from me, on this part of the busi- 
 ness, must rest on my own credit with the public, assuring 
 them, that when the whole proceedings, relative to the pro- 
 posed congress of Vienna shall appear, they will find my 
 account not only true, but studiously moderate. 
 
 We know at the time this mediation was on the carpet, 
 the expectation of the British king and ministry ran high 
 with respect to the conquest of America. The English 
 packet which was taken with the mail on board, and carried 
 into rOrient, in France, contained letters from lord G. Ger- 
 maine to Sir Henry Clinton, which expressed in the fullest 
 terms the ministerial idea of a total conquest. Copies of 
 those letters were sent to congress and published in the 
 newspapers of last year. Colonel [John] Laurens brought 
 over the originals, some of which, signed in the hand- 
 writing of the then secretary, Germaine, are now in my 
 possession. 
 
 Filled with these high ideas, nothing could be more in- 
 solent towards America than the language of the British court 
 on the proposed mediation. A peace with France and Spain 
 she anxiously solicited ; but America, as before, was to be 
 left to her mercy, neither would she hear any proposition 
 for admitting an agent from the United States into the con- 
 gress of Vienna. 
 
 On the other hand, France, with an open, noble and 
 manly determination, and the fidelity of a good ally, would 
 hear no proposition for a separate peace, nor even meet in 
 congress at Vienna, without an agent from America: and 
 likewise that the independent character of the United 
 States, represented by the agent, should be fully and un- 
 equivocally defined and settled before any conference should 
 be entered on. The reasoning of the court of France on the 
 several propositions of the two imperial courts, which relate 
 to us, is rather in the style of an American than an ally, and 
 she advocated the cause of America as if she had been 
 America herself. — Thus the second mediation, Hke the first, 
 .proved ineffectual. 
 
352 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [17S2 
 
 But since that time, a reverse of fortune has overtaken 
 the British arms, and all their high expectations are dashed 
 to the ground. The noble exertions to the southward 
 under general [Nathaniel] Greene ; the successful operations 
 of the allied arms in the Chesapeake ; the loss of most of 
 their islands in the West-Indies, and Minorca in the Mediter- 
 ranean ; the persevering spirit of Spain against Gibraltar; 
 the expected capture of Jamaica ; the failure of making a 
 separate peace with Holland, and the expense of an hundred 
 millions sterling, by which all these fine losses were obtained, 
 have read them a loud lesson of disgraceful misfortune, and 
 necessity has called on them to change their ground. 
 
 In this situation of confusion and despair, their present 
 councils have no fixed character. It is now the hurricane 
 months of British politics. Every day seems to have a 
 storm of its own, and they are scudding under the bare 
 poles of hope. Beaten, but not humble; condemned, but 
 not penitent ; they act like men trembling at fate and catch- 
 ing at a straw. From this convulsion, in the entrails of 
 their politics, it is more than probable, that the mountain 
 groaning in labour, will bring forth a mouse, as to its size, 
 and a monster in its make. They will try on America the 
 same insidious arts they tried on France and Spain. 
 
 We sometimes experience sensations to which language 
 is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive, 
 and in the torture of thinking, we stand dumb. Our feel- 
 ings, imprisoned by their magnitude, find no way out — and, 
 in the struggle of expression, every finger tries to be a 
 tongue. The machinery of the body seems too little for 
 the mind, and we look about for helps to show our thoughts 
 by. Such must be the sensation of America, whenever 
 Britain, teeming with corruption, shall propose to her to 
 sacrifice her faith. 
 
 But, exclusive of the wickedness, there is a personal 
 offence contained in every such attempt. It is calling us 
 villains : for no man asks the other to act the villain unless 
 he believes him inclined to be one. No man attempts to 
 seduce the truly honest woman. It is the supposed loose- 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 353 
 
 ness of her mind that starts the thoughts of seduction, and 
 he who offers it calls her a prostitute. Our pride is always 
 hurt by the same propositions which offend our principles ; 
 for when we are shocked at the crime, we are wounded by 
 the suspicion of our compliance. 
 
 Could I convey a thought that might serve to regulate 
 the public mind, I would not make the interest of the 
 alliance the basis of defending it. All the world are moved 
 by interest, and it affords them nothing to boast of. But I 
 would go a step higher, and defend it on the ground of 
 honour and principle. That our public affairs have flour- 
 ished under the alliance — that it was wisely made, and has 
 been nobly executed— that by its assistance we are enabled 
 to preserve our country from conquest, and expel those who 
 sought our destruction — that it is our true interest to main- 
 tain it unimpaired, and that while we do so no enemy can 
 conquer us, are matters which experience has taught us, and 
 the common good of ourselves, abstracted from principles 
 of faith and honour, would lead us to maintain the con- 
 nexion. 
 
 But over and above the mere letter of the alliance, we 
 have been nobly and generously treated, and have had the 
 same respect and attention paid to us, as if we had been an 
 old established country. To oblige and be obliged is fair 
 work among mankind, and we want an opportunity of show- 
 ing to the world that we are a people sensible of kindness 
 and worthy of confidence. Character is to us, in our present 
 circumstances, of more importance than interest. We area 
 young nation, just stepping upon the stage of public life, 
 and the eye of the world is upon us to see how we act. We 
 have an enemy who is watching to destroy our reputation, 
 and who will go any length to gain some evidence against 
 us, that may serve to render our conduct suspected, and our 
 character odious ; because, could she accomplish this, wicked 
 as it is, the world would withdraw from us, as from a people 
 not to be trusted, and our task would then become 
 difificult. 
 
 There is nothing which sets the character of a nation in a 
 
 VOL. I — 23 
 
354 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 higher or lower light with others, than the faithfully fulfil- 
 ling, or perfidiously breaking, of treaties. They are things 
 not to be tampered with : and should Britain, which seems 
 very probable, propose to seduce America into such an act of 
 baseness, it would merit from her some mark of unusual 
 detestation. It is one of those extraordinary instances in 
 which we ought not to be contented with the bare negative 
 of congress, because it is an affront on the multitude as well 
 as on the government. It goes on the supposition that the 
 public are not honest men, and that they may be managed 
 by contrivance, though they cannot be conquered by arms. 
 But, let the world and Britain know, that we are neither to 
 be bought nor sold ; that our mind is great and fixed ; our 
 prospect clear ; and that we will support our character as 
 firmly as our independence. 
 
 But I will go still further; general Conway, who made the 
 motion, in the British parliament, for discontinuing offensive 
 war in America, is a gentleman of an amiable character.' 
 We have no personal quarrel with him. But he feels not as 
 we feel ; he is not in our situation, and that alone, without 
 any other explanation, is enough. 
 
 The British parliament suppose they have many friends in 
 America, and that, when all chance of conquest is over, they 
 will be able to draw her from her alliance with France. 
 Now, if I have any conception of the human heart, they will 
 fail in this more than in any thing that they have yet tried. 
 
 This part of the business is not a question of policy only, 
 but of honour and honesty ; and the proposition will have 
 
 ' Henry Seymour Conway, M. P. for St. Edmund's Bury (born 1720), had 
 been groom of the bedchamber to George II., and to George III. until 1764. 
 He had moved the repeal of the Stamp Act, while in the Privy Council of 
 Rockingham. He was afterwards joint Secretary of State with Grafton, resign- 
 ing in 1772. His fidelity to the Americans made him odious to the king. He 
 was Governor of Jersey and defended it in 1779. "General Conway," writes 
 Horace Walpole, " is in the midst of the storm in a nutshell, and I know will 
 defend himself as if he was in the strongest fortification in F landers. I believe 
 the Court would sacrifice the island to sacrifice him." (Letter to Sir H. Mann, 
 July 7, 1779.) Conway's motion to discontinue the war in America passed Feb. 
 27, 1782, by 234 to 215. — Editor. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 355 
 
 in it something so visibly low and base, that their partisans, 
 if they have any, will be ashamed of it. Men are often hurt 
 by a mean action who are not startled at a wicked one, and 
 this will be such a confession of inability, such a declaration 
 of servile thinking, that the scandal of it will ruin all their 
 hopes. 
 
 In short, we have nothing to do but to go on with vigour 
 and determination. The enemy is yet in our country. 
 They hold New- York, Charleston, and Savannah, and the 
 very being in those places is an offence, and a part of offen- 
 sive war, and until they can be driven from them, or cap- 
 tured in them, it would be folly in us to listen to an idle 
 tale. I take it for granted that the British ministry are 
 sinking under the impossibility of carrying on the war. Let 
 them then come to a fair and open peace with France, 
 Spain, Holland and America, in the manner they ought to 
 do ; but until then, we can have nothing to say to them. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, May 22, 1782. 
 
 A SUPERNUMERARY CRISIS. 
 
 TO SIR GUY CARLETON.' 
 
 It is the nature of compassion to associate with misfor- 
 tune ; and I address this to you in behalf even of an enemy, 
 a captain in the British service, now on his way to the head- 
 quarters of the American army, and unfortunately doomed 
 to death for a crime not his own. A sentence so extraordi- 
 nary, an execution so repugnant to every human sensation, 
 ought never to be told without the circumstances which 
 produced it : and as the destined victim is yet in existence, 
 and in your hands rests his life or death, I shall briefly state 
 the case, and the melancholy consequence. 
 
 Captain Huddy, of the Jersey militia, was attacked in a 
 
 ' Sir Guy Carleton — a humane and just man — had succeeded Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton at New York. — Editor. 
 
356 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 small fort on Tom's River, by a party of refugees in the 
 British pay and service, was made prisoner, together with his 
 company, carried to New-York and lodged in the provost of 
 that city : about three weeks after which, he was taken out 
 of the provost down to the water-side, put into a boat, and 
 brought again upon the Jersey shore, and there, contrary to 
 the practice of all nations but savages, was hung up on a 
 tree, and left hanging till found by our people who took 
 him down and buried him. 
 
 The inhabitants of that part of the country where the 
 murder was committed, sent a deputation to general Wash- 
 ington with a full and certified statement of the fact. Struck, 
 as every human breast must be, with such brutish outrage^ 
 and determined both to punish and prevent it for the future, 
 the general represented the case to general Clinton, who 
 then commanded, and demanded that the refugee officer 
 who ordered and attended the execution, and whose name 
 is Lippincut, should be delivered up as a murderer ; and in 
 case of refusal, that the person of some British officer should 
 suffer in his stead. The demand, though not refused, has 
 not been complied with ; and the melancholy lot (not by 
 selection, but by casting lots) has fallen upon captain Asgill, 
 of the guards, who, as I have already mentioned, is on his 
 way from Lancaster to camp, a martyr to the general wicked- 
 ness of the cause he engaged in, and the ingratitude of those 
 whom he served. 
 
 The first reflection which arises on this black business is, 
 what sort of men must Englishmen be, and what sort of 
 order and discipline do they preserve in their army, when in 
 the immediate place of their head-quarters, and under the 
 eye and nose of their commander-in-chief, a prisoner can be 
 taken at pleasure from his confinement, and his death made 
 a matter of sport. 
 
 The history of the most savage Indians does not produce 
 instances exactly of this kind. They, at least, have a for- 
 mality in their punishments. With them it is the horridness 
 of revenge, but with your army it is a still greater crime, the 
 horridness of diversion. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 357 
 
 The British generals who have succeeded each other, from 
 the time of general Gage to yourself, have all affected to 
 speak in language that they have no right to. In their 
 proclamations, their addresses, their letters to general 
 Washington, and their supplications to congress (for they 
 deserve no other name) they talk of British honour, British 
 generosity, and British clemency, as if those things were 
 matters of fact ; whereas, we whose eyes are open, who 
 speak the same language with yourselves, many of whom 
 were born on the same spot with you, and who can no more 
 be mistaken in your words than in your actions, can declare 
 to all the world, that so far as our knowledge goes, there is 
 not a more detestable character, nor a meaner or more bar- 
 barous enemy, than the present British one. With us, you 
 have forfeited all pretensions to reputation, and it is only 
 by holding you like a wild beast, afraid of your keepers, 
 that you can be made manageable. But to return to the 
 point in question. 
 
 Though I can think no man innocent who has lent his 
 hand to destroy the country which he did not plant, and to 
 ruin those that he could not enslave, yet, abstracted from 
 all ideas of right and wrong on the original question, captain 
 Asgill, in the present case, is not the guilty man. The vil- 
 lain and the victim are here separated characters. You hold 
 the one and we the other. You disown, or affect to disown 
 and reprobate the conduct of Lippincut, yet you give him a 
 sanctuary ; and by so doing you as effectually become the 
 executioner of Asgill, as if you had put the rope on his 
 neck, and dismissed him from the world. Whatever your 
 feelings on this interesting occasion may be are best known 
 to yourself. Within the grave of your own mind lies buried 
 the fate of Asgill. He becomes the corpse of your will, or 
 the survivor of your justice. Deliver up the one, and you 
 save the other; withhold the one, and the other dies by 
 your choice. 
 
 On our part the case is exceeding plain ; an officer has 
 been taken from his confinemetit and murdered, and the mur- 
 derer is within your lines. Your army has been guilty of a 
 
358 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 thousand instances of equal cruelty, but they have been 
 rendered equivocal, and sheltered from personal detection. 
 Here the crime is fixed ; and is one of those extraordinary 
 cases which can neither be denied nor palliated, and to 
 which the custom of war does not apply ; for it never could 
 be supposed that such a brutal outrage would ever be com- 
 mitted. It is an original in the history of civilized barbari- 
 ans, and is truly British. 
 
 On your part you are accountable to us for the personal 
 safety of the prisoners within your walls. Here can be no 
 mistake ; they can neither be spies nor suspected as such ; 
 your security is not endangered, nor your operations sub- 
 jected to miscarriage, by men immured within a dungeon. 
 They differ in every circumstance from men in the field, 
 and leave no pretence for severity of punishment. But if 
 to the dismal condition of captivity with you must be 
 added the constant apprehensions of death ; if to be im- 
 prisoned is so nearly to be entombed ; and if, after all, the 
 murderers are to be protected, and thereby the crime en- 
 couraged, wherein do you differ from [American] Indians 
 either in conduct or character? 
 
 We can have no idea of your honour, or your justice, in 
 any future transaction, of what nature it may be, while you 
 shelter within your lines an outrageous murderer, and sacri- 
 fice in his stead an officer of your own. If you have no 
 regard to us, at least spare the blood which it is your duty 
 to save. Whether the punishment will be greater on him, 
 who, in this case, innocently dies, or on him whom sad 
 necessity forces to retaliate, is, in the nicety of sensation, an 
 undecided question ? It rests with you to prevent the suf- 
 ferings of both. You have nothing to do but to give up the 
 murderer, and the matter ends. 
 
 But to protect him, be he who he may, is to patronise his 
 crime, and to trifle it off by frivolous and unmeaning in- 
 quiries, is to promote it. There is no declaration you can 
 make, nor promise you can give that will obtain credit. It 
 is the man and not the apology that is demanded. 
 
 You see yourself pressed on all sides to spare the life of 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 359 
 
 your own officer, for die he will if you withhold justice. The 
 murder of captain Huddy is an ofiFence not to be borne with, 
 and there is no security which we can have, that such actions 
 or similar ones shall not be repeated, but by making the 
 punishment fall upon yourselves. To destroy the last se- 
 curity of captivity, and to take the unarmed, the unresisting 
 prisoner to private and sportive execution, is carrying bar- 
 barity too high for silence. The evil must be put an end to ; 
 and the choice of persons rests with you. But if your at- 
 tachment to the guilty is stronger than to the innocent, you 
 invent a crime that must destroy your character, and if the 
 cause of your king needs to be so supported, for ever cease, 
 sir, to torture our remembrance with the wretched phrases 
 of British honour, British generosity, and British clemency. 
 
 From this melancholy circumstance, learn, sir, a lesson of 
 morality. The refugees are men whom your predecessors 
 have instructed in wickedness, the better to fit them to their 
 master's purpose. To make them useful, they have made 
 them vile, and the consequence of their tutored villany is 
 now descending on the heads of their encouragers. They 
 have been trained like hounds to the scent of blood, and 
 cherished in every species of dissolute barbarity. Their 
 ideas of right and wrong are worn away in the constant 
 habitude of repeated infamy, till, like men practised in 
 execution, they feel not the value of another's life. 
 
 The task before you, though painful, is not difficult ; give 
 up the murderer, and save your officer, as the first outset of 
 a necessary reformation. 
 
 Common Sense.' 
 
 Philadelphia, May 31, 1782. 
 
 ' The lot fell on Asgill May 27, 1782, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; it will be 
 seen by the date of this letter to the commander at New York that it must have 
 been written immediately after the arrival of the news in Philadelphia. With 
 the rest of the world Paine was ignorant of the fact that young Asgill, an officer 
 under Cornwallis, was, by Article 14 of his chief's terms of capitulation, ex- 
 empted from liability to any such danger as that which now threatened him. 
 On September 7th Paine ventured to write to Washington a plea forAsgill's life, 
 saying, " it will look much better hereafter." The truth of which must be felt 
 by every American who learns, after its long suppression, the ugly fact that it 
 
36o 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 XII. 
 
 TO THE EARL OF SHELBURNE.' 
 
 My Lord, — A speech, which has been printed in several 
 of the British and New-York newspapers, as coming from 
 your lordship, in answer to one from the duke of Richmond, 
 of the loth of July last, contains expressions and opinions 
 so new and singular, and so enveloped in mysterious reason- 
 ing, that I address this publication to you, for the purpose 
 of giving them a free and candid examination. The speech 
 that I allude to is in these words: 
 
 " His lordship said, it had been mentioned in another place, that 
 he had been guilty of inconsistency. To clear himself of this, he 
 asserted that he still held the same principles in respect to Ameri- 
 can independence which he at first imbibed. He had been, and 
 yet was of opinion, whenever the parliament of Great Britain 
 acknowledges that point, the sun of England's glory is set forever. 
 Such were the sentiments he possessed on a former day, and such 
 the sentiments he continued to hold at this hour. It was the 
 opinion of lord Chatham, as well as many other able statesmen. 
 Other noble lords, however, think differently, and as the majority 
 of the cabinet support them, he acquiesced in the measure, dis- 
 senting from the idea ; and the point is settled for bringing the 
 matter into the full discussion of parliament, where it will be 
 candidly, fairly, and impartially debated. The independence of 
 America would end in the ruin of England ; and that a peace 
 patched up with France, would give that proud enemy the means 
 
 was only after a protest from the court of France, whose honor was also involved, 
 that Captain Asgill was released. 
 
 It should be added that the guilt of Captain Lippencott was strenuously denied, 
 and that the facts have never been ascertained. — Editor. 
 
 ' Afterwards Lord Lansdowne, whose friendship Paine enjoyed when in Eng- 
 land some years later. Writing to Jefferson, March 12, 1789, Paine says : "I 
 believe I am not so much in the good graces of the Marquis of Lansdowne as I 
 used to be — I do not answer his purpose. He was always talking of a sort of 
 reconnection of England and America, and my coldness and reserve on this 
 .subject checked communication." — Editor. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 361 
 
 of yet trampling on this country. The sun of England's glory he 
 wished not to see set forever ; he looked for a spark at least to be 
 left, which might in time light us up to a new day. But if inde- 
 pendence was to be granted, if parliament deemed that measure 
 prudent, he foresaw, in his own mind, that England was undone. 
 He wished to God that he had been deputed to congress, that he 
 might plead the cause of that country as well as of this, and that 
 he might exercise whatever powers he possessed as an orator, to 
 save both from ruin, in a conviction to congress, that, if their 
 independence was signed, their liberties were gone forever. 
 
 " Peace, his lordship added, was a desirable object, but it must 
 be an honorable peace, and not an humiliating one, dictated by 
 France, or insisted on by America. It was very true, that this 
 kingdom was not in a flourishing state, it was impoverished by 
 war. But if we were not rich, it was evident that France was 
 poor. If we were straitened in our finances, the enemy were 
 exhausted in their resources. This was a great empire ; it 
 abounded with brave men, who were able and willing to fight in 
 a common cause ; the language of humiliation should not, there- 
 fore, be the language of Great Britain. His lordship said, that he 
 was not afraid nor ashamed of those expressions going to America. 
 There were numbers, great numbers there, who were of the same 
 way of thinking, in respect to that country being dependant on 
 this, and who, with his lordship, perceived ruin and independence 
 linked together." 
 
 Thus far the speech ; on which I remark — That his lord- 
 ship is a total stranger to the mind and sentiments of Amer- 
 ica ; that he has wrapped himself up in fond delusion, that 
 something less than independence, may, under his adminis- 
 tration, be accepted ; and he wishes himself sent to congress, 
 to prove the most extraordinary of all doctrines, which is, 
 that independence, the sublimest of all human conditions, is 
 loss of liberty. 
 
 In answer to which we may say, that in order to know 
 what the contrary word dependance means, we have only to 
 look back to those years of severe humiliation, when the 
 mildest of all petitions could obtain no other notice than the 
 haughtiest of all insults ; and when the base terms of uncon- 
 ditional submission were demanded, or undistinguishable 
 
362 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 destruction threatened. It is nothing to us that the minis- 
 try have been changed, for they may be changed again. The 
 guilt of a government is the crime of a whole country ; and 
 the nation that can, though but for a moment, think and act 
 as England has done, can never afterwards be believed or 
 trusted. There are cases in which it is as impossible to 
 restore character to life, as it is to recover the dead. It is a 
 phoenix that can expire but once, and from whose ashes 
 there is no resurrection. Some offences are of such a slight 
 composition, that they reach no further than the temper, 
 and are created or cured by a thought. But the sin of Eng- 
 land has struck the heart of America, and nature has not 
 left in our power to say we can forgive. 
 
 Your lordship wishes for an opportunity to plead before 
 congress the cause of England and America, and to save, as 
 you say, both from ruin. 
 
 That the country, which, for more than seven years has 
 sought our destruction, should now cringe to solicit our pro- 
 tection, is adding the wretchedness of disgrace to the misery 
 of disappointment ; and if England has the least spark of 
 supposed honour left, that spark must be darkened by ask- 
 ing, and extinguished by receiving, the smallest favor from 
 America ; for the criminal who owes his life to the grace and 
 mercy of the injured, is more executed by living, than he 
 who dies. 
 
 But a thousand pleadings, even from your lordship, can 
 have no effect. Honour, interest, and every sensation of the 
 heart, would plead against you. We are a people who think 
 not as you think ; and what is equally true, you cannot feel 
 as we feel. The situations of the two countries are exceed- 
 ingly different. Ours has been the seat of war; yours has 
 seen nothing of it. The most wanton destruction has been 
 committed in our sight ; the most insolent barbarity has 
 been acted on our feelings. We can look round and see the 
 remains of burnt and destroyed houses, once the fair fruit 
 of hard industry, and now the striking monuments of Brit- 
 ish brutality. We walk over the dead whom we loved, in 
 every part of America, and remember by whom they fell. 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 There is scarcely a village but brings to life some melan- 
 choly thought, and reminds us of what we have suffered, and 
 of those we have lost by the inhumanity of Britain. A 
 thousand images arise to us, which, from situation, you 
 cannot see, and are accompanied by as many ideas which 
 you cannot know ; and therefore your supposed system of 
 reasoning would apply to nothing, and all your expectations 
 die of themselves. 
 
 The question whether England shall accede to the inde- 
 pendence of America, and which your lordship says is to 
 undergo a parliamentary discussion, is so very simple, and 
 composed of so few cases, that it scarcely needs a debate. 
 
 It is the only way out of an expensive and ruinous war, 
 which has no object, and without which acknowledgment 
 there can be no peace. 
 
 But your lordship says, the sun of Great Britain will set 
 whenever she acknowledges the independence of America. — 
 Whereas the metaphor would have been strictly just, to 
 have left the sun wholly out of the figure, and have ascribed 
 her not acknowledging it to the influence of the moon. 
 
 But the expression, if true, is the greatest confession of 
 disgrace that could be made, and furnishes America with 
 the highest notions of sovereign independent importance. 
 Mr. Wedderburne, about the year 1776, made use of an idea 
 of much the same kind, — Relinquish America I says he — 
 What is it but to desire a giant to shrink spontaneously into a 
 dwarf. 
 
 Alas ! are those people who call themselves Englishmen, 
 of so little internal consequence, that when America is gone, 
 or shuts her eyes upon them, their sun is set, they can shine 
 no more, but grope about in obscurity, and contract into 
 insignificant animals? Was America, then, the giant of the 
 empire, and England only her dwarf in waiting ! Is the 
 case so strangely altered, that those who once thought we 
 could not live without them, are now brought to declare 
 that they cannot exist without us ? Will they tell to the 
 world, and that from their first minister of state, that America 
 is their all in all ; that it is by her importance only that they 
 
364 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782 
 
 <;an live, and breathe, and have a being? Will they, who 
 long since threatened to bring us to their feet, bow them- 
 selves to ours, and own that without us they are not a 
 nation ? Are they become so unqualified to debate on in- 
 dependence, that they have lost all idea of it themselves, 
 and are calling to the rocks and mountains of America to 
 cover their insignificance ? Or, if America is lost, is it manly 
 to sob over it like a child for its rattle, and invite the 
 laughter of the world by declarations of disgrace ? Surely, 
 a more consistent line of conduct would be to bear it with- 
 out complaint; and to show that England, without America, 
 can preserve her independence, and a suitable rank with 
 other European powers. You were not contented while 
 you had her, and to weep for her now is childish. 
 
 But lord Shelburne thinks something may yet be done. 
 What that something is, or how it is to be accomplished, is a 
 matter in obscurity. By arms there is no hope. The ex- 
 perience of nearly eight years, with the expense of an hundred 
 million pounds sterling, and the loss of two armies, must 
 positively decide that point. Besides, the British have lost 
 their interest in America with the disaffected. Every part 
 of it has been tried. There is no new scene left for delu- 
 sion : and the thousands who have been ruined by adhering 
 to them, and have now to quit the settlements which they 
 had acquired, and be conveyed like transports to cultivate 
 the deserts of Augustine and Nova-Scotia, has put an end 
 to all further expectations of aid. 
 
 If you cast your eyes on the people of England, what 
 have they to console themselves with for the millions ex- 
 pended ? Or, what encouragement is there left to continue 
 throwing good money after bad ? America can carry on the 
 war for ten years longer, and all the charges of government 
 included, for less than you can defray the charges of war 
 and government for one year. And I, who know both 
 countries, know well, that the people of America can afford 
 to pay their share of the expense much better than the 
 people of England can. Besides, it is their own estates and 
 property, their own rights, liberties and government, that 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 they are defending ; and were they not to do it, they would 
 deserve to lose all, and none would pity them. The fault 
 would be their own, and their punishment just. 
 
 The British army in America care not how long the war 
 lasts. They enjoy an easy and indolent life. They fatten 
 on the folly of one country and the spoils of another ; and, 
 between their plunder and their prey, may go home rich. 
 But the case is very different with the laboring farmer, the 
 working tradesman, and the necessitous poor in England, 
 the sweat of whose brow goes day after day to feed, in 
 prodigality and sloth, the army that is robbing both them 
 and us. Removed from the eye of that country that sup- 
 ports them, and distant from the government that employs 
 them, they cut and carve for themselves, and there is none 
 to call them to account. 
 
 But England will be ruined, says lord Shelburne, if 
 America is independent. 
 
 Then I say, is England already ruined, for America is 
 already independent : and if lord Shelburne will not allow 
 this, he immediately denies the fact which he infers. Be- 
 sides, to make England the mere creature of America, is 
 paying too great a compliment to us, and too little to him- 
 self. 
 
 But the declaration is a rhapsody of inconsistency. For 
 to say, as lord Shelburne has numberless times said, that 
 the war against America is ruinous, and yet to continue the 
 prosecution of that ruinous war for the purpose of avoid- 
 ing ruin, is a language which cannot be understood. Neither 
 is it possible to see how the independence of America is 
 to accomplish the ruin of England after the war is over, and 
 yet not affect it before. America cannot be more inde- 
 pendent of her, nor a greater enemy to her, hereafter than 
 she now is ; nor can England derive less advantages from 
 her than at present : why then is ruin to follow in the best 
 state of the case, and not in the worst? And if not in the 
 worst, why is it to follow at all ? 
 
 That a nation is to be ruined by peace and commerce, and 
 fourteen or fifteen millions a-year less expenses than before,. 
 
366 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 is a new doctrine in politics. We have heard much clamor 
 of national savings and economy ; but surely the true econ- 
 omy would be, to save the whole charge of a silly, foolish, 
 and headstrong war ; because, compared with this, all other 
 retrenchments are baubles and trifles. 
 
 But is it possible that lord Shelburne can be serious in 
 supposing that the least advantage can be obtained by arms, 
 or that any advantage can be equal to the expense or the 
 danger of attempting it ? Will not the capture of one army 
 after another satisfy him, must all become prisoners ? Must 
 England ever be the sport of hope, and the victim of delu- 
 sion ? Sometimes our currency was to fail; another time 
 our army was to disband ; then whole provinces were to 
 revolt. Such a general said this and that ; another wrote so 
 and so ; lord Chatham was of this opinion ; and lord some- 
 body else of another. To-day 20,000 Russians and 20 Rus- 
 sian ships of the line were to come ; to-morrow the empress 
 was abused without mercy or decency. Then the emperor 
 of Germany was to be bribed with a million of money, and 
 the king of Prussia was to do wonderful things. At one 
 time it was, Lo here ! and then it was, Lo there ! Sometimes 
 this power, and sometimes that power, was to engage in the 
 war, just as if the whole world was mad and foolish like 
 Britain. And thus, from year to year, has every straw been 
 catched at, and every Will-with-a-wisp led them a new dance. 
 
 This year a still newer folly is to take place. Lord Shel- 
 burne wishes to be sent to congress, and he thinks that some- 
 thing may be done. 
 
 Are not the repeated declarations of congress, and which 
 all America supports, that they will not even hear any pro- 
 posals whatever, until the unconditional and unequivocal 
 independence of America is recognised ; are not, I say, these 
 declarations answer enough? 
 
 But for England to receive any thing from America now, 
 after so many insults, injuries and outrages, acted towards 
 us, would show such a spirit of meanness in her, that we 
 could not but despise her for accepting it. And so far 
 from lord Shelburne's coming here to solicit it, it would be 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 the greatest disgrace we could do them to offer it. England 
 would appear a wretch indeed, at this time of day, to ask or 
 -owe any thing to the bounty of America. Has not the name 
 of Englishman blots enough upon it, without inventing 
 more? Even Lucifer would scorn to reign in heaven by 
 permission, and yet an Englishman can creep for only an 
 entrance into America. Or, has a land of liberty so many 
 charms, that to be a door-keeper in it is better than to be an 
 English minister of state? 
 
 But what can this expected something be ? Or, if ob- 
 tained, what can it amount to, but new disgraces, conten- 
 tions and quarrels ? The people of America have for years 
 accustomed themselves to think and speak so freely and con- 
 temptuously of English authority, and the inveteracy is so 
 deeply rooted, that a person invested with any authority 
 from that country, and attempting to exercise it here, would 
 have the life of a toad under a harrow. They would look 
 on him as an interloper, to whom their compassion per- 
 mitted a residence. He would be no more than the Mungo 
 of a farce ; and if he disliked that, he must set off. It would 
 be a station of degradation, debased by our pity, and despised 
 by our pride, and would place England in a more contemp- 
 tible situation than any she has yet been in during the war. 
 We have too high an opinion of ourselves, even to think of 
 yielding again the least obedience to outlandish authority ; 
 and for a thousand reasons, England would be the last 
 country in the world to yield it to. She has been treacher- 
 ous, and we know it. Her character is gone, and we have 
 seen the funeral. 
 
 Surely she loves to fish in troubled waters, and drink the 
 cup of contention, or she would not now think of mingling 
 her affairs with those of America. It would belike a foolish 
 dotard taking to his arms the bride that despises him, or 
 who has placed on his head the ensigns of her disgust. It 
 is kissing the hand that boxes his ears, and proposing to re- 
 new the exchange. The thought is as servile as the war is 
 wicked, and shows the last scene of the drama to be as 
 inconsistent as the first. 
 
368 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1782 
 
 As America is gone, the only act of manhood is to let her 
 go. Your lordship had no hand in the separation, and you 
 will gain no honor by temporising politics. Besides, there 
 is something so exceedingly whimsical, unsteady, and even 
 insincere in the present conduct of England, that she ex- 
 hibits herself in the most dishonourable colors. 
 
 On the second of August last, general Carleton and 
 admiral Digby wrote to general Washington in these words : 
 
 " The resolution of the house of commons, of the 27th of Feb- 
 ruary last, has been placed in your excellency's hands, and intima- 
 tions given at the same time that further pacific measures were 
 likely to follow. Since which, until the present time, we have had 
 no direct communications with England ; but a mail is now 
 arrived, which brings us very important information. We are 
 acquainted, sir, by authority, that negotiations for a general peace 
 have already commenced at Paris, and that Mr. Grenville is 
 invested with full powers to treat with all the parties at war, and 
 is now at Paris in execution of his commission. And we are fur- 
 ther, sir, made acquainted, that his majesty, in order to remove any 
 obstacles to that peace which he so ardently wishes to restore, has 
 commanded his ministers to direct Mr. Grenville, that the indepen- 
 dence of the Thirteen United Provinces, should be proposed by him 
 in the first instance, instead of making it a condition of a general 
 treaty." 
 
 Now, taking your present measures into view, and com- 
 paring them with the declaration in this letter, pray what is 
 the word of your king, or his ministers, or the parliament, 
 good for? Must we not look upon you as a confederated 
 body of faithless, treacherous men, whose assurances are 
 fraud, and their language deceit ? What opinion can we pos- 
 sibly form of you, but that you are a lost, abandoned, prof- 
 ligate nation, who sport even with your own character, and 
 are to be held by nothing but the bayonet or the halter? 
 
 To say, after this, that the stm of Great Britain will be set 
 whenever she acknowledges the independence of America, when 
 the not doing it is the unqualified lie of government, can be 
 no other than the language of ridicule, the jargon of incon- 
 
1782] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 sistency. There were thousands in America who predicted 
 the delusion, and looked upon it as a trick of treachery, to 
 take us from our guard, and draw off our attention from the 
 only system of finance, by which we can be called, or deserve 
 to be called, a sovereign, independent people. The fraud, 
 on your part, might be worth attempting, but the sacrifice 
 to obtain it is too high. 
 
 There are others who credited the assurance, because they 
 thought it impossible that men who had their characters to 
 establish, would begin with a lie. The prosecution of the 
 war by the former ministry was savage and horrid ; since 
 which it has been mean, trickish, and delusive. The one 
 went greedily into the passion of revenge, the other into the 
 subtleties of low contrivance ; till, between the crimes of 
 both, there is scarcely left a man in America, be he whig 
 or tory, who does not despise or detest the conduct of 
 Britain. 
 
 The management of lord Shelburne, whatever may be his 
 views, is a caution to us, and must be to the world, never to 
 regard British assurances. A perfidy so notorious cannot be 
 hid. It stands even in the public papers of New-York, with 
 the names of Carleton and Digby affixed to it. It is a 
 proclamation that the king of England is not to be believed ; 
 that the spirit of lying is the governing principle of the 
 ministry. It is holding up the character of the house of 
 commons to public infamy, and warning all men not to 
 credit them. Such are the consequences which lord Shel- 
 burne's management has brought upon his country. 
 
 After the authorized declarations contained in Carleton 
 and Digby's letter, you ought, from every motive of honor, 
 policy and prudence, to have fulfilled them, whatever might 
 have been the event. It was the least atonement that you 
 could possibly make to America, and the greatest kindness 
 you could do to yourselves ; for you will save millions by a 
 general peace, and you will lose as many by continuing the 
 war. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 1782. 
 
 VOL. ! — 24 
 
370 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1783 
 
 P. S. The manuscript copy of this letter is sent your lord- 
 ship, by the way of our head-quarters, to New-York, inclos- 
 ing a late pamphlet of mine, addressed to the abbe Raynal, 
 which will serve to give your lordship some idea of the 
 principles and sentiments of America, 
 
 C. S. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE PEACE, AND THE PROBABLE ADVAN- 
 TAGES THEREOF. 
 
 " The times that tried men's souls,"* are over — and the 
 greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, 
 gloriously and happily accomplished. 
 
 But to pass from the extremes of danger to safety — from 
 the tumult of war to the tranquillity of peace, though sweet 
 in contemplation, requires a gradual composure of the 
 senses to receive it. Even calmness has the power of stun- 
 ning, when it opens too instantly upon us. The long and 
 raging hurricane that should cease in a moment, would leave 
 us in a state rather of wonder than enjoyment ; and some 
 moments of recollection must pass, before we could be 
 capable of tasting the felicity of repose. There are but 
 few instances, in which the mind is fitted for sudden transi- 
 tions : it takes in its pleasures by reflection and comparison 
 and those must have time to act, before the relish for new 
 scenes is complete. 
 
 In the present case — the mighty magnitude of the object 
 — the various uncertainties of fate it has undergone — the 
 numerous and complicated dangers we have suffered or 
 escaped — the eminence we now stand on, and the vast 
 prospect before us, must all conspire to impress us with 
 contemplation. 
 
 * " These are the times that try men's souls," The Crisis No. I. published 
 December, 1776. — Author. 
 
1783] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 To see it in our power to make a world happy — to teach 
 mankind the art of being so — to exhibit, on the theatre of 
 the universe a character hitherto unknown — and to have, as 
 it were, a new creation intrusted to our hands, are honors 
 that command reflection, and can neither be too highly esti- 
 mated, nor too gratefully received. 
 
 In this pause then of recollection — while the storm is 
 ceasing, and the long agitated mind vibrating to a rest, let 
 us look back on the scenes we have passed, and learn from 
 experience what is yet to be done. 
 
 Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happi- 
 ness as this. Her setting out in life, like the rising of a fair 
 morning, was unclouded and promising. Her cause was 
 good. Her principles just and liberal. Her temper serene 
 and firm. Her conduct regulated by the nicest steps, and 
 everything about her wore the mark of honour. It is not 
 every country (perhaps there is not another in the world) 
 that can boast so fair an origin. Even the first settlement 
 of America corresponds with the character of the revolution. 
 Rome, once the proud mistress of the universe, was origin- 
 ally a band of ruffians. Plunder and rapine made her rich, 
 and her oppression of millions made her great. But America 
 need never be ashamed to tell her birth, nor relate the stages 
 by which she rose to empire. 
 
 The remembrance, then, of what is past, if it operates 
 rightly, must inspire her with the most laudable of all ambi- 
 tion, that of adding to the fair fame she began with. The 
 world has seen her great in adversity ; struggling, without 
 a thought of yielding, beneath accumulated difficulties, 
 bravely, nay proudly, encountering distress, and rising in 
 resolution as the storm increased. All this is justly due to 
 her, for her fortitude has merited the character. Let, then, 
 the world see that she can bear prosperity : and that her 
 honest virtue in time of peace, is equal to the bravest virtue 
 in time of war. 
 
 She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic 
 life. Not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but 
 to enjoy in her own land, and under her own vine, the sweet 
 
372 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783 
 
 of her labours, and the reward of her toil. — In this situation, 
 may she never forget that a fair national reputation is of as 
 much importance as independence. That it possesses a 
 charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies 
 civil. That it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, 
 and commands reverence where pomp and splendour fail. 
 
 It would be a circumstance ever to be lamented and never 
 to be forgotten, were a single blot, from any cause whatever, 
 suffered to fall on a revolution, which to the end of time 
 must be an honour to the age that accomplished it : and which 
 has contributed more to enlighten the world, and diffuse a 
 spirit of freedom and liberality among mankind, than any 
 human event (if this may be called one) that ever preceded it. 
 
 It is not among the least of the calamities of a long con- 
 tinued war, that it unhinges the mind from those nice sen- 
 sations which at other times appear so amiable. The 
 continual spectacle of wo blunts the finer feelings, and the 
 necessity of bearing with the sight, renders it familiar. In 
 like manner, are many of the moral obligations of society 
 weakened, till the custom of acting by necessity becomes 
 an apology, where it is truly a crime. Yet let but a nation 
 conceive rightly of its character, and it will be chastely just 
 in protecting it. None ever began with a fairer than America 
 and none can be under a greater obligation to preserve it. 
 
 The debt which America has contracted, compared with 
 the cause she has gained, and the advantages to flow from 
 it, ought scarcely to be mentioned. She has it in her choice 
 to do, and to live as happily as she pleases. The world is 
 in her hands. She has no foreign power to monopolize her 
 commerce, perplex her legislation, or control her prosperity. 
 The struggle is over, which must one day have happened, 
 and, perhaps, never could have happened at a better time.* 
 And instead of a domineering master, she has gained an ally 
 
 * That the revolution began at the exact period of time best fitted to the 
 purpose, is sufficiently proved by the event. — But the great hinge on which the 
 whole machine turned, is the Union of the States : and this union was natur- 
 ally produced by the inability of any one state to support itself against any 
 foreign enemy without the assistance of the rest. 
 
1783] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 373 
 
 whose exemplary greatness, and universal liberality, have 
 extorted a confession even from her enemies. 
 
 With the blessings of peace, independence, and an univer- 
 sal commerce, the states, individually and collectively, will 
 have leisure and opportunity to regulate and establish 
 their domestic concerns, and to put it beyond the power of 
 calumny to throw the least reflection on their honor. Char- 
 acter is much easier kept than recovered, and that man, if 
 any such there be, who, from sinister views, or littleness of 
 soul, lends unseen his hand to injure it, contrives a wound 
 it will never be in his power to heal. 
 
 Had the states severally been less able than they were when the war began, 
 their united strength would not have been equal to the undertaking, and they 
 must in all human probability have failed. — And, on the other hand, had they 
 severally been more able, they might not have seen, or, what is more, might 
 not have felt, the necessity of uniting : and, either by attempting to stand 
 alone or in small confederacies, would have been separately conquered. 
 
 Now, as we cannot see a time (and many years must pass away before it can 
 arrive) when the strength of any one state, or several united, can be equal to 
 the whole of the present United States, and as we have seen the extreme diffi- 
 culty of collectively prosecuting the war to a successful issue, and preserving 
 our national importance in the world, therefore, from the experience we have 
 had, and the knowledge we have gained, we must, unless we make a waste of 
 wisdom, be strongly impressed with the advantage, as well as the necessity of 
 strengthening that happy union which had been our salvation, and without 
 which we should have been a ruined people. 
 
 While I was writing this note, I cast my eye on the pamphlet. Common 
 Sense, from which I shall make an extract, as it exactly applies to the case. It 
 is as follows : 
 
 " I have never met with a man, either in England or America, who hath not 
 confessed it as his opinion that a separation between the countries would take 
 place one time or other ; and there is no instance in which we have shown less 
 judgment, than in endeavoring to describe what we call the ripeness or fitness 
 of the continent for independence. 
 
 " As all men allow the measure, and differ only in their opinion of the time, 
 let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things, and 
 endeavour, if possible, to find out the very time. But we need not to go far, the 
 inquiry ceases at once, for, the time has found us. The general concurrence, 
 the glorious union of all things prove the fact. 
 
 " It is not in numbers, but in a union, that our great strength lies. The con- 
 tinent is just arrived at that pitch of strength, in which no single colony is able 
 to support itself, and the whole, when united, can accomplish the matter ; and 
 either more or less than this, might be fatal in its effects." — Author. 
 
374 '^^E WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783 
 
 As we have established an inheritance for posterity, let 
 that inheritance descend, with every mark of an honourable 
 conveyance. The little it will cost, compared with the worth 
 of the states, the greatness of the object, and the value of 
 the national character, will be a profitable exchange. 
 
 But that which must more forcibly strike a thoughtful, 
 penetrating mind, and which includes and renders easy all 
 inferior concerns, is the UNION OF THE STATES. On this our 
 great national character depends. It is this which must give 
 us importance abroad and security at home. It is through 
 this only that we are, or can be, nationally known in the 
 world ; it is the flag of the United States which renders our 
 ships and commerce safe on the seas, or in a foreign port. 
 Our Mediterranean passes must be obtained under the same 
 style. All our treaties, whether of alliance, peace, or com- 
 merce, are formed under the sovereignty of the United 
 States, and Europe knows us by no other name or title. 
 
 The division of the empire into states is for our own con- 
 venience, but abroad this distinction ceases. The affairs of 
 each state are local. They can go no further than to itself. 
 And were the whole worth of even the richest of them 
 expended in revenue, it would not be sufficient to support 
 sovereignty against a foreign attack. In short, we have no 
 other national sovereignty than as United States. It would 
 even be fatal for us if we had — too expensive to be main- 
 tained, and impossible to be supported. Individuals, or 
 individual states, may call themselves what they please ; but 
 the world, and especially the world of enemies, is not to be 
 held in awe by the whistling of a name. Sovereignty must 
 have power to protect all the parts that compose and consti- 
 tute it : and as UNITED STATES we are equal to the impor- 
 tance of the title, but otherwise we are not. Our union, well 
 and wisely regulated and cemented, is the cheapest way of 
 being great — the easiest way of being powerful, and the 
 happiest invention in government which the circumstances 
 of America can admit of. — Because it collects from each 
 state, that which, by being inadequate, can be of no use to 
 it, and forms an aggregate that serves for all. 
 
1783] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 375 
 
 The states of Holland are an unfortunate instance of the 
 effects of individual sovereignty. Their disjointed condition 
 exposes them to numerous intrigues, losses, calamities, and 
 enemies ; and the almost impossibility of bringing their meas- 
 ures to a decision, and that decision into execution, is to 
 them, and would be to us, a source of endless misfortune. 
 
 It is with confederated states as with individuals in so- 
 ciety ; something must be yielded up to make the whole 
 secure. In this view of things we gain by what we give, and 
 draw an annual interest greater than the capital. — I ever feel 
 myself hurt when I hear the union, that great palladium of 
 our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. It 
 is the most sacred thing in the constitution of America, and 
 that which every man should be most proud and tender of. 
 Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. 
 Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local dis- 
 tinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former 
 to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS — our inferior 
 one varies with the place. 
 
 So far as my endeavours could go, they have all been 
 directed to conciliate the affections, unite the interests, and 
 draw and keep the mind of the country together ; and the 
 better to assist in this foundation work of the revolution, I 
 have avoided all places of profit or office, either in the state 
 I live in, or in the United States ' ; kept myself at a distance 
 from all parties and party connexions, and even disregarded 
 all private and inferior concerns : and when we take into 
 view the great work which we have gone through, and feel, 
 as we ought to feel, the just importance of it, we shall then 
 see, that the little wranglings and indecent contentions of 
 personal parley, are as dishonourable to our characters, as 
 they are injurious to our repose. 
 
 It was the cause of America that made me an author. 
 The force with which it struck my mind, and the dangerous 
 condition the country appeared to me in, by courting an im- 
 
 ' This referred only to the previous two years ; before that Paine had been 
 Secretary of the Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs, and subsequently 
 Clerk of the Pennsylvania Legislature. — Editor. 
 
376 llIE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783 
 
 possible and an unnatural reconciliation with those who 
 were determined to reduce her, instead of striking out into 
 the only line that could cement and save her, A DECLARA- 
 TION OF INDEPENDENCE, made it impossible for me, feeling 
 as I did, to be silent : and if, in the course of more than 
 seven years, I have rendered her any service, I have likewise 
 added something to the reputation of literature, by freely 
 and disinterestedly employing it in the great cause of man- 
 kind, and showing that there may be genius without 
 prostitution. 
 
 Independence always appeared to me practicable and 
 probable, provided the sentiment of the country could be 
 formed and held to the object : and there is no instance in 
 the world, where a people so extended, and wedded to 
 former habits of thinking, and under such a variety of cir- 
 cumstances, were so instantly and effectually pervaded, by 
 a turn in politics, as in the case of independence ; and who 
 supported their opinion, undiminished, through such a succes- 
 sion of good and ill fortune, till they crowned it with success. 
 
 But as the scenes of war are closed, and every man pre- 
 paring for home and happier times, I therefore take my 
 leave of the subject. I have most sincerely followed it from 
 beginning to end, and through all its turns and windings : 
 and whatever country I may hereafter be in, I shall always 
 feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and acted, and 
 a gratitude to nature and providence for putting it in my 
 power to be of some use to mankind. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, April 19, 1783.' 
 
 A SUPERNUMERARY CRISIS. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA. 
 
 In " Rivington's New- York Gazette," of December 6th, is 
 a publication, under the appearance of a letter from London, 
 
 ' This was the date of the eighth anniversary of the collision at Lexington, 
 where the first blood was shed in the revolution. — Editor. 
 
1783] 
 
 THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 
 
 177 
 
 dated September 30th ; and is on a subject which demands 
 the attention of the United States, 
 
 The pubhc will remember that a treaty of commerce be- 
 tween the United States and England was set on foot last 
 spring, and that until the said treaty could be completed, a 
 bill was brought into the British parliament by the then 
 chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Pitt, to admit and legalize 
 (as the case then required) the commerce of the United 
 States into the British ports and dominions. But neither 
 the one nor the other has been completed. The commercial 
 treaty is either broken off, or remains as it began ; and the 
 bill in parliament has been thrown aside. And in lieu 
 thereof, a selfish system of English politics has started up, 
 calculated to fetter the commerce of America, by engrossing 
 to England the carrying trade of the American produce to 
 the West India islands. 
 
 Among the advocates for this last measure is lord Shefifield, 
 a member of the British parliament, who has published a 
 pamphlet entitled " Observations on the Commerce of the 
 American States." The pamphlet has two objects ; the one 
 is to allure the Americans to purchase British manufactures ; 
 and the other to spirit up the British parliament to prohibit 
 the citizens of the United States from trading to the West 
 India islands. 
 
 Viewed in this light, the pamphlet, though in some parts 
 dexterously written, is an absurdity. It offends, in the very 
 act of endeavoring to ingratiate ; and his lordship, as a 
 politician, ought not to have suffered the two objects to 
 have appeared together. The latter alluded to, contains ex- 
 tracts from the pamphlet, with high encomiums on lord 
 Sheffield, for laboriously endeavoring (as the letter styles it) 
 " to show the mighty advantages of retaining the carrying 
 trade." 
 
 Since the publication of this pamphlet in England, the 
 commerce of the United States to the West Indies, in 
 American vessels, has been prohibited ; and all intercourse, 
 except in British bottoms, the property of and navigated by 
 British subjects, cut off. 
 
378 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE, [1783 
 
 That a country has a right to be as foolish as it pleases, 
 has been proved by the practice of England for many years 
 past : in her island situation, sequestered from the world, 
 she forgets that her whispers are heard by other nations; 
 and in her plans of politics and commerce she seems not to 
 know, that other votes are necessary besides her own. 
 America would be equally as foolish as Britain, were she to 
 suffer so great a degradation on her flag, and such a stroke 
 on the freedom of her commerce, to pass without a balance. 
 
 We admit the right of any nation to prohibit the com- 
 merce of another into its own dominions, where there are no 
 treaties to the contrary ; but as this right belongs to one side 
 as well as the other, there is always a way left to bring 
 avarice and insolence to reason. 
 
 But the ground of security which lord Sheffield has chosen 
 to erect his policy upon, is of a nature which ought, and I 
 think must, awaken in every American a just and strong 
 sense of national dignity. Lord Sheffield appears to be 
 sensible, that in advising the British nation and parliament 
 to engross to themselves so great a part of the carrying trade 
 of America, he is attempting a measure which cannot suc- 
 ceed, if the politics of the United States be properly directed 
 to counteract the assumption. 
 
 But, says he, in his pamphlet, " It will be a long time 
 before the American states can be brought to act as a nation, 
 neither are they to be feared as such by us." 
 
 What is this more or less than to tell us, that while we 
 have no national system of commerce, the British will govern 
 our trade by their own laws and proclamations as they please. 
 The quotation discloses a truth too serious to be overlooked, 
 and too mischievous not to be remedied. 
 
 Among other circumstances which led them to this dis- 
 covery none could operate so effectually as the injudicious, 
 uncandid and indecent opposition made by sundry persons 
 in a certain state,' to the recommendations of congress last 
 winter, for an import duty of five per cent. It could not 
 but explain to the British a weakness in the national power 
 
 Rhode Island. — Editor. 
 
1783] THE AMERICAN CRISIS. 379 
 
 of America, and encourage them to attempt restrictions on 
 her trade, which otherwise they would not have dared to 
 hazard. Neither is there any state in the union, whose 
 policy was more misdirected to its interest than the state I 
 allude to, because her principal support is the carrying trade, 
 which Britain, induced by the want of a well-centred power 
 in the United States to protect and secure, is now attempt- 
 ing to take away. It fortunately happened (and to no state 
 in the union more than the state in question) that the terms 
 of peace were agreed on before the opposition appeared, 
 otherwise, there cannot be a doubt, that if the same idea of 
 the diminished authority of America had occurred to them 
 at that time as has occurred to them since, but they would 
 have made the same grasp at the fisheries, as they have 
 done at the carrying trade. 
 
 It is surprising that an authority which can be supported 
 with so much ease, and so little expense, and capable of such 
 extensive advantages to the country, should be cavilled at 
 by those whose duty it is to watch over it, and whose exist- 
 ence as a people depends upon it. But this, perhaps, will 
 ever be the case, till some misfortune awakens us into reason, 
 and the instance now before us is but a gentle beginning of 
 what America must expect, unless she guards her union with 
 nicer care and stricter honor. United, she is formidable, 
 and that with the least possible charge a nation can be so ; 
 separated, she is a medley of individual nothings, subject to 
 the sport of foreign nations. 
 
 It is very probable that the ingenuity of commerce may 
 have found out a method to evade and supersede the inten- 
 tions of the British, in interdicting the trade with the West 
 India islands. The language of both being the same, and 
 their customs well understood, the vessels of one country 
 may, by deception, pass for those of another. But this 
 would be a practice too debasing for a sovereign people to 
 stoop to, and too profligate not to be discountenanced. An 
 illicit trade, under any shape it can be placed, cannot be 
 carried on without a violation of truth. America is now 
 sovereign and independent, and ought to conduct her affairs 
 
38o 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1783 
 
 in a regular style of character. She has the same right to 
 say that no British vessel shall enter ports, or that no British 
 manufactures shall be imported, but in American bottoms, 
 the property of, and navigated by American subjects, as 
 Britain has to say the same thing respecting the West 
 Indies. Or she may lay a duty of ten, fifteen, or twenty 
 shillings per ton (exclusive of other duties) on every British 
 vessel coming from any port of the West Indies, where she 
 is not admitted to trade, the said tonnage to continue as 
 long on her side as the prohibition continues on the other. 
 
 But it is only by acting in union, that the usurpations of 
 foreign nations on the freedom of trade can be counteracted, 
 and security extended to the commerce of America. And 
 when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to 
 contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sub- 
 lime delight, our national honour must unite with our in- 
 terest to prevent injury to the one, or insult to the other. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 New-York, December g, 1783. 
 
XX. 
 
 RETREAT ACROSS THE DELAWARE.' 
 
 Fort Washington being obliged to surrender, by a 
 violent attack made by the whole British army, on Saturday 
 the i6th of November, the Generals determined to evacuate 
 Fort Lee, which being principally intended to preserve the 
 communication with Fort Washington, was become in a 
 manner useless. The stores were ordered to be removed 
 and great part of them was immediately sent off. The 
 enemy knowing the divided state of our army, and that the 
 terms of the soldiers inlistments would soon expire, con- 
 ceived the -design of penetrating into the Jersies, and hoped, 
 by pushing their successes, to be completely victorious. 
 Accordingly, on Wednesday morning, the 20th November, 
 it was discovered that a large body of British and Hessian 
 troops had crossed the North river, and landed about six 
 miles above the fort. As our force was inferior to that of 
 the enemy, the fort unfinished, and on a narrow neck of 
 land, the garrison was ordered to march for Hackensack 
 bridge, which, tho' much nearer the enemy than the fort, 
 they quietly suffered our troops to take possession of. The 
 principal loss suffered at Fort Lee was that of the heavy 
 cannon, the greatest part of which was left behind. Our 
 troops continued at Hackensack bridge and town that day 
 and half of the next, when the inclemency of the weather, 
 the want of quarters, and approach of the enemy, obliged 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 29, 1777, where it is preceded by a 
 note showing that its late appearance was owing to the paper having for some 
 time suspended publication. It was during this retreat that Paine wrote 
 "Crisis" No. I. — Editor. 
 
 381 
 
382 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776- 
 
 them to proceed to Aquaconack, and from thence to New- 
 ark ; a party being left at Aquaconack to observe the 
 motions of the enemy. At Newark our Httle army was 
 reinforced by Lord Sterling's and Col. Hand's brigades, 
 which had been stationed at Brunswick. Three days after 
 our troops left Hackensack, a body of the enemy crossed 
 the Passaic above Aquaconack, made their approaches 
 slowly towards Newark, and seemed extremely desirous that 
 we should leave the town without their being put to the 
 trouble of fighting for it. The distance from Newark to 
 Aquaconack is nine miles, and they were three days in 
 marching that distance. From Newark our retreat was to 
 Brunswick, and it was hoped the assistance of the Jersey 
 Militia would enable General Washington to make the 
 Banks of the Raritan the bounds of the enemy's progress ; 
 but on the ist of December the army was greatly weakened, 
 by the expiration of the terms of the enlistments of the 
 Maryland and Jersey Flying Camp ; and the militia not 
 coming in so soon as was expected, another retreat was the 
 necessary consequence. Our army reached Trenton on the 
 4th of December, continued there till the 7th, and then, on 
 the approach of the enemy, it was thought proper to pass 
 the Delaware. 
 
 This retreat was censured by some as pusillanimous and 
 disgraceful ; but, did they know that our army was at one 
 time less than a thousand effective men, and never more 
 than 4000, — that the number of the enemy was at least 
 8000, exclusive of their artillery and light horse, — that this 
 handful of Americans retreated slowly above 80 miles with- 
 out losing a dozen men — and that suffering themselves to 
 be forced to an action, would have been their entire destruc- 
 tion — did they know this, they would never have censured 
 it at all — they would have called it prudent — posterity will 
 call it glorious — and the names of Washington and Fabius 
 will run parallel to eternity. 
 
 The enemy, intoxicated with success, resolved to enjoy 
 the fruits of their conquest. Fearless of an attack from this 
 side the river, they cantoned in parties at a distance from 
 
177?] RETREAT ACROSS THE DELAWARE. 
 
 383 
 
 each other, and spread misery and desolation wherever they 
 went. Their rage and lust, their avarice and cruelty, knew 
 no bounds ; and murder, ravishment, plunder, and the most 
 brutal treatment of every sex and age, were the first acts 
 that signalized their conquest. And if such were their out- 
 rages on the partial subjection of a few villages — good God! 
 what consummate wretchedness is in store for that state over 
 which their power shall be fully established. 
 
 While the enemy were in this situation, their security was 
 increased by the captivity of General Lee, who was un- 
 fortunately taken in the rear of his army, December 13th, 
 at Baskinridge by a party of light-horse, commanded by 
 Col. Harcourt. The fortune of our arms was now at its 
 lowest ebb — but the tide was beginning to turn — the 
 militia of this city [Philadelphia] had joined General Wash- 
 ington — the junction of the two armies was soon after 
 effected — and the back countries of this state, aroused by 
 the distresses of America, poured out their yeomanry to 
 the assistance of the continental army. General Wash- 
 ington began now to have a respectable force, and resolved 
 not to be idle. On the 26th of December he crossed the 
 Delaware, surprised three regiments of Hessians, and with 
 little or no loss, took near a thousand prisoners.' 
 
 Soon after this manoeuvre, and while the enemy were col- 
 lecting their scattered troops at Princeton and Brunswick, 
 Gen. Washington crossed the Delaware with all his army. 
 On the 2d of January the enemy began to advance towards 
 Trenton, which they entered in the afternoon, and there being 
 nothing but a small creek between the two armies, a general 
 engagement was expected next day. This it was manifestly 
 our advantage to avoid ; and by a master stroke of general- 
 ship, Gen. Washington frees himself from his disagreeable 
 situation, and surprises a party of the enemy in Princeton, 
 which obliges their main body to return to Brunswick. 
 
 ' Washington's letter to Congress (December 27, 1776) is here inserted by the 
 editor of Ihe Pennsylvania yournal. — Editor. 
 
XXL 
 
 LETTER TO FRANKLIN, IN PARIS.' 
 
 York Town [Pa.], May i6, 1778. 
 
 Your favour of October 7th did not come to me till 
 March. I was at Camp when Capt. Folger arrived with the 
 Blank Packet.'' The private letters were, I believe, all safe. 
 Mr. [President] Laurens forwarded yours to York Town 
 where I afterwards received it. 
 
 The last winter has been rather barren of military events, 
 but for your amusement I send you a little history how I 
 have passed away part of the time. 
 
 The iith of September last I was preparing Dispatches 
 for you when the report of cannon at Brandywine inter- 
 rupted my proceeding. The event of that day you have 
 doubtless been informed of, which, excepting the Enemy 
 keeping the ground, may be deemed a drawn battle. Genl. 
 Washington collected his Army at Chester, and the Enemy's 
 not moving towards him next day must be attributed to 
 the disability they sustained and the burthen of their 
 wounded. On the i6th of the same month the two armies 
 were drawn up in order of battle near White Horse on the 
 Lancaster road, when a most violent and incessant storm of 
 rain prevented an action. Our Army sustained a heavy loss 
 in their Ammunition, the Cartouche Boxes, especially as 
 
 ' Copied from the original in the Franklin Papers, by favor of the Philo- 
 sophical Society, Philadelphia. Congress was in session at York, Pennsylvania, 
 where the house in which Paine kept the papers of the Foreign Affairs Com- 
 mittee of which he was Secretary, still exists. In it, no doubt, this letter to 
 Franklin was written. — Editor. 
 
 ' The dispatches sent by the American Commissioners from Paris had been 
 intercepted by the British. — Editor. 
 
 384 
 
1778] 
 
 LETTER TO FRANKLIN, IN PARIS. 
 
 385 
 
 they were not of the most seasoned leather, being no proof 
 against the almost incredible fury of the weather, which 
 'obliged Genl. Washington to draw his army up into the 
 'country until those injuries could be repaired, and a new 
 supply of ammunition procured. The enemy in the mean 
 time kept on the west side of Schuylkill. On Friday the 
 19th about one in the morning the first alarm of their cross- 
 ing was given, and the confusion, as you may suppose, 
 was very great. It was a beautiful still moonlight morning 
 and the streets as full of men, women and children as on a 
 market day. On the evening before I was fully persuaded 
 that unless something was done the City [Philadelphia] 
 would be lost ; and under that anxiety I went to Col. Bay- 
 ard, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and represented, as 
 I very particularly knew it, the situation we were in, and the 
 probability of saving the City if proper efforts were made 
 for that purpose. I reasoned thus — Genl. Washington was 
 about 30 Miles up the Schuylkill with an Army properly 
 collected waiting for Ammunition, besides which a rein- 
 forcement of 1500 men were marching from the North River 
 to join him ; and if only an appearance of defence be made in 
 the City by throwing up works at the heads of the streets, 
 it would make the Enemy very suspicious how they threw 
 themselves between the City and Genl. Washington, and be- 
 tween two Rivers, which must have been the case ; for 
 notwithstanding the knowledge which military gentlemen 
 are supposed to have, I observe they move exceedingly 
 cautiously on new ground, are exceedingly suspicious of 
 Villages and Towns, and more perplexed at seemingly little 
 things which they cannot clearly understand than at great 
 ones which they are fully acquainted with. And I think it 
 very probable that Genl. Howe would have mistaken our 
 necessity for a deep laid scheme and not have ventured 
 himself in the middle of it. But admitting that he 
 had, he must either have brought his whole Army down, or a 
 part of it. If the whole. Gen. Washington would have fol- 
 lowed him, perhaps the same day, in two or three days at 
 most, and our assistance in the City would have been 
 
 VOL. I.— 25 
 
386 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i???- 
 
 material. If only a part of it, we should have been a match 
 for them and Gen. Washington superior to those which re- 
 mained above. The chief thing was, whether the citizens 
 would turn out to defend the City. My proposal to Cols. 
 Bayard and Bradford was to call them together the next 
 morning, make them fully acquainted with the situation and 
 the means and prospect of preserving themselves, and that 
 the City had better voluntarily assess itself $50,000 for its 
 defence than suffer an Enemy to come into it. Cols. Bay- 
 ard and Bradford were in my opinion, and as Genl. Mifflin 
 was then in town, I next went to him, acquainted him with 
 our design, and mentioned likewise that if two or three 
 thousand men could be mustered up whether we might de- 
 pend on him to command them, for without some one to 
 lead, nothing could be done. He declined that part, not 
 being then very well, but promised what assistance he could. 
 A few hours after this the alarm happened. I went directly 
 to Genl. Mifflin but he had sett off, and nothing was done. 
 I cannot help being of opinion that the City might have 
 been saved, but perhaps it is better otherwise. 
 
 I staid in the City till Sunday [September 21,] having sent 
 my Chest and everything belonging to the Foreign Commit- 
 tee to Trenton in a Shallop. The Enemy did not cross the 
 river till the Wednesday following. Hearing on the Sunday 
 that Genl. Washington had moved to Sunderford I set off 
 for that place, but learning on the road that it was a mistake 
 and that he was six or seven miles above that place, I crossed 
 over to Southfield, and the next morning to Trenton, to see 
 after my Chest. On the Wednesday morning I intended 
 returning to Philadelphia, but was informed at Bristol of the 
 Enemy's crossing the Schuylkill. At this place I met Col. 
 Kirkbride of Pennsburg Manor, who invited me home with 
 him. On Friday the 26th a Party of the Enemy about 1500 
 took possession of the City, and the same day an account 
 arrived that Col. Brown had taken 300 of the Enemy at the 
 old french lines at Ticonderoga, and destroyed all their Water 
 Craft, being about 200 boats of different kinds. 
 
 On the 29th September I sett off for Camp without well 
 
[778] LETTER TO FRANKLIN, IN PARIS. 387 
 
 knowing where to find it, every day occasioning some move- 
 ment. I kept pretty high up the country, and being unwill- 
 ing to ask questions, not knowing what company I might be 
 in, I was there three days before I fell in with it. The Army 
 had moved about three miles lower down that morning. The 
 next day they made a movement about the same distance, 
 to the 21 Mile Stone on the Skippach Road, — Headquarters 
 at John Wince's. On the 3d October in the morning they 
 began to fortify the Camp, as a deception ; and about 9 at 
 night marched for German Town. The number of Conti- 
 nental Troops was between 8 and 9000, besides Militia, the 
 rest remaining as Guards for the security of Camp. Genl. 
 Greene, whose Quarters I was at, desired me to remain there 
 till morning.' The Skirmishing with the Pickets began soon 
 after. I met no person for several miles riding, which I con- 
 cluded to be a good sign ; after this I met a man on horse- 
 back who told me he was going to hasten on a supply of 
 ammunition, that the Enemy were broken and retreating 
 fast, which was true. I saw several country people with 
 arms in their hands running cross a field towards German 
 Town, within about five or six miles, at which I met several 
 of the wounded on waggons, horseback, and on foot. I 
 passed Genl. Nash on a litter made of poles, but did not 
 know him. I felt unwilling to ask questions lest the infor- 
 mation should not be agreeable, and kept on. About two 
 miles after this I passed a promiscuous crowd of wounded 
 and otherwise who were halted at a house to refresh. Col. 
 Biddle D. Q. M. G. was among them, who called after me, 
 that if I went farther on that road I should be taken, for that 
 the firing which I heard was the Enemy's. I never could, 
 and cannot now learn, and I believe no man can inform truly 
 the cause of that day's miscarriage. 
 
 The retreat was as extraordinary. Nobody hurried them- 
 selves. Every one marched his own pace. The Enemy kept 
 
 ' Paine had been appointed on Gen. Nathaniel Greene's staff at Fort Lee, 
 1776, and, after his appointment as Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, 
 his honorary position on the staff remained. General Greene was much attached 
 to him. — Editor. 
 
388 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i???- 
 
 a civil distance behind, sending every now and then a shot 
 after us, and receiving the same from us. That part of the 
 Army which I was with collected and formed on the Hill 
 on the side of the road near White Marsh Church ; the 
 enemy came within three quarters of a mile and halted. 
 The orders on Retreat were to assemble that night on the 
 back of Perkioming Creek, about 7 miles above the Camp, 
 which had orders to move. The Army had marched the 
 preceding night 14 miles, and having full 20 to march back 
 were exceedingly fatigued. They appeared to me to be 
 only sensible of a disappointment, not a defeat, and to be 
 more displeased at their retreating from German Town,, 
 than anxious to get to their rendezvous. I was so lucky 
 that night to get a little house about 4 miles wide of Perk- 
 ioming, towards which place in the morning I heard a con- 
 siderable firing, which distressed me exceedingly, knowing 
 that our army was much harassed and not collected. How- 
 ever, I soon relieved myself by going to see. They were 
 discharging their pieces, which, though necessary, prevented 
 several Parties going till next day. I breakfasted next morn- 
 ing at Genl. Washington's Quarters, who was at the same 
 loss with every other to account for the accidents of the day. 
 I remember his expressing his Surprise, by saying, that at 
 the time he supposed every thing secure, and was about 
 giving orders for the Army to proceed down to Philadel- 
 phia ; that he most unexpectedly saw a Part (I think of the 
 Artillery) hastily retreating. This partial Retreat was, I 
 believe, misunderstood, and soon followed by others. The 
 fog was frequently very thick, the Troops young and un- 
 used to breaking and rallying, and our men rendered sus- 
 picious to each other, many of them being in Red. A new 
 Army once disordered is difficult to manage, the attempt 
 dangerous. To this may be added a prudence in not put- 
 ting matters to too hazardous a tryal the first time. Men 
 must be taught regular fighting by practice and degrees, 
 and tho' the expedition failed, it had this good effect — that 
 they seemed to feel themselves more important after it than 
 before, as it was the first general attack they had ever made. 
 
1778] 
 
 LETTER TO FRANKLIN, IN PARIS. 
 
 389 
 
 I have not related the affair at Mr. Chew's house German 
 Town, as I was not there, but have seen it since. It cer- 
 tainly afforded the Enemy time to rally — yet the matter was 
 difficult. To have pressed on and left 500 Men in ye rear, 
 might by a change of circumstances been ruinous. To at- 
 tack them was a loss of time, as the house is a strong stone 
 building, proof against any 12 pounder. Genl. Washington 
 sent a flag, thinking it would procure their surrender and 
 expedite his march to Philadelphia; it was refused, and cir- 
 cumstances changed almost directly after. 
 
 I staid in Camp two days after the Germantown action, 
 and lest any ill impression should get among the Garrisons 
 at Mud Island and Red Bank, and the Vessels and Gallies 
 stationed there, I crossed over to the Jersies at Trenton and 
 went down to those places. I laid the first night on board 
 the Champion Continental Galley, who was stationed off the 
 mouth of the Schuylkill. The Enemy threw up a two Gun 
 Battery on the point of the river's mouth opposite the Pest 
 House. The next morning was a thick fog, and as soon as 
 it cleared away, and we became visible to each other, they 
 opened on the Galley, who returned the fire. The Commo- 
 dore made a signal to bring the Galley under the Jersey 
 shore, as she was not a match for the Battery, nor the Bat- 
 tery a sufficient Object for the Galley. One shot went 
 thro' the fore sail, which was all. At noon I went with 
 Col. [Christopher] Greene, who commanded at Red Bank 
 [fort,] over to fort Mififlin (Mud Island.) The Enemy 
 opened that day 2 two-gun Batteries, and a Mortar Battery, 
 on the fort. They threw about 30 shells into it that after- 
 noon, without doing any damage ; the ground being damp 
 and spongy, not above five or six burst ; not a man was 
 killed or wounded. I came away in the evening, laid on 
 board the Galley, and the next day came to Col. Kirkbride's 
 [Bordentown, N. J.] ; staid a few days and came again into 
 Camp. An Expedition was on foot the evening I got there 
 in which I went as Aid de Camp to Genl. [Nathaniel] 
 Greene, having a Volunteer Commission for that purpose. 
 The occasion was — a Party of the Enemy, about 1500, lay 
 
390 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i???- 
 
 over the Schuylkill at Grey's ferry. Genl. McDougall with 
 his Division was sent to attack them ; and Sullivan and 
 Greene with their Divisions were to favour the enterprise 
 by a feint on the City, down the Germantown road. They 
 set off about nine at night, and halted at daybreak, between 
 German Town and the City, the advanced Party at three 
 Miles Run. As I knew the ground I went with two light 
 horse to discover the Enemy's Picket, but the dress of the 
 light horse being white made them, I thought, too visible, 
 as it was then twilight ; on which I left them with my 
 horse, and went on foot, till I distinctly saw the Picket at 
 Mr. Dickerson's place — which is the nearest I have been to 
 Philadelphia since September, except once at Cooper's ferry, 
 as I went to the forts. Genl. Sullivan was at Dr. Redman's 
 house, and McDougall's beginning the attack was to be the 
 Signal for moving down to the City. But the Enemy either 
 on the approach of McDougall, or on information of it, 
 called in their Party, and the Expedition was frustrated. 
 
 A Cannonade, by far the most furious I ever heard, began 
 down the river, soon after daylight, the first Gun of which 
 we supposed to be the Signal ; but was soon undeceived, 
 there being no small Arms. After waiting two hours beyond 
 the time, we marched back ; the cannon was then less fre- 
 quent, but on the road between Germantown and White 
 Marsh we were stuned with a report as loud as a peal from 
 a hundred Cannon at once ; and turning around I saw a 
 thick smoke rising like a pillar, and spreading from the top 
 like a tree. This was the blowing up of the Augusta. I did 
 not hear the explosion of the Berlin. 
 
 After this I returned to Col. Kirkbride's, where I staid 
 about a fortnight, and set off again to Camp. The day after 
 I got there Genls. Greene, Wayne, and Cadwallader, with a 
 Party of light horse, were ordered on a reconnoitering Party 
 towards the forts. We were out four days and nights with- 
 out meeting with anything material. An East Indiaman, 
 whom the Enemy had cut down so as to draw but little 
 water, came up, without guns, while we were on foot on 
 Carpenter's Island, going to Province Island. Her Guns 
 
1778] LETTER TO FRANKLIN, IN PARIS. 39I 
 
 were brought up in the evening in a flat, she got in the rear 
 of the Fort, where few or no Guns could bear upon her, and 
 the next morning played on it incessantly. The night fol- 
 lowing the fort was evacuated. The obstruction the Enemy 
 met with from those forts, and the Chevaiix de /rise, was 
 extraordinary, and had it not been that the Western Chan- 
 nel, deepened by the current, being somewhat obstructed 
 by the Chevaux de frise in the main river, which enabled 
 them to bring up the light Indiaman Battery, it is a doubt 
 whether they would have succeeded at last. By that assist- 
 ance they reduced the fort, and got sufificient command of 
 the river to move some of the late sunk Chevaux de frise. 
 Soon after this the fort on Red Bank (which had bravely 
 repulsed the Enemy a little time before) was evacuated, the 
 Gallies ordered up to Bristol, and the Captains of such other 
 armed Vessels as thought they could not pass on the East- 
 ward side of Wind Mill Island, very precipitately set them 
 on fire. As I judged from this event that the Enemy would 
 winter in Philadelphia, I began to think of preparing for 
 York Town, which however I was willing to delay, hoping 
 that the ice would afford opportunity for new Manoeuvres. 
 But the reason passed very barrenly away. I staid at Col. 
 Kirkbride's till the latter end of January. Commodore 
 Haslewood, who commanded the remainder of the fleet at 
 Trenton, acquainted me with a scheme of his for burning 
 the Enemy's Shipping, which was by sending a charged 
 boat across the river from Cooper's ferry, by means of a 
 Rocket fixed in its stern. Considering the width of the 
 river, the tide, and the variety of accidents that might 
 change its direction, I thought the project trifling and in- 
 sufficient ; and proposed to him, that if he would get a boat 
 properly charged, and take a Batteau in tow, sufficient to 
 bring three or four persons off, that I would make one with 
 him and two other persons that might be relied on to go 
 down on that business. One of the Company, Capn. Blewer 
 of Philadelphia, seconded the proposal, but the Commodore, 
 and, what I was more surprized at, Col. Bradford, declined 
 it. The burning of part of the Delaware fleet, the precipi- 
 
392 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 [1777- 
 
 tate retreat of the rest, the little service rendered by them 
 and the great expence they were at, make the only national 
 blot in the proceedings of the last Campaign. I felt a strong 
 anxiety for them to recover their credit, which, among others, 
 was one motive for my proposal. After this I came to Camp, 
 and from thence to York Town, and published the Crisis No. 
 5, to Genl. Howe. I have begun No. 6, which I intend to 
 address to Lord North.' 
 
 I was not at Camp when Genl. Howe marched out on the 
 20th of December towards White Marsh. It was a most 
 contemptible affair, the threatenings and seeming fury he 
 sate out with, and haste and terror the Army retreated with, 
 make it laughable. I have seen several persons from Phila- 
 delphia who assure me that their coming back was a mere 
 uproar, and plainly indicated their apprehensions of a pur- 
 suit. Genl. Howe, in his Letter to Lord Go. Germain, dated 
 December 13th, represented Genl. Washington's Camp as a 
 strongly fortified place. There was not, Sir, a work thrown 
 up in it till Genl. Howe marched out, and then only here 
 and there a breastwork. It was a temporary Station. Be- 
 sides which, our men begin to think Works in the field of 
 little use. 
 
 Genl. Washington keeps his Station at the Valley forge. 
 I was there when the Army first began to build huts ; they 
 appeared to me like a family of Beavers: every one busy ; 
 some carrying Logs, others Mud, and the rest fastening 
 them together. The whole was raised in a few days, and is 
 a curious collection of buildings in the true rustic order. 
 
 As to Politics, I think we are now safely landed. The 
 apprehension which Britain must be under from her neigh- 
 bours must effectually prevent her sending reinforcements, 
 could she procure them. She dare not, I think, in the present 
 situation of affairs, trust her troops so far from home. 
 
 No Commissioners are yet arrived. I think fighting is 
 
 ' It was, however, addressed to the Commissioners sent from England. "Crisis" 
 V. was written at Lancaster, Pa. , in tlie house of the eminent engineer, William 
 Henry, Jr., who has left 011 record that Paine then explained to him the means 
 by which steam could Ise applied to navigation. See my " Life of Paine," vol. 
 ii., pp. 280, 408, 462. — Editor. 
 
1778] LETTER ro FRANKLIN, IN PARIS. 393 
 
 nearly over, for Britain, mad, wicked, and foolish, has done 
 her utmost. The only part for her now to act is frugality, 
 and the only way for her to get out of debt is to lessen her 
 Government expenses. Two Millions a year is a sufficient 
 allowance, and as much as she ought to expend exclusive 
 <jf the interest of her Debt. The affairs of England are ap- 
 proaching either to ruin or redemption. If the latter she 
 may bless the resistance of America. 
 
 For my own part, I thought it very hard to have the 
 Country set on fire about my Ears almost the moment I got 
 into it ; and among other pleasures I feel in having uniformly 
 done my duty, I feel that of not having discredited your 
 friendship and patronage. 
 
 I live in hopes of seeing and advising with you respecting 
 the History of the American Revolution, as soon as a turn 
 of Affairs make it safe to take a passage for Europe. Please 
 to accept my thanks for the Pamphlets, which Mr. Temple 
 Franklin tells me he has sent. They are not yet come to 
 hand. Mr. and Mrs. Bache ' are at Mainheim, near Lancas- 
 ter; I heard they were well a few days ago. I laid two 
 nights at Mr. Duffield's, in the winter. Miss Nancy Clifton 
 was there, who said the Enemy had destroyed or sold a 
 great part of your furniture. Mr. Duffield has since been 
 taken by them and carried into the City, but is now at his 
 own house.'' I just hear they have burnt Col. Kirkbride's, 
 Mr. Borden's, and some other houses at Borden Town.^ 
 Governor Johnstone (House of Commons) has written to 
 Mr. Robert Morris informing him of Commissioners coming 
 from England. The letter is printed in the Newspapers 
 
 ' Franklin's son-in-law and daughter, to whom he had introduced Paine when 
 he was emigrating to America, in 1774. — Editor. 
 
 ^ Rev. Dr. George Duffield, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, Phila- 
 delphia ; Associate Chaplain of the first Continental Congress, and afterwards 
 Chaplain in the Army. He was a famous revolutionary preacher, and tradition 
 says a " reward was set on his head." It will be seen, however, from Paine's 
 letter that Dr. Duffield suffered little molestation after falling into the enemy's 
 hands . — Editor. 
 
 ^ It was in the house of his friend, Col. Kirkbride, at Bordentown, N. J., 
 that Paine made the earliest model of the iron bridge he had invented. — Editor. 
 
394 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 without signature, and is dated February 5th, by which you 
 will know it. 
 
 Please, Sir, to accept this, rough and incorrect as it is, as 
 I have [not] time to copy it fair, which was my design when 
 I began it ; besides which, paper is most exceedingly scarce.' 
 
 I am. Dear Sir, your obliged and affectionate humble 
 Servt., 
 
 T. Paine. 
 
 The Honble. Benj. Franklin, Esqr. 
 
 ' It is a notable thing that the Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, 
 writing in his office to the United States Minister in Paris, mentions this scarcity 
 of paper. — Editor, 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE.' 
 
 TO SILAS DEANE, ESQ'RE. 
 
 After reading a few lines of your address to the Public 
 in the Pennsylvania Packet of December 6th, I can truly say, 
 that concern got the better of curiosity, and I felt an unwill- 
 ingness to go through it. Mr. Deane must very well know 
 that I have no interest in, so likewise am I no stranger to, 
 his negotiations and contracts in France, his difference with 
 his colleagues, the reason of his return to America, and the 
 matters which have occurred since. All these are to me 
 familiar things; and while I can but be surprized at the con- 
 duct of Mr. Deane, I lament the unnecessary torture he has 
 imprudently occasioned. That disagreements will arise be- 
 tween individuals, even to the perplexity of a State, is 
 nothing new, but that they should be outrageously brought 
 forward, by one whose station abroad should have taught 
 him a delicacy of manners and even an excess of prudence, 
 is something strange. The mind of a /kmi^g- public is quickly 
 alarmed and easily tormented. It not only suffers by the 
 stroke, but is frequently fretted by the cure, and ought 
 therefore to be tenderly dealt with, and 7ie7'er ought to be 
 trifled with. It feels first and reasons afterwards. Its 
 jealousy keeps vibrating between the accused and the 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Packet, December 15, 1778. The recent investiga- 
 tions of MM. Doniol, Delomanie, and others in France, and of Provost Stille 
 and others in America, concerning Beaumarchais, the subsidies of France to 
 the American Revolution, and the part acted by the American agent in Paris 
 (Deane), render Paine's papers on this subject of much historical interest. 
 They have not appeared in any previous collection of Paine's work=. — Edifry. 
 
 395 
 
396 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 accuser, and on a failure of proof always fixes on the latter. 
 Had Mr. Deane's address produced no uneasiness in the 
 body he appeals to, it would have been a sign, not of tran- 
 quility, but death : and though it is painful to see it unneces- 
 sarily tortured, it is pleasant to contemplate the living 
 cause. Mr. Deane is particularly circumstanced. He has 
 advantages which seldom happen, and when they do happen, 
 ought to be used with the nicest care and strictest honor. 
 He has the opportunity of telling his own tale and there is 
 none to reply to him. Two of the gentlemen he so freely 
 censures are three thousand miles off, and the other two he 
 so freely affronts are Members of Congress ; one of them 
 likewise. Col. R. H. Lee, is absent in Virginia; and however 
 painful may be their feelings, they must attend the progres- 
 sive conduct of the house. No Member in Congress can 
 individually take up the matter without becoming inconsist- 
 ent, and none of the public understands it sufficiently. With 
 these advantages Mr. Deane ought to be nicely and strictly 
 the gentleman, in his language, his assertions, his insinua- 
 tions and his facts. He presents himself, as his own evi- 
 dence, upon his honor, and any misrepresentation or disin- 
 genuous trifling in him will be fatal. 
 
 Mr. Deane begins his address with a general display of his 
 services in France, and strong insinuations against the Hon. 
 Arthur and William Lee, he brings his complaints down to 
 the time of signing the treaty, and from thence to the fourth 
 of March, when he received the following Order of Congress 
 which he inserts at large : 
 
 " In Congress, December 8, 1777. Whereas it is of the greatest 
 importance that Congress should at this critical juncture be well 
 informed of the state of affairs in Europe. And whereas Congress 
 have resolved that the Honorable Silas Deane, Esq, be recalled 
 from the Court of France, and have appointed another Commis- 
 sioner to supply his place there. Ordered, that the Committee for 
 foreign correspondence, write to the Honorable Silas Deane, and 
 direct him to embrace the first opportunity of returning to America, 
 and upon his arrival to repair with all possible dispatch to Congress." 
 Mr. Deane then says " and having placed my pape^-s and yours in 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 
 
 397 
 
 safety, I left Paris the 30th to embark for my native country, on 
 board that fleet which your great and generous ally sent out for 
 your assistance, in full confidence that I should not be detained on 
 the business I was sent for." ' 
 
 I am obliged to tell Mr. Deane that this arrangement is 
 somewhat uncandid, for on the reading it, it creates an 
 opinion and likewise carries an appearance that Mr. Deane 
 was only sent for, as the necessary and proper person from 
 whom Congress might obtain a history of their affairs, and 
 learn the character of their foreign Agents, Commissioners 
 and Ambassadors, after which Mr. Deane was to return. Is 
 Mr. Deane so little master of address as not to know that 
 censure may be politely conveyed by an apology ? For how- 
 ever Mr. Deane may chuse to represent or misrepresent the 
 matter, the truth is that Jiis contracts and engagements in 
 France, had so involved and embarrassed Congress, that they 
 found it necessary and resolved to recall him, that is ordered 
 him home, to give an account of his own conduct, and like- 
 wise to save him from a train of disagreeable consequences, 
 which must have arisen to him had he continued in France. 
 I would not be supposed to insinuate, that he might be 
 thought unsafe, but unfit. There is a certain and necessary 
 association of dignity between the person and the employ- 
 ment which perhaps did not appear when Mr. Deane was 
 considered the Ambassador. His address to the public con- 
 firms the justness of this remark. The spirit and language 
 of it differ exceedingly from that cool penetrating judgment 
 and refinement of manners and expression which fits, and is 
 absolutely necessary in, the Plenipotentiary. His censures 
 are coarse and vehement, and when he speaks of himself, he 
 begs, nay almost weeps to be believed. — It was the intricacy 
 of Mr. Deane's own official affairs, his multiplied contracts 
 in France before the arrival of Dr. Franklin or any of the 
 other Commissioners ; his assuming authorities, and enter- 
 ing into engagements, in the time of his Commercial Agency, 
 for which he had neither commission nor instruction, and 
 
 ' The italics are Paine's. — Editor. 
 
398 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 the general unsettled state of his accounts, that were among 
 the reasons that produced the motion for recalling and super- 
 seding him. — Why then does Mr. Deane endeavour to lead 
 the attention of the public to a wrong object, and bury the 
 real reasons, under a tumult of new and perhaps unnecessary 
 suspicions ? 
 
 Mr. Deane in the beginning of his address to the public 
 says, " What 1 write to you, I would have said to your 
 Representatives, their ears have been shut against me, by an 
 attention to matters, which my respect for them induces me 
 to believe were of ' more importance' " 
 
 In this paragraph Mr. Deane's excuse becomes his ac- 
 cuser, and his justification is his offence ; for if the greater 
 importance of other matters is supposed and given by him- 
 self as a reason, why he was not heard, it is likewise a suf- 
 ficient reason, why he ought not to have complained that 
 " their ears were shut,'' and a good reason why he ought to 
 have waited a more convenient time. But besides the in- 
 consistency of this charge, there is something in it that will 
 suffer by an inquiry, and I am sorry that Mr. Deane's im- 
 prudence has obliged me to mention a circumstance which 
 affects his honour as a gentleman, his reputation as a man. 
 In order to be clearly understood on this head, I am 
 obliged to go back with Mr. Deane to the time of his quit- 
 ting France on account of his being recalled. " I left Paris," 
 says Mr. Deane, "on the 30th of March, 1778 to embark for 
 my native country, having placed ' my papers and yours in 
 safety! " Would any body have supposed that a gentleman 
 in the character of a Commercial Agent, and afterwards in 
 that of a public Minister, would return home after seeing 
 himself both recalled and superseded, and not bring with 
 him his papers and vouchers? And why he has done so 
 must appear to every one exceedingly unaccountable. Af- 
 ter Mr. Deane's arrival he had two audiences with Congress 
 in August last, in neither of which did he offer the least 
 charge against the gentleman he has so loudly upbraided in 
 his address to the public : neither has he yet accounted for 
 his expenditure of public money, which, as it might have 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 
 
 399 
 
 been done by a written state of accounts, might for that 
 reason have been done at any time, and was a part of the 
 business which required an audience. 
 
 There is something curiously intricate and evasive in Mr. 
 Deane's saying in his address, that he left France " in full 
 confidence that he should not be detained on the business he 
 was sent for." And the only end it can answer to him is to 
 furnish out a present excuse for not producing his papers. 
 Mr. Deane had no right, either from the literal or implied 
 sense of the resolution itself, to suppose that he should 
 return to France in his former public character, or that he 
 was "sent for," as he stiles it, on any other personal business 
 than that which related to himself. Mr. Deane must be 
 sensible, if he will but candidly reflect, that as an agent 
 only, he greatly exceeded his line, and embarrassed the 
 Congress, the continent, the army and himself. 
 
 Mr. Deane's address to the public is dated " Nov." — but 
 without any day of the month ; and here a new scene of 
 ungenteel evasion opens. On the last day of that month, 
 viz. the 30th, he addressed a letter to Congress signifying 
 his intentions of returning to France, and pressing to have 
 his affairs brought to some conclusion, which, I presume, on 
 account of the absence of his papers could not well be done; 
 therefore Mr. Deane's address to the public must be written 
 before the 30th, and consequently before his letter to Con- 
 gress, which carries an appearance of its being only a feint 
 in order to make a confused diversion in his favor at the 
 time his affairs should come under consideration. 
 
 What favours this opinion, is that on the next day, that 
 is December 1st, and partly in consequence of Mr. Deane's 
 letter to them of the 30th, the Congress entered the follow- 
 ing resolution. 
 
 "In Congress December ist, 1778. — Resolved, That after to- 
 morrow Congress will meet two hours at least each evening, be- 
 ginning at six o'clock, Saturday evening excepted, until the 
 present state of their foreign affairs be fully considered." 
 
 As an enquiry into the state of foreign affairs naturally 
 
400 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and effectually included all and every part of Mr. Deane's, 
 he was thereupon regularly notified by letter to attend ; and 
 on the fourth he wrote again to Congress, acquainting them 
 with his having received that notification and expressed his 
 thanks ; yet on the day following, viz. the fifth he published 
 his extraordinary address in the newspapers, which, on 
 account of its unsupported matter, the fury of its language 
 and temper, and its inconsistency with other parts of his con- 
 duct, is incompatible with that character (which on account 
 of the station he had been honoured with, and the sense that 
 should have impressed him in consequence thereof) he ought 
 to have maintained. 
 
 On the appearance of Mr. Deane's address of the fifth, the 
 public became jealously uneasy, and well they might. They 
 were unacquainted with the train of circumstances that pre- 
 ceded and attended it, and were naturally led to suppose, 
 that Mr. Deane, on account of the station he had filled, must 
 be too much a gentleman to deceive them. It was Mr. 
 Deane's particular fortune to grow into consequence from 
 accident. Sent to France as a Commercial Agent under the 
 appointment of a Committee, he rose as a matter of con- 
 venience to the station of a Commissioner of Congress ; and 
 with what dignity he might fill out that character, the public 
 will judge from his conduct since ; and perhaps be led to 
 substitute convenience as an excuse for the appointment. 
 
 A delicacy of difficulties likewise arose in Congress on the 
 appearance of the said address ; for setting aside the matter, 
 the irregular manner of it, as a proceeding, was a breach of 
 decency ; and as Mr. Deane after being notified to attend 
 an enquiry into foreign afTairs, had circumstantially with- 
 drawn from that mode, by appealing to the public, and at 
 the same time said " their ears ivere shut against him" it was 
 therefore given as a reason by some, that to take any notice 
 of Mr. Deane in the interim would look like suppressing his 
 public information, if he had any to give ; and consequently 
 would imply dishonour on the House, — and that as he had 
 transferred his case to the public, before it had been rejected 
 by the Congress, he ought therefore to be left with the 
 
1778] 
 
 THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 
 
 401 
 
 public, till he had done with them and they with him ; and 
 that whether his information was true or not, it was an insult 
 on the people, because it was making them the ladder, on 
 which he insulted their representatives, by an unjust com- 
 plaint of neglect. Others who might anticipate the anxiety 
 of the public, and apprehend discontents would arise from a 
 supposed inattention, were for adopting measures to prevent 
 them, and of consequence inclined to a different line of con- 
 duct, and this division of sentiment on what might be 
 supposed the honour of the House, occasioned the then 
 President, Henry Laurens, Esq., who adhered to the former 
 opinion, to resign the chair. The majority on the sentiments 
 was a single vote. In this place I take the liberty of re- 
 marking, for the benefit of succeeding generations, that the 
 Honourable President before mentioned, having filled that 
 station for one year in October last, made his resignation of 
 the Presidency at the expiration of the year, lest any example 
 taken from his continuance might have become inconvenient. 
 I have an additional satisfaction in mentioning this useful 
 historical anecdote, because it is done wholly unknown to 
 the gentleman to whom it relates, or to any other gentleman 
 in or out of Congress. He was replaced by a unanimous 
 vote. But to return to my narration — 
 
 In the Pennsylvania Packet of December 8th, Francis 
 Lightfoot Lee, Esq., brother to the gentleman so rudely 
 treated in Mr. Deane's publication, and the only one now 
 present, put in a short address to the public, requesting a 
 suspension of their judgment till the matter could be fully 
 investigated by those whose immediate business it became ; 
 meaning Congress. And Mr. Deane in the paper of the loth 
 published another note, in which he informs, " that the Hon- 
 orable Congress did, on Saturday morning the 5th instant, 
 assign Monday evening to hear him." But why does Mr. 
 Deane conceal the resolution of Congress of December 1st, in 
 consequence of which he was notified to attend regularly an 
 enquiry into the state of foreign affairs? By so doing, he 
 endeavours to lead the public into a belief that his being 
 heard on Monday was extorted purely in consequence of his 
 
 VOL. I. — 26 
 
402 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [177S 
 
 address of the 5th, and that otherwise he should not have 
 been heard at all. I presume Congress are anxious to hear 
 him, and to have his accounts arranged and settled ; and if 
 this should be the case, why did Mr. Deane leave his papers 
 in France, and now complain that his affairs are not con- 
 cluded? In the same note Mr. Deane likewise says, "that 
 Congress did on that evening, Monday, resolve, that Mr. 
 Deane do report in writing, as soon as may be, his agency 
 of their affairs in Europe, together with any intelligence 
 respecting their foreign affairs which he may judge proper." 
 But why does Mr. Deane omit giving the remaining part of 
 the resolution, which says, " That Mr. Deane be informed, 
 that if he has any thing to communicate to Congress in the 
 interim of immediate importance, that he should be heard to- 
 morrow evening." I can see no propriety, in omitting this 
 part, unless Mr. Deane concluded that by publishing it he 
 might put a quick expiration to his credit, by his not being 
 able to give the wondrous information he had threatened in 
 his address. In the conclusion of this note, Mr. Deane like- 
 wise says, " I therefore conceive that I cannot, with propriety, 
 continue my narrative at present. In the mean time I sub- 
 mit it to the good sense of the public, whether I ought to 
 take any notice of a publication signed Francis Lightfoot 
 Lee, opposed to stubborn and undeniable facts." 
 
 Thus far I have compared Mr. Deane with himself, and 
 whether he has been candid or uncandid, consistent or in- 
 consistent, I leave to the judgment of those who read it. 
 Mr. Deane cannot have the least right to think that I am 
 moved by any party difference or personal antipathy. He 
 is a gentleman with whom I never had a syllable of dispute, 
 nor with any other person upon his account. Who are his 
 friends, his connections, or his foes, is wholly indifferent to 
 me, and what I have written will be a secret to everybody 
 till it comes from the press. The convulsion which the 
 public were thrown into by his address will, I hope, justify 
 my taking up a matter in which I should otherwise have 
 been perfectly silent ; and whatever may be its fate, my 
 intention is a good one ; besides which there was no other 
 
1778] THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 403 
 
 person who knew the affair sufficiently, or knowing it, could 
 confidently do it, and yet it was necessary to be done. 
 
 I shall now take a short review of what Mr. Deane calls 
 '■'■stubborn and undeniable facts." Mr, Deane must be ex- 
 ceedingly unconversant both with terms and ideas, not to 
 distinguish even between a wandering probability and a 
 fact ; and between a forced inclination and a proof ; for ad- 
 mitting every circumstance of information in Mr. Dcane's 
 address to be true, they are still but circumstances, and his 
 deductions from them are hypothetical and inconclusive. 
 
 Mr. Deane has involved a gentleman in his unlimited cen- 
 sure, whose fidelity and personal qualities I have been well 
 acquainted with for three years past ; and in respect to an 
 absent injured friend, Col. Richard Henry Lee, I will ven- 
 ture to tell Mr. Deane, that in any stile of character in which 
 a gentleman may be spoken of, Mr. Deane would suffer by 
 a comparison. He has one defect which perhaps Mr. Deane 
 is acquainted with, the misfortune of having but one hand. 
 
 The charges likewise which he advances against the Hon- 
 orable Arthur and William Lee, are to me, circumstantial 
 evidences of Mr. Deane's unfitness for a public character; 
 for it is the business of a foreign minister to learn other 
 men's secrets and keep their own. Mr. Deane has given a 
 short history of Mr. Arthur Lee and Dr. Berkenhout in 
 France, and he has brought the last mentioned person again 
 on the stage in America. There is something in this so ex- 
 ceedingly weak, that I am surprised that any one who would 
 be thought a man of sense, should risk his reputation upon 
 such a frivolous tale ; for the event of the story, if any can 
 be produced from it, is greatly against himself. 
 
 He says that a correspondence took place in France be- 
 tween Dr. Berkenhout and Mr. [Arthur] Lee ; that Mr. Lee 
 shewed part of the correspondence to Dr. Franklin and him- 
 self ; and that in order to give the greater weight to Dr. 
 Berkenhout's remarks he gave them to understand, that Dr. 
 Berkenhout was in the secrets of the British Ministry. What 
 Mr. Deane has related this for, or what he means to infer 
 from it, I cannot understand ; for the political inference 
 
404 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 ought to be, that if Mr. Lee really thought that Dr. Berken- 
 hout was in the secrets of the British Ministry, he was there- 
 fore the very person with whom Mr. Lee ought, as an 
 Ambassador, to cultivate a correspondence, and introduce 
 to his colleagues, in order to discover what those secrets 
 were, that they might be transmitted to America ; and if 
 Mr. Deane acted otherwise, he unwisely mistook his own 
 character. However, this I can assure Mr. Deane, upon my 
 own knowledge, that more and better information has come 
 from Mr. Lee than ever came from himself ; and how or 
 where he got it, is not a subject fit for public enquiry : unless 
 Mr. Deane means to put a stop to all future informations. I 
 can likewise tell Mr. Deane, that Mr. Lee was particularly 
 commissioned by a certain body, and that under every sacred 
 promise of inviolable secrecy, to make discoveries in Eng- 
 land, and transmit them. Surely Mr. Deane must have left 
 his discretion with his papers, or he would see the imprudence 
 of his present conduct. 
 
 In the course of Mr. Deane's narrative he mentions Dr. 
 Berkenhout again. " In September last, " says he," I was in- 
 formed that Dr. Berkenhout, who I have before mentioned, 
 was in gaol in this city. I confess I was surprised, consider- 
 ing what I have already related, that this man should have 
 the audacity to appear in the capital of America." But why 
 did not Mr. Deane confront Dr. Berkenhout while he was 
 here ? Why did he not give information to Congress or to 
 the Council before whom he was examined, and by whom 
 he was discharged and sent back for want of evidence against 
 him ? Mr. Deane was the only person that knew anything 
 of him, and it looks very unfavorable in him that he was 
 silent when he should have spoke, if he had anything to say, 
 and now he has gone has a great deal to tell, and that about 
 nothing. " I immediately, " says Mr. Deane," sate myself 
 about the measures which I conceived necessary to investigate 
 his plans and designs." This is indeed a trifling excuse, for it 
 wanted no great deal of setting about, the whole secret as 
 well as the means being with himself, and half an hour's in- 
 formation might have been sufficient. What Mr. Deane 
 means by " investigating his plans and designs," I cannot 
 
1778] THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 405 
 
 understand, unless he intended to have the Doctor's nativity 
 cast by a conjurer. Yet this trifling round-about story is 
 one of Mr. Deane's " stubborn and undeniable facts." 
 However it is thus far a fact, that Mr. Deane kept it a secret 
 till the man was gone. 
 
 He likewise entertains us with a history of what passed at 
 New York between Dr. Berkenhout and Governor Johnstone ; 
 but as he must naturally think that his readers must wonder 
 how he came by such knowledge, he prudently supplies the 
 defect by saying " that Providence in whom we put our trust, 
 ' unfolded it to me'''' — revealed it, I suppose. As to what Dr. 
 Berkenhout was, or what he came for, is a matter of very 
 little consequence to us. He appeared to be a man of good 
 moral character, of a studious turn of mind, and genteel 
 behaviour, and whether he had whimsically employed him- 
 self, or was employed on a foolish errand by others, is a 
 business not worth our enquiring after ; he got nothing here, 
 and to send him back was both necessary and civil. He in- 
 troduced himself to General Maxwell at Elizabeth-Town, as 
 knowing Mr. Arthur Lee ; the General wrote a letter of 
 information to Col. R. H. Lee who presented the same to 
 Congress. But it does not appear that Mr. Deane moved in 
 the matter till a considerable time after the Doctor was sent 
 off, and then Mr. Deane put a series of queries in the news- 
 paper to know why he was let go. I little thought at that 
 time that the queries were Mr. Deane's, as they really ap- 
 peared to me to be the produce of some little mind. 
 
 Mr. Deane likewise tells us that Mr. A. Lee was suspected 
 by some of our best friends because of his acquaintance with 
 Lord Shelburne ; and perhaps some Mr. Deane in England 
 might find out that Lord Shelburne ought to be suspected 
 because of his acquaintance with Mr. Lee. Mr. Deane ap- 
 pears to me neither to understand characters nor business, 
 or he would not mention Lord Shelburne on such an occasion 
 whose uniform and determined opposition to the Ministry 
 appears to be known to everybody but Mr. Deane.' Mr. 
 
 ' Shelburne (afterwards Lord Lansdowne) was the friend of Dr. Priestley. 
 George III. detested Lord Shelburne, whom he described as "the Jesuit of 
 Berkeley-Square." When Paine was in England in 1787-9 Lansdowne was his 
 friend. — Editor. 
 
406 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 Deane has given us a quotation from a letter [of Arthur 
 Lee's] which he never saw, and had it likewise from a gentle- 
 man in France who had never seen it, but who had heard it 
 from a correspondent in England to whom it was not sent ; 
 and this traditionary story is another of Mr. Deane's stubborn 
 and undeniable facts. But even supposing the quotation to 
 be true, the only inference from it is naturally this, *' That 
 the sooner England makes peace with America the better it 
 will be for her." Had the intimation been given before 
 the treaty with France was signed, it might have been justly 
 censured, but being given after, it can have but one meaning, 
 and that a clear one. He likewise says, that Charles Fox 
 " declared pointedly in the House of Commons," that the 
 treaty between France and America was signed, and as 
 Charles Fox knows Lord Shelburne, and Lord Shelburne 
 Mr. Lee, therefore Mr. Deane infers, " as a stubborn and un- 
 deniable fact," that Mr. Lee must tell it. Does Mr. Deane 
 know that nothing can be long a secret in a Court, especially 
 where the countries are but twenty miles apart, and that 
 Charles Fox, from his ingratiating manners, is almost univer- 
 sally known in France ? 
 
 Mr. Deane likewise supposes that William Lee, Esquire 
 continues an Alderman of London, and either himself or 
 some other gentleman since, under the signature of Obser- 
 VATOR, says that " he has consulted, on this point, the Royal 
 Kalendar or Annual Register," and finds it true. To consult 
 a Kalendar to find out a name must be a learned consulta- 
 tion indeed. An Alderman of London is neither a place at 
 Court nor a place of profit, and if the city chuses not to ex- 
 pel him, it is a proof they are very good whigs ; and this is 
 the only proved fact in Mr. Deane's Address. But there is, 
 through the whole of it, a barbarous, unmanly and unsup- 
 ported attack on absent characters, which are, perhaps, far 
 superior to his own ; an eagerness to create suspicions wher- 
 ever he can catch an opportunity ; an over-strained desire to 
 be beheved ; and an affected air of giving importance to 
 trifles. He accuses Mr. [Arthur] Lee of incivility to the 
 French nation. Mr. Lee, if I can judge by his writing, is 
 
1773] THE AFFAIR OF SILAS DEANE. 407 
 
 too much both of a scholar and a gentleman to deserve such 
 a censure. He might with great justice complain of Mr. 
 Deane's contracts with individuals ; for we are fully sensible, 
 that the gentlemen which have come from France since the 
 arrival of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee in that country, are of a 
 different rank to the generality of those with whom Mr. 
 Deane contracted when alone. And this observation will, 
 I believe explain that charge no ways to Mr, Deane's 
 honour. 
 
 Upon the whole, I cannot help considering this publica- 
 tion as one of the most irrational performances I ever met 
 with. He seems in it to pay no regard to individual safety, 
 nor cares who he may involve in the consequences of his 
 quarrel. He mentions names without restraint, and stops 
 at no discovery of persons. A public man, in Mr. Deane's 
 former character, ought to be as silent as the grave ; for who 
 would trust a person with a secret who shewed such a talent 
 for revealing ? Under the pretence of doing good he is doing 
 mischief, and in a tumult of his own creating, will expose 
 and distress himself. 
 
 Mr. Deane's Address was calculated to catch several sorts 
 of people: The rash, because they are fond of fiery things ; 
 the curious, because they are fond of curiosities ; the weak, 
 because they easily believe ; the good, because they are un- 
 suspicious ; the tory, because it comforts his discontent ; 
 the high whig, because he is jealous of his rights ; the man 
 of national refinement, because it obscurely hints at national 
 dishonor. The clamor, it is true, has been a popular one, 
 and so far as it is the sign of a living principle, it is pleasant 
 to see it ; but when once understood it will amount to noth- 
 ing, and with the rapidity that it rose it will descend. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, Dec. 14, 1788. 
 
 P,S, — The writer of this has been waited on by a gentle- 
 man, whom he supposes, by his conversation, to be a friend 
 of Mr, Deane's, and whom Mr, Deane, but not any other 
 person, is welcome to know whenever he pleases. The 
 
408 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 gentleman informed the writer, that some persons, whom he 
 did not mention, had threatened most extraordinary violence 
 against him (the writer of this piece) for taking the matter 
 up; the writer asked, what, whether right or wrong? and 
 likewise informed the gentleman, that he had done it solely 
 with a view of putting the public right in a matter which 
 they did not understand — that the threat served to increase 
 the necessity, and was therefore an excitement to his doing 
 it. The gentleman, after expressing his good opinion of, 
 and personal respect for, the writer, withdrew. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR.' 
 
 Hoping this to be my last on the subject of Mr. Deane's 
 conduct and address, I shall therefore make a few remarks 
 on what has already appeared in the papers, and furnish you 
 with some interesting and explanatory facts ; and whatever 
 I may conceive necessary to say of myself will conclude the 
 piece. As it is my design to make those that can scarcely 
 read understand, I shall therefore avoid every literary orna- 
 ment, and put it in language as plain as the alphabet. 
 
 I desire the public to understand that this is not a personal 
 dispute between Mr. Deane and me, but is a matter of 
 business in which they are more interested than they seemed 
 at first to be apprised of. I rather wonder that no person 
 was curious enough to ask in the papers how affairs stood 
 between Congress and Mr. Deane as to money matters? 
 And likewise, what it was that Mr. Deane has so repeatedly 
 applied to the Congress for without success ? Perhaps those 
 two Questions, properly asked, and justly answered, would 
 have unravelled a great part of the mystery, and explained 
 the reason why he threw out, at such 2, particular time, such 
 a strange address. They might likewise have asked, whether 
 there had been any former dispute between Mr. Deane and 
 Arthur or William Lee, and what it was about ? Mr. Deane's 
 round-about charges against the Lees, are accompanied with 
 a kind of rancor, that differs exceedingly from public-spirited 
 zeal. For my part, I have but a very slender opinion of 
 those patriots, if they can be called such, who never appear 
 till provoked to it by a personal quarrel, and then blaze 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Packet oi December 31, 1778, and January 2, 5, 7, 
 and g, 1779. — Editor. 
 
 40q 
 
4IO THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 away, the hero of their own tale, and in a whirhvind of 
 their own raising ; such men are very seldom what the 
 populace mean by the word " staunch," and it is only by a 
 continuance of service that any public can become a judge 
 of a man's principles. 
 
 When I first took up this matter, I expected at least ta 
 be abused, and I have not been disappointed. It was the 
 last and only refuge they had, and, thank God, I had noth- 
 ing to dread from it. I might have escaped it if I would, 
 either by being silent, or by joining in the tumult. A 
 gentleman, a Member of Congress, an Associate, I believe, of 
 Mr. Deane's, and one whom I would wish had not a hand in 
 the piece signed Plain Truth, very politely asked me, a few 
 days before Common Sense to Mr. Deane came out, whether 
 on that subject I was pro or con ? I replied, I knew no pro 
 or con, nor any other sides than right or wrong. 
 
 Mr. Deane had objected to my putting the signature of 
 Common Sense to my address to him, and the gentleman 
 who came to my lodgings urged the same objections ; their 
 reasons for so doing may, I think, be easily guessed at. 
 The signature has, I believe, an extensive reputation, and 
 which, I trust, will never be forfeited while in my possession. 
 As I do not chuse to comply with the proposal that was 
 made to me for changing it, therefore Mr. Plain Truth, as 
 he calls himself, and his connections, may endeavour to take 
 off from the credit of the signature, by a torrent of low- 
 toned abuse without wit, matter or sentiment. 
 
 Had Mr. Deane confined himself to his proper line of 
 conduct, he would never have been interrupted by me, or 
 exposed himself to suspicious criticism. But departing from 
 this, he has thrown himself on the ocean of the public, where 
 nothing but the firmest integrity can preserve him from 
 becoming a wreck. A smooth and flattering tale may do 
 for a while, but unless it can be supported with facts, and 
 maintained by the most incontestible proof, it will fall to 
 the ground, and leave the inventor in the lurch. 
 
 On the first view of things, there is something in Mr. 
 Deane's conduct which must appear mysterious to every 
 
1778] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 4II 
 
 disinterested man, if he will but give himself time to reflect. 
 Mr. Deane has been arrived in America, and in this city, 
 upwards of five months, and had he been possessed of any 
 secrets which affected, or seemed to affect, the interest of 
 America, or known any kind of treachery, misconduct, or 
 neglect of duty in any of the other Commissioners, or in any 
 other person, he ought, as an honest man, to have disclosed 
 it immediately on his arrival, either to the Committee for 
 Foreign Affairs, of which I have the honor to be Secretary, 
 or to Congress. Mr. Deane has done neither, notwithstand- 
 ing he has had two audiences with Congress in August last, 
 and might at any time have laid his written information before 
 them, or before the Committee, through whom all his foreign 
 concerns had passed, and in whose hands, or rather in mine, 
 are lodged all his political correspondence, and those of other 
 Commissioners. 
 
 From an unwillingness to expose Mr. Deane and his ad- 
 herents too much, I contented myself in my first piece with 
 showing their inconsistency rather than their intentions, and 
 gave them room to retract by concealing their discredit. It 
 is necessary that I should now speak a plainer language. 
 
 The public have totally mistaken this matter, and when 
 they come to understand it rightly, they will see it in a very 
 different light to what they at first supposed it. They 
 seemed to conceive, and great pains have been taken to 
 make them believe, that Mr. Deane had repeatedly applied 
 to Congress to obtain an audience, in order to lay before 
 them some great and important discoveries, and that the 
 Congress had refused to hear such information. It is, Gentle- 
 men, no such thing. If Mr. Deane or any one else had told 
 you so, they have imposed upon you. 
 
 If you attend to a part of Mr. Deane's Address to you, 
 you will find there, even from his own account, what it was 
 that he wanted an interview with Congress for, viz. to get 
 some how or other through his own perplext affairs, and obtain 
 an audience of leave and departure that he might embark for 
 France, and which if he could have obtained, there is every 
 reason to believe, he would have quitted America in silence, 
 
412 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 and that the public would never have been favored with his 
 address, nor I plagued with the trouble of putting it to rights. 
 The part which I allude to is this " and having placed my 
 papers and yours in safety, I left Paris, in full confidence that 
 I sJiould not be detained in America,'' to which he adds this 
 curious expression, " on the business I was sent for." To 
 be detained" at home is a new transposition of ideas, 
 especially in a man who had been absent from it two years 
 and a half, and serves to show that Mr. Deane was become 
 so wonderfully foreignized that he had quite forgotten poor 
 Connecticut. 
 
 As I shall have frequent occasions to make use of the 
 name of Congress, I request you to suspend all kind of 
 opinions on any supposed obligations which I am said to lie 
 under to that body, till you hear what I have to say in the 
 conclusion of this address, for if Mr. Deane's accounts stand 
 as clear with them as mine do, he might very easily have 
 brought his papers from France. I have several times re- 
 peated, and I again repeat it, that my whole design in taking 
 this matter up, was and is, to prevent the public being 
 imposed upon, and the event must and will convince them 
 of it. 
 
 I now proceed to put the affiair into such a straight line 
 that you cannot misunderstand it. 
 
 Mr. Deane wrote his address to you some time in Novem- 
 ber, and kept it by him in order to publish or not as it 
 might suit his purpose.* On the 30th day of the same 
 
 * This is fully proved by the address itself which is dated November, but 
 without any day of the month, and the same is likewise acknowledged by his 
 blundering friend Mr. Plain Truth. His words are, " Mr. Deane, it is true, 
 wrote his address " (dated November) " previous to his application to Congress, 
 of the 30th of November." He certainly could not write it after, there being, 
 unfortunately for him, but thirty days in that month ; " but," continues Mr. 
 Plain Truth, " he was determined notwithstanding some forceable reasons, which 
 the vigilant part of the publick are at no loss to guess, not to publish it if he could 
 be assured of an earfy audience with Congress." Mr. Deane was in a con- 
 founded hurry, sure that he could not submit to be detained in America till the 
 next day, for on that very next day, December ist, in consequence of his letter 
 the Congress, " Resolved to spend two hours each day, beginning at six in the 
 evening, till the state of their foreign affairs should be fully ascertained." This 
 
1778] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 413 
 
 month he applied by letter to Congress, and what do you 
 think it was for? To give them any important information? 
 No. To " tell them what he has wrote to you ? " No, it was 
 to acquaint them that he had missed agreeable opporttinitics 
 of returning to France; dismal misfortune indeed ! And that 
 the season (of the year) is now becoming as pressing as the 
 business which calls him back, and therefore he earnestly 
 entreated the attention of Congress, to what ? To his great in- 
 formation ? No, to his important discoveries ? No, but to 
 his own situation and requests. These are, I believe, his own 
 words. 
 
 Now it only remains to know whether Mr. Deane's official 
 affairs were in a fit position for him to be permitted to quit 
 America or not ; and I trust, that when I tell you, I have 
 been secretary for foreign affairs almost two years, you will 
 allow that I must be some judge of the matter. 
 
 You have already heard what Mr. Deane's application to 
 Congress was for. And as one of the public, under the well 
 known signature of Common Sense, I humbly conceive, that 
 the Congress have done that which as a faithful body of 
 
 naturally included, all and every part of Mr. Deane's affairs, information and 
 everything else, and it is impossible but he (connected as he is with some late 
 and present Members of Congress) should knovsr immediately about it. 
 
 I should be glad to be informed what those " forceable reasons" are at which 
 the vigilant part of the public "guess " and likewise how early Mr. Deane 
 expected an audience, since the resolution of the next day appears to have been 
 too late. I am suspicious that it was too soon, and that Mr. Deane and his 
 connections were not prepared for such an early examination notwithstanding 
 he had been here upwards of five months, and if the thing is to be "guessed" at 
 at last, and that by the vigilant part of the public, I think I have as great a 
 right io guess as most men, and Mr. Plain Truth, if he pleases, may guess what 
 I mean ; but lest he should mistake I will tell him my guess, it is, that the 
 whole affair is a juggle to amuse the people with, in order to prevent the state 
 of foreign affairs being enquired into, and Mr. Deane's accounts, and those he 
 is connected with in America settled as they ought to be ; and were I to go on 
 guessing, I should likewise guess that this is the reason why his accounts are left 
 behind, though I know many people inclined to guess that he has them with him 
 but has forgot them ; for my part I don't chuse at present to go so far. If any 
 one can give a better guess than I have done I shall give mine up, but as the 
 gentlemen choose to submit it to a guess, I chuse therefore to take them upon 
 their own terms, and put in for the honor of being right. It was, I think, an 
 injudicious word for them to use, especially at Christmas time. — Author, 
 
414 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778 
 
 Representatives they ought to do, that is, they ordered an 
 enquiry into the state of foreign affairs and accounts which 
 Mr. Deane had been intrusted with, before they could, with 
 justice to you, grant the request he asked ; And this was the 
 more necessary to be done, because Mr. Deane says he has 
 left his papers and accounts behind him : Did ever any 
 steward, when called upon, to surrender up his stewardship 
 make such a weak and frivolous excuse ? Mr. Deane saw 
 himself not only recalled but superceeded in his office by 
 another person, and he could have no right to think he 
 should return, nor any pretence to come away without the 
 necessary credentials. 
 
 His friend and associate, and perhaps partner too, Mr. 
 Plain Truth, says, that I have endeavored in my address, to 
 " throw out a suggestion that Mr. Deane is considered by 
 Congress as a defaulter of public money " : The gentlemen 
 seem to wince before they are touched. I have no where 
 said so, but this I will say, that his accounts are not satis- 
 factory : Mr. Plain Truth endeavors to palliate what he can- 
 not contradict, and with a seeming triumph assures the 
 public " that Mr. Deane not long after his arrival laid before 
 Congress 2. general state of the receipts and expenditures of 
 the Monies which passed thro' his hands " ; to which Mr. 
 Plain Truth subjoins the following extraordinary apology : 
 " It is true the account was not accompanied with all the 
 vouchers for the particular expenditures." And why not I 
 ask? for without those it was no account at all ; it was what 
 the Sailors call a boot account, so much money gone and 
 the Lord knows for what. Mr. Deane had Secretaries and 
 clerks, and ought to have known better than to produce 
 such an account to Congress, especially as his colleague 
 Arthur Lee had declared in an ofifice letter, which is in my 
 possession, that he had no concern in Mr. Deane's contracts. 
 
 Neither does the excuse, which his whirligig friend Mr. 
 Plain Truth makes for him, apply to his case ; this random 
 shot gentleman, in order to bring him as easily off as possible, 
 says, " that any person in the least conversant with business, 
 knows the time which is requisite for calling in manufacturers 
 
1778] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 415 
 
 and tradesmen's bills, and prepare accounts and vouchers for 
 a final settlement " ; and this he mentions because Mr. Deane 
 received his order of recall the 4th of March, and left Paris 
 the 31st: here is, however, four weeks within a day. I shall 
 make three remarks upon this curious excuse. 
 
 First, it is contradictory. Mr. Deane could not obtain the 
 total or general expenditure without having the particulars, 
 therefore he must be in the possession of the particulars. 
 He surely did not pass away money without taking receipts, 
 and what was due upon credit, he could only know from the 
 bills delivered in. 
 
 Secondly, Mr. Deane's contracts did not lay in the retail 
 way, and therefore were easily collected. 
 
 Thirdly, The accounts which it was Mr. Deane's particular 
 •duty to settle, were those, which he contracted in the time 
 of being only a commercial Agent in 1776, before the arrival 
 •of Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee, which separate agency of 
 his expired upwards of fifteen months before he left France, 
 — and surely that was time enough, — and in which period of 
 his agency, there happened an unexplained contract of about 
 two hundred thousand pounds sterling. But more of this 
 when I come to remark on the ridiculous Puffs with which 
 Mr. Plain Truth has set off Mr. Deane's pretended Services 
 in France. 
 
 Mr. Deane has not only left the public papers and accounts 
 behind him, but he has given no information to Congress, 
 where or in whose hands they are ; he says in his address to 
 you, that he has left them in a safe place, and this is all 
 which is known of the matter. Does this look like business ? 
 Has it an open and candid or a mysterious and suspicious 
 appearance ? Or would it have been right in Congress to 
 have granted Mr. Deane an audience of leave and departure 
 in this embarrassed state of his affairs ? And because they 
 have not, his ready written November address has been 
 thrown out to abuse them and amuse you by directing you 
 to another object; and myself, for endeavoring to unriddle 
 confusion, have been loaded with reproach by his partizans 
 and partners, and represented as a writer, who like an un- 
 
41 6 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [177S 
 
 principled lawyer had let himself out for pay. Charges 
 which the propagators of them know to be false, because 
 some, who have encouraged the report, are Members of Con- 
 gress themselves, and know my situation to be directly the 
 reverse. But this I shall explain in the conclusion ; and I 
 give the gentlemen notice of it, that if they can make out 
 anything against me, or prove that I ever received a single 
 farthing, public or private, for any thing I ever wrote, they 
 may convict me publicly, and if they do not, I hope they 
 will be honest enough to take shame to themselves, for the 
 falsehood they have supported. And I likewise request 
 that they would inform the public what my salary as Secre- 
 tary for foreign affairs is, otherwise I shall be obliged to do 
 it myself. I shall not spare them and I beg they would not 
 spare me. But to return — 
 
 There is something in this concealment of papers that 
 looks like an embezzlement. Mr. Deane came so privately 
 from France, that he even concealed his departure from his 
 colleague Arthur Lee, of which he complains by a letter in 
 my office, and consequently the papers are not in his hands ; 
 and had he left them with Dr. Franklin he would undoubt- 
 edly have taken the Doctor's receipt for them, and left no- 
 body to "guess," at what Mr. Deane meant by a safe place: 
 A man may leave his own private affairs in the hands of a 
 friend, but the papers of a nation are of another nature, and 
 ought never to be trusted with any person whatever out of 
 the direct line of business. This I conceive to be another 
 reason which justifies Congress in not granting Mr. Deane 
 an audience of leave and departure till they are assured 
 where those papers are. Mr. Deane might have been taken 
 at sea, he might have died or been cast away on his passage 
 back from France, or he might have been settled there, as 
 Madame D'Eon did in England, and quarrelled afterwards as 
 she did with the power that employed him. Many accidents 
 might have happened by which those papers and accounts 
 might have been totally lost, the secrets got into the hands 
 of the enemy, and the possibility of settling the expenditure 
 of public money for ever prevented. No apology can be 
 
1778] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEAJVE'S AFFAIR. 417 
 
 made for Mr. Deane, as to the danger of the seas, or their 
 being taken by the enemy, in his attempt to bring them 
 over himself, because it ought always to be remembered 
 that he came in a fleet of twelve sail of the line.' 
 
 I shall now quit this part of the subject to take notice of 
 a paragraph in Mr. Plain Truth. 
 
 In my piece to Mr. Deane I said, that his address was 
 dated in November, without any day of the month, that on 
 the last day of that month he applied to Congress, that on 
 the 1st of December the Congress resolved to investigate the 
 state of their foreign affairs, of which Mr. Deane had notice, 
 and that on the fourth he informed them of his receiving 
 that notification and expressed his thanks, yet that on the 
 fifth he published his extraordinary address. 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth, in commenting upon this arrangement 
 of facts has helped me to a new discovery. He says, that 
 Mr. Deane's thanks of the fourth of December were only 
 expressed to the President, Henry Laurens Esqr: for per- 
 sonally informing him of the resolution and other attention 
 to his Affairs, and not, as I had said, to Congress for the reso- 
 lution itself. I give him credit for this, and believe it to be 
 true ; for my opinion of the matter is, that Mr. Deane's 
 views were to get off without any enquiry, and that the 
 resolution referred to was his great disappointment. By all 
 accounts which have been given both by Mr. Deane's friends 
 and myself, we all agree in this, that Mr. Deane knew of the 
 resolution of Congress before he published his address, and 
 situated as he is he could not help knowing it two or three 
 days before his address came out. Why then did he pub- 
 lish it, since the very thing which he ought to have asked for, 
 viz. an enquiry into his affairs, was ordered to be immedi- 
 ately gone into ? 
 
 ' There is now little doubt that Deane left his papers in the hands of the 
 British spy George Lupton, whom he employed as a clerk, and who gave his 
 English employers regular information, and the American Dr. Edward Bancroft, 
 who was so royally paid by England. See Donne's "Letters of George III. 
 to Lord North"; also Stevens' Facsimiles. Had the King's correspondence 
 been known in 1842, Deane's family would never have received from Congress 
 the money voted them. — Editor. 
 
4l8 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAIiVE. [l779 
 
 I wish in this place to step for a moment from the floor 
 of office, and press it on every State, to enquire what mer- 
 cantile connections any of their late or present Delegates 
 have had or now have with Mr. Deane, and that a precedent 
 might not be wanting, it is important that this State, Penn- 
 sylvania should begin. 
 
 The uncommon fury which has been spread to support 
 Mr. Deane cannot be altogether for his sake. Those who 
 were the original propagators of it, are not remarkable for 
 gratitude. If they excel in anything it is in the contrary 
 principle and a selfish attachment to their. own interest. It 
 would suit their plan exceedingly well to have Mr. Deane 
 appointed Ambassador to Holland, because so situated, he 
 would make a very convenient partner in trade, or a useful 
 factor. 
 
 In order to rest Mr. Deane on the shoulders of the Public, 
 he has been set off with the most pompous puffs— The 
 Saviour of his Country — the Patriot of America — the True 
 Friend of the Public — the Great Supporter of the cause in 
 Europe, — and a thousand other full-blown bubbles, equally 
 ridiculous and equally untrue. Never were the public more 
 wretchedly imposed upon. An attempt was made to call a 
 town meeting to return him thanks and to march in a body 
 to Congress to demand justice for Mr. Deane. And this 
 brings me to a part in Mr. Plain Truth's address to me, in 
 which he speaks of Mr. Deane's services in France, and 
 defies me to disprove them. If any late or present Member 
 •of Congress has been concerned in writing that piece, I 
 think it necessary to tell him, that he either knows very 
 little of the state of foreign affairs, or ought to blush in thus 
 attempting to rob a friendly nation, France, of her honors, 
 to bestow them on a man who so little deserves them. 
 
 Mr. Deane was sent to France in the Spring, 1776, as a 
 Commercial Agent, under the authority of the Committee 
 which is now stiled the Committee for foreign affairs. He 
 had no Commission of any kind from Congress ; and his 
 instructions were to assume no other character but that of 
 a merchant ; yet in this line of action Mr. Plain Truth has 
 
1779] PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 419 
 
 the ignorance to dub him a " public Minister" and likewise 
 says, 
 
 " that before the first of December, after his arrival he had formed 
 and cultivated the esteem of a valuable political and commercial 
 connection, not only in France but in other parts of Europe, laid 
 the foundation of a public loan, procured thirty thousand stand 
 of arms, thirty thousand suits of cloathes, more than two hundred 
 and fifty pieces of brass cannon, and a great amount of tents and 
 military stores, provided vessels to transport them, and in spite of 
 various and almost inconceivable obstructions great part of these 
 articles were shipped and arrived in America before the operations 
 of the campaign in 1777." To which Mr. Plain Truth adds, 
 " That he has had the means of being acquainted with all these 
 circumstances, avows them to be facts, and defies Common Sense 
 or any other person to disprove them." 
 
 Poor Mr. Plain Truth, and his avower Mr. Clarkson, have 
 most unfortunately for them challenged the wrong person, 
 and fallen into the right hands when they fell into mine, for 
 without stirring a step from the room I am writing in, or 
 asking a single question of any one, I have it in my power, 
 not only to contradict but disprove it. 
 
 It is, I confess, a nice point to touch upon, but the neces- 
 sity of undeceiving the public with respect to Mr. Deane, 
 and the right they have to know the early friendship of the 
 French Nation towards them at the time of their greatest 
 wants, will justify my doing it. I feel likewise the less diffi- 
 culty in it, because the whole affair respecting those supplies 
 has been in the hands of the enemy at least twelve months, 
 and consequently the necessity for concealing it is super- 
 ceded : Besides which, the two nations, viz. France and 
 England, being now come to an open rupture makes the 
 secret unnecessary. It was immediately on the discovery of 
 this affair by the enemy fifteen months ago, that the British 
 Ministry began to change their ground and planned what 
 they call their Conciliatory Bills. They got possession of 
 this secret by stealing the dispatches of October, 1777, which 
 should have come over by Captain Folger, and this likewise 
 
420 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779 
 
 explains the Controversy which the British Commissioners 
 carried on with Congress, in attempting to prove that Eng- 
 land had planned what they called her conciliatory Bills, 
 before France moved towards a treaty ; for even admitting 
 that assertion to be true, the case is, that they planned those 
 Bills in consequence of the knowledge they had stolen.* 
 
 The supplies here alluded to, are those which were sent 
 from France in the Amphitrite, Seine and Mercury about 
 two years ago. They had at first the appearance of a 
 present, but whether so, or on credit, the service was never- 
 theless a great and friendly one, and though only part of 
 them arrived the kindness is the same. A considerable time 
 afterwards the same supplies appeared under the head of a 
 charge amounting to about two hundred thousand pounds 
 sterling, and it is the unexplained contract I alluded to 
 when I spoke of the pompous puffs made use of to support 
 Mr. Deane. On the appearance of this charge the Congress 
 were exceedingly embarrassed as to what line of conduct to 
 pursue. To be insensible of a favor, which has before now 
 
 * When Capt. Folger arrived at York-Town [Pa.] he delivered a Packet 
 which contained nothing but blank paper, that had been put under the cover of 
 the dispatches which were taken out. This fraud was acted by the person to 
 whom they were first intrusted to be brought to America, and who afterwards 
 absconded, having given by way of deception the blank packet to Capt. Folger. 
 The Congress were by this means left without any information of European 
 Affairs. It happened that a private letter from Dr. Franklin to myself, in 
 which he wrote to me respecting my undertaking the history of the present rev- 
 olution, and engaged to furnish me with all his materials towards the completion 
 of that work, escaped the pilfering by not being enclosed in the packet with the 
 dispatches. I received this letter at Lancaster through the favor of the Presi- 
 dent, Henry Laurens, Esqr., and as it was the only letter which contained any 
 authentic intelligence of the general state of our affairs in France, I transmitted 
 it again to him to be communicated to Congress. This likewise was the only 
 intelligence which was received from France from May, 1777, to May 2d, 1778, 
 when the treaty arrived ; wherefore, laying aside the point controverted by the 
 British Commissioners as to which moved first, France or England, it is evident 
 that the resolutions of Congress of April 22d, 1778, for totally rejecting the 
 British Bills, were grounded entirely on the determination of America to sup- 
 port her cause, — a circumstance which gives the highest honour to the resolutions 
 alluded to, and at the same time gives such a character of her fortitude as 
 heightens her value, when considered as an ally, which though it had at that 
 time taken place, was, to her, perfectly unknown. — Author. 
 
1779] PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AEFAIR. 42 1 
 
 been practised between nations, would have implied a want 
 of just conceptions ; and to have refused it would have been 
 a species of proud rusticity. To have asked the question 
 was both difficult and awkward ; to take no notice of it 
 would have been insensibility itself ; and to have seemed 
 backward in payment, if they were to be paid for, would have 
 impeached both the justice and the credit of America. In 
 this state of difficulties such enquiries were made as were 
 judged necessary, in order that Congress might know how 
 to proceed. Still nothing satisfactory could be obtained. 
 The answer which Mr. Deane signed so lately as February 
 i6th last past (and who ought to know most of the matter, 
 because the shipping the supplies was while he acted alone) 
 is as ambiguous as the rest of his conduct. I will venture to 
 give it, as there is no poHtical secret in it and the matter 
 wants explanation. 
 
 " Hear that Mr. B [eaumarchais] has sent over a person to de- 
 mand a large sum of you on account of arms, ammunition, etc., 
 — think it will be best for you to leave that matter to be settled 
 here (France), as there is a mixture in it of public and private 
 concern which you cannot so well develop." 
 
 Why did not Mr. Deane compleat the contract so as it 
 might be developed, or at least state to Congress any diffi- 
 culties that had arisen ? When Mr. Deane had his two 
 audiences with Congress in August last, he objected, or his 
 friends for him, against his answering the questions that 
 might be asked him, and the ground upon which the objec- 
 tion was made, was, because a man could not legally be com- 
 pelled to miswer questions that might tend to criminate him- 
 self. — Yet this is the same Mr. Deane whose address you 
 saw in the Pe7t7isylvania Packet of December 5 signed Silas 
 Deane. 
 
 Having thus shewn the loose manner of Mr. Deane's doing 
 business in France, which is rendered the more intricate by 
 his leaving his papers behind, or his not producing them ; I 
 come now to enquire into what degree of merit or credit Mr. 
 
422 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779 
 
 Deane is entitled to as to the procuring these supphes, either 
 as a present or a purchase. 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth has given him the whole. Mr. Plain 
 Truth therefore knows nothing of the matter, or something 
 worse. If Mr. Deane or any other gentleman will procure 
 an order from Congress to inspect an account in my office, 
 or any of Mr. Deane's friends in Congress will take the 
 trouble of coming themselves, I will give him or them my 
 attendance and show them in a handwriting which Mr. Deane 
 is well acquainted with, that the supplies, he so pompously 
 plumes himself upon, were promised and engaged, and that 
 as a present, before he ever arrived in France, and the part 
 that fell to Mr. Deane was only to see it done, and how he 
 has performed that service, the public are now acquainted 
 with. The last paragraph in the account is, " Upon Mr. 
 Deane s arrival in France the business went into his ha7ids and 
 the aids were at length embarked in the Amphitrite, Mercury 
 and Seine." 
 
 What will Mr. Deane or his Aid de Camp say to this, or 
 what excuse will they make now ? If they have met with 
 any cutting truths from me, they must thank themselves for 
 it. My address to Mr. Deane was not only moderate but 
 civil, and he and his adherents had much better have sub- 
 mitted to it quietly, than provoked more material matter to 
 appear against them. I had at that time all the facts in my 
 hands which I have related since, or shall yet relate in my 
 reply. The only thing I aimed at in the address, was, to 
 give out just as much as might prevent the public from 
 being so grossly imposed upon by them, and yet save Mr. 
 Deane and his adherents from appearing too wretched and 
 despicable. My fault was a misplaced tenderness, which 
 they must now be fully sensible of, and the misfortune to 
 them, is, that I have not yet done. 
 
 Had Mr. Plain Truth only informed the Public that Mr. 
 Deane had been industrious in promoting and forwarding 
 the sending the supplies, his assertion would have passed 
 uncontradicted by me, because I must naturally suppose 
 that Mr. Deane would do no otherwise ; but to give him the 
 
1779] THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 423 
 
 whole and sole honour of procuring them, and that, without 
 yielding any part of the honor to the public spirit and 
 good disposition of those who furnished them, and who 
 likewise must in every shape have put up with the total loss 
 of them had America been overpowered by her enemies, 
 is, in my opinion, placing the reputation and affection of our 
 allies not only in a disadvantageous, but in an unjust point 
 of view, and concealing from the public what they ought to 
 know. 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth declares that he knows all the circum- 
 stances, why then did he not place them in a proper line, 
 and give the public a clear information how they arose ? 
 The proposal for sending over those supplies, appears to 
 have been originally made by some public spirited gentleman 
 in France, before ever Mr. Deane arrived there, or was known 
 or heard of in that Country, and to have been communicated 
 (personally by Mr. Beaumarchais, the gentleman mentioned 
 in the letter signed J. L. which letter is given at length by 
 Mr. Plain Truth) to Mr. Arthur Lee while resident in Lon- 
 don about three years ago. From Mr. B's manner of ex- 
 pression, Mr. Lee understood the supplies to be a present, 
 and has signified it in that light. It is very easy to see that 
 if America had miscarried, they must have been a present, 
 which probably adds explanation to the matter. But Mr. 
 Deane is spoken of by Mr. Plain Truth, as having an 
 importance of his own, and procuring those supplies through 
 that importance ; whereas he could only rise and fall with 
 the country that empowered him to act, and be in or ottt of 
 credit, as to money matters, from the same cause and in the 
 same proportion ; and every body must suppose, that there 
 were greater and more original wheels at work than he was 
 capable of setting in motion. Exclusive of the matter being 
 begun before Mr. Deane's arrival, Mr. Plain Truth has given 
 him the whole merit of every part of the transaction. America 
 and France are wholly left out of the question, the former 
 as to her growing importance and credit, from which all Mr. 
 Deane's consequence was derived, and the latter, as to her 
 generosity in furnishing those supplies, at a time, when the 
 
424 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. Li779 
 
 risk of losing them appears to have been as great as our 
 want of them. 
 
 I have ahvays understood thus much of the matter, that 
 if we did not succeed no payment would be required, and I 
 think myself fully entitled to believe, and to publish my be- 
 lief, that whether Mr. Deane had arrived in France or not, 
 or any other gentleman in his stead, those same supplies 
 would have found their way to America. But as the nature 
 of the contract has not been explained by any of Mr. Deane's 
 letters and is left in obscurity by the account he signed the 
 i6th of February last, which I have already quoted, therefore 
 the full explanation must rest upon other authority. 
 
 I have been the more explicit on this subject, not so much 
 on Mr. Deane's account, as from a principle of public justice. 
 It shews, in the first instance, that the greatness of the 
 American cause drew, at its first beginning, the attention of 
 Europe, and that the justness of it was such as appeared to 
 merit support ; and in the second instance, that those who 
 are now her allies, prefaced that alliance by an early and 
 generous friendship ; yet, that we might not attribute too 
 much to human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were those 
 supplies, that only one ship out of the three arrived. The 
 Mercury and Seine fell into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 Mr. Deane, in his address, speaks of himself as " sacrificed 
 for the agrandizement of others" and promises to inform the 
 public of " Tvhat he has done and zvhat he has suffered." 
 What Mr. Deane means by being sacrificed the Lord knows, 
 and what he has siffcred is equally as mysterious. It was 
 his good fortune to be situated in an elegant country and at 
 a public charge, while we were driven about from pillar to 
 post. He appears to know but little of the hardships and 
 losses which his countrymen underwent in the period of his 
 fortunate absence. It fell not to his lot to turn out to a 
 Winter's campaign, and sleep without tent or blanket. He 
 returned to America when the danger was over, and has 
 since that time suffered no personal hardship. What then 
 are Mr. Deane's sufferings and what the sacrifices he com- 
 plains of? Has he lost money in the public service? I 
 
1779] T^^^ PUBLIC OX MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 425 
 
 believe not. Has he got any? That I cannot tell. I can 
 assure him that I have not, and he, if he pleases, may make 
 the same declaration. 
 
 Surely the Congress might recall Mr. Deane if they 
 thought proper, without an insinuated charge of injustice 
 for so doing. The authority of America must be little in- 
 deed when she cannot change a Commissioner without 
 being insulted by him. And I conceive Mr. Deane as 
 speaking in the most disrespectful language of the Authority 
 of America when he says in his address, that in December 
 1776 he was " honored with one Colleague, and saddled with 
 another." Was Mr. Deane to dictate who should be Com- 
 missioner, and who should not ? It was time, however, to 
 saddle him, as he calls it, with somebody, as I shall shew be- 
 fore I conclude. 
 
 When we have elected our Representatives, either in Con- 
 gress or in the Assembly, it is for our own good that we 
 support them in the execution of that authority they derive 
 from us. If Congress is to be abused by every one whom 
 they may appoint or remove, there is an end to all useful 
 delegation of power, and the public accounts in the hands of 
 individuals will never be settled. There has, I believe, been 
 too much of this work practised already, and it is time that 
 the public should now make those matters a point of con- 
 sideration. But who will begin the disagreeable talk ? 
 
 I look on the independence of America to be as firmly 
 established as that of any country which is at war. Length 
 of time is no guarantee when arms are to decide the fate of 
 a nation. Hitherto our whole anxiety has been absorbed in 
 the means for supporting our independence, and we have 
 paid but little attention to the expenditure of money ; yet 
 we see it daily depreciating, and how should it be otherwise 
 when so few public Accounts are settled, and new emissions 
 continually going on ? — I will venture to mention one cir- 
 cumstance which I hope Avill be sufficient to awaken the 
 attention of the public to this subject. In October, 1777, 
 some books of the Commercial Committee, in which, among 
 other things, were kept the accounts of Mr. Thomas Morris, 
 
426 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 appointed a Commercial Agent in France, were by Mr. 
 Robert Morris's request taken into his possession to be set- 
 tled, he having obtained from the Council of this State six 
 months' leave of absence from Congress to settle his affairs. 
 In February following those books were called for by Con- 
 gress, but not being compleated were not delivered. In 
 September, 1778 Mr. Morris returned them to Congress, in, 
 or nearly in, the same unsettled state he took them, which, 
 with the death of Mr. Thomas Morris, may probably involve 
 those accounts in further embarrassment. The amount of 
 expenditure on those books is considerably above two mil- 
 lions of dollars.* 
 
 I now quit this subject to take notice of a paragraph in 
 Mr. Plain Truth, relative to myself. It never fell to my lot 
 to have to do with a more illiberal set of men than those of 
 Mr. Deane's advocates who were concerned in writing that 
 piece. They have neither wit, manners nor honesty ; an in- 
 stance of which I shall now produce. In speaking of Mr. 
 Deane's contracts with individuals in France I said in my 
 address " We are all fully sensible, that the gentlemen who 
 have come from France since the arrival of Dr. Franklin and 
 Mr. Lee in that Country are of a different rank from the gen- 
 erality of those with whom Mr. Deane contracted when alone," 
 These are the exact words I used in my address. 
 
 * There is an article in the constitution of this state, which, were it at this 
 time introduced as a Continental regulation, might be of infinite service ; I mean 
 a Council of Censors to inspect into the expenditure of public money and call 
 defaulters to an account. It is, in my opinion, one of the best things in the 
 Constitution, and that which the people ought never to give up, and whenever 
 they do they will deserve to be cheated. It has not the most favourable look 
 that those who are hoping to succeed to the government of this state, by a 
 change in the Constitution, are so anxious to get that article abolished. Let ex- 
 penses be ever so great, only let them be fair and necessary, and no good citizen 
 will grumble. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said, Why do not the Congress do those things? To which 
 I might, by another question reply, Why don't you support them when they 
 attempt it? It is not quite so easy a matter to accomplish that point in Con- 
 gress as perhaps many conceive ; men will always find friends and connections 
 among the body that appoints them, which will render all such enquiries difiS- 
 cult. — Author. 
 
1779] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE' S AFFAIR. 427 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth has misquoted the above paragraph into 
 his piece, and that in a manner, which shews him to be a man 
 of little reading and less principle. The method in which he 
 has quoted it is as follows : " All are fully sensible that the 
 gentlemen who came from France since the arrival of Dr. 
 Franklin and Mr. Lee in that country, are of a different rank 
 from those with whom Mr. Deane contracted when acting 
 separately." Thus by leaving out the words the generality 
 of" Mr. Plain Truth has altered the sense of my expression, 
 so as to suit a most malicious purpose in his own, which could 
 be no other, than that of embroiling me with the French gen- 
 tlemen that have remained ; whereas it is evident, that my 
 mode of expression was intended to do justice to such char- 
 acters as Fleury and Touzard, by making a distinction they 
 are clearly entitled to. Mr. Plain Truth not content with 
 unjustly subjecting me to the misconceptions of those gen- 
 tlemen, with whom even explanation was difficult on account 
 of the language, but in addition to his injustice, endeavoured 
 to provoke them to it by calling on them, and reminding 
 them that they were the " Guardians of their own honour." 
 And I have reason to believe, that either Mr. Plain Truth or 
 some of the party did not even stop here, but went so far as 
 personally to excite them on. Mr. Fleury came to my lodg- 
 ings and complained that I had done him great injustice, but 
 that he was sure I did not intend it, because he was certain 
 that I knew him better. He confessed to me that he was 
 pointed at and told that I meant him, and he withal desired, 
 that as I knew his services and character, that I would put 
 the matter right in the next paper. I endeavoured to ex- 
 plain to him that the mistake was not mine, and we parted. 
 I do not remember that in the course of my reading I ever 
 met with a more illiberal and malicious mis-quotation, and 
 the more so when all the circumstances are taken with it. 
 Yet this same Mr. Plain Truth, whom no body knows, has 
 the impertinence to give himself out to be a man of " educa- 
 tion " and to inform the public that " he is not a writer from 
 inclination much less by profession" to which he might safely 
 have added, still less by capacity, and least of all by principle. 
 
428 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 As Mr. Clarkson has undertaken to avow the piece signed 
 Plain Truth, I shall therefore consider him as legally account- 
 able for the apparent malicious intentions of this mis-quota- 
 tion, and he may get whom he pleases to speak or write a 
 defence of him. 
 
 I conceive that the general distinction I referred to be- 
 tween those with whom Mr. Deane contracted when alone, 
 and those who have come from France since the arrival of 
 Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee in that Country, is sufificiently 
 warranted. That gallant and amiable officer and volunteer 
 the Marquis de la Fayette, and some others whom Mr. Plain 
 Truth mentions, did not come from France till after the ar- 
 rival of the additional Commissioners, and proves my asser- 
 tion to be true. My remark is confined to the many and 
 unnecessary ones with which Mr. Deane burthened and dis- 
 tracted the army. If he acquired any part of his popularity 
 in France by this means he made the continent pay smartly 
 for it. Many thousand pounds it cost America, and that in 
 money totally sunk, on account of Mr. Deane's injudicious 
 contracts, and what renders it the more unpardonable is, 
 that by the instructions he took with him, he was restricted 
 from making them, and consequently by having no authority 
 had an easy answer to give to solicitations. It was Doctor 
 Franklin's answer as soon as he arrived and might have been 
 Mr. Deane's. Gentlemen of science or literature or convers- 
 ant with the polite or useful arts, will, I presume, always find 
 a welcome reception in America, at least with persons of a 
 liberal cast, and with the bulk of the people. 
 
 In speaking of Mr. Deane's contracts with foreign officers, 
 I concealed out of pitj^ to him a circumstance that must 
 have sufficiently shewn the necessity of recalling him, and, 
 either his great want of judgment, or the danger of trusting 
 him with discretionary power. It is no less than that of his 
 throwing out a proposal, in one of his last foreign letters, for 
 contracting with a German prince ' to command the American 
 
 ' Prince Ferdinand of Bruns\vicl<, brother-in-law of George III. In Donne's 
 "Correspondence of George III. with Lord Nortli " (ii., p. Il6), a letter of the 
 king shows that Prince Ferdinand had actually received such a proposal. — Editor. 
 
1779] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 429 
 
 Army. For my own part I was no ways surprised when I 
 read it, though I presume almost every body else will be so 
 when they hear it, and I think when he got to this length, it 
 was time to saddle him. 
 
 Mr. Deane was directed by the Committee which em- 
 ployed him to engage four able engineers in France, and 
 beyond this he had neither authority nor commission. But 
 disregarding his instructions (a fault criminal in a negociator) 
 he proceeded through the several degrees of subalterns, to 
 Captains, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels, Brigadier 
 Generals and at last to Major Generals ; he fixed their rank, 
 regulated their command, and on some, I believe, he be- 
 stowed a pension. At this stage, I set him down for a 
 Commander in Chief, and his next letter proved me 
 prophetic. Mr. Plain Truth, in the course of his numerous 
 encomiums on Mr. Deane, says, that — 
 
 " The letter of the Count de Vergennes, written by order of his 
 Most Christian Majesty to Congress, speaking of Mr. Deane in 
 the most honorable manner, and the letter from that Minister in 
 his own character, written not in the language of a courtier, but 
 in that of a person who felt what he expressed, would be suffi- 
 cient to counterbalance, not only the opinions of the writer of 
 the address to Mr. Deane, but even of characters of more influ- 
 ence, who may vainly endeavor to circulate notions of his 
 insignificancy and unfitness for a public minister." 
 
 The supreme authority of one country, however different 
 may be its mode, will ever pay a just regard to that of an- 
 other, more especially when in alliance. But those letters 
 can extend no further than to such parts of Mr. Deane's con- 
 duct as came under the immediate notice of the Court as a 
 public Minister, or a political agent ; and cannot be supposed 
 to interfere with such other parts as might be disapproved 
 in him here as a Contractor or a Commercial Agent, and can 
 in no place be applied as an extenuation of any imprudence 
 of his either there or since his return ; besides which, letters 
 of this kind, are as much intended to compliment the power 
 that employs, as the person employed ; and upon the whole. 
 
430 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779 
 
 I fear Mr. Deane has presumed too much upon the polite 
 friendship of that nation, and engrossed to himself, a regard, 
 that was partly intended to express, through him, an afJection 
 to the continent. 
 
 Mr. Deane should likewise recollect that the early appear- 
 ance of any gentleman from America, was a circumstance, so 
 agreeable to the nation, he had the honor of appearing at, 
 that he must have managed unwisely indeed to have avoided 
 popularity. For as the poet says, 
 
 " Fame then was cheapo and the first comers sped." 
 
 The last line of the couplet is not applicable 
 
 " Which they have since preserved by being dead " 
 
 From the pathetic manner in which Mr. Deane speaks of 
 his '■'■sufferings'" and the little concern he seems to have of 
 ours, it may not be improper to inform him, that there is 
 kept in this city a " Book of Sufferings^ into which, by the 
 assistance of some of his connections, he may probably get 
 them registered.' I have not interest enough myself to afford 
 him any service in this particular, though I am a friend to 
 all religions, and no personal enemy to those who may, in 
 this place, suppose themselves alluded to. 
 
 I can likewise explain to Mr. Deane, the reason of one of 
 his sufferings which I know he has complained of. After the 
 Declaration of Independence was passed, Mr. Deane thought 
 it a great hardship that he was not authorized to announce 
 it in form to the Court of France, and this circumstance has 
 been mentioned as a seeming inattention in Congress. The 
 reason of it was this, and I mention it from my own knowl- 
 edge. Mr. Deane was at that time only a Commercial Agent, 
 without any Commission from Congress, and consequently 
 could not appear at Court with the rank suitable to the for- 
 
 ' Some of the Quakers who opposed the Revolution, but whose peace-princi- 
 ples did not prevent their giving assistance to the enemy, so that they had 
 to be dealt with, kept a " Book of Sufferings." Those interested may find 
 something on the subject, though not much, in a brief " Memoir of John Pem- 
 berton," issued by the Quakers. — Editor. 
 
1779] '^O THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 43 1 
 
 mality of such an occasion. A new commission was there- 
 fore necessary to be issued by Congress, and that honour was 
 purposely reserved for Doctor Franklin, whose long services 
 in the world, and established reputation in Europe, rendered 
 him the fittest person in America to execute such a great and 
 original design ; and it was likewise paying a just attention 
 to the honour of France by sending so able and extraordinary 
 a character to announce the Declaration. 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth, who sticks at nothing to carry Mr. Deane 
 through everything thick or thin, says : 
 
 " It may not be improper to remark that when he (Mr. 
 Deane) arrived in France, the opinion of people there, and in 
 the different parts of Europe, not only with respect to the merits, 
 but the probable issue of the Contest, had by no means acquired 
 that consistency which they had at the time of Dr. Franklin's 
 and Mr, Arthur Lee's arrival in that Kingdom." 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth is not a bad historian. For it was the 
 fate of Dr, Franklin and Mr. Lee to arrive in France at the 
 very worst of times. Their first appearance there was 
 followed by a long series of ill fortune on our side. Doctor 
 Franklin went from America in October, 1776, at which time 
 our afTairs were taking a wrong turn. The loss on Long 
 Island, and the evacuation of New York happened before 
 he went, and all the succeeding retreats and misfortunes 
 through the course of that year, till the scale was again 
 turned by taking the Hessians at Trenton on the 26th day 
 of December, followed day by day after him. And I have 
 been informed by a gentleman from France, that the philo- 
 sophical ease and cheerful fortitude, with which Dr. Franklin 
 heard of or announced those tidings, contributed greatly 
 towards lessening the real weight of them on the minds of 
 the Europeans. 
 
 Mr. Deane speaking of himself in his address says, " While 
 it was safe to be silent my lips were closed. Necessity hath 
 opened them and necessity must excuse this effort to serve, 
 by informing you." After which he goes on with his ad- 
 dress. In this paragraph there is an insinuation thrown out 
 
432 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 by Mr. Deane that some treason was on foot, which he had 
 happily discovered, and which his duty to his country 
 compelled him to reveal. The public had a right to be 
 alarmed, and the alarm was carefully kept by those who 
 at first contrived it. Now, if after this, Mr. Deane has 
 nothing to inform them of, he must sink into nothing. 
 When a public man stakes his reputation in this manner, he 
 likewise stakes all his future credit on the performance of his 
 obligation. 
 
 I am not writing to defend Mr. Arthur or Mr. William 
 Lee, I leave their conduct to defend itself ; and I would 
 with as much freedom make an attack on either of these 
 gentlemen, if there was a public necessity for it, as on Mr. 
 Deane. In my address I mentioned Colonel R. H. Lee with 
 some testimony of honourable respect, because I am person- 
 ally acquainted with that gentleman's integrity and abilities 
 as a public man, and in the circle of my acquaintance I know 
 but few that have equalled, and none that have exceeded 
 him, particularly in his ardor to bring foreign affairs, and 
 more especially the present happy alliance, to an issue. 
 
 I heard it mentioned of this gentleman, that he was 
 among those, whose impatience for victory led them into 
 some kind of discontent at the operations of last Winter. 
 The event has, I think, fully proved those gentlemen wrong, 
 and must convince them of it ; but I can see no reason why 
 a misgrounded opinion, produced by an overheated anxiety 
 for success, should be mixed up with other matters it has no 
 concern with. A man's political abilities may be exceed- 
 ingly good, though at the same time he may differ, and even 
 be wrong, in his notions of some military particulars. 
 
 Mr. Deane says that Mr. Arthur Lee was dragged into a 
 Treaty with the utmost reluctance, a charge which if he 
 cannot support, he must expect to answer for. I am ac- 
 quainted that Mr. Lee had some objection against the con- 
 structions of a particular article [i2th], which, I think, shews 
 his judgment, and whenever they can be known will do him 
 honor ; but his general opinion of that valuable transaction 
 I shall give in his own words from a letter in my hands. 
 
1779] ^^^^ PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 433 
 
 " France has done us substantial benefits, Great Britain sub- 
 stantial injuries. France offers to guarantee our sovereignty, and 
 universal freedom of commerce. Great Britain condescends to 
 accept our submission and to monopolize our commerce. France 
 demands of us to be independent. Great Britain tributary. I do 
 not conceive how there can be a mind so debased, or an under- 
 standing so perverted, as to balance between them. 
 
 " The journies I have made north and south in the public ser- 
 vice, have given me opportunities of knowing the general disposi- 
 tion of Europe on our question. There never was one in which 
 the harmony of opinion was so universal. From the Prince to 
 the peasant there is but one voice, one wish, the liberty of 
 America and the humiliation of Great Britain." 
 
 If Mr. Deane was industrious to spread reports to the 
 injury of these gentlemen in Europe, as he has been in 
 America, no wonder that their real characters have been 
 misunderstood. The peculiar talent which Mr. Deane pos- 
 sesses of attacking persons behind their backs, has so near a 
 resemblance to the author of Plain Truth, who after promis- 
 ing his name to the public has declined to give it, and some 
 other proceedings I am not unacquainted with, particularly 
 an attempt to prevent my publications, that it looks as if one 
 spirit of private malevolence governed the whole. 
 
 Mr. Plain Truth has renewed the story of Dr. Birkenhout, 
 to which I have but one reply to make : why did not Mr. 
 Deane appear against him while he was here? He was the 
 only person who knew anything of him, and his neglecting 
 to give information, and thereby suffering a suspicious per- 
 son to escape for want of proof, is a story very much against 
 Mr. Deane ; and his complaining after the man was gone 
 corresponds with the rest of his conduct. 
 
 When little circumstances are so easily dwelt upon, it is a 
 sign, not only of the want of great ones, but of weakness 
 and ill will. The crime against Mr. William Lee is, that 
 some years ago he was elected an Alderman of one of the 
 wards in London, and the English Calender has yet printed 
 him with the same title. Is that any fault of his ? Or can 
 he be made accountable for what the people of London may 
 
 VOL. I. — 28 
 
434 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 do? Let us distinguish between whiggishness and waspish- 
 ness, between patriotism and peevishness, otherwise we shall 
 become the laughing stock of every sensible and candid 
 mind. Suppose the Londoners should take it into their 
 heads to elect the President of Congress or General Wash- 
 ington an Alderman, is that a reason why we should displace 
 them ? But, Mr. Lee, say they, has not resigned. These 
 men have no judgment, or they would not advance such 
 positions. Mr. Lee has nothing to resign. He has vacated 
 his Aldermanship by accepting an appointment under Con- 
 gress, and can know nothing further of the matter. Were 
 he to make a formal resignation it would imply his being a 
 subject of Great Britain ; besides which, the character of 
 being an Ambassador from the States of America, is so supe- 
 rior to that of any Alderman of London, that I conceive Mr. 
 Deane, or Mr. Plain Truth, or any other person, as doing a 
 great injustice to the dignity of America by attempting to 
 put the two in any disputable competition. Let us be 
 honest lest we be despised, and generous lest we be 
 laughed at. 
 
 Mr. Deane in his address of the 5th of December, says, 
 " having thus introduced you to your great servants, I now 
 proceed to make you acquainted with some other person- 
 ages, which it may be of consequence for you to know. I 
 am sorry to say, that Arthur Lee, Esq., was suspected by 
 some of the best friends you had abroad, and those in im- 
 portant characters and stations." To which I reply, that I 
 firmly believe Mr. Deane will likewise be sorry he has said 
 it. Mr. Deane after thus advancing a charge endeavours to 
 paliate it by saying, " these suspicions, whether well or ill 
 founded, were frequently urged to Dr. Franklin and myself." 
 But Mr. Deane ought to have been certain that they were 
 well founded, before he made such a publication, for if they 
 are not well founded he must appear with great discredit, 
 and it is now his duty to accuse Mr. Arthur Lee legally, and 
 support the accusation with sufficient proofs. Characters 
 are tender and valuable things ; they are more than life to a 
 man of sensibility, and are not to be made the sport of 
 
1779] TO THE PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 435 
 
 interest, or the sacrifice of incendiary malice. Mr. Lee is an 
 absent gentleman, I believe too, an honest one, and my 
 motive for publishing this, is not to gratify any party, or 
 any person, but as an act of social duty which one man owes 
 to another, and which, I hope, will be done to me whenever 
 I shall be accused ungenerously behind my back. 
 
 Mr. Lee to my knowledge has far excelled Mr. Deane in 
 the usefulness of his information, respecting the political 
 and military designs of the Court of London. While in 
 London he conveyed intelligence that was dangerous to his 
 personal safety. Many will remember the instance of the 
 rifle man who had been carried prisoner to England alone 
 three years ago, and who afterwards returned from thence 
 to America, and brought with him a letter concealed in a 
 button. That letter was from this gentleman, and the public 
 will, I believe, conclude, that the hazard Mr. Lee exposed 
 himself to, in giving information while so situated, and by 
 such means, deserves their regard and thanks. The detail 
 of the number of the foreign and British troops for the 
 campaign of 1776, came first from him, as did likewise the 
 expedition against South Carolina and Canada, and among 
 other accounts of his, that the English emissaries at Paris 
 had boasted that the British Ministry had sent over half a 
 million of guineas to corrupt the Congress. This money, 
 should they be fools enough to send it, will be very ineffect- 
 ually attempted or bestowed, for repeated instances have 
 shewn that the moment any man steps aside from the public 
 interest of America, he becomes despised, and if in office, 
 superceeded. 
 
 Mr. Deane says, " that Dr. Birkenhout, when he returned 
 to New York, ventured to assure the British Commissioners, 
 that by the alliance with France, America was at liberty to 
 make peace without consulting her ally, unless England de- 
 clared War." What is it to us what Dr. Birkenhout said, or 
 how came Mr. Deane to know what passed between him and 
 the British Commissioners? But I ask Mr. Deane's pardon, 
 he has told us how. " Providence, (says he) in whom we 
 put our trust, jcnfolded it to me." But Mr. Deane says, that 
 
436 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. Ll779 
 
 Col. R. H. Lee, pertinaciously maintained the same doc- 
 trine. The treaty of alliance will neither admit of debate 
 nor any equivocal explanation. Had war not broke out, or 
 Jiad not Great Britain, in resc7itnient to that alliance or con- 
 nection, and of the good correspondence which is the object 
 of the said treaty, broke the peace zvith France, either 
 by direct hostilities or by hindering her coimnerce 
 and navigation in a manner contrary to the rights of nations, 
 and the peace subsisting at that time, between the two Crowns, 
 — in this case, I likewise say, that America, as a matter of 
 riglit, could have made a peace without consulting her ally, 
 though the civil obligations of mutual esteem and friend- 
 ship would have required such a consultation. But war has 
 broke out, though not declared, for the first article in the 
 treaty of alliance is confined to the breaking out of war, and 
 not to its declaration. Hostilities have been commenced ; 
 therefore the first case is superseded, and the eighth article 
 of the treaty of alliance has its full intentional force : 
 '■^Article 8. — Neither of the two parties shall conclude either 
 truce or peace without the formal consent of the other first 
 obtained, and they mutually engage not to lay down their 
 arms until the independence of the United States, shall have 
 been formally or tacitly assured, by the treaty or treaties 
 that shall terminate that war." 
 
 What Mr. Deane means by this affected appearance of his, 
 both personally and in print, I am quite at a loss to under- 
 stand. He seems to conduct himself here in a stile, that 
 would more properly become the secretary to a foreign em- 
 bassy, than that of an American Minister returned from his 
 charge. He appears to be everybody's servant but ours, and 
 for that reason can never be the proper person to execute 
 any commission, or possess our confidence. Among the 
 number of his ''sufferings " I am told that he returned bur- 
 thened with forty changes of silk, velvet, and other dresses. 
 Perhaps this was the reason he could not bring his papers. 
 
 Mr. Deane says, that William Lee Esq : gives five per 
 cent commission, and receives a share of it, for what was 
 formerly done for two per cent. That matter requires to be 
 
1779] '^''^ ^^^^ PUBLIC ON MR. DEANE'S AFFAIR. 437 
 
 cleared up and explained ; for it is not the quantity per cent, 
 but the purposes to which it is applied that makes it right or 
 wrong ; besides which, the whole matter, like many other of 
 Mr. Deane's charges, may be groundless. 
 
 I here take my leave of this gentleman, wishing him more 
 discretion, candour and generosity. 
 
 In the beginning of this address I informed the public, 
 that " whatever I should conceive necessary to say of myself, 
 would appear in the conclusion." I chose that mode of 
 arrangement, lest by explaining my own situation first, the 
 public might be induced to pay a greater regard to what I 
 had to say against Mr. Deane, than was necessary they 
 should ; whereas it was my wish to give Mr. Deane every 
 advantage, by letting what I had to advance come from me, 
 while I laid under the disadvantage of having the motives of 
 my conduct mistaken by the public. Mr. Deane and his ad- 
 herents have apparently deserted the field they first took 
 possession of and seemed to triumph in. They made their 
 appeal to you, yet have suffered me to accuse and expose 
 them for almost three weeks past, without a denial or a 
 reply. 
 
 I do not blame the public for censuring me while they, 
 though wrongfully, supposed I deserved it. When they see 
 their mistake, I have no doubt, but they will honor me with 
 that regard of theirs which I before enjoyed. And consid- 
 ering how much I have been misrepresented, I hope it will 
 not now appear ostentatious in me, if I set forth what has 
 been my conduct, ever since the first publication of the 
 pamphlet Common Sense down to this day, on which, and 
 on account of my reply to Mr. Deane, and in order to im- 
 port the liberty of the press, and my right as a freeman, I 
 have been obliged to resign my office of Secretary for for- 
 eign affairs, which I held under Congress. But this, in order 
 to be compleat, will be published in the Crisis No 8, of which 
 notice will be given in the papers. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 8, 1779. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 MESSRS. DEANE, JAY, AND GERARD.' 
 Mr. Dunlap, 
 
 In your paper of August 31st was published an extract of 
 a letter from Paris, dated May the 21st, in which the writer, 
 among other things, says : 
 
 " It is long since I felt in common with every other well-wisher 
 to the cause of liberty and truth, the obligations I was under to 
 the author of Common Sense, for the able and unanswerable man- 
 ner in which he has defended those principles. The same public 
 motives I am persuaded induced him to address the public against 
 Mr. Deane and his associates. The countenance and support 
 which Deane has received is a melancholy presage of the future. 
 Vain, assuming, avaricious and unprincipled, he will stick at no 
 crime to cover what he has committed and continue his career. 
 
 " The impunity with which Deane has traduced and calumni- 
 ated Congress to their face, the indulgence and even countenance 
 he has received, the acrimonious and uncandid spirit of a letter 
 containing Mr. Paine's publications which accompanied a resolve 
 sent to Mr. Gerard, are matters of deep concern here to every 
 friend to America." 
 
 By way of explaining the particular letter referred to in 
 the above, the following note was added : 
 
 ' From the Pennsylvania Packet of September 14, 1779. The French 
 Minister, Gerard, who was interested in the Deane-Beaumarchais claims (though 
 Paine did not know it) complained to Congress of Paine's disclosures. Paine 
 resigned his secretaryship, and the President of Congress, Jay, wrote an effusive 
 and apologetic letter to Gerard. Congress knevv that Paine had written only 
 what was true, but after the French Minister's complaint were " obliged," 
 as Hon. Gouverneur Morris said, "to act as if they believed" otherwise. — 
 Editor. 
 
 438 
 
1 7791 Jt/£SSJ?S. DEANE, JAY AND GERARD. 
 
 439 
 
 " The letter here alluded to can be no other than that signed 
 '' yohn Jay,' dated January 13th, and published in Mr. Dunlap's 
 paper of Jan. i6th. It is very extraordinary that Mr. Jay should 
 write such a letter, because it contains the same illiberal reflec- 
 tions which Congress, as a Body, had rejected from their resolve 
 of January 12, as may be seen by any one who will peruse the 
 proceedings of January last. Congress has since declined to give 
 countenance to Mr. Jay's letter ; for tho' he had a public authority 
 for writing a letter to Mr. Gerard, he had no authority for the re- 
 flections he used ; besides which, the letter would be perfectly 
 laughable were every circumstance known which happened at that 
 particular time, and would likewise show how exceedingly deli- 
 cate and cautious a President ought to be when he means to act 
 officially in cases he is not sufficiently acquainted with." 
 
 Every person will perceive that the note which explains 
 the letter referred to, is not a part of the letter from Paris, 
 but is added by another person ; and Mr. Jay, or any other 
 Gentleman, is welcome to know that the note is in my writ- 
 ing, and that the original letter from Paris is now in my 
 possession. I had sufficient authority for the expressions 
 used in the note. Mr. Jay did not lay his letter to Mr. 
 Gerard before Congress previous to his sending it, and there- 
 fore, tho' he had their order, he had not their approbation. 
 They, it is true, ordered it to be published, but there is no 
 vote for approving it, neither have they given it a place in 
 their Journals, nor was it published in any more than one 
 paper in this city (Benjamin Towne's), tho' there were at 
 that time two others. Some time after Mr. Jay's letter ap- 
 peared in the paper, I addressed another to Congress, com- 
 plaining of the unjust liberty he had taken, and desired to 
 know whether I was to consider the expressions used in his 
 letter as containing their sentiments, at the same time in- 
 forming them, that if they declined to prove what he had 
 written, I should consider their silence as a disapprobation 
 of it. Congress chose to be silent ; and consequently, have 
 left Mr. Jay to father his own expressions. 
 
 I took no other notice of Mr. Jay's letter at the time it 
 was published, being fully persuaded that when any man 
 
440 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [1779 
 
 recollected the part I had acted, not only at the first but in 
 the worst of times, he could but look on Mr. Jay's letter to 
 be groundless and ungrateful, and the more so, because if 
 America had had no better friends than himself to bring 
 about independance, I fully believe she would never have 
 succeeded in it, and in all probability been a ruined, con- 
 quered and tributary country. 
 
 Let any man look at the position America was in at the 
 time I first took up the subject, and published Common 
 Sense, which was but a few months before the declaration of 
 Independance ; an army of thirty thousand men coming out 
 against her, besides those which were already here, and she 
 without either an object or a system ; fighting, she scarcely 
 knew for what, and which, if she could have obtained, would 
 have done her no good. She had not a day to spare in 
 bringing about the only thing which could save her. A 
 Revolution, yet no one measure Avas taken to promote it, 
 and many were used to prevent it ; and had independance 
 not been declared at the time it was, I cannot see any time 
 in which it could have been declared, as the train of ill-suc- 
 cesses which followed the affair of Long Island left no future 
 opportunity. 
 
 Had I been disposed to have made money, I undoubtedly 
 had many opportunities for it. The single pamphlet Common 
 Sense, would at that time of day, have produced a tolerable 
 fortune, had I only taken the same profits from the publica- 
 tion which all writers had ever done, because the sale was 
 the most rapid and extensive of any thing that was ever 
 published in this country, or perhaps any other. Instead of 
 which I reduced the price so low, that instead of getting, I 
 yet stand thirty-nine pounds eleven shillings out of pocket 
 on Mr. Bradford's books, exclusive of my time and trouble, 
 and I have acted the same disinterested part by every publi- 
 cation I have made. I could have mentioned those things 
 long ago, had I chosen, but I mention them now to make 
 Mr. Jay feel his ingratitude. 
 
 In the Pennsylvania Packet of last Tuesday some person 
 has republished Mr. Jay's letter, and Mr. Gerard's answer of 
 
1779] 
 
 MESSA'S. DEANE, J A V, AND GERARD. 
 
 441 
 
 the 13th and 14th January last, and though I was patiently 
 silent upon their first publication, I now think it necessary, 
 since they are republished, to give some circumstances which 
 ought to go with them. 
 
 At the time the dispute arose, respecting Mr. Deane's 
 affairs, I had a conference with Mr. Gerard at his own re- 
 quest, and some matters on that subject were freely talked 
 over, which it is here unnecessary to mention. This was on 
 the 2d of January. 
 
 On the evening of the same day, or the next, Mr. Gerard, 
 thro' the mediation of another gentleman, made me a very 
 genteel and profitable offer. I felt at once the respect due 
 to his friendship, and the difificulties which my acceptance 
 would subject me to. My whole credit was staked upon 
 going through with Deane's affairs, and could I afterwards 
 have written with the pen of an Angel, on any subject what- 
 ever, it would have had no effect, had I failed in that or 
 declined proceeding in it. Mr. Deane's name was not men- 
 tioned at the time the offer was made, but from some con- 
 versation which passed at the time of the interview, I had 
 sufificient reason to believe that some restraint had been laid 
 on that Subject. Besides which I have a natural inflexible 
 objection to any thing which may be construed into a pri- 
 vate pension, because a man after that is no longer truly free. 
 
 My answer to the offer was precisely in these words — 
 " Any service I can render to either of the countries in alli- 
 ance, or to both, I ever have done and shall readily do, and 
 Mr. Gerard's esteem will be the only recompense I shall 
 desire." I particularly chose the word esteem because it 
 admitted no misunderstanding. 
 
 On the fifth of January I published a continuation of my 
 remarks on Mr. Deane's affairs, and I have ever felt the 
 highest respect for a nation which has in every stage of our 
 affairs been our firm and invariable friend. I spoke of France 
 under that general description. It is true I prosecuted the 
 point against Mr. Deane, but what was Mr. Deane to 
 France, or to the Minister of France ? 
 
 On the appearance of this publication Mr. Gerard presented 
 
442 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779 
 
 a Memorial to Congress respecting some expressions used 
 therein, and on the 6th and 7th I requested of Congress to 
 be admitted to explain any passages which Mr. Gerard had 
 referred to ; but this request not being complied with, I, on 
 the 8th, sent in my resignations of the office of Secretary to 
 the Committee of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 In the evening I received an invitation to sup with a gen- 
 tleman, and Mr. Gerard's offer was, by his own authority, 
 again renewed with considerable additions of advantage. I 
 gave the same answer as before. I was then told that Mr. 
 Gerard was very ill, and desired to see me. I replied, " That 
 as a matter was then depending in Congress upon a repre- 
 sentation of Mr. Gerard against some parts of my publica- 
 tions, I thought it indelicate to wait on him till that was 
 determined." 
 
 In a few days after I received a second invitation, and like- 
 wise a third, to sup at the same place, in both of which the 
 same offer and the same invitation were renewed and the 
 same answers on my part were given : But being repeatedly 
 pressed to make Mr. Gerard a visit, I engaged to do it the 
 next morning at ten o'clock: but as I considered myself 
 standing on a nice and critical ground, and lest my reputa- 
 tion should be afterwards called in question, I judged it best 
 to communicate the whole matter to an honorable friend be- 
 fore I went, which was on the 14th of January, the very day 
 on which Mr. Gerard's answer to Mr. Jay's letter is dated. 
 
 While with Mr. Gerard I avoided as much as possible every 
 occasion that might give rise to the subject. Himself once 
 or twice hinted at the publications and added that, " he hoped 
 no more would be said on the subject," which I immediately 
 waived by entering on the loss of the dispatches. I knew 
 my own resolution respecting the offer, had communicated 
 that resolution to a friend, and did not wish to give the least 
 pain to Mr. Gerard, by personally refusing that, which, from 
 him might be friendship, but to me would have been the ruin 
 of my credit. At a convenient opportunity I rose to take 
 my leave, on which Mr. Gerard said " Mr. Paine, I have 
 always had a great respect for you, and should be glad of 
 
1779] MESSRS. DEANE, JAY, AND GERARD. 
 
 443 
 
 some opportunity of shewing you more solid marks of my 
 friendship." 
 
 I confess I felt myself hurt and exceedingly concerned that 
 the injustice and indiscretion of a party in Congress should 
 drive matters to such an extremity that one side or other 
 must go to the bottom, and in its consequences embarrass 
 those whom they had drawn in to support them. I am con- 
 scious that America had not in France a more strenuous friend 
 than Mr. Gerard, and I sincerely wish he had found a way 
 to avoid an affair which has been much trouble to him. As 
 for Deane, I believe him to be a man who cares not who he 
 involves to screen himself. He has forfeited all reputation 
 in this Country, first by promising to give an " history of 
 matters important for the people to know " and then not only 
 failing to perform that promise, but neglecting to clear his 
 own suspected reputation, though he is now on the spot and 
 can any day demand an hearing of Congress, and call me 
 before them for the truth of what I have published respecting 
 him. 
 
 Two days after my visit to Mr. Gerard, Mr. Jay's letter 
 and the answer to it was published, and I would candidly 
 ask any man how it is possible to reconcile such letters to 
 such offers both done at one and the same time, and whether 
 I had not sufficient authority to say that Mr. Jay's letter 
 would be truly laughable, were all the circumstances known 
 which happened at the time of his writing. 
 
 Whoever published those letters in last Tuesday's paper, 
 must be an idiot or worse. I had let them pass over with- 
 out any other public notice than what was contained in the 
 note of the preceding week, but the republishing them was 
 putting me to defiance, and forcing me either to submit to 
 them afresh, or to give the circumstances which accom- 
 panied them. Whoever will look back to last Winter, must 
 see I had my hands full, and that without any person giving 
 the least assistance. It was first given out that I was paid 
 by Congress for vindicating their reputation against Mr. 
 Deane's charges, yet a majority in that House were every 
 day pelting me for what I was doing. Then Mr. Gerard 
 
444 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. [^779 
 
 was unfortunately brought in, and Mr. Jay's letter to him 
 and his answer were published to effect some purpose or 
 other. Yet Mr. Gerard was at the same time making the 
 warmest professions of friendship to me, and proposing to 
 take me into his confidence with very liberal offers. In 
 short I had but one way to get thro', which was to keep close 
 to the point and principle I set out upon, and that alone has 
 rendered me successful. By making this my guide I have 
 kept my ground, and I have yet ground to spare, for among 
 other things I have authentic copies of the dispatches that 
 were lost. 
 
 I am certain no man set out with a warmer heart or a 
 better disposition to render public service than myself, in 
 everything which laid in my power,' My first endeavour 
 was to put the politics of the country right, and to show the 
 advantages as well as the necessity of independance : and 
 until this was done, independance never could have suc- 
 ceeded. America did not at that time understand her own 
 situation ; and though the country was then full of writers, 
 no one reached the mark ; neither did I abate in my service, 
 when hundreds were afterwards deserting her interest and 
 thousands afraid to speak, for the first number of the Crisis 
 was published in the blackest stage of affairs, six days be- 
 fore the taking the Hessians at Trenton. When this State 
 was distracted by parties on account of her Constitution, I 
 endeavored in the most disinterested manner to bring it to 
 a conclusion ; and when Deane's impositions broke out, 
 
 ' A heavy reproach does indeed rest upon the Congress and its president for 
 their treatment of the Secretary who saved them from the Beaumarchais-Gerard- 
 Deane imposition, which, had it succeeded, would have crippled the means of 
 the Revolution, and tended to defeat the object of the supplies sent by Louis 
 XVI. Paine was the one man who knew as much about Silas Deane as George 
 III. did, when he wrote to Lord North (March 3, 1781) : " I think it perfectly 
 right that Mr. Deane should so far be trusted as to have three thousand pounds 
 for America"; and in the same year (July 19th): "I have received Lord 
 North's boxes containing the intercepted letters of Mr. Deane for America. I 
 have only been able to read two of [them], on which I form the same opinion 
 of too much appearance of being connected with this country, and therefore not 
 likely to have the effect as if they bore another aspect." In August 7th the 
 king suggests what Deane should write (Donne, vol. ii., pp. 380, 381.) — Editor. 
 
1779] MESSJUS. DEANE, JAY, AND GERARD. 
 
 445 
 
 and threw the whole States into confusion, I readily took 
 up the subject, for no one else understood it, and the coun- 
 try now see that I was right. And if Mr. Jay thinks he 
 derives any credit from his letter to Mr. Gerard, he will find 
 himself deceived, and that the ingratitude of the composi- 
 tion will be his reproach not mine. 
 
 Common Sense. 
 
 END OF VOLUME I. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (l)