Common Sense

Contents

1. Introduction 3 min 4

   Paine’s introduction to the enlarged edition of February 1776. Long abuse of power has led Americans to question the claims of king and Parliament alike. He avoids personal attacks, calls America’s cause the cause of all mankind, notes that no answer has appeared, and withholds his name: the doctrine matters, not the man.

2. I Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution 14 min 8

   Paine distinguishes society, produced by human wants and good in itself, from government, a necessary evil made needful by vice. A thought experiment about settlers in a wilderness shows government arising from an assembly of all, then representatives elected often so that they share the interests of their electors; its end is freedom and security. Holding that the simplest form is the best, he attacks the celebrated English constitution as a compound of two hereditary tyrannies, king and peers, with republican Commons, whose supposed mutual checks are absurd. The crown, as giver of places and pensions, actually dominates.

3. II Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession 23 min 8

   Paine argues that the distinction between kings and subjects has no basis in nature or religion. Scripture, in the stories of Gideon and of Samuel’s warning to Israel, condemns monarchy as a sin. Hereditary succession is worse still: no generation can bind its descendants, nature often gives “an ass for a lion”, and the first kings were probably chief ruffians whose heirs later invented claims of right. England’s crown descends from a conquering usurper, and succession has not prevented civil wars. A king in England has little to do but make war and give away places, for £800,000 a year.

4. III Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs 41 min 16

   The longest section argues that, since the appeal to arms on 19 April 1775, reconciliation is impossible and against America’s interest. Britain protected the colonies for its own trade; Europe, not England, is America’s parent; dependence drags America into European wars; a continent cannot be governed by an island; and the king would use any settlement to keep America weak. Paine answers fears of civil war among the colonies, sketches a constitution of annual assemblies, a continental Congress and a Continental Charter in which “the law is king”, and ends by calling on America to become an asylum for mankind.

5. IV Of the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflexions 25 min 9

   Paine argues that America is ready for independence now. It has men, arms and naval stores, no debt, and could build a navy for a fraction of Britain’s debt; his added tables price the British fleet of 1757. Youth favours union, unoccupied lands could pay for government, and the present is the one moment to form a government before a king or adventurer seizes it. He urges religious toleration, larger and more equal representation, and a declaration of independence so that foreign powers can mediate, aid and trade with America.

6. Appendix 21 min 7

   Written after the king’s October 1775 speech reached Philadelphia, the Appendix denounces it and a loyalist pamphlet whose “putative father” Paine names as Sir John Dalrymple. Paine argues that separation is in America’s interest and must come sooner rather than later, while military experience from the last war remains; western lands could pay the debt. Independence is simpler than reconciliation, would end the dangerous state of legislation without law, and is best achieved through Congress rather than by an army or a mob. America can “begin the world over again”; Whig and Tory should merge as citizens of free and independent states.

7. To the People Called Quakers 13 min 5

   Paine answers a testimony issued by Philadelphia Quaker leaders in January 1776 that condemned moves toward independence. He addresses them as a political faction, not a religious body. If they truly opposed bearing arms, they should preach it to the British; if setting up and putting down kings is God’s business alone, they should not take sides. Their testimony contradicts its own principle, misrepresents the whole Society, and mixes religion with politics to the harm of both. Americans do not seek to make or unmake kings, only to have nothing to do with them.