Quiz: Common Sense

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How does Paine describe the cause of America in his introduction?

   As the cause of the Protestant religion against Catholic powers As a local quarrel over taxes that Europe should ignore As in a great measure the cause of all mankind As a dispute among Englishmen about their ancient constitution
2. 2. In the ceremony Paine imagines for proclaiming the charter, what happens to the crown?

   It is given to the president chosen by lot It is set on the charter, then broken up and scattered among the people It is sent back to George III along with the declaration of independence It is kept in the Congress hall as a symbol of the people’s sovereignty
3. 3. Since when, according to Paine, has a situation like America’s not occurred?

   Since the Norman Conquest Since the fall of Rome Since the days of Noah Since the Reformation
4. 4. How did Gideon answer the Israelites who offered to make him a hereditary ruler?

   He referred the question to the prophet Samuel He told them to choose a king by lot He accepted for himself, but not for his sons after him He refused, saying the Lord should rule over them
5. 5. How does Paine regard the diversity of religious opinions in America?

   As a danger that a Continental charter should remedy with an established church As the Almighty’s will, the denominations being like children of one family As a reason the colonies could never unite under one government As a matter on which government must arbitrate between the sects
6. 6. Which part of the English constitution does Paine call the “new republican materials”?

   The commons The courts of law The House of Lords The king in council
7. 7. What does Paine say is the true parent country of America?

   Europe No country, since America is a new world Holland England
8. 8. By what three means, according to Paine, could the first kings have come to power?

   By treaty, by rebellion, or by adoption By divine anointing, by election, or by purchase By inheritance, by marriage, or by conquest By lot, by election, or by usurpation
9. 9. How does the Appendix propose to pay off America’s war debt?

   By selling the back lands, with quit-rents reserved By a duty on all imports from Britain and the West Indies By confiscating and selling the estates of the Tories By loans from France and Spain
10. 10. From what does the crown derive its dominant weight in the English constitution, according to Paine?

    From the support of the Church of England From being the giver of places and pensions From its command of the army From its hereditary landed estates
11. 11. For what fraction of Britain’s national debt does Paine say America could build a navy twice the size of Britain’s?

    A hundredth part A twentieth part A tenth part A half
12. 12. What danger does Paine cite to show that America now needs naval protection?

    A French fleet had recently blockaded the port of Boston for a whole summer The Royal Navy had already burned every port from New York to Georgia Spanish privateers were seizing American merchant ships off Florida and the Bahamas A pirate could have come up the Delaware and ransomed Philadelphia
13. 13. What is the first of Paine’s reasons why only an open declaration of independence can settle America’s affairs?

    Congress cannot legally raise taxes until independence is declared No foreign power can mediate while America calls herself Britain’s subject Britain has refused to receive any further petitions or addresses from the colonies France and Spain have already promised aid on condition of independence
14. 14. In what three ways does Paine say independence may one day be effected?

    By treaty with Britain, by French arms, or by a general rising By the colonial assemblies, by Congress, or by a king of America’s choosing By Congress, by military power, or by a mob By petition, by a boycott of British trade, or by war
15. 15. What, according to Paine, does a king of England have to do besides being paid and worshipped?

    Preside over the Lords and the Church Little more than make war and give away places Negotiate all foreign trade and collect the customs Judge the highest cases in law and lead the army
16. 16. What contradiction does Paine find in the Quakers’ testimony?

    They say setting up and putting down kings is God’s alone, yet oppose independence They condemn slavery but own slaves They refuse to take oaths, yet swear allegiance to the king and all who rule under him They demand toleration, yet persecute other sects within their own province of Pennsylvania
17. 17. Why does Paine reject the view that independence would be easier forty or fifty years later?

    Britain would by then have paid off her national debt Its military skill came from the last war, and by then that experience would be extinct The colonies would by then have been divided by religious and commercial quarrels The western lands would by then have been granted away by the king to his favourites
18. 18. What example does Paine give to show that a fleet need not be manned mainly by sailors?

    The Dutch, who profit by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards and Portuguese The men of war of seventy and eighty guns built in New England forty years earlier The Russian navy, manned by peasants from its boundless forests The Terrible privateer, which fought the last war’s hottest action with under twenty sailors
19. 19. Whom does Paine name in the Appendix as the reputed author of “The Address of the people of England to the inhabitants of America”?

    Lord North Sir John Dalrymple Mr. Cornwall of the Treasury The Marquis of Rockingham
20. 20. Why does Paine say the Quakers’ quotation from Proverbs tells against them?

    Proverbs was written for the Jews under the Mosaic law and so has no force for Christians The verse in fact commands the faithful to resist unjust and idolatrous rulers The Quakers misquoted it, leaving out the words that call the faithful to war If pleasing the Lord brings peace with enemies, the king’s troubled reign shows he displeases Him
21. 21. What does Paine give as the design and end of government?

    Freedom and security The protection of trade and colonies The glory of the nation The promotion of true religion
22. 22. What does Paine expect to become of the outcry against sentiments that are not yet fashionable?

    It will grow louder until the author is forced to withdraw the pamphlet It will last as long as the king supports Parliament It will soon subside, since time makes more converts than reason It will be silenced only by a direct refutation in print
23. 23. How does Paine finally answer the Quakers’ principle that setting up and putting down kings is God’s prerogative?

    Congress is itself the instrument God has chosen to unmake kings in this age Americans want neither to make nor unmake a king, only to have nothing to do with kings The principle applies only to kings anointed by a true and reformed church God has already put down George III by allowing the war against the colonies to begin
24. 24. What does Paine call one of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right?

    Kings rarely live long enough to train their heirs Royal families usually die out within three generations Nature so often gives mankind an ass for a lion Most kings have been foreigners in their own kingdoms
25. 25. Which class of advocates of reconciliation does Paine think will cause the most calamity?

    Prejudiced men, who will not see what is plainly before them Weak men who cannot see Moderate men who think better of Europe than it deserves Interested men, whose private stake makes them untrustworthy
26. 26. What analogy does Paine use to show that America should not be governed by England?

    A child who has thrived on milk must never be given meat No satellite is larger than its primary planet A tree cannot be governed by one of its own branches A ship cannot be steered from another, smaller ship
27. 27. To what does Paine compare all plans and proposals made before 19 April 1775?

    Old maps of a coast that has changed The almanacs of last year A house built on sand Physicians’ prescriptions for a dead patient
28. 28. According to Paine, what produces society and what produces government?

    Society is produced by our wants, government by wickedness Society is produced by government, and government by conquest Society is produced by commerce, and government by property Both are produced by God’s command to Adam
29. 29. Why does Paine argue that America’s “infant state” favours independence?

    Because Britain is legally bound to free its colonies when they come of age Because infant nations are protected by the law of nations Because commerce and population diminish patriotism and military spirit Because a young nation has no debts to repay to Britain
30. 30. What plea for hereditary succession does Paine call “the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind”?

    That it produces wiser rulers than election That it is commanded by scripture and the law of God That it preserves a nation from civil wars That it costs less than a republic