1 47 6 https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/57ac1f10d8aa3b979420fd04d4716432.jpg 9b11110c5a23a4386d860903d67492a1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document <div style="text-align: left;">22                            COMMON SENSE</div> is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the con- nexion, and art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, “ Never can true reconcile- ment grow, where wounds of deadly hate have pierc’d so deep.”   Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain ; and only tended to convince us, that nothing flatters vanity, or confirms 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 generation to be cutting throats, under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child. To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and vi- sionary, 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, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice : The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us ; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years he looked upon as folly and childishness— There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease. Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care ; but there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath na- ture made, the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems; England to Europe, America to itself. <div style="text-align: right;">I am</div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs Description An account of the resource Page 22 allusions https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/eb9378c3673b51b3a5c4851a69c1c6e2.jpg 48fce20471c92e8e2cefb3a62bbec8cd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 12                           COMMON SENSE. hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary 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 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 fa- mily of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of Scrip- ture but the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in Adam; and from such compari- son, 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 autho- rity 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. Dis- honourable rank! Inglorious connnexion! Yet the most subtile sophist cannot produce a juster simile. As to usurpation, no man can 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 anti- quity 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 autho- rity, 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 minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they <div style="text-align: right;">act</div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession Description An account of the resource Page 12 allusions monarch religion https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/8963c3b27f96293104205c9ec361181a.jpg 2124ff1d7d428d5489559e65946ee101 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document COMMON SENSE.                            11 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 removed; many submit from fear, others from superstition, 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 honourable origin; whereas it is more than pro- bable, that could we take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace them to their first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners, or pre-eminence in subtility obtained him the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his depre- dations, over-awed the quiet and defenceless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary right to his descen- dants, because such a perpetual exclusion of thcmselves was incompatible 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 complimental; but as try or no records were extant in those days, and tradition on history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after the lapsewf a few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale, con- veniently timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps thc disorders which threatened, or seemed to threaten, on the decease of a leaderf and the choice of a new one, (for elections among ruffian, could not be very orderly) induced many at first to favor he- reditary pretensions; by which means it happened, as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted to as a con- venience 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 establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly <div style="text-align: right;">hath</div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession Description An account of the resource Page 11 allusions monarch religion https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/f29b5ae514ee43cabe379c7b1804a562.jpg 9e4ad73c395981e59e5dce770489f74e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 8                               COMMON SENSE. requested a king. Till then their form of government (ex- cept in extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) 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 honor should disapprove of a form of government which so impiously in- vades 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 Rule thou over us, thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an hereditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his soul replied, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU. Words need not be more explicit; Gideon doth not decline the honor, but de- nieth their right to give it; neither doth he compliment them with invented declarations of his thanks, but in the positive stile of a prophet charges them with disaffection to their pro- per 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 something exceedingly unaccountable ; but so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of Samuel’s two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns, they, came in an abrupt and cla- morous manner to Samuel, saying. Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king to judge us, like all the other nations. And here we cannot but observe that their motives were bad, viz. that they might be like unto other nations, i. e. the Heathens, whereas their true glory laid in being as much unlike them as possible. But the thing 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 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Of Monarchy and Hereditary Sucession Description An account of the resource Page 8 allusions religion https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/c4e632f989caccf3c1e7b30de78658b4.jpg 86b8c36bdb345440fbac85e9c8ca50d9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document                                 COMMON SENSE.                          7 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 dis- tinction 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 enquiring 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 throw mankind into confusion. Holland without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any of the mo- narchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same remark ; for the quiet and rural lives of the first pa- triarchs hath a happy something in them, which vanishes away 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 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 ap-plied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendour is crumb-ing 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 de- fended on the authority of scripture ; for the will of the Al- mighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, ex- pressly disapproves of government by kings. All anti-mo- narchical 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 Caesar the things which art Caesar’s” is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of mo- narchical 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 ac- count of the creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Of Monarchy and Hereditary Secession Description An account of the resource Page 7 allusions religion https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/8522190daed98eb9f3da70afb0548e1c.jpg bfedfed4b7aa4d4d5d34b494615f928b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Edition of Common Sense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas Paine Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: J. Almon Subject The topic of the resource Rare Book Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Book Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Original: 1776 Digital: 2017-03-29 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource English Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document                            COMMON SENSE.                                5 powering him to to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity! There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the compo- sition of monarchy ; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the high- est 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 an house in behalf of the king, the commons in behalf of the people ; but this hath all the distinctions of an house divided against itself ; and though the expressions be plea- santly arranged, yet when examined, they appear idle and ambiguous ; and it will always happen, that the nicest con- struction that words are capable of when applied to the de- scription of something which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and tho’ they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind, for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to trust, and always obliged to check ? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power, which needs checking, be from God ; yet the provision, which the constitution makes, supposes such a power to exist. But the provision is unequal to the task ; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de se ; for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the consti- tution 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 cannot stop it, their endeavours will be inneffectual ; 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 con- constitution, needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Common Sense, British Edition Subject The topic of the resource Of the Origin and Design of Government in General. With Concise Remarks on the English Constitution. Description An account of the resource Page 5 allusions religion