1 47 5 https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/7841f4018c7f903bd845dc2594f33e6f.jpg 45006fa2a4e318788f95efb0e225e189 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: right;">COMMON SENSE.                              37</div> 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. Co- lony would be against colony. Each being able might scorn each other's assistance: and while the proud and foolish glo- ried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament, that the union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the pre- sent time is the true time for establishing it. The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and the friendship which is formed in misfortune, are of all others the most lasting and unalterable. Our prefent 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 memor- able aera 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 op- portunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for them- selves. First, they had a king, and then a form of govern- ment ; whereas, the articles or charter of government, should be formed first, and men delegated to exeucute them afterwards : but from the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity—-To begin government 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 au- thoritatively occupied, we shall be in danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian, 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 indispensible duty of all government, to protect, all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to <div style="text-align: right;">do</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 the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflexions Description An account of the resource Page 37 monarch religion https://explorecommonsense.com/files/original/153df27e66cfdb384e8e7daece3e9a6b.jpg e8cab0110df43a02bf4494e181f262f2 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: center;">COMMON SENSE.                               13</div> 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 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 hu- man weakness. In both these cases, the public becomes a 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 favour 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 barefaced 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 have 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 on. 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 temper are seldom lasting, Henry in his turn was driven from the throne and Edward recalled to succeed him. The parlia- ment always following the strongest side. 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. <div style="text-align: right;">In</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 Sucession Description An account of the resource Page 13 monarch 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/bc902ce4f64a78f6e431ebb06bdf6b4b.jpg d3b65a7afadb560c97d7a4e0ac5dff8b 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;">6                              COMMON SENSE.                     </div> 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 go- vernment by kings, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are un- doubtedly safer in England than in some other countries, but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the more formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle—not more just. 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 constitution of the government, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turky. 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 par- tiality, so neither are we capable of doing to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one. <div style="text-align: center;">Of monarchy and hereditary succession. </div> MANKIND being originally equals in the order of crea- tion, the equality could only be destroyed by fome sub- sequent circumstances; the distictions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh, ill-sounding names of op- pression and avarice. Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches ; and though avarice will <div style="text-align: right;">preserve</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 Secession Description An account of the resource Page 6 monarch