Thomas Paine Complete Works – World’s Best Collection E-Book

Thomas Paine

• Herausgeber: Imagination Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 2047

Beschreibung

Thomas Paine Complete Works World's Best Collection

This is the world’s best Thomas Paine collection, including the most complete set of Paine’s works available plus many free bonus materials.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine is known as one of the Fathers of the American Revolution. His landmark work, ‘Common Sense’, is known as the major inspiration for the ‘Declaration of Independence’, and his ‘Crisis’ pamphlet series was a favorite of George Washington to read out loud to inspire his troops at Valley Forge.

Paine’s work is passionate, radical, yet accessible; covering his strong beliefs in Independence, Personal Liberty, Politics, Religion and Government. Hugely successful and inspiring strong polarization in their times, they are still must-reads today, still highly debated and revered

The ‘Must-Have’ Complete Collection

In this irresistible collection you get a full set of his amazing work, with All of his amazing works, All writings and All his letters, including hard to come by rarities. Plus a Bonus biography of Paine’s unbelievably intriguing life

Works Included:

Common Sense

The famous work that inspired the American colonists with a demand and call for freedom from British rule. Also notable, that when adjusted for the population size of 1776, ‘Common Sense’ has the largest sales and circulation of any book in American history.

The American Crisis

A series of pamphlets published from 1776 to 1783 written to motivate the Troops during the revolution, to spur them to victory. The language is powerful and emotional, and reflects Paine’s liberal philosophies.

The first lines are the famous: “These are times that try men’s souls.”

The Rights Of Man (Part I and Part Ii)

A radical set of books that argues that political revolution is required when a government does not safeguard its people.

The Age Of Reason (Part I and Part Ii)

A deistic work, about institutionalized religion, and Paine’s strong views concerning it.

Letters and Miscellaneous Writings

A Full Set of Paine’s must-read letters and assorted short works from Paine, Including his famous ‘Letter To George Washington’ and his last work ‘Agragian Justice’

Your Free Bonuses

Thomas Paine, Biography – A fascinating biography, detailing Paine’s unbelievable, often sad, and often controversial life, written specially for this collection.

Works presented as far as possible in original publication date order - So you can follow Paine’s growth as a writer and philosopher

Get This Collection Right Now

This is the best Thomas Paine collection you can get, so get it now and start enjoying and being intrigued by his world like never before!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

THE AMERICAN CRISIS.

RIGHTS OF MAN PART I

RIGHTS OF MAN PART II.

THE AGE OF REASON - PART I

THE AGE OF REASON - PART II

LETTERS, RARITIES AND ASSORTED SHORT WRITINGS

THOMAS PAINE COMPLETE WORKS WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION

Edited by Darryl Marks

THOMAS PAINE COMPLETE WORKS WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION - Original Publication Dates Common Sense, American Crisis, Rights of Man, Letters and Short works – Thomas Paine – 1774-1809 First Imagination Books edition published 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved."LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE " Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved.

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

EARLY LIFE

Thomas Paine was born January 29, 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England, to a Quaker father and an Anglican mother. Paine’s early life was full of repeated failures and he was unhappy at almost every job he tried. This may have been due to his lack of formal education. He had only attended classes enough to master reading, writing and basic mathematics.

HIS UNSUCCESSFL WORK CAREER

He began his work career at in 1750, at age 13, working for his father as a stay (corset) maker. His work career saw him try many other jobs, but he was unsuccessful at them. In 1759, after an unsuccessful stint as a Privateer, he returned to England and became a master stay-maker, establishing a shop in Sandwich, Kent. Also, in 1759, he married Mary Lambert. Unfortunately, his business collapsed soon after this.

FIRST MARRIAGE

He and his wife, pregnant with their first child, moved to Margate. Sadly, soon after this, she went into early labor and both she and their child died. After several more unsuccessful jobs, Paine eventually became an ‘Officer of the Excise’, which meant that his job was to hunt for smugglers and collect the excise taxes on liquor and tobacco. Unfortunately, the pay was not good and hardly covered his day-to-day living expenses.

Regardless, in 1765 he was fired as an Excise Officer for ‘claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect.’ He tried several other careers as a result, including becoming a servant and butler, as well as applying to become an ordained minister of the Church of England. In 1766, he reapplied to become an Excise Officer and was re-appointed.

SECOND MARRIAGE

In 1767 he became a schoolteacher and during 1768 he was sent to Lewes, East Sussex, living above the fifteenth-century Bull House, the tobacco shop of Samuel Olive and Esther Olive, which he eventually took over.

There, Paine first became involved in civic matters, when Samuel Olive introduced him to the Society of Twelve, an elite intellectual group. In addition, in 1771 he married Elizabeth Olive, Samuel Olive’s daughter.

FIRST POLITICAL WORK

In 1772, he wrote his first political work. He had joined Excise Officers asking Parliament for better pay and working conditions, and in summer of 1772, published 4000 copies of ‘The Case of the Officers of Excise’, a twenty-one-page article, which he spent winter distributing in London.

Subsequent to this attack, in spring of 1774, he was fired from the Excise Service, the reason cited was that he was ‘absent from his post without permission’.

At the same time, the tobacco shop failed, and to avoid debtor’s prison, he sold his household possessions to pay debts.

In the same year, 1774, he formally separated from wife Elizabeth and moved to London.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Jobless and unhappy, just when his situation appeared hopeless, he met a man in London, named Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin advised him to seek his fortune in America and gave him letters of introduction.

Following Franklin’s advice, and despite a transatlantic voyage in which typhoid fever killed 5 passengers, and despite being ill for 6 weeks on his arrival, Paine did begin to have success in Philadelphia.

ARRIVAL IN PENNSYLVANIA

His first job was help edit the Pennsylvania Magazine. He also began publishing articles and poetry. In January, 1775, he became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine.

PAINE’S CALL FOR AMERICA’S INDEPENDENCE

The period of time he arrived in Philadelphia was a turning point in the conflict between the colonists and England. It was at this time that Thomas Paine became one of the Fathers of the American Revolution.

After blood was spilled at the Baffle of Lexington and Concord, Paine wrote his first major work, in which he argued that the cause of America should not be just a revolt against taxation but a demand for independence.

‘COMMON SENSE’

This ground-breaking idea was put into “Common Sense,” which came off the press on Jan. 10, 1776. The 50-page pamphlet sold more than 500,000 copies within a few months.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

‘Common Sense’ paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, which was formally ratified July 4, 1776.

In addition, ‘Common Sense’ pioneered a new way of writing. Its style compels the reader to make an immediate choice against the threat of tyranny. Also, Paine was able to make complex ideas easy to understand for average readers of the day, in opposition to the writing style of his contemporaries Loyalists vigorously attacked ‘Common Sense’. Even some American revolutionaries objected to ‘Common Sense’. John Adams called it a “crapulous mass”, citing he disagreed on the type of radical democracy promoted by Paine.

‘THE CRISIS’ PAMPHLET SERIES GEORGE WASHINGTON USED TO INSPIRE HIS TROOPS

Following on the success of ‘Common Sense’, as the War of Independence began, in late 1776 Paine published ‘The Crisis’ pamphlet series, to inspire the Americans in their battles against the British army.

To inspire his soldiers, George Washington had ‘The American Crisis’ read aloud to his troops at Valley Forge.

PAINE’S FIRST PUBLIC OFFICE

In 1777 Congress appointed Paine secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. He held the post until early in 1779, when he unfortunately became involved in a controversy with Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress.

PAINE’S FIRST CONTROVERSY

Paine accused him of seeking to profit personally from French Aid that was being given to the United States. In revealing Deane’s embezzlement, Paine had to quote secret documents he had access to as secretary of the Committee for Foreign Affairs. Despite the truth of his accusations, he was forced to resign.

HELPING THE TROOPS

In need of employment, in 1779, Paine was appointed clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. In this capacity he saw first-hand how the American troops were at the end of their patience because of lack of pay and no supplies.

So Paine took $500 from his salary and started a fund for the relief of the soldiers.

In 1781, pursuing the same goal of providing for the troops, he went with John Laurens to France to ask for supplies. They brought back funding, clothing, and ammunition that was integral to the final winning of the Revolution.

END OF THE REVOLUTION AND HIS POLITICIAL ENEMIES

Despite all his efforts, at the end of the American Revolution, Paine again found himself poverty-stricken. His writings had sold by the hundreds of thousands, but he had refused to accept any profits in order that cheap editions might be widely circulated.

He made a petition to Congress, endorsed by George Washington, in which he pleaded for financial assistance. But Paine’s opponents in Congress stopped this petition at every turn.

Eventually, Pennsylvania gave him £5oo and New York gave him a farm in New Rochelle.

BACK TO ENGLAND

An inventor, as well as a writer, in 1787 Paine left for Europe to promote his plan to build a single-arch bridge across the wide Schuylkil River near Philadelphia. But in England he was soon diverted from his engineering project, by thoughts of the French Revolution.

‘RIGHTS OF MAN’

Paine was angered by several published political attacks on the uprising of the French people. As an answer to these ‘writings, Paine published his celebrated ‘Rights of Man’ in 1791.

The book was immediately and unbelievably successful, going through eight editions, and being reprinted in the U.S., where it was distributed by the Jeffersonian societies. When further political comments were made in response, Paine published ‘Rights of Man, Part II’ in 1792.

What began as a defense of the French Revolution evolved into an analysis of the basic reasons for discontent in European society and a remedy for the evils of arbitrary government, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and war. Paine spoke for republicanism against monarchy and detailed a plan for popular education, relief of the poor, pension, and a way to reduced unemployment.

PAINE INDICTED FOR TREASON

To the ruling class of England, this spelled another Revolution and the government ordered the book banned. Paine was indicted for treason, and an order went out for his arrest. Luckily, he was on his way to France before the order for his arrest could be delivered. Despite this, he was tried in absentia, found guilty of seditious libel, and declared an outlaw, and ‘Rights of Man’ was ordered permanently banned.

Nevertheless, Paine answered the sedition and libel charges thus: “If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libelous ... let the name of libeler be engraved on my tomb”.

PAINE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Paine, along with Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and others, were given honorary French citizenship. Paine, despite not being able to speak French, was elected to the National Convention, representing the district of Pas-de-Calais.

In France, he argued against the execution of Louis XVI, saying that he should instead be exiled to the United States, due to his moral objection to capital punishment. Also, he participated in the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project.

PAINE’S FRENCH POLITICIAL ENEMIES

Despite all his efforts to support the French Revolution, his views and political arguments were seen with increasing disfavor by the Montagnards, who were now in power. In particular, he was not liked by the powerful and verbose Robespierre.

Due to this, a decree was passed at the end of 1793 excluding foreigners from their places in the Convention.

PAINE IMPRISONED - ‘THE AGE OF REASON’

A warrant was issued and Paine was arrested and imprisoned in December 1793.

Before his arrest and imprisonment, fearing he would be executed, Paine wrote the first part of ‘The Age of Reason’ an advocacy of deism, calling for “free rational inquiry” into all subjects, especially religion.

Being held in France, Paine protested and claimed that he was a citizen of America, which was another of Revolutionary France.

However, Governor Morris, the American ambassador to France, did not press his claim, and Paine later wrote that Morris was a conspirator to have him imprisoned.

PAINE’S LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON FOR HELP

Paine also hoped George Washington would help, but this did not happen, despite their years of friendship. He even wrote a letter to Washington, accusing him of this betrayal.

EXECUTION

While in prison, Paine narrowly escaped execution. A guard walked through the prison placing a chalk mark on the doors of the prisoners who were due to be sent to the guillotine the next day.

Luckily, Paine’s door was left open to let a breeze in due to an illness Paine was suffering from. That night, his other three cell mates closed the door, thus hiding the mark inside the cell. The next day their cell was overlooked.

He managed to survive a few more days, which was all he needed because Robespierre fell on 27 July 1794.

FINALLY FREED FROM PRISON - STILL UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Finally, he was released, and though seriously ill, was finally readmitted to the National Convention.

After release, Paine published ‘The Age of Reason Part II’ in 1796. In 1797, Paine lived in Paris with a friend, Nicholas Bonneville. But Bonneville was under surveillance, though, due to hiding the Royalist Antoine Joseph

Barruel-Beauvert at his home and employed him as a proof-reader, during the French Revolution. (Beauvert himself had been outlawed following a coup in 1797). As a result of his relationship with Bonneville, Paine also aroused the suspicions of the authorities.

In addition, Paine believed that America, under John Adams, had betrayed revolutionary France and in 1798 he wrote an article for ‘Le Bien Informé’, advising the French government on how best to conquer America.

In i8oo, still under police surveillance, Bonneville, Bonneville’s wife Marguerite Brazier, and Paine, took refuge with Bonneville’s father in Evreux.

MEETING NAPOLEON

The same year, Paine purportedly had a meeting with Napoleon, during which Napoleon claimed he slept with a copy of ‘Rights of Man’ under his pillow and went so far as to say about Paine that “a statue of gold should be erected to you in every city in the universe.” Paine apparently discussed with Napoleon how best to invade England.

In 1804 Paine even wrote ‘To the People of England on the Invasion of England’, advocating the idea.

But, on noting Napoleon’s progress towards dictatorship, Paine began to condemn him as: “the completest charlatan that ever existed”.

BACK TO THE UNITED STATES - ATTACKED ON MANY FRONTS

In 1802 or 1803, Paine left France for the United States, on the invitation of Thomas Jefferson. Paine also paid passage for Bonneville’s wife, Marguerite Brazier and Bonneville’s three sons. Paine returned to the States in the early stages of the Second Great Awakening and a time of great political partisanship, and he found himself attacked on many fronts.

‘The Age of Reason’ was disliked by the religious, and the Federalists attacked him for ‘Common Sense’. Also still fresh in the minds of the public was his letter to Washington, he had written six years earlier, concerning his belief that Washington betrayed their friendship while he, Paine, was in French jail.

He found himself seen as the worst betrayer to everyone. Yet, despite this, and despite his poverty and his physical condition, Paine continued his attacks on privilege and religious superstitions. Ailing and sick, Paine was nursed by Bonneville’s wife, until the end of his life.

DEATH AND FUNERAL

He died in 1809, leaving the bulk of his estate to Bonneville’s wife and her sons. (In 1810, the fall of Napoleon finally allowed Bonneville to rejoin his wife in the United States where he remained for four years before returning to Paris.)

Paine was buried in New Rochelle on his farm. Most American newspapers reprinted the obituary notice from the New York Citizen, which read in part: “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.’

Only six mourners came to his funeral.

The writer and orator Robert G. Ingersoll wrote: “Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred — his virtues denounced as vices — his services forgotten — his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend — the friend of the whole world — with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came — Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead — on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head — and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude — constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.”

TEN YEARS LATER

Ten years later, William Cobbett, a political journalist, exhumed the bones and took them to England. Cobbett hoped to give Paine a funeral worthy of his great contributions to humanity.

The plan misfired, and the bones were lost, never to be recovered.

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 prefatory note says: "Since the printing of this book, the publisher is informed that No. 1, 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 sufficiently 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, 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 Americans 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 denounced 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 the 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 interest. 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)

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 now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation 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 WHATSOEVER," 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 dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but 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.

* 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 punishment 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.

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 flat-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 sufferers 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 shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

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 remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking 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 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 conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived 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 soldiers, 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 unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous 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 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 conqueror; 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 purchase 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 [Philadelphia]; 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 encouragement 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 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 prejudice.

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 danger, 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 works," 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 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 character 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 cunning 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. Ye men 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 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, that 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 vapors 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 defenceless 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 cowardly 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-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 command 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 fortitude. 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 cannot 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 continent, 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 reflection you may probably find the fitness of Wolsey's despairing penitence—"had I served my God as faithful 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 proclamation has given them the lie, by showing you to be a commissioner 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 history, 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 you 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 unjustly, 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 gentlemen. It was beneath the dignity of the American Congress to pay any regard to a message that at best was but a genteel affront, and had too much of the ministerial complexion 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 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; wherefore, 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: 1st, 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 refinements, 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, disavowed every purpose for reconciliation not consonant with their extravagant and inadmissible claim of independence." Why, God bless me! what have you to do with our independence? 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 independence?" To set you right, sir, we tell you, that the independency is ours, not theirs. The Congress were authorized by every state on the continent to publish it to all the world, and in so doing are not to be considered as the inventors, 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 Parliament?

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 proclamation, 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 fulfil, 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?" 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 precipitation 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 themselves. A traitor is the foulest fiend on earth.

In a political sense we ought to thank you for thus bequeathing 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 defection 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'll say, "are his majesty's most faithful subjects;" let that honor, 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, feathering, carting, and taking securities for their future good behavior; 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 villain, biassed into his offence by the force of false reasoning, or bribed thereto, through sad necessity. We dishonor ourselves by attacking such trifling characters while greater ones are suffered to escape; 'tis our duty to find them out, and 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 declaring 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, providentially preserved this city from plunder and destruction, by delivering so great a part of the enemy into our hands with so little effusion of blood, they stubbornly affected to disbelieve 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.

* 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.

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 believing 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. You avowed purpose 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 professed yourself the prince of ruffians; not even the appearance 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 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 confided 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.

* 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.

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 Commander-in-Chief orders, that all inhabitants who shall be found with arms, not having an officer with them, shall be immediately 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 prisoners, 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 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!