Chapter IX: Part II (1)

AN EXAMINATION OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

It is with painful feelings I now call your attention to the famous document which sets forth the political creed of the United States. More than once my pen has refused to set about this work, but I now ask: Who wrote the original Declaration of Independence? I answer boldly, Thomas Paine. To prove this, my method is the same as with Junius, and the prejudices of the united world shall not intimidate me.

It is not my purpose to revive the old and long-forgotten controversy about the authorship of this document. Enough to say, volumes have been written to prove that it was _not_ Jefferson's. But the method and object of a negative criticism I scorn. If it can not be shown to be some other man's, then let the claimant wear his honors; he certainly did not come by them meanly or dishonorably; they were forced upon him.

My evidence will be such as to exclude the possibility of even literary theft in Jefferson, and that it is, as a whole, the work of the author of Common Sense, and can not possibly be the work of any body else. This is a bold assertion, and a little out of my turn, but my object is to raise the strongest _doubt_ of the truth of what I assert in the mind of my reader, so as to enlist his attention, and hold me to the proof.

The method of my argument is as follows:

First, to show wherein this document is exactly like Mr. Paine; and,

Secondly, wherein it is entirely unlike Mr. Jefferson.

The points wherein they would agree are necessarily thrown out, and count nothing on either side. For example, the principles therein contained may be common to both, and can have no weight in an argument. It is said, in defense of this paper being Mr. Jefferson's, that the "Summary View" of his submitted to, but not passed by the Virginia Delegate Convention in 1774, contained the "_germs_" of the Declaration. This I do not admit, but if it did, it would prove nothing, for so did the writings of John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, and Samuel Adams, and especially of James Otis. A thousand men in America had, perhaps, expressed the cardinal doctrine of equal rights, and that the British Parliament had usurped them. There is nothing peculiar nor individual in this; but when we find one man only who makes a specialty of the _Declaration_, it attracts attention, and must have great weight when supported by a multitude of other special facts, all pointing in the same direction. I, therefore, go to show:

First, Common Sense was written by Mr. Paine for the sole purpose of declaring independence, and, with this document in view. I have heretofore reviewed Common Sense, beginning on page 156 of this book. If it were practicable for the reader to read the whole of Common Sense at this time, it would render my labor much less; but as this may not be the case, I will now give the whole of the third division of that paper, being:

"THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

"In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts,
plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries
to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of
prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his
feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put _on_, or
rather that he will not put _off_ the true character of a man, and
generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.

"Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between
England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the
controversy from different motives, and with various designs; but
all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed.
Arms, as the last resource, must decide the contest; the appeal
was the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the
challenge.

"It has been reported of the late Mr. Pelham (who, though an able
minister, was not without his faults), that on his being attacked
in the House of Commons, on the score, that his measures were only
of a temporary kind, replied "_they will last my time_." Should a
thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present
contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future
generations with detestation.

"The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the
affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a
continent--of at least one-eighth part of the habitable globe.
'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are
virtually involved in the contest, and they will be more or less
affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is
the seed-time of continental union, faith, and honor. The least
fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin
on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the
tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

"By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new era for
politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All
plans, proposals, etc., prior to the nineteenth of April, _i. e._,
to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of last
year; which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now.
Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the
question then terminated in one and the same point, viz., a union
with Great Britain. The only difference between the parties was
the method of effecting it; the one proposing force, the other
friendship; but it hath so far happened that the first has failed,
and the second has withdrawn her influence.

"As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation,
which, like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we
were, it is but right that we should examine the contrary side of
the argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries
which these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being
connected with and dependent on Great Britain. To examine that
connection and dependence, on the principles of nature and common
sense, to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we
are to expect, if dependent.

"I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished
under her former connection with Great Britain, the same
connection is necessary toward her future happiness, and will
always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than
this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child
has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the
first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the
next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I
answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and
probably much more, had no European power had any thing to do with
her. The articles of commerce by which she has enriched herself,
are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while
eating is the custom of Europe.

"But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is
true, and defended the continent at our expense, as well as her
own, is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same
motives, viz., for the sake of trade and dominion.

"Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made
large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection
of Great Britain, without considering that her motive was
_interest_, not _attachment_; and that she did not protect us from
_our enemies_ on _our account_, but from _her enemies_ on _her own
account_, from those who had no quarrel with us on any _other
account_, and who will always be our enemies on the _same
account_. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or
the continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace
with France and Spain, were they at war with Britain. The miseries
of Hanover, last war, ought to warn us against connections.

"It hath lately been asserted in Parliament that the colonies have
no relation to each other, but through the parent country, _i.
e._, that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest,
are sister colonies by the way of England. This is certainly a
very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest
and only true way of proving enemyship, if I may so call it.
France and Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies
as _Americans_, but as our being the _subjects of Great Britain_.

"But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame
upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor
savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if
true, turns to her reproach. But it happens not to be true, or
only partly so; and the phrase _parent_, or _mother country_ hath
been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a
low, papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous
weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent
country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the
persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from _every part_
of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of
the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far
true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first
emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.

"In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow
limits of three hundred and sixty miles--the extent of
England--and carry our friendship on a larger scale. We claim
brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the
generosity of the sentiment.

"It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount
local prejudices, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. A
man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will
naturally associate most with his fellow-parishioners--because
their interests, in many cases, will be common--and distinguish
him by the name of _neighbor_; if he meet him but a few miles from
home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the
name of _townsman_; if he travel out of the county, and meets him
in any other, he forgets the minor division of street and town,
and calls him _countryman_--_i. e._, _countyman_; but if, in their
foreign excursions, they should associate in France, or any other
part of _Europe_, their local remembrance would be enlarged into
that of _Englishmen_. And, by a just parity of reasoning, all
Europeans meeting in America, or any other quarter of the globe,
are _countrymen_; for England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden, when
compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger
scale which the divisions of street, town, and county do on the
smaller one--distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not
one-third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of
English descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of parent, or
mother country, applied to England only, as being false, selfish,
narrow, and ungenerous.

"But, admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it
amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes
every other name and title; and to say that reconciliation is our
duty, is truly farcical. The first King of England, of the present
line--William the Conqueror--was a Frenchman, and half the peers
of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore, by
the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by
France.

"Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the
colonies--that, in conjunction, they might bid defiance to the
world. But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain,
neither do the expressions mean anything; for this continent would
never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants to support the
British arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.

"Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance?
Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us
the peace and friendship of all Europe, because it is the interest
of all Europe to have America a _free port_. Her trade will always
be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her
from invaders.

"I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a
single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected
with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge; not a single
advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market
in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where
we will.

"But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that
connection are without number; and our duty to mankind at large,
as well as to ourselves, instructs us to renounce the alliance,
because any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends
directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels,
and sets us at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our
friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint.
As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial
connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of America
to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do;
while, by her dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight
in the scale of British politics.

"Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace;
and whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign
power, the trade of America goes to ruin, _because of her
connection with Britain_. The next war may not turn out like the
last, and, should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now
will be wishing for separation then, because neutrality, in that
case, would be a safer convoy than a man-of-war. Every thing that
is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain,
the weeping voice of Nature, cries, '_'Tis time to part!_' Even
the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and
America, is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the
one over the other was never the design of Heaven. The time,
likewise, at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to
the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled increases the
force of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of
America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary
to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither
friendship nor safety.

"The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of
government which, sooner or later, must have an end; and a serious
mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the
painful and positive conviction that what he calls 'the present
constitution,' is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no
joy, knowing that _this government_ is not sufficiently lasting to
insure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity; and by a
plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation
into debt, we ought to do the work of it--otherwise we use them
meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty
rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our
station a few years further into life. That eminence will present
a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from
our sight.

"Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I
am inclined to believe that all those who espouse the doctrine of
reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions:

"Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who _can
not_ see; prejudiced men, who _will not_ see; and a certain set of
moderate men, who think better of the European world than it
deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will
be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the
other three.

"It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of
sorrow. The evil is not sufficiently brought to _their_ doors to
make _them_ feel the precariousness with which all American
property is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us a few
moments to Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom,
and instruct us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no
trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who, but a few
months ago, were in ease and affluence, have now no other
alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to
beg--endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue
within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it.
In their present situation they are prisoners without the hope of
redemption, and in a general attack for their relief, they would
be exposed to the fury of both armies.

"Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of
Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out,
'_Come, come; we shall be friends again for all this_.' But
examine the passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine
of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me
whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the
power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you can
not do all these, then you are only deceiving yourselves, and, by
your delay, bringing ruin upon your posterity. Your future
connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor, will
be forced and unnatural, and, being formed only on the plan of
present convenience, will, in a little time, fall into a relapse
more wretched than the first. But if you say you can still pass
the violations over, then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath
your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and
children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have
you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the
ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a
judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake
hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of
husband, father, friend, or lover; and, whatever may be your rank
or title in life, you have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
a sycophant.

"This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by
those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
which we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of
life or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit
horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from
fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some
fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
conquer America, if she does not conquer herself by _delay_ and
_timidity_. The present winter is worth an age if rightly
employed; but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will
partake of the misfortune; and there is no punishment which that
man will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that
may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.

"It is repugnant to reason and the universal order of things, to
all examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent can
longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in
Britain do not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom can
not, at this time, compass a plan short of separation, which can
promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is
_now_ a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, and
art can not supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses,
'Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate
have pierced 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--nothing hath contributed more than this
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 visionary. 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 can not conquer us they can not 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 be 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 absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually
governed by an island. In no instance hath nature 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 that they belong to different systems:
England to Europe--America to itself.

"I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to
espouse the doctrine of separation and independence. I am clearly,
positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true
interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of
_that_ is mere patchwork; that it can afford no lasting felicity;
that it is leaving the sword to our children and shrinking back at
a time when, going a little further, would have rendered this
continent the glory of the earth.

"As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination toward a
compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy
the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense
of blood and treasure we have been already put to.

{213}"The object contended for ought always to bear some just
proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the whole
detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have
expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience which
would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts
complained of, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole
continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, it is
scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry
only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for the repeal of the acts if that
is all we fight for; for, in a just estimation, it is as great a
folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law as for land. I have
always considered the independency of this continent as an event
which sooner or later must take place, and, from the late rapid
progress of the continent to maturity, the event can not be far
off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not
worth the while to have disputed a matter which time would have
finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise, it
is like wasting an estate on a suit at law to regulate the
trespasses of a tenant whose lease is just expiring. No man was a
warmer wisher for a reconciliation than myself before the fatal
nineteenth of April, 1775,[A] but the moment the event of that day
was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh
of England forever; and disdain the wretch that, with the
pretended title of _father of his people_, can unfeelingly hear of
their slaughter and composedly sleep with their blood upon his
soul.

"But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the
event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several
reasons.

"1st. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the
king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this
continent. And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy
to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, is
he, or is he not, a proper person to say to these colonies, '_You
shall make no laws but what I please?_' And is there any
inhabitant of America so ignorant as not to know that, according
to what is called the _present constitution_, this continent can
make no laws but what the king gives leave to? and is there any
man so unwise as not to see that (considering what has happened)
he will suffer no law to be made here but such as suits _his_
purpose? We may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws in
America as by submitting to laws made for us in England. After
matters are made up (as it is called), can there be any doubt but
the whole power of the crown will be exerted to keep this
continent as low and humble as possible? Instead of going forward,
we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously
petitioning. We are already greater than the king wishes us to be,
and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? To bring the
matter to one point, is the power who is jealous of our prosperity
a proper power to govern us? Whoever says _No_ to this question is
an _independent_, for independency means no more than this,
whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the
greatest enemy which this continent hath or can have, shall tell
us, '_There shall be no laws but such as I like_.'

"But the king, you will say, has a negative in England; the people
there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and
good order, it is something very ridiculous that a youth of
twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several
millions of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or
that act of yours to be law. But in this place I decline this sort
of reply, though I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it;
and only answer that, England being the king's residence and
America not makes quite another case. The king's negative _here_
is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England;
for _there_ he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for
putting England into as strong a state of defense as possible, and
in America he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.

"America is only a secondary object in the system of British
politics--England consults the good of _this_ country no further
than it answers her _own_ purpose. Wherefore, her own interest
leads her to suppress the growth of _ours_ in every case which
doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with
it. A pretty state we should soon be in under such a secondhand
government, considering what has happened! Men do not change from
enemies to friends by the alteration of a name; and in order to
show that reconciliation _now_ is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm
_that it would be policy in the king at this time to repeal the
acts, for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the
provinces_; in order _that he may accomplish by craft and
subtlety, in the long run, what he can not do by force in the
short one_. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.

"2dly. That as even the best terms which we can expect to obtain
can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of
government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the
colonies come of age, so the general face and state of things, in
the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of
property will not choose to come to a country whose form of
government hangs but by a thread, and which is every day tottering
on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the
present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval to dispose of
their effects and quit the continent.

"But the most powerful of all arguments is, that nothing but
independence, _i. e._, a continental form of government, can keep
the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil
wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as
it is more than probable that it will be followed by a revolt
somewhere or other, the consequences of which may be far more
fatal than all the malice of Britain.

"Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity. (Thousands
more will probably suffer the same fate.) Those men have other
feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they _now_ possess
is liberty; what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service,
and, having nothing more to lose, they disdain submission.
Besides, the general temper of the colonies toward a British
government will be like that of a youth who is nearly out of his
time--they will care very little about her. And a government which
can not preserve the peace is no government at all, and in that
case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that
Britain can do, whose power will be wholly on paper, should a
civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation? I have
heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking,
that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it would produce
civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly
correct, and that is the case here; for there is ten times more to
dread from a patched up connection than from independence. I make
the sufferer's case my own, and I protest that, were I driven from
house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances
ruined, that as a man sensible of injuries, I could never relish
the doctrine of reconciliation or consider myself bound thereby.

"The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and
obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make
every reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can
assign the least pretense for his fears on any other grounds than
such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz.: that one colony
will be striving for superiority over another.

"Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority;
perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe
are all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Switzerland
are without wars, foreign or domestic. Monarchical governments, it
is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation
to enterprising ruffians at home, and that degree of pride and
insolence, ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a
rupture with foreign powers in instances where a republican
government, by being formed on more natural principles, would
negotiate the mistake.

"If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is
because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out.
Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following
hints, at the same time modestly affirming that I have no other
opinion of them myself than that they may be the means of giving
rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of
individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
wise and able men to improve into useful matter:

"Let the assemblies be annual, with a president only. The
representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and
subject to the authority of a continental congress.

"Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten convenient
districts, each district to send a proper number of delegates to
congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole
number in congress will be at least three hundred and ninety. Each
congress to sit ----, and to choose a president by the following
method: When the delegates are met, let a colony be taken from the
whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let the congress
choose (by ballot) a president from out of the delegates of that
province. In the next congress, let a colony be taken by lot from
twelve only, omitting that colony from which the president was
taken in the former congress, and so proceeding on till the whole
thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And, in order that
nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just, not
less than three-fifths of the congress to be called a majority.
He that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed
as this, would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.

"But, as there is a peculiar delicacy from whom, or in what
manner, this business must first arise, and as it seems most
agreeable and consistent that it should come from some
intermediate body between the governed and the governors--that is,
between the congress and the people--let a _Continental
Conference_ be held, in the following manner, and for the
following purpose:

"A committee of twenty-six members of congress, viz.: two for each
colony; two members from each house of assembly, or provincial
convention, and five representatives of the people at large, to be
chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for and in
behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall
think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that
purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen
in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this
conference, thus assembled, will be united the two grand
principles of business--_knowledge_ and _power_. The members of
congress, assemblies, or conventions, by having had experience in
national concerns, will be able and useful counselors, and the
whole, being empowered by the people, will have a truly legal
authority.

"The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame
a _Continental Charter_, or Charter of the United Colonies
(answering to what is called the Magna Charta of England); fixing
the number and manner of choosing members of congress and members
of assembly, with their date of sitting, and drawing the line of
business and jurisdiction between them (always remembering that
our strength is continental, not provincial); securing freedom and
property to all men, and, above all things, the free exercise of
religion, according to the dictates of conscience; with such other
matter as it is necessary for a charter to contain. Immediately
after which, the said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which
shall be chosen conformable to the said charter to be the
legislators and governors of this continent for the time being:
whose peace and happiness may God preserve. Amen.

"Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some
similar purpose, I offer them the following extract from that wise
observer on governments, Dragonetti: 'The science,' says he, 'of
the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and
freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages who should
discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of
individual happiness, with the least national expense.'

"But where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you,
friend: he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like
the royal brute of Britain. Yet, that we may not appear to be
defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart
for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the
divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by
which the world may know that, so far as we approve of monarchy,
that in America _the law is king_. For as in absolute governments
the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king;
and there ought to be no other. But, lest any ill use should
afterward arise, let the crown, at the conclusion of the ceremony,
be demolished, and scattered among the people, whose right it is.

"A government of our own is our natural right; and when a man
seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will
become convinced that it is infinitely wiser and safer to form a
constitution of our own in a cool, deliberate manner, while we
have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to
time and chance. If we omit it now, some Massanello may hereafter
arise, who, laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect
together the desperate and the discontented, and, by assuming to
themselves the powers of government, finally sweep away the
liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the government of
America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering
situation of things will be a temptation for some desperate
adventurer to try his fortune; and, in such a case, what relief
can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news the fatal business
might be done, and ourselves suffering, like the wretched Britons,
under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independence
now, ye know not what ye do: ye are opening a door to eternal
tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are
thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to
expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish power, which
hath stirred up the Indians and negroes to destroy us. The cruelty
hath a double guilt--it is dealing brutally by us, and
treacherously by them.

"To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to
have faith, and our affections, wounded through a thousand pores,
instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out
the little remains of kindred between us and them; and can there
be any reason to hope that, as the relationship expires, the
affection will increase, or that we shall agree better when we
have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than
ever?

"Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to
us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former
innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last
cord now is broken; the people of England are presenting addresses
against us. There are injuries which nature can not forgive--she
would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive
the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders
of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these
unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the
guardians of his image in our hearts, and distinguish us from the
herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and
justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual
existence, were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber
and the murderer would often escape unpunished, did not the
injuries which our tempers sustain provoke us into justice.

"Oh, ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the
tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world
is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been haunted round the
globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her
like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh!
receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind."

ORIGINAL DECLARATION.[B]

I now place before the reader the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, as it was presented by Jefferson. I have placed in brackets the matter struck out or amended by Congress.

It will be remembered that Mr. Jefferson was chairman of the committee to draft the document; Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, being the other four of the committee; that they changed but a word or two in it; and that John Adams became its champion in Congress, and fought manfully for every word of it. Jefferson said nothing, as he scarcely ever spoke in public:

1. "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

2. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
[inherent and] inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of
the people to alter and abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundations on such principles, and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, [begun at a distinguished period, and]
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferings of
these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to [expunge] their former systems of government. The history
of the present king of Great Britain, is a history of
[unremitting] injuries and usurpations, [among which appears no
solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, but all
have] in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a
candid world, [for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet
unsullied by falsehood.]

{223}3. "He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.

4. "He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.

5. "He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish
the right of representation in the legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

6. "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures.

7. "He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly [and
continually] for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on
the rights of the people.

8. "He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to
cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers,
incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large
for their exercise, the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed
to dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within.

9. "He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states;
for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

10. "He has [suffered] the administration of justice [totally to
cease in some of these states], refusing his assent to laws for
establishing judiciary powers.

11. "He has made [our] judges dependent on his will alone for the
tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries.

12. "He has erected a multitude of new offices [by a self-assumed
power], and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our
people and eat out their substance.

13. "He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies [and
ships of war] without the consent of our legislatures.

14. "He has affected to render the military independent of and
superior to the civil power.

15. "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws,
giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation for
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting
by a mock trial from punishment, any murders which they should
commit on the inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our
trade with all ports of the world; for imposing taxes on us
without our consent; for depriving us of the benefits of trial by
jury; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended
offenses; for abolishing the free system of English laws in a
neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary
government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule in these [states]; for taking away our charters,
abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally,
the forms of our governments; for suspending our own legislatures,
and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us
in all cases whatsoever.

16. "He has abdicated government here [withdrawing his governors
and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection].

17. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

18. "He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation, and
tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy,
unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

19. "He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the
high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the
executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves
by their hands.

20. "He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of the
frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of
warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and
conditions of [existence].

21. ["He has excited treasonable insurrection of our
fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture and
confiscation of our property.]

22. ["He has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the
persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating
and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical
warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the
CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or
restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of
horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now
exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to
purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering
the people on whom he has obtruded them; thus paying off former
crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people with crimes
which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.]

23. "In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been
answered only by repeated injuries.

24. "A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which
may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people [who
mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe that the
hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass of
twelve years only, to lay a foundation so broad and so undisguised
for tyranny over a people fostered and fixed in principles of
freedom.]

25. "Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts, by
their legislature, to extend [a] jurisdiction over [these, our
States.] We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here, [no one of which would warrant so
strange a pretention. These were effected at the expense of our
own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or strength of
Great Britain; that in constituting, indeed, our several forms of
government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a
foundation for perpetual league and amity with them; but that
submission to their Parliament was no part of our constitution,
nor ever in idea, if history may be credited; and] we appealed to
their native justice and magnanimity, [as well as to] the ties of
our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which [were
likely] to interrupt our connection and correspondence. They, too,
have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity; [and
when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of
their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our
harmony, they have, by their free election, reestablished them in
power. At this very time, too, they are permitting their chief
magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but
Scotch and foreign mercenaries, to invade and destroy us. These
facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly
spirit bids us renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must
endeavor to forget our former love for them,] and hold them as we
hold the rest of mankind--enemies in war, in peace friends. [We
might have been a free and a great people together; but a
communion of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their
dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness
and to glory is open to us, too. We will tread it apart from them,
and] acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our [eternal]
separation.

26. "We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of
America, in general Congress assembled, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these [States, reject and renounce
all allegiance and subjection to the King of Great Britain, and
all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we
utterly dissolve all political connection which may heretofore
have subsisted between us and the people or Parliament of Great
Britain; and, finally, we do assert and declare these colonies to
be free and independent States;] and that, as free and independent
States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract
alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things
which independent States may of right do.

"And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to
each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Massacre at Lexington.

[B] See Note A, page 277.

ANALYSIS.

We have to do with the original draft, and to let the reader see the hand of a master, I will analyze it.

"I love method," said Mr. Paine. The method of the piece stands as follows, and, for the sake of elucidation, I have numbered the paragraphs in the original;

I. INTRODUCTION, viz:--Paragraph 1.

II. BILL OF RIGHTS--Paragraph 2.

III. INDICTMENT--under three general charges: _Usurpation_,
_Abdication_, and _War_, as follows:

USURPATION.

Par. 3, 4, 5--Laws usurped, and hereunder:

_a._ Negatived.
_b._ Forbidden and neglected.
_c._ Refused, unless rights are surrendered.

Par. 6, 7, 8, 9--Legislation usurped, and hereunder:

_a._ Legislative bodies meet at the wrong place.
_b._ Legislative bodies dissolved.
_c._ Refused to have them elected.
_d._ Obstructing legislation for naturalization.

Par. 10, 11, 12--Judiciary powers usurped, and hereunder:

_a._ Destroyed by his negative.
_b._ Made the judges dependent on his will,
_c._ And erected new offices by his own will.

Par. 13, 14--Military powers usurped, and hereunder:

_a._ Established without consent of legislatures.
_b._ Made superior to civil power.

Par. 15--Jurisdiction usurped, and hereunder:

_a._ Troops, the quartering of.
_b._ Trial, of a mock nature.
_c._ Trade, the cutting off.
_d._ Taxes, without consent.
_e._ Trial, depriving of.
_f._ Transportation, to be
_g._ Tried, for pretended offenses.
_h._ Laws, abolishing the English.
_i._ Charters, the taking of.
_j._ Laws, abolishing special ones.
_k._ Constitutions, altering form of.
_l._ Legislatures, suspension of.
_m._ Power, to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

ABDICATION.

Par. 16--Declaring us out of his allegiance and protection.

WAR.

Par. 17--Warfare begun, and hereunder:

_a._ Seas plundered.
_b._ Coasts ravaged.
_c._ Towns burnt.
_d._ Lives destroyed.

Par. 18--Invasion.

Par. 19--Pressing of seamen.

Par. 20--Indian massacres.

Par. 21--Insurrection.