Common Sense

by Thomas Paine
INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages,
are not YET sufficientlyfashionable to procure them general favour;

a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial
appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry

in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides.
Time makes more converts than reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means
of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which

might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated
into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken

in his OWN RIGHT, to support the Parliament in what he calls THEIRS,
and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed

by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into
the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.

In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every
thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as

censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the worthy,
need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments

are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless
too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.
Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal,

and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected,
and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested.

The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War
against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating

the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern
of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling;

of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.
P.S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed,

with a View of taking notice (had it been necessary)
of any Attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independance:

As no Answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will,
the Time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public

being considerably past.
Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public,

as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN. Yet it may
not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no

sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1776

OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL.
WITH CONCISE REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION

Some writers have so confounded society with government,
as to leave little or no distinction between them;

whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.
Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness;

the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections,
the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one

encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions.
The first a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best
state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one;

for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT,
which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity

is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings

are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses
of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need

no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary
to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection

of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every
other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. WHEREFORE,

security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows,
that whatever FORM thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us,

with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of

government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some
sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will

then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world.
In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought.

A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man
is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual

solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of
another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would

be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness,
but one man might labour out of the common period of life without

accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not
remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time

would urge him from his work, and every different want call him
a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death,

for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him
from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might

rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly

arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which,
would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government

unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other;
but as nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will

unavoidably happen, that in proportion as they surmount the first
difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause,

they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other;
and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing

some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.
Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the branches

of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters.
It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only

of REGULATIONS, and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem.
In this first parliament every man, by natural right, will have a seat.

But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase
likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated,

will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on
every occasion as at first, when their number was small,

their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling.
This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave

the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen
from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns

at stake which those who appointed them, and who will act in the
same manner as the whole body would act, were they present.

If the colony continues increasing, it will become necessary
to augment the number of the representatives, and that the interest

of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found
best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending

its proper number; and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves
an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out

the propriety of having elections often; because as the ELECTED
might by that means return and mix again with the general body

of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public
will be secured by the prudentreflection of not making a rod

for themselves. And as this frequentinterchange will establish
a common interest with every part of the community, they will

mutually and naturally support each other, and on this (not on
the unmeaning name of king) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT,

AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered

necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world;
here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security.

And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound;
however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding,

the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.
I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature,

which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is,
the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired

when disordered; and with this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks
on the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble

for the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted.
When the world was overrun with tyranny the least remove therefrom

was a gloriousrescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions,
and capable" target="_blank" title="a.无能力的；不能的">incapable of producing what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated.

Absolute governments (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this