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for putting England into as strong a state of defence 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 farther 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 interfere with it. A pretty state we should soon be in under such
a second-hand 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
Common Sense& 18
repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces; in
order, that he may accomplish by craft and subtilty, in the long run, what he cannot do by
force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.
Secondly. 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 who is every
day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present
inhabitant 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, towards 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 cannot 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 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 are ten times more to dread from a patched up connexion than from
independence. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from
house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as 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 pretence 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
Common Sense& 19
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.
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