Primary Source Documents

Thomas Paine Argues for American Independence*

The following excerpt from Common Sense contains some of the modes of reasoning and the rhetorical strategies that made Paine such a successful propagandist for the cause of American independence.

But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then 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—and his parasites, with the 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....Not one-third of the inhabitants, even of this province [Pennsylvania], 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.

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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 strong 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 encreases 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.

* From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776).


1.			When Paine observes that "Even brutes do not devour their young" and "The blood of the slain,cries, TIS TIME TO PART," to what events is he alluding?




2.			Paine evokes a colonial past in which America figured as an "asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe." Is his an accurate depiction of early American history? If not, then why does Paine portray the colonial period in those terms?




3.			Paine bases his argument for independence on natural law and natural rights rather than on the narrower grounds of "the rights of Englishmen." Underline the passages in the excerpt above where he is making use of arguments from nature. Then explain why, in terms of mobilizing all Americans behind the cause of independence, that strategy was a shrewd one.




4.			Why does Paine devote so much attention to arguing that England is not the "parent" country of America? What was he trying to accomplish by criticizing the use of familial metaphors to describe the tie between Britain and the colonies?

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