vacancy, the throne! Nothing but the sharpest essence of villany,
compounded with the strongest distillation of folly, could have
produced a menstruum that would have effected a separation. The
Congress in 1774 administered an abortive medicine to independence, by
prohibiting the importation of goods, and the succeeding Congress
rendered the dose still more dangerous by continuing it. Had
independence been a settled system with America, (as Britain has
advanced,) she ought to have doubled her importation, and prohibited
in some degree her exportation. And this single circumstance is
sufficient to acquit America before any jury of nations, of having a
continental plan of independence in view; a charge which, had it
been true, would have been honorable, but is so grossly false, that
either the amazing ignorance or the wilful dishonesty of the British
court is effectually proved by it.

  The second petition, like the first, produced no answer; it was
scarcely acknowledged to have been received; the British court were
too determined in their villainy even to act it artfully, and in their
rage for conquest neglected the necessary subtleties for obtaining it.
They might have divided, distracted and played a thousand tricks
with us, had they been as cunning as they were cruel.

  This last indignity gave a new spring to independence. Those who
knew the savage obstinacy of the king, and the jobbing, gambling
spirit of the court, predicted the fate of the petition, as soon as it
was sent from America; for the men being known, their measures were
easily foreseen. As politicians we ought not so much to ground our
hopes on the reasonableness of the thing we ask, as on the
reasonableness of the person of whom we ask it: who would expect
discretion from a fool, candor from a tyrant, or justice from a
villain?

  As every prospect of accommodation seemed now to fail fast, men
began to think seriously on the matter; and their reason being thus
stripped of the false hope which had long encompassed it, became
approachable by fair debate: yet still the bulk of the people
hesitated; they startled at the novelty of independence, without
once considering that our getting into arms at first was a more
extraordinary novelty, and that all other nations had gone through the
work of independence before us. They doubted likewise the ability of
the continent to support it, without reflecting that it required the
same force to obtain an accommodation by arms as an independence. If
the one was acquirable, the other was the same; because, to accomplish
either, it was necessary that our strength should be too great for
Britain to subdue; and it was too unreasonable to suppose, that with
the power of being masters, we should submit to be servants.* Their
caution at this time was exceedingly misplaced; for if they were
able to defend their property and maintain their rights by arms, they,
consequently, were able to defend and support their independence;
and in proportion as these men saw the necessity and correctness of
the measure, they honestly and openly declared and adopted it, and the
part that they had acted since has done them honor and fully
established their characters. Error in opinion has this peculiar
advantage with it, that the foremost point of the contrary ground
may at any time be reached by the sudden exertion of a thought; and it
frequently happens in sentimental differences, that some striking
circumstance, or some forcible reason quickly conceived, will effect
in an instant what neither argument nor example could produce in an
age.

  * In this state of political suspense the pamphlet Common Sense made
its appearance, and the success it met with does not become me to
mention. Dr. Franklin, Mr. Samuel and John Adams, were severally
spoken of as the supposed author. I had not, at that time, the
pleasure either of personally knowing or being known to the two last
gentlemen. The favor of Dr. Franklin's friendship I possessed in
England, and my introduction to this part of the world was through his
patronage. I happened, when a school-boy, to pick up a pleasing
natural history of Virginia, and my inclination from that day of
seeing the western side of the Atlantic never left me. In October,
1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as were in his
hands, towards completing a history of the present transactions, and
seemed desirous of having the first volume out the next Spring. I
had then formed the outlines of Common Sense, and finished nearly
the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a
history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to
surprise him with a production on that subject, much earlier than he
thought of; and without informing him what I was doing, got it ready
for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the
first pamphlet that was printed off.

  I find it impossible in the small compass I am limited to, to
trace out the progress which independence has made on the minds of the
different classes of men, and the several reasons by which they were
moved. With some, it was a passionate abhorrence against the king of
England and his ministry, as a set of savages and brutes; and these
men, governed by the agony of a wounded mind, were for trusting
every thing to hope and heaven, and bidding defiance at once. With
others, it was a growing conviction that the scheme of the British
court was to create, ferment and drive on a quarrel, for the sake of
confiscated plunder: and men of this class ripened into independence
in proportion as the evidence increased. While a third class conceived
it was the true interest of America, internally and externally, to
be her own master, and gave their support to independence, step by
step, as they saw her abilities to maintain it enlarge. With many,
it was a compound of all these reasons; while those who were too
callous to be reached by either, remained, and still remain Tories.

  The legal necessity of being independent, with several collateral
reasons, is pointed out in an elegant masterly manner, in a charge