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The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol. I

T >> Thomas Paine >> The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol. I




The states of Holland are an unfortunate instance of the effects of
individual sovereignty. Their disjointed condition exposes them to
numerous intrigues, losses, calamities, and enemies; and the almost
impossibility of bringing their measures to a decision, and that
decision into execution, is to them, and would be to us, a source of
endless misfortune.

It is with confederated states as with individuals in society;
something must be yielded up to make the whole secure. In this view
of things we gain by what we give, and draw an annual interest
greater than the capital.- I ever feel myself hurt when I hear the
union, that great palladium of our liberty and safety, the least
irreverently spoken of. It is the most sacred thing in the
constitution of America, and that which every man should be most
proud and tender of. Our citizenship in the United States is our
national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only
our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the
former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS- our inferior one
varies with the place.

So far as my endeavors could go, they have all been directed to
conciliate the affections, unite the interests, and draw and keep the
mind of the country together; and the better to assist in this
foundation work of the revolution, I have avoided all places of
profit or office, either in the state I live in, or in the United
States; kept myself at a distance from all parties and party
connections, and even disregarded all private and inferior concerns:
and when we take into view the great work which we have gone through,
and feel, as we ought to feel, the just importance of it, we shall
then see, that the little wranglings and indecent contentions of
personal parley, are as dishonorable to our characters, as they are
injurious to our repose.

It was the cause of America that made me an author. The force with
which it struck my mind and the dangerous condition the country
appeared to me in, by courting an impossible and an unnatural
reconciliation with those who were determined to reduce her, instead
of striking out into the only line that could cement and save her, A
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, made it impossible for me, feeling as I
did, to be silent: and if, in the course of more than seven years, I
have rendered her any service, I have likewise added something to the
reputation of literature, by freely and disinterestedly employing it
in the great cause of mankind, and showing that there may be genius
without prostitution.

Independence always appeared to me practicable and probable, provided
the sentiment of the country could be formed and held to the object:
and there is no instance in the world, where a people so extended,
and wedded to former habits of thinking, and under such a variety of
circumstances, were so instantly and effectually pervaded, by a turn
in politics, as in the case of independence; and who supported their
opinion, undiminished, through such a succession of good and ill
fortune, till they crowned it with success.

But as the scenes of war are closed, and every man preparing for home
and happier times, I therefore take my leave of the subject. I have
most sincerely followed it from beginning to end, and through all its
turns and windings: and whatever country I may hereafter be in, I
shall always feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and acted,
and a gratitude to nature and providence for putting it in my power
to be of some use to mankind.

COMMON SENSE.

PHILADELPHIA, April 19, 1783.

A SUPERNUMERARY CRISIS

TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA.

IN "_Rivington's New York Gazette_," of December 6th, is a
publication, under the appearance of a letter from London, dated
September 30th; and is on a subject which demands the attention of
the United States.

The public will remember that a treaty of commerce between the United
States and England was set on foot last spring, and that until the
said treaty could be completed, a bill was brought into the British
Parliament by the then chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Pitt, to
admit and legalize (as the case then required) the commerce of the
United States into the British ports and dominions. But neither the
one nor the other has been completed. The commercial treaty is either
broken off, or remains as it began; and the bill in Parliament has
been thrown aside. And in lieu thereof, a selfish system of English
politics has started up, calculated to fetter the commerce of
America, by engrossing to England the carrying trade of the American
produce to the West India islands.

Among the advocates for this last measure is Lord Sheffield, a member
of the British Parliament, who has published a pamphlet entitled
"Observations on the Commerce of the American States." The pamphlet
has two objects; the one is to allure the Americans to purchase
British manufactures; and the other to spirit up the British
Parliament to prohibit the citizens of the United States from trading
to the West India islands.

Viewed in this light, the pamphlet, though in some parts dexterously
written, is an absurdity. It offends, in the very act of endeavoring
to ingratiate; and his lordship, as a politician, ought not to have
suffered the two objects to have appeared together. The latter
alluded to, contains extracts from the pamphlet, with high encomiums
on Lord Sheffield, for laboriously endeavoring (as the letter styles
it) "to show the mighty advantages of retaining the carrying trade."

Since the publication of this pamphlet in England, the commerce of
the United States to the West Indies, in American vessels, has been
prohibited; and all intercourse, except in British bottoms, the
property of and navigated by British subjects, cut off.

That a country has a right to be as foolish as it pleases, has been
proved by the practice of England for many years past: in her island
situation, sequestered from the world, she forgets that her whispers
are heard by other nations; and in her plans of politics and commerce
she seems not to know, that other votes are necessary besides her
own. America would be equally as foolish as Britain, were she to
suffer so great a degradation on her flag, and such a stroke on the
freedom of her commerce, to pass without a balance.

We admit the right of any nation to prohibit the commerce of another
into its own dominions, where there are no treaties to the contrary;
but as this right belongs to one side as well as the other, there is
always a way left to bring avarice and insolence to reason.

But the ground of security which Lord Sheffield has chosen to erect
his policy upon, is of a nature which ought, and I think must, awaken
in every American a just and strong sense of national dignity. Lord
Sheffield appears to be sensible, that in advising the British nation
and Parliament to engross to themselves so great a part of the
carrying trade of America, he is attempting a measure which cannot
succeed, if the politics of the United States be properly directed to
counteract the assumption.

But, says he, in his pamphlet, "It will be a long time before the
American states can be brought to act as a nation, neither are they
to be feared as such by us."

What is this more or less than to tell us, that while we have no
national system of commerce, the British will govern our trade by
their own laws and proclamations as they please. The quotation
discloses a truth too serious to be overlooked, and too mischievous
not to be remedied.

Among other circumstances which led them to this discovery none could
operate so effectually as the injudicious, uncandid and indecent
opposition made by sundry persons in a certain state, to the
recommendations of Congress last winter, for an import duty of five
per cent. It could not but explain to the British a weakness in the
national power of America, and encourage them to attempt restrictions
on her trade, which otherwise they would not have dared to hazard.
Neither is there any state in the union, whose policy was more
misdirected to its interest than the state I allude to, because her
principal support is the carrying trade, which Britain, induced by
the want of a well-centred power in the United States to protect and
secure, is now attempting to take away. It fortunately happened (and
to no state in the union more than the state in question) that the
terms of peace were agreed on before the opposition appeared,
otherwise, there cannot be a doubt, that if the same idea of the
diminished authority of America had occurred to them at that time as
has occurred to them since, but they would have made the same grasp
at the fisheries, as they have done at the carrying trade.

It is surprising that an authority which can be supported with so
much ease, and so little expense, and capable of such extensive
advantages to the country, should be cavilled at by those whose duty
it is to watch over it, and whose existence as a people depends upon
it. But this, perhaps, will ever be the case, till some misfortune
awakens us into reason, and the instance now before us is but a
gentle beginning of what America must expect, unless she guards her
union with nicer care and stricter honor. United, she is formidable,
and that with the least possible charge a nation can be so;
separated, she is a medley of individual nothings, subject to the
sport of foreign nations.

It is very probable that the ingenuity of commerce may have found out
a method to evade and supersede the intentions of the British, in
interdicting the trade with the West India islands. The language of
both being the same, and their customs well understood, the vessels
of one country may, by deception, pass for those of another. But this
would be a practice too debasing for a sovereign people to stoop to,
and too profligate not to be discountenanced. An illicit trade, under
any shape it can be placed, cannot be carried on without a violation
of truth. America is now sovereign and independent, and ought to
conduct her affairs in a regular style of character. She has the same
right to say that no British vessel shall enter ports, or that no
British manufactures shall be imported, but in American bottoms, the
property of, and navigated by American subjects, as Britain has to
say the same thing respecting the West Indies. Or she may lay a duty
of ten, fifteen, or twenty shillings per ton (exclusive of other
duties) on every British vessel coming from any port of the West
Indies, where she is not admitted to trade, the said tonnage to
continue as long on her side as the prohibition continues on the
other.

But it is only by acting in union, that the usurpations of foreign
nations on the freedom of trade can be counteracted, and security
extended to the commerce of America. And when we view a flag, which
to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin
inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must
unite with our interest to prevent injury to the one, or insult to
the other.

COMMON SENSE.

NEW YORK, December 9, 1783.

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