Common Sense (pamphlet) - Paine's Arguments Against British Rule

Paine's Arguments Against British Rule

  • It was absurd for an island to rule a continent.
  • America was not a "British nation"; but was composed of influences and peoples from all of Europe.
  • Even if Britain were the "mother country" of America, that made her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally.
  • Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary European wars, and keep her from the international commerce at which America excelled.
  • The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from England unwieldy. If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would take a year before the colonies received a response.
  • The New World was discovered shortly before the Reformation. The Puritans believed that God wanted to give them a safe haven from the persecution of British rule.
  • Britain ruled the colonies for her own benefit, and did not consider the best interests of the colonists in governing them.

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