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  • CHAPTER 5 APPENDIX

  • SINCE the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather, on the same

  • day on which it came out, the King's Speech made its appearance in this city.

  • Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this production, it could not have

  • brought it forth, at a more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time.

  • The bloody mindedness of the one, shew the necessity of pursuing the doctrine of the

  • other. Men read by way of revenge.

  • And the Speech instead of terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles of

  • Independance.

  • Ceremony, and even, silence, from whatever motive they may arise, have a hurtful

  • tendency, when they give the least degree of countenance to base and wicked

  • performances; wherefore, if this maxim be

  • admitted, it naturally follows, that the King's Speech, as being a piece of finished

  • villany, deserved, and still deserves, a general execration both by the Congress and

  • the people.

  • Yet, as the domestic tranquillity of a nation, depends greatly, on the CHASTITY of

  • what may properly be called NATIONAL MANNERS, it is often better, to pass some

  • things over in silent disdain, than to make

  • use of such new methods of dislike, as might introduce the least innovation, on

  • that guardian of our peace and safety.

  • And, perhaps, it is chiefly owing to this prudent delicacy, that the King's Speech,

  • hath not, before now, suffered a public execution.

  • The Speech if it may be called one, is nothing better than a wilful audacious

  • libel against the truth, the common good, and the existence of mankind; and is a

  • formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices to the pride of tyrants.

  • But this general massacre of mankind, is one of the privileges, and the certain

  • consequence of Kings; for as nature knows them NOT, they know NOT HER, and although

  • they are beings of our OWN creating, they

  • know not US, and are become the gods of their creators.

  • The Speech hath one good quality, which is, that it is not calculated to deceive,

  • neither can we, even if we would, be deceived by it.

  • Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it.

  • It leaves us at no loss: And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading,

  • that He, who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, is less a

  • Savage than the King of Britain.

  • Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining jesuitical piece, fallaciously

  • called, "THE ADDRESS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA,"

  • hath, perhaps, from a vain supposition,

  • that the people HERE were to be frightened at the pomp and description of a king,

  • given, (though very unwisely on his part) the real character of the present one:

  • "But," says this writer, "if you are

  • inclined to pay compliments to an administration, which we do not complain

  • of," (meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the repeal of the Stamp Act) "it is very

  • unfair in you to withhold them from that

  • prince, BY WHOSE NOD ALONE THEY WERE PERMITTED TO DO ANY THING."

  • This is toryism with a witness!

  • Here is idolatry even without a mask: And he who can so calmly hear, and digest such

  • doctrine, hath forfeited his claim to rationality--an apostate from the order of

  • manhood; and ought to be considered--as

  • one, who hath, not only given up the proper dignity of a man, but sunk himself beneath

  • the rank of animals, and contemptibly crawls through the world like a worm.

  • However, it matters very little now, what the king of England either says or does; he

  • hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and

  • conscience beneath his feet; and by a

  • steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty, procured for himself

  • an universal hatred. It is NOW the interest of America to

  • provide for herself.

  • She hath already a large and young family, whom it is more her duty to take care of,

  • than to be granting away her property, to support a power who is become a reproach to

  • the names of men and christians--YE, whose

  • office it is to watch over the morals of a nation, of whatsoever sect or denomination

  • ye are of, as well as ye, who, are more immediately the guardians of the public

  • liberty, if ye wish to preserve your native

  • country uncontaminated by European corruption, ye must in secret wish a

  • separation--But leaving the moral part to private reflection, I shall chiefly confine

  • my farther remarks to the following heads.

  • First, That it is the interest of America to be separated from Britain.

  • Secondly, Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, RECONCILIATION or

  • INDEPENDANCE? with some occasional remarks.

  • In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper, produce the opinion of

  • some of the ablest and most experienced men on this continent; and whose sentiments, on

  • that head, are not yet publicly known.

  • It is in reality a self-evident position: For no nation in a state of foreign

  • dependance, limited in its commerce, and cramped and fettered in its legislative

  • powers, can ever arrive at any material eminence.

  • America doth not yet know what opulence is; and although the progress which she hath

  • made stands unparalleled in the history of other nations, it is but childhood,

  • compared with what she would be capable of

  • arriving at, had she, as she ought to have, the legislative powers in her own hands.

  • England is, at this time, proudly coveting what would do her no good, were she to

  • accomplish it; and the Continent hesitating on a matter, which will be her final ruin

  • if neglected.

  • It is the commerce and not the conquest of America, by which England is to be

  • benefited, and that would in a great measure continue, were the countries as

  • independant of each other as France and

  • Spain; because in many articles, neither can go to a better market.

  • But it is the independance of this country of Britain or any other, which is now the

  • main and only object worthy of contention, and which, like all other truths discovered

  • by necessity, will appear clearer and stronger every day.

  • First, Because it will come to that one time or other.

  • Secondly, Because, the longer it is delayed the harder it will be to accomplish.

  • I have frequently amused myself both in public and private companies, with silently

  • remarking, the specious errors of those who speak without reflecting.

  • And among the many which I have heard, the following seems most general, viz. that had

  • this rupture happened forty or fifty years hence, instead of NOW, the Continent would

  • have been more able to have shaken off the dependance.

  • To which I reply, that our military ability AT THIS TIME, arises from the experience

  • gained in the last war, and which in forty or fifty years time, would have been

  • totally extinct.

  • The Continent, would not, by that time, have had a General, or even a military

  • officer left; and we, or those who may succeed us, would have been as ignorant of

  • martial matters as the ancient Indians: And

  • this single position, closely attended to, will unanswerably prove, that the present

  • time is preferable to all others.

  • The argument turns thus--at the conclusion of the last war, we had experience, but

  • wanted numbers; and forty or fifty years hence, we should have numbers, without

  • experience; wherefore, the proper point of

  • time, must be some particular point between the two extremes, in which a sufficiency of

  • the former remains, and a proper increase of the latter is obtained: And that point

  • of time is the present time.

  • The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come under the head I

  • first set out with, and to which I again return by the following position, viz.

  • Should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain the governing and

  • sovereign power of America, (which, as matters are now circumstanced, is giving up

  • the point intirely) we shall deprive

  • ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have, or may contract.

  • The value of the back lands which some of the provinces are clandestinely deprived

  • of, by the unjust extension of the limits of Canada, valued only at five pounds

  • sterling per hundred acres, amount to

  • upwards of twenty-five millions, Pennsylvania currency; and the quit-rents

  • at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions yearly.

  • It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk, without burthen to any,

  • and the quit-rent reserved thereon, will always lessen, and in time, will wholly

  • support the yearly expence of government.

  • It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that the lands when sold be

  • applied to the discharge of it, and for the execution of which, the Congress for the

  • time being, will be the continental trustees.

  • I proceed now to the second head, viz.

  • Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, RECONCILIATION or INDEPENDANCE; with

  • some occasional remarks.

  • He who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his argument, and on

  • that ground, I answer GENERALLY THAT INDEPENDANCE BEING A SINGLE SIMPLE LINE,

  • CONTAINED WITHIN OURSELVES; AND

  • RECONCILIATION, A MATTER EXCEEDINGLY PERPLEXED AND COMPLICATED, AND IN WHICH, A

  • TREACHEROUS CAPRICIOUS COURT IS TO INTERFERE, GIVES THE ANSWER WITHOUT A

  • DOUBT.

  • The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of

  • reflexion.

  • Without law, without government, without any other mode of power than what is

  • founded on, and granted by courtesy.

  • Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which, is nevertheless

  • subject to change, and which, every secret enemy is endeavouring to dissolve.

  • Our present condition, is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan;

  • constitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect Independance

  • contending for dependance.

  • The instance is without a precedent; the case never existed before; and who can tell

  • what may be the event? The property of no man is secure in the

  • present unbraced system of things.

  • The mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object before

  • them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts.

  • Nothing is criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore, every one thinks

  • himself at liberty to act as he pleases.

  • The Tories dared not have assembled offensively, had they known that their

  • lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws of the state.

  • A line of distinction should be drawn, between, English soldiers taken in battle,

  • and inhabitants of America taken in arms. The first are prisoners, but the latter

  • traitors.

  • The one forfeits his liberty, the other his head.

  • Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of our

  • proceedings which gives encouragement to dissentions.

  • The Continental Belt is too loosely buckled.

  • And if something is not done in time, it will be too late to do any thing, and we

  • shall fall into a state, in which, neither RECONCILIATION nor INDEPENDANCE will be

  • practicable.

  • The king and his worthless adherents are got at their old game of dividing the

  • Continent, and there are not wanting among us, Printers, who will be busy spreading

  • specious falsehoods.

  • The artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a few months ago in two of the New

  • York papers, and likewise in two others, is an evidence that there are men who want

  • either judgment or honesty.

  • It is easy getting into holes and corners and talking of reconciliation: But do such

  • men seriously consider, how difficult the task is, and how dangerous it may prove,

  • should the Continent divide thereon.

  • Do they take within their view, all the various orders of men whose situation and

  • circumstances, as well as their own, are to be considered therein.

  • Do they put themselves in the place of the sufferer whose ALL is ALREADY gone, and of

  • the soldier, who hath quitted ALL for the defence of his country.

  • If their ill judged moderation be suited to their own private situations ONLY,

  • regardless of others, the event will convince them, that "they are reckoning

  • without their Host."

  • Put us, say some, on the footing we were on in sixty-three: To which I answer, the

  • request is not NOW in the power of Britain to comply with, neither will she propose

  • it; but if it were, and even should be

  • granted, I ask, as a reasonable question, By what means is such a corrupt and

  • faithless court to be kept to its engagements?

  • Another parliament, nay, even the present, may hereafter repeal the obligation, on the

  • pretence, of its being violently obtained, or unwisely granted; and in that case,

  • Where is our redress?--No going to law with

  • nations; cannon are the barristers of Crowns; and the sword, not of justice, but

  • of war, decides the suit.

  • To be on the footing of sixty-three, it is not sufficient, that the laws only be put

  • on the same state, but, that our circumstances, likewise, be put on the same

  • state; Our burnt and destroyed towns

  • repaired or built up, our private losses made good, our public debts (contracted for

  • defence) discharged; otherwise, we shall be millions worse than we were at that

  • enviable period.

  • Such a request, had it been complied with a year ago, would have won the heart and soul

  • of the Continent--but now it is too late, "The Rubicon is passed."

  • Besides, the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a pecuniary law,

  • seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as repugnant to human feelings, as the

  • taking up arms to enforce obedience thereto.

  • The object, on either side, doth not justify the means; for the lives of men are

  • too valuable to be cast away on such trifles.

  • It is the violence which is done and threatened to our persons; the destruction

  • of our property by an armed force; the invasion of our country by fire and sword,

  • which conscientiously qualifies the use of

  • arms: And the instant, in which such a mode of defence became necessary, all subjection

  • to Britain ought to have ceased; and the independancy of America, should have been

  • considered, as dating its era from, and

  • published by, THE FIRST MUSKET THAT WAS FIRED AGAINST HER.

  • This line is a line of consistency; neither drawn by caprice, nor extended by ambition;

  • but produced by a chain of events, of which the colonies were not the authors.

  • I shall conclude these remarks, with the following timely and well intended hints.

  • We ought to reflect, that there are three different ways, by which an independancy

  • may hereafter be effected; and that ONE of those THREE, will one day or other, be the

  • fate of America, viz.

  • By the legal voice of the people in Congress; by a military power; or by a mob:

  • It may not always happen that our soldiers are citizens, and the multitude a body of

  • reasonable men; virtue, as I have already

  • remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it perpetual.

  • Should an independancy be brought about by the first of those means, we have every

  • opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution

  • on the face of the earth.

  • We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

  • A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until

  • now.

  • The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all

  • Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few

  • months.

  • The Reflexion is awful--and in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do

  • the little, paltry cavellings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed

  • against the business of a world.

  • Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting period, and an Independance be

  • hereafter effected by any other means, we must charge the consequence to ourselves,

  • or to those rather, whose narrow and

  • prejudiced souls, are habitually opposing the measure, without either inquiring or

  • reflecting.

  • There are reasons to be given in support of Independance, which men should rather

  • privately think of, than be publicly told of.

  • We ought not now to be debating whether we shall be independant or not, but, anxious

  • to accomplish it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and uneasy rather that it

  • is not yet began upon.

  • Every day convinces us of its necessity.

  • Even the Tories (if such beings yet remain among us) should, of all men, be the most

  • solicitous to promote it; for, as the appointment of committees at first,

  • protected them from popular rage, so, a

  • wise and well established form of government, will be the only certain means

  • of continuing it securely to them.

  • WHEREFORE, if they have not virtue enough to be WHIGS, they ought to have prudence

  • enough to wish for Independance. In short, Independance is the only BOND

  • that can tye and keep us together.

  • We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of

  • an intriguing, as well, as a cruel enemy.

  • We shall then too, be on a proper footing, to treat with Britain; for there is reason

  • to conclude, that the pride of that court, will be less hurt by treating with the

  • American states for terms of peace, than

  • with those, whom she denominates, "rebellious subjects," for terms of

  • accommodation.

  • It is our delaying it that encourages her to hope for conquest, and our backwardness

  • tends only to prolong the war.

  • As we have, without any good effect therefrom, withheld our trade to obtain a

  • redress of our grievances, let us NOW try the alternative, by INDEPENDANTLY

  • redressing them ourselves, and then offering to open the trade.

  • The mercantile and reasonable part in England, will be still with us; because,

  • peace WITH trade, is preferable to war WITHOUT it.

  • And if this offer be not accepted, other courts may be applied to.

  • On these grounds I rest the matter.

  • And as no offer hath yet been made to refute the doctrine contained in the former

  • editions of this pamphlet, it is a negative proof, that either the doctrine cannot be

  • refuted, or, that the party in favour of it are too numerous to be opposed.

  • WHEREFORE, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let

  • each of us, hold out to his neighbour the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in

  • drawing a line, which, like an act of

  • oblivion, shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissention.

  • Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than

  • those of A GOOD CITIZEN, AN OPEN AND RESOLUTE FRIEND, AND A VIRTUOUS SUPPORTER

  • OF THE RIGHTS OF MANKIND AND OF THE FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER 5 APPENDIX

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第5章--托馬斯-培恩的常識--附錄 (Chapter 5 - Common Sense by Thomas Paine - Appendix)

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