Harriman Beepat
Prof: B Murdaco
POL 166
October 1st 2013
Assignment (Due 10/1):
Choose a passage from one of the readings (Adams, Rush, or Paine) and one from
the Declaration of Independence. Write out both passages. Under that interpret
the meaning of what the author is saying, and why they are saying it. Explain
why you chose this passage and how it relates to the lecture.
“Male and female
are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but
how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and
distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they
are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.”
In
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, he
argues for Independence for the colonists from English rule. His
argument begins with more general, speculative reflections about government and
religion, and then gradually developed onto the specifics of the colonial
situation. Common Sense was by far
the most influential article of the American Revolution, and it remains one of
the most influential and brilliant pamphlets ever written in that era. Paine's
political pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus
by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning
British monarch, George III. Paine discusses in general, the notions of
monarchy and hereditary succession. Man, Pain argues, was born into a state of
equality, and the distinction that has arisen between king and subject is an
unnatural one. At first, Paine says, the world was without kings, but the
ancient Jews decided they wanted a king. This angered God, but he allowed them
to have one. Paine presents pages of biblical evidence detailing God's wrath at
the idea of the Jews having a king. The conclusion Paine reaches is that the
practice of monarchy originates from sin, and is an institution that the Bible
and God condemn. Paine calls hereditary succession an abominable practice. He
says that even if people were to choose to have a king- that does not
legitimize that King's child acting as a future ruler. Furthermore, hereditary
succession has brought with it innumerable evils, such as incompetent kings,
corruption, and civil war. I chose the above captioned passage as it directly
makes a case for Independence from England, and it gave the colonists legitimacy
in their fight to achieve this end.
“The history of
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over these states.”
In the above quotation from the
Declaration of Independence, the injuries and usurpations refer directly to the
colonists, and the suffering they endured at the hands of their colonial master
from England. George III was definitely a tyrant and to some extent a dictator.
He took no heed to the demands of the colonists for basic representation, more
autonomy and a general sense of fair play. As the above quotation from Paine’s
letter states, the common enemy of the colonists was the Monarchy, and I chose
the above quotation from the Declaration of Independence to show the similarities
between both documents.