Harriman Beepat

Prof: B Murdaco

POL 166

October 1^st 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.