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Olaudah Equiano Author Bio © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1745?–1797?)

As a child of eleven, Equiano was captured by slavers. His sister was taken at the same time, but they were soon separated, and he was to be haunted the rest of his life by his inability to save her and by his fears about her fate. Born in what is today Nigeria, he probably spoke the Ibo language and was able to learn several other African dialects as he traveled westward, passing through the households of several masters over a six-month period. Finally he arrived on the shore of a large river, probably the Niger, which took him to a seaport where he was sold to white slave traders bound for the West Indies.

The young slave served several English and American masters who gave him Western names, including Gustavus Vassa, the name he used most often and in- cluded in the title of his book: Equiano’s Travels: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African. Even more important, his various masters acknowledged his intelligence by training him to read and write and by teaching him the navigation and business skills he needed to prosper. After ten years of servitude he earned the money needed to buy his freedom by investing in cargoes traded by his last master, a Philadelphia Quaker named Robert King.

Equiano’s cosmopolitan experience both as a slave and as a free man took him to Canada, where he served Captain Pascal, a soldier with General Wolfe dur- ing the French and Indian War, to the Arctic, where he was icebound on a ship, to Italy, where he saw an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and to the United States, where he observed events leading up to the American Revolution. After the war, he helped focus the energies of a diverse antislavery movement into an organized force, connected with its British counterpart.

Although he was active in advocating justice for slaves and former slaves in both countries, Equiano’s cherished dream was to return to Africa and regain title to his ancestral lands, where he promised to entertain his abolitionist friends with “luxuriant pineapples and the well flavoured virgin palm wine.” His hopes of re- turning were dashed, however, when the expedition he was appointed to supervise fell victim to corruption and political intrigue.

In 1788 Equiano settled down in the home of a London friend to write his autobiography. It appeared in print in England the following year and in the United States two years later. From his earliest days of literacy, Equiano had made a habit of noting details of his experience in his journals. As a convert to Christianity and a spokesperson for the antislavery movement, he mingled regularly with educated English speakers. It is not surprising, therefore, that at the age of forty-four he was able to write the first great African-American slave narrative in a clear and pleasing style. With his autobiography—an international best-seller widely distributed by the abolition movement—and his speaking tours, he campaigned for an end to the slave trade and encouraged the repatriation of freed slaves.

Citing Old Testament approbation of racial intermarriage, Equiano advocated it as one possible solution to racial problems, arguing in a letter to a friend that marriages between whites and blacks would strengthen the British nation and urg- ing the practice as “a national honour, national strength, and productive of na-

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tional virtue.” Disappointed with his plans for repatriation, he stayed in England, married an English woman, Susan Cullen, in 1792, and fathered two daughters who were orphaned by his wife’s death in 1795 and his own two years later. His daughter Anna Maria soon followed her parents in death, and the epitaph on her tombstone, describing her as “a child of colour” and expressing the hope that she has gone to a place where “some of every clime shall joy in God,” suggests that Equiano’s faith in intermarriage was in some measure warranted by public opin- ion in late-eighteenth-century England.

Although Equiano did not live to see the abolition of slavery either in Britain or in the United States, his own contributions—both as a writer and as a speaker— clearly added to the social and political pressures that finally led to emancipation in both countries in the century following his death.

Equiano’s narrative has been edited by Paul Edwards, Equiano’s Travels, 1967, and Robert J. Alli- son, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, 1995. A two-volume facsimile edition of the Narrative, edited by Paul Edwards, appeared in 1969, and a modernized version, edited by Vin- cent Caretta, in 1995. Studies are Angelo Costanzo, Surprizing Narrative: Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of Black Autobiography, 1987, and James Walvin, An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1999.

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OLAUDAH EQUIANO

From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano1

Chapter 2 [Horrors of a Slave Ship]

* * * The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew, and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differ- ing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke (which was very different from any I had ever heard), united to confirm me in this belief. In- deed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment that, if ten thou- sand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country. When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling and a mul- titude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, I found some black people about me, who I believed were some of those who had brought me on board, and had been receiv- ing their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair. They told me I was not, and one of the crew brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass, but being afraid of him I would not take it out of his hand. One of the blacks therefore took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to despair.

I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situ- ation, which was filled with horrors of every kind, still heightened by my igno- rance of what I was to undergo. I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nos- trils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables,

1. The text is that of the first American edition, New York, 1791, with minor emendations.

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and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before, and, although not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet, neverthe- less, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself.

In a little time after, amongst the poor chained men I found some of my own nation, which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. I inquired of these what was to be done with us. They gave me to understand we were to be carried to these white people’s country to work for them. I then was a little revived, and thought if it were no worse than working my situation was not so desperate; but still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so sav- age a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cru- elty, and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more, and I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner. I could not help expressing my fears and appre- hensions to some of my countrymen; I asked them if these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place (the ship). They told me they did not, but came from a distant one. “Then,” said I, “how comes it in all our country we never heard of them?” They told me because they lived so very far off. I then asked where were their women? had they any like themselves? I was told they had. “And why,” said I, “do we not see them?” They answered, because they were left behind. I asked how the vessel could go? They told me they could not tell, but that there was cloth put upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then the vessel went on; and the white men had some spell or magic they put in the water when they liked, in order to stop the vessel. I was exceedingly amazed at this account, and really thought they were spirits. I therefore wished much to be from amongst them, for I expected they would sacrifice me; but my wishes were vain—for we were so quar- tered that it was impossible for any of us to make our escape.

While we stayed on the coast I was mostly on deck, and one day, to my great astonishment, I saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails up. As soon as the whites saw it they gave a great shout, at which we were amazed; and the more so, as the vessel appeared larger by approaching nearer. At last, she came to an anchor in my sight, and when the anchor was let go I and my countrymen who saw it were lost in astonishment to observe the vessel stop—and were now con- vinced it was done by magic. Soon after this the other ship got her boats out, and they came on board of us, and the people of both ships seemed very glad to see each other. Several of the strangers also shook hands with us black people, and made motions with their hands, signifying, I suppose, we were to go to their coun- try, but we did not understand them.

At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not

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see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my sor- row. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loath- some that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air, but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died—thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, [which] now became insupportable, and [by] the filth of the neces- sary tubs,2 into which the children often fell and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily, perhaps, for myself, I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs. Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful and heightened my apprehensions and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites.

One day they had taken a number of fishes, and when they had killed and sat- isfied themselves with as many as they thought fit, to our astonishment who were on deck, rather than give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again, although we begged and prayed for some as well as we could, but in vain; and some of my countrymen, being pressed by hunger, took an opportunity when they thought no one saw them of trying to get a little privately; but they were discovered, and the attempt procured them some very se- vere floggings.

One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea; immediately, another quite dejected fellow, who on account of his ill- ness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example; and I believe many more would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship’s crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most ac- tive were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion amongst the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her, and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate, hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air,

2. Latrines.

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which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many.

During our passage, I first saw flying fishes, which surprised me very much; they used frequently to fly across the ship, and many of them fell on the deck. I also now first saw the use of the quadrant; I had often with astonishment seen the mariners make observations with it, and I could not think what it meant. They at last took notice of my surprise, and one of them, willing to increase it as well as to gratify my curiosity, made me one day look through it. The clouds appeared to me to be land, which disappeared as they passed along. This heightened my wonder, and I was now more persuaded than ever that I was in another world, and that everything about me was magic.

At last we came in sight of the island of Barbadoes, at which the whites on board gave a great shout and made many signs of joy to us. We did not know what to think of this, but as the vessel drew nearer we plainly saw the harbor, and other ships of different kinds and sizes, and we soon anchored amongst them, off Bridgetown. Many merchants and planters now came on board, though it was in the evening. They put us in separate parcels and examined us attentively. They also made us jump, and pointed to the land, signifying we were to go there. We thought by this we should be eaten by these ugly men, as they appeared to us, and when soon after we were all put down under the deck again, there was much dread and trembling among us and nothing but bitter cries to be heard all the night from these apprehensions, insomuch that at last the white people got some old slaves from the land to pacify us. They told us we were not to be eaten, but to work, and were soon to go on land, where we should see many of our country people. This report eased us much. And sure enough, soon after we were landed, there came to us Africans of all languages.

We were conducted immediately to the merchant’s yard, where we were all pent up together, like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age. As every ob- ject was new to me, everything I saw filled me with surprise. What struck me first was that the houses were built with bricks and stories, and in every other respect different from those I had seen in Africa, but I was still more astonished on seeing people on horseback. I did not know what this could mean, and, indeed, I thought these people were full of nothing but magical arts. While I was in this astonishment, one of my fellow prisoners spoke to a countryman of his about the horses, who said they were the same kind they had in their country. I understood them, though they were from a distant part of Africa, and I thought it odd I had not seen any horses there, but afterwards, when I came to converse with different Africans, I found they had many horses amongst them, and much larger than those I then saw.

We were not many days in the merchant’s custody before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this: On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again.

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I remember in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men’s apartment, there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were sold in different lots, and it was very moving on this occasion, to see and hear their cries at parting. O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you—Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice? Are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sis- ters, or husbands their wives? Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.

Chapter 3 [Travels from Virginia to England ]

I now totally lost the small remains of comfort I had enjoyed in conversing with my countrymen; the women, too, who used to wash and take care of me were all gone different ways, and I never saw one of them afterwards.

I stayed in this island for a few days, I believe it could not be above a fortnight, when I, and some few more slaves that were not saleable amongst the rest, from very much fretting, were shipped off in a sloop for North America. On the passage we were better treated than when we were coming from Africa, and we had plenty of rice and fat pork. We were landed up a river a good way from the sea, about Virginia county, where we saw few or none of our native Africans, and not one soul who could talk to me. I was a few weeks weeding grass and gathering stones in a plantation, and at last all my companions were distributed different ways, and only myself was left. I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off than any of the rest of my companions, for they could talk to each other, but I had no person to speak to that I could understand. In this state, I was constantly grieving and pining, and wishing for death rather than anything else.

While I was in this plantation, the gentleman to whom I suppose the estate belonged, being unwell, I was one day sent for to his dwelling-house to fan him; when I came into the room where he was I was very much affrighted at some things I saw, and the more so as I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak, and could not eat nor drink. I was much astonished and shocked at this contrivance, which I afterwards learned was called the iron muzzle. Soon after I had a fan put in my hand to fan the gentleman while he slept, and so I did indeed with great fear. While he was fast asleep I indulged myself a great deal in looking about the room, which to me appeared very fine and curious. The first object that engaged my attention was a watch which hung on the chimney and was going. I was quite surprised at the noise it made and was afraid it would tell the gentleman anything I might do amiss; and when I immediately after observed a picture hanging in the room, which ap-

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peared constantly to look at me, I was still more affrighted, having never seen such things as these before. At one time I thought it was something relative to magic, and not seeing it move, I thought it might be some way the whites had to keep their great men when they died, and offer them libations as we used to do our friendly spirits. In this state of anxiety I remained till my master awoke, when I was dismissed out of the room, to my no small satisfaction and relief, for I thought that these people were all made up of wonders.

In this place I was called Jacob, but on board the African snow,3 I was called Michael.

I had been some time in this miserable, forlorn, and much dejected state, with- out having anyone to talk to, which made my life a burden, when the kind and un- known hand of the Creator (who in every deed leads the blind in a way they know not) now began to appear, to my comfort, for one day the captain of a merchant ship called the Industrious Bee came on some business to my master’s house. This gentleman, whose name was Michael Henry Pascal, was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, but now commanded this trading ship, which was somewhere in the confines of the county many miles off. While he was at my master’s house, it happened that he saw me and liked me so well that he made a purchase of me. I think I have often heard him say he gave thirty or forty pounds sterling for me, but I do not remember which. However, he meant me for a present to some of his friends in England, and I was sent accordingly from the house of my then master (one Mr. Campbell) to the place where the ship lay; I was conducted on horseback by an elderly black man (a mode of travelling which appeared very odd to me). When I arrived I was carried on board a fine large ship, loaded with tobacco, &c., and just ready to sail for England.

I now thought my condition much mended. I had sails to lie on, and plenty of good victuals to eat, and everybody on board used me very kindly, quite contrary to what I had seen of any white people before; I therefore began to think that they were not all of the same disposition. A few days after I was on board we sailed for England. I was still at a loss to conjecture my destiny. By this time, however, I could smatter a little imperfect English, and I wanted to know as well as I could where we were going. Some of the people of the ship used to tell me they were going to carry me back to my own country, and this made me very happy. I was quite rejoiced at the idea of going back, and thought if I could get home what wonders I should have to tell. But I was reserved for another fate, and was soon undeceived when we came within sight of the English coast.

While I was on board this ship, my captain and master named me Gustavus Vassa.4 I at that time began to understand him a little, and refused to be called so, and told him as well as I could that I would be called Jacob; but he said I should not, and still called me Gustavus, and when I refused to answer to my new name, which I at first did, it gained me many a cuff; so at length I submitted, and by which I have been known ever since.

The ship had a very long passage,5 and on that account we had very short al- lowance of provisions. Towards the last, we had only one pound and a half of

3. A small sailing ship. 4. After Gustavas Vasa (1496–1560), a Swedish king celebrated at the time of Equiano’s capture in an English play by Henry Brooke. 5. A voyage on this occasion of thirteen weeks, much longer than was usual.

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bread per week, and about the same quantity of meat, and one quart of water a day. We spoke with only one vessel the whole time we were at sea, and but once we caught a few fishes. In our extremities the captain and people told me in jest they would kill and eat me, but I thought them in earnest, and was depressed be- yond measure, expecting every moment to be my last. While I was in this situa- tion, one evening they caught, with a good deal of trouble, a large shark, and got it on board. This gladdened my poor heart exceedingly, as I thought it would serve the people to eat instead of their eating me, but very soon, to my astonishment, they cut off a small part of the tail and tossed the rest over the side. This renewed my consternation, and I did not know what to think of these white people, though I very much feared they would kill and eat me.

There was on board the ship a young lad who had never been at sea before, about four or five years older than myself: his name was Richard Baker. He was a native of America, had received an excellent education, and was of a most amiable temper. Soon after I went on board, he showed me a great deal of partiality and attention, and in return I grew extremely fond of him. We at length became insep- arable, and, for the space of two years, he was of very great use to me, and was my constant companion and instructor. Although this dear youth had many slaves of his own, yet he and I have gone through many sufferings together on shipboard; and we have many nights lain in each other’s bosoms when we were in great dis- tress. Thus such a friendship was cemented between us as we cherished till his death, which, to my very great sorrow, happened in the year 1759, when he was up the Archipelago, on board his Majesty’s ship the Preston, an event which I have never ceased to regret, as I lost at once a kind interpreter, an agreeable compan- ion, and a faithful friend; who, at the age of fifteen, discovered a mind superior to prejudice; and who was not ashamed to notice, to associate with, and to be the friend and instructor of one who was ignorant, a stranger, of a different complex- ion, and a slave! * * *

Chapter 7 [He Purchases His Freedom]

Every day now brought me nearer my freedom, and I was impatient till we pro- ceeded again to sea that I might have an opportunity of getting a sum large enough to purchase it. I was not long ungratified, for, in the beginning of the year 1766, my master bought another sloop, named the Nancy, the largest I had ever seen. She was partly laden, and was to proceed to Philadelphia; our captain had his choice of three, and I was well pleased he chose this, which was the largest, for, from his having a large vessel, I had more room, and could carry a larger quantity of goods with me. Accordingly, when we had delivered our old vessel, the Pru- dence, and completed the lading of the Nancy, having made near three hundred percent by four barrels of pork I brought from Charleston, I laid in as large a cargo as I could, trusting to God’s providence to prosper my undertaking. With these views I sailed for Philadelphia. On our passage, when we drew near the land I was for the first time surprised at the sight of some whales, having never seen any such large sea monsters before, and as we sailed by the land one morning I saw a puppy whale close by the vessel; it was about the length of a wherry boat, and it followed us all the day till we got within the Capes. We arrived safe and in good time at Philadelphia, and I sold my goods there chiefly to the Quakers. They always ap-

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peared to be a very honest, discreet sort of people, and never attempted to impose on me; I therefore liked them, and ever after chose to deal with them in preference to any others * * *.

When we had unladen the vessel, and I had sold my venture, finding myself master of about forty-seven pounds—I consulted my true friend, the captain, how I should proceed in offering my master the money for my freedom. He told me to come on a certain morning, when he and my master would be at breakfast to- gether. Accordingly, on that morning I went and met the captain there, as he had appointed. When I went in I made my obeisance to my master, and with my money in my hand and many fears in my heart, I prayed him to be as good as his offer to me, when he was pleased to promise me my freedom as soon as I could purchase it. This speech seemed to confound him, he began to recoil, and my heart that in- stant sunk within me. “What,” said he, “give you your freedom? Why, where did you get the money? Have you got forty pounds sterling?” “Yes, sir,” I answered. “How did you get it?” replied he. I told him, very honestly. The captain then said he knew I got the money honestly, and with much industry, and that I was partic- ularly careful. On which my master replied, I got money much faster than he did, and said he would not have made me the promise he did if he had thought I should have got the money so soon. “Come, come,” said my worthy captain, clapping my master on the back, “Come, Robert (which was his name), I think you must let him have his freedom; you have laid your money out very well; you have re- ceived a very good interest for it all this time, and here is now the principal at last. I know Gustavus has earned you more than a hundred a year, and he will save you money, as he will not leave you. Come, Robert, take the money.”

My master then said he would not be worse than his promise; and, taking the money, told me to go to the Secretary at the Register Office, and get my manumis- sion6 drawn up. These words of my master were like a voice from heaven to me. In an instant all my trepidation was turned into unutterable bliss; and I most rev- erently bowed myself with gratitude, unable to express my feelings, but by the overflowing of my eyes, and a heart replete with thanks to God, while my true and worthy friend, the captain, congratulated us both with a peculiar degree of heart-felt pleasure. As soon as the first transports of my joy were over, and that I had expressed my thanks to these my worthy friends in the best manner I was able, I rose with a heart full of affection and reverence, and left the room in order to obey my master’s joyful mandate of going to the Register Office. As I was leaving the house I called to mind the words of the Psalmist, in the 126th Psalm, and like him, “I glorified God in my heart, in whom I trusted.” These words had been im- pressed on my mind from the very day I was forced from Deptford to the present hour, and I now saw them, as I thought, fulfilled and verified. My imagination was all rapture as I flew to the Register Office; and, in this respect, like the Apostle Peter (whose deliverance from prison was so sudden and extraordinary that he thought he was in a vision),7 I could scarcely believe I was awake. Heavens! who could do justice to my feelings at this moment! Not conquering heroes themselves, in the midst of a triumph—Not the tender mother who has just regained her long

6. Formal certificate of freedom. 7. Cf. Acts 12:7–9.

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Olaudah Equiano from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

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lost infant, and presses it to her heart—Not the weary hungry mariner, at the sight of the desired friendly port—Not the lover, when he once more embraces his beloved mistress, after she has been ravished from his arms! All within my breast was tumult, wildness, and delirium! My feet scarcely touched the ground, for they were winged with joy; and, like Elijah, as he rose to Heaven,8 they “were with lightning sped as I went on.” Everyone I met I told of my happiness, and blazed about the virtue of my amiable master and captain.

When I got to the office and acquainted the Register with my errand, he con- gratulated me on the occasion and told me he would draw up my manumission for half price, which was a guinea. I thanked him for his kindness, and, having re- ceived it and paid him, I hastened to my master to get him to sign it, that I might be fully released. Accordingly he signed the manumission that day, so that, before night, I, who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free. I thought this was the happiest day I had ever experienced, and my joy was still heightened by the blessings and prayers of many of the sable race, particularly the aged, to whom my heart had ever been attached with reverence * * *.

1789

8. Cf. II Kings 2:11.

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Phillis Wheatley Author Bio © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

PHILLIS WHEATLEY (1753?–1784)

“Phillis was brought from Africa to America, in the Year 1761, between Seven and Eight Years of Age. Without any Assistance from School Education, and by only what she was taught in the Family, she, in sixteen Months Time from her Ar- rival, attained the English Language, to which she was an utter Stranger before, to such a Degree, as to read any, the most difficult Parts of the Sacred Writings, to the great Astonishment of all who heard her.”

So writes John Wheatley, her Boston master, in a letter printed in her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published in London in 1773, when she was nineteen or twenty. By the time that volume appeared, she had already pub- lished at least four broadside poems as well as one poem, “Recollection,” in The London Magazine. She had also traveled to London and there met the Countess of Huntingdon, the Lord Mayor of London, and the Earl of Dartmouth. But for her decision to return to Boston to the bedside of Mrs. Susannah Wheatley, who was ill, she would probably have been presented at the court of George III.

Frail when she first arrived in America, and perhaps never of a strong consti- tution thereafter (she had been sent to England in 1773 at least partly because a doctor had prescribed sea air for her health), she could hardly have been more for- tunate in masters. Of Mrs. Wheatley she wrote, “I was treated by her more like her child than her servant.” Mary Wheatley, the daughter of the family, assumed much of the responsibility for her education and was so successful that Phillis must have been among the most learned young women in Boston. Certainly she was an apt pupil. Especially drawn to the neoclassic verse of Pope, but fond also of Mil- ton and the Bible, she apparently read as much as was available to her in English and mastered enough Latin to read some of the classics in the original. A remark- able individual by any standard, she was accorded considerable status in the soci- ety of Boston and London from the time of the publication of her elegy on the death of the celebrated preacher George Whitefield, when she was sixteen. After the appearance of Poems on Various Subjects, she continued to publish in periodi- cals and married John Peters and had three children by him. In 1776 she was re- ceived by General Washington. She was planning a second volume of verse when she died, aged thirty-one.

The range of subject matter within her poems is small and mostly circum- scribed by the geography and mind of New England. Reading them one learns little about her native country (it may have been Senegal or Gambia), her race, or her condition as a slave. Almost always she wrote in heroic couplets and often her sentiments were conventional and her expression stilted. Nevertheless, the best of her poems convey a good deal of the flavor of her time and place and something of the spirit of their maker.

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, London was followed by at least five other English and American editions before 1800 and continued to be published in various editions throughout the nineteenth century. The first American edition is Philadelphia, 1786. Early- twentieth-century editions include Phillis Wheatley (Phillis Peters): Poems and Letters, edited by Charles F. Heartman, 1915; G. Herbert Renfro, Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley, 1916; and The Poems of Phillis Wheatley, edited by Charlotte Ruth Wright, 1930. The Poems of Phillis Wheatley, edited by Julian D. Mason, Jr., 1966, is drawn mostly from the 1773 edition and includes a helpful introduction. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley was edited by John C. Shields, 1988. Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings was edited by William H. Robinson, 1984.

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Phillis Wheatley On Being Brought from Africa to America

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PHILLIS WHEATLEY

On Being Brought from Africa to America

’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, 5 “Their colour is a diabolic die.”1

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.

1768 1773

1. Dye.

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PHILLIS WHEATLEY

To His Excellency General Washington1

Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light, Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.

While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms, She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms. See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan, 5 And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!

The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Olive and laurel binds her golden hair: 10 Wherever shines this native of the skies, Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.

Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates How pour her armies through a thousand gates, As when Eolus2 heaven’s fair face deforms, 15 Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms; Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; Or thick as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign, Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train. 20 In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight. Thee, first in peace and honours,—we demand 25 The grace and glory of thy martial band. Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!

One century scarce perform’d its destined round, When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;3 30 And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!

1. In 1775 Wheatley sent this poem to Washington with a letter saying that “Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress.” Washington replied, praising her “genius” and inviting her to meet him in Cambridge, where she was received in 1776. The poem was first pub- lished in the Virginia Gazette, March 20, 1776, and by Thomas Paine in the Pennsylvania Magazine, April 1776. 2. Roman ruler of the winds. 3. During the French and Indian War.

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Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails. Anon Britannia droops the pensive head, 35 While round increase the rising hills of dead. Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state! Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.

Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide. 40 A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.

1775 1776, 1834

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The Federalist Author Bio © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

THE FEDERALIST (1787–1788)

When the American colonies won their independence, recognized in 1783 in the Treaty of Paris, their future relationship to one another was not immediately clear. The Articles of Confederation, drawn up by the Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified in 1781, had proclaimed a “perpetual union” in which “each state re- tains its sovereignty, freedom and independence.” Not long afterward, however, doubts had arisen that this “firm league of friendship,” as the Confederation had styled itself, possessed sufficient central authority to deal with the common prob- lems facing the newly independent states. Consequently, in 1787 a Federal Con- vention meeting in Philadelphia drew up a new Constitution allocating broader powers to the central government. It remained to be seen whether the individual states could be brought to accept the provisions of this new document. The need to convince doubtful voters of the essential wisdom of the Constitution gave rise to The Federalist papers, classic statements of American political theory.

Most of the essays that became The Federalist (1788) were published in news- papers at the rate of three or four a week between October 27, 1787, and April 2, 1788. Published under the pseudonym “Publius,” they were initiated by Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804), a New York lawyer and statesman who had served as sec- retary and aide-de-camp to Washington in the Revolution, had been a member of the Continental Congress and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and was to become first secretary of the treasury of the United States. Of the eighty- five Federalist papers, Hamilton wrote at least fifty-one. He was assisted in the project by James Madison (1751–1836), later the fourth president, a Virginian who also had been a member of the Continental Congress and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and by John Jay (1745–1829), New York lawyer, for- mer president of the Continental Congress, secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation, and later first chief justice of the United States. Madi- son wrote at least fourteen papers, and Jay five, with the authorship of fifteen un- clear between Hamilton and Madison.

The immediate aim was to convince New York to ratify the Constitution, but the effect has been much longer lasting than that. All later commentators have re- mained in debt to the brilliant analysis given by The Federalist to the merits of the Constitution. And, in a wider sense, the papers remain important for the fine pre- cision of their discussion of the great American dream, since the late eighteenth century a worldwide one, of immense personal freedoms encouraged and guaran- teed by a central government strong enough to ensure their lasting availability.

Important early editions of The Federalist are the first, edited by John and Archibald McLean and corrected by Hamilton, 1788; the George F. Hopkins edition, with alterations approved by Hamilton, 1802; and the Jacob Gideon edition, with Madison’s corrections, 1818. Modern scholarly editions are by Jacob E. Cooke, 1961, and Benjamin F. Wright, 1961. Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 2004, is a recent and full biography. For earlier biography and criticism, see Broadus Mitchell, Alexander Hamil- ton: Youth to Majority, 1755–1788, 1957, and Alexander Hamilton: The National Adventure, 1788–1804, 1962; Irving Brant, James Madison, 6 vols., 1941–1961; Frank Monaghan, John Jay: De- fender of Liberty, 1935; Gary Wills, Explaining America: The Federalist, 1981; H. J. Strong, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, 1981; and Albert Furtwangler, The Authority of Publius: A Reading of the Federalist Papers, 1984.

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THE FEDERALIST

The Federalist No. 11

[Alexander Hamilton]

To the People of the State of New York. After a full experience of the insufficiency of the existing Federal Government,

you are invited to deliberate upon a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its conse- quences, nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire, in many respects, the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country to decide, by their conduct and example, the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of es- tablishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are for- ever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis, at which we are arrived, may with pro- priety be regarded as the period when that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act, may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.

This idea by adding the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism will heighten the solicitude, which all considerate and good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, uninfluenced by considerations foreign to the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished, than seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations, affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects ex- traneous to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little favourable to the discovery of truth.

Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter, may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument and consequence of the offices they hold under the State- establishments—and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will ei- ther hope to aggrandise themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flat- ter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies, than from its union under one government.

It is not, however, my design to dwell upon observations of this nature. I am aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men into interested or ambitious views (merely because their situations might subject them to suspicion): Candour will oblige us to admit, that even such men may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted that much of

1. First published in The Independent Journal, October 27, 1787. The text reproduced here is that of the Hopkins edition, 1802, the last with corrections approved by Hamilton.

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the opposition which has already shown itself, or may hereafter make its appear- ance, will spring from sources, blameless at least, if not respectable, the honest er- rors of minds led astray by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes, which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions, of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would always furnish a lesson of moderation to those, who are engaged in any controversy however well persuaded of being in the right. And a further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the reflection, that we are not always sure, that those who advocate the truth are actuated by purer principles than their antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party op- position, and many other motives, not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as upon those who oppose the right side of a ques- tion. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more illjudged than that intolerant spirit, which has, at all times, characterised political parties. For, in politics as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making prose- lytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

And yet, just as these sentiments must appear to candid men, we have already sufficient indications, that it will happen in this as in all former cases of great na- tional discussion. A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude, that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations, and by the bit- terness of their invectives. An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of gov- ernment will be stigmatized, as the off-spring of a temper fond of power and hostile to the principles of liberty. An overscrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretence and artifice; the stale bait for popular- ity at the expence of public good. It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that jeal- ousy is the usual concomitant of violent love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is too apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten, that the vigour of government is es- sential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well in- formed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and effi- ciency of government. History will teach us, that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism, than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics the greatest number have begun their career, by paying an obsequious court to the people, commenc- ing Demagogues and ending Tyrants.

In the course of the preceeding observations it has been my aim, fellow citi- zens, to put you upon your guard against all attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in a matter of the utmost moment to your welfare by any impressions other than those which may result from the evidence of truth. You will, no doubt, at the same time, have collected from the general scope of them that they proceed from a source not unfriendly to the new Constitution. Yes, my Countrymen, I own to you, that, after having given it an attentive consideration,

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I am clearly of opinion, it is your interest to adopt it. I am convinced, that this is the safest course for your liberty, your dignity, and your happiness. I effect not re- serves, which I do not feel. I will not amuse you with an appearance of delibera- tion, when I have decided. I frankly acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay before you the reasons on which they are founded. The conscious- ness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. I shall not however multiply profes- sions on this head. My motives must remain in the depository of my own breast: My arguments will be open to all, and may be judged of by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit, which will not disgrace the cause of truth.

I propose in a series of papers to discuss the following interesting particu- lars—The utility of the UNION to your political prosperity—The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union—The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed to the attainment of this object— The conformity of the proposed constitution to the true principles of republican government—Its analogy to your own state constitution—and lastly, The addi- tional security, which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty and to property.

In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavour to give a satisfactory an- swer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance that may seem to have any claim to attention.

It may perhaps be thought superfluous to offer arguments to prove the utility of the UNION, a point, no doubt, deeply engraved on the hearts of the great body of the people in every state, and one, which it may be imagined has no adversaries. But the fact is, that we already hear it whispered in the private circles of those who oppose the new constitution, that the Thirteen States are of too great extent for any general system, and that we must of necessity resort to separate confederacies of distinct portions of the whole.2 This doctrine will, in all probability, be gradu- ally propagated, till it has votaries enough to countenance its open avowal. For nothing can be more evident, to those who are able to take an enlarged view of the subject, than the alternative of an adoption of the new Constitution, or a dismem- berment of the Union. It may therefore be essential to examine particularly the ad- vantages of that Union, the certain evils and the probable dangers, to which every State will be exposed from its dissolution. This shall accordingly be done.

PUBLIUS. 1787, 1788

2. “The same idea, tracing the arguments to their consequences, is held out in several of the late publi- cations against the New Constitution” [Hamilton’s note].

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The Federalist The Federalist No. 10 © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

THE FEDERALIST

The Federalist No. 10 1

[ James Madison]

To the People of the State of New York. Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none

deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments, never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propen- sity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail therefore to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice and confusion introduced into the public coun- cils, have in truth been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished, as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. The valu- able improvements made by the American Constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side as was wished and expected. Complaints are every where heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty; that our governments are too un- stable; that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties; and that measures are too often decided not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and over-bearing ma- jority. However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some de- gree true. It will be found indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor, have been erroneously charged on the op- eration of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes, and particu- larly for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations.

By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a ma- jority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

1. First published in The Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1787. The text reproduced here is that of the Gideon edition, 1818, with Madison’s corrections.

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There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by remov- ing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.

There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it is worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it in- stantly expires. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihila- tion of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destruc- tive agency.

The second expedient is as impracticable, as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible and he is at liberty to exercise it, dif- ferent opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influ- ence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The pro- tection of these faculties is the first object of Government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them every where brought into different degrees of activity, according to the dif- ferent circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning reli- gion, concerning Government and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for preemi- nence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have in turn divided mankind into parties, in- flamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other, than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no sub- stantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most vio- lent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors and those who are debtors fall under a like discrimination. A landed in- terest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a monied interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legis- lation and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of Government.

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause because his interest would certainly bias his judgment and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at

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the same time; yet, what are many of the most important acts of legislation but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens; and what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the bal- ance between them. Yet the parties are and must be themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be ex- pected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what de- gree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet, there is perhaps no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party, to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they over-burden the inferior number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.

It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clash- ing interests and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened states- men will not always be at the helm; Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all, without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in dis- regarding the rights of another, or the good of the whole.

The inference to which we are brought, is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.

If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. When a major- ity is included in a faction, the form of popular government on the other hand en- ables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest, both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good, and private rights, against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our enquiries are directed. Let me add that it is the great desideratum, by which alone this form of govern- ment can be rescued from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind.

By what means is this object attainable? Evidently by one of two only. Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time, must be prevented; or the majority, having such co-existent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into ef- fect schemes of oppression. If the impulse and the opportunity be suffered to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control. They are not found to be such on the injustice and vio- lence of individuals and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful.

From this view of the subject, it may be concluded that a pure Democracy, by which I mean a Society, consisting of a small number of citizens who assemble and

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administer the Government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a ma- jority of the whole; a communication and concert results from the form of Gov- ernment itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incom- patible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politi- cians, who have patronized this species of Government have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would at the same time be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

A Republic, by which I mean a Government in which the scheme of represen- tation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure Democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the union.

The two great points of difference between a Democracy and a Republic are first, the delegation of the Government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens and greater sphere of country over which the latter may be extended.

The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patri- otism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice pronounced by the representatives of the people will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves convened for the pur- pose. On the other hand, the effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may by intrigue, by corruption or by other means, first obtain the suffrages and then betray the interests of the people. The question resulting is, whether small or extensive Republics are most favorable to the election of proper guardians of the public weal; and it is clearly decided in favor of the latter by two obvious considerations.

In the first place it is to be remarked that however small the Republic may be, the Representatives must be raised to a certain number in order to guard against the cabals of a few, and that however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude. Hence the number of Representatives in the two cases, not being in proportion to that of the Constituents, and being proportionally greatest in the small Republic, it follows that if the proportion of fit characters be not less in the large than in the small Re- public, the former will present a greater option and consequently a greater proba- bility of a fit choice.

In the next place, as each Representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small Republic, it will be more difficult for un- worthy candidates to practise with success the vicious arts by which elections are

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too often carried, and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to center in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffu- sive and established characters.

It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniencies will be found to lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representative too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you ren- der him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the state legislatures.

The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of Republican, than of Demo- cratic Government; and it is this circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to be dreaded in the former, than in the latter. The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more eas- ily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength and to act in unison with each other. Be- sides other impediments, it may be remarked that where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust, in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.

Hence it clearly appears that the same advantage which a Republic has over a Democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small Republic—is enjoyed by the Union over the States composing it. Does this advan- tage consist in the substitution of Representatives whose enlightened views and virtuous sentiments render them superior to local prejudices and to schemes of in- justice? It will not be denied that the Representation of the Union will be most likely to possess these requisite endowments. Does it consist in the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties, against the event of any one party being able to outnumber and oppress the rest? In an equal degree does the increased va- riety of parties, comprised within the Union, increase this security. Does it, in fine, consist in the greater obstacles opposed to the concert and accomplishment of the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority? Here, again, the extent of the Union gives it the most palpable advantage.

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States; a religious sect, may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Con- federacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it, must secure the national Councils against any danger from that source; a rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other im-

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proper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union, than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a Re- publican remedy for the diseases most incident to Republican Government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride, we feel in being Republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit, and supporting the character of Federalists.

PUBLIUS. 1787, 1788

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PHILIP FRENEAU (1752–1832)

Judged in his own time by his political opponents as “a writer of wretched and in- solent doggerel, an incendiary journalist,” Philip Freneau was nevertheless a major poet. His double role as poet and political journalist in the transitional age of the Revolution is consistent with the contradictions of his poetry. Freneau was neo- classical by training and taste yet romantic in essential spirit. He was also at once a satirist and a sentimentalist, a humanitarian but also a bitter polemicist, a poet of Reason yet the celebrant of “lovely Fancy,” and a deistic optimist most inspired by themes of death and transience.

Freneau was born on January 2, 1752, in New York, of French Huguenot and Scottish stock. He was tutored for Princeton (“that hotbed of Whiggery”), where he established close friendships with a future president, James Madison, and a fu- ture novelist, Hugh Henry Brackenridge. In collaboration with the latter he pro- duced his earliest work; slightly later, in “The Power of Fancy” (1770), a genuine independence appears. After graduation and an unsatisfactory teaching experi- ence, he gained his first popular success in New York in 1775 as a satirist of the British. In 1776 Freneau made his first voyage to the West Indies, where he wrote “The House of Night,” foreshadowing the Gothic mood of Poe and Coleridge—F. L. Pattee calls it “the first distinctly romantic note heard in America”—and “The Beauties of Santa Cruz,” blending the praise of nature with social protest in his characteristic later manner. This poetry foretold achievement of a distinguished order, but he was soon diverted from literature into the tide of revolution. As pas- senger on an American ship attacked by the British in 1780, he was taken pris- oner. “The British Prison Ship” (1781), a good piece of invective, reveals the rigors and brutality of his captivity. In truth he now could say: “An age employed in edg- ing steel / Can no poetic rapture feel.” In the closing year of the war he became the prolific propagandist, celebrating American victories and leaders while contin- uing to hurl his vitriol at the British in many poems. “The poet of the Revolution” they called him, a compliment not wholly to his advantage, since its persistence long obscured the fact that his later poems were his best, and these were quite dif- ferent. The earlier poems were collected (1786) in The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Late War.

For a few years, writing with sporadic fluency, Freneau earned his living vari- ously as farmer, journalist, and sea captain. His Miscellaneous Works, essays and new poems, appeared in 1788. In 1790 he married and almost literally flung him- self, as political journalist, into the raging controversies between the Jeffersonian Democrats, whom he supported, and Hamilton’s Federalists. In New York he edited The Daily Advertiser. In 1791, probably with Jefferson’s support, he estab- lished in Philadelphia the National Gazette and campaigned against the opinions of the powerful Gazette of the United States, edited by John Fenno and supported by Hamilton. Simultaneously he served as translating clerk in Jefferson’s Depart- ment of State. He was soon a power in journalism and politics. When Jefferson withdrew from politics temporarily in 1793, Freneau resigned and his paper failed, in the midst of a Federalist tide which ended only with Jefferson’s election to the

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presidency in 1801. Freneau’s social and religious liberalism, in which he resem- bled Paine, gave the Federalists a deadly weapon against him; indeed his political enemies so besmirched his reputation that he has only recently been recognized as a courageous champion of American popular government.

Reduced in fortune and political ambition, he settled in 1794 at his planta- tion homestead, Mount Pleasant, near Freehold, New Jersey, where for a time he edited a New Jersey paper. On his own hand press he published new essays and poems and revisions of earlier pieces. Collections appeared in 1795 and 1799. His poverty drove him at fifty to resume plowing the sea instead of his “sandy patri- mony”; he was captain of coastwise trading vessels from 1803 to 1807. Again he turned to his farm for subsistence, but in 1818 his home burned down, and he gathered the remnants of his family and possessions in a little farmhouse nearer town. In 1815 he collected in two volumes the poems of his later period, including the interesting work inspired by the War of 1812, in A Collection of Poems * * * Written Between the Year 1797 and the Present Time. After he was seventy, he worked on the public roads; “he went,” says Leary, “from house to house as tin- ker, mending clocks, and doing other small jobs of repairing.” He continued al- most until his death to send poems to the newspapers. Poor and nearly forgotten, he died of exposure in 1832 at the age of eighty, after losing his way in a blizzard, as he returned, it is said, from a tavern.

As a poet, Freneau heralded American literary independence; his close observa- tion of nature (before Bryant) distinguished his treatment of indigenous wildlife and other native American subjects. In contrast with the ornate style of Freneau’s early couplets, he later developed a natural, simple, and concrete diction, best illustrated in such nature lyrics as “The Wild Honey Suckle” and “The Indian Burying Ground.” Freneau did not establish trends, but he represented qualities that were to be characteristic of the next half century. He has been called the “Father of Ameri- can Poetry,” and it is ultimately in a historical estimate that Freneau is important. In the main, as Harry H. Clark remarks, “he is worthy of study as a cross section of an intensely significant period in our political and literary history rather than as an intrinsically wise political theorist or a profound creator of poetic beauty.”

The standard edition of the poetry is The Poems of Philip Freneau, 3 vols., edited by F. L. Pattee, 1902–1907. Selections are Poems of Freneau, edited by H. H. Clark, 1929; and Philip M. Marsh, ed., A Freneau Sampler, 1963. Additional poems are found in The Last Poems of Philip Freneau, edited by Lewis Leary, 1946. Judith R. Hiltner edited The Newspaper Verse of Philip Freneau, 1986. Philip M. Marsh edited The Prose of Philip Freneau, 1955. H. H. Clark has published a facsimile of the 1799 edi- tion of Letters on Various Interesting and Important Subjects, 1943. An authoritative critical biography is That Rascal Freneau: A Study in Literary Failure, by Lewis Leary, 1941. More recent is Jacob Axel- rad, Philip Freneau: Champion of Democracy, 1967. Another biography is that of Pattee, in Volume I of his edition of the Poems, while H. H. Clark’s edition contains a penetrating critical introduction. Addi- tional studies include Philip M. Marsh, Philip Freneau: Poet and Journalist, 1967; Philip M. Marsh, The Works of Philip Freneau: A Critical Study, 1968; and Richard C. Vitzthum, Land and Sea: The Lyric Poetry of Philip Freneau, 1978.

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Philip Freneau To the Memory of the Brave Americans

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PHILIP FRENEAU

To the Memory of the Brave Americans1

UNDER GENERAL GREENE, IN SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO FELL IN THE ACTION OF SEPTEMBER 8, 1781.

At Eutaw Springs the valiant died; Their limbs with dust are covered o’er—

Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide; How many heroes are no more!

If in this wreck of ruin, they 5 Can yet be thought to claim a tear,

O smite your gentle breast, and say The friends of freedom slumber here!

Thou, who shalt trace this bloody plain, If goodness rules thy generous breast, 10

Sigh for the wasted rural reign; Sigh for the shepherds, sunk to rest!

Stranger, their humble graves adorn; You too may fall, and ask a tear;

’Tis not the beauty of the morn 15 That proves the evening shall be clear.—

They saw their injured country’s woe; The flaming town, the wasted field;

Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear—but left the shield. 20

Led by thy conquering genius, Greene, The Britons they compelled to fly;

None distant viewed the fatal plain, None grieved, in such a cause to die—

But, like the Parthian,2 famed of old, 25 Who, flying, still their arrows threw,

These routed Britons, full as bold, Retreated, and retreating slew.

Now rest in peace, our patriot band; Though far from nature’s limits thrown, 30

We trust they find a happier land, A brighter sunshine of their own.

1781 1781, 1786

1. General Nathanael Greene’s fine generalship in the South in 1781 was crucial. Although he lost sev- eral hundred men at Eutaw Springs, he prevented the relief of Cornwallis, who surrendered at Yorktown October 19. The poem appeared in the Freeman’s Journal, November 21, 1781. 2. The Parthians, famous cavalrymen of ancient Persia, destroyed their enemies by feigning flight, then suddenly wheeling to discharge their arrows.

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Philip Freneau On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man

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PHILIP FRENEAU

On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man1

Thus briefly sketched the sacred RIGHTS OF MAN, How inconsistent with the ROYAL PLAN! Which for itself exclusive honour craves, Where some are masters born, and millions slaves. With what contempt must every eye look down 5 On that base, childish bauble called a crown, The gilded bait, that lures the crowd, to come, Bow down their necks, and meet a slavish doom; The source of half the miseries men endure, The quack that kills them, while it seems to cure. 10

Roused by the REASON of his manly page, Once more shall PAINE a listening world engage: From Reason’s source, a bold reform he brings, In raising mankind, he pulls down kings, Who, source of discord, patrons of all wrong, 15 On blood and murder have been fed too long: Hid from the world, and tutored to be base, The curse, the scourge, the ruin of our race, Theirs was the task, a dull designing few, To shackle beings that they scarcely knew, 20 Who made this globe the residence of slaves, And built their thrones on systems formed by knaves —Advance, bright years, to work their final fall, And haste the period that shall crush them all.

Who, that has read and scanned the historic page 25 But glows, at every line, with kindling rage, To see by them the rights of men aspersed, Freedom restrained, and Nature’s law reversed, Men, ranked with beasts, by monarchs willed away, And bound young fools, or madmen to obey: 30 Now driven to wars, and now oppressed at home, Compelled in crowds o’er distant seas to roam, From India’s climes the plundered prize to bring To glad the strumpet, or to glut the king.

COLUMBIA, hail! immortal be thy reign: 35

1. The Rights of Man, Part I, ran serially in the New York Daily Advertiser, May 6–27, 1791, and Fre- neau’s poem appeared at the end of the concluding installment. The poem was popular; it reappeared in three other papers within a month. Freneau had been attracted, during the Revolution, by Paine’s em- phasis on “natural rights”; and like Jefferson, he believed that the new work might offset the current conservative reaction in America.

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Without a king, we till the smiling plain; Without a king, we trace the unbounded sea, And traffic round the globe, through each degree; Each foreign clime our honoured flag reveres, Which asks no monarch, to support the STARS: 40 Without a king, the laws maintain their sway, While honour bids each generous heart obey. Be ours the task the ambitious to restrain, And this great lesson teach—that kings are vain; That warring realms to certain ruin haste, 45 That kings subsist by war, and wars are waste: So shall our nation, formed on Virtue’s plan, Remain the guardian of the Rights of Man, A vast Republic, famed through every clime, Without a king, to see the end of time. 50

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Reason and Revolution

After the period of exploration and settlement, an increasing spirit of unity and independence characterized the second great period of American cultural history, which began about 1725 and lasted until about 1810. Politically, the sense of a new American identity encouraged the growth of a loose confederation, disturbed by British colonial wars on the frontier and by “intolerable” British trade and tax- ation policies. In succession, it produced the Revolution, the federal and constitu- tional union of the states, and an international recognition of the hegemony of the United States on the North American continent. During these years, the frontier moved beyond the Alleghenies, leaving behind it an established seaboard culture and, in such cities as Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, a growing spirit of metropolitan sophistication. By the time Jefferson retired as president, the country stood at the brink of a new national period in literature and political life.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE SPIRIT OF RATIONALISM The European Enlightenment and its rationalistic spirit infused the minds and the acts of Americans. Earlier religious mysticisms, local in character, were overlaid by larger concerns for general toleration, civil rights, and more comprehensive democracy in government. The conflict of ideas at the beginning of this period is well represented in a comparison of the contemporaries Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, both among the greatest early Americans. Edwards repre- sented the fullest intellectual development of the Calvinistic Puritan; his hard in- tellect and authoritarian convictions were tempered by human tenderness and spiritual sensitivity. Cotton Mather, the last member of a dynasty of Puritan min- isters who dominated the New England hierarchy, had already faced fundamental and final opposition to his dogma by the time Edwards was born. The secular spirit, a new population of immigrants, and the development of urban enterprise and commerce would have doomed the Puritan commonwealth even if the Puri- tans themselves had not outgrown it. Franklin represented a new age entirely, helped to bring it about, and lived far into it.

The Age of Reason manifested a rationalistic view of humanity in its relations with nature and God, suggested the extension of principles of equality and social justice, and encouraged the belief that humans might assume greater control of nature without offending the majesty of God. If the universe resembled a clock of unimaginable size, as Isaac Newton suggested, why shouldn’t people study and learn to use its workings for their benefit? Americans were profoundly influenced by the empiricism of John Locke (1632–1704), the leading philosopher of free- dom in his day, and by the later thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778),

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whose emphasis on the social contract as the “natural” basis for government sug- gested a consistency between the laws of nature and those of society. Another Frenchman, François Quesnay (1694–1774), strengthened this doctrine by assert- ing that society was based on the resources of nature and on land itself, thus stim- ulating the agrarian thought that Thomas Jefferson found so attractive. Rationalism applied to theology produced Deism, but the degrees of Deism ranged widely, from the dialectical severity of Tom Paine to the casual acceptance of some of its central doctrines by many others. For the confirmed Deist, God was the first cause, but the hand of God was more evident in the mechanism of nature than in scriptural revelation; the Puritan belief in miraculous intervention and supernatural manifes- tations was regarded as blasphemy against the divine Creator of the immutable harmony and perfection of all things. Confining much of their logic to practical affairs, men like Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson entertained a mild Deism that greatly affected the institutions of their country, while its assumptions made their way into the imaginative literature of Philip Freneau and other writers.

FROM NEOCLASSICAL TO ROMANTIC LITERATURE During the revolutionary end of the eighteenth century, the rational, neoclassical spirit in American life and literature became tinged with an increasing romanticism. In England, the neoclassicism of Alexander Pope gave way to the romanticism of Thomas Gray, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Blake. Before Tom Paine wrote The Age of Reason, the age of revolution was well advanced; both the American and the French revolutions advocated rationalistic instruments of government in support of romantic ideals of freedom and individualism. American writers such as Jefferson and Freneau responded to these commingled influences. An avowed Deist and a neoclassicist in his earliest poems, Freneau in his later lyrics became a forerunner of the romantic Bryant. The romantic movement, which was to dominate American literature after 1820, was already present in embryo in the revolutionary age.

In this time of huge literary energies and of vast spiritual and social upheaval, the rapid growth of publishing provided a forum for contestants of all persuasions. The first newspaper to succeed in the colonies, the Boston News-Letter, had ap- peared in 1704, but by the time of the Revolution there were nearly fifty. No maga- zine appeared until 1741, but after that date magazines flourished, and by the time of Washington’s inauguration in 1789 nearly forty had been published. Periodical and pamphlet publication gave scores of essayists, propagandists, and political writ- ers a hearing—such leading authors as Paine and Freneau and lesser writers still re- membered, such as Francis Hopkinson, whose verse satires plagued the British; John Dickinson, a lawyer whose Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767– 1768) skillfully presented the colonial position in the hope of securing British mod- eration before it was too late; and Mercy Otis Warren, whose political essays sup- plemented her satirical dramas and lent to her later History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805) the authority of an intellectual participant. William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia, made his Ameri- can Magazine (1757–1758) a vehicle for a talented coterie of his protégés and stu- dents—the short-lived Nathaniel Evans, Francis Hopkinson, and Thomas Godfrey, the first American playwright. Verse, both satirical and sentimental, abounded in the periodicals. Although there were scores of American poets by the time of the Revolution, only Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Philip Freneau have been

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greatly admired for their literary contributions. Michael Wigglesworth is still read for The Day of Doom (1662), his explication of Puritan conceptions of the Last Judgment, which remained popular for at least a century. At the threshold of the Revolution, Phillis Wheatley distinguished herself as the first African-American poet of note, and during Washington’s first term the former slave Olaudah Equiano published in London one of the earliest and best slave narratives.

Theatrical activity, shunned by the Puritans, appeared sporadically from the beginning of the eighteenth century. By 1749 a stock company had been estab- lished in Philadelphia, and its seasonal migrations encouraged the building of the- aters and the growth of other companies of players in New York, Boston, Williamsburg, and Charleston. Native players and visiting actors from England devoted themselves principally to Elizabethan revivals and classics of the French theater rather than to new or original works, but it was an age of great talent on the stage, and—despite continuing religious objections—increasing support for the theater provided evidence of a steady rise in urban sophistication. Thomas Godfrey’s Prince of Parthia, the first native tragedy to be performed, reached the stage in 1767. During the Revolution, drama surfaced as effective political satire in the plays of Mercy Otis Warren. Afterward, native authorship received a sub- stantial boost in 1787 with the appearance of Royall Tyler’s comedy The Con- trast, which established the stereotype of Brother Jonathan as the homespun American character. Andre (1798), one of portrait painter William Dunlap’s many plays, lived far into the Knickerbocker period; Dunlap was the first large-scale producer-playwright of our literature, although he went bankrupt in this theatri- cal enterprise. Other early native playwrights included the English-born Susannah Haswell Rowson and the Pennsylvania jurist H. H. Brackenridge, prominent writ- ers of fiction.

Meanwhile, a native fiction arose, largely as an offshoot of the great age of British fiction that began about 1719 and introduced Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne to wide readership in the colonies. Soon after the Revolution, fiction by American authors appeared, first in domestic novels, including The Power of Sympathy (1789), by William Hill Brown; Charlotte Temple (1794), the most popular of early American novels, by Susannah Rowson; and The Coquette (1797), by Hannah Foster. Tabitha Tenney’s Female Quixotism (1801) mocked the romantic excesses of such novels in picaresque form. Another picaresque novel, Modern Chivalry, by H. H. Brackenridge, appeared in five parts between 1792 and 1815. In it, Brackenridge combined his learning in the classics and his famil- iarity with the great picaresque tradition of Cervantes, creating an acid and clever satire of early American failures in democratic politics. A third European fictional tradition, the Gothic romance of terror, found its American exemplar in Charles Brockden Brown, another Philadelphian, four of whose romances appeared be- tween 1798 and 1800.

Freneau is the most important bridge between the classicism of the eighteenth century and the full-fledged romanticism of the nineteenth. Late in the eighteenth century, however, the so-called Connecticut Wits, most of them associated with Yale, attracted great attention by their devotion to a new national poetic litera- ture. Three achieved considerable distinction in their lifetimes, but none left a very lasting impression on American literature. John Trumbull (1750–1831) is best re- membered for his satires: The Progress of Dullness (1772), an attack on “educa-

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tors,” which still makes amusing sense if only passable poetry, and M’Fingal (1775–1782), a burlesque epic blasting American Toryism. Timothy Dwight, a president of Yale, left Greenfield Hill (1794) as his most interesting poetic effort. Joel Barlow (1754–1812), an American patriot, published a pioneer American epic, The Vision of Columbus (1787), and a later version, The Columbiad (1807), both now nearly unreadable. His shorter mock epic, The Hasty-Pudding (1796), however, is the entertaining work of a generous mind.

Up to the end of the eighteenth century, the minor literature of America was plentiful. It was serviceable to its time, and it now seems no more odd or feeble than the common literary stock from the early period of any nation. Less plentiful, but profoundly important, was the major literature produced by people writing often under conditions unfavorable to literary expression. This literature of perma- nent value, which appeared from the first, and increasingly through the years, was entirely out of proportion to the size of the population and the expectations that might be entertained for a country so new, so wild, and so sparsely settled.

History Literature

Boston Massacre 1770 Founding of the first mission in

California by Friar Junipero Serra

1770– St. Jean de Crèvecœur 1775 Letters from an American Farmer

1771 Benjamin Franklin begins The Autobiography

The Boston Tea Party 1773

1773– Phillis Wheatley 1776 Poems on Various Subjects

John Adams and Abigail Adams Letters [Selections]

Meeting of the First Continental 1774 Logan Congress Speech

War for American Independence 1775– Battles of Lexington, Concord, 1781

and Bunker Hill fought

1776 Thomas Paine Common Sense

Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence

French increase assistance and recog- 1778 nize America as a sovereign nation

The British seize Charleston 1780

General Charles Cornwallis surrenders 1781 Philip Freneau at Yorktown and the war ends “To the Memory of the Brave Americans”

The Treaty of Paris formally ends 1783 the American Revolution

Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts 1786– 1787

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History Literature The Constitutional Convention 1787 Royall Tyler meets in Philadelphia and in May The Contrast passes the Constitution The Federalist

The Federalist No. 1 Ben Franklin

Speech in the Convention

George Washington elected 1789 Olaudah Equiano first president The Interesting Narrative of the

French Revolution begins Life of Olaudah Equiano

1791 William Bartram Travels Through North and South Carolina

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin 1793

The Whiskey Rebellion occurs 1794 Thomas Paine in western Pennsylvania The Age of Reason

Susanna Rowson Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth

John Adams elected president 1796 Joel Barlow The Hasty-Pudding

XYZ Affair 1798 Alien and Sedition acts passed

The Second Great Awakening Late 1790s

1799 Charles Brockden Brown Edgar Huntly

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Benjamin Franklin Author Bio © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706–1790)

Franklin was the epitome of the Enlightenment, the versatile, practical embodiment of rational humanity in the eighteenth century. His mind approved and his behav- ior demonstrated the fundamental concepts of the Age of Reason—faith in the re- ality of the world as revealed to the senses, distrust of the mystical or mysterious, confidence in the attainment of progress by education and humanitarianism, and the assurance that an appeal to reason would provide solutions for all human prob- lems, including those of society and the state. Many of his contemporaries ordered their personal lives by such beliefs, but it was Franklin’s particular genius to make the rational life comprehensible and practicable to his countrymen.

In the years between his birth in Boston, in 1706, and his death in Philadel- phia, in 1790, incredible political and economic changes occurred: After a success- ful struggle with France for domination of the North American continent, England recognized the independence of thirteen of her colonies in a treaty signed in Paris; the philosophy of rational individualism undermined the position of established church and aristocracy; and the new empirical science, responding to Newton’s discoveries, again awakened the human dream of mastering the physical world. Other men were pioneers in some of these events, but in all of them Benjamin Franklin actively participated—and left a written record unsurpassed for its pene- tration, objectivity, and wit.

His early years in Boston, spent reluctantly in his father’s tallow shop and sporadically at school, were typical of the experience of a child in a colonial town; then, at the age of twelve, the boy was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. There followed the long hours of work and the regimen of self-education so graph- ically recalled in Franklin’s Autobiography, written many years later for his son, William. In 1722, when his brother was jailed for offending the authorities in his New England Courant, sixteen-year-old Benjamin took over the editorship of the paper and, under the pseudonym of Silence Dogood, continued his editorials on subjects ranging from the merits of higher education to freedom of the press. The next year, after disagreements with his brother, he took ship for Philadelphia, ar- riving in October 1723, and created a favorite American anecdote by walking up from the Market Street wharf in the morning, munching on one of the “three great puffy rolls” he had purchased with his last pennies. He quickly found employment with Keimer, a printer, and after various activities, including a two-year stay in London, became sole owner of a printing firm which by his industry, frugality, and wise investments enabled him to retire from active business in 1748, when he was only forty-two years old. The years that lay ahead were to give him the varied ex- periences of a politician, statesman, and public citizen, but the discipline and adaptability which he urged upon his fellow citizens were characteristics of a pro- ficient artisan devoted to his craft. Years later, although many academic and inter- national honors had been pressed upon him, he wrote as the opening words of his will, “I, Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, printer * * * .”

It was characteristic of Franklin that he not only printed legal forms, copies of Indian treaties, the Pennsylvania Gazette (1729–1766), and acts of the Pennsyl-

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vania Assembly but also made the yearly almanac a characteristically American product. Poor Richard’s Almanack gave the usual information on weather and currency, but the aphorisms, their sources ranging from Greek to English writers, became, by the turn of a phrase, American in vocabulary and implication.

His profession may have provided opportunity for acquaintance with the colo- nial leaders of Pennsylvania, but it was his unceasing energy and interest in human- ity that directed his talents into a variety of civic projects. Franklin brought them about by perseverant ingenuity—such far-reaching institutions as the first circulating library, and more immediate measures, such as the lottery for the erection of steeple and chimes for Christ Church. Among the surviving monuments to his genius for the practical utilization of humane ideas are our first learned society—the American Philosophical Society; our first colonial hospital—the Pennsylvania Hospital; and the University of Pennsylvania, the first such institution to be founded upon the ideal of secular education which he formulated in a number of his writings.

His inquiring mind, energized by his confidence in the progress of rational humanity, turned as naturally to speculative thought as to ingenious inventions and to the improvement of the institutions of daily life. Nothing was more en- grossing to Franklin than the manifestations of nature, so long in the realm of the theoretical or mystical, but now, with the stirring advance of eighteenth-century science, convincingly demonstrated to people’s minds by scrupulous techniques of experimental observation. Franklin’s curiosity ranged from the causes of earth- quakes and the benefits of the Gulf Stream to navigation, to the possible associa- tion of lightning and electricity. As early as 1746 he became acquainted through correspondence with English scientists, and his enthusiastic assimilation of their information led to experiments with the Leyden jar and culminated in the famous kite-and-key experiment in 1752. His Experiments and Observations on Electric- ity (1751–1753) brought him international fame.

With the interest in science, the eighteenth century saw a corresponding growth of rationalism and skepticism in religion. Largely derivative from Shaftes- bury and Locke, Deism, which stood a pole apart from the orthodoxy of the time, offered minds such as Franklin’s an opportunity for reliance on a creative deity and freedom from the strictures of traditional theology. Franklin’s earlier doubts became tempered in his later life to that benevolent eclecticism of moderation in action and a reasoned faith in God revealed in his letter to Thomas Paine.

His leadership in civic enterprises and business might in itself have involved Franklin in the struggle for independence from England, but long before 1776 he had demonstrated qualities of statesmanship. He had learned the intricacies and intrigues of a proprietary colonial government in the fifteen years before 1751 during which he served as clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. And his consum- mate skill as diplomat in England, and in France in 1783, was the result of long experience, which had begun with his mission, many years earlier, to obtain a treaty with the Ohio Indians.

In two lengthy trips to England between 1757 and 1775, he had served as colonial agent for Pennsylvania, Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, hop- ing for conciliation between England and the American colonies but making a masterful defense against the Stamp Act. He returned to Philadelphia in time to serve in the Second Continental Congress and to be chosen, with Jefferson, as a member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. After

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two years in France as the agent of Congress, Franklin successfully negotiated a treaty of alliance in 1778; and with John Jay and John Adams, he arranged the terms and signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolution. The nine years he spent at Passy, near Paris, brought him the affectionate adulation of the French, and from his private press came beautifully printed and whimsical “Bagatelles,” such as “The Whistle” and “The Ephemera.”

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1785, became president of the executive council of Pennsylvania for three years, and closed his brilliant career by serving as a member of the Constitutional Convention. His death in 1790 was the occasion for international mourning for a man who had become a symbol of democratic ac- tion in America and Europe. Six years earlier, when Jefferson was congratulated on replacing Franklin as minister at Paris, he responded, “No one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.” There has been, in fact, no one since to replace him; he stands alone.

The definitive edition (in progress) is The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University Press, begun under the editorship of Leonard W. Labaree in 1959. Significant verbal variants will be shown in our footnotes as “Yale reads:” Our texts are from the 10-vol. edition by A. H. Smyth (1905). The Bigelow edition (1887–1889) supplements Smyth. Except for the selections from Poor Richard’s Almanack, all texts reproduced on the following pages conform to modern practice in respect to spelling and punctua- tion.

Excellent recent biographical studies are Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, 2005; Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, 2004; and Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, 2003. Earlier biographical studies include Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 1938; Bruce I. Granger, Benjamin Franklin, an American Man of Let- ters, 1964; Alfred O. Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin, Philosopher and Man, 1965; Ralph Ketcham, Ben- jamin Franklin, 1965; Richard Amacher, Benjamin Franklin, 1962; Claude-Anne Lopez and E. W. Herbert, The Private Franklin: The Man and His Family, 1975; and Ronald W. Clark, Benjamin Franklin: A Biography, 1983. For Franklin’s years in London and Paris, see Roger Burlingame, Ben- jamin Franklin: Envoy Extraordinary, 1967. For special study, several other works are useful, especially James Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, 2 vols., 1864; The Life of Benjamin Franklin * * *, 3 vols., edited by John Bigelow, 1874 (1916); J. B. McMaster, Benjamin Franklin as Man of Letters, 1887; P. L. Ford, The Many-Sided Franklin, 1899; Bernard Fay, Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times, 1929; Paul W. Conner, Poor Richard’s Politics: Benjamin Franklin and His New America, 1965; and J. A. Leo Lemay, The Canon of Benjamin Franklin, 1722–1776, 1986. Studies of the Autobiography are in Gary Lindberg, The Confidence Man in American Literature, 1982; and Ormond Seavey, Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and the Life, 1988.

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Benjamin Franklin Speech in the [Constitutional] Convention at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations

© The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Speech in the [Constitutional] Convention, at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations1

MR. PRESIDENT, I confess, that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but,

Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for, having lived long, I have experi- enced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller considera- tion, to change my opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is so far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication, tells the Pope, that the only difference between our two churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But, though many private Persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their Sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French Lady, who, in a little dispute with her sister, said, “But I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right.” “Je ne trouve que moi qui aie toujours raison.”

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults,—if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well admin- istered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being inca- pable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect pro- duction be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approach- ing so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear, that our councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were

1. Delivered September 17, 1787, on the day the work of the Constitutional Convention was completed and the finished Constitution signed “by the Unanimous Consent of the States present.”

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born, and here they shall die. If every one of us, in returning to our Constituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavour to gain Partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting naturally in our favour among foreign nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength and efficiency of any government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recom- mending this Constitution, wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our fu- ture thoughts and endeavours to the means of having it well administered.

On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this Instrument.

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Benjamin Franklin from Information to Those Who Would Remove to America

© The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From Information to Those Who Would Remove to America1

Many persons in Europe, having directly or by letters, expressed to the writer of this, who is well acquainted with North America, their desire of transporting and establishing themselves in that country; but who appear to have formed, through ignorance, mistaken ideas and expectations of what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, expensive, and fruitless re- movals and voyages of improper persons, if he gives some clearer and truer no- tions of that part of the world, than appear to have hitherto prevailed.

He finds it is imagined by numbers, that the inhabitants of North America are rich, capable of rewarding, and disposed to reward, all sorts of ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the sciences, and, consequently, that strangers, possessing talents in the belles-lettres, fine arts, &c., must be highly esteemed, and so well paid, as to become easily rich themselves; that there are also abundance of profitable offices to be disposed of, which the natives are not qualified to fill; and that, having few persons of family among them, strangers of birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain the best of those offices, which will make all their fortunes; that the governments too, to encourage emigrations from Europe, not only pay the expense of personal transportation, but give lands gratis to strangers, with Negroes to work for them, utensils of husbandry, and stocks of cat- tle. These are all wild imaginations; and those who go to America with expecta- tions founded upon them will surely find themselves disappointed.

The truth is, that though there are in that country few people so miserable as the poor of Europe, there are also very few that in Europe would be called rich; it is rather a general happy mediocrity that prevails. There are few great proprietors of the soil, and few tenants; most people cultivate their own lands, or follow some handicraft or merchandise; very few rich enough to live idly upon their rents or in- comes, or to pay the high prices given in Europe for paintings, statues, architec- ture, and the other works of art, that are more curious than useful. Hence the natural geniuses, that have arisen in America with such talents, have uniformly quitted that country for Europe, where they can be more suitably rewarded. It is true, that letters and mathematical knowledge are in esteem there, but they are at the same time more common than is apprehended; there being already existing nine colleges or universities, viz. four in New England, and one in each of the provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, all furnished with learned professors; besides a number of smaller academies; these educate many of their youth in the languages, and those sciences that qualify men for the professions of divinity, law, or physick. Strangers indeed are by no means

1. The title given this essay when first published, without Franklin’s permission, in 1784. Later that year, Franklin published it on his own press at Passy under the title Advice to Such as Would Remove to America.

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excluded from exercising those professions; and the quick increase of inhabitants everywhere gives them a chance of employ, which they have in common with the natives. Of civil offices, or employments, there are few; no superfluous ones, as in Europe; and it is a rule established in some of the states, that no office should be so profitable as to make it desirable. The 36th Article of the Constitution of Penn- sylvania, runs expressly in these words: “As every freeman, to preserve his inde- pendence, (if he has not a sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly subsist, there can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices of profit; the usual effects of which are dependence and servility, unbecoming freemen, in the possessors and expectants; faction, con- tention, corruption, and disorder among the people. Wherefore, whenever an of- fice, through increase of fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable, as to occasion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be lessened by the legislature.”

These ideas prevailing more or less in all the United States, it cannot be worth any man’s while, who has a means of living at home, to expatriate himself, in hopes of obtaining a profitable civil office in America; and, as to military offices, they are at an end with the war, the armies being disbanded. Much less is it advis- able for a person to go thither, who has no other quality to recommend him but his birth. In Europe it has indeed its value; but it is a commodity that cannot be carried to a worse market than that of America, where people do not inquire con- cerning a stranger, What is he? but, What can he do? If he has any useful art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it, and behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but a mere man of quality, who, on that account, wants to live upon the public, by some office or salary, will be despised and disregarded. The hus- bandman is in honor there, and even the mechanic, because their employments are useful. The people have a saying, that God Almighty is himself a mechanic, the greatest in the universe; and he is respected and admired more for the variety, ingenuity, and utility of his handiworks, than for the antiquity of his family. They are pleased with the observation of a Negro, and frequently mention it, that boc- carorra (meaning the white men) make de black man workee, make de horse workee, make de ox workee, make ebery ting workee; only de hog. He, de hog, no workee; he eat, he drink, he walk about, he go to sleep when he please, he libb like a gentleman. According to these opinions of the Americans, one of them would think himself more obliged to a genealogist, who could prove for him that his ancestors and relations for ten generations had been ploughmen, smiths, car- penters, turners, weavers, tanners, or even shoemakers, and consequently that they were useful members of society; than if he could only prove that they were gentlemen, doing nothing of value, but living idly on the labour of others, mere fruge consumere nati,2 and otherwise good for nothing, till by their death their es- tates, like the carcass of the Negro’s gentleman-hog, come to be cut up.

With regard to encouragements for strangers from government, they are re- ally only what are derived from good laws and liberty. Strangers are welcome, be- cause there is room enough for them all, and therefore the old inhabitants are not

2. “Born merely to eat up the corn.—Watts” [Franklin’s note]. The Latin is from Horace, Epistles I, 2, 27, paraphrased by Isaac Watts (1674–1748) in Miscellaneous Thoughts (1734).

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jealous of them; the laws protect them sufficiently, so that they have no need of the patronage of great men; and every one will enjoy securely the profits of his in- dustry. But, if he does not bring a fortune with him, he must work and be industri- ous to live. One or two years’ residence gives him all the rights of a citizen; but the government does not at present, whatever it may have done in former times, hire people to become settlers, by paying their passages, giving land, Negroes, utensils, stock, or any other kind of emolument whatsoever. In short, America is the land of labour, and by no means what the English call Lubberland,3 and the French Pays de Cocagne,4 where the streets are said to be paved with half-peck loaves, the houses tiled with pancakes, and where the fowls fly about ready roasted, cry- ing, Come eat me! * * *

1784

3. A land of ease and laziness. 4. Land of Cockaigne, a medieval idler’s paradise.

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Thomas Paine Author Bio © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

THOMAS PAINE (1737–1809)

Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appro- priately born into an age of revolution. “My country is the world, and my religion is to do good,” he once declared; and he served the rebels of three countries.

This “Great Commoner of Mankind,” son of a nominal Quaker of Thetford, England, was early apprenticed to his father, a corset maker. At nineteen, he went to sea for perhaps two years, then followed his father’s trade again as master stay- maker in several English communities. For nearly twelve years, beginning in 1762, he was employed as an excise officer. His leisure was devoted to the eager pursuit of books and ideas, particularly the study of social philosophy and the new sci- ence. After three years in the excise service, he was dismissed for a neglect of duty, but he was reinstated following a year spent as a teacher near London.

The young excise collector learned social science at first hand, seeing the hard- ships of the tax-burdened masses and the hopelessness of humble workers of his own class. His first wife having died, he acquired, in his second marriage, a small tobacconist’s shop in Lewes, where he was stationed; but he still lived constantly on the edge of privation. In 1772 he wrote his first pamphlet, The Case of the Of- ficers of the Excise, and he spent the next winter in London, representing his fel- low workers in a petition to Parliament for a living wage. Suddenly he was dismissed, possibly for his agency in this civil revolt, although the official charge was that he had neglected his duties at Lewes. Within two months of losing his position, he lost his shop through bankruptcy and his wife by separation. This was his unhappy situation at thirty-seven, when Franklin met him in London and recognized his peculiar talents in their American perspective. In 1774 Paine made his way to Philadelphia, bearing a cautious letter from Franklin recommending him as “an ingenious worthy young man.”

In Philadelphia, Paine edited the Pennsylvania Magazine and contributed to the Pennsylvania Journal. As the relations of the colonies with England ap- proached a crisis, readers of the two Philadelphia papers recognized a political satirist of genius. On January 10, 1776, his famous pamphlet Common Sense ap- peared. It boldly advocated a “Declaration for Independence” and brought the separatist agitation to a crisis. This was a courageous act of high treason against England; Paine knew quite well that publication of the pamphlet could cost him his life, even though it was signed simply “By an Englishman.” In three months it sold probably a hundred thousand copies; they circulated from hand to hand. It was also reprinted abroad. Paine became forthwith the most articulate spokesman of the American Revolution. He enlisted, was appointed aide-de-camp to General Greene, and served through the engagements of 1776 in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; but his chief contribution was a series of sixteen

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pamphlets (1776–1783) titled The American Crisis and signed “Common Sense.” The first of these, with its blast at the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot,” appeared in the black month of December 1776, just after Washington’s retreat across New Jersey. It was read at once to all regiments, and like the twelve later Crisis pamphlets that dealt directly with the military engagements, it restored the morale and inspired the success of that citizens’ army. The last of the Crisis pa- pers, the sixteenth, appeared on December 9, 1783, at the end of the war. Mean- while, Paine had served on various committees of the Continental Congress; he had been clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, received an honorary degree from the College of Philadelphia (the University of Pennsylvania), gone to France to help negotiate a loan for the colonies, and published much concerning the war and the eventual federal union of the colonies.

The war over, he turned to invention, perfecting the model of an iron bridge without piers. In 1787 he went to Paris and London and secured foreign patents for his bridge. In both countries he was received as an important international fig- ure; Burke and Fox became his friends, and Lafayette presented him with a key to the Bastille to be transmitted to General Washington. In England, the patronage of the great terminated suddenly. Paine’s Rights of Man (Part I, 1791; Part II, 1792), answering Burke’s recent Reflections on the French Revolution, not only championed Rousseau’s doctrines of freedom but also suggested the overthrow of the British monarchy. On May 21, 1792, Paine was indicted for treason, and he was forced to seek refuge in France, where he had taken part in the early events of the Revolution during his visits in 1789 and 1791.

The French revolutionaries received him enthusiastically; he was elected a member of the National Convention, representing four districts. But when he op- posed the execution of Louis XVI and the Reign of Terror, he was imprisoned in the Luxembourg Palace. He had already sent to press in Paris the first part of The Age of Reason, a Deistic treatise advocating a rationalistic view of religion. Set free as a result of the death of Robespierre and the friendly intercession of James Monroe, then American ambassador to France, he recuperated for many months in Monroe’s home, where he completed The Age of Reason (1794–1795) and wrote his last important treatise, Agrarian Justice (1797). In 1802 he returned to America, only to find that his patriotic services had been forgotten in the wave of resentment against his “atheistical” beliefs and the reaction of conservatives against the French Revolution. During his remaining years, neglected by all but his vilifiers, he remained in obscurity, for the most part on his farm in New Rochelle. There he was buried in 1809, after a year of illness in New York; his fu- neral was attended by six people, two of them blacks. In 1819, William Cobbett, returning to England, transported Paine’s remains to their native soil, in token of repentance for his earlier condemnation. At Cobbett’s death no one knew where Paine was buried; his final resting place is still unknown.

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Paine’s writings, his doctrines of the social contract, political liberalism, and the equality of all human beings, resulted less from his own originality than from his journalistic ability to make vigorous restatements of the popular liberal thought of the eighteenth century. Even the much debated Age of Reason was an extensive formulation of Deism, a familiar theological concept of contemporary rationalism, the advanced thought of that era. But his prose still possesses many of the qualities that made it stimulating and inspiring to his contemporaries. His excellence lies in the fiery ardor and determination of his words, the conviction of his courageous and indomitable spirit, and the sincerity and passion of his belief in the rights of the humblest person.

The comprehensive edition is Moncure D. Conway, The Writings of Thomas Paine, 4 vols., 1894–1896; and the most nearly definitive biography is Conway’s The Life of Thomas Paine, 2 vols., 1892. Recent lives are by Jack Fruchtman, Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom, 1994; and John Keane, Tom Paine: A Political Life, 1995. A still solid earlier life is Alfred O. Aldridge, Man of Reason: The Life of Thomas Paine, 1959. Leo Gurko, Tom Paine, Freedom’s Apostle, 1957, is topical, and so is I. M. Thompson, The Religious Beliefs of Thomas Paine, 1957. A careful text is A. W. Peach, Selections from the Works * * *, 1928; an excellent one-volume scholarly edition with introduction is Thomas Paine: Representative Selections, edited by H. H. Clark, American Writers Series, 1944.

Studies include Owen Aldridge, Thomas Paine’s American Ideology, 1984; David Powell, Tom Paine: The Greatest Exile, 1985; and Alfred J. Ayer, Thomas Paine, 1988.

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Thomas Paine from Common Sense © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

THOMAS PAINE

From Common Sense

Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs1

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views be- yond the present day.

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent has accepted the challenge.

It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham2 (who though an able minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in the House of Commons on the score that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied, “They will last my time.” Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the name of Ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.

The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ’Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom; but of a continent—of at least one-eighth part of the habitable globe. ’Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time by the proceedings now. Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith, and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new era for politics is struck—a new method of thinking has arisen. All plans, proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April,3 i.e. to the commencement of hostilities, are like the al- manacks of the last year; which though proper then, are superseded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point, viz. a union with Great Britain; the only difference between the parties was the method of effecting it; the one proposing

1. “Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs” was Part III of Common Sense. Part I discussed the British constitution in relation to “the origin and design of government”; Part II analyzed the weak- nesses of “monarchy and hereditary succession.” The American Declaration of Independence was pro- mulgated six months later, on July 4. 2. Henry Pelham, British prime minister (1743–1754). 3. April 19, 1775, the date of the battles of Lexington and Concord, where American Minute- men defended their ammunition stores against British troops—the first armed engagements of the Revo- lution.

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force, the other friendship; but it has so far happened that the first has failed, and the second has withdrawn her influence.

As much has been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which, like an agreeable dream, has passed away and left us as we were, it is but right that we should examine the contrary side of the argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected with and dependent on Great Britain. To examine that connec- tion and dependence on the principles of nature and common sense; to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect, if dependent.

I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admit- ting more than is true; for I answer roundly that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her own is admitted; and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. for the sake of trade and dominion.

Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made large sacri- fices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without con- sidering that her motive was interest, not attachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will al- ways be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover’s4

last war ought to warn us against connections. It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have no relation to

each other but through the parent country, i.e. that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way of proving enmity (or enemyship, if I may so call it). France and Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but as our being the sub- jects of Great Britain.

But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by the King and his parasites, with a low papistical de-

4. The Prussian house of Hanover occupied the British throne from 1714 to 1901. Paine thus connects the repeated French invasions of Hanover, during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) with the Franco- British rivalries.

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sign of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.

In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and carry our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudices as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will naturally associate most with his fellow parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the name of neighbor; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of towns- man; if he travel out of the county and meet him in any other, he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls him country-man, i.e. county-man; but if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France, or any other part of Eu- rope, their local remembrance would be enlarged into that of Englishman. And by a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or any other quarter of the globe, are country-men; for England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do on the smaller ones; distinctions too lim- ited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province,5

are of English descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish, narrow, and ungenerous.

But, admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title; and to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.

Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world. But this is mere presumption, the fate of war is uncertain; neither do the expressions mean anything, for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.

Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.

I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advan- tage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat

5. I.e., Pennsylvania.

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the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will.

But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, in- structs us to renounce the alliance: because any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quar- rels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. ’Tis the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do while by her dependence on Britain she is made the makeweight in the scale of British politics.

Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and when- ever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of Amer- ica goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain. The next war may not turn out like the last,6 and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for separation then, because neutrality in that case would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for sepa- ration. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ’TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the one over the other, was never the design of heaven. The time likewise at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled, increases the force of it. The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.

The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of government which sooner or later must have an end. And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction that what he calls “the present constitution” is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to insure anything which we may bequeath to posterity; and by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, other- wise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am inclined to believe that all those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions: Interested men, who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see, and a certain set of moder- ate men who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three.

6. The British were victorious in the French and Indian War, the American phase of the Seven Years’ War.

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It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of present sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precarious- ness with which all American property is possessed. But let our imaginations trans- port us a few moments to Boston;7 that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it, in their present situation they are prison- ers without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they would be exposed to the fury of both armies.

Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Great Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, Come, come, we shall be friends again for all this. But examine the passions and feelings of mankind; bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future connec- tion with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnat- ural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your prop- erty been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have? But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover; and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.

This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by those feel- ings and affections which nature justifies, and without which we should be inca- pable of discharging the social duties of life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. ’Tis not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she doth not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected the whole continent will partake of the misfor- tune; and there is no punishment which that man doth not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.

It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent can long remain subject to any exter- nal power. The most sanguine in Britain doth not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot, at this time, compass a plan, short of separation, which can promise the continent even a year’s security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious

7. Boston was then under British military occupation and subject, as also later, to American siege.

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dream. Nature has deserted the connection, and art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, “Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.”8

Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and have tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings more than repeated petitioning—and nothing hath contributed more than that very measure to make the kings of Europe absolute. Witness Denmark and Sweden.9 Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God’s sake let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child.

To say they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary; we thought so at the repeal of the stamp act, yet a year or two undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations which have been once defeated will never renew the quarrel.

As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this conti- nent justice: the business of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be man- aged with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.

Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for government to take under their care; but there is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet; and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they belong to different systems. England to Europe: America to itself.

I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doc- trine of separation and independence; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that ’tis the true interest of this continent to be so; that everything short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity—that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time when a little more, a little further, would have rendered this continent the glory of the earth.

As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to.

The object contended for ought always to bear some just proportion to the expense. The removal of North1 or the whole detestable junto, is a matter un- worthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an in- convenience which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole continent must

8. Paradise Lost, IV, 98–99. 9. Both Denmark and Sweden had recently been threatened by monarchical absolutism; Gustavus III of Sweden had imprisoned the entire Council in 1772. 1. Frederick North, 8th Baron North, prime minister (1770–1782), was held responsible for the British policy of colonial exploitation by taxation.

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take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, ’tis scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for, in a just estimation, ’tis as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price2 for law as for land. As I have always considered the inde- pendency of this continent an event which sooner or later must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event cannot be far off. Where- fore, on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not worth the while to have dis- puted a matter which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise it is like wasting an estate on a suit at law, to regulate the tres- passes of a tenant whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for a reconciliation than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775,3 but the mo- ment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen- tempered Pharaoh of England4 forever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.

But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several reasons.

First. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this continent. And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbi- trary power, is he, or is he not, a proper person to say to these colonies, You shall make no laws but what I please! And is there any inhabitant of America so igno- rant as not to know, that according to what is called the present constitution, this continent can make no laws but what the king gives leave to; and is there any man so unwise as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made here but such as suits his purpose? We may be as effectually en- slaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called), can there be any doubt but the whole power of the crown will be exerted to keep this continent as low and humble as possible? Instead of going forward we shall go backward, or be perpet- ually quarrelling, or ridiculously petitioning. We are already greater than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? To bring the matter to one point, Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question is an independent, for indepen- dency means no more than this, whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us, There shall be no laws but such as I like.

But the king, you’ll say, has a negative in England; the people there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and good order, it is something very ridiculous that a youth of twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several millions of people older and wiser than himself, “I forbid this or that act of yours to be law.” But in this place I decline this sort of reply, though I will never

2. American casualties at Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) were reported to be one-third of those engaged. 3. Date of the battles of Concord and Lexington. 4. King George III; here likened to the “hardened Pharaoh,” despotic captor of the Israelites (Exodus 7:13–14).

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cease to expose the absurdity of it, and only answer that England being the king’s residence, and America not so, makes quite another case. The king’s negative here is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England; for there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defense as possible, and in America he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.

America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics, England consults the good of this country no further than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interfere with it. A pretty state we should soon be in under such a secondhand government, considering what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name: and in order to show that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm that it would be policy in the king at this time to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces; in order that HE MAY AC- COMPLISH BY CRAFT AND SUBTLETY, IN THE LONG RUN, WHAT HE CANNOT DO BY FORCE AND VIOLENCE IN THE SHORT ONE. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.

Secondly. That as even the best terms which we can expect to obtain can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the colonies come of age, so the general face and state of things in the interim will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of property will not choose to come to a country whose form of gov- ernment hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval to dispose of their effects, and quit the continent.

But the most powerful of all arguments is, that nothing but independence, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than probable that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere or other, the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the malice of Britain.

Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more will probably suffer the same fate). Those men have other feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty; what they before enjoyed is sac- rificed to its service, and having nothing more to lose they disdain submission. Be- sides, the general temper of the colonies towards a British government will be like that of a youth who is nearly out of his time; they will care very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will be wholly on paper, should a civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation? I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there is ten times more to dread from a patched up con- nection than from independence. I make the sufferer’s case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circum- stances ruined, that as a man, sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby.

The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience to continental government as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and

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happy on that head. No man can assign the least pretense for his fears on any other grounds than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz., that one colony will be striving for superiority over another.

Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority; perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Switzerland are without wars, foreign or domestic. Monarchi- cal governments, it is true, are never long at rest: the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever atten- dant on regal authority, swells into a rupture with foreign powers in instances where a republican government, by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.

If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out. Wherefore, as an opening into that business I offer the following hints; at the same time modestly affirming that I have no other opinion of them myself than that they may be the means of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into use- ful matter.

Let the assemblies be annual, with a president only. The representation more equal, their business wholly domestic, and subject to the authority of a continen- tal congress.

Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient districts, each dis- trict to send a proper number of delegates to congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number in congress will be at least 390. Each congress to sit and to choose a president by the following method. When the delegates are met, let a colony be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let the con- gress choose (by ballot) a president from out of the delegates of that province. In the next congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that colony from which the president was taken in the former congress, and so proceed- ing on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And in order that nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just, not less than three fifths of the congress to be called a majority. He that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed as this, would have joined Lucifer5 in his revolt.

But as there is a peculiar delicacy from whom, or in what manner, this busi- ness must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and consistent that it should come from some intermediate body between the governed and the governors, that is, between the congress and the people, let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held in the following manner, and for the following purpose:

A committee of twenty-six members of congress, viz., two for each colony. Two members from each house of assembly, or provincial convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for, and in behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified vot- ers as shall think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this CONFERENCE, thus assembled, will be united

5. This was the name of Satan before he revolted against God; cf. Isaiah 14:12–20.

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the two grand principles of business, knowledge and power. The members of con- gress, assemblies, or conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being empowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority.

The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a CONTINEN- TAL CHARTER, or Charter of the United Colonies (answering to what is called the Magna Charta of England); fixing the number and manner of choosing members of congress, members of assembly, with their date of sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between them (always remembering, that our strength is continental, not provincial); securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as it is necessary for a charter to contain. Immediately after which, the said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be chosen conformable to the said charter, to be the legislators and governors of this continent for the time being: Whose peace and happiness, may God preserve. AMEN.

Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar pur- pose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer on governments, Dragonetti. “The science,” says he, “of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of in- dividual happiness, with the least national expense.”6

But where, say some, is the king of America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to BE king, and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.7 * * *

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Free- dom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

1776

6. “Dragonetti on ‘Virtues and Rewards’” [Paine’s note]. He referred to Giacinto Dragonetti, author of Le Virtù ed i Premi (1767). 7. Popular sovereignty and a government by social contract are recurrent themes in Paine’s later writ- ings; cf. also the Declaration of Independence.

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THOMAS PAINE

The American Crisis1

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine pa- triot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the con- flict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to[o] lightly:—’Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to) TAX but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Whether the Independence of the Continent was declared too soon, or de- layed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a depen- dent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet; all that Howe2 has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jer- sies3 a year ago would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolu- tion will soon recover.

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military de- struction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so re- peatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that he has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a housebreaker, has as good a pretence as he.

’Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a coun- try. All nations and ages have been subject to them: Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was

1. The first of the sixteen pamphlets now known as The Crisis, this originally appeared undated in the Pennsylvania Journal, December 19, 1776. There were three pamphlet editions within the week, one un- dated, one dated December 19, and one dated December 23. Since Paine later referred to the last as au- thoritative, it is reproduced here. The last number of The Crisis, the sixteenth, appeared on December 9, 1783. 2. Lord William Howe had taken command of the British troops in America in 1775. 3. The colony was divided into East and West Jersey.

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driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscov- ered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors which an imaginary ap- parition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

As I was with the troops at Fort-Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance, know but little or nothing of.4 Our situation there was exceed- ingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North-River5

and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one-fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the gar- rison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys,6 in which case Fort-Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object, which such forts are raised to defend.7 Such was our situation and condition at Fort-Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with informa- tion that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above: Major General Green,8 who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry, six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three-quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the

4. On November 20, General Greene made the hasty retreat southward from the Hudson forts to Newark, New Jersey. There, according to tradition, Paine wrote this Crisis paper on a drumhead. In less than a month it was printed, and Washington had it read to each regiment of the army, now encamped in Pennsylvania. A few days later, on Christmas night, they struck successfully across the Delaware at Trenton, and nine days later they attacked at Princeton. Paine participated in both battles. 5. The Hudson. 6. Cf. “Jersies” above. The Crisis papers, printed, sometimes reprinted, under pressure, were never de- finitively edited by Paine. 7. Propagandist Paine naturally belittles the British success—actually the capture of Fort Lee and Fort Washington, the strategic defenses of the Hudson, together with enough men and matériel to make a field regiment. 8. I.e., Greene. Nathanael Greene commanded one of the divisions against Trenton, a month later.

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ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the gar- rison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsyl- vania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten-Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick,9 and in- tercepted our march into Pennsylvania; but if we believe the power of hell to be lim- ited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control.

I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centered in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire1 has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when un- locked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of pub- lic blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.

I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New-England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless argu- ments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions

9. Now Perth Amboy and New Brunswick. By holding this line Howe could have blocked Greene’s only strategic retreat to Pennsylvania. 1. The French man of letters Voltaire (1694–1778), then very popular in America, made this remark concerning William III of England (died 1702) in his principal historical treatise, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), Chapter 17.

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are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for ’tis soldiers, and not tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the tories: A noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “Well! give me peace in my day.” Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer’s experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city;2 should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of whig and tory may never more be mentioned; but should the tories give him encourage- ment to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year’s arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years’ war by the con- fiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expul- sion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the GOOD of ALL, have staked their OWN ALL upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined

2. Philadelphia. As Paine predicts, it was occupied by the British (September 26, 1777).

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hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.

Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on THIS state or THAT state, but on EVERY STATE: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to re- pulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands;3 throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but “show your faith by your works,”4

that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back,5 the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from dis- tress, and grow brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases whatsoever” to his ab- solute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe’s first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy.

3. Cf. I Samuel 18:7: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 4. Cf. James 2:18. 5. I.e., both well-settled “counties” and backwoods.

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The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage,6 and this is what the tories call making their peace, “a peace which passeth all understanding”7 indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties, who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, THAT state must be garrisoned by all Howe’s army of Britons and Hessians8 to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.

I thank God that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains,9

and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our fieldpieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country1 might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jersies had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting, our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well-armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils—a ravaged country—a depopulated city—habitations without safety, and slavery without hope—our homes turned into barracks and bawdy- houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.

COMMON SENSE. December 23, 1776

6. General Thomas Gage, Howe’s predecessor, commanded the British armies in America from 1763 to 1775. 7. Ironic word play on Philippians 4:7, where Paul refers to “the peace of God.” 8. Already a term of disdain for the German mercenaries from Hesse and elsewhere, many thousands of whom were employed in the British army. 9. At White Plains, New York, Howe had successfully attacked Washington’s position in October but failed to follow up his advantage. 1. The militia, or local volunteers.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743–1826)

It may be that Thomas Jefferson’s thought and personality have influenced his countrymen more deeply, and remained more effectively alive, than those of any other American. Yet, of the eight titles published by him, only one represents what can be called a book in the usual sense. It is estimated that sixty volumes will be required for the definitive edition of his writings, composed chiefly of state papers, a few treatises, and the incredible twenty-five thousand letters, many of great length, by which he was always “sowing useful truths,” as he called it. His words could not be contained by a letter or confined at their first destination; they were reborn in the public ideals and acts of the American people, and indeed in their daily speech. This is partly because he embodied their best meanings in such pub- lic utterances as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom; in the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the principal author; in the Notes on the State of Virginia, a veritable storehouse of humane ideas and liberal democracy, which he published in 1784 –1785; in his addresses as president; and in his autobiography, published three years after his death.

This Virginian planter-aristocrat had humanitarian sympathies as vigorous as Franklin’s, and though thirty-seven years his junior, he was just as much a product of the Enlightenment. His mind, like Franklin’s, ranged curiously over many fields of knowledge—law, philosophy, government, architecture, education, religion, sci- ence, agriculture, mechanics—and whatever he touched, he enriched in some mea- sure. He knew that he was not profound, but he read widely, impelled by the same practical reason as Franklin—to gain understanding. The development of rational science from Bacon to Newton; the history of English law from King Alfred to Blackstone; the tradition of English liberty in Harrington, Milton, Hobbes, Locke, and Algernon Sydney; the challenging ideas of contemporary French liberalism in Montesquieu, Helvetius, Voltaire, and the physiocrats—from acquaintance with these, indeed, he did gain understanding. This understanding he applied, with sim- ple American directness, to a conception of democracy for a new land of plenty, where the people might have a fresh start toward liberty, selfhood, and that excel- lence which he sought in all things. This patrician humanist looked to merit and ability alone, not to privilege; the natural rights of humanity must be secured by law inalienably for all, irrespective of station. For him, government, a necessary evil, found sanction only in the common consent of a social contract; its purpose was the benefit of individuals, not their exploitation; it must provide freedom of speech, thought, association, press, worship, education, and enterprise. In a letter to Benjamin Rush in 1800, he stated his conviction, unaltered throughout his life: “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

These ideas found practical expression in Jefferson’s forty years of a public life so active that only its highest moments can be mentioned here. He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, April 13, 1743. Years of private study were supple- mented by two years at William and Mary College. He then prepared for the prac- tice of law, but his election to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769 drew him into public life. He represented Virginia in the Second Continental Congress in 1775; the following year—with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston—he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Again in

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the Virginia legislature, he devoted himself to codifying and liberalizing the laws and to furthering the cause of toleration represented in his bill for the establish- ment of religious freedom, finally adopted later, in 1786. He was governor of Vir- ginia (1779–1781) and delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, before going to Paris to assist Franklin and Adams in treaty negotiations (1784). He re- mained in Paris to succeed Franklin as American minister (1785–1789). As the first American secretary of state (1790–1793), in Washington’s cabinet, his oppo- sition to the extreme Federalism and the aristocratic tendencies of Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, drew the support of those who favored equal- itarian measures and greater local independence, thus defining the constitutional questions that have since continued to provide the issues for the two American parties. On these issues he was narrowly defeated by John Adams in 1796 and ac- cepted the vice presidency, then awarded the unsuccessful candidate. On the same issues he won the election of 1800 and served for two terms as president. Among the many acts of his administration may be noted his measures to prevent unwar- ranted encroachment of the federal powers upon the domain of the states and his concern for the expansion of the country, reflected in the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and in his sponsorship of the expedition of Lewis and Clark (1803–1806).

In 1809 he “retired” to a very active life at Monticello, a monument to his ar- chitectural genius, whose gradual perfection had been his hobby since 1767. The sale of his library of ten thousand volumes to the national government partially relieved his financial obligations and provided the foundation of the national li- brary of his dreams (now the Library of Congress). His democratic theories of education, formulated through the years, soon took concrete form in the Univer- sity of Virginia (1819), whose notable buildings he designed and whose first rector he became. His correspondence, in which he now expressed the seasoned experi- ence and the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime, grew to enormous proportions, which, as he said, often denied him “the leisure of reading a single page in a week.” The only American of his time to be elected to the Institute of France, Jef- ferson experimented in agriculture, paleontology, geography, and botany and was president of the American Philosophical Society for eighteen years. It was fitting that his death in 1826 should occur on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The earliest reliable edition of Jefferson’s works is The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10 vols., edited by P. L. Ford, 1892–1899. The Memorial Edition, edited by A. A. Lipscomb and A. E. Bergh, 20 vols., 1903–1907, contains additional texts not in the Ford edition. A definitive edition, in progress, 1950–, under the direction of Julian P. Boyd, is titled Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton University Press). For correspondence, see Thomas Jefferson Correspondence * * *, edited by W. C. Ford, 1916; Correspon- dence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, edited by Paul Wilstach, 1925; and The Adams-Jeffer- son Letters, edited by L. J. Cappon, 1959. Single-volume collections are The Complete Jefferson * * * except his Letters, edited by Saul K. Padover, 1943; Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by A. Koch and W. Peden, 1944; and Thomas Jefferson: Writings, edited by Merrill Peterson, 1975.

The best biography is Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, 6 vols., 1948–1981. A useful life in one volume is Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, 1987. See also A. J. Nock, Jefferson, 1926, and Gilbert Chinard, Thomas Jefferson: The Apostle of Americanism, 1929. Other important studies are Adrienne Koch, The Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, 1943, 1957; C. G. Bowers, Jefferson and Hamilton, 1925, and Jefferson in Power, 1936; J. B. Conant, Jefferson and the Development of American Public Education, 1965; Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography, 1970; Gary Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Indepen- dence, 1978; Charles A. Miller, Jefferson and Nature, 1988; and Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, 1997.

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Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence

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THOMAS JEFFERSON

The Declaration of Independence

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The UNANIMOUS DECLARATION of the thirteen united STATES OF AMERICA.1

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dis- solve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the sep- aration.——We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.2—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and orga- nizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long estab- lished should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- customed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former

1. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, on June 7, 1776, proposed a resolution in Congress that “these united Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” Final action was postponed, but on June 11 a committee of five was appointed, which on June 28 presented the draft of a Declara- tion of Independence. It was substantially the work of Jefferson, although Franklin made fundamental contributions, and the influence of John Adams is evident. On July 2, Lee’s original resolution was passed. On July 4, the Declaration was passed after some changes during debate; the Liberty Bell rang from the State House steeple in Philadelphia, and that night printed broadside copies were hastily run off for public distribution. On August 2, an engrossed parchment copy was signed by all the delegates but three, who signed shortly thereafter. Printed copies, with all the signatures, appeared in January 1777. The philosophical and political ideals expressed in the Declaration can be traced far back in his- tory, and their immediate roots are found in eighteenth-century thought, while the final draft repre- sented a consensus among the delegates; however, the document still reflects the authorship of Jefferson, his precise clarity and powerful grace of thought. The text printed here is that authorized by the State Department: The Declaration of Independence, 1776 (1911). 2. Cf. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, where he identified natural rights as those to “life, liberty, and estate [property].”

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Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence

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Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain3 is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.–– He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and nec- essary for the public good.— He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of im- mediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to at- tend to them.–– He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representa- tion in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.— He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fa- tiguing them into compliance with his measures.— He has dissolved Representa- tive Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.— He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihila- tion, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convul- sions within.— He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.— He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.—He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.—He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.–– He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.— He has affected to render the Military independent of and su- perior to the Civil power.— He has combined with others4 to subject us to a juris- diction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:—For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:—For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:— For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:—For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:—For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:—For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:—For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province,5 establish- ing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule

3. George III, king from 1760 to 1820, was the responsible engineer of those policies of his government which evoked rebellion. 4. The British parliament. 5. The Quebec Act (1774) promised concessions to the French Catholics and restored the French civil law, thus alienating the province of Quebec from the seaboard colonies in the growing controversy.

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Thomas Jefferson The Declaration of Independence

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into these Colonies:—For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:—For suspend- ing our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legis- late for us in all cases whatsoever.—He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us:—He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.—He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries6 to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circum- stances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.—He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to be- come the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.—He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by re- peated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acqui- esce in the necessity, which denounces7 our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

WE, THEREFORE, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.—And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

1776

6. German soldiers, principally Hessians, hired by the British for colonial service. 7. Proclaims.

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Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

THOMAS JEFFERSON

First Inaugural Address1

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our coun-

try, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look towards me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presenti- ments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself be- fore the magnitude of the undertaking.

Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled sea.

During the contest of opinion2 through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think. But this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us restore to

1. In accordance with Article II of the Constitution, subsequently changed by the Twelfth Amendment, Jefferson had become vice president in 1796, as the candidate defeated by the Federalist John Adams. In 1800 he ran against four others, including Aaron Burr, another Democratic Republican (Democrat). The electoral vote was a tie between Jefferson and Burr, a result that prompted the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment. The election was settled by a vote in the House of Representatives, where Jeffer- son, supported by Hamilton, defeated Burr, whose resentment ultimately led to the Burr-Hamilton duel and Hamilton’s death. The inauguration occurred on March 4, 1801, before the Congress, in the Senate Chamber of the still-unfinished Capitol. 2. I.e., the bitterly contested election.

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social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convul- sions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore;3 that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others; and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a differ- ence of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same princi- ple. We are all republicans; we are all federalists.4 If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tol- erated, where reason is left free to combat it.5 I know, indeed, that some honest men have feared that a republican government cannot be strong; that this Govern- ment is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of suc- cessful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world’s best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the call of the law would fly to the standard of the law; would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Let us then, pursue with courage and confidence our own federal and republi- can principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quar- ter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; pos- sessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the hundredth and thousandth generation;6 entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confi- dence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and prac- ticed in various forms yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, grat- itude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter: with all these blessings, what more is neces-

3. The Reign of Terror (1794) in the French Revolution alarmed American conservatives and intensified the strife between the parties. 4. The two contesting political parties. The “Democratic Republicans” (the official name) were the an- cestors of the Democratic party; Jefferson is referring not to politics but to common principles. 5. This is probably the first important official recognition of the guarantee of freedom of thought and opinion. 6. The pessimistic “law” of Malthus on the imbalance of population and subsistence had just been pro- pounded in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

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sary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow- citizens—a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of in- dustry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principle of this government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them in the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none;7 the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most compe- tent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority—economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preserva- tion of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the protection of the habeas corpus;8 and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touch- stone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.

I repair then, fellow-citizens, to the post which you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate stations to know the difficulties of this, the greatest of all, I have learned to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretentions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character,9 whose preëminent services had entitled him to

7. Reaffirming Washington’s injunction, in the “Farewell Address,” that we must not “entangle our peace and prosperity” in foreign alliances. 8. The guarantee that the individual will not be held under unlawful arrest. 9. George Washington.

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the first place in his country’s love, and had destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional; and your support against the er- rors of others who may condemn what they would not, if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past; and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have be- stowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.

Relying then on the patronage of your good-will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favor- able issue for your peace and prosperity.

1801

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