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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: what is it that we want? Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can
expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to the government
of America again, this Continent will not be worth living in.
Jealousies will be always arising; insurrections will be constantly happening;
and who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his life to reduce his
own countrymen to a foreign obedience? The difference between Pennsylvania
and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands, shews the insignificance
of a British government, and fully proves, that nothing but Continental
authority can regulate Continental matters.
Another reason why the present time is preferable to all others, is,
that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there is yet unoccupied,
Common Sense |
