" In his statement of the Rights of
the Colonists (1772) we are assured that "among the natural
rights of the colonists are these, First, a right to Life;
secondly to Liberty; thirdly to Property .... All men have a
Right to remain in a State of Nature as long as they please . . .
. When Men enter into Society, it is by voluntary consent."
Jean-Jacques himself could not be more bland, nor at heart more
fiercely demagogic.
"Tom" Paine would have been no match for "Sam" Adams in a
town-meeting, but he was an even greater pamphleteer. He had
arrived from England in 1774, at the age of thirty-eight, having
hitherto failed in most of his endeavors for a livelihood.
"Rebellious Staymaker; unkempt," says Carlyle; but General
Charles Lee noted that there was "genius in his eyes," and he
bore a letter of introduction from Franklin commending him as an
"ingenious, worthy young man," which obtained for him a position
on the "Pennsylvania Magazine." Before he had been a year on
American soil, Paine was writing the most famous pamphlet of our
political literature, "Common Sense," which appeared in January,
1776.
Pages:
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100