Thomas Paine Quotes
These proceedings may at first seem strange and difficult, but like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable: and until an independence is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. R. Bell, 1776.
1st Earl of Chatham. The Continental Congress had endorsed and sent to England a set of resolutions from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, drawn up by Joseph Warren. Legislators forever since have admired the logic and presentation of the case for America. The King and the Prime Minister failed to heed Pitt’s view, and the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution followed.
This was the first official act of any state in declaring independence from England. On July 4th---almost 3 months later---Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. But North Carolina had taken the first official step.
Today, most Americans know little of Samuel Adams but see John Adams as a much larger and more important figure. But for the American Patriots fighting the Revolution, it was Sam Adams who made the most outstanding contributions to the political strategy and leadership.
This was much less a treaty of how the two nations would interact with each other, than a joint statement to the world of opposition to any nation interfering with the internal affairs of another country.
Mechanics was a general term for people who made things, or fixed things. Ramsay was the first major historian of the American Revolution.
During the American Revolution, conditions were very difficult for Washington’s soldiers who were ill armed, ill clothed, and ill fed while they were paid irregularly. At one point morale was so low that some of the soldiers revolted. Smyth observes that Washington and Congress disciplined the mutineers very mildly, especially when compared with the way the British would deal with such things. The British Governor Clinton tried to take advantage of the mutiny and the poor morale by announcing that all of Washington’s troops who wished could obtain amnesty and join the British forces where the pay and conditions were much better. Professor Smyth found it fascinating that none of the Americans would join the British and he credits it to the wise and mild discipline policies of Washington and Congress as well as the general perception of the justice of the American cause among the American troops.
Franklin was also an accomplished political cartoonist.
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".
