The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• Prefatory Note to Paine’s First Essay.
• I.: African Slavery In America.
• II.: A Dialogue Between General Wolfe and General Gage In a Wood Near Boston.1
• III.: The Magazine In America.1
• IV.: Useful and Entertaining Hints.1
• V.: New Anecdotes of Alexander the Great.1
• VI.: Reflections On the Life and Death of Lord Clive.1
• VII.: Cupid and Hymen.1
• VIII.: Duelling.1
• IX.: Reflections On Titles.1
• X.: The Dream Interpreted.1
• XI.: Reflections On Unhappy Marriages.1
• XII.: Thoughts On Defensive War.1
• XIII.: An Occasional Letter On the Female Sex.1
• XIV.: A Serious Thought.1
• XV.: Common Sense.1
• Introduction.
• Postscript to Preface In the Third Edition.
• Common Sense. On the Origin and Design of Government In Gen- Eral, With Concise Remarks On the English Constitution.
• Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession.
• Thoughts On the Present State of American Affairs.
• Of the Present Ability of America: With Some Miscellaneous Reflections.
• Appendix to Common Sense.
• XVI.: Epistle to Quakers.
• XVII.: The Forester’s Letters.1
• I: To Cato.
• II.: To Cato.
• III.: To Cato.
• To the People.
• IV.
• XVIII.: A Dialogue1
• XIX.: The American Crisis.
• Editor’s Preface.
• The Crisis.: I.
• II.: To Lord Howe.2
• The Crisis.1: III.
• The Crisis.: IV.
• V.: To Gen. Sir William Howe.1
• To the Inhabitants of America.
• VI.: To the Earl of Carlisle, General Clinton, and William Eden, Esq., British Commissioners At New York.1
• VII.: To the People of England.
• VIII.: Addressed to the People of England.
• The Crisis.: IX.
• The Crisis Extraordinary.: On the Subject of Taxation.
• X.: On the King of England’s Speech.1
• To the People of America.
• XI.: On the Present State of News.
• A Supernumerary Crisis.: to Sir Guy Carleton.1
• XII.: To the Earl of Shelburne.1
• XIII.: Thoughts On the Peace, and the Probable Advantages Thereof.
• A Supernumerary Crisis.: to the People of America.
• XX.: Retreat Across the Delaware.1
• XXI.: Letter to Franklin, In Paris.1
• XXII.: The Affair of Silas Deane.1to Silas Deane, Esq’re.
• XXIII.: To the Public On Mr. Deane’s Affair.1
• XXIV.: Messrs. Deane, Jay, and G

INTRODUCTION.

Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general Favor; a long Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. But the Tumult soon subsides. Time makes more Converts than Reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the Parliament in what he calls Theirs, and as the good People of this Country are grievously oppressed by the Combination, they have an undoubted privilege to enquire into the Pretensions of both, and equally to reject the Usurpation of either.

In the following Sheets, the Author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise and the worthy need not the triumph of a Pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is bestowed upon their conversions.

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, is

The Author.