Page 153 - American Stories, A History of the United States

wrong. When the government oppressed the people, the royal counselors were blamed.
5.1 The crown was above suspicion. To this, Paine cried nonsense. Monarchs ruled by
force. George III was a “royal brute,” who by his arbitrary behavior had surrendered
his claim to the colonists’ obedience. All power came from the people. Common Sense
5.2 was a powerful democratic manifesto.
Paine’s greatest contribution to the revolutionary cause was persuading ordinary
folk to sever their ties with Britain. It was not reasonable, he argued, to regard England

5.3 as the mother country: “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.” No doubt that message impressed Pennsylvania’s
German population. The time had come for the colonists to form an independent
5.4
republic: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again . . . the birthday of a
new world is at hand.”
On July 2, 1776, after a long and tedious debate, Congress finally voted for inde-
pendence: 12 states for, none against (New York abstained). Thomas Jefferson, a
young Virginia planter who enjoyed a reputation as a graceful writer, drafted a formal
declaration that was accepted with alterations two days later. Much of the Declaration
of Independence consisted of a list of specific grievances against George III and his
government. Like a skilled lawyer, Jefferson presented the evidence for independence.
But the document did not become famous for those passages. Long after the estab-
lishment of the new republic, the Declaration challenged Americans to make good
Quick Check on the principle that “all men are created equal.” John Adams expressed the patriots’
Why do you think Thomas Paine’s fervor when he wrote on July 3, “Yesterday the greatest question was decided, which
Common Sense became an instant ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided
bestseller?
among men.”

Watch the Video The American Revolution As Different Americans Saw It

ConGREss VoTinG indEPEndEnCE Oil painting by Robert edge Pine and edward savage, 1785. the
committee congress appointed to draft a declaration of independence included (center, standing) john Adams,
Roger sherman, Robert Livingston, thomas jefferson, and (center foreground, seated) benjamin Franklin. the
committee members are shown submitting jefferson’s draft to the speaker.

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