Common Sense | Page 5

rest, they will then
represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state
of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand
motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal
to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is
soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn
requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable
dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but ONE man might labour out
the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he
had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was
removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and
every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even
misfortune would be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet
either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in
which he might rather be said to perish than to die.
This necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly
arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessing of which, would

supersede, and render the obligations of law and government
unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as
nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen,
that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration,
which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax
in their duty and attachment to each other; and this remissness, will
point out the necessity, of establishing some form of government to
supply the defect of moral virtue.
Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the
branches of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on
public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have
the title only of REGULATIONS, and be enforced by no other penalty
than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man, by natural
right, will have a seat.
But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise,
and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it
too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first,
when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public
concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their
consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select
number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the
same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who
will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they
present. If the colony continues increasing, it will become necessary to
augment the number of the representatives, and that the interest of
every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to
divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper
number; and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an
interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the
propriety of having elections often; because as the ELECTED might by
that means return and mix again with the general body of the
ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured
by the prudent reflexion of not making a rod for themselves. And as
this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every
part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each

other, and on this (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the
STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE
GOVERNED.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode
rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world;
here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security.
And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived
by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our
understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is
right.
I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature,
which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the
less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered;
and with this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks on the so much
boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and
slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was
over run with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue.
But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of
producing what