Of the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflexions
Panting by William Nowland Van Powell of USS Fly and USS Mosquito, 1776. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Continued from “Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs”.
Thomas Paine wrapped up his landmark pamphlet, “Common Sense,” by asserting that America could, and should, raise a navy to rival Great Britain’s quickly and as soon as possible.
They had the materials in great supply, as it was their chief export. They had need of protection; if not from the British Navy themselves, then from pirates in the navy’s absence. Not only that, but in Paine’s estimation, they could build one for much cheaper than the British had, and it would be worth more once it was completed than what it cost to build.
Paine also supported the idea of combining merchant ships with navy ships, paying the shipowners to carry and man cannons along with their cargo. This would be cheaper than creating an entire fleet while still keeping their shipping lanes safe.
Paine’s most popular point in this chapter, however, had to do with foreign relations.
He pointed out that America could expect no aid or investment from other countries of Europe as long as they were simply rebellious Englishmen, and not revolutionary Americans. Other countries would never invest in colonies who intended to return to the subjugation of their empire. If they intended to form their own government, however, with which those countries could sign treaties and trade agreements, then other European countries had a reason to be interested in America’s future.
Foreign diplomats wouldn’t mediate a dispute between subjects of the same country either, but they might be expected to help mediate a dispute between two different nations.
William Smith, 1727-1803. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
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But not everyone loved “Common Sense.” Under the often-used pseudonym ‘Cato,’ Provost of the College of Pennsylvania William Smith denounced the work as ‘nonsense’ rather than common sense. He built several bad-faith arguments against Paine’s ideas, trying to stir the prejudices and fears of American colonists.
He ridiculed the idea of other European countries helping America come to peaceable terms with Great Britain, seeming to miss the point of independence altogether.
“Surely peace with Great Britain cannot be the object of this writer, after the horrible character he has given us of the people of that country, and telling us that reconciliation with them would be ruin,” he wrote in the New-York Gazette in April 1776.
Smith suggests that any peace where America becomes anything other than a colony of Britain somehow disqualifies it as peace.
“...these mediators are not to interfere for making up the quarrel, but to widen it, by supporting us in a declaration that we are not subjects of Great Britain. A new sort of business, truly, for mediators!”
History has proven Smith wrong on this point, as England and America have shared a strong alliance since the revolution.
Smith submits that appealing to other European countries is simply an invitation for them to take the place of Britain as colonizers.
“Is their guardianship to be joint or separate? Under whose wing is Pennsylvania to fall—that of the most Catholick [sic], or most Christian King?” he wrote.
But once again, he failed to anticipate the future ahead of him. While Spain and France continued to hold colonies, they did not even attempt to take control of America after the revolution. France and the early United States were especially friendly, in fact, sharing a naval alliance and strong diplomatic ties.
Smith’s last two paragraphs are most telling, and I’ll share them with you in full.
In short, I am not able, with all the pains I have taken, to understand what is meant by a Declaration of Independence; unless it is to be drawn up in the form of a solemn abjuration of Great Britain, as a nation with which we can never more be connected. And this seems the doctrine of the author of Common Sense. But I believe he has made but few converts to this part of his scheme; for who knows to what vicissitudes of fortune we may yet be subjected? …
We have long flourished under our Charter Government. What may be the consequences of another form we cannot pronounce with certainty; but this we know, that it is a road we have not travelled, and may be worse than it is described.
Smith shows his lack of understanding, lack of vision, and lack of courage all at once in these sentences.
Not only can he not support, he cannot even understand Independence from Britain, with an absence of one empire simply being replaced immediately by Spain or France, never by an independent American state.
Smith suggests that America stay on the path they already knew, despite Paine’s excoriation of that point in the very work that Smith was commenting on.
And finally, he proposes that, despite its wild popularity, few ‘converts’ support the idea of independence.
However, “Common Sense” was hugely influential in turning American colonists into American revolutionaries. George Washington himself, then the general of the Continental Armies, commented on it in a letter to one of his lieutenants.
“I find Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of men,” Washington wrote.
Newspapers ran excerpts and summaries of the work, and it sold out three editions in its first month of publication.
Perhaps, due to his demeanor, nobody would lend Smith their copy.
The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776 celebrates the important victory by General George Washington at the Battle of Trenton. In the center of the painting, Washington is focused on the needs of the mortally wounded Hessian Colonel Johann Rall. On the left, the severely wounded Lieutenant James Monroe is helped by Dr. John Riker. On the right is Major General Nathanael Greene on horseback. By John Trumbull (1756-1843). Image via Wikimedia Commons.
