Thoughts of the Present State of American Affairs

Payne asks men to look at the big picture –“enlarge his views beyond the present day”

“Arms as the last resource decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the King, and the Continent has accepted the challenge.” –The King decided that there would be a war for independence.

All arguments, compromises, etc. are now moot since “the commencement of hostilities.” The colonies have sustained numerous “material injuries” by being connected with and dependent on Great Britain. –What are these material injuries?

Many would say that America’s happiness depends on Great Britain. Payne responds, “America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her.” Payne acknowledges that Britain has protected America. Why, in his view, have they done so? What would happen to American international relations if they severed ties with Britain? Why were France and Spain ever enemies of America in the first place?

America has always been an asylum for “the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe.” They came to America, “not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster.” The same tyranny that drove people out of Europe is still pursuing their descendents in America.

It is selfish and disingenius to call Britain the motherland because, “not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province (Pennsylvania), are of English descent.” How else could England be the mother country if not for the ancestry of Americans?

If all Americans were of English descent, according to Payne, it still wouldn’t matter. He justifies this by pointing out that the King is of French descent. If ancestry determines which country rules which, the French should, by all rights, be ruling over England.

America has enough commerce that the rest of the civilized world will be interested in trading with her. America will secure peace and friendship from all of Europe, after independence, by offering abundant trade and commerce.

Submission to and dependence on Great Britain, “directly involve this Continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint.”

Natural Proof “The distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the one over the other was never the design of Heaven.” i.e. If God wanted England to rule America, he would have put them closer together.

Payne exhibits horror not to provoke revenge against Great Britain. He exhibits it to “awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinedly some fixed object.” What other stylistic devices could he have used in his writing? What other ones does he use?

The Result of Petitioning the King “Nothing flatters vanity, or confirms obstinacy in Kings more than repeated petitioning” “There is something relatively absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

King’s Negative Effect “The king’s negative here is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defense as possible, and in America he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.” What does this mean?

The King’s Ways The king uses violence and force to accomplish his goals in the short run. He uses craft and subtlety to accomplish, in the long run, what he can’t in the short term.

The Most Powerful Argument “The most powerful of all arguments, is that nothing but independence… can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars.” Knowing what you know now, was Thomas Payne right about this?