in a speech as
a member of the Continental Congress. The author of 'Plain Truth,' one
of the _many replies_ to Common Sense, thought that 'volumes were
insufficient to describe the horror, misery, and desolation awaiting the
people at large in the siren form of American independence.' Dr. William
Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, said, in his 'Cato's
Letters,' published in March, 1776: 'Nor have many weeks yet elapsed
since the first open proposition for independence was published to the
world; it certainly has no countenance from congress, and is only the
idol of those who wish to subvert all order among us, and rise on the
ruins of their country.'"--Art. Thomas Paine, New Am. Cyc.

This was the first effort in America toward revolution. It was a bold
hand, moved by a daring heart, that wrote Common Sense. In style and
language, in argument and sentiment, in spirit and character, it is the
finest political document ever produced in the English language. The
object for which Junius and Common Sense were written I have shown to be
the same, namely: _revolution_, and that the base of operation has only
been changed. It is still an attack upon king, lords, and commons, and a
defense of the people. I now go to show that Common Sense is a concise
reproduction of Junius, in sentiment, style, and method of
argumentation. But I will first call to the reader's mind a sentence
from Junius in answer to the assertion of Dr. Smith just quoted, that
Common Sense was "the first open proposition for independence." On the
contrary, the first open statement of Junius in regard to the colonies,
addressed to the king six years before this, is as follows: "_Looking
forward to independence_, they might possibly receive you for their
king; but, if you ever retire to America, be assured they will give you
such a covenant to digest as the presbytery of Scotland would have been
ashamed to offer to Charles the Second. They left their native land in
search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a
thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which they
all agree--they equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the
supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop."

I have now only to remark: when Thomas Paine came to America, at least
when he wrote Common Sense, he understood the American people and what
they wanted better than they did themselves; _and so did Junius_.

I now bring Common Sense and Juni