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Excerpted from Jane Hampton Cook’s devotional book: Stories of Faith & Courage from the Revolutionary War.
“My, is the constitution of England sickly,” Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense, which he first published the second week of January 1776. Using such radical statements, Paine unlocked the English constitution with the skill of a locksmith and the grace of a wordsmith. This recent English migrant to America believed that tradition had closed the doors on reason.
“The prejudice of Englishmen, in favor of their own government by king, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason,” Paine wrote. One of the keys to truly understanding the Revolutionary War is understanding the structure of the English government of the 1700s. Fleeing England in 1774, Paine had lived in the United States for two years.
In the second chapter of Common Sense, Paine explained the flaws of England’s three-door constitutional system. The first door was the king, who inherited his power. The second door included the members of the upper class and peers to the king who made up the House of Lords. The third door opened to the common men, who were elected to make law in the House of Commons.
“The two first [the king and House of Lords], by being hereditary, are independent of the people; wherefore in a constitutional sense they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the state,” stated Paine. To this young (and as yet anonymous) author, the monarchy was a ridiculous contradiction, a castle sealed against entry by those affected by its decisions.
“The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly,” he wrote. In Paine’s view, the moat surrounding the monarchy was a river muddied by absolute power. And although the House of Commons could check the power of the king through legislation, the king held the stronger position. His ability to veto and reign until death gave him absolute power.
“Though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the crown in possession of the key,” he pointed out. The English constitution created a three-legged stool in which one leg was stronger, taller and wider than the others, throwing liberty off balance. Such uneven pillars cannot support even the strongest of fortresses.
“Some writers have explained the English constitution thus; the king, say they, is one, the people another; the peers are a house in behalf of the king; the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself,” Thomas Paine wrote, proposing it was time to make some changes. The English constitution had pitted the House of Commons against the absolute rule of the king. And indeed, the sand had shifted under the castle housing the English constitution. The English government was sickly because it was divided against itself.
Prayer: Make me watchful today for fissures in my own home. Give me the wisdom to make any changes I need to bring unity to my family.
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