WORDS WRITTEN 249 YEARS AGO JUST AS RELEVANT TODAY:

"The American Crisis"

A series of Essays written by Thomas Paine to raise morale of the Continental Army.
This one was written right before the Battle of Trenton and passed out and read to the American Troops.

"...and a generous parent should have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion..."

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😍Reading about Thomas Paine is so interesting!

He immigrated to the colonies when he was 37 and was 39 when he wrote "The American Crisis".

https://en.wikipedia.org/w...

In summer of 1792, he answered ...sedition and libel charges thus: "If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb."

Many years later the writer and orator Robert G. Ingersoll wrote:

Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul.

This is his "death mask"😞