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  ...will your troubles thicken. What you now enjoy is only a respite from ruin; an invitation to destruction; something that will lead on to our deliverance at your expense. We know the cause which we are engaged in, and though a passionate fondness for it may make us grieve at every injury which threatens it, yet, when the moment of concern is over, the determination to duty returns. We are not moved by the gloomy smile of a worthless king, but by the ardent glow of generous patriotism. We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.   In such a case we are sure that we are right; and we leave to you the despairing reflection of being the tool of a miserable tyrant.
COMMON SENSE.
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 12, 1777.
THE CRISIS.
V.
TO GEN. SIR WILLIAM HOWE.
TO argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity...   Paine, Thomas

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Source: THOMAS PAINE, The Crisis, no. 4, September 11, 1777, final paragraph.The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Moncure D. Conway, vol. 1, p. 232 . · Excerpt from Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 1 (1774-1779): the American Crisis · This quote is tagged Freedom · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation · Help your friends discover QB

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