Humanity and Monarchy in Common Sense, Thomas Paine

Paine wrote in his book Common Sense:

"But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind. . .

To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent degree of honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other public honors than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honors could have no power to give away the right of posterity, and though they might say "We choose you for our head," they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say "that your children and your children's children shall reign over ours for ever." Because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most wise men, in their private sentiments, have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which when once established is not easily removed; many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder of the rest."

Monarchy, he says, is "evil" and "unnatural".  Monarchies are the results of countless conquers, and for all men are created equally, "no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever...". Hereditary succession, he says, is also wrong. For one, all men are created equally under the power of The Creator, and for two, the conquer itself may be capable of leading, but for the results of hereditary succession, his succeeding sons may not.

Paine deeply disapproves the distinction of men into King and Subjects, and writes, "how a race of men... is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind...". Unlike the fact that "male and female are the distinctions of nature" or "good and bad the distinction of heaven", "Subject and King" is the distinction of men, and Paine surely does not approve that. As he states, it is "evil" and "unnatural".

The Common Sense is a book of motivations for independence written by renowned writer Thomas Paine. Truly recommended.