Thomas Paine's Arguments To The Continental Congress

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Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", Published in January 1776, added controversy to the clamor in American for complete independence. Just a couple months after its issue, the provincial congress of North Carolina allowed its delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence, making it the first colony to grab the crucial step. Still, on May 10, The Continental Congress had adopted a resolution introduced by John Adams of Massachusetts stressing the colonies to assemble their own governments independence of the royal governors. The preamble to the resolution, which called for the full local exercise of government and the suppression of all royal authority, caused much heated debate, especially in the delegates in the middle colonies. Despite the Middle colonies goals, however congress passed the resolution after a mere five days of debate. …show more content…
In addition, they told their delegates to propose that Congress draft a declaration of independence. Congress got the Virginia resolution along with the earlier one from North Carolina on May 27 but tabled them for ten days while the delegates argued other opinions. Virginian Richard Henry Lee took advantage of the pause to dumb down the wording of his colony's resolution. On June 7, 1776 he resent it to the Continental Congress as the following three propositions:
"That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
"That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign