PAINE'S "RULE OF 'RIGHT"

THOMAS PAINE'S RULE OF 'RIGHT' Thomas Paine, that brilliantly eloquent, itinerant, English-American "Founding Father," who is now being accorded less historical stature, in the iconic American colonial pantheon of heroes by orthodox American historians, was the most poignant pamphleteer, of that fiercely fervent era bestriding the American Revolution, 1776-81. Paine, in addition to having written COMMON SENSE, THE CRISIS, and other patriotic works, Paine is also reputed by the more heterodox historians as being the first, anonymous, author of the original, slavery-condemning, "Declaration of Independence," whose draft authorship is now principally ascribed, after its condemnatory references to slavery were excised, to slave-owner, President Thomas Jefferson, chair of the Continental Congressional editing committee. Thomas Paine had also written, in 1780, his own "notes on the state of Virginia" before the more slavery justifying NOTES ON THE STATE VIRGINIA (Query XIV) in the later, better known, book by Thomas Jefferson in 1785, of that name. Thomas Jefferson's book, being one secretly printed, selectively circulated, when Thomas Jefferson still served as Secretary of State, in the nation's still formative stages, in 1785, has been reprinted and publicly released in many editions, since its early very occult release. Meanwhile, Thomas Paine's earlier version is now buried in his essay entitled "Public Good," that I am now reading, a few excerpts of which I have gladly shared below. Paine's purpose was to discuss the geography of "Virginia," itself dating back to its original charters, patents, grants, all of which were clearly ambiguous, in the context of a political feud over land. In so doing, he moves from plats to universal philosophy on "right," its definition, proof, and application to land boundaries in the new nation. Thomas Paine writes: "When we take into view the natural happiness and united interests of the states of America , and consider the important consequences to arise from a strict attention of each, and of all, to everything which is just, reasonable and honorable; or the evils that will follow from inattention to those principles; there cannot , and ought not, to remain a doubt, but that the governing rule of 'right' and mutual good must in all public cases finally preside.... "That difficulties and differences will arise in communities ought always to be looked for. The opposition of interests, real or supposed; the variety of judgments; the contrariety of temper; and, in short, the whole composition of man, in his individual capacity, is tinctured with a disposition to contend; but in his social capacity there is either a right which, being proved, terminates the dispute, or a reasonableness in the measure, where no direct right can be made out, which decides or compromises the matter. "As I shall have frequent occasion to mention the word 'right ', I wish to be clearly understood in my definition of it.... "A right, to be truly so, must be right in itself; yet many things have obtained the name of rights , which are originally founded in wrong. Of this kind are all rights by mere conquest , power or violence. In the cool moments of reflection we are obliged to allow, that the mode by which such right is obtained, is not the best suited to the spirit of universal justice which ought to preside equally over all mankind. There is something in the establishment of such a right that we wish to flip over as easily as possible, and say as little about as can be. But in the case of a 'right founded in right ' the mind is carried cheerfully into the subject, feels no compunction, suffers no distress, subjects its sensations to no violences, nor sees anything in its way which requires an artificial smoothing." P.254-256, "Public Good, December 30, 1780," THOMAS PAINE : COLLECTED WRITINGS (1955) [As an attorney and an ordained AME minister , I duly note Founding Father's Thomas Paine's reference to the rule of RIGHT, not the more customary, "rule of law," which may or may not be right ; and, which in the case of African Americans is very rarely right, whether applied in courts by judges, prosecutors, or jurors, or by cops on the streets; or elsewhere! Thomas Paine's use and definition of 'right' in his essay, "Public Good," is most eloquently and succinctly stated by Rev . Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his 1967 "Christmas Sermon," when he said: "means and ends cohere" if in the right.]