"Common Sense" by Thomas Paine

"There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the World, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless."

This excerpt explains that a citizen wasn't allowed to know about where their money goes and what is going on, but can do things that can be extremely positive or negative and requires thought. Also, the King follows his own special laws made just for him, but is required to know about everything that goes on across the Atlantic in the colonies.

"It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the Colonies have no relation to each other but through the Parent Country i.e. that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister Colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way of proving enmity (or enemyship, if I may so call it). France and Spain never more, nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but as our being the subjects of Great Britain. "

This excerpt is saying that each colony in America are only part of one nation through Great Britain, and because they are then British, they have to share the same enemies as Great Britain, even though they would never be enemies if the colonies were a separate nation from Engalnd.

"But, admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: and to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France."

This excerpt means that the colonists, even though they have Britsh blood, are not British in any other way because England is the colonies' enemy. Also, the first french king of England being French, along with half the citizens, does not mean that England is ruled by France and that the colonies should not be ruled by England.

http://www.sagehistory.net/revolution/topics/PaineCommonSense.html