In January 1776, some six months before the Declaration of Independence, a British expatriate
named Thomas Paine rallied the not-yet-united 13 Colonies toward revolutionary separation from
Britain with his legendary pamphlet entitled COMMON SENSE.

The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth ... The cause of America is, in a great
measure, the cause of all mankind ...No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than
myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775 (Massacre at Lexington) ... I challenge the
warmest advocate for reconciliation, to show a single advantage that this continent can
reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage
is derived ... Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence ... 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 ... The nearer any government approaches to a republic,
the less business there is for a king ... there is something very absurd, in supposing a
continent to be perpetually governed by an island ... in America the law is king.

Now, for the first time ever, you can own Tom Paine’s clearly-readable 15,134-word challenge
to British royal authority depicted on an artistic rendition of a famous early-American flag - the
battle-ready DON’T TREAD ON ME first Navy Jack. Note the (modern) outline of the first 13
States, in order of joining the Union, on the body of the rattlesnake as well as on the 13 rattles.

Only $65 + $4.50 shipping.

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