(4)+Where,+and+in+what+ways,+did+these+points+appear+in+Brown's+Edgar+Huntly?

= Principles of //Common Sense// expressed in //Edgar Huntly// =

=Common Sense was written to persuade American citizens that their ruler, Britain, was no longer neccessary for their own survival. It expressed the ideas that the colonies should rebel and overthrow their mother country for the development of their own country. Edgar Huntly was written to inspire a sense of pride and nationalism in Americans. Edgar Huntly's main effect was incouragement of the exploration of the Western wilderness and prosperiety of American citizenship. Both are early American texts that were written to represent American ideals and desires. Common Sense was published in 1776 by thomas Paine and Edgar Huntly was written in August 1799 by Charles Brockden Brown. They show some of the greatest achievements of the American government and culture.= = = = Inheritance =

="But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens a door to the //foolish//, the //wicked//; and the //improper//, it hath in it the nature of oppression" (Common Sense).= ="His death would make way for the succession of his son, a man fraught with envy and malignity, who always testified a mortal hatred to us, merely because we enjoyed the protection of his father" (Edgar Huntly 126).=
 * Colonists despised the treasured value of succession by inheritance. It created a new gentry class that absorbed most of the benefits when the father of the family died. This made social conflicts and a rigid class structure that was not friendly to American ideals.
 * Common Sense criticizes the idea of selective inheritance.
 * It also shows the evils of the succession of a king by birth, rather than election.
 * Edgar shows these views as Huntly becomes concerned for his family's well being after hearing his supporting uncle has been killed.

= Aristocracy = ="Secondly — The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers" (Common Sense).= ="Deciet and violence were employed by her brother to bring his honour, his liberty, and even his life, into hazard. All these iniquities produced no inconsiderable effect on the mind of the lady" (Edgar Huntly 21).=


 * An aristocratical social class was despised by many Americans.
 * Over time Americans began to value the importance of the common man and a high class citizen was looked down upon.
 * Common Sense shows the dissatisfaction of Thomas Paine with the social classes in society.
 * Common Sense was successful in bringing the common man into the struggle for independence.
 * Edgar Huntly tells a story about Clithero. Clithero becomes a high class citizen after being born to a poor family. Although Americans praise social mobility, the upper class of Britain is not welcomed for many Americans.

= Monarchy = ="Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but//one//man might labor out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die" (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 **subject**. 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 inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind" (Common Sense)=

="On the first alarm, he summoned his neighbors, and led them in pursuit of the invaders" (Edgar Huntly 169).=


 * Americans hated being ruled by a monarch from a distant land that did not concern himself with the thought of the colonists.
 * Hereditary Successionfor the king was believed to be foolish and a poor form of government.
 * Common Sense expresses the belief that Americans did not require such a leader to properly function and establish a government.
 * Edgar Huntly provides an example of how Americans have been able to ban together and support one another to create a working community and government.

=The greatest accomplishment of Common Sense was the involvement of the common man in the politics of the new unraveling country. Edgar Huntly succeeded in presenting the successes of the new American government and inspiring nationalism as an early work of literature.=