…As to government matters, it is not in the power

of Britain to do this continent justice: the business

of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be

managed with any tolerable degree of convenience,

by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant

of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot

govern us. To be always running three or four

thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting

four or five months for an answer, which, when

obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in,

will in a few years be looked upon as folly and

childishness. There was a time when it was proper,

and there is a proper time for it to cease.…

— Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776



What is the main argument Thomas Paine makes

concerning the relationship between Great

Britain and its American colonies?

(1) Britain wants to make America a part of the

European continental system.

(2) America is too distant for Great Britain to

govern effectively.

(3) America lacks representation in Parliament.

(4) American colonial leaders believe British

officials want to use them to fight European

wars.