Which statement best describes Thomas Paine's argument in this excerpt
from Common Sense?
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her
former connection with Great Britain that the same connection is necessary
towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing
can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert
that because a child has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or
that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next
twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for answer roundly, that
America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no
European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce, by which she
hath enriched herself, are the necessaries of life, and will always have a
market while eating is the custom of Europe.
A. He shows that while America earlier flourished because of Britain,
a it faces a bleak future if British rule continues.
•
B. He uses anecdotal evidence to imply that America faces a bleak
future if British rule continues.
• C. He refutes the idea that America depends on Britain, using the
opinion that America's trade has a secure future.
D. He implies
that America's connection to Britain had
from engaging in trade with European countries.
prevented it