Paine explains that this 1777 essay has four main goals: to expose the “folly” of Lord Howe’s “pretend authority,” to denigrate the “wickedness” of the British cause, to explain the logistical impossibility of the British conquering America, and to encourage Americans and “excite a cheerfulness for duty” (26). Paine attacks King George III and the monarchy, and he boldly claims that his position as a writer in the “Republic of Letters” has more claim to “universal empire” than the British monarchy (17).

Paine then addresses Lord Richard Howe and quotes his recent proclamation, which ordered Americans to stop their “treasonous” actions. Paine mocks him as “truly ridiculous” for issuing such a “laughable” edict to the American populace. Paine then dissects Lord Howe’s attempts at negotiations with the colonists’ representatives at a recent conference, lambasting Howe’s offer to pardon revolutionaries in exchange for an American surrender.

Paine condemns some pacifist American Quakers’ decision to not participate in the war, writing, “These men are continually harping on the great sin of our bearing arms, but the king of Britain may lay waste the world in blood and famine, and they, poor fallen souls, have nothing to say” (22).