Read the quotation from The Crisis, Number IV . “It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.” Which phrase best describes the “cause” that Paine refers to?

Paine contrasts defending a “cause” with defending a small area of land. In the context of the American Revolution, that cause was independence and freedom from British rule, which Paine viewed as oppressive. So the phrase that best describes it is “freedom from an oppressive government.”

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