All 13 Uses of

succession

in

Common Sense

OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance; the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh, ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice.†
Chpt 2.

To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity.†
Chpt 2.

Because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool.†
Chpt 2.

Wherefore, hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter of claim, but as something casual or complemental; but as few or no records were extant in those days, and traditional history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale, conveniently timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of the vulgar.†
Chpt 2.

If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary succession.†
Chpt 2.

Saul was by lot, yet the succession was not hereditary, neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention it ever should be.†
Chpt 2.

…king of any country was by election, that likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say, that the RIGHT of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the first electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of scripture but the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in Adam; and from such comparison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary succession can derive no glory.†
Chpt 2.

For as in Adam all sinned, and as in the first electors all men obeyed; as in the one all mankind were subjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty; as our innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the last; and as both disable us from reassuming some former state and privilege, it unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels.†
Chpt 2.

But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind.†
Chpt 2. *

Another evil which attends hereditary succession is, that the throne is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age; all which time the regency, acting under the cover of a king, have every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust.†
Chpt 2.

The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favour of hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil wars; and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind.†
Chpt 2.

The contest for monarchy and succession, between the houses of York and Lancaster, laid England in a scene of blood for many years.†
Chpt 2.

In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes.†
Chpt 2.

Definition:

(succession as in: a succession of events)
series or sequence (one after another)