"Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it wou

"Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better."

—Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776

Which of the following best rewrites the sentence above?

The independence of the continent was declared too soon. I won't argue that we delayed too long. My own simple opinion is that it would have been much better if this had not happened eight months ago.

I don't want to argue. My own simple opinion is that it would have been much better to delay too long. To declare the independence of the continent eight months earlier was too soon.

I will not argue that we waited too long to declare the independence of the continent. My own simple opinion is that it is much better this way. Eight months earlier would have been too soon.

I won't argue about whether we declared the independence of the continent too soon or delayed too long. My own simple opinion is that it would have been much better if we had declared it eight months earlier.