Today is the 250th anniversary of the publishing of Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general Favor; a long Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. But the Tumult soon subsides. Time makes more Converts than Reason.”
That is how Thomas Paine begins the pamphlet which would fuel the revolutionary fervor and want for independence in the American colonies.
To begin, there must be a brief background on who Paine is:
Thomas Paine was born on February 9th, 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England to parents Joseph Pain, a former Quaker from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Elizabeth (Cocke) Pain, who was the daughter of an attorney in Thetford. Thomas Paine was educated at the Thetford Grammar School. After his education, he involved himself in various careers before immigrating to Philadelphia in 1774. After a tumultuous journey across the Atlantic, he would go on work for the Pennsylvania Magazine where he proved himself to be an ardent patriot. During the years of the revolutionary war, he published two influential pamphlets: Common Sense and the American Crisis. He would go on to be elected to the National Convention in France after the American revolution and narrowly escape being executed during the Reign of Terror for being a moderate. He would only return to America in 1802, with President Jefferson’s invitation. He’d pass away in 1809 at the age of 72. He would be remembered for a long time as a man who “did some good, and much harm” as the article from The American Citizen described him.
Now, to get onto Common Sense itself: Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet to convince the American colonists why freedom from Great Britain was imperative. He wrote directly, in such a way that made his arguments much more accessible to the average person. His goal was to shift public opinion in favor of independency from rather than reconciliation with Britain.
He lays out that government is a “necessary evil” by saying: “Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.” There was a necessity for a government of some kind but a government shouldn’t be the kind where a single man has the ultimate power. For that kind of ruler would have “little more to do than make war and to give away places.” Instead, Paine advocates for an egalitarian, republican government based on popular sovereignty. One which would guarantee individual freedoms.
After all, like Paine says in the pamphlet itself: “a government of our own is a natural right.”
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1776-paine-common-sense-pamphlet
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1776-paine-common-sense-pamphlet
https://study.com/academy/lesson/thomas-paine-common-sense-and-the-crisis.html
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/commonsense/themes/
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/common-sense
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cocke-227
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pain-72
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/thomas-paine