Today in History: Thomas Paine's Common Sense is published

As many people who know me know I love history. Today in history a very important pamphlet was published. A pamphlet which helped open the door to revolution even wider. A pamphlet which helped bring the call for revolution to all the people. Common Sense was published today in 1776 by Thomas Paine. It was required reading in my college US history course which I still have a copy of it in my personal library. Paine is known for being a philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. He is one of the Founding Fathers and authored two influential pamphlets.  Who was Thomas Paine? What was Common Sense and why is it historically significant?

Thomas Paine was born February 9, 1737 (O.S. January 29, 1736) in Thetford, Norfolk, Great Britain. He migrated to the colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin. After the American Revolution, he lived in Paris for most of the 1790s and was deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote Rights of Man (1791), a pamphlet in defense of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on Edmund Burke, an Irish conservative writer, led to a trial and conviction in absentia in England in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel. He became notorious for his pamphlet, The Age of Reason, which advocated deism, promoted reason and free thought. He argued against institutionalized religion in general and Christianity in particular. In 1802, he returned in the US, where he died on June 8, 1809 in Greenwich Village, New York. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity. After his death, Paine’s body was to be buried in New Rochelle as per his will. However, the Quakers would not allow him to be buried in their graveyard. His remains were buried under a walnut tree on his farm. In 1819, an English agricultural radical journalist, William Cobbett, dug up his bones and brought them back to England. However, it never happened, and they remained in Cobbett’s possession until his death in 1835 and the bones were later lost. No one knows for sure what happened to his bones, but various people have claimed to have all or some of his remains.

Common Sense helped crystallized sentiment for the fight for independence. It was published anonymously “by an Englishman” and was an immediate success. One hundred thousand copies were sold in three months and during the war, it would sell 500,000 copies. The pamphlet would attack the monarchy, essentially King George III. Originally the colonial resentments originally directed primarily against the king’s ministers and Parliament. Paine would make the claim that the king was solely responsible and while not expressing any original ideas, Common Sense employs rhetoric as mean to arouse resentment of the Crown. For example, he argued “That the King it not to be trusted without being looked after; or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy.” The pamphlet has two main points: 1) independence from England and 2) the creation of a democratic republic. He used two ideas in his arguments. First, Scottish Common Sense Realism which states that man has the innate ability to perceive common ideas and this process is inherent with judgment. Pain used this to argue that ordinary people can make sound judgments on major political issues. Second, Continental Enlightenment which states that common sense could refute the claims of traditional institutions like the monarchy.

Common Sense is historically significant as it was used as a weapon to delegitimize the monarchy and overturn the prevailing conventional wisdom. He also used a writing style to take complex ideas and make them understandable for the average reader of the day. He wrote in the language of the people, quoting the Bible to further his arguments. Even though he was not religious, Paine knew his readers were. For example, he references Judges 6 when Gideon led the Israelites against the oppressive Midianites. The pamphlet was a catalyst for the colonist to declare war as the Declaration of Independence would be signed six months later and many of the pamphlet’s senitments would be the basis of many premises in it. For example, Paine would also state that government at its best is a necessary evil and at its worst was intolerable. The Declaration of Independence would state “Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Paine would argue that community was dependent on both the strength of the government and the happiness of the governed. Common Sense, among other philosophical thoughts of the day, highly influenced the Declaration of Independence.

In conclusion, today we celebrate the 243-year-old pamphlet which brought the argument for revolution to the masses. Thomas Paine was able to take an argument for revolution and present it in a way that the common man could understand it. And understand it they did. Common Sense helped give one of the final pushes to revolution. It gained popularity during the war and has remained an important document in our country’s history. If you haven’t read it, I recommend that you do. You can find the full text free on the internet. It is a quick read and well worth it.