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.
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