Common Sense. By Thomas Paine. Edited with an Introduction by Isaac Kramnic. (New York: Penguin Books, 1986).
	Recently, I acquired a copy of Thomas Paine’s most recent patriotic pamphlet, entitled Common Sense. I was immediately interested in what Paine had to say in his new work, after such powerful previous works, such as The Crisis series. I was nothing less than astonished at how Paine so powerfully conveyed his patriotic message. Paine theorizes a split between England and the colonial states. At the same time as a split is theorized, it would form a union of the colonial states into one country, united into one body on our American principles, no longer under the rule of the British Parliament and its ridiculous taxes and misrepresentation. Paine delivers one of the most compelling arguments I have heard on why there should be a division between the English and the Americans.
	The British Parliament has long been a bane to the colonists in the New World, with the passage of all their "acts" to tax us simply because we are more productive. Paine makes his contempt for the current system of government quite clear early on. "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; for even we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." (65) Paine clearly believes that the English government falls into the "intolerable" category of governments. Although a system of government is a required entity in almost any society, there are much better ways to govern a people besides the British monarchal system. Paine discusses how the Parliament is set up as a representation of the people, but what good is representation in a monarchy? The monarch still has absolute power, even though a system is set up to make it appear as though the people have a say. This lack of true representation instills a lack of trust towards the king in the British subjects. These factors create doubt in one’s mind about the strength of the British government. Paine questions the government saying:
"How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to trust, ...
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...umstances, a separation between England and America is crucial to the survival of America. The only factor that must be decided is when such a separation should occur. If we look to Paine’s advice, he states: "As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their opinion of the time, let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things and endeavour if possible, to find out the very time. But we need not go far, the inquiry ceases at once, for the time hath found us." (100) Paine calls for an immediate separation from the British. As an independent nation, America could be free of England’s tyrannical government, and its absurd monarchy. No longer would we have to suffer the injustices of the British Parliament and their ridiculous taxes. We already have to protect ourselves as a nation, without British support, unless of course the English have some interest in the matter. Why not defend our selves as an independent nation? There is no possibility of reparations at this point in time. However, this is the key time to make our stand. If we ever have a desire to become free men, men of our own will and control, we must act now, and declare our independence.
Thomas Paine’s objective in “The American Crisis” is to persuade Americans to untie and take action in ridding America of British control; his writings effectiveness is due primarily to his employment of religious diction, vivid imagery, a sentimental anecdote, an urgent tone, as well as his consistent exploitation of his audiences’ emotions.
His purpose was to ramp up the colonist to break away from Britain. Even in his intro he has already started to express the need to stop these issue, “As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.” Paine's attack on monarchy in Common Sense is essentially an attack on George
Thomas Paine’s Common sense from III Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs is about the conflict between New England and America. The Americans didn’t like the way the British treated them so Paine’s stated his issue why America has to be an independent country to save its government and the reasons to wanted having freedom with Britain. Pain gave reason in the text what would happen to the American government if they stayed dependent from England. Paine’s Common Sense spoke out his beliefs about the hardships in America and how he felt America. A quote by Thomas Paine, “The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of government which sooner or later must have an end: and a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction that what he calls ‘the present constitution’ is merely
Paine dwells on the differences between government and society. He stresses greatly on the fact that a government should be able to protect its society. Giving life and liberty to its people. He also points out that, Britain is the main cause of enemy to the Americas. Expressing disagreement with the British in American, he criticized the British government. He believes that the monarchy has too much power and their system is unreasonable. Paine complicates matters further when he writes, that the Americans are not British anymore. It is not British in a sense that it is so diverse, with different types of Europeans. In Paine’s views Britain is not a mother country, since it imposes harsh treatments and is in a war too often. The idea of best interest was important to Paine. In his views, Britain sees the Americas as profitable institutions to control and gains riches from, as opposed to the development and freedom of the nations. Independence from Britain was one of many ideas of this pamphlet. “Common Sense”, essentially pointed out the reasons why the colonies should leave the British and form a new government. His views on government inspired “Limited government” and “natural laws”, which gives citizens more control on how they shape their local environment and
“Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavored to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to defend us.” Such words scribed by the Revolutionary radical Thomas Paine epitomized the drive behind the American Revolution of the 18th century. For nearly two hundred years, the citizens of the American Colonies had been fastened securely to the wrist of the mother country, England. They had tolerated the tyrannous rule, but not without the simmer of rebellious thoughts. As England piled tax after tax onto their colonies, thoughts of revolution and revolt sprung up in the minds of the colonists and brewed there, waiting for a catalyst to drive them into action. The catalyst ignited on January 10th, 1776 when Thomas Paine published his fiery pamphlet ‘Common Sense’. The 48-page pamphlet presented before the colonists a vision for independence that had never been conceived before. It radically altered the course of the Revolution and would later find itself molding the foundation of America’s government indefinitely.
Thomas Paine, in the pamphlet Common Sense, succeeded in convincing the indifferent portion of colonial society that America should secede from Britain through moral and religious, economic, and governmental arguments. Using strong evidence, targeting each separate group of people, Thomas Paine served not only to sway the public 's opinion on American independence, but also to mobilize the effort to achieve this ultimatum.
The distance between the colonies and England is what led to most of the political strife in 1776. Paine argued that having a government so far away trying to rule from was deplorable. He urged colonists to be outraged, as he was, that when any issue would arise it would take 3-4 months for the English government to find a solution and start working on fixing the problem. Paine called for independence to create a government that would be run by the people and for the people, not by one single tyrannical leader. He rallied for a government that was in America and that had representatives from every one of the colonies so that all the colonist’s voices would be heard. Paine urged the colonists to see “Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and hath tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in Kings more than repeated petitioning”, and it was now time to fight for independence to create a government that would listen (Paine, Common Sense,
The document “The American Crisis” focuses mainly on the crises that America would face during the time of revolutionary war. Thomas Paine, in this article urged people to unite and to fight against Britain. He encouraged and inspires the colonialist’s soldiers to strive for independence from “tyrant and evil” colonial kings and its government. He believed wholeheartedly in the American Revolutionary cause but oppose violent practices.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson appeals to patriotism. Jefferson ensures this by persuading the colonists to become self-governing. He tries to let all of the people of the New World understand that they have protested and defended themselves against the British for all of the corrupt acts the British have committed upon the colonists. Jefferson’s tone in the Declaration of Independence portrays how tiresome he has grown of the British rule after all of the deception towards Americans. Included within the idea of patriotism, is the idea of loyalty to the fundamental values and principles underlying American democracy. Thomas Paine also provides patriotism to get advocates for the movement to separate from the British forces. Correspondingly, Paine persuades Americans that they will prosper in numerous areas without the control of the British saying, “Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question is an independent, for independency means no more, than, whether we shall make our own laws…” (Paine). Paine uses a demanding tone to convince Americans that if they should accept the ties with Britain, it will bring ruin and distress to the
Paine had not entertained the idea of independence from Britain when he arrived in America. He thought it was “a kind of treason” to break away from Britain. It was not until the Battle of Lexington in 1775 that he considered “the compact between Britain and America to be broken” (Claeys). This idea of a broken compact allowed Thomas Paine to write a political pamphlet.
Throughout Common Sense, Paine advocated for a republic that was built on equality and property. Thomas Paine was a British colonist who believed it was time to truly be independent from Britain, in his writing Common Sense he spoke bluntly and plainly to win over more colonists for freedom. He takes no time to say that his beliefs are logic and reason based. He begins chapter 3 by writing, ‘In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession.” Paine tells his audience that there is no hidden agenda in what they are about and they can make their decision through their own common sense.
Paine questioned British parliament and monarchy and also shared that “of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of god than all crowned ruffians that ever lived” (Paine, 1776). Colonies where under the rule of one king where liberty and honesty were very unlikely. When Paine wrote Common sense, he gave
Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Common Sense (January 3, 2009): 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed February 27, 2011).
Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Electronic Library of Primary Sources: The Americans. CD-ROM. McDougal Littell. Evanston, IL: 1999.
Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Shi, David and Mayer, Holly. For the Record. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013.