Maggie Buckner
Dobson
HIS 131
1 October, 2017
Thomas Paine “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in it’s best state, is a necessary evil; in it’s worst state an intolerable one” (Paine). It’s amazing how timeless some quotes are. However, Thomas Paine is the focus of this paper, not our system of government.
Thomas Paine, born in the year 1737, in the city of Thetford, England, to a Quaker father, and an Anglican mother. HE received little formal education, although he did learn to read and write, as well as perform arithmetic. HE began working with his father as a stay maker at the age of thirteen. He would later go on to work as an officer of the excise. Where he would hunt smugglers, and collect liquor and tobacco
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A very early article of his was a criticism of slavery in America, which he published under the name, “Justice and Humanity.” Paine had arrived in America at a good time to promote his ideas and thoughts of revolution and injustice, as the conflicts between the colonies and England had reached a peak.
Five months after Paine’s arrival the battles of Lexington and Concord occurred, which precipitated his most famous work, “Common Sense”, which would be published in January of 1776, only one year after he began publishing articles. “Common Sense,” printed on January 10, 1776, was a fifty page pamphlet, that expanded upon the ideas that Americans shouldn’t just revolt against taxation, but should declare independence from Great Britain entirely.
During the war, Paine served as a volunteer personal assistant to General Nathaniel Greene, who traveled with the Continental army. While Paine wasn’t a natural soldier, he did inspire the troops with his sixteen “Crisis Papers,” which were all written between the years of 1776 and 1783. The first paper, “The American Crisis 1,” which was published on December 19, 1776, began, “These are the times that try men’s
Paine's diction and the imagery, portraying the time he spent in the army provided in his pamphlet, The American Crisis, only ...
It was the right time for independence, but the question of if they were actually going to do it arose. This is where Thomas Paine and his pamphlet Common Sense comes into the picture. Paine was from England and came to America in 1774. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, where he found Paine a job in Philadelphia. It is in Philadelphia where Paine wrote Common Sense after he met delegates from the Second Continental Congress.
To reinforce, while Adams is interested in building America’s government, Paine is still trying delegitimizing all government and bringing about Lockean natural law. Which during the revolution was necessary but is also the key reason for his almost exile to France during the drawing up of the American constitution.
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.
With his many writing he wrote, The Age of Reason, The American Crisis, and Common Sense. Common Sense was one of Paine's most popular and influential pieces that brought together his ideas to the public to show that their independence from the British was essential. It was written in a forceful style to show the issue to strive for complete independence for the Colonies. The piece sold more than 100,000 copies, and it helped pave the way for the Declaration of Independence. Further on during the Revolution, Paine wrote The American Crisis. It argued for American independence and revolution, and antagonized any course of actions with Britain. Paine had changed the view of what independence meant. He was able to associate his beliefs and ideas of freedom that grasped everyone in the colonies. Paine’s Crisis encouraged and helped finish the
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman” (Paine). With these words Thomas Paine’s inspiring, but inflated rhetoric helped to transform a dispute about taxes into a struggle for the soul of man. This kind of language united the feuding colonies around a principle greater than their own economic interests.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was a powerful and successful propaganda weapon used to promote his idea of independence from Britain. In order to prove that seeking independence was necessary at this time in history, Paine wrote about the relationship between society and government, his opinions about the British monarchy and the King, and the freedoms he believed had been stolen from the colonists. Common Sense was written in terms that were easily relatable to the colonist of this time period. After they finished reading his work, many colonists’ opinions about the British were swayed by his strong words. Even though Paine arrived in America quite late, he was able to make a significant difference by changing the colonists’ views, which ultimately
Therefore, Paine’s message holds true in today’s America, because “cordial unison” can only be accomplished with a government whose only purpose is to maintain the natural rights of each citizen and protect the individual from cruelty, rather than enacting such a cruelty upon the
“Common Sense” is a remarkable piece of literature written by Thomas Paine, published in 1776. It was a call for America to free itself from the British rule. Paine’s writing was used to talk about political as well as moral arguments to convince all of the citizens of the thirteen colonies to push for equal government. This book encourages others to support the revolution.
Paine introduced his main claim by comparing the differences between society and government within “Common Sense” (CS). “Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinction. The first is a patron, the last a punisher” (Pain 4-5). Using juxtaposition, Paine is able to portray the British government as a form of oppression while society or the American colonies as a virtuous foundation.
Thomas Paine constructs Common Sense as an editorial on the subject of the relationship between the Colonies and Great Britain. Through the paper, he hopes to educate his fellow Americans about this subject. In his introduction, he says he feels that there is 'a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong'; which 'gives it a superficial appearance of being right'; (693). He is alluding to the relationship, also calling it a 'violent abuse of power'; (693). This choice of words is similar to those of Jefferson, who asserts that the king had established an 'absolute tyranny'; over the states. Both men set an immediate understanding about their feelings towards the rule of Great Britain over the States. However, where Common Sense seems to be an opinionated essay, Thomas Jefferson writes somewhat of a call to battle. Paine generally seems to be alerting his readers to the fact that there is more going on than they are aware of. Jefferson, on the other hand, begins his declaration by stating, 'When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another'; (715). Unlike Paine, this seems to presuppose that readers are aware of the plight of the nation, and Jefferson is announcing that the time has come to take a stand.
Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine were the infrastructures are the Revolutionary movement against their father country, Great Britain. Patrick Henry was a Governor from Virginia, who became notorious for his presence as a persuasive orator in the Virginia House of Burgess. One of the most intricate works he utilized to get Congress on board for war spoke to the Convention on March 23, 1775, Speech to the Virginia Convention. He offered a proposition to the Convention as he saw them tilting towards a diplomatic approach but Henry saw that war was inevitable and they needed to bear down for the struggle. In contrast, Thomas Paine was blatant with his purpose for writing The Crisis, No. 1. Paine was a gun hoe political activist with a niche for radial pieces. His audience differed from Henry, who was appealing to Politicians and had to evoke the logical side to augment credibility amongst the Convention. Paine had to render the spirits of soldiers beaten and weary from the extended periods of war and brutal winter. Markedly, the soldiers endured bouts of depression provoked by a sense of defeat and loss of time with their families. Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine knew they had to conjure fighting spirits in the people, who have allowed domination by a country thousands of miles away. Henry and Paine had a proclivity to move people with graphic and thought-provoking works bursting with rhetoric and figurative language that awakened the souls of their diverse audiences to ignite the war for freedom.
He also uses enlightened thought to discredit the King’s god given right to be in rule. The Declaration of Independence came not long after and was greatly influenced by Paine’s Common Sense and enlightenment thinking. Because Paine’s Common Sense was written about why the colonists should break free from the British, it was basically a segue into the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence contains ideas of equality (“All men are created equal”), protecting natural rights (Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness), and getting rid of tyranny (breaking bonds with England), all of which were enlightenment ideas. These documents fueled the Republican fire even further and officially started the American Revolution against the
Common Sense was published by Thomas Paine in the January of 1776, the same year that the colonies declared independence from Great Britain. When Thomas Paine published this pamphlet, the colonies were still discussing whether to declare independence. Common Sense was written to try to convince those in favor of reconciliation with Great Britain that independence was the best and only decision. A major theme of Common Sense is the evils of tradition, and how tradition is holding back the colonies. Thomas Paine attacks each point of the opposition with a perfect answer and points out why the colonists are not acting in their best interests.
When times were hard and seemed hopeless, it only took one person to awaken the spirits of thousands of soldiers. Thomas Paine is known as a founding father of America. Paine wrote an essay called, "The Crisis", that was meant to persuade the revolutionary troops to push forward with the battle against the British. Off the banks of the Delaware River was where the troops were waiting hopelessly for their next battle. That was until on 1776, Christmas Eve, Paine had the officers read aloud his essay to boost their hopes. This gave the soldiers the inspiration to fight back with all they got. Thus, changing the course of history by causing the soldiers to win the Revolutionary War. Paine used ethical, emotional, authoritative, and logical appeals in his essay to convince the colonists to stand up against the British even when it was the hardest.