…But where says some is the King of America? I’ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. In honor of Common Sense and its revolutionary call to action, the Jack Miller Center presents a body of resources examining the document and the political thought of Thomas Paine. As historian Scott Liell argues in Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence: “y including all of the colonists in the discussion that would determine their future, Common Sense became not just a critical step in the journey toward American independence but also an important artifact in the foundation of American democracy” (20). His words united elite and popular strands of revolt, welding the Congress and the street into a common purpose. His strident indignation reflected the anger that was rising in the American body politic. His writing was replete with the kind of popular and religious references they readily grasped and appreciated. Paine, despite his immigrant status, was on familiar terms with the popular classes in America and the taverns, workshops, and street corners they frequented. The message was powerful because it was written in relatively blunt language that colonists of different backgrounds could understand. In addition to the audacity and timeliness of its ideas, Common Sense compelled the American people because it resonated with their firm belief in liberty and determined opposition to injustice. Challenging the King’s paternal authority in the harshest terms, he mocked royal actions in America and declared that “even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their own families.” Finally, Paine detailed in the most graphic, compelling and recognizable terms the suffering that the colonies had endured, reminding his readers of the torment and trauma that British policy had inflicted upon them. Implicitly acknowledging the hold that tradition and deference had on the colonial mind, Paine also launched an assault on both the premises behind the British government and on the legitimacy of monarchy and hereditary power in general. Hard-nosed political logic demanded the creation of an American nation. That goal, he maintained, could only be achieved through unified action. Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence. Never before had a pamphlet been written in an inspiring style so accessible to the “common” folk of America.Ĭommon Sense made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it. Never before had a personally written work appealed to all classes of colonists. One hundred twenty thousand copies sold in the first three months in a nation of three million people, making Common Sense the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time. On January 10, 1776, an obscure immigrant published a small pamphlet that ignited independence in America and shifted the political landscape of the patriot movement from reform within the British imperial system to independence from it. Common Sense: Reasoning for Colonial Rebellion
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |