Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thomas Paine's political declaration in his tract Common Sense struck a chord with the Americans of his time. The book was so popular that it went through fifty-six editions in the first year. The book was published anonymously in 1776, and the sentiments expressed in this work by Paine helped direct the energies of the rebels and point the way to American independence from England. What Paine did in this small book was to enunciate important principles of individual human rights and the specific right of the people to challenge unjust laws and an unjust government. If this message found a willing audience, it was because the people of the Americas were ready to hear this message rather than because the message itself broke through some reserve or presented something totally new. What Paine did was to gather together many of the intellectual currents of his time, specifically those describing the importance of and effects of natural law and its consequences for government and the relationship of the people to their government. He also presented these ideas in a way that appealed to the self-interest of the people of the Americas and that thus helped them decide what action they should take to implement these ideas in order better to provide for their economic future.

Thomas Paine was born in Thertford, Norfolk in 1737. He was the son of a Quaker farmer. He had an adventurous career on both sides of the Atlantic. He arrived in America in 1774 and became a pamphlete

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ety from itself and the forces it unleashes. Rather than merely discussing the concepts behind natural law and the derivation of the idea of government, Paine illustrates the issue with a concrete example. He asks that the reader envision "a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought" (Paine 66). Government then develops as a matter of necessity in order to achieve some security--notably economic security--for all: Thus necessity. . . would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which, would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other. . . (Paine 66). Of course, they will not remain perfectly just to one another, leading to the necessity of the formation of a government "to supply the defect of moral virtue" (Paine 66). Paine carries his argument from the imagined to the real as he turns to the issue of the British constitution, a document he sees as so complex that problems are bound to ensue. He tra

Category: History - T