ng the revolutionaries, and they defined the war in different terms. John and Sam Adams and Benjamin Franklin saw the battle as a war for independence. Others wanted to stay within the British empire, and they saw the war as a chance to force Parliament to admit the justice of colonial claims and to redress a long list of grievances. It was estimated that only about one-third of those who were assembled in Philadelphia at the Congress in 1775 and 1776 were in favor of independence. Kramnick notes: "The publication of Paine's Common Sense could not have been better timed" (p. 8).
Kramnick says that this was because the delegates were confused and ambivalent. They had strong ties to England, and yet they suddenly found themselves at war with that country. Paine was also an Englishman, but he had no doubts about what was right in this instance: "Boldly he announced that America's purpose in these battles was to achi
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