Common Sense Changed the World

            Both Thomas Paine and the book he wrote, Common Sense, had a tremendous impact on the United States of America and the course of the world forever afterwards. During a time of political and economic turmoil in the thirteen British colonies in America, Thomas Paine authored and published a pamphlet that unified the colonies in a common argument that transcended their petty political, cultural, and economic differences. Common Sense became the “nation’s first bestseller,” [1] which cultivated the seeds of American independence and helped to create the constitutional republic of the United States of America.

            The 77-page pamphlet that sold over 120,000 copies after only three months [2] rolled off a colonial press in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, just six months before the Declaration of Independence. In an age when most publications “were seldom distributed outside their area of origin,”[3] Common Sense had a far reaching distribution and influence thanks to the assistance of predominant patriots for American independence including Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, and Samuel Adams.[4] Thomas Paine’s propensity and flair to write on matters of liberty and attacking tyranny played out well in Common Sense and established a persuasive argument, would Americans chose independence or slavery?

            Thomas Paine used his masterful wisdom and pen to urge “the American people to form a government from scratch.”[5] Now was an extraordinary opportunity for an assembly of people to take charge of their government and establish a land of liberty unlike any other in human history. Common Sense was designed to awaken the populace to the reality of British rule and trace out “every evil in colonial society” as a result of it.[6] Colonial grievances were collected in his work, the argument posed, and a call to arms was raised. Thomas Paine illustrated that a line in the sand had already been drawn:

By referring the matter from argument to arms a new era for politics is struck—a new method of thinking has arisen. All plans, proposals, &c., prior to the 19th of April—i.e., the commencement of hostilities—are like the almanacks of the last year, which though proper then, are superseded and useless now. [7]

            Common Sense and the argument contained within it on the viability of independence helped to ease the minds of the colonials; it had changed their opinions on this issue and settled some of their fears, which Edmund Randolph commented on after its publication: “the public sentiment which a few weeks before had shuddered at the tremendous obstacles, with which independence was environed, overleaped every barrier.”[8] Murry Rothbard said that “Tom Paine had, at a single blow, become the voice of the American Revolution and the greatest single force in propelling it to completion and independence.”[9] Even John Adams admitted that because of Thomas Paine and the publication of Common Sense, “the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”[10]

            This pamphlet was crucial to the American debate on independence and discussion of liberty in 1776. Common Sense created such a remarkable stir of conversation on these subjects to the degree that it “elicited numerous responses in the newspapers and in pamphlet form.”[11] The minds of British subjects in America had changed and the Declaration of Independence was their collective voice and concluded answer to Thomas Paine’s question posed in Common Sense. For many, it was the influential work that caused them to cry out similar sentiments as Patrick Henry had declared on March 23, 1775: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”[12] The rest of the world felt the ripple effect from this debate and successful revolution. Thomas Paine’s work went on to be read in other parts of the world and also “inspired revolutionaries in Europe to seek similar transformations in their home countries.”[13] The publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense forever changed the course of the world. 

Bibliography

Frothingham, Richard. The Rise of the Republic of the United States. Boston: Little, Brown, and  Company, 1910.

Liell, Scott. 46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence. Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 2003.

Nash, David. "THE GAIN FROM PAINE." History Today 59, no. 6 (June 2009): 12-18.

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Edited by Larkin, Edward. New York: Broadview Press Ltd., 2004.

Smith, George Ford. “Thomas Paine, Liberty’s Hated Torchbearer.” Mises Institute, June 8, 2010. http://mises.org/library/thomas-paine-libertys-hated-torchbearer.

"Tom Paine's Myth." Wilson Quarterly 30, no. 3 (Summer2006 2006): 80.

Wendell, Barrett. Liberty, Union and Democracy: The National Ideals of America. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906.

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[1] "Tom Paine's Myth." Wilson Quarterly 30, no. 3 (Summer2006 2006): 80.

[2] Scott Liell, 46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence, (Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 2003), 16.

[3] “Tom Paine’s Myth,” Wilson Quarterly.

[4] Ibid.

[5] David Nash, "THE GAIN FROM PAINE," History Today 59, no. 6 (June 2009): 12-18.

[6] Liell, 46 Pages, 16.

[7] Richard Frothingham, The Rise of the Republic of the United States, (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1910), 473.

[8] Thomas Paine, Common Sense, edited by Edward Larkin, (New York: Broadview Press Ltd., 2004), 8.

[9] George Ford Smith, “Thomas Paine, Liberty’s Hated Torchbearer,” Mises Institute, June 8, 2010, http://mises.org/library/thomas-paine-libertys-hated-torchbearer.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Paine, Common Sense, 8.

[12] Barrett Wendell, Liberty, Union and Democracy: The National Ideals of America, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), 111.

[13] Paine, Common Sense, 8.