Common Sense was published in the thirteen colonies January 1776 anonymously. Few would have guessed that the author was Thomas Paine, a recent immigrant from England with a Quaker background. The treatise, articulately argued, was attributed to John Adams or Ben Franklin. Common Sense called for independence as well as a republican form of government. Paine’s logical chronology pointed out the “absurdity of monarchy” historically and Biblically. Selling over 150,000 copies, the pamphlet was read by one-fifth of the colonial population.
The Purpose of Government
Paine began with a discussion of government as a necessary evil. The best form of government, according to Paine, is that “with the least expense and greatest benefit.” That men should form governments for common security was inevitable. Paine recognized that Utopias were illusionary and that some members of society would resort to vice, “the defect of moral virtue.”
Paine concluded that the origin of government is “a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world…” But what form of government made the most sense? For Paine, the answer resided in the ideals of Republicanism, that as the “united colonies” grew, representative government based on constitutionalism would prevail.
“A House Divided Against Itself”
Paine used the “divided house” analogy to describe the English monarchy and the relationship with Parliament. At the one end, the King – George III, and the peers contended with the Commons. Although the Commons limited the King, the King also limited legislation passed by the Parliament.
Common Sense argued that monarchy is both unnatural and unscriptural. Paine devoted several paragraphs to the Old Testament, stating that monarchy was a device of the “Heathen.” Yet Israel clamored for a King, against the wishes of God. Paine cites the example of Gideon, who was offered kingship after his victory, but refused, reminding Israel that God was their King.
Using the examples of Switzerland and the Netherlands, Paine demonstrated that peace and security are more elusive under monarchical states than those without kings. He also examined the English kings, citing civil wars and poor leadership. “How impious is the title of sacred majesty applied to a worm who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust.”
Nature Cries, TIS TIME TO PART
Paine reminded the reader that growing commerce and prosperity would continue without the tie to England. This was not a call to civil war; it was a call to independence. The goals were not social or cultural, they were political. “Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation.”
Addressing the cries for reconciliation, Paine concluded that eventual separation was inevitable and for Americans to postpone action would place a burden on posterity. Independence must also be followed by the establishment of “a continental form of government” that “can keep the peace…and preserve it from civil wars.”
Under this new government, “THE LAW is ‘King’” rather than a monarchy under which the King is the Law. Eventually, the United States would craft the Constitution, which is still the supreme law of the land.
Impact of Common Sense
Common Sense presented a logical argument for separation and independence. These arguments swayed many Americans that had hitherto chosen a neutral stance. John Adams himself wrote, after the Revolution, that only one-third of all Americans were actively treasonous.
Common Sense also helped pave the way for the Declaration of Independence and the formation of a Continental Congress that would endeavor to create a representative government called the Articles of Confederation.
Sources:
- Samuel H. Beer, To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1993)
- Christopher Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes (New York: Avon Books, 1991)
- Thomas Paine, Common Sense
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, On-Line Edition.
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