{"data":{"description":"Archiving Early America - Thomas Paine's Common Sense","title":"Thomas Paine's \"Common Sense\"","post_type":"page","content":"\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\"Addressed to the Inhabitants of America... A New Edition, with Several Additions in the Body of the Work. To Which is added an Appendix; together with an Address to the People called Quakers. Philadelphia: W. and T. Bradford, 1791.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ch2 style=\"color: #ad8431;\"\u003ePublished anonymously by Thomas Paine in January of 1776, Common Sense was an instant best-seller, both in the colonies and in Europe. It went through several editions in Philadelphia, and was republished in all parts of United America. Because of it, Paine became internationally famous.Abstract\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\"A Covenanted People\" called Common Sense \"by far the most influential tract of the American Revolution....it remains one of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English language.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"imgright alignleft\" style=\"color: #000000; float: left;margin-right:15px;\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/paine3.jpg\" alt=\"Thomas Paine wrote the famous revolutionary tract Common Sense\" width=\"157\" height=\"197\" /\u003ePaine's political pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eFirst and foremost, Common Sense advocated an immediate declaration of independence, postulating a special moral obligation of America to the rest of the world. Not long after publication, the spirit of Paine's argument found resonance in the American Declaration of Independence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eWritten at the outset of the Revolution, Common Sense became the leaven for the ferment of the times. It stirred the colonists to strengthen their resolve, resulting in the first successful anticolonial action in modern history.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eLittle did Paine realize that his writings would set fire to a movement that had seldom if ever been worked out in the Old World: sovereignty of the people and written constitutions, together with effective checks and balances in government.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePaine has been described as a professional radical and a revolutionary propagandist without peer. Born in England, he was dismissed as an excise officer while lobbying for higher wages. Impressed by Paine, Benjamin Franklin sponsored Paine's emigration to America in 1774.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIn Philadelphia Paine became a journalist and essayist, contributing articles on all subjects to The Pennsylvania Magazine. After the publication of Common Sense, Paine continued to inspire and encourage the patriots during the Revolutionary War with a series of pamphlets entitled The American Crisis. Eventually, Paine went on to write The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eBut, it all started with Common Sense, the writing that sparked an American Revolution.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"hr\" style=\"color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"strong\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eClick Each Icon To Read The Enlargements\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ctable class=\"tablewithpics tablewithpics2\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/commonsensetitlepage\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/title1up.gif\" alt=\"Thomas Paine's Common Sense page 1\" width=\"76\" height=\"130\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003ePage 1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/intro1\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/title2up.gif\" alt=\"Thomas Paine's Common Sense page 2\" width=\"76\" height=\"130\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003ePage 2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/intro2\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/title3up.gif\" alt=\"Thomas Paine's Common Sense page 3\" width=\"76\" height=\"130\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003ePage 3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/intro3\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/title4up.gif\" alt=\"Thomas Paine's Common Sense page 4\" width=\"76\" height=\"130\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003ePage 4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c/table\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"centerindent\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe \u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/ebooks/earlyamerica/CommonSense/3755.txt\"\u003etext version of Common Sense\u003c/a\u003e is also available.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"hr\" style=\"color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBibliography\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cul style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eA. Owen Aldridge, \"Tom Paine's American Ideology.\" 1984.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eA.J. Ayer, \"Thomas Paine.\" 1989.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eI. Dyck, ed., \"Citizen of the World.\" 1988.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eDavid F. Hawke, \"Paine.\" 1974.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eThomas Clio Rickman, \"The Life of Thomas Paine.\" London. 1819.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eAudrey Williamson, \"Thomas Paine: His Life, Work and Times.\" 1973.\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eJerome D. Wilson and William F. Ricketson, \"Thomas Paine.\" 1978\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\u003c/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone"},{"path":"lives-early-america/true-story-paul-revere","title":"The True Story of Paul Revere"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"portrait","title":"Portraits"},{"path":"rare-images/last-men-revolution","title":"The Last Men of the Revolution"}]},{"path":"freedom-documents","title":"Freedom Documents","submenu":[{"path":"freedom-documents/bill-rights","title":"Bill of Rights"},{"path":"freedom-documents/declaration-independence","title":"Declaration of Independence"},{"path":"freedom-documents/u-s-constitution","title":"The U.S. Constitution"}]},{"path":"world-early-america","title":"World of Early America","submenu":[{"path":"bookmarks","title":"Early American Bookmarks"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"firsts","title":"Firsts!"},{"path":"rare-images/maps","title":"Maps"},{"path":"rare-images","title":"Rare Images"},{"path":"music1","title":"Music"},{"path":"writings","title":"The Writings of Early America"}]},{"path":"boston-massacre","title":"Boston Massacre"},{"path":"milestone-events","title":"Milestones"},{"path":"early-america-review","title":"The Review"},{"path":"home/teachers-students","title":"Teachers"},{"path":"sitemap","title":"Sitemap"}]},"success":true}