Common Sense

One of the most important works of literature that argued for colonial independence was Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  The publication of Common Sense had profound affects on the American colonies.  The book was read aloud all over towns, as if a preacher were reading a bible.  It opened American eyes that were blind to the English tyranny they were suffering from.  Thomas Paine successfully unified the American nation against their British “parent-country.”

Thomas Paine had only lived in America for a little more than a year at the time when he wrote Common Sense, but you would never be able to judge that based on his book.  He captures the heart of what Americans stand for in terms of rising against the king.  What makes the book so remarkable is its ability to connect with all Americans, regardless of class.  Paine accomplishes this because the book is indeed, “…nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense…”

Common Sense was, and still is, a work of art.  For all the reasons listed prior, above all, it helped unite an American nation.  Paine brings to attention that Great Britain is no “parent-country,” because the American immigrants came from all over Europe.  “This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.  Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster…”  This quote captures the story of America.  People came to America, not sailing off into the sunset, but risking their lives for a chance of religious freedom.  America was an escape, not some fun adventure, although an adventure it indeed was.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense has had a profound effect on the way we live today. Common Sense laid out the base for the democracy we enjoy today.  My favorite part of the document has to be when Paine proclaims that, “…in America THE LAW IS KING.  For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King and there ought to be no other.”  What I love about this is that, again, it is common sense.  The opposite of an absolute government must be freedom.

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