Common Sense

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."    

On January 9th, 1776, the pamphlet "Common Sense" was published in Philadelphia. The pamphlet immediately becomes a bestseller, selling tens of thousands of copies across America. In "Common Sense," Thomas Paine, the author and violent foe of aristocracy and monarchy, attacks the King and Parliament and offers Americans an alternative to British rule: true independence.

Diction and Pathos in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

Paine’s groundbreaking pamphlet Common Sense is not only one of the best selling publications in American history; it was the intellectual spark that lit the fuse for the American Revolution.

So why did only six people show up at his funeral?

In contrast with many of the other Founding Fathers, who came from money, Paine was born into humble circumstances in England. His life was a roller coaster of ups and downs. He won great praise but his writings also generated a great deal of controversy.

Thomas Paine died in New York in 1809. Because of his controversial writings against orthodox religion in The Age of Reason, the local Quaker cemetery refused to let him be buried there. He was buried instead on his farm. In 1819, an English journalist named William Cobbett dug up Paine's bones. Cobbett wanted to give Paine a hero's reburial in England. The plan failed, the British public did not care, and the bones remained in Cobbett’s possession when he died. After that, the bones were scattered and lost.

Should Paine be honored with a musical like Alexander Hamilton?

The Adventures of Thomas Paine’s Bones