Thomas Paine and the Prophetic Vision of Common Sense

by Israel Lewis
Copyright 1991

In February of 1776 Thomas Paine published anonymously the pamphlet Common Sense; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA On the following interesting SUBJECTS.


"Interesting" subjects they were. Paine believed that 150,000 copies were sold, or about one for every twenty inhabitants: man woman and child (and families were large). Newspapers carried excerpts. Common Sense swept the continent and was a major factor in moving the colonies from indecision about reconciliation with England to a dominant mood for independence.

Who was Thomas Paine? What did he write and in what manner that it so stirred the hearts and minds of the American colonials?

Unlike the Founding Fathers who were born on native soil, this hero of the American Revolution was barely an American. Paine had only been here for fourteen months when Common Sense was published. He was thirty-nine years old and came from a career of resounding failure in England: once widowed, now separated from his partner in an untranquil marriage, childless, several failures in shopkeeping as a staymaker and grocer, and an impecunious occupation as an excise agent, a job lost after he composed and circulated a petition to improve the lot of his fellow agents.

This lobbying effort brought him into London and the halls of Parliament where he became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin who wrote a letter to his son-in-law in Philadelphia recommending Paine as "an ingenious, worthy, young man" who might be employed "as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or assistant surveyor." Young man? The bearer of the letter, faintly praised as suitable to be an assistant this or that, was thirty-seven at the time. And off Paine went, abandoning England and his wife. He would return to England, but not to the endearing spouse who had bruited it about town that he was impotent.

Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia, he began to write articles for newspapers and magazines on a wide range of subjects, from slavery to remarks on marriage. Late bloomer Tom Paine was finding his niche as a writer. He had come to be a radical republican. If not having a vested interest in the establishment is a common motive for radicalism, then Paine was well qualified. According to John Adams, Benjamin Rush, a physician, later to be a signer of the Declaraion of Independence, encouraged or sponsored Paine to write a tract arguing for a break with England. Doctor Rush made important contributions to psychiatry; perhaps he recognized in Paine the proper madness.

Common Sense begins with a discussion of the rights of the individual and the rights of government. There has been "a long and violent abuse of power." King and Parliament have asserted rights, and we are oppressed, and have the privilege of questioning from whence such rights derive, and if rights have been usurped, then to reject the usurpation.
Paine hasn't explained what he means by "natural rights." He doesn't have to. He can assume that not only the intelligentsia, but the common readers-- farmers, mechanics, and tradesmen-- understand Locke's propositions: that man has "inalienable" rights in life, liberty, and property; and implicitly, a right to rise up against rulers who fail to respect these rights, derived from the social contract and the supremacy of God's law to mans'.

The pamphleteer saw the revolution as not just for America. War is being waged on "the natural rights of all mankind." The Americans will strike the spark of freedom for the world.

Looking for a paragon of a governmental system? Beware the English constitution, concoction of "ancient tyrannies" of king and aristocratic peers, hereditary, and independent of the people. The republican impulse of the commons is thwarted because the king can reject their bills. The crown as giver of places and pensions wields overarching influence. Having locked the door against absolute monarchy, the English gave the crown the key.

The king has power to act and does act, often in matters requiring the highest judgement. Royal heirs grow insolent and poisoned in self-importance, unknowing of the world, ignorant and unfit to rule. They may be children or doddering in senility, leaving the public as prey for regents. That hereditary succession preserves the peace is a canard; read the history of England.

The king has nothing to do but make wars and hand out appointments, and for this he is paid 800,000 pounds a year-- and worshipped, to boot! "Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived."

And how do we come by KINGS, a race exalted, and SUBJECTS? Is there a natural order, or reason founded in religion?

Paine invokes the Scriptures, albeit selectively. The Jews had no king for three thousand years after creation. Heathens had kings, "the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry." Paine finds unaccountable their "hankering" to imitate the Heathens. They came to Samuel, prophet and leader, wanting a king, to be a like other nations. Wise Samuel tried to warn them of the offences and vices of kings, of the offence to God. He didn't prevail; they got their king. God sent punishment and the people asked Samuel to "pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for WE HAVE ADDED UNTO OUR SINS THIS EVIL, TO ASK A KING."

As told in Common Sense, the story ends here, but there's an epilogue after the clear message that Paine emphasized in bold capitals. The relevant text is First Samuel, Chapters 8 and 12. Samuel tells the people not to fear. Yes, you have done this evil but "it hath pleased the Lord to make you a people unto himself." So the Jews were to be a nation, God's nation, and to be a nation they had to have a king. Kings are sinful, but necessary.

Adams villified Paine's use of the Old Testament as "willful sophistry and knavish hypocrisy," among other pejoratives. The Massachusetts man was on firm ground. Paine admittede contempt for the Old Testament and the Bible in general. He knew that his readers were well versed in their Bibles, but they were fed up with kings and wouldn't nit-pick.

Paine takes on the arguments of the hesitant:

Some say that America has flourished under the connection. America would have flourished more without Britain. If Europe eats, our commerce has a market. If England fights, our trade goes to ruin. We are set against nations who might be our friends. If England defends us, it is only in her self-interest in trade and dominion, defends us against enemies we would not have. She would as soon defend Turkey.

Some say that Britain is the parent country. Look at Pennsylvania: less than one-third of the inhabitants are of English descent. Europe is the parent, and a cruel one at that, from whom flee the lovers of civil and religious liberty.

Sceptic Paine again shows God's will: the distance between America and Britain "strong and natural proof" that the dominion of one over another was not the Heavenly design. That the discovery of America preceded the Reformation was evidence of a divine plan to provide a sanctuary for the persecuted. (To a modern reader, this appears to be a desperate argument, but it jibes with Puritan belief.)

Think of our children. Independence is inevitable. In the interim our bequest to posterity is uncertain.

And if matters were "made up?" To begin, the king, no friend of liberty, holds a veto power over any legislation. The colonies are already greater than he wishes; he will want to make us less. The government serves first the interests of England; the interests of the colonies only considered in the light of benefits to England.

Practical matters. Britain simply can't manage us. The matters are too big, too complicated. The time lag for communications is stultifying and absurd. The satellite is larger than the planet, an inversion of the natural order of things.

The general tone of Common Sense doesn't belie its title: the approach is rational and logical. But now, Paine begins to heighten the emotional intensity. He would avoid giving offense, he says politely, preparatory to assailing the "interested men, not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see." But worse than these are the well-meaning "moderate men, who think better of Europe than it deserves--- by ill-judged deliberation the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three."

Paine adjures these moderates. Get your minds to Boston and see reality. Coward, Sycophant, that can shake hands with those who burn houses, leave families destitute without bed or bread. Murderers! Wake up from "fatal and unmanly slumbers," not for revenge, but to pursue a determined object. England cannot conquer America; only can she be conquered by her own delay and timidity.

Having taught his readers the errors of the English governmental system, the evils of monarchy, the disadvantages of remaining under British dominion, and the violence perpetrated on their fellows, Paine raises the call for action.

We shall not take up arms for small gains: a tax, a law, a bad minister. If we fight, then let us fight in earnest. Reject for ever the "hardened, sullen-tempered Pharoah." Lexington was the turning point "referring the matter from argument to arms."

We have and will have strife with England, but needn't fear civil strife. The colonies have a spirit of good order and obedience to the Continental government. "Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals." We are yet not too numerous to be united nor too vested in business to fear to venture. In later time the colonies will have divergent interests.

Now is the best time to build a navy, while our trees for timber still stand close to shore. The continent is not crowded; we have not too many sea ports to defend. Trade suffers and men are out of work, affording an army. New trade will grow out of the needs of the army.

We have no debt. The debts we contract "will serve as a memento of our virtue." Debts are a "national bond" and are good for nations. (O Thomas!) For a twentieth of the English debt we can have as large a fleet as theirs. Paine has figures: we can afford a glorious fleet and later we can sell the ships. Shipbuilding is America's pride-- one day she shall excel the world. Here is prophesy of an American maritime empire, someday-to-be.

Don't overrate the British navy. The list of ships is long, but availability is short. Any old rotting hulk is kept on the list. Other parts of the empire make demands. America with a twentieth of their navy will have the advantage, operating in front of our coasts, close to bases of supply and recruitment.

We fear stepping off into the unknown, will be more comfortable if we are prepared with a plan of government. Paine offers hints, modestly, tentatively, perhaps an inspiration for something better-- A Congress, delegates elected from the colonies, a president elected by delegates, annual assemblies. There is no king. "THE LAW IS KING."

The convention to enact the new government will be guided by a charter; a solemn obligation to support the right of every part: of religion, personal freedom, and property. Paine stands forward on religious liberty, again invoking the Almighty, whose will is the diversity of religion, and declaring it to be the "indispensible duty of all government to protect the conscientious professors, thereof."

Back to American pride. Our hemp flourishes, our iron is superior, so too our small arms and cannon. We have saltpetre and gunpowder. We have resolution and courage. We want for nothing. Why do we hesitate?

Common Sense concludes. We need to see ourselves as a nation, and be seen by other nations, not as rebellious subjects, but as a nation. We must openly and with determination declare for independence. To this end a manifesto must be published and circulated to the courts of Europe, telling of our grievances and the impossibility of subjection to the cruel disposition of Britain.

Adams' Autobiography is vituperative, stating that Paine had contempt for the Bible, was impudent and conceited, his arguments were only what Adams himself had been urging on Congress for nine months, and his language was suitable for an emigrant from Newgate. More substantively, Adams had serious reservations about the governmental scheme proposed in Common Sense and was concerned about the widespread dissemination of what he saw as a bad idea. Thoughts on Government, published by Adams as a corrective, proposed a bi-cameral congress and an executive and is a good first try at the arrangement eventually adopted in the Constitution.

Adams bady underrated Paine's tract. It's a masterful polemical work, composed in movements. The author began by appealing to "Common Sense," the pragmatic intuition of the ordinary man. This is what governments are supposed to do, these are the errors of the English government. Know them and learn from their mistakes. Kings and hereditary rule are foisted upon us against the natural order of things. Again and again he invokes the idea of "natural order" taking for granted that his readers instinctively (since it's natural) understand it and believe in it.

He quotes the Bible out of context. Notwithstanding his own low opinion of religions he makes a powerful statement for religious freedom.

Some of his arguments are poorly grounded, far-fetched and loopy. He repeats himself and sometimes he contradicts himself. But the main points stand up.

As he gets on with the work, the passion rises. See how our masters oppress us. They take our property, burn our houses. They murder. How can we ever be their friends? Awaken from fatal and unmanly slumber. Seek not revenge but pursue the object. Paine says that he seeks not to inflame us. But we are angry. We are human and our feelings are "natural."

He evokes altruism. This is not only our struggle, but a crusade for the freedom of mankind. The Americans are the Chosen to lead the world out from the bonds of tyranny to freedom. America is to be a refuge for the fugitive, "an asylum for mankind."

He prophesies. Now is the seed time. We can be a nation. We have tall ships and men who stand tall with courage. We will have a navy and merchant fleet, the ornaments of empires. Take pride, America. We will be a nation, imperial among the nations, the fountainhead of freedom.

No wonder that the pamphlet swept through the colonies. It was not, after all, the reasonable arguments, the logic, and the "Common Sense." As Adams said, people had been hearing much of this argumentation for months. It was Paine as visionary of the America that was to be that caught the imagination of the public. Other leaders of the Revolution-- Adams, Franklin, Jefferson-- were good, intelligent men, but none of them were prophets who would make Americans look up and see the future glory of a new nation..

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