The Pamphlet That Made Our Nation

On the first day of class each semester, when discussing expectations, I tell my students that the most important thing I hope they learn is how to write.

Most of them will never work in the field of history, and while I certainly hope they gain an understanding of the past to better navigate the present, it is their writing skills that will serve them best in the future. I truly believe writing can change the world.

To prove that point, we need look no further than a pamphlet published 250 years ago this week, one that changed the course of America and the world forever.

In the opening weeks of 1776, the British North American colonies were in a precarious position. By the end of 1775, colonists had already fought at Lexington and Concord, Fort Ticonderoga, and Bunker Hill. King George III had declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion, yet the Second Continental Congress remained divided on the question of independence.

Throughout 1775, there were serious concerns about whether independence was even possible, most notably, whether the Continental Army could win. While that question was still very much in flux, the year’s early victories had helped calm some nerves.

The other major concern was legitimacy. For many colonists, the king ruled by divine right, and to oppose the monarch was to oppose God. Many were willing to fight for their rights as Englishmen, but they still wanted to remain Englishmen. Too many placed the blame not on the king himself, but on Parliament or on bad advisers, believing that if King George III truly understood their suffering, he would intervene on their behalf. For these colonists, the idea of a nation without a monarch was almost unimaginable.

In 1775, it simply was not done.

Enter Thomas Paine.

Paine arrived in Philadelphia in 1774 at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin, where he soon became editor of the “Pennsylvania Magazine.”

In England, Paine had held a variety of jobs, including schoolteacher, but he was increasingly known for his political writings criticizing the monarchy. Although Paine wrote many works after arriving in America, his most important by far was the pamphlet “Common Sense,” published on Jan. 10, 1776.

Paine’s first task was to convince colonists that the very concept of monarchy was fundamentally flawed. He argued that kingship was contrary to both God and nature.

Drawing on the Old Testament, Paine referenced the story of Samuel, when the Israelites asked for a king. Samuel warned them that only God was their true king and that a monarch would enslave them, yet the people rejected his counsel to be like other nations. According to Paine, the idea of monarchy was sinful because the only being worthy of allegiance was God.

Paine also argued that monarchy violated nature.

The distinction between kings and subjects, he claimed, was entirely artificial, especially the idea of hereditary rule. God did not create men as kings or subjects; they became kings simply because their fathers were. The fact that a father had been a good ruler offered no guarantee that his son would be the same. One of my favorite lines in “Common Sense” is, “One of the strongest proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings is that nature disapproves it; otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an Ass for a Lion.”

In brilliant 18th century smack talk, Paine not only made his point but stripped away some of the reverence colonists still held for the king.

Paine then turned to policy, arguing that the policies angering the colonists were, in fact, the king’s policies. Colonists needed to recognize that King George III was not protecting their welfare but actively undermining it. Paine showed how the colonies would be better off independent, free from British laws and interference. He challenged the idea that monarchy brought stability, pointing instead to the many wars and rebellions initiated by kings, conflicts that repeatedly dragged Americans into European power struggles. Separation from Britain, Paine argued, would allow the colonies to avoid foreign wars and focus on their own future.

Paine also addressed the lingering hesitation about war. He reminded colonists that they were already at war. Battles had been fought. More than a thousand of the king’s soldiers had been killed. Did anyone seriously believe the king would simply forgive and forget? If conditions were bad already, Paine warned, they would only grow worse. Since war was unavoidable, the colonists might as well see it through. The benefits of independence, he argued, far outweighed the obstacles.

Then comes my favorite section, where Paine addresses those still opposed to independence: “Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Great Britain… tell me whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land… Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? … If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have and can still shake hands with the murderers… you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.”

I love these lines. If the British have not harmed you or your family, then good for you, but you should stay out of the conversation, because some people have suffered.

And if you have suffered and still want to shake hands and call the British friends, then you are a coward and have no right to call yourself a man.

Strong words.

More than anything else, this pamphlet convinced colonists that independence was not only necessary but possible. Over 150,000 copies were printed, reprinted in newspapers, read aloud in taverns, and discussed in town squares across the colonies. “Common Sense” persuaded Americans that their freedom was worth fighting for and that they could win.

I also love how Paine closes the appendix to the second edition, with words that feel especially relevant today, “Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen… and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND, and of the FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA.”

James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at james.finck@swoknews.com. Thanks to Southwest Ledger for sharing his column.