Thomas Paine's Common Sense: Pushing for American Independence

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In Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense, he persuaded many American colonists, through sound logic and reasoning, to fight for their independence from the British monarchy. He convinced the American colonists to fight for their freedom during one of the best opportunities they had to do so. Due partly to the Enlightenment in America, colonists yearned for a democracy with equal representation. However, many were unsure of whether or not it was the best decision to separate from Britain. To help tip the scale towards the side of declaring independence, Paine wrote in his pamphlet that: America would do better financially without Britain, Americans had evolved from further needing military protection from Britain, and that it would be in the colonists best moral interest to secede from their mother country.
One of the first points that Paine made in Common Sense, was that the American economy would be much better off free from British restraints. In colonial America, "officials at the hub of the British Empire in London established navigation laws to regulate the markets of British American colonial commerce and to restrict British American manufacturing" (Matson). With …show more content…

In the beginning of the pamphlet, Paine wrote that all men were born equal, and that the rise of a king and a monarchy was unnatural for mankind. "Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews" (Paine). Paine wrote that in the Jews' sin, they erected a king to rule over them. Paine also wrote that this idea of needing a king angered God, even though He allowed the Jews to have one. To reinforce his statement, Paine also pointed out the corruption and tyranny within the British monarchy. He points out that even though the British government looks like it has proper checks and balances, it is far too complex for itself, and the monarchy has too much power of their

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