Maggie Buckner
Dobson
HIS 131
1 October, 2017
Thomas Paine “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in it’s best state, is a necessary evil; in it’s worst state an intolerable one” (Paine). It’s amazing how timeless some quotes are. However, Thomas Paine is the focus of this paper, not our system of government.
Thomas Paine, born in the year 1737, in the city of Thetford, England, to a Quaker father, and an Anglican mother. HE received little formal education, although he did learn to read and write, as well as perform arithmetic. HE began working with his father as a stay maker at the age of thirteen. He would later go on to work as an officer of the excise. Where he would hunt smugglers, and collect liquor and tobacco
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A very early article of his was a criticism of slavery in America, which he published under the name, “Justice and Humanity.” Paine had arrived in America at a good time to promote his ideas and thoughts of revolution and injustice, as the conflicts between the colonies and England had reached a peak.
Five months after Paine’s arrival the battles of Lexington and Concord occurred, which precipitated his most famous work, “Common Sense”, which would be published in January of 1776, only one year after he began publishing articles. “Common Sense,” printed on January 10, 1776, was a fifty page pamphlet, that expanded upon the ideas that Americans shouldn’t just revolt against taxation, but should declare independence from Great Britain entirely.
During the war, Paine served as a volunteer personal assistant to General Nathaniel Greene, who traveled with the Continental army. While Paine wasn’t a natural soldier, he did inspire the troops with his sixteen “Crisis Papers,” which were all written between the years of 1776 and 1783. The first paper, “The American Crisis 1,” which was published on December 19, 1776, began, “These are the times that try men’s
Paine's diction and the imagery, portraying the time he spent in the army provided in his pamphlet, The American Crisis, only ...
Paine introduced his main claim by comparing the differences between society and government within “Common Sense” (CS). “Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinction. The first is a patron, the last a punisher” (Pain 4-5). Using juxtaposition, Paine is able to portray the British government as a form of oppression while society or the American colonies as a virtuous foundation.
Thomas Paine constructs Common Sense as an editorial on the subject of the relationship between the Colonies and Great Britain. Through the paper, he hopes to educate his fellow Americans about this subject. In his introduction, he says he feels that there is 'a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong'; which 'gives it a superficial appearance of being right'; (693). He is alluding to the relationship, also calling it a 'violent abuse of power'; (693). This choice of words is similar to those of Jefferson, who asserts that the king had established an 'absolute tyranny'; over the states. Both men set an immediate understanding about their feelings towards the rule of Great Britain over the States. However, where Common Sense seems to be an opinionated essay, Thomas Jefferson writes somewhat of a call to battle. Paine generally seems to be alerting his readers to the fact that there is more going on than they are aware of. Jefferson, on the other hand, begins his declaration by stating, 'When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another'; (715). Unlike Paine, this seems to presuppose that readers are aware of the plight of the nation, and Jefferson is announcing that the time has come to take a stand.
Government is a controversial topic. Both Paul Revere and Thomas Paine foretells the pros and cons of the existing government system. Paul Revere portrays his opinion on government with an artwork of the Boston Massacre, “The Bloody Massacre in King Street,” stating that government is bad and negative to exist. Thomas Paine, on the other hand, portrays his opinion with a pamphlet, stating that the government is a necessity, but could also be altered for the well-being of the society. These two documents, although discrete, reveals their own separate opinions on government systems.
Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine were the infrastructures are the Revolutionary movement against their father country, Great Britain. Patrick Henry was a Governor from Virginia, who became notorious for his presence as a persuasive orator in the Virginia House of Burgess. One of the most intricate works he utilized to get Congress on board for war spoke to the Convention on March 23, 1775, Speech to the Virginia Convention. He offered a proposition to the Convention as he saw them tilting towards a diplomatic approach but Henry saw that war was inevitable and they needed to bear down for the struggle. In contrast, Thomas Paine was blatant with his purpose for writing The Crisis, No. 1. Paine was a gun hoe political activist with a niche for radial pieces. His audience differed from Henry, who was appealing to Politicians and had to evoke the logical side to augment credibility amongst the Convention. Paine had to render the spirits of soldiers beaten and weary from the extended periods of war and brutal winter. Markedly, the soldiers endured bouts of depression provoked by a sense of defeat and loss of time with their families. Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine knew they had to conjure fighting spirits in the people, who have allowed domination by a country thousands of miles away. Henry and Paine had a proclivity to move people with graphic and thought-provoking works bursting with rhetoric and figurative language that awakened the souls of their diverse audiences to ignite the war for freedom.
In his pamphlet lie many convincing arguments for the case of independence for the colonists. The first thing that Paine did was attack the king in his writing. He says that all mankind is created equally, so why should there be a separation of kings and subjects? This is a good statement because it probably touched upon what the people of that time were feeling about their king.
Thomas Paine, in the pamphlet Common Sense, succeeded in convincing the indifferent portion of colonial society that America should secede from Britain through moral and religious, economic, and governmental arguments. Using strong evidence, targeting each separate group of people, Thomas Paine served not only to sway the public 's opinion on American independence, but also to mobilize the effort to achieve this ultimatum.
“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 it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman” (Paine). With these words Thomas Paine’s inspiring, but inflated rhetoric helped to transform a dispute about taxes into a struggle for the soul of man. This kind of language united the feuding colonies around a principle greater than their own economic interests.
Thomas Paine was one of the great supporters of the American Revolution. He was a journalist and used his pen and paper to urge the public to break free from Great Brittan. He wrote anonymously, yet addressed the public as he spoke out about his beliefs. The first pamphlet he published, influencing independence from Brittan, was called Common Sense
Thomas Paine published his political pamphlet entitled, Common Sense, on January 10th, 1776 in Philadelphia (Claeys). At this time, his pamphlet did a great job of rallying Americans together and even gave the war a purpose: to seek full independence from...
When times were hard and seemed hopeless, it only took one person to awaken the spirits of thousands of soldiers. Thomas Paine is known as a founding father of America. Paine wrote an essay called, "The Crisis", that was meant to persuade the revolutionary troops to push forward with the battle against the British. Off the banks of the Delaware River was where the troops were waiting hopelessly for their next battle. That was until on 1776, Christmas Eve, Paine had the officers read aloud his essay to boost their hopes. This gave the soldiers the inspiration to fight back with all they got. Thus, changing the course of history by causing the soldiers to win the Revolutionary War. Paine used ethical, emotional, authoritative, and logical appeals in his essay to convince the colonists to stand up against the British even when it was the hardest.
Therefore, Paine’s message holds true in today’s America, because “cordial unison” can only be accomplished with a government whose only purpose is to maintain the natural rights of each citizen and protect the individual from cruelty, rather than enacting such a cruelty upon the
Thanks to Paine, liberty and freedom was eventually accomplish. During this time, it was a perfect opportunity to suggest an chance for change. Paine's many contributions to politics changed America greatly. It is rather difficult to understand why precisely Paine wrote “Common Sense” but it is also crucial to understand his beliefs on the relationship between society and government.
He also uses enlightened thought to discredit the King’s god given right to be in rule. The Declaration of Independence came not long after and was greatly influenced by Paine’s Common Sense and enlightenment thinking. Because Paine’s Common Sense was written about why the colonists should break free from the British, it was basically a segue into the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence contains ideas of equality (“All men are created equal”), protecting natural rights (Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness), and getting rid of tyranny (breaking bonds with England), all of which were enlightenment ideas. These documents fueled the Republican fire even further and officially started the American Revolution against the
Common Sense was published by Thomas Paine in the January of 1776, the same year that the colonies declared independence from Great Britain. When Thomas Paine published this pamphlet, the colonies were still discussing whether to declare independence. Common Sense was written to try to convince those in favor of reconciliation with Great Britain that independence was the best and only decision. A major theme of Common Sense is the evils of tradition, and how tradition is holding back the colonies. Thomas Paine attacks each point of the opposition with a perfect answer and points out why the colonists are not acting in their best interests.