Gavin Sampson
Ms. Kauffman
Junior English
Common Sense Annotation
Revolution! This was the theme of the entirety of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Throughout the book Thomas Paine was trying to show that the only true option and the only right option the colonies had was to separate from England. During the time of the writing of Common Sense the thirteen British Colonies of America were in a very turbulent time. Huge numbers of people across the colonies supported the new independence movement and sought a war with Britain. This mainly came about from the King of England at the time trying to force his will on the colonies via taxes and new laws. Even with these new tyrannical rules imposed on the colonies many in them still believed that
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staying with England for the time being was the best option and that there were many problems with the independence movement. Thomas Paine a staunch supporter of the movement decides to write a pamphlet that not only puts his reasons for the colonies to go independent, but also takes every major pro British argument at the time and individually destroys it. He goes from explaining how the British government is illogical to how those who want to push the Revolution off to the next generation are cowards. The biggest point that Common Sense made that stuck out to me was in the first chapter.
Thomas Paine in this chapter tore into the British system of government especially the aristocracy and the monarchy. One of the biggest points of the entire book is how royalty is a totally idiotic way to govern a nation and that governments that make no sense should not be able to govern. “But there is another and greater distinction, for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into kings and subjects” (Paine 2). In this quote he brings up the fact that the monarchy and aristocracy are really the biggest dividers in a government sense between people. He even goes deeper and says that kings shouldn’t exist in the first place. They go against the natural order of the world. Animals in the wilderness don’t get rewarded for simply being the son of another animal. So therefore a king should not be allowed to wield massive power and have a huge fortune for simply being born. One almost has to agree with Paine on this. Not only are kings overall illogical to have. A country’s life and economy can entirely depend on the hopeful competence of a single ruler. It has been shown throughout history that one bad king can destroy a country for centuries. Entrusting a nation with millions of people to a single man and his advisors is a terrible system of …show more content…
government. Thomas Paine doesn’t just stop with kings in his destruction of the British government in Common Sense.
Paine tears into the entire system as well striking at both the aristocracy and House of Commons. “Secondly- the remains of the aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers” (Paine 1). The aristocracy of England, which gains its wealth and power from the same way the monarchy does, through being the son of their father, is also a corrupt and despicable level of government. As before with the king you cannot justify letting people wild power when they never had to work a day in their life for
it. The House of Commons is a different story. It is a meeting of elected officials who are meant to represent the common man. The Commons are meant to check the power of the King. Thomas Paine argues that this is illogical since if the King has divine right rule like the king and the population claims then who can check the power of God. Certainly, congregation of mortal men should be able to. Paine says that because of these logical fallacies, the British government should not exist. He says that the government that will be set up by the colonies will be a totally novel idea. That, the government of the colonies will not fall prey to the same problems that the British government has run into. The necessary evil of government will be extremely limited in the colonies and that is why the colonists should rise up in support of the new independence movement. Illogical government is something that is a problem for countries even today. There more laws on the books across the United States that make next to no sense that our own judicial system doesn’t prosecute a lot of them. While the basic structure of our government has stayed logical and there to serve many of the problems Thomas Paine brought up against the monarchy and Aristocracy have arisen. People don’t inherit political power anymore, but once it is gained many senators or representatives keep it well beyond what was originally intended. Even though we don’t have an official aristocracy we do have an extremely wealthy class of people who via wills gain immense wealth from their parents without any work on their part. This is happening while millions of Americans are still at the bottom working as hard they can to reach even the middle class. The United States needs to look at the points of common Sense once again and truly see if it is following many of the ideals that were being fought over during the revolution like many American politicians often claim. Works Cited Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Dover Publications, 1997.
The idea of independence from Great Britain, it is something that is so commonplace a thing that I think very little of it on a day-to-day basis, but there was once a time when it was not so common, there was even a time when many thought the idea of fighting for independence was a foolhardy or reckless move and we were better off under the rule of Great Britain. This was not necessarily an incorrect way of thinking as Great Britain had provided the colonies with resources that would have taken far longer to develop for themselves. In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense a pamphlet that encouraged this new way of thinking and urged the people of the thirteen colonies to fight for their independence from Great Britain, as their help was now seeming to become a hindrance.
Thomas Paine’s Common sense from III Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs is about the conflict between New England and America. The Americans didn’t like the way the British treated them so Paine’s stated his issue why America has to be an independent country to save its government and the reasons to wanted having freedom with Britain. Pain gave reason in the text what would happen to the American government if they stayed dependent from England. Paine’s Common Sense spoke out his beliefs about the hardships in America and how he felt America. A quote by Thomas Paine, “The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of government which sooner or later must have an end: and a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction that what he calls ‘the present constitution’ is merely
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.
“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.” (Pg 2, P1) Paine states that with the society and the existence of a government, this allows the society to live happily and united. The existence of a government will also be able to control a society with rules to live by and keeping the community safe. Paine demonstrates that the existence of the government system is indeed a positive necessity to have within a
Paine dwells on the differences between government and society. He stresses greatly on the fact that a government should be able to protect its society. Giving life and liberty to its people. He also points out that, Britain is the main cause of enemy to the Americas. Expressing disagreement with the British in American, he criticized the British government. He believes that the monarchy has too much power and their system is unreasonable. Paine complicates matters further when he writes, that the Americans are not British anymore. It is not British in a sense that it is so diverse, with different types of Europeans. In Paine’s views Britain is not a mother country, since it imposes harsh treatments and is in a war too often. The idea of best interest was important to Paine. In his views, Britain sees the Americas as profitable institutions to control and gains riches from, as opposed to the development and freedom of the nations. Independence from Britain was one of many ideas of this pamphlet. “Common Sense”, essentially pointed out the reasons why the colonies should leave the British and form a new government. His views on government inspired “Limited government” and “natural laws”, which gives citizens more control on how they shape their local environment and
“Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavored to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to defend us.” Such words scribed by the Revolutionary radical Thomas Paine epitomized the drive behind the American Revolution of the 18th century. For nearly two hundred years, the citizens of the American Colonies had been fastened securely to the wrist of the mother country, England. They had tolerated the tyrannous rule, but not without the simmer of rebellious thoughts. As England piled tax after tax onto their colonies, thoughts of revolution and revolt sprung up in the minds of the colonists and brewed there, waiting for a catalyst to drive them into action. The catalyst ignited on January 10th, 1776 when Thomas Paine published his fiery pamphlet ‘Common Sense’. The 48-page pamphlet presented before the colonists a vision for independence that had never been conceived before. It radically altered the course of the Revolution and would later find itself molding the foundation of America’s government indefinitely.
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.
Thomas Paine wrote the Common Sense and in this pamphlet he wrote about America’s separation and independence from Great Britain. His argument stated that America is a large continent and we are in charge of our own fate and direction (Paine 107). Paine further explained that people migrated to America to escape the control of the King and his laws. Paine introduced a theory when comparing America to a small island, that it is possible if separated we can come together and make our own laws and run the country as we see fit (Paine 109). Paine believes that we are no longer in need of Britain’s help and that we can eventually form alliances with other countries as we stand alone outside of Britain’s control.
His purpose was to ramp up the colonist to break away from Britain. Even in his intro he has already started to express the need to stop these issue, “As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.” Paine's attack on monarchy in Common Sense is essentially an attack on George
What was the common good for all Americans in 1776? Thomas Paine, a political activist during America’s struggle for independence from England, argues in Common Sense, a pamphlet published in the Pennsylvania Magazine, with the American colonists, demanding a revolt with the British crown (Thomas Paine). He passionately believes that the answer to the “…benefit of all people in [American] society” (Thomas Paine) will result from the freedom of oppression for the thirteen American colonies. Common Sense, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era”, remains noted by historians as one of the most influential pieces of literature during the era of the American Revolution
Common Sense written by Thomas Paine in 1776 was originally a pamphlet that argues America’s independence about reflections about the government, and religion. He also speaks of the colonial people situation. Paine wanted a new beginning where everyone had equal social rights and freedom.
Thomas Paine wrote a series of pamphlets anonymously in 1776, targeted at the average member of society, showing his belief in the American Revolution. He was an extremist and most of his ideas stemmed from The Enlightenment. Throughout the series, he discusses society and government in a comparative way. He chose to remain anonymous at the time of writing these, and its understandable why. In his writings, the first chapter alone, he challenges monarchy and the corruption within, and also challenges the idea of kings and monarchy.
Thomas Paine conveyed his dislike for monarchies in many ways throughout “Common Sense”. One of his numerous dislikes was that most monarchs are a hereditary system. Paine’s thoughts over the hereditary system were that they were not valid and would bring evil with it. People that were born into elite existence are very often to be ignorant and unfit. Some people thought that hereditary succession reduced civil wars however there were also the issues, 12 battles
The man with the most impact that changed history was Thomas Paine. He created a pamphlet called Common Sense . Not only did he have an impact he had a somewhat negative life. His burial was very awful. Paines beliefs in religion was different from other people. That belief caused him to create a book the age of reason.
Thomas Paine anonymously wrote “Common Sense”, a pamphlet discussing the ideas of independence from Britain. This helped the colonists put their frustrations with their government into words. Paine wrote it so simply that anyone could understand his ideas, and it was quite persuasive. He says, “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.” (Baym 326) Essentially, Thomas Paine explains how independence from the monarchy would be a really wonderful thing, and he ultimately explains that this independence is inevitable. He talks about how Britain is the parent of America. He compares America to a child growing independent of its parents. Although at one point, America was “flourish[ing] under her former connection with Great Britain”, he says that now it is time for America to grow independent. He uses the example of a child who has been raised on milk never moving on to eating meat. Although the child grew a lot on milk, that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t continue to grow by eating meat, by gaining more independence. (Baym 326) And he says that while Britain is their parent country, parents shouldn’t “devour their young,” or “make war upon their families.” (Baym 327) He’s using this extended parent example to show that America really doesn’t need a parent country anymore. This idea of total independence from Britain put a lot in perspective for Americans at the time. They became empowered and confident in this idea of