Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
¶ … Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. Specifically it will answer the following question: Were British Imperial policies responsible for the coming of the American Revolution?
COMMON SENSE
Economic forces were probably one of the most important factors in pushing the Americans toward revolution and independence. However, they were certainly not the only factors that led Americans to revolt. There were a variety of factors, as Paine's writing clearly shows. We were on the path to revolution from the moment our ancestors left England to avoid religious persecution, as Paine remembers.
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still Paine 22).
Economic factors, such as taxes and tariffs were simply part of a much larger and more complex picture. As Paine noted, the governed must be happy with their governance for a ruling country to succeed. "And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the strength of government, and the happiness of the governed" (Paine 7). As England wielded more control over the colony, the colonists became more and more dissatisfied, and so, they began to stop supporting...
Paine is pointing out with his writing that the government of England was a tyranny, and the people of America should not tolerate this tyranny, it was absurd.
But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity! (Paine 9).
That America is simply a subject of the King of England is intolerable to Paine, and it was intolerable to many other Americans, too. The society in America had grown away from England, and become quite successful and prosperous on their own. They had developed their own educational and political systems, which worked quite well. They had a balance of professionals and tradesmen to make the country literate and flourishing. Many of the rules and regulations from England were no longer applicable to the colony, and the Americans began to be more and more uncomfortable tied to the mother country's apron strings. When England began to impose more controls in the 1760s, the colonists began to chafe under renewed English regulation. Yet, Paine did not advocate total revolution with his writing, he advocated "national manners" and of course, "common sense."
Yet as the domestic tranquility of a nation, depends greatly on the chastity of what may properly be called NATIONAL MANNERS, it is often better, to pass some…
Works Cited
Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man; Common Sense; and Other Political Writings. Ed. Philp, Mark. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Thomas Paine's influential pamphlet, Common Sense, provided the inspiration for America's independence from Great Britain. Common sense reflected the common belief that British rule was often heavy-handed, unnecessary, and even unfounded. Thus, the success of Paine's Common Sense can be attributed to Paine's ability to tap into the beliefs of his audience, the American people. Paine's Common Sense is divided into four key sections, plus an introduction. The first section describes
Paine's decision to write of high philosophical and political issues in common speech, and of used "graphic metaphors and his simple sentence structure [to] reflect a language understood at the time by common Americans," (Moss & Wilson, ed) has much the same purpose as a translation of the Bible from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into Latin, which is to say the need to initiate common people into profound truths. Paine
Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737 at Thetford, Norfolk, England. He was known as the Anglo-American political philosopher. He lived in a poor family where his father, a Quaker, was only a corsetiere and his mother, an Anglican, was an ordinary housewife with abnormal behavior and very moody. It is said that Thomas was close to his father more than his mother because you can notice in his
New York: Penguin, 2007. Author of different academic studies and having an important scholar background, Nelson tries to point out the personality of the creator of "Common sense." Thus, he not only places him in the position of the politician, but also in that of the men. Nelson's perspective comes to complete Kaye's because both of them take into account, more or less, the human side of Thomas Paine, aside
Language of Ordinary People The American Revolution could not have been as strong as it was if it were not for one man, Thomas Paine. He was the one who supported and fought for it with all his synergies, combined in the written form of most celebrated and valued book and pamphlet Common Sense and The American Crisis, which turned the tables for revolution and brought a vibrant change in the
Homelessness in the United States Common Sense by Thomas Paine The political situation in the colonies of America were more than ready to receive the pamphlet entitled Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Paine's writing provided a nation confused about their future and issues surrounding it, with a needed spur towards action and clarity of thought. The ambivalence of the time from the end of 1775 results from equally strong but opposing forces