Thomas Paine\'s Common Sense Thomas

Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson both have produced an immaculate piece of writing work in the form of "Common Sense" and the draft of "The Declaration of Independence" respectively in the year 1776. Americans celebrate the 4th of July in remembrance of the declaration of independence and consider "The Declaration of Independence" to be the most important revolutionary document while ignoring much of the work of Thomas Paine. Some like Theodore Roosevelt have gone to extents of calling Paine to be a "filthy little atheist" while other critics have labeled him to be a "lying, drunken, brutal infidel" (Anonymous, p.129). I feel that the Americans truly are remembering the wrong tom on the fourth of July and it should be Thomas Paine rather than Jefferson who should be remembered and his document should be without any doubt labeled as the most important revolutionary document in the history of the United States.

Before "Common Sense" came into existence there was a lot of confusion and Washington, Jefferson and others were still planning on reconciliation rather than independence. It was after the advent of "Common Sense" that things started to change and people started to get committed to independence as their choice of option. Thomas Paine completely rejected the idea of those who thought that for America to exist in the future, it would require Great Britain:

have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument." (Thomas Paine)

Thomas shed new light to the matter and made it a point to emphasize that America can and will survive on it own without any British intervention. He simply made a point that America does not need Great Britain and went on to say that "America would have flourished as much, probably much more, had no European Power had anything to do with her" (Thomas Paine). In "Common Sense," Thomas Paine portrays the British to be greedy for power and control and he clarifies that Britain's intervention is not for the benefit of the American people but rather because she wants control and would've done the same to Turkey for the same motive "viz., the sake of trade and dominion" (Thomas Paine).

Common Sense deals with the true realities of life and the functions of the Government by a King. Thomas Paine touches the deepest areas of reality and exposes the true face of such governments and bringing out the importance of a society.

A government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." (Thomas Paine)

Where the Declaration of Independence talks against the then king of Great Britain, Thomas states that the "equal rights of nature" do not support the idea of a king so supremely above all others and supports this with scriptural evidence where he claims that people under a king is not the recommended form of government by the Almighty. Moreover Thomas made people realize that kings are the cause of all wars with his evidence from the Bible:

In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion." (Thomas Paine)

Thomas was an expert in reaching down to the souls of common man and with his knowledge about the deepest desires of the Americans he was able to stir up emotions and the desire in them to have a land of their own - to gain their independence. Thomas stated poetically to the people of America to "bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land?" (Thomas Paine)

And to those who had suffered from the hands of the British and still wanted to reconcile rather than fight for their independence, Thomas said that they were "unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant." (Thomas Paine)