Common Sense vs. Letters From an American Farmer Compared

Introduction: Two Visions of Colonial America

Thomas Paine was a true revolutionary. In his pamphlet Common Sense, he repeatedly called for independence from England. He believed the cause of America was the cause of all mankind. He writes that the King of England had 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).

Paine depicted a desire for an ideal society; however, he did not romanticize colonial life and its society in general, as Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur did in his writings, Letters from an American Farmer.

Paine's Realism vs. Crèvecoeur's Idealism

Paine was a man of politics, and the title of his work reflects his concern with common sense in the affairs of the world. Crèvecoeur's writings, on the other hand, seem at times tainted with an almost patronizing quality — elaborate, sentimental, and flowery, lacking the spark of realism that Paine creates.

Perhaps Paine's most famous quote is: "Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an intolerable one" (Paine). Paine did not sugarcoat his sentiments. He presents a clear understanding of the affairs of the world, and he does not paint colonial life as a utopian society.

Crèvecoeur, however, depicts colonial life as an almost communal society, with all citizens striving for the same ideals — when in truth there were a myriad of political and religious factions. Crèvecoeur writes, "We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself" (Crèvecoeur 67). As Paine counters, "for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer" (Paine).

Crèvecoeur's Utopian Portrait of American Society

Paine adds: "Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise" (Paine). His language is sharp and unsparing, offering a political critique that leaves no room for sentimentality.

Crèvecoeur writes, "Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury" (Crèvecoeur 67). He also comments on the fact that the rich and the poor are not as distant in status as the two classes are in Europe.

Crèvecoeur goes on to describe Americans as a people of cultivators who communicate by means of "good roads and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are equitable" (Crèvecoeur 67). His writing creates a society that appears almost too utopian, too idealistic. He even declares, "we are the most perfect society now existing in the world" (Crèvecoeur 68). Even religion is painted as ideal: "a congregation of respectable farmers and their wives, all clad in neat homespun...not among them an esquire...a parson as simple as his flock, a farmer who does not riot on the labour of others" (Crèvecoeur 68).