How Did Thomas Paine Views With The British Monarchy

Thomas Paine believed that the selection of Kings was unnatural because people are born into being Kings and nothing assures that the person will be a good leader. Just because your father was a good leader does not mean that you will be one. Paine states that nature would disapprove it, and that we should not give mankind “an ass for a lion”1. He says that when we were created we were all created equal. The British had so much control no one could do anything about it. They could not overcome the government and it made the colonists feel useless. This is exactly why Paine criticized the monarchial government because they were indeed doing everything unfairly and doing it only to benefit themselves.

January 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet, that had an Impact on the world as a whole today. When writing the Pamphlet little did Paine know he would have such an impact on how society is run today. “Common Sense” was an outburst not only in Paine's career but for Independence for many others as well. Despite all odds against Paine, Paine was a leader and influenced American colonists to Break apart from the British’s rule. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, “Common Sense,” led to the American Revolution, and eventually led to freedom for American Colonists from Great Britain, and paved way for the Declaration of Independence.

Boston King and Joseph Brant disagree with the ideas expressed by Paine and the Adamses to a large extent. In Thomas Paine’s document, he expresses his distaste for the current leadership system, where the top positions are simply assigned to those who are lucky enough to be born into royalty. Paine suggests that it would be most beneficial for colonists to be governed by representatives and not by merely one king, who is also susceptible to tyranny, evil and making mistakes, just as all other men.

In the American Revolution, there weren't just tragic deaths and depressing wars, there were people who changed the United States freedoms and rights. Thomas Paine, one of the Founding Fathers, spent his whole life finding ways to make American lives better. Thomas Paine impacted the American Revolution by being included as one of the founding fathers, published pamphlets to improve the way people live, and helped shape the ideas of the Age of Revolution.

Paine rejected the traditional ideas of government and had a vision for a future society that transcended the minds of the known world. He advocated independence from Great Britain and played a major impact in jump starting the American Revolution by elucidating the impracticalities of aristocratic hierarchy, established religion, and social injustice. However, Paine was more than just a wishful thinker. Thomas Paine was a utopian and promotes his utopian vision in his political writings in order to try and establish a possible future which is for the common good of humanity.

I agree with the above statement that Americans before the American Revolution were never that interested in material goals like economic growth and that idealism was always the motivating principle behind colonial life, however, after the American Revolution material goals such as economic growth become more important to Americans. Before the American Revolution ideals of freedom were very motivational to the colonist, take for example Thomas Paine and his pamphlet Common Sense laid out the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Paine was advocating for a Republican Government one in which he thought everyone would have natural rights, this pamphlet was written for the "common folk" with its easy language and biblical references

Thomas Paine was a Founding Father and strode towards the thirteen colonies independence. Thomas Paine had an interesting life and career from failing in his apprenticeship with his father and at jobs while oversea to writing a variety of works like Common Sense, and the Age of Reason. Thomas Paine was an incredible writer who wrote with passion even though he was criticized greatly. Thomas Paine was an important person in the American Revolutionary War.

Looking through the history of politics, it can be seen that a majority of cultural, social, and economic issues are birthed from the hands of authors. The French Revolution had Maximilien Robespierre, the Age of Enlightenment had John Locke, and, lastly, the American Revolution had Thomas Paine. Of these revolutions and changes in society, the American Revolution was fundamental in creating the American identity and the residuals can still be felt today. Although there were numerous figures that aided the beginning of the American Revolution, Paine was one of the most influential due to his 48-page pamphlet Common Sense. Published anonymously so as to keep himself safe from the British, Common Sense truly brought the idea of independence from Great Britain front and center to the colonists. In doing so, the masses slowly began to turn on Great Britain and soon realized that independence was coming soon. Paine, with his politically capacity, implemented methods throughout Common that would draw people towards the idea of independence. The first method was to make the claim for independence a global need and reunite the colonies.

“These are times that try men’s souls,” stated Thomas Paine. Paine was a man from Thetford, England, and born on June 8, 1809. Today, he is now known for his encouragement of the American Revolution, along with his various words of wisdom and to motivate independence and self-rights. Through his successes came great struggle when Paine’s wife and child had both died during childbirth. Taking the title of “The Father of the American Revolution”, he greatly influenced American history with his deist worldviews and his “Common Sense”.

Thomas Paine states his ideas for the government in his Common Sense written in 1776. Paine states that America should not have a king. The first king might be great but then ruling by divine right usually ends up with the people having terrible kings. Once a monarch is put into place it becomes extremely hard to remove. Today in America we still do not have kings which is very good for America. The democracy system that we have in place gives Americans many rights and overall good country to live in unlike 3rd world countries. Paine brings up the point that most subjects under a king do not revolt do to fear and superstition. This made me wonder why they would fear. The subjects would outnumber the royalty and their guards if they would all stand together.

Paine represents the idea of no king is god, which he explains “That the king is not to trusted without being looked after…that the thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy” and also “there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion”. These are the things that the newly formed patriots were influence to provide a better government for themselves. There is John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, Of the State of

Thomas Paine argued almost fanatically for the protection of the rights of man. He failed to anticipate the political 27 consequences of these rights being achieved during a period of chaos. Burke supported hereditary monarchy in France because that would be the preservation of the status quo and because the English Revolution had proven a monarchy to be the only means of securing national tranquility. It may be assumed that Paine and Burke found their support for or opposition to the Revolution on two different dimensions. While each were acutely aware of the particular circumstances, the desire to apply their philosophic beliefs to the situation may have removed them from the actual situation. The beliefs of both men were so established that they may have overlooked factors contradictory to their theories. Perhaps Burke could not recognize that the mere age of the French Institutions implied a certain stability and that constitutional reform would not be effective. Perhaps Paine could take heart in the destruction of birth as the key to success and the enshrinement of equality before the law as a firm principle of the French

This system stems from John Locke’s theory on civil society and the extent of legislative power, stating that the civil government’s job is to protect the people’s natural rights, and he believes that the absolute monarchy he lives under does not provide that protection. Locke explains, “…(man) could never be safe nor at rest, nor think themselves in civil society, till the legislature was placed in collective bodies of men, call them senate, parliament, or what you please.” He believes that absolute monarchy places no common authority over all people; thus, by placing power in one person, the entire society deteriorates. Since the monarch can encroach on people's property and wellbeing without fear of punishment, the people lack the protection, comfort, and motivation to contribute to the good of the society. Thus, Locke clarifies that “No man in civil society can be exempted from the laws of it.” This causes the person in power to fear punishment from encroaching on people’s property or wellbeing and protects from the political domination they would be imposing if the law did not apply to them. If the person in power continued to impinge on people’s natural rights, Locke then believed that the people had the right to a revolution against their tyrannous monarch. Locke justifies this, saying “This I am sure, whoever, either ruler or subject, by force goes about to invade the rights of either prince or people, and lays the foundation for overturning the constitution and frame of any just government, is highly guilty of the greatest crime, I think, a man is capable of, being to answer for all those mischiefs of blood, rapine, and desolation, which the breaking to pieces of government bring on a country.” Locke’s basis of natural rights

The question of how much power should the state have over its people and how the people react to that demonstration of power has been a prominent theme throughout history. Limiting power first began with King John’s signing of the Magna Carta which limited his authority as a king creating the first constitutional monarchy. To thoughts of the enlightenment particularly the ideas of John Locke and Jean Jacque Rousseau, ideas such as equality of man in Locke’s Two Treaties on Government or how the general will contribute to the limitation of sovereign power mentioned in Rousseau’s Two Treatises on Government. Ideals which directly or indirectly led to revolutions particularly the French Revolution and the uprising of the third estate and the Declaration

By the 1640s the population of Europe was divided in a civil war on the power and rights of monarchs in their countries. Many thought that a sovereign king had absolute power that was bestowed upon them by the will of God and should not be overthrown no matter the condition or injustices they had committed against their people. Others thought that an unjust king is not sovereign and goes against the will of God and must be overthrown in such a situation. During this civil war philosophers, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Bodin, and John Locke wrote articles that covered the rights and duties of a sovereign monarch, why a sovereign monarch is needed and how the rights of the sovereign is absolute. Why is a government needed in order to ensure people within a commonwealth are protected? In this paper, I will argue that the need for a government and a sovereign ruler was to protect people not only from foreign invaders and enemies, but from their own human-ness.