Political Contributions Of Thomas Paine

The American Revolution was not only one of the most significant events in American history, but also ignited the minds of many journalists and writers, such as Thomas Paine. Paine began his career as a journalist in 1776 with the well known pamphlet "Common Sense". By the end of this year, he was enlisted in the American army and had begun to write a series of essays, entitled "The American Crisis". At the time these were written, morale was low in the army, and the soldiers were suffering many hardships. So, George Washington ordered that Paine's essay was to be read in front of the troops to inspire them to keep fighting. He sparked a revolutionary spirit amongst the soldiers by using different methods of persuasion. In this excerpt from "The American Crisis, Number 1", Paine used metaphors to provoke feelings of anger and indignation, imagery to inspire his audience, and logic to blatantly show the contrast between mercy and disdain.

Unequivocally one of the most historically and culturally-significant pieces of literature, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense has been meticulously analyzed for its effectiveness in eliciting the reaction that Paine himself intended in 1776. At the forefront of Paine’s pamphlet is “Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs,” notable for its first sentence: “In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple, facts, plain arguments, and commonsense” (7). Within, Paine “elaborates” on three main points that strengthen the option of independence: the effects of British rule on the colonies; the plausible relationship with Britain upon reconciliation; and the actual role of England as a parent country as opposed to England’s optimal role. However, upon analysis of the text, I discerned that Paine does not develop his main points to the extent that he does his almost-propaganda-like statements regarding England. Despite this, adding historical knowledge to Common Sense can help one corroborate Paine’s views to an extent. Overall, when expressing his views on the colonies’ relationship with England, possible results of reconciliation, and England as a parent country, Paine does not elaborate, but information regarding the Navigation Acts and mercantilism can assist one in understanding the significance of Common Sense.

Political activist Thomas Paine during the beginnings of the American Revolution wrote a pamphlet , Common Sense , to convince the American people and the continental congress to completely break away from England and it's monarchy. Paine writes in a passionate tone to explain the differences between society and government, how they both form, and why. Paine aims to convince his audience to cut ties with the motherland through his use of rhetorical appeals, figurative language, and schemes.

As the year 1776 began in the American colonies, tension with King George III’s England was at perhaps an all-time high.  Americans were frustrated with the actions of their rulers overseas.  Taxes and trade restrictions had been placed on them, and British and mercenary soldiers occupied their towns and cities.  There had even been fighting at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill.  As America grew, England’s hold on it tightened, and a few voices began speaking of independence.  The loudest and most convincing of these belonged to Thomas Paine, born in England and living in Philadelphia.  His pamphlet, Common Sense, expressed the argument for American independence in a way no one had before and had a great influence on the Declaration of

Common Sense is a pamphlet in a series of pamphlets called, The American Crisis, which was written by the enlightenment philosopher and author, Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine was a significant character in the American fight for independence by using his radicalized writings to inspire the colonists to conclude it was time to break away from British rule. Common Sense was critically successful due to it selling 500,000 copies a few months after it’s publication in 1776. Common Sense is a pamphlet that has many key ideas that show the many strengths of Paine’s argument while also having some weaknesses that could damage the credibility of his argument.

During the late 1700's, the colonies and their mother country, Great Britain, were butting heads with immense taxation and the unreasonable laws England placed on the colonies. Thomas Paine was a journalist at the time and published one of his famous works "Common Sense" in 1776. The pamphlet was intended to challenge the British government authority that was overruling the colonial power. The arguments Paine states in Common Sense became some of the deciding factors of the colonies breaking away from Great Britain.

If Thomas Paine never published Common Sense Americans today would not only fail to fully grasp the many aspects as to why colonist wanted independence so bad, but it also might have taken American’s many more years before they earned their independence, and it is possible that America may not have ever got its independence. Common Sense was a crucial turn for American’s opinion against Britain. It was key factor in pursue colonies to fight for complete independence. So if Common Sense was never written, American’s today would be oblivious to how the colonist felt back then.

In his writing, Paine acknowledges that, “Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America.” (Paine, 683) He further states that these writings had proven

Making people understand a serious situation like America’s independence is not easy, but Thomas Paine was able to do so through his book, Common Sense. Thomas Paine was able to communicate his ideas to common simple farmers and to the high class intellectuals very easily. He lived at the time of the American Revolution, and Common Sense is one of his main publications that urged Americas’ independence from the British. Born in 1937, Thomas Paine was originally an English man to his father, and he holds radical views on religion which caused him criticism and so little people attending his funeral when he died at 1809. Paine live in a critical time, he lived in the time period that is the most

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.

Thomas Paine was responsible for some of the most influential works of the revolution. Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense was a very crucial part to America and its movement of independence from Britain. Paine was effective with his writings by being very plain. He wanted both farmers and officials to understand what he was talking about and be able to comprehend his ideas. Paine wanted to put his ideas out to the people of the American colonies so that they could understand it just by reading and not have to analyze and decipher what he was really trying to get across. He wanted to let the colonist know that there was no more room for talking about a split from English rule but it was time for the colonies to unite and take up arms against their British oppressors.

In 46 Pages author Scott Liell is able to poignantly illustrate the colonies metamorphosis from a dependent arm of the English Empire to an independent country, the catalyst for which was Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Liell is able to not only articulate the turning point of the American consensus towards independence, but he also very intelligibly depicts the sentiments of all facets of colonial dogma and the torrential effect that Common Sense had in loosening the cement that held those beliefs. Using fantastic examples of the opinions of Tories, Whigs, and those ambivalent towards independence, Liell efficiently and

“In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments and, common sense.” (Common Sense, Thomas Paine) Thomas Paine is seen as one of the most influential and outspoken igniters of the American Revolution. In his pamphlet commonsense he addresses all the ideas of government and constitutional pragmatism. William Hogeland in his article Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary Reckoning. Hogeland describes Paine’s life in great detail as well as showing the conflict between Paine and President George Washington. The connection between Paine and Washington is one that really brings into perspective how much Paine’s writtings meant in defining how America took up arms against England. What is most interesting about Hogelands

Scott Liell’s book 46 pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence ultimately describes Thomas Paine’s life and showcases the struggles he went through and the outside forces that influenced him to write Common Sense. Liell’s book also expresses the importance of Common Sense, stating that it is the “single most influential political work in American history” (16). Paine was born and raised in England, in which the King and his monarchial rule would have evident influence in his later

The main focus of this essay is to give an outlook on why I consider Paine and Burr to