Common Sense and the American Revolutionary War
Common Sense has been heralded as the most influential American political work. Historians laud it as the cause of the American Revolution. Thomas Paine is called “The Father of the Revolution.” While Paine’s work was monumentally influential in the American War for Independence, it did not cause the war. The war was already underway when the work was written. Common Sense served to unite the people towards independence from Britain, giving them a reason for the war they were already fighting.
Historians debate the fundamental cause of the Revolutionary War, and many attribute the entire cause to the publication of Common Sense. The actions of the British during the months before the Declaration of Independence, however, had already caused the Americans to realize the need to fight. In 1766 Britain repealed the controversial Stamp Act under the pressure of colonial riots, and this action demonstrated to the colonists that she could not successfully levy a tax on the colonies (Lacy, 96). Britain still needed the money from the tax, and in 1767 Chancellor Townshend passed a Revenue Act which proposed a tax on lead, glass, tea, and other smaller items. The colonists again reacted violently, and all the taxes were repealed except the tax on tea (Middlekauff, 209). Britain refused to repeal the tea tax. This led to the rebellion that is commonly called the “Boston Tea Party,” where colonists in Boston dumped British tea into the Boston Harbor.
Parliament realized the colonial rebellion, particularly in Boston, was now an issue that could no longer be ignored. They proceeded to pass a series of four acts which the colonists labeled the “Intolerable Acts.” These acts were aimed at punishing Boston for the destruction caused by the Boston Tea Party, but the other colonies took notice. It was becoming all too clear to the colonies that the original, self-governing charter of Massachusetts was virtually no longer in existence, and they feared this was the way they all were to be treated in the future. The colonies each began small congresses and were arming themselves (Lacy, 132). In April of 1775, the Royal General Gage received the orders to find and take the stores of the militia. He marched on Lexington and Concord and proceeded to take the arms that were there. To his surprise, a band of minute men soldiers, the common colonists, met him with strong resistance. The British were beaten back, and the American people showed Great Britain that they were willing to fight for their rights (Lodge, 33). This outbreak was the true start of the American Revolutionary War.
The position of the majority of the colonists even after the battle at Lexington was not independence. While northern New England was involved in bitter fighting, the people of the southern colonies debated the pros and cons of union and resistance (Fast, 5). The majority believed that there was a distinction between the King and the Parliament. Even George Washington called the British troops “ministerial troops” and some colonists went so far as calling the colonial troops “the King’s troops.” They were fighting not for independence, but for their rights as English citizens. King George was viewed as under the control of Parliament and the only hope for preserving their liberty within the empire. (Miller, 462-467) Even the more radical colonists when they spoke of independence saw it as a last resort should Britain refuse to compromise-a sort of evil to be tolerated if necessary (Lacy, 144).
Few of the colonists realized, however, that a year after the battle of Lexington they were technically independent. There were no Royal Governors in the territories, and the British no longer had troops fortifying the colonies(Lacy, 141). The colonies slowly began to realize that the presence of British power was only because they allowed it. They faced a fundamental decision: should they accept the return of British authority, or should they assert and maintain their accidental independence? Britain, however, offered no such choice and demanded that the colonists surrender their arms or go to war(Lacy, 142). War was inevitable, and the issue became whether they would be fighting for rights or independence. The colonies needed a voice to put into words the thoughts they had been pondering.
Five months before the battle of Lexington, a sick, beaten Englishman landed on the shores of the colonies. That man was Thomas Paine. He was unknown in America, and barely supported himself as a newspaper editor, but he watched the American people with keen interest. He saw in America something that the people themselves did not see. He did not simply see a piece of land which was part of England, but he saw an emerging country. He became obsessed with the idea of American Independence. (Fast, 4-5)
Paine spent the fall and winter of 1775 setting down his ideas about American independence. An Englishman himself, he saw America as a utopia that needed to be preserved at all costs. He had lived among the aristocracy of England and had become disillusioned with the supposed glories of it. He knew that there was no distinction between the British monarchy and Parliament (Downs, 150). On January 10, 1776 his ideas were published anonymously in a small pamphlet entitled Common Sense. He entitled the work Common Sense because it was indeed common sense for America to separate from England. This penniless Englishman had no idea of the events which would follow the publication of his small pamphlet.
Common Sense was an immediate hit in New England. Stating the exact number of copies sold is impossible, but historians claim the sales to be equivalent to thirteen million copies in today’s terms (Fast, 40). Estimates say that almost every literate man in the colonies had read the pamphlet, and most illiterate men had it read to them. The ideas of Thomas Paine were sweeping the nation at an incredible rate. The reason for the popularity of Common Sense was its style of writing. Paine did not attempt to extol the people to action with lofty, sermon-like words. He spoke in the language of the common man. Early twentieth century historian Henry Cabot Lodge puts it this way:
It gave utterance to the popular feeling, it put into words what the average man was thinking and could not express for himself, and it did this with a force and energy which arrested the attention in America, and traveling across the seas, made men over there listen too.
Common Sense became the voice of the American people, and gave them words to express the thoughts they were already thinking. (Lodge, 110)
The first thing Paine tried to do with his work was to correct the false notion that the King was on the side of the colonies. Being an Englishman, he had a better understanding of how the monarchy worked in England than the American colonists. This was important because it was the first time that the King was openly criticized to the colonists (Miller, 167). In his work he calles the king the “hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England” and accused him by asking how the “Father of His People can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.” (Paine, 25) These scathing accusations against the King awakened the American people to realize that the King was not on their side. He proposed not only that the British king was against the colonies, but also that monarchy was a blight against mankind and should be withstood.
The colonists had four main reasons for desireing the war to lead to reconciliation. First, they said that America fourished under British control .Second, they said that Britain protected them. The third argument centered around Britain being the “mother country.” The final argument was perhaps the most influential. The colonists feared that with Britin they were strong, and without Britain they would be weak and at the mercy of the world. Common Sense attacks each of these arguments and plainly puts forth for the American people the idea the independence was immanent. The final section of the work Paine spends furthering his argument against the fear of being weak without Britain by writing on the present ability of America, giving the colonists a boost of self-esteem. (Paine, 31)
Common Sense set forth to the colonists Paine’s view that independence was not an evil to be tolerated, but rather a good to embrace while they had the chance. It was bound to come, and it was impossible to think of a huge, growing continent, such as America, forever bound to a tiny island across the ocean (Lacy, 144). Paine succeeded in taking the ideas the colonists had been pondering and voicing them in a way the common man could understand. As his work gained popularity, the Continental Congress convened for the second time in the summer of 1776. It was here that the colonists decided what it was they were fighting for. They chose independence, because of the influence of Thomas Paine. On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted and America continued fighting Britain, only now they had a unified reason to fight. It was Common Sense, more than any other single factor, which united the colonies towards independence.
Many historians try to say that Thomas Paine’s Common Sense began the Revolutionary War. The content of Common Sense was not a call to war, but rather a call to independence, for America was already at war. The attitude of the colonists prior to its publication was leaning towards reconciliation with Britain, and they needed a voice to show them the inevitability of independence. The actions of Britain, however, had already pushed the colonies into war, so it is faulty to say that Common Sense started the war. America was already at war with Britain, and they needed someone to point the way towards independence. Common Sense provided a voice to unite America to fight for independence.
Works Cited
Downs, Robert B. Molders of the Modern Mind. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1961.
Fast, Howard. The Selected Work of Tom Paine and Citizen Tom Paine. New York: Random House, 1946.
Lacy, Dan. The Meaning of the American Revolution. New York: The New American Library of
World Literature, Inc., 1964.
Lodge, Henry Cabot. The Story of the Revolution. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.
Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense.” In The Selected Work of Tom Paine and Citizen Tom Paine, ed. Howard Fast, 3-39. New York: Random House, Inc., 1946.
