Note: The newest installment of The Road to the American Revolution is now live on Substack. Follow the series on Facebook, Instagram, and X to keep up with new essays and join the conversation. An excerpt from the article appears below.

On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense struck America like an earthquake. It appeared first in Philadelphia, the capitol of Pennsylvania and meeting-place of the Continental Congress, but it quickly spread to all thirteen colonies and beyond. Paine estimated that his 30-plus-page booklet sold 150,000 copies, making it possibly the biggest bestseller in American history.

A great part of its success was due to Paine’s direct and vigorous prose. Of the American rebellion, he famously wrote: “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”

And,

The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ‘Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent — of at least one-eighth part of the habitable Globe. ‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.

He demolished Britain’s pretensions:

Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island …

But where says some is the King of America? I’ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain … in America, THE LAW IS KING …

Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America.

And his ambitions were grand:

… from the errors of other nations let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity — TO BEGIN GOVERNMENT AT THE RIGHT END.

The birthday of a new world is at hand, and race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months. The Reflexion is awful—and in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavellings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of a world … Our plan is peace for ever.

What makes Common Sense’s success all the more striking is that, at its publication, Paine was a nobody. He was already 37 years old—the average lifespan in 1776. He had spent his life in England and had been in America a little over a year. He had failed at the four or five vocations he had taken up, as well as at two marriages. He is a rare example of someone over 30 who became an overnight celebrity.

Paine’s argument in Common Sense is simple. He begins at the beginning. Human beings devise government to restrain and punish men’s vices in society. (“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”) A king who serves himself has no place in any but the rudest times. In particular, the British monarchy lacks legitimacy and serves no useful purpose, even for England. As for America, England has betrayed her. Americans want only peace and commerce; nature itself militates against England ruling the American continent any longer. Nor is reconciliation an honorable or reasonable option. Now is the time—in terms of population, wealth, and material strength—to seize independence. There is no going back…

Read the full article here