Common Sense

From Wikinfo

Common Sense is a pamphlet first published on January 10, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War by Thomas Paine. Its pages contained a denouncement of British rule.

Arguments against British rule in Common Sense:

• It was ridiculous for an island to rule a continent
• America is not a "British nation"; it is composed of influences from all of Europe
  • Even if Britain was the "mother country" of America, that makes her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally
• Being a part of Britain would drag America into unessecary European wars, and keep it from the international commerce at which America excelled.

The publication of this pamphlet was key in the growth of popular support for independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson took ideas from both this publication and John Locke when writing the Declaration of Independence

External link

Full text of Common Sense courtesy of Project Gutenberg

Further Reading

• Scott Liell, 46 Pages: Tom Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to American Independence, Running Press, April, 2003, hardcover, 160 pages, ISBN 076241507X; trade paperback, March, 2004, 176 pages, ISBN 0762418133

See common sense for a general definition and discussion of that phrase.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Common Sense" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense December 7, 2003