How Common Sense influenced the American colonists

How Common Sense Influenced American Colonists: Proposal

Abstract

This paper will discuss how Thomas Paine’s Common Sense influenced American colonists at the time and also I’m going to study how Thomas Paine delivered words through Common Sense that could persuade American colonists that America should become independent of British through his pamphlet.

Literature Review

Even after the Boston Tea Party, ordinary American citizens did not think of American independence, but they still wanted to remain part of the British empire, and it is because they were ignorant of politics and didn’t know what the consequences would be of independence from the British empire. (Lewandowski III, 9) Even if George Washington and Benjamin Franklin also thought that it is American independence was not right. (Lewandowski III, 15) They thought that the British’s monarchy and republicanism were the best. So a lot of people wanted America to improve its current relationship without independence from the British, and they hoped British would lower taxes and just let Americans do their jobs more freely (Foner, 32), but they did not think about starting their own nation. At this time of the year, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, which let countless American colonists open their eyes to see the future of America which is independent of the British someday. On January 10, 1776, when Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was published, the Americans whispered about the pamphlet. In this pamphlet, Paine argued that American independence was a very common sense. He said so “I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense” (Paine, 10), and he harshly criticizes the monarchy and insists that only democratic republics are our alternatives. The British were under an autocratic monarchy, aristocracy, and republican government (Sigelman, 373). One author summed up his common sense of view in three ways: “The English system is corrupt, despotic, and contemp- tible; reconciliation with such a system is a foolish and delusive recompense for American suffering; America should be and can become an independent republic” (Smith, 23). In other words, definitely, it defied common sense that all men are equal because these political systems admit the privileged class (Paine, 5). Therefore, he stressed that America should have a new government that was entirely independent of the British.

He called these complex arguments as “Common sense,” and it was sensible to name the pamphlet by Common Sense. The title of the pamphlet caused people to wonder and made them easier to understand, and he described in the pamphlet the necessity and validity of American independence, which was very persuasive and logical. It was a skill of a God. In this respect, I was very interested in his common sense, which made me want to study it more, so I decided to write this paper.

Here are some requirements

Have to examine how Common Sense influenced American colonists, which contains the style of Paine’s writing, how Thomas Paine explained complex and boring political system in plain language, how he described the necessity for American independence, how he logically proved that necessity, and how the title of his pamphlet affected people.

The conclusion is up to you, but my conclusion was as “the reason why Common Sense has an astonishing impact on the American colonists is his detailed analysis and judgment of the American colonists”

You can use these works cited if you want.

Works Cited

Lewandowski III, A. (2013). Thomas Paine: Author of American Independence. [online] Digitalcommons.brockport.edu. Available at: https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=spectrum [Accessed 24 Nov. 2018].

Foner, Philip S. “The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine.” Mises.org. N.p., 1945. Web. 24 Nov. 2018. Available at: https://mises.org/sites/default/files/The%20Complete%20Writings%20of%20Thomas%20Paine,%20Volume%201_2.pdf

Sigelman, Lee, et al. “The Common Style of ‘Common Sense.’” Computers and the Humanities, vol. 30, no. 5, 1996, pp. 373–379. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30204657.

Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense.” Learner.org. N.p., 1776. Web. 24 Nov. 2018. Available at: http://americainclass.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Common-Sense-_-Full-Text.pdf

Smith, Frank. Thomas Paine, Liberator. [LaVerge, Tenn.]: [Kessinger Pub.], 2010. Print.