'Common Sense' anniversary: The life and times of Thomas Paine (Part 1 of 7)

January 10, 5:16 PMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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Thomas Paine

THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809), English writer and social activist, is best known for his popular essay, Common Sense, the pivotal historic call for American independence and democracy.

Driven by his own longing for freedom and justice, Paine's thinking was deeply influenced by English and French writers like Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and other philosophes in the movement today called the Enlightenment.

Thomas Paine published Common Sense in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, so today is the 233rd anniversary of its publication.

With only 2.5 million people then living in the 13 colonies, more than 125,000 copies of the pamphlet sold in the first three months, and 500,000 copies sold during Paine's lifetime.

Inspired by his essay, the American colonists rallied behind the struggling rebellion and transofrmed it into a revolution, thereby creating the world's first modern republic.

Without Common Sense to sway public opinion, most historians now agree, the American revolultion would have failed from lack of popular support. Said 18th century poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, "Washington's sword would have been wielded in vain had it not been supported by the pen of Paine."

During the war, Paine wrote The American Crisis to sustain public support for independence. After the war, he went to France to witness their revolution, defending its ideals in The Rights of Man. Honored at first, he later was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. While in prison, he began to write The Age of Reason, a critique of religion that yielded a violent public backlash in America.

Returning to the United States in 1801, finding himself an outcast, he died eight years later in poverty and obscurity. Thomas Paine changed our world for the better. On his shoulders others stand.

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