Thoughts On The Present State Of American Affairs Thomas Paine

1. Thoughts On The Present State Of American AffairsThomas Paine Groups Members’ Names: Kaitlynn Hammons John Nulf Brent Wilbur

2. History of Thomas Paine • Thomas Paine was born to a Quaker father and Anglican mother in England in 1737. He received little formal education, and had even flunked out of school. After having lost his wife and child in childbirth and his first political writing rejected, things were looking down for Paine. This is when he met Benjamin Franklin, who advised him to go to America. • Thankfully for Thomas, he arrived in America just in time: the colonists’ rebellion against Britain was quickly escalating. He felt that America should separate from Britain entirely and form its own nation. Just 5 months after his arrival, the battles of Lexington and Concord took place in 1775, the beginning of the American Revolution. This opened the door for Paine to share his ideas with the Colonies.

3. Common Sense • In 1776 he published all his arguments for American Independance in his famous book, “Common Sense”. It provides a sequence of logical reasons for why America should secede from Britain. Its purpose was to convince the colonists to battle not just for representation or for no taxation, but take up a whole revolution, to gain independence from Britain. One section of his book, called “Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs”, talks about the benefits to the nation as a whole if it were to separate.

4. Summary - In this portion of his book, Paine gives a few ways in which he believes independence would benefit America: • If America were to separate, it would improve commerce, security, and protection, and America could then become an important world trading port, forming friendships and trading more freely with other countries. If it stays under British rule, it will become just a tool of the mother country in its struggle for power. • When countries waged war on Britain they would also wage war on America, a conflict that could cause deep problems in the future. • America should be a symbol of freedom for the world, a country where people can come to escape oppression. Hanging onto a small part of British Parliament whose focuses are far from that of the colonists, shows a place of undesirable weakness.

5. RELEVANCE • Common Sense, the book from which this excerpt was taken, was an important part of history because it inspired many Americans to revolt against Britain. Thomas’s goal was to start a fire in the hearts of the colonists: a fervor for an independent nation. This book became a very famous part of history, as it united many who read it to fight for independence. It made them look closely at the government that was holding them down, and caused many to be angered into fighting for a new nation, apart from England.

6. LITERARY DEVICES • “Now is the seed time of Continental union...” -- Metaphor • “The Sun Never shined on a cause of greater worth.” – Personification • “Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument.” --Hyperbole