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Common Sense. Thomas Paine 1776. Thomas Paine (1737-1809). 1737- Born in England 1749- Fails out of school, began apprenticing for his father as a corseter 1768- becomes excise (tax) officer in England (discharged twice in two years)
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Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) • 1737- Born in England • 1749- Fails out of school, began apprenticing for his father as a corseter • 1768- becomes excise (tax) officer in England (discharged twice in two years) • 1772- The Case of the Officers of Excise (arguing for a pay raise for the tax officers)
Thomas Paine • 1774- Meets Benjamin Franklin in London. Franklin helps Paine move to Philadelphia • 1775- Starts writing for Pennsylvania Magazine • 1776- Common Sense published • 1776/1778- Continues to publish works in order to inspire and support revolution
Thomas Paine • 1788- Returns to England • 1791- Writes The Age of Reason, part 1 in support of the French Revolution • 1805- Moves permanently to New York • 1809- Dies in June • 1819- Remains taken to England by William Cobbett, and misplaced
Common Sense (1776) • Now is the time for Independence. All of the conditions are right for separation from England. What happens now can and will affect everyone until the end of time. “Tis not the concern of a day, a year , a age… Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor.”
Common Sense 2. America does not need English rule to survive. “that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat; or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty”
Common Sense 3. England has protected us for its own interest, not attachment. “she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her own enemies on her own account”
Common Sense 4. England is not the “parent country” to America… Europe is. America is populated from people from Europe, not just England. If England is the “parent country” then their actions are even more shameful “even brutes do not devour their young”
Common Sense 5. We are country of commerce, connections with one country could hurt trade. Europe is not a peaceful place, Our connection with Britain could hurt trade with other countries we have no problem with.
Common Sense 6. England is to far away and to small to govern America. “the distance at which the Almighty hath place England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of Haven.”
Common Sense “In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger then its primary planet, and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature”
Common Sense 7. What’s done is done. “harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence?”
Common Sense The work Common Sense by Thomas Paine helped lead America to revolution by using the language of the average person to present arguments for independence that could not be disputed, then or since.
