Common Sense Fo Independence

There was a lot of tension building up during the 1760’s and 1770’s between Great Britain and America and something had to be done about it. Is it worth the risk declaring independence from the most powerful country in the world? The forefathers were in a confusing situation and had to come up with something to do to solve the problem. They needed something to come along and help them make a decision. The writing of Common Sense by Thomas Paine was a major help in persuading the push to declare independence.

There were a lot of events leading up to the colonists deciding to finally declare there independence from Great Britain. The British put numerous taxes on the colonies, which they sought to be unfair. The stamp tax and the tea tax were just a few of the taxes that made the colonists upset with the British. Colonists protested these acts in many ways. The Son’s of Liberty were a group that was created to protest and they were responsible for such demonstrations as The Boston Tea Party. Then there was actually violence involved in the 1760’s. This is when the Boston Massacre happened, where British soldiers in Boston shot at an angry mob and killed five colonists. Finally there were actual battles going on between the British soldiers and the American soldiers at Lexington and Concord before the war was started and before the Americans declared independence. All of these events led to much tension between Great Britain and the America. What colonists were to do after these events led to much debate. It was the right time for independence but the question of if they were actually going to do it arose. This is where Thomas Paine and his pamphlet Common Sense comes into the picture. Paine was from England and came to America in 1774. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, were he found him Paine a job in Philadelphia. It is in Philadelphia were Paine wrote Common Sense after he met delegates from the Second Continental Congress. In his pamphlet lie many convincing arguments for the case of independence for the colonists.

The first thing that Paine did was to attack the king in his writing. He says that all mankind is created equally so why should there be a separation of kings and subjects. This is a good statement because it probably touched upon what the people of that time were feeling about there king. Paine then goes on to talk about evils of having a hereditary succession in a monarchal system. “ One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into a ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion…” This is another statement that really captures what the colonists are feeling then. It explains why the king is taxing them and giving them all this trouble, it is because he is unfit to be ruling over them and nature itself is against this king. After Paine digs into the king he goes on to talk about America and how it prospered under Great Britain. He then goes on to contradict this and say America would have flourished without the help of Great Britain or any European power for that matter. In fact, Paine writes that