General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20268 min read

Common Sense

Common Sense is a 47-page political pamphlet by Thomas Paine (1737–1809), published anonymously in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, that argued the American colonies should declare independence from Great Britain and form a republic.¹ It appeared while hostilities with Britain had already begun but many colonists still hoped for reconciliation, and it became the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution.²

Key fact	Detail
First publication	Printed by Robert Bell in Philadelphia, published anonymously on January 10, 1776; Paine's name was not officially connected until nearly three months later¹
Length and audience	47 pages, "Addressed to the Inhabitants of America"¹
Structure	Four sections: the origin and design of government, monarchy and hereditary succession, the present state of American affairs, and the present ability of America³
Circulation	Paine estimated 120,000 copies sold by spring 1776 and later claimed 150,000; about 25 editions appeared across the colonies in 1776¹^•⁴
Core claim	Independence was the only alternative to continued conflict; hereditary monarchy was an imposition on posterity¹^•⁵
Famous line	"In America the law is king"⁶
Rebuttal	James Chalmers, under the pseudonym Candidus, answered it with the pamphlet Plain Truth⁷

Background

Thomas Paine arrived in the American colonies in November 1774, shortly before the Battles of Lexington and Concord.⁸ Born in southeast England in 1737, he had made corsets for a living, and before reaching age 40 he suffered a series of misfortunes: his first wife died in childbirth, and his second marriage ended in divorce. A mutual friend introduced him in London to the American diplomat Benjamin Franklin, and Paine sailed for Philadelphia in 1774, where Franklin's connection helped him secure work contributing to a local magazine.¹

Over the course of 1775, Paine watched the disagreement between the colonies and Britain move to the battlefield and concluded that independence was the only solution. His friend Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia doctor who served in the Continental Congress, suggested he compile his thoughts in a brief pamphlet.¹ It appeared at a time when separation from Great Britain was being fiercely debated, alongside other influential colonial pamphlets such as James Otis's Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1764) and John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767).⁹

Argument and style

The pamphlet's full title promised four subjects: the origin and design of government in general with remarks on the English Constitution, monarchy and hereditary succession, the present state of American affairs, and the present ability of America, with miscellaneous reflections.³ Paine opened with a contrast between society and government: "Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices."² He attacked hereditary succession as something that could "derive no glory," comparing the claim that one generation could bind all future ones to a family of kings to "the doctrine of original sin."⁵ He also dismissed the idea that the British Constitution balanced power, arguing that the crown's corrupt influence had "swallowed up the power, and eaten out the virtue of the House of Commons," leaving the government of England nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain.⁵

Plain language. Paine stated his method at the outset: "In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense."¹ Compared with other pamphlets of the period, which explored constitutional questions at length, Common Sense avoided them and used straightforward, sometimes irreverent language for shock value.¹⁰ John Adams complained that it sounded as if written by a former inmate of London's Newgate Prison; Paine took the remark as praise, having wanted the text to sound like speech in a tavern, shop, coffeehouse, or street. He fashioned the pages as a kind of script for public reading, adding italics and capitals to direct the cadence, as in "The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART."⁴ Scholars of rhetoric have described the result as a masterful piece of argument rather than, as it is often called, a simple rant for the masses.¹¹

Law as king. Paine declared that "in America the law is king," a formulation later studied as a distinct constitutional vision that placed written law above executive power.⁶ He also invoked the language of ordinary people against the throne: "common sense is resolutely on the side of the people, and therefore the adversary of kings."¹²

Reception and circulation

The pamphlet spread rapidly. Within three months it went through multiple editions; by the spring of 1776 Paine estimated he had sold 120,000 copies.¹ Colonists read it at home and heard it read aloud in public, and its clear everyday prose, with criticisms of the British monarchy and an impassioned call for liberty, is credited with helping ignite the push for independence across the colonies.¹ Three days after publication, New Hampshire Delegate Josiah Bartlett wrote from Philadelphia that the pamphlet was "greedily bought up and read by all ranks of people" and sent a copy home to counter fears of "the frightful word Independence."¹

Delegates as distributors. Members of the Continental Congress mailed copies up and down the seaboard. Samuel Adams told James Warren to borrow it and read it "without Prejudice"; John Hancock sent one to Thomas Cushing; Samuel Ward of Rhode Island sent a copy to his daughter and recommended the pamphlet "be distributed throughout all the Colonies if it was even at the public Expence."¹ Abigail Adams called it "highly prized . . . and carries conviction whereever it is read," while John Adams judged that although the pamphlet contained "some Whims, some Sophisms, some artfull Addresses to superstitious Notions, . . . all agree there is a great deal of good sense, delivered in a clear, simple, concise and nervous Style."¹ By February 1776, Ward reported that "two thirds of this City & Colony are now full in his Sentiments" in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, and that support was gaining ground in the Jerseys and Maryland; John Penn reported hearing "nothing praised in the Course of his Journey, but Common sense and Independence."

Opposition. The pamphlet divided its readership into partisans and opponents from the outset.¹³ James Chalmers, writing as "Candidus," produced the loyalist rebuttal Plain Truth, which at first few could read because it was far too dense in comparison with Paine's pamphlet.⁷ Paine himself quarreled with publisher Robert Bell and ordered him not to proceed on a planned second edition, having prepared several appendices to add to the work.⁸

Influence on independence

Common Sense was the first widely read pamphlet proposing American independence, and its January 1776 publication coincided with the wide dissemination in colonial newspapers of the King's speech to Parliament, which had accused the colonists of rebellion.¹⁴ Almost overnight, the King rather than Parliament became the target of colonial grievance, and gaining independence under representative state governments became the Patriot aim.¹⁴ The National Archives records that the pamphlet "was sold by the thousands" in the months before the Declaration of Independence.¹⁵

Paine himself connected the pamphlet to formal separation. In February 1776, in the closing pages of the first edition, he argued that the "custom of nations" demanded a declaration of American independence if any European power were even to mediate a peace between the Americans and Great Britain.¹⁶ John Adams later wrote to his wife that Congress could likely have declared independence in January, but that the delay had advantages: time was given for the whole people to "maturely consider the great Question of Independence" through newspapers, pamphlets, assemblies, and town meetings, "so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act."¹ Historians' assessments of exactly how much Common Sense determined the congressional decision remain debated, and its precise effect on the Delegates' deliberations is described as hard to determine even though the Delegates recognized its effect among the American people.¹

Afterlife

After revealing his authorship, Paine wrote a series of pamphlets titled The American Crisis beginning in December 1776.¹ The idea that the Declaration of Independence "was due more to Paine's Common Sense than to any" other single cause has been advanced in accounts of the pamphlet's editions.¹⁷ Common Sense remains in print and readable in full on the Library of Congress website, and its 250th anniversary in January 2026 was marked among the first milestones of the United States' founding commemorations.¹⁸^•¹⁹ Historian Sophia Rosenfeld, author of Common Sense: A Political History, has described the notion of common sense in 18th-century America and France as a proto-democratic idea, one that suggested ordinary people possessed the capacity to seek the general interest and think politically.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Political systems and ideas › Monarchy and republicanism › Republicanism › Classical and theoretical republicanism › Republicanism in the American founding era

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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