Thomas Paine: Common Sense

Context

With the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, antagonism between the American colonies and their governing nation across the Atlantic gradually grew too great to be ignored. Perhaps the most widespread grievance among colonists was that they did not enjoy the same general rights as did the citizens who lived in Great Britain. When Patrick Henry famously demanded either “liberty” or “death” in 1775, after the incidents at Lexington and Concord, he wished for his fellow colonists not independence but simply equal rights as English citizens. In July of that year, the Continental Congress tried to end hostilities and seek reconciliation by extending the Olive Branch Petition to the king of England. The king, however, declined to receive the petition, and to demonstrate his authority he issued a Proclamation for the Suppression of Rebellion and Sedition against the colonies.

Thus, frustration with and resentment over the rule of the British was nearly universal in America by 1776, but a consensus regarding the most appropriate way for the colonies to proceed was not. There had been conflicts, occasionally violent, but the majority of the American population desired only greater liberty within the existing political structure, not a complete dismantling of it. Most Americans saw England as a loving, if stern and unfair, parent, and many colonists rejected the notion of independence for fear of demonstrating ingratitude and irrationality.

The citizens of the various colonies, meanwhile, found themselves in a range of circumstances. While Virginia and Massachusetts, in particular, were suffering economically because of imperial policies, other colonies—such as New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina—were flourishing. Certain colonies even bore rivalries with each other, such as over the delineations of borders. Many people believed that only the continued oversight of the “mother” country could sustain any unity among the religiously and socially diverse American populace. Indeed, few people had envisioned any alternate form of government; in some circles democracy was simply another word for “mob rule.”