Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: 250 Years Later

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published a ground-breaking pamphlet that helped colonists shape the framework that would be needed in helping the colonies declare their independence from Great Britain.

One hundred twenty thousand copies sold in the first three months in a nation of three million people. It would become the best-selling printed work by a single author in American history up to that time. That work was Common Sense.

Paine published the work as a way to lay out the argument for independence against Great Britain.

This document has also provided us with lessons of faith that apply to today.

Faith in Reason and Nature

Paine appealed to "common sense," arguing that natural laws and reason (God's gift) show monarchy is absurd, not that scripture forbids it.

One quote that supports it is “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 ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.”

Critique of Monarch and Divine Right

His attack on kings and the church hierarchy was an attack on human-made systems that usurped God's role and exploited people, advocating for self-governance and honest service over pomp and power.

He writes, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”

He wanted the colonists to reject the British crown by embracing God’s law and a system in which they could govern themselves without tyrannical rule.

Reason is a Gift from God

Paine believed humanity could understand God and His will through observation of nature and reason, not just scripture or priests, making rational thought a religious duty.

Today, Paine’s work is celebrated by scholars, politicians, and even historians. His work was ground-breaking and helped prick the minds of colonists who were ruled blindly by a flawed monarchy.

Paine encourages us to “let us learn wisdom” from the lessons of the past.