The most important pamphlet in American history was published in Philadelphia on Jan. 10, 1776 — 250 years ago today. Authored by Thomas Paine but signed simply, “Written by an Englishman,” "Common Sense" met the moment in transforming the political imagination of American colonists.
Before “Common Sense,” most Americans were not calling for independence, seeing it as risky and extreme. Even after hostilities at Lexington and Concord, many still hoped to resolve the Colonies’ dispute with the king and be treated as equals within the Empire and afforded their full rights as Englishmen.
I explain to my university students the impact of “Common Sense” with this analogy: Imagine a couple with serious marital problems turning to a counselor for help. Instead of guiding them toward reconciliation, the therapist lays out a clear, direct argument for separation. That is what Thomas Paine did. He did not help Americans repair their relationship with Britain; he convinced them to walk away from it.
Through plain language and a powerful social contract argument, Paine challenged the very legitimacy of hereditary monarchy, calling it an offense against nature itself. He argued that true happiness and liberty could not be found under kings but in government by the people. “Common Sense" did more than argue for independence; it made separation the obvious choice.
“Common Sense" went viral in its day. Paine claimed 130,000 copies were sold in the first three months. A mid-twentieth-century historian estimated that as many as 500,000 copies circulated by the end of the American Revolution, while most experts today place that figure closer to 75,000. Even that lower estimate understates the pamphlet’s reach. Paine’s ideas spread far beyond paid copies, as excerpts were widely reprinted in colonial newspapers and read aloud in taverns and churches.
Early clashes between colonists and the king’s troops, along with the Crown’s refusal to address colonial grievances, set the stage for “Common Sense" to convince Americans of the need for independence. George Washington officially took command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775. Just two days later, in one final attempt for peace with Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition. It promised colonial loyalty to the king while seeking redress of grievances.
George III did not even read the document when it arrived at his court. Instead, he issued a proclamation declaring the American colonies in open rebellion and ordered his subjects to carry out the “suppression of such rebellion” and expose all “traitorous conspiracies and attempts” against the Crown.
Nearly a year later, on April 1, 1776, Washington wrote to friend and former aide Joseph Reed about the slog toward accepting independence — and the powerful effect Paine’s “Common Sense" was having on public opinion in Virginia:
“My country men I am found, will come reluctantly into the idea of independency, but time and persecution bring many wonderful things to pass; and by private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find ‘Common Sense’ is working a wonderful change there in the minds of many men.”
By the summer of 1776, what once seemed unthinkable now had momentum — not because Americans had exhausted every alternative to independence, but because Thomas Paine had reframed the question itself. Through “Common Sense," the question shifted from the rightness of reconciliation to the folly of submission to a king unwilling to protect the rights of his subjects.
Paine gave ordinary Americans a new language grounded in natural rights over loyalty and tradition. A conflict that began as a tax protest transformed into a compelling argument about the purpose of government. Paine insisted, drawing on John Locke’s natural-law philosophy, that governments exist to secure the rights and happiness of the people, and when they fail, the people are justified in creating new government.
As Paine wrote, “The Cause of America is in a great measure the Cause of all Mankind.” He argued, successfully, that these principles were human, not merely American. By trusting ordinary citizens to understand and carry forward these ideas, Paine helped prepare them not only for independence, but for the responsibility of self-rule—and a faith in civic responsibility. Both remain essential to sustaining our constitutional republic today.