Common Sense Published
Thomas Paine published Common Sense, persuading colonists to support independence from Britain
January 10, 1776
Words That Started a Revolution
Thomas Paine was not a founding father in the traditional sense — he arrived in America from England in 1774 with little to his name. But in January 1776, he published a pamphlet called "Common Sense" that changed the course of American history. Written in plain language that ordinary people could understand, it argued boldly that independence from Britain was not just desirable but necessary. It sold an estimated 500,000 copies in its first year, extraordinary for the time. Six months after its publication, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration's Core Ideas
Drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson and adopted on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It argued that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, and that when a government fails its people, they have the right to abolish it. These were radical ideas at a time when most of the world was ruled by kings and emperors. The document drew on Enlightenment philosophy, particularly the ideas of John Locke.
A Living Document
The Declaration's ideals have been debated and contested ever since its signing. The contradiction between its promise of equality and the reality of slavery was apparent from the start and was not resolved until the Civil War and the constitutional amendments that followed. Yet its language has inspired independence movements and human rights campaigns around the world for nearly 250 years. The universal suffrage movement in New Zealand and many others drew on the same Enlightenment principles Paine and Jefferson championed.