VII.

Common Sense

The publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine in January 1776 helped convince many Americans of the need for independence. In this pamphlet, Paine, a magazine editor and writer newly arrived from England, attacked the king, the idea of royalty, and even the notion that there should be an aristocracy. In eloquent yet biting language, Paine also made a direct appeal for a manifesto or proclamation establishing American independence. The pamphlet had an electrifying effect on hundreds of thousands of colonists. By the spring of 1776 local Committees of Correspondence and some state legislatures began to call openly for independence.