THOMAS PAINE
by William H. Benson
July 1, 1999
A revolt against an existing government, joined to a hope of a new and better government, defines a revolution. English colonists on the Atlantic seaboard of the North America continent in mid-18th century toyed with the idea of a revolution.
Up to then, no colony had revolted against a European power and succeeded. Consequences for a failed revolution against King George III was a hanging. To revolt was to commit treason.
The colonists grew weary of King George III who lived on the other side of the Atlantic.
Virginia and Massachusetts plus the other eleven colonies had enjoyed colonial self-rule for one and a half centuries with minimum interference from King and Parliament’s reach.
By 1776, the proud colonial Englishmen were fed up. They believed that they knew best how to govern themselves, because they had done so for decades. They knew how to tax themselves.
What should they do? Revolt? They understood that they did not have enough power to vote or to legislate and change the King or his policies. War seemed a viable option now.
It was in the midst of this indecisive moment that an Englishman named Thomas Paine dared to suggest a complete break with England.
In January of 1776, Paine published his thoughts in a pamphlet he entitled Common Sense. Some 150,000 copies sold in a few months. It caused the colonists to think that yes, they could declare their independence.
Paine was a rare individual, in that he thought about issues and then said what he thought without regard for the way things were. He said that the colonists did not need a king to hand down arbitrary laws, that the colonist were now Americans and no longer were they Englishmen.
They should revolt. Paine called George III a "royal brute" and declared, "Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God than all the crowned ruffians who ever lived.”
Most of the colonists considered respect for the king equal to respect for God, but now Paine, an eloquent propagandist, called for the abolishment of all royalty on American soil.
He wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value."
The colonists read Paine's words and edged toward a revolt and a new American government. Whispered in secret before, independence was now discussed in the open.
They revolted. Delegates at the Second Continental Congress declared their independence from King George III six months later. Thomas Paine's words convinced them and the larger population and every American generation since then. We do not need a king!
It was Thomas Paine who struck the match that ignited a fuse on a firecracker—the splendid idea that people should rule themselves and not permit a king to rule them—that still lights up the night sky across the globe for all to see every Fourth of July, America's Day of Independence.