What Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' Argued, and Why It Still Matters

On Jan. 10, 1776, a pamphlet titled "Common Sense" was first printed and distributed in the American colonies, according to the Library of Congress. It carried no author's name. The public would not learn that Thomas Paine had written it until long after it had spread through the colonies, the library says.

It spread fast. The Library of Congress, in its "Books That Shaped America" exhibition, says that over half a million copies in twenty-five editions appeared throughout the colonies within the first year, and that the pamphlet "helped to turn the tide of sentiment toward revolution." Less than six months after it appeared, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

Ungoverned News draws its inspiration from that pamphlet. Here is what Paine actually argued, in his own words, taken from the text as preserved by Project Gutenberg, which reproduces an edition dated Feb. 14, 1776.

Society first, government second

Paine opens not with the king but with a distinction most readers had never been asked to consider: society and government are different things with different origins.

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness," he wrote. "The former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices."

From that, he drew the line that has been quoted ever since: "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."

Government, in Paine's telling, exists for a narrow purpose. He named it directly: "the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security."

Against hereditary rule

The pamphlet's title page lists four subjects: the origin and design of government, with remarks on the English Constitution; monarchy and hereditary succession; the present state of American affairs; and the present ability of America.

In the section on monarchy, Paine argued that no one is born with a right to rule others. "Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation," he began, before arguing that the division between kings and subjects had no natural basis.

He also anticipated why readers might resist him. "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right," he wrote in the introduction, "and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom."

'The law is king'

Paine's alternative to a crown was not the absence of rules but the rule of law. "For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other," he wrote.

His proposals were concrete. The Library of Congress summarizes that Paine suggested a one-house legislature for each colony, subordinate to a one-house continental congress, "with no executive power at either level."

Plain words for ordinary readers

Part of the pamphlet's force was its style. "In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense," Paine wrote.

Not everyone was persuaded. The Library of Congress notes that newspapers filled with responses, and that the loyalist James Chalmers answered with a pamphlet called "Plain Truth," which argued against separation from Britain.

Why it still matters

Paine wrote in a specific moment, about a specific king. But the questions he posed are the ones this publication asks every day: What is government for? What limits should bind it? Who benefits when people stop questioning long habit?

He believed the stakes reached beyond one continent. "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind," he wrote.

Two hundred and fifty years later, the pamphlet remains free to read in full. We recommend starting with the original.