Original article appeared on the National Constitution Center's blog page 12-19-2015.
The publication of Thomas Paine’s
Common Sense
caused a sensation in early 1776 as it explained the need for freedom.
But it was a second series of pamphlets published on December 19 of that
year that inspire a huge American military victory.
“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,”
said Paine in The American Crisis, a new pamphlet that appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal.
Four days later, like a modern day football coach seeking to inspire
his team, General George Washington had Paine’s words read out loud to
his troops at McKonkey’s Ferry on the Delaware River. Paine had written
the words during the army’s retreat from New York.
The army’s commanders read the words to a force that include John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and Aaron Burr.
Washington was literally at a crossroads. His opponent, General Howe,
had offered pardons to local residents, and the re-enlistment period
was ending for the volunteers in his army.
An inspired Washington and his troops, who adopted the motto “Victory
or Death,” crossed the Delaware River during a Nor’easter on Christmas
Day and routed the Hessian garrison at Trenton.
The much-needed victory galvanized the Revolutionary forces and the
Continental Congress. Troops decided to enlist again as Washington’s
forces won a second battle at Trenton and a key engagement at Princeton.
While American Crisis did much to inspire the troops, its fame was nowhere near that of
Common Sense, which was the first viral mass communications event in America
The first version of
Common Sense went viral, in the current sense of the word, when it hit the cobblestone streets here on January 9, 1776.
Common Sense sold 120,000 copies in its first three months,
and by the end of the Revolution, 500,000 copies were sold. The
estimated population of the Colonies (excluding its African-American and
Native American populations) was 2.5 million.
So
about 20 percent of colonists owned a copy of the revolutionary booklet. In current-day sales, that would amount to sales of 60 million, not including overseas sales.
Link: Read Common Sense
In the case of
Common Sense, the publicity was literally
word of mouth, since people would buy the pamphlet and shout the words
on street corners and inside taverns for the illiterate to hear.
Paine was born and raised in England, and he had been in Philadelphia
for little more than a year, after getting a letter of recommendation
from Benjamin Franklin.
He published
Common Sense anonymously, and its simple words made the case for the Colonies’ separation from England, in no uncertain terms.
In his later years, Paine would become a controversial figure because
of his writings on religion and his role in the French revolution; only
a handful of people attended his funeral in 1809.
President Thomas Jefferson had permitted Paine to return from France in his final years, and
wrote about the author in 1821.
“No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in
perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and
unassuming language,” Jefferson said. “ In this he may be compared with
Dr. Franklin; and indeed his
Common Sense was, for awhile,
believed to have been written by Dr. Franklin, and published under the
borrowed name of Paine, who had come over with him from England.”
