How Thomas Paine’s other pamphlet saved the Revolution
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.
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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.
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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.”
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