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Custom Cliff Note for Common Sense by Thomas Paine
[Note: This is only the first page of a much longer cliff note on Common Sense.]
Summary
In the introduction to Common Sense, Paine puts forth his well-supported argument for our independence from Great Britain. He argues against the concept of monarchy by saying, “In short, monarchy and succession have laid…the world in blood and ashes” (Paine Pt II, Ln 21). Then he goes on to explain the importance of the establishment of a representative democracy in our new nation. Allowing individuals the chance to have a say in the development of the laws that rule them, Paine explains, would result in a happier society. Most prominently, Paine suggests that the American colonies move rapidly towards independence. If we wait, he warns, the colonies might become too large for the unity required to fight Britain’s resistance.
Analysis
The concepts of liberty and freedom expressed in the introduction to Common Sense make great sense in historical hindsight. Paine was right in instructing the colonists to move rapidly towards independence; as he predicted, just eighty-five years after the American Revolution, the United States had grown so large that national unity was impossible and an internal dispute was unavoidable. The ways people in the North and South interpreted the Constitution were quite different. The seemingly simple and straightforward ideals expressed by Paine, such as representative democracy, a strong federal system, personal freedom, equality, and individuality, rapidly became quite complicated.
Thomas Paine expresses a need for a representative democracy and a balanced, mainly federally run government. At the time of the Civil War, the most obvious difference between the feelings of northerners and southerners was that southerners, generally, wanted slavery to continue in the United States and northerners wanted it to stop. Supporters of slavery spoke in support of states’ rights; they felt it should be up to each individual state to decide whether or not they wished to allow slavery. This sentiment was quite different from Paine’s feelings supporting the idea of the United States being one centrally organized, united nation. The Constitution was more on the side of Thomas Paine; the concept of a centralized government, rather than a scattered one, is clear. Early in the Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, the central government is granted the power “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers.” The South’s suggestion that each state should be able to make a decision on slavery individually is contrary to this statement.
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