Common Sense

3 Pages 871 Words

Common Sense
Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was one of the most influential political pamphlets during the American Revolution. This pamphlet served as reinforcement for the American colonies will for independence from England. Within the confines of fifty pages Paine tried to illustrate to the America people the evils of the monarchy and the contradictions of the English government, and show that the king is not the legitimate ruler.
In his quest to discourage the America people from breaking away from one tyrannical monarch and installing a new one in America Paine examines the English Constitution. Paine believes that if we are to examine the English constitution we will find that “two ancient tyrannies” lie under the exist republic. First and foremost of the two tyrannies is the existence of the king. Second are the remains of aristocratically tyranny (6). According to Pain the fact that these two position are hereditary this already takes away power from the people and isn’t constitutional. England’s republic itself Paine states is a contradiction, because of the checks and balances between the governing powers. “To say that the commons is a check upon the king, presupposes two things. First that the king is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy. Second that the commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the crown” (6). The fact that the king and the House of Commons have to power to check each other and reject bills Paine believes that this poses to be a problem when it comes to decision making.
Through thoughtful reasoning Paine continues to illustrate to the people that the king of England is nothing, but a useless entity which in the end gets in the way of the business of the government. Paine states that the monarchy excludes a man from the inform...