Common Sense was written collaboratively with warning that open calls for independence were treasonous.

Evidence

Anticipating that, in line with common practices of the day for political tracts, people would read the pamphlet aloud in groups as well as quietly alone. Paine read each part to Rush after composing it, likely seeking advice on both cadence and content. For Paine’s safety, Rush urged him not to use words such as independence and republicanism, yet Paine not only used them but also turned those concepts into the twin foci around which his argument revolved. In December, on Rush’s recommendation, Paine circulated a final draft for comment to three “decided friends to American independence” then in Philadelphia: Franklin, Samuel Adams, and David Rittenhouse. … After this, “a title only was wanted for this pamphlet,” Rush later noted. “Mr. Paine proposed to call it ‘Plain Truth.’ I objected to it and suggested the title of ‘Common Sense.’ This was instantly adopted.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 70

Categorization

• XREF: Shows how overt republican/independence vocabulary carried treason risk — connects to the course’s framing values of freedom as a first principle in legal-political argument.
• DEFINE: Documents that ‘independence’ and ‘republicanism’ as terms were themselves legally dangerous and newly emergent.