Paine’s Common Sense exceeded Locke’s influence on American independence

Evidence

Surpassing even Locke’s Second Treatise on Government in popular impact, Common Sense not only propelled the drive for American independence but also became a clarion call for individual liberty and popular rule in the modern world. “’Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province or a Kingdom; but of a Continent,” Paine wrote to open the pamphlet’s essential second section, and then closed its soaring appendix by making this cause of American independence “the business of the world.” As he had undertaken in the first few lines of Common Sense, Paine had come full circle through his many plain arguments to reiterate what he had set forth in the pamphlet’s brief Introduction as the simple fact that, in its fight against tyranny, oppression, and destruction, “The Cause of America is in great Measure the Cause of all Mankind.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 96

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to course readings contrasting Paine’s popular-republican radicalism with the Lockean natural-rights tradition often taught as the founding’s sole philosophy. — connects to: Paine’s Common Sense reframed colonial resistance as a revolution for independence.; Locke’s Second Treatise was widely cited in pre-revolutionary America — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 7

Broader Connections

• Locke’s Second Treatise was widely cited in pre-revolutionary America #complicates (0.85) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 7