![]() ![]() In addition to the audacity and timeliness of its ideas, Common Sense compelled the American people because it resonated with their firm belief in liberty and determined opposition to injustice. Challenging the King's paternal authority in the harshest terms, he mocked royal actions in America and declared that "even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their own families." Finally, Paine detailed in the most graphic, compelling and recognizable terms the suffering that the colonies had endured, reminding his readers of the torment and trauma that British policy had inflicted upon them. ![]() ![]() Implicitly acknowledging the hold that tradition and deference had on the colonial mind, Paine also launched an assault on both the premises behind the British government and on the legitimacy of monarchy and hereditary power in general. Hardnosed political logic demanded the creation of an American nation. That goal, he maintained, could only be achieved through unified action. ![]() Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence. Common Sense made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it. ![]()
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