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To quote the Encyclopedia of World Biography's entry on Thomas Paine (2004) "his contributions included an attack on slavery and the slave trade. His literary eloquence received recognition with the appearance of his 79-page pamphlet titled Common Sense (1776). Here was a powerful exhortation for immediate independence. Americans had been quarreling with Parliament; Paine now redirected their case toward monarchy and to George III himself -- a 'hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh.' The pamphlet revealed Paine's facility as a phrasemaker -- 'The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth"; 'Oh ye that love mankind... that dare oppose not only tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth!' -- but it was also buttressed by striking diplomatic, commercial, and political arguments from separation from Britain."

Paine, as I see it, passionately wrote the Common Sense, with convincing argument against the oppressive nature of monarchy as well as the inevitability of the...
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