The declaration and achievement of independence and the establishment of state and federal constitutions were pivotal events not only in American history but also “in the course of human events.” No one better assisted and chronicled these momentous events than Thomas Paine, a recent immigrant from England who arrived in Philadelphia on 30 November 1774. In January 1776, Paine published Common Sense, a tremendously influential pamphlet that shaped public opinion in favor of independence. Later that year, he also began publishing his sixteen-part newspaper series, “American Crisis,” that lasted until 1783. These publications contributed mightily to maintaining American morale and the patriotic resolve necessary to declare independence and continue the eight-years’ long arduous struggle for independence.
Soon after arriving in Philadelphia, Paine became the editor of the newly-established monthly Pennsylvania Magazine, owned by Robert Aitken. In this capacity, Paine wrote about twenty percent of the magazine’s content. Anti-slavery pieces became a recurring topic, which gained Paine the admiration of the liberal Philadelphia intellectual community.
Following the battles of Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775, Paine turned his attention to the worsening imperial crisis. After preparing drafts of three newspaper essays under the pseudonym “Plain Truth,” Paine submitted the first to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a social reformer active in opposing slavery and the oppressive British imperial policy. Rush encouraged Paine to combine the essays as a pamphlet under the pseudonym “Common Sense.” Published on 10 January 1776, the seventy-nine-page pamphlet was an immediate success. Newspapers throughout the country printed excerpts from it, and, by the end of the year, it was reprinted in at least nineteen different pamphlet editions in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. In a country with a free population of fewer than three million people, Common Sense remarkably sold 400,000 copies.
The pamphlet electrified the country. Until then, the idea of a separation from Great Britain was not openly discussed by many Americans. But now, independence became the overriding issue of the day. The ideas espoused by Common Sense played a crucial role in bringing forth the vote for independence in the Second Continental Congress. 
Writing as Common Sense, Paine portrayed the unfolding American Revolution as a moment of profound significance in the history of mankind. “The cause of America,” he wrote, “is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.” “We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months. The reflection is awful.”
According to Common Sense, the American struggle was far more than a local or national issue. “The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ’Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable Globe. ’Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.” He concluded with a warning and a call to unity: “Now is the seed-time of Continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.”
America’s separation from British rule was, in Paine’s judgment, inevitable. “Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for government to take under their care,” he wrote, “but there is something absurd, in supposing a Continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet; and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they belong to different systems. England to Europe: America to itself.”
Paine was unapologetic in advocating independence. “I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence,” he asserted. “I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,—that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this continent the glory of the earth.”
Common Sense encouraged both the Second Continental Congress and the American people to act swiftly in declaring independence. “The present time,” Paine wrote, “is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for themselves.”
He argued that the natural order of government had been inverted in most of history: “First, they had a king, and then a form of government; whereas, the articles or charter of government, should be formed first, and men delegated to execute them afterward: but from the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity—To begin government at the right end.” Paine warned Americans that “Until an independence is declared the continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.”
Common Sense also looked to the future beyond American independence. Paine advocated for new state constitutions to be drafted with annually elected, single-house legislatures unfettered by governors or upper houses. While these state legislatures would govern local matters, Paine insisted they should be subservient to Congress in continental matters.
Shortly after Congress declared independence, Paine enlisted in the Continental Army. He soon became an aide-de-camp to Nathanael Greene, one of George Washington’s most effective generals. Paine served at the evacuations of Fort Lee and Fort Washington and during the demoralizing retreat across New Jersey.
In early December 1776, with morale at a low point, Washington encouraged Paine to leave the army to use his pen to rally the faltering revolutionary spirit. Within days Paine finished the first of sixteen numbers of “The American Crisis,” which was printed in the Pennsylvania Journal on 19 December. Four days later, the essay appeared as a pamphlet and was read to Washington’s troops on the banks of the Delaware River as they prepared for their assault on Trenton. Paine’s words were inspirational and stirred resolve.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” Paine opened with which would echo through history, becoming a defining expression of American perseverance, before continuing: “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain, too cheap, we esteem too lightly:—’Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared, that she has a right not only to tax but ‘to bind us in all cases whatsoever,’ and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.”
Although the subsequent victories at Trenton and Princeton were relatively unimportant militarily, their impact on American morale was profound. Coming at a time of deep uncertainty for the American Cause, these triumphs were among the most important of the war.
Throughout the war, Paine also aligned himself in Pennsylvania with the radical Constitutional Party that vigorously supported the new democratic state constitution of 1776. He differed with the Constitutional Party, however, in supporting increased powers for Congress and called for a national convention to draft a new federal constitution. In late December 1780, Paine wrote Public Good, a pamphlet in which he criticized the yet unadopted Articles of Confederation as having too many flaws, and the powers of Congress appearing “to be too much in some cases and too little in others.” Properly enumerated federal powers would “give additional energy to the whole, and a new confidence to the several parts.”
With the victory at Yorktown in October 1781, military activity diminished. Finally, on 23 March 1783, word arrived from France that a preliminary peace treaty had been signed.
With peace imminent, Paine readied his last Crisis essay, which was published on 19 April 1783, the eighth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The essay began, “The times that tried men’s souls, are over—and the greatest and compleatest revolution the world ever knew is gloriously and happily accomplished.”
From one of the first to call for independence in Common Sense to the final words of The American Crisis, Paine had played a vital role in shaping the Revolution and in sustaining American morale throughout “the times that tried men’s souls.”