WEBVTT

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Prof: Okay.

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Today we are going to be
discussing certainly one of the

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biggest bestsellers in early
American history,

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and that's Thomas Paine's
pamphlet Common Sense.

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Before I plunge in to Common
Sense,

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I am going to answer the
question that was asked from

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this section of the room on
Tuesday,

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about how do you vote on
voting--the little brain teaser

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of the Continental Congress.

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And I found the answer to this
question.

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Okay.

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So the answer to the question
is: they actually had a pretty

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animated debate in the
Continental Congress on the

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whole voting question,
and some people said it should

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be according to population and
some said,

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'Well, you should put property
in with population,' and some

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people said one colony,
one vote.

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And with--after apparently
arguing for quite some time,

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what they realized was they
actually really didn't have an

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orderly way to figure out
population and property worth,

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[laughter]
and so they ultimately just

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decided one colony,
one vote, [laughs]

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--like, that's all we can do.

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And they were really concerned
because they didn't want that to

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be a precedent.

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They were all worried that
they'd be setting a precedent

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for all time.

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So when they wrote it down in
the minutes,

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they said, we're deciding one
colony,

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one vote, but not with the idea
that it will be a precedent for

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all time.

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Of course, it then becomes a
precedent for Congress under the

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Articles of Confederation.

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But the answer to the
question--how did they vote?--

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is apparently someone made a
motion--

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'I make a motion that we just
do the one colony,

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one vote thing'--and people
just voted on the motion as a

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group.

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So that is the answer to the
question: How do you vote on

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voting?

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I had not thought about it
before and yet historians have

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addressed it so there you go
so--Okay.

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That is the answer to the
question.

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On to Common Sense,
which really,

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truly unquestionably was a
bestseller.

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It actually sold over 120,000
copies in its first few months

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in print,
and a little bit later in the

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lecture I'm going to give you a
sense of how that compares with

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how some other things might have
sold in this time period.

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You'll really get a sense of
what kind of a bestseller this

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was.

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And certainly many scholars
consider it to be the most

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brilliant political pamphlet of
the Revolution,

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not necessarily for the
subtlety of its argument but

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certainly for the way in which
it's argued,

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and I'll talk more about that
in the course of the lecture.

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So what we're going to be
looking at is the pamphlet

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itself and what specifically
made it so remarkable.

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And then we're also going to
look some at its author,

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Thomas Paine,
who he was and how he came to

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produce this influential
pamphlet.

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But I actually want to begin
with something that I just--

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in my head when I think about
Thomas Paine I think about this,

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so I feel like I can't start
this lecture without discussing

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it.

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And that has to do with the
death of Thomas Paine or

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actually, to be more accurate,
the body of Thomas Paine.

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Okay.

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It's one of the sad ironies of
history that this person who--

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all through this lecture I'm
going to be talking about the

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great influence of his pamphlet,
had this great influence

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throughout the Revolution--
and he actually died pretty

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much poor and not very much
liked by Americans of all

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political stripes,
more having to do with his

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politics later in his life than
what he was doing during the

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Revolution,
but he was not a happy camper

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in the years of his death.

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But the most horrifying thing
about Paine's death has to do

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with the question of his body.

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Okay.

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So Paine first asked about
being buried in a Quaker

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cemetery,
and the Quakers weren't very

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excited about that because they
were not really hoping to have

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that cemetery become a tourist
attraction so that didn't work.

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So he basically ended up at
first being buried on his small

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farm in upstate New York.

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A few years later a newspaper
editor named William Cobbett

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decided that what he was going
to do was disinter the body and

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take it back to England,
and then in England they would

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set up a memorial to Thomas
Paine.

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This was his plan.

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So he did.

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He disinterred the body;
he went on a boat;

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he and dead-body Paine went
sailing back to England.

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Got back to England,
raised the issue and apparently

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did not get very much support
for the idea of a memorial of

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some kind.

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At this point it gets a little
sad.

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Okay.

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So not knowing what else to
do--and why at this point he

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didn't think to bury him
someplace else,

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I don't know--but apparently he
had the bones put in a trunk and

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kept them on his farm for a
while.

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Okay.

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So, body of Paine sitting on
his farm in England.

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Then he died--Mr. Cobbett
died and the trunk and Paine was

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passed on to his son,
and then his son I guess went

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into debt in some way and his
belongings began to get

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auctioned off and the person
doing the auctioning didn't want

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to have anything to do with
auctioning off a body.

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Like, I've never auctioned off
a body before,

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I don't want anything to do
with this--and basically Paine's

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corpse disappeared.

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We really do not know where
Thomas Paine is.

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Truly, there was a trunk and it
had Paine in it and then it

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vanished.

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And I went searching today
before I gave this lecture,

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trying to figure out
like--okay, maybe there's been a

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recent development in the search
for Thomas Paine,

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the corpse, and no actually.

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Although I did discover that in
2001 there was a society that

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wanted to create some kind of
memorial here in America and

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they decided that they were
going to try to trace the body

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so they set out trying to trace
the body.

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What they found was,
all over the world are people

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who claim to have a piece of
Thomas Paine,

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right?

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Well, his skull might be in
Australia but his leg--that

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might be in England.

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So the sort of--the horrifying
end to Thomas Paine is his body

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disappeared and perhaps little
pieces of Thomas Paine are

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floating around as little relics
all over the world.

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So that's Paine's sort of weird
ending,

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certainly not the kind of
ending that you would wish for

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the person who has written the
pamphlet we're going to be

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talking about today.

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And we are given that--what he
ended up writing was so

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influential and so different
from much of what was being

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written at this time.

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Now as I said at the outset,
it's not the great subtleties

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of its argument that made it
stand out.

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And in fact its popularity was
due to the very things that were

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its greatest strengths:
the fact that it was

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passionate,
the fact that it had a really

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simple style,
that it spoke to the common

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man, that it captured and
completely overturned prevailing

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colonial ideas about the
relationship between the mother

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country and the American
colonies.

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As someone wrote at the time,
Paine spoke a language which

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the colonists had felt,
but not thought.

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One of the remarkable things
about the pamphlet is that it

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was written by a somewhat
bankrupt English corset-maker a

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mere fourteen months after he
had arrived in America from

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England.

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Basically speaking,
Paine knew relatively little

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about colonial affairs when he
decided to write it.

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He wasn't really an established
writer.

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He had done writing before.

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I'll talk a little bit about
this today, but he wasn't this

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sort of well-known and
established writer.

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He wrote some for newspapers.

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And actually the idea for the
pamphlet initially wasn't really

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his.

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He wrote it at the
encouragement of Dr. Benjamin

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Rush.

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I mentioned that in the first
lecture, and I'm going to come

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back to that too.

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So Paine is relatively new to
the colonies,

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not really an established
writer, so how is it that he

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ends up writing this pamphlet?

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Well, more than anything else
it actually was Paine's

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experience of events in the
colonies between 1775 and 1776

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that inspired what he wrote.

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Now let's look for a moment
at--to see here what Paine is

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experiencing in that year before
he wrote the pamphlet.

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What is happening around him.

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I'm going to talk about this
really briefly here because I'll

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be talking in more detail about
this on Tuesday,

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but one thing I will mention
here very briefly is,

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part of what happens between
1775 and 1776 is the meeting of

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the Second Continental Congress.

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And that actually begins
meeting in the spring of 1775.

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I'll talk about the details of
the Congress Tuesday.

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For now, I'll just talk about
the general mindset.

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For one thing,
no colony instructed its

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delegates to this Second
Continental Congress to work for

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independence.

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That was not the agenda.

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Delegates were pretty much
still acting under the

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assumption that they were trying
to force Parliament or the King

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or someone to acknowledge their
liberties and redress their

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grievances,
and the overall assumption

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still was that balance had been
thrown off within the British

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constitution and it needed to be
rebalanced.

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So they're talking about trying
to figure out a way of balancing

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things,
maybe a new balance,

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but they're not talking about
throwing the entire system

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aside.

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Actually, in the minds of many
at the time they probably were

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thinking,
why destroy what had for a very

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long time been one of the most
successful political empires in

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the world.

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John Adams noted in his diary
at the opening of the Second

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Continental Congress that at
what he called an "elegant

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supper" at the opening of
the Congress,

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many representatives and their
friends toasted,

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quote, "the Union of
Britain and the Colonies on a

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constitutional foundation."

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Okay.

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So that's what they're hoping
for as this Congress opens.

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As an example of this initial
mindset of the Congress--

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again more about this
Tuesday--moderates attempted one

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last stab at some kind of basic
reconciliation with the Crown,

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and they issued what came to be
known as the Olive Branch

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Petition.

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It failed for a number of
reasons--again more next week--

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one of the most basic reasons
being the King refused to read

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the Olive Branch Petition,
which pretty much is the way to

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guarantee the failure of a
petition.

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By doing that,
the King basically gave some

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credence to the views of the
more radical members of the

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Continental Congress,
and radicals got even more

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credence on August 23,
1775, when the King issued a

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proclamation that declared the
colonies to be in rebellion,

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and then made plans to send
20,000 British troops to the

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colonies,
including Prussian mercenaries.

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Okay, a big change in things,
much more detail Tuesday,

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but this is important to the
setting of Common Sense.

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Branch Petition.

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He's sending troops,
not just any troops but

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literally hired guns,
right?--foreign hired guns to

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go to the colonies.

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So the colonies have now been
declared in rebellion.

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An army is coming.

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At this point the colonists
realize that they need to maybe

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take some form of action and
make some kind of military

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preparation,
not in an aggressive way but

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certainly in a defensive way.

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Even as they began to do this
and try to stock up on military

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supplies and engage in militia
training,

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still a lot of colonists
considered it pretty unlikely

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that a string of relatively
weak--

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prosperous as they
were--colonies could hope to

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defeat England,
the most powerful nation on

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earth.

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And even if they did
miraculously somehow manage to

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do that,
certainly also most people in

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the colonies would have assumed
that instantly,

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foreign powers would have come
zipping over to North America

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and would have swallowed up
these helpless little colonies,

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and so now instead of belonging
to England they would have

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belonged to France or maybe
Spain.

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So certainly things weren't
really feeling really optimistic

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at this moment in which things
seemed to be dramatically

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shifting,
and this is the setting in

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which Paine wrote Common
Sense.

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In his mind,
the time was right for some

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kind of a drastic change for the
better in the American colonies

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and,
as we'll see,

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instead of just tinkering with
the English constitution Paine

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basically turns his back on it,
rejects King George III,

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rejects Parliament,
and ultimately rejects even the

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idea of monarchy.

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So instead of centering on the
British constitution,

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Paine based his ideas about
colonial society and government

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on natural rights logic,
arguing that the colonies

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should join in a new government
grounded on equality.

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Now obviously ideas about
natural rights,

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natural rights talk,
isn't new.

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Paine's achievement was to take
those kinds of ideas and in a

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sense give them to ordinary
people.

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Part of what he argues in his
pamphlet is: this isn't some

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great high constitutional
argument.

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This is about you and me and
life in the colonies.

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And, as we'll see,
in method and in audience and

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in argument--for all of these
reasons, Paine's pamphlet had a

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big impact.

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So let's look for a moment at
who this man was who wrote this

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early American bestseller.

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Well, he was relatively poor.

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He was never really well off.

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Obviously, he was an
intelligent--strikingly

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intelligent person.

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He was someone who loved to
assert his own importance.

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He loved to brag about his
great accomplishments.

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He loved to dominate a
conversation.

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It's possible towards the end
of his life he may have had a

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drinking problem.

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I tried to get authoritative
word on this.

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Probably I didn't realize it.

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When I'm-- I--Although I've
taught this course before,

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before I give every lecture I
actually go over it and kind of

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redo it and then I research
things so before I come to class

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I'm actually having these
random--

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It's like a big game of Trivial
Pursuit.

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Was Thomas Paine really drunk?

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Research, research, research.

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Okay. Maybe not so much.

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What happened to the body?

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Oh. We still don't know.

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Okay. Okay.

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So I have these weird Trivial
Pursuit moments in preparation

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for the course here.

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So, maybe drunk,
maybe not, a slight drinking

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problem.

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Historians disagree.

13:59.788 --> 14:03.818
Either way, he was born in
England in 1737.

14:03.820 --> 14:08.270
Supposedly the cottage that he
was born in was literally in the

14:08.269 --> 14:12.539
shadow of a place of execution,
so the dark hand of the State

14:12.538 --> 14:15.438
was looming over the cottage of
Thomas Paine.

14:15.440 --> 14:17.450
He was born poor.

14:17.450 --> 14:20.160
His father was a stay-maker.

14:20.158 --> 14:23.288
Paine did go to grammar school
and he liked learning,

14:23.292 --> 14:26.792
but at the age of 12 he was
pulled out to be apprenticed to

14:26.785 --> 14:27.685
his father.

14:27.690 --> 14:30.320
As a young man,
he had a number of different

14:30.318 --> 14:30.868
trades.

14:30.870 --> 14:33.110
None of them were enormously
successful.

14:33.110 --> 14:36.060
I think for a little while he
might have been a sailor.

14:36.058 --> 14:37.798
I think he was a minor
officeholder.

14:37.798 --> 14:40.828
I think he was an excise man in
England for a little while.

14:40.830 --> 14:44.780
In his spare time he liked to
go to public lectures in London,

14:44.783 --> 14:48.223
and that's where he met men
like Benjamin Franklin.

14:48.220 --> 14:53.150
And Franklin ultimately proved
important to Paine,

14:53.149 --> 14:56.609
because Paine ended up doing
what a lot of sort of vaguely

14:56.605 --> 14:59.875
rootless people in England might
have decided to do.

14:59.879 --> 15:02.629
He decided to try his luck in
the American colonies where

15:02.634 --> 15:05.494
there seemed to be some
opportunity for self-promotion,

15:05.490 --> 15:07.520
for sort of making something of
yourself.

15:07.519 --> 15:10.429
But before setting off,
Paine did an intelligent thing,

15:10.427 --> 15:12.527
and that is,
he made an appointment with

15:12.528 --> 15:13.228
Franklin.

15:13.230 --> 15:15.480
And Franklin did an important
thing.

15:15.480 --> 15:18.870
He wrote a letter of
recommendation for Paine.

15:18.870 --> 15:22.190
And a letter of recommendation
in this period was kind of a

15:22.188 --> 15:24.618
magical thing because,
if you think about it,

15:24.616 --> 15:27.466
unlike now where there are five
million ways in which we all can

15:27.471 --> 15:30.181
check on each other,
there really weren't ways in

15:30.182 --> 15:33.772
which one person knew anything
about a stranger or could verify

15:33.774 --> 15:36.444
or check on who some complete
stranger was.

15:36.440 --> 15:39.170
There's a reason why the early
nineteenth century is the age of

15:39.173 --> 15:39.703
the con man.

15:39.702 --> 15:40.102
Right?

15:40.100 --> 15:41.880
It's really easy for someone to
drift into town,

15:41.879 --> 15:44.099
claim to be somebody,
no one has a way of checking,

15:44.100 --> 15:47.190
and then the person can drift
out, taking various amounts of

15:47.192 --> 15:48.872
money and belongings with him.

15:48.870 --> 15:52.020
So letters of recommendation
were kind of magical because

15:52.020 --> 15:55.510
basically they represented one
person vouching their reputation

15:55.509 --> 15:56.409
for another.

15:56.408 --> 15:59.608
The person who wrote it said,
'I'm writing this letter for

15:59.613 --> 16:00.403
Mr. Paine.

16:00.399 --> 16:02.729
I, Mr. Franklin,
am writing for Mr. Paine and

16:02.732 --> 16:05.862
I'm introducing him to your
attention and wish that you will

16:05.860 --> 16:09.520
introduce yourself to him and
show him around Philadelphia'--

16:09.519 --> 16:11.919
seemingly a basic statement,
but Franklin was basically

16:11.923 --> 16:13.683
saying,
'I'm--Here's my reputation.

16:13.678 --> 16:16.798
I'm vouching for this guy so
you could--you can get to know

16:16.797 --> 16:17.117
him.

16:17.120 --> 16:18.960
You can trust him because I'm
recommending him.'

16:18.960 --> 16:21.780
So it was a smart move on
Paine's part.

16:21.778 --> 16:24.068
It was a nice thing for
Franklin to do,

16:24.065 --> 16:27.725
and in the letter that Franklin
wrote he referred Paine to his

16:27.732 --> 16:30.562
son-in-law, Richard Bache,
in Philadelphia.

16:30.558 --> 16:35.798
So Paine arrived in America in
late 1774,

16:35.798 --> 16:38.928
but apparently the whole
overseas passage was pretty

16:38.926 --> 16:42.666
horrible so he was pretty much
out of commission until January

16:42.666 --> 16:44.526
1775,
and at that point when he was

16:44.532 --> 16:46.922
up and about,
Bache offered to introduce him

16:46.918 --> 16:49.528
into the local literary and
political scene.

16:49.529 --> 16:52.069
Now what happened next is a
really good case for the

16:52.070 --> 16:55.110
importance of serendipity and
the importance of bookstores.

16:55.110 --> 16:55.520
Okay.

16:55.524 --> 17:00.174
So Paine liked to hang out in
this one local bookstore.

17:00.168 --> 17:02.368
Apparently he went there every
day.

17:02.370 --> 17:02.630
Okay.

17:02.625 --> 17:04.675
That's the local literary
scene--[laughs]

17:04.676 --> 17:07.316
the bookstore--
and he befriended the owner of

17:07.319 --> 17:10.589
the bookstore and the owner
eventually invited Paine to be

17:10.587 --> 17:13.797
the editor of a new journal that
he wanted to start,

17:13.798 --> 17:15.948
that he was calling the
Pennsylvania Magazine.

17:15.950 --> 17:18.370
So Paine wrote for the
Pennsylvania Magazine for

17:18.367 --> 17:20.877
a while and he wrote a
bunch of different kinds of

17:20.876 --> 17:21.366
things.

17:21.369 --> 17:22.469
He wrote fiction.

17:22.470 --> 17:23.830
He wrote essays.

17:23.829 --> 17:25.419
He wrote social commentary.

17:25.420 --> 17:28.240
As an example,
he wrote a piece on British

17:28.238 --> 17:32.018
cruelty in the East Indies and
Africa and against native

17:32.018 --> 17:34.108
Americans,
writing, quote,

17:34.108 --> 17:38.278
"When I reflect on these I
hesitate not for a moment to

17:38.275 --> 17:42.435
believe that the Almighty will
finally separate America from

17:42.441 --> 17:43.361
Britain.

17:43.358 --> 17:46.838
Call it Independence or what
you will, if it is the cause of

17:46.838 --> 17:49.138
God and humanity it will go
on."

17:49.140 --> 17:51.040
Now considering--I'm going to
talk a little bit more about the

17:51.040 --> 17:52.880
fact that people aren't really
talking about independence at

17:52.881 --> 17:55.351
this point,
so that's a pretty bold

17:55.348 --> 17:58.258
statement before Common
Sense.

17:58.259 --> 18:02.509
Now one thing was noticeable
about Paine's writings.

18:02.509 --> 18:05.469
And that is that when they
seemed to strike at issues of

18:05.471 --> 18:07.481
American liberty,
even indirectly,

18:07.483 --> 18:09.473
even seemingly through
metaphor--

18:09.470 --> 18:12.850
as in one essay that talked
about British domination of

18:12.846 --> 18:16.406
India but everybody assumed
India must really be the North

18:16.411 --> 18:19.281
American colonies--
whenever he was referencing any

18:19.276 --> 18:22.096
of that sort of thing,
sales jumped.

18:22.098 --> 18:24.718
Everyone wanted to read those
essays.

18:24.720 --> 18:28.640
And ultimately it was some of
those essays that brought Paine

18:28.637 --> 18:30.987
to the attention of Benjamin
Rush.

18:30.990 --> 18:33.630
Rush went to that same
bookstore, the magical

18:33.634 --> 18:36.044
bookstore, the center of Paine's
life.

18:36.038 --> 18:39.038
He happened to meet Paine at
that same bookstore--so the

18:39.038 --> 18:42.038
moral is it's a good thing to
hang out in bookstores.

18:42.038 --> 18:46.318
And through their conversations
Rush later wrote that at the

18:46.317 --> 18:50.027
time he observed that,
quote, "Paine had realized

18:50.032 --> 18:53.162
the independance of the American
colonies upon Great

18:53.164 --> 18:55.564
Britain"
even at that time and that

18:55.559 --> 18:59.429
"he considered the measure
as necessary to bring the war to

18:59.429 --> 19:02.069
a speedy and successful
issue."

19:02.068 --> 19:03.578
So he meets Paine and one of
the things he notices is well,

19:03.583 --> 19:05.073
this guy's already kind of
thinking about independence.

19:05.068 --> 19:09.638
Paine himself later wrote about
his opinion of the colonies upon

19:09.641 --> 19:12.431
his arrival,
and he said that the thing that

19:12.432 --> 19:15.512
most struck him was how loyal
the colonists were to Great

19:15.509 --> 19:18.809
Britain,
and this is, Paine's words here.

19:18.808 --> 19:21.368
"I found the disposition
of the people such,

19:21.372 --> 19:24.472
that they might have been led
by a thread and governed by a

19:24.469 --> 19:24.949
reed.

19:24.950 --> 19:27.160
Their suspicion was quick and
penetrating,

19:27.160 --> 19:29.600
but their attachment to Britain
was obstinate,

19:29.598 --> 19:33.078
and it was at that time a kind
of treason to speak against it.

19:33.078 --> 19:37.298
They disliked the ministry,
but they esteemed the

19:37.299 --> 19:38.619
nation."

19:38.618 --> 19:39.958
I think that's a really
important point:

19:39.958 --> 19:41.778
"They disliked the
ministry but they esteemed the

19:41.776 --> 19:42.356
nation."

19:42.358 --> 19:45.878
"Their idea of grievance
operated without resentment,

19:45.882 --> 19:48.912
and their single object was
reconciliation ....

19:48.910 --> 19:51.370
I viewed the dispute as a kind
of law-suit.

19:51.368 --> 19:54.778
I supposed the parties would
find a way either to decide or

19:54.782 --> 19:55.492
settle it.

19:55.490 --> 19:58.670
I had no thoughts of
independence or of arms.

19:58.670 --> 20:01.810
The world could not then have
persuaded me that I should be

20:01.810 --> 20:03.870
either a soldier or an
author."

20:03.868 --> 20:06.768
Ultimately, it was the battle
of Lexington that changed

20:06.770 --> 20:08.170
Paine's view,
and his life,

20:08.167 --> 20:10.207
as it changed that of many
others.

20:10.210 --> 20:12.170
As Paine put it,
"when the country,

20:12.170 --> 20:15.410
into which I had just set my
foot, was set on fire about my

20:15.412 --> 20:17.772
ears,
it was time to stir."

20:17.769 --> 20:21.629
And so it's at this point that
Paine begins to tinker with the

20:21.625 --> 20:23.455
idea of writing a pamphlet.

20:23.460 --> 20:26.750
And apparently he spoke with
Benjamin Rush about it,

20:26.750 --> 20:29.960
and Rush later recalled in a
letter to a friend that he

20:29.963 --> 20:33.603
offered Paine one overall piece
of advice at the outset of the

20:33.595 --> 20:34.305
project.

20:34.308 --> 20:36.918
He said to Paine,
"there were two words

20:36.919 --> 20:40.499
which he should avoid by every
means as necessary to his own

20:40.499 --> 20:42.619
safety and that of the
public,"

20:42.622 --> 20:45.412
and the two words were
"independence"

20:45.413 --> 20:47.723
and "republicanism."

20:47.720 --> 20:49.890
Okay, and if you think about
Common Sense,

20:49.890 --> 20:52.110
he didn't listen to that
advice at all.

20:52.108 --> 20:54.888
And as a matter of fact it's
impossible to know what went

20:54.892 --> 20:56.782
through Paine's mind at that
moment.

20:56.779 --> 20:58.879
He certainly--He knew the
colonies were,

20:58.880 --> 21:01.140
as he put it,
on fire, he knew that popular

21:01.137 --> 21:03.717
sentiment was building even
against the King,

21:03.720 --> 21:06.770
but knowing his personality
it's entirely possible that if

21:06.769 --> 21:08.679
Rush said to him,
'Whatever you do,

21:08.675 --> 21:11.625
don't mention independence,'
that Paine's reaction might have

21:11.630 --> 21:13.320
been well,
that's at the center of it,

21:13.318 --> 21:13.688
isn't it?

21:13.690 --> 21:16.270
So that's it;
that's going to be what I write

21:16.265 --> 21:17.805
about, isn't it,
and it's going to be

21:17.805 --> 21:18.485
independence.

21:18.490 --> 21:21.270
And he might have deliberately
done the precise thing he was

21:21.272 --> 21:23.392
asked not to do,
and focus on the most

21:23.391 --> 21:26.941
controversial issue that seemed
to be at the very heart of the

21:26.941 --> 21:30.121
controversy that seemed to be,
certainly to Paine,

21:30.117 --> 21:33.527
lurking right underneath the
surface of this prevailing

21:33.526 --> 21:35.226
constitutional argument.

21:35.230 --> 21:39.590
So Paine wrote the pamphlet,
he read parts of it to Rush as

21:39.586 --> 21:43.636
he did, and Common Sense
is published in January

21:43.643 --> 21:44.323
1776.

21:44.318 --> 21:46.818
And I did state correctly
earlier that he wanted to call

21:46.818 --> 21:49.358
it Plain Truth and
Benjamin Rush thought Common

21:49.364 --> 21:52.264
Sense was a better title,
and I agree with Benjamin Rush.

21:52.259 --> 21:53.979
I like Common Sense
better.

21:53.980 --> 21:59.000
The pamphlet--The main argument
of the pamphlet did three

21:59.001 --> 21:59.811
things.

21:59.808 --> 22:03.218
So number one,
it basically refuted the

22:03.224 --> 22:06.824
prevailing ideas against
independence.

22:06.818 --> 22:11.798
It went one step further and
demonstrated the necessity of

22:11.800 --> 22:15.210
independence and how possible it
was.

22:15.210 --> 22:19.040
And it demonstrated the
stupidity and utter uselessness

22:19.038 --> 22:22.868
not only of the English monarchy
but just of monarchies

22:22.866 --> 22:23.856
generally.

22:23.858 --> 22:27.748
This is a radical message,
and it was written in a

22:27.747 --> 22:32.347
radically simple style aimed at
being accessible to a broad

22:32.347 --> 22:33.377
audience.

22:33.380 --> 22:36.700
This was all the more radical
given that American independence

22:36.696 --> 22:39.956
had not really been seriously
discussed by the great majority

22:39.959 --> 22:43.169
of colonists with the exception
of some extreme radicals who

22:43.166 --> 22:46.046
I've been mentioning now and
again in lectures.

22:46.048 --> 22:50.508
So let's look for just a minute
at how Paine went through the

22:50.507 --> 22:53.427
three parts of his argument--
and in a sense,

22:53.434 --> 22:55.024
there's three parts of his
argument,

22:55.019 --> 22:58.389
and the pamphlet itself has
three sections.

22:58.390 --> 23:01.760
And the first section of the
pamphlet centers on getting

23:01.762 --> 23:05.012
people past this ongoing
constitutional argument about

23:05.012 --> 23:08.572
the proper relationship between
the colonies and the mother

23:08.570 --> 23:09.430
country.

23:09.430 --> 23:12.930
And to accomplish this,
Paine did something amazingly

23:12.928 --> 23:13.398
bold.

23:13.400 --> 23:17.880
He just tossed aside the entire
idea of focusing on the English

23:17.878 --> 23:22.718
constitution as the context for
determining the fate of America,

23:22.720 --> 23:25.550
and rather than going on and on
and on with the same

23:25.545 --> 23:28.905
constitutional debate,
he began his pamphlet with an

23:28.906 --> 23:32.656
attack not only against King
George but also against the

23:32.657 --> 23:34.497
entire idea of monarchy.

23:34.500 --> 23:38.510
And he had a couple strategic
reasons for choosing to do this.

23:38.509 --> 23:42.669
First, the Crown was the last
remaining emotional and

23:42.673 --> 23:47.643
political link that was really
tying the colonies to the mother

23:47.638 --> 23:48.598
country.

23:48.598 --> 23:51.798
By this point,
the colonists had lost faith in

23:51.803 --> 23:54.763
Parliament,
so Paine certainly knew that if

23:54.759 --> 23:58.679
he could strike at this last
linchpin of colonial sentiment,

23:58.680 --> 24:02.300
he could advance the cause of
independence.

24:02.298 --> 24:07.408
Second, if Paine could destroy
the legitimacy not only of King

24:07.407 --> 24:11.677
George but also of the idea of
monarchy overall,

24:11.680 --> 24:15.700
then the English constitution's
legitimacy would suffer as well,

24:15.700 --> 24:19.530
once again hopefully opening
the way for independence.

24:19.528 --> 24:22.288
And then third,
I think equally important,

24:22.288 --> 24:26.578
rhetorically Paine had a really
good writer's sense of pacing,

24:26.578 --> 24:29.938
and he knew that if he opened
this pamphlet with this really

24:29.944 --> 24:33.374
dramatic challenge to all of the
prevailing assumptions about

24:33.366 --> 24:35.936
government,
and if he turned all of these

24:35.942 --> 24:39.482
assumptions on their head,
he would pull readers in to his

24:39.484 --> 24:43.364
pamphlet and in to his argument
immediately and hold them there

24:43.355 --> 24:46.985
for the center of his argument,
which was the second section of

24:46.994 --> 24:48.814
the pamphlet,
and that is really the part

24:48.807 --> 24:50.037
that focuses on independence.

24:50.038 --> 24:54.388
Independence at this point was
a topic that people didn't

24:54.388 --> 24:55.708
discuss openly.

24:55.710 --> 24:57.490
They didn't talk about it in
public.

24:57.490 --> 25:00.360
If discussed at all,
it was discussed privately

25:00.361 --> 25:03.921
among friends because basically
it amounted to treason.

25:03.920 --> 25:07.970
Paine's dramatic introduction
opened the way for him to

25:07.974 --> 25:11.284
introduce this really
controversial topic.

25:11.278 --> 25:15.038
If the English constitution
lacked legitimacy,

25:15.044 --> 25:16.554
well, what next?

25:16.548 --> 25:19.388
And his answer obviously is:
well, independence,

25:19.390 --> 25:20.780
the obvious solution.

25:20.778 --> 25:23.888
Which then brings us to the
third section of the

25:23.885 --> 25:26.195
pamphlet--and that is the
future.

25:26.200 --> 25:31.070
Paine concludes the pamphlet by
discussing just what Americans

25:31.068 --> 25:35.458
could institute to replace the
English constitution,

25:35.460 --> 25:38.100
what kind of government they
might be able to construct to

25:38.097 --> 25:39.947
replace what they were stripping
away.

25:39.950 --> 25:46.130
Now throughout his work Paine
hammered away at old ideas and

25:46.125 --> 25:48.425
propounded new ones.

25:48.430 --> 25:51.290
He argued that America was
distinct from England,

25:51.289 --> 25:54.569
that it was multicultural,
that it actually was more the

25:54.567 --> 25:57.307
child of Europe than the child
of England.

25:57.309 --> 25:59.539
He promoted American commerce.

25:59.539 --> 26:01.689
He promoted social mobility.

26:01.690 --> 26:05.300
He praised the innocence of the
New World as compared with the

26:05.303 --> 26:07.913
corruption and decadence of the
Old World.

26:07.910 --> 26:12.370
He struck at the trappings of
monarchy, things like hereditary

26:12.372 --> 26:14.642
privilege and court intrigue.

26:14.640 --> 26:18.600
He was an individualist arguing
that society was made of

26:18.603 --> 26:22.713
individuals who should all be
able to strive for their own

26:22.711 --> 26:23.361
good.

26:23.358 --> 26:27.598
He wasn't arguing that families
or patron-client relationships

26:27.604 --> 26:30.044
should define society any
longer.

26:30.038 --> 26:33.928
He depicted government as a
kind of necessary evil that was

26:33.926 --> 26:37.006
prone to create bureaucracies
and privilege.

26:37.009 --> 26:38.699
As he put it,
"Government,

26:38.702 --> 26:41.412
like dress, is the badge of
lost innocence,"

26:41.410 --> 26:44.400
so it's the price we pay for
being flawed beings.

26:44.400 --> 26:48.090
And he seemed to speak of an
American millennium,

26:48.089 --> 26:51.549
speaking of America as God's
chosen people.

26:51.548 --> 26:55.318
Paine argued that America's
success was linked to the

26:55.318 --> 26:59.328
success of all humankind,
that the American colonists

26:59.326 --> 27:02.836
could launch a worldwide
democratic revolution.

27:02.838 --> 27:05.068
And, as he put it--I'll quote
it again,

27:05.068 --> 27:07.818
but I think maybe it was the
first lecture that I quoted this

27:07.815 --> 27:10.005
as my sort of random
inspirational sentences from

27:10.011 --> 27:11.981
random guy from the eighteenth
century.

27:11.980 --> 27:14.290
This is where this comes from.

27:14.288 --> 27:17.248
It's the statement about
beginning the world anew:

27:17.246 --> 27:20.926
"We have every opportunity
and every encouragement before

27:20.926 --> 27:23.056
us,
to form the noblest purest

27:23.060 --> 27:25.540
constitution on the face of the
earth.

27:25.538 --> 27:28.378
We have it in our power to
begin the world over

27:28.384 --> 27:31.854
again....The birthday of a new
world is at hand."

27:31.849 --> 27:33.789
That's millennial talk there.

27:33.788 --> 27:38.148
The power of the pamphlet
wasn't just in its argument or

27:38.152 --> 27:42.602
in specific points of argument,
but rather, it was in the way

27:42.597 --> 27:45.067
that it reversed prevailing
assumptions.

27:45.068 --> 27:49.028
Paine forced readers to
consider a whole new way of

27:49.027 --> 27:53.057
looking at the impending
crisis--and actually at the

27:53.063 --> 27:55.203
entire imperial system.

27:55.200 --> 28:00.100
He laid bare assumptions that
had led colonists to resist

28:00.098 --> 28:03.138
independence,
and then by exposing these

28:03.144 --> 28:05.554
biases and holding them up to
scorn,

28:05.548 --> 28:09.888
he forced people to think
beyond what they had thought

28:09.892 --> 28:10.632
before.

28:10.630 --> 28:15.070
So basically the old paradigm
had been: liberty can survive

28:15.073 --> 28:19.753
among brutal and self-interested
men only through a balance of

28:19.746 --> 28:24.416
institutionalized forces so no
one can monopolize the power of

28:24.419 --> 28:27.789
the state and rule without
opposition.

28:27.788 --> 28:29.798
So monarchy,
nobility, and the people have

28:29.795 --> 28:32.335
an equal right to share in the
struggle for power;

28:32.338 --> 28:35.058
complexity in government in
this sense is a good thing;

28:35.058 --> 28:37.318
simplicity allows for
monopolization.

28:37.318 --> 28:41.098
Well, Paine argues,
complexity is not a virtue in

28:41.096 --> 28:42.116
government.

28:42.118 --> 28:45.668
It simply makes it impossible
to tell who is at fault.

28:45.670 --> 28:49.130
Paine charged that the
complexity of the British

28:49.130 --> 28:53.990
government was designed to serve
the monarchy and the nobility,

28:53.990 --> 28:57.560
that the King did nothing but
wage war and hand out gifts to

28:57.560 --> 29:00.600
his followers,
and that this entire idea of

29:00.597 --> 29:03.107
British
constitutional-institutional

29:03.108 --> 29:04.758
balance was a fraud.

29:04.759 --> 29:08.159
Now the boldness of this
message becomes clearer when you

29:08.155 --> 29:11.305
compare it with some other
pamphlets of the time,

29:11.308 --> 29:15.418
many of which were aimed at
exploring difficult questions--

29:15.420 --> 29:18.370
right?--constitutional issues,
and then coming up with

29:18.367 --> 29:19.367
recommendations.

29:19.368 --> 29:22.078
Common Sense isn't about
exploring difficult

29:22.084 --> 29:23.554
constitutional questions.

29:23.548 --> 29:26.148
It aimed to,
quote, "tear the world

29:26.153 --> 29:27.093
apart."

29:27.088 --> 29:31.368
This pamphlet did not have the
kind of rational tone and

29:31.365 --> 29:33.515
lawyerly,
precise logic and high

29:33.517 --> 29:36.447
scholarship that you see
floating through a lot of the

29:36.449 --> 29:38.329
other pamphlets of this period.

29:38.328 --> 29:42.398
And the tone was part of why
the pamphlet ended up being so

29:42.397 --> 29:43.237
effective.

29:43.240 --> 29:45.540
Paine didn't use legal
arguments.

29:45.538 --> 29:48.128
He didn't invoke legal
authorities.

29:48.130 --> 29:51.970
He assumed that his readers
would have some kind of limited

29:51.972 --> 29:53.632
knowledge of the Bible.

29:53.630 --> 29:55.880
He didn't use a lot of Latin,
and if he did use Latin he

29:55.880 --> 29:58.050
tended to follow it up with an
English translation.

29:58.048 --> 30:01.788
He used really straightforward
syntax, a really simple

30:01.791 --> 30:02.711
vocabulary.

30:02.710 --> 30:06.240
As he himself explained it:
"As it is my design to

30:06.240 --> 30:09.380
make those that can scarcely
read understand,

30:09.380 --> 30:12.960
I shall therefore avoid every
literary ornament,

30:12.960 --> 30:15.690
and put it in language as plain
as the alphabet."

30:15.690 --> 30:18.730
So what he wanted to write he
said was, quote,

30:18.733 --> 30:21.103
"simple facts,
plain arguments,

30:21.103 --> 30:22.933
and common sense."

30:22.930 --> 30:26.940
Sometimes it was Paine's
irreverence in comparison with

30:26.944 --> 30:31.784
other pamphlet writers that made
his writing seem so effective.

30:31.778 --> 30:33.918
So for example,
writing about the origins of

30:33.915 --> 30:36.395
the English monarchy and William
the Conqueror,

30:36.400 --> 30:39.030
Paine wrote,
"no man in his senses can

30:39.034 --> 30:42.614
say that their claim under
William the Conqueror is a very

30:42.609 --> 30:43.739
honorable one.

30:43.740 --> 30:46.730
A French bastard landing with
an armed banditti,

30:46.730 --> 30:49.340
and establishing himself king
of England against the consent

30:49.342 --> 30:52.482
of the natives,
is in plain terms a very paltry

30:52.480 --> 30:54.370
rascally original."

30:54.368 --> 30:54.608
Okay.

30:54.611 --> 30:56.161
It's not your typical pamphlet.

30:56.160 --> 30:59.960
Sometimes he used really
straightforward language just

30:59.964 --> 31:03.104
for shock value,
trying to make his point

31:03.101 --> 31:05.981
by--trying to upset prevailing
ideas--

31:05.980 --> 31:09.020
by saying something in a
shockingly straightforward and

31:09.021 --> 31:10.151
irreverent manner.

31:10.150 --> 31:12.780
And that's obviously going to
be really effective if he was

31:12.777 --> 31:15.447
talking about the King--to use
sort of shockingly irreverent

31:15.451 --> 31:16.041
language.

31:16.038 --> 31:18.388
So for example,
he really tried hard to

31:18.386 --> 31:21.466
dehumanize King George III,
writing for example,

31:21.468 --> 31:24.908
he has "sunk himself
beneath the rank of animals,

31:24.910 --> 31:28.640
and contemptibly crawls through
the world like a worm."

31:28.640 --> 31:28.910
Okay.

31:28.911 --> 31:30.651
[laughs]
That's pretty irreverent

31:30.647 --> 31:31.297
language.

31:31.298 --> 31:34.118
"Even brutes do not devour
their young."

31:34.118 --> 31:34.378
Okay.

31:34.375 --> 31:36.635
That would have been really
shocking [laughs]

31:36.637 --> 31:39.667
to someone to read at the time,
that that's a description of

31:39.670 --> 31:40.390
the King.

31:40.390 --> 31:43.830
Or he used sarcasm,
as in this sentence.

31:43.828 --> 31:46.038
Now I mentioned this
sentence--I don't know--in the

31:46.035 --> 31:47.575
first--one of the early
lectures.

31:47.578 --> 31:50.958
I talked about a sentence that
I really liked and I accused

31:50.958 --> 31:53.928
Benjamin Rush of cutting it out
of the pamphlet,

31:53.930 --> 31:56.170
and I'm here to redeem Benjamin
Rush because when I looked this

31:56.171 --> 31:58.341
up today to double check on
myself what I discovered was,

31:58.338 --> 32:01.408
this is actually Benjamin
Rush's favorite sentence and

32:01.410 --> 32:03.380
Benjamin Franklin struck it out.

32:03.380 --> 32:05.570
[laughs]
So it was in the draft but it

32:05.568 --> 32:08.708
didn't make the final printed
copy of Common Sense,

32:08.705 --> 32:10.655
and this is the sentence.

32:10.660 --> 32:10.940
Okay.

32:10.939 --> 32:13.789
"A greater absurdity
cannot be conceived of,

32:13.788 --> 32:16.658
than three millions of people
running to their seacoast every

32:16.663 --> 32:19.643
time a ship arrives from London,
to know what portion of liberty

32:19.640 --> 32:20.690
they should enjoy."

32:20.690 --> 32:22.310
I think that's a good sentence.

32:22.309 --> 32:23.069
I agree with Rush.

32:23.069 --> 32:24.179
I think Franklin had it wrong.

32:24.180 --> 32:26.770
I think that's good sort of
pointed sarcasm,

32:26.768 --> 32:30.138
so I'm sorry it didn't make the
final printed version.

32:30.140 --> 32:31.320
Rush is right.

32:31.318 --> 32:33.858
So sarcasm--effecti
ve--irreverence,

32:33.862 --> 32:35.972
shock value--all effective.

32:35.970 --> 32:38.590
Even just emotion,
even Paine's emotion,

32:38.588 --> 32:41.188
was effective because it was so
strong,

32:41.190 --> 32:43.620
because he was so passionate,
and because he was so

32:43.624 --> 32:46.614
straightforward,
as in a sentence like this.

32:46.608 --> 32:51.078
"Every thing that is right
or reasonable pleads for

32:51.082 --> 32:52.142
separation.

32:52.140 --> 32:55.780
The blood of the slain,
the weeping voice of nature

32:55.776 --> 32:59.186
cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART.'"
Okay, dramatic,

32:59.193 --> 33:01.743
passionate, emotional language.

33:01.740 --> 33:04.890
So all of this stuff that I'm
describing here,

33:04.890 --> 33:06.230
all of this rhetoric,
all of this logic,

33:06.230 --> 33:09.220
all of the sort of rationale
behind this pamphlet--

33:09.220 --> 33:13.020
this is popular culture but
it's not low culture.

33:13.019 --> 33:16.709
It may not have had really
refined language but it had

33:16.714 --> 33:18.044
correct language.

33:18.038 --> 33:22.418
As Thomas Jefferson put it,
"No writer has exceeded

33:22.416 --> 33:25.756
Paine in ease and familiarity of
style,

33:25.759 --> 33:29.859
in perspicuity of expression,
happiness of elucidation,

33:29.858 --> 33:32.078
and in simple and unassuming
language."

33:32.078 --> 33:32.398
Okay.

33:32.400 --> 33:35.090
By writing that,
Jefferson achieved none of

33:35.093 --> 33:36.123
those things.

33:36.118 --> 33:37.578
[laughs]
That's like a really good

33:37.576 --> 33:40.216
example of how different Paine
sounded, [laughs]--perspicuity

33:40.224 --> 33:42.304
of expression and happiness of
elucidation.

33:42.299 --> 33:44.329
Okay, not in Common Sense.

33:44.328 --> 33:47.078
Jefferson does not sound
like Thomas Paine.

33:47.078 --> 33:50.098
Given all of this,
the widespread popularity of

33:50.095 --> 33:54.085
the pamphlet isn't surprising,
and the first printing sold out

33:54.094 --> 33:55.344
in a few weeks.

33:55.338 --> 33:58.338
There were many re-printings,
first in Pennsylvania,

33:58.337 --> 34:01.627
then in other colonies,
and even ultimately in Europe.

34:01.630 --> 34:04.890
And all in all,
a majority of the population of

34:04.890 --> 34:08.790
the colonies either read
Common Sense or received

34:08.786 --> 34:13.036
some kind of distilled version
of it at their local tavern or

34:13.039 --> 34:16.539
in conversation,
as presented by other people

34:16.541 --> 34:17.681
who had read it.

34:17.679 --> 34:21.409
By March of 1776,
there had been 125,000 copies

34:21.409 --> 34:26.359
sold and by colonial standards
that's a mind-blowing number of

34:26.356 --> 34:29.136
copies,
and here's a way to sort of put

34:29.137 --> 34:30.127
that in context.

34:30.130 --> 34:33.140
At this period,
even later, even in the 1790s,

34:33.139 --> 34:36.079
in a city like New York or
Pennsylvania,

34:36.079 --> 34:40.049
a newspaper that would have
been considered to have a big

34:40.050 --> 34:42.940
circulation number--
like wow, that's a really big

34:42.938 --> 34:46.148
newspaper--
would have had a circulation of

34:46.152 --> 34:46.672
1,000.

34:46.668 --> 34:47.268
Okay.

34:47.268 --> 34:50.718
So 125,000 copies is a lot of
copies.

34:50.719 --> 34:53.129
That's a pretty remarkable
number.

34:53.130 --> 34:56.490
And sales were helped by the
fact that the pamphlet was

34:56.487 --> 34:59.847
priced really low so that it
could be bought by anyone,

34:59.846 --> 35:01.646
even the relatively poor.

35:01.650 --> 35:04.730
Now of course Paine wasn't shy
about his own accomplishments

35:04.731 --> 35:07.811
and he later told anybody who
would listen that his pamphlet

35:07.811 --> 35:10.571
had enjoyed,
quote, "the greatest sale

35:10.572 --> 35:13.762
that any performance [has]
ever had since the use of

35:13.757 --> 35:14.817
letters."

35:14.820 --> 35:15.680
[laughter]
Okay.

35:15.682 --> 35:17.182
That's not a modest man.

35:17.179 --> 35:20.789
It is the greatest-selling
thing of all time.

35:20.789 --> 35:21.149
Okay.

35:21.150 --> 35:23.970
Okay, Tom, it's important but
come on.

35:23.969 --> 35:26.459
[laughter]
Now of course not everybody

35:26.456 --> 35:29.816
cheered with the publication of
Common Sense.

35:29.820 --> 35:33.300
There were many people who
were enraged at what it dared to

35:33.297 --> 35:36.717
say about the English monarch,
about the British constitution,

35:36.719 --> 35:38.009
about independence.

35:38.010 --> 35:40.940
Who was this guy anyway? Right?

35:40.940 --> 35:43.570
Who was he to promote
independence?

35:43.570 --> 35:47.620
As Samuel Adams put it with
actually unusual understatement

35:47.621 --> 35:50.041
for Samuel Adams--
he said the pamphlet,

35:50.043 --> 35:52.533
quote, "has fretted some
folks here more than a

35:52.530 --> 35:53.310
little."

35:53.309 --> 35:55.499
It upset a lot of people.

35:55.500 --> 35:58.950
More direct criticism was
issued by an English gentleman

35:58.954 --> 36:01.284
traveling in Virginia in his
diary.

36:01.280 --> 36:04.740
He wrote, "A pamphlet
called Common Sense makes

36:04.744 --> 36:05.704
a great noise.

36:05.699 --> 36:08.599
One of the vilest things that
ever was published to the world.

36:08.599 --> 36:13.189
Full of false representations,
lies, calumny,

36:13.192 --> 36:15.282
and treason."

36:15.280 --> 36:18.840
Now you may be surprised to
hear that John Adams,

36:18.840 --> 36:22.250
ultimately a leading proponent
of independence,

36:22.251 --> 36:24.701
did not like Common Sense.

36:24.699 --> 36:26.829
John Adams did not like the
pamphlet.

36:26.829 --> 36:29.169
It wasn't because of the first
two parts.

36:29.170 --> 36:29.640
Right?

36:29.639 --> 36:32.039
He's all for questioning the
British constitution.

36:32.039 --> 36:33.879
He's all for independence.

36:33.880 --> 36:36.890
That's fine,
but what really got Adams was

36:36.885 --> 36:39.595
the third section of the
pamphlet,

36:39.599 --> 36:42.679
the section about what kind of
government might we be able to

36:42.679 --> 36:45.349
create in the absence of the
British constitution.

36:45.349 --> 36:48.629
This made Adams crazy,
because to Adams and to many

36:48.626 --> 36:51.926
others at the time,
good lawmakers were supposed to

36:51.931 --> 36:55.301
always be practical thinkers and
they were supposed to be

36:55.295 --> 36:58.175
realistic about what a society
could achieve.

36:58.179 --> 37:01.169
They were supposed to think
about the realities of a society

37:01.168 --> 37:03.548
and then what would be
politically possible,

37:03.550 --> 37:05.370
and this is not what he thought
Paine was doing.

37:05.369 --> 37:08.479
He thought Paine was sort of
blue sky, unrealistic,

37:08.483 --> 37:10.483
tossings off about
possibilities,

37:10.478 --> 37:13.778
without thinking really hard
about probabilities.

37:13.780 --> 37:17.940
So this is John Adams' summary
of Common Sense.

37:17.940 --> 37:19.410
This is true John Adams.

37:19.405 --> 37:19.715
Okay.

37:19.719 --> 37:22.359
Common Sense,
quote, "a poor,

37:22.364 --> 37:24.554
ignorant, malicious,
shortsighted,

37:24.545 --> 37:26.195
crapulous mass."

37:26.199 --> 37:29.389
[laughs]
That's John Adams' opinion of

37:29.387 --> 37:30.937
Common Sense.

37:30.940 --> 37:34.050
I have to add here for no
reason except that when I was

37:34.054 --> 37:37.354
writing this I thought of it,
and then this is my excuse to

37:37.349 --> 37:39.789
mention it in a lecture,
and so I will.

37:39.789 --> 37:42.939
How many of you here have read
Plato's Republic?

37:42.940 --> 37:45.480
Some of you have read
Plato's Republic.

37:45.480 --> 37:46.670
Okay.

37:46.670 --> 37:49.690
John Adams really did not like
Plato's Republic either,

37:49.692 --> 37:51.032
and for the same reasons.

37:51.030 --> 37:51.220
Right?

37:51.224 --> 37:52.404
He thought Plato was
irresponsible.

37:52.400 --> 37:53.910
He hated Plato's Republic.

37:53.909 --> 37:55.949
Jefferson was not a big fan
either.

37:55.949 --> 37:59.089
He thought that--Actually,
both of them thought that Plato

37:59.090 --> 38:02.230
was sort of vaporing about
political ideals and not really

38:02.233 --> 38:05.323
thinking about realistic
application to real people.

38:05.320 --> 38:08.800
So to these guys at this time
the real challenge of what

38:08.797 --> 38:11.957
they're doing is to match ideals
and realities,

38:11.960 --> 38:14.280
and they didn't think Plato was
doing that at all.

38:14.280 --> 38:16.790
So this is what Adams first had
to say about Plato's

38:16.791 --> 38:18.861
Republic:
"While wading

38:18.858 --> 38:21.308
through the whimsies,
the puerilities,

38:21.309 --> 38:24.309
and unintelligible jargon of
this work,

38:24.309 --> 38:27.549
I laid it down often to ask
myself how it could have been

38:27.548 --> 38:30.498
that the world should have so
long consented to give

38:30.498 --> 38:33.158
reputation to such nonsense as
this."

38:33.159 --> 38:33.749
[laughter] Okay.

38:33.750 --> 38:36.470
He really doesn't like Plato's
Republic, but he also

38:36.474 --> 38:37.654
just didn't like Plato.

38:37.650 --> 38:41.800
So overall he said--he talked
about how he read all of Plato's

38:41.795 --> 38:45.235
works and he talked about oh,
he had three Latin dictionaries

38:45.237 --> 38:47.237
and a German one and a French
one just in case,

38:47.239 --> 38:50.649
and he worked his way through,
and he said he learned only two

38:50.648 --> 38:52.548
things from all of Plato's work.

38:52.550 --> 38:55.220
He learned, number one,
that Benjamin Franklin stole an

38:55.217 --> 38:58.287
idea from Plato [laughter]--
didn't give him credit,

38:58.286 --> 39:00.076
[laughs]
and number two,

39:00.079 --> 39:02.819
he learned that sneezing is a
cure for the hiccups.

39:02.820 --> 39:03.990
[laughter]
And he said,

39:03.994 --> 39:06.734
quote, "Accordingly,
I have cured myself and all my

39:06.730 --> 39:08.260
friends of that provoking
disorder,

39:08.260 --> 39:09.970
for thirty years,
with a pinch of snuff."

39:09.969 --> 39:10.339
Okay.

39:10.342 --> 39:12.432
That's Plato to John Adams.

39:12.429 --> 39:13.839
[laughs] That's it.

39:13.840 --> 39:15.160
So I just love that.

39:15.159 --> 39:15.679
I love that.

39:15.679 --> 39:16.939
It's John Adams at his best.

39:16.940 --> 39:17.270
Okay.

39:17.268 --> 39:20.228
So away from Plato,
back to Common Sense.

39:20.230 --> 39:23.910
For many people Common
Sense was kind of a

39:23.905 --> 39:27.415
conversion experience,
and there are people that are

39:27.422 --> 39:30.302
fence sitters who maybe--
might have had the makings of a

39:30.300 --> 39:32.450
radical and in reading the
pamphlet or hearing of the

39:32.452 --> 39:34.802
pamphlet,
they actually were radicalized

39:34.797 --> 39:35.217
by it.

39:35.219 --> 39:36.919
It was talked of everywhere.

39:36.920 --> 39:39.390
As Rush put it,
"Its effects were sudden

39:39.385 --> 39:41.565
and extensive upon the American
mind.

39:41.570 --> 39:42.970
It was read by public men."

39:42.969 --> 39:46.059
It was "repeated in Clubs,
spouted in schools,

39:46.059 --> 39:49.179
and in one instance delivered
from the pulpit instead of a

39:49.177 --> 39:50.887
sermon,
by a clergyman in

39:50.889 --> 39:52.129
Connecticut."

39:52.130 --> 39:53.570
That's a Connecticut moment.

39:53.570 --> 39:56.510
I'm always happy when we have
little Connecticut or Yale

39:56.505 --> 39:57.035
moments.

39:57.039 --> 39:58.749
It was talked about everywhere.

39:58.750 --> 40:01.840
Its rhetoric was so powerful
that for many it inspired them

40:01.842 --> 40:04.322
to stand back,
examine their situation,

40:04.324 --> 40:07.414
and really loathe Britain for
the first time--

40:07.409 --> 40:09.239
like oh, [laughs]
I've never thought of loathing

40:09.239 --> 40:11.629
Britain before,
but yet now I am.

40:11.630 --> 40:14.020
As George Washington wrote,
Common Sense was

40:14.016 --> 40:17.166
"working a wonderful change
in the minds of many men."

40:17.170 --> 40:20.360
In the end, regardless of
whether one agreed or not with

40:20.356 --> 40:22.496
his argument,
Paine's pamphlet did one

40:22.500 --> 40:24.470
fundamentally important thing.

40:24.469 --> 40:27.749
He focused the prevailing
colonial political conversation

40:27.753 --> 40:28.813
on independence.

40:28.809 --> 40:33.639
He lifted the argument above
constitutional reckoning.

40:33.639 --> 40:37.109
He inspired others to write
about the topic as well,

40:37.114 --> 40:40.184
sometimes for independence,
sometimes against,

40:40.179 --> 40:43.789
but independence became now the
topic to discuss.

40:43.789 --> 40:47.139
As a reader in Boston put it,
"Independence a year ago

40:47.135 --> 40:50.305
could not have been publicly
mentioned with impunity.

40:50.309 --> 40:53.649
Nothing else is now talked of,
and I know not what can be done

40:53.646 --> 40:55.776
by Great Britain to prevent
it."

40:55.780 --> 40:59.280
Now Paine was all too happy to
remind anyone who would listen

40:59.284 --> 41:01.684
about the significance of his
pamphlet.

41:01.679 --> 41:03.929
He considered it his lifetime
achievement.

41:03.929 --> 41:07.029
He wanted his tombstone to read
"Thomas Paine,

41:07.030 --> 41:08.320
author of Common
Sense."

41:08.320 --> 41:10.100
Of course,
that was assuming he was going

41:10.096 --> 41:11.606
to have a tombstone which
[laughter]

41:11.608 --> 41:12.168
he didn't.

41:12.170 --> 41:13.720
[laughs] The poor guy.

41:13.719 --> 41:16.279
I didn't think of that until
this second--oh,

41:16.280 --> 41:16.980
bad irony.

41:16.980 --> 41:20.350
He said that regardless of
whatever form he took in the

41:20.351 --> 41:24.411
afterlife, he would always know
he had written Common Sense.

41:24.409 --> 41:28.119
Okay, but did Common Sense
cause independence?

41:28.119 --> 41:28.349
Okay.

41:28.351 --> 41:30.941
Paine clearly would have loved
to tell you that it did.

41:30.940 --> 41:34.030
That's the kind of conclusion
you really can't make,

41:34.030 --> 41:37.070
but clearly you can say it was
so powerful,

41:37.070 --> 41:40.030
so widely read,
so controversial that it

41:40.030 --> 41:43.980
shattered much of the
psychological resistance to the

41:43.981 --> 41:45.881
idea of independence.

41:45.880 --> 41:49.630
And also on a more social
level, Common Sense

41:49.628 --> 41:54.018
invited an entire range of
people into the political

41:54.016 --> 41:58.556
conversation that in some ways
hadn't really been included

41:58.563 --> 42:01.263
before,
just by deliberately making

42:01.257 --> 42:04.817
this pamphlet available to as
broad an audience as possible.

42:04.820 --> 42:09.460
And his message in a sense was
fundamentally democratizing as

42:09.458 --> 42:09.998
well.

42:10.000 --> 42:14.370
Paine preached that any people
can deliberate and decide how

42:14.371 --> 42:16.301
they are to be governed.

42:16.300 --> 42:18.800
And then they can act on that
choice.

42:18.800 --> 42:22.580
Any people are capable of
creating and implementing their

42:22.581 --> 42:23.731
own government.

42:23.730 --> 42:26.140
It's a powerful message,
and regardless of whether

42:26.143 --> 42:29.203
people agreed or disagreed about
what government they should be

42:29.199 --> 42:31.729
creating,
the ideas underlying that

42:31.728 --> 42:35.258
pamphlet in a sense were really
revolutionary,

42:35.260 --> 42:37.160
in a sense, and certainly
radicalizing,

42:37.159 --> 42:40.719
just at this moment when things
are taking a turn,

42:40.719 --> 42:43.599
just at this moment when the
King has declared the colonies

42:43.603 --> 42:45.943
in rebellion,
and very soon we're going to

42:45.940 --> 42:47.480
have Lexington and Concord.

42:47.480 --> 42:50.190
So you can see how we're right
at this moment where things are

42:50.192 --> 42:51.262
going to take a shift.

42:51.260 --> 42:53.240
Common Sense,
partly timing-wise,

42:53.237 --> 42:56.227
came out at just the moment
where it was going to strike and

42:56.228 --> 42:57.698
have the broadest impact.

42:57.699 --> 42:59.539
That is all I have for today.

42:59.539 --> 43:00.649
Have a good weekend.

43:00.650 --> 43:05.440
I will see you on Tuesday and
we will move on to independence.

43:05.440 --> 43:07.340
We get independence next week.

43:07.340 --> 43:08.500
It's very exciting.

43:08.500 --> 43:14.000