Effective Arguments

Religion played a crucial role in Paine's argument. He knew that the most of colonists had some sort of religion that he can use as a basis for his argument. One of the points that he made was that a “distinction … of men into Kings and Subjects,” is not from god, it is from the “heathens,” (Paine, 72). Paine made sure to tell the readers that this interpretation is directly from the Bible so if anyone wanted to check for themselves they can. He supported many of the things he said from the Bible so that people would not question it. He used stories of how Israel wanted a king even though god himself did not want one to voice his opposition of the leadership of monarchy. The Bible was a major source that Paine used in order to unify the people under one cause. Before this essay people did not know who to side with, the new colonies or the monarchy, who they have who they have been loyal to until this point. Now Common Sense gives them a reason to support the

Rhetorical devices are often turned to because of how effectively they are able to convey ideas--Henry, Paine, and Jefferson being prime users of them. Often times, these devices are used to make ideas clearer or to provide insights for the audience. These techniques allowed Henry, Paine, and Jefferson to illustrate their hatred towards the British and effectively influence their audience to feel the same. As a result, the audience is able to be easily manipulated by their impassioned appeals. Rhetorical devices such as antithesis and repetition are commonly utilized within their works in order to push their audience to formulate strong opinions against the British.

In fact, on one instance, he even appears to sympathize with historian Andrews’s viewpoint that the “ideological campaign” of rhetoric was “of interest chiefly to intellectual circles, [as] newspapers [did] not [have] widespread publicity.” Although Reid never personally states this insinuation outright, he does allude to his support of this idea both through quotes attributed to other historians (such as the one above) and through his statement that “constitutional rhetoricians facilitated the Revolution by deeds, not words.” But rhetoric, as demonstrated previously by Thomas Paine’s bestseller Common Sense, was not merely “of interest chiefly to intellectual circles.” Paine’s vastly successful pamphlets, after all, not only “lowered the cost of revolt to the mass of colonists [by setting up new governments]”, as Reid claims, but also reduced the information gaps between elites and ordinary citizens. Admittedly, critics might counter that one example of successful rhetoric does not imply that other works of rhetoric will prove similarly as successful.

Thomas Paine’s purpose of writing his essay Crisis Number One is to educate the colonists on the evil that King George possesses. His soldiers are losing hope and motivation while fighting against the British. Paine hopes that he can motivate American soldiers to continue fighting. He questions the strength of the soldiers by saying that he needs soldiers who will fight for freedom all of the time and not just when it is easy. He also compares the colonists to slaves under British control by using a hyperbole and that evokes ethos by saying that taxation is impious. Paine says that God will not abandon them in their fight for freedom because they tried many times to peacefully obtain it on their own. With the use of ad hominem Paine attacks

Paine uses diction and figurative language when he writes “It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from

By giving logic he gives reason. He said “...all that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys a year ago would have quickly repulsed , and which little resolution will soon recover.” (Paine 88). By saying this Paine gives reason using facts and logic. It gives hope to win against the British.

Paine believes that monarchies in general are “exceedingly ridiculous” as it is full of hypocrisies, and forces one to infer many impossible superiorities. For example, a king is isolated from the world, living a life very different from the average citizen, yet his job requires that he thoroughly understand what is best for these average citizens in order to most acceptably govern and judge them. Paine believes that monarchies are justifiable neither by the laws of nature, nor by the laws of God.To further his point about the ridiculousness of kings, Paine says that “...it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion…” and wars. Hereditary succession is seen as utterly unjust, as “...all men being originally equals, no one by birth

The first way that Paine convinces his audience is using evidence. Paine starts this immediately in the first paragraph of The Crisis, referencing Britain’s tyranny and taxing. “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have the consolation with us, that the harder the

One of the ways Paine argues against loyalists is by using strictly logic or what he calls “common sense.” He sets up many of his arguments by looking at what loyalists have to say then quickly refuting it with logic. For example, when he looks at the loyalists argument that America has done well under the connection of Great Britain and can only

Though, it does seem Paine saw America through rose-colored glasses, possibly due to smoking something heavy... He did amplify his view of America and spoke highly of it. However, he nonetheless, did make a very compelling and convincing argument to the Americans in a simplified easy understandable way through his pamphlets. Common Sense educated the people on the war, and contributed to spreading the concept of republicanism to them. He also gave them a clear understanding of how separation from Britain would hold on their future.

2) Some flaws that Paine finds with the current English government is the King of England holds all the power in the government and the Constitution of England is far too complex. The Constitution is too complex for the people to understand so that creates numerous problems, which will never be able to be solved. He believes that the government is contradicting itself when it explains that they have a union of three powers that are checking each other, but in reality no one has power over the king. England is allowing the king to have all the power to do pass any law that he chooses without any consequences. The current English

Paine may not have been the perfect man but he did have great ideas at least for some people in America. In Hogeland sure essay he describes how pains ideas are greatly divided here in the 21st-century. For example pain talks about not getting religion and politics mixed in with each other, as in don’t let your beliefs in God affect the way a country should be ran “Those objecting to religious-right projects like teaching creationism in schools invoke Paine the Deist, exponent of scientific inquiry. Yet WallBuilders, a conservative Christian organization, cites a 1797 speech in which Paine criticized science teachers for overemphasizing reason and ignoring the "Divine Author." (Hogeland, p69) this is the main theme Hogland is trying to get at. People today are very particular about their politics and how they should be run based on ideas of the past for example, the constitution that was written in the 1700s by the founding fathers of America. People today find this document to be life or death if you want to go against it, its is considered un-American or completely against republicanism and democracy. He is saying people change their views based on what is most acceptable to them at

He says that the “government is just” and that “there is nothing to engender riots and tumults”. It is very obvious that these things are not true in regard to our current government. Our current government is not just, as it is riddled with corruption and systemic oppression of minorities. In America today, only a small portion of the people feel protected by the government. It is also untrue that there is nothing that the government does which incites riots. We can see examples of riots and protests against the United States government occurring every day. Currently there are protests against racism in the police force, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and protests such as the Women’s March against our new president. This shows that Paine’s description of a fair and just government does not hold true

In The Crisis No. 1, Thomas Paine creates an objective tone to unite and rally the nation by showing what kind of man the King of Britain is. Paine achieved his goal by using a variety of rhetorical devices. He connected to the nation through the use of his

Paine believed that America needed to break free of the British clutches. He spoke out against slavery and joined the army to help fight the war. He did not agree with hereditary monarchy and wrote another paper to argue this point (Franklin 321). Paine was very aware of his criticizers, and worked very hard to persuade them toward his way of thinking. In his pamphlet Common Sense he