Common Sense

Paine repeats many of his points. Repetition, properly used, can overcome resistance, build an edifice of evidence, and implant ideas firmly in the minds of readers. Multiple times Paine argues at length that Britain is incompetent to govern America, that its king is cruel and heartless, and that the right time to break from the mother country is forthwith. To the second edition he added an Appendix that, when it isn’t lavishly excoriating the British king, restates yet again many of Paine’s main arguments. 

Paine offers a call to action that is a goad to righteous anger as well as a shiv of guilt aimed at those yet unconvinced:

Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have (30).

Later, he evokes the fulminating sermons of Enlightenment preachers while invoking feelings of pride and honor among those offended by Britain’s treatment of its colonies: “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!” (41).