Narrator/Host (Newt Gingrich) (16:58)
Remember he's writing this in January 1776 before the Americans have declared their independence. So as an Englishman, he writes so brilliantly that in the first three months, Common Sense sold 120,000 copies. By the end of the revolution, 500,000 copies were sold since the estimated population of the colonies at the time, excluding Native Americans and African American slaves, was 2.5 million. An estimated 20% of the colonists owned a copy. After its publication, many American newspapers praised the piece. So here's a document which is sweeping across the country, being very widely read and it is shaping people's thinking about this historic moment. This is a moment of indecision. Nobody's yet really thought clearly about declaring Independence. They know they're mad at the English government. They know they feel cheated by Parliament. They know that the arrogance of the English government is driving them nuts because they have such a deep sense of freedom. They're, after all, thousands of miles away. They're on the edge of a continent. They're earning that with their own hard work. They're taking their own risks with, With Indians. I mean, from a standpoint of the Americans, London has become a place which is despotism rather than a place which is protecting them. And so Paine is here beginning to explain to them how to think about where they are. You know, the Pennsylvania Evening post on February 13, 1776, says, quote, if you know the author of Common Sense, tell him he's done wonders and worked miracles, made Tories wigs and washed blackamoor's white. He has made a great number of converts here. His style is plain and nervous. His facts are true, his reasoning just and conclusive. Close quote. I might point out that Whigs were the loyal opposition to the government. And so to be a Whig was, in fact to be critical of the established government. And as been pointed out by many historians, the Americans who decided to rebel were essentially in the Whig tradition. They were very close to the English Whigs in their thinking and in their sense of identity. So when the Pennsylvania Evening Post says that he has made Torrey's Whigs, they're saying basically he's converting people from defending the established government of England into being critics of the government of England. The New York Journal on March 17, 1776, says, quote, in your famous pamphlet entitled Common Sense, by which I am convinced the necessity of independence, to which I was before averse, you have given liberty to every individual to contribute materials for that great building, the Grand Charter of American Liberty. Now, think about this. Here's this Englishman who's come over and all of a sudden he captures, he articulates the spirit of the age. He gives words to people who had sort of thought about it, but they didn't know how to say it. And suddenly he becomes the catalyst for several hundred thousand Americans to begin to move towards independence. The new London Gazette, published in Connecticut on March 22, 1776, says, quote, to the author of the pamphlet entitled Common Sense, sir, in declaring your own, you have declared the sentiments of millions. Your production may justly be compared to a land flood that sweeps all before it. We were blind, but on reading these enlightening works, the scales have fallen from our eyes. Close quote. Now, it's just remarkable that he has had that kind of an impact. And of course, as a part of that process. That's why I say that in many ways he's one of the Founding fathers, even though culturally and in income and in stature, he doesn't really quite fit with them. He's more of a rabble rouser, more of an outsider, more of a radical, as you'll see in a minute. But he's now established a believability, a connection with probably close to a million Americans, out of a population of about two and a half million. However, the revolution doesn't go well. July 4th is terrific. Everybody's excited. They pass the Declaration of Independence. They've already created an army in Massachusetts. And to unify the country, they sent a Virginian, George Washington, to head up the army in Massachusetts. Washington, as soon as he gets a copy of the Declaration, has it read to the troops. Washington understands the importance of morale, the importance of propaganda, the importance of getting people to understand what they're doing. And yet, despite their great victory in Boston driving the British out of the city, they fall on hard times. The British have the power of the ocean because the Royal Navy dominates. They move their military. Washington marches down to Brooklyn. His army begins to be shattered. He barely survives, thanks to a providential fog coming in, so people can't even see what's happening. And they managed to get their army across from Brooklyn to Manhattan when, if the weather had been clear, the Royal Navy would have sunk the entire American Army. He loses Fort Washington, about 3,000 troops surrendering. And his army gradually shrinks from a high point of 30,000 in September down to about 2,500 effectives by Christmas. And people are defeated, despondent, demoralized. Washington, on the long march across New Jersey, runs into Payne, who has signed up as a rifleman, and he says, I don't need you as a rifleman. I need a new pamphlet. I need an explanation. You've got to tell us now, why has this become so hard? And so the man who wrote Common Sense and helped the country decide it wanted to be independent goes to Philadelphia, goes back to writing and produces the crisis entitled the American Crisis. And it begins with some of the most amazing words ever written, and I'm quoting Paine. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their 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. So here's this great pamphleteer coming back once again saying, okay, I helped convince you, you ought to be independent. Now I'm going to convince you, you got to stick with it. As Washington, in the extraordinary, courageous last throw of the dice, takes his troops to cross the Delaware on Christmas night in a snowstorm with large blocks of ice in the river, gets them to march eight miles in the dark to surprise 800 professional German soldiers who collapse and are captured. As the men are getting on the boat to cross the river, Washington has the officers reading the crisis to remind them, this is why we're here, this is what we're trying to do. Yes, it's hard, but we can do it. So Paine has two great impacts. His first great impact is getting people to decide that they want to be independent. His second great impact is convincing them to keep working and to keep fighting. Now, in this period, Paine is actually serving serve as a war correspondent. He's reporting to the country and he actually wrote 16 articles sitting around the campfire about what's going on. During the retreat of Washington's forces from New York to New Jersey In December of 1776, Paine wrote an account which was published in the Pennsylvania journal only in January 29, 1777. This is after he's written the crisis, after he's helped the Americans decide they are going to keep fighting and they're going to stay at it. But here's what he writes. I am quoting Paine now from the Pennsylvania Journal. Fort Washington being obliged to surrender by a violent attack made by the whole British army on Saturday 16th November, the Generals determined to evacuate Fort Lee, which being principally intended to preserve the communication with Fort Washington, was become in a manner useless. The stores were ordered to be removed and great part of them was immediately sent off. The enemy, knowing the divided state of her army and that the terms of the soldiers enlistments would soon aspire, conceived the design of penetrating into the Jerseys and hoped by pushing their successes to be completely victorious. Accordingly, on Wednesday morning, 20th November, it was discovered that a large body of British and Hessian troops had crossed the north river and landed about six miles above the fort. As our force was inferior to that of the enemy, the fort unfinished and on a narrow neck of land, the garrison was ordered to march for Hackensack Bridge, which, though much nearer the enemy than the fort, they quietly suffered our troops to take possession of. The principal loss suffered at Fort Lee was that of the heavy cannon the greatest part of which was left behind. Our troops continued at Hackensack bridge and town that day and half of the next, when the inclemency of the weather, the want of quarters and approach of the enemy obliged them to proceed to Aqua Connock and from thence to Newark. A party being left at Aqua Connaught to observe the motions of the enemy. At Newark our little army was reinforced by Lord Stirling's and Colonel Hand's brigades which had been stationed at Brunswick. Three days after our troops left Hackensack, a body of the enemy crossed the Passaic above Aqua Connaught and made their approaches slowly towards Newark and seemed extremely desirous that we should leave the town without their being put to the trouble of fighting for it. The distance from Newark to acquaint is nine miles, and they were three days in marching that distance from Newark. Our retreat was to Brunswick. And it was hoped that the assistance of the Jersey militia would enable general Washington to make the banks of the Raritan the bounds of the enemy's Progress. But on the 1st of December, the army was greatly weakened by the expiration of terms of enlistments of the Maryland and Jersey flying camp, and the militia not coming in so soon as was expected. Another retreat was the necessary consequence. Our army reached Trenton on the 4th of December, continued there till the 7th, and then, on the approach of the enemy, it was thought proper to pass the Delaware. Now, that was a sort of description for the whole country of the way in which Washington's army is shrinking and getting to a point where it almost ceases to exist. In fact, at one point, in designing a very daring strategy, Washington reassures his generals by pointing out that if the army totally collapses, the revolution will be over. If the revolution is over, every general at that meeting will be hung. And therefore they have nothing to fear because they have nothing to lose. Has remarkable courage on the part of Washington. And it was a remarkable intelligence by Washington to recognize that Paine really was a person who could help understand what's going on. Paine writes the Crisis 4 in September of 1777, which opens with the following. And I think this is useful to us today because it's as true for us today as it was in 1777. Paine wrote, those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. And near the close, it states, we fight not to enslave, but to set a country free and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in. Now, I think that's probably as good a capture of what America is all about and of what we in our generation also have to do. And in that sense, if you allow him to Paine talks to our generation fully as much as he wrote for the Founding Fathers generation, you know in 1777, Congress appointed Paine as Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. He held that till early 1779 when he was forced to resign as a result of what was called the Silas Dean Affair. Silas Dean was a member of the early Continental Congress who was sent by Congress to France to obtain financial and military assistance. He successfully obtained and sent arms from France to America, but upon his return to the States he was accused of embezzlement and disloyalty because of accusations that he charged France for the supplies that were intended as gifts. These accusations were never proven, but they ruined Dean's political career. Paine publicly denounced Dean Dean's private arms dealing in France, but in doing so revealed secret negotiations with France, which led to his dismissal as Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. Later that year, he was appointed Clerk of the Pennsylvania assembly. In March of 1780, while clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Paine wrote the Preamble to the act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, which was the first legislative measure for the emancipation of slaves in America. Paine originally hoped this act would immediately abolish slavery, but because of opposition, he was forced to write a compromise which outlined the gradual emancipation of slaves. Instead. The act specified that every child born into slavery after passing the act would be free upon reaching the age of 28. The bill passed with a vote of 34 to 21. So Paine has had an experience both of being pro freedom for the American colonies from Britain and being pro freedom for the abolition of slavery. In 1787, Paine returned to Britain but experienced persecution for his support of the French Revolution. The French Revolution is a much more radical revolution than the American Revolution, and that radicalism became a huge challenge to the very fabric of British society.
