Paine, Thomas / Common Sense

Published anonymously, Common Sense was issued at Philadelphia on 1/10/1776 & immediately became a best seller reaching an extraordinary circulation. This fifty-page pamphlet became the war-cry of the Revolutionary movement as tens of thousands of copies circulated thru the country. It called boldly for a declaration of independence; denounced the King of England as a "hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh," "the Royal Brute of Great Britain"; vigorously attacked all forms of monarchy & the very principle of monarchism; made the 1st appeal for an American Republic & urged the colonies to establish in North America a haven of refuge for the oppressed peoples of the world.