Common Sense and the Crisis Author:Thomas Paine In many ways Thomas Paine's writings symbolize the spirit of the American Revolution. Common Sense, the first piece of writing to urge the immediate declaration of the independence as fulfillment of America's moral obligation to the world, appeared as an anonymous pamphlet in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. Paine wrote later that in le... more »ss than three months it sold 120,000 copies. By the time of the third edition, from which this edition was set, the authorship had become known and Paine expanded the pamphlet by a third. Paine was with the Revolutionary Army during the retreat through New Jersey, and at Newark he set to work on the first Crisis pamphlet. Cheetham, his enemy, wrote that it was read "in the camp to every corporal's guard, and in the army and out of it had more than the intended effect." Eleven other numbers of The Crisis appeared in the course of the war. This edition was set from the 1792 edition of the Crisis papers.« less
This book was written to instigate the revolutionary act of declaring American independence from England, and thus was a leading cause of the founding of the United States of America.