January 10th: Today in 1776 Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a hugely influencial pamphlet in the early days of the American Revolution. It had a huge circulation, only the Bible outsold it in its time, and it made a very strong argument for the separation of the American Colonies from England. I am more a fan of his pamphlet from later in the year, The Crisis, from when the Revolution looked like it was on the edge of failure, he wrote

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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 1:25 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.