His words united elite and popular strands of revolt, welding the Congress and the street into a common purpose. His strident indignation reflected the anger that was rising among the American body politic. His writing was replete with the kind of popular and religious references they readily grasped and appreciated. Paine, despite his immigrant status, was on familiar terms with the popular classes in America and the taverns, workshops, and street corners they frequented. The message was powerful because it was written in relatively blunt language that colonists of different backgrounds could understand. In addition to the audacity and timeliness of its ideas, Common Sense compelled the American people because it resonated with their firm belief in liberty and determined opposition to injustice. Challenging the King's paternal authority in the harshest terms, he mocked royal actions in America and declared that 'even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their own families.' Finally, Paine detailed in the most graphic, compelling and recognizable terms the suffering that the colonies had endured, reminding his readers of the torment and trauma that British policy had inflicted upon them. Implicitly acknowledging the hold that tradition and deference had on the colonial mind, Paine also launched an assault on both the premises behind the British government and on the legitimacy of monarchy and hereditary power in general.

Hardnosed political logic demanded the creation of an American nation. That goal, he maintained, could only be achieved through unified action. Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence. Common Sense made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it.

Common sense by thomas paine