Question

2. Thomas Paine's Common Sense is an argumentative essay. What argument is Paine making? How does he structure his argument? What do YOU think is his most persuasive point and why? NOTE: You MUST include the exact quote that you found the most persuasive.

Answer 1

Answer 1.

Common sense is one of the most influential documents in America, because it stated and questioned for the first time the separation of the Colonies from Britain. The argument Thomas Paine is making in Common Sense pamphlet is that the 13 colonies needed to separate from Great Britain to achieve prosperity.

Answer 2.

Paine structured his argument by exposing and explaining the reasons why America needed independence from Britain, and the reasons why it would benefit the 13 Colonies, Thomas Paine offered "more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense" in a language that all people could understand; he stated that Britain had no right to abuse their power and kill American people because if Britain was the Mother country of America as they said Britain would provide protection instead of tyranny because "a mother would never murder her child", Pain explained that the enemies of the Crown were not enemies of the colonies, and that the Colonies would benefit from free trade with those enemies (France and Spain). Thomas Paine argumentative essay also stated that monarchy made no sense, that a person could not be prepared to rule a country simply by birth because all men are equal by the grace of God, and that America needed a Republican government, where the people in the government were prepared and elected by the people to represent their interests and rights.

Answer 3.

"Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King".

This is the point in Common Sense which I found the most persuasive because after Paine explained how monarchies had unprepared rulers and were constantly at war, he proposed to the colonists that the Law would be King, so that everyone would live under the same laws because all men are equal and the rights of each person would be respected.