" Even in England, Liberals read and applauded.
The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to
France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common
Sense."
It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence
doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the
touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew
the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid
a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it
useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared.
None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared
independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread
through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and
believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would
have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation.
If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an
expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776,
look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much
difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later,
when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in
the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of
tension.
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