British ships blockaded Delaware Bay, while British soldiers moved south from New York through New Jersey toward Philadelphia. Throughout 1776, Philadelphians feared invasion by water as well as by land. A second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, then declared independence in July 1776. Delegates from most of the North American British colonies met in Philadelphia as the first Continental Congress in September and October 1774. Philadelphia, the leading colonial political and mercantile city, was central to American resistance to exertions of British power in the 1770s. Upon leaving The Pennsylvania Magazine, Paine was encouraged by Franklin and Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) to write Common Sense. In eight months as editor, Paine increased subscriptions and popularized colonial essays and poetry (as opposed to reprints of British material). Franklin recognized Paine’s skills as a writer and polemicist, and his letter helped Paine secure a position as the first editor of The Pennsylvania Magazine. In Common Sense, Thomas Paine cast himself as “under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.” ( Library of Congress)īorn in England, Paine (1737-1809) adopted Philadelphia as a temporary home in November 1774, when he arrived with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), whom he had met in London. Common Sense was thus an overture to democracy and human rights as well as part of Philadelphia print culture and local politics.

It looked forward to democratic politics and universal human rights, yet it also reflected local circumstances in Philadelphia. Published in Philadelphia in its first edition in January 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense became one of the most widely disseminated and most often read political treatises in history. Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You Back.

Common sense 1776