The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 65mockery of any talk of a “perfect society” – the general thrust of the book is toward
celebration of both the promise and the perfection of America. Crèvecoeur’s work is
driven by certain convictions, about nature and natural rights, a new man and
society, that he certainly shared with other American writers of the time – and,
indeed, with some of his Romantic counterparts in Europe. But nowhere are such
convictions given clearer or more charged expression. Letters begins with the claim
that to “record the progressive steps” of an “industrious farmer” is a nobler project
for a writer than any to be found in European literature. That claim is supported,
and the project pursued with enthusiasm in the ensuing pages, where the hero is,
quite simply, “the American.”
A writer who shared Crèvecoeur’s belief in the possibilities of American society
was Thomas Paine (1737–1809). Unlike Crèvecoeur, however, Paine was unambigu-
ously enthusiastic about the Revolution. Born in England, Paine arrived in America
in 1774. He remained for only thirteen years, but his impact on America’s develop-
ing vision of itself was enormous. In 1776 Paine published Common Sense, which
argued for American independence and the formation of a republican government.
“In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and
common sense,” Paine declared in the opening pages. That reflected the contempo-
rary belief in the power of reason, which Paine shared, and the contemporary shift
in political commentaries from arguments rooted in religion to more secular ones.
It did not, however, quite do justice to, or prepare the reader for, the power of Paine’s
rhetoric. “The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of the nation cries, ‘TIS TIME
TO PART,” Paine declaims at one point in Common Sense. “O! receive the fugitive,”
he announces elsewhere to those in America who “dare oppose not only the tyranny
but the tyrant,” “and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.” That gift for firing
arguments into life, often with the help of an imaginative use of maxims, is even
more in evidence in the Crisis papers. With Washington defeated and in retreat at the
end of 1776, Paine tried to rouse the nation to further resistance in the first of sixteen
papers. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he began. On this memorable
opening he then piled a series of equally memorable maxims, clearly designed for
the nation to take to and carry in its heart: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.The last of the Crisis papers appeared in 1783, at the end of the Revolution. Only
four years later, Paine returned to England. There, he wrote The Rights of Man
(1791–1792), intended as a reply to Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) by
Edmund Burke. It was immensely popular but, because Paine argued against a
hereditary monarchy in The Rights of Man, he was charged with sedition and was
forced to flee to France. There, his protest against the execution of Louis XVI led to
imprisonment. He was only released when the American ambassador to Paris, James
Madison, intervened. Paine returned to America. But the publication of his lastGGray_c01.indd 65ray_c 01 .indd 65 8 8/1/2011 7:54:56 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 56 AM