The (Original) American Crisis

I just read Thomas Paine's pamphlet, "The American Crisis." What I find interesting is that he doesn't focus on explaining why the British are evil. That's just assumed. Instead, he simply says that the British are evil, so the Americans have to fight. And he also targets the unity of the state, which is something that isn't even thought about today.

I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.

Thomas Paine makes it a point to say that he is asking everyone to help. He knows that what the British are doing isn't a problem for one colony or another, but instead a problem of every colony. I belief his use of the word "state" was also deliberate. He knows that if the colonies are to be unified, the idea of unification and separation has to start now. At this point the war is not over - in fact, they are right in the thick of it. Paine wanted the British colonies to think of themselves as American states. In order to help this mindset, he himself used the language of independence in his pamphlets.

Thomas Paine's focus in this article isn't just the idea of Independence. It is also a sort of call to arms. One of the ways he does this is by proposing a terrible future for cowards.

The heart that feels not now, is dead: the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and make them happy.

The idea here is that people who don't act today, who shrink back from the responsibility Paine feels they have, will be seen as cowards after the Independence is won.