Thomas Paine's famous work, Common Sense, is often credited as one of the key contributors to the fight for independence from England. Although there had been calls for independence by various people for a number of years, it was not until 1776, when Common Sense was originally published, that a majority of the people in the colonies fully understood the reasons for revolution. Therefore, Common Sense is now viewed as a major catalyst to the Declaration of Independence, and, ultimately, to the United States of America as a whole.

In the tradition of John Locke, Paine felt that the main goal of any government should be to look out for the welfare of its subjects. Paine was a proponent of the idea that people are inherently good, and that without a specific law- making body, namely a government, people would still come together to keep order in the society...