Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine both came from similar backgrounds and shared much commonality during their early years, however, each embarked on life paths from different perspectives. It seems Paine was more a revolutionary and anti-establishment, while Franklin was more a statesman and progressive.
Benjamin Franklin came from a modest family and at the age of thirteen began as an apprentice for his bother (Franklin pp). Franklin was well-read and established himself in the printing business as an author of political dissent against colonialism early in life, one article of which sent his brother to jail for a month (Franklin pp). He then left Boston for Philadelphia where, due to his gregarious nature, he acquired many friends, one of whom was the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith, who persuaded Franklin to go to London to finish his training and return to start his own printing establishment (Franklin pp). His personality and demeanor again won him recognition among many of the most distinguished figures in the literary and publishing world (Franklin pp). When Franklin returned he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette and married Deborah Read, a Philadelphia woman whom he had known before his trip to England (Franklin pp).
Franklin was a true renaissance man who was engaged in numerous research and public projects (Franklin pp). He founded the first public library in America, published the successful Poor Richard's Almanack, founded the American Philosophical Society dedicated to the promotion of science, and in 1744, invented the Franklin stove, which furnished more heat with less fuel consumption (Franklin pp). He was also clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and was appointed deputy postmaster (Franklin pp). It...
Franklin Autobiography Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is not only a story of his own relentless attempts at self-improvement, but also designed to be an early advice manual for others who intend to follow in his footsteps. He certainly was one of the most successful men on the 18th Century, rising from poverty and obscurity in Boston to owning a successful printing business, founding the University of Pennsylvania and the American Philosophical Society,
Throughout the duration of the war, Paine was responsible for publishing a series of propaganda pieces which were published in the Crisis. In these, he often addressed the British Crown and warned of the Americans' united spirit: "In all the wars which you have formerly been concerned in you had only armies to contend with; in this case, you have both an army and a country to combat with,"
Paine's decision to write of high philosophical and political issues in common speech, and of used "graphic metaphors and his simple sentence structure [to] reflect a language understood at the time by common Americans," (Moss & Wilson, ed) has much the same purpose as a translation of the Bible from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into Latin, which is to say the need to initiate common people into profound truths. Paine
Thomas Paine It is difficult to think of the founding of the United States without calling to mind Thomas Paine. Paine's "Common Sense" and "Age of Reason" have become not only part of American history, but part of classic American literature. In "Common Sense," Paine wrote, "The new republican materials, in the persons of the commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England" (Paine pg). Paine is perhaps the least revered
Common Sense -- Thomas Paine Thomas Paine, one of the most influential writers of the American Revolution, wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. In this short work, he incited and inspired American Patriots to declare independence from Great Britain. One author semi-jokingly called him a "corset maker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination" (PoemHunter.com, 2009). The work was one of the top best sellers of the
The Sons of Liberty, a clandestine network of individuals dedicated to the freedom of enterprise and the fairness of government that the British Crown once stood as the protector of, have caused enough damage with their secretive acts to both the Crown and the forces here that oppose it. Would it not be better to move their actions from the shadows they have been forced into do to the label
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