This is a momentous year for U.S. history. Celebrating the semisesquicentennial of U.S. independence, America 250 will reach its apex on July 4 of this year.

Though John Adams missed on the date (he thought it would be July 2), he was spot on about Independence Day being the great anniversary date each year in the U.S.

Some of the best reading of revolutionary history is found in the books, pamphlets, speeches, letters, laws, etc., that were written as contemporary accounts by people personally involved at the time. Those writings are free from any revisionist's application of presentism.

The calendar year 1776 was defined by Congress' July declaration, but bookended by two works by a single author that rank among the most influential in rallying broad American support for the war for independence.

In January, "Common Sense" was published anonymously, which became in the modern vernacular an "instant best seller" for Thomas Paine. In December, he penned a short essay as the first of his 16 "American Crisis" pamphlets that famously opened with "These are the times that try men's souls."

Excerpts from "Common Sense" reflect the persuasive arguments and logical progression of thought that took deep root in the colonists' collective psyche. They paint perhaps the plainest presentation of simple truths amid a throng of eloquent revolutionary writers.

Paine's first bold truth leaps out from the introduction.

"The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind." American exceptionalism isn't a recent concept; it was a founding reality. Throughout his book, Paine methodically charts a course of basic reasoning regarding society and government, the deplorable history of monarchy, the present state of American affairs and the new nation's ability to meet the practical challenges of independence.

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one." Paine begins his section on the "origin and design of government" by addressing popular confusion, which is relatable to today's ubiquitous social media delivered via hand-held devices,

"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them," he wrote, as if he were reading 2026 Facebook posts. "Society is produced by our wants," he reminded readers, "and government by our wickedness."

What he says next defines a crucial understanding that colonial patriots rallied around in 1776, but is lost on so many citizens today.

"[T]he former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one engages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last is a punisher."

Too few today fully comprehend the coercive and oppressive nature of government. Bigger government, in purse and power, can only ever produce smaller freedom. Unchecked and unfettered, government can't help itself as an instrument of tyranny--a calamity "heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer," Paine observed.

"Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived." Paine minced no words in calling monarchy out for its ridiculously absurd practice--without natural or religious reason--of making a "distinction of men into kings and subjects."

The subsequent evil of hereditary succession produced rulers that were "frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions," he wrote.

Paine moved to the present state of American affairs by asserting that "the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth" than independence. He systematically outlined why reconciliation and "government by guardianship" under the King of England had become an impossibility. He also addressed cynicisms of loyalists.

"But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain."

Paine called a government of our own our natural right, and quoted Italian Giancinto Dragonetti to inspire the American effort: "Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense."

Paine contended a document outlining grievances and justifying separation "would produce more good effects to this Continent, than if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain."

Paine's closing pleas for unification behind a declaration emphasized that "independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us together."

His next words embodied the "spirit of '76" that remains essential for lovers of liberty and self-governance. They're worth repeating here and now:

"Instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity; let each of us hold out to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissension. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the rights of mankind and of the Free and Independent States of America."

Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.

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