For America's 250th anniversary, the author of the influential 1776 pamphlet Common Sense was Thomas Paine.
Paine published Common Sense anonymously on January 10, 1776, under the subtitle Addressed to the Inhabitants of America. The pamphlet argued that the American colonies should seek complete independence from Great Britain rather than merely petition for better treatment.
Written in direct, accessible language, Common Sense reached readers through print shops, newspapers, taverns, and public readings. Its attacks on monarchy and hereditary rule helped make independence a subject of popular debate during the crucial months before the Declaration of Independence.
The pamphlet was not the Declaration's official draft, and Paine did not serve on the Declaration's Committee of Five. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were among the political figures who discussed independence, while Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration's principal text. Paine later wrote The American Crisis, another series of writings supporting the revolutionary cause.