Essay Sample about The War Written on Paper: Thomas Paine & Robert Beverley

David Ramsey, a renowned historian, stated, “In establishing American independence, the pen and press had merit equal to that of the sword.” During the time preceding the Revolutionary War, the thirteen colonies were at violent odds with their mother country Great Britain, which caused great turbulence. Due to the rising taxes and cruel treatment of the British, opposition between Britain and the new American nation was unavoidable. This political turmoil between these two forces caused strain among American colonists and resulted in the separation of the colonies into patriots and loyalists. Among these two groups, support for each side began to rapidly develop at astounding rates using methods previously unheard of; however, the most prominent example of support didn’t appear through the unusual congregation of slave owners and their laborers though, but rather through the unexpected power of the press. Hitherto, the colonists and Great Britain had never witnessed the social influence of the pen at this magnitude. Amidst all the supporters of Britain and the colonies, two notable writers who held adverse beliefs rose to spread their idiosyncratic doctrines using the power of the press: Thomas Paine and Robert Beverley. The opposing viewpoints of Paine and Beverley directly challenged one another; thus, these two authors created a more coherent atmosphere that demonstrated the conflicting ideologies before the American Revolution and established how the agitated nature of the press contributed to the tumult of the moment. 

Thomas Paine, the writer of the pamphlet, Common Sense, was undoubtedly one of the most influential people during the era of the American Revolution. His persuasive pamphlet, consisting of 47 hand-written pages, sold 150,000 copies in its first eleven months of publication, which was an unprecedented accomplishment. Paine claims that he received inspiration from Benjamin Rush, an avid believer in his writing literary abilities, and Robert Aitken, the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. According to Charles Greifenstein, a historian from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia,

Rush, aware of Paine’s facility, urged him to write a pamphlet about why separation from England was necessary. Paine agreed. According to Rush’s autobiography, Paine brought Rush parts of the pamphlet as they were completed… Under the title Rush suggested, Bell [a publishing associate] published Common Sense.

Common Sense wasn’t just a piece of compelling writing that Paine developed independently, but rather a matured manuscript aided by other strong advocates of change, like Benjamin Rush. The pamphlet claimed that independence for thirteen colonies was inevitable, and then proceeded to criticize the politics and economic issues that presented themselves as obstacles on the road to liberty. Paine then commented on the extremely compendious point that Britain was the pure instigator of nearly all the trouble that the colonies experienced, and declared that a move for independence was necessary to escape the many discords of the 1770s. To further hammer in the point of autonomy, Paine wrote in Common Sense: “A government of our own is our natural right. Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government.” Paine resolutely claimed that an independent government, free from British rule, was their unalienable right. He believed that those who didn’t believe in his patriotic efforts encouraged “eternal tyranny”, a harsh verdict for the colonists incapable of constructing their own government. Although Paine seems to be of great significance now, he was heavily ostracized and attacked during his lifetime; He was outlawed in England, nearly lost his life in France, and was largely excluded after his arrival to America. Nonetheless, he is still held with great revere in the literary and historical world today, represented as a bold pioneer and an accomplished writer. 

An aspect of Robert Beverley that made his perspective unique was that he was never interested in politics, even trying to avoid the topic altogether, and therefore was able to view the American Revolution through the eyes of a non-participant who had no implicit bias. During the 1700s, Beverly grew up on a fairly wealthy plantation in Essex Country, and consequently after his father’s death, became one of the most affluent members of his colony. Early in 1774, Beverley began to comment on the impending matter of separation from Britain, and afterward developed a staunch position opposing the leaders who were initiating the split by stating that they were “unwisely rushing towards independence.” In Beverley’s letters to Landon Carter, English merchants, and William Fitzhugh, Beverley was able to express his thoughts about the unqualified reasoning behind the pursuit of separation. Although Beverley admitted the justice of an array of the colonist’s grievances, he also agreed with many of Britain’s decisions, such as suspending the Massachusetts charter. In his letter to William Fitzhugh, Beverley stated, “The Constitution of the Massachusetts Government rests so entirely with the People that they are perpetually engaged in Tumults and Cabals.” Believing that a civil government often leads to peril and disorganization, Beverley’s opinions disagreed entirely with Paine’s belief that Britain was the sole inciter of all the colonist’s troubles. In addition, Beverley eccentrically thought that the institutional rights of the colonists weren’t contingent upon the governments of other colonies, and therefore encouraged colonies to interact independently with Britain rather than in assembly. Compared to Paine, Beverely defined an authentic and credible politician as one who acts without “a self-interest and want of candour”; Paine didn’t focus on the fidelity of his fellow revolutionaries but rather perceived the revolution with more of a tunnel vision, dependant on his idealistic vision, not on the accuracy of the colonist’s injustices. Since Beverley often argued on both sides of the issue and was able to see the valid arguments from a fair standpoint, his writing contributed to adding another layer of understanding of what the colonists and Britain thought during the Revolutionary Era. 

To authors and publishers before and during the Revolutionary War, words held as much power as a rifle, perhaps even more. A significant portion of Patriot writers were able to expose the over-reaching nature of British rule, while Loyalists would refute that the British were not the cause of all the colony’s troubles. This agitated banter added to the riotous nature of the 1700s, propelling the colonists into distraught encounters with British soldiers that often ended in disaster. Through pen, writers like Paine and Beverley were able to rapidly influence the general population with their reasonable ideologies, forcing readers to pick a side with drastically different values and beliefs from the other. Although the era of the American Revolution created a long-lasting legacy of battling for change, the development of the press paved the road for an enduring form of influence for abolition that would permanently affect how society functioned as a whole.