The Written Word

The Power of the Written Word


What do I think is the most important book ever written aside from the bible?

That is a tough one....

For Americans, I'd have to say it was Thomas Payne's book. "Common Sense" that planted the seeds of freedom and liberty in the minds then of Yankees held under the thumb of the Brits. Common Sense was one of the most widely read books prior to the American Revolution that was spawned by the tea tax which was considered the last straw by many colonialists. Thomas Payne’s ideas came to be recognized in time as an answer to the anguish suffered by the colonialists over the parent country’s arbitrary decision to tax the colonialists.

Thomas Payne never achieved the recognition in his adopted country for the power of his words and the resulting revolution that they help to precipitate. To the end, he was considered a most unpopular chap for his candor even among those he infused with the ideas of freedom.

Nor do most realize that it was he and he alone who was largely responsible for keeping the Continental Army intact after Valley Forge when the Yankee troops had completed their commitments and were ready to return home to take up their lives again.


The speech written by Thomas Payne for George Washington so inspired the men in his command that they agreed to stay under arms until they started to build a chain of successes in their confrontations with the English.

Yet, Thomas Payne returned home to die a pauper in England where he was villified in the end and largely ignored by history.. It goes without saying that if there was no Thomas Payne, there might never have been a Revolution and men like Adams, Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin might never have come together to create a democracy, the first of its kind since the Greeks...

Something to think about!

Les Aaron