The Nexus Archive
Republican Radicalism · Essay
The American Crisis
by Thomas Paine · The Revolutionary Pamphleteer · Age of Revolution, 1737-1809
Paine writes revolution in real time, turning military reversals and political doubt into public resolve.
- Advanced
- ~5 hr 45 min read
- 2 chapter guides
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the THE CRISIS. V. TO GEN. SIR WILLIAM HOWE. guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
Words for the Times That Try Souls
A soldier can leave when his term expires; a farmer can keep his money; a frightened family can hope someone else will carry the danger. Between 1776 and 1783, Paine writes to people whose separate decisions can sustain or undo a common cause. The army’s fortunes matter, but so do provisions, credit, loyalty and the willingness to bear an expense before necessity makes it unavoidable.
The famous openings are instruments of timing. Paine turns present danger into a test of character, then adapts argument and audience as the war’s political needs change.
The dates and addressees mark changes in the pressure: Americans, British commanders and the people of England face different appeals. These are interventions made with incomplete news and urgent purposes, not a history written after the outcome is secure. Their generosity toward a shared future lives beside fierce hostility toward people Paine places outside the cause. That tension gives his language both its power and its limits.
The opening pages
THE CRISIS I.
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.
Chapter guides · 2
THE CRISIS. V. TO GEN. SIR WILLIAM HOWE.
Resolve must become an army
From the retreat of 1776 to the recruitment plan of March 1778, Paine makes endurance a public obligation with practical costs.
The retreat and the answer to Lord Howe
The first Crisis puts the retreat from Fort Lee beside a parent’s wish for peace in his own lifetime. Paine reverses that wish: accepting danger now may spare one’s children. His praise of Washington gives frightened people an example of steadiness, while the distinction between a passing militia response and a sustained campaign makes courage a problem of organization. The second paper addresses Richard, Lord Howe, the peace commissioner, after Trenton and Princeton. Paine denies that an offer of pardon can settle a dispute over political independence. British occupation of towns, he argues, does not amount to possession of the country or the destruction of its capacity to resist.
Independence and its opponents
The third paper describes independence as a position that emerged from failed reconciliation and war, rather than a secret design already shared by the colonies. Natural right, commercial interest, necessity and the prospect of escaping Europe’s wars supply distinct arguments for separation. The same appeal to union has a coercive edge. Paine attacks Loyalists and politically active Quakers, suspects religious scruples of concealing allegiance, and proposes financial burdens on those who refuse the oath. Paine distinguishes religious Quakers from political ones and portrays continued opposition as avarice, treachery or a desire for power. He nevertheless recognizes that supporters can contribute money, provisions or other service without all becoming soldiers.
Defeat, confidence and the means to continue
After Brandywine, the fourth paper insists that a lost battle has left an army capable of fighting. In the fifth, addressed to General Sir William Howe, Paine turns Saratoga and the British occupation of Philadelphia into an argument that the invaders have trapped and exhausted themselves. His casualty claims and confident forecasts serve this effort to sustain morale. The ensuing address to Americans brings the argument down to recruitment: groups of a hundred men would provide four soldiers, fund bounties and use a lot where volunteers were insufficient. Property and age affect the obligations he proposes. By the Lancaster ending of March 1778, determination requires a force that can stay in the field and a public willing to maintain it.
THE CRISIS IX.
An alliance still needs exertion
The French alliance changes Paine’s diplomatic argument; reports from Charleston expose the danger of treating assistance or expected peace as relief from responsibility.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read The American Crisis?
- About 5 hr 45 min in total.
- How difficult is The American Crisis?
- Advanced. A long essay; about 6 hours of reading.
- Can I read The American Crisis for free?
- The American Crisis is part of Nexus Premium, so reading it needs an account and a Premium subscription. The opening above and one chapter guide on this page are free to read.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- 2 chapter guides, written by the Nexus editors. One opens in full here; the rest show their opening line.
About Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was a political writer whose pamphlets helped radicalize the American Revolution and shaped democratic arguments about monarchy, rights, and political legitimacy.
“Why should the living be ruled by inherited power?”
Paine shows how writing can move ordinary people into political action.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. The American Crisis is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.