First published in Philadelphia in January 1776, Common Sense was quickly reprinted and copies circulated throughout the arguments of natural law in a form that captured the attention of the general populalion. "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil: in its worst, an intolerable one. Government, like dress, is a badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. . . . [Monarchy is an absurd form of government because one honest man is worth all the crowned ruffians who ever lived." Paine referred to King George III a "the Royal Brute of Great Britain," He urged that separation from Britain war the only way for the colonies to avoid continued tyranny and commerical exploitation. "Oh, ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the...