1776 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

"The American Crisis" by Thomas Paine is published at Philadelphia December 23, the first of 16 pamphlets that Paine will write under that title in the next 7 years (he has begun writing it on a drumhead while serving as an aide-de-camp to General Greene). General Washington has his officers read it to the men: "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 by 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." Paine's words have an electrifying effect similar to that of his January pamphlet "Common Sense."