The following is an installment of “On This Day,” a new series celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by following the actions of Gen. George Washington, the Continental Congress, and the men and women whose bravery and sacrifice led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Jan. 9, 1776

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Thomas Paine was still a relative newcomer to the colonies, having arrived in 1774, but he was already fully committed to their cause of liberty from the Crown. On the evening of Jan. 9, 1776, after becoming editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in 1775, Paine began the anonymous distribution of a 47-page pamphlet, signed simply, “By an Englishman.”

In it, Paine said plainly, and without flourish, what many colonists believed but few yet dared to say aloud.

The

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