History

            The tastes for liberty and equality these men have are as different from each other as sour, sweet and hot. To understand their different tastes, you have to first understand who these men are and what they care about. Paine was a British American Philosopher who wrote "Common Sense". He helped strengthen the colonists side of the argument of what freedom and liberty are all about. Franklin was an American statesman, scientist, philosopher, and publisher. While in office he negotiated a treaty that provided loans and military support for the Revolution. Jefferson wrote the influential Summary View of the Rights of British America, stating that the British Parliament had no authority to legislate for the colonies.
             Thomas Paine made a persuasive case to all American's that independence was good. He had very little of what to say about what to do after independence. He felt that the British Constitution was flawed, while American's praised it. His philosophy was: the simpler a government the better a government. Tom Paine was a real pain in the ass. After all his views of independence being great, he had nothing to say about what to do after independence. He was the big fighter for independence. Afterwards, he fell from the limelight. His pamphlet "Common Sense" helped shape the Constitution. If the idea was to give the people the power, they did. Paine helped bring about the "checks and balance" system.
             Franklin was an aristocrat. All he cared for was the rich people like him. When he envisioned Americas" independence he was thinking of aristocrats like him. He was a big abolitionist. Franklin came from a Puritan setting, where everything was centered on a covenanted community bound to God. "Franklin rejected the harshest theological aspects of a system of belief that emphasized innate depravity, but he internalized the social values of Puritan ideology; he rejected the dogma of religion while embracing its ethics" (Masur, 3).