overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa hath long expelled her; Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh! receive the fugitive, and prepare, in time, an asylum for mankind." Such were the trumpet tones of "Common Sense" which aroused the people to action. So highly was its influence esteemed, that the Legislature of Pennsylvania voted the author $2500. Washington, writing to Joseph Reed from Cambridge, on the 31st of January, 1776, said, "A few more of such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk [two towns burned by the British], added to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamphlet "Common Sense," will not leave numbers at a loss to decide" upon the propriety of a separation. Again, writing to the same gentleman two months afterward, he said, "By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that "Common Sense" is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men." * "Common Sense" was the signature which Paine usually affixed to his earlier political writings. Paine also wrote a series of political pamphlets called "The Crisis," which were admirably adapted to the state of the times, and which did much toward keeping alive the spirit of determined rebellion against the unjust government of Great Britain. They were put forth at different times, from the close of 1776 until the end of the war. The first number was published in December, 1776. Paine was then in Washington's camp.