Balanced Fear
An enemy too strong to fight strikes fear and cowardice into a nation while a foe to weak will be seen as insignificant. The balance of both, however, is certainly able to convince a country to fight. Thomas Paine accomplishes this tricky balance in “The Crisis No. 1” by utilizing a shifting tone that ranges from assured to dire as well as hypothetical scenarios and anecdotes in order to convince his audience that fighting the British is both possible and necessary.
Over the course of the piece, Paine’s tone concerning the impending war changes from confident to urgent, which gives the impression that the colonists would win a war against Britain, but only if they prepare now. He asserts at the start, “my secret opinion…
He first speaks of Howe when explaining his opinion about the current state of affairs, “All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is a rather a ravage than a conquest.” By only using the British general’s name, Paine suggests that the colonies are only facing Howe rather than a massive army. This minimise the perceived size and power of the British army, encouraging the colonists to fight. When Paine explicitly refers to the British army, he only does so to diminish their apparent strength. While giving examples of national panics, Paine writes, “Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats” and then, “in the fourteenth century the whole English army . . . was driven back like men petrified with fear, and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc.” First, Paine uses the boats as an example as this suggests that Britain is so helpless and afraid that they fear even the mere indication of war. Second, Paine alludes to Joan of Arc’s liberation of Orleans while also emphasizing the British’s weakness. Both Paine’s word choice and historical examples argue that Britain is much weaker than the colonists…
