Common sense attributed to Thomas Paine by the DAB and first printed Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776.

Plain truth attributed to James Chalmers by Adams and Sabin and first printed Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776.

Plain truth has been incorrectly attributed to William Smith, George Chalmers, Alexander Hamilton, and others. Cf. ESTC.

The collected editions of Thomas Paine's Common sense and James Chalmer's Plain Truth, London: J. Almon were printed in 4 editions or issues. Each has a collective half title page given as "Common sense and Plain truth" with either no edition statement for the first edition, "The second edition corrected", "The third editiion corrected", or "The fourth edition corrected". Each of these editions has specific variants as outined by R. Gimbel in his Thomas Paine: A bibliographical check-list of Common sense, p. 86-87.

Title page of James Chalmer's work reads: "Plain truth: addressed to the inhabitants of America. Containing remarks on a late pamphlet, intitled Common sense: wherein are shewn, that the scheme of independence is ruinous, delusive, and impracticable; that were the author's asseverations, respecting the power of America, as real as nugatory, reconciliation on liberal principles with Great Britain would be exalted policy; and that, circumtanced as we are, permanent liberty and true happiness can only be obtained by reconciliation with that kingdom. Written by Candidus." with imprint: Philadelphia, printed: London, reprinted for J. Almon, opposite Burlington House, in Piccadilly. M.DCC.LXXVI.

This issue given as the "First edition" by Gimbel and assigned 4 numbers: CS-24, CS-25, CS-26, and CS-27. This state represents Gimbel CS-26, stated by Gimbel to be Common sense and Plain truth issued without a collective half-title leaf, and can be identified by the following typographical features: on p. [1], of the "Introduction", last line the "e" in fire is correctly aligned with the rest of the word; p. 23 is numbered correctly; on p. 26, lines 14 and 15 contain no parentheses, p. 29, lines 32 and 33 contain no parentheses; p. 31, 3rd line from bottom has "pedling"; p. 40, 3rd paragraph, last line has "understanding" in the singular form; p. 51 is numbered correctly; in addition to these typographical features, several "hiatuses" are found in the work where offending words that might have disturbed the British readers were excised and not printed, and/or filled in in pen and ink: p. 1 of "Introduction", line 15 is missing the word "combination" and line 17 is missing the word "usurpation"; p. 23, line 16 reads "N----" [i.e. North]; and p. 25, line 3 is missing the words "and fatal"; additional hiatuses can be found in all of the editions printed by John Almon on p. 14, 17, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 41, 42, 45, 51, and 52. Gimbel notes that "mixed copies are known, made up of signatures from different editions"

"To the representatives of the religious society of the people called Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned in publishing a late piece, entitled 'The ancient testimony and principles of the people called Quakers renewed, with respect to the king and government, and touching the commotions now prevailing in these and other parts of America addressed to the people in general": p. 49-54, 2nd count.

Signatures: [A]⁴ (-[A]4) ([A]2 verso blank) B-G⁴ H² [I]² ([I]1, [I]2 versos blank) ²A-²F⁴

Publisher's advertisement: p. [1], 5th count.

Sabin 58214 (Common sense)

Sabin 84642n (Plain truth)

Adams, T.R. Amer. pamphlets, 222y (Common sense)

Adams, T.R. Amer. pamphlets, 208e (Plain truth)

Adams, T.R. Brit. pamphlets 76-107c (Common sense)

Adams, T.R. Brit. pamphlets 76-19b (Plain truth)

Adams, T.R. Thomas Paine, 146.

Gimbel, R. Common sense CS-26.

English short title catalogue T5809.