I wrote Common Sense the latter end of the year 1775, and published it the first of January, 1776.

Independence was declared the fourth of July following.

[NOTE: The pamphlet Common Sense was first advertised, as "just published," on January 10, 1776.

His plea for the Officers of Excise, written before leaving England, was printed, but not published until 1793.

Despite his reiterated assertion that Common Sense was the first work he ever published the notion that he was "junius" still finds some believers.