These questions may be useful to you in reading the works (although they are not definitive!)

Thomas Jefferson
"Declaration of Independence"
Who is this, in fact, addressed to? What must a reader believe to agree?
"Notes on the State of Virginia"
How do these notes speak to the French? How would they be read by his fellow Americans? How would you describe the style?
What are his views about the state of religion and slavery in America? How do they compare with Franklin and Crevecoeur? What are his recommendations about industry and how do they reflect his commitment to the agrarian ethic?
How does he describe nature in America to their readers? What relationship between man and nature does he assume? How does his descriptions compare with earlier ones by Puritans? the Indian views?

Thomas Paine
"Common Sense"
Why was it necessary and possible for Paine, a middle-aged British immigrant, to write this? To whom is he writing?
What arguments does he present for independence? What are his premises and his conclusions? What are the "principles of nature and common sense"? How logical is he actually?
How does he make his case convincing? What metaphors does he use to advance his argument?

Crevecoeur
What persona does Crevecoeur assume? Why? Who is it addressed to? How would Americans have read it?
What story does he present of the American--his past, his present, his place, his future? What exemplifying stories are presented in support? Whose stories are left out?
How does he use plant metaphors to present his point? Rhetorical questions?
Examine the major contradictions: leave the past yet carry on tradition; a melting pot yet strong nationalist characteristics; radical freedom yet shaped by environment; respectable and domesticated middle class yet wild, almost animal-like men; most truly civilized and lawful yet inhumane slaveholders according to law, etc.
Why are there so many contradictions? How is the darkest side of America (in "civilized" Charleston) anticipated or contradicted by the determinedly optimistic picture of the previous essay?
(I have an article on Crevecoeur posted at http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/crev.htm.)