I | INTRODUCTION |
Thomas
Paine (1737-1809), Anglo-American political philosopher, whose writings
had great influence during two upheavals in the 18th century: the American
Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799).
II | LIFE IN ENGLAND |
Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, England,
to an Anglican mother and a Quaker father. He remained poor throughout his life.
At the age of 13 he began working for his father, and at 19 he went to sea.
Paine returned to England shortly thereafter and moved through various jobs,
eventually becoming an excise officer. As an officer he had to collect taxes
from smugglers he tracked down. He was dismissed in 1772 for publishing a
document calling for an increase in wages as a means of reducing corruption in
government service. His personal life did not fare much better: his first wife
died and he later legally separated from his second wife.
III | AMERICAN SOJOURN |
In London Paine met and befriended Benjamin
Franklin, who was serving as a representative of the American colonies in Great
Britain. On Franklin’s advice, and equipped with letters of introduction from
him, Paine immigrated to Philadelphia in 1774. He became an editor on the
Pennsylvania Magazine and also anonymously published writings, including
poetry. One of his publications was the article “African Slavery in America,” in
which he condemned the practice of slavery.
Paine published his most famous work, the
50-page pamphlet, Common Sense, on January 10, 1776. In a dramatic,
rhetorical style, the document asserted that the American colonies received no
advantage from Great Britain, which was exploiting them, and that every
consideration of common sense called for the colonies to become independent and
establish a republican government of their own. The document went on to
criticize the monarchy as an institution. Published anonymously, the pamphlet
sold more than 500,000 copies and helped encourage, with comments such as “The
birthday of a new world is at hand,” the issuance of the Declaration of
Independence six months later.
Paine served briefly in the army under
General Nathanael Greene. Paine wrote a series of pamphlets between 1776 and
1783 entitled The American Crisis. His words inspired those who battled
in the revolution, and included the now famous first line: “These are the times
that try men’s souls.” George Washington ordered the pamphlets read to his
troops in hope that they would be inspired to endure. In 1777 the Second
Continental Congress appointed Paine secretary of the Committee of Foreign
Affairs. After losing the post during a political dispute early in 1779, he
remained unemployed until November, when he became clerk of the Pennsylvania
legislature. His concern for the difficult lives of American troops led him to
establish a fund to support needy soldiers, despite his own lack of income.
Paine himself had to apply to Congress for financial help, but his plea was
buried by his opponents there. However, he was helped by Pennsylvania and New
York; New York gave him a farm in New Rochelle, New York.
IV | RETURN TO ENGLAND |
Paine returned to Great Britain in 1787, and
in 1791 and 1792 he published Rights of Man, in two parts. It was most
famous of all replies to the condemnatory Reflections Upon the French
Revolution by the British statesman Edmund Burke. It was also an analysis of
the weaknesses of European society, proposing such remedies as republican
government and progressive income taxes. A million and a half copies were sold
in England alone before the book was suppressed. Paine’s criticism of
monarchical rule in Rights of Man caused an uproar in England and led the
British government to charge Paine with seditious libel. He was tried in
absentia while en route to France in December 1792.
V | FRENCH CAREER |
In France Paine was elected a deputy to the
National Convention, and he generally voted with the moderate faction known as
the Girondins. By favoring the exile, rather than the execution, of King Louis
XVI, however, he offended Maximilien de Robespierre, the leader of the radical
faction, and he was imprisoned from December 1793 until November 1794, three
months after Robespierre’s downfall; Paine then regained his National Convention
seat. Part I of his book The Age of Reason was published while Paine was
still in prison; he published Part II in 1795 and a portion of Part III in 1807.
Paine’s writing was seen as a promotion of atheism, despite the fact that Paine
objected only to organized religion. The misinterpretation of this work resulted
in Paine gaining ill repute as an atheist and in the alienation of most of his
old friends. In 1802 Paine returned to the United States with the help of
President Thomas Jefferson, and found that people there had a negative opinion
of him as well. He died in New York City and was buried on his farm in New
Rochelle. Ten years later journalist William Cobbett moved his remains to
England; they were subsequently lost.
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