Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates" title="Old Style and New Style dates" >O.S.</a> January 29, 1736]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-Conway-1" >[Note 1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-calendar-2" >[Note 2]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-Engber-3" >[Note 3]</a> – June 8, 1809) was an American and English political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. As the author of the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution" title="American Revolution" >American Revolution</a>, he inspired the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_(American_Revolution)" title="Patriot (American Revolution)" >Patriots</a> in 1776 to declare independence from Britain.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-4" >[1]</a> His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-5" >[2]</a> He has been called "a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsetmaker" title="Corsetmaker" >corsetmaker</a> by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-6" >[3]</a>

Born in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thetford" title="Thetford" >Thetford</a>, England, in the county of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk" title="Norfolk" >Norfolk</a>, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin" title="Benjamin Franklin" >Benjamin Franklin</a>, arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every patriot read (or listened to a reading) of his powerful pamphlet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_(pamphlet)" title="Common Sense (pamphlet)" >Common Sense</a> (1776), which crystallized the Patriot demand for independence from Great Britain. His <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Crisis" title="The American Crisis" >The American Crisis</a> (1776–83), a prorevolutionary pamphlet series. Common Sense was so influential that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams" title="John Adams" >John Adams</a> said, "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-NewYorker-7" >[4]</a>

Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution" title="French Revolution" >French Revolution</a>. He wrote the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Man" title="Rights of Man" >Rights of Man</a> (1791), in part a defence of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on British writer<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke" title="Edmund Burke" >Edmund Burke</a> led to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_trial_of_Thomas_Paine" title="Treason trial of Thomas Paine" class="mw-redirect" >a trial and conviction</a> in absentia in 1792 for the crime of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seditious_libel" title="Seditious libel" >seditious libel</a>. In 1792, despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Convention" title="National Convention" >National Convention</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girondist" title="Girondist" >Girondists</a> regarded him as an ally. Consequently, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mountain" title="The Mountain" >Montagnards</a>, especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre" title="Maximilien Robespierre" class="mw-redirect" >Robespierre</a>, regarded him as an enemy.

In December 1793, he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris, then released in 1794. He became notorious because of his pamphlet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reason" title="The Age of Reason" >The Age of Reason</a> (1793–94), in which he advocated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism" title="Deism" >deism</a>, promoted reason and free thought, and argued against institutionalized religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. He also wrote the pamphlet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice" title="Agrarian Justice" >Agrarian Justice</a> (1795), discussing the origins of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property" title="Property" >property</a>, and introduced the concept of a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income" title="Guaranteed minimum income" >guaranteed minimum income</a>. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.

Thomas Paine

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