Paine, Thomas
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Famous libertarian and political radical
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: January 29, 1737, Thetford, Norfolk, England
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: June 8, 1809, New York, NY. Aged 72
DISCIPLINE: Political author
FIELD: Politics
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Joseph Paine; Frances Cocke
SIBLINGS: 1 sister
SPOUSE: 1)Mary Lambert; 2) Elizabeth Ollive
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: Thetford Grammar School, England
MAJOR WORK: "The Rights of Man", "The Age of Reason"
LIFE AND TIMES:
After working as corset-maker for a number of years, Paine became an excise officer. The 1760s were a decade of rising prices, falling wages, and sporadic food riots. Paine joined a political discussion group, the White Hart Evening Club, where he made his mark as a public speaker.
He read extensively on political theory, including the works of <influenced by> Priestley* and James Burgh, both advocates of freedom of conscience and parliamentary reform. His only published work in England was "The Case of the Officers of Excise" (1772), in which he argued that higher salaries for excise employees would get rid of corruption in the service.
In 1774, Paine was fired from his excise job for being away without permission, and went into debt. His household possessions were seized and sold at public auction. The turn of fortune affected his marriage and he and his wife separated.
Paine went to London, where a friend, George Lewis Scott, introduced him to U.S. diplomat <befriended by> Franklin*, who gave him a letter of introduction to his son-in-law in America. Paine arrived in Philadelphia on Nov. 30, 1774.
With Franklin's recommendation Paine soon found regular employment as editor at the "Pennsylvania Magazine". When the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775, Paine took the revolutionary side, making friends with such independence advocates as <a pal of> Rush*, future U.S. president <a pal of> John Quincy Adams*, and <knew> Samuel Adams*.
In January, 1776, Paine wrote "Common Sense", arguing that America should demand full independence. The 50-page pamphlet ended with the words, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
It sold more than 150,000 copies within a few months, and more than any other single publication paved the way for the Declaration of Independence. During the war, Paine served as volunteer aide-de-camp to General Nathanael Greene. To boost American morale, Paine published in late 1776 "The American Crisis," which opened with the famous words: "These are the times that try men's souls". <work quoted by> Washington* ordered the pamphlet read to all the troops at Valley Forge.
Between 1777 and 1783, Paine served in a number of government posts, among them secretary to the commission appointed by Congress to negotiate with Indian tribes, and secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs.
In 1779, a controversy ( see <had row about> Deane*) forced Paine to resign, but he continued to write pamphlets. He called for free trade, new taxes to help finance the war, and cooperation among the separate states for the well-being of the nation. His "Public Good", written in 1780, called for a national convention to establish a strong central government under "a continental constitution".
At the end of the war, Paine again found himself penniless. In a petition to Congress endorsed by Washington, he pleaded for financial assistance, and was given the confiscated estate of a loyalist and $3,000.
Paine turned his hand to inventions and, among other things, designed a wrought-iron single-arch bridge to cross the wide Schuylkill River near Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Assembly refused to give Paine any money for project, so in 1787, Paine went looking for funds in France and England.
In France, he met and became friends with U.S. ambassador <a pal of> Jefferson*. In Britain he met writer/politician <knew> Burke*, but Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France", which criticized the French uprising, riled Paine and induced him to resume his political writing.
In 1791, Paine published his celebrated answer to Burke: "The Rights of Man". In part, it was a vindication of events in France and in part an analysis of republican government. Paine called for a radical break with the past in Britain as well as in France.
The book created a sensation. At least eight editions were published in one year and it was quickly reprinted in the U.S. When Burke replied, Paine wrote "The Rights of Man, Part the Second," published in 1792. As well as analyzing the reasons for discontent in European society, it outlined a plan for a rudimentary welfare state, financed by progressive taxation on property.
The tract became a central text of the British radical tradition. By the end of 1792, it had sold 200,000 copies and inspired an upsurge of radical politics among blue-collar workers. The British government banned the book, jailed its publisher, and indicted Paine for treason.
But Paine was already on his way to France, where he had been elected to a seat in the National Convention. He arrived in September, 1792, in time to vote for the abolition of the monarchy. In December, 1792, he was tried, in absentia, in London, found guilty of seditious libel, and declared an outlaw.
In France, by January, 1793 Paine had become appalled by the terror against the royalists and spoke in the Convention against the execution of <opposed execution of> Louis XVI*. Since he spoke little French, he joined the Girondin group (who spoke English, admired the American Revolution, and also opposed the execution). But the Girondins were disbanded with the rise of the Jacobins under Robespierre, and Paine was arrested and imprisoned from December, 1793, to November, 1794. With the fall of Robespierre, he was readmitted to the National Convention.
While in prison, Paine completed "The Age of Reason", an attack on organized Christianity and the concept that the Bible was divinely inspired. The work made him many enemies among the clergy and devout Christians in both Europe and the United States.
He also wrote two open letters of attack against George [Washington(https://app.thebrain.com/brain/f3e16344-7cd9-4fa3-ae1d-59876e128474/e537b267-fa2d-5955-ac16-37af28634d1e): the first in 1795 for failing to get him out of prison; and the other in 1796 accusing Washington of treachery and hypocrisy during the War of Independence.
Paine remained in France until September, 1802, when he returned to the U.S. at the invitation of his friend Jefferson. However, he discovered that his services to the country had all but been forgotten. In 1806, he was refused the right to vote because he was not an American citizen. After his death in New York City in 1809, only six mourners attended his funeral.
ASSESSMENT: More than any other individual, nurtured the radical mind and shaped the language of modern politics
EXTRA CONNECTIONS:
His “Rights” was attacked in print by <attacked by> Hannah More*.
<helped by> Godwin* helped to publish “Rights”.
<remains lost by> Cobbett* took his remains back to England (and lost them!)
He knew <knew> Samuel Adams* and <knew> John Adams*
ONELINER: Thomas Paine, libertarian
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DNB
Foner, Eric, "Paine, Thomas", in American Dictionary of National Biography, New York & Oxford: OUP, 1999
Keane, John, Tom Paine: A Political Life, Oxford: OUP, 1995.