Paine, Thomas

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Thomas Paine Summary

Paine, Thomas

(b. January 29, 1737; d. June 8, 1809) Political pamphleteer, radical advocate of American independence.

Thomas Paine, who was born into a Quaker family in Thetford, England, was a soldier in the Continental Army and author of Common Sense, the most influential pamphlet calling for American independence. He was a radical advocate of republican principles in both the American and French Revolutions.

Paine left the local grammar school at age thirteen, became an apprentice in his father's corset factory, went to sea briefly at age sixteen, returned to apprenticeship, and later became a tax collector but was dismissed from that job. Impoverished, separated from his wife, and with few prospects, Paine immigrated to Philadelphia in 1774 at the urging of Benjamin Franklin whom he had met by chance in London.

Paine became a printer and political propagandist, advocating, among other things, the abolition of slavery. In 1774 he became involved in the protests against English "tyranny" and in December, 1776 was with Washington's beleaguered army. Facing defeat, Paine wrote an inspirational pamphlet, The Crisis, that boosted the morale of the troops and rallied patriots to the cause. The opening lines have become embedded in American culture: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered."

In January, 1776 Paine published his most important work, Common Sense, which made the case for American independence. While some leaders of the resistance still thought that reconciliation with Britain was possible, Paine argued that America should not only become independent but more importantly, should create a new form of government based on radical republican principles. Paine's ridicule of monarchy and aristocratic rule reflected his Quaker egalitarianism and the influence of Enlightenment belief in human reason and social progress. His ideas struck a popular nerve, shown by the initial production of over 100,000 copies of Common Sense. Historian Eric Foner observed, "The success of Common Sense reflected the perfect conjunction of man and his time, a writer and his audience, and it announced the emergence of Paine as the outstanding political pamphleteer of the Age of Revolution" (Foner, 87).

Thomas Paine.

Something of a gadfly, more adept at tearing down than building up, Paine did not involve himself in creating the republican institutions he had idealized. Although he wrote more pamphlets, later compiled as The American Crisis, to boost morale during the war with England, he devoted part of his time to experiments in making smokeless candles and iron bridges. Restless, he returned to England in 1787 to pursue these two enterprises.

In 1790, with the French Revolution moving toward the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, Paine resumed his role as a pamphleteer advocating radical republicanism. In response to criticism of the revolution in France by British statesman Edmund Burke, who had been his friend, he wrote his finest work on democratic philosophy, The Rights of Man (1790–1791). In this pamphlet, which was banned by the British government, Paine argued against hereditary government, even suggesting the abolishment of the House of Lords. He held that all men over the age of 21 should have equal political rights. He also proposed such extreme innovations as progressive taxation, family allowances, old age pensions, and maternity grants. Outlawed for sedition, Paine went to France to escape arrest. Despite the ban, The Rights of Man became one of the most important political pamphlets in British history among the working and rising middle classes.

Paine became a French citizen and a member of the National Convention, but proved to be more republican than radical. In 1793 he voted against the execution of Louis XVI and was put in jail in 1794 by the Jacobins. Fearing that he might not have long to live, Paine spent his time in prison completing The Age of Reason (1794–1796), in which he expressed his Deist religious convictions more vehemently than had eighteenth-century Deists whose writings were addressed to scholars. Because he wrote for common people and tactlessly ridiculed Christian beliefs in addition to presenting arguments against them, this book aroused a storm of protest.

Returning to the United States from France in 1802, Paine discovered that his attack on Christianity had made him an outcast. Upon his death in 1809 a new generation of Americans ignored Paine's passing and his contributions to the Revolution. Only in the latter part of the twentieth century did Paine, the radical pamphleteer whose words helped lead America to independence, republicanism and democracy, become an important part of the nation's culture and revolutionary tradition.