Paine, Thomas

Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the service after leading (1772) agitation for higher salaries. Paine emigrated to America in 1774, bearing letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, who was then in England. He soon became involved in the clashes between England and the American colonies and published the stirring and enormously successful pamphlet Common Sense (Jan., 1776), in which he argued that the colonies had outgrown any need for English domination and should be given independence. In Dec., 1776, Paine wrote the first of a series of 16 pamphlets called The American Crisis (1776–83). These essays were widely distributed and did much to encourage the patriot cause throughout the American Revolution. He also wrote essays for the Pennsylvania Journal and edited the Pennsylvania Magazine. After the war he returned to his farm in New Rochelle, N.Y.

In 1787 Paine went to England and while there wrote The Rights of Man (2 parts, 1791 and 1792), defending the French Revolution

Origins of the Revolution

Historians disagree in evaluating the factors that brought about the Revolution.
.....  in reply to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Its basic premises were that there are natural rights common to all men, that only democratic institutions are able to guarantee these rights, and that only a kind of welfare state can secure economic equity. Paine's attack on English institutions led to his prosecution for treason and subsequent flight to Paris (1792). There, as a member of the National Convention, he took a significant part in French affairs. During the Reign of Terror he was imprisoned by the Jacobins from Dec., 1793 to Nov., 1794 and narrowly escaped the guillotine. During this time he wrote his famous deistic and antibiblical work The Age of Reason (2 parts, 1794 and 1795), which alienated many. His diatribe against George Washington, Letter to Washington (1796), added more fuel to the persisting resentment against him. At the invitation of the new president, Thomas Jefferson, Paine returned to the United States in 1802. However, he was practically ostracized by his erstwhile compatriots; he died unrepentant and in poverty seven years later. An idealist, a radical, and a master rhetorician, Paine wrote and lived with a keen sense of urgency and excitement and a constant yearning for liberty.

Bibliography

See his writings ed. by M. D. Conway (1894–96, repr. 1969); P. Foner, ed., The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine (2 vol., 1945); and representative selections ed. by H. H. Clark (1944, repr. 1961); biographies by D. F. Hawke (1974), A. Williamson (1974), J. Keane (1995), and C. Nelson (2006); studies by P. Collins (2005) and H. J. Kaye (2005).

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Paine, Thomas

Thomas Paine, detail of a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis; in the Thomas Paine Memorial House, New …

(credit: Courtesy of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association)

(born Jan. 29, 1737, Thetford, Norfolk, Eng.—died June 8, 1809, New York, N.Y., U.S.) English-American writer and political pampleteer. After a series of professional failures in England, he met Benjamin Franklin, who advised him to immigrate to America. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1774 and helped edit the Pennsylvania Magazine. In January 1776 he wrote Common Sense, a 50-page pamphlet eloquently advocating independence; more than 500,000 copies were quickly sold, and it greatly strengthened the colonists' resolve. As a volunteer aide to Gen. Nathanael Greene during the American Revolution he wrote his 16 “Crisis” papers (1776–83), each signed “Common Sense”; the first, beginning “These are the times that try men's souls,” was read to the troops at Valley Forge on George Washington's order. In 1787 Paine traveled to England and became involved in debate over the French Revolution; his The Rights of Man (1791–92) defended the revolution and espoused republicanism. Viewed as an attack on the monarchy, it was banned, and Paine was declared an outlaw in England. He then went to France, where he was elected to the National Convention (1792–93). After he criticized the Reign of Terror, he was imprisoned by Maximilien Robespierre (1793–94). His The Age of Reason (1794, 1796), the first part of which was published while he was still in prison, earned him a reputation as an atheist, though it in fact espouses Deism. He returned to the U.S. in 1802; criticized for his Deist writings and little remembered for his service to the Revolution, he died in poverty.

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Paine, Thomas (1737–1809) political theorist; born in Thetford, England. He was a British subject, an American citizen, and then an honorary French citizen. He came to Philadelphia in 1774 and published his pamphlet Common Sense in 1776; it sold nearly half a million copies and was distributed in Europe as well as the colonies. He then wrote a pamphlet series, The Crisis, which began with the memorable line, "These are the times that try men's souls." The pamphlet series greatly uplifted the spirit of the Continental army and the colonists as a whole. Following the American Revolution, he lived quietly in New York until he returned to Britain in 1787. He wrote the Rights of Man (1791–92) in response to Edmund Burke's criticism of the French Revolution. He became an honorary French citizen, was elected to the Revolutionary Convention (1792), and was imprisoned during the height of the Terror in Paris. Later he published The Age of Reason (1794, 1796) and returned to New York where he lived in obscurity until his death.

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Paine, Thomas

(1737–1809) powerful voice of the colonies; wrote famous “Common Sense.” [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 369–370]

See : Eloquence