Paine, Thomas

Paine, Thomas
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.

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

Courtesy of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association

* * *

▪ British-American author
Introduction
born January 29, 1737, Thetford, Norfolk, England
died June 8, 1809, New York, N.Y., U.S.
 English-American writer and political pamphleteer whose “Common Sense” and “Crisis” papers were important influences on the American Revolution. Other works that contributed to his reputation as one of the greatest political propagandists in history were Rights of Man, a defense of the French Revolution and of republican principles; and The Age of Reason, an exposition of the place of religion in society.

Life in England and America
      Paine was born of a Quaker father and an Anglican mother. His formal education was meagre, just enough to enable him to master reading, writing, and arithmetic. At 13 he began work with his father as a corset maker and then tried various other occupations unsuccessfully, finally becoming an officer of the excise. His duties were to hunt for smugglers and collect the excise taxes on liquor and tobacco. The pay was insufficient to cover living costs, but he used part of his earnings to purchase books and scientific apparatus.

      Paine's life in England was marked by repeated failures. He had two brief marriages. He was unsuccessful or unhappy in every job he tried. He was dismissed from the excise office after he published a strong argument in 1772 for a raise in pay as the only way to end corruption in the service. Just when his situation appeared hopeless, he met Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin) in London, who advised him to seek his fortune in America and gave him letters of introduction.

      Paine arrived in Philadelphia on Nov. 30, 1774. His first regular employment was helping to edit the Pennsylvania Magazine. In addition Paine published numerous articles and some poetry, anonymously or under pseudonyms. One such article was “African Slavery in America,” a scathing denunciation of the African slave trade, which he signed “Justice and Humanity.”

      Paine had arrived in America when the conflict between the colonists and England was reaching its height. After blood was spilled at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, Paine argued that the cause of America should not be just a revolt against taxation but a demand for independence. He put this idea into “Common Sense,” which came off the press on Jan. 10, 1776. The 50-page pamphlet sold more than 500,000 copies within a few months. More than any other single publication, “Common Sense” paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, unanimously ratified July 4, 1776.

      During the war (American Revolution) that followed, Paine served as volunteer aide-de-camp to General Nathanael Greene. His great contribution to the patriot cause was the 16 “Crisis” papers issued between 1776 and 1783, each one signed “Common Sense.” “The American Crisis. Number I,” published on Dec. 19, 1776, when George Washington's army was on the verge of disintegration, opened with the flaming words: “These are the times that try men's souls.” Washington ordered the pamphlet read to all the troops at Valley Forge.

      In 1777 Congress appointed Paine secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. He held the post until early in 1779, when he became involved in a controversy with Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress, whom Paine accused of seeking to profit personally from French aid to the United States. But in revealing Deane's machinations, Paine was forced to quote from secret documents to which he had access as secretary of the Committee for Foreign Affairs. As a result, despite the truth of his accusations, he was forced to resign his post.

      Paine's desperate need of employment was relieved when he was appointed clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania on Nov. 2, 1779. In this capacity he had frequent opportunity to observe that American troops were at the end of their patience because of lack of pay and scarcity of supplies. Paine took $500 from his salary and started a subscription for the relief of the soldiers. In 1781, pursuing the same goal, he accompanied John Laurens to France. The money, clothing, and ammunition they brought back with them were important to the final success of the Revolution. Paine also appealed to the separate states to cooperate for the well-being of the entire nation. In “Public Good” (1780) he included a call for a national convention to remedy the ineffectual Articles of Confederation and establish a strong central government under “a continental constitution.”

      At the end of the American Revolution, Paine again found himself poverty-stricken. His patriotic writings had sold by the hundreds of thousands, but he had refused to accept any profits in order that cheap editions might be widely circulated. In a petition to Congress endorsed by Washington, he pleaded for financial assistance. It was buried by Paine's opponents in Congress, but Pennsylvania gave him £500 and New York a farm in New Rochelle. Here Paine devoted his time to inventions, concentrating on an iron bridge without piers and a smokeless candle.

In Europe: “Rights of Man”
      In April 1787 Paine left for Europe to promote his plan to build a single-arch bridge across the wide Schuylkill River near Philadelphia. But in England he was soon diverted from his engineering project. In December 1789 he published anonymously a warning against the attempt of Prime Minister William Pitt (Pitt, William, The Younger) to involve England in a war with France over Holland, reminding the British people that war had “but one thing certain and that is increase of taxes.” But it was the French Revolution that now filled Paine's thoughts. He was enraged by Edmund Burke (Burke, Edmund)'s attack on the uprising of the French people in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, and, though Paine admired Burke's stand in favour of the American Revolution, he rushed into print with his celebrated answer, Rights of Man (March 13, 1791). The book immediately created a sensation. At least eight editions were published in 1791, and the work was quickly reprinted in the U.S., where it was widely distributed by the Jeffersonian societies. When Burke replied, Paine came back with Rights of Man, Part II, published on Feb. 17, 1792.

      What began as a defense of the French Revolution evolved into an analysis of the basic reasons for discontent in European society and a remedy for the evils of arbitrary government, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and war. Paine spoke out effectively in favour of republicanism as against monarchy and went on to outline a plan for popular education, relief of the poor, pensions for aged people, and public works for the unemployed, all to be financed by the levying of a progressive income tax. To the ruling class Paine's proposals spelled “bloody revolution,” and the government ordered the book banned and the publisher jailed. Paine himself was indicted for treason, and an order went out for his arrest. But he was en route to France, having been elected to a seat in the National Convention, before the order for his arrest could be delivered. Paine was tried in absentia, found guilty of seditious libel, and declared an outlaw, and Rights of Man was ordered permanently suppressed.

      In France Paine hailed the abolition of the monarchy but deplored the terror against the royalists and fought unsuccessfully to save the life of King Louis XVI, favouring banishment rather than execution. He was to pay for his efforts to save the King's life when the radicals under Robespierre took power. Paine was imprisoned from Dec. 28, 1793, to Nov. 4, 1794, when, with the fall of Robespierre, he was released and, though seriously ill, readmitted to the National Convention.

      While in prison, the first part of Paine's Age of Reason was published (1794), and it was followed by Part II after his release (1796). Although Paine made it clear that he believed in a Supreme Being and as a deist opposed only organized religion, the work won him a reputation as an atheist among the orthodox. The publication of his last great pamphlet, “Agrarian Justice” (1797), with its attack on inequalities in property ownership, added to his many enemies in establishment circles.

      Paine remained in France until Sept. 1, 1802, when he sailed for the United States. He quickly discovered that his services to the country had been all but forgotten and that he was widely regarded only as the world's greatest infidel. Despite his poverty and his physical condition, worsened by occasional drunkenness, Paine continued his attacks on privilege and religious superstitions. He died in New York City in 1809 and was buried in New Rochelle on the farm given to him by the state of New York as a reward for his Revolutionary writings. Ten years later, William Cobbett (Cobbett, William), the political journalist, exhumed the bones and took them to England, where he hoped to give Paine a funeral worthy of his great contributions to humanity. But the plan misfired, and the bones were lost, never to be recovered.

Assessment
      At Paine's death most U.S. newspapers reprinted the obituary notice from the New York Citizen, which read in part: “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.” This remained the verdict of history for more than a century following his death, but in recent years the tide has turned: on Jan. 30, 1937, The Times of London referred to him as “the English Voltaire,” and on May 18, 1952, Paine's bust was placed in the New York University Hall of Fame.

Philip S. Foner

Additional Reading
The first comprehensive edition of Paine's works is that of Moncure D. Conway, The Writings of Thomas Paine, 4 vol. (1894–96). This has been replaced by Philip S. Foner, The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, 2 vol. (1945). Several later discoveries of Paine's writings are in A.O. Aldridge, “Some Writings of Thomas Paine in Pennsylvania Newspapers,” American Historical Review, 56:832–838 (1951). Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine Fights for Freedom in Three Worlds (1961), offers an annotated bibliography of Paine's works. The first worthwhile biography, though entirely uncritical, was Moncure D. Conway, The Life of Thomas Paine, 2 vol. (1892). A.D. Aldridge, Man of Reason (1959), is an insightful, scholarly biography with chapter notes. David Freeman Hawke, Rebel! (1974), includes an invaluable bibliography.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Paine,Thomas — Paine, Thomas. 1737 1809. British born American writer and Revolutionary leader who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) arguing for American independence from Britain. In England he published The Rights of Man (1791 1792), a defense of the… …   Universalium

  • Paine, Thomas — (1737–1809)    Political Philosopher.    Paine was brought up in Thetford, England. Although he was baptised into the Church of England, his father was a member of the Society of Friends and the young Thomas was influenced by Quaker ideas. After… …   Who’s Who in Christianity

  • Paine, Thomas — ► (1737 1809) Escritor político británico. Alentó la causa de la independencia estadounidense y defendió la Revolución francesa en su obra Los derechos del hombre. Fue miembro de la convención. Autor de La edad de la razón. * * * (29 ene. 1737,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Paine, Thomas — (1737 1809) The pre eminent pamphleteer and radical democrat of the American Revolution. Paine was born in England and came to America in 1744. His 1776 revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense was enormously popular. In the spirit of Locke , Paine… …   Dictionary of sociology

  • Paine, Thomas — (1737–1809) English political theorist and activist. Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine emigrated to America in 1774, where he met Franklin . His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) was the first public call for American independence. The Rights of Man… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • PAINE, Thomas — (1737 1809)    born in England of QUAKER parents, he emigrated to America in 1774 where be became a leading propagandist in the American REVOLUTION. His books, Common Sense (1776) and The Rights of Man (1791 1792), stand as passionate appeals for …   Concise dictionary of Religion

  • PAINE, THOMAS —    a notorious free thinker and democrat, born in Thetford; emigrated to America, contributed, as he boasted, by his pamphlet Common Sense, to free America, by rousing it to emancipate itself from the mother country; wrote the Rights of Man… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Paine, Thomas —  (1737–1809) British born American political philosopher and pamphleteer …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • Paine, Thomas — (1737 1809)    Political and anti Christian writer, s. of a stay maker and small farmer of Quaker principles at Thetford, became with large classes perhaps the most unpopular man in England. After trying various occupations, including those of… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Paine, Thomas —    см. Пейн, Томас …   Писатели США. Краткие творческие биографии

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”