Thomas Paine
[Reprinted from a 1911 Encyclopedia biography]
PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809), English author, was born at Thetford,
Norfolk, on the 29th of January 1737, the son of a Quaker staymaker.
After several years at sea and after trying various occupations on
land, Paine took up his father's trade in London, where he
supplemented his meagre grammar school education by attending science
lectures. He succeeded in 1762 in gaining an appointment in the
excise, but was discharged for' neglect of duty in 1765. Three years
later, however, he received another appointment, at Lewes in Sussex.
He took a vigorous share in the debates of a local Whig club, and in
1772 he wrote a pamphlet embodying the grievances of excisemen and
supporting their demands for an increase of pay. In 1774 he was
dismissed the service for absence without leave-in order to escape his
creditors. A meeting with Benjamin Franklin in London was the turning
point in his life. Franklin provided him with letters to his
son-in-law, Richard Bache, and many of the leaders in the colonies'
resistance to the mother country, then at an acute stage. Paine sailed
for America in 1774. Bache introduced him to Robert Aitkin, whose
Pennsylvania Magazine he helped found and edited for eighteen months.
On the 9th of January 1776 Paine published a pamphlet entitled Common
Sense, a telling array of arguments for separation and for the
establishment of a republic. His argument was that independence was
the only consistent line to pursue, that "it must come to that
some time or other "; that it would only be more difficult the
more it was delayed, and that independence was the surest road to
union. Written in simple convincing language, it was read everywhere,
and the open movement to independence dates' from its publication.
Washington said that it" worked a powerful change in the minds of
many men." Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered
the advisability of answering it, but came to the conclusion that it
was unanswerable. When war was declared, and fortune at first went
against the colonists, Paine, who was then serving with General Greene
as volunteer aide-de-camp, wrote the first of a series of influential
tracts called The Crisis, of which the opening words, "These are
the times that try men's souls," became a battle-cry. Paine's
services were recognized by an appointment to be secretary of the
commission sent by Congress to treat with the Indians, and a few
months later to be secretary of the Congressional committee of foreign
affairs. In 1779, however, he committed an indiscretion that brought
him into trouble. He published information gained from his official
position, and was compelled to resign. He was afterwards clerk of the
Pennsylvania legislature, and accompanied John Laurens during his
mission to France. His services were eventually recognized by the
state of New York by a grant of an estate at New Rochelle, and from
Pennsylvania and, at Washington's suggestion, from Congress he
received considerable gifts of money.
In 1787 he sailed for Europe with the model of an iron bridge he had
designed. This was publicly exhibited in Paris and London, and
attracted great crowds. In England he determined to "open the
eyes of the people to the madness and stupidity of the government."
His first efforts in the Prospects on the Rubicon (1787) were directed
against Pitt's war policy, and towards securing friendly relations
with France. When Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France
appeared, in 1790, Paine at once wrote his answer, The Rights of Man.
The first part appeared on the 13th of March 1791, and had an enormous
circulation before the government took alarm and endeavoured to
suppress it, thereby exciting intense curiosity to see it, even at the
risk of heavy penalties. Those who know the book only by hearsay as
the work of a furious incendiary will be surprised at the dignity,
force and temperance of the style; it was the, circumstances that made
it inflammatory. Pitt "used to say," according to Lady
Hester Stanhope, "that Tom Paine was quite in the right, but then
he would add, 'What am I to do? As things are, if I were to encourage
Tom Paine's opinions we should have a bloody revolution.'" Paine
was indicted for treason in May 1792, but before the trial came off he
was elected by the department of Calais to the French convention, and
escaped into France, followed by a sentence of outlawry. The first
years that he spent in France form a curious episode in his life. He
was enthusiastically received, but as he knew little of the language
translations of his speeches had to be read for him. He was bold
enough to speak and vote for the "detention of Louis during the
war and his perpetual banishment afterwards," and he pointed out
that the execution of the king would alienate American sympathy. He
incurred the suspicion of Robespierre, was thrown into prison, and
escaped the guillotine by an accident. Before his arrest he had
completed the first part of the Age of Reason, the publication of
which made an instant change in his position on both sides of the
Atlantic, the indignation in the United States being as strong as in
England. The Age of Reason can now be estimated calmly. It was writte0
from the point of view of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed
religion, but who held that "all religions are in their nature
mild and benign" when not associated with political systems.
Intermixed with the coarse unceremonious ridicule of what he
considered superstition and bad faith are many passages of earnest and
even lofty eloquence in favour of a pure morality founded on natural
religion. The work in short-a second part, written during his ten
months' imprisonment, was published after his release-represents the
deism of the 18th century in the hands of a rough, ready, passionate
controversialist.
At the downfall of Robespierre Paine was restored to his seat in the
convention, and served until it adjourned in October 170c. In '706 he
published a long letter to Washington, attacking his military
reputation and his presidential policy with inexcusable bitterness. In
1802 Paine sailed for America, but while his services in behalf of the
colonies were gratefully remembered, his Age of Reason and his attack
on Washington had alienated many of his friends. He died in New York
on the 8th of June 1809, and was buried at New Rochelle, but his body
was in. 1819 removed to England by William Cobbett.
|