Thomas Paine:

Science as the Basis for his Principles

Sherwood V. Smith

[2002]

On Dec. 27, 2002 I received an e-mail from Edward Dodson with the text of a book club exchange in which Brian McCartin, Director of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, answered call in questions from several members of the public. Mr. McCartin responded to several questions with answers that require a few corrective comments.

The first thing to be understood is that Thomas Paine was a highly competent mathematician for the period in which he lived. In a letter written by General Nathanael Greene, during the time Thomas Paine was serving with him, General Greene makes a complaint against Paine. He says; "Common Sense and Col. Snarl or Cornwell are perpetually wrangling about Mathematical Problems." This testimony along with his known familiarity, from his other writings, with the works of Euclid and his engineering design work with bridges, smokeless candles and ammunition shows that Thomas Paine had critical thinking, mathematical and engineering skills. The important point is that Thomas Paine, unlike most other early American government theorists, applied these skills to the art or science of government without allowing his personal interest or aggrandizement to affect the results.

Therefore we can actually apply or operate on Paine's basic human rights ideas with concepts of basic logic. Thomas Paine as far as I know never used Euler (pronounced "Oiler") diagrams, as one math book calls them, or Venn diagrams, as another math book calls them, but his basic ideas can be described, starting with Common Sense, using these logic tools. But we must also realize that Thomas Paine understood the limits of public and political acceptability therefore he very carefully presented to the public his benefit programs openly or, his logical or theoretical ideas in a more subtle way.

One questioner asked, "Originally, the vote in America was restricted to white males who owned land; Did Paine ever comment on this?" Brian McCartin responds with; "In the debates over the PA. Constitution, Paine advocated suffrage for all white males over 21." This is not a proper answer. Thomas Paine in this instance supported this proposal, as a politician working for what he well knew or thought was possible. He understood that the proposal he was supporting was not the final objective.

Ignoring the several human rights articles before Common Sense, go to the third paragraph in that work and you will see that he slipped in a theoretical statement. "In order," he says, "to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought." Thomas Paine then goes on to elaborate on the formation of a society in which he does not imply any distinction of rights based on sex. The use of persons and people in place of families or heads of families as Locke, who wrote the most brutal slave law in America for the colony of Carolina, would have done clearly shows that Thomas Paine intended that all members of society were equal within his model.

In his letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1789, in which he explains the distinction between Natural and Civil rights published in the "BULLETIN of Thomas Paine Friends," Volume 1 Number 2 November 2000, Thomas Paine never uses the word man until the last. He only uses words like persons, personal and individual in the description of rights until he gets to the last sentence where he says: "I consider the individual sovereignty of the States retained under the Act of Confederation to be of the second Class of rights (Civil Rights.) It becomes dangerous because it is defective in the power necessary to support it. It answers the pride and purpose of a few Men in each State- but the State collectively is injured by it." This statement also proves that Thomas Paine, unlike Thomas Jefferson, was not a states rights advocate. If you read the Rights of Man and Dissertations on First Principles of Government you will see that Paine always advocated equal rights for Men and Women and Boys and Girls. He also never wrote a line anywhere against the Rights of women, or any other slaves, and he always uses the general words when discussing rights.

In another answer Mr. McCartin says that: "In August of 1775, Paine wrote on behalf of women in an essay in which he stated that women have always been treated unfairly by men throughout history." Thomas Paine did not write this article. He published the article, with a few changes, from a previous work by the Frenchman M. Thomas. What Paine published was the introduction of a book titled, "ESSAY on the Character Manners, and Genius of WOMEN in Different Ages." Frank Smith has already proven this in "American Literature" of November 1939. Thomas Paine has enough credits for ideas original with him. We don't need to give him credits belonging to others. At that time neither Thomas Paine nor M. Thomas were familiar with the Iroquois Indian Confederacy. However, Thomas Paine's descriptions of natural and civil rights comply with and are consistent with Iroquois law.

PAINEfully yours, Sherwood V. Smith. January 20, 2003.