Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine 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 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), H. J. Kaye (2005), and C. Hitchens (2007).

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 proclaimed that ‘Government even in its best state is a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.’ Paine wrote many pamphlets during the war, becoming an articulate spokesman for democratic and egalitarian institutions in the new nation. In 1791–2 he published The Rights of Man, defending the doctrine of natural rights against Burke. Briefly imprisoned in Paris during the period of Revolutionary Terror, Paine returned to the United States in 1802.

American Revolution (1775–83, American War of Independence) Successful revolt by the Thirteen Colonies in North America against British rule. A number of issues provoked the conflict including restrictions on trade and manufacturing imposed by the Navigation Acts, restrictions on land settlement in the West, and attempts to raise revenue in America by such means as the Stamp Act (1765) and the Tea Act (1773) that led to the Boston Tea Party. “No taxation without representation” became the colonial radicals' rallying cry. The intellectual battle for independence was led by Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. A Continental Congress was summoned in 1774, and in April 1775 the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The following month, the second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia and assumed the role of a revolutionary government. George Washington established an army. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence made the break with Britain decisive. Initially the Americans suffered a series of military defeats, which saw Washington retreat from New York to Pennsylvania. Crossing the River Delaware, he surprised and captured the British at Trenton (December 26, 1776). On January 3, 1777, he defeated the British at Princeton, further strengthening American morale. The British attempted a three-pronged attack, focusing on New York. The strategy failed with the first decisive colonial victory at Saratoga (October 17, 1777), and the entry of France into the war against Britain. During the winter of 1777, Washington's forces reorganized in Pennsylvania. In 1778 the British forces concentrated on the South, taking Savannah in December 1778. Following the defeat at King's Mountain in 1780, the British, under General Charles Cornwallis, were forced to withdraw n to Yorktown, Virginia. In 1781, surrounded by American forces and the French navy, Cornwallis was forced to surrender. Fighting ceased and the Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized the independence of the USA.