FREE ESSAY ON THOMAS PAINE

THOMAS PAINE

Thomas Paine For many years Thomas Paine was the epitome of American histories greatest
drawback. In American history there is always that one detail that doesn't make it into
popular curriculum. Whether it be the point of view from the loosing side of a war, to
the secret dalliances of a popular politician, to the truth of a times social opinion-
the American student is taught only so much. The most proper, popular material makes it
in; along with any major facts too commonly known to ignore. Anything else is liable to
fall to the wayside without enough support from historians or academia. There is always
room for the improvement of materials taught; so said, it would seem there is much more
to know about Thomas Paine then is currently taught. Within the last twenty years there
has been a resurgence of interest in both Thomas Paine and his work. The new social
consciousness is more in tune with his writings, and his underdog status appeals to many.
His blunt style of speech has earned him admiration in many corners; in fact one of
President Ronald Regan's more clever speech writers took to adding exerpts from Paines'
writings into the President's major addresses. Paine has lately been heralded as
"Americas' first modern intellectual", and is the subject of numerous books which have
come out within the last four years. Common knowledge of Paine includes his birth in 1737
in Thetford, England, his writing of the Common Sense pamphlet in 1776, and his
involvement in the American Revolution. Less common knowledge is his other writings: The
Crisis, Rights of War and The Age of Reason; along with his role in the French
Revolution. Even further down the path into the obscure is his brief French citizenship,
his time in a French prison, and the short period of fourteen months which elapsed
between his arrival in the Americas, and the publication of Common Sense. Paine is
nothing if not the son of both perseverance and necessity. His financial woes are the
stuff on which young loan sharks are weaned. He grew up the soon of a poor corset maker,
and knew only poverty most of his life. His employment track is littered with miss-starts
in many fields, including stints as a teacher, a seaman, a tobacco shop owner and at
various times a excise man. None of these were to be successful positions for Paine,
giving him the start of a grudge towards England and its economy. After surviving one
wife and separating from another, Paine was near his perceived end. Yet on the
recommendation of a new acquaintance from America he decided to head west to the
colonies, in hope of escaping the misery he'd endured in England. With nothing to his
name but letters of recommendation (from the American whom he'd met in London), he
arrived in Philadelphia, America in 1774. This American happened to be none other then
Benjamin Franklin, and the prominence of Paines' recommender gained him the position of
editor of the newly founded Pennsylvanian Magazine. Here, Paine established himself as a
radical thinker, a person unafraid to enter into the independence furor. Remembering the
hardships he had faced in England, Paine became he ideal American patriot. In 1776 Paine
published the Common Sense pamphlet without signing his name to it. Demanding
independence from England and the establishment of a strong American union, the pamphlet
found overwhelming support and approval with American colonists. With the revelation of
its' author the pamphlet continued its' wave of success, drawing commendation from George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In one of the most perfectly timed releases in history,
Common Sense was unleashed to a public hungry for direction, and touched upon a raw nerve
the size of a revolution. Paine quickly followed up in December of that year with the
first in a series of pamphlets entitled The Crisis. It began, "These are the times that
try men's souls...Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered." These lines were read
aloud to Washington's' men as they lay shivering in the winter cold. From that point on
Paine looked to figure prominently in the American revolution. Thomas Paine served in the
army as a solider, and froze along side the rest of America's patriots during the winters
of 1776 and 1777. In 1777 he received appointment to the position of Secretary to the
Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs. His luck had changed since his arrival in
1776, yet his personality was to be his eventual downfall. By openly and honestly
exposing corruption within his departments ranks, he earned himself the first in a long
line of enemies. Paine was forced to resign his position, and found himself in the
situation of surviving off charity. With subsequent appointments he gave away much of his
money to the revolutionary cause, and preferred to focus on continuing his Crisis
pamphlets. Several years after the end of the Revolutionary War, Paine was given
approximately $2500. by the state of Pennsylvania, a house and farm near New Rochelle by
New York and was voted the amount of $3000. by congress. Regardless of his newly acquired
wealth, Paine found ways to disrupt his own life, first by going to France in support of
it's revolution, and then finding himself an outlaw in England after he had published his
two part Rights of Man there in 1791 and 1792. On August 26, 1972, Thomas Paine became a
French citizen, and quickly positioned himself in the limelight surrounding France's
Revolution. He won wide support, and gained a seat in the National Convention. Once
again, Paines' brutal honesty earned him enemies when he criticized the amount of
bloodshed France's Revolution was seeing. Once again he lost his power, being quickly
stripped of his seat, his citizenship, and any immunity; and finding himself squarely in
prison for over ten months. Once again it was outside help that saved him, this time in
the form of the American Minister, James Monroe. Monroe claimed Paine as an American
Citizen, and secured his release. From then on Paine would slide further and further into
territory which marked him as merely a historical blip, rather then the rousing character
he was. Paines' last work The Age of Reason, was published in two parts, one just after
his arrest an imprisonment and one shortly following his release. The book was written on
Paines' own religious beliefs, and started the uproar that eventually outlived even him.
Heralded as the "Atheists Bible", Paines' beliefs seemed radical and inconceivable at the
time. His denouncement of orthodoxy and many church held beliefs made him the most hated
man of his time (John Lennons comparison of the Beatles to Jesus resulted in the same
sort of uproar). Most all of his American friends deserted him after the books
publication, and he decided to stay on in France for some time after his release from
prison. In 1802 Thomas Jefferson arranged for his safe arrival in America. Paine quickly
found that he'd been forgotten for everything but his "Atheist Bible", and that most
people had more of an angry impression then a working knowledge of that book. Alone and
in poverty his last few years went without notice, marked only by an attempted
assassination in 1804. In 1809 Thomas Paine died, one of America's most noted men passing
sadly in neglect. He lived on in infamy, his bones deported to England in 1819, and his
burial site unknown to this day. Theodore Roosevelt helped keep the tradition of Paine
loathing alive when he referred to Paine as a..."dirty little atheist". To this day,
you'll find little more about Thomas Paine in classroom history books other then that he
was the author of the Common Sense pamphlet. No mention of his personal contributions in
fighting the war and maintaining the government. Not a word of how he gave his last cent
to the cause of the revolution and then went begging for more. Here we have a man who
helped spark the flame of revolution that brought about the United States of America,
relegated to the role of cheerleader. Thomas Paine gave his all for America, always going
openly and honestly about his work, and in the end sacrificing his own life so that the
truth might be heard. 
Bibliography
Wood, Gordon S. "Disturbing The Peace" New York Review of Books June 8, 1995 Wilentz,
Sean "The Air Around Thomas Paine" New Republic April 24, 1995 Vol. 212 Issue 17 Keane,
John "Tom Paine: A Political Life" Little/Brown 1995 Comptons Encyclopedia, William
Benton 1973