Thomas Paine

[[File:Portrait of Thomas Paine.jpg|thumb|right|165px|The Church thought he was a Paine.]]{{philosophy}}
'''Thomas Paine''' {{lived|1737|1809}}, or "that dirty little [[atheist]]" to [[Theodore Roosevelt]],<ref>[https://archive.org/details/christianfichthor00reisrich ''Roosevelt's Religion''] by Christian F. Reisner (1922) Abingdon Press.</ref>{{rp|239}} was the man most responsible for the folk of the [[United States]] deciding to [[American Revolution|fight for their independence]].

Many would argue that he was ''the'' [[Founding Father]] of the nation; to quote [[John Adams]] (not exactly the biggest Paine admirer),<ref>[http://mentalfloss.com/article/51899/7-john-adams-greatest-insults 7 of John Adams's Greatest Insults] by Mark Mancini (Feb 13, 2019 | Updated: Feb 19, 2021, 4:00 PM EST) ''Mental Floss''.</ref> "Without the pen of Paine, the sword of [[George Washington|Washington]] would have been wielded in vain." Hell, he fucking ''named'' the country.<ref>[http://thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/is-it-true-that-thomas-paine-first-coined-the-phrase-the-united-states-of-america.html Is it true that Thomas Paine first coined the phrase, "The United States of America?"] ''The Thomas Paine National
Historical Association''.</ref>

==Views==
He advocated strongly and eloquently for independence from the [[monarchy]], which none of his contemporaries envisioned originally (and had not changed their minds until they heard his arguments for it). He wrote the smash hit, ''Common Sense'',<ref>[https://archive.org/details/commonsenseaddre00pain/page/n1/mode/2up ''Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the Following Interesting Subjects. I. Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution. II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession ; III. Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs ; IV. Of the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflections''] by Thomas Paine (1776) R. Bell.</ref> which gained popularity even among [[European]]s, and gave the [[money]] to the Continental Army. He wrote and sent his second smash hit, ''The American Crisis'',<ref>[https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/crisis/index.htm ''The American Crisis''] by Thomas Paine (1776-1783).</ref> which convinced [[France|Franco]]-[[Spanish]] military might and [[Dutch]] finance to help win the war for the colonies. He was one of the first to call for total [[abolition]] of [[slavery]] and the [[death penalty]].{{fact}} He was an ardent supporter of [[secularism]], and famously turned his pen against [[religious]] authority in ''The Age of Reason''.<ref>[https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/reason/ ''Age of Reason'' by Thomas Paine (1790s)] ''UShisory.org''.</ref> The secularism would later be codified into the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] under the idea of [[separation of church and state]]. 

After the Revolution, he harshly opposed any attempt at barring non-landowners from voting, warning that this was [[tyranny]]-in-waiting and rationalizing that praising [[republic]]an values but not letting everyone be represented was utterly [[hypocritical]]. He turned his pen in defense of [[liberty]] — rather an attack on [[Edmund Burke]] — in ''The Rights of Man'',<ref>[https://www.ushistory.org/paine/rights/index.htm ''The Rights of Man''] by Thomas Paine (1791).</ref> which in turn inspired Mary Wollstonecraft {{lived|1795|1797}} — the mother of [[feminism]] — to pen ''The Rights of Woman'' in 1792.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/vindicationofrig00wol/page/n7/mode/2up ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Stricutres''] by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) Peter Edes</ref> Even before ''Common Sense'', Paine wrote an article criticizing the ways in which women are oppressed in society and defending their rights at a time when most men thought they had none. He pushed for a centralized, [[egalitarian]] government that respected and upheld all rights to all citizens.<ref>[http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/history_of_the_separation_of_chu.htm History of the Separation of Church and State in America] by R. G. Price (March 27, 2004) rationalrevolution.net</ref>

While some of his quotes make him beloved by [[libertarians]], he also wrote in the pamphlet ''Agrarian Justice'' of the need for [[basic income|all people to be given a small sum by the government]], and then to be [[Social Security|provided for in their old age]], which was considered "generations ahead of its time."<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20160321020609/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/staritems/635painerightsofman.html Taking Liberties: The struggle for Britain's freedoms and rights], The British Library (archived copy from March 21, 2016).</ref> Paine proposed a form of [[estate tax]] in order to implement this.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20170210123427/https://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html Thomas Paine &mdash; Agrarian Justice] Social Insurance History (Social Security Adminsitration) (archived copy from February 10, 2017). "Various methods may be proposed for this purpose, but that which appears to be the best… is at the moment that property is passing by the [[death]] of one person to the possession of another. In this case, the bequeather gives nothing: the receiver pays nothing. The only matter to him is that the monopoly of natural inheritance, to which there never was a right, begins to cease in his person."</ref>

==Involvement in the French Revolution==
Paine was also an enthusiastic supporter of the [[French Revolution]]; ''The Rights of Man'' was actually a response to Burke's ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'', which was sharply critical of the uprising.<ref>[https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2017/01/25/the-riposte-of-thomas-paine-to-edmund-burke-rights-of-a-man/ The riposte of Thomas Paine to Edmund Burke: “Rights of a Man”]</ref> Paine had moved back to England in 1787,<ref group=note>Paine had invented a new kind of bridge, and returned to England to try to sell it. He was still there when the French Revolution kicked off, after which he shifted gears and became a vocal supporter of it.</ref> and his advocacy for popular sovereignty and uprisings at a time when an increasingly violent uprising was actually happening in nearby France caused a bit of concern in the British government, which then banned ''The Rights of Man'' and attempted to arrest him for treason. Before he could be arrested, he fled to Revolutionary France in 1792.<ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-free-speech-battle-that-forced-britains-18th-century-radicals-to-flee-50502 The free speech battle that forced Britain’s 18th-century radicals to flee]</ref> Due to his connections to both the American and French revolutions, he was greeted as a hero in France, awarded honorary citizenship, and even elected to a seat in the National Assembly.<ref>[https://thomaspaine.org/essays/french-revolution/address-to-the-people-of-france.html Address to the People of France]</ref> However, he came to be associated with the Girondin faction in the political struggles that were heating up,<ref group=note>The two main political factions in France at the time were the moderate Girondins and the radical Montagnards. In mid 1793, the Montagnards were able to ban the Girondins from the National Assembly, and the so-called "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror Reign of Terror]" ''really'' got underway.</ref> and vocally opposed the French king's execution. At the end of 1793 he was stripped of his seat in the Assembly and imprisoned.<ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paine/#Life Thomas Paine] at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</ref>

While in prison awaiting his expected guillotining, he wrote ''The Age of Reason'', which didn't exactly win him any friends.<ref>[https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/reason/ Age of Reason by Thomas Paine] at USHistory.org</ref><ref group=note>It was released in three parts. The first two, published in 1794 and 1795, sold fairly well, but they came at a time when the French Revolution had become embroiled in the Reign of Terror, and France was at war with several countries, so supporters like Paine were viewed with suspicion outside of France. He did not publish the third until 1807, despite advice from Thomas Jefferson not do so. It did not sell well and he suffered a backlash.</ref> While many Founding Fathers were [[Deists]], most Americans were not, especially since at the time religious fervor was on the rise in the fledgling United States during the so-called {{wpl|Second Great Awakening||.}} He became badly ill, and was only spared execution by sheer luck.<ref>[https://www.historynet.com/thomas-paines-revolutionary-reckoning.htm Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary Reckoning]</ref> A few days after the date he was supposed to be executed, one of the most important Jacobin leaders, {{wpl|Maximilien Robespierre||,}} was himself executed, and Paine was spared having a date with Madame Guillotine. President Washington's envoy to Paris, {{wpl|Gouverneur Morris||,}} was a critic of Paine and refused to offer any help;<ref>[https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/article/thomas-paine-and-robespierre-the-terror-of-the-rights-of-man Thomas Paine and Robespierre: the Terror of the Rights of man]</ref> he mocked ''The Age of Reason'' by writing to Washington "Thomas Paine is in prison, where he amuses himself with publishing a pamphlet against [[Jesus Christ]]".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/12/books/no-sunshine-patriot.html No Sunshine Patriot]</ref>

Eventually, [[James Monroe]] became the American envoy to Paris, and he was able to get Paine released from prison after nearly a year, and Paine became… a bit unhinged. Because Washington's envoy hadn't tried to help him, Paine, who had written glowingly in support of his close friend Washington during the American Revolutionary War, saw this as an abject betrayal. So in 1796, he burned that bridge by writing an open letter sharply attacking Washington for, among other things, being both unworthy of his war hero status and a treacherous charlatan who only won the War for Independence due to French assistance.<ref>[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004829307.0001.000/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext Letter to George Washington, president of the United States of America]</ref> After the slightly more sympathetic [[Thomas Jefferson]] finally became president, Paine moved back to the United States in 1802, having become disillusioned with [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon]], despite his early support for the [[dictator]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/298/mode/2up Thomas Paine : enlightenment, revolution, and the birth of modern nations] by Craig Nelson</ref>

==Later life==
He quietly lived out the rest of his life in New York City, dying in 1809. Due to his attack on Washington (who was already revered as a hero to the young nation), his support of the French Revolution even after it turned violent,<ref group=note>The more conservative Federalist party, led by the likes of [[Alexander Hamilton]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay John Jay], and [[John Adams]], dominated American politics until 1816, and turned against the French Revolution early. Their opposition made them opponents of supporters like Paine, Jefferson, and [[James Madison]].</ref> and him alienating religious Americans with ''The Age of Reason'', he had few friends left at the end of his life. His funeral was attended by only six people, and a newspaper summarized his life as having done "some good and much harm".<ref>[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/thomas-paine Thomas Paine] on American Battlefield Trust</ref>

==Abuse==
In full [[irony]], a particularly virulent [[Glenn Beck|madman]] has styled himself the reincarnation of Thomas Paine.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/glenn-beck-is-thomas-pain_b_187102.html Glenn Beck is Thomas Paine, Except for Everything] by Chris Kelly (05/16/2009 05:12 am ET | Updated May 25, 2011) ''The Huffington Post''.</ref>

==Famous quotes==
{{cquote|Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.|||Thomas Paine}}

{{cquote|[C]reate a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling per annum, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.|||Thomas Paine}}

{{cquote|It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any [[Argument from authority|authority in directing]] who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organised, or how administered.|||Thomas Paine}}

{{cquote|Without the pen of the author of ''Common Sense'', the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.|||[[John Adams]]}}

==External links==
*[http://thomaspaine.org/ Thomas Paine National Historical Association]
*[http://www.thomaspaineuk.com/ Thomas Paine Society UK]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paine, Thomas}}
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Classical liberalism]]
[[Category:Deists]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Libertarians]]
[[Category:Philosophers]]
[[Category:Skeptics]]
[[Category:United States history]]

Categories: Authors, Business, Classical liberalism, Deists, Founding Fathers, Liberals, Libertarians, Philosophers, Skeptics, United States history