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The following is a short sample of Thomas Paine's writing that is less accessible than his earlier work. It was written on the 1805 anniversary of the 1788 ratification of the Constitution (approved by Congress, 17 Sept. 1787) and attached to his August 1805 letter on constitutional reform "To the Citizens of Pennsylvania on the Proposal for Calling a Convention." The version below came from Daniel Wheeler's 10-volume collection on the Life and Writings of Thomas Paine (1908), website above. We selected this item because it helped inspire the overwhelming passage of the true 13th Amendment by Congress (Senate: 26 to 1 on 27 April, House affirmed 87 to 3 on 1 May 1810), also called TOHA for Title of Honor Amendment. It was directed against the threat of American aristocracy. TOHA then went to the States for ratification and a dozen soon did (including PA. 6 Feb. 1812). The War of 1812 and 1814 British burning of Washington delayed full ratification until 1819. Then it was published for about fifty years until the esquires erased it.

It was replaced by the same sort that gave us the Dred Scott decision (1857). The current 13th Amendment permits slavery, a term that did not previously appear in the Constitution. It reads: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdistion. This eventually empowered lawyers to "duly convict" someone beyond the scope of the Constitution. Granting undue honor or privilege creates aristocracy. It helped politicians and judges become enslaving lawmakers, rather than the true lawkeepers, who need public approval for amendments. Master and slave are two sides of the same coin,

Now we have a fourth of the world's prison population with most of it "enslaved" without jury trial or by laws that are entirely unconstitutional. The current 13th Amendment is a bright, shining lie meant to replace TOHA. If any such addition was needed at all, perhaps for emphasis, then it belonged within the context of the 14th Amendment, which is clear enough without it. Instead it was eventually used (after 1886) to empower the corporate weapon of the new aristocracy and the phoney money printed by their banksters.

Slavery is the legal fiction that human persons are property. Corporatism is the legal fiction that property is personhood.

Thomas Paine spent his life making clear how aristocracy is the historic enemy of democracy. For that reason we feel that this Compass, and the August letter to which it was attached, were over 200 years ahead of their time. He exposed the "judicial review" fraud. Meanwhile the Pennsylvania legislature and its judiciary is probably more corrupt than it was in 1805. Neither to the so-called Public (corporate) Schools emphasize teaching the Constitution, even as Civics, much less TOHA or the original 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights, wherein the founders defined the proper ratio for democracy. Both are discussed in later pages.

Compass on Constitutions, Governments, and Charters (1805)

The people of Pennsylvania are, at this time, earnestly occupied on the subject of calling a convention to revise their State Constitution, and there can be but little doubt that a revision is necessary. It is a Constitution, they say, for the emolument of lawyers.

It has happened that the constitutions of all the states were formed before any experience had been had on the representative system of government; and it would be a miracle in human affairs that mere theory without experience should start in perfection at once. The Constitution of New York was formed so early as 1777.

The subject that occupied and engrossed the public mind at that time was the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of independence, and in order to give effect to the Declaration of Independence by Congress it was necessary that the states severally should make a practical beginning by establishing state constitutions, and trust to time and experience for improvement. The general defect in all the constitutions is that they are modeled too much after the system, if it can be called a system, of the English Government, which in practise is the most corrupt system in existence, for it is corruption systematized.

An idea also generally prevailed at that time of keeping what were called the legislative, the executive, and the judicial powers distinct and separated from each other. But this idea whether correct or not, is always contradicted in practise; for where the consent of a governor or executive is required to an act before it can become a law, or where he can by his negative prevent an act of the legislature becoming a law, he is effectually a part of the legislature, and possesses full half of the powers of a whole legislature.

[Paragraph on New York ommited.]

When we see maxims that fail in practise, we ought to go to the root, and see if the maxim be true. Now it does not signify how many nominal divisions, and subdivisions, and classifications we make, for the fact is, there are but two powers in any government, the power of willing or enacting the laws, and the power of executing them; for what is called the judiciary is a branch of executive power; it executes the laws; and what is called the executive is a superintending power to see that the laws are executed.

Errors in theory are, sooner or later, accompanied with errors in practise; and this leads me to another part of the subject, that of considering a constitution and a government relatively to each other.

A constitution is the act of the people in their original character of sovereignty. A government is a creature of the constitution; it is produced and brought into existence by it. A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.

There is no article in the Constitution of this State, nor of any of the states, that invests the Government in whole or in part with the power of granting charters or monopolies of any kind; the spirit of the times was then against all such speculation; and therefore the assuming to grant them is unconstitutional, and when obtained by bribery and corruption is criminal. It is also contrary to the intention and principle of annual elections.

Legislatures are elected annually, not only for the purpose of giving the people, in their elective character, the opportunity of showing their approbation of those who have acted right, by reelecting them, and rejecting those who have acted wrong; but also for the purpose of correcting the wrong (where any wrong has been done) of a former legislature. But the very intention, essence, and principle of annual election would be destroyed, if any one legislature during the year of its authority, had the power to place any of its acts beyond the reach of succeeding legislatures; yet this is always attempted to be done in those acts of a legislature called charters.

Of what use is it to dismiss legislators for having done wrong, if the wrong is to continue on the authority of those who did it? Thus much for things that are wrong. I now come to speak of things that are right, and may be necessary.

Experience shows that matters will occasionally arise, especially in a new country, that will require the exercise of a power differently constituted to that of ordinary legislation; and therefore there ought to be in a constitution an article, defining how that power shall be constituted and exercised. Perhaps the simplest method, that which I am going to mention, is the best; because it is still keeping strictly within the limits of annual elections, makes no new appointments necessary, and creates no additional expense. For example,

That all matters of a different quality to matters of ordinary legislation, such, for instance, as sales or grants of public lands, acts of incorporation, public contracts with individuals or companies beyond a certain amount; shall be proposed in one legislature, and published in the form of a bill, with the yeas and nays, after the second reading, and in that state shall lie over to be taken up by the succeeding legislature; that is, there shall always be, on all such matters, one annual election [which] takes place between the time of bringing in the bill and the time of enacting it into a permanent law.

It is the rapidity with which a self-interested speculation, or a fraud on the public property, can be carried through within the short space of one session, and before the people can be apprised of it, that renders it necessary that a precaution of this kind, unless a better can be devised, should be made an article of the Constitution.

Had such an article been originally in the Constitution, the bribery and corruption employed to seduce and manage the members of the late Legislature, in the affair of the Merchants' Bank, could not have taken place. It would not have been worth while to bribe men to do what they had not the power of doing. The Legislature could only have proposed, but not have enacted the law; and the election then ensuing would, by discarding the proposers, have negatived the proposal without any further trouble.

This method has the appearancce of doubling the value and importance of annual elections. It is only by means of elections that the mind of the public can be collected to a point on any important subject; and as it is always the interest of a much greater number of people in a country, to have a thing right than to have it wrong, the public sentiment is always worth attending to. It may sometimes err, but never intentionally, and never long.

The experiment of the Merchants' Bank showed it is impossible to bribe a small body of men, but it is always impossible to bribe a whole nation; and therefore in all legislative matters that by requiring permanency differ from ordinary legislation, which are alterable or repealable at all times, it is safest that they pass through two legislatures, and a general election intervene between. The elections will always bring up the mind of the country on any important proposed bill; and thus the whole state will be its own Council of Revision. It has already passed its veto on the Merchants' Bank bill, notwithstanding that the minor Council of Revision approved it.

COMMON SENSE.

(June 21, 1805)

Finally, some video presentations.

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His earlier writings in Public Good had also resulted tin the transfer of some Virginia land claims to Pennsylvania. They could not use his abolitionist position so a Letter to George Washington and religious views in later editions of Age of Reason were the common pretext for rejection by both political parties.

He died at the age of 72 (1809) and the American government allowed a British politician (Cobbett) to rob his bones (1819) from their unsecured burial place in New Rochelle. Imagine if they had instead stolen George Washington's remains! Apparently some of his bones were sold as relics of either reverence or dominion. To this day, a royal sentence (in absentia) for "Treason Against the Crown" remains in effect against him and American maintains a seditious "special relationship" with its royalty. A spineless electorate continues to tolerate these Hanoverian sympathizers. British royalty was Paine's enemy but many of our politicians remain close friends of that very same aristocracy, as did their families before them.

We urge you to find out more from the Thomas Paine National Historical Association (TPNHA) at 983 North Avenue in New Rochelle, NY 10804-3609. There is also museum there, near his cottage and gravesite. For the cost of postage, you can also get a Bulletin of Thomas Paine Friends (non-profit at www.thomaspainefriends.org). Also, the public journal at tompaine.com has excellent sympathetic ideas. There are thousands of documents available for free on the Internet, However, in reviewing some of these, we discovered that Atheists, Masons, and Libertarians try to claim him as theirs. Be aware that many such claims are bogus so you should compare the key text from a few sources. One source that we can recommend as a start is http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/paine/index.html (because we have a set of the books of our own).

Contrary to what diversionists want you to believe, Paine may have attended meetings with members of the Masonry meetings but was not a Freemason and even seemed unfamiliar with the York Rite in his writings. He was also not an atheist because in defining the moral and ethical aspects of Deism, he clearly promotes a belief in God. He did, however, have a problem with organized religion. Although he strongly attacked government abuse and supported social justice, he would have opposed Libertarians because he knew that if you weaken popular government then aristocracy fills the vacuum. For example, he particularly opposed the granting special charters or monopolies.

One view on how his writings apply to modern politics is in an 1805 "Letter to the Citizens of Pennsylvania," which warns about the imposition of British law and corporate abuses that undermine the spirit of popular election. (We include some of this in the "Grassroots Rising" page.) Thomas was not a pacifist but wrote against the injustice of offensive war and warned against rampant militarism, as now afflicts the United States. One of his essays also studies how aristocracy has always used warfare to enrich itself, with particular details on the British tax system.

Statues and Images of Thomas Paine

Despite all the above accomplishments, the ruling elites have kept Thomas out of our history. There are few statues of him in the United States. The one in Morristown NJ is shown on the left (3 views). It was sculpted by Georg Lober and presented to Morristown by the Thomas Paine Memorial Committee (Joseph Lewis, Secretary) on 4 July 1950. The view to its right is a statue in Bordentown NJ, on the bluff above the Delaware River. It was dedicated by the Bordentown Historical Society on 7 June 1977. The Thetford Statue in England (two views) was dedicated around 1966 with help of the famous philosopher (Dr. Bertrand Russell). The bust by John Frazee is at New Rochelle, NY (near gravesite) is the oldest memorial. The statue on the right is in Paris, France; and the bust might be by the scupltor Pierre-Jean David.

A Sculpture by Joseph Dougherty is currently being sponsored by the Thomas Paine Foundation for the City of Philadelphia at the Visitors Center in Washington Crossing Historic Park, PA to let people know the enormous influence that Paine's ideas have on American political values. One goal for this monument is to spotlight ideals that are still not achieved. Its focal point will be a figurative portrayal of Paine within an environment where people can sit, read, and ponder his thoughts. The bronze and granite monument is flanked by granite benches and incorporate a waterfall flowing across Paine's desk to cascade down the front into a small pool, alluding to the flow of ideas originating from his mind and pen. Quotations from his writings and some of his many accomplishments will be engraved on the base of the sculpture. The historic "Old City" section of Philadelphia is an appropriate site for this monument because his first revolutionary contributions originated in this city.

The most recent painting we could find was in a poster by the late Rob Edwards (2001) that was designed to help commemorate the Freedom of speech. Thomas Paine was aged considerably by his experience in France because of an extended imprisonment (1794) by the radicals. When he returned from France to America at the age of 65. His features no longer had the optimism of 1776-1793, he was treated badly by the Federalists. They dominated the northeast to 1815 and included royalist sympathizers, esquires, and even Tories who returned after 1783. Paine was England's open enemy for his role in the French Revolution. Within six years of Paine's death, the Federalists were disgraced for British sympathies in the War of 1812. (The esquires came back to subvert the original 13th Amendment of 1810 but that's another story).

Some portraits of Thomas are shown below at roughly 1780, 1788, 1792, 1802, and 1806. The 1st is by Matthew Pratt at Easton PA. The 2nd, by Turnbull, is at Monticello and was done at Jefferson's request and alongside his own. The 3rd by William Romney, at New Rochelle NY, was the basis of an engraving by George Sharpe and used for Auguste Millière's 1880 portrait (in London & enlarged above) and the Baccarat crystal shown next. Sharpe was active in the Society for Constitutional Information and properly portrayed Paine. The 4th was by J. W. Jarvis and appeared on the 40 cent U.S. stamp. Paine's death mask is also by Jarvis. Our Books & CDs page adds an early Jarvis portrait.

More on Truth-telling

This page was about an individual patriot and exposes a perversion of history in what passes for American Education. The false educators rewrote American values into aristocratic injustice to promote their status quo. Paine instead cautioned against their Hamlet-like, paralysis of analysis. For example, Common Sense did not presume the Hanoverian tyrant, King George III, to be innocent. He proved him guilty. European patriots like Lafayette, von Stueben, Kosciuszko, Pulaski, and many others shared this vision of justice. A Polish perspective is described on the Newsletter page.

Lincoln was a fan of Thomas Paine and continued his struggle. If you want to understand what the Civil War was about, read his War Address of 4 July 1861 in our Newsletter.htm. Two major propaganda issues that have brainwashed the country about it are (1) it was motivated by a desire to end slavery and (2) a Southern "Lost Cause" myth that depicts northern soldiers as brutish invaders. The real issue was "Union." Questions of "state rights" and plantation aristocracy should have been settled in Paine's time (1804). Now a similar "state rights" corporation aristocracy threatens the nation; or is it worse?

A powerful blast against this aristocratic threat to our Constitution is provided by General Smedley Butler, a Pennsylvania Quaker who had twice won the Medal of Honor. He'll be mentioned several times more. The Newsletter htm also has Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address warning against a "military-industrial (Congressional) complex," which echoes sentiments going all the way back to George Washington. Five of the nine other pages of this website are about political reform that prove how corporatism destroys American values (another page & 2 htms are commercial).

We later show how the corporate Republican-Democrat (Rino-Dino) duopoly models aristocracy. Here we recalled how royalists were once known as a major threat to America, as to all republics. There are many reasons to eject corporatism (or fascism). We might recall that corporate states have repeatedly engaged in mass murder while pretending to act in the name of the people. One of their popular big lies is that you can impose peace by waging war. In itself, the capability of corpoarate (aka mainstream) media to lie should give sufficient motivation to mobilize serious defensive opposition against corporatism.

A vast peace community has already begun mobilzing against fascism, but peace without justice is a cowardice that leads to tyranny. Some of the activists are seriously confused in their goal by both well-meaning diversionists and immoral infiltrators of the extreme left or right who primarily want a springboard for their bias. More will also be said on passive pacifism later. For now, please consider instead this opinion of social justice by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams:

Peace is not a vision of a rainbow with a dove flying over it. It's hard work in millions of different ways to

contribute to making the world a better place for everybody.

The imposition of status quo morality has closed many minds. Luther Burbank (1849–1926), an American botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science, who developed more than 800 strains or varieties of plants, once said:

It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who

do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.

To help plant such new opinions, the associated CDs (on Products page) include works by hundreds of other authors in pamphlets, books, and archival documents. GAME Book Marketing is the exclusive distributor for Valor books and can offer added discounts on all these items. Another unique feature of Valor books and CDs`is a 50% "buy-back" option on old editions for new ones. Those who order any of the GAME items from us will also get a copy of one of Paine's works.

He is most famous for Common Sense (Dec.1775). It is probably this country's most powerful political document because it

transformed a successful revolution into a War for Independence and announced a constitution as the Genesis of our values:

"Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the

charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the

world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king ...and there ought to be no other."

He took a musket to join Washington in New York after anonymously publishing A Serious Thought (18 Oct.1775) suggesting that

God would grant American independence. This went far beyond the Declaration for Taking Up Arms (July 1775). In the last part of

Common Sense he warned against reconciliation with "Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men who cannot see;

prejudiced men who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, who think better of the European world than it deserves".

He announced that: We have it in our power to begin the world over again …the birthday of a new world is at hand..." and concluded

Common Sense with "free and independent states of America" and penned "United States of America" as Foreign Department

Secretary, helping Franklin write international correspondence. The name widely circulated in Crises II (13 Jan.1777).

He consistently promoted emancipating slaves with newspaper essays like "African Slavery in America" (8 March & 18 Oct.1775)

and several books credit Paine with writing the first draft of the Declaration of Independence where this idea appeared as:

"He has waged cruel war against human Nature itself, violating its most Sacred Rights of Life and Liberty in the

Persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere."

He rose to the rank of Major in the Continental Army and wrote fifteen Crises dispatches to rally the troops and explain American

values. The first of these condemned offensive war as it rallied Washington's Army on Christmas Eve, 1776. It began with:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crises, shrink from

the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love of man and woman. Tyranny like hell, is not easily conquered yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

He called Native Americans "brothers" and admired ther natural state without poverty, thanks to relatively equal distribution of

property. He praised their love of liberty as symbolized by the eagle, which helped in making it the national emblem. With a

thousand dollars worth of presents he negotiated a Treaty at Easton (Jan.1777) with the Iroquois allied nations. If the British

had not undermined it, relations with the original Americans could have been much better after the War for Independence.

He received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Philadelphia and was accepted in the American Philosophical Society.

He served as Clerk of the Pennsylvania state assembly (1779-81) and wrote a Preamble Emancipation of Slaves Act of 1 March

1780, that made it the first state to end this British form of serfdom. If Virginia had taken a similar step, as Jefferson had often

proposed, then the 1861 Civil War might have been avoided. His essay Public Good (1780) opposed Virginia's claim on

western land for the sake of national unity and a Virginia politician later denied him a pension.

He gave a third of his salary to feed Washington's troops and initiated a mission to France (March 1781) with John Laurens. He

helped negotiate a large loan and escorted 2.5 million livres in silver (Aug.1781) back to America to help pay the troops.

He wrote a Letter on Affairs of North America (1782) to correct British lies, lessen war debts, and define the Treaty of Paris.

He helped Franklin structure a Articles of Confederation government and wrote a Memo (1783) and Dissertations (Feb.1786) On

Government; the Affairs of the Bank; and Paper Money, as the first outline for the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

He was technically gifted and invented an iron bridge (1787), and helped build one as a model upon traveling to England (3 Sept.).

He had promoted women's equality since 1775 with "An Occasional Letter On The Female Sex" and, while in London, shared

ideas with Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), who wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). If such views had been

adopted in America then women would have had the right to vote as part of the Bill of Rights Constitution.

He inspired the Revolution in France, where his writings were regarded "as powerful as an army" against European despotism. For example, French publishers bound translations of Common Sense together in one volume with Rousseau's Social Contract

and the wealthy LaFayette was one of his strongest supporters.

He advocated human rights in France as declared in America (1789). Rights of Man (Part I, Feb. 1791), dedicated to Washington,

shook Europe and inspired a second written Constitution (Poland, 3 May). Here are his memorable words on the subject:

A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot

be produced in a visible form, there is none. A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is

only the creature of a constitution. The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people

constituting its government. It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and which

contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organized, the

powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, or by what other name such bodies may be

called; the powers which the executive part of the government shall have; and, in fine, everything that relates to the

complete organization of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound. A

constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made a afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature.

The court of judicature does not make laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the

government is in like manner governed by the constitution.

He co-auhored and popularized the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens (1789) in Rights of Man I. This

promoted "universal civilization" to oppose Edmund Burke's attack on a still moderate French Revolution. It did not oppose

England’s “Foxite” aristocracy so if its republican ideals had spread, Hanoverian imperialism might have come to a swift end.

He exchanged ideas (1791) in England with visitors such as Joel Barlow, Thomas Christie, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, William

Goodwin, John Oswald, Joseph Priestley, Clio Rickman, William Sharpe, Horne Tooke, and Mrs.Wollstonecraft to examine

how republicanism could replace misdirected radicalism. In Paris, as Louis XVI deserted (20 June), he circulated A Republican

Manifesto (June-July 1791) and formed a Societe Republicaine with Bonneville, Condorcet, and others who had similar ideals.

He noted in "Address and Declaration to the Friends of Universal Peace and Liberty" that: "We fear not proud oppression, for we have truth on our side" (Aug. 1791). This inspired English and Irish committees of correspondence to form a Society for

Constitutional Information. It spread the idea of republicanism as synonymous to ‘democracy' throughout the British Empire.

He barely escaped England (12 Sept.1791) after Poet William Blake warned him of impending arrest. After King George III issued

a "Proclamation against Sedition, Subversion, and Riot," a bribed royal court later found him guilty in absentia (Dec.1792).

He completed Rights of Man part 2 (Feb.1792), dedicated to LaFayette. It became the most popular work of the English language

but meant that he and his republican followers would be charged as “radicals” with accusations of "treason against the crown."

His publishers went to prison for 3 years and this royalist sentiment found an echo in American Alien and Sedition Acts.

He was the only American to serve as Deputy of France in its Chamber (Sept.1792, represented Calais) as an honorary Frenchman (Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington had similar offers) with the purpose of developing a Constitution for the French people.

He staunchly resisted French terrorism because it undermined republican ideals. For example, he pleaded (15 Jan.1793) for the

French Assembly to spare Louis XVI despite his treason -- "Kill the tyrant, spare the man." The vote for death was 387 to 334

(17th) and even in the next three days there was chance for a reprieve. If they had exiled its former benefactor to America, as

Paine asked, then the royal world might have been sympathetic to republicanism and avoided the Napoleonic wars.

He was imprisoned on 28 December 1793 and Robespierre signed his death warrant. Facing death, Paine wrote Age of Reason

(part 1, 1794) to attack atheism, materialism, and religious corruption. This textbook for a Deism included a judgement day and

afterlife. It aimed to stop atheism by creating a moral anchor matching the Reformation (see above dedication to fellow citizens).

Unknown to Paine, Jefferson wrote a political preface of the book in America, which incited Federalists and religious reaction.

He was released from prison to reside with Monroe (to Nov.1796) and dined with prominent men such as Barlow, Condorcet, Fulton, LaFayette, Kosciuszko, and even Napoleon, who said that Paine deserved golden statues for Rights of Man and that he always slept with a copy at his side as he spread its ideas (see some statues, shown below).

He emphasized First Principles of Government (July 1795) to conclude "in the absence of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle governing party, party governs principle." If Britain had a written constitution, their Commonwealth

might by now be a republic (as in the Latin res publica) so that we would not fear royalist infiltration through dual citizenship.

He continued promotion of social protection laws and other democratic reform, including a specific social security and welfare system based on progressive taxation. Agrarian Justice (1796) rejected patronizing aristocratic paternalism and its insight

on equal rights stopped short of class conflict (to abolish private property or confiscate wealth) but it did describe the earth

as "the common property of the human race." This idea might have avoided the environmental violence by corporations.

He built a working model for an iron crane (1795) and made plans for gunboats, submarines, steamboats (with Fulton), internal combustion engines, and after returning to America scientifically analyzed The Cause of Yellow Fever (June 1806).

He helped plan French support for Irish liberation (1798) with ex-lord Ed Fitzgerald, Wolfe Tone and Napper Tandy. American help

might have freed Ireland. Tone said "The Rights of Man are the Rights of God, to vindicate the one is to maintain the other."

He helped Vice President Jefferson avoid a U.S. war with France (1799) by exposing the Federalist schemes to support the British

He developed principles for international arbitration and drafted specific measures to reduce militarism. For example, his 40-page Maritime Compact (1800) proposed a "Law of Nations" for a neutral Association of Nations united under the Rainbow Flag.

If British sympathizers had not assassinated Czar Paul I (1801) this early "United Nations" might have ended Napoleonic Wars.

He helped convince Napoleon to leave the Caribbean (Haiti), while also selling Louisiana to the United States (Sept.1802). This

diplomatic effort emplaced the foundation of the informal alliance with France (and Poland) in the War of 1812 as defined by

the subsequent "honorary French citizen" and U.S. diplomat Joel Barlow. If the Anglo-Hanoverian armies were not tied up on

the European continent, then America's "Second War of Independence" (1812-14), could have ended differently.

He wrote a Christmas Letter (25 Dec.1802) to make "a present of a thought" to President Jefferson on how to peacefully acquire the

Louisiana territories. Within weeks, Jefferson wrote to Monroe (13 Jan.1803) about French problems in St. Domingue and began

a purchase process. A slave insurrection meanwhile overthrew the French (by 1804 Haiti proclaimed independence & outlawed

slavery). Monroe went to France with suggestions from Paine (March 1803) on negotiating a Louisiana Purchase. For fifteen

million dollars America doubled in size (May 1803) to 1.7 million square miles. Those lands are still a fourth of the U.S.

He exchanged ideas with Sam Adams who wrote that Common Sense and Crises had inspired national independence, adding:

"Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age by inculcating the minds of

youth the fear and love of the Deity and universal philanthropy." Paine answered "this exactly is my religion" (1 Jan. 1803).

He wrote a Letter to the French Inhabitants of Louisiana (22 Sept. 1804) to denounce their petition for ...rights, to import and

enslave Africans!” He predicted that the area would eventually include a dozen states and asserted that the owner must uphold

the "principles and interest of a republic" and not permit slavery therein. This policy could have avoided the future Civil War.

He denounced the "emolument of lawyers," based on Marshall's corrupt invention of Judicial Review, in a Compass (21 June1805,

below) to a letter to Pennsylvanians as contrary to the principle of juries and annual election. This inspired the first 13th

Amendment (1810) that, despite ratification, was subverted by black-robed esquires to empower lawyers. One key phrase was:

"There is no article in the Constitution of this State, nor of any of the states, that invests the Government in whole or in part

with the power of granting charters or monopolies of any kind; the spirit of the times was then against all such speculation;

and therefore the assuming to grant them is unconstitutional, and when obtained by bribery and corruption is criminal."

He joined with American Deists (1804), led by Elihu Palmer, in a NY Theistic Society and wrote the Prospect Papers (aka Age of

Reason, Part IV.) to offer views on morality, concluding (1807) to caution against fanaticism and warning how enemies "unable

to conquer will stoop to corrupt." If this and a warning about "granting charters and monopolies" had been heeded then the

law-takers could not have sliced U.S. government into over 85,000 unequal and mostly corrupt pieces dominated by corporatist

chambers of commerce. Now global robber barons and their corporate running dogs chase liberty from other world economies.

He ended his will with "resignation to the will of my creator, God" but the aristocracy tried to denounce him as an atheist

He was well respected by opponents. John Adams, after recognizing the royalist nature of the Hamiltonians, half-seriously proposed

(Oct.1805) that the Age of Reason be renamed the Age of Paine because he did not know any other man who had influenced

the inhabitants or affairs of the world more for the previous thirty years. In 1814, he paraphrased Joel Barlow's sentiments to write:

There is but one element of government and that is THE PEOPLE," and ...Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington

would have been wielded in vain." In a 1818 letter to Jefferson, Adams reminded his countrymen that: "...a change in the

principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."

He is largely been removed from our Anglophile history books, except for mention of Common Sense. His grave was desecrated in

1819 by a British fanatic. The American ruling class often calls him a "radical". Maybe so. Perhaps the best answer to such

detractors was in President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to the Daughters of the American Revolution on 20 April 1938:

Remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

Isn't it time for you to understand American values?