He is most famous for Common Sense (December 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 and anonymously drafted this declaration of independence (political Exodus) as
a pamphlet, which he also signed as "Common Sense." It went far beyond the Declaration for Taking Up Arms (July 1775).
He first penned "United States of America" as Foreign Department Secretary, helping Franklin write international correspondence.
It widely circulated in Crises II (13 Jan.1777) and "free and independent states of America" had also concluded Common Sense.
He consistently promoted emancipating slaves starting with the newspaper essay "African Slavery in America" (8 March 1775)
and wrote a preamble and draft of the March 1780 Act that made Pennsylvania the first state to end this British form of serfdom.
If Virginia had taken a similar step, as Jefferson repeatedly proposed, then the 1861 Civil War might have been avoided. Ideas
of both Franklin and Paine had also appeared in the early draft of the Declaration of Independence. For example:
"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 was proclaimed to Washington's Army near Christmas Eve, 1776 and resonates in our current crises:
"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 their 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.
While serving as Clerk of the Pennsylvania state assembly (1779-81) he wrote Public Good (1780) to oppose Virginia's claim
on western land for the sake of national unity. It added to Pennsylvania's land but 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 but wrote a Memo (1783) and Dissertations (Feb.1786) On
Government; the Affairs of the Bank; and Paper Money, that helped inspire 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 wrote Rights of Man I to popularize a French Declaration of Rights and Citizens but did not initially oppose England’s “Foxite”
aristocracy. Its ideas promoted "universal civilization" in opposition to attacks by Edmund Burke on the still moderate French
Revolution. If its republican ideals had been allowed in England, Hanoverian imperialism might have come to a swift end.
He exchanged ideas (1791) with visitors such as Joel Barlow, Thomas Christie, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, William Goodwin, John
John Oswald, Joseph Priestley, Clio Rickman, William Sharpe, Horne Tooke, and Mrs. Wollstonecraft to particularly discuss
how republicanism could replace misdirected radicalism. On a trip to Paris he wrote A Republican Manifesto (April-July 1791)
to form a Societe Republicaine with Bonneville, Condorcet, and others who were founding the French Republic.
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). Such speeches inspired English and Irish committees of correspondence that
formed a Society for Constitutional Information to spread such ideas 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 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 for the French Assembly to spare Louis XVI -- "Kill the tyrant, spare the man" -- despite his treason after abdication (August 1792). If they had exiled its
former benefactor to America, as Paine suggested, then the royal world might have been sympathetic to French republicanism and the Napoleonic wars might have been avoided. Most of the French delegates who publicly agreed with Paine lost their lives.
He was imprisoned on 28 December 1793. Facing death, he wrote Age of Reason (part 1, 1794) to attack atheism, materialism,
and religious corruption. It served as a textbook for a Deism that included a judgement day and afterlife. It aimed at giving France a moral anchor matching the one of Reformation (see dedication, above, to his fellow citizens.). Unknown to Paine,
Jefferson wrote a political note to the American preface of the book, which incited the Federalists into 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 Priciples 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 aid
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) that told President Jefferson how to peacefully acquire the Louisiana territories. Within
three weeks (13 Jan.1803), Jefferson wrote to Monroe about French problems with St. Domingue and began a purchase process.
A slave insurrection meanwhile defeated the French (by 1804 Haiti proclaimed independence and outlawed slavery). Monroe
went to France with suggestions from Paine (March 1803) on how to negotiate the a Louisiana Purchase. For $15 million
dollars America doubled in size (May 1803) to 1.7 million square miles (now a fourth of the U.S) an Paine played a key role..
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 joined with noted Deists, led by Elihu Palmer, in a NY Theistic Society and wrote 17 Prospect Papers (1804-05, sometimes called Age of Reason, Part IV.)) to offer views for a moral world.
He wrote a Letter to the French Inhabitants of Louisiana (22 Sept. 1804) and appealed to denounce their “petition for power, under the name of rights, to import and enslave Africans!”, He asked Jefferson to recognize French hypocrisy about liberty in Haiti and concluded with a warning about such slave revolt. His policies would likely have avoided the future Civil War.
He denounced the "emolument of lawyers," based on Marshall's invention of Judicial Review, as contrary to the principle of juries and annual election in "Letter to the Citizens of Pennsylvania" (21 June1805). It inspired the first 13th Amendment (1810)
which was later subverted (by esquires), despite ratification. A key phrase in a Compass to that letter 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 concluded Age of Reason (1807) to caution against fanaticism. It also warned how our enemies "unable to conquer will stoop to corrupt." If this caution and previous warning about "granting charters and monopolies" had been heeded then the
law-takers could not have sliced U.S. government into more than 85,000 unequal and mostly corrupt pieces dominated by local
chambers of commerce and corporatism. Now the robber barons and their running dogs chase liberty from the global economy.
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." Adams reminded his countrymen (in a 1818 letter to Jefferson) that:
"...a change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."
He is removed from most books on the founders, except for passing mention of Common Sense, because the ruling class rejects
him as a "radical". Maybe so. Perhaps the best answer to such censorship is from 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?
Despite Jefferson's friendship and sympathy, refusal of political support can also be blamed on the slave states. Members of Jefferson's administration would not reward him because he opposed slavery (see his 1804 letter to the French inhabitants of Louisiana) and earlier writings in his essay on Public Good. 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 more common pretext for rejection by both political parties.
He died at the age of 72 (1809) and the American government allowed a British politician to rob his bones (1819) from their unsecured burial place in New Rochelle. Imagine if they had instead stolen George Washington's remains! To this day, a royal sentence (in absentia) for "Treason Against the Crown" remains in effect against him. The still spineless Hanoverian sympathizers in our government continue to let this pass. Aristocracy was his consistent 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) Museum 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. For example, if you google Thomas Paine, you'll find most of his many writings among thousands of entries. However, in reviewing some of these, we discovered that Atheists, Masons, and Libertarians try to claim him as theirs.
Be aware that many of their claims are bogus so you should compare the key text from a few sources. Contrary to what diversionists want you to believe, Paine may have attended some Mason meetings but was not a member and seemed unfamiliar with the York Rite. He was not an atheist because in defining the moral and ethical aspects of Deism he clearly promotes a belief in God. Although he strongly attacked government abuse and supported social justice, he would opposed Libertarians because he knew that if you weaken popular government then aristocracy fills the vacuum.
One view on how his writings apply to modern politics is in an 1805 "Letter to the Citizens of Pennsylvania," which warns about legal abuses that undermine the spirit of popular election. We include some of this in the "Grassroots Rising" page. Thomas was not a pacifist but warned of the rampant militarism that now afflicts the United States. One of his essays also studies why and how aristocracy has always used warfare to enrich itself.
Statues of Thomas Paine
Despite all the above accomplishment, the ruling elites have managed to keep Thomas out of our history. There are only two significant statues of hime in the United States. The one in Morristown NJ is the best of them and is shown in its original form on the left. It was sculpted by Georg Lober and presented to the people of Morristown by the Thomas Paine Memorial Committee (Joseph Lewis, Secretary) on 4 July 1950. The view to its right is a more recent one. The Thomas Paine Statue in Bordentown NJ is on the bluff above the Delaware River and was dedicated by the Bordentown Historical Society on 7 June 1977. The Thetford Statue (two views) was dedicated around 1966 with help of the famous philosopher, Bertrand Russell. The statue on the right is in Paris, France.
Thomas Paine was treated badly by the Federalists who dominated much of the northeast United States before 1815. They included royalist sympathizers, even Tories, who remained after the War for Independence. Paine was England's open enemy for his role in the French Revolution. The Federalist Party was, in fact, disgraced and disbanded for its British sympathy in the War of 1812 but its lawyers managed to subvert the original 13th Amendment (1810-19) that could have prevented their return.
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. The goal for this monument is to spotlight ideals, which are still not achieved today. 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 will be 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 he began his first contributions to revolutionary originated in this city.
More...
Some added portraits of Thomas are shown below at roughly 1783, 1792, and 1804, with a death mask of 1809. He returned from France at age 65 to retire and was no longer the optimist of 1776. Our Books & CDs page adds some sentences on Paine and another portrait.
We would also suggest checking the contents of CDs #G1 Constitution & #G2 Lincoln. Lincoln was a big fan of Thomas Paine and continued his struggle. If you think that you understand what the Civil War was about, read Lincoln's War Address of 4 July 1861 in our Newsletter.htm. Does a similar "state rights" aristocracy threaten the nation again. Is it even worse? Thomas also warned about militarism and a powerful blast against this related 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 htm also has the 1961 Farewell Address of President Eisenhower that warns against a "military-industrial complex," which echoes sentiments going all the way back to George Washington.
Another Take on New Opinions...
Luther Burbank (1849–1926), an American botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science who developed more than 800 strains or varieties of plants:
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 opjnions, the associated CDs (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.
