Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)

Thomas Paine was an Englishman whose career as a republican activist began when he met Benjamin Franklin in London in 1774. Franklin helped him emigrate to Philadelphia, where he turned to journalism.

In 1776, he published Common Sense, a strong defense of American independence from England. He joined the Continental Army, but he had difficulty adjusting to military duties. Later in 1776, he published a pamphlet titled The Crisis, later retitled The American Crisis and republished with other pamphlets written between 1776 and 1783 under that title. It helped inspire support for the War of Independence. The pamphlet was very popular, read by an estimated 70% of the adult population, and it galvanized support among those who had previously been neutral. He is credited with the first use of the name United States of America.

After the Revolution, he returned to Europe and pursued various business ventures, during which time he developed and promoted two of his inventions, a smokeless candle and a single-span iron bridge, and worked with John Fitch on the development of steam engines. In 1791 and 1792, he wrote Rights of Man—as an outline of his political philosophy and partly in response to Edmund Burke's criticism of the French Revolution. This work caused Paine to be tried in absentia in England in 1792 for criminal libel for criticizing the government because of the anti-monarchist comments in the book. He escaped imprisonment by fleeing to France to join the National Convention as a representative. He wrote a report of the libel trial in The Trial of Thomas Paine for a Libel.

In 1793, Paine was imprisoned in France on the order of Robespierre for refusing to endorse the execution of Louis XVI, which he opposed partly because he was grateful for the king's support for the American Revolution and partly because he opposed capital punishment. During his imprisonment, he wrote and distributed the first part of what was to become a popular book, The Age of Reason (1794–1796), which was critical of religious organizations and expressive of his skeptical, deistic views. He narrowly escaped execution. Prisoners to be executed had their cells marked, but when the prisoners marked for death were taken away, the mark on Paine's cell was overlooked, saving him until the fall of Robespierre in 1794. Later that year, he was freed. Paine remained in France until 1802, when he returned to America on an invitation from Thomas Jefferson. Paine discovered on his return that his writings that had done so much for the American Revolution had been greatly deprecated out of opposition to his religious views. Derided by the public and abandoned by most of his friends, he died on June 8, 1809, at the age of 72 in New York City.

Paine advocated libertarian or progressive views considered radical in his day. He rejected monarchy and regarded all government as, at best, a necessary evil. He opposed slavery and was among the earliest proponents of social security, universal free public education, a guaranteed minimum income, and many other radical ideas now common practice in many democratic countries.

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