Paine advocated a republic (2.) with a representative government (6.).
The first real republic with a representative government of importance
established in the world was in the United States of America, of which,
when religious prejudice passes away, Thomas Paine will be recognized as
the founder.
Professor J. B. Bury, LL.D.: "His 'Rights of Man' is an indictment
of the monarchical form of government, and a plea for representative
democracy."
Terrible but truthful is Paine's indictment of monarchy: "All the
monarchical governments are military. War is their trade; plunder and
revenue their objects. While such governments continue, peace has not
the absolute security of a day. What is the history of all monarchical
governments but a disgustful picture of human wretchedness, and the
accidental respite of a few years repose. Wearied with war and tired
with human butchery, they sat down to rest and called it peace."
This is his conception of an ideal government:
"When it shall be said in any country in the world, 'My poor are happy;
neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are
empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the
taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend, because I am
the friend of its happiness,'---when these things can be said, then may
that country boast of its constitution and its government."
"The political events of our own day--of the present hour--point to the
time when the ambitions and the wars of monarchy will be at an end, and
when republican peace will reign throughout the world. Then shall the
dream of Thomas Paine, the world's greatest citizen of the world, be
realized."--_Marshall J. Gaitvin._
Washington Irving: "A reprint of Paine's 'Rights of Man,' written
in reply to Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution, appeared [in
America] under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson."
In introducing Paine's work to the American people Jefferson, then
Secretary of State, said: "I have no doubt our citizens will rally a
second time round the standard of 'Common Sense.'"
The Builders of the Nation: "At this time the Republican party as it
was called, accepted the views of Jefferson, and as he openly accepted
Paine's 'Rights of Man' it followed that the advanced views contained
in that book grew to be held measurably as the party tenets of his
followers."
Prof. E. D. Adams, Ph. D.: "As a cult [democracy], the theory
undoubtedly first found adequate expression amongst us in the writings
of Thomas Paine.... In these two books ['Common Sense' and 'Rights of
Man'] Paine was then the first to state the ideal of democracy, as it
later came to be accepted in America under the leadership of Jefferson."
In a letter to Monroe, referring to the censure he had received for
his endorsement of Paine's book, Jefferson says: "I certainly merit the
same, for I profess the same principles."
In a letter to Paine (June 19, 1792,) Jefferson says: "Our good people
are firm and unanimous in their principles of Republicanism, and there
is no better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it
with delight."
James Madison declared the "Rights of Man" to be "a written defense of
the principles on which that [our] Government is based."
For our so-called Jeffersonian Democracy we are indebted to Thomas
Paine. He formulated its principles. Jefferson, Madison and others of
his disciples popularized them.
After commending the "Rights of Man" Richard Henry Lee wrote: "I
sincerely regret that our country could not have offered sufficient
inducements to have retained as a permanent citizen a man so thoroughly
republican in sentiment and fearless in the expression of his opinions."
In his book, one of the most brilliant volumes ever penned, Burke, long
the friend of popular government, defended royalty and aristocracy.
He sought to arouse the sympathies of Europe in behalf of royalty and
aristocracy in France which were tottering to their fall, a disaster
which endangered their existence everywhere. The book was circulated
by tens of thousands. Captivated by its marvelous beauty a reaction in
favor of despotism was setting in when Paine's immortal work appeared.
The glowing rhetoric of Burke went down before the merciless logic of
Paine.
Burke is filled with sorrow for the French king and nobles whose rule
and privileges have been abolished or restricted, but expresses none for
the millions who for centuries have been persecuted, impoverished and
imprisoned by the ruling classes. In words that come from the heart of
the author and which reach the hearts of the people, Paine answers him:
"Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserating reflection, that I
can find throughout his book, has he bestowed on those that lingered out
the most wretched of lives; a life without hope, in the most miserable
of prisons. It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to
corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he has been
to her. He is not affected by the reality of distress touching upon his
heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He
pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss the
aristocratic hand that hath purloined him from himself, he degenerates
into a composition of art, and the genuine soul of nature forsakes him.
His hero or his heroine must be a tragedy-victim, expiring in show, and
not the real prisoner of misery, sliding into death in the silence of a
dungeon."
Referring to this intellectual combat William Cobbett, one of England's
most distinguished political writers, writing more than a quarter of
a century after Paine's reply to Burke, says: "As my Lord Grenville
introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of
a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage
to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million
times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."
Lord John Morley: "Thomas Paine replied to them [Burke's 'Reflections']
with an energy, courage and eloquence worthy of his cause in the 'Rights
of Man.'"
"In brilliant rhetoric Burke argued its [Natural Rights] dangerous and
baseless nature.. Paine in his even more brilliant 'Rights of Man,'
answered Burke."--_Encyclopedia of Social Reform._
Thomas Campbell: "He strongly answered at the bar of public opinion all
the arguments of Burke. I do not deny that fact; and I should be sorry
if I could be blind, even with tears in my eyes for Mackintosh, to the
services that have been rendered to the cause of truth by the shrewdness
and courage of Thomas Paine."
(Great events inspire great works. Three of the masterpieces of
literature were inspired by the French Revolution, Edmund Burke's
"Reflections on the French Revolution" condemning it, and Sir James
Mackintosh's "Vindiciæ Gallicæ" and Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man"
defending it.)
Dictionary of National Biography (England): "Paine is the only English
writer who exposes with uncompromising sharpness the abstract doctrines
of political rights held by the French Revolutionists."
Charles James Fox: "It ['Rights of Man'] seems as clear and as simple as
the first rules of arithmetic."
Manchester Constitutional Society (March 13, 1792): "A work of the
highest importance to every nation under heaven, but particularly to
this, as containing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and
considerable reduction of the public expenditure; for the prevention
of wars; for the extension of our manufactures and commerce; for the
education of the young; for the comfortable support of the aged; for the
better maintenance of the poor."
Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information (March 14, 1792): "We
have derived more true knowledge from the two works of Thomas Paine,
entitled 'Rights of Man,' Parts First and Second, than from any other
author. The practice as well as the principle of government is laid down
in those works in a manner so clear and irresistibly convincing."
James Anthony Froude: "Copies of Paine's 'Rights of Man' were sown
broadcast [in Ireland]."
"Protestant Belfast had declared itself a disciple of Paine."
"The Irish patriots were red republicans... anxious to establish in
Ireland the principles of Paine."
"Paine," says his biographer, Dr. Conway, "held a supremacy in the
constitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre
over the Jacobins of Paris."
William Pitt (to Lady Hester Stanhope, who had quoted from the "Rights
of Man"): "Paine is quite in the right, but what am I to do?"
Sir James Mackintosh: "His bold speculations and fierce invectives
indicated the approach of social confusion."
Prof. G. P. Gooch, M.A.: "The 'Rights of Man,' compelled attention not
less by the novelty of its ideas than by its consummate pamphleteering
skill.... The alarm increased when it was known that the book was
selling by tens of thousands."
Diccionaris Enciclopedico (Spain): "The friends of the Government burned
Paine in effigy in the streets of London. Later he was proclaimed the
great apostle of liberty and the father of the Revolution."
Gouverneur Morris: "Bonnville is here [Paris]. He is just returned from
England. He tells me that Paine's book works mightily in England."
Louis Blanc: "The militia were armed, in the southeast of England
troops received orders to march to London, the meeting of Parliament was
advanced forty days, the Tower was reinforced by a new garrison, in
fine there was enrolled a formidable preparation of war--against Thomas
Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man.'"
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.: "Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man' was known
to have an enormous circulation, and he was prosecuted for it under the
proclamation of May, 1792. Paine's counsel argued in vain that it
had never been held criminal to express opinions on the problems of
political philosophy.... Paine was condemned."
"He was defended by Erskine, who was then in the zenith of his glory as
an advocate, in a speech of marvelous power and eloquence."--_Hon. E. B.
Washburne._
J. Redman ("London, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1792, 5 P.M."): "Mr. Paine's trial
is this instant over. Erskine shone like the morning star. The instant
Erskine closed his speech the venal jury [it was a packed jury]
interrupted the Attorney General, who was about to make reply, and
without waiting for any answer, or any summing up by the Judge,
pronounced him guilty. Such an instance of infernal corruption is
scarcely upon record."
Paine's case was set for June, 1792, and he was anxious to go to trial
then. At the request of the Government it was postponed till December.
In the meantime Paine, having been elected to the National Convention,
went to France. Had he remained in England death or a long imprisonment
would have been his fate, the charge against him being high treason.
Alexander Gilchrist: "On Paine's rising to leave [he had delivered a
radical address in London the night before], Blake [William] laid his
hand on the orator's shoulder, saying, 'You must not go home, or you are
a dead man,' and he hurried him off on his way to France.... Those were
hanging days in England."
Dr. James Currie (1793): "The prosecutions that are commenced all over
England against printers, publishers, etc., would astonish you; and
most of these are for offenses committed months ago. The printer of the
Manchester _Herald_ has had... six different indictments for selling or
disposing of six different copies of Paine--all previous to the trial of
Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth £20,000; but these different
actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."
The trial of Paine was followed by a veritable reign of terror in
England. Alluding to the prosecutions and persecutions of the publishers
and venders of Paine's books, Buckle, in his "History of Civilization,"
says: "It is no exaggeration to say that for some years England was
ruled by a system of absolute terror."
It was over the writings of Thomas Paine chiefly, his "Rights of Man" at
first and later his "Age of Reason," that the battle for free speech
and a free press in England was fought and won. In this great struggle
England's gifted statesman, Charles James Fox, whom Edmund Burke
describes as "the greatest debater the world ever saw," and whom Sir
James Mackintosh declares to De "the most Demosthenian speaker since
Demosthenes," ably and fearlessly upheld the rights of Paine and the
disseminators of his writings and teachings. In this struggle the poet
Shelley, too, did valiant work.
Richard Carlile: "It is not too much to say that if the 'Rights of
Man' had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and
Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to that which 'Common
Sense' did in the United States."
Sir Francis Burdett: "Ministers know that a united people are not to be
resisted; and it is this that we must understand by what is written in
the works of an honest man too long calumniated. I mean Thomas Paine."
M. Brissot: "The grievance of the British Cabinet against France is not
that Louis is in judgment, but that Thomas Paine wrote the 'Rights of
Man'."
Abbe Sieyes: "His 'Rights of Man,' translated into our language, is
universally known; and where is the patriotic Frenchman who has not
already, from the depths of his soul, thanked him for having fortified
our cause with all the power of his reason and his reputation."
"Paine's 'Rights of Man'," says Dr. Conway, "had been in every French
home. His portrait, painted by Romney and engraved by Sharp, was in
every cottage, framed in immortelles." Napoleon Bonaparte said: "I
always sleep with the 'Rights of Man' beneath my pillow." Hon. Elihu
B. Washburne, Minister of the United States to France during President
Grant's administration, and later a prominent candidate for president
of the United States himself, in a monograph on Thomas Paine, says:
"He at once became a hero in France, and was everywhere received with
enthusiasm. The doors of the _salons_ and clubs of Paris were opened to
him, and he was soon recognized as one of the advanced figures in
the Revolution, standing by the side of de Bonneville, Brissot and
Condorcet."
It is a commonly accepted opinion that the French Revolution was
inspired chiefly by the writings of Rousseau and Voltaire. Hardly
less potent, however, were Paine's "Rights of Man," published at the
beginning of the Revolution, and his "Common Sense," which electrified
France fifteen years before. Referring to these French writings and
the "Rights of Man," Dr. Conway says: "In this book the philosophy of
visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes of Rousseau's
'Contrat Social,' burnt in Paris, rose the 'Rights of Man,' no phoenix,
but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by any royal sun.
It comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and
Washington--the 'Contrat Social' was framed into the Constitution of a
happy and glorious new earth."
Charles Knight: "In the week of the flight of Louis [June, 1791] Paine
wrote in English a proclamation to the French nation, which, being
translated, was affixed to all the walls of Paris. It was an invitation
to the people to profit by existing circumstances, and establish a
Republic."
Ida M. Tarbell: "Brissot brought several of his friends to see them [the
Rolands]. Among the most important of these were Petion and Robespierre.
In April [1791] Thomas Paine appeared. So agreeable were these informal
reunions found to be that it was arranged to hold them four times a
week.... To Madame Roland these gatherings were of absorbing interest."
"With Condorcet, Brissot, and a few others as sympathizers, Paine formed
a Republican society."
Justin H. McCarthy: "The prospectus of a journal called _Le
Republicaine_ was posted at the very doors of the General Assembly. It
was signed by Duchatellet, a colonel of Chasseurs, but is said to have
been drawn up by Thomas Paine."
Etienne Dumont: "Some of the seed sown by the audacious hand of Paine
were now budding in leading minds."
Meyers' Gross Konversations-Lexikon: "In Paris Paine was declared
a French citizen and was elected to the National Convention by the
department of Pas-de-Calais."
La Grande Encyclopédie: "Declared a French citizen by the National
Assembly, he was elected a member of the Convention by the departments
of l'Oise, the Puy-de-Dome and the Pas-de-Calais."
H. Morse Stephens, LL.D.: "Paine, one of the founders of the American
Republic, was elected by no less than three departments to the
Convention."
M. Louvet (and thirty-two others): "Your love for humanity, for liberty
and equality, the useful works that have issued from your pen in their
defense, have determined our choice. It has been hailed with universal
and reiterated applause. Come friend of the people, to swell the number
of patriots in an Assembly which will decide the destiny of a great
people, perhaps of the human race."
Biographie Universelle: "Amid salvos of artillery and cries of '_Vive_
Thomas Paine!' his arrival was announced."
Cates' Biographical Dictionary: "The garrison of Calais were under arms
to receive this friend of liberty. The tri-colored cockade was presented
to him by the mayor, and the handsomest woman in the town was selected
to place it in his hat."
W. T. Sherwin: "The hall of the Minimes [in Calais] was so crowded that
it was with the greatest difficulty they made way for Mr. Paine to the
side of the president. Over the chair he sat in was placed the bust
of Mirabeau, and the colors of France, England, and America united.
A speaker acquainted him from the tribune with his election, amid the
plaudits of the people. For some minutes after the ceremony nothing was
heard but '_Vive la Nation! Vive Thomas Paine!_'"
"Ancient Calais, in its time, had received heroes from across the
channel, but hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries reserved
for a Thetford Quaker. As the packet sails in a salute is fired from
the battery; cheers sound along the shore. As the representative for
Calais steps on French soil soldiers make his avenue, the officers
embrace him, the national cockade is presented. A beautiful lady
advances, requesting the honor of setting the cockade in his hat, and
makes him a pretty speech, ending with Liberty, Equality and France.
As they move along the Rue de l'Egalité (late Rue du Roi) the air rings
with '_Vive Thomas Paine_'! At the town hall he is presented to the
Municipality, by each member embraced, by the Mayor also addressed. At
the meeting of the Constitutional Society of Calais, in the Minimes, he
sits beside the president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the united
colors of France, England and America. There is an official ceremony
announcing his election, and plaudits of the crowd, '_Vive la Nation!
Vive Thomas Paine!'"--Dr. Conway_.
Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, LL.D.: "Meantime Paine had been declared in
Paris worthy of citizenship, and he proceeded thither, where he was
received with every demonstration of extravagant joy."
"The ovation which Paine received on his arrival in France was one such
as theretofore only kings had received."--_Theodore Schroeder_.
Hérault de Sechelles, (President of National Assembly): "France calls
you, Sir, to its bosom to fill the most useful, and consequently the
most honorable of functions--that of contributing, by wise legislation,
to the happiness of a people whose destinies interest and unite all who
think and all who suffer in the world.
"It is meet that the nation which proclaimed the Rights of Man should
desire to have him among its legislators who first dared to measure all
their consequences."
Philip Van Ness Myers, LL.D.: "The Convention, consisting of seven
hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the celebrated
freethinker, Thomas Paine, embraced two active groups, the Girondins and
the Mountainists [Jacobins]."
Alphonse de Lamartine: "A stranger sat among the members of the
Convention--the philosopher, Thomas Paine, born in England, the apostle
of American independence, the friend of Franklin, author of 'Common
Sense,' the 'Rights of Man,' and the 'Age of Reason'--three pages of
the New Evangelist in which he brought back political institutions
and religious creeds to their primitive justice and lucidity; his name
possessed great weight among the innovators of the two worlds."
"Everyone," says Paul Desjardins, "turned toward Paine as toward the
living statue of liberty. The enfranchisement of America consecrated
him."
The official reports of the National Convention state that when Paine
arose in the Convention and cast his vote for its first decree the act
was received by "acclamations of joy, the cries of _Vive la nation!_
repeated by all the spectators, prolonging themselves for many minutes!"
Referring to this Convention, the Hon. E. B. Washburne says: "Never was
there a legislative or constituent body which displayed such stupendous
energy or performed such immense labor. In the delirium of its passions
it stamped itself on the history of the world not only by its crimes,
but by its great acts of legislation, which will live as long as
France shall endure. Thomas Paine was a member of this Convention.
His popularity in France at this time is shown by the fact that he was
chosen a member of the Convention by three departments.
"The Convention was not long in giving Paine a striking recognition of
the consideration in which it held him. One of its earliest decrees was
to establish a special Commission (committee) of nine members on the
Constitution. This Commission was composed of the most distinguished men
of the Convention: Gensonne, Thomas Paine, Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud,
Barrere, Danton, Condorcet, and the Abbe Sieyes."
Louis Adolphus Thiers: "A sixth committee was charged with the principal
object for which the Convention had met, to prepare a new constitution.
It was composed of nine celebrated members. Philosophy had its
representatives in the persons of Sieyes, Condorcet, and the American
Thomas Paine, recently elected a French citizen, and a member of the
Convention. The Gironde was more particularly represented by Gensonne,
Vergniaud, Petion, and Brissot; the Centre by Barrere, and the Montagne
by Danton."
The names of these eminent men will live long in history; but dear was
the price paid for their fame. Danton, Brissot, Gensonne and Vergniaud
died on the scaffold; Condorcet died in a prison cell, a suicide; Petion
escaped to a forest where his body was afterward found partly devoured
by wolves; Barrere was banished, and Paine was imprisoned. Sieyes alone
escaped unharmed.
Thomas Carlyle: "To make the Constitution; to defend the Republic till
that be made. Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a Committee
of Constitution got together. Sieyes, old constituent, constitution
builder by trade; Condorcet, fit for better things; Deputy Paine,
foreign benefactor of the species with the black beaming eyes;...
Hérault de Sechelles, ex-parlementier, one of the handsomest men in
France,--these, with inferior guild-brethren, are girt cheerfully to the
task." (Hérault was a supplementary member of the Committee).
John King (referring to Paine): "The chief modeler of their new
Constitution."
The Constitution was almost entirely the work of Paine and Condorcet. It
is known as the Paine-Condorcet Constitution.
Dr. David Saville Muzzey: "Paine labored to make this new republic of
France an example for the monarchy-cursed countries of Europe. It was he
who protested against the domination of the Assembly by the section of
Paris which led to the Reign of Terror."
M. Taine: "Compared with the speeches and writings of the times,
it [Paine's Letter to Danton] produces the strangest effect by its
practical good sense."
Madame de Stael: "When the sentence of Louis XVI. came under discussion
Paine alone advised what would have done honor to France if it had been
adopted."
Henri Martin: "Thomas Paine, the famous representative of the idea of a
universal Republic, had voted against both an appeal to the people and
the penalty of death."
Thomas Wright, F. S. A.: "He urged with great earnestness that the
execution of the sentence of death should be delayed."
M. Guizot: "The last effort was about to be attempted to save the
life of the King by delaying execution. The anger of the Jacobins was
extreme; they refused to listen to a speech from Thomas Paine, the
American, till respect for his courage gained him a hearing.... The
prayer and the hope were as vain as they were affecting."
Hon. Elihu B. Washburne: "It was on the 19th day of January, 1793, that
Paine mounted the tribune to speak to this question. This trial of Louis
XVI. by the National Convention is one of the most remarkable on record.
The session was made permanent, and the trial went on day and night.
After a lapse of nearly one hundred years, the painful and dramatic
scenes stand out with still greater prominence. The _Salle des
Machines_, in the Pavillon de Flores at the Tuileries, had been
converted into a grand hall for the sittings of the Convention. The
galleries were immense and could seat fourteen hundred spectators. In
an immense city like Paris, convulsed with a political excitement never
equaled, the trial of a king for his life produced the most profound
emotions that ever agitated any community. All classes and conditions
were carried away by the prevailing excitement, and the pressure for
places exceeded anything ever known.
"The appearance of Thomas Paine at the tribune, with a roll of
manuscript in his hand, created a sensation in the Convention. By his
side stood Bancal, who was there to translate the speech into French
and read it to the Convention. The first declaration of the celebrated
foreigner produced a commotion on the benches of the Montagne. Coming
from a democrat like Thomas Paine, a man so intimately allied with the
Americans, a great thinker and writer, there was fear of their influence
on the Convention.
"The most violent exclamations broke out, drowning the voice of Bancal,
the unfortunate interpreter, and creating an indescribable tumult. Never
was a man in a more embarrassing condition than Paine was at this time.
Though not understanding the language, he yet realized the fury of the
storm which raged around him. Standing at the tribune in his half Quaker
coat, and genteelly attired, he remained undaunted and self-possessed
during the tempest. This speech of Paine breathed greatness of soul and
generosity of spirit and will forever honor his memory."
Paine's speech, says Conway, is "unparalleled for argument and art and
eloquence."