Born at Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737; died at New York, 1809.
Paine was the son of a Quaker staymaker. He learnt to read, write,
and cypher at a free school, and at the age of sixteen worked at his
father’s trade. He twice ran away from home to go to sea; but married
in 1759 and settled in Sandwich, still working as a staymaker. His wife
dying two years later, he went to London, and obtained a situation as
schoolmaster in an elementary school, and toiled hard for two years at
his own self-education.
In 1771 he married the daughter of a tobacconist, and joined his
father-in-law in trade. His affairs did not prosper, and three
years later he became bankrupt. He decided to emigrate to America;
having made the acquaintance of Franklin (at that time in London),
the latter, as a fellow Quaker, gave him letters of recommendation.
Paine was thirty-seven when he embarked for America; on his arrival
in Philadelphia he was engaged as editor for a periodical called the
_Philadelphian Magazine_. His articles began to excite attention,
particularly several against slavery.
He took the most ardent interest in the struggle between England and
America. After the battle of Bunker Hill it was still undecided whether
the colonists would demand complete independence and separation, or be
satisfied with certain concessions on the part of the mother country.
It was then Paine published his famous pamphlet “Common Sense,” which
produced a tremendous impression, more than 100,000 copies being sold.
From an obscure individual he became a celebrity. During the remainder
of his life Paine invariably signed himself “Common Sense,” and was
convinced that had he not written the work in question the United
States, as a nation, would never have come into existence.
The following autumn he joined the American army as _aide-de-camp_
to General Green, and in 1777 he was appointed by Congress Secretary
to the Committee of Foreign Affairs; after two years he was dismissed,
under the accusation of indiscretion as to diplomatic secrets. In 1781
he accompanied Colonel Laurence, whom Congress had commissioned to try
and raise a loan, to France. This mission was a complete success. Louis
XVI. lent six millions of francs, and guaranteed another ten millions
promised by Holland.
Peace having been declared, Paine returned to America. As a return for
his services, Congress voted him 5500 dollars in two separate sums, and
gave him a grant of 300 acres of land and a house.
Paine proceeded to work out various scientific and mechanical problems,
by which he hoped to realise a large fortune, his favourite dream
being to throw an iron bridge over the Schuykill. Want of capital, and
the impossibility of getting iron properly wrought or cast in America,
caused his return to Europe. He proposed to present the model of his
bridge to the French Academy of Science, Franklin giving him letters of
introduction: the Academy received him well, and their committee made
a favourable report. But politics, and not science, were in the air,
and no one could be persuaded to put money into the venture. Paine then
went to London in hopes of better luck; a Yorkshire ironmaster took up
the invention, and an American merchant advanced the money; but the
expenses proved far heavier than had been anticipated, the ironmaster
went bankrupt, and his creditors arrested Paine, who only obtained his
liberty at the sacrifice of most of his little fortune.
The Revolution had now broken out in France, and the English Whig
party, which had at first shown much sympathy with the movement, became
alarmed and shocked at the excesses and disorders it entailed. In
1790 Burke published his celebrated treatise, “Thoughts on the French
Revolution,” which Paine answered by his equally well-known work,
“The Rights of Man.” This book excited immense indignation in England
among the general public, and its author was burnt in effigy in the
streets. The second part of the “Rights of Man,” which was published
in February 1792, was still more violent, containing direct personal
attacks upon George III. These books delighted the extremists, and were
immediately translated into French. The British Ministry issued a royal
proclamation forbidding seditious writings, and summoned Paine before
the Court of King’s Bench.
At the same time a deputation of electors arrived from France to inform
Paine that he had been elected a Member of the Convention; flattered
by this distinction, he started at once for France, and an hour after
he had sailed the order for his arrest arrived. He was tried by
default, and his sentence was banishment for life from Great Britain
and Ireland. As he could not speak French, he was unable to take part
in the debates of the Convention; but when the King’s trial took place
he fought courageously against the death sentence, and caused the
following expression of his opinions to be read aloud by one of his
fellow members:
To kill Louis would not only be a gross act of inhumanity, but
also of insane folly. His death would augment the number of your
enemies. If I could speak French I would now descend and appear
as a humble suppliant before your bar, imploring you in the name
of my generous American brethren not to send Louis to execution.
This generous action on the part of Paine completely destroyed his
credit with the Jacobins, and also in a great measure his general
popularity in France. The governing party were from that time his open
enemies; Robespierre erased his name from the list of members of the
Convention, as “a foreigner who was an enemy to Liberty and Equality.”
He was arrested and imprisoned in the Luxemburg.
Thomas Paine remained for more than a year in prison in daily
expectation of death. It was only by a mistake on the part of his
gaoler in reading out the names of the condemned that he escaped
execution. Even the fall of Robespierre did not give him freedom;
and he was at length liberated in November 1794, by the influence of
Monroe, the American Minister, who claimed him as a citizen of the
United States.
He attempted to obtain a seat in the Assembly, but was not elected.
The long imprisonment had not only affected his health but also his
intelligence. He published a work entitled the “Age of Reason”--a
violent attack upon Christianity, which aroused a sensation in England,
and evoked much energetic refutation of its teaching. It made Paine
a vast number of enemies in the United States, and he rendered the
situation still more impossible by publishing in 1797 a letter, full of
bitterness and ill-nature, criticising the character and administration
of Washington.
He did not leave France until the autumn of 1802, when he returned to
America, where he found he had lost the consideration and respect which
he formerly enjoyed in the United States.
His last years were spent in loneliness and neglect. He was thought by
his enemies to be avaricious, dirty and careless of his appearance, and
to indulge in intemperate habits. He died, almost forgotten, in New
York in 1809, aged seventy-one, and was buried upon his farm at New
Rochelle. In 1837 Cobbett transported the remains to England, where
they were reverently received by the Radicals and Chartists of the day.