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Common Sense, which sold more than 100,000
copies in three months, had a profound impact on public opinion
and on the deliberations of the Continental
Congress, then meeting in Philadelphia.
During the Revolution, in the bleak days following
Washington's forced retreat across New Jersey and the Delaware
River in December 1776, Paine's writing revived the flagging
morale of the troops and the civilian population. On December
19, while serving in the Continental Army,
he published the first of a series of propaganda pieces, entitled
The American Crisis, which begins, “These are the times
that try men's souls.” The inspiration generated by the
pamphlet is credited with contributing to the American success
at the Battle of Trenton.
In April 1777, largely because of his writings, Paine
was elected secretary of the congressional Committee of Foreign
Affairs. However, he was forced to resign two years later when
it was discovered that he had released in a newspaper article
privileged information concerning treaty negotiations with France.
After the war, Paine conducted various scientific experiments
and invented a method of constructing an iron bridge. In an attempt
to promote the bridge, he returned to Europe in 1787, living
in England and France.
~ French Revolution ~
In 1791, Paine published the first part of The
Rights of Man—a defense of the French Revolution
in reply to the attack by Edmund Burke. (The second part was
issued in 1792.) As a result, Paine left England, where he was
subsequently declared a traitor and outlawed, and went to France,
where he was granted citizenship and, in September 1792, elected
to the National Convention. In the convention, Paine associated
with such moderates as Condorcet and voted against the execution
of Louis XVI. He thereby aroused the suspicion of the radical
majority and was arrested by the Committee of General Safety,
which confined him in the Luxembourg prison from December 1793
to November 1794.
While in prison, Paine worked on the statement of
his religious beliefs, The Age of Reason (Part I, 1794;
Part II, 1796). It opens with the words: “I believe in one
God and no more, and I hope for happiness beyond this life.”
For generations The Age of Reason was misunderstood and assailed
as an atheistic tract, when, in fact, it is an expression of
deistic principles, accepted by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, and other 18th century intellectuals.
In 1796, Paine also issued a public Letter to George Washington, voicing his disillusionment
with Washington's failure to have used official channels to secure
his release from prison. In the following year, Paine published
Agrarian Justice, a proposal for a broad government-sponsored
welfare program covering youth and old age, based on notions
he had set forth in Philadelphia before the American Revolution.
In 1802, Paine left France and went to the United
States, where he devoted his major efforts to newspaper articles
jointly defending the administration of President Jefferson and
the political principles espoused in 1776. During this
period he advised James Monroe in his negotiations for the purchase
of Louisiana and suggested to President Jefferson that the United
States should serve as mediator between France and the black
republic of Haiti. Paine died in poverty in New York City on
June 8, 1809, and was buried on his farm in New Rochelle, N.Y.
In 1819, William Cobbett, an English journalist, exhumed Paine's
body for reburial in England, but all trace of it has since been
lost.
~ Influence ~
Paine's vast influence is due in large measure to
his luminous literary style, noted for its striking metaphors,
colloquial vigor, and rational directness. From a long-range
perspective, the importance of Common Sense lies in its insistence
that America adopt a new system of republican government rather
than simply rejecting British rule, and that the American Revolution
was a philosophical movement based on natural rights and not
just a change of government. Later, it helped formulate the policy
of American noninvolvement in European political affairs and
was an instrument in the independence movement in Latin America.
The Rights of Man, by championing the
dignity of people in all countries against those who consider
the average person to be merely one of the “swinish multitude,”
transcends national boundaries. In the United States it fostered
sympathy for France, helping to check a growing anti-French sentiment
during the Federal period and reducing pressure for war with
France. In Britain it circulated among republican clubs, eventually
becoming a classic document in the working-class movement. |
Thomas
Paine