PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809), English author, was born at Thetford, Norfolk, the son of a Quaker staymaker. After several years at sea and after trying various occupations on land, Paine took up his father's trade in London, where he supplemented his meagre grammar school education by attending science lec tures. He was given in 1762 an appointment in the excise, was discharged for neglect of duty in 1765, but, on offering explana tions and apologies, was restored, taking an appointment in 1768 at Lewes. His married life was unhappy, his finances became embarrassed and in 1774 he left Lewes, losing his post, leaving his goods to his creditors, and separating from his wife. Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, he sailed to America, where he arrived in Nov. and was set to edit the Pennsylvania Magazine. On Jan. io, 1776, he published Common Sense, a remarkable and powerful republican pamphlet which had an immediate success. Written in simple, convincing language, it was read everywhere, and the open movement to independence dates from its publica tion. Washington said that it "worked a powerful change in the minds of many men." When war was declared, and fortune at first went against the colonists, Paine, who was then serving with General Greene as volunteer aide-de-camp, wrote the first of a series of influential tracts called The Crisis, of which the opening words, "These are the times that try men's souls," became a battle-cry. Paine's services were recognized by an appointment to be secretary of the commission sent by Congress to treat with the Indians, and a few months later to be secretary of the Con gressional committee of foreign affairs. In 1779, however, he indiscreetly published information gained from his official posi tion, and was compelled to resign. He was afterwards clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature, and accompanied John Laurens dur ing his mission to France. His services were eventually recognized by the State of New York by a grant of an estate at New Rochelle. From Congress he received considerable gifts of money.
In 1787 he sailed for Europe with the model of an iron bridge he had designed, but his chief object was to repeat his American success. His first efforts, in the Prospects on the Rubicon (1787), were directed against Pitt's war policy. When Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France appeared, in 1790, Paine at once wrote his answer, The Rights of Man. The first part appeared on March 13, 1791, and had an enormous circulation before the Government took alarm and endeavoured to suppress it. Pitt "used to say," according to Lady Hester Stanhope, "that Tom Paine was quite in the right, but then he would add, 'What am I to do? As things are, if I were to encourage Tom Paine's opinions we should have a bloody revolution.' " Paine was indicted for
treason in May 1792, but before the trial came off he was elected by the department of Calais to the French Convention. William Blake, the poet, hustled him prudently out of England, and he took his seat in the French convention. Paine, who understood neither the French language nor the dreadful difficulties of the revolution, rapidly made himself unpopular with the Jacobins. He incurred the suspicion of Robespierre, was thrown into prison, and escaped the guillotine by an accident. Before his arrest he had completed the first part of the Age of Reason, the publication of which made an instant change in his position on both sides of the Atlantic, the indignation in the United States being as strong as in England. The Age of Reason was written from the point of view of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but who held that "all religions are in their nature mild and benign" when not associated with political systems. Mixed with the un ceremonious ridicule of what he considered superstition are many passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favour of a pure morality founded on natural religion. The work in short—a second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, was published after his release—represents the deism of the 18th century in the hands of a rough, ready, passionate controversialist.
At the downfall of Robespierre Paine was restored to his seat in the convention, and served until it adjourned in Oct. 1795, his last speech being an effort to save universal suffrage. In 1796 he published a long letter to Washington, attacking his military reputation and his presidential policy with a bitterness due to his belief that Washington and the Americans had deserted him when in danger of death in France. In 1802 Paine sailed for America, but found his popularity extinguished. He died in New York on June 8, 1809, and his body was in 1819 removed to England by William Cobbett.
See the biography by Moncure D. Conway (1892) ; Gamaliel Brad ford, Damaged Souls (Boston, 1923) ; David S. Muzzey, "Thomas Paine and American Independence," Amer. Review, vol. iv., pp. 278— 288 (Bloomington, Ill., 1926) ; Don C. Seitz, "Thomas Paine, Bridge Builder," Va. Quart. Rev., vol. iii., pp. 571-584 (Charlottesville, Va., 5927) ; and Mary Agnes Best, Thomas Paine, Prophet and Martyr of Democracy (1927).