PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1n09). An Anglo American politic-al and philosophical writer and agitator. He was born at Thetford. Norfolk. England, January 29. 1737, the son of a Quaker. Ilk schooling was over by the time he was thir teen. and he was then put to his father's trade of staymaking. In 1759 lie established himself as a staymaker at Sandwich, Kent, and in 1762 he became an exciseman. In 1765 be was dk charged because lie had testified to having per formed certain duties which he had really ne gleeted, and went back to his trade. In I766 his petition for restoration was granted. but he did not take up the work again till 176s. supporting himself in the interval by teaching, in London, where he also preached as a Methodist. In 1771 he kept a tobacco shop at Lewes. su-sex. In 1772 he was chosen by the excisemen to plead for an increase in their salaries, but was not successful. In 1774 he was again discharged from the excise service, this time on the ground, as officially stated. "of having quitted his Inki ness without obtaining the !ward's leave for so doing, and being gone off on account of the debts which he had contracted." In October. 1774. he emigrated to America with a letter from 'Ben jamin Franklin to Richard Bache of Philadel phia, who introdueed him to Robert Aitkin. Ile found employment as an editor for eighteen of Aitkin Pen 1:Sq/1111111a 11( or .1 meriran Monthly 11 m. Paine entered heartily into the spirit of the times. allying himself from the first with the Patriot or ('arty. On January 9. 1776. he published his famous pamphlet. entitled common N. ?Ise, in whirl' he argued that "government. even in its best estate, is a necessary evil." that there is no warrant or reason for "the distinction of men into kings and subjects," and that the American colonies. owing no real allegionee the British Crown. from which they had suffered innumerable grievance-, forthwith beeome imlepend eat." The pamphlet expressed with greet for the views of the more radical Whig element, had a remarkable influence throughout -1merien, and dill much to win over the timid and the wavering to the side of those who advocated separation from the mother country.
In the fall of 1776 Paine enlisted in the Con tinental Army, and for a time was a volunteer aide-de-camp on the stair of General Greene. Ilis military experience was brief. It prompted the first issues of The Crisis, a series of sixteen pamphlets, Which was written by hint over the signature 'Common Sense' between December, 1776, and December, 1783, and which, like his earlier pamphlet, were Much read and bad a powerful influence over the people. In January, 1777, Paine was appointed secretary to the coin inis-sion sent by Congress to treat with the Indians at Easton, Pa.. and in April he was elected secretary to the Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs. He was virtually compelled to resign, January S, 1779, because he hail used in print information which had come to lihn in his official en I mcity. He became a la W .rk, and was clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly for a year. In 1781 lie went as secretary to John Laurens, who had been sent to France on a Government mission to raise money. The two were cordially received by the King, and returned "with 2,500,000 Byres in silver, and in convoy a ship laden with clothing and military stores." In February, 1782, at the suggestion of Wash ington. Congress granted $800 to Paine on eondi tion that he should use his pen in support of the country. In 178-I the State of New York pre sented him with 277 acres of land at New Rochelle, and Pennsylvania with £500; and in 1785 Congress gave him $3000. He was thus
relieved from poverty. and employed his leisure in experimentation, especially in perfecting his iron bridge, an invention of merit.
In 1787 Paine went to France, where he ex hibited his bridge to the Academy of Sciences in Paris. He also visited England, and was lionized in London by the party of Burke and Fox. Ile set up the model of his bridge on Paddington Green, and huge crowds went to see it. Pyut he brought himself into odium by writing in 1791 and 1792 his pamphlet The Rights of Man, in reply to Burke's Reflections Upon the Rerolation in France. Notwithstanding Burke's kind treat ment of him and their former friendly relations, he accused Burke of ignorance, prejudice, and blind partisanship. The English Government brought a suit against him for his attack upon the English Constitution in the second part of the Rights of Man, and in his absence passed a sentence of outlawry (December, 1792). Paine had already gone to France. There he was enthusiastically received. The National Assembly gave him the title of citizen August 26, 1792), along with Washington, Hamilton, and Madison, and several departments elected him as their deputy to the French Convention. Paine accepted the election of Pas-de-Calais. and attended the sessions of the Convention. lie could not speak French, and had translations of speeches read for him while he stood upon the tribune. The most important business then in hand Was the deposition of the King, and Paine was courageous enough to spe•.nk and vote against his execution. IIe even offered him a t(qnporary asylum in the united States. When the Girondists, with whom he acted, fell from power, he was ejected from the Convention on the ground of being a for eigner. and on December 28, 1793, was committed to the Luxembourg Prison, where he was kept for ten months. Just before his arrest lie had finished the first part of his Age of Reason, the famous exposition of Deism, and had committed it to his friend Joel Barlow. While in prison he worked upon the second part. llis release (November 4, 1794) was mainly due to the change in the government. He was unanimously restored to his seat in the Convention, and sat there until its adjournment (October 20, 1795), In the same year he attracted conajderable atten tion by making a bitter attack upon Washington, \Alton] he charged, among other things, with in efficiency and treachery.
Paine returned to America in 1802, and landed at Baltimore, October 30th. He found that his services in the cause of the colonies were in some quarters gratefully remembered, but that his Agc of Reason had cost him the esteem of the religious part of the community. The suffered also from ill health, and became careless in man ners and morals. He lived successively at Bor dentown, N. J., at New Rochelle, N. Y., and in New- York City. lie died in New York, June 8, 1809, and was buried in New Rochelle, where a monument was erected to Iffin in 1839, although his body had been exhumed and carried to Eng land by direction of William Cobbett in 1819. As a writer Paine was forceful and original. His versatility is shown by the variety of the topics which engaged his attention. his attack upon the Bible was unscholarly and ignorant, and his defiant assertion of Deism brought him into great ill repute in his time. The best edi tion of his works is by Moncure D. Conway (4 vols., New York, 1894-96), who has also written his biography (ib., 1892; condensed ed. 1902), Consult, also, Tyler, Literary History of the American Resolution (New York, 1896),