Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford in Norfolk in 1736 to a father who some believe to have been a corset maker.  He had a series of different jobs including at one stage a privateer and a school teacher (not at the same time).  He had an unsuccessful career as an excise officer although he would rise to prominence for publishing an article criticising the jobs poor pay and conditions.  It was perhaps his minor political campaigning that brought him into contact with Benjamin Franklin who was in London at the time.  The polymath suggested that he might like to try his fortune in America.  So in 1794 Paine sailed for America.

He would become editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine and would then take a keen interest in the anguish that some colonials were feeling.  As revolution broke out in America he published Common Sense in 1776 which would outline in clear uncomplicated language the colonial’s complaints.  It served as a rallying call for the patriots.  He did not believe that George III had been deceived by the politicians and courtiers he believed that all monarchy would descend into tyranny.  He would follow this with American Crisis to directly inspire the Americans fighting the British.  His fame spread across the country and he became In 1777 Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs.  Although this was to be short lived position.  He would serve as a crucial diplomat in ensuring French and Dutch financing for the American efforts he would even meet Louis XVI.

After the war he would return to London where he unsurprisingly a not altogether popular figure.  He was intrigued at the political stirrings across the channel in France.  He was offended by Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790.   He wrote the Rights of Man in 1791 as a counterblast to Burke’s writings.  In contrast to Burke he would savage the institutions and monarchy that he believed did not serve the people.  The second part of this work which was released in 1792 would address the need for a truly democratic system in Britain and aid for the needy.  The raging pamphlet war that saw accusation fly hither and thither saw Paine accused of seditious libel.  The time was right it appeared to go to France to explore the situation himself.  

He would become closely associated with the Girondins in Paris and was elected to the National Convention in 1792.  He would vote for the French Republic however he sought another solution to the King’s imminent execution.  With the fall of the Girondins in Spring to Summer 1793 Paine would be increasingly isolated.  With the Girondin’s opponents the Jacobins in ascendancy Paine found himself arrested in December 1793.

Despite his protestations to being an American citizen rather than a British enemy and appeals to Gouveneur Morris the American ambassador to France he was kept in prison.  He came perilously close to execution when as the gaolers made their round to collect all prisoners with a chalk mark on the door they walked past Paine’s.  His door had been upon obscuring the chalk mark. Within days Robespierre would fall in the events of Thermidor.  A more supportive government and American ambassador in James Monroe gained his release in November 1794.

He would return to the National Convention objecting at their rejection of universal suffrage.  He would see the rise of Bonaparte and even support the young Corsicans early political machinations.  He would realise Bonaparte’s political ambitions and be moved to comment that he was, "the completest charlatan that ever existed.”  

He returned to America in 1802.  His later years were not successful as he managed to have a very personal falling out with George Washington.  Many would also question his rejection of the Christian faith and associate him with the excesses of the French Revolution.  He would die in 1809.

Madame Roland on Tom Paine in The Memoirs of Madame Roland a Heroine of the French Revolution, Barrie & Jenkins, London (1989) p104

I have already named the most notable of the people I entertained, but I must also mention Paine.  He had been given French citizenship as one of the celebrated foreigners whom the nation felt proud to adopt, being noted for his writings which had played a large part in the American Revolution and might have helped to bring about a similar revolution in England.  I cannot form an absolute judgement of him because he could speak no French though understood it and I was such in much the same position with English; so that although I could follow his conversation with others I could hardly engage him in one myself.  But I did form the impression that, like so many authors, he was not worth so much as his writings.

The daring of his opinions, the originality of his style, his audacious way of casting unpleasant truths in the faces of those he was exposing naturally caused a great sensation.  But I would judge him more adept at setting things alight than at preparing the foundations of government.  He can illuminate a revolution but hardly helps to construct a constitution.  

Tom Paine on Edmund Burke. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p58-59

When the French Revolution broke out, it certainly afforded to Mr Burke an opportunity of doing some good, had he been disposed to it; instead of which, no sooner did he see the old prejudices wearing away, then he immediately began sowing the seeds of a new inveteracy, as if he were afraid that England and France would cease to be enemies. That there were men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations, it is shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between nations it becomes the more unpardonable.

Tom Paine discusses the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Burke’s opposition to it. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p68-69

While I am writing this, there are accidentally before me some proposals for a declaration of rights by the marquis de Lafayette to the National Assembly, on the 11th of July 1789, three days before the taking of the Bastille; and I cannot but remark with astonishment how opposite the sources are from the Gentleman and Mr Burke draw their principles.  Instead of referring to musty records and mouldy parchments to prove that the rights of the living are lost, “renounced and abdicated forever,” by those who are now no more, as Mr Burke has done, M. de Lafayette applies to the living world, and emphatically says, “Call to mind the sentiments which Nature has engraved in the heart of  every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all :- For a nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it; and to be free, it is sufficient that she wills it.”  How dry, barren, and obscure, is the source from which Mr Burke labours! And how ineffectual, though gay with flowers, are all his declamation and his arguments, compared with these clear, concise, and soul animating sentiments! Few and short as they are, they lead on to a vast field of generous and manly thinking, and do not finish, like Mr Burke’s periods, with music in the ear, and nothing in the heart.

Tom Paine discusses Louis XVI. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p70

When a man reflects on the condition which France was in from the nature of her government, he will see other causes for revolt than those which immediately connect themselves with the person or character of Louis XVI.  There were if I may so express it, a thousand despotisms to be reformed in France, which had grown up under the hereditary despotism of the monarchy, and became so rooted as to be in a great measure independent of it.  Between the monarchy, the parliament and the church, there was a rivalship of despotism, besides the feudal despotism operating locally, and the ministerial despotism operating everywhere.  

Tom Paine reports on the storming of the Bastille. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p74-79

About a week before the rising of the Parisians, and their taking the Bastille, it was discovered that a plot was forming, at the head of which was the Count D’Artois, the King’s youngest brother, for demolishing the National Assembly, seizing its members, and thereby crushing, by a coup de main, all hopes and prospects of forming a free government…….

There was adjoining to the city a large magazine of arms deposited at the Hospital of the Invalids, which the citizens summoned to surrender; and as the place was not defensible, nor attempted much defence they soon succeeded.  Thus supplied they marched to attack the Bastille; a vast mixed multitude of all ages, and of all degrees, and armed with all sorts of weapons…….

That the Bastille was attacked with an enthusiasm of heroism, such only as the highest animation of liberty could inspire, and carried in the space of a few hours, in an event which the world is fully possessed of……

More of the citizens fell in this struggle than of their opponents: but four or five persons were seized by the populace, and instantly put to death; the governor of the Bastille, and the |Mayor of Paris, who was detected in the art of betraying them; and afterwards Foulon, one of the ministry, and Berthier his son in law.  Their heads were stuck upon spikes, and carried about the city….. They learned it from the governments they live under, and retaliate the punishments they have been accustomed to behold.

Tom Paine discusses the events of the 5th to the 6th October 1789. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p82-83

The only things certainly known are, that considerable uneasiness was at the time excited at Paris, by the delay of the King in not sanctioning and forwarding the decrees of the National Assembly, particularly that of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the decrees of the fourth of August, which contained the foundation principles on which the constitution was to be erected.  The kindest, and perhaps the fairest conjecture upon this matter is, that some of the ministers intended to make remarks and observations upon certain parts of them, before they were finally sanctioned and sent to the provinces; but be this as it may, the enemies of the revolution derived hope from the delay, and the friends of the revolution uneasiness.

During this state of suspense, the Garde du Corps, which was composed, as such regiments generally are, of persons much connected with the court, gave an entertainment at Versailles to some foreign regiments the arrived; and when the entertainment was at the height, on a given signal, the Garde du Corps tore the national cockade from their hats, trampled it underfoot, and replaced it with a counter cockade prepared for the purpose.  An indignity of this kind amounted to defiance.  It was like declaring war; and if men will give challenges, they must expect consequences……………

On the 5th of October, a very numerous body of women, and men in the disguise of women, collected round the Hotel de Ville or town-hall at Paris, and set off for Versailles.  Their professed object was the Garde du Corps; but prudent men readily recollect that mischief is more easily begun than ended; and this impressed itself with more force, from the suspicions already stated, and the irregularity of such a cavalcade.  As soon therefore as a sufficient force could be collected, M de Lafayette, by orders from the civil authority of Paris, set off after them at the head of over twenty thousand the Paris militia………………

He arrived at Versailles between ten and eleven at night.  The Gard du Corps was drawn up, and the people had arrived some time before, but everything had remained suspended.  Wisdom and policy now consisted in changing a scene of danger into a happy event.  M de Lafayette became the mediator between the enraged parties; and the King to remove the uneasiness which had arisen from the delay already stated, sent for the President of the National Assembly, and signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and such other parts of the constitution as were in readiness.

It was now about one in the morning.  Everything appeared to be composed, and a general congratulation took place.  By the beat of a drum a proclamation was made, that the citizens of Versailles would give the hospitality of their houses to their fellow citizens of Paris…..

In this state matters passed till the break of day, when a fresh disturbance arose from the censurable conduct of some of both parties, for such characters there will be in such scenes.  One of the Gard du Corps appeared at one of the windows of the palace, and the people who had remained during the night in the streets accosted him with reviling and provocative language.  Instead of retiring, as in such a case prudence would have dictated, he presented his musket, fired, and killed one of the Paris militia.  The peace being thus broken, the people rushed into the palace in quest of the offender.  They attacked the quarters of the Garde Du Corps within the palace, and pursued them through the avenues of it, and to the apartments of the king.  On this tumult, not the Queen only as Mr Burke had represented it but every person in the palace was awakened and alarmed; and M de Lafayette had a second time to interpose between the parties, the event of which was, that the Garde Du Corps put on the national cockade, and the matter ended as by oblivion, after the loss of two or three lives.

During the latter part of the time in which the confusion was acting, the King and Queen were in public in the balcony, and neither of them concealed for safety’s sake, as Mr Burke insinuates.  Matters thus being appeased, and tranquillity restored a general acclamation burst forth of Le Roi a Paris- Le Roi a Paris- The King to Paris.  It was the shout of peace and immediately accepted the part of the king. …..The King and his family reached Paris in the evening and were congratulated on their arrival by M. Bailley the Mayor of Paris, in the name of the citizens.

Tom Paine on Voltaire. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p115

Voltaire, who was both the flatterer and satirist of despotism, took another line.  His forte lay in exposing and ridiculing the superstitions which priestcraft united with statecraft had interwoven with governments.  It was not from the purity of his principles, or his love of mankind, (for satire and philanthropy are not naturally concordant), but from his strong capacity of seeing folly in its true shape, and his irresistible propensity to expose it, that he made those attacks.  They were however as formidable as if the motives had been virtuous; and he merits the thanks, rather than the esteem of mankind.

Tom Paine on the American Revolution and its impact on France. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p117-118

AS it was impossible to separate the military events which took place in America from the principles of the American Revolution, the publication of those events in France necessarily connected themselves with the principles which produced them.  Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American independence, and the treaty of alliance  between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression…….

Count Vergennes resisted for a considerable time the publication in France of the American constitutions, translated into the French language; but even in this way he was obliged to give way to public opinion, and a sort of propriety in admitting to appear what he had undertaken to defend.  The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax…..

When the war closed, a vast reinforcement to the cause of Liberty spread itself over France, by the return of the French officers and soldiers.  A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was waiting to give it real existence, was opportunity.  Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur; and this was the case in France.

Tom Paine on the Declaration of Rights. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p136

In the declaratory exordium which prefaces the Declaration of Rights, we see the solemn and majestic spectacle of a Nation opening its commission, under the auspices of its Creator, to establish a Government; a scene so new, and so transcendentally unequalled by anything in the European world, that the name of a revolution is diminutive in character, and rises into a regeneration of man.  What are the present Governments of Europe, but a scene iniquity and oppression?

Tom Paine discusses the removal of the feudal titles on August 4th 1789. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p102

The French constitution says, there shall be no titles; and of consequences, all that class of equivocal generation, which in some countries is called aristocracy and in others nobility, is done away and the peer is exalted into MAN.

Titles are but nicknames and every nickname is a title.  The thing is perfectly harmless in itself; but it marks a sort of foppery in the human character, which degrades it.  It reduces man into the diminutive of man into things which are great, and the counterfeit of woman in things which are little.  It talks about its fine blue ribbon like girl, and shows its new garter like a child.  A certain writer of some antiquity says “When I was a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things. “

It is, properly, from the elevated mind of France, that the folly of titles has fallen.  It has outgrown its baby clothes of Count and Duke and breached itself in manhood.  France has not levelled; it has exalted.  

Thomas Paine speaks at the trial of Louis XVI on 7th January 1793.  Taken from Regicide and Revolution speeches at the trial of Louis XVI, Columbia University Press, New York (1992)  p212

Let then those United States be the safeguard and asylum of Louis Capet.  There, hereafter, far removed from the miseries and crimes of royalty, he may learn, from the constant aspect of public prosperity that the true system of government consists not in kings, but in fair, equal, and honourable representation.

In relating this circumstance, and in submitting this proposition, I consider myself as a citizen of both countries.  I submit it as a citizen of America, who feels the debt of gratitude which he owes to every Frenchman.  IU submit it also as a man who, although the enemy of kings, cannot forget that they are subject to human frailties.  I support my proposition as a citizen of the French republic, because it appears to me the best, the most politic measure that can be adopted.