Tom Paine - Crusader for Common Sense

...His plea was so eloquent that in answer to it he was fired again, this time for good...

...America's godfather was a matter-of-¦*t inventor, who started his gospel with the words: •fer nothing more than simple facts, plain argu-¦*"<s and common sense...

...George Washington was saying: "If you ever sent of my joining in uny such measures, you h»v« my leave Jo set me-down for everything wicked...

...Let the sames ef whig and tory he extinct...

...I though* it my Kuril," he wrote Ben Franklin,, "to have the cealtry .aytr on fire about-my ears almost the moment 1 a* inU it...

...have had short shrift if captured by the British), and at the sacrifice of a financial arrangement he had made to write a history of the revolution...

...Seeing the- immense significance of this, he was able to say a bold thing that we can still make true today ¦ '"The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind...

...Hesketh Pearson says1 that Tern Paine was "probably the first1 parson to display an entirely civilized Attitude towards women," and credits him with starting the movement for woman's emancipation...

...lie renounced all rights to her property, ami their separation was apparently as friendly as their marriage...

...For although he liked women and championed their rights, and even tried marrying two of them, he was always more ut case without their intimate attentions...

...And then he got back his job as exciseman...

...He regarded the state as a "necessary evil": the less of it the better...

...A more uninspiring pursuit, especially for a boy with a sluggish response to women's shapes, would be hard to imagine...

...it was ssaetifted in the speeches of Abraham Lincoln...

...Within a few months he was employed to edit a newly -founded journal called-the Pennsylvania Gatetts.- He had been thirty -cighi years searching for the right job, bet how many " upend seventy-eight without'eWr getting where they belong...

...Replying to the victorious British general, Lord Howe, who had issued a proclamation granting mercy to the Americans if they would accept defeat, he exclaimed: "7"** limited Statu of America will sound as pom poualy in the world or in history as the Kingdom of Great Britain...

...But this does not entirely remove the'ache' lel^n our hearts by his letter...

...Many were prepared to resist with arms' his determination to tax them in order to pay for the troops that policed them...

...He christened it on January 13, 1777—eleven years tic fore its birth, and in the darkest hour of despair for the armies whose triumph made it possible...

...He believed with Jefferson in the independent individual...

...Five months after Common Sense appeared, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and Paine was in the army backing up his words with deeds...

...Then he Went back to Thetford with a job as exciseman, traveling around with a measuring rod and- a bottle of ink at his buttonhole, estimating for purposes of taxation the amount of liquor in people's casks—a job as thankless as that of the publicans of old and not so well paid...

...The object contended for ought J* hear some proportion to the expense," and it is J* to pay "a Bunker Hill price" for a mere change W »>rai#try...

...and he had met-Ben Franklin, who became his friend for life Franklin perctifed his genius, aad suggested that he go te the American colonies where the patterns of life were more fluid...

...And, to boot, he christened it: "The foiled States of America...

...he didn't want to make money...

...Joe Pain's son, it seemed, jusf couldn't get on...

...Stili there, was hardly a murmur of disloyalty to tke mother country...

...mainly, that Tom Paine studied, and he thought of himself primarily as an inventor, but he dearly loved to shine in a debate on any question...

...When pressed for the why of this peculiar proceeding, Paine curtly asserted that be hud "married for prudential reasons and abstained lor prudential reasons"—not a word more—und she was equally reticent...

...That was his fault, which we should conceive clearly in order to forgive it, remembering his own tender admonition: "There is always something to forgive) even in the nearest and dearest of our friends...

...men appear, when weighed efjlnst the business of the world...

...He anticipated the single tax theories of Henry George, foreshadowed Compte's Religion of Humanity, and was the first, so faros I know, to (xpress the thought out of which Karl Marx constructed a philosophy of history: "There are habits of thinking peculiar to different conditions, and te find them out is truly to study mankind...

...pip "POM PAINE'S habit of living In the future cause...

...Thus Tom Paine piled up the maxims of a shrewd yet kindly sagacity- just as Hitler piled up hate-filled lies and bigotries—to the point where they became the platform of a crusade...

...It iv.ade him a public charge, or in his own plain speech, a beggar, when In the general mind there was no good reason for it...

...It was not signed and they didn't know who wrote it...

...They wanted the rights of British subjects, above all the right of rep-resentation...

...with large features and blue-gray eyes that glowed Vkf burning jewels...

...Never before or since in the history of human affairs," says W. E. Woodward, in a wise biography soon to appear,'J "has a book of any kind had such a profound influence on human affairs...

...i-r...

...During the dismal retreat of the raggtd colonial forces after the loss of New York, he wrote—-on a drumhead by n campfire in Newark, New Jersey—the first of those thirteen papers called Crisis which, signed with the now magic name of Common Sense, rekindled or sustained the spirit of the revolution whenever and wherever it flagged...

...aaeV in thU point of view, how trifling, law ridiculous, do the peltry cavillings of a few »»sk .er ijitejrMted...

...To be always running three * four thousand.miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires five or six mere te explain it in, will in a few years be looked Upon as folly and childishness there was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease...

...demands that gratitude express itself in money payments, even though his need be dire, the recoil is inevitable...

...The mood of this slander survives in Citizen Tom Pain...

...Remember, when tired radicals tell you that "the masses" can only be moved by myths and eestatieal panadas, that the American revolution was a Crusade for Common Sense...

...He tried being one in London, in -Dover, in Sandwich, in London again...

...He then moved into a garret in London and started in —at thirty-seven!—trying to make his living as a writer...

...Pennsylvania Gazette might have been one of the world's great radical journals...

...Tom Paine was born in the little market-town o* Theifprd, ninety miles northeast of London...

...His own name was then spelled "Pain...

...Tom, at any rate, was neither amorous nor romantic' about women...

...In urging an independent republic, Paine put as much emphasis <>u the dangers of dictatorship, if the confusion in the colonies continued, as on the evils of autocracy...

...Harper...

...He died, to speak the appalling truth, in infamy...

...a«» of as hold out to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing » bus which, like aa act ef oblivion, shall bury w forgeffulneas every former dissension...

...There were 2,500,000 people in the country then...

...Paine impressed the French King, and they returned with the money and the shipload of stores and clothing, for which Washington desperately waited in order to wage the campaign against Cornwallis that ended the war...

...He should have torn up this Narciatic letter and told Washington in the brief and dynamic language he wielded so well, that he needed a job...

...But his father caught him and brought him back to the needle and scissors...

...In infer this from his unfailing self-esteem and his peculiar marriage contract, as well as from that distinguishing remark about knowledge which I quoted...

...And that astonishing statement, I think, is the key to his character, to the mystery of his early ineptitudes, and his Hidden and grout feut of genius on arriving in a land where he felt free...

...He denounced war, ridiculed duelling, dismissed kings and titles as anarehrenisms, 'Condemned cruelty to animals, advocated Negro- emancipation (anticipating by a month the first anti-slavery society), urged international federation, international copyright laws, old age pensions, abolition of poverty, rational divorce laws, women's rights...

...There is something the matter, and it is not altogether with Life, or the Course of Tilings, or tha American imtinn it ia> partly the matter with Tom Paine...

...From an anxiety to support, as far as laid in my power, the reputation of the Cause of America, as well as the Cause itself, I declined the customary profits which authors are entitled te, and I have always continued to do so...

...To be continued) i) Tom Peine, Friend of Mankind...

...Tom Paine's little book, published in February 1776, sold :iO(J,000 copies...

...He was able to make that prophecy because he had fully grasped the advantage of democracy over one-man rule—whether that of a crowned king or of .some upstart gangster who, "laying bold of the popular inquietudes, may 'collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, finally sweep away the liberties of this continent like a deluge...

...The reflection * awful...

...As editor Mr...

...and let none •amr be heard umorig us than that of a good citi-•m, aa Open and resolute friend...

...Paine-was supposed to leave religion and politics alone, hut he managed, either in his own persons or under a pseudonym, to advocate about every cause that radicals have fought for since...

...Officers riad it to their soldiers, teachers to their classes, parsons to their congregations...

...slim athletic * boy...

...wvrld shaping forces were born in superstition •fanatical belief...

...George Washing-tun was soon endorsing its "sound reasoning and unanswerable arguments," and the humblest settler's wife was thrilling to its tloquenve...

...If Paine had employed the same steel-cold logic here that he did elsewhere, he would have seen that in these complicated lines he was demanding back as a right the very gift he had so gallantly given, the royalties on Common Sense...

...Longman, Green & Co...

...Mixed with a little not so rational vanity In the region of the heart, it contrived before his end to raise up a Niagara cataract of hate against hint...

...It is seven years this dog since "i arrived in America and tho' I consider, them as the most . honorary time of my life, they have nevertheless been the most inconvenient and even distressing...

...No one really gives who demands the reward of gratitude...

...and ir^virtuons ¦JWfJJ* of- the BIGHTS OF MANKIND AND QT THE FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMEBICA.T ' J))AI\K called his nation-making pamphlet Common • %**«• and that is the quality that makes it uni'iue...

...He loved mankind and he loved ideas, and as usually happens when gifted people live too long alone, he fell a little in love with his own genius...

...But I think Tom had succeeded in a deliberately adopted purpose: namely, to keep alive any way he honorably could while studying and learning all that a creative thinker needs to know...

...He had, in the words of a discerning friend, "a tincture of vanity which he was too proud to conceal...

...Her "sour temper and eccentric character" seems to have given his infant affections u push in the face that they never got over...

...Brace governments in general are an unfortunate •awisity" whose, sole aim is to guarantee "freedom ¦as security"- to individuals, and since King George's •Msaial government guarantees neither, "we pay our JHW for nothing...

...unable to raise the price of a pair of shoes...

...E. P. Dutton&Co...

...My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight ana clear as a ray of light----"» / BESIDES fathering^a war for independence, fighting in it, and, sustaining it with these tonic doses of brave wisdom, immortally sparkling, Tom Paine served it jn its darkest hour with a great feat of diplomacy At his suggestion a young Colonel Laurens was sent to Paris to negotiate a loan from the French government Conscious ef his inadequacy, the young man refused to go unless Paine went with him...

...him a lot of personal trouble...

...His first wife, ii "pretty waiting maid," died in childbirth n year lifter their marriage, and that is all that is known of her...

...And when a man...

...Paine has not yet lieen admitted to the, Hall of Fame, but as u thought fnl contemporary said, ne "contributed as much with liis pen as Washington with his sword" to the making of this republic...

...After four years he was dismissed for not being conscientious or snoopy enough...

...yet J never thought (if 1 thi ught at all on the matter) but that as I dealt generously and honorably by America, she . would deal the same by me...

...most great nations had demigods Jarfoifathcrs...

...From there he wrote n letter to Washington, (hat is both painful and i m bar raising to read: November 30, 1781...

...Franklin himself was assuring Ike British us I anion that no Am* riean "be he drunk or nobei," had ever expressed a wish for measures of Masrstkin...

...Paine took that trip to Paris at his own expense, at the risk of his life (for this notorious rebel would 2) Tern Paine, .Militant Democrat...

...Which suggests that their interests were never too close...

...There arc times that try men's souls...

...Thesuin Jefferson was "looking with fondness towards « rewnr ihatien with Great Britain...

...Washington did something about ip—we have that comfort—and Paine was soon receiving $800 a year out of a secret war fund tp Continue • fighting with his pen...

...And it swept the country like a prarie fire...

...It was sci...

...He turned over his royalties to the Con tmental Congress...

...No best-seller since has come near this record...

...But Tom Paine, for reasons we have seen, wss over-warm on the subject of ». If...

...i. Ten years later he married the daughter of a deceased tobacconist, and helped her run the store...

...He was the first also to propose a toast to "world revolution.'' Paine, however, was not a communist, but far on the other side...

...This got people mad if they were prejudiced, frightened them if they had political ambitions...

...But it was simple, straight talk—no erudite allusions, no Greek and Latin quotations--straight talk from one plain man to another, a thing almost unknown in political writing up to that date...

...When he got back he was broke, and was too famous to find a job...

...The excisemen were organising to better their conditions...

...Tom Pais*, however, knew Great Britain, and by Mate swill magic of kinship or intuition he already knew AmerftjaV He felt, aa no otlur man did or could, ike dig trim* between the old world and the new...

...It was an ultra-saintly gesture, exceeding his real ability to give...

...The sum- / mer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in th> crisis shrink from the service of their country...

...But about twenty years later, when Tom Paine's name had become a by-word throughout the earth, she testified in some legal pro ceeding that she hud married a Mr...

...He went to work learning his father's trade of "stay-maker"—cutting, stitching aiuTftfting whalebone corsets to the variegated shapes of idle women...

...By the time Washington, fresh from the victory at Yorktown, came to Philadelphia to receive the congratulations of Congress, the Father of American Independence was washed up, in a little room on "Second Street opposite the Quaker Meeting House...

...Tom Paine was a wise man, and became so, as is usual, by devoting his days with singular purity to the pursuit of understanding...

...Even after a hundred years, President Theodore Roosevelt described him in a press interview a* a "dirty little atheist," and had "nothing to add" when reminded that Paine was cleanly and carefully dressed, 6 feet 9 inches tall, and a devout believer in God...

...The truth is that Tom Paine's too noble rule of handing ovtr the earnings of his b«*»k« to the.cause of humanity, while much admired by his biographers, had been the great mistake of his life...

...He enlisted in RoberdeauV "Flying Camp," the Commandos of that day, and when they were disbanded became aide-de-camp to General Greene at Fort Lee...

...he wanted to make a revolution...

...I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection...

...He was famous for stirring people up, and the time had come for quieting them down...

...and they elected him union chief, and sent him to London with a'plea to Parliament for shorter hours und better pay...

...Leaders of opinion were I in a rage against the harsh and stupid colonial policies of King George III...

...Literally every man and women who could read, read Common Sense...

...And it revealed a lack, where himself was < onct rinil, of just what he stood for te the public, common sense...

...1*11 US in December 1774 this "raHure" arrived in * America, widely read, variously experienced, full of rough-hewn but not ignorant opinions, and with a letter from Ben Franklin...

...If he had Hved through what we have, he could not have more explicitly warned America against fascism...

...All this is usually described as "failure...

...It was de-lamsted with more-authority by Thomss Jefferson: ft was iung m6re sublimely by Walt Whitman...

...Then he tried teaching school...

...HTOM left school at thirteen—a straight...

...Tom soon tried to evade it by running away and going to sea, choosing for the adventure a ship named Terrible ¦ under a captain named Death...

...He had met men like Oliver Goldsmith...

...He had sometimes done a little preaching on the ride, and he tried, unsuccessfully, to take orders in the Church of England...

...other was the author of that vMsa: Tk* Wthdsy of a now world is at hand, und a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contain*, are to receive their portion of freedom fnnn the events of a few months...

...This sounds very little like a Bible, and yet underneath it was that stubborn will to freedom, honest logic and friendly relations among men, a sort of morsl common sense, which lifted these hard-headed practicalities into the realm of eternal literature...

...After s few brief months on these shores, with no man of suUwrity breathing a murmur of separation, he RTesped and planted in men's hearts the vision of a free, independent, reimblican Ann riea, leading the old fesesl world of Kurope into a new era...

...His mind, like that of Socrates, was impetuously and obdurately' rational...

...That means one copy to every eight people or in the present population, 16,000,000 copies...

...Although the Kindest us well as most courteous of men, Tom Paine died in bitter, almost friendless solitude...

...A notification to other states that we •w independent and ready to do business will be **th more to us than "if "a ship were loaded with *fi«ons to Britain...

...a recent book of which a movie is being made...

...but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death...

...But Teat Psine and no...

...We have a chance now, he said, and it may never come again, to form "in a cool and deliberate manner" a government suitable to sensible and responsible men...

...The marriage was purely formal, and after three years they got a legal separation...

...Pain, but that be hud left for foreign parts and whether alive or dead she did not know...

...His three stars in the heaven of ideas were Freedom, Reason and Kindness (which he called "Humanity...

...His Le-ginning us well as his end was sad, for he did not love his mother...

...in his pocket—an early example of what the coming republic would boast of so often, the self-made man...

...But History had just then a more particular job for Tom Paine...

...There is little doubt that the...

...Then he tried that too practical marriage experiment 1 spoke of...

...Tis the business of little minds to shrink...

...i) Quoted from Living Thoughts of Totn Paine, nresented by John Dos Passos...

...1 have seldom passed five minutes of my life, however circumstanced," he said, "without acquiring some knowledge...

...But I have experienced the contrary-—and it gives me much concern, not.only on Account of the inconvenience it has occasioned me, but because it unpleasantly lessens my opinion of the character of a- country which once appeared so fsir, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and inattentive to matters which Affect her reputation...

...Life in the colonies had turned out to be not only fluid, but seething...

...A little later he did go to sea, but decided after a , few days on the waves that he would rather be a stay-maker after all...

...Besides training his mind during those seemingly desultory years, he had, by means of that foray into politics, got into contact with the intelligentsia, not the easiest thing for a small-town corset maker to do...

...Only four months after Paine's arrival, there occurred a clash at Lexington between armed colonials and British regularsl 'In'three months more, the battle of Bunker Hill was fought...

...to reasonable action, Tom Paine woubl i»e one of the world's greatest writers Nothing in the histoiy of human persuasion exceeds the achievement of this obscure British stay-maker who climbed down the side of a ship at Baltimore in December 1774—unheralded, unknown, untrained even in grammar—and within u year and a half had roused the thirteen colonies to a declaration of independence and an openly revolutionary war against Great Britain and her king, und kings in general...