Thomas paine biography summary of 10

Inhe wrote his first pamphlet, an argument tracing the work grievances of his fellow excise officers. Paine printed 4, copies and distributed them to members of British Parliament. InPaine met Benjamin Franklinwho is believed to have persuaded Paine to immigrate to America, providing Paine with a letter of introduction. Three months later, Paine was on a ship to America, nearly dying from a bout of scurvy.

Paine immediately found work in journalism when he arrived in Philadelphia, becoming managing editor of Philadelphia Magazine. By the end of that year,copies—an enormous amount for its time—had been printed and sold. It remains in print today. In it, Paine argues that representational government is superior to a monarchy or other forms of government based on aristocracy and heredity.

Paine also claimed that the American colonies needed to break with England in order to survive and that there would never be a better moment in history for that to happen. He argued that America was related to Europe as a whole, not just England, and that it needed to freely trade with nations like France and Spain. Starting in AprilPaine worked for two years as secretary to the Congressional Committee for Foreign Affairs and then became the clerk for the Pennsylvania Assembly at the end of During this thomas paine biography summary of 10 Thomas Paine was an unsuccesfull man, and was twice dismissed from his post.

Inhe met Benjamin Franklin in London, who advised him to emigrate to America, giving him letters of recommandation. Paine landed at Philadelphia on November 30, Starting over as a publicist, he first published his African Slavery in Americain the spring ofcriticizing slavery in America as being unjust and inhumane. At this time he also had become co-editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine On arriving in Philadelphia, Paine had sensed the rise of tension, and the spirit of rebellion, that had steadily mounted in the Colonies after the Boston Teaparty and when the fightings had started, in Aprilwith the battles of Lexington and Concord.

In Paine's view the Colonies had all the right to revolt against a government that imposed taxes on them but which did not give them the right of representation in the Parliament at Westminster. But he went even further: for him there was no reason for the Colonies to stay dependent on England. On January 10, Paine formulated his ideas on american independence in his pamphlet Common Sense.

Paine also embodied the spirit of the Enlightenment. Paine was born in Thetford to relatively humble origins. He then spent time working in an excise office in Grantham, Lincolnshire and later Lewes, East Sussex. Inhe married his first wife, Elizabeth Olive. Around this period, Tomas Paine became increasingly interested in local political matters.

He was involved in a local Vestry church which collected taxes and tithes to distribute to the poor. InPaine became active in a campaign to press for better working practices for excise duty workers. This led to his first publication The Case of the Officers of the Excise. After being dismissed from work and narrowly avoiding debtors prison, through selling his household goods, Paine left for London and, after meeting and impressing Benjamin Franklin, he left for America under the patronage of Franklin.

It was in America that Paine became a household name through his publication of a revolutionary pamphlet — Common Sense. It was a call for American independence based on a just republican government. In addition to receiving a British patent for a single-span iron bridge, Paine developed a smokeless candle [ 99 ] and worked with inventor John Fitch in developing steam engines.

As well as Bonneville's other controversial guests, Paine aroused the suspicions of authorities. Beauvert had been outlawed following the coup of 18 Fructidor on September 4, Instill under police surveillance, Bonneville took refuge with his father in Evreux. Paine stayed on with him, helping Bonneville with the burden of translating the "Covenant Sea".

The same year, Paine purportedly had a meeting with Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon claimed he slept with a copy of Rights of Man Les Droits de l'Homme in French under his pillow and went so far as to say to Paine that "a statue of gold should be erected to you in every city in the universe". In Decemberhe had written two essays, one of which was pointedly named Observations on the Construction and Operation of Navies with a Plan for an Invasion of England and the Final Overthrow of the English Government[ ] in which he promoted the idea to finance 1, gunboats to carry a French invading army across the English Channel.

InPaine returned to the thomas paine biography summary of 10, writing To the People of England on the Invasion of England advocating the idea. Upset that President Washington, a friend since the Revolutionary War, did nothing during Paine's imprisonment in France, Paine believed Washington had betrayed him and conspired with Robespierre.

While staying with Monroe, Paine planned to send Washington a letter of grievance on the president's birthday. Monroe stopped the letter from being sent, and after Paine's criticism of the Jay Treatywhich was supported by Washington, Monroe suggested that Paine live elsewhere. Paine then sent a stinging letter to Washington, in which he described him as an incompetent commander and a vain and ungrateful person.

Having received no response, Paine contacted his longtime publisher Benjamin Bachethe Jeffersonian democratto publish his Letter to George Washington of in which he derided Washington's reputation by describing him as a treacherous man who was unworthy of his fame as a military and political hero. Paine wrote that "the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles or whether you ever had any".

He also commented on Washington's character, saying that Washington had no sympathetic feelings and was a hypocrite. Paine remained in France untilreturning to the United States only at President Jefferson's invitation. Paine returned to the U. The Age of Reason gave ample excuse for the religiously devout to dislike him, while the Federalists attacked him for his ideas of government stated in Common Sense, for his association with the French Revolution, and for his friendship with President Jefferson.

Also, still fresh in the minds of the public was his Letter to Washington, published six years before his return. This was compounded when his right to vote was denied in New Rochelle on the grounds that Gouverneur Morris did not recognize him as an American and Washington had not aided him. Brazier took care of Paine at the end of his life and buried him after his death.

In his will, Paine left the bulk of his estate to her, including acres After his death, Paine's body was brought to New Rochellebut the Quakers would not allow it to be buried in their graveyard as per his last will, so his remains were buried under a walnut tree on his farm. InEnglish agrarian radical journalist William Cobbettwho in had published a hostile continuation [ ] of Francis Oldys George Chalmer 's The Life of Thomas Paine[ ] dug up his bones and transported them back to England with the intention to give Paine a heroic reburial on his native soil, but this never came to pass.

The bones were still among Cobbett's effects when he died over fifteen years later but were later lost. There is no confirmed story about what happened to them after that, although various people have claimed throughout the years to own parts of Paine's remains, such as his skull and right hand. At the time of his death, most American newspapers reprinted the obituary notice from the New York Evening Post that was in turn quoting from The American Citizen[ ] which read in part: "He had lived long, did some good, and much harm".

Only six mourners came to his funeral, two of whom were black, most likely freedmen. Months later appeared a hostile biography by James Cheetham, who had admired him since the latter's days as a young radical in Manchester, and who had been friends with Paine for a short time before the two fell out. Many years later the writer and orator Robert G.

Ingersoll wrote:. Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred — his virtues denounced as vices — his services forgotten — his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken.

He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend — the friend of the whole world — with all their hearts. On the 8th of Junedeath came — Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display.

In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead — on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head — and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude — constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine. Biographer Eric Foner identifies a utopian thread in Paine's thought, writing: "Through this new language he communicated a new vision — a utopian image of an egalitarian, republican society".

Paine's utopianism combined civic republicanismbelief in the inevitability of scientific and social progress and commitment to free markets and liberty generally. The multiple sources of Paine's political theory all pointed to a society based on the common good and individualism.

Thomas paine biography summary of 10: Thomas Paine was an

Paine expressed a redemptive futurism or political messianism. Later, his encounters with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas made a deep impression. The ability of the Iroquois to live in harmony with nature while achieving a democratic decision-making process helped him refine his thinking on how to organize society. Paine was critical of slavery and declared himself to be an abolitionist.

On March 8,one month after Paine became the editor of The Pennsylvania Magazinethe magazine published an anonymous article titled "African Slavery in America," the first prominent piece in the colonies proposing the emancipation of African-American slaves and the abolition of slavery. During the American Revolutionary War, the British implemented several policies that allowed fugitive slaves fleeing from American enslavers to find refuge within British lines.

Writing in response to these policies, Paine wrote in Common Sense that Britain "hath stirred up the Indians and the Negroes to destroy us". In his Rights of Man, Part SecondPaine advocated a comprehensive program of state support for the population to ensure the welfare of society, including state subsidy for poor people, state-financed universal public education, and state-sponsored prenatal care and postnatal careincluding state subsidies to families at childbirth.

Recognizing that a person's "labor ought to be over" before old age, Paine also called for a state pension to all workers starting at age 50, which would be doubled at age His last pamphlet, Agrarian Justicepublished in the winter ofopposed agrarian law and agrarian monopoly and further developed his ideas in the Rights of Man about how land ownership separated the majority of people from their rightful, natural inheritance and means of independent survival.

The U. Social Security Administration recognizes Agrarian Justice as the first American proposal for an old-age pension and basic income or citizen's dividend. Per Agrarian Justice :. In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.

In this pamphlet he argued "All accumulation of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came". Lamb argues that Paine's analysis of property rights marks a distinct contribution to political theory.

His theory of property defends a libertarian concern with private ownership that shows an egalitarian commitment. Paine's new justification of property sets him apart from previous theorists such as Hugo GrotiusSamuel von Pufendorf and John Locke. Lamb says it demonstrates Paine's commitment to foundational liberal values of individual freedom and moral equality.

Paine was strongly opposed to fiat moneywhich he viewed as counterfeiting by the state. He said "The punishment of a member [of a legislature] who should move for such a law ought to be death". This, so far from being a reason for paper emissions, is a reason against them. Before his arrest and imprisonment in France, knowing that he would probably be arrested and executed, following in the tradition of early 18th-century English Deism Paine wrote the first part of The Age of Reason — Paine's religious views as expressed in The Age of Reason caused quite a stir in religious society, effectively splitting the religious groups into two major factions: those who wanted church disestablishmentand the Christians who wanted Christianity to continue having a strong social influence.

I believe in one Godand no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish churchby the Roman churchby the Greek churchby the Turkish churchby the Protestant churchnor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.

Though there is no thomas paine biography summary of 10 evidence Paine himself was a Freemason[ ] [ ] upon his return to America from France he penned "An Essay on the Origin of Free-Masonry" — about Freemasonry being derived from the religion of the ancient Druids. The opinions I have advanced So say I now — and so help me God.

In a fundamental sense, we are today all Paine's children. It was not the British defeat at Yorktown, but Paine and the new American conception of political society he did so much to popularize in Europe that turned the world upside down. Harvey J. Kaye wrote that through Paine, through his pamphlets and catchphrases such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth," "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men's souls" did more than move Americans to declare their independence:.

Thomas paine biography summary of 10: Thomas Paine was an English-American

For years Americans have drawn ideas, inspiration, and encouragement from Paine and his work. John Stevenson argues that in the early s, numerous radical political societies were formed throughout England and Wales in which Paine's writings provided "a boost to the self-confidence of those seeking to participate in politics for the first time.

His writings in the long term inspired philosophic and working-class radicals in Britain and United States. Liberalslibertariansleft-libertariansfeministsdemocratic socialistssocial democratsanarchistsfree thinkers and progressives often claim him as an intellectual ancestor. Paine's critique of institutionalized religion and advocacy of rational thinking influenced many British freethinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as William CobbettGeorge HolyoakeCharles BradlaughChristopher Hitchens and Bertrand Russell.

The quote "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" is widely but incorrectly attributed to Paine. It can be found nowhere in his published works. Inwhen he was 26 years old, Abraham Lincoln wrote a defense of Paine's deism. No other writer of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Jefferson, parallels more closely the temper or gist of Lincoln's later thought.

In style, Paine above all others affords the variety of eloquence which, chastened and adapted to Lincoln's own mood, is revealed in Lincoln's formal writings. I have always regarded Paine as one of the greatest of all Americans. Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic It was my good fortune to encounter Thomas Paine's works in my boyhood Paine educated me, then, about many matters of which I had never before thought.

I remember, very vividly, the flash of enlightenment that shone from Paine's writings, and I recall thinking, at that time, 'What a pity these works are not today the schoolbooks for all children! I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood days. InVenezuelan translator Manuel Garcia de Sena published a book in Philadelphia that consisted mostly of Spanish translations of several of Paine's most important works.

Constitution and the constitutions of five U. In turn, many of Artigas's writings drew directly from Paine's, including the Instructions ofwhich Uruguayans consider to be one of their country's most important constitutional documents, and was one of the earliest writings to articulate a principled basis for an identity independent of Buenos Aires.

The first and longest-standing memorial to Paine is the carved and inscribed foot thomas paine biography summary of 10 column in New Rochelle, New Yorkorganized and funded by publisher, educator and reformer Gilbert Vale — and raised in by the American sculptor and architect John Frazeethe Thomas Paine Monument see image below. New Rochelle is also the original site of Thomas Paine's Cottagewhich along with a acre ha farm were presented to Paine in by act of the New York State Legislature for his services in the American Revolution.

In the 20th century, Joseph Lewislongtime president of the Freethinkers of America and an ardent Paine admirer, was instrumental in having larger-than-life-sized statues of Paine erected in each of the three countries with which the revolutionary writer was associated. The second, sculpted in by Georg J. Loberwas erected near Paine's one-time home in Morristown, New Jersey.

It shows a seated Paine using a drumhead as a makeshift table. With a quill pen in his right hand and an inverted copy of The Rights of Man in his left, it occupies a prominent location on King Street. Thomas Paine was ranked No. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.

In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. American philosopher and author — For other people with the same name, see Thomas Paine disambiguation. Portrait c. ThetfordNorfolk, England. Mary Lambert. Elizabeth Ollive. Liberalism Radicalism Republicanism Secular humanism. Politics ethics religion. By region. Conservative liberalism History of socialism Irish republicanism Liberalism in Europe.

Early life and education [ edit ]. In Pennsylvania Magazine [ edit ]. American Revolution [ edit ]. Common Sense [ edit ]. Main article: Common Sense. Possible involvement in drafting the Declaration of Independence [ edit ]. The American Crisis [ edit ]. Foreign affairs [ edit ]. Silas Deane Affair [ edit ]. Funding the Revolution [ edit ]. Rights of Man [ edit ].

Main article: Rights of Man. The Age of Reason [ edit ]. Main article: The Age of Reason. Criticism of George Washington [ edit ]. Later years [ edit ]. Death [ edit ]. Ideas and views [ edit ]. Anti-monarchism Anti-corruption Civic virtue Civil society Consent of the governed Democracy Democratization Liberty as non-domination Mixed government Political representation Popular sovereignty Public participation Republic Res publica Rule of law Self-governance Separation of powers Social contract Social equality.

Theoretical works. Republic c. National variants. Related topics. Slavery [ edit ]. State funded social programs [ edit ]. Agrarian Justice [ edit ]. Fiat currency [ edit ]. Religious views [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Age of Enlightenment List of liberal theorists contributions to liberal theory. Regional variants. Abraham Lincoln [ edit ]. Thomas Edison [ edit ].

Thomas paine biography summary of 10: Thomas Paine was an

South America [ edit ]. Memorials [ edit ]. Main article: Memorials to Thomas Paine. In popular culture [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. History portal Liberalism portal Libertarianism portal Philosophy portal Politics portal United States portal Asset-based egalitarianism British philosophy Contributions to liberal theory Liberty List of American philosophers List of British philosophers List of civil rights leaders Society of the Friends of Truth Early American publishers and printers.

Notes [ edit ]. The Life of Thomas Paine.