View source for Talk:Thomas Paine

{{Other people2|Thomas Paine (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2011}}
{{Infobox philosopher
 | era              = [[Age of Enlightenment]]
 | image            = Thomas Paine rev1.jpg{{!}}border
 | image_size       = 225px
 | caption          = Portrait by Auguste Millière (1880)<br />oil on canvas
 | name             = Thomas Paine
 | birth_name       = Thomas Pain<ref name=JulesP1>{{Cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/?id=9pha6K8kP7IC&pg=PP1&dq=A+J+Ayer+Paine
|title=Thomas Paine
|last= Ayer
|first=Alfred Jules
|page=1
|isbn=0-226-03339-2
|year=1990
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|postscript=<!--None-->
}}</ref>
 | birth_date       = January 29, 1737<ref name="Conway" group=Note /> <!--As consensus since 20 Feb 2010 see talk page-->
 | birth_place      = {{nowrap|[[Thetford]], [[Norfolk]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]}}
 | death_date       = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1809|6|8|1737|1|29}}
 | death_place      = {{nowrap|[[New York City]], [[New York]], U.S.}}
 | school_tradition = Enlightenment, [[Classical liberalism|liberalism]], [[republicanism]]
 | main_interests   = Politics, ethics, religion
 | religion         = [[Thomas Paine#Religious views|See below]]
 | signature        = Thomas Paine Signature.svg
 | influences       = [[Jacobin]], [[Voltaire]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], [[John Locke]], [[Religious Society of Friends]], [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], [[Benjamin Franklin]]
 | influenced       = [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[William Godwin]], [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], [[Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Thomas Edison]], [[Mahatma Phule]], [[Moncure D. Conway]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Robert G. Ingersoll]]
 | notable_ideas    =
}}
'''Thomas Paine''' ({{OldStyleDateDY|February 9,|1737<!--As consensus since 20 Feb 2010 see talk page-->|January 29, 1736}}<ref name="Conway" group="Note">{{Cite book |title=The Life of Thomas Paine |author=Conway, Moncure D. |others=[[William Cobbett|Cobbett, William]], Illustrator |authorlink=Moncure D. Conway |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=itUgoLAvk7QC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] |year=1908 |volume=Vol. I. p. 3 |accessdate=2013-10-02}} – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is printed in Volume I, page 3, as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. Paine's birth date, between January 1, and March 25, advances by eleven days and his year increases by one to February 9, 1737. The [[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] link gives more detail if needed.</ref><ref name="calendar" group="Note">Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the [[New Year#Historical Christian new year dates|Annunciation Style]] of enumerating years, recorded his birth as January 29, 1736. The provisions of the British [[Calendar (New Style) Act 1750]], implemented in 1752, altered the official British dating method to the Gregorian calendar with the start of the year on January 1 (it had been March 25). These changes resulted in dates being moved forward 11 days, and for those between January 1 and March 25, an advance of one year. For a further explanation, see: [[Old Style and New Style dates]].</ref><ref name=Engber group="Note">{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2134455/|title=What's Benjamin Franklin's Birthday?|first=Daniel|last=Engber|date=January 18, 2006|journal=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|accessdate=2011-05-21}} (Both Franklin's and Paine's confusing birth dates are clearly explained.)</ref> – June 8, 1809) was an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. One of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]], he authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the [[American Revolution]], and he inspired the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|rebels]] in 1776 to declare independence from Britain.<ref>{{cite book|first=James A.|last=Henretta|display-authors=et al.|title=America's History, Volume 1: To 1877|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PmY3sBubw8C&pg=PA165|year=2011|publisher=Macmillan|page=165|isbn=9780312387914}}</ref> His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights.<ref>Jason D. Solinger. "Thomas Paine's Continental Mind". ''Early American Literature'' (2010) 45#3, Vol. 45 Issue 3, pp. 593-61.7</ref> He has been called "a [[corsetmaker]] by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".<ref>[[Saul K. Padover]], ''Jefferson: A Great American's Life and Ideas'', (1952), p. 32.</ref>

Born in [[Thetford]], England, in the county of [[Norfolk]], Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of [[Benjamin Franklin]], arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every rebel read (or listened to a reading of) his powerful pamphlet ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'' (1776), proportionally the all-time best-selling<ref name=Hitchens /><ref>Biographer Harvey Kaye writes, "Within just a few months 150,000 copies of one or another edition were distributed in America alone. The equivalent sales today would be fifteen million, making it, proportionally, the nation's greatest best-seller ever." in {{cite book|author=Kaye, Harvey J.|authorlink=Harvey J. Kaye|title=Thomas Paine And The Promise of America|year=2005|isbn=0-8090-9344-8|publisher=Hill & Wang|page=43}}</ref> American title which crystallized the rebellious demand for independence from Great Britain. His ''[[The American Crisis]]'' (1776–83) was a prorevolutionary pamphlet series. ''Common Sense'' was so influential that [[John Adams]] said, "Without the pen of the author of ''Common Sense'', the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."<ref name=NewYorker>[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/16/061016crbo_books The Sharpened Quill], ''The New Yorker''. Accessed November 6, 2010.</ref>

Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the [[French Revolution]]. He wrote ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on British writer [[Edmund Burke]] led to [[Trial of Thomas Paine|a trial and conviction]] ''in absentia'' in 1792 for the crime of [[seditious libel]]. In 1792, despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French [[National Convention]]. The [[Girondist]]s regarded him as an ally. Consequently, the [[The Mountain|Montagnards]], especially [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]], regarded him as an enemy.

In December 1793, he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris, then released in 1794. He became notorious because of his pamphlet ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' (1793–94), in which he advocated [[deism]], promoted reason and free thought, and argued against institutionalized religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. He also published the pamphlet ''[[Agrarian Justice]]'' (1797), discussing the origins of [[property]], and introduced the concept of a [[guaranteed minimum income]]. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.<ref name="Conway2">[[Moncure D. Conway|Conway, Moncure D.]] (1892). ''[http://thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/life-of-thomas-paine-vol-ii-by-moncure-conway.html The Life of Thomas Paine]''. Vol. 2, pp. 417–418.</ref>

==Early life and education==
Paine was born on January 29, 1736<ref name="Conway" group="Note" /> <small>([[New Style|NS]] February 9, 1737<!--As consensus since 20 Feb 2010 see talk page-->),</small> the son of Joseph Pain, or Paine,<!-- SPELLING NOTE: Both Thomas and his father spelt their surname as both Pain and Paine; there was no notion of "correct" spelling at the time (see "A note on his last name" on discussion page) --> a [[Quaker]], and Frances (née Cocke), an [[Anglican]], in [[Thetford]], an important market town and coach stage-post, in rural [[Norfolk]], England.<ref>{{cite book| first= Alan| last= Crosby| year= 1986| title= A History of Thetford| edition= 1st| publisher=Phillimore & Co Ltd| location= Chichester, Sussex| pages= 44–84| isbn= 0-85033-604-X}} (Also see discussion page)</ref> Born Thomas Pain, despite claims that he changed his family name upon his emigration to America in 1774,<ref name=JulesP1/>
he was using Paine in 1769, while still in [[Lewes]], Sussex.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=179-nu&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1
|title=National Archives
|postscript=. Acknowledgement dated Mar 2, 1769, document NU/1/3/3
|publisher=UK National Archives
}}</ref>
[[File:Old School at Thetford Grammar.jpg|thumb|Old School at [[Thetford Grammar School]], where Paine was educated.]]

He attended [[Thetford Grammar School]] (1744–49), at a time when there was no compulsory education.<ref name=Thetford>[http://www.thetgram.norfolk.sch.uk/History.htm School History] Thetford Grammar School, Accessed January 3, 2008,</ref> At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to his stay-maker father. Paine researchers contend his father's occupation has been widely misinterpreted to mean that he made the stays in ladies' corsets, which likely was an insult later invented by his political foes.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} Actually, the father and apprentice son made the thick rope stays (also called stay ropes) used on sailing ships.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://phrontistery.info/nautical.html |title=Word List: Definitions of Nautical Terms and Ship Parts |publisher=Phrontistery.info |date= |accessdate=2015-05-05}}</ref>{{better source|date=September 2014}} Thetford historically had maintained a brisk trade with the downriver, then major, port town of King's Lynn.<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.visitnorfolk.co.uk/Thetford-Thetford-Tourist-Infomation-Centre/details/?dms=3&venue=0723240 |title=Thetford Tourist Infomation Centre &#124; Information Centre &#124; Thetford&#124;Norfolk |publisher=Visitnorfolk.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2015-05-05}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2014}}

A connection to shipping and the sea explains why, in late adolescence, Thomas enlisted and briefly served as a [[privateer]],<ref>''Rights of Man II'', Chapter V.</ref><ref>Thomas had intended to serve under the ill-fated Captain [[William Death]] but was dissuaded by his father. [http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/bring_the_paine-38411579.html Bring the Paine!]</ref>{{better source|date=September 2014}} before returning to Britain in 1759. There, he became a master stay-maker, establishing a shop in [[Sandwich, Kent]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/town_history/scrapbook/thomas_paine.htm|title=Thomas Paine|work=Sandwich People & History|publisher=Open Sandwich|accessdate=2 April 2010}}</ref> On September 27, 1759, Thomas Paine married Mary Lambert. His business collapsed soon after. Mary became pregnant; and, after they moved to [[Margate]], she went into early labor, in which she and their child died.

In July 1761, Paine returned to Thetford to work as a [[supernumerary]] officer. In December 1762, he became an [[HM Customs and Excise|Excise Officer]] in [[Grantham]], Lincolnshire; in August 1764, he was transferred to [[Alford, Lincolnshire|Alford]], also in Lincolnshire, at a salary of £50 per annum. On August 27, 1765, he was dismissed as an Excise Officer for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect". On July 31, 1766, he requested his reinstatement from the Board of Excise, which they granted the next day, upon vacancy. While awaiting that, he worked as a stay-maker. Again, he was making stay ropes for shipping, not stays for corsets.<ref>{{cite web
|author=Conway, Moncure Daniel
|authorlink=
|url=http://www.thomaspaine.org/bio/ConwayLife.html
|title=''The Life of Thomas Paine: With a History of Literary, Political, and Religious Career in America, France, and England''
|page=Vol. 1, p. 20
|year=1892
|accessdate =July 18, 2009
|publisher=Thomas Paine National Historical Association
}}</ref>

[[File:Thomas Paines Lewes home.jpg|thumb|left|Thomas Paine's house in [[Lewes]]]]

In 1767, he was appointed to a position in [[Grampound]], Cornwall; subsequently, he asked to leave this post to await a vacancy, thus, he became a schoolteacher in London.

On February 19, 1768, he was appointed to [[Lewes]] in [[Sussex]], a town with a tradition of opposition to the monarchy and pro-republican sentiments going back to the revolutionary decades of the 17th century.<ref name="TP-FR36">{{cite book|first=Harvey J.|last=Kaye|title=Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=0195116275|page=36}}</ref>  Here he lived above the fifteenth-century Bull House, the tobacco shop of Samuel Ollive and Esther Ollive.

There, Paine first became involved in civic matters, and he appears in the Town Book as a member of the Court Leet, the governing body for the town. He was also a member of the parish [[Administrative vestry|vestry]], an influential local church group whose responsibilities for parish business would include collecting taxes and tithes to distribute among the poor. On March 26, 1771, at the age of 34, he married Elizabeth Ollive, his landlord's daughter.
[[File:White Hart Paine plaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque at the White Hart Hotel, [[Lewes]], East Sussex, south east England]]

From 1772 to 1773, Paine joined excise officers asking Parliament for better pay and working conditions, publishing, in summer of 1772, ''The Case of the Officers of Excise'', a twenty-one-page article, and his first political work, spending the London winter distributing the 4,000 copies printed to the Parliament and others. In spring of 1774, he was again dismissed from the excise service for being absent from his post without permission; his tobacco shop failed, too. On April 14, to avoid [[debtors' prison]], he sold his household possessions to pay debts. 
On June 4, 1774, he formally separated from his wife Elizabeth and moved to London, where, in September,  mathematician, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Commissioner of the Excise [[George Lewis Scott]] introduced him to [[Benjamin Franklin]],<ref>"Letter to the Honorable Henry Laurens" in Philip S. Foner's ''The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine'' (New York: Citadel Press, 1945), 2:1160–65.</ref> who suggested emigration to British colonial America, and gave him a letter of recommendation. In October, Thomas Paine emigrated from Great Britain to the American colonies, arriving in [[Philadelphia]] on November 30, 1774.

He barely survived the transatlantic voyage. The ship's water supplies were bad, and [[typhoid fever]] killed five passengers. On arriving at Philadelphia, he was too sick to debark. Benjamin Franklin's physician, there to welcome Paine to America, had him carried off ship; Paine took six weeks to recover his health. He became a citizen of Pennsylvania "by taking the oath of allegiance at a very early period".<ref>Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1892. ''The Life of Thomas Paine'' vol. 1, p. 209.</ref> In January 1775, he became editor of the ''Pennsylvania Magazine'', a position he conducted with considerable ability.

Paine designed the [[Wearmouth Bridge (1796)|Sunderland Bridge]] of 1796 over the Wear River at [[Wearmouth Bridge|Wearmouth]], England. It was patterned after the model he had made for the [[Schuylkill River]] Bridge at Philadelphia in 1787, and the Sunderland arch became the prototype for many subsequent [[voussoir]] arches made in iron and steel.<ref>''History of Bridge Engineering'', H. G. Tyrrell, Chicago, 1911</ref><ref>A biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland at 753–755, A. W. Skempton and M. Chrimes, ed.,Thomas Telford, 2002 (ISBN 0-7277-2939-X, 9780727729392)</ref> He also received a British patent for a single-span iron bridge, developed a smokeless candle,<ref>See [http://www.ushistory.org/Paine/index.htm Thomas Paine], Independence Hall Association. Accessed online November 4, 2006.</ref> and worked with inventor [[John Fitch (inventor)|John Fitch]] in developing steam engines.

==American Revolution==
[[File:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'', published in 1776]]

===''Common Sense'' (1776)===
{{Main|Common Sense (pamphlet)}}
Thomas Paine has a claim to the title ''The Father of the American Revolution''<ref>K. M. Kostyal. ''Funding Fathers: The Fight for Freedom and the Birth of American Liberty'' (2014) ch 2</ref><ref>David Braff, "Forgotten Founding Father: The Impact of Thomas Paine," in Joyce Chumbley, ed., ''Thomas Paine: In Search of the Common Good'' (2009).</ref>  It rests on his pamphlets, especially ''Common Sense,'' which crystallized sentiment for independence in 1776. It was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776 and signed anonymously "by an Englishman." It became an immediate success, quickly spreading 100,000 copies in three months to the two million residents of the 13 colonies. In all about 500,000 copies total including unauthorized editions were sold during the course of the Revolution.<ref name=Hitchens>{{cite book|author=Hitchens, Christopher|title=Thomas Paine's Rights of Man|year=2006|isbn=0-8021-4383-0|publisher=Grove Press|page=37}}</ref><ref name=Hitchens /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/infomark.do?&contentSet=EBKS&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3454901190&source=gale&userGroupName=rich30969&version=1.0|accessdate=April 10, 2007|last=Oliphant|first=John|work=Encyclopedia of the American Revolution: Library of Military History|title=Paine,Thomas|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons (accessed via Gale Virtual Library)}}</ref> Paine's original title for the pamphlet was ''Plain Truth''; Paine's friend, pro-independence advocate [[Benjamin Rush]], suggested ''Common Sense'' instead.

The pamphlet came into circulation in January 1776, after the Revolution had started. It was passed around, and often read aloud in taverns, contributing significantly to spreading the idea of republicanism, bolstering enthusiasm for separation from Britain, and encouraging recruitment for the Continental Army. Paine provided a new and convincing argument for independence by advocating a complete break with history. ''Common Sense'' is oriented to the future in a way that compels the reader to make an immediate choice. It offers a solution for Americans disgusted with and alarmed at the threat of tyranny.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Robert A. Ferguson |date=July 2000 |title=The Commonalities of Common Sense |journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] |volume=57#3 |pages=465–504 |jstor=2674263}}</ref>

Paine's attack on monarchy in ''Common Sense'' is essentially an attack on George III. Whereas colonial resentments were originally directed primarily against the king's ministers and Parliament, Paine laid the responsibility firmly at the king's door. ''Common Sense'' was the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution. It was a clarion call for unity against the corrupt British court, so as to realize America's providential role in providing an asylum for liberty. Written in a direct and lively style, it denounced the decaying despotisms of Europe and pilloried hereditary monarchy as an absurdity. At a time when many still hoped for reconciliation with Britain, ''Common Sense'' demonstrated to many the inevitability of separation.<ref>{{cite web|author=Philp, Mark |authorlink=Mark Philp |title=Thomas Paine |work=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] (Winter 2013 Edition) |editor=Edward N. Zalta |editorlink=Edward N. Zalta |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paine/ |date=2013 |accessdate=2015-01-24}}</ref>

Paine was not, on the whole, expressing original ideas in ''Common Sense'', but rather employing rhetoric as a means to arouse resentment of the Crown. To achieve these ends, he pioneered a style of political writing suited to the democratic society he envisioned, with ''Common Sense'' serving as a primary example. Part of Paine's work was to render complex ideas intelligible to average readers of the day, with clear, concise writing unlike the formal, learned style favored by many of Paine's contemporaries.<ref>Merrill Jensen, ''The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 668.</ref> Scholars have put forward various explanations to account for its success, including the historic moment, Paine's easy-to-understand style, his democratic ethos, and his use of psychology and ideology.<ref>David C. Hoffman, "Paine and Prejudice: Rhetorical Leadership through Perceptual Framing in Common Sense". ''Rhetoric and Public Affairs,'' Fall 2006, Vol. 9, Issue 3, pp. 373–410.</ref>

''Common Sense'' was immensely popular in disseminating to a very wide audience ideas that were already in common use among the elite who comprised Congress and the leadership cadre of the emerging nation, who rarely cited Paine's arguments in their public calls for independence.<ref>Pauline Maier, ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (New York: Knopf, 1997), 90–91.</ref> The pamphlet probably had little direct influence on the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress']] decision to issue a [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], since that body was more concerned with how declaring independence would affect the war effort.<ref>Jack N. Rakove, ''The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress'' (New York: Knopf, 1979), 89.</ref> Paine's great contribution was in initiating a public debate about independence which had previously been rather muted.

One distinctive idea in ''Common Sense'' is Paine's beliefs regarding the peaceful nature of republics; his views were an early and strong conception of what scholars would come to call the [[democratic peace theory]].<ref>Jack S. Levy, William R. Thompson, ''Causes of War'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2011)</ref>

[[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] vigorously attacked ''Common Sense''; one attack, titled ''Plain Truth'' (1776), by Marylander [[James Chalmers (loyalist)|James Chalmers]], said Paine was a political quack<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall96/loyalists.html|accessdate=October 3, 2007|last=New|first=M. Christopher|publisher="Archiving Early America"|title=James Chalmers and Plain Truth A Loyalist Answers Thomas Paine}}</ref> and warned that without monarchy, the government would "degenerate into democracy".<ref name="Jensen669">Jensen, ''Founding of a Nation'', 669.</ref> Even some American revolutionaries objected to ''Common Sense''; late in life [[John Adams]] called it a "crapulous mass". Adams disagreed with the type of radical democracy promoted by Paine (that men who did not own property should still be allowed to vote and hold public office), and published ''[[Thoughts on Government]]'' in 1776 to advocate a more conservative approach to republicanism.

Sophia Rosenfeld argues that Paine was highly innovative in his use of the commonplace notion of "common sense". He synthesized various philosophical and political uses of the term in a way that permanently impacted American political thought. He used two ideas from [[Scottish Common Sense Realism]]: that ordinary people can indeed make sound judgments on major political issues, and that there exists a body of popular wisdom that is readily apparent to anyone. Paine also used a notion of "common sense" favored by [[philosophe]]s in the Continental Enlightenment. They held that common sense could refute the claims of traditional institutions. Thus, Paine used "common sense" as a weapon to delegitimize the monarchy and overturn prevailing conventional wisdom. Rosenfeld concludes that the phenomenal appeal of his pamphlet resulted from his synthesis of popular and elite elements in the independence movement.<ref>Sophia Rosenfeld, "Tom Paine's Common Sense and Ours". ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (2008), 65#4, pp. 633-668 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/40212021 in JSTOR]</ref>

According to historian [[Robert Middlekauff]], ''Common Sense'' became immensely popular mainly because Paine appealed to widespread convictions. Monarchy, he said, was preposterous, and it had a heathenish origin. It was an institution of the devil. Paine pointed to the [[Old Testament]], where almost all kings had seduced the Israelites to worship idols instead of God. Paine also denounced aristocracy, which together with monarchy were "two ancient tyrannies". They violated the laws of nature, human reason, and the "universal order of things", which began with God. That was, Middlekauff says, exactly what most Americans wanted to hear. He calls the Revolutionary generation "the children of the twice-born",<ref>[[Robert Middlekauff]] (2005), ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y., ISBN 978-0-19-531588-2, pp. 30-53.</ref> because in their childhood they had experienced the [[Great Awakening]], which, for the first time, had tied Americans together, transcending denominational and ethnic boundaries and giving them a sense of patriotism.<ref>Robert Middlekauff, ''The Glorious Cause'', pp. 4-5, 324-326.</ref><ref>Cf. Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 178.</ref>

===''The American Crisis'' (1776)===
In late 1776, Paine published ''[[The American Crisis]]'' pamphlet series to inspire the Americans in their battles against the British army. He juxtaposed the conflict between the good American devoted to civic virtue and the selfish provincial man.<ref>Martin Roth, "Tom Paine and American Loneliness". ''Early American Literature,'' September 1987, Vol. 22, Issue 2, pp. 175–82.</ref> To inspire his soldiers, General [[George Washington]] had ''The American Crisis'', first ''Crisis'' pamphlet, read aloud to them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/history/american-crisis.html|accessdate=November 15, 2007|publisher=Indiana University|title=Thomas Paine. The American Crisis. Philadelphia, Styner and Cist, 1776–77.}}</ref> It begins:

{{quote|These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.}}

===Foreign affairs===
In 1777, Paine became secretary of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. The following year, he alluded to secret negotiation underway with France in his pamphlets. His enemies denounced his indiscretions. There was scandal; together with Paine's conflict with [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] it led to Paine's expulsion from the Committee in 1779.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=Craig|title=Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRFql6S6jKgC&pg=PT174|year=2007|publisher=Penguin |pages=174–75}}</ref>

However, in 1781, he accompanied [[John Laurens]] on his mission to France. Eventually, after much pleading from Paine, New York State recognized his political services by presenting him with an estate, at [[New Rochelle, New York|New Rochelle]], New York, and Paine received money from Pennsylvania and from Congress at Washington's suggestion. During the Revolutionary War, Paine served as an aide to the important general, [[Nathanael Greene]].

===Funding the Revolution===
Paine accompanied Col. John Laurens to France and is credited with initiating the mission.<ref>Daniel Wheeler's ''Life and Writings of Thomas Paine'' Vol. 1 (1908) pp.&nbsp;26–27.</ref> It landed in France in March 1781 and returned to America in August with 2.5&nbsp;million [[French livre|livres]] in silver, as part of a "present" of 6 million and a loan of 10&nbsp;million. The meetings with the French king were most likely conducted in the company and under the influence of [[Benjamin Franklin]]. Upon returning to the United States with this highly welcomed cargo, Thomas Paine and probably Col. Laurens, "positively objected" that General Washington should propose that Congress remunerate him for his services, for fear of setting "a bad precedent and an improper mode".  Paine made influential acquaintances in Paris, and helped organize the Bank of North America to raise money to supply the army.<ref>Daniel Wheeler's ''Life and Writings of Thomas Paine'' Vol. 1 (1908), p.&nbsp;314.</ref> In 1785, he was given $3,000 by the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] in recognition of his service to the nation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paine, Thomas|title=Common Sense and Other Writings|page=xiii|publisher=Barnes & Noble Classics|year=2005|isbn=0-672-60004-8}}</ref>

Henry Laurens (the father of Col. John Laurens) had been the ambassador to the [[Netherlands]], but he was captured by the British on his return trip there. When he was later exchanged for the prisoner [[Lord Cornwallis]] (in late 1781), Paine proceeded to the Netherlands to continue the loan negotiations. There remains some question as to the relationship of Henry Laurens and Thomas Paine to Robert Morris as the Superintendent of Finance and his business associate Thomas Willing who became the first president of the Bank of North America (in Jan. 1782). They had accused Morris of profiteering in 1779 and Willing had voted against the Declaration of Independence. Although Morris did much to restore his reputation in 1780 and 1781, the credit for obtaining these critical loans to "organize" the Bank of North America for approval by Congress in December 1781 should go to Henry or John Laurens and Thomas Paine more than to Robert Morris.{{original research?|date=August 2012}}{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

[[File:Fashion-before-Ease-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''Fashion before Ease; —or,— A good Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastick Form '' (1793), [[James Gillray]] caricatured Paine tightening the [[corset]] of [[Britannia]]; protruding from his coat pocket is a measuring tape inscribed "Rights of Man"]]

Paine bought his only house in 1783 on the corner of Farnsworth Avenue and Church Streets in [[Bordentown, New Jersey|Bordentown City]], New Jersey, and he lived in it periodically until his death in 1809. This is the only place in the world where Paine purchased real estate.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} His design for a single-arch iron bridge<ref>[[Yorkshire Stingo]]</ref> led him back to Europe after the Revolution, where he tried, unsuccessfully, to find backers for his plans.

==''Rights of Man''==
{{Main|Rights of Man}}
{{See also|Revolution Controversy|Trial of Thomas Paine}}

Back in London by 1787, Paine became engrossed in the ongoing French Revolution that began in 1789. He visited France in 1790.  Meanwhile, conservative intellectual [[Edmund Burke]] launched a counterrevolutionary blast against the French Revolution, entitled ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790); it strongly appealed to the landed class and sold 30,000 copies. Paine set out to refute it in his ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1791). He wrote it not as a quick pamphlet but as a long, abstract political tract of 90,000 words that tore apart monarchies and traditional social institutions. On January 31, he gave the manuscript to publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]]. A visit by government agents dissuaded Johnson, so Paine gave the book to publisher J.S. Jordan, then went to Paris, per [[William Blake]]'s advice. He charged three good friends, [[William Godwin]], [[Thomas Brand Hollis]], and [[Thomas Holcroft]], with handling publication details.  The book appeared on March 13 and sold nearly a million copies. It was, "eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters, democrats, London craftsman, and the skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north."<ref>George Rudé, ''Revolutionary Europe: 1783 – 1815'' (1964), p. 183.</ref>

Undeterred by the government campaign to discredit him, Paine issued his ''Rights of Man, Part the Second, Combining Principle and Practice'' in February 1792. It detailed a representative government with enumerated social programs to remedy the numbing poverty of commoners through [[progressive tax]] measures. Radically reduced in price to ensure unprecedented circulation, it was sensational in its impact and gave birth to reform societies. An indictment for [[seditious libel]] followed, for both publisher and author, while government agents followed Paine and instigated mobs, hate meetings, and burnings in effigy. A fierce pamphlet war also resulted, in which Paine was defended and assailed in dozens of works.<ref>Many of these are reprinted in ''Political Writings of the 1790s'', ed. G. Claeys (8 vols, London: Pickering and Chatto, 1995).</ref> The authorities aimed, with ultimate success, to chase Paine out of Great Britain. He was then [[trial in absentia|tried ''in absentia'']] and found guilty though never executed.

[[File:Friends of the People 1792 Cruikshank.jpg|thumb|right|''The Friends of the People'' caricatured by [[Isaac Cruikshank]], 15 November 1792, [[Joseph Priestley]] and Thomas Paine are surrounded by incendiary items ([[Chemical Heritage Foundation|Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum]])]]
In summer of 1792, he answered the sedition and libel charges thus: "If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb."<ref>Thomas Paine, Letter Addressed To The Addressers On The Late Proclamation, in Michael Foot, Isaac Kramnick (ed.), The Thomas Paine Reader, p. 374</ref>

Paine was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution, and was granted, along with [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[George Washington]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others, honorary French [[citizenship]]. Despite his inability to speak French, he was elected to the [[National Convention]], representing the district of [[Pas-de-Calais]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine  |last=Fruchtman |first=Jack |year=2009 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore, MD, USA |isbn=0-8018-9284-8 |page=192 |url= }}</ref> He voted for the [[France|French Republic]]; but argued against the execution of [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]], saying that he should instead be [[exile]]d to the United States: firstly, because of the way royalist France had come to the aid of the American Revolution; and secondly because of a moral objection to capital punishment in general and to revenge killings in particular. He participated in the Constitution Committee<ref>[[Girondist]]</ref> that drafted the [[Girondin constitutional project]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/search?q=Thomas+Paine+1793+Girondin+Constitution+draft |title=Thomas Paine 1793 Girondin Constitution draft - Google Search |publisher=Google Search |accessdate=2011-12-26}}</ref>

Regarded as an ally of the [[Girondist|Girondins]], he was seen with increasing disfavor by the [[The Mountain|Montagnards]] who were now in power, and in particular by [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]. A decree was passed at the end of 1793 excluding foreigners from their places in the Convention ([[Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots|Anacharsis Cloots]] was also deprived of his place). Paine was arrested and imprisoned in December 1793.

Thomas Paine wrote the second part of ''[[Rights of Man]]'' on a desk in [[Thomas 'Clio' Rickman]]'s house, with whom he was staying in 1792 before he fled to France. This desk is currently on display in the [[People's History Museum]] in [[Manchester]].<ref>{{citation |title=Collection highlights, Tom Paine's Desk |publisher=People's History Museum |url=http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/tom-paines-desk/}}</ref>

==''The Age of Reason''==
{{Main|The Age of Reason}}
[[File:PaineAgeReason.png|thumb|Title page from the first English edition of Part I]]
[[File:Thomas Paine by Laurent Dabos-crop.jpg|thumb|Oil painting by [[Laurent Dabos]], circa 1791]]

Arrested in France, Paine protested and claimed that he was a citizen of America, which was an ally of Revolutionary France, rather than of Great Britain, which was by that time at war with France. However, [[Gouverneur Morris]], the American minister to France, did not press his claim, and Paine later wrote that Morris had connived at his imprisonment. Paine narrowly escaped execution. A chalk mark, supposed to be left by the gaoler to denote that the prisoner in this cell was to be collected for execution, was left on the inside of his door, rather than the outside, as the door happened to be open as the gaoler made his rounds, because Paine was receiving official visitors. But for this quirk of fate, he would have died the following morning. He kept his head and survived the few vital days needed to be spared by the fall of Robespierre on [[Thermidorian Reaction|9 Thermidor]] (July 27, 1794).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/?id=3zcNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=%22thomas+paine%22+jailer+door|title=The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine: Containing a Biography|first1=Thomas|last1= Paine|first2=Thomas Clio|last2=Rickman|publisher=Vincent Parke & Co.|year=1908|pages=261–262|accessdate=February 21, 2008|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref>

Paine was released in November 1794 largely because of the work of the new American Minister to France, [[James Monroe]],<ref>Foot, Michael, and Kramnick, Isaac. 1987. ''The Thomas Paine Reader'', p.16</ref> who successfully argued the case for Paine's American citizenship.<ref>Eric Foner, 1976. ''Tom Paine and Revolutionary America''. p. 244.</ref>  In July 1795, he was re-admitted into the Convention, as were other surviving Girondins. Paine was one of only three députés to oppose the adoption of the new [[French Constitution of 1795|1795 constitution]], because it eliminated [[universal suffrage]], which had been proclaimed by the [[French Constitution of 1793|Montagnard Constitution of 1793]].<ref>[[François Victor Alphonse Aulard|Aulard, Alphonse]]. 1901. ''Histoire politique de la Révolution française'', p. 555.</ref>

In 1797, Tom Paine lived in Paris with [[Nicholas Bonneville]] and his wife. Paine, as well as Bonneville's other controversial guests, aroused the suspicions of authorities. Bonneville hid the [[Royalist]] [[Antoine Joseph Barruel-Beauvert]] at his home. Beauvert had been outlawed following the [[coup of 18 Fructidor]] on September 4, 1797. Paine believed that America, under President [[John Adams]], had betrayed revolutionary France.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21133 |title=Mark Philp, 'Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2008, accessed July 26, 2008}}</ref> Bonneville was then briefly jailed and his presses were confiscated, which meant financial ruin.

In 1800, still 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]]. Napoleon claimed he slept with a copy of ''Rights of Man'' 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."<ref name="oneill">{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8089115.stm | title = Who was Thomas Paine? | last = O'Neill | first = Brendan | date = June 8, 2009 |publisher=BBC | accessdate =June 8, 2009}}</ref> Paine discussed with Napoleon how best to invade England and in December 1797 wrote 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'',<ref>{{cite web|title=Papers of James Monroe... from the original manuscripts in the Library of Congress|url=https://archive.org/stream/papersofjamesmon00librrich/papersofjamesmon00librrich_djvu.txt}}</ref> in which he promoted the idea to finance 1,000 gunboats to carry a French invading army across the English Channel. In 1804 Paine returned to the subject, writing ''To the People of England on the Invasion of England'' advocating the idea.<ref name="ODNB"/>

On noting Napoleon's progress towards dictatorship, he condemned him as: "the completest charlatan that ever existed".<ref>{{cite book|title=Thomas Paine|author=Craig Nelson|page=299|isbn=0-670-03788-5}}</ref> Paine remained in France until 1802, returning to the United States only at President Jefferson's invitation.

===Criticism of George Washington===
Paine believed that U.S. President George Washington had conspired with Robespierre to imprison him. Embittered by this perceived betrayal, Paine tried to ruin Washington's reputation by calling him a treacherous man unworthy of his fame as a military and political hero. Paine described Washington as an incompetent commander and a vain and ungrateful person. In a scathing open letter to President Washington in 1796, he wrote: "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."<ref>{{cite web|last=Paine |first=Thomas |title=Letter to George Washington, July 30, 1796: "On Paine's Service to America" |url=http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/paine_letter_to_washington_01.html |accessdate=November 4, 2006 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/20060927084319/http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/paine_letter_to_washington_01.html |archivedate=September 27, 2006 }}</ref>

==Later years==
In 1802 or 1803, Paine left France for the United States, paying passage also for Bonneville's wife, [[Marguerite Brazier]]<!-- WAIT - WAIT! Before you remove the brackets, consider writing a new article! (1767–1846, Marguerite was a disciple of Bonneville's associate, the radical Feminist [[Etta Palm d'Alders]]),-- Paine --> and their three sons, seven-year-old [[Benjamin Bonneville|Benjamin]], [[Louis Bonneville|Louis]], and [[Thomas Bonneville|Thomas]], to whom Paine was godfather. Paine returned to the United States in the early stages of the [[Second Great Awakening]] and a time of great political partisanship. The ''Age of Reason'' gave ample excuse for the religiously devout to dislike him, and 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, New York|New Rochelle]] on the grounds that Gouverneur Morris did not recognize him as an American, and Washington had not aided him.<ref>Claeys, Gregory, 1989. ''Thomas Paine, Social and Political Thought''.</ref>

Brazier took care of Paine at the end of his life and buried him after his death on June 8, 1809. In his will, Paine left the bulk of his estate to Marguerite, including 100 acres (40.5 ha) of his farm so she could maintain and educate Benjamin and his brother Thomas. In 1814, the fall of Napoleon finally allowed Bonneville to rejoin his wife in the United States where he remained for four years before returning to Paris to open a bookshop.

==Death==
Paine died at the age of 72, at 59 Grove Street in [[Greenwich Village]], New York City, on the morning of June 8, 1809. Although the original building is no longer there, the present building has a plaque noting that Paine died at this location.

After his death, Paine's body was brought to New Rochelle, but the Quakers would not allow it to be buried in their grave-yard as per his last will, so his remains were buried under a walnut tree on his farm. In 1819, the English agrarian radical journalist [[William Cobbett]], who in 1793 had published a hostile continuation<ref>William Cobbett, The Life of Thomas Paine, Interspersed with Remarks and Reflections (London: J. Wright, 1797)</ref> of Francis Oldys (George Chalmer)'s ''The Life of Thomas Paine'',<ref>"Francis Oldys" [George Chalmers], The Life of Thomas Paine. One Penny-Worth of Truth, from Thomas Bull to His Brother John (London: Stockdale, 1791)</ref> 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 twenty 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.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9505EFDF1438EF32A25756C1A9669D946497D6CF
|title=The Paine Monument at Last Finds a Home
|work=The New York Times |date=October 15, 1905
|accessdate=February 23, 2008
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.mindspring.com/~phila1/nyt330.htm
|title=Rehabilitating Thomas Paine, Bit by Bony Bit
|last=Chen
|first=David W.
|work=The New York Times |accessdate=February 23, 2008
}}</ref><ref>[[Edwin G. Burrows|Burrows, Edwin G.]] and [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Wallace, Mike]]. ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999., p. 510.</ref>

At the time of his death, most American newspapers reprinted the obituary notice from the ''[[New York Evening Post]]'',<ref>{{cite news |title=Paine's Obituary (click the "1809" link; it is 1/3 way down the 4th column) |url=http://www.classicapologetics.com/special/painerelief.html |accessdate=November 22, 2013 |newspaper=New York Evening Post |date=June 10, 1809}}</ref> 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 [[freedman|freedmen]]. The writer and orator [[Robert G. Ingersoll]] wrote:

{{quote|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&nbsp;of June, 1809, death 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Works of Thomas Paine |author=Paine, Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1y62LnUMu4C&pg=PT801&lpg=PT801&dq=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+%E2%80%93+his+virtues+denounced+as+vices+%E2%80%93+his+services+forgotten+%E2%80%93+his+character+blackened,+he+preserved&source=bl&ots=u-TkRdSLyh&sig=zzAGLHnlKjthhGV41JEoY95TD60&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D0KPUuO8IZOA2AWb7YCIDg&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Thomas%20Paine%20had%20passed%20the%20legendary%20limit%20of%20life.%20One%20by%20one%20most%20of%20his%20old%20friends%20and%20acquaintances%20had%20deserted%20him.%20Maligned%20on%20every%20side%2C%20execrated%2C%20shunned%20and%20abhorred%20%E2%80%93%20his%20virtues%20denounced%20as%20vices%20%E2%80%93%20his%20services%20forgotten%20%E2%80%93%20his%20character%20blackened%2C%20he%20preserved&f=false |year=2008 |publisher=MobileReference |accessdate=November 22, 2013}}</ref>}}

==Ideas==
Biographer [[Eric Foner]] identifies a utopian thread in Paine's thought, writing that "Through this new language he communicated a new vision—a utopian image of an egalitarian, republican society."<ref>{{cite book|author=Eric Foner|title=Tom Paine and Revolutionary America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyFF1M8_VDAC|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press, 2nd edition|page=xxxii, 16|isbn=9780195174861}}</ref>  Paine's utopianism combined [[Republicanism in the United States|civic republicanism]], belief 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. Paine expressed a redemptive futurism or political messianism.<ref>Mark Jendrysik, "Tom Paine: Utopian?" ''Utopian Studies'' (2007) 18#2 pp. 139-157.</ref> Paine, writing that his generation "would appear to the future as the Adam of a new world", exemplified British utopianism.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gregory Claeys, ed.|title=The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFCuoqykV9QC&pg=PA11|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=11–12|isbn=9781139828420}}</ref>

Thomas Paine's [[natural justice]] beliefs may have been influenced by his Quaker father.<ref>Claeys p. 20.</ref>

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.<ref>Weatherford, Jack "Indian Givers How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World". 1988, p. 125.</ref>

[[File:Thomas Paine by Matthew Pratt, 1785-95.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Thomas Paine by [[Matthew Pratt]], 1785–1795]]

===Slavery===
Paine is sometimes credited with writing "African Slavery in America", the first article proposing the emancipation of African slaves and the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition]] of slavery. It was published on March 8, 1775, in the ''Postscript to the [[Pennsylvania Journal|Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser]]'' (aka ''The Pennsylvania Magazine'' and ''American Museum'').<ref>{{cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Junius P.|title=Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X44KbDBl9gC&pg=PA279|year=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=279}}</ref> Citing a lack of evidence that Paine was the author of this anonymously published essay, some scholars ([[Eric Foner]] and [[Alfred Owen Aldridge]]) no longer consider this one of his works. By contrast, John Nichols speculates that his "fervent objections to [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]" led to his exclusion from power during the early years of the Republic.<ref>{{cite web |title=Obama's Vindication of Thomas Paine |url=http://www.thenation.com/blog/obamas-vindication-thomas-paine#axzz2edDwnJ4g |publisher=''[[The Nation]]'' |author=Nichols, John |authorlink=John Nichols (journalist) |date=January 20, 2009}}</ref>

===''Agrarian Justice''===
His last pamphlet, ''Agrarian Justice'', published in the winter of 1795, 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 US [[Social Security Administration]] recognizes ''Agrarian Justice'' as the first American proposal for an [[pension|old-age pension]] and [[basic income]]; per ''Agrarian Justice'':

<blockquote>In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity ... [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. 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.</blockquote>

Note that £10 and £15 would be worth about £800 and £1,200 ($1,200 and $2,000) when adjusted for inflation (2011 British Pounds Sterling).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/ |title=Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present |publisher=Measuringworth.com |date=1971-02-15 |accessdate=2011-12-26}}</ref>

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 Grotius]], [[Samuel von Pufendorf]], and [[John Locke]]. It demonstrates Paine's commitment to foundational liberal values of individual freedom and moral equality.<ref>Lamb, Robert. "Liberty, Equality, and the Boundaries of Ownership: Thomas Paine's Theory of Property Rights". ''Review of Politics'' (2010), 72#3 pp. 483–511.</ref>

==Religious views==
Before his arrest and imprisonment in France, knowing that he would probably be arrested and executed, Paine, following in the tradition of [[deists#The rise of British deism (1690–1740)|early eighteenth-century British deism]], wrote the first part of ''[[The Age of Reason]]'', an assault on organized "revealed" religion combining a compilation of the many inconsistencies he found in the Bible.

About his own religious beliefs, Paine wrote in ''The Age of Reason'':

{{quote|I believe in one [[God]], and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.}}

{{quote|I do not believe in the creed professed by the [[Judaism|Jewish church]], by the [[Catholicism|Roman church]], by the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek church]], by the [[Islam|Turkish church]], by the [[Protestantism|Protestant church]], nor 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.<ref name="Paine1824">{{citation|author=Thomas Paine|title=The Theological Works of Thomas Paine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|year=1824|publisher=R. Carlile ... and|page=31}}</ref>}}

Though there is no evidence he was himself a [[Freemason]],<ref>{{cite journal |author=Shai Afsai |date=Fall 2010 |title=Thomas Paine's Masonic Essay and the Question of His Membership in the Fraternity |journal=[[Philalethes Society|Philalethes]] 63 |issue=4 |pages=138–144 |accessdate=March 5, 2011 |url=http://freemasonry.org/pdf/2010_04_sample_article.pdf |quote=As he was certainly not a Master Mason when he wrote the essay—and as there is no evidence he joined the fraternity after then—one may conclude, as have Mackey, Newton, and others, that Paine was not a Freemason. Still, though the 'pantheon of Masons' may not hold Thomas Paine, this influential and controversial man remains connected to Freemasonry, if only due to the close friendships he had with some in the fraternity, and to his having written an intriguing essay on its origins.}}</ref> upon his return to America from France, Paine also penned "An Essay on the Origin of Free-Masonry" (1803–1805), about Freemasonry being derived from the religion of the ancient Druids.<ref>Shai Afsai, "[http://freemasonry.org/pdf/2010_04_sample_article.pdf Thomas Paine's Masonic Essay and the Question of His Membership in the Fraternity]". [[Philalethes Society|''Philalethes'']] 63:4 (Fall 2010), 140–141.</ref>  In the essay, he stated that "The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally paid to the sun."  Marguerite de Bonneville published the essay in 1810, after Paine's death, but she chose to omit certain passages from it that were critical of Christianity, most of which were restored in an 1818 printing.<ref name="Afsai 2012">{{cite journal|last=Afsai|first=Shai|title=Thomas Paine, Freemason or Deist?|journal=Early America Review|year=2012|issue=Winter/Spring|url=http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2012_winter_spring/paine-freemason-or-deist.html}}</ref>

While Paine never described himself as a [[deist]],<ref name="Afsai 2012"/> he did write the following:

<blockquote>The opinions I have advanced ... are the effect of the most clear and long-established conviction that the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world, that the fall of man, the account of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of salvation, by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dishonorable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty; that the only true religion is [[Deism]], by which I then meant, and mean now, the belief of one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of what are called moral virtues{{spaced ndash}}and that it was upon this only (so far as religion is concerned) that I rested all my hopes of happiness hereafter. So say I now{{spaced ndash}}and so help me God.<ref name="Paine1824">{{citation|author=Thomas Paine|title=The Theological Works of Thomas Paine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|year=1824|publisher=R. Carlile ... and|page=138}}</ref></blockquote>

==Legacy==
[[File:ThomasPaineStamp1969.jpg|right|thumb|In 1969, a [[Prominent Americans series]] stamp honoring Paine was issued.]]

Paine's writing greatly influenced his contemporaries and, especially, the American revolutionaries. His books provoked an upsurge in Deism in America, but in the long term inspired [[Philosophical radicals|philosophic]] and working-class [[Radicalism (historical)|radicals]] in the UK and US. [[American liberalism|Liberals]], [[libertarianism|libertarians]], [[feminism|feminists]], [[democratic socialists]], [[social democrats]], [[anarchist]]s, [[Freethought|free thinkers]], and [[progressivism|progressives]] often claim him as an intellectual ancestor. Paine's critique of institutionalized religion and advocacy of rational thinking influenced many British free thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as [[William Cobbett]], [[George Holyoake]], [[Charles Bradlaugh]], [[Christopher Hitchens]] and [[Bertrand Russell]].

The quote "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" is widely but incorrectly attributed to Paine. This can be found nowhere in his published works.

In 2002, Paine was voted number 34 of "[[100 Greatest Britons]]" in a public poll conducted by the [[BBC]].

===Lincoln===
When [[Abraham Lincoln]] was 26 years old in 1835, he wrote a defense of Paine's deism; a political associate, Samuel Hill, burned it to save Lincoln's political career.<ref>Michael Burlingame, ''Abraham Lincoln: a life'' (2008), vol. 2, p. 83.</ref> Historian [[Roy Basler]], the editor of Lincoln's papers, said Paine had a strong influence on Lincoln's style:
: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.<ref>Roy P. Basler (ed.), ''Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings'' (1946), p. 6.</ref>

===Edison===
The inventor [[Thomas Edison]] said:
<blockquote>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 ... it was, indeed, a revelation to me to read that great thinker's views on political and theological subjects. 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!' My interest in Paine was not satisfied by my first reading of his works. I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood days.<ref>Thomas Edison, Introduction to ''The Life and Works of Thomas Paine'', New York: Citadel Press, 1945, Vol. I, pp. vii-ix. [http://www.thomaspaine.org/ Reproduced online] on thomaspaine.org, accessed November 4, 2006.</ref></blockquote>

===South America===
In 1811, Venezuelan translator Manuel Garcia de Sena published a book in Philadelphia which consisted mostly of Spanish translations of several of Paine's most important works.<ref name="street">John Street, ''Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay'' (London: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 178-186.</ref> The book also included translations of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the constitutions of five U.S. states.<ref name="street" /> It subsequently circulated widely in South America, and through it, [[Uruguay]]an national hero [[José Gervasio Artigas]] became familiar with and embraced Paine's ideas.<ref name="street" /> In turn, many of Artigas's writings drew directly from Paine's, including the ''[[Instructions of 1813]]'', which Uruguayans consider to be one of their country's most important constitutional documents; it was one of the earliest writings to articulate a principled basis for an identity independent of Buenos Aires.<ref name="street" />

===Memorials===
The first and longest standing memorial to Thomas Paine is the carved and inscribed 12 foot marble column in [[New Rochelle, New York]] organized and funded by publisher, educator and reformer Gilbert Vale (1791–1866) and raised in 1839 by the American sculptor and architect [[John Frazee (sculptor)|John Frazee]] — The [[Thomas Paine Monument]] (see image below).<ref>See Frederick S. Voss, ''John Frazee 1790–1852 Sculptor'' (Washington City and Boston: The National Portrait Gallery and The Boston Athenaeum, 1986), 46–47.</ref>

New Rochelle is also the original site of [[Thomas Paine Cottage|Thomas Paine's Cottage]], which, along with a 320-acre (130 ha) farm, were presented to Paine in 1784 by act of the New York State Legislature for his services in the American Revolution.<ref>See Alfred Owen Aldridge, ''Man of Reason'' (Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott Company, 1959), 103.</ref>

The same site is the home of the [[Thomas Paine National Historical Association|Thomas Paine Memorial Museum]]. Thomas A. Edison helped to turn the first shovel of earth for the museum which serves as a museum to display both Paine relics as well as others of local historical interest. A large collection of books, pamphlets, and pictures is contained in the Paine library, including many first editions of Paine's works, as well as several original manuscripts. These holdings, the subject of a sell-off controversy, were temporarily relocated to the [[New-York Historical Society]] <!--This is the correct punctuation.--> and have since been more permanently archived in the [[Iona College (New York)|Iona College]] library nearby.<ref>[http://www.iona.edu/library/about/collections/archives/paine/ ] {{wayback|url=http://www.iona.edu/library/about/collections/archives/paine/ |date=20130529155142 }}</ref>

Paine was originally buried near the current location of his house and monument upon his death in 1809. The site is marked by a small headstone and burial plaque even though his remains were said to have been removed to England years later.

In the twentieth century, [[Joseph L. Lewis|Joseph Lewis]], longtime 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 counties with which the revolutionary writer was associated. The first, created by [[Mount Rushmore]] sculptor [[Gutzon Borglum]], was erected in [[Paris]] just before [[World War II]] began (but not formally dedicated until 1948). It depicts Paine standing before the French [[National Convention]] to plead for the life of [[King Louis XVI]]. The second, sculpted in 1950 by [[Georg J. Lober]], was erected near Paine's one time home in [[Morristown, New Jersey]]. It shows a seated Paine using a drum-head as a makeshift table. The third, sculpted by Sir [[Charles Wheeler (sculptor)|Charles Wheeler]], President of the Royal Academy, was erected in 1964 in Paine's birthplace, [[Thetford]], [[England]]. With quill pen in his right hand and an inverted copy of ''The Rights of Man'' in his left, it occupies a prominent spot on King Street. Thomas Paine was ranked #34 in the ''[[100 Greatest Britons]]'' 2002 extensive Nationwide poll conducted by the [[BBC]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2208671.stm |title=BBC – 100 Great British Heroes |publisher=BBC News |date=2002-08-21 |accessdate=2011-12-26}}</ref>

A bronze plaque attached to the wall of Thetford's Tom Paine hotel gives details of Paine's life. It was placed there in 1943 by voluntary contributions from US airmen from a nearby bomber base. Texas folklorist and freethinker [[J. Frank Dobie]], then teaching at Cambridge University, participated in the dedication ceremonies.<ref>J. Frank Dobie, A Texan in England. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1980, pp.84-5.</ref>

[[Bronx Community College]] includes Paine in its Hall of Fame of Great Americans, and there are statues of Paine in [[Morristown, New Jersey|Morristown]] and [[Bordentown, New Jersey|Bordentown]], New Jersey, and in the [[Parc Montsouris]], in Paris.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.morristown.org/tompaine.htm
|title=Photos of Tom Paine and Some of His Writings
|publisher=Morristown.org
|accessdate=January 10, 2008
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.paris-walking-tours.com/parcmontsouris.html
|title=Parc Montsouris
|publisher=Paris Walking Tours
|accessdate=January 10, 2008
}}</ref>

In Paris, there is a plaque in the street where he lived from 1797 to 1802, that says: "Thomas PAINE / 1737–1809 / Englishman by birth / American by adoption / French by decree".<!--<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://kmganga.com/ParAmericana/People/Paine/index.shtml
|title=Thomas Paine
|accessdate=January 10, 2008
}}<br>photograph of the plaque at 10, rue l'Odeon</ref> --><!-- "kmganga.com" appears to be broken. --Paine Ellsworth -->

Yearly, between July 4 and 14, the Lewes Town Council in the United Kingdom celebrates the life and work of Thomas Paine.<ref>[http://www.lewes-town.co.uk/listingdets.asp?mode=next&reckount=4&searchwords=&dir=5&typeid=C The Tom Paine Project], Lewes Town Council. Retrieved November 4, 2006.</ref>

In the early 1990s, largely through the efforts of citizen activist David Henley of Virginia, legislation (S.Con.Res 110, and H.R. 1628) was introduced in the 102nd Congress by ideological opposites Sen. [[Steve Symms]] (R-ID) and Rep. [[Nita Lowey]] (D-NY). With over 100 formal letters of endorsement by US and foreign historians, philosophers and organizations, including the Thomas Paine National Historical Society, the legislation garnered 78 original co-sponsors in the Senate and 230 original co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, and was consequently passed by both houses' unanimous consent. In October 1992 the legislation was signed into law (PL102-407 & PL102-459) by President [[George H. W. Bush]] authorizing the construction, using private funds, of a memorial to Thomas Paine in "Area 1" of the grounds of the [[US Capitol]]. {{As of|2011|1}}, the memorial has not yet been built.

The [[University of East Anglia]]'s Norwich Business School is housed in the Thomas Paine Study Centre on its Norwich campus, in Paine's home county of Norfolk.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.uea.ac.uk/estates/construction/ThomasPaine
|title=Thomas Paine Study Centre - University of East Anglia (UEA)
|publisher=uea.ac.uk
|accessdate=December 7, 2011
}}</ref>

The [[Cookes House]] is reputed to have been his home during the [[Second Continental Congress]] at [[York, Pennsylvania]].<ref name="arch">{{cite web| url = https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce/SelectWelcome.asp| title = National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania| publisher = CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System| format = Searchable database}} ''Note:'' This includes {{cite web| url = https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H001127_01H.pdf| title = National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Cookes House| accessdate = 2011-12-18| author = Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks| format = PDF| date= March 1972}}</ref>

<gallery class="center"  widths="150px" heights="150px">
File:Thomas Paine Monument 2015.png|<small>[[John Frazee (sculptor)|John Frazee]]'s [[Thomas Paine Monument]] in New Rochelle</small>
File:BHS-TP Statue.JPG|<small>Statue in [[Bordentown, New Jersey]]</small>
File:Plaque Thomas Paine, 10 rue de l'Odéon, Paris 6.jpg|<small>Plaque honoring Paine at 10 [[rue de l'Odéon]], Paris</small>
File:Statue of Thomas Paine, Thetford, Norfolk.jpg|<small>Statue in [[Thetford]], [[Norfolk]], England, Paine's birthplace</small>
File:Thomas Paine Commemorative Plaque - geograph.org.uk - 311958.jpg|<small>Plaque on Thomas Paine Hotel, Thetford</small>
File:Thomas Paine Plaque NY.jpg|<small>Commemorative plaque on the site of the former residence of Paine in [[Greenwich Village]], [[New York City]]</small>
</gallery>

==In popular culture==
* The 1982 French-Italian film ''[[That Night in Varennes]]'' is about a fictional meeting of [[Giacomo Casanova|Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt]] (played by Italian actor [[Marcello Mastroianni]]), [[Nicolas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne]], Countess Sophie de la Borde, and Thomas Paine (played by American actor [[Harvey Keitel]]) as they ride in a carriage a few hours behind the carriage carrying the King and Queen of France, [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] and [[Marie Antoinette]], on [[Flight to Varennes|their attempt to escape from revolutionary France]] in 1791.
* [[Jack Shepherd (actor)|Jack Shepherd]]'s stage play ''[[In Lambeth (play)|In Lambeth]]'' dramatized a visit by Thomas Paine to the [[Lambeth]] home of [[William Blake|William]] and [[Catherine Blake (wife of William Blake)|Catherine Blake]] in 1789.
* In 2001 the Scottish musician [[Dick Gaughan]] included the song "Tom Paine's Bones" on his album ''Outlaws and Dreamers''.
* In 2005 the writer [[Trevor Griffiths]] published ''These are the Times: A Life of Thomas Paine'', originally written as a screenplay for [[Richard Attenborough|Richard Attenborough Productions]]. Although the film was not made, the play was broadcast, as a two-part drama, on [[BBC Radio 4]] in 2008<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/broadcasts/2008/08 |title=BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama - Episodes by date, August 2008 |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |accessdate=2014-05-07}}</ref> with a repeat in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/broadcasts/2012/08 |title=BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama - Episodes by date, August 2012 |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |accessdate=2014-05-07}}</ref> In 2009 Griffiths adapted the screenplay for a production entitled ''[[A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine|A New World]]'' at [[Shakespeare's Globe]] theatre on London's South Bank.<ref>[http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/education/discovery-space/previous-productions/new-world ]{{Dead link|date=May 2014}}</ref>
* In 2009 Paine's life was dramatized in the play ''Thomas Paine Citizen of the World'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.keystage-company.co.uk/Keystage_Arts_and_Heritage_Company/Project_Portfolio/Entries/2009/4/27_THOMAS_PAINE_-_CITIZEN_OF_THE_WORLD.html |title=Thomas Paine - "Citizen Of The World" |publisher=Keystage-company.co.uk |accessdate=2014-05-07}}</ref> produced for the "Tom Paine 200 Celebrations" festival<ref name="tompainlegacy">[http://www.tompainelegacy.org.uk/programme.html Tom Paine Legacy], Programme for bicentenary celebrations.</ref> in [[Thetford]], the town of his birth.
* Paine's role in the foundation of the United States is depicted in a pseudo-biographical fashion in the educational animated series ''[[Liberty's Kids]]'' produced by [[DIC Entertainment]].
* Paine is a character in the [[Bob Dylan]] song "[[As I Went Out One Morning]]", featured on Dylan's 1968 album, ''[[John Wesley Harding (album)|John Wesley Harding]]''.
* Paine is also mentioned in the song "[[Renegades of Funk]]" by [[Afrika Bambaataa]] in which he is referred to as "Tom Paine" among other notable "renegades" [[Chief Sitting Bull]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Malcolm X]]. The song was later covered by [[rap metal]] band [[Rage Against the Machine]], with Paine's name still included.
* Paine is referred to on several occasions in [[Philip Roth]]'s 1998 novel "[[I Married a Communist]]".
* Paine is a character in the story "Thermidor" in ''[[The Sandman: Fables & Reflections]]'', where he is shown having a colloquy with [[Louis Antoine de Saint-Just]].
* Paine is referred to in the song "Think About It" by Semi Hendrix, a collaboration album by [[Ras Kass]] and [[Jack Splash]].

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[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]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="Note"}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

===Bibliography===
* [[A. Owen Aldridge|Aldridge, A. Owen]], 1959. ''Man of Reason: The Life of Thomas Paine.'' Lippincott. Regarded by British authorities as the standard biography.
* Aldridge, A. Owen, 1984. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lN582EPgp40C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Owen+Aldridge#v=onepage&q=&f=false Thomas Paine's American Ideology]''. [[University of Delaware Press]].
* [[Alfred Jules Ayer|Ayer, A. J.]], 1988. ''Thomas Paine''. [[University of Chicago Press]].
* [[Bernard Bailyn|Bailyn, Bernard]], 1990. "Common Sense", in Bailyn, ''Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence''. Alfred A. Knopf.
* [[Richard B. Bernstein|Bernstein, R. B.]] "Review Essay: Rediscovering Thomas Paine". ''New York Law School Law Review,'' 1994 – valuable blend of historiographical essay and biographical/analytical treatment.
* [[Marilyn Butler|Butler, Marilyn]], 1984. ''Burke Paine and Godwin and the Revolution Controversy''.
* [[Gregory Claeys|Claeys, Gregory]], 1989. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=10lR6gi5sswC&printsec=frontcover&dq=claeys+thomas+paine#v=onepage&q=&f=false Thomas Paine, Social and Political Thought]''. Unwin Hyman. Excellent analysis of Paine's thought.
* [[Moncure D. Conway|Conway, Moncure Daniel]], 1892. ''The Life of Thomas Paine'', 2 vols. G.P. Putnam's Sons, [https://archive.org/details/lifethomaspaine05cobbgoog Vol. 1 (E'book)], [https://archive.org/details/lifethomaspaine03cobbgoog Vol. 2 (E'book)]. Long hailed as the definitive biography, and still valuable.
* [[Howard Fast|Fast, Howard]], 1946. ''Citizen Tom Paine'' (historical novel, though sometimes mistaken as biography).
* Ferguson, Robert A. "The Commonalities of Common Sense", ''William and Mary Quarterly,'' July 2000, Vol. 57#3, pp.&nbsp;465–504. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2674263 in JSTOR].
* [[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]], 1976. ''Tom Paine and Revolutionary America''. [[Oxford University Press]]. The standard monograph treating Paine's thought and work with regard to America.
* [[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]], 2000, "Paine, Thomas" in [http://www.anb.org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/articles/16/16-01251.html ''American National Biography Online'']
* {{Cite journal|last=Griffiths|first=Trevor|authorlink=Trevor Griffiths|year=2005|title=These Are the Times: A Life of Thomas Paine|publisher=Spokesman Books|postscript=<!--None-->}}
* Hawke, David Freeman, 1974. ''Paine''. Regarded by many American authorities as the standard biography.
* [[Christopher Hitchens|Hitchens, Christopher]], 2006. ''[[Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography]]''.
* Kates, Gary, 1989, "From Liberalism to Radicalism: Tom Paine's Rights of Man", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'': 569–587.
* [[Harvey J. Kaye|Kaye, Harvey J.]], 2005. ''Thomas Paine and the Promise of America''. Hill and Wang.
* [[John Keane (political theorist)|Keane, John]], 1995. ''Tom Paine: A Political Life''. London. One of the most valuable recent studies.
* Lamb, Robert. "Liberty, Equality, and the Boundaries of Ownership: Thomas Paine's Theory of Property Rights". ''Review of Politics,'' Summer 2010, Vol. 72, Issue 3, pp.&nbsp;483–511.
* Larkin, Edward, 2005. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-XnIqhEl7VAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=larkin+thomas+paine#v=onepage&q=&f=false Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution.]{{dead link|date=August 2014}}'', Cambridge University Press.
* Lessay, Jean. L'américain de la Convention, Thomas Paine: Professeur de révolutions. Paris: Éditions Perrin, 1987, 241 pp.
* Levin, Yuval. ''The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left'' (Basic Books, 2013) 275 pp.; their debate over the French Revolution.
* [[Joseph L. Lewis|Lewis, Joseph L.]], 1947,. ''Thomas Paine: The Author of the Declaration of Independence''. New York: Freethought Association Press Assn.
* Nelson, Craig, 2006. ''Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations''. Viking. ISBN 0-670-03788-5.
* Philp, Mark, 2004. "Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)," ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008; [http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/view/article/21133 accessed 16 December 2013]; doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21133
* Powell, David, 1985. ''Tom Paine, The Greatest Exile''. Hutchinson.
* {{Cite journal|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|authorlink=Bertrand Russell|year=1934|title=The Fate of Thomas Paine|postscript=<!--None-->}}
* Solinger, Jason D. "Thomas Paine's Continental Mind". ''Early American Literature,'' November 2010, Vol. 45, Issue 3, pp.&nbsp;593–617.
* Vincent, Bernard, 2005. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZRoDgG2vQ0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=bernard+vincent#v=onepage&q=&f=false The Transatlantic Republican: Thomas Paine and the age of revolutions]''.
* {{Cite book|last=Wilensky|first=Mark|year=2008|title=The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine. An Interactive Adaptation for All Ages|publisher=Casemate|isbn=978-1-932714-36-4|postscript=<!--None-->}}
* Washburne, E. B. [https://archive.org/stream/scribnersmonthly20newy#page/770/mode/2up "Thomas Paine and the French Revolution"]. ''Scribner's Monthly'', Vol. XX, May/October 1880.

===Primary sources===
* {{cite book |last=Paine |first=Thomas |editor-last=Conway |editor-first=Moncure Daniel |ref=Paine |title=The Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume 4 |publisher=<br>G. P. Putnam's sons, New York |year=1896 |page=521 |isbn=}}, [https://archive.org/details/writingsthomasp00paingoog E'book]
* [[Michael Foot|Foot, Michael]] and [[Isaac Kramnick|Kramnick, Isaac]], eds (1987). ''The Thomas Paine Reader''. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044496-3
* Paine, Thomas ([[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]], editor), 1993. ''Writings.'' Library of America. Authoritative and scholarly edition containing ''Common Sense,'' the essays comprising the ''American Crisis'' series, ''Rights of Man,'' ''The Age of Reason,'' ''Agrarian Justice,'' and selected briefer writings, with authoritative texts and careful annotation.
* Paine, Thomas ([[Philip Foner|Foner, Philip S.]], ed.), 1944. ''The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine,'' 2 vols. Citadel Press. We badly need a complete edition of Paine's writings on the model of Eric Foner's edition for the Library of America, but until that goal is achieved, Philip Foner's two-volume edition is a serviceable substitute. Volume I contains the major works, and volume II contains shorter writings, both published essays and a selection of letters, but confusingly organized; in addition, Foner's attributions of writings to Paine have come in for some criticism in that Foner may have included writings that Paine edited but did not write and omitted some writings that later scholars have attributed to Paine.

==External links==
{{Sister project links|s=Author:Thomas Paine}}
{{External links|date=May 2015}}
* [http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/common-sense-rhetoric-popular-democracy "Common Sense: The Rhetoric of Popular Democracy"] lesson plan for grades 9-12 from National Endowment for the Humanities
* [http://www.thomaspainesocietyuk.org.uk/ The UK Thomas Paine Society]
* [http://www.thomaspainesociety.org/ The Thomas Paine Society]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8089115.stm Who was Thomas Paine?]
* [http://www.religionpaine.org/ Essays on the Religious and Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2698 Thomas Paine's Memorial]
* [http://www.quotedb.com/authors/thomas-paine Thomas Paine Quotations]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2007/03/27/abolition_thomas_paine_20070327_feature.shtml Take a video tour of Thomas Paine's birthplace]
* [http://www.alfordwindmillhotel.co.uk/thomaspaine.htm Office location while in Alford]{{dead link|date=August 2014}}
* {{Wayback |date=20120805041240 |url=http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/thomas-paine-passionate-pamphleteer-for-liberty/ |title=Thomas Paine-Passionate Pamphleteer for Liberty by Jim Powell }}
* [https://mises.org/story/2942 Thomas Paine on Paper Money, 1786]
* [https://mises.org/daily/4438 Thomas Paine, Liberty's Hated Torchbearer]
* [http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=721 Lesson plan – ''Common Sense'': The Rhetoric of Popular Democracy]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1104687536309041716&q=thomas+paine&hl=en Books of Our Time: Thomas Paine and the Promise of America]{{dead link|date=August 2014}} (video)
* [http://www.deism.com/paine_essay_sam_adams.htm Correspondence between Paine and Samuel Adams regarding the charge of ''infidelity'']
* [http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/paine/ One Life: Thomas Paine, the Radical Founding Father], exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
* [http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/paine.asp Thomas Paine] at [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]''
* {{NRA | id=P39218}}
* {{npg name|id=03422|name=Thomas Paine}}

'''Works'''
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Paine,+Thomas }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Paine}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2273}}
* [http://deism.com/paine.htm Deistic and Religious Works of Thomas Paine]
* [https://archive.org/details/theologicalwork00paingoog The theological works of Thomas Paine]
* [https://archive.org/details/theologicalwork00rousgoog The theological works of Thomas Paine to which are appended the profession of faith of a savoyard vicar by J.J. Rousseau]
* ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/147/147-h/147-h.htm Common Sense]'' by Thomas Paine; HTML format, indexed by section
* [https://archive.org/details/rightsman00paingoog ''Rights of Man'']
* [http://americanaphonic.com/?feed=rss2&cat=4 Listen to Common Sense at Americana Phonic]{{dead link|date=August 2014}}. m4a audio format

{{Thomas Paine}}
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{{Persondata
|NAME= Paine, Thomas
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Pain, Thomas
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Pamphleteer
|DATE OF BIRTH=February 9, 1737
|PLACE OF BIRTH=Thetford, Norfolk, England
|DATE OF DEATH=June 8, 1809
|PLACE OF DEATH=New York City
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paine, Thomas}}
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