Teaching Tom Paine in the Age of Globalization
Thomas C. Walker
Department of Political Science
University at Albany, SUNY
Paper delivered by "A Nation of Immigrants: American Democracy and Civics
Education." Florida Atlantic University's Jack Miller Forum for Civics Education, Boca
Raton, Florida, January 28-31, 2009
Introduction
When Thomas Paine died in 1809, he was a man nearly forgotten and surely
abandoned by those who played important roles in the American Revolution. In a quiet
ceremony, he was laid to rest in a simple grave on his farm in New Rochelle, New York.
He did not, however, rest in peace. In 1819, William Cobbett, a zealous admirer of
Paine’s political thought, secretly disinterred the remains and transported them back to
England. Cobbett wanted to commemorate Paine’s life with a fitting monument and final
resting place. But the monument was never built and what became of the remains has
been reduced to speculation. One account tells of how some of his bones were refused
for sale at auction in 1835, after which a Unitarian clergyman kept Paine’s skull and right
hand in his library (Ayer, 1988:182). Another tells of an old woman who claimed to have
1 played with Tom Paine’s jawbone when she was a child (Fruchtman, 1994:435). This
story of scattered remains seems to reflect Paine's incomplete legacy in the American classroom. Paine's Common Sense, published in January of 1776, often serves as the
most convincing justification for the Declaration of Independence. Here Paine made his
famous clarion call that “we have it in our power to make the world over again….”
Many of his later works published during the French Revolution go largely un-noticed in
American classrooms.
In this paper I would like to emphasize how Paine's later works, primarily Rights
of Man, would be particularly helpful in teaching contemporary issues associated with globalization, economic interdependence, and democratization. This body of Paine's work seeks to export many of the foundational ideas of American liberalism to Europe.
These include the virtues of free markets, human rights, and democracy. Paine also sought to spread democracy by force of arms if necessary. Questions of how to encourage free trade, democracy, and a respect for human rights have become integral to discussions of globalization. Paine’s later works can be used as a means to introduce students to the prevailing concerns of living in this period of increasing globalization.
I also hope to show how Paine’s irrepressible optimism over the ease by which social and political transitions can occur closely reflect certain American attitudes. The
Pew Global Survey, which covered more than 90,000 global opinions, show that
Americans are more optimistic about the future than any other developed, wealthy nation.
Ever since Winthrop’s famous claim that “we shall be as a city upon the hill, with the
eyes of the upon us,” Americans envisioned their role in the world in an optimistic light.
2 In Common Sense, Paine made the lofty claim that “we have it in our power to begin the
world over again.”
Paine's Legacy:
Paine's International Thought is reasonably well respected by many non-
Americans. Torbjørn Knutsen, a Norwegian, noted how Paine “delivered one of the
clearest (and most consequential) formulations of the claim that a state founded on
democratic principles… must also be, fundamentally, against war.” In his Trevelyn
Lectures at Cambridge, Sir Michael Howard referred to Paine’s Rights of Man as the
single most forceful and original text on liberal internationalism. Every liberal, Howard
concluded, “who has written about foreign policy since has been able to provide little
more than an echo of Paine’s original philippic.” Finally, Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, the
Sunni Arab leader who would assume the interim Presidency of Iraq in 2004 following
the American invasion, claimed that Paine was his “favorite philosopher.”
But in the American classroom, Paine's International Thought is largely missing. By
linking his thought with the process of Globalization, I want to show how Paine can still
be salient.
Defining Globalization:
Since I am speaking of globalization, some definition is in order. Definitions of
globalization are far too numerous for my liking. Is globalization the way to prosperity
and peace? Or is it a threat to sovereign, self-determination and social stability within
states?
Champions of globalization and free trade view it as the fastest and most equitable way
to economic growth and well-being. This is represented by the Washington Consensus.
3 Critics of globalization, full of rhetorical excess, see a globalization as a descent into a
soulless world driven by the cold and unyielding logics of the market.
My Definition:
The increasing ease by which goods and "bads" can pass freely over state boundaries and
impinge on state sovereignty: Among the goods I count products, capital, ideas, and
people. Among the so-called "bads" I include disease, pollution, crime, drugs, terrorists and the capital to finance them.
I might add something along the lines of how technology has helped speed up the process. Even though he wrote more than 200 years ago, many of his liberal- internationalist ideas speak to contemporary concerns with an increasingly globalized world.
1) Ideas of Free Trade are the driving force behind globalization. Paine’s ideas of
Free Trade and Peace: Relevance China.
2) Democracy: The centrality of individual rights—both in the economic and the political realms—Look quickly at Brands book.
3) Military Intervention to Spread Democracy: Relevance Iraq.
All three of these topics were discussed at length by Paine.
1. Paine and Free Trade:
The second element of liberal internationalism prominent in Paine’s work is how peace
might be achieved through free trade. Paine was arguably the first popular proponent of
free trade as a means of promoting peace. In the widely circulated Rights of Man, Paine
asserted:
In all my writings, where the matter would permit, I have been a friend of commerce, because I have been a friend to its effects. It is a pacific system, operating to
4 cordialize mankind, by rendering nations, as well as individuals, useful to each other....If commerce were permitted to act to the universal extent it is capable, it would extirpate the system of war.
Paine frequently pointed to how trade promotes international understandings, thereby
working to ‘cordialize’ mankind. Like many Enlightenment thinkers, Paine saw how
interaction and experience would foster learning and understanding between different
nations. Economic interaction would work to acquaint nations with one another and reduce misunderstandings that might lead to conflict. More importantly, trade created a
degree of economic interdependence that would increase the costs of military action.
Finally, trade would not only produce wealth but it would also reduce conflict by
promoting understanding and by creating shared economic interests between free trading
nations. Combining democratic rule with free-trading states would be the surest path to
peace.
2 Causal Processes:
Society-Harmony Model
Trade → Cordial Understandings → Harmony of Interests → Peace
Business Interest Model
Trade → Increasing Economic Interdependence → Material Interest → Peace.
Both of these are relevant to American policies toward the PRC.
2) Paine and Democracy: An Optimistic View of Human Nature:
For Paine, individuals are characterized by reason and goodness. Paine (1794, 83)
presented the individual as essentially moral: "The moral duty of man consists in
imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation toward
all his citizens." Goodness and moral duty are facilitated, if not ensured, by the harmony
5 of interests that reigns among all people. Individual goodness and harmony, however,
have been obscured by corrupt forms of government. Paine ([1791] 1969, 169) noted that
"man, were he not corrupted by [non-democratic] governments, is naturally the friend of
man, and that human nature is not itself vicious." While monarchy corrupted societies at
all levels, it is especially acute at the individual level. Paine ([1792] 1908, 286) argued
how "the inhabitants of a monarchical country are often intellectually degenerate."
Democratic revolution would free mankind from these corrupting influences and man's reason would emerge quickly to transform the world. Paine ([1791] 1969, 230) celebrated this rapid progress in both domestic and international relations:
There is a morning of reason rising upon man on the subject of government, that has not appeared before. As the barbarism of the present old governments expires, the moral condition of nations with respect to each other will be changed. Man will not be brought up with the savage idea of considering his species as his enemy, because the accident of birth gave the individuals existence in countries distinguished by different names.
Perhaps most importantly, Paine ([1791] 1969, 178) predicted that the transition to this
'morning of reason' would be swift and he doubted whether "monarchy and aristocracy will continue seven years longer in any of the enlightened countries in Europe." Paine was confident that Europe would be democratically ruled by the end of the 18th century.
The ease by which social transformation will occur remains one of the most distinctive characteristics of revolutionary liberal thought.
Paine's example of political revolution was the United States. Paine's optimism regarding the formation of liberal institutions was largely a consequence of what he witnessed in America. For Paine, America in the 18th century was a least-likely but confirming case for a naturally emerging harmony. If individuals from different nations
6 and religions could come to live harmoniously in America, Paine ([1791] 1969, 188)
reasoned, these virtues could be instilled throughout humanity:
If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable.
Paine ([1791] 1969, 182) stressed how America's "settlers are emigrants from different
European nations, and of diversified professions of religion, retiring from the governmental persecutions of the old world, and meeting in the new, not as enemies, but as brothers." The peaceful diversity that Paine observed in America would serve as his model of a new democratic world founded on international brotherhood. Paine's
commitment to ensuring the rights of all humanity, regardless of national attachment,
stands at the forefront of his international-liberalism in international relations.
Given this goodness and reason inherent to man, democratic institutions must be pursued. Democracy would not only ensure human rights but would secure peace between states: In Common Sense, Paine ([1776] 1986, 80) pointed out that the republics of the world tended to be peaceful: "Holland and Swisserland are without wars, foreign or domestic." According to Paine ([1776] 1986, 95), this peace results from the democratic tendency to "negotiate the mistake" rather than letting regal pride swell "into a rupture with foreign powers." Paine's ([1791] 1969, 98) most famous proclamation comes in
Rights of Man, where he acknowledged that "The right of war and peace is in the nation.
Where else should it reside, but in those who are to pay the expense." Promoting
Democracy has been one of the recurrent themes of American interactions with the
7 world. The question is not whether to promote democracy, but how best to promote
democracy. Paine had clear answers to how to promote democracy.
3) Paine and Military Intervention to Spread Democracy
Paine was a strong advocate of military intervention to spread democracy. In his
1792 dedication of Rights of Man, Paine promised to join the French general Lafayette in
"the Spring Campaign" that will "terminate in the extinction of German despotism, and in
establishing the freedom of all Germany." Paine's justification for a military intervention
was clear: "When France shall be surrounded with revolutions, she will be in peace and
safety." France's national security, Paine reasoned, depended upon extending democracy
to neighboring states, even by force of arms.
Paine tried to justify intervention in England with the same national security
logic. Paine ([1798] 1945, 1403) argued that "there will be no lasting peace for France,
nor for the world, until the tyranny and corruption of the English government be
abolished, and England, like Italy, become a sister Republic." Again, Paine presented a
vision of an interdependent, globalized world where all democracies would be faced with
constant threats from non-democratic states. The solution was to foster or force
democratic governance the world around.
Paine publicly advocated intervention in England. While still an active member of the French Assembly, he ([1798] 1945, 1404) offered a "small patriotic donation" of
"five-hundred livres" to help finance a French-led "descent" on England. According to
Paine's ([1804] 1908, 680) account, Bonaparte was to command the descent. "By agreement between him and me, I was to accompany him...to give the people of England an opportunity of forming a government for themselves, and thereby bring about peace."
8 Paine never considered this an invasion but rather the effort to help lead the English people away from an oppressive tyranny. Paine envisioned how a liberated English people would quickly join the family of democratic nations and help usher in a new period of global peace and prosperity.
The military interventions that Paine championed, however, would be relatively small by 18th century military standards. The descent on England, for instance, could be
funded by "small patriotic donations." No large naval vessels would be needed. Instead,
Paine ([1804] 1908) advocated the use of his small gunboats to be rowed across the
channel. For Paine, military force could topple governments but could not transform
societies. Rather, as was the case in England, military force would free progressive
factions from within to bring about rapid political transformation. Thompson (1963) chronicled Paine's collaborations with various English reformers seeking to democratize the regime. Once in England, persuasion and reason would prove more valuable than
military might.
Paine's enthusiasm toward these types of interventions to spread democracy relate
directly to his optimism regarding human nature and reason—these attributes that can be
termed somewhat distinctively American. Tyrannical forms of government rob
individuals of their natural goodness. For Paine ([1791] 1969, 182), once "governmental
persecutions" are removed mankind will come together "not as enemies, but as brothers."
Paine's ([1791] 1969, 178) excessive optimism is most evident in his predictions that
republican governments would establish themselves across Europe within seven years. In
Paine's world view, if individuals were given the opportunity to reason freely, they would
9 promptly embrace democracy, peace, and justice. Led by lofty views of human reason and goodness, revolutionary liberals continue to envision rapid global transformations.
Conclusion:
Paine's optimism regarding human reason and progressive political transformations have held pretty constant in terms of an American outlook and policies with the rest of the world. From Tom Paine, to Woodrow Wilson, to George W. Bush,
Americans tend to view political change in the world to be a relatively easy task and one that can be led by the American military power. To conclude, I will bring you back to a dialogue between Americans and British decision-making nearly a century ago. In one famous exchange: After Woodrow Wilson's intervention in Mexico, a British emissary broached the topic of objectives to Wilson: “When I go back to England I shall be asked to explain your Mexican policy. Can you tell me what it is?” Wilson supposedly replied: “I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men!” In addition to Mexico, the Wilson efforts to bring good government led to interventions in
Haiti, the Dominican Republic, among others. Perhaps bemused by how Americans intended to “teach the South Americans to elect good men,” British Foreign Secretary Sir
Edward Grey pressed Wilson’s Ambassador in London. What emerged is one of the most noted exchanges on American intervention to impose good governance:
Grey asked, “Suppose you have to intervene, what then?” “Make them vote and live by their decisions,” replied Walter Hines Page, the American Ambassador to London. “But suppose they will not so live?” asked Grey. “We’ll go in again and make them vote again.” “And keep this up for 200 years?” “Yes. The United States will be here 200 years and it can continue to shoot men for that little space until they learn to vote and rule themselves."
10 While this dialogue may seem far too fitting the contemporary situation, under- riding these types of policies are recognitions of an interdependent, globalized world and an irrepressible optimism regarding human nature and the ability to easily form progressive political institutions. This optimism, a long-held attribute of Americans, can be clearly identified in the thought of Tom Paine. This is why picking up Paine's international thought may lead to a better understanding of America's often unique approaches to the challenges of living in a globalized world.
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