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Thomas Paine was a radical writer whose ideas grew out of the times through which he lived and whose importance lay in his ability to move public opinion by reaching a readership beyond traditional elite .Edward Royle examines his impact on and liberal thought. Thomas Paine aine was born into short period working as a teacher Thomas Paine so necessary to their livelihoods, an artisan family in in London, he was reappointed (1737–1809) and their resentment at the use , , on in where he married his by the higher classes of paper bills 29 January 1737. His landlady’s daughter and helped and promissory notes. This fed father, a stay-maker run their tobacconist’s shop. into his anti-aristocratic politics Pand a Quaker, sent his son to the Bankruptcy, the breakdown of and his suspicion of paper money. local grammar school where he his marriage, and a second dis- Paine’s political ideal was always was well educated in English but missal from the Excise then led to be that of the small, independ- not in Latin, for his father did him to emigrate to ent producer, free from oppres- not approve of the pagan clas- in 1774. sion and exploitation from above sics. Thus spared learning the From this first stage in his and from poverty below. He had classical forms of rhetoric which life Paine took experiences that gained experience of the lat- were then conventional among shaped his subsequent politi- ter when he served on the vestry the educated, Paine’s later writ- cal thought. As an unenthusias- at Lewes where, among other ten style appeared to his con- tic member of the hated Excise things, he had to share in the temporaries as fresh, direct and Service, he knew at first hand administration of the poor law. open to the less well-educated the unfairness of the tax bur- Finally, he took from this first public. Its cadences and imagery den, and the oppressive power stage of his career experience of remain remarkably accessible to of the eighteenth-century state. organising and expressing pro- the modern reader. Following This may have predisposed him test, having taken up the cause the early death in 1760 of his first towards the Americans, whose of the excise officers, whose low wife, the daughter of an excise revolt against Britain was pro- pay contrasted unfavourably with officer, he applied to join the voked by the imposition of new that of the excise supervisors and Excise Service and in 1764 was excise duties. As an artisan and collectors. His first pamphlet was appointed to the dis- failed shopkeeper he also appreci- The Case of the Officers of the Excise trict. He was, however, soon dis- ated the economic insecurities of (1772) and it was while lobbying missed for allegedly neglecting small tradesmen, particularly the for this in London that he met his duties. Four years later, after a problem of the lack of coinage, , the colonial

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 21 thomas paine agent for Pennsylvania, who gave in scientific experiments and importance, indeed, was written him an introduction to his friends in particular his plan for an iron up by the for its own in Philadelphia. bridge. propagandist purposes. He was The new world that Paine Political events in France soon convicted of in Sep- entered in 1774 would have created a new opportunity for his tember 1792, and, thereafter, sedi- seemed familiar to him, with literary talents. The tious intent could be imputed to many of his English experiences of 1789 was widely welcomed any who sold his works or praised replicated in an enhanced form. in Britain, where friends of the his ideas. Philadelphia had a vibrant liter- saw it as By September 1792, Paine had ary culture of newspapers and cof- another stage on the way to lib- moved on again and was in France fee houses in which the common erty and . But one such where, true to his principles, he issues of the day were discussed friend, , took a supported the abolition of the much as they had been back in very different view. Sooner than but not the execution Lewes. Paine quickly grasped the most of his contemporaries, he of the king. As a member of the essence and tone of public affairs, saw that the French were tearing , he joined and was soon contributing to the up tradition and he feared for the the moderate Girondin fac- Pennsylvania . Then, in consequences of a rootless and tion and so fell foul of the more January 1776, he wrote the first of theory-based revolution founded extreme , and for a time his three most significant works: on abstract . In November he was held in the Luxembourg a short pamphlet entitled Com- 1790 he published these doubts prison under sentence of death. It mon Sense, which denounced the as Reflections on the Revolution in was at this time that he composed oppressive government of George France. Paine was one of many his third great work, The Age of III and demanded an independ- to rush to refute this work, - , written in two parts before ent America. This was more than lishing in February 1791 Part 1 and during his time in prison and all but a minority of Americans of , his second great published in 1794–95. In this work would have demanded at this time work of political propaganda. In he applied to Christianity and the but it caught the flow of opinion this work, and especially in Part 2, Bible the same remorseless logic and made Paine a key player in issued a year later, Paine employed and scathing prose with which events over the next few years. the same logic as he had earlier he had earlier attacked the Brit- Once the war had broken out applied to the American situa- ish monarchy and constitution. and was initially going badly for tion. The French were defended Ironically, Paine’s motivation the colonists, their spirit was ral- but, more importantly, the Brit- was conservative. He was writing lied by the encouraging rhetoric ish system was attacked. With a from within the British tradition of Paine’s Crisis papers, first pub- characteristically pithy aphorism of Natural to support lished in the Pennsylvania Journal Paine pronounced that ‘An hered- belief in the of Nature and in December 1776. The ringing itary governor is as inconsistent against the materialistic tones with which the first Cri- as an hereditary author’ and he of like his friend sis paper opened – ‘These are dismissed Burke’s florid rhetoric Condorcet. But his popular lan- the times that try men’s souls’ – with the telling image: ‘He pit- guage proved a gift to his political ensured that Paine will always ies the plumage but forgets the opponents and an embarrassment have a place at the forefront of dying bird’. Rights of Man became Paine to many of his friends in Brit- modern English political propa- one of the most influential and ain and America, as his religious ganda. But he was not a diplomatic widely circulated political tracts essentially iconoclasm was branded atheism man and, whether from naivety or of the , with 200,000 cop- and used to discredit still further courageousness, he proved better ies said to have been sold in the belonged to his republican views. When Paine at making enemies than friends. first two years. Though this fig- was released in 1795 and returned He failed to appreciate that Amer- ure is probably an exaggeration, that growing to America, he found the country ica, like , was an unequal it is certainly true that the work he had helped to shape cold and and that the colonial lead- was widely distributed, reissued, number of unfriendly towards him. Only ers were neither so radical nor so and avidly read and discussed by a few loyal friends were there low born as the stay-maker from tradesmen and artisans in radi- radical free- to support him in his declining Norfolk. When he used state cal throughout urban years, which ended in New York papers to expose a corrupt arms Britain. Against the background market econ- in June 1809. deal with the French in 1778–79, of the war between Britain and Within Paine’s political writ- he was forced to resign as secre- France, and the threat of an Irish omists who ings, notably Rights of Man Part tary to the Committee on Foreign rising and a French invasion, derived their 2 and also the brief Agrarian Jus- Affairs, and when he defended the Paine’s advocacy proved to be tice (1796), there is a programme Bank of Pennsylvania’s refusal to both a blessing and a curse for ideas from for social and economic action. issue more paper money, he was British : a blessing because Paine essentially belonged to that accused of forgetting the poor. it focused the argument against the Scottish growing number of radical free- Perhaps a little weary and disil- Burke and the British constitution market economists who derived lusioned with the of and gave it popular expression; Enlighten- their ideas from the Scottish the infant now it no a curse because its extremism Enlightenment and . longer needed – nor, apparently, could be used to tar even moder- ment and His economics, like his politics, valued – his support, he returned ate reformers (the majority) with were about the of the to Europe to forward his interest the republican brush. Paine’s Adam Smith. individual. Government was ‘a

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and against monopolies, but an Further reading advocate of new taxes on the rich; The work of resurrecting Paine’s reputation owed much to the American rationalist preacher, Moncure a constitutional reformer, but one D. Conway, whose The Life of Thomas Paine with a history of his literary, political and religious career in who was not only a democrat but America, France, and England, 2 vols. (1892) and The Writings of Thomas Paine, 4 vols. (1894–96) were a republican. His extreme reputa- published by G. P. Putnam in New York. tion was exaggerated by his oppo- nents and the tradition of support The fullest modern collection of Paine’s writings is Philip S. Foner (ed.), The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, 2 vols. (New York: Citadel Press, 1945), to which should now be added Hazel Burgess (ed.), Thomas for Paine that was passed down to Paine: A collection of unknown writings (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), although the latter was the nineteenth century was sus- published too late to be consulted for this essay. tained – with the notable excep- tion of – only Two important studies, which differ in some respects from the interpretation offered here, are Gregory by men and women who were Claeys, Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought (London: Unwin Hyman, 1995) and , Paine not ashamed to be called repub- (Oxford: , 1989). Good recent surveys include John Keane, Tom Paine. A Political licans and atheists. So although Life (London: Bloomsbury, 1995) and a collection of articles by Bernard Vincent, published as The Paine’s ideas in the later nine- Transatlantic Republican: Thomas Paine and the Age of (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005). teenth century sat easily on the radical edge of mainstream Lib- necessary evil’. Monopolies were to remain to underpin eralism, this was seldom acknowl- evil and against the public inter- . Without property the edged because the name of Paine est, but there was one monopoly small man could expect neither continued to have the whiff of – the hereditary interest in land independence nor . Paine’s brimstone about it. He remained – which pressed particularly hard ideal, as expressed in Rights of Man, marginalised until at least the end on the poor. His contribution to was that ‘Every man is a proprie- of the century, after which his the contemporary debate about tor in government, and considers it reputation was gradually rehabili- the poor laws was conventionally a necessary part of his business to tated until, at the bicentenary of radical in that he thought they understand. It concerns his inter- American Independence, his part should be abolished, but he was est, because it affects his prop- in that struggle could at last be unconventional in that he wanted erty. He examines the cost, and recognised, even by a conserva- them to be replaced by a progres- compares it with the advantages.’ tive like President Reagan. In sive tax on real estate to provide Here we have political equality Britain, with less justification, the work for the unemployed, educa- expressed in the language of the twentieth century witnessed an tion for children, for the market and underpinned by utili- attempt to adopt Paine for social- aged, and gifts for all on the occa- tarian philosophy. This was the ism, a view which failed to take sions of their births, marriages and voice of the tax collector and the into account the essential radical- deaths as compensation for the loss Lewes vestry man, not the prophet liberalism of Paine’s writings. of their birth right in the land. of . In Paine’s thought, Yet, in 1989, the true Paine-ite This was certainly provoca- politics were always primary, all moment of 1789 was recaptured tively radical and added to con- else flowing from that fact. This when, with the acknowledged servative prejudice against his remained the message of failure of socialist regimes, politi- views, but, as for a hundred years and more. cal change was seized upon once pointed out in Rights of Infants The significance of Paine’s again by across (1797), Paine was prepared to sell views has been much debated. His Europe as the necessary precon- the birthright of the people for ideas were certainly radical when dition for restoring the welfare of ‘poor beggarly stipends’ of a few compared with the mainstream of the people. pounds. Unlike Spence, Paine did his times but to see him as a fore- not assert the inalienable right of runner of modern socialism and a Edward Royle is Emeritus Professor the people to common ownership founder of the is both of History at the University of York. of the land. Perhaps for this rea- fanciful and unhistorical. His He began his research in Cambridge son he left no band of disciples to ideas were the creation of the later in the 1960s, publishing studies of urge his views on the nineteenth- eighteenth century and can be popular radicalism and century land reform movement, understood only in that context. between 1791 and 1915, and has since which looked instead to Spence Paine existed at the extreme edge researched and written about various for inspiration. Paine’s economics of contemporary opinion: belief aspects of radicalism, and the were rooted in his politics and he in God, but in not Chris- broader social history of Britain since was always an upholder of private tianity; belief in the the mid-eighteenth century. property in the liberal tradition of , whereby the right to resided in the Liberal Democrat History Group news added value created by improve- ment. He was perhaps naive in his Join our email mailing list for news of History Group meetings and publications expectation that his – the fastest and earliest way to find out what we’re doing. To join the list, send a on ground values would destroy blank email to [email protected]. the landed classes but he funda- Also see us on the web at: mentally thought that, because • www.liberalhistory.org.uk property underpinned political • www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup power, it was essential for private • act.libdems.org.uk/group/libdemhistory

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