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STUDIES IN AMERICAN POPULAR HISTORY AND CULTURE Edited by Jerome Nadelhaft University of Maine A ROUTLEDGE SERIES STUDIES IN AMERICAN POPULAR HISTORY AND CULTURE JEROME NADELHAFT, General Editor HOLLYWOOD AND THE RISE OF PHYSICAL CULTURE Heather Addison HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE Romanticism, Realism, and Testimony John Allen NO WAY OF KNOWING Crime, Urban Legends, and the Internet Pamela Donovan THE MAKING OF THE PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS A Cultural and Intellectual History of the Antimission Movement, 1800–1840 James R.Mathis WOMEN AND COMEDY IN SOLO PERFORMANCE Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin, and Roseanne Suzanne Lavin THE LITERATURE OF IMMIGRATION AND RACIAL FORMATION Becoming White, Becoming Other, Becoming American in the Late Progressive Era Linda Joyce Brown POPULAR CULTURE AND THE ENDURING MYTH OF CHICAGO, 1871–1968 Lisa Krissoff Boehm AMERICA’S FIGHT OVER WATER The Environmental and Political Effects of Large-Scale Water Systems Kevin Wehr DAUGHTERS OF EVE Pregnant Brides and Unwed Mothers in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts Else L.Hambleton NARRATIVE, POLITICAL UNCONSCIOUS, AND RACIAL VIOLENCE IN WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA Leslie H.Hossfeld VALIDATING BACHELORHOOD Audience, Patriarchy, and Charles Brockden Brown’s Editorship of the Monthly Magazine and American Review Scott Slawinski CHILDREN AND THE CRIMINAL LAW IN CONNECTICUT, 1635–1855 Changing Perceptions of Childhood Nancy Hathaway Steenburg BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY DURING WORLD WAR II Weapons in the War of Ideas Patti Clayton Becker MISTRESSES OF THE TRANSIENT HEARTH American Army Officers’ Wives and Material Culture, 1840–1880 Robin Dell Campbell THE FARM PRESS, REFORM, AND RURAL CHANGE, 1895–1920 John J.Fry STATE OF ‘THE UNION’ Marriage and Free Love in the Late 1800s Sandra Ellen Schroer “MY PEN AND MY SOUL HAVE EVER GONE TOGETHER” Thomas Paine and the American Revolution Vikki J.Vickers “MY PEN AND MY SOUL HAVE EVER GONE TOGETHER” Thomas Paine and the American Revolution Vikki J.Vickers Routledge New York & London Published in 2006 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Published in Great Britain by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” ISBN 0-203-95979-5 Master e-book ISBN International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-97652-9 (Print Edition) (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-97652-7 (Print Edition) (Hardcover) Library of Congress Card Number 2005020482 No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vickers, Vikki J. My pen and my soul have ever gone together: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution/by Vikki J.Vickers.—1st ed. p. cm.—(Studies in american popular history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-97652-9 1. Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809. 2. Revolutionaries—United States—Biography. 3. Political scientists—United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Series: American popular history and culture (Routledge (Firm) JC178.V5V53 2005 320.51’092—dc22 2005020482 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/ and the Routledge Web site at http://www.routledge-ny.com/ To Steve, Who forced his heart and nerve and sinew To serve their turn long after they were gone Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter One The Pennsylvania Magazine 10 Chapter Two The Devil’s Advocate: Thomas Paine and the Making of Common 27 Sense Chapter Why Thomas Paine? 46 Three Chapter Four The Origins and Significance of Thomas Paine’s Religious Beliefs 61 Chapter Five “One God and No More”: The Strange Mission of Thomas Paine 83 Conclusion 101 Appendix Common Sense: An Historiographical Overview 106 Notes 113 Bibliography 138 Index 146 Acknowledgments In the eight years it took to write this book I had the great fortune to be guided, advised, and supported by many wonderful people. I forbear to mention them all, but there are a few to whom I am especially indebted. First and foremost I need to thank my parents, Robert and Claire. Their love and support has been immeasurable and invaluable. To John L. Bullion, who gave me free reign to explore this topic and never failed to remind me of its significance. A special thank you to Chad Ross who continues to teach me that sometimes the trees are as important as the forest. And to Hazel Burgess, my colleague Down Under, I would like to express my thanks for her article on Paine, and for sharing information she would probably have preferred to keep to herself. Finally, I’d like to thank James E.Murray, Gerard Clarfield, Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., and Richard Hocks—teachers and professors who inspired me to study history and taught me the skills I would need to pursue it professionally. Introduction Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England in the county of Norfolk, on January 29, 1737. He was the son of Joseph Pain and Frances Cocke Pain (Thomas added the “e” shortly before he came to America). Joseph Pain was a stay-maker by trade1 The Pains were not a poor family, nor did Joseph’s occupation qualify as one that would afford a luxurious lifestyle for his family. Rather the Pains were of the “middling sort,” able to afford to send young Thomas to the local grammar school in Thetford until he was thirteen. At the age of thirteen Paine’s father removed him from school to apprentice him into the family trade. Uninterested in the path his father had chosen for him, Paine, as an adult, drifted from one occupation to another, financial success always eluding him. At the age of twenty he enlisted aboard an English privateer during the Seven Years’ War. When he returned from his adventure he worked as a journeyman stay-maker in Kent, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Lambert. She died within a year of their nuptials (cause unknown) and Paine returned home to Thetford to study for a position as an exciseman.2 He drifted between positions as an excise officer, English teacher, and stay-maker until he settled in Lewes in 1768. Here he continued as an exciseman, and upon his landlord Samuel Ollive’s death, Paine married his daughter, Elizabeth. Paine then also became responsible for the tobacco and grocery store that Elizabeth inherited from her father. After the failure of his business and his dismissal from the excise in 1774, Paine decided to start over in America. While in London he became acquainted with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and with letters of introduction from the renowned diplomat and scientist, he departed for America in late October of 1774. Paine arrived in America on November 30, 1774 after a rough passage which left him weak and sick with what was probably typhoid. He came to America with the intention of starting his own school and settling down to a quiet life. Instead, he commenced his literary career by becoming an editor and contributor to The Pennsylvania Magazine. The battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 so moved Paine that he fully adopted the cause of American Independence from his native Britain, and set out to convince his fellow Americans to take up arms. Thus Common Sense (1776) was born, and likewise the political career and notoriety of Thomas Paine. He enlisted in the Continental Army (and was reputedly a much better writer than soldier) and served as aide de camp for Generals Nathanael Greene and George Washington. In addition, he was nominated by John Adams to the Continental Congress as a secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. Paine’s patriotism knew no bounds, and he insisted that all of the proceeds from his revolutionary writings (including Common Sense and The American Crisis papers) be donated to the war effort. At the conclusion of the war, Paine pursued scientific interests; he had plans to build a single-arch iron bridge of his own design over the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. His bridge was officially endorsed by both the Royal Society in London and the Académic des Sciences in Paris, but soon Paine’s attentions turned to another political Studies in American popular history and culture 2 cause:the French Revolution. The French had read and studied Paine’s incendiary pamphlet Common Sense, and when the author arrived on their shores they rewarded him with a seat as a delegate in the National Convention, and an honorary French citizenship in honor of his dedication to the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.3 In 1789 it appeared to Paine that his goal of freeing mankind from the shackles of political and religious tyranny would soon be realized on yet another conti nent. The Revolution in France being perhaps more important because of its proximity to England, a country Paine viewed as having the most despotic of all governments. Paine had long ceased to think of himself as an English man—it was the United States of America that Paine claimed as his country—a nation free of tyranny that he had helped to create.

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