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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Thomas Paine Biography PAINE , Thomas, author and statesman, born in Norfolk, England, Jan. 29, 1737; died in New York City, June 8, 1809. He was the son of a stay-maker, under whom he learned that art, but later became attached to a government custom-house, and afterward had charge of a tobacco manufactory. He was from nature a devoted republican, giving much attention to the study of political questions. In 1774 he came to the United States, and edited for a time the "Pennsylvania Magazine" at Philadelphia. In 1776 he published a pamphlet entitled "Common Sense," in which he maintained the cause of the colonies against England, and a year later published his "Crisis." These publications won him the friendship of Franklin, Washington, and other leaders, and congress rewarded him by appointing him secretary of the committee of foreign affairs. It is thought commonly that these two works of Paine were the means of consolidating the army in favor of independence, and, when a committee of loyalists had been appointed to make a reply to them, it dissolved on the grounds that it regarded the propositions advanced as unanswerable. The first words of the "Crisis" are "These are the times that try men's souls," and they became a battle-cry of the patriots. In 1779 Paine became clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature, and congress, in 1785 granted him the New Rochelle farm and $3,000 in cash. He returned to England in 1787, where he published, in 1791, his celebrated "Rights of Man," the most famous answer written to Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France," but it compelled him to flee to France for safety. There he was treated with the greatest respect and elected to the national convention, where he favored Louis XVI., who was then on trial. This course offended Robespierre, and he was confined in prison eleven months, escaping the guillotine only by accident. While in prison he wrote a portion of the "Age of Reason," the first part of it having been completed before his confinement and the whole was published in 1784. This work treats largely of revealed religion, the author holding that Christianity is not the true religion, and by its publication he forfeited the friendship of many former associates in America and Europe. In 1802 he returned to the United States, and the remainder of his life was spent in the study of mechanical inventions and political questions in New York City. The Teachers' and Pupils' Cyclopędia, Vol. III (Kansas City: Bufton Book Co., 1909) 1350. |