Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
is a somewhat controversial historical character, particularly when he is
regarded from a British perspective. He was British by birth and upbringing,
but spent much of life beyond its shores in support of causes that were not in Britain’s
interests.
In 1774 he left Britain and settled in Philadelphia
just as tensions between Britain
and her American colonies were beginning to reach an interesting stage. Paine
soon played an active role in support of the Revolution, writing a pamphlet
(“Common Sense”) that did much to persuade the colonists that they had a just
cause. He was later employed by the new American government in various
capacities, including undertaking a voyage to France in 1781 as part of a mission
to gain financial support for the new nation.
In 1787 he was back in France,
this time hoping to gain support and funding for his plan to build an iron
bridge, for which he had a designed a model. This project took him back to Britain, where an iron foundry in Rotherham was
persuaded to construct the bridge which was then built, from forged sections,
across the Thames in London
in 1790, but subsequently dismantled when it began to rust. However, in the
meantime revolution had broken out in France and Paine’s interests were
now diverted away from bridge-building and back towards his favourite
occupation of writing in support of liberty and against tyranny.
Paine’s most influential
work, “The Rights of Man”, was written in response to Edmund Burke’s
condemnation of the French Revolution in “Reflections on the Revolution in France”.
Both were published in 1791, although the second part of Paine’s work appeared
in 1792. Paine’s main theme was that one generation cannot bind another as to
the form of government it should adopt, and the constitution of a country is an
act of the people that constitute the government. In Paine’s view, the French
and American Revolutions were manifestations of the same wish to escape from
tyranny and establish “government by the people”. He also hoped that the
British people would follow the same course.
Tom Paine’s support was
well received by the new National Assembly. Not only was he granted honorary
French citizenship, but he was also elected by four “départements” to be their
Assembly representative. He took up the offer of the Calais
département and crossed the English Channel to
a rapturous response. The streets were lined with cheering crowds and he was
given a revolutionary cockade as the champion of liberty.
However, life as a
National Assembly deputy soon proved to be less desirable than Tom Paine might
have imagined. For one thing, his French was nothing like good enough for him
to follow the debates. More importantly, he soon found himself out of favour
with many of the deputies because of his deep opposition to capital punishment.
In Paine’s view,
revolution was about moving from barbarism towards civilization, and a country
that takes the lives of its own citizens, whatever their crime or offence, is
still a barbaric one. He therefore fiercely opposed moves to execute the
deposed King Louis XVI, proposing instead that he be exiled to the United States.
In his words:
“France has been the first of
European nations to abolish royalty. Let her also be the first to abolish the
penalty of death”.
However, his plea was in
vain and the King went to the guillotine in January 1793, to be followed in
October by his queen, Marie Antoinette. The same fate befell many more supposed
“enemies of the people” in the months that followed, and Tom Paine began to
fear that his head would also fall into a basket. He had definitely made some
powerful enemies through his opposition to the increasingly violent and
undemocratic turn that the Revolution was taking.
The knock at the door
came in the early morning of 28th December 1793 and Paine was taken
away to the Luxembourg
prison. However, he soon contracted a severe fever and spent several weeks
drifting in and out of consciousness. While in this state it was impossible for
him to stand trial and receive the inevitable punishment, and this gave time
for the American ambassador, James Monroe, to intervene on his behalf. However,
it was not until November 1794 that he was eventually released and taken to Monroe’s Paris
residence.
Tom Paine continued to
live in France until 1802, there being no
prospect of him ever being allowed back into Britain,
where he had been tried in his absence in 1792 and found guilty of treason.
While in France he met the up-and-coming
Napoleon Bonaparte and discussed plans for how the latter could invade Britain, even writing two essays that advocated such a
move. Eventually he moved back to the United States,
where he died in 1809 at the age of 72. Curiously, although he never returned
to the country of his birth, his bones did. The radical campaigner and writer
William Cobbett had them dug up and sent to England
as some sort of trophy for republicanism and liberalism, but they eventually
disappeared.
Tom Paine’s enthusiasm
for popular revolution received a severe rebuff at the hands of the French,
where his democratic theories came up against people who were more interested
in imposing their will by force and replacing one tyranny with another.
One of his problems in France was that his nationality was in question. His
message was one that overrode nationality, believing as he did that the
principles of social justice and self-determination were universal. However,
whether he was a citizen of France, Great Britain or the United States
was vital when it came to deciding whether he could be put on trial for his
life. If American, as he claimed on the basis of his taking citizenship during
the American War of Independence, he could claim protection from the
representatives of a friendly nation, but did his acceptance of a seat in the
National Assembly mean that he had thereby become a citizen of France? This uncertainty,
together with his illness, no doubt helped to save his life.
He was also not helped by
the flaws in his character that tended to turn people against him. For example,
he was self-important and vain, with a reluctance to listen to views that did
not accord with his own, and many people found him to be physically repulsive.
He was often drunk, shabbily dressed, and stinking from the ointments he used
to treat a skin disorder. He was not an easy person to like. Popular heroes
have not only to say and do the right things, but to look and act the part as
well. Tom Paine may have fitted one half of this requirement, but not the
other.
Whether Tom Paine is
regarded as a hero or a traitor may depend on one’s own nationality, which is
ironic given Paine’s own views. However, if one relies solely on his writings
as a measure of the man, the conclusion must be that he stood as a champion of
the rights of man (less so of woman) throughout the world, and the principles
he advanced are still very relevant today.
© John Welford
