Episode 867: Founding Fathers – Thomas Paine

The lives of these men are essential to understanding the American form of government and our ideals of liberty. The Founding Fathers all played key roles in the securing of American independence from Great Britain and in the creation of the government of the United States of America. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
On this episode. In this world, the lives of these
men are essential to understand the American form of government
and our ideals of liberty. The Founding Fathers all played
key roles in securing American independence from Great Britain and
in the creation of the government of the United States
of America. And now the life of Thomas Paine. Although

(00:36):
Thomas pain is now considered an American hero, at the
time of his death, only six people attended his funeral,
and papers wrote negatively about him. He was not popular
and his reputation had been destroyed. His obituary ended with quote,
he had lived long, did some good and much harm.

(00:56):
And yet Pain was extraordinarily important in the American Revolution
and was really very different from the Founding Fathers. As
you'll see, He's a man who had a very complicated life,
very complicated beliefs, was deeply opposed to the British government,
and was enormously helpful to George Washington. But in the

(01:19):
end he was more of an opponent to order than
he was an advocate of a new order. Paine was
born on January twenty ninth, seventeen thirty seven, in the
small village of Thetford in Norfolk, England, to Joseph Payne
and Francis Cockpayne. He was an only child. His father

(01:40):
was a staymaker, a maker of well boned components for
women's courses. Payne attended seven years of formal education at
the Thetford Grammar School. He left school around the age
of twelve or thirteen and began an apprenticeship with his father.
He worked the trade for six years before running away
from home to seek an adventure at sea. The first

(02:04):
time he tried to run away, his father stopped him.
On a November morning in seventeen fifty six, at the
age of sixteen, he attempted to join the British privateer Terrible,
but his father found him in London and talked him
out of joining the crew. Payne later wrote, quote from
this adventure, I was happily prevented by the affectionate and

(02:27):
moral remonstrance of a good father, who, from his own
habits of life, being of the Quaker profession, must begin
to look upon me as lost. In April seventeen fifty seven,
he joined the crew of the privateer The King of Prussia,
where he spent six months at sea. Little is known
about Paine's experience on the voyage or what he did,

(02:49):
because he barely mentioned it in his writings. In seventeen
fifty nine he married Mary Lambert. She and their child
died in less than a year later in childbirth. In
seventeen sixty eight, Pain began work as an excise officer
on the Sussex coast. He was a tax collector. Pain

(03:10):
married Elizabeth Olive in seventeen seventy one. Pain served as
a tax collector for a short period, but in seventeen
seventy two Paine published his first piece, Quote Case of
the Officers of Excise, which he personally distributed members of Parliament,
urging them to improve wages and working conditions for England's

(03:32):
excise men, that is, England's tax collectors. This probably cost
him his job. Officially, the reason he was fired was
for neglecting his duties as a tax collector while going
to London to lobby for higher pay for tax collectors.
In this piece, his first real effort at public advocacy,
he wrote, quote an augmentation of salary sufficient to enable

(03:56):
them to live honestly and competently produce more good effect
than all the laws the land can enforce the generality
of such frauds, as the officers have been detected and
have appeared of a nature as remote from inherent dishonesty
as a temporary illness is from an incurable disease surrounded

(04:17):
with want, children and despair. What can the husband of
the father do? And no laws compel like nature, no
connections bind like blood. With an addition of salary, the
excise would wear a new aspect and recover its former constitution.
Languor and neglect would give place to care and cheerfulness.
Men of reputation and abilities would seek after it, and,

(04:40):
finding a comfortable maintenance, would stick to it. The unworthy
and the incapable would be rejected, the power of superiors
be re established, and laws and instructions receive new force.
The officers would be secured from the temptations of poverty,
and the revenue from the evils of it. Cure would
be as extensive as the complaint, and new health out

(05:03):
root the present corruptions. Quote pain. You can already see
in this very first pamphlet, his first effort at public advocacy.
He's already mastered the ability to write clearly. He's already
mastered the ability to present a case in an orderly
structured way. While Pain was busy lobbying, he and his

(05:23):
wife fell apart. In seventeen seventy four, Pain and his
wife signed a formal separation agreement. It's unclear why they
signed the separation agreement, but Pain never remarried nor have
any children. At some point in seventeen seventy four, it's
not clear whether this was before or after he separated
from his wife, he met Benjamin Franklin in London. Franklin

(05:47):
had become the lobbyist for the then province of Pennsylvania
went to London. In fact, it was in London that
Franklin realized he'd never be accepted by the British aristocracy,
and was said that he went to London as an
Englishman and he returned as an American. But one of
the key things was that in seventeen seventy four Franklin

(06:09):
met Thomas Payne and Franklin advised him to emigrate to America.
He gave him a letter of introduction to bring with him,
addressed to ben Franklin's son in law, Richard Bach. Franklin
was thirty eight at the time. In the September thirtieth,
seventeen seventy four, letter Franklin wrote, quote the bearer, mister

(06:29):
Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as an ingenious,
worthy young man. He goes to Pennsylvania with a view
of settling there. I request you to give me your
best advice and countenance, as he is quite a stranger there.
If you can put him in a way of obtaining
employment as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school,
or assistant surveyor, all of which I think him very capable, said,

(06:52):
he may procure a subsistence at least to him he
can make acquaintance and obtain a knowledge of the country.
You will do well and much oblige your affectionate father,
My love to Sally and the boys. Three months later,
Paine was on a ship to America, almost dying of scurvy.
After arriving in Philadelphia, Paine became the managing editor of

(07:14):
Philadelphia Magazine. Paine edited the magazine from February seventeen seventy
five to May seventeen seventy six. Pain was a major
contributor to the magazine, writing under the pseudonyms Amicus and Atlanticus.
On January twenty fourth, seventeen seventy five, before he became

(07:35):
the managing editor of Philadelphia Magazine, Paine wrote his first
essay on the importance of the press. This is pain quote.
The press has not only a great influence over our
manners and morals, but contributes largely to our pleasures. And
a magazine, when properly enriched, is very conveniently calculated for
this purpose. Voluminous works weary the patients, But here we

(07:59):
are invited by conciseness and variety. As I have formerly
received much pleasure from perusing these kinds of publications, I
wish the present success and have no doubt of seeing
a proper diversity blended to agreeable together, so as to
furnish out an oleo worthy of the company for whom
it is designed. I consider a magazine as a kind

(08:21):
of bee hive, which both allures the swarm and provides
room to store their suites. Its division in cells gives
every bee a province of its own. And although they
all produce hone, I'm sorry. And although they all produce honey,
yet perhaps they differ in their taste for flowers, and
extract with great dexterity from one, then from another. Thus

(08:43):
we are not all philosophers, all artists, nor all poets.
Thus was Pain describing his belief in the written word
and the importance of the written word. Pain was vocally
against slavery. On March eighth, seventeen seventy five, an anti
slavery essay written by Pain was published in both the

(09:05):
Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Adviser. A few weeks later,
on April fourteenth, seventeen seventy five, the first anti slavery
society in America was formed in Philadelphia, with Pain as
one of the founding members. Now notice he's only been
there a very short time. Already, he's active as a citizen,
he's active as a writer. He's obviously a very engaged,

(09:28):
very energitic person. In his March eighth, seventeen seventy five essay,
Pain wrote, quote two Americans, that some desperate wretches should
be willing to steal enslave men by violence and murder
for gain is rather lamentable than strange, but that many civilized,
nay Christianize people should approve and be concerned in the

(09:50):
savage practice is surprising and still persisted, though it has
been so often proved contrary to the light of nature,
to every principle of justice and human vanity, and even
good policy by a succession of eminent men in several
late publications. Our traders in men and unnatural commodity must
know the wickedness of the slave trade if they attend

(10:13):
to reasoning or the dictates of their own heart, such
as shun and stifle. All these willfully sacrificing conscience and
the character of integrity to that golden idol. So here
we are with Pain. Already the pamphleteer argue in favor
of freedom over slavery. But now comes the moment that

(10:36):
makes Pain a historic figure of the first order, and
that truly makes him one of the great leaders of
the American Revolution. Pain publishes Common Sense anonymously on January tenth,
seventeen seventy six, as quote by an Englishman, due to
fears that it could be considered treason. Remember, you're dealing

(10:59):
with king, who is basically a monarch imposed by God.
Any direct criticism the king can be translated into treason,
into a failure to be a loyal citizen. That's why
so much of eighteenth century dialogue will refer back, for example,
to the Roman Republic, or will have some other reference point.

(11:21):
Everybody knows it's written about the present, but you can't
say it directly. So here's pain as an englishman worried
that if people know he wrote it, he might be
considered a traitor. And remember he's writing this in January

(11:54):
seventeen seventy six, before the Americans have declared their independence.
So as an Englishman, he writes so brilliantly that in
the first three months Common Sense sold one hundred and
twenty thousand copies. By the end of the revolution, five

(12:16):
hundred thousand copies were sold. Since the estimated population of
the colonies of the time, excluding Native Americans and African
American slaves, was two point five million, and estimated twenty
percent of the colonists owned a copy. After its publication,
many American newspapers praised the piece. So here's a document

(12:37):
which is sweeping across the country, being very widely read,
and it is shaping people's thinking about this historic moment.
This is a moment of indecision. Nobody's yet really thought
clearly about declaring independence. They know they're mad at the
English government, they know they feel cheated, by Parliament. They

(12:58):
know that the arrogance of the English bish government is
driving of nuts because they're such a deep sense of
freedom thereafter all, thousands of miles away, they're on the
edge of a continent. They're earning that with their own
hard work. They're taking their own risks with Indians. I mean,
from a standpoint of the Americans, London has become a
place which is despotism rather than a place which is

(13:20):
protecting them. And so pain is here beginning to explain
to them how to think about where they are now.
The Pennsylvania Evening Posts on February thirteenth, seventeen seventy six says, quote,
if you know the author of common sense, tell him.
He has done wonders and worked miracles, made Torris wigs,
and washed Blackamore's white. He has made a great number

(13:42):
of converts here. His style is plain and nervous, his
facts are true, his reasoning just and conclusive. Quote. I
might point out that Whigs were the loyal opposition to
the government, and so to be a wig was in
fact to be critical of the established government, and has
been pointed out by many historians. The Americans who decided

(14:05):
to rebel were essentially in the Whig tradition. They were
very close to the English Whigs in their thinking and
in their sense of identity. So when the pennsylvani Evening
Post says that he has made Torries Whigs, he is saying, basically,
he's converting people from defending the established government of England
into being critics of the government of England. The New

(14:26):
York Journal on March seventeen, seventeen seventy six says, quote,
in your famous pamphlet entitled Common Sense, by which I
am convinced the necessitive independence to which I was before
a verse, you have given liberty to every individual to
contribute materials for that great building, the Grand Charter of

(14:46):
American Liberty. Now think about this. Here's this englishman who's
come over, and all of a sudden he captures, He
articulates the spirit of the age. He gives words to
people who had sort of thought about it, but they
didn't know how to say it. And suddenly he becomes
the catalyst for several hundred thousand Americans to begin to

(15:10):
move towards independence. The New London Gazette, published in Connecticut
on March twenty second, seventeen seventy six, says quote to
the author of the pamphlet and titled common Sense, Sir,
in declaring your own you have declared the sentiments of millions.
Your production may justly be compared to a land flood
that sweeps all before it. We were blind, but on

(15:32):
reading these enlightening works, the scales have fallen from our
eyes close Now it's just remarkable that he has had
that kind of an impact, and of course, as a
part of that process. That's why I say that in
many ways he's one of the founding fathers, even though

(15:53):
culturally and an income and in stature he doesn't really
quite fit with them. He's more of a rabble rouser,
more of an eye outsider, more of a radical, as
you'll see in a minute. But he's now established a believability,
a connection with probably close to a million Americans out

(16:13):
of a population of about two and a half million. However,
the revolution doesn't go well. July fourth is terrific. Everybody
is excited. They pass the eclati independence. They've already created
an army in Massachusetts, and to unify the country, they
sent a Virginian, George Washington, to head up the army.

(16:34):
In Massachusetts. Washington as soon as he gets a copy
of the declaration as it read to the troops. Washington
understands the importance of morale, the importance of propaganda, the
importance of getting people that are said what they're doing.
And yet, despite their great victory in Boston, driving the
British out of the city, they fall on hard times.

(16:58):
The British have the power of the ocean, because the
Royal Navy dominates, they move their military. Washington marches down
to Brooklyn, his army begins to be shattered. He barely
survives thanks to a providential fog coming in so people
can't even see what's happening, and they manage to get
their army across from Brooklyn to Manhattan, when if the

(17:21):
weather had been clear, the Royal Navy would have sunk
the entire American army. He loses Fort Washington, about three
thousand troops surrendering, and his army gradually shrinks from a
high point of thirty thousand in September down to about
twenty five hundred effectives by Christmas, and people are defeated. Despondent, demoralized,

(17:47):
Washington on the Long March across New Jersey runs into Paine,
who has signed up as a rifleman, and he says,
I don't need you as a rifleman, but I need
a new pamphlet. I needed explanation. You've got to tell
us now, why has this become so hard? And so
the man who wrote common sense and helped the country

(18:09):
decide it wanted to be independent goes to Philadelphia, it
goes back to writing and produces the crisis entitled the
American Crisis, and it begins with some of the most
amazing words ever written, and I'm quoting pain. These are
the times that try men souls. The summer soldier and

(18:32):
the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the
service of their country. But he that stands it now
deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny
like hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this
consolation with us that the harder the conflict, the more

(18:54):
glorious the triumph. So here's this great pamphleteer coming back
once again, saying, Okay, I help convince you ought to
be independent. Now I'm going to convince you got to
stick with it. As Washington and the extraordinary courageous last
throw of the dice, takes his troops to cross the

(19:17):
Delaware on Christmas night in a snowstorm with large blocks
of ice in the river, gets them to march eight
miles in the dark to surprise eight hundred professional German
soldiers who collapse and are captured. As the men are
getting on the boat to cross the river, Washington has

(19:37):
the officers reading the crisis to remind them, this is
why we're here, this is what we're trying to do. Yes,
it's hard, but we can do it. So Payne has
two great impacts. His first great impact is getting people
to decide that they want to be independent. His second

(20:02):
great impact is convincing them to keep working and to
keep fighting. Now, in this period, Paine is actually serving
serve as a war correspondent. He's reporting to the country
and he actually wrote sixteen articles sitting around the campfire
about what's going on during the retreat of Warshington's forces

(20:23):
from New York through New Jersey in December seventeen seventy six,
Payne wrote an account which was published in the Pennsylvania
Journal only in January twenty ninth, seventeen seventy seven. This
is after he's written the Crisis, after he's helped the
Americans decide they are going to keep fighting and they're
going to stand it. But here's what he writes. I'm

(20:44):
quoting pain now from the Pennsylvania Journal. Fort Washington being
obliged to surrender by a violent attack made by the
whole British army on Saturday, the sixteenth of November, the
generals determined to evacuate Fort Lee, which, being principally intended
preserved the communication with Fort Washington was becoming a manner useless.
The stores were ordered to be removed, and great part

(21:07):
of them was immediately sent off. The enemy, knowing the
divided state of her army and that the terms of
the soldiers enlistments would soon aspire, conceived the design of
penetrating into the Jerseys and hoped, by pushing their successes,
to be completely victorious. Accordingly, on Wednesday morning, the twentieth November,

(21:27):
it was discovered that a large body of British and
Hessian troops had crossed the North River and landed about
six miles above the fort. As our force was inferior
to that of the enemy, the fort unfinished and on
a narrow neck of land. The garrison was ordered to
march for Hackensack Bridge, which, though much nearer the enemy
than the fort, they quietly suffered our troops to take

(21:50):
possession of. The principal loss suffered at Fort Lee was
that of the heavy cannon, the greatest part of which
was left behind. Our troops continued at Hackensack Bridge and
town that day and half of the next, when the
inn clemency of the weather, the want of quarters, and
approach of the enemy obliged them to proceed to Aquaconock

(22:11):
and from thence to Newark, a party being left at
Aquaconack to observe the motions of the enemy. At Newark,
our little army was reinforced by Lord Sterling's and Colonel
Hans brigades, which had been stationed at Brunswick. Three days
after our troops left Hackensack, a body of the enemy
crossed the Passaic above Aquaconock and made their approaches slowly

(22:31):
towards Newark, and seemed extremely desirous that we should leave
the town without their being put to the trouble of
fighting for it. The distance from Newark to Aquacnack is
nine miles, and they were three days in marching that
distance from Newark. Our retreat was to Brunswick, and it
was hoped that the assistance of the Jersey militia would
enable General Washington to make the banks of the Raretan

(22:54):
the bounds of the enemy's progress. But on the first
of December, the army was greatly weakened by the experts
in terms of enlistments of the Maryland and Jersey flying
camp and the militia not coming in so soon as
was expected. Another retreat was the necessary consequence. Our army
reached Trenton on the fourth of December, continued there till

(23:15):
the seventh, and then on the approach of the enemy,
it was thought proper to pass the Delaware. Now that
was the sort of description for the whole country of
the way in which Washington's army is shrinking and getting
to a point where it almost ceases to exist. In fact,
at one point, in designing a very daring strategy, Washington

(23:35):
reassures his generals by pointing out that if the army
totally collapses, the revolution will be over. If the revolution
is over, every general at that meeting will be hung.
And therefore they have nothing to fear, because they have
nothing to lose. Has remarkable courage on the part of Washington,
and it was a remarkable intelligence by Washington to recognize

(23:57):
that Pain really was a person who could help understand
what's going on. Pain writes The Crisis four and September
seventeen seventy seven, which opens with the following, And I
think this is useful to us today, because it's as
true for us today as it was in seventeen seventy seven.

(24:17):
Pain wrote, those who expect to reap the blessings of
freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
And near the closed States, we fight not to enslave,
but to set a country free and to make room
upon the earth for honest men to live in. Now,
I think that's probably as good a capture of what

(24:39):
America is all about and of what we in our
generation also have to do. And in that sense, if
you allow him to, Pain talks to our generation fully
as much as he wrote for the founding father's generation.
You know. In seventeen seventy seven, Congress appointed Pain as
Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs. He held that

(25:00):
till early seventeen seventy nine, when he was forced to
resign as a result of what was called the Silas
Dean affair. Silas Dean was a member of the Early
Continent of Congress who was sent by Congress to France
to obtain financial and military assistance. He successfully obtained and
sent arms from France to America, but upon his return

(25:21):
to the States, he was accused of embezzlement and disloyalty
because of accusations that he charged France for the supplies
that were intended as gifts. These accusations were never proven,
but they ruined Dean's political career. Paine publicly denounced Dean's
private arms dealing in France, but in doing so revealed

(25:42):
secret negotiations with France, which led to his dismissal as
Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs later that year.
He was appointed Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. In March
of seventeen eighty, While Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Payne
wrote the preamble to the Act for the Great Dual
Abolition of Slavery, which was the first legislative measure for

(26:04):
the emancipation of slaves in America. Paine originally hoped this
Act would immediately abolish slavery, but because of opposition, he
was forced to write a compromise which outlined the gradual
emancipation of slaves and said the Act specified that every
child born into slavery after passing the Act would be
free upon reaching the age of twenty eight. The bill

(26:25):
passed with a vote of thirty four to twenty one.
So pain has had an experience both of being pro
freedom for the American colonies from Britain and being pro
freedom for the abolition of slavery. In seventeen eighty seven,
Paine returned to Britain but experienced persecution for his support

(26:46):
of the French Revolution. The French Revolution is a much
more radical the revolution than the American Revolution, and that
radicalism became a huge challenge to the very fabric of
British society. In seventeen ninety one, Payne wrote The Rights

(27:19):
of Man in response to the English writer and politician
Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, which was
written in seventeen ninety and Burke is proudly the most
famous conservative intellectual who's also a politician. Trying to think
through the threat of the radicalism of the French Revolution

(27:40):
so now Paine is writing defending the French Revolution. The
Rights of Man was originally printed by Joseph Johnson and
published in February twenty first, seventeen ninety one, but it
was a drawn for fear of prosecution by the government.
On March sixteenth, seventeen ninety one, J. S. Jordan published
Paine's ninety thousand word book. In the Rights of Man,

(28:02):
Pain wrote, quote, it is a perversion of terms to
say that a charter gives rights. It operates by a
contrary effect, that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently
in all the inhabitants, But charters, by annolling those rights
in the majority, leave the right by exclusion in the
hands of a few. They consequently are instruments of injustice.

(28:25):
The fact therefore must be that the individuals themselves, each
in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a
contract with each other to produce a government. And this
is the only mode in which governments have a right
to arise, and the only principle in which they have
a right to exist. Of course, if you think about it,

(28:46):
assists in direct repudiation of the entire model of kingship,
in which power goes from God to the king, and
the King gives you rights. Pain is saying the opposite.
He's saying, oh, no, power comes to you from God,
and then you get to decide whether or not you
want to have a contract with other people to create

(29:07):
a government. Now this writing is so radical for that
time that Pain is charged with libel. He flees to
France before being charged, and he never returns to England.
So now he's moved from the heroic defender and explainer
of the American Revolution to an advocate of a dramatically
more radical French Revolution. Paine wrote Georgejacques d'Antin, who's one

(29:33):
of the great leaders of the French Revolution, on May sixth,
seventeen ninety three. They'd originally hope to return to America
in seventeen eighty eight, but the French Revolution encouraged him
to stay. Paine wrote, quote, I am exceeding disturbed at
the distractions, jealousies, discontents, and uneasiness the reign among us,

(29:53):
in which if they continue, will bring ruin and disgrace
on the Republic. When I left America the seventeen eighty
seven is my intention to return the year following, but
the French Revolution, and the prospect that afforded of extending
the principles of liberty and fraternity through the greater part
of Europe had induced me to prolong my stale upwards

(30:13):
of six years. As soon as the constitution shall be established,
I shall return to America and be the future prosperity
of France. Ever so great, I shall enjoy no other
part of it than the happiness of knowing it. In
seventeen ninety two, Paine actually took a seat in the
National Convention. We become one of the four major writers
of a constitution for the Republic of France. So here

(30:37):
is an Englishman who helps create, intellectually the American system,
now is in France helping develop the French system, which
is far more radical than the American system. And of course,
in both cases he's opposed to Great Britain. In seventeen
ninety three, as a member of the National Convention, Pain

(30:59):
urged banishment not execution, of Louis of sixteenth in his family.
In November of seventeen ninety three, he was arrested and
imprisoned in Luxembourg prison for opposing the beheading of Louis
of sixteenth. Payne continued to write in published works while
in prison. He published The Age of Reason while in prisoned.

(31:19):
In seventeen ninety four, After eleven months in prison, through
the intervention of James Monroe, the ambassador to France, Paine
was released, narrowly escaping execution. In seventeen ninety six, Payne
published open letter of George Washington criticized him. Payne was
upset that after he expressed American citizenship while being imprisoned

(31:39):
in France, Washington and his administration did nothing to help
him get released. In the letter, Payne wrote, quote, Monopolies
of every kind marked your administration almost in the moment
of its commencement. The lands obtained by the revolution were
lavished upon partisans. The interest of the disbanded soldier was
sold to the specula. After fifteen years away, Paine remained

(32:04):
in France until eighteen oh two, when President Thomas Jefferson
invited him to return. On November fifteenth, eighteen oh two,
the National Intelliger Sir in washing d c. Published the
first of many letters from pain to the citizen of
the United States about his return to the States. Payne
wrote in his first letter, quote after an absence of

(32:26):
almost fifteen years, I am again returned to the country
in whose dangers I bore my share, and to whose
greatness I contributed my part. As this letter is intended
to announce my arrival to my friends and my enemies.
If I have any for I ought to have none
in America, and as introductory to others that will occasionally follow,
I shall close it by detailing the line of conduct

(32:47):
I shall pursue. I have no occasion to ask, and
do not intend to accept any place or office in
the government. There is none who could give me. There
would be in any ways equal to the profits I
could make as an author. I have an established fame
in the literary world. Could I reconcile it to my
principles to make money by my politics or religion. I
must be, in everything what I have ever been, a

(33:09):
disinterested volunteer. My proper sphere of action is on the
common floor of citizenship, and to honest men I give
my hand and my heart freely. I have some manuscript
works to publish, of which I shall give proper notice,
and some mechanical affairs to bring forward. They will employ
all my leisure time. I shall continue these letters as

(33:30):
I see occasion, and as to the low party prince
that choose to abuse me, they are welcome. I shall
not descend to answer them. I have been too much
used to such common stuff to take any notice of it.
The government of England honored me with a thousand martyrdoms
by burning me an effigy in every town in that country,
and their highlans in America may do this, said a

(33:51):
fresh I was can tell Thomas Paine thinks a lot
of himself, and he sees things focused on him. You
can also see that he is inherently controvers cannot help himself.
He is new ability to addit himself to make it
more acceptable. After his arrival, he found that his reputation
was mostly negative, with the press calling him an outrageous blasphemer,

(34:12):
a lying, drunken, brutal infidel, and a lily livered, sinful rouge,
among others. Upon his return to America, Pain resided on
and off at the farm that the State of New
York gave him in seventeen eighty four for his service
in the cause of independence. In eighteen oh five, Pain
moved to New York City, primarily on June eighth, eighteen

(34:32):
oh nine, Payne died in New York and was buried
on his farm in New Rochelle. Only six mourners were
present at his funeral. At the time, he was not
considered an American hero, as the New York Citizen included
in his obituary, he had lived long, did some good
and much harm. Years after his death in eighteen twenty one,

(34:54):
Thomas Jefferson wrote positively about Pain, quote, no writer has
exceeded Pain at ease and familiarity of style, and perspicuity
of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language.
And this he may be compared with doctor Franklin. And
indeed his Common Sense was for a while believed to

(35:15):
have written by doctor Franklin and published under the borrowed
name of Pain, who had come over with him from England.
I think in that sense Jefferson sort of captured it.
Pain was a remarkable pamphleteer. His first two great works,
Common Sense, which really moved the country towards independence, and

(35:35):
The Crisis, which really convinced Americans we had to stick
at it until we won, were historic and had an
enormous impact on the American Revolution and an entire generation
of people. His passion for taking on the British government
led him to the much more radical French Revolution, and

(35:57):
his desire to continuously have a sharp pen, which attacked
much more than it might have under other circumstances, ultimately
isolated him. But to understand America, to understand the role
of the common citizen, to understand how much the American
Revolution was, at its heart a popular revolution of everyday people,

(36:21):
people who'd been moved by reading a pamphlet, to be
reminded that ideas matter, and that it is the power
of ideas that drives everything else. That's the legacy of
Thomas Pain, and it's a legacy worth all of us
remembering and all of us teaching others about. Thank you

(36:43):
for listening to Founding Fathers week on Nutsworld. You can
learn more about Thomas Pain on our show page at
newtsworld dot com. Newsworld is produced by Gingish three sixty
and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan and our
researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show was
created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at

(37:06):
Gingrich three sixty. If you've been enjoying newtswork, I hope
you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with
five stars and give us a review so others can
learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of Newtsworld
consign up for my three free weekly columns at Ginrich
three sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm Newt Gingrich. This

(37:27):
is Newsworld