'Common Sense' anniversary: The life and times of Thomas Paine (Part 4 of 7)

January 10, 5:13 PMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Political Issues Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Insert photo caption or credit here

English Fare

Paine returned to England in 1887 to seek investors for constructing a prototype iron bridge, his own invention. His bridge eventually did get built, but the entrepreneur lost money in the process.

Common Sense standing up (and his bridge not falling down) helped Paine enter "polite society." His proximity to Washington lent him caché, and Paine soon was caught up in European intrigues.

Paine was in Yorkshire, speaking about recent advances in modern technology, when French masses stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789. He visited Paris in late 1789 to see the new regime for himself, returning to London with a buoyant feeling of hope for French democracy. The next three years was a tale of travel between the two cities of London and Paris.

Paine viewed himself as an agent for world revolution. He spoke and debated in parlors and in print with opinion leaders like Burke, Fox, or Condorcet. They argued over the virtues and the vices of the French and American revolutions. They argued over monarchies. They asked if humanity is capable of self rule. Did such exalted sociality seem heady for a pauper's son?

In response to Burke condemning the French Revolution, Paine wrote and published his first full-length book, The Rights of Man. (He simultaneously republished the pamphlet Common Sense). Part I of The Rights of Man appeared in 1791 with Part II in 1792.

Guided by ideals more than by facts on the ground (such as Madame Guillotine and "The Terror" under Robespierre), Paine declared in his book that governments exist to guard the natural rights of people unable to ensure their rights without that government's help. The four inalienable rights he named are Liberty, Property, Security, and Resistance to Oppression.

In Part I of The Rights of Man, Paine argued for the ideal of a republic governed under a constitution with a bill of rights, elected leaders serving limited terms, and a judiciary accountable to the general public. He urged equal suffrage for all men, but not yet for all women. (Paine did support women's equality in other respects.)

In Part II, Paine called for the end of social divisions by virtue of birth, rank, economics or religion. He suggested specific social legislation for removing class inequities.

Paine wanted The Rights of Man to inspire in England the same revolutionary thirst for independence from the monarchy as Common Sense had inspired in America. Despite 200,000 copies sold by 1793, later passing 500,000 (making The Rights of Man the single most successful "bestseller" of the 18th century), Paine's treatise did not have the desired effect. The British monarchy persists.

The Rights of Man was suppressed in England by the Tory government of William Pitt, who wanted to get his hands on the author, still a British citizen. Fortunately, Paine had been safe in France since August 1792. Pitt nevertheless had paine tried in absentia before loyalists, who convicted him of treason. England outlawed its native son in December 1792, a curse never since removed, not even today.

© 2009 by Judah Freed. All rights reserved. Please post links to this article, but you may not re-publish it without written permission. See contact link for Judah Freed below.

A REQUEST: Please keep your comments relevant to the topic of the
posting above. And please practice civility. Thanks.