'Common Sense' anniversary: The life and times of Thomas Paine (Part 6 of 7)

January 10, 5:10 PMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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Thomas Paine

Unwelcome Homecoming

The first copy of The Age of Reason to arrive in America for U.S. publication was lent to Thomas Jefferson for a first reading. In returning the book to the printer, Jefferson scribbled a genial personal note to offset the tome's "dryness," he later said.

In his note, he remarked that the essay was useful as an antidote for "political heresies" of the time. The quip by deist Republican Jefferson of Virginia was a slam aimed at his chief political rival, the Unitarian Federalist John Adams of Massachusetts.

Without the consent of either Paine or Jefferson, the printer published the note as a preface. The unsanctioned action was costly, and it inadvertently changed the remainder of Paine's life, perhaps the course of history.

Federalists vented their outrage at Jefferson's preface in Paine's new book. John Quincy Adams, writing as "Publicola" within the Columbian Sentinel, condemned Paine for his religious principles, then blasted rival Jefferson for his indiscretion in the "preface."

Fueled by such public fervor, John Adams was elected the second U.S. President in 1796. He signed the four Alien and Sedition acts in 1798 (akin to the Patriot Acts today), which allowed the Adams administration to censor the press and jail anyone who criticized the Adams government.

Adams and the Federalists aimed to repress the Republican party of Jefferson, and Paine came under their fire, too. Some historians contend Adams had long harbored a deep resentment against Paine for his success with Common Sense. Adams apparently resented the fact that an uneducated "commoner" could dramatically shift public opinion in 1776 while Harvard-educated Adams had never gained any popularity from his own writings about "independency."

Despite the political repression, Jefferson narrowly won the caustic 1800 election to become the third U.S. President. President Jefferson then offered Thomas Paine free passage home on a navy ship. Paine declined, but the offer roused his interest. Returning on a private ship, the Maryland, he landed a second time in America in October 1801. He'd later rue his return.

A Federalist mob met Paine at the docks, cursing his name.

Never an easy personality to love, now Paine faced real hatred. Paine's Letter to Washington and the firestorm over the unauthorized preface for The Age of Reason converged to alienate most of his prior allies and patrons in the young nation.

Now a reviled figure, Paine was taunted in the streets, pelted with rocks by children. He was rejected from debates between Federalists and Republicans over centralized versus. decentralized national government. Henry Adams wrote that Paine now was "regarded by respectable society, both Federalist and Republican, as a person to be avoided, a person to be feared."

At age 64, the dejected political outcast retired alone to New Rochelle, where poor health and scant finances kept him homebound. He later dwelled in a modest property he'd bought in nearby Bordentown.

Paine wrote very little. For company, he associated with such New York radicals as Elihu Palmer and the "Columbian Illuminati."

Relief did not come until Madame Marguerite de Bonneville and her three children were stranded in America because Napoleon refused to let her husband, Nicolas, leave France. Paine supported them from the little he had, as if glad to show another the kindness not shown to him.

Hints of any romance between Paine and Madame de Bonneville are unsubstantiated, and a tryst is doubtful, given Paine's age, poor health and loyalty to his friend. Nevertheless, bonds of real sympathetic friendship are documented.

Stories of Paine eventually turning into a tavern drunk are best left to the time travel investigators. There are accounts of a rum bottle at his elbow in greeting his few visitors at home, but he always argued the issues of the day with mental vigor.

According to biographer Brain McCartin at the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, the assertions of drunkenness by Paine's detractors were distortions of his modest social drinking of alcohol in an age when water often was foul or poisonous. The accusation is the old ad hominem fallacy, attacking the messenger to avoid hearing his message.

What matters most here that Paine was vilified, and his final years were hard times that tried his soul.

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