Happy Birthday Thomas Paine, We Need Common Sense Now More Than Ever
A man just barely making his way in the world meets Benjamin Franklin and the result changes the world.
January 29, 1737
Born on this date in Norfolk, England was American patriot Thomas Paine. The adventurous Paine had twice gone to sea and was working in the merchant shipping business when he met Benjamin Franklin in 1774. Anxious to travel, and not a fan of the British government, Paine decided to immigrate to America after the well-known Franklin provided a letter of introduction.
Three months later, Paine was on a ship to the New World, almost dying from a bout of scurvy. Paine immediately found work in journalism when he arrived in Philadelphia, becoming managing editor of Philadelphia Magazine. His true interest, however, ran toward politics, more specifically the philosophy of politics. Paine began detailing his thoughts in a series of pamphlets that caught the attention of the American colonists.
Paine’s most famous pamphlet, Common Sense, was first published on January 10, 1776, selling out its initial run of four thousand copies immediately. By the end of that year, 150,000 copies, an enormous number for its time, had been printed and sold, making Paine not only famous but highly influential.
Common Sense advocated American independence from the British crown, while convincing a great many ambivalent colonist to join the Revolution.
After the American Revolution, Paine participated in the French Revolution, writing the Rights of Man (1791) in support of French revolutionaries, and in defense of the rights of the people to overthrow their government. In 1793, he was arrested and placed in a Paris prison, where he worked on The Age of Reason. Paine was released from prison after almost a year, largely due to the efforts of future U.S. President James Monroe, then American Minister to France.
One of Thomas Paine’s most famous quotes has as much relevance today as it did more than 200-years-ago, as our own country now seems to be at battle with common sense in government.
"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding the rights of humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.”
Powerful post about a man, few had read much about.
“society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one”.