View source for Thomas Paine

{{Short description|American philosopher and author (1737–1809)}}
{{other people||Thomas Paine (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2023}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| image               = Laurent Dabos – Thomas Paine – Google Art Project.jpg
| caption             = Portrait {{circa|1792}}
| name                = Thomas Paine
| birth_name          = Thomas Pain
| nickname            = Republicus (Pen name)
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1737|2|9}} ([[Old Style and New Style dates|N.S.]])
| birth_place         = [[Thetford]], Norfolk, England, Great Britain
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1809|6|8|1737|1|29}}
| death_place         = [[Greenwich Village]], New York City, U.S.
| spouse              = {{ubl|{{marriage|Mary Lambert|September 27, 1759|1760|end=died}}|{{marriage|Elizabeth Ollive|March 26, 1771|June 4, 1774|end=separated}}}}
| office              = Deputy of the [[National Convention]]
| term_start          = September 20, 1792
| term_end            = December 28, 1793
| constituency        = [[Pas-de-Calais]]
| module              = {{Infobox philosopher
| embed            = yes
| era              = [[Age of Enlightenment]]
| school_tradition = {{ubl|[[Liberalism]]|([[Radicalism (historical)|Radicalism]])|[[Republicanism]]|[[Secular humanism]]}}
| main_interests   = {{hlist|[[Politics]]|[[ethics]]|[[religion]]}}
| notable_ideas    =
| signature        = Thomas Paine Signature.svg
}}
| office1             = 28th Chief Clerk of the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]]
| termstart2          = April 17, 1777
| termend2            = January 8, 1779
| succeeded2          = [[James Lovell (politician)|James Lovell]]
| preceded2           = [[William Bingham]]
| preceded            = ''Constituency established''
| succeeded           = ''Constituency abolished''
| office2             = Secretary of the [[Committee of Secret Correspondence|Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs]]
| termend1            = November 3, 1780
| termstart1          = November 2, 1779
| predecessor1        = John Morris Jr.
| succeeded1          = [[Samuel Sterett]]
}}

{{Radicalism sidebar|people}}

'''Thomas Paine''' (born '''Thomas Pain''',<!-- Please discuss on TALK PAGE before changing --><ref name="JulesP1">{{Cite book| title = Thomas Paine| last = Ayer| first = Alfred Jules| year = 1990| publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]| page = 1| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9pha6K8kP7IC&q=A+J+Ayer+Paine&pg=PP1| isbn = 978-0226033396| access-date = October 29, 2020| archive-date = February 5, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210205003104/https://books.google.com/books?id=9pha6K8kP7IC&q=A+J+Ayer+Paine&pg=PP1| url-status = live}}</ref> {{OldStyleDateDY|February 9,|1737|January 29, 1736}}<ref group="Note" name="Conway group=Note">{{Cite book| title = The Life of Thomas Paine| author = Conway, Moncure D.| author-link = Moncure D. Conway| others = [[William Cobbett|Cobbett, William]], Illustrator| year = 1908| volume = 1| page = 3| publisher = [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=itUgoLAvk7QC| access-date = October 2, 2013| archive-date = June 12, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200612085659/https://books.google.com/books?id=itUgoLAvk7QC| url-status = live}} – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In the old calendar, the new year began on March 25, not January 1. Paine's birth date, therefore, would have been before New Year, 1737. In the new style, his birth date advances by eleven days and his year increases by one to February 9, 1737. The [[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] link gives more detail if needed.</ref> <!-- As consensus since February 20, 2010--see talk page. --> – June 8, 1809; {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɒ|m|ə|s|_|ˈ|p|eɪ|n}}) was an English-born American [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]], [[French Revolution]]ary, inventor, [[political philosophy|political philosopher]], and statesman.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kreitner |first=Richard |date=February 9, 2015 |title=February 9, 1737: Thomas Paine Is Born |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/february-9-1737-thomas-paine-born/ |journal=The Almanac |access-date=October 1, 2022 |archive-date=October 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001072100/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/february-9-1737-thomas-paine-born/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Doren |first=Carl |date=February 8, 1922 |title=Book critic: Religion and Belief by Thomas Paine, The Roving Critic |url=https://de.scribd.com/document/254644778/February-9-1734 |journal=The Nation |access-date=October 1, 2022 |archive-date=October 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001072103/https://de.scribd.com/document/254644778/February-9-1734 |url-status=live }}</ref> His pamphlets ''[[Common Sense]]'' (1776) and ''[[The American Crisis]]'' (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the [[American Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=America's History, Volume 1: To 1877|last=Henretta|first=James A.|year=2011|publisher=Macmillan|display-authors=etal|page=165|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PmY3sBubw8C&pg=PA165|isbn=978-0312387914|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/https://books.google.com/books?id=5PmY3sBubw8C&pg=PA165|url-status=live}}</ref> Paine advanced [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment-era]] arguments for [[human rights]] that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.<ref>Solinger, J.D. (2010). "[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/401474 Thomas Paine's Continental Mind] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224163134/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/401474 |date=February 24, 2021 }}." ''Early American Literature'' 45 (3), 593-617.</ref>

Born in [[Thetford]], Norfolk, Paine immigrated to the [[Thirteen Colonies|British American colonies]] in 1774 with the help of [[Benjamin Franklin]], arriving in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every American Patriot read his 47-page pamphlet ''Common Sense'',<ref name=Hitchens /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine and the Promise of America|author=Kaye, Harvey J.|author-link=Harvey J. Kaye|year=2005|publisher=[[Hill & Wang]]|location=[[New York City]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/thomaspainepromi0000kaye/page/43 43]|isbn=978-0809093441|url=https://archive.org/details/thomaspainepromi0000kaye|quote="Within just a few months 150,000 copies of one or another edition were distributed in America alone. The equivalent sales today would be fifteen million, making it, proportionally, the nation's greatest best-seller ever."}}</ref> which catalyzed the call for independence from Great Britain. He followed that breakthrough with the pro-independence ''[[The American Crisis|American Crisis]]'' pamphlet series. Paine returned to Britain in 1787 and wrote ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1791) to rebut critics of the [[French Revolution]], particularly the Anglo-Irish conservative writer [[Edmund Burke]]. His authorship of the tract led to [[Trial of Thomas Paine|a trial and conviction]] ''[[trial in absentia|in absentia]]'' in England in 1792 for the crime of [[seditious libel]].

The British government of [[William Pitt the Younger]] was worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to Britain and had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies. Paine's work advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government and was therefore targeted with a writ for his arrest issued in early 1792. Paine fled to France in September, despite not being able to speak French, but he was quickly elected to the French [[National Convention]]. The [[Girondins]] regarded him as an ally; consequently, the [[The Mountain|Montagnards]] regarded him as an enemy, especially [[Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier]], the powerful president of the [[Committee of General Security]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Lessay |first=Jean |title=L' Américain de la convention: Thomas Paine, professeur de révolutions, député du Pas-de-Calais |date=1987 |publisher=Libr. Acad. Perrin |isbn=978-2262004538 |location=Paris}}</ref> In December 1793, Vadier arrested Paine and took him to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. He completed the first part of ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' just before he was arrested. Mark Philp notes that "In prison Paine managed to produce (and to convey to Daniel Isaac Eaton, the radical London publisher) a dedication for ''The Age of Reason'' and a new edition of the ''Rights of Man'' with a new preface." [[James Monroe]] used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-21133|title=Paine, Thomas (1737–1809), author and revolutionary|date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/21133}}</ref>

Paine became notorious because of his pamphlets and attacks on his former allies, who he felt had betrayed him. In ''The Age of Reason'' and other writings, he advocated [[Deism]], promoted reason and [[freethought]], and argued against religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular.<ref name="Paine 2014">{{cite book |last=Paine |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Paine |year=2014 |chapter=Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion, and the Superiority of the Former over the Latter (1804) |chapter-url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/paine-deism.asp |editor1-last=Calvert |editor1-first=Jane E. |editor2-last=Shapiro |editor2-first=Ian |title=Selected Writings of Thomas Paine |location=[[New Haven]] |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |series=Rethinking the Western Tradition |doi=10.12987/9780300210699-018 |pages=568–574 |isbn=978-0300167450 |s2cid=246141428 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827161516/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/paine-deism.asp |archive-date=August 27, 2016 |access-date=August 7, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Fischer 2010">{{cite journal |last=Fischer |first=Kirsten |date=2010 |title='Religion Governed by Terror': A Deist Critique of Fearful Christianity in the Early American Republic |editor1-last=Manning |editor1-first=Nicholas |editor2-last=Stefani |editor2-first=Anne |journal=Revue Française d'Études Américaines |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=Belin |volume=125 |issue=3 |pages=13–26 |doi=10.3917/rfea.125.0013 |doi-access=free |eissn=1776-3061 |issn=0397-7870 |lccn=80640131 |via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref><ref name="Gelpi 2007">{{cite book |last=Gelpi |first=Donald L. |year=2007 |orig-year=2000 |chapter=Part 1: Enlightenment Religion – Chapter 3: Militant Deism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hB1KAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |title=Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Postmodernism |location=[[Eugene, Oregon]] |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock]] |pages=47–48 |isbn=978-1725220294 |access-date=January 22, 2023 |archive-date=January 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122122123/https://books.google.com/books?id=hB1KAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Claeys 1989">{{cite book |last=Claeys |first=Gregory |year=1989 |title=Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought |chapter=Revolution in heaven: The Age of Reason (1794–95) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W9X9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA177 |location=[[New York City|New York]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |pages=177–195 |isbn=978-0044450900 |access-date=December 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230042958/https://books.google.com/books?id=W9X9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA177#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1796, he published a bitter open letter to [[George Washington]], whom he denounced as an incompetent general and a hypocrite. He published the pamphlet ''[[Agrarian Justice]]'' (1797), discussing the origins of property and introducing the concept of a guaranteed minimum income through a one-time inheritance tax on landowners. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. He died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral, as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity<ref name="Conway2">[[Moncure D. Conway|Conway, Moncure D.]] (1892). ''[http://thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/life-of-thomas-paine-vol-ii-by-moncure-conway.html The Life of Thomas Paine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904024401/http://thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/life-of-thomas-paine-vol-ii-by-moncure-conway.html |date=September 4, 2015 }}''. Vol. 2, pp. 417–418.</ref> and his attacks on the nation's leaders.

==Early life and education==
Paine was born on January 29, 1736 {{small|([[New Style|NS]] February 9, 1737<!--As consensus since February 20, 2010 see talk page-->),<ref group="Note" name="Conway group=Note" /> }} in [[Thetford]], Norfolk, England, to Joseph Pain (1708–1787), a tenant farmer and [[Corsetmaker|stay-maker]],<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-21133|title=Paine, Thomas (1737–1809), author and revolutionary |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/21133 }}</ref> and Frances ({{nee|Cocke}}) Pain. Joseph followed the [[Quaker]] faith and Frances was an [[Anglican]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Thetford|edition=1st|last=Crosby|first=Alan|year=1986|publisher=Phillimore & Co|location=Chichester, Sussex|pages=44–84|isbn=978-0850336047}}<!--SEE DISCUSSION PAGE--></ref> Despite claims that he adopted a new spelling after emigrating to America in 1774,<ref name=JulesP1/> he was already using "Paine" in 1769 while living in [[Lewes]], Sussex.<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Archives|publisher=UK National Archives|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=179-nu&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1|journal=|access-date=April 6, 2009|archive-date=December 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215140321/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=179-nu&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1}} Acknowledgement dated March 2, 1769, document NU/1/3/3.</ref>
[[File:Old School at Thetford Grammar.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Old School at [[Thetford Grammar School]], where Paine was educated]]
Paine attended [[Thetford Grammar School]] from 1744 to 1749, when schooling in England was not compulsory.<ref name=Thetford>[http://www.thetgram.norfolk.sch.uk/History.htm School History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205004955/http://www.thetgram.norfolk.sch.uk/History.htm|date=December 5, 2010}} Thetford Grammar School, accessed January 3, 2008.</ref> At age 13 he began an apprenticeship with his father.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keane |first1=John |title=Tom Paine, A Political Life |date=1995 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=0802139647 |page=30 |edition=First}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=J.L. |title=The Evidence for Paine as a Staymaker |url=http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-evidence-for-paine-as-staymaker.html |website=Boston 1775 |access-date=October 3, 2019 |archive-date=October 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003001514/http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-evidence-for-paine-as-staymaker.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After completing his apprenticeship he enlisted as a [[privateer]] at 19 and served aboard the King of Prussia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keane |first1=John |title=Tom Paine, A Political Life |date=1995 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=0802139647 |page=38 |edition=First}}</ref> He returned to Britain in 1759, became a master [[corsetmaker|staymaker]], and opened a shop in [[Sandwich, Kent]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Thomas Paine|publisher=Open Sandwich|work=Sandwich People & History|url=http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/town_history/scrapbook/thomas_paine.htm|access-date=April 2, 2010|archive-date=April 11, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411080111/http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/town_history/scrapbook/thomas_paine.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Paine married Mary Lambert on September 27, 1759, but his business soon collapsed. Mary became pregnant, and after the couple moved to [[Margate]] she went into early labour, and both she and their child died.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/paine.html|title=Thomas Paine, 1737–1809|website=historyguide.org|access-date=March 28, 2019|archive-date=March 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317031239/http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/paine.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In July 1761 he returned to Thetford to work as a [[wikt:supernumerary|supernumerary]] officer. In December 1762 he became an [[HM Customs and Excise|Excise Officer]] in [[Grantham]], Lincolnshire, and in August 1764 he transferred to [[Alford, Lincolnshire|Alford]] with a salary of £50 per annum. On August 27, 1765, he was dismissed for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect". On July 31, 1766, he petitioned the Board of Excise for reinstatement, which it granted the following day when a vacancy arose. While he waited he resumed corsetmaking.<ref>{{Cite web
 |title=The Life of Thomas Paine: With a History of Literary, Political, and Religious Career in America, France, and England
 |author=Conway, Moncure Daniel
 |year=1892
 |publisher=[[Thomas Paine National Historical Association]]
 |page=20, vol. I
 |url=http://www.thomaspaine.org/bio/ConwayLife.html
 |access-date=July 18, 2009 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418233236/http://www.thomaspaine.org/bio/ConwayLife.html
 |archive-date=April 18, 2009 }}</ref>

[[File:Thomas Paines Lewes home.jpg|thumb|left|Thomas Paine's house in [[Lewes]]]]

In 1767, he was appointed to a position in [[Grampound]], Cornwall. Later he asked to leave this post to await a vacancy, and he became a school teacher in London.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Conway |first1=Moncure Daniel |title=The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. I. (of II) With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37701/37701-h/37701-h.htm |access-date=October 25, 2021 |archive-date=March 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305070904/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37701/37701-h/37701-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

On February 19, 1768, he was appointed to [[Lewes]] in [[Sussex]], a town with a tradition of opposition to the monarchy and pro-republican sentiments since the revolutionary decades of the 17th century.<ref name="TP-FR36">{{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution
 | last = Kaye | first = Harvey J.
 | year = 2000
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | page = 36
 | isbn = 978-0195116274
}}</ref> Here he lived above the 15th-century Bull House, the tobacco shop of Samuel Ollive and Esther Ollive.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/David-Martin-Bull_HouseLewes.pdf|title=An Archaeological Interpretative Survey of Bull House, 92 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex|last1=Martin|first1=David|last2=Clubb|first2=Jane|date=2009|website=Sussex Archaeological Society|access-date=August 20, 2019|archive-date=March 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307222027/https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/David-Martin-Bull_HouseLewes.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Paine first became involved in civic matters when he was based in Lewes. He appears in the Town Book as a member of the Court Leet, the governing body for the town. He was also a member of the [[parish]] [[vestry]], an influential local Anglican church group whose responsibilities for parish business would include collecting taxes and tithes to distribute among the poor. On March 26, 1771, at age 34, Paine married Elizabeth Ollive, the daughter of his recently deceased landlord, whose business as a grocer and tobacconist he then entered into.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMm_JGPkmLkC&q=Elizabeth%20Ollive%20married%20Thomas%20Paine%20on%20March%2026%201771&pg=PA12|title=The Life of Thomas Paine, Author of "Common Sense," "Rights of Man," "Age of Reason," "Letters to the Addresser[!]," &c., &c|last=Rickman|first=Thomas Clio|author-link=Thomas 'Clio' Rickman|date=1899| oclc=424874|publisher=B.D. Cousins|language=en|access-date=October 29, 2020|archive-date=February 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205003103/https://books.google.com/books?id=MMm_JGPkmLkC&q=Elizabeth%20Ollive%20married%20Thomas%20Paine%20on%20March%2026%201771&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:White Hart Paine plaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque at the White Hart Hotel, [[Lewes]], East Sussex, south east England]]

Also in 1771, it's believed Paine, writing under the pen name "Censor-General," published a 95-page essay in pamphlet form entitled ''The Journeyman's Touchstone''. It offered a defense of the rights of jurors in support of a publisher named [[Henry Sampson Woodfall|Henry Woodfall]] who faced criminal prosecution by the Crown for printing and distributing anti-government papers known as the [[Junius (writer)|Junius]] letters. <ref name="Allen">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Danielle |title=Secrets of a Radical Duke |journal=The Atlantic |issue=November 2025 |page=80}}</ref>

From 1772 to 1773, Paine joined excise officers asking Parliament for better pay and working conditions, publishing, in summer of 1772, ''The Case of the Officers of Excise'', a 12-page article, and his first political work, spending the London winter distributing the 4,000 copies printed to the Parliament and others. In spring 1774, he was again dismissed from the excise service for being absent from his post without permission. The tobacco shop failed. On April 14, to avoid [[debtors' prison]], he sold his household possessions to pay debts. He formally separated from his wife Elizabeth on June 4, 1774, and moved to London. In September, mathematician, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Commissioner of the Excise [[George Lewis Scott]] introduced him to [[Benjamin Franklin]],<ref>"Letter to the Honorable Henry Laurens" in Philip S. Foner's ''The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine'' (New York: Citadel Press, 1945), 2:1160–1165.</ref> who was there as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, especially as it related to the [[Stamp Act (1765)|Stamp Act]], and the [[Townshend Acts]]. He was publisher and editor of the largest American newspaper, ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'' and suggested emigration to Philadelphia. He gave a [[letter of recommendation]] to Paine, who emigrated in October to the American colonies, arriving in [[Philadelphia]] on November 30, 1774.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine|title=Thomas Paine {{!}} British-American author|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=September 15, 2017|date=|archive-date=September 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915162723/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine|url-status=live}}</ref>

===In ''Pennsylvania Magazine''===
Paine barely survived the transatlantic voyage. The ship's water supplies were bad and [[typhoid fever]] killed five passengers. On arriving at Philadelphia, he was too sick to disembark. Benjamin Franklin's physician, there to welcome Paine to America, had him carried off ship; Paine took six weeks to recover. He became a citizen of Pennsylvania "by taking the oath of allegiance at a very early period".<ref>Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1892. ''The Life of Thomas Paine'' vol. 1, p. 209.</ref> In March 1775, he became editor of the ''Pennsylvania Magazine'', a position he conducted with considerable ability.<ref name="larkin3140">{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Edward |title=Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=31–40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5z2iRUemxMC |access-date=December 1, 2018 |isbn=978-1139445986 |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204235328/https://books.google.com/books?id=u5z2iRUemxMC |url-status=live }}</ref>

Before Paine's arrival in America, sixteen magazines had been founded in the colonies and ultimately failed, each featuring substantial content and reprints from England. In late 1774, Philadelphia printer [[Robert Aitken (publisher)|Robert Aitken]] announced his plan to create what he called an "American Magazine" with content derived from the colonies.<ref name="larkin3140" /> Paine contributed two pieces to the magazine's inaugural issue dated January 1775, and Aitken hired Paine as the Magazine's editor one month later. Under Paine's leadership, the magazine's readership rapidly expanded, achieving a greater circulation in the colonies than any American magazine up until that point.<ref name="larkin3140" /> While Aitken had conceived of the magazine as nonpolitical, Paine brought a strong political perspective to its content, writing in its first issue that "every heart and hand seem to be engaged in the interesting struggle for ''American Liberty.''"<ref name="larkin3140" />

Paine wrote in the ''Pennsylvania Magazine'' that such a publication should become a "nursery of genius" for a nation that had "now outgrown the state of infancy", exercising and educating American minds, and shaping American morality.<ref name="larkin3140" /> On March 8, 1775, the ''Pennsylvania Magazine'' published an unsigned abolitionist essay titled ''African Slavery in America''.<ref name="LoA" /> The essay is often attributed to Paine on the basis of a letter by [[Benjamin Rush]], recalling Paine's claim of authorship to the essay.<ref name="LoA">{{cite book |title=American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation |date=2012 |publisher=Library of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JuG3IKMYdIYC |access-date=December 1, 2018 |isbn=978-1598532142 |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819133421/https://books.google.com/books?id=JuG3IKMYdIYC |url-status=live }}</ref> The essay attacked slavery as an "execrable commerce" and "outrage against Humanity and Justice."<ref name="LoA" />

Consciously appealing to a broader and more working-class audience, Paine also used the magazine to discuss worker rights to production. This shift in the conceptualization of politics has been described as a part of "the 'modernization' of political consciousness", and the mobilization of ever greater sections of society into political life.<ref name="larkin3140" /><ref name="jpgreen">{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Jack |title=Paine, America, and the "Modernization" of Political Consciousness |journal=Political Science Quarterly |date=1978 |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=73–92 |doi=10.2307/2149051 |jstor=2149051  |issn = 0032-3195}}</ref>

==American Revolution==
[[File:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'', published in 1776]]

===''Common Sense'' (1776)===
{{Main|Common Sense}}
Paine has a claim to the title ''The Father of the American Revolution'',<ref>K. M. Kostyal. ''Funding Fathers: The Fight for Freedom and the Birth of American Liberty'' (2014) ch. 2</ref><ref>David Braff, "Forgotten Founding Father: The Impact of Thomas Paine", in Joyce Chumbley, ed., ''Thomas Paine: In Search of the Common Good'' (2009).</ref> which rests on his pamphlets, especially ''Common Sense,'' which crystallized sentiment for independence in 1776. It was published in [[Philadelphia]] on January 10, 1776, and signed anonymously "by an Englishman". It was an immediate success, with Paine estimating it sold 100,000 copies in three months to the two million residents of the 13 colonies. During the course of the American Revolution, one biographer estimated a total of about 500,000 copies were sold, including unauthorized editions.<ref name=Hitchens>{{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
 | author = Hitchens, Christopher
 | year = 2008
 | publisher = Grove Press
 | page = 37
 | isbn = 978-0802143839
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia
 | title = Paine, Thomas
 | last = Oliphant
 | first = John
 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of the American Revolution: Library of Military History
 | url-access = subscription
 | via = Gale Virtual Library
 | url = http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/infomark.do?&contentSet=EBKS&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3454901190&source=gale&userGroupName=rich30969&version=1.0
 | access-date = April 10, 2007
| date =
 | archive-date = May 27, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210527174915/https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=rich30969&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Finfomark.do%3Fsource%3Dgale%26userGroupName%3Drich30969%26prodId%3DGVRL%26tabID%3DT001%26action%3Dinterpret%26docId%3DCX3454901190%26type%3Dretrieve%26contentSet%3DEBKS%26version%3D1.0&prodId=GVRL
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> However, some historians dispute these numbers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Raphael |first=Ray |date=March 20, 2013 |title=Thomas Paine's Inflated Numbers |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/03/thomas-paines-inflated-numbers/ |access-date=March 13, 2024 |website=Journal of the American Revolution |language=en-US}}</ref> Paine's original title for the pamphlet was ''Plain Truth'', but Paine's friend, pro-independence advocate [[Benjamin Rush]], suggested ''Common Sense'' instead.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qh4UAwAAQBAJ&q=%22common+sense%22+originally+titled+%22Plain+Truth%22&pg=PA310|title=History of Philadelphia|last=Scharf|first=T.|publisher=Рипол Классик|isbn=978-5883517104|page=310|language=en|access-date=October 29, 2020|archive-date=February 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204234959/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qh4UAwAAQBAJ&q=%22common+sense%22+originally+titled+%22Plain+Truth%22&pg=PA310|url-status=live}}</ref> Finding a printer who was daring enough to commit his print shop to the printing of ''Common Sense'' was not easy. At the advice of Rush, Paine commissioned [[Robert Bell (publisher)|Robert Bell]] to print his work.<ref>[[#rush2019|Butterfield (ed.), 2019]], Vol II, p. 1008</ref><ref>[[#conway1892a|Conway & Cobbett, 1892]], Vol I, p. 68</ref>

The pamphlet came into circulation in January 1776,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ferguson|first=Robert A.|date=July 2000|title=The Commonalities of Common Sense|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2674263|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|volume=57|issue=3|pages=465–504|doi=10.2307/2674263|jstor=2674263|access-date=September 21, 2021|archive-date=October 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017194641/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2674263|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> after the Revolution had started. It was passed around and often read aloud in taverns, contributing significantly to spreading the idea of republicanism, bolstering enthusiasm for separation from Britain, and encouraging recruitment for the [[Continental Army]]. Paine provided a new and convincing argument for independence by advocating a complete break with history. ''Common Sense'' is oriented to the future in a way that compels the reader to make an immediate choice. It offers a solution for Americans disgusted with and alarmed at the threat of tyranny.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Commonalities of Common Sense|author=Robert A. Ferguson|journal= [[William and Mary Quarterly]]|volume=57|issue=3|pages=465–504|date=July 2000|doi=10.2307/2674263|jstor=2674263}}</ref>

Paine's attack on monarchy in ''Common Sense'' was essentially an attack on King [[George III]]. Whereas colonial resentments were originally directed primarily against the king's ministers and Parliament, Paine laid the responsibility firmly at the king's door. ''Common Sense'' was the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution. It was a clarion call for unity against the corrupt British court, so as to realize America's providential role in providing an asylum for liberty. Written in a direct and lively style, it denounced the decaying despotisms of Europe and pilloried hereditary monarchy as an absurdity. At a time when many still hoped for reconciliation with Britain, ''Common Sense'' demonstrated to many the inevitability of separation.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Thomas Paine|author=Philp, Mark|author-link=Mark Philp|editor=Edward N. Zalta|editor-link=Edward N. Zalta|encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] (Winter 2013 Edition)|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paine|date=2013|access-date=January 24, 2015|archive-date=January 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128132034/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paine/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Paine was not on the whole expressing original ideas in ''Common Sense'', but rather employing rhetoric as a means to arouse resentment of the Crown. To achieve these ends, he pioneered a style of political writing suited to the democratic society he envisioned, with ''Common Sense'' serving as a primary example. Part of Paine's work was to render complex ideas intelligible to average readers of the day, with clear, concise writing unlike the formal, learned style favored by many of Paine's contemporaries.<ref>Merrill Jensen, ''The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 668.</ref> Scholars have put forward various explanations to account for its success, including the historic moment, Paine's easy-to-understand style, his democratic ethos, and his use of psychology and ideology.<ref>David C. Hoffman, "Paine and Prejudice: Rhetorical Leadership through Perceptual Framing in Common Sense." ''Rhetoric and Public Affairs'', Fall 2006, Vol. 9, Issue 3, pp. 373–410.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

''Common Sense'' was immensely popular in disseminating to a very wide audience ideas that were already in common use among the elite who comprised Congress and the leadership cadre of the emerging nation, who rarely cited Paine's arguments in their public calls for independence.<ref>Pauline Maier, ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (New York: Knopf, 1997), 90–91.</ref> The pamphlet probably had little direct influence on the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress']] decision to issue a [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], since that body was more concerned with how declaring independence would affect the war effort.<ref>Jack N. Rakove, ''The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress'' (New York: Knopf, 1979), 89.</ref> One distinctive idea in ''Common Sense'' is Paine's beliefs regarding the peaceful nature of republics; his views were an early and strong conception of what scholars would come to call the [[democratic peace theory]].<ref>Jack S. Levy, William R. Thompson, ''Causes of War'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2011).</ref>

[[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] vigorously attacked ''Common Sense''; one attack, titled ''Plain Truth'' (1776), by Marylander [[James Chalmers (loyalist)|James Chalmers]], said Paine was a political quack<ref>{{Cite web
 | title = James Chalmers and Plain Truth A Loyalist Answers Thomas Paine
 | last = New
 | first = M. Christopher
 | publisher = Archiving Early America
 | url = http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall96/loyalists.html
 | access-date = October 3, 2007
| archive-date = September 28, 2007
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003809/http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall96/loyalists.html
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> and warned that without monarchy, the government would "degenerate into democracy".<ref name="Jensen669">Jensen, ''Founding of a Nation'', 669.</ref> Even some American revolutionaries objected to ''Common Sense''; late in life [[John Adams]] called it a "crapulous mass". Adams disagreed with the type of radical democracy promoted by Paine (that men who did not own property should still be allowed to vote and hold public office) and published ''[[Thoughts on Government]]'' in 1776 to advocate a more conservative approach to republicanism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/PJA04dg2|title=Adams Papers Digital Edition – Massachusetts Historical Society|website=www.masshist.org|access-date=December 5, 2018|archive-date=December 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205150155/http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/PJA04dg2|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Sophia Rosenfeld]] argues that Paine was highly innovative in his use of the commonplace notion of "common sense". He synthesized various philosophical and political uses of the term in a way that permanently impacted American political thought. He used two ideas from [[Scottish Common Sense Realism]]: that ordinary people can indeed make sound judgments on major political issues, and that there exists a body of popular wisdom that is readily apparent to anyone. Paine also used a notion of "common sense" favored by [[philosophe]]s in the Continental Enlightenment. They held that common sense could refute the claims of traditional institutions. Thus, Paine used "common sense" as a weapon to de-legitimize the monarchy and overturn prevailing conventional wisdom. Rosenfeld concludes that the phenomenal appeal of his pamphlet resulted from his synthesis of popular and elite elements in the independence movement.<ref>{{cite journal|author1-link=Sophia Rosenfeld|jstor=40212021|title=Tom Paine's Common Sense and Ours|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|volume=65|issue=4|pages=633–668|last1=Rosenfeld|first1=Sophia|year=2008}}</ref>

According to historian [[Robert Middlekauff]], ''Common Sense'' became immensely popular mainly because Paine appealed to widespread convictions. Monarchy, he said, was preposterous and it had a heathenish origin. It was an institution of the devil. Paine pointed to the [[Old Testament]], where almost all kings had seduced the Israelites to worship idols instead of God. Paine also denounced aristocracy, which together with monarchy were "two ancient tyrannies". They violated the laws of nature, human reason, and the "universal order of things", which began with God. This was, Middlekauff says, exactly what most Americans wanted to hear. He calls the Revolutionary generation "the children of the twice-born" <ref>[[Robert Middlekauff]] (2005). ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, New York; {{ISBN|978-0195315882}}, pp. 30–53.</ref> because in their childhood they had experienced the [[Great Awakening]], which, for the first time, had tied Americans together, transcending denominational and ethnic boundaries and giving them a sense of patriotism.<ref>Robert Middlekauff, ''The Glorious Cause'', pp. 4–5, 324–326. {{ISBN|978-0195315882}}</ref><ref>Cf. Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, p. 178.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

=== Possible involvement in drafting the Declaration of Independence ===
[[File:Roger Sherman Copy of the Declaration of Independence.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|The [[Committee of Five]] working draft of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], dated June 24, 1776, copied from the original draft by [[John Adams]] for [[Roger Sherman]]'s review and approval]]
[[File:Sherman copy inscription referencing Thomas Paine.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Inscription on reverse of Sherman Copy of the Declaration of Independence referencing "T.P." during the drafting process]]While there is no historical record of Paine's involvement in drafting the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], some scholars of Early American History have suspected his involvement. As noted by the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, multiple authors have hypothesized and written on the subject, including Moody (1872), Van der Weyde (1911), Lewis (1947), and more recently, Smith & Rickards (2007).<ref name=":1" />

In 2018, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association introduced an early draft of the Declaration that contained evidence of Paine's involvement based on an inscription of "T.P." on the back of the document. During the early deliberations of the [[Committee of Five]] members chosen by Congress to draft the Declaration of Independence, [[John Adams]] made a hastily written manuscript copy of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence on June 24, 1776, known as the Sherman Copy. Adams made this copy shortly before preparing another neater, fair copy that is held in the Adams Family Papers collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Sherman copy of the Declaration of Independence is one of several working drafts of the Declaration, made for [[Roger Sherman]]'s review and approval before the Committee of Five submitted a finalized draft to Congress. The Sherman Copy of the Declaration of Independence contains an inscription on the back of the document that states: "A beginning perhaps{{snd}}Original with Jefferson{{snd}}Copied from Original with T.P.'s permission." According to the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, the individual referenced as "T.P." in the inscription appears to be Thomas Paine.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Thomas Paine National Historical Association |url=https://thomaspaine.org/pages/resources/sherman-copy-di.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210403151531/http://www.thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/sherman-copy-di.html |archive-date=April 3, 2021 |access-date=March 17, 2021 |website=www.thomaspaine.org}}</ref>

The degree to which Paine was involved in formulating the text of the Declaration is unclear, as the original draft referenced in the Sherman Copy inscription is presumed lost or destroyed. However, John Adams' request for permission of "T.P." to copy the original draft may suggest that Paine had a role either assisting Jefferson with organizing ideas within the Declaration, or contributing to the text of the original draft itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373951532|title=Uncovering the Trail of Communication of the Committee of Five: Roger Sherman's Draft Copy of the Declaration of Independence}}</ref>

=== Naming the United States ===
[[File:Thomas Paine Republicus.png|thumb|upright=0.75|Paine's June 29, 1776 "Republicus" letter in the ''Pennsylvania Evening Post'', advocating the name "United States of America".]]
Historians connect Paine to the rise of the national title "United States of America". Writing as "Republicus" in the June 29, 1776, issue of the ''[[Pennsylvania Evening Post]]'', he urged Congress to adopt the name so the new polity could present itself as a nation, and the phrase reached a wider audience days later in the Declaration.<ref name="TPOA">{{Cite web |title=Is it true that Thomas Paine first coined the phrase, "The United States of America?" |url=https://www.thomaspaine.org/resources/is-it-true-that-thomas-paine-first-coined-the-phrase-the-united-states-of-america |website=Thomas Paine Historical Association |access-date=March 9, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Safire">{{Cite news |last=Safire |first=William |date=July 5, 1998 |title=On Language; Name That Nation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/05/magazine/on-language-name-that-nation.html |work=The New York Times Magazine |access-date=March 9, 2025 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Hutson">{{Cite journal |last=Hutson |first=James H. |date=March 1972 |title=The Partition Treaty and the Declaration of American Independence |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=877–896 |doi=10.2307/1917849 |jstor=1917849 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref name="Republicus">{{Cite news |title=The Pennsylvania Evening Post ... Saturday, June 29, 1776 |quote=Containing the first printing of Thomas Paine's anonymous letter signed Republicus, advocating for independence and among the earliest usage in print of the phrase "the United States of America". |date=June 29, 1776 |url=https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621_2.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251010074926/https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621_2.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |access-date=June 18, 2024 |archive-date=October 10, 2025 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|EVERY moment that I reflect on our affairs, the more am I convinced of the necessity of a formal Declaration of Independance. Reconciliation is thought of now by none but knaves, fools and madmen; and as we cannot offer terms of peace to Great-Britain, until, as other nations have done before us, we agree to call ourselves by some name, I shall rejoice to hear the title of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order that we may be on a proper footing to negotiate a peace.

REPUBLICUS.
<ref name="Republicus"/>}}

Paine contrasted the prevailing habit in which revolutionary leaders used "united States" as a descriptive phrase for their coalition with the diplomatic urgency of 1776. He argued that only a capitalized title would show foreign governments that the colonies had formed a single American nation ready to negotiate alliances.<ref name="Safire"/><ref name="Hutson"/><ref>{{Cite news |title=The Pennsylvania Evening Post ... Saturday, June 29, 1776 |quote=Containing the first printing of Thomas Paine's anonymous letter signed Republicus, advocating for independence and among the earliest usage in print of the phrase "the United States of America". |date=June 29, 1776 |url=https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251010074930/https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |access-date=June 18, 2024 |archive-date=October 10, 2025 }}</ref>

Historian James H. Hutson situates the letter within widespread June 1776 anxiety that Britain might broker a partition treaty before Congress acted.<ref name="Hutson"/> He notes newspaper warnings that European powers would not remain neutral unless American envoys carried an explicit declaration of nationhood abroad.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Pennsylvania Evening Post ... Saturday, June 29, 1776 |quote=Containing the first printing of Thomas Paine's anonymous letter signed Republicus, advocating for independence and among the earliest usage in print of the phrase "the United States of America". |date=June 29, 1776 |url=https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251010074930/https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/369621.jpg?auto=webp&v=1727805385 |access-date=June 18, 2024 |archive-date=October 10, 2025 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|As June progressed, "tensions and apprehensions about a partition treaty became pervasive, cropping out in brief, fugitive newspaper pieces." As Hutson notes, one example was "Republicus" writing in Philadelphia on June 29, warning that "the foreign European powers will not be long neutral, and unless we declare an independence and send embassies to seek their friendship, Britain will be beforehand with US." Hutson further observes that this apprehension was evident even among lukewarm Whigs and Tories—groups who believed the colonies were threatened by partition and recognized the need for action, though they concluded, in contrast to their "radical" colleagues, that continued allegiance to George III was the only way to save the continent.<ref name="Hutson"/>}}

The "Republicus" appeal echoed Paine's broader call for shared sacrifice and collective identity by urging readers to embrace a national name that implied reciprocal obligations among the colonies. Within weeks he carried the same urgency into ''The American Crisis''.<ref name="TPOA"/><ref name="Safire"/>

===''The American Crisis'' (1776)===
{{Main|The American Crisis}}
In late 1776, Paine published ''[[The American Crisis]]'' pamphlet series to inspire the Americans in their battles against the British army. He juxtaposed the conflict between the good American devoted to civic virtue and the selfish provincial man.<ref>Martin Roth, "Tom Paine and American Loneliness." ''Early American Literature'', September 1987, Vol. 22, Issue 2, pp. 175–182.</ref> To inspire his soldiers, General [[George Washington]] had ''The American Crisis'', first ''Crisis'' pamphlet, read aloud to them.<ref>{{Cite web
 | title = Thomas Paine. The American Crisis. Philadelphia, Styner and Cist, 1776–77.
 | publisher = Indiana University
 | url = http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/history/american-crisis.html
 | access-date = November 15, 2007
| archive-date = October 20, 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191020025835/http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/history/american-crisis.html
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> It begins:

{{blockquote|These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and 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 glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.}}

===Foreign affairs===
In 1777, Paine became secretary of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. The following year, he alluded to secret negotiation underway with France in his pamphlets. His enemies denounced his indiscretions. There was scandal; together with Paine's conflict with [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] and [[Silas Deane]], it led to Paine's expulsion from the Committee in 1779.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations|last=Nelson|first=Craig|year=2007|publisher=Penguin|pages=174–175|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRFql6S6jKgC&pg=PT174|isbn=978-1101201787|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=September 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904024401/https://books.google.com/books?id=xRFql6S6jKgC&pg=PT174|url-status=live}}</ref>

However, in 1781, he accompanied [[John Laurens]] on his mission to France. Eventually, after much pleading from Paine, New York State recognized his political services by presenting him with an estate at [[New Rochelle, New York|New Rochelle]], New York and Paine received money from Pennsylvania and from Congress at Washington's suggestion. During the Revolutionary War, Paine served as an aide-de-camp to the important general, [[Nathanael Greene]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Crisis in representation: Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Helen Maria Williams, and the rewriting of the French Revolution|last=Blakemore|first=Steve|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|year=1997}}</ref>

====Silas Deane Affair====

In what may have been an error, and perhaps even contributed to his resignation as the secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Paine was openly critical of Silas Deane, an American diplomat who had been appointed in March 1776 by the Congress to travel to France in secret. Deane's goal was to influence the French government to finance the colonists in their fight for independence. Paine largely saw Deane as a war profiteer who had little respect for principle, having been under the employ of Robert Morris, one of the primary financiers of the American Revolution and working with [[Pierre Beaumarchais]], a French royal agent sent to the colonies by King Louis to investigate the Anglo-American conflict. Paine uncovered the financial connection between Morris, who was Superintendent for Finance of the Continental Congress, and Deane.<ref name="Harlow Giles Unger 2019 p. 89">[[Harlow Giles Unger]], "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence", (New York: Da Capo Press, 2019), p. 89</ref>

Wealthy men, such as Robert Morris, [[John Jay]] and powerful [[merchant bank]]ers, were leaders of the Continental Congress and defended holding public positions while at the same time profiting off their own personal financial dealings with governments.<ref name="Harlow Giles Unger 2019 p. 89"/> Amongst Paine's criticisms, he had written in the ''[[Pennsylvania Packet]]'' that France had "''prefaced [their] alliance by an early and generous friendship''", referring to aid that had been provided to American colonies prior to the recognition of the Franco-American treaties. This was alleged to be effectively an embarrassment to France, which potentially could have jeopardized the alliance. John Jay, the President of the Congress, who had been a fervent supporter of Deane, immediately spoke out against Paine's comments. The controversy eventually became public, and Paine was then denounced as unpatriotic for criticizing an American revolutionary. He was even physically assaulted twice in the street by Deane supporters. This much-added stress took a large toll on Paine, who was generally of a sensitive character and he resigned as secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in 1779.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine|author=Craig Nelson|pages=[https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/134 134–138]|isbn=978-0670037889|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/134|publisher=New York : Viking}}</ref> Paine left the Committee without even having enough money to buy food for himself.<ref>Harlow Giles Unger, "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence", (New York: Da Capo Press, 2019), p. 93</ref>

Much later, when Paine returned from his mission to France, Deane's corruption had become more widely acknowledged. Many, including Robert Morris, apologized to Paine, and Paine's reputation in Philadelphia was restored.<ref>Harlow Giles Unger, "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence", (New York: Da Capo Press, 2019), pp. 102–103</ref>

==="Public Good"===

In 1780, Paine published a pamphlet entitled "Public Good", in which he made the case that territories west of the 13 colonies that had been part of the British Empire belonged after the Declaration of Independence to the American government, and did not belong to any of the 13 states or to any individual [[land speculation|speculators]]. A [[royal charter]] of 1609 had granted to the [[Virginia Company]] land stretching to the Pacific Ocean. A small group of wealthy Virginia land speculators, including the Washington, Lee, and Randolph families, had taken advantage of this royal charter to survey and to claim title to huge swaths of land, including much land west of the 13 colonies. In "Public Good", Paine argued that these lands belonged to the American government as represented by the Continental Congress. This angered many of Paine's wealthy Virginia friends, including [[Richard Henry Lee]] of the powerful Lee family, who had been Paine's closest ally in Congress, [[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]], all of whom had claims to huge wild tracts that Paine was advocating should be government owned. The view that Paine had advocated eventually prevailed when the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787 was passed.

The animosity Paine felt as a result of the publication of "Public Good" fueled his decision to embark with [[Lieutenant Colonel]] [[John Laurens]] on a mission to travel to Paris to obtain funding for the American war effort.<ref>Harlow Giles Unger, "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence", (New York: Da Capo Press, 2019), pp. 100–101</ref>

===Funding the Revolution===
Paine accompanied Col. John Laurens to France and is credited with initiating the mission.<ref>Daniel Wheeler's ''Life and Writings of Thomas Paine'' Vol. 1 (1908) pp. 26–27.</ref> It landed in France in March 1781 and returned to America in August with 2.5 million [[French livre|livres]] in silver, as part of a "present" of 6 million and a loan of 10&nbsp;million. The meetings with the French king were most likely conducted in the company and under the influence of [[Benjamin Franklin]]. Upon returning to the United States with this highly welcomed cargo, Paine and probably Col. Laurens, "positively objected" that General Washington should propose that Congress remunerate him for his services, for fear of setting "a bad precedent and an improper mode". Paine made influential acquaintances in Paris and helped organize the [[Bank of North America]] to raise money to supply the army.<ref>Daniel Wheeler, ''Life and Writings of Thomas Paine'' Vol. 1 (1908), p. 314.</ref> In 1785, he was given $3,000 by the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] in recognition of his service to the nation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Common Sense and Other Writings|author=Paine, Thomas|year=2005|publisher=Barnes & Noble Classics|page=[https://archive.org/details/commonsenseother0000pain/page/ xiii]|isbn=978-0672600043|url=https://archive.org/details/commonsenseother0000pain/page/}}</ref>

[[Henry Laurens]] (father of Col. [[John Laurens]]) had been the ambassador to the [[Netherlands]], but he was captured by the British on his return trip there. When he was later exchanged for the prisoner [[Lord Cornwallis]] in late 1781, Paine proceeded to the Netherlands to continue the loan negotiations. There remains some question as to the relationship of Henry Laurens and Paine to Robert Morris as the Superintendent of Finance and his business associate, Thomas Willing, who became the first president of the Bank of North America in January 1782. They had accused Morris of profiteering in 1779 and Willing had voted against the Declaration of Independence. Although Morris did much to restore his reputation in 1780 and 1781, the credit for obtaining these critical loans to "organize" the Bank of North America for approval by Congress in December 1781 should go to Henry or John Laurens and Paine more than to Morris.<ref name="Paine1824"/>

[[File:Fashion-before-Ease-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.75|In ''Fashion before Ease; {{snd}}or,{{snd}} A good Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastick Form'' (1793), [[James Gillray]] caricatured Paine tightening the [[corset]] of [[Britannia]] and protruding from his coat pocket is a measuring tape inscribed "Rights of Man".]]
Paine bought his only house in 1783 on the corner of Farnsworth Avenue and Church Streets in [[Bordentown, New Jersey|Bordentown City]], New Jersey and he lived in it periodically until his death in 1809. This is the only place in the world where Paine purchased real estate.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Revolution Echoes Yet in Bordentown: The Place Patriot Thomas Paine Once Called Home Still Honors Him.|last=Chaplin|first=Philippa J.|date=August 1, 2004|work=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|id={{ProQuest|<!-- Add ProQuest data here -->}} }}</ref> In 1785, Paine was elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=thomas+paine&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=December 14, 2020|website=search.amphilsoc.org|archive-date=February 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205115530/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=thomas+paine&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1787, Paine proposed an iron bridge design for crossing the [[Schuylkill River]] at Philadelphia. Having little success in acquiring funding, Paine returned to Paris, France seeking investors or other opportunities to implement his, at the time, novel iron bridge design.{{cn|date=October 2024}} Because Paine had few friends when arriving in France aside from [[Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]] and Jefferson, he continued to correspond heavily with Benjamin Franklin, a long time friend and mentor. Franklin provided letters of introduction for Paine to use to gain associates and contacts in France.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Paine and Jefferson in the Age of Revolutions|last=Ziesche|first=Philipp|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2013|page=124}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

Later that year, Paine returned to London from Paris. He then released a pamphlet on August 20 called ''Prospects on the Rubicon: or, an investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Politics to be Agitated at the Meeting of Parliament''. Tensions between England and France were increasing, and this pamphlet urged the British Ministry to reconsider the consequences of war with France. Paine sought to turn the public opinion against the war to create better relations between the countries, avoid the taxes of war upon the citizens, and not engage in a war he believed would ruin both nations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Man Of Reason: The Life Of Thomas Paine|last=Aldridge|first=Alfred|publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.|year=1959|location=Philadelphia|pages=120–121}}</ref>

==France and ''Rights of Man''==
[[File:Thomas Paine Author.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|right|''Thomas Paine Author of the Rights of Man'' from John Baxter's Impartial History of England, 1796]]
{{Main|Rights of Man}}
{{See also|Revolution Controversy|Trial of Thomas Paine}}
Back in London by 1787, Paine would become engrossed in the French Revolution that began two years later and decided to travel to France in 1790. Meanwhile, conservative intellectual [[Edmund Burke]] launched a counterrevolutionary blast against the French Revolution, entitled ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790), which strongly appealed to the landed class, and sold 30,000 copies. Paine set out to refute it in his ''[[Rights of Man]]'' (1791). He wrote it not as a quick pamphlet, but as a long, abstract political tract of 90,000 words which tore apart monarchies and traditional social institutions. On January 31, 1791, he gave the manuscript to publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]]. A visit by government agents dissuaded Johnson, so Paine gave the book to publisher J. S. Jordan, then went to Paris, on [[William Blake]]'s advice. He charged three good friends, [[William Godwin]], [[Thomas Brand Hollis]], and [[Thomas Holcroft]], with handling publication details. The book appeared on March 13, 1791, and sold nearly a million copies. It was "eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters, democrats, London craftsmen, and the skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north".<ref>George Rudé, ''Revolutionary Europe: 1783–1815'' (1964), p. 183.{{ISBN?}}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Paine's Nightly Pest.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|left|English satirist [[James Gillray]] ridicules Paine in Paris awaiting sentence of execution from three hanging judges.]]

Undeterred by the government campaign to discredit him, Paine issued his ''Rights of Man, Part the Second, Combining Principle and Practice'' in February 1792. Detailing a representative government with enumerated social programs to remedy the numbing poverty of commoners through [[progressive tax]] measures, Paine went much farther than such contemporaries as [[James Burgh]], Robert Potter, John Scott, John Sinclair or [[Adam Smith]].<ref>Chiu, Frances A. ''The Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man''. Routledge, 2020, pp. 203–247.</ref> Radically reduced in price to ensure unprecedented circulation, it was sensational in its impact and gave birth to reform societies. An indictment for [[seditious libel]] followed, for both publisher and author, while government agents followed Paine and instigated mobs, hate meetings, and burnings in effigy. A fierce pamphlet war also resulted, in which Paine was defended and assailed in dozens of works.<ref>Many of these are reprinted in ''Political Writings of the 1790s'', ed. G. Claeys (8 vols, London: Pickering and Chatto, 1995).{{ISBN?}}</ref> The authorities aimed, with ultimate success, to force Paine out of Great Britain. He was then [[Trial in absentia|tried ''in absentia'']] and found guilty, but he was beyond the reach of British law. The French translation of ''Rights of Man, Part II'' was published in April 1792. The translator, François Lanthenas, eliminated the dedication to Lafayette, as he believed Paine thought too highly of Lafayette, who was seen as a royalist sympathizer at the time.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cosmopolitan Patriots: Americans in Paris in the Age of Revolution|last=Ziesche|first=Phillipp|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2010|page=63}}</ref>

[[File:Friends of the People 1792 Cruikshank.jpg|thumb|right|''The Friends of the People'' caricatured by [[Isaac Cruikshank]], November 15, 1792. [[Joseph Priestley]] and Thomas Paine are surrounded by incendiary items.]]
In summer of 1792, he answered the sedition and libel charges thus: "If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb."<ref>Thomas Paine, Letter Addressed To The Addressers On The Late Proclamation, in Michael Foot, Isaac Kramnick (ed.), The Thomas Paine Reader, p. 374 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Paine was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution and was granted honorary French [[citizenship]] alongside prominent contemporaries such as [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[George Washington]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others. Paine's honorary citizenship was in recognition of the publishing of his ''Rights of Man, Part II'' and the sensation it created within France.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cosmopolitan Patriots: Americans in Paris in the Age of Revolution|last=Ziesche|first=Philipp|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2010|page=62}}</ref> Despite his inability to speak French, he was elected to the [[National Convention]], representing the district of [[Pas-de-Calais]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine|last=Fruchtman|first=Jack|year=2009|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, MD|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801892844/page/192 192]|isbn=978-0801892844|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801892844/page/192}}</ref>

Several weeks after his election to the National Convention, Paine was selected as one of nine deputies to be part of the convention's Constitutional Committee, charged to draft a suitable constitution for the [[French Republican Calendar|French Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Paine and Jefferson in the Age of Revolutions|last=Munck|first=Thomas|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2013|page=165}}</ref> He subsequently participated in the Constitutional Committee in drafting the [[Girondin constitutional project]]. He voted for the French Republic, but argued against the execution of [[trial of Louis XVI|Louis XVI]], referred to as Louis Capet following his deposition, saying the monarch should instead be [[exile]]d to the United States: firstly, because of the way royalist France had come to the aid of the American Revolution; and secondly, because of a moral objection to capital punishment in general and to revenge killings in particular.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vincent|first=Bernard|title=The transatlantic republican : Thomas Paine and the age of revolutions|date=2005|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=1417591021|location=Amsterdam|oclc=60158208}}</ref> Paine's speech in defense of Louis XVI was interrupted by [[Jean-Paul Marat]], who claimed that, as a Quaker, Paine's religious beliefs ran counter to inflicting capital punishment and thus he should be ineligible to vote. Marat interrupted a second time, stating that the interpreter was deceiving the convention by distorting the meanings of Paine's words, prompting Paine to provide a copy of the speech as proof that he was being correctly interpreted.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Paine|last=Hawke|first=David|publisher=Harper & Row Publishers|year=1974|location=New York|pages=275–276}}</ref>

Paine wrote the second part of ''[[Rights of Man]]'' on a desk in [[Thomas 'Clio' Rickman]]'s house, with whom he was staying in 1792 before he fled to France. This desk is currently on display in the [[People's History Museum]] in [[Manchester]].<ref>{{Citation|title=Collection highlights, Tom Paine's Desk|publisher=People's History Museum|url=http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/tom-paines-desk|access-date=January 13, 2015|archive-date=January 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113172217/http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/tom-paines-desk/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Regarded as an ally of the [[Girondist|Girondins]], he was seen with increasing disfavor by the [[The Mountain|Montagnards]], who were now in power after the [[Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793]]. Paine was under scrutiny by the authorities also because he was a personal adversary of [[Gouverneur Morris]], who was the [[List of ambassadors of the United States to France|American ambassador in France]] and a friend of [[George Washington]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Sagnac |first=Philippe |date=1900 |title=Moncure Daniel Conway, Thomas Paine (1737–1809) et la Révolution dans les deux mondes, Paris, 1900 (in French) |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhmc_0996-2743_1900_num_2_4_4185_t1_0429_0000_1 |journal=Revue d'Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=429–436 |access-date=October 4, 2023 |archive-date=October 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023133547/https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhmc_0996-2743_1900_num_2_4_4185_t1_0429_0000_1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The revolutionary government, both the [[Committee of Public Safety]] and the [[Committee of General Security]], sought to gain the favor of the American ambassador, not wanting to risk the alliance with the [[United States]]; therefore, they were more inclined to focus on Paine.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

==''The Age of Reason''==
{{Main|The Age of Reason}}
[[File:PaineAgeReason.png|thumb|upright=0.75|Title page from the first English edition of Part I]]
[[File:Thomas Paine by Laurent Dabos.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Oil painting by [[Laurent Dabos]], c. 1791]]

Paine was arrested in France on December 28, 1793,<ref name="Caron">{{cite journal|author=Nathalie Caron|language=fr|journal=Transatlantica|title=Thomas Paine et l'éloge des révolutions|date=2006|issue=2|doi=10.4000/transatlantica.1145|url=http://transatlantica.revues.org/document1145.html|doi-access=free|access-date=October 3, 2023|archive-date=July 15, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715122257/http://transatlantica.revues.org/document1145.html|url-status=live}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator -->.</ref><ref name="Vickers2008">{{cite book |author=Vikki Vickers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8mSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |title=My Pen and My Soul Have Ever Gone Together: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=978-1135921576 |pages=2– |access-date=December 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819141112/https://books.google.com/books?id=L8mSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> following the orders of [[Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier|Vadier]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Paine: Age of Reason |url=https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/reason/reason16.htm |access-date=October 3, 2023 |website=www.ushistory.org |archive-date=October 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004221622/https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/reason/reason16.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Joel Barlow]] was unsuccessful in securing Paine's release by circulating a petition among American residents in Paris.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cosmopolitan Patriots: Americans in Paris in the Age of Revolution|last=Ziesche|first=Philipp|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2010|page=86}}</ref> He was treated as a political prisoner by the Committee of General Security.<ref name=":4">{{Citation |last=Lounissi |first=Carine |title=Les Américains en France de 1792 à 1799 : Citoyenneté et nationalité républicaines |date=July 28, 2022 |url=http://books.openedition.org/pufr/20477 |work=Citoyenneté et liberté : Dans l'Empire britannique et les jeunes États-Unis (xviie-xixe siècle) |pages=195–214 |editor-last=Faucquez |editor-first=Anne-Claire |access-date=October 4, 2023 |series=Civilisations étrangères |place=Tours |publisher=Presses universitaires François-Rabelais |language=fr |isbn=978-2869067936 |editor2-last=Garbaye |editor2-first=Linda |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915022221/https://books.openedition.org/pufr/20477 |url-status=live }}</ref> Sixteen American citizens were allowed to plead for Paine's release to the convention, yet President [[Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier]] of the Committee of General Security refused to acknowledge Paine's American citizenship, stating he was an Englishman and therefore a citizen of a country at war with France.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Paine|last=Hawke|first=David|publisher=Harper & Row Publishers|year=1974|location=New York|pages=297–298}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clark |first=J. C. D. |date=February 15, 2018 |title=The Unexpected Revolution |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198816997.003.0006 |journal=Oxford Scholarship Online |volume=1 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198816997.003.0006 |access-date=October 3, 2023 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230044502/https://academic.oup.com/book/27822/chapter-abstract/198115945?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Paine protested and claimed that he was a citizen of the U.S. However, Ambassador Morris did not press his claim, and Paine later wrote that Morris had connived at his imprisonment.

Paine narrowly escaped execution. A chalk mark was supposed to be left by the jailer on the door of a cell to denote that the prisoner inside was due to be removed for execution. In Paine's case, the mark had accidentally been made on the inside of his door rather than the outside because the door had been left open when the jailer was making his rounds that day, since Paine had been receiving official visitors. But for this quirk of fate, Paine would have been executed the following morning. He thus survived the few vital days needed to be spared by the fall of Robespierre on [[Thermidorian Reaction|9 Thermidor]] (July 27, 1794).<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine: Containing a Biography|last1=Paine|first1=Thomas|last2=Rickman|first2=Thomas Clio|publisher=Vincent Parke & Co.|year=1908|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandwritings07goog/page/n301 261]–262|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandwritings07goog|quote=thomas paine jailer door.|access-date=February 21, 2008}}</ref>

Paine was released in November 1794 largely because of the work of the new American ambassador to France, [[James Monroe]],<ref>Foot, Michael, and Kramnick, Isaac. 1987. ''The Thomas Paine Reader'', p. 16</ref> who successfully argued the case for Paine's U.S. citizenship.<ref>Eric Foner, 1976. ''Tom Paine and Revolutionary America'', p. 244.</ref> In July 1795, he was re-admitted into the convention, as were other surviving Girondins. Paine, depressed and ill as a result of his imprisonment, had stayed silent in the period immediately following his release but on July 8, with the encouragement of [[François-Xavier Lanthenas|Lanthenas]], he spoke in the convention.<ref>Jonathan Israel, ''Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from the Rights of Man to Robespierre'', p. 590.</ref>  Paine was one of only three ''députés'' to oppose the adoption of the new [[Constitution of the Year III|1795 constitution]], because it eliminated [[universal suffrage]], which had been proclaimed, at least for men, by the [[French Constitution of 1793|Montagnard Constitution of 1793]].<ref>[[François Victor Alphonse Aulard|Aulard, Alphonse]]. 1901. ''Histoire politique de la Révolution française'', p. 555.</ref>

In addition to receiving a British patent for a single-span iron bridge, Paine developed a smokeless candle<ref>See [http://www.ushistory.org/Paine/index.htm Thomas Paine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929122148/http://www.ushistory.org/paine/index.htm|date=September 29, 2006}}, Independence Hall Association; accessed online November 4, 2006.</ref> and worked with inventor [[John Fitch (inventor)|John Fitch]] in developing steam engines.

In 1797, Paine lived in Paris with [[Nicholas Bonneville]] and his wife, [[Marguerite Brazier]]. As well as Bonneville's other controversial guests, Paine aroused the suspicions of authorities. Bonneville hid the [[Royalist]] [[Antoine Joseph Barruel-Beauvert]] at his home. Beauvert had been outlawed following the [[coup of 18 Fructidor]] on September 4, 1797. Paine believed that the United States under President [[John Adams]] had betrayed revolutionary France.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB
 | title = Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)
 | access-date= July 26, 2008
| author = Mark Philp
 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21133
 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/21133
 | year = 2004
 }}</ref>

In 1800, still under police surveillance, Bonneville took refuge with his father in [[Evreux]]. Paine stayed on with him, helping Bonneville with the burden of translating the "Covenant Sea". The same year, Paine purportedly had a meeting with [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. Napoleon claimed he slept with a copy of ''Rights of Man'' ({{langx|fr|Les Droits de l'Homme}}) under his pillow and went so far as to say to Paine that "a statue of gold should be erected to you in every city in the universe".<ref name="oneill">{{Cite news|title=Who was Thomas Paine?|last=O'Neill|first=Brendan|publisher=BBC|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8089115.stm|date=June 8, 2009|access-date=June 10, 2018|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612144109/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8089115.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ordinaryphilosophy.com/2015/09/06/seventh-day-in-paris-following-thomas-paine-mary-wollstonecraft-and-thomas-jefferson-aug-21st-2015/ | title=Seventh Day in Paris Following Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Jefferson | date=September 6, 2015 }}</ref> Paine discussed with Napoleon how best to invade England. In December 1797, he had written two essays, one of which was pointedly named ''Observations on the Construction and Operation of Navies with a Plan for an Invasion of England and the Final Overthrow of the English Government'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Papers of James Monroe ... from the original manuscripts in the Library of Congress|url=https://archive.org/stream/papersofjamesmon00librrich/papersofjamesmon00librrich_djvu.txt|publisher=Washington : Government Printing Office|year=1904}}</ref> in which he promoted the idea to finance 1,000 gunboats to carry a French invading army across the English Channel. In 1804, Paine returned to the subject, writing ''To the People of England on the Invasion of England'' advocating the idea.<ref name="ODNB"/> However, upon noting Napoleon's progress towards dictatorship, he condemned him as "the completest charlatan that ever existed".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine|author=Craig Nelson|page=[https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/299 299]|isbn=978-0670037889|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/299|publisher=New York : Viking}}</ref>

===Criticism of George Washington===
Upset that President Washington, a friend since the Revolutionary War, did nothing during Paine's imprisonment in France, Paine believed Washington had betrayed him and conspired with Robespierre. While staying with Monroe, Paine planned to send Washington a letter of grievance on the president's birthday. Monroe stopped the letter from being sent, and after Paine's criticism of the [[Jay Treaty]], which was supported by Washington, Monroe suggested that Paine live elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine|author=Craig Nelson|page=[https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/291 291]|isbn=978-0670037889|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/291|publisher=New York: Viking}}</ref>

Paine then sent a stinging letter to Washington, in which he described him as an incompetent commander and a vain and ungrateful person. Having received no response, Paine contacted his longtime publisher [[Benjamin Franklin Bache (journalist)|Benjamin Bache]], the [[Jeffersonian democrat]], to publish his ''Letter to George Washington'' of 1796 in which he derided Washington's reputation by describing him as a treacherous man who was unworthy of his fame as a military and political hero. Paine wrote that "the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles or whether you ever had any".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Founders Online: To George Washington from Thomas Paine, 30 July 1796 |url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0329 |access-date=February 25, 2024 |website=founders.archives.gov |language=en}}</ref> He declared that without France's aid Washington could not have succeeded in the American Revolution and had "but little share in the glory of the final event". He also commented on Washington's character, saying that Washington had no sympathetic feelings and was a hypocrite.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine|author=Craig Nelson|pages=[https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/292 292–294]|isbn=978-0670037889|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels/page/292|publisher=New York: Viking}}</ref>

==Later years==
[[File:Thomas Paine A16220.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait by [[John Wesley Jarvis]], {{circa}} 1806–1807]]
Paine remained in France until 1802, returning to the United States only at President Jefferson's invitation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0302|title=Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, 18 March 1801|website=founders.archives.gov|language=en|access-date=August 20, 2019|archive-date=August 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820150705/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0302|url-status=live}}</ref> Paine also paid for the passage for Bonneville's wife [[Marguerite Brazier]] and the couple's three sons, [[Benjamin Bonneville|Benjamin]], Louis, and Thomas Bonneville, to whom Paine was godfather. Paine returned to the U.S. in the early stages of the [[Second Great Awakening]] and a time of great political partisanship. The ''Age of Reason'' gave ample excuse for the religiously devout to dislike him, while the Federalists attacked him for his ideas of government stated in ''Common Sense,'' for his association with the French Revolution, and for his friendship with President Jefferson. Also, still fresh in the minds of the public was his ''Letter to Washington,'' published six years before his return. This was compounded when his right to vote was denied in [[New Rochelle, New York|New Rochelle]] on the grounds that Gouverneur Morris did not recognize him as an American and Washington had not aided him.<ref>Claeys, Gregory, 1989. ''Thomas Paine, Social and Political Thought''.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=September 2021}}</ref>

Brazier took care of Paine at the end of his life and buried him after his death. In his will, Paine left the bulk of his estate to her, including 100 acres (40.5 ha) of his farm so she could maintain and educate Benjamin and his brother Thomas.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Paine | first1=T. | last2=Wheeler | first2=D.E. | last3=Rickman | first3=T.C. | title=The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine: Containing a Biography | publisher=Vincent Parke | issue=v. 10 | year=1908 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFE2D3F_aNAC | access-date=April 21, 2022 | chapter=The Will of Thomas Paine | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFE2D3F_aNAC&pg=PA365 | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tFE2D3F_aNAC&pg=PA368 368] | archive-date=December 30, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230044610/https://books.google.com/books?id=tFE2D3F_aNAC | url-status=live }}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Thomas Paine's death mask.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Thomas Paine's death mask of white plaster|Paine's [[death mask]]]]
[[File:Thomas Paine plaque on Grove Street.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|This plaque hangs on the site where Thomas Paine died, on Grove Street in [[Greenwich Village]]]]
On the morning of June 8, 1809, Paine died, aged 72, at [[Marie's Crisis|59 Grove Street]] in [[Greenwich Village]], New York City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ushistory.org/paine|title=Thomas Paine|website=ushistory.org|access-date=September 15, 2017|archive-date=September 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915234532/http://www.ushistory.org/paine/|url-status=live}}</ref> Although the original building no longer exists, the present building has a plaque noting that Paine died at this location.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://forgotten-ny.com/1999/05/a-paine-in-the-village/|title=A Paine in the Village – Forgotten New York|last=Walsh|first=Kevin|language=en-US|access-date=March 12, 2019|date=May 1999|archive-date=April 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417080708/https://forgotten-ny.com/1999/05/a-paine-in-the-village/|url-status=live}}</ref>

After his death, Paine's body was brought to [[New Rochelle, New York|New Rochelle]], but the [[Quakers]] would not allow it to be buried in their graveyard as per his last will, so his remains were buried under a walnut tree on his farm. In 1819, English agrarian radical journalist [[William Cobbett]], who in 1793 had published a hostile continuation<ref>William Cobbett, ''The Life of Thomas Paine, Interspersed with Remarks and Reflections'' (London: J. Wright, 1797)</ref> of Francis Oldys (George Chalmer)'s ''The Life of Thomas Paine'',<ref>"Francis Oldys" [George Chalmers], The Life of Thomas Paine. One Penny-Worth of Truth, from Thomas Bull to His Brother John (London: Stockdale, 1791)</ref> dug up his bones and transported them back to England with the intention to give Paine a heroic reburial on his native soil, but this never came to pass. The bones were still among Cobbett's effects when he died over fifteen years later but were later lost. There is no confirmed story about what happened to them after that, although various people have claimed throughout the years to own parts of Paine's remains, such as his skull and right hand.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Paine Monument at Last Finds a Home|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/10/15/archives/the-paine-monument-at-last-finds-a-home-accepted-by-new-rochelle.html|date=October 15, 1905|access-date=February 23, 2008|archive-date=February 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180226192603/https://www.nytimes.com/1905/10/15/archives/the-paine-monument-at-last-finds-a-home-accepted-by-new-rochelle.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Rehabilitating Thomas Paine, Bit by Bony Bit|last=Chen|first=David W.|newspaper=The New York Times|url=http://www.mindspring.com/~phila1/nyt330.htm|access-date=February 23, 2008|archive-date=May 16, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516140408/http://www.mindspring.com/~phila1/nyt330.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[Edwin G. Burrows|Burrows, Edwin G.]] and [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Wallace, Mike]]. ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 510.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

At the time of his death, most American newspapers reprinted Paine's obituary notice from the ''[[New York Evening Post]]'' that was in turn quoting from ''The American Citizen'',<ref>{{Cite news|title=Paine's Obituary (click the "1809" link; it is 1/3 way down the 4th column)|newspaper=New York Evening Post|url=http://www.classicapologetics.com/special/painerelief.html|date=June 10, 1809|access-date=November 22, 2013|archive-date=October 19, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019010228/http://www.classicapologetics.com/special/painerelief.html|url-status=live}}</ref> which read in part: "He had lived long, did some good, and much harm". Only six mourners came to his funeral, two of whom were black, most likely [[Freedman|freedmen]]. Months later appeared a hostile biography by James Cheetham, who had admired him since the latter's days as a young radical in Manchester, and who had been friends with Paine for a short time before the two fell out. Many years later the writer and orator [[Robert G. Ingersoll]] wrote:

{{blockquote|Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend – the friend of the whole world – with all their hearts. On the 8th of June 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Paine (1892)|author=Robert G. Ingersoll|year=1892|publisher=Thomas Paine National Historical Association|url=http://thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/thomas-paine-1892-by-robert-ingersoll.html|access-date=December 3, 2017|archive-date=October 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026121037/http://www.thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/thomas-paine-1892-by-robert-ingersoll.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

==Ideas and views==
{{republicanism sidebar}}
{{Liberalism US|activists and intellectuals}}
Biographer [[Eric Foner]] identifies a utopian thread in Paine's thought, writing: "Through this new language he communicated a new vision{{snd}}a utopian image of an egalitarian, republican society".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Tom Paine and Revolutionary America|author=Eric Foner|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=2nd|pages=xxxii, 16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyFF1M8_VDAC|isbn=978-0195174861|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/https://books.google.com/books?id=OyFF1M8_VDAC|url-status=live}}</ref>

Paine's utopianism combined [[republicanism in the United States|civic republicanism]], belief in the inevitability of scientific and social progress and commitment to free markets and liberty generally. The multiple sources of Paine's political theory all pointed to a society based on the common good and individualism. Paine expressed a redemptive futurism or political messianism.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Jendrysik | first1 = Mark | year = 2007 | title = Tom Paine: Utopian? | journal = Utopian Studies | volume = 18 | issue = 2| pages = 139–157 | doi = 10.5325/utopianstudies.18.2.0139 | s2cid = 149860226 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Writing that his generation "would appear to the future as the Adam of a new world", Paine exemplified British utopianism.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature|editor=Gregory Claeys|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=11–12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFCuoqykV9QC&pg=PA11|isbn=978-1139828420|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/https://books.google.com/books?id=sFCuoqykV9QC&pg=PA11|url-status=live}}</ref>

Later, his encounters with the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] made a deep impression. The ability of the [[Iroquois]] to live in harmony with nature while achieving a democratic decision-making process helped him refine his thinking on how to organize society.<ref name="Weatherford 2010 p. ">{{cite book | last=Weatherford | first=Jack | title=Indian givers : how Native Americans transformed the world | publisher=Three Rivers Press | publication-place=New York | year=2010 | isbn=978-0307717153 | oclc=656265477 | page=}}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Paine by Matthew Pratt, 1785-95.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait of Thomas Paine by [[Matthew Pratt]], 1785–1795]]

===Slavery===

Paine was critical of slavery and declared himself to be an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]].<ref name="hitch2829">Hitchens (2007), pp. 28–29</ref> As secretary to the [[Pennsylvania]] legislature, he helped draft legislation to outlaw Patriot involvement in the [[Atlantic slave trade|international slave trade]].<ref>Hitchens (2007), pp. 43–44</ref> Paine's statement, "Man has no property in man", although used by him in ''[[Rights of Man]]'' to deny the right of any generation to bind future ones, has also been interpreted as an argument against slavery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hitchens |first1=Christopher |title=Arguably |date=2012 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=978-1455502783 |page=162}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaye |first1=Harvey J. |title=Thomas Paine and the Promise of America: A History & Biography |date=2007 |page=147 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0374707064 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s6iz3tX-qKIC&dq=%22Man+has+no+property+in+man%22+slavery+paine&pg=PA147 |access-date=August 14, 2022 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230044614/https://books.google.com/books?id=s6iz3tX-qKIC&dq=%22Man+has+no+property+in+man%22+slavery+paine&pg=PA147#v=onepage&q=%22Man%20has%20no%20property%20in%20man%22%20slavery%20paine&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In the book, Paine also describes his mission, among other things, as to "break the chains of slavery and oppression".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paine |first1=Thomas |title=Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199538003 |page=324 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slgVDAAAQBAJ&q=rights+of+man+%22break+the+&pg=PA324 |access-date=September 9, 2022 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230045612/https://books.google.com/books?id=slgVDAAAQBAJ&q=rights+of+man+%22break+the+&pg=PA324#v=snippet&q=rights%20of%20man%20%22break%20the&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

On March 8, 1775, one month after Paine became the editor of ''The Pennsylvania Magazine'', the magazine published an anonymous article titled "African Slavery in America", the first prominent piece in the colonies proposing the [[emancipation]] of African-American slaves and the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition]] of slavery.<ref name=Rodriguez>{{Cite book|title=Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia|last=Rodriguez|first=Junius P.|year=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X44KbDBl9gC&pg=PA279|isbn=978-1851095445|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=September 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904024401/https://books.google.com/books?id=4X44KbDBl9gC&pg=PA279|url-status=live}}</ref> Paine is often credited with writing the piece,<ref name=Rodriguez /> on the basis of later testimony by Benjamin Rush, cosigner of the Declaration of Independence.<ref name="LoA" />

During the American Revolutionary War, the British implemented several policies that allowed [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slaves]] fleeing from American enslavers to find refuge within British lines. Writing in response to these policies, Paine wrote in ''Common Sense'' that Britain "hath stirred up the Indians and the Negroes to destroy us".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRBkDwAAQBAJ&dq=Thousands,+and+tens+of+thousands,+who+would+think+it+glorious+to+expel+from+the+continent+that+barbarous+hellish+power&pg=PT23 | isbn=978-8027241521 | title=Common Sense & the Rights of Man: Words of a Visionary That Sparked the Revolution and Remained the Core of American Democratic Principles | year=2018 | publisher=E-artnow | access-date=March 19, 2023 | archive-date=April 8, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408025539/https://books.google.com/books?id=lRBkDwAAQBAJ&dq=Thousands,+and+tens+of+thousands,+who+would+think+it+glorious+to+expel+from+the+continent+that+barbarous+hellish+power&pg=PT23 | url-status=live }}</ref> Paine, together with [[Joel Barlow]], unsuccessfully tried to convince President Jefferson not to import the [[Slavery in the United States|institution of slavery]] to the [[Louisiana Territory|territory]] acquired in the [[Louisiana Purchase]], suggesting he rather settle it with free Black families and [[German Americans|German immigrants]].<ref>Hitchens (2007), p. 139.</ref>

===State funded social programs===
In his ''Rights of Man, Part Second'', Paine advocated a comprehensive program of state support for the population to ensure the welfare of society, including state subsidy for poor people, state-financed universal public education, and state-sponsored [[prenatal care]] and [[postnatal care]], including state subsidies to families at childbirth. Recognizing that a person's "labor ought to be over" before old age, Paine also called for a state [[pension]] to all workers starting at age 50, which would be doubled at age 60.<ref>[[Harlow Giles Unger]], "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence" (New York: Da Capo Press, 2019), p. 154</ref>

===''Agrarian Justice''===
His last pamphlet, ''[[Agrarian Justice]]'', published in the winter of 1795, opposed agrarian law and agrarian monopoly and further developed his ideas in the ''Rights of Man'' about how land ownership separated the majority of people from their rightful, natural inheritance and means of independent survival. The U.S. [[Social Security Administration]] recognizes ''Agrarian Justice'' as the first American proposal for an [[Pension|old-age pension]] and [[basic income]] or [[citizen's dividend]]. Per ''Agrarian Justice'':

<blockquote>In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity ... [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.</blockquote>

In this pamphlet he argued "All accumulation of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came".<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas Paine: Collected Writings |date=1995 |publisher=Library of America |page=408}}</ref>

Lamb argues that Paine's analysis of property rights marks a distinct contribution to political theory. His theory of property defends a libertarian concern with private ownership that shows an egalitarian commitment. Paine's new justification of property sets him apart from previous theorists such as [[Hugo Grotius]], [[Samuel von Pufendorf]] and [[John Locke]]. Lamb says it demonstrates Paine's commitment to foundational liberal values of individual freedom and moral equality.<ref>Lamb, Robert. "Liberty, Equality, and the Boundaries of Ownership: Thomas Paine's Theory of Property Rights." ''Review of Politics'' (2010), 72#3, pp. 483–511.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> In response to Paine's "Agrarian Justice", [[Thomas Spence]] wrote "''The Rights of Infants''" wherein he argued that Paine's plan was not beneficial to impoverished people because landlords would just keep raising land prices, further enriching themselves rather than giving the commonwealth an equal chance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Marangos|first=John|date=April 11, 2008|title=Thomas Paine (1737–1809) and Thomas Spence (1750–1814) on land ownership, land taxes and the provision of citizens' dividend|url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03068290810861576/full/html|journal=International Journal of Social Economics|language=en|volume=35|issue=5|pages=313–325|doi=10.1108/03068290810861576|issn=0306-8293|access-date=March 11, 2021|archive-date=May 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508082911/https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03068290810861576/full/html|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Fiat currency===
Paine was strongly opposed to [[fiat money]], which he viewed as counterfeiting by the state. He said "The punishment of a member [of a legislature] who should move for such a law ought to be death".<ref>Griffin, G. Edward ''The Creature from Jekyll Island'' (1994)</ref> As part of his essay ''Dissertations on Government, etc.'', published in February 1786, Paine included a scathing condemnation of paper money emphasizing "The pretense for paper money has been, that there was not a sufficiency of gold and silver. This, so far from being a reason for paper emissions, is a reason against them."<ref name=":9">Smith, George Ford [https://mises.org/mises-wire/thomas-paine-paper-money-and-morality "Thomas Paine on Paper Money and Morality"] Mises.org</ref>

==Religious views==
Before his arrest and imprisonment in France, knowing that he would probably be arrested and executed, following in the tradition of [[Deism#The rise of British deism (1690–1740)|early 18th-century English Deism]] Paine wrote the first part of ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' (1793–1794). Paine's religious views as expressed in ''The Age of Reason'' caused quite a stir in religious society, effectively splitting the religious groups into two major factions: those who wanted [[disestablishment|church disestablishment]], and the Christians who wanted Christianity to continue having a strong social influence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Noll|first=Mark A.|title=Religion in the Early Republic: A Second Tom Paine Effect|date=November 2017|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1479244316000287/type/journal_article|journal=Modern Intellectual History|language=en|volume=14|issue=3|pages=883–898|doi=10.1017/S1479244316000287|s2cid=152274951|issn=1479-2443|access-date=March 11, 2021|archive-date=May 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527174919/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-intellectual-history/article/abs/religion-in-the-early-republic-a-second-tom-paine-effect/9585DC928BFF49BB1911EDA2500D763D|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

About his own religious beliefs, Paine wrote in ''The Age of Reason'':

{{blockquote|I believe in [[one God]], and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.}}

{{blockquote|I do not believe in the creed professed by the [[Judaism|Jewish church]], by the [[Catholicism|Roman church]], by the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek church]], by the [[Islam|Turkish church]], by the [[Protestantism|Protestant church]], nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.}}

{{blockquote|Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Theological Works of Thomas Paine|author=Thomas Paine|year=1824|publisher=R. Carlile|display-authors=et al|page=31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Though there is no definitive evidence Paine himself was a [[Freemason]],<ref name="allthingsliberty.com">Shai Afsai, "[https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/11/thomas-paine-deism-masonic-fraternity/ Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420013314/https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/11/thomas-paine-deism-masonic-fraternity/ |date=April 20, 2021 }}, ''Journal of the American Revolution'', November 7, 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcodL2NWwNMC&pg=SL1-PA4791|page=4791|date=June 14, 1956|title=Congressional Record. Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|author=United States. Congress|access-date=March 19, 2023|archive-date=April 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404135831/https://books.google.com/books?id=tcodL2NWwNMC&pg=SL1-PA4791|url-status=live}} Quote: "Tom Paine, Patrick Henry, James Otis, and John Paul Jones were all Masons."</ref> upon his return to America from France he penned "An Essay on the Origin of Free-Masonry" (1803–1805) about Freemasonry being derived from the religion of the ancient [[Druid]]s.<ref name="allthingsliberty.com"/> Marguerite de Bonneville published the essay in 1810 after Paine's death, but she chose to omit certain passages from it that were [[Criticism of Christianity|critical of Christianity]], most of which were restored in an 1818 printing.<ref name="allthingsliberty.com"/> In the essay, Paine stated that "the Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun."<ref name="allthingsliberty.com"/> Paine also had a [[Criticism of Judaism|negative attitude toward Judaism]].<ref>[[Robert Michael (historian)|Michael, Robert]]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bdyxAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 A Concise History of American Antisemitism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527174924/https://books.google.com/books?id=bdyxAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 |date=May 27, 2021 }}'', p. 70 ([[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers, 2005).</ref> While never describing himself as a [[Deism|Deist]], he openly advocated Deism in his writings,<ref name="Paine 2014"/> and called Deism "the only true religion":<blockquote>The opinions I have advanced ... are the effect of the most clear and long-established conviction that the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world, that the fall of man, the account of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of salvation, by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dishonorable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty; that the only true religion is [[Deism]], by which I then meant, and mean now, the belief of one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the practice of what are called moral virtues{{spaced ndash}}and that it was upon this only (so far as religion is concerned) that I rested all my hopes of happiness hereafter. So say I now{{spaced ndash}}and so help me God.<ref name="Paine1824">{{Citation|title=The Theological Works of Thomas Paine|author=Thomas Paine|publisher=R. Carlile|year=1824|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/https://books.google.com/books?id=4G0tAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

==Legacy==

{{Liberalism sidebar|philosophers}}

[[File:Thomas Paine, 40c, 1968 issue.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.75|In 1969, a [[Prominent Americans series]] stamp honoring Paine, with his signature at top, was issued.]]
Historian [[Jack P. Greene]] stated:

{{blockquote|In a fundamental sense, we are today all Paine's children. It was not the British defeat at Yorktown, but Paine and the new American conception of political society he did so much to popularize in Europe that turned the world upside down.<ref>Jack P. Greene, "Paine, America, and the 'Modernization' Of Political Consciousness", ''Political Science Quarterly'' 93#1 (1978) pp. 73–92 [92] [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2149051 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202070546/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2149051 |date=December 2, 2018 }}.</ref>}}

Harvey J. Kaye wrote that through Paine, through his pamphlets and catchphrases such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth", "We have it in our power to begin the world over again", and "These are the times that try men's souls" did more than move Americans to declare their independence:

{{blockquote|[H]e also imbued the nation they were founding with democratic impulse and aspiration and exceptional – indeed, world-historic – purpose and promise. For 230 years Americans have drawn ideas, inspiration, and encouragement from Paine and his work.<ref>{{cite book|author=Harvey J. Kaye|title=Thomas Paine and the Promise of America: A History & Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s6iz3tX-qKIC&pg=RA1-PA258|year=2007|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|page=258|isbn=978-0374707064|access-date=June 8, 2019|archive-date=August 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819212431/https://books.google.com/books?id=s6iz3tX-qKIC&pg=RA1-PA258|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

John Stevenson argues that in the early 1790s, numerous radical political societies were formed throughout England and Wales in which Paine's writings provided "a boost to the self-confidence of those seeking to participate in politics for the first time."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Stevenson | first1 = John | year = 1989 | title = 'Paineites to a Man'? The English Popular Radical Societies in the 1790s | journal = Bulletin – Society for the Study of Labour History | volume = 54 | issue = 1| pages = 14–25 }}</ref> In its immediate effects, [[Gary Kates]] argues, "Paine's vision unified Philadelphia merchants, British artisans, French peasants, Dutch reformers, and radical intellectuals from Boston to Berlin in one great movement."<ref>Gary Kates. "From Liberalism to Radicalism " (1989) p. 569.</ref>
[[File:TSJuly1 1916original.JPG|left|thumb|upright=0.75|Since its founding in 1873, the American freethought periodical – ''[[The Truth Seeker]]'' – has championed Thomas Paine.]]
His writings in the long term inspired [[Philosophical radicals|philosophic]] and working-class [[radicalism (historical)|radicals]] in Britain and United States. [[American liberalism|Liberals]], [[libertarianism|libertarians]], [[left-libertarianism|left-libertarians]], [[Feminism|feminists]], [[democratic socialists]], [[social democrats]], [[anarchist]]s, [[Freethought|free thinkers]] and [[Progressivism|progressives]] often claim him as an intellectual ancestor. Paine's critique of institutionalized religion and advocacy of rational thinking influenced many British freethinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as [[William Cobbett]], [[George Holyoake]], [[Charles Bradlaugh]], [[Christopher Hitchens]] and [[Bertrand Russell]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kates | first1 = Gary | year = 1989 | title = From liberalism to radicalism: Tom Paine's Rights of Man | journal = Journal of the History of Ideas | volume = 50 | issue = 4| pages = 569–587 | doi = 10.2307/2709798 | jstor = 2709798 }}</ref>

The quote "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" is widely but incorrectly attributed to Paine. It can be found nowhere in his published works.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Rosie |title=Mitt Romney Misquoted Thomas Paine In Victory Speech |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/mitt-romney-misquoted-thomas-paine-in-victory-spee |website=[[BuzzFeed News]] |access-date=April 26, 2019 |language=en |date=February 1, 2012 |archive-date=April 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426020538/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/mitt-romney-misquoted-thomas-paine-in-victory-spee |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Abraham Lincoln===
In 1835, when he was 26 years old, [[Abraham Lincoln]] wrote a defense of Paine's deism.<ref>Robert Havlik, "Some Influences of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason Upon
Abraham Lincoln", ''Lincoln Herald,'' 104 (Summer 2002): 61–70.</ref> A political associate, Samuel Hill, burned the manuscript to save Lincoln's political career.<ref>Michael Burlingame, ''Abraham Lincoln: a Life'' (2008), vol. 2, p. 83.</ref> Historian [[Roy Basler]], the editor of Lincoln's papers, said Paine had a strong influence on Lincoln's style:

<blockquote>No other writer of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Jefferson, parallels more closely the temper or gist of Lincoln's later thought. In style, Paine above all others affords the variety of eloquence which, chastened and adapted to Lincoln's own mood, is revealed in Lincoln's formal writings.<ref>Roy P. Basler (ed.), ''Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings'' (1946), p. 6.</ref></blockquote>

===Thomas Edison===
The inventor [[Thomas Edison]] said:

<blockquote>I have always regarded Paine as one of the greatest of all Americans. Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic.... It was my good fortune to encounter Thomas Paine's works in my boyhood... it was, indeed, a revelation to me to read that great thinker's views on political and theological subjects. Paine educated me, then, about many matters of which I had never before thought. I remember, very vividly, the flash of enlightenment that shone from Paine's writings, and I recall thinking, at that time, 'What a pity these works are not today the schoolbooks for all children!' My interest in Paine was not satisfied by my first reading of his works. I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood days.<ref>Thomas Edison, Introduction to ''The Life and Works of Thomas Paine'', New York: Citadel Press, 1945, Vol. I, pp. vii–ix. [http://www.thomaspaine.org/ Reproduced online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041110005749/http://www.thomaspaine.org/ |date=November 10, 2004 }} on thomaspaine.org, accessed November 4, 2006.</ref></blockquote>

===South America===
In 1811, Venezuelan translator Manuel Garcia de Sena published a book in Philadelphia that consisted mostly of Spanish translations of several of Paine's most important works.<ref name="street">John Street, ''Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay'' (London: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 178–186.</ref> The book also included translations of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of five U.S. states.<ref name="street"/>

It subsequently circulated widely in South America and through it [[Uruguayan]] national hero [[José Gervasio Artigas]] became familiar with and embraced Paine's ideas. In turn, many of Artigas's writings drew directly from Paine's, including the ''[[Instructions of 1813]]'', which Uruguayans consider to be one of their country's most important constitutional documents, and was one of the earliest writings to articulate a principled basis for an identity independent of Buenos Aires.<ref name="street"/>

[[File:Thomas Paine Thetford.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Monument, Kings Street, Thetford]]

===Memorials===
{{Main|Memorials to Thomas Paine}}
[[File:Thomas Paine Monument 2015.png|thumb|upright=0.75|The [[Thomas Paine Monument]]]]
The first and longest-standing memorial to Paine is the carved and inscribed 12-foot marble column in [[New Rochelle, New York]], organized and funded by publisher, educator and reformer Gilbert Vale (1791–1866) and raised in 1839 by the American sculptor and architect [[John Frazee (sculptor, born 1790)|John Frazee]], the [[Thomas Paine Monument]] (see image below).<ref>See Frederick S. Voss, ''John Frazee 1790–1852 Sculptor'' (Washington City and Boston: The National Portrait Gallery and The Boston Athenaeum, 1986), pp. 46–47.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

New Rochelle is also the original site of [[Thomas Paine Cottage|Thomas Paine's Cottage]], which along with a 320-acre (130 ha) farm were presented to Paine in 1784 by act of the New York State Legislature for his services in the American Revolution.<ref>See Alfred Owen Aldridge, ''Man of Reason'' (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1959), p. 103.{{ISBN?}}</ref> The same site is the home of the [[Thomas Paine National Historical Association|Thomas Paine Memorial Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iona.edu/library/about/collections/archives/paine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529155142/http://www.iona.edu/library/about/collections/archives/paine |archive-date=May 29, 2013|title=Academics: Libraries |work=Iona College }}</ref>
[[File:Statue of Thomas Paine, parc Montsouris, Paris (4).jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Statue of Thomas Paine in Parc Montsouris, Paris, dedicated in 1948]]
In the 20th century, [[Joseph L. Lewis|Joseph Lewis]], longtime president of the Freethinkers of America and an ardent Paine admirer, was instrumental in having larger-than-life-sized statues of Paine erected in each of the three countries with which the revolutionary writer was associated. The first, created by [[Mount Rushmore]] sculptor [[Gutzon Borglum]], was erected in the [[Parc Montsouris]], [[Paris]], just before [[World War II]] began but not formally dedicated until 1948. It depicts Paine standing before the French [[National Convention]] to plead for the life of [[King Louis XVI]]. The second, sculpted in 1950 by [[Georg J. Lober]], was erected near Paine's one-time home in [[Morristown, New Jersey]]. It shows a seated Paine using a drumhead as a makeshift table. The third, sculpted by Sir [[Charles Wheeler (sculptor)|Charles Wheeler]], President of the Royal Academy, was erected in 1964 in Paine's birthplace, [[Thetford]], England. With a quill pen in his right hand and an inverted copy of ''The Rights of Man'' in his left, it occupies a prominent location on King Street. Thomas Paine was ranked No. 34 in the ''[[100 Greatest Britons]]'' 2002 extensive Nationwide poll conducted by the [[BBC]].<ref>{{cite news
 | title = BBC – 100 Great British Heroes
 | work = BBC News
 | url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2208671.stm
 | date = August 21, 2002
| access-date = December 26, 2011
| archive-date = November 4, 2010
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101104074956/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2208671.stm
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

===In popular culture===
* In 1987, [[Richard Thomas (actor)|Richard Thomas]] appeared on stage in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, in the one-man play ''Citizen Tom Paine'' (an adaptation of [[Howard Fast]]'s 1943 novel of the same title), playing Paine "like a star-spangled tiger, ferocious about freedom and ready to savage anyone who stands in his way", in a staging of the play in the bicentennial year of the [[United States Constitution]].<ref>Louise Sweeney (1987). "On stage: reliving historic turning points. Howard Fast's 'Citizen Tom Paine'." ''The Christian Science Monitor''. March 12, 1987.</ref>
* In 1995, the English folk singer Graham Moore released a song called ''Tom Paine's Bones'' on an album of the same name.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tom Paine's Bones [Graham Moore]|url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/roy.bailey/songs/tompainesbones.html|access-date=August 9, 2021|website=mainlynorfolk.info|archive-date=August 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809101835/https://mainlynorfolk.info/roy.bailey/songs/tompainesbones.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The song has since been covered by a number of other artists, including [[Dick Gaughan]], [[Grace Petrie]], [https://www.thefinnsmusic.com/lyrics the Finns], and [[The Trials of Cato|Trials of Cato]].{{cn|date=March 2024}}
* In 2005, [[Trevor Griffiths]] published ''These are the Times: A Life of Thomas Paine'', originally written as a screenplay for [[Richard Attenborough|Richard Attenborough Productions]]. Although the film was not made, the play was broadcast as a two-part drama on [[BBC Radio 4]] in 2008,<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Drama – Episodes by|publisher=Bbc.co.uk|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/episodes/player|date=August 2008|access-date=May 7, 2014|archive-date=September 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904024402/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/broadcasts/2008/08|url-status=live}}</ref> with a repeat in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Drama – Episodes by|publisher=Bbc.co.uk|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/episodes/player|date=August 2012|access-date=May 7, 2014|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016044059/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgxs/broadcasts/2012/08|url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 2009, Paine's life was dramatized in the play ''Thomas Paine Citizen of the World'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Thomas Paine – "Citizen Of The World"|publisher=Keystage-company.co.uk|url=http://www.keystage-company.co.uk/Keystage_Arts_and_Heritage_Company/Project_Portfolio/Entries/2009/4/27_THOMAS_PAINE_-_CITIZEN_OF_THE_WORLD.html|access-date=May 7, 2014|archive-date=April 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407222502/http://www.keystage-company.co.uk/Keystage_Arts_and_Heritage_Company/Project_Portfolio/Entries/2009/4/27_THOMAS_PAINE_-_CITIZEN_OF_THE_WORLD.html|url-status=live}}</ref> produced for the "Tom Paine 200 Celebrations" festival<ref name="tompainlegacy">[http://www.tompainelegacy.org.uk/programme.html Tom Paine Legacy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117175937/http://www.tompainelegacy.org.uk/programme.html|date=January 17, 2012}}, Programme for bicentenary celebrations in [[Thetford]], the town of his birth.</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=69em}}
{{Portal|History|Liberalism|Libertarianism|Philosophy|Politics|United States
}}
* [[Asset-based egalitarianism]]
* [[British philosophy]]
* [[Contributions to liberal theory]]
* [[Liberty]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of British philosophers]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Society of the Friends of Truth]]
* [[Early American publishers and printers]]
* [[Influence of the American Revolution on the French Revolution]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="Note"}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite journal
 | title = Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity
 | last = Afsai
 | first = Shai
 | journal = Journal of the American Revolution
 | date = November 7, 2016
| url = https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/11/thomas-paine-deism-masonic-fraternity/
 | access-date = March 11, 2021
| archive-date = April 20, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210420013314/https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/11/thomas-paine-deism-masonic-fraternity/
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{cite book | title = Man of Reason: The Life of Thomas Paine
 | author1-last = Aldridge | author1-first = A. Owen
 | author1-link = A. Owen Aldridge
 | publisher = Lippincott
 | year = 1959
}}
* {{cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine's American Ideology
 | last = Aldridge
 | first = A. Owen
 | publisher = [[University of Delaware Press]]
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lN582EPgp40C&q=Owen+Aldridge
 | year = 1984
 | isbn = 978-0874132601
 | access-date = October 29, 2020
| archive-date = February 7, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210207121016/https://books.google.com/books?id=lN582EPgp40C&q=Owen+Aldridge
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{cite book| title = Thomas Paine
 | author1-last = Ayer | author1-first = A. J.
 | author1-link = Alfred Jules Ayer
 | publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]
 | year = 1988
}}
* {{cite book| title = Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence
 | author1-last = Bailyn | author1-first = Bernard
 | author1-link = Bernard Bailyn
 | editor1-last = Bailyn | editor1-first = Bernard
 | publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]
 | chapter = Common Sense
 | date = 1990
}}
* {{Cite journal| title = Review Essay: Rediscovering Thomas Paine
 | author1-last = Bernstein | author1-first = R. B.
 | author1-link = Richard B. Bernstein
 | journal = New York Law School Law Review
 | date = 1994
}}
* {{Cite book| title = Burke Paine and Godwin and the Revolution Controversy
 | author1-last = Butler | author1-first = Marilyn
 | author1-link = Marilyn Butler
 | date = 1984
}}
* {{Cite book| title = The Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man
 | author1-last = Chiu | author1-first = Frances
 | publisher = Routledge
 | date = 2020
 | isbn = 978-0415703925
}}
* {{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine, Social and Political Thought
 | author1-last = Claeys
 | author1-first = Gregory
 | author1-link = Gregory Claeys
 | publisher = Unwin Hyman
 | place = London
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=10lR6gi5sswC&q=claeys+thomas+paine
 | date = 1989
 | isbn = 978-0203193204
 | access-date = October 29, 2020
| archive-date = February 4, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210204235428/https://books.google.com/books?id=10lR6gi5sswC&q=claeys+thomas+paine
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{Cite book
 | title = The Life of Thomas Paine
 | author1-last = Conway
 | author1-first = Moncure Daniel
 | author1-link = Moncure D. Conway
 | publisher = G.P. Putnam's Sons
 | url = https://archive.org/details/lifeofthomaspain01conw
 | date = 1892
 | ref = conway1892a
 }}
* {{Cite journal| title = The Commonalities of Common Sense
 | last = Ferguson | first = Robert A.
 | journal = William and Mary Quarterly
 | volume = 57
 | issue = 3 | pages = 465–504 | jstor = 2674263
 | date = July 2000
 | doi = 10.2307/2674263 | ref = pp.&nbsp;465–504
}}
* {{cite book |last=Fitzsimons |first=David |title=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |chapter=Paine, Thomas (1737–1809) |chapter-url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n226.xml |year=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications|SAGE]], [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n226 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=369–370 |access-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221172835/https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n226.xml |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book| title = Tom Paine and Revolutionary America
 | author1-last = Foner | author1-first = Eric
 | author1-link = Eric Foner
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | date = 1976
}}
* {{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine
 | author1-last = Foner
 | author1-first = Eric
 | author1-link = Eric Foner
 | publisher = American National Biography Online
 | url = http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01251.html
 | date = 2000
 | access-date = November 6, 2016
| archive-date = September 18, 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190918223741/https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1601251;jsessionid=0BEA48F9252E1677532FA4CCA528515C
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{cite book |last=Rush |first=Benjamin |editor1-first=Lyman Henry |editor1-last=Butterfield |title=Letters of Benjamin Rush |volume=II |author-link=Benjamin Rush |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0691655918 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs2bDwAAQBAJ |ref=rush2019 |access-date=November 4, 2021 |archive-date=December 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230050008/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs2bDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
* Greene, Jack P. "Paine, America, and the 'Modernization' Of Political Consciousness", ''Political Science Quarterly'' 93#1 (1978) pp.&nbsp;73–92 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2149051 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202070546/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2149051 |date=December 2, 2018 }}.
* {{Cite book| title = These Are the Times: A Life of Thomas Paine
 | last = Griffiths | first = Trevor
 | author-link = Trevor Griffiths
 | year = 2005
 | publisher = Spokesman Books
}}
* {{Cite book| title = Paine
 | last = Hawke | first = David Freeman
 | publisher = Harper & Row
 | place = New York
 | date = 1974
}}
* {{Cite book| title = Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography
 | author1-last = Hitchens | author1-first = Christopher
 | author1-link = Christopher Hitchens
 | publisher = Atlantic Books | place = London
 | date = 2007
 | isbn = 978-1843546283
}}
* {{Cite journal| title = From Liberalism to Radicalism: Tom Paine's Rights of Man
 | last = Kates | first = Gary
 | journal = Journal of the History of Ideas
 | date = 1989
 | volume = 50 | issue = 4
 | pages = 569–587
 | jstor = 2709798 | doi = 10.2307/2709798 }}
* {{Cite book| title = Thomas Paine and the Promise of America
 | author = Kaye, Harvey J.
 | author-link = Harvey J. Kaye
 | publisher = [[Hill & Wang]]
 | location = [[New York City]]
 | date = 2005
}}
* {{Cite book| title = Tom Paine: A Political Life
 | author1-last = Keane | author1-first = John
 | author1-link = John Keane (political theorist)
 | publisher = Bloomsbury | place = London
 | date = 1995
}}
* {{Cite journal| title = Liberty, Equality, and the Boundaries of Ownership: Thomas Paine's Theory of Property Rights
 | last = Lamb | first = Robert
 | journal = Review of Politics
 | volume = 72 | issue = 3
 | date = 2010
 | pages = 483–511 | doi = 10.1017/S0034670510000331 | hdl = 10871/9896 | s2cid = 55413082 | ref = pp.&nbsp;483–511
| hdl-access = free}}
* {{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution
 | last = Larkin
 | first = Edward
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-XnIqhEl7VAC&q=larkin+thomas+paine
 | date = 2005
 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{Cite book| title = L'américain de la Convention, Thomas Paine: Professeur de révolutions
 | trans-title = The National Convention's American, Thomas Paine, professor of revolution
 | last = Lessay | first = Jean
 | language = fr
 | publisher = Éditions Perrin | place = Paris
 | page = 241
 | date = 1987
}}
* {{Cite book| title = The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
 | last = Levin | first = Yuval
 | publisher = Basic Books
 | date = 2013
 | isbn = 978-0465062980
}}
* {{Cite book| title = Thomas Paine: The Author of the Declaration of Independence
 | author1-last = Lewis | author1-first = Joseph L.
 | author1-link = Joseph L. Lewis
 | publisher = Freethought Press Association | place = New York
 | date = 1947
}}
* {{Cite book
 | title = Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
 | last = Nelson
 | first = Craig
 | publisher = Viking
 | date = 2006
 | isbn = 978-0670037889
 | url = https://archive.org/details/thomaspaineenlig0000nels
 }}
* {{Cite odnb| title = Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)
 | last = Phillips | first = Mark
 | date = May 2008
 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/21133
 }}
* {{Cite book| title = Tom Paine, The Greatest Exile
 | last = Powell | first = David
 | publisher = Hutchinson
 | date = 1985
 | isbn= 978-0367271343}}
* {{Cite web
 | title = The Fate of Thomas Paine
 | last = Russell
 | first = Bertrand
 | author-link = Bertrand Russell
 | year = 1934
 | url = https://www.thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/the-fate-of-thomas-paine-by-bertrand-russell.html
 | publisher = Thomas Paine National Historical Association
 | access-date = February 21, 2022
| archive-date = February 21, 2022
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220221172832/https://www.thomaspaine.org/aboutpaine/the-fate-of-thomas-paine-by-bertrand-russell.html
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{Cite journal| title = Thomas Paine's Continental Mind
 | last = Solinger | first = Jason D.
 | journal = Early American Literature
 | volume = 45 | issue = 3
 | date = November 2010
 | pages = 593–617 | doi = 10.1353/eal.2010.0029 | s2cid = 161742555 | ref = pp.&nbsp;593–617
}}
* {{Cite book
 | title = The Transatlantic Republican: Thomas Paine and the age of revolutions
 | last = Vincent
 | first = Bernard
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZRoDgG2vQ0C&q=bernard+vincent
 | date = 2005
 | publisher = Rodopi
 | isbn = 978-9042016149
 | access-date = October 29, 2020
| archive-date = February 4, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210204235426/https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZRoDgG2vQ0C&q=bernard+vincent
 | url-status = live
 }}
* {{Cite book| title = The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine. An Interactive Adaptation for All Ages
 | last = Wilensky | first = Mark
 | year = 2008
 | publisher = [[Casemate Publishers|Casemate]]
 | isbn = 978-1932714364
}}
* {{Cite journal
 | title = Thomas Paine and the French Revolution
 | last = Washburne
 | first = E. B.
 | journal = Scribner's Monthly
 | date = May 1880
 | volume = XX
 | url = https://archive.org/stream/scribnersmonthly20newy#page/770/mode/2up
 }}
{{refend}}

=== Primary sources ===
* {{Cite book| title = The Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume 4
 | last = Paine | first = Thomas
 | editor-last = Conway | editor-first = Moncure Daniel
 | year = 1896
 | publisher = G. P. Putnam's sons | location = New York
 | page = 521
 | ref = Paine
}} [//archive.org/details/writingsthomasp00paingoog E'book]
* {{Cite book
 | title = The Thomas Paine Reader
 | author1-last = Foot
 | author1-first = Michael
 | author2-last = Kramnick
 | author2-first = Isaac
 | author1-link = Michael Foot
 | author2-link = Isaac Kramnick
 | publisher = Penguin Classics
 | date = 1987
 | isbn = 978-0140444964
 | url = https://archive.org/details/thomaspainereade00pain
 }}
* {{Cite book| title = Writings
 | last1 = Paine | first1 = Thomas
 | editor1-last = Foner | editor1-first = Eric | editor1-link = Eric Foner
 | publisher = Library of America | place = Philadelphia
 | date = 1993
}}. Authoritative and scholarly edition containing ''Common Sense,'' the essays comprising the ''American Crisis'' series, ''Rights of Man'', ''The Age of Reason'', ''Agrarian Justice'', and selected briefer writings, with authoritative texts and careful annotation.
* {{Cite book| title = The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine
 | last1 = Paine | first1 = Thomas
 | editor1-last = Foner | editor1-first = Philip S. | editor1-link = Philip Foner
 | publisher = Citadel Press
 | date = 1944
}} A complete edition of Paine's writings, on the model of Eric Foner's edition for the Library of America, is badly needed. Until then Philip Foner's two-volume edition is a serviceable substitute. Volume I contains the major works, and volume II contains shorter writings, both published essays and a selection of letters, but confusingly organized; in addition, Foner's attributions of writings to Paine have come in for some criticism in that Foner may have included writings that Paine edited but did not write and omitted some writings that later scholars have attributed to Paine.
* [[Thomas Clio Rickman]] (1819) [https://archive.org/details/lifeofthomaspain00rick/page/n7/mode/2up The Life of Thomas Paine] via [[Internet Archive]]

=== Fiction ===
* {{Cite book| title = Citizen Tom Paine
 | author1-last = Fast | author1-first = Howard
 | author1-link = Howard Fast
 | date = 1946
}} (historical novel, though sometimes mistaken as biography).

==External links==
{{Sister project links|s=Author:Thomas Paine}}
* [http://www.thomaspaineuk.com/ Thomas Paine Society (UK)]
* [http://www.thomaspainesociety.org/ Thomas Paine Society (US)]
* [https://thomaspaine.org/ The Thomas Paine National Historical Association (TPNHA)]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{NPG name}}
* [http://www.windmillhotelalford.co.uk/history.html Office location while in Alford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507180027/http://www.windmillhotelalford.co.uk/history.html |date=May 7, 2019 }}

=== Works by Thomas Paine ===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-paine}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=Paine,+Thomas}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Paine}}
* [https://thomaspaine.org/writings_and_timeline.html Writings and Timeline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109200229/https://thomaspaine.org/writings_and_timeline.html |date=January 9, 2023 }} from the TPNHA
* {{Librivox author|id=2273}}
* [http://deism.com/paine.htm Deistic and Religious Works of Thomas Paine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330132548/http://www.deism.com/paine.htm |date=March 30, 2015 }}
* [//archive.org/details/theologicalwork00paingoog The theological works of Thomas Paine]
* [//archive.org/details/theologicalwork00rousgoog The theological works of Thomas Paine to which are appended the profession of faith of a savoyard vicar by J.J. Rousseau]

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