Today marks the birth, in 1737, of Thomas Paine, one of the most influential writers in American history. Free-thinker, patriot, pamphleteer, one-time hero and later victim of the French Revolution, Paine argued for American independence in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense.
And a radical Paine truly was, taking anti-independence arguments to their root and demolishing them one by one. Here's one of my own favorites:
But, admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: and to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.Gotta love that one. I'd guess that Thomas Paine had himself a bit of fun in writing Common Sense.
Paine again turned pen to polemic to urge that Americans not give up their fight, with the first issue of The American Crisis, released on December 23, 1776:
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. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.In The Crisis No. II, from 1777, Paine addressed Lord Howe:
As a military man your lordship may hold out the sword of war, and call it the "ultima ratio regum": the last reason of kings; we in return can show you the sword of justice, and call it "the best scourge of tyrants."Paine's pamphlets proved him to be a mighty scourge himself, and he was a hero in France, where he was elected to represent two different constituencies in the Convention, France's revolutionary legislature -- until he managed, again by expressing his opinions, to raise the hackles of the wrong people. The result was his arrest by the Committees of Public Safety and Surety General, and subsequent imprisonment.
Paine's major effort from this period is his free-thought classic, The Age of Reason, which bears close reading. In his introduction to Part First, entitled "To My Fellow Citizens of the United States of America," he wrote what are probably his most famous lines after "These are the times that try men's souls:"
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.And Paine means what he says: at the beginning of the second chapter, he demolishes, in one fell swoop, the foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam:
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.And maybe that's why conservatives shy away from Thomas Paine. Oh, you could say that Thomas Paine is one of my heroes. But don't bother asking today's "conservatives" about Paine: history, to most of them, began with the Reagan "revolution." A real revolutionary, such as Thomas Paine, interests them not. One look at what they're putting on the internet is all you need to know: nothing to mark Paine's birth at NewsMax.com, WorldNetDaily , FrontPageMag.com, or National Review Online (or its blog, The Corner). Not a thing.
Geez. with that kind of conservative media blackout, you might think he was Isabel Paterson or something. Taking Paine's own words, conservatives are but summer soldiers and sunshine patriots in the battle for individual liberty.
I can't wait to see what they make of the Ayn Rand centenary.
Posted by Craig Ceely at January 29, 2005 05:59 PM