Paine was a prickly pear-vain, tactless, untidy-but he continued to charm people.
His most steadfast friend was Thomas Jefferson. James Monroe helped spring him from prison in France. Benjamin Franklin helped him get started in Philadelphia and considered him an “adopted political son.” Paine served as an aide to George Washington. Because of his critical writings on religion, he was shunned and ridiculed during his last years in America.īut fellow Founders recognized Paine’s rare talent. Egalitarian leaders of the French Revolution ordered him into a Paris prison-he narrowly escaped death by guillotine. The English monarchy hounded him into exile and decreed the death penalty if he ever returned. He was confident that free people would fulfill their destiny. He was always earnest in the pursuit of liberty. His devastating attacks on tyranny compare with the epic thrusts of Voltaire and Jonathan Swift, but unlike these authors, there wasn’t a drop of cynicism in Paine. His radical vision and dramatic, plainspoken style connected with artisans, servants, soldiers, merchants, farmers, and laborers alike. He wrote the three top-selling literary works of the eighteenth century, which inspired the American Revolution, issued a historic battle cry for individual rights, and challenged the corrupt power of government churches. As nobody before, Thomas Paine stirred ordinary people to defend their liberty.
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