The Beacon #4 March 1, 2022
By Gary Berton
On July 5, 1998, William Safire, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote an article on naming the country. He listed several sources, many of which were during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in mid-June 1776. He referred to notes written then, and kept repeating that the phrase “united States of America” was used then. But it was a small “u”. That is the way it was referred to. If you look at any original printing of the Declaration you will see it that way. So the name was not declared in it.
Safire also lists two other early sources: one in a private letter some months before and not circulated, and we are unaware if the “u” in united was capitalized, which Safire repeatedly ignores. The other is an article at the end of June printed in the main newspaper of Philadelphia. That article definitively names the country, and not only that – the author also has knowledge of being able to use that name.
Enter Thomas Paine. As you know, if you have read the essay on our website on the Sherman Copy of the Declaration, that Paine was in a position of authority for the Committee of Five, which drafted the Declaration, having intimate knowledge of the goings-on in creating it. He was in such a position of knowledge.
The author of the article in the newspapers at the end of June in 1776 was Thomas Paine, making him the one that publicly coined the name. He used it again in January, 1777 in Crisis II, and this widely circulated Crisis popularized the name.
The Collected Works of Thomas Paine Project has confirmed the authorship of that article from June, 1776: it is definitely Paine. We know this from computer text analysis of the article. While we can’t reprint the whole article until the Works are published, we can share a paragraph:
“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 negociate a peace.“
Another debt that America owes Thomas Paine.