Edited excerpt from “Here’s to Tom Paine — the Forgotten Founding Father,” originally published on Medium, June 10, 2024.

In 1789, Thomas Paine wrote to his American friend, Kitty Few Nicholson: 

A thousand years hence (for I must indulge in a few thoughts), perhaps in less, America maybe what England now is!…When we contemplate the fall of empires and the extinction of nations of the ancient world, we see but little to excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous palaces, magnificent monuments…. of the most costly workmanship. But when the empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire. It will not then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity…. but here, ah painful thought! the noblest work of human wisdom, the grandest scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom rose and fell! 

Today, 235 years later, we grapple with the same freedom issues confronting Paine and his British contemporaries. We may even say the situation is worse, given our knowledge and seemingly more abundant resources.

There’s little doubt Paine would probably be deeply disappointed with his adopted country — its downfall arriving much sooner than he anticipated. 

Much of what Paine wrote in Rights of Man about 18th century Britain fits 21st century America: 

When, in countries that are called civilised, we see age going to the workhouse and youth to the gallows, something must be wrong in the system of government. It would seem, by the exterior appearance of such countries, that all was happiness; but there lies hidden from the eye of common observation, a mass of wretchedness, that has scarcely any other chance, than to expire in poverty or infamy…. 

Civil government does not exist in executions; but in making such provision for the instruction of youth and the support of age, as to exclude, as much as possible, profligacy from the one and despair from the other. Instead of this, the resources of a country are lavished upon kings, upon courts, upon hirelings, impostors and prostitutes; and even the poor themselves, with all their wants upon them, are compelled to support the fraud that oppresses them. 

British Whig and Tory members of Parliament then pulled the strings of government with their riches. Today, American Democratic and Republican members of Congress (mostly millionaires and billionaires) continue the charade that social and economic equity prevails, that anyone can go from “rags to riches.” 

The U.S. pay-to-play system makes all candidates rely on their personal wealth and contributions from their deep-pocket donors. This guarantees only the voices of the rich are heard. Citizens United opened the door wide to corporate donations. 

Paine would not have been surprised. After all, he observed that: 

A change of ministers amounts to nothing. One goes out, another comes in, and still the same measures, vices, and extravagances are pursued. It signifies not who is minister. The defect lies in the system. The foundation and superstructure of the government is bad. Prop it as you please, it continually sinks and ever will.

The perception of a government rigged for the elites can explain both Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and the January 6, 2021 melee at the White House, where many had faced financial insecurity across the past decades. Again, Paine’s words are prescient: 

As a great mass of the community are thrown thereby into poverty and discontent, they are constantly on the brink of commotion… Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness. It shows that something is wrong in the system of government that injures the felicity by which society is to be preserved. 

I believe it’s no accident that current social beliefs and trends uncannily reflect those in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many Americans still believe that assistance to the poor encourages sloth. Meanwhile, there is little interest in funding public K-12 education or in making higher education more affordable. 

We are fully ensconced in 18th century style nepotism, indicated by the recently coined term, “nepobaby.” The idea of meritocracy is almost as much a sham today as it was back then. 

If Instagram and Tiktok offer clues, we still venerate “Old Money” as much as characters in any Jane Austen novel. Let’s not forget that the very ideas of old money in America is racist — given centuries of slavery while prohibiting immigration from Asia — for only whites were allowed to accumulate great wealth. 

If the top one percent chooses to blindly immerse themselves in the 18th century, perhaps it’s time for the rest of us to revisit Paine’s Rights of Man and right the wrongs ourselves. 

Enough is enough!

The post Rights of Man is More Relevant Now than Ever  appeared first on Thomas Paine Historical Association.

Part Three of a Three-Part Historiography

The last decades of the 20th century saw revived interest in the life and contributions of Thomas Paine, evidenced by the books published. Three new studies of Paine were Gregory Claeys’ Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought (1989), Jack Fruchtman Jr.’s Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (1994). and John Keane’s Tom Paine: A Political Life (1995).

Claeys’ biography, published in London, investigates Paine’s influence on social and political thinking in Britain and America, focusing on how Paine’s ideas were understood in the moment. Claeys presents Paine as an important writer on politics and society. He also criticized earlier Foner and Aldridge biographies for ignoring discussions of Paine’s repeated calls for simple human kindness and moral virtue. 

The second decade of the 21st century introduced two more books on Paine’s life and contributions. 

Thomas Paine: Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment (2019) by J.C.D. Clark seems determined to tar Paine as an unoriginal thinker who contributed next to nothing to revolutionary events — another belittling Paine biography. 

Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence (2019) by Harlow Giles Unger was a well-received, easily readable and mostly accurate biography. Unger made Paine much more accessible to mainstream readers but added little to Paine studies.

Since Conway’s 1892 biography, the historiography of Thomas Paine has offered readers glimpses of greatness, petty personal attacks, and weighty word-by-word analyses. Consideration is rarely given to views of Paine as a man with loyal friends and people he loved.

Instead, as historian Yannick Bosc wrote, “Behind the smoke from the censer, there are always sulfurous fumes floating around Thomas Paine.” 

More than 200 years of historiographical inquiry still leaves us with too many questions. We can only look forward to the new, impartial, unbiased, and well-researched works that are yet to come.

The post A History of Thomas Paine’s Biographies  appeared first on Thomas Paine Historical Association.

Part One of Two Parts

In the wake of the Civil War and the attempt at Reconstruction, the capitalist era entered the Gilded Age, where the wealthy monopolized most of the wealth as the working classes became more impoverished. The reactions to the situation resulted in the activist reform movement. At the same time the federal government took the anti-constitutional step of employing religion to repress that reform movement. 

Several groups were forming to oppose the nature of the Gilded Age on such issues as suffrage for women, health services for women, freedom of the press, freethinking, labor organizing, labor rights, race equality, and more. The basic concepts of modern democracy, built on equality, and natural and civil rights, were the foundation of the movement, as established by the life and legacy of Thomas Paine. 

Starting in 1872 and completed in 1873, the Comstock Act brought the weapon of religion against these groups. It was named for Anthony Comstock, a zealous Christian anti-“vice”fanatic who was put in charge of using the Act against the democratic forces emerging to challenge the monopoly of wealth, and the repressive nature of society unfolding. To a large extent, this struggle continues. 

Anthony Comstock was a leader of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, whose purpose was to uphold “Christian morality”, which opposed obscene literature, abortion, contraception, masturbation, gambling, prostitution, and patent medicine.

Comstock worked through the Postal Department, using local police, on his authority alone, to enforce “morality.” Anyone sending literature through the mails that Comstock disliked was subject to arrest. 

In the same year, and most probably in response, The Truth Seeker magazine was established by D. M. Bennett, with these principles: 

Devoted to: science, morals, free thought, free discussions, liberalism, sexual equality, labor reform, progression, free education and whatever tends to elevate and emancipate the human race. 

Opposed to: priestcraft, ecclesiasticism, dogmas, creeds, false theology, superstition, bigotry, ignorance, monopolies, aristocracies, privileged classes, tyranny, oppression, and everything that degrades or burdens mankind mentally or physically. 

Bennett turned into Comstock’s prime target. In 1878, when Bennett published a piece on free-love, he was imprisoned for nearly a year, destroying his health. Bennett died four years later. (The Truth Seeker today carries on efforts to obtain a posthumous pardon for Bennett.) 

In 1878, eventual TPNHA founders Dr. E.B. Foote, T.B. Wakeman, E.A. Chamberlain, and others founded the National Defense Association (NDA) to organize against the Comstock Law. Formation of the NDA, a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union, led to dissension in the movement. 

The National Liberal League had been a unifying force in the formative period of progressive thinking, advocating its “Nine Demands of Liberalism.” The demands centered around the separation of church and state, opposition to favoritism shown to religious creeds in government functions. 

The Liberal League in 1884 split into factions over whether social and political issues other than freethought should be included in their agenda. 

A year after Bennett’s death, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association (TPNHA) was formed on January 29, 1884, the anniversary of Paine’s birth. A majority of the Board consisted of people tied to The Truth Seeker. Representing activists who were leading the reform movements, they chose Thomas Paine as the symbol of the democratic struggle, and they created an organization that could coordinate and collaborate on political struggles through one body. 

The leading force in TPNHA’s formation was Thaddeus Wakeman, President of the Liberal University in Oregon and later in Missouri, a leading activist in New York politics, a political philosopher, freethinker, publisher of activist literature.

Liberal League leaders became key leaders in founding the TPNHA. Foote, Wakeman and Chamberlain continued to advocate freethinking in such social issues as free speech. women’s rights, labor struggles, and social justice. Integral to this faction was The Truth Seeker, based in Manhattan. 

TPNHA’s formation triggered a split with the group led by secularist Robert Ingersoll, who formed the American Secular Union. More conservative Ingersoll never joined TPNHA, yet he was a lifelong Paine advocate. 

Formation of TPNHA was part of the developing 19th century drive to inform people about the issues of free speech, labor rights, women’s rights, education, prison reform, and freethought. Thomas Paine was the uniting figure in American history these organizations had in common. The re-establishment of Thomas Paine as a preeminent founding father was part of this public education movement, and that continues today. 

Comstock’s law is still on the books as a relic from the period of repression in 19th century America. The old law is now being revived by the latest movement to abolish women’s reproductive rights along with access to reproductive health information and services.

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