By Robert Morrell
Thomas Paine And America, 1776-1809. Edited by Kenneth W. Burchell. 6 volumes. 2496pp. London, Pickering & Chatto, 2009. ISBN-13-9781851969647. £495.00. $875.00
When Thomas Paine arrived in Philadelphia in 1774 he faced an uncertain future. He was seriously ill from an ailment picked up on the voyage to America, although thanks both to the captain of the ship on which he had travelled, having a cabin to himself, and the letters of introduction he carried from Benjamin Franklin to relatives, he received medical assistance on arrival that led to his. recovery. Because of the actions of the British government in imposing unpopular taxes and what was perceived to be restrictions on trade, there was considerable unrest amongst the populace which was accompanied with a feeling that change was called for. As for Paine himself, his first and most pressing need was to find employment, for although he was given the job of tutoring the sons of some prominent individuals, one of the recommendations in the letters being that he could undertake this as he had been a schoolmaster in London, he was not destined for this, as a chance meeting in a bookshop with one of the two proprietors of the newly established Pennsylvania Magazine, led to an invitation to him to contribute to it and before long he was appointed as its editor, a job in which he proved an outstanding success.
Paine had some experience of writing as he had been asked when working as an exciseman in Lewes, to draw up a document for presentation to the British parliament setting out the arguments supportive of giving the low paid excisemen an increase in their salaries, only to have the members of parliament refuse to accept it. His Case of the Officers of Excise has been described as the first national trade union manifesto. But it was to have unfortunate consequences for Paine, as the Commissioners of Excise, who had asked him to draw up the appeal, dismissed him following its failure, then his marriage broke down and the shop he ran in Lewes failed. The future for him must have looked exceedingly bleak. However, he had got to know Benjamin Franklin in London, a friendship stemming from their common interest In science, and Franklin suggested to him that he should make a new start by emigrating to Pennsylvania. Paine, who rarely ever appears to have taken note of advice, this time did so. Perhaps the astute Franklin had sensed that he had potential, but it is unlikely that he had any inkling of the impact Paine was destined to make on the political life of the thirteen British colonies in America.
Although the magazine Paine edited was officially apolitical, this did not prevent him including material that had a political slant, although most of his interest in political and social controversy was given voice to in letters he wrote to newspapers. Paine was no stranger to controversy having served an apprenticeship, so to speak, in the cut and thrust debates at the Headstrong Club that met in Lewes, of which he was a leading member. It is also believed that he was a supporter, if not an active helper, of the radical politician John Wilkes. Thus he would have taken a close interest in the discussions in the coffee houses and taverns of Philadelphia as well as in private gatherings that centred around the disputes with the government in London during which the idea of independence probably cropped up from time to time, for the radical John Cartwright had suggested the idea in one of his works that circulated in the colonies. Then late in 1775 Paine resigned as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, not a step to be taken lightly for one new to the colony who did not possess private means. This would suggest that something was afoot.
In January 1776, there appeared on sale in Philadelphia a pamphlet entitled Common Sense, that created a tremendous stir accompanied by much speculation as to the identity of its anonymous author. Written in what might be described as a journalistic style, it marshalled the arguments not just for the colonies becoming independent of Britain but also that their form of government should be republican, a suggestion that went far beyond Major Cartwright’s ideas. Such was the pamphlet’s persuasive impact that there can be little doubt that it prepared the ground for the Declaration of Independence issued by the American Continental Congress on July 4, of the same year. Thus Paine may be said to have been the inspiration for that document, although some Americans have gone further and argued that while he may not have been one of the signatories he was, in effect, its actual author (cf. Joseph Lewis. Thomas Paine, Author of the Declaration of Independence. New York, Freethought Press Association, 1947). Although most historians reject this hypothesis, a far more probable case can be made for some of his ideas having had an input into the Declaration, particularly a clause that had it been included would have banned slavery in America, however, this was eliminated from the final draft because of opposition from plantation owners, bankers and others of that ilk.
Evidence of how Common Sense swayed opinion in favour of independence is provided by the anonymous author of Civil Prudence, Recommended to the Thirteen United Colonies of North America, which had been written, so the author states, not long after the repeal of the Stamp Act. He had heard of the pamphlet and it’s advocacy of the case for independence, which disturbed him and had led him to conclude it to have been the “the invention of some Tory, to sow discord among the Colonies, and to set our friends in Great-Britain against us”, but once having obtained and read a copy, he underwent a complete change of mind, finding it had given him “a new set of thoughts, and opened a wider door to the flourishing of trade and common wealth, as well as of the due preservation of liberty” than he had ever imagined to be the case. As a consequence he decided to dedicate his own work “To the most excellent Patriot, COMMON SENSE, Defender of natural Right and Liberties of Mankind”.
In contrast to the opinion expressed by the writer of the foregoing, are the arguments set out in another response. The writer, who describes himself as °An American”, entitled his pamphlet The True Interest of America Impartially Stated in Certain Strictures on a pamphlet entitled Common Sense. As far as he was concerned Common Sense was “one of the most artful, insidious and pernicious pamphlets” he had ever met with, in which the author “gives vent to his own private resentment and ambition”. His “scheme”, the writer believed, would be found to be “shocking to the ears of Americans. The man who penned these hostile sentiments is now known to have been Charles Inglis, a prominent New York cleric and outspoken critic of both independence and republicanism, who left America after the British forces withdrew from New York, though he was later to return to the continent following his appointment as the first Anglican bishop of Nova Scotia in Canada,
The two pamphlets cited from above are included among the hundred other pieces of varying length reprinted in Thomas Paine and America, making this an important source of contemporary works written in response to those of Thomas Paine, none of which are included. Although the overwhelming majority are American published and written, there are five by British writers, all critical of Paine, included, for, as the editor Kenneth Burchell explains, they had been specifically addressed to an American readership and their known influence was almost exclusively limited to America. Most of the works reprinted are reproduced as facsimiles, each of which has been digitally cleaned to make for easier reading, while the remainder which did not allow for such treatment have been reset. Collectively the six volumes of Thomas Paine and America have in excess of two thousand pages. The organisation is thematic and chronological, with each item being prefaced by a short introductory note presenting relevant information that includes, whenever possible, the identity of those writers who wrote anonymously or used pseudonyms. Some limited bibliographical data is also provided. According to the editor, the criteria employed when it came to selecting works for inclusion was governed by an intention to concentrate on lesser known responses as the better known essays are more easily accessible. As a consequence, many of the works to be found in Thomas Paine and America are reprinted there for the first time since the original dates of their publication, although some have been cited in books on Paine.
The first volume concentrates exclusively on Common Sense, and includes a total of seven works all dated to 1776. The second volume has a threefold division, the first part of which is devoted to the dispute Paine had with Silas Deane, although only two works are reprinted, one a brief letter favourable to Paine and the other the anonymously written Echo from the Temple of Wisdom, thought to be by Deane himself. The second part to the reaction to Rights of Man and reprints sixteen pieces including a sequence of letters published in the press and two poems. One of the more substantial works included is Henry Mackenzie’s, An Answer to Paine’s Rights of Man. The author, a Scottish lawyer who lived in Edinburgh, describes his book as being “addressed to the people of Great Britain”, although no British imprint is currently recorded. The edition reprinted here is that published by William Cobbett in Philadelphia in 1796 when he was living and working there. It includes a hostile dedication to Joseph Priestley written by him as Peter] Porcupine. Priestley, like Paine, had strongly supported the French Revolution and was known for his support of Paine’s political ideology. He had been forced to leave England in 1774 and had settled in Northumberland Town in Pennsylvania. The final part of the volume reprints three replies to The Age of Reason, a theme continued throughout the next three volumes, which is illustrative of the interest in, and controversy aroused by Paine’s book, which prompted Priestley join the many who replied to it, although his An Answer to Mr. Paine’s Age of Reason, that was first written and published in America in 1794, but is not amongst those reprinted. The final volume has a two-fold division, the first part containing six pieces relating to Paine’s public criticism of George Washington for, in his view, not having responded to an appeal he had sent to him requesting that the president, whom he had considered to be a personal friend, use his influence with the French to gain his release following his arrest in Paris in 1793. One of the pieces reprinted here is an anonymously written attack on Paine by William Cobbett. The second part reprints some forty- two pieces published in American newspapers and journals reacting to the news in 1802 that Paine intended to return to the United States having been away for fifteen years.
Concluding each of the six volumes is a section containing fully detailed and annotated end-notes, while in addition to these, the final volume also has a general index relating to the various reprints but not to editorial matter. An index covering this would have been of value.
Thomas Paine and America is competently edited by the American Paine scholar Kenneth Burchell, who in the introduction found in the first volume explains the rationale behind the work, stating it to have been the aim to “place a large single collection in the hands of scholars and others concerned with the debates that surrounded Paine and the American Early Republic”, for Paine’s works “were at the centre of the most important debate on democratic principles in history, from which emerged for the first time the full range of recognizably modem political ideologies, ranging from conservatism to Whiggism and liberalism to radicalism”.
The introduction also has some critical notes appertaining to the first two biographies of Paine, the first of which had been written by George Chalmers, a government employee who concealed the fact by using the pseudonym ‘Francis Oldys, A. M. of the University of Pennsylvania’, his book being entitled, The Life of Thomas Pain (sic), the Author of Rights of Man, With a Defence of his Writings, which was first published in London in 1791 by John Stockdate, and was anything but a “defence”, instead the use of the word sought to lull supporters of Paine to buy the heavily subsidised book in the hope that after reading it they would drop their support for Paine and his radical, republican ideas If that was truly the government’s hope then it cannot be considered a success. Yet, as it contains material on Paine’s early life not available elsewhere, it possesses some value. It is interesting to note that Stockdale also published John Quincy Adams’s An Answer to Pain’s (sic) Rights of Man, which is reprinted in Thomas Paine and America, from the Stockdale edition. John Quincy Adams’ father, also named John, had himself written a response to Paine’s Common Sense, although without mentioning it by name: Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies. He had been alarmed by amongst the populace for Paine’s proposals, which he considered to be “foolish”, as he records in his diary from which Burchell quotes. Adams considered the ideas in Common Sense to have flowed from what he terms “simple ignorance”, and had been written from a “desire to please the democratic party in Philadelphia”. Nowhere in his pamphlet, which some have seen almost like a monarchical manifesto despite its references to republicanism, does he refer by name to Paine’s pamphlet. Adams’ work can be read in volume one.
The second biography discussed is that written by James Cheetham, and was published in Philadelphia in 1809, a few months after Paine’s death. Cheetham may be said to have popularised the stories about Paine having been personally dirty, smelly and a drunkard, tales destined to become the stock-in-trade of later critics of Paine that included some scholars, notably Sir Leslie Stephens, although he retracted his comments and apologised after he had been challenged by John M. Robertson. The Cheetham biography has been dubbed as having been the first muckraking work in American literary history. Regarding the ChatmersiOidys biography, in the course of his discussion the editor makes two questionable assertions, the first being that the pseudonym used by Chalmers was ‘Sir Francis Oldys’, but of the many copies I have examined that have been published in both the United States and in Britain, none have prefaced the pseudonym with the title ‘Sir’. The second point is that Chalmers had sought to infer that ‘Oldys’ was a clergyman. Reading copies of the book have certainly not left me with that impression.
Those studying the reaction by Americans to Thomas Paine’s ideas, and, perhaps, to him as an individual, will find the judicious selection of works reprinted herein of immense value. Of course, there are works that one feels should have been included, but where does this process end, another six volumes? It has to be accepted that the selection process for a work of this character must in the last analysis always be subjective and so can never satisfy everyone. For some the cost of the work may seem high, but try finding copies of the originals, assuming it is possible to locate them, but if you manage to do so be prepared for a fright. It is the editor’s hope that Thomas Paine and America will make a substantial contribution to Paine’s bicentenary. I feel it to do so, and congratulate both him and his publisher for having produced so valuable a work.