Thomas Paine: A true patriot

Jim Bayne
Published: June 25, 2008

One of our most remarkable patriots did not carry a musket, nor did he wield a sword but instead with pen and paper he did extol the peoples of our fledgling country to rise forth and fight for our freedom from the tyrannical rule of King George.

It is rare indeed when the prose of an unlettered man can rouse such passion in the hearts of his fellow man. I am referring, of course, to Thomas Paine. It was Paine who stood on the pallisades along side of Gen. Washington as we watched our patriot forces giving up New York City on Nov. 16 1776. Washington took the remaining troops and headed south through New Jersey in an attempt to find safe haven where the patriots could regroup. On Dec. 23, 1776, in our darkest hours, Paine wrote “These are 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 everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.”

What strength we have gained from the powerful words of Thomas Paine. On the night of Dec. 26 we went forth and struck a powerful blow for our freedom from the English at Trenton, N.J.

Who is this Thomas Paine? He is a fairly recent arrival to our country from England. One might say he is a radical but only if in so doing one recognizes that his words strengthen the call for our immediate independence from the tyrannical rule of King George. He writes “O ye that love mankind. Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth!” George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other of our leaders have found comfort and resolve in the words of Thomas Paine.

Paine’s personal fortunes also proved to be “trying” after the revolution. He was given the property of a Loyalist and set about seeking financial backing to construct iron bridges without success. He returned to England where he was successful in having such a bridge constructed but it proved a financial disaster to him. He carefully followed the events of the French Revolution and published an important work called “The Rights of Man” in which he called upon the English people to overthrow the king and establish a republic.

He left England to live in France and while there the British convicted him for treason. However Paine, like Washington, Hamilton and Madison, had been given French citizenship and remained free. He was later elected to the French Convention. Paine, ever the provocateur, so irritated Robespierre by pleading for the life King Louis XVI that he was thrown into prison. His life was saved through the pleading of James Monroe that Paine was an American citizen. While in prison he wrote the last of his great works, “The Age of Reason.” This was seen by some as an attack on Christian beliefs and so he was stigmatized as an atheist.

Upon his death, Paine was denied burial in consecrated grounds and thus was buried on his farm. His bones were disinterred at a later date and taken to England where a former foe intended to erect a monument to his honor. However, the plans fell through and the bones of Thomas Paine fell into the hands of a receiver and were subsequently lost. As is the case with so many of our patriots we know not where their eternal resting place may be.

Jim Bayne is the immdediate past president of the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution. He can be reached at .