Thomas Paine: “These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls.”

This was first published in the Sentinel on March 25, 2011

“These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls.”

This simple quotation from Founding Father Thomas Paine’s The Crisis describes the beginnings of the American Revolution. It also describes Paine’s life. Throughout his life, his writings inspired passion and brought him great criticism. He communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals. He created prose that stirred the hearts of the fledgling United States.

In The Crisis, published December 23, 1776:

THESE are the 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 by 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 every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

He Started Out Seemingly as a Failure

On January 29, 1737, Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England. His father, a corseter, had grand visions for his son. Unfortunately, by the age of 12, Thomas had failed out of school. The young Paine began apprenticing for his father, but again, he failed. So, now age 19, Paine went to sea. This adventure didn’t last too long, and by 1768, he found himself as an excise (tax) officer in England.

Thomas didn’t exactly excel at the role, getting discharged from his post twice in four years. However, as an inkling of what was to come, he published The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772), arguing for a pay raise for officers. In 1774, by happenstance, he met Benjamin Franklin in London, who helped him emigrate to Philadelphia.

His books were later burned in England.

Happenstance Saved Him From the Executioner’s Blade

Paine was set to be executed but escaped it by some freaky chance. ‘While in prison, Paine narrowly escaped execution. A guard walked through the prison, placing a chalk mark on the doors of the prisoners who were due to be sent to the guillotine the next day. He placed a #4 on the door of Paine’s cell, but Paine’s door had been left open to let a breeze in because Paine was seriously ill at the time. That night, his other three cell mates closed the door, thus hiding the mark inside the cell. The next day, their cell was overlooked. “The Angel of Death” had passed over Paine. He kept his head and survived the few vital days needed to be spared by the fall of Robespierre (July 27, 1794).”

He was freed in 1794 (narrowly escaping execution) thanks to the efforts of James Monroe, then U.S. Minister to France. Paine remained in France until 1802, when he returned to America on an invitation from Thomas Jefferson. Paine discovered that his contributions to the American Revolution had been all but eradicated due to his religious views. Derided by the public and abandoned by his friends, he died on June 8, 1809, at the age of 72 in New York City.

Thomas Paine, Many Failures And A Life of Greatness

He had a grand vision for society. He was staunchly anti-slavery and was one of the first to advocate a world peace organization and social security for the poor and elderly. But his radical views on religion would destroy his success, and by the end of his life, only a handful of people attended his funeral.

Thomas Paine was a deist, believing in God but rejecting organized religion. He strongly opposed Christianity and the “divine right of kings.”

While in Philadelphia, his career turned to journalism, and suddenly, Thomas Paine became very important. In 1776, he published Common Sense, a strong defense of American Independence from England.

Common Sense:

In early 1776, the anonymous pamphlet Common Sense took America by storm. The author, Thomas Paine, made a merciless case for separation from the British empire. According to Paine’s own claims, it sold as many as 500,000 within the first year. Some say it was 75,000. We will never really know, but it has a tremendous effect on popular opinion.

The Pamphlet and the Case for Religious Freedom:

“As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensible duty of every government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith… For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is the will of the Almighty, that there should be a diversity of religious opinions among us …”
– Thomas Paine: Common Sense (1776)

On Government, a Necessary Evil:

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse; the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one: for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

The Badge of Lost Innocence

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise.

For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other law-giver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

His Sad Journey

Paine traveled with the Continental Army and wasn’t successful as a soldier, but he produced The American Crisis (1776-83), which helped inspire the Army. This pamphlet was so popular that, as a percentage of the population, it was read by or read to more people than today who watch the Super Bowl.

Paine was never meant to be a student in a dull school, a clerk, or a soldier.

He was meant to be a writer, a man of deep thought, and a leader of the American Revolution. His contributions to the Constitution were immeasurable.

The Rights of Man:

But, instead of continuing to help the Revolutionary cause, he returned to Europe. That angered the other Founding Fathers. Paine pursued other ventures, including working on a smokeless candle and an iron bridge. In 1791-92, he wrote The Rights of Man in response to criticism of the French Revolution. This work caused Paine to be labeled an outlaw in England for his anti-monarchist views. He would have been arrested but fled to France to join the National Convention.

By 1793, he was imprisoned in France for not endorsing Louis XVI’s execution. During his imprisonment, he wrote and distributed the first part of what was to become his most famous work at the time, the anti-church text The Age of Reason (1794-96).

You know how it ended from the beginning of this story. He died unfairly denigrated because people thought he was an atheist. It wasn’t true. Paine was a deist. He believed in God, just not that the organizations that defined God were superior, one to the other.

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