Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505190044
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY ROBERT FELTON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ Sometimes known as the forgotten Founding Father, the Revolutionary War-era pamphleteer Thomas Paine was the very voice of revolution in America, and among the most prominent men of his time. A new compilation of his work, "Thomas Paine, Collected Writings," may help to restore his reputation while contributing historical perspective to the debates raging in contemporary national politics.
Paine was born in 1737 in England, and emigrated to the Colonies in 1774. Quickly becoming an associate of Benjamin Rush and John Adams, he published his first pamphlet supporting independence, "Common Sense," in 1776. As the war continued and public morale plummeted, Paine published in quick succession a series of numbered pamphlets, "The American Crisis" and "The Crisis Extraordinary," intended to rally public opinion to continuing the fight. All of the pamphlets circulated in the tens of thousands and made Paine among the best-known and most widely quoted of the revolution's leadership.
He was preoccupied with civic affairs and the invention of the iron bridge following the end of the war. By 1791 his attention was attracted to the French Revolution and he published "The Rights of Man," a defense of it against the criticisms of British statesman Edmund Burke. He was made an honorary French citizen in 1792, but by 1793 he had fallen out with the revolutionary leadership and was languishing in prison there.
He was released a year later, and soon became immersed in controversy over the first volume of "The Age of Reason," his criticism of Biblical authority.
Paine's popularity began to wane soon thereafter, and he spent his remaining years in erratic health, publishing little-circulated pamphlets. He died in 1809. Paine's remains were exhumed in 1819 by a British journalist intending to transport them to a memorial in Great Britain; they were later lost when plans for the memorial failed.
Paine's writings have fared only slightly better; though never out of print, they have long been hard to find. This new volume corrects that, and we should all be grateful for Paine's contribution to the American perspective and voice. Writing with almost unnatural vigor and a directness that frequently lends his work a contemporary sound, Paine made of himself a fountainhead for what has lately been called the "national conversation."Though sometimes shrill, his words will evoke for many the memories of a lifetime of dinner-table conversations, fractious political debates, and testy letters to the editor.
Here are some samples:
"But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? ... if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title to life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant." ("Common Sense")
"Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING." ("Common Sense," emphasis in original)
"Every man wishes to pursue his occupation, and to enjoy the fruits of his labours, and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered." ("The Rights of Man")
The constitutional debate over "original intent" is an old one, and "What would the Founders think, or do?" is so overworked it has become an embarrassing cliche. This volume of the writings of the Revolutionary era's great rabble-rouser answers not those questions, but a closely related one: It tells us what the shopkeepers and farmers chose to fight and perhaps die for.
Bob Felton is a civil engineer in Roanoke.
by CNB