History Creator / ThomasPaine

!!Tropes that apply to Thomas Paine:

* TheAlcoholic: Paine really, really loved drinking.
* AlmightyJanitor: One source memorably called him "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination."

* ButNotTooForeign: There is some debate among historians as to whether Paine should be counted as an American or an Englishman. Usually, which side you are on depends on which side of UsefulNotes/ThePond you are on. Paine did consider himself American, for what it's worth, especially since the English charged him with sedition and chased him to France. He refused to ever return to England (and never did).
* ContrivedCoincidence: He missed the guillotine because the door to his cell had been left open because of the heat, thus causing the guard in charge of rounding up that morning's list of condemned convicts to miss the red X on it which marked Paine for death.

* TheExtremistWasRight: The most radical of the major Founding Fathers and the one who convinced much of the public to embrace independence and abandon any idea of supporting monarchy.

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Paine definitely believed this overall.
* GreenAroundTheGills: He was so sick when his ship landed in America that Franklin's own personal physician had to carry him off the boat.

* LonelyFuneral: Only six people attended his.
* NotSoAboveItAll: While usually considered a man of peace and an all-around rationalist saint, while he lived in France, Thomas Paine wrote articles proposing an "invasion to America", including discussing possible vulnerable routes and points of entry in a newspaper. Later, he discussed invading England with Napoleon and wrote articles on the same.
* [[OneBookAuthor One Pamphlet Author]]: History, especially American history, mostly remembers him as "that guy who wrote ''Common Sense''."
* OnlySaneMan: He is often portrayed as this for opposing the execution of Louis XVI as immoral and against the principles of the Revolution. In actual fact, Paine was an ally of the Girondins and came to France because he agreed with "world revolution". He supported their war against Austria, on the belief in invading other nations and setting up republics. It was that war, most historians point out, that led to the revolution becoming violent and made the King's death not only inevitable, but necessary.
* PetTheDog: Paine is arguably one of the very few people in history who can claim to have ValuesResonance views on almost every major issue. In so, so many ways, Paine was really ahead of him time. Here's a count:
** Paine believed that the only reason why government should exist is to protect the rights of its citizens, a view completely normal now that was considered to be a radical idea in his time.
** He was one of the earliest abolitionists in American history. He is generally held to be the author of the anonymously-written 1775 article "African Slavery in America" which argued that not only should the Atlantic slave trade be ended, but that slavery itself was morally wrong and that slaves should be emancipated. This has been disputed, but the consensus is that it was him.
** Paine was also sympathetic to the Iroquois people, and he was impressed by their society.
** Since he held very unorthodox religious views, he valued freedom of religious thought a lot more than other Americans of his time.
** One of the reasons why Paine was against the execution of Louis XVI is because he argued that the death penalty is morally wrong ''by default''. Though this argument was made before by none other than UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre who pointed out that while he did oppose the death penalty before, the King qualified as a special exemption on account of the circumstances, which Paine had ignored, and later justified executions as an emergency measure to win the war which Paine had supported.
** While not a vegetarian, Paine did believe that cruelty to animals was rather horrible, during a time when most people didn't bother to think that animals had feelings or even felt pain.
** He lived in a time when the major countries of Europe would go to war with each other just to increase their own power rather than any real concern over national defense. Disgusted, Paine suggested that every country should drastically reduce their military until it was only large enough for immediate defense. This, he believed, would lead to world peace. He also believed it would be a good idea to create a world peacekeeping organization to prevent wars from breaking out - yes, he predicted the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations over a century and a half before it was created. However, Paine was also a warmonger who agitated for "world revolution", calling for the French armies to invade England and America (which Robespierre and the Jacobins were initially against), foolishly believing that foreigners would embrace what Robespierre eloquently called "armed missionaries".
** Unlike the majority of the other Founding Fathers, Paine did not believe that non-landholders should be barred from the vote, [[{{Foreshadowing}} warning that this was tyranny waiting to happen]] and realizing that praising republican values but not letting everyone be represented was [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]]. There's also his (really ahead of his time) support for creating welfare programs to help the poor and elderly as well as his support for public education systems. Compare this to others like UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton or John Jay, both of whom actively distrusted those who weren't in the upper class.
** He also held ''shockingly'' progressive views regarding women for his time. Before he even wrote ''Common Sense'', he wrote an article criticizing the ways women are oppressed in society and defending their rights at a time when most men thought they had none. That said, [[WhatTheHellHero when Paine served on the 1792 Girondin Constitution Committee, he and others did not put the vote for women into the lists]].
** In short, Paine anticipated a lot of modern liberal ideas though as noted by Eric Hobsbawm, while he was undoubtedly radical in an Anglo-American context, he was fairly moderate on other issues. Paine may have agitated against slavery but the Jacobins in France, at the height of the ReignOfTerror, [[GreyAndGrayMorality actually abolished slavery, the first European country to do so in the modern era]].
* RenaissanceMan: Not only was he a writer and philosopher, but he was also an inventor. He designed iron bridges as a ''hobby'', and some think he might have designed the first one used for general travel.[[note]]This is actually a bigger accomplishment than you might initially think, because wooden bridges were easily destroyed by bad weather.[[/note]] Paine also tried to invent a smokeless candle and a type of motor which used gunpowder.[[note]][[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters Eventually recreated]] by the Series/MythBusters[[/note]], but these failed. Paine was interested in steam power, and he was one of the earliest people to suggest creating a boat powered by steam.
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: He was firmly on the Enlightenment side of the spectrum.
* RousingSpeech: Washington read parts of ''Common Sense'' and ''The American Crisis'' to his troops to rally them to keep on fighting.
* TakeThat: His work is full of these. ''Common Sense'' notably has some great jabs at Great Britain.

* UnPerson: In his lifetime he witnessed his importance being dismissed and his contributions basically being forgotten, though [[VindicatedByHistory eventually this changed]].

[[caption-width-right:250: I'm [[{{Music/TPain}} T-Paine]], [[JustForPun you know me]]!]]

* PosthumousPopularityPotential: Dismissed at the time of his death for his attacks on Christianity, but currently one of the most acclaimed thinkers of his age.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In his book ''The Age of Reason'' Creator/ThomasPaine wrote that, assuming this happened, the [[MassResurrection mass rising of the dead]] described in the [[Literature/TheBible Gospel of Matthew]] at Jesus' death must have been one, since no one appears to have written down any other accounts. Matthew is also the only Gospel that mentions it. Nor does it say [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what had happened afterward]]-did they return home to their families, attempt to reclaim their property, or just go back into their graves?

* NotSoAboveItAll: While usually considered a man of peace and all-around rationalist saint, while he lived in France, Thomas Paine wrote articles proposing an "invasion to America" including discussing possible vulnerable routes and points of entry in a newspaper. Later, he discussed invading England with Napoleon and wrote articles on the same.

* OnlySaneMan: He's often portrayed as this for opposing the execution of Louis XVI as immoral and against the principles of the Revolution. In actual fact, Paine was an ally of the Girondins and came to France because he agreed with "world revolution" and supported their war against Austria, on the belief in invading other nations and setting up republics. It was that war, most historians point out, that led to the revolution becoming violent and made the King's death not only inevitable, but necessary.

* FantasticLegalWeirdness: Paine wondered briefly if the risen saints mentioned by the Gospel of Matthew tried to reclaim their property and spouses in ''The Age of Reason''.
* ForGreatJustice: The point of all of his writings. He never even accepted money for them since he believed spreading the ideals of his works was more important.

* ButNotTooForeign: There is some debate among historians as to whether Paine should be counted as an American or an Englishman. Usually, which side you are on depends on which side of UsefulNotes/ThePond you are on. Paine did consider himself American, for what it's worth, especially since the English charged him with sedition and chased him to France and he refused to return ever again to England (and never did).
* ContrivedCoincidence: He missed the guillotine because the door to his cell had been left open because of the heat, thus causing the guard in charge of rounding up that morning's list of condemned convicts to miss the red X on it marking Paine for death.

In 1802, President UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson invited him back to America. Paine, however, was widely disliked by this period, and spent his last few years living alone and with little money. In the run-up to the Louisiana Purchase, Paine wrote a letter to Jefferson strongly advocating the idea of peacefully purchasing the land from France, which helped sway Jefferson in favor of it. [[LonelyFuneral Only six people attended his funeral after he died in 1809.]] Most newspapers throughout the nation printed a line from a New York paper's obituary: "He had lived long, did some good and much harm." Over a century later, though, Paine's legacy saw a resurgence in popularity, with some people even declaring him to be the English {{Creator/Voltaire}}. Indeed, it is a fine thing to see Paine finally getting proper credit for spreading support for democratic ideals and egalitarianism in English-language culture, and for The Frogs and their wacky Revolutionary ideals to finally be seen in their contemporary international context.

Paine continued to live in France until 1802. Despite his imprisonment during the Terror, Paine was critical of the Directory government that followed. He was especially disappointed by the post-Thermidor Constitution which reversed many of the proposals in the 1793 Constitution (finished by the Jacobins but based on the groundwork done by the Girondin Committee on which Paine had served), chiefly universal [[SuffrageAndPoliticalLiberation male suffrage]] and lack of property restrictions. He also met Napoleon during this time and discussed [[NotSoAboveItAll an invasion of England, for which he wrote a pamphlet]]. He wrote an infamous open letter where he declared that George Washington was the head of a wild conspiracy that was responsible for his imprisonment. He was not without his reasons: the order of his arrest, written in UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre's own hand, stated that he was arrested for the interest of "America and France" which considering that then-ambassador Gouvernor Morris refused to intervene and continued to do so after Robespierre's downfall, proved in the opinion of Paine, and some historians, complicity on the part of the American government to get him guillotined[[note]]There is a record that petitioners on Paine's behalf appealed to the revolutionary tribunals for his release on the grounds that Paine was an American citizen, which France considered their ally, but the judge in question stated that Paine was technically a British subject since he had never officially taken citizenship with the new American government. He would have qualified for asylum status but Ambassador Morris did not give him this recognition despite staying in Paris during the entire period of the Terror and Paine's imprisonment, not even helping him after Robespierre's downfall. Morris was opposed to Paine's vocal support for the Revolution because he felt it upset America's neutrality, and likewise served as an invitation and endorsement for radicalism back home[[/note]]. At this point, Paine's loss-of-favor with his former allies turned to outright hatred. He continued writing controversial and radical pamphlets, most notably 1795's ''Agrarian Justice''. In this pamphlet, Paine introduced a concept that is now called "guaranteed minimum income," a sort of welfare program where all citizens and families are paid a sufficient living income. He also gave the world an early argument for providing welfare for the elderly and public education for children. Because of this, the Social Security website credits Paine as the first American to promote the idea of a welfare system. Paine's other activities during this period involved founding several deist temples and societies in France.