Thomas Paine (Afterword)
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).
Thomas Paine was not only a patriot, but through his writings he was greatly influential in the establishment of this nation. As stated at the outset of this series of articles, Paine became very popular when he wrote Common Sense, which (according to population size) was the most widely read book in America ever or to extfirst published in January of 1776. This pamphlet set forth the reasons why this continent needed to be independent from England, and it helped many to clarify their thinking. It was first published in January of 1776.
According to Glenn Beck's Being George Washington (this book is excellent!), less than a year later the war had been going badly.
New York City had, in battle after battle, been ingloriously lost. Even the outpost named for Lee himself—New Jersey's "Fort Lee"", named for Lee, had been abandoned. Philadelphia seemed next. Thousands of rebel soldiers had been lost, either slain in battle or now bound in heavy iron chains. Thousands had simply vanished and gone home (11).
At this point, there were two options—to retreat to Philadelphia or to attack. General Washington decided upon the latter. He determined to take his troops across the Delaware River the night/morning of December 25th/26th and launch a surprise attack at dawn against the Hessian army at Trenton, New Jersey. It was a bold maneuver—one that is considered significant in keeping the fight for independence alive.
Thomas Paine had made another, equally valuable contribution to the colonies when he wrote The Crisis, a collection of 13 essays, the first of which was published on December 23, 1776—just two days before Washington's troops marched on Trenton. The general was so moved by this first essay that he had it read to his soldiers before crossing the Delaware River.
Although portions of this work have been copied many times since, what Paine penned was the original. The first essay began (and it could scarcely have come at a more needful moment):
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 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 (Beck 23).
Washington's army was motivated by these words; they crossed the Delaware River, which was no small feat in itself at this time of year; then they marched 18 miles through some of the worst weather imaginable. Beck writes that the sleet was not "just squalls of heavy snow, but the worst and wettest sleet anyone in the Continental Army had ever seen. Freezing and stinging, it made moving forward even more difficult" (27-28). Washington's troops did manage to win that battle, thanks in some measure to Thomas Paine.
While a student at Penn State University, Richard DeStefano wrote of the methods Paine used to convince the Colonists to continue their struggle for liberty:
He used many referrals to God in his writing. This referral was used, no doubt, to promote the idea that a war against Britain would be a war in support of God and religious ideals. The British were seen, by Paine, as trying to accumulate a power that he claimed belonged only to God. He helps arouse support by stating that "God almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who had so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent." They would be protected with God on their side. The point being made [was] that there were no peaceful methods left and that war would be accepted by God because they tried several times before through peace but to no avail.
All of these facts have been introduced to make the point that surely few men were so beloved as Thomas Paine for his persuasive and logical writings that inspired a young nation. Then how was his book, The Age of Reason (a book of illogical rants) received almost two decades later? According to Wikipedia, The Age of Reason went through seventeen editions and sold thousands of copies in the United States. However, soon there was a backlash against Paine and, according to Wikipedia, every student at Harvard was given a copy of Bishop Watson's rebuttal of the book in 1796. (One wonders if anyone there would distribute a rebuttal these days.) According to Wikipedia,
Hailed only a few years earlier as a hero of the American Revolution, Paine was now lambasted in the press and called "the scavenger of faction," a "lilly-livered sinical [sic] rogue," a "loathsome reptile," a "demi-human archbeast," "an object of disgust, of abhorrence, of absolute loathing to every decent man except the President of the United States [Thomas Jefferson]."
Even one hundred years later Theodore Roosevelt referred to Paine as a "filthy little atheist." It is not difficult to imagine that many of the Colonists felt betrayed by the one who had made such elegant appeals to God in his writing. Of course, Paine vociferously claimed that he did believe in God, but then he mercilessly attacked the Word of God, which most people understand is God's Revelation to man. For most people these two stand or fall together.
Thomas Paine had on several occasions consulted with Benjamin Franklin before publishing some of his political writings. Apparently, he sent a manuscript to him along the lines of the contents of The Age of Reason, and Franklin wrote back.
I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtile and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.
But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.
I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it? I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours, Benjamin Franklin.
Other Founding Fathers
Our founding fathers must have experienced grief at Paine's publication of The Age of Reason. Several of them made comments. John Adams wrote (from The Works of John Adams):
The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard [scoundrel, rogue] Paine say what he will.
According to Wells, in The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, the title personage wrote Paine a stiff rebuke, telling him:
[W]hen I heard you had turned your mind to a defence of infidelity, I felt myself much astonished and more grieved that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States.
Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration, wrote to his friend and signer of the Constitution John Dickinson that Paine's Age of Reason was "absurd and impious." Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration, correctly described Paine's work as "blasphemous writings against the Christian religion."
Once again, our credulity is strained. One wonders if the following would ever happen again: Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress (1782-83), published a full-length rebuttal to Paine's work, which he titled the Age of Revelation. According to S. G. Arnold, who wrote The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia, the famed speaker of the motivating words, "Give me liberty, or give me death," also wrote a refutation of Paine's work. He referred to The Age of Reason as "puny efforts."
John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was comforted by the fact that Christianity would prevail despite Paine's attack. According to William Jay's biography of him, he commented: "I have long been of the opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds."
More quotes could be cited, but these are surely sufficient to see that Paine alienated himself from his fellow patriots by the publication of The Age of Reason. According to the Dictionary of American Biography, Paine spent his last years in New York as "an outcast," being ostracized socially. He was buried in a farm field because no American cemetery would accept his remains. Another source mentions that his former good deeds in establishing this country as a nation were "all but forgotten and that he was widely regarded only as the world's greatest infidel." He was poor and given to bouts of "occasional drunkenness." Nevertheless, he:
continued his attacks on privilege and religious superstitions. He died in New York City in 1809 and was buried in New Rochelle on the farm given to him by the state of New York as a reward for his Revolutionary writings. Ten years later, William Cobbett, the political journalist, exhumed the bones and took them to England, where he hoped to give Paine a funeral worthy of his great contributions to humanity. But the plan backfired, and the bones were lost, never to be recovered.
Upon his death, many newspapers quoted his obituary from the New York Citizen, which read in part: "He had lived long, did some good and much harm." However, he is mostly honored today—mostly by atheists and secular humanists. His blasphemous book is still available—especially on college campuses, and it is still influencing young people away from God.
Conclusion
Thomas Paine was a passionate man. As a patriot, he used both logic and emotion to stir up the people into seeing the need for seeking independence, as well as the need for continued fighting and enduring the hardships necessary for securing liberty. For his efforts in these endeavors, we praise and honor his passion. But we can say nothing kind about his determination to destroy the influence of the Bible upon the hearts of men. He retained his passion but lost the use of his persuasive logic in trying to fight against God. He occasionally raises a question or two, which is worthy of discussion, but most of his words are unwarranted criticisms without even seeking an attempt at the harmonization of the Scriptures. He showed that he did not possess sufficient knowledge in some of the areas he attacked, and he lost the respect of a generation who loved him. He serves as an example of Proverbs 16:18; truly pride goes before destruction.