THE

YALE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

VOL. XV.

DECEMBER, 1849.

No. III.

Thomas Paine as a Politician.*

PREVIOUS to the publication of the first part of the "Age of Reason," the popularity of Thomas Paine was surpassed by that of few men in America, in France, and in England. His political writings had gained distinguished favor in each of these countries. In the American States he had earned a brilliant reputation, as a pure patriot, and as a man of unusual and eminently practical ability; in France, he had been honored with citizenship, and had been elected to the National Assembly, where he advocated measures at this day regarded as sagacious and calculated to check anarchy and terror; and in England he was looked upon by the common people with such admiration and esteem, that it was thought necessary to issue a royal decree for the purpose of suppressing his writings, by which means, as is usually the result of persecution, his popularity was greatly increased. But in the year 1794, the first of his infidel speculations were published in Paris; and since that time a weight of opprobrium has settled upon his name, which has sunk it to the lowest depths. English political reformers do not know any thing of him who so vehemently inveighed against the evils of their government, and so ardently desired and ably advocated a complete reformation. French republicans have no gratitude towards the man who crossed the broad Atlantic to assist in the regeneration of 1789, and whose counsels, if followed, would most probably have prevented the Reign of Terror; and even Americans have forgotten him who first raised the banner of colonial independence, and most vigorously sustained it, by the magic power of his pen. The name of Thomas Paine has passed from the mouths of men, or is uttered only to exemplifiy all that is false in religion, all that is base in humanity.

The publication of the " Age of Reason" was in every respect unfortunate. It was an attack upon Christianity, a system which de

1. The Life of THOMAS PAINE, BY JAMES CHEETHAM. 8vo. London: 1817. 2. The Political Writings of THOMAS PAINE, Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the American Revolution. 2 Vols. 8vo. New York: 1830.

rives invincible strength, as well from divine revelation as from the noblest feelings of our nature, and every blow against which recoils with redoubled force upon the assailant. The work has led many from the path of rectitude on earth, and into perdition in eternity,a result for which Paine must be held accountable by the Judge of all. And it has brought upon its author an odium which has overwhelmed all his previous services in the cause of freedom and humanity. But forgetfulness is overspreading the infidel writings of Paine; and every admirer of Common Sense" and "The Crisis," and certainly every Christian, must sincerely wish that speedy oblivion may completely enwrap them.

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For many years now Paine has been thought of only as the infidel, and as such he has been justly condemned, and has suffered severely in character. But when his " Age of Reason" shall have faded before the light of Christianity, and shall have sunk into the blackness of darkness forever, Thomas Paine, the politician, will be remembered, and "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" will be studied and admired. It is now perhaps impossible to forget the infidel in the politician; but it is certainly not the part of enlightened posterity to suffer the politician to be entirely overclouded by the infidel. There can be nothing gained for the cause of religion by denying the just claims of any man to respect; and those have acted unwisely as well as unfairly who have kept from Paine his meed of praise for his labors in behalf of human rights. It is but fair, then, that one, deprecating in severest terms his abandonment in morals and religion, should stop to sketch an outline of his political career, and to pay a slight tribute to a much neglected patriot of our revolutionary era.

THOMAS PAINE, up to his thirty-seventh year, differed in no remarkable degree from the mass of men. Born January 29, 1737, at Thetford, county of Norfolk, England, of poor but respectable parents, he received only such an education as was furnished by a common English grammar school. At the age of thirteen he was called to assist his father in staymaking, and after continuing in this occupation two or three years, he entered a privateer and went to sea. When twenty-two years of age he became again settled as a staymaker; and two years afterwards, in 1761, having previously pursued a preparatory course of study, (how extensive or of what nature his biographers do not state,) he obtained a place in the excise. He held this place, with a single brief intermission, till 1774, in which year he repaired to London with the intention of living by his and became pen, 66 a garret writer," as many other great men have been both before and since his time. Here Dr. Franklin became acquainted with him, and advised him to immigrate to America; following this advice he arrived in Philadelphia about the close of 1774, and soon commenced editing the Pennsylvania Magazine, in which capacity he speedily won an enviable reputation.

In January, 1776, he began his political career by the publication of "Common Sense." Dr. Benjamin Rush, knowing Paine's sentiments with regard to the independence of the colonies, and the ability