It is now my pleasure to introduce our speaker, dr. Richard bell. Dr. Bell has presented many it is now my pleasure to introduce our speaker, doctor richard bell. Doctor bell has presented many upstanding programs for Smithsonian Associates and topics related to Early American History and the American Revolutionary period over the course of the last several years. Most, recently a program last month on baron vaughn struggle. Its a professor at the university of maryland, hold the ba from the university of cambridge in a ph. D. From harvard. He has won more than a dozen teaching awards, including a 2017 University System of maryland board of regions faculty award for excellence in teaching, which is the highest honor for teaching faculty in the maryland state system. In addition, he has helped Major Research fellowship that yale, cambridge in the library of congress. And is a recipient of the 2018 National Endowment of the humanities public Scholar Award into the 2021 Andrew Carnegie fellowship. Hes the author of the book stolen, five peoples kidnapped into slavery and are astonishing odyssey home. This book was a finalist for the 2020 George Washington prize and about 2020 Harriet Tubman prize. Doctor bell is a trustee of the Maryland Center for history and culture and a fellow of the Royal Historical society. It is a delight to have him back with us for another program. So, without further delay, please welcome dr. Richard bell. Welcome, rick. Thank you, mary. I hope you can hear me okay and see me okay. Im going to go ahead and share my screen now, that might just take a couple seconds to get ready. Lets get cracking. When Thomas Jefferson met thomas paine in paris, in 1787, he begged him to sit for a portrait. Jefferson collected portraits of celebrated men and, in 1787, there were few men as celebrated as tom paine. The author of common sense, the 46 page pamphlet that had catalyzed the Independence Movement and overthrown the british monarchy in the colonies. I paine agreed to be painted and jefferson hung the little portrait in pride of place on the walls of monticello, his house in virginia. That was 1787. Now, fast forward 40 years to 1828. Thomas jefferson is dead. And his family are selling off its possessions. When the auctioneers take out tom paines portrait from the bottom of the box, they find his canvas torn and battered. There are knife holes through tom paines eyes, there are stab marks in his chest, as if some children in jeffersons family had been allowed to vandalize it. The fate of tom paines painting is, i think, an apt metaphor for tom paines own extraordinary life. The man, toasted around the world in the 17 70s and 17 80s as the hero of the American Revolution, ended his days as a discredited pariah. Unceremoniously cast aside. The ugly fate of that painting in monticello is also our first clue that thomas paine has never sat comfortably in the pantheon of americas founding fathers. A working class immigrant and sometime manual labor, paine sticks out from the rest like a sore thumb. Famously, plain smoke it but devilishly smart. Paine that was also far more radical and ideological than jefferson or any other leaders of the American Revolution. As a radical, he had a lot to say. Basically self taught, paine went toe to toe with a generation of american, british and french intellectuals and statesman. Staking out very public and massively controversial positions on republicanism, on democracy, on social justice, on religious freedom and on human rights. Paines unwavering beliefs and unwavering commitment to speaking bluntly about those beliefs indirectly made him far more enemies in his life than friends. And as the fate of his painting implies, paines fall from public favor in the 17 90s and 18 hundreds was traumatic and dizzying. Paines widely publicized critiques of the british monarchy, of the french aristocracy, of George Washington, of jesus and of the bible all brought down the wrath of the dominant classes upon him. Concerted to Smear Campaigns on both sides of the atlantic succeeded in turning the hero of the American Revolution into the most despised public figure in the 18th century world. Those attacks on him were devastating. And of the story of paines demise and his death in 1809 is, to my mind, one of the most tragic of any public figure in that period. Along the way, he would be spied on, spat at, shot at, tried and convicted in england, imprisoned and nearly executed in france and then defamed and denounced in the United States. Its an astonishing story and paines life pulsated with risk and novelty and drama and surprise at every turn. So, lets get started in. Tom paine was english, he was born in norfolk, in Eastern England in 1737. His father was a corset maker and he and young tom rarely saw eye to eye. Like a lot of young men with difficult dads, tom left home when he was 19. Set out for london. He was tall and slim, softspoken and a bit embarrassed about his country boy accent. He had been raised as a quaker like his dad, and that groups interest in commerce, their concern for political and social justice and their turn the other cheek morality surely rubbed off on him. But in london, he drifted away from quakerism, dabbling in anglicanism and methodism, to other types of protestant christiane eddie. Though he found no permanent religious home or community. Money was tight. And after a while, paine did what a lot of other poor folk in london ended up doing when times got hard, he signed up to become a sailor. He was about to embark on his first voyage, on a ship called the terrible, when his dad arrived on the docks to talk about of what would have been a life shortening career choice. Being a sailors dangerous work. Paine left london soon afterwards, moving to the town of louis on englands south coast. There, he got involved in a debating group who called themselves the headstrong club. He even scribbled out a few political, satirical and anti monarch occult pieces for the local paper there. Sometimes signing those pieces with a pen name, a pseudonym. Try and guess what his pseudonym was. It was common sense. To pay the bills, paine tried his hand at shop keeping, corset making like his dad, teaching, being a tax collector. And he did also go to see as a sailor. But in all of these different occupations, tom paine was an unrelenting failure. His personal life was not much better. He lost his first wife in childbirth and he divorced his second wife. By 1774, paine was 37 years old. Yet, he had little to show for himself. He was bankrupt and suffering from typhoid. When he had met Benjamin Franklin one day, back when paine still lifted london, franklin had encouraged to the struggling young man to go start a new life in the american colonies. So, in 1774, tom paine did just that. Clutching a very brief, a cursory letter of introduction from franklin, who barely knew him, paine booked passage to philadelphia. Turning his back on the country, england, that had brought him nothing but despair and disappointment. Paines health deteriorated so much on that long voyage across the ocean that he staggered off the ship in philadelphia half dead it he didnt know a soul. When his health finally returned, fully six weeks later, tom paine said about reinventing himself. So, he added e to the end of his name, pain becomes paine. A signal to himself as much as anyone else that he wanted to start fresh. He began contributing a few column inches to a local newspaper and, within a few months, he was able to use that brief experience, as well as that cursory letter of introduction from ben franklin, fillies favorites on, to get himself a job in philadelphia. Editing a new gentlemans magazine there, at a salary of 50 pounds a year. And it was, i think, as editor of and contributor to this magazine, this pennsylvania magazine, that tom paine would hone the skills that he would later used to write common sense. Think about it. Editing a gentlemans magazine, a literary and political magazine, immersed tom paine, a newcomer, in the world of colonial politics. Editing this magazine also gave tom paine his first dedicated set of readers. A public, a reading public. Whose opinion he soon learned how to manipulate. In fact, one of paines the favorite tactics as editor and lead contributor to this pennsylvania magazine was to print articles in it that seemed to be about some harmless subject like how to deal with an aunt infestation. But on closer inspection, turned out to be about politics. Theso, for instance, and a piee he published in a pennsylvania magazine called an easy method to prevent the increase of bugs, he slowly reveals that his advice to house owners on how to exterminate their alcove unwelcome visitors is, of course, really an analogy. It compares a british army, marching through new england at the time, to bugs. In fact, the pennsylvania magazine was filled with anti british barbs and quips like that one. Some of them more carefully disguised than the others. This makes sense, remember who paine is. Paine had turned on england long ago. The careers and marriages he had made their had caused him only ruined and regret. Galvanized by what had happened at lexington and concord in april of 1775, tom paine would write common sense to persuade ordinary americans that they should declare their independence from britain. As he was writing that pin pamphlet, in the fall of 1775, tensions with britain were escalating quickly. Popular emotions had been aroused not only by the 1773 t act and the 1774 coercive act that followed it, but more recently by the battles at lexington and concord and that bunker hill. There was a lot of anger and confusion in the air as he was writing it. Although, to be clear, no one was talking openly yet about independents. Not until tom paines pamphlet burst on the scene. So, tom paine is going to be one of the first people to make a very public argument that all colonial grievances should be focused on achieving independence, not reconciliation, not better terms and conditions but independents. So, its going to matter. That spent some time now examining how tom paine builds the case for independents in the pages of that pamphlet, common sense. And bear in mind that i paines great gift was for language. He designed each paragraph of his pamphlet, common sense, to be read aloud to other people. He also adopts the sort of rhetorical tricks that the best preacher of the day might have recognized. Even as paine offers up a secular, enlightenmentdriven view that human beings have the power to better themselves and to change the world. Remember, the change that paine wants his readers to make is to break with britain. Now and forever. And in common sense, he makes independents, something previously unthinkable and improbable, he makes independent seem suddenly imminent. Necessary and urgent. Whats so clever about how paine writes in this famous pamphlet is that the argument he makes are not self evident truths. What he says is actually not common sense at all. He just tells you that it is. In fact, hes able to make you rethink what you thought you knew. And he uses the plainspoken language of an outraged tavern goer to make you do so. Take one of paines very first arguments in common sense. I think its simply outrageous. In a world in which kings and princes rule almost every square foot of western europe, tom paine declares all kings and princes, all of them, to be illegitimate and despotic. And demands that all of them be swept away. Paine denies a heritage of their noble bloodlines and calls them all a band of power hungry rough eons who sit on thrones, simply because an ancestor of there is killed the previous dynasty of kings. Tom paine calls william the conquer, one of the most famous english kings of the previous centuries, a from france. Which is pretty root. Now, as get americans, you are a few steps ahead of me because youve all noted that tom paine is not exactly lying, is he . Monarchies, of course, do distant descend generation by generation from original acts of violence and subordination. And yes, the histories of england, france and other European Countries are littered with invasions and conquests in which one king is simply killed or removed by an upstart young man who thinks he can do better. But, so what . If paine its technically correct about all of this, remember, remember, in the 17 70s when hes writing, kings and princes are all the western world really knows. No one can yet imagine a realistic alternative to governing large countries and their growing empires. Kings, at least, provide stability. Kings godfather princes and those princes become the next kings, this is a system that works. Its worked for hundreds of years. So, to suggest that colonist should break from the king of england and set out on their own requires a great deal of confidence. I think in spanish the word is cojones, right . Requires a great deal of confidence. In fact, paines cojones are so big that he doesnt limit himself to the simple treason of attacking king george. No, paine attacks all kings as illegitimate. In fact, he doesnt even bother to mention king george the third by name. Referring to him in passing as the royal brute. Bold stuff from tom paine or take another major argument from common sense. With fighting already underway at lexington and concord and bunker hill, paine tells the readers of common sense that they should not make peace with england. Reconciliation, now, he says, is a dangerous doctrine. Really . In the opening months of 1776, did any sane person really think that a tiny colonial militia could ever beat and vanish the most powerful navy that the world had ever seen and a Significant Army . It is madness to think that. So, why not make peace . Safe in the knowledge that all of the colonists grievances against england would eventually evaporate as time passed i. Why not make peace, safe in the knowledge that the columnists debts would eventually get paid . That this hated king would soon surely die and his unpopular cabinet would eventually be forced from power . Why not make peace, patch things up, wait it out . Because paine wont let you see the problem like that. Paine, in common sense, puts the burden of proof elsewhere. Not upon the colonists to prove why they should be independent, he puts the burden of proof upon the british to prove why americans should stay shackled to them for even a second longer. Bold stuff from tom paine so, in these ways, folks, common sense is a sort of declaration of independence. By which i mean its a new kind of argument that denies all precedents by smacking the rulebook about how you make arguments out of opponents hands. And ignoring every previous thing thought were said in favor of continuing on as dependent colonies. Doeand the pages of common sen, tom paine doesnt cite any classical authors, he doesnt quote people who disagree with him, he doesnt mention any constitutional theories about what is possible and what is not possible. Paine wont stand for any of that. We have it in our power, he writes, to begin the world again. As i think you can start to see, as i hope you can start to see, much of paines persuasive power rests not exactly and what he says but in the way he says it. For instance, paine worked hard to convince readers that the colonists are caught up in an epic struggle. Not a small, silly domestic dispute about taxes and tee that will soon blow over. No. Paine tells readers of common sense that the cause of america s, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. With independents, paine argues, america will become a bright beacon for a republican government whose light will spread across the world. For god sake, he says, let us come to a final separation. Because the birthday of a new world is at hand. Folks, who doesnt like birthdays . Independents, paine argues, its just common sense. You too paine, there is other geographically and politically unnatural about americas dependence on a Distant Island for government. To be always running three or 4000 miles with a tail or partition, then waiting for five months for an answer. Which, when obtained, requires five or six months to explain it in. It will, in a few years, be looked on as folly and childishness, paine rights. And who can argue with logic like that . Its impossible. Like any good self help book, and common sense is a self help book, paine concludes common sense by telling colonists how to take the next step. America, he says, should abandon britain and establish its own continental, republican form of government. A government that should be elective, representative and accountable. To do all this, paine suggests that colonists write a proper declaration of independence. A manifesto that would summarize, as he put it, the misery is weve endured and that peaceful methods which we have ineffectively used to seek redress. I paine even proposed what he called a continental conference to discuss and decide the precise future form of government for this new country. A country he christened the United States of america. And he was not shy about sharing his own preference, that this countrys new republican government should embrace a broad franchise, to elected assemblies and a rotating presidency to be chosen from among members of this congress, he suggested. Paine drafted this pamphlet, common sense, and the fall of 1775 and it first appeared in philadelphia bookshops on january the 10th, 1776, priced at two shillings. A price that paine thought was too high. Nevertheless, he found plenty of readers right away. And that first printing sold out within two weeks. Printers rushed to print more and turn a quick profit well demand was high. In all, we know that 25 additions of common were published in 13 American Cities and towns. Helping it to become the best selling pamphlet of the year. And its effect on the people that read it was widely described as dramatic. By march of 1776, a report was making the rounds in britain that, back in america, common sense is read to all ranks. And as many as read it, so many become converted. Those who perhaps an hour before were violent against the least idea of independents. So, what theyre saying there is their hearing reports from america that people who want nothing to do with the cause of independents are reading this pamphlet and suddenly end immediately and decisively turning in favor of independents. That its a fact is that powerful. Its like a drug. Paines friend, benjamin rush, later recalled that the pamphlets effects were sudden and extensive on the american mind. It was read by public men, repeated in clubs, spouted in schools. And in one instance, delivered from the pulpit instead of a sermon by a clergymen in connecticut. Noticeably, phrases lifted from common sense began to turn up in all sorts of petitions, written by ordinary americans, that now called for independence. Throughout the colonies, letters to newspapers would quote common sense. Editors of those papers reprinted excerpts from common sense and hundreds of newspaper readers wrote into praise the pamphlets style and content. Who is the author of common sense . Ask the reader in rhode island. I can hardly refrain from adoring him, he deserves a statue of gold. Tom paine, by the way, published anonymously at first. Hence the mystery of who is the author of common sense. While common sense certainly spawned several rebuttals by loyalists, those four bottles were no match for this pamphlets brute but lyrical power. Many skeptics were eventually won over. John adams had first described common sense as a poor, ignorant, malicious, short sighted, crappy list mess. A piece of crap. But even john adams had to eventually acknowledge the pamphlets extraordinary power. After the war was won, much later, adams wrote that, without the pen of the author of common sense, this word of washington would have been raised in vain. Indeed, this little, 46 page pamphlet would soon push the members of the Second Continental Congress to adopt independents as the fundamental objective of their escalating war with britain. Theyre july 1776 declaration of independence owed an obvious debt to common sense. Although tom paine himself had no hand in drafting the declaration. Because, by then, paine was no longer in pennsylvania. He had joined the Continental Army on its march toward new york to try to capture that city from the british. But the british would soon put the Continental Army on the back foot, forcing them to retreat back across new jersey towards their headquarters in philadelphia. Paine was with them as they had advanced forward and then he was with them as they fell back. Working as an aide to come through so out that dispiriting summer and fall campaign. So it was as the Continental Army fell back to trenton that tom paine authored the first and most famous of the six essays known as the american crisis. These are the times that try mens souls, paine wrote. In that 3000 word owed to patriot fearlessness. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. But he that stands at now deserves the love and thinks of men in the world. Tyranny, like how, is not easily conquered. General washington ordered these during words from the american crisis by thomas paine to be read to his frostbitten, exhausted troops as they were ready to retreat back across the Delaware River into pennsylvania. By this time pain had left the armys ranks, having served long enough to discover that he was thoroughly and suited to a soldiers life. The american crisis essays cemented paynes reputation as a gifted polemicists and as the chief propagandist of the american Independence Movement. Yet, thomas payne was broke. Having made precious little money from common sense, or by any of the american crisis works. So, pain now took on several new writing jobs after a philly. None of which paid a fortune or gave him much satisfaction. The only bright spot in his life, in these came in 1784 when the state of new york awarded him a 300 acre farm, in gratitude for his service to the new nation. A file that the state of new york had confiscated for a loyalist family that it had turned out. A year later, a general washingtons insistence they supplemented new yorks gift with an additional 3,000. Providing this immigrant, former corset maker with a modest degree of Financial Security for the first time in his life. And, with that financial independence, payne found the freedom to embark on a long, slightly Strange Campaign to get a single arch iron bridge built across the school kill river. A project that he hoped would jumpstart Infrastructure Projects across the new nation. He went back and forth to england and france to look for funding and patrons for this bridge project but slightly turned up empty handed each time. By the time he admitted that his bridge project was a failure, it was 1791. By then, pain was living in london once again. And was vowing to renew his radicalism, and to resume his writing career by pending a pamphlet that cars do for the political consciousness of the british people what common sense had recently done for the american colonists the. The first part of this new work, the rights of man, they first part of the rights of man appeared on the shelves of british booked in april of 1791. Dedicated to George Washington, the hero of the american issue, the rights of man attempted to stir in britain the same sort of revolutionary radicalism scene in america. And in france. Echoing his previous attacks on the monarchy and feudal aristocracy. This new word, the rights of man dared, british raiders to embrace republicanism, calling for british readers to install an elected head of state. And elected legislature, a written constitution, and a universal franchise for all adult men. Radical stuff. Like common sense before it, rights of man, his new work, burned with outrage. And, sparkled with diamond hard pros. Aimed at the sort of working paper who usually ignored high politics. In this new work the only works he cited where the bible and the book of common prayer. Now, there is a long tradition of republican descent in england. It goes back centuries. And, pans ideas in favor of a republic instead of a monarchy where in some ways quite derivative. But, it was pains attempts to disseminate those ideas to the masses in plain spoken language, so that they could actually understand, that made this new work, they writes a man so momentous when it was published. And so controversial. And the rights of manned sold like gangbusters, 50,000 copies in the first three months in england alone. Even the british prime minister, he found time to read it. And he confessed to a friend that pain was quite right. What am i to do . I am the prime minister, as things are if i were to encourage tom paines opinions i should have a bloody revolution on my hands. N, those fears of an english revolution soon escalated as more and more english readers began demanding the sorts of civil rights that pan had championed. And, as news arrived in london of the beheadings and revolutionary france, and have the rise of robes pierre there, determined to prevent that sort of radical leveling from leaking the English Channel from france, and turning the english working classes into murderous guillotining moms intent on executing rich people. Now, they hastily passed a series of Homeland Security laws to limit free speech rights. Two in president anyone who talked openly of challenging the kang or parliament. I am for equality, why have no kings, one landowner shouted in a coffeehouse. He was promptly sent to prison for 18 months for that speech act. And, the government that had passed these laws went after thomas paine, himself. The author of the rights of man, with all they had. The government funded a Smear Campaign in the press that defamed thomas payne as ugly, smell he, and girl. As a wife beater, as impotent in his marriage bed, and as having, instead, a fetish for having sex with cats. The papers published cartoons rendering thomas payne as a three headed fire breathing monster win. And hundreds of letters to the editor, many of them suspiciously identical inward and image, denounced thomas payne in english papers as a liar, as a traitor, and as a terrorist. Mad tom, the british tabloids now called him. Government agents turk to trailing him wherever he wants. But, across the english country, astroturf crowds of paid thugs paraded Thomas Paines body in effigy. Burning it in town squares. Go off to france if you like the revolution so much. A writer in the times of london urged him we. So, in september of 1792 the now 57 year old pain did just that. He bunkered off to france. Sailed from dover in england, to france, to escape the long arm of his britannica majesties government. We three months later, in december, that British Government took, i will start that again, three months later that British Government put thomas paine on trial, in absentia, on charges of seditious libel. And, in his absence, they found him guilty, and in his absence they sentenced him to exile after the fact, he had already gone. Pain with spending ex decade in france, would never return to the land of his birth. Pain arrived in france armed with not one but four letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, it was well known in france. As a result, thomas payne quickly gained entrance to Thomas Paines highest circles, almost immediately hes up a petition representing in the revolutionary national assembly. A position to which he had been elected months earlier in honor of his authorship of the rights of man. But that did not go as expected. Payne spoke little french, and he had trouble keeping up as a french revolution rapidly radicalized and accelerated. Payne made a great mistake of speaking up in favor of sparing king louis the 16th from the guillotine. Arguing instead that it would be him military humiliating enough to banish the king to exile in the United States. But that did not go over well in france. Especially given pains earlier critiques of monarchy and inherited power. Where is your boldness now, tom . The french said to him. As robes pierre lead france into what we call the reign of terror, pain despaired. And then he picked up his pen. He drafted the first part of the age of reason. The third great work for which his man is still member today. And got it to a printer only six hours before french came to his door for to drag him to the senate prison cell for his dissenting views. Not radical enough. This third work, the age of reason, part one. Is in some ways his master pace. An astonishing virtuoso denunciation of atheism. Which he saw as the letter fuel for the most violent, most extreme, most uncontrollable excesses of this unfolding french revolutions. In defense of religious faith in the context of a french revolution run amok, payne wrote eloquently about how a loss of faith in god could extinguish human compassion, selflessness, morality, ethics, virtue, grace, and could turn society into nothing but a gathering of base. This conception of the power of faith was a pretty mainstream view and the 17 90s. Only really controversial in france itself because of the spread of atheism of the past two years. Christiane is a, pain to leaders, was the lifeblood of republican democracy. And the bibles Old Testament provided a set of useful commanders that could instill private ethics. He also had praise for the new testament, describing jesus christ as a virtuous and a bubble man who had preached social justice, and who had paid for his convictions with his life. So far, so good, right . The trouble was that pain kept going. And the age of reason, his third work, it is controversial because of Everything Else he had to say about christiana and particular, and about organized religion in general. Pain was not a fan of jesus christ, he wrote, he was not divine. It was just a man. The bible, pain went on, was not the revealed word of god. It was just a book written by some priests. And, as pain sought the bible was full of indecipherable rattles. Irrationalism, and fabulous them. Like the bizarre story of the talking snake whos chat with eve and with her eating and apple and destroying humanity. They churches that taught this sort of nonsense, hand said, where dangerous to savers. Institutions set up to terrify and enslaved mankind, and monopolize power and profit. Each of those charges accuses the other of on belief, and from my own part i disbelieve all of them. Still, pain was clear that despite all of this he was not trying to deny the existence of god. On the contrary, paine wrote, i believe in one god and no more. And i hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man, and i believe that religious duties consist in doing justice. Loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy. Roman church, by the but i do not believe in the profess by the jewish church, roman church, creek church, by the turkish church, by the proudest internship nor by any church that i know of. My own mind is my own church. This, folks, is almost the dictionary definition of deism, a variety of spiritual belief that was very common in highly educated circles. It both britain and america, in the 17 90s. And its a type of faith that we might call now intelligent design or Something Like that. Edward gibbon, david hume and Thomas Jefferson were also selfdeclared deists like tom paine, those other dudes had a good sense about it to keep quiet and only announced that fact in private to their highfalutin philosophical friends. But that is not tom paines style. Paine, of course, use the pages of the age of reason to shout his deism from the rooftops of paris. Hes in his gift for plainspoken language and a polemical turn of phrase to take that gospel to the masses. And he had all too much success. In britain, sales of the age of reason part one surpassed all records. In fact, breaking records set by the rights of man two years earlier. Church leaders now denounced paine with acid and thunder. And the age of reason attracted at least 50 rebuttals. Charging its author, tom paine, with being either an infidel, which is wrong, or a deist, which is fair enough. Or, most ironically, a filthy atheist, not even close. Doggerel versus saying the same flooded the press not only in britain but also in america. Which was in the midst of a major evangelical revival at the time, known to most of us as the second great awakening. All the while, paine himself languished in an eight by ten foot cell on the ground floor of the luxembourg prison. A former royal palace in paris now repurpose by french revolutionary for political prisoners. There, by candlelight, tom paine passed the time scrawling out a sequel to the first part of the age of reason. And he rode quickly. As, one by one, guards lead his fellow dissenting inmates to their executions. Part two of the age of reason was still unfinished when the American Ambassador in paris, james monroe, finally secured tom paines release after ten long, terrifying months behind bars. I paine had grown weak and ill and prison, ravaged by typhus and fevers and a festering wound in his belly that would not heal. So, paine finished the age of reason part two in the u. S. Ambassadors official residence. Publishing it, part two, in october of 1795. Though it shared many of the same big ideas, it is not a patch on part one. Listen to this historian craig nelson describe it and its unfortunate effect on our thinking on paine and his legacy. Part two of the age of reason, craig nelson says, is a snide, sneering and obsessive rant. With none of the first age of reasons lyricalification of the spiritual to be found in natural philosophy. If there is a reason for paines reputation to be sullied beyond englishman wanting monarchy and americans wanting christiane 80, it is the catastrophic rank or in the age of reason part two. Another example of the reign of terrors devastation of paines psyche. But still, tom paine had further to fall, especially in the estimations of the citizens of the United States, his adopted homeland. While he convalescent the ambassadors residence in paris, paine fired off a long open letter to his former friend, this gentleman, president George Washington. And in that open letter, tom paine blamed George Washington personally for failing to rescue him sooner from prison. And then, tom paine kept going, accusing washington, the father of the country, of everything from mismanagement to corruption. I paine said that washingtons military strategy during the revolutionary war had been to do nothing and that washington himself was selfish, friendless, indifferent, hypocritical and possessed of a cold hermaphrodite faculty that was devoid of principle. When this poison pen letter, which paine sent to washington on washingtons birthday, found its way to the american press, readers there were rightly incensed. Paines reputation as an American Patriot was irreversibly damaged. It would take seven more years for the federal government to indict tom paine to return to the United States. In the meantime, he convalesce. He watched the worst excesses of the french revolution burn themselves out and, of course, he wrote. He authored all sorts of things during his long recuperation at the American Ambassadors residence. One of the things he wrote deserves our attention now. Before we follow paine home. I think he wrote that im talking about is a called agrarian justice. Paine wrote it in 1795 and 96. Even though it is not nearly as wellknown as common sense, rights of man or age of reason, the ideas that agrarian justice contains have actually been incredibly influential. Because those ideas represent the first full scale practical proposals to develop wet, in the 20th century, would come to be called the welfare state. Written as a rebuttal of a famous english clergymens sermon praising the division between rich and poor as a sign of gods wisdom he, agrarian justice by thomas paine proposes to limit the size of that division between rich and poor by taxing the highest earners and investing heavily in a social safety net with the proceeds. Paine imagine three the tax system and Government Spending priorities in britain and by extension in america, france or anywhere else. To provide seven basic entitlements that, together, might shield the nations poorest and most vulnerable from the ravages of market capitalism. Let me show you what he had in mind. First, he proposed grants of four pounds a year to help parents afford to send their children to school. Second, he proposed one time payments of 15 pounds on their 21st birthdays. Third, propose much mauler onetime payments to newly married couples and further smaller payments to each child they brought into the world. Fourth, he proposed eliminating all taxes on poor people earning below a minimum annual income. Fifth, he proposed a government run back to work scheme that could find temporary employment for those out of work and that could provide room and board if needed. Sixth, he proposed pensions of six pounds a year for seniors over the age of 50 that within rise to ten pounds a year for those who made it to the age of 16. Seventh, he proposed a onetime death benefit to grieving spouses to cover the cost of funerals. Drawing on his experiences back in england of being a tax collector, many decades earlier, paine even costed all of this out. He did the math. He demonstrated to readers of agrarian justice that all of this was actually quite inexpensive and it could all be readily paid for if the British Parliament would implement a graduated income tax, put in place and a state tax on the largest fortunes and downsize the British Military budget, which was enormous. It would be worth it, paine explained, almost giddy with excitement. All it would take would be a few pieces of new tax policy to rig britains streets of aged beggars and ragged and hungry children. And investing in the education of young people would pay back huge dividends in the longer term. A nation under a well regulated government should permits none to remain an instructed, paine wrote. It is monarch coal and aristocratic a government only that requires ignorance for its support. But im laying out here, from the pages of agrarian justice, is an extraordinary social justice manifesto for any 18th century person to imagine. Importantly, it is not protomarxism. Quite the contrary. It is a non marxist critique of the free market that lays no plans to nationalize the education system, no plans to place any limits on how much money or property anyone can acquire. Rather, paine simply insists that those with the most i should modestly compensate those with the very least. Still, paines ideas went nowhere at the time. His name was already mud in legislative circles in london and he had just insulted the president of the United States. Those who read agrarian justice, and it was hardly the bestseller that some of his past weeks had been, dismissed paines design for a world beyond want ads fanciful. Or as a pernicious form of leveling. Leaving his blueprint for the 20th century architects of the modern welfare stated britain, france and new deal america to discover for themselves. Lets wrap up. Tom paine sailed for america in 1802, after president john adams, one of his fiercest critics, lost his reelection bid to Thomas Jefferson. A deist and a democrat like paine. Lets, still coming to america turned out to be a bitter homecoming. When paine disembarked in baltimore, the citys Principal Hotels refused to accommodate him. Since he had been away from america, radicalism had become a dirty word in america. The bloody excesses of the revolution were in part to blame. When the french revolution had begun, back in 1789, Many Americans had, at first, welcomed it as a sister struggle to their own. But after robes pierre had begun guillotining elites and conservatives and what became known as the reign of terror, many American Patriot leaders had turned coldly hostile toward the events unfolding in paris. So, when tom paine, the former member of the French National assembly, turned up on our shores in 1802, Many American conservatives took to trying to smear him as a drunk into discredit his political views. Openly accusing him of being a jacket been agitator who had only come back to bring back the federal government of the United States and kickstart an american reign of terror. Most of his conservative enemies used i paines famously non conformist religious beliefs to try to destroy his political reputation. Newspapers, written by editors supportive of washington, john adams and other members of their Federalist Party, called paine a lying, drunken, brutal infidel. They called him the loathsome thomas paine, a drunken atheist. They called him an obscene old sinner. Getting back on its feet under the sort of enemy fire almost killed tom paine. Paine he laid plans to set up an agricultural export business selling wood from america to europe. Paralyzing his hands, limiting his humility, and forcing him to seek nursing care in new york instead, and, on days when he dared to take a walk about around manhattan people in the street would show things at him. He still had some friends, and many admirers. Particularly among working people, but, life in america, and new york in particular was fraught with tension and risk. So, whenever he was well enough he would retreat to his rent free college at new rachel, outside of the city and try to write. His subject, now, was Party Politics and pain took quickly to the task of attacking john adams, Alexander Hamilton and the aristocratic Federalist Party they lead, in one newspaper column after another, and to defending jeffersonian democrat republicans as champions of liberty. But, to his great discussed, this proved to be utterly thankless work, while jefferson himself seems to have held pain in high regard throughout his life, jeffersons colleagues in the Democrat Republican Party regarded thomas payne as an embarrassment, they kept their distance from him. They did their best to disassociate themselves and their party from a man now they regarded as radically out of step with an electorate that had grown decidedly more conservative. And far more pious, while payne had been away and revolutionary europe. Pains last political tirade appeared in print on the 25th of august in 1808, and by then there was not much of pay left to be scared of. He could not keep food down anymore, hey suffered incontinence, and agonizing pain in his limbs, and he was seized by tears. If he woke up in his room and found himself alone, he would become frightened and began to scream. He was dying. He wrote a well, and, in it he inquired hopefully about the prospect of being buried among quakers, they crusading christians and who is mating houses he had grown up. But they refused, and so when Thomas Paines miserable decline finally ended at 8 am on june the 8th 1809, his executors took him, instead, up to new rachel and buried his body under a walnut tree on a farm once given to him by the state of new york for his role in creating the United States. But so much had happened since that fight for independence, and that farm of his was almost deserted on the day of his burial, not a single political later attended his funeral, only six people turned up. One who did was madam bond ville, paines french immigrant housekeeper. Another who did was her american son. She later described placing herself at the end of paines grave as the earth was thrown down on his coffin, and telling her son stand you there, at the other end, as a witness for grateful america. A week later it when she and benjamin who paid for the small gravestone jammed into the earth of that spot. The gravestones absorption was a simple as it was short. It said thomas paine, author of common sense. Mary, back to you. That is great, great. Thank you so much, that is such a sad story. Really, it is amazing what a wonderful talk. Anyway, let me, if you put in your screen share i am going to get out my document, here. There we go, lets say. We have been getting lots of good questions coming in. So, right at the very beginning when you are talking about common sense you showed the pamphlet. At the bottom of it says printed and sold by barr and bell. Several people had asked who is our bell . You know, i am and r bell. That is one of the questions, is there any connection . Let me reveal to you that i am a time or, i have been alive for 300 years now would really like to go to sleep. [laughs] this is actually robert bell, no relation to me as far as i know. He is a printer and bookseller on Third Straight and philadelphia, if i remember correctly. His is one of a small number, lets say five booksellers and printers in philadelphia at the time. Ben franklins operation would have been another one. It is robert bell who publishes the first addition, but, because there is no copyright back than, robert balls competitors soon by a copy, turn it into a typeset and print their own to compete against him. So, robert bell is fiercely trying to hold on to that early advantage. I have to tell you, i am obsessed with common sense, i teach it in all of my classes. And i had this assignment i do with students, which i am program pathetically proud of. It uses one of these amazing databases we have now, that we definitely did not when i was in school. Which is digitized, a whole ton of early american newspapers from this era, and you can search them by key word, right . Any mention of, for instance, they were its common sense next to each other will get flagged by the software. And you can scroll through them. You can see who use that phrase and in watch context. I have an assignment where i tell my students that writers over the years have said that everyone in america read common sense, right . It was almost universally red, and, people have tried to count the number of readers of common sense, have speculated is 300,000 or Something Like that. But no one has actually bothered to prove that, they have just asserted that it was read this widely. So, i have my students use this newspaper database to see what they can figure out about who actually read common sense, should we believe the hype that everyone read it or can we find proof that some people did and some people did not . I have them think about where it is advertised, have them think about how many bookstores it is available in, what its price point is, whether to shillings is a lot of money and how can you tell if to shillings is a lot of money or not a lot of money . I have them think about whether it is available in libraries, whether there is evidence of people reading it aloud to people who cannot read to the for themselves . They have to use this newspaper database to find little bread crumbs of information to help them build answers to this question. I mention this, mary, because every semester i do this assignment lets say i get 100 papers about this, there will always be at least five which will refer to the printer of common sense as their professor richard bel, because they get confused about it as well. Okay, thank you richard. Another participant is commenting, so, the genesis of paines intense desire for american independent and opposition to english monarchy is the desire for a fresh start in a new world. Is there more than that . Did he have anything more to gain personally . Yes, there is, of course, more than that. I would i want to believe and begin withs personal stories. Personal stories and our own life stories matter in the way that we interpret the world. Right . So, paine goes through a series of difficult moments in england, forcing him, pushing him eventually to leave england. That is a sign of how much he is not happy with his life in england. So, he associates that people, that country, that politics with everything he has left behind. Right . He, personally, has made a break from britain and we should not discount that as cheap psychology. It matters a great deal. But, certainly there is more to it than that. He will make some money from publishing common sense, not nearly as much as you think. Phets of iin part because everys ripping him off and publishing their own versions and he is not seeing all of the profits. But, also because he republished it relatively cheaply. After the First Edition he cut the price and a half, so, his Profit Margins go out the window right away. And, thirdly, he makes a very public show of when it is discovered that he is the author, that it is not actually an anonymous thing, he is the real author. He is outed, basically, by people think that discovering this immigrant corset maker is the author will undermine the power of common sense. That it was not written by ben franklin, or john adams, but, in fact, it makes pain into a celebrity. He embraces that, he makes a big show of saying, you know, all the money i made over the past six months, guess what i have done with it . I have donated it to the Continental Army to pay for mittens for the soldiers to wear this winter. Which is not only an amazing pr gesture in the world before pr, it is also a patriotic gesture, and it is also further confirmation that he personally is not profiting nearly as much as you might think from common sense. But, just quickly, he is writing this at a time when things are escalating rapidly. He is not just coming to america and 1740 and saying, we should declare independence. He is coming to america in 1774, in 1775 when all of the newspapers are full of lexington and concord. And barker hill, and, one british aggression after another. There is so much frustration in the air, and he thinks he has a path forward. A solution to offer for what all americans should do with that frustration. Just channel it in one direction, that is his contribution. But, lets be clear, he is reading the political winds. He is not just doing it for his own game. Great, thank you. What were his views on slavery in america . Did he ever write anything on slavery or the rights of women . Yes, so, those are two related questions. We do have some of his writings on the position of women. Although he wrote so many things anonymously that were not always sure if he is the author of things we think he is the author of. And so, there has been some contention about whether we are accurately ascribing him to views that some anonymous pieces put forward. But, those anonymous pieces that have long been ascribed to paine often have a protofeminist mark to them. Which is to say, he is pretty good on women by the standards of the white 18 century man. Now, there are plenty of morocco feminists who would see him as moderate, too cautious, or even conservative. Mary wollstonecraft, for instance, and 70 92, vindication of the rights of women is a genuine feminist radical. Tom paine is not that. But, he is better than most dudes, for the record, when it comes to women. As for slavery, you would expect some of the same stuff. You would expect him to be denouncing slavery as monstrous, immoral, unconstitutional, an american, et cetera, sarah. And yet, i personally am not aware of any time when he writes about slavery, or calls it out. It just seems to be a blind spot to him. So, maybe i am just not looking in the right places. Maybe he did write about it and i have not read that but i would also point out that he is writing in philadelphia, in the 1770s. And philadelphias enslaved population is at a historic low in the revolutionary war years. There had been slavery in philadelphia and pennsylvania since the 16 80s. But, it had never been on the scale of south carolina, or virginia, and so, it is also in philadelphia. It is urban, it just has a different texture to agricultural slavery out on the plantations. And so, there are plenty of kind hearted, god fearing people who call out other and justices in philadelphia, who do not see slavery in philadelphia as their number one human rights issue. Of course, we would all fault them for that today. But, the simple fact is he is living in a place where slavery is not in his face in the same way as if he lived in another place or another time. N youre mentioning philadelphia, and one of the questions was, why is philadelphia, in your view, such an intellectual center of the late 18th century . With paine, priestly, ben franklin, et cetera. Any thoughts on that . I, mean its hard to attribute a reason to that but i certainly agree with the premise of the question that it is those things. Just very quickly, folks, back in the 16 hundreds, bostons the largest town or city in america, which is to say not very large at all. For most of the 1700s, philadelphia will be the largest town or city in america and in most of the 1800s and afterwards it would be new york. So, the 18th century, the revolutionary era its philadelphias century. The simple fact that scale, that is the largest place, a magnet for money and people, also means that the magnet for ideas and dissent and conversation. Of course, its quaker heritage, founded as a place of religious toleration, where people of different faiths can live side by side, you think would extend intellectual diversity as well. Right . That would be a crucible of new ideas if people from different backgrounds that traditions are living next to each other. I think theres a lot of truth to that, but youre absolutely right that almost all of the leading colonial, natural scientists and philosophers live in pennsylvania in the 18 hundreds. New york is not yet the city it will become later on and franklins presence there makes it a big deal. Franklin is a generator and a magnet for other smart, intelligent people to come and rub shoulders with him. So, hes a big part of this. Right, great, thank you. Two connected questions here. You think that thomas paine was a visionary thinker . Or more and effective communicator of others ideas . Related to this, did tom paine have any help in creating common sense . Such as, did others provide ideas and or help him refine it prior to publication . Yeah, i mean, the idea that there are geniuses who sit in a room or in a cave and get no external stimulation its probably false and mythical. I think all of us, our best ideas come from interacting with other people, right . , so thats probably true for paine as well. Thats why i mentioned, for instance, something that many people dont know about him. That he was part of a very radical debating club back in england, the headstrong club. He has been signing himself as common sense on newspaper and says he wrote back in england. His editor ship of the pennsylvania magazine is a Training Ground for him. Not just and how to persuade people but also to find out what Americans Care about and how to write to them in a language that they want to read every month. So, he sees himself as an apprentice and a sponge for cultural standards and intellectual and political developments, he knows hes not writing in a vacuum. To come back to your question, mary, i do think a significant portion of what is so magnificent about tom paine are his gift as a writer. In the same way some other people of the age like Thomas Jefferson are just endowed with extraordinary gifts as writers. Then franklin to has an extraordinary gift as a writer. Whats separates paine, of course, is that hes largely self taught. Hes not been sitting in a fancy library somewhere like jefferson had for quite awhile. Its much more of a good hunting figure, and autodidact. That guy that goes to his local library and learns a lot. Its more like franklin and jefferson in that regard, which i admire a great deal. When a working man can make that sort of journey. So, i admire his skills as a writer. Does he have his own ideas . I think, to some extent, yes. So, thats why i made a point of sort of going at it my way towards the end of the talk, mary, and talking about his maybe lesserknown work. Which is a very injustice, where he lays out a compelling scheme to reform social policy. Which probably does have inspiration another writers. But, again hes bringing things together, explaining it very clearly, making the rationale. And because he used to be a tax collector, mary, also pricing it out and saying guys, we can afford this. So, i appreciate that mix of ideology and pragmatism there. Right, exactly. Connected with this agrarian justice and what he wrote in that, we have a few questions about, you know, in your description of the British Campaign against tom paine you use words we recognize for modern times. Do you see parallels with post 9 11 america . Connected with that, tying and with that, how would you assess tom paines reputation and influence today . I think someones trying to get me fired from the smithsonians associates. Im going to tread very carefully. Tread carefully, but i think people can see that there are connections definitely. I think thats right. All i will say is that, across all places at all times and all centuries, new ideas face great scrutiny. And some people embrace them, perhaps because they seem like the right ideas and perhaps because they seem like they personally might benefit from going in a new direction. And other people push back against new ideas, perhaps because their new or pay apps because theyre going to affect them adversely. It seems that many of the paines ideas can rightly be understood as a challenge to orthodoxy, to conventional wisdom, to the status quo. He is, by mid 18th century standards, a radical. So, of course, radicals always have a tough time in every place in every century. In that regard, tom paine is nothing unusual here. If theres anything unusual about tom paine its that he keeps at it for decades and decades and he never really silenced or shut down. On my final slide, i have the big three works which we associate with him. Hes not a one hit wonder, mary. There is common sense, which is astonishing. If thats what any of us did with our lives we could die very happy knowing weve had a transformative effect on world history. But, then he also writes the age of reason and the rights of man. Which, in their own ways, have equally transformative affects. He keeps on going, hes the energizer bunny of our radicalism. So, that makes him somewhat deserving of our attention. Okay, great. This will be our final question for the evening. Why did the french allow paine to have a quill and paper when he was in prison, to write the age of reason part to . Its a very specific question. Im sure that that was common practice, there are no tvs and radios incels back then. This was a former palace as well, so there was at least an attempt to suggest, by radical revolutionaries who are holding him, that we are not monsters, we are civilized here. And we have the great tom paine here, even if we planned executed next week hes still the great tom paine until we do. So, it would be barbaric to withhold his tools from him. I would imagine it would be very common for prisoners of a certain standing, for instance whether they could read or write in the first place, to be given pen and paper. That perhaps they did not fully understand what he was doing with that pen and paper and what the consequences of that would be. Right. Okay, great. Well, that concludes our program for tonight. We have run out of time. But rick, thank you again for such a wonderful, fantastic program. With that said, ill say goodnight to everyone and enjoy the rest of your evening