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Thomas Paine—Democrat
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
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These may be “the times that try men's souls,” as President Roosevelt recently told the nation, but they may also be the times when free and courageous men may push forward toward the better society of which Thomas Paine dreamed when he pleaded with the colonists for unity in the cause of freedom. When Paine first wrote those words 165 years ago, America had an opportunity to break away from the tyranny of Europe. But Paine was not content to win a war of independence for America alone. Like many today, he talked of world revolution aimed at the tyranny of the few over the many. He, too, argued that men—all men—should have an equal opportunity to shape their own destinies and the destiny of the world in which they found themselves. In an era when men are fighting to preserve and extend a heritage of freedom, it would be well to reëxamine the ideas of Paine, whose writings inspired men of his day in America, in England, and in France to work and to die that they might be free.
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References
1 Parrington, Vernon L., Main Currents in American Thought, Vol. I, p. 334.Google Scholar
2 Merriam, C. E., “Thomas Paine's Political Theories,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XIV, p. 402 (Sept., 1899).Google Scholar See also Lerner, Max, It is Later Than You Think, p. 109.Google Scholar Lerner calls Paine a “demagogue,” that is, one of those Americans who were “good artists in majority politics.”
3 Some of the undemocratic features of Paine's earlier writings will be referred to briefly to indicate the historical development of his thinking.
4 For a full discussion of the belief of a majority-rule democrat, see the excellent discussion in Kendall, Willmoore, John Locke and the Doctrine of Majority-Rule, esp. pp. 24–38.Google Scholar
5 The Rights of Man, Writings of Thomas Paine (Conway, M. D., ed.), Vol. II, p. 388.Google Scholar
6 Ibid., pp. 406–407. See also Common Sense, Vol. I, p. 70. Here Paine spoke of the possibility of men attempting to live as individuals, but soon joining each other when they realized that they could live better by a division of labor.
7 Ibid., p. 311. Italics are Paine's. He also referred to the United States as being in a state of nature between 1775 and the time of the adoption of the Articles of Confederation. See Vol. II, p. 407.
8 Ibid., pp. 309, 310. Italics are Paine's.
9 Ibid., p. 308.
10 Ibid., p. 309.
12 Ibid., p. 385. Italics are mine. See also “Address to the Addressers,” Vol. II, p. 68. The term “nation” as used by Paine always refers to all the citizens of a particular country.
13 Ibid., pp. 309–310. This does not mean that Paine believed in judicial review. See section on Popular Consultation.
14 Ibid., p. 436.
15 Ibid., p. 361. Italics are mine. See also p. 238, where Paine argues that an elective body no longer responsible to the people is as despotic as any king who usurped power originally. The phrase “as universal as taxation” is to be found frequently in Paine's writings. Paine himself did not believe that voting should be based upon the payment of taxes (see section on Political Equality), but was quite willing to use the term for persuasive purposes. He usually went ahead to explain that everyone pays taxes in some form, and therefore acceptance of the phrase necessitates acceptance of the notion of political equality.
16 “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions on the Legislative and Executive Powers,” Vol. II, pp. 238–239.
17 Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 276–277, 365–366.
18 Ibid., p. 366.
19 Ibid., p. 411. Italics are Paine's. For similar definitions, see also pp. 443, 446. In the latter passages, Paine did not include the last phrase, “acting on the principles of society.” It will be noted that his definition makes no distinction between the “state” and “government,” or between the “state” and “society.” The word “state” is never used by Paine except to describe the “thirteen American states.” As we noticed earlier, a democratic state differs from society only because it is organized. In Common Sense, Vol. I, p. 69, Paine distinguished between the origin of society and of the state. The former arose because of the needs of man, the latter because of his wickedness. The duty of the state was to preserve law and order. Not until he identified representative government with organized society was Paine able to give the state the positive function of promoting the common good.
20 Ibid., p. 385.
21 Ibid., p. 397.
22 Ibid., pp. 421–422, 443. Republic, said Paine, came from the word res-republica, meaning public affairs. A republic, then, does not describe a form of government, but the purpose of government. He added, however, that representative government is the only kind which actually deals with public affairs or the good of the nation.
23 “Dissertation on Government; the Affairs of the Bank; and Paper Money,” Vol. II, p. 147. If the people or government break a contract, it is contrary to the terms of the original compact in which men “renounced as despotic, detestable and unjust, the right of breaking and violating their engagements, contracts and compacts with, or defrauding, imposing or tyrannizing over each other.”
24 Ibid., p. 146.
25 Ibid., p. 148.
26 Ibid., pp. 164–166.
27 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 465–466.
28 “Constitutions, Governments, and Charters,” Vol. IV, p. 468.
29 Ibid., pp. 468, 469.
30 In the essay, Paine argued that certain acts, i.e., the contracts mentioned, differ from ordinary laws which may be repealed at any time. He argued that these special acts required permanency without being clear what he meant by “permanency.” However, he spoke of the value of elections in insuring just contracts because “it is always to the interest of a much greater number of people in a country, to have a thing right than to have it wrong, [and therefore] the public sentiment is always worth attending to. It may sometimes err, but never intentionally, and never long.” The last sentence indicates that the people will be allowed to correct their “errors,” even at the expense of permanency. He also argued that the people of New York had “vetoed” the specific contract in question when they defeated the legislators who enacted the measure.
31 Dorfman, Joseph, “The Economic Philosophy of Thomas Paine,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 53, pp. 372–386 (Sept., 1938).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
On the other hand, see V. L. Parrington, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 139, where it is suggested that Paine may well have believed in a socialized order, but that his desire to secure a measure of relief from intolerable conditions prevented him from bluntly stating his full position. Also see C. E. Merriam, op. cit., esp. pp. 397, 400, where he remarks that Paine argues that the state should not interfere much in the affairs of business, but that he also suggests a number of instances when government ought to regulate economic conditions even more stringently than they were then regulated.
32 The Rights of Man, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 306. Paine sometimes spoke of these as “personal rights” or “rights of the mind.”
33 Ibid., pp. 307, 325–326, 328. Religious freedom, he said, was essential to all other rights.
34 Ibid., pp. 397, 330. Also see “Address to the Addressers,” Vol. III, p. 68.
35 Ibid., pp. 328, 361. Also see “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 265, and Agrarian Justice, Vol. III, p. 325.
36 Ibid., pp. 354–355.
37 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 267.
38 Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 355.
39 Quoted in Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 351.
40 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 380.
41 Ibid., pp. 484–500.
42 Agrarian Justice, Vol. III, pp. 330–332.
43 Ibid., p. 340.
44 Ibid., p. 341.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid., pp. 337–338.
47 Dorfman, op. cit., p. 380.
48 Ibid., p. 386.
49 See Wecter, Dixon, “Hero in Reverse,” Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. XVIII, 243–259 (Spring, 1942).Google Scholar Wecter tells of the hatred for Paine among the conservatives in his day because of his economic beliefs. If he and Hamilton agreed on economic ideas, Hamilton and his supporters were curiously unaware of the similarity. See esp. pp. 244, 245, 248.
50 Parrington, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 338.
51 Ibid., p. 333. We need not follow Parrington's speculation that Paine would have carried his arguments to a more radical conclusion, had he not confined his writing to immediately attainable objectives. See p. 339.
52 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 269. Italics are mine.
53 Ibid., p. 267.
54 In Common Sense, Vol. I, p. 97, Paine suggests that Congress might pass acts by a vote of three-fifths of the members “in order that nothing might pass into a law which is not satisfactorily just.” In no other pamphlet does Paine suggest rule by any number other than a simple majority.
55 Rights of Man, II, p. 434.
56 Ibid., p. 509. See also “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 465.
57 Ibid., p. 444. Por a more detailed criticism of bicameralism, see “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions on the Legislative and Executive Powers,” Vol. II, pp. 241–244.
58 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, pp. 273–274. Italics are Paine's.
59 Ibid., p. 277; “To Citizens of the United States” (no. 5), Vol. III, p. 405. For other comments on parties in Paine's later writings, see Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 278, 468; “The Eighteenth Fructidor,” Vol. III, p. 347.
60 See “Letter to Samuel Adams, January 1, 1803,” Vol. IV, p. 207.
61 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. II, p. 266. Italics are mine. See also The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 428, 509.
62 “Letter to the Citizens of the United States” (no. 3), Vol. III, p. 392. In this article, Paine did express some doubt of the ability of majorities to control minorities when he spoke of “the doubtful contest of civil war.”
63 See The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 514, n.
64 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, pp. 271–272.
65 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 367, 416–417. See also “Dissertation on Government; etc.,” Vol. II, p. 135.
66 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, pp. 91–92. Italics are Paine's.
67 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 303.
68 Ibid., pp. 304–305. Italics are Paine's. He cites the Mosaic account of the creation which says that God made man in his own image, distinguishing between the sexes, “but no other distinction is implied.”
69 Ibid., p. 385.
70 Ibid., p. 309. Italics are Paine's.
71 Ibid., p. 386.
72 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, pp. 91–92. See also, “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 465.
73 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 273.
74 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 278.
75 Agrarian Justice, Vol. III, p. 325.
76 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, p. 88.
77 Agrarian Justice, Vol. III, p. 325.
78 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, pp. 265, 267.
79 Ibid., p. 266.
80 Ibid., p. 267. Paine suggested that it might well be that a man's right to vote would depend upon such a thing as the birth of a mule. In that case, he wonders who should have the vote—the mule or the man. See Dorfman, op. cit., p. 379, for a curious statement of Paine's belief in the equality of suffrage. Dorfman ignored most of the arguments stated by Paine in an effort to prove that the sole purpose for removing property qualifications for voting was the protection of property rights. Dorfman's argument is based entirely upon carefully selected sections of The Rights of Man and “Letter Addressed to the Addressers,” ignoring completely the two pamphlets which were most explicit on the question of suffrage. (Agrarian Justice and “Dissertation on First Principles of Government.”)
81 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, p. 88. See also “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 462.
82 Ibid., pp. 75, 88.
83 Agrarian Justice, Vol. III, p. 326.
84 “On the Constitution of 1795,” Vol. III, pp. 283–284.
85 “Address to the Addressers,” Vol. III, p. 88
86 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 468.
87 Ibid., p. 399.
88 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 269.
89 Ibid., p. 268. See The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 296, where Paine suggests that the mob is the safest asylum possible, and that even a miser would cease to think only of money if he were to mix with a mob. He uses “the mob” both to threaten those of property and to idealize “the common man.”
90 Ibid., pp. 267–268.
91 “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 460. Paine agreed with Franklin that “where annual elections end, tyranny begins.”
92 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 452, 517. See also “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 457, and “Letter to the Citizens of the United States” (No. 3), Vol. III, p. 392.
93 Ibid., p. 438. Also see p. 311.
94 Ibid., p. 311.
95 Ibid., p. 452.
96 Ibid., p. 431.
97 “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions on Legislative and Executive Powers,” Vol. II, p. 250.
98 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, p. 87. See also p. 81, and “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 457.
99 “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 457.
100 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 397–398. See also “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, p. 86.
101 Common Sense, Vol. I, p. 71.
102 “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G, p. 460.
103 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 323. See also “Anti-Monarchical Essay for Use of New Republicans,” Vol. III, p. 108, for a curious passage illustrating the lengths to which Paine would go to assure legislative responsibility. “With representatives, frequently renewed, who neither administer nor judge, whose functions are determined by laws; with national conventions, with primary assemblies, which can be convoked at any moment; with a people knowing how to read, and how to defend itself; with good journals, guns, and pikes; a Legislature would have a good deal of trouble in enjoying many months of tyranny.”
104 “Letter to Citizens of the United States” (no. 4), Vol. III, pp. 414–417. This essay was written against the Sedition Act of 1798.
105 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 427–428.
106 “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 275. See also “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions, etc., Vol. II, pp. 238–239.
107 “Constitutional Reform,” Vol. IV, App. G., p. 461.
108 Ibid., p. 464.
109 Ibid.
110 Ibid.
111 See, for example, “Dissertation on Government, etc.,” Vol. II, p. 132. “There are such things as right and wrong in the world.” And “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” Vol. III, p. 260. “… time has no more connection with, or influence upon principle, than principle has upon time.”
112 See, for example, The Age of Reason, Vol. IV, p. 45, “The word of God is the creation we behold: And it is in this word that God speaketh universally to man.” (Italics are Paine's.) See also p. 191: “The principles we discover are eternal and of divine origin….” For a brief analysis of the relationship of Paine's religious be liefs to his political, economic, and social thinking, see the excellent article by Clark, H. H., “Toward a Re-interpretation of Thomas Paine,” American Literature, Vol. V, pp. 133–145.Google Scholar
113 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, pp. 418, 423.
114 Ibid., pp. 403, 508. See also “The Reasons for Preserving the Life of Louie Capet,” Vol. III, p. 122; “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions, etc.,” Vol. II, p. 248.
115 Ibid., p. 435. “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions, etc.,” Vol. II, p. 246; “Letter to the Citizens of the United States” (no. 4), Vol. III, p. 405; “Constitutions, Governments, and Charters,” Vol. IV, App. H., pp. 468.
116 “Letter Addressed to the Addressers, etc.,” Vol. III, pp. 45–46. “Address and Declaration of the Thatched House Tavern,” Vol. II, p. 256; The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 296.
117 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 403.
118 Ibid., p. 509.
119 Ibid., p. 435.
120 Ibid., pp. 418–420.
121 “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions, etc.,” Vol. II, p. 242.
122 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 386. See also “Anti-Monarchical Essay for the Use of New Republicans,” Vol. III, p. 103.
123 Ibid., p. 384. “Constitutions, Governments, and Charters,” Vol. IV, App. H., p. 457; see also “Letter to Citizens of the United States” (no. 4), Vol. III, p. 400, “The Right will always become the popular.” Compare this position with Max Lerner, op. cit., p. 107, “… the majority in a state represents a good bet in the long pull of history.” See Kendall, op. cit., Ch. X, where the question is raised as to whether the belief in the “rightness” of majorities underlies all modern theories of majority rule.
124 Ibid., p. 321.
125 Ibid., pp. 322–323.
126 “Thomas Paine's Answer to Four Questions, etc.,” Vol. II, p. 245; “Memorial Addressed to James Monroe,” Vol. III, p. 176.
127 The Rights of Man, Vol. II, p. 332.
128 Ibid., p. 512.
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