By contrast with Paine's departure from Dover, ‘on his arrival in Calais a public dinner was provided, a royal salute was fired from the battery, the troops were drawn out, and there was a general rejoicing throughout the town’. The political situation in which Paine found France when he returned there in September 1792 was very different from that which it had been in when he left it in July 1791. Although the flight of the king and queen to Varennes the previous year had seemed to open up the possibility that the monarchy might be replaced by a republic, the idea had very few supporters then, and constitutional monarchy survived the episode. Within days of Paine's return, however, the National Convention, to which he had been elected, proclaimed a republic and abolished the monarchy.

One of the many causes of this transformation was the outbreak of war between France and Austria in May 1792, quickly followed by the declaration of war on France by Prussia. Paine's French associates, Brissot and his followers, had clamoured for war against foreign powers opposed to the revolution. Robespierre spoke out against them, arguing that defeat would put an end to the revolution in a royalist reaction, while even victory ran the risk of giving too much power to the army, which was led by Lafayette until his defection to the Prussians in August.