Misplaced Pages

#514485

195-608: The London Corresponding Society ( LCS ) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament . In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men (artisans, tradesmen, and shopkeepers) and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis. Characterising it as an instrument of French revolutionary subversion, and citing links to

390-560: A counter-revolution . In response, the Assembly published the August Decrees which abolished feudalism . Over 25% of French farmland was subject to feudal dues , providing the nobility with most of their income; these were now cancelled, along with church tithes. While their former tenants were supposed to pay them compensation, collecting it proved impossible, and the obligation was annulled in 1793. Other decrees included equality before

585-616: A supernumerary officer. In December 1762, he became an Excise Officer in Grantham , Lincolnshire; in August 1764, he was transferred to Alford , also in Lincolnshire, at a salary of £50 per annum. On August 27, 1765, he was dismissed as an Excise Officer for "claiming to have inspected goods he did not inspect". On July 31, 1766, he requested his reinstatement from the Board of Excise, which they granted

780-510: A "Correspondence Committee" of the Irish Volunteer movement to restore "the purity and vigour" of the Irish constitution through parliamentary reform, persuaded him of the need for a workingman's reform club. At the first meeting of his "Correspondence Society" on 25 January 1792, Hardy led seven friends in a discussion that determined that "gross ignorance and prejudice in the bulk of the nation

975-464: A "crapulous mass". Adams disagreed with the type of radical democracy promoted by Paine (that men who did not own property should still be allowed to vote and hold public office) and published Thoughts on Government in 1776 to advocate a more conservative approach to republicanism. Sophia Rosenfeld argues that Paine was highly innovative in his use of the commonplace notion of "common sense". He synthesized various philosophical and political uses of

1170-427: A "monster meeting" for 26 October 1795 at Copenhagen Fields, Islington . Veteran reformers Joseph Priestley , John Thelwall and Charles James Fox , joined Hardy's successor as LCS secretary John Ashley (another shoemaker); chairman John Binns (a plumber's labourer), John Gale Jones (surgeon), and William Duane (Irish-American editor of The Telegraph ) in addressing crowds estimated at upwards of 200,000. For

1365-481: A French spy. The weight of repression substantially reduced popular societies in the provinces. In London, Hardy and Margarot's successor as chairman, John Baxter , undaunted, had drawn up addresses to "the friends of peace and parliamentary reform" and to "His Majesty" calling for an end to the war against France. Prime Minister , William Pitt , responded by having the papers of the London societies seized and examined by

1560-918: A Holborn bookseller, Alexander Galloway, a mathematical machine- maker . . ., Thomas Evans , a colourer of prints and (later) a patent brace-maker, Richard Hodgson, a master hatter, John Lovett, a hairdresser, [John] Luffman, a goldsmith, [John] Oxlade, a master book-binder ... While the LCS remained primarily a forum for "a politically conscious and articulate artisan population", men of a more prominent social and professional standing did join, drawn in many cases from existing debating societies. They brought with them important political connections and skills. Barristers such as Felix Vaughan and attorneys like Joseph Gerrald (who had practiced law in Philadelphia, and there associated with Paine) were especially useful given near continuous entanglement of members in court proceedings. Among

1755-467: A Parisian mob, and neither Bailly nor Lafayette could prevent it. In rural areas, wild rumours and paranoia resulted in the formation of militia and an agrarian insurrection known as la Grande Peur . The breakdown of law and order and frequent attacks on aristocratic property led much of the nobility to flee abroad. These émigrés funded reactionary forces within France and urged foreign monarchs to back

1950-479: A bitter open letter to George Washington , whom he denounced as an incompetent general and a hypocrite. He published the pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1797), discussing the origins of property and introducing the concept of a guaranteed minimum income through a one-time inheritance tax on landowners. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. He died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral, as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity and his attacks on

2145-534: A blow: during his trial his wife was attacked in their home by a loyalist "Church and King mob" and subsequently died in childbirth. On his release, Hardy did not return to his position in the Society. Beginning in the course of these trials further arrests were made. Paul Thomas LeMaitre, John Smith, George Higgins and Dr. Robert Thomas Crossfield, were indicted as accomplices in the so-called " Popgun Plot ", an alleged conspiracy to assassinate King George III by means of

SECTION 10

#1732844540515

2340-439: A campaign for war against Austria and Prussia, often interpreted as a mixture of calculation and idealism. While exploiting popular anti-Austrianism, it reflected a genuine belief in exporting the values of political liberty and popular sovereignty. Simultaneously, conservatives headed by Marie Antoinette also favoured war, seeing it as a way to regain control of the military, and restore royal authority. In December 1791, Louis made

2535-631: A citizen of Pennsylvania "by taking the oath of allegiance at a very early period". In March 1775, he became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine , a position he conducted with considerable ability. Before Paine's arrival in America, sixteen magazines had been founded in the colonies and ultimately failed, each featuring substantial content and reprints from England. In late 1774, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken announced his plan to create what he called an "American Magazine" with content derived from

2730-737: A combination of social, political, and economic factors which the ancien régime ("old regime") proved unable to manage. A financial crisis and widespread social distress led to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789, its first meeting since 1614. The representatives of the Third Estate broke away, and re-constituted themselves as a National Assembly in June. The Storming of the Bastille in Paris on 14 July

2925-549: A counterrevolutionary blast against the French Revolution, entitled Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), which strongly appealed to the landed class, and sold 30,000 copies. Paine set out to refute it in his Rights of Man (1791). He wrote it not as a quick pamphlet, but as a long, abstract political tract of 90,000 words which tore apart monarchies and traditional social institutions. On January 31, 1791, he gave

3120-660: A distinction opposed by a significant minority, including the Jacobin clubs . By mid-1790, the main elements of a constitutional monarchy were in place, although the constitution was not accepted by Louis until 1791. Food shortages and the worsening economy caused frustration at the lack of progress, and led to popular unrest in Paris. This came to a head in late September 1789, when the Flanders Regiment arrived in Versailles to reinforce

3315-406: A fervent supporter of Deane, immediately spoke out against Paine's comments. The controversy eventually became public, and Paine was then denounced as unpatriotic for criticizing an American revolutionary. He was even physically assaulted twice in the street by Deane supporters. This much-added stress took a large toll on Paine, who was generally of a sensitive character and he resigned as secretary to

3510-666: A letter of recommendation to Paine, who emigrated in October to the American colonies, arriving in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774. Paine barely survived the transatlantic voyage. The ship's water supplies were bad and typhoid fever killed five passengers. On arriving at Philadelphia, he was too sick to disembark. Benjamin Franklin's physician, there to welcome Paine to America, had him carried off ship; Paine took six weeks to recover. He became

3705-485: A list of grievances, known as Cahiers de doléances . Tax inequality and seigneurial dues (feudal payments owed to landowners) headed the grievances in the cahiers de doleances for the estate. On 5 May 1789, the Estates-General convened at Versailles . Necker outlined the state budget and reiterated the king's decision that each estate should decide on which matters it would agree to meet and vote in common with

3900-657: A long time friend and mentor. Franklin provided letters of introduction for Paine to use to gain associates and contacts in France. Later that year, Paine returned to London from Paris. He then released a pamphlet on August 20 called Prospects on the Rubicon: or, an investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Politics to be Agitated at the Meeting of Parliament . Tensions between England and France were increasing, and this pamphlet urged

4095-435: A majority by forging consensus with monarchiens like Mounier, and independents including Adrien Duport , Barnave and Alexandre Lameth . At one end of the political spectrum, reactionaries like Cazalès and Maury denounced the Revolution in all its forms, with radicals like Maximilien Robespierre at the other. He and Jean-Paul Marat opposed the criteria for "active citizens", gaining them substantial support among

SECTION 20

#1732844540515

4290-570: A mass movement primed for insurrection had been scarcely credible, it was sufficient proof of the intent to invite and encourage a French invasion. Coigly was hanged in June. On 30 January 1798, the LCS had issued an Address to the United Irishmen, declaring that "If to Unite in the Cause of Reform upon the Broadest Basis be Treason .... We, with you, are Traitors". Yet the disillusionment with France

4485-483: A million copies, Paine's reply to Edmund Burke in defence of the French Revolution (and of Dr. Richard Price) was "eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters , democrats, London craftsman, and the skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north". From the beginning, the LCS was viewed with suspicion by the British government, and was infiltrated by spies on the government payroll. In addition to domestic subversion,

4680-503: A mission to travel to Paris to obtain funding for the American war effort. Paine accompanied Col. John Laurens to France and is credited with initiating the mission. It landed in France in March 1781 and returned to America in August with 2.5 million livres in silver, as part of a "present" of 6 million and a loan of 10 million. The meetings with the French king were most likely conducted in

4875-460: A new independent judiciary, with jury trials for criminal cases. However, moderate deputies were uneasy at popular demands for universal suffrage, labour unions and cheap bread, and over the winter of 1790 and 1791, they passed a series of measures intended to disarm popular radicalism. These included exclusion of poorer citizens from the National Guard, limits on use of petitions and posters, and

5070-555: A philosophical founder of the revolution, wrote it was "manifestly contrary to the law of nature ... that a handful of people should gorge themselves with superfluities, while the hungry multitude goes in want of necessities." The Revolution caused a massive shift of power from the Catholic Church to the state; although the extent of religious belief has been questioned, elimination of tolerance for religious minorities meant by 1789 being French also meant being Catholic. The church

5265-468: A poison dart fired from an airgun . In May 1796, their cases similarly collapsed. The reformers were not allowed to celebrate their victory. The LCS bookseller John Smith provocatively renamed his shop The Pop Gun , and sold a pamphlet that explained that the government required three instruments: 1) soldiers ("by profession slaughterers"), 2) clergymen (who "hallow with the sanction of Divinity state robbery"), and 3) lawyers (who "thrive on misery" and are

5460-404: A presentation of his political views, in August 1793 a jury of landlords upheld the charge and Muir was sentenced to 14 years transportation. Convicted of sedition, the same fate befell the secretary of a second Edinburgh convention in October, 1793, William Skirving , and the two LCS delegates. Joseph Gerrald and LCS chairman Maurice Margarot had been elected as delegates to the convention by

5655-538: A representative body that had last met in 1614. The conflict between the Crown and the parlements became a national political crisis. Both sides issued a series of public statements, the government arguing that it was combating privilege and the parlement defending the ancient rights of the nation. Public opinion was firmly on the side of the parlements , and riots broke out in several towns. Brienne's attempts to raise new loans failed, and on 8 August 1788, he announced that

5850-510: A result, the clergy and nobility could combine to outvote the Third Estate despite representing less than 5% of the population. Following the relaxation of censorship and laws against political clubs, a group of liberal nobles and middle class activists, known as the Society of Thirty, launched a campaign for the doubling of Third Estate representation and individual voting. The public debate saw an average of 25 new political pamphlets published

6045-643: A role either assisting Jefferson with organizing ideas within the Declaration, or contributing to the text of the original draft itself. In late 1776, Paine published The American Crisis pamphlet series to inspire the Americans in their battles against the British army. He juxtaposed the conflict between the good American devoted to civic virtue and the selfish provincial man. To inspire his soldiers, General George Washington had The American Crisis , first Crisis pamphlet, read aloud to them. It begins: These are

London Corresponding Society - Misplaced Pages Continue

6240-642: A second time [on a subject] until every one who chose had spoken once". The LCS issued its first public statement in April 1792. In addition to Sheffield (the " Faubourg Saint Antoine to an English Revolution") sister societies existed, or by 1793 had sprung to life, in Manchester , Norwich , and Stockport . By May 1792 the LCS comprised nine separate divisions, each with a minimum of thirty members. The height of its popularity in late 1795 it may have had between 3,500 and 5000 member organised in 79 divisions In contrast to

6435-622: A secret committee of the House of Commons. In May 1794, hard on the committee's "Report on Radical and Reform Societies", charges of treason were laid against thirty leading radicals including Hardy, Thomas Spence, the dramatist Thomas Holcroft , the poet, public lecturer and journalist John Thelwall , and sometime parliamentary candidate John Horne Tooke . Their trials in November misfired. The juries in London were not as ready as those in Edinburgh to accept

6630-606: A series of disastrous defeats . In an effort to mobilise popular support, the government ordered non-juring priests to swear the oath or be deported, dissolved the Constitutional Guard and replaced it with 20,000 fédérés ; Louis agreed to disband the Guard, but vetoed the other two proposals, while Lafayette called on the Assembly to suppress the clubs. Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain ; February 9, 1737 [ O.S. January 29, 1736] – June 8, 1809)

6825-550: A significant proportion of the 6 million Frenchmen over 25, while only 10% of those able to vote actually did so. Finally, poor harvests and rising food prices led to unrest among the urban class known as Sans-culottes , who saw the new regime as failing to meet their demands for bread and work. This meant the new constitution was opposed by significant elements inside and outside the Assembly, itself split into three main groups. 264 members were affiliated with Barnave's Feuillants , constitutional monarchists who considered

7020-445: A single body, and the following day approved a " suspensive veto " for the king, meaning Louis could delay implementation of a law, but not block it indefinitely. In October, the Assembly voted to restrict political rights, including voting rights, to "active citizens", defined as French males over the age of 25 who paid direct taxes equal to three days' labour. The remainder were designated "passive citizens", restricted to "civil rights",

7215-529: A solution for Americans disgusted with and alarmed at the threat of tyranny. Paine's attack on monarchy in Common Sense is essentially an attack on George III . Whereas colonial resentments were originally directed primarily against the king's ministers and Parliament, Paine laid the responsibility firmly at the king's door. Common Sense was the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution. It

7410-530: A speech in the Assembly giving foreign powers a month to disband the émigrés or face war, an act greeted with enthusiasm by supporters, but suspicion from opponents. Barnave's inability to build a consensus in the Assembly resulted in the appointment of a new government, chiefly composed of Brissotins . On 20 April 1792, the French Revolutionary Wars began when French armies attacked Austrian and Prussian forces along their borders, before suffering

7605-428: A strong political perspective to its content, writing in its first issue that "every heart and hand seem to be engaged in the interesting struggle for American Liberty. " Paine wrote in the Pennsylvania Magazine that such a publication should become a "nursery of genius" for a nation that had "now outgrown the state of infancy," exercising and educating American minds, and shaping American morality. On March 8, 1775,

7800-711: A suitable constitution for the French Republic . He subsequently participated in the Constitutional Committee in drafting the Girondin constitutional project . He voted for the French Republic, but argued against the execution of Louis XVI , referred to as Louis Capet following his deposition, saying the monarch should instead be exiled to the United States: firstly, because of the way royalist France had come to

7995-625: A time when there was no compulsory education. At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to his father. Following his apprenticeship, aged 19, Paine enlisted and briefly served as a privateer , before returning to Britain in 1759. There, he became a master staymaker , establishing a shop in Sandwich, Kent . On September 27, 1759, Paine married Mary Lambert. His business collapsed soon after. Mary became pregnant; and, after they moved to Margate , she went into early labour, in which she and their child died. In July 1761, Paine returned to Thetford to work as

London Corresponding Society - Misplaced Pages Continue

8190-410: A week from 25 September 1788. The Abbé Sieyès issued influential pamphlets denouncing the privilege of the clergy and nobility, and arguing the Third Estate represented the nation and should sit alone as a National Assembly. Activists such as Mounier , Barnave and Robespierre organised regional meetings, petitions and literature in support of these demands. In December, the king agreed to double

8385-423: A week to conduct business and discuss historical and political texts. In contrast to some of Whig-establishment reform clubs, the organisation allowed all subscribers to participate in open debate, and to elect members to leadership positions such as tithing-man, divisional secretary, sub-delegate, or delegate. Rules also ensured that discussion was not monopolised. Francis Place recalled that "no one could speak

8580-466: Is an imagined conversation in which a mason learns from a blacksmith that to declare for "Liberty and Equality" is to associate with "levellers" and "republicans", rogues who hide from him the simple truth that if everyone is digging potatoes on their half acre no one would be available to mend his broken spade. Against this onslaught, the LCS produced "An Explicit Declaration of the Principles and View of

8775-491: Is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. In 1777, Paine became secretary of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. The following year, he alluded to secret negotiation underway with France in his pamphlets. His enemies denounced his indiscretions. There

8970-733: Is low and abuse him that is high". the United men went on to organise in Stockport , Bolton , Warrington and Birmingham . Like the United Scotsmen ,. in their constitutions the new societies were "direct copies of the United Irishmen". Presenting himself as an emissary of the United Irish executive in Dublin, Coigly met with leading members of the LCS, among them the Irishmen Edward Despard ,

9165-622: The Pennsylvania Packet that France had " prefaced [their] alliance by an early and generous friendship ," referring to aid that had been provided to American colonies prior to the recognition of the Franco-American treaties. This was alleged to be effectively an embarrassment to France, which potentially could have jeopardized the alliance. John Jay, the President of the Congress, who had been

9360-521: The Champ de Mars to sign. Led by Lafayette, the National Guard was ordered to "preserve public order" and responded to a barrage of stones by firing into the crowd , killing between 13 and 50 people. The massacre badly damaged Lafayette's reputation: the authorities responded by closing radical clubs and newspapers, while their leaders went into exile or hiding, including Marat. On 27 August, Emperor Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued

9555-586: The Declaration of Pillnitz declaring their support for Louis and hinting at an invasion of France on his behalf. In reality, the meeting between Leopold and Frederick was primarily to discuss the Partitions of Poland ; the Declaration was intended to satisfy Comte d'Artois and other French émigrés but the threat rallied popular support behind the regime. Based on a motion proposed by Robespierre, existing deputies were barred from elections held in early September for

9750-828: The French First Republic in September, and Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. After another revolt in June 1793 , the constitution was suspended, and adequate political power passed from the National Convention to the Committee of Public Safety , led by the Jacobins . About 16,000 people were executed in what was later referred to as Reign of Terror , which ended in July 1794 . Weakened by external threats and internal opposition,

9945-559: The French Legislative Assembly . Although Robespierre himself was one of those excluded, his support in the clubs gave him a political power base not available to Lafayette and Bailly, who resigned respectively as head of the National Guard and the Paris Commune. The new laws were gathered together in the 1791 Constitution , and submitted to Louis XVI, who pledged to defend it "from enemies at home and abroad". On 30 September,

SECTION 50

#1732844540515

10140-567: The Girondins , he was seen with increasing disfavor by the Montagnards , who were now in power. Paine was under scrutiny by the authorities also because he was a personal adversary of Gouverneur Morris , who was the American ambassador in France and a friend of George Washington . The revolutionary government, both the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security , sought to gain

10335-474: The Hôtel de Ville, some 7,000 of them marched on Versailles , where they entered the Assembly to present their demands. They were followed to Versailles by 15,000 members of the National Guard under Lafayette, who was virtually "a prisoner of his own troops". When the National Guard arrived later that evening, Lafayette persuaded Louis the safety of his family required their relocation to Paris. Next morning, some of

10530-532: The Middle Passage ) Equiano was hosted by the leading United Irishman, publisher of their Painite newspaper the Northern Star , Samuel Neilson . Paine subscribed to the Society; as did the radical poet William Blake ; Joseph Ritson the noted antiquarian and founder of modern vegetarianism; and Basil William Douglas , Lord Daer, who held concurrent membership of the Society for Constitutional Information and

10725-475: The Pennsylvania Magazine published an unsigned abolitionist essay titled African Slavery in America . The essay is often attributed to Paine on the basis of a letter by Benjamin Rush , recalling Paine's claim of authorship to the essay. The essay attacked slavery as an "execrable commerce" and "outrage against Humanity and Justice." Consciously appealing to a broader and more working-class audience, Paine also used

10920-481: The Spithead and Nore mutinies , in which the government had been quick to see the hand of radical societies, the Irish priest James Coigly arrived from Manchester. In Manchester Goigly and a cotton spinner from Belfast, James Dixon, had helped convert the town's Corresponding Society into the republican, United Englishmen. Bound by a test that promised to "Remove the diadem and take off the crown ... [and to] exalt him that

11115-467: The Vendée , where only a few priests took the oath and the civilian population turned against the revolution. The result was state-led persecution of " Refractory clergy ", many of whom were forced into exile, deported, or executed. The period from October 1789 to spring 1791 is usually seen as one of relative tranquility, when some of the most important legislative reforms were enacted. However, conflict over

11310-458: The parlements , the nobility, and those subject to new taxes. France primarily funded the Anglo-French War of 1778–1783 through loans. Following the peace, the monarchy borrowed heavily, culminating in a debt crisis. By 1788, half of state revenue was required to service its debt. In 1786, the French finance minister, Calonne , proposed a package of reforms including a universal land tax,

11505-502: The "tyrants of property"). He was given two years hard labour on bread and water for seditious libel. In advance of the treason trials, habeas Corpus had been suspended and six members of the Society detained, including Thomas Spence . Invoking the presence of "a traitorous and detestable conspiracy ... formed for subverting the existing laws and constitution, and for introducing the system of anarchy and confusion which has so fatally prevailed in France", in May 1794 Parliament had allowed

11700-416: The 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution . While in England, he wrote Rights of Man (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics, particularly the Anglo-Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke . His authorship of the tract led to a trial and conviction in absentia in England in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel . The British government of William Pitt

11895-483: The 17th century. Here he lived above the 15th-century Bull House, the tobacco shop of Samuel Ollive and Esther Ollive. Paine first became involved in civic matters when he was based in Lewes. He appears in the Town Book as a member of the Court Leet, the governing body for the town. He was also a member of the parish vestry , an influential local Anglican church group whose responsibilities for parish business would include collecting taxes and tithes to distribute among

SECTION 60

#1732844540515

12090-417: The Assembly and published on 26 August as a statement of principle. The Assembly now concentrated on the constitution itself. Mounier and his monarchist supporters advocated a bicameral system, with an upper house appointed by the king, who would also have the right to appoint ministers and veto legislation. On 10 September, the majority of the Assembly, led by Sieyès and Talleyrand , voted in favour of

12285-441: The Assembly was increasingly divided, while external players like the Paris Commune and National Guard competed for power. One of the most significant was the Jacobin club; originally a forum for general debate, by August 1790 it had over 150 members, split into different factions. The Assembly continued to develop new institutions; in September 1790, the regional Parlements were abolished and their legal functions replaced by

12480-508: The Assembly went into a non-stop session after rumours circulated he was planning to use the Swiss Guards to force it to close. The news brought crowds of protestors into the streets, and soldiers of the elite Gardes Françaises regiment refused to disperse them. On the 14th, many of these soldiers joined the mob in attacking the Bastille , a royal fortress with large stores of arms and ammunition. Its governor, Bernard-René de Launay , surrendered after several hours of fighting that cost

12675-403: The Bank of North America for approval by Congress in December 1781 should go to Henry or John Laurens and Paine more than to Morris. Paine bought his only house in 1783 on the corner of Farnsworth Avenue and Church Streets in Bordentown City , New Jersey and he lived in it periodically until his death in 1809. This is the only place in the world where Paine purchased real estate. In 1785, Paine

12870-490: The British Ministry to reconsider the consequences of war with France. Paine sought to turn the public opinion against the war to create better relations between the countries, avoid the taxes of war upon the citizens, and not engage in a war he believed would ruin both nations. Back in London by 1787, Paine would become engrossed in the French Revolution that began two years later and decided to travel to France in 1790. Meanwhile, conservative intellectual Edmund Burke launched

13065-446: The CIS, Richard Price and Joseph Priestley among them, formed the Revolution Society . Ostensibly convened to commemorate the centennial of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the society called for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts on the grounds that "the right of private judgement, liberty of conscience, trial by jury, freedom of the press and freedom of election ought ever to be held sacred and inviolable". After 1792

13260-408: The Christian bible and churches to the same type of deconstructive logical analysis that The Rights of Man had applied to the monarchy and aristocracy. The social historian G. D. H. Cole noted that only "the broadest-minded Unitarian could tolerate it, and the dissenters [the Non-Conformists ] who till then had been consistent if timid recruits to the reform movement, were henceforth as horrified as

13455-459: The Civil Constitution led to a state of near civil war in southern France, which Barnave tried to defuse by relaxing the more punitive provisions. On 29 November, the Assembly approved a decree giving refractory clergy eight days to comply, or face charges of 'conspiracy against the nation', an act opposed even by Robespierre. When Louis vetoed both, his opponents were able to portray him as opposed to reform in general. Brissot accompanied this with

13650-429: The Committee of Foreign Affairs in 1779. Paine left the Committee without even having enough money to buy food for himself. Much later, when Paine returned from his mission to France, Deane's corruption had become more widely acknowledged. Many, including Robert Morris, apologized to Paine, and Paine's reputation in Philadelphia was restored. In 1780, Paine published a pamphlet entitled "Public Good," in which he made

13845-400: The Committee of General Security. Sixteen American citizens were allowed to plead for Paine's release to the convention, yet President Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier of the Committee of General Security refused to acknowledge Paine's American citizenship, stating he was an Englishman and therefore a citizen of a country at war with France. Paine protested and claimed that he was a citizen of

14040-547: The Constituent Assembly was dissolved, and the Legislative Assembly convened the next day. The Legislative Assembly is often dismissed by historians as an ineffective body, compromised by divisions over the role of the monarchy, an issue exacerbated when Louis attempted to prevent or reverse limitations on his powers. At the same time, restricting the vote to those who paid a minimal amount of tax disenfranchised

14235-534: The Crown. The royal family left the palace in disguise on the night of 20 June 1791; late the next day, Louis was recognised as he passed through Varennes , arrested and taken back to Paris. The attempted escape had a profound impact on public opinion; since it was clear Louis had been seeking refuge in Austria, the Assembly now demanded oaths of loyalty to the regime, and began preparing for war, while fear of 'spies and traitors' became pervasive. Despite calls to replace

14430-402: The Estates-General. However, he stated that the three estates were sacrosanct and it was up to each estate to agree to end their privileges and decide on which matters they would vote in common with the other estates. At the end of the session the Third Estate refused to leave the hall and reiterated their oath not to disperse until a constitution had been agreed. Over the next days more members of

14625-606: The European revolts of the 1780s inspired public debate on issues such as patriotism, liberty, equality, and democracy. These shaped the response of the educated public to the crisis, while scandals such as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace fuelled widespread anger at the court, nobility, and church officials. France faced a series of budgetary crises during the 18th century, as revenues failed to keep pace with expenditure. Although

14820-570: The French National Convention . The Girondins regarded him as an ally; consequently, the Montagnards regarded him as an enemy, especially Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier , the powerful president of the Committee of General Security . In December 1793, Vadier arrested Paine and took him to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. He completed the first part of The Age of Reason just before he was arrested. Mark Philp notes that "In prison Paine managed to produce (and to convey to Daniel Isaac Eaton,

15015-680: The French as soon as they made a landing in England" (in December 1796 only weather had prevented a major French landing in Ireland ). In March 1798 Coigly was arrested in a party with O'Connor, Benjamin Binns, and John Allen at Margate just as they were to embark for France. Found on his person was an address (composed by Dr. Crossfield) to the French Directory from the "United Britons". While its suggestion of

15210-477: The French government to finance the colonists in their fight for independence. Paine largely saw Deane as a war profiteer who had little respect for principle, having been under the employ of Robert Morris, one of the primary financiers of the American Revolution and working with Pierre Beaumarchais , a French royal agent sent to the colonies by King Louis to investigate the Anglo-American conflict. Paine uncovered

15405-469: The French'. Historian John McManners argues "in eighteenth-century France, throne and altar were commonly spoken of as in close alliance; their simultaneous collapse ... would one day provide the final proof of their interdependence." One suggestion is that after a century of persecution, some French Protestants actively supported an anti-Catholic regime, a resentment fuelled by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire . Jean-Jacques Rousseau , considered

15600-400: The June 1791 Le Chapelier Law suppressing trade guilds and any form of worker organisation. The traditional force for preserving law and order was the army, which was increasingly divided between officers, who largely came from the nobility, and ordinary soldiers. In August 1790, the loyalist General Bouillé suppressed a serious mutiny at Nancy ; although congratulated by the Assembly, he

15795-586: The L.C.S". But for having to address the "frantic" notions of "alarmists", it claimed that those who would "restore the House of Commons to a state of independence" would never even conceive "so wild and detestable a sentiment" as "the equalization of property". We know and are sensible that the Wages of every an are his Right; that Difference of Strength, of Talents, and of Industry, do and ought to afford proportional Distinction of Property, which, when acquired and confirmed by

15990-561: The LCS recruited. For short periods they created their own, bringing to public notice demands for equal education, equal rights and protection of female occupations. While it counted among its members men like Thomas Spence and Dr William Hodgson ( The Female Citizen ) who did advocate political rights and equality for women, the LCS appears to have been a male fraternity. The venues in which its divisions met – taverns and coffee houses – were predominantly male spaces, and reference to women in records of their proceedings are few. In August 1793,

16185-612: The LCS's first open-air meeting, attended by some 4,000 persons in a field off the Hackney Road. Gerrald had published earlier in the year A Convention the Only Means of Saving Us from Ruin . With ancient precedents sought in the Anglo-Saxon mycelgemot (popular assemblies) and wittengamot (delegated representatives), the pamphlet's laid out a three-stage sequence, from local gatherings to regional delegations to national convention. There

16380-468: The Laws, is sacred and inviolable. The LCS did not pronounce on social questions, confident that key to addressing inequities lay in reform of the constitution. It was sufficient to observe that it was from the "partial, unequal, and therefore inadequate Representation, together with the corrupt method in which Representatives are elected;" that "oppressive Taxes, unjust Laws, restrictions of Liberty, and wasting of

16575-489: The London winter distributing the 4,000 copies printed to the Parliament and others. In spring 1774, he was again dismissed from the excise service for being absent from his post without permission. The tobacco shop failed. On April 14, to avoid debtors' prison , he sold his household possessions to pay debts. He formally separated from his wife Elizabeth on June 4, 1774, and moved to London. In September, mathematician, Fellow of

16770-607: The Massachusetts Historical Society. The Sherman copy of the Declaration of Independence is one of several working drafts of the Declaration, made for Roger Sherman 's review and approval before the Committee of Five submitted a finalized draft to Congress. The Sherman Copy of the Declaration of Independence contains an inscription on the back of the document that states: "A beginning perhaps-Original with Jefferson-Copied from Original with T.P.'s permission." According to

16965-460: The Parisian proletariat, many of whom had been disenfranchised by the measure. On 14 July 1790, celebrations were held throughout France commemorating the fall of the Bastille, with participants swearing an oath of fidelity to "the nation, the law and the king." The Fête de la Fédération in Paris was attended by the royal family, with Talleyrand performing a mass . Despite this show of unity,

17160-586: The Privy Council to direct detentions "any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding" In the summer of 1795, weariness with the war combined with failed harvests to trigger renewed protest—including an attack on the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street . The Society was growing again: from 17 divisions in March to 79 in October. General Meetings were attended by tens of thousands. The LCS called

17355-537: The Public Money, have ensued.” At the end of November 1792 the LCS published an Address of the London Corresponding Society to the other Societies of Great Britain, united for obtaining a Reform in Parliament expressing confidence in the prospects for obtaining a reformed, democratic franchise through "moral force." A national convention was called for Edinburgh in December. The LCS delegates' host in

17550-663: The Republic was replaced in 1795 by the Directory , and four years later, in 1799, the Consulate seized power in a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte on 9 November. This event is generally seen as marking the end of the Revolutionary period. The Revolution resulted from multiple long-term and short-term factors, culminating in a social, economic, financial and political crisis in the late 1780s. Combined with resistance to reform by

17745-429: The Revolution had gone far enough, while another 136 were Jacobin leftists who supported a republic, led by Brissot and usually referred to as Brissotins . The remaining 345 belonged to La Plaine , a centrist faction who switched votes depending on the issue, but many of whom shared doubts as to whether Louis was committed to the Revolution. After he officially accepted the new Constitution, one recorded response

17940-474: The Revolutionary War, Paine served as an aide-de-camp to the important general, Nathanael Greene . In what may have been an error, and perhaps even contributed to his resignation as the secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Paine was openly critical of Silas Deane, an American diplomat who had been appointed in March 1776 by the Congress to travel to France in secret. Deane's goal was to influence

18135-530: The Revolutionary generation "the children of the twice-born". because in their childhood they had experienced the Great Awakening , which, for the first time, had tied Americans together, transcending denominational and ethnic boundaries and giving them a sense of patriotism. While there is no historical record of Paine's involvement in drafting the Declaration of Independence , some scholars of Early American History have suspected his involvement. As noted by

18330-635: The Royal Society, and Commissioner of the Excise George Lewis Scott introduced him to Benjamin Franklin , who was there as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, especially as it related to the Stamp Act , and the Townshend Acts . He was publisher and editor of the largest American newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette and suggested emigration to Philadelphia. He handed out

18525-459: The SCI with its annual 4 guinea subscription, in levying just a penny a week the LCS opened its proceedings to workers of almost every condition. Those, however, who as independent tradesmen were not subject to the political disapproval of employers took the leading role. They were the committeemen. [John] Ashley, a shoemaker, [John] Baxter, a journeyman silvermith; [John] Binns , a plumber, John Boyne,

18720-684: The Scottish Association of the Friends of the People. Despite such notables, the Government were assured by their most trusted informer, "'Citizen' Groves", that the real body of the club was made of "the very lowest order of society". They took little persuading that within the LCS English Jacobins were leading on the equivalent to the sans-culottes of the revolutionary Paris sections . Some of

18915-653: The Scottish capital, and perhaps the most radical delegate present, Thomas Muir of the Society of the Friends of the People , himself said nothing that was not strictly constitutional. An address which he presented from the United Irishmen (largely drawn up by William Drennan ) was made acceptable to the Convention only by redacting any suggestion of "Treason or Misprison of Treason against the Union [of Scotland] with England". Beginning with

19110-685: The Society by name, along with the remnants of the United Irishmen and their franchise organisations, United Scotsmen and the United Englishmen, with which the diminishing membership of the LCS had associated. In the last decades of the eighteenth century the percolation of Enlightenment thinking and the dramas of American independence and the French Revolution stimulated in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, new clubs and societies committed to principles of popular sovereignty and constitutional government. In

19305-508: The Society's General Committee approved a motion calling for the formation of a female Society of Patriots. By September, a government spy reported that there was a Society of Women meeting in Southwark. The LCS arranged to send two of its delegates to instruct them. But it does not appear that female patriots were ever admitted as members to the LCS itself. Women did turn out for major LCS demonstrations. The Society had an early celebrity recruit,

19500-476: The Society, Binns and Ashley declared that should the British nation, in the face of "the continuation of the present detestable War, the horrors of an approaching Famine, and above all, the increased Corruption, and Inquisitorial measures, demand strong and decisive measures", the London Corresponding Society would be "the powerful organ" ushering in "joyful tidings of peace ... universal suffrage and annual parliaments". Three days later, George III , in procession to

19695-462: The Third Estate declared itself to be the National Assembly of France and that all existing taxes were illegal. Within two days, more than 100 members of the clergy had joined them. Shaken by this challenge to his authority, the king agreed to a reform package that he would announce at a Royal Session of the Estates-General. The Salle des États was closed to prepare for the joint session, but

19890-613: The Third despite representing less than 5% of the population. Although the Catholic Church in France owned nearly 10% of all land, as well as receiving annual tithes paid by peasants, three-quarters of the 303 clergy elected were parish priests, many of whom earned less than unskilled labourers and had more in common with their poor parishioners than with the bishops of the first estate. The Second Estate elected 322 deputies, representing about 400,000 men and women, who owned about 25% of

20085-497: The Thomas Paine National Historical Association, multiple authors have hypothesized and written on the subject, including Moody (1872), Van der Weyde (1911), Lewis (1947), and more recently, Smith & Rickards (2007). In 2018, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association introduced an early draft of the Declaration that contained evidence of Paine's involvement based on an inscription of "T.P." on

20280-488: The Thomas Paine National Historical Association, the individual referenced as "T.P." in the inscription appears to be Thomas Paine. The degree to which Paine was involved in formulating the text of the Declaration is unclear, as the original draft referenced in the Sherman Copy inscription is presumed lost or destroyed. However, John Adams' request for permission of "T.P." to copy the original draft may suggest that Paine had

20475-515: The Washington, Lee, and Randolph families, had taken advantage of this royal charter to survey and to claim title to huge swaths of land, including much land west of the 13 colonies. In "Public Good," Paine argued that these lands belonged to the American government as represented by the Continental Congress. This angered many of Paine's wealthy Virginia friends, including Richard Henry Lee of

20670-470: The Younger was worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to Britain and had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies. Paine's work advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government and was therefore targeted with a writ for his arrest issued in early 1792. Paine fled to France in September, despite not being able to speak French, but he was quickly elected to

20865-399: The abolition of grain controls and internal tariffs, and new provincial assemblies appointed by the king. The new taxes, however, were rejected, first by a hand-picked Assembly of Notables dominated by the nobility, then by the parlements when submitted by Calonne's successor Brienne . The notables and parlements argued that the proposed taxes could only be approved by an Estates-General,

21060-418: The aid of the American Revolution; and secondly, because of a moral objection to capital punishment in general and to revenge killings in particular. Paine's speech in defense of Louis XVI was interrupted by Jean-Paul Marat , who claimed that, as a Quaker, Paine's religious beliefs ran counter to inflicting capital punishment and thus he should be ineligible to vote. Marat interrupted a second time, stating that

21255-553: The army. In 1785, he was given $ 3,000 by the U.S. Congress in recognition of his service to the nation. Henry Laurens (father of Col. John Laurens ) had been the ambassador to the Netherlands , but he was captured by the British on his return trip there. When he was later exchanged for the prisoner Lord Cornwallis in late 1781, Paine proceeded to the Netherlands to continue the loan negotiations. There remains some question as to

21450-623: The authority of the Pope over the French Church. In October, thirty bishops wrote a declaration denouncing the law, further fuelling opposition. When clergy were required to swear loyalty to the Civil Constitution in November 1790, it split the church between the 24% who complied, and the majority who refused. This stiffened popular resistance against state interference, especially in traditionally Catholic areas such as Normandy , Brittany and

21645-494: The back of the document. During the early deliberations of the Committee of Five members chosen by Congress to draft the Declaration of Independence, John Adams made a hastily written manuscript copy of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence on June 24, 1776, known as the Sherman Copy. Adams made this copy shortly before preparing another neater, fair copy that is held in the Adams Family Papers collection at

21840-437: The bishops themselves". Already in 1795 disgruntled Methodists had withdrawn from the LCS to form the Friends of Religious and Civil Liberty. Prominent among them was Richard Lee, a bookseller reputedly expelled from the LCS for refusing to stock Paine's newest work and yet subsequently prosecuted for publishing the regicidal handbill King Killing , and Edward Iliff's A summary of the duties of citizenship, written expressly for

22035-466: The brothers Benjamin and John Binns , William Henry Hamilton, and Alexander Galloway who had succeeded as the Society’s chairman when, in protest against the violent turn in rhetoric, Francis Place resigned. Meetings were held at Furnival's Inn, Holborn , where United delegates from London, Scotland and the regions were reported to have committed themselves "to overthrow the present Government, and to join

22230-531: The calling of the Estates General of 1789 , which became radicalised by the struggle for control of public finances. Louis XVI was willing to consider reforms, but often backed down when faced with opposition from conservative elements within the nobility. Enlightenment critiques of social institutions were widely discussed among the educated French elite. At the same time, the American Revolution and

22425-579: The case that territories west of the 13 colonies that had been part of the British Empire belonged after the Declaration of Independence to the American government, and did not belong to any of the 13 states or to any individual speculators . A royal charter of 1609 had granted to the Virginia Company land stretching to the Pacific Ocean. A small group of wealthy Virginia land speculators, including

22620-543: The charge that a "full and equal representation of the people" in Parliament represented a "levelling" of all distinctions of rank and property. This was delivered, and (with considerable Church and aristocratic patronage) circulated widely, in a short three-penny pamphlet Village Politics: Addressed to All the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Day Labourers in Great Britain (1793). Written by Hannah More as "Burke for Beginners", it

22815-473: The claims of traditional institutions. Thus, Paine used "common sense" as a weapon to de-legitimize the monarchy and overturn prevailing conventional wisdom. Rosenfeld concludes that the phenomenal appeal of his pamphlet resulted from his synthesis of popular and elite elements in the independence movement. According to historian Robert Middlekauff , Common Sense became immensely popular mainly because Paine appealed to widespread convictions. Monarchy, he said,

23010-517: The clergy joined the National Assembly. On 27 June, faced with popular demonstrations and mutinies in his French Guards , Louis XVI capitulated. He commanded the members of the first and second estates to join the third in the National Assembly. Even the limited reforms the king had announced went too far for Marie Antoinette and Louis' younger brother the Comte d'Artois . On their advice, Louis dismissed Necker again as chief minister on 11 July. On 12 July,

23205-454: The colonies. Paine contributed two pieces to the magazine's inaugural issue dated January 1775, and Aitken hired Paine as the Magazine's editor one month later. Under Paine's leadership, the magazine's readership rapidly expanded, achieving a greater circulation in the colonies than any American magazine up until that point. While Aitken had conceived of the magazine as nonpolitical, Paine brought

23400-550: The company and under the influence of Benjamin Franklin . Upon returning to the United States with this highly welcomed cargo, Paine and probably Col. Laurens, "positively objected" that General Washington should propose that Congress remunerate him for his services, for fear of setting "a bad precedent and an improper mode". Paine made influential acquaintances in Paris and helped organize the Bank of North America to raise money to supply

23595-497: The economy grew solidly, the increase was not reflected in a proportional growth in taxes, their collection being contracted to tax farmers who kept much of it as personal profit. As the nobility and Church benefited from many exemptions, the tax burden fell mainly on peasants. Reform was difficult because new tax laws had to be registered with regional judicial bodies or parlements that were able to block them. The king could impose laws by decree, but this risked open conflict with

23790-689: The ex-slave, free West-Indian black and abolitionist , Olaudah Equiano . In 1791–92, Equiano was touring the British Isles with his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano , or Gustavus Vassa the African . Drawing on abolitionist networks he brokered connections for the LCS, including what may have been the Society's first contacts with the United Irishmen . In Belfast (where civic outrage had defeated plans to commission vessels for

23985-592: The execution of the king and of regime opponents, the confiscation of the property of the Church and nobility. Against the institution of the Terror, the French Republic paid no heed to the entreaties in Paris of Thomas Muir or, from his place in the French National Convention, of Thomas Paine. After Muir returned to Scotland, he was charged with treason. Although the prosecutorial evidence amounted to little more than

24180-461: The favor of the American ambassador, not wanting to risk the alliance with the United States ; therefore, they were more inclined to focus on Paine. Paine was arrested in France on December 28, 1793, following the orders of Vadier . Joel Barlow was unsuccessful in securing Paine's release by circulating a petition among American residents in Paris. He was treated as a political prisoner by

24375-417: The financial connection between Morris, who was Superintendent for Finance of the Continental Congress, and Deane. Wealthy men, such as Robert Morris, John Jay and powerful merchant bankers , were leaders of the Continental Congress and defended holding public positions while at the same time profiting off their own personal financial dealings with governments. Amongst Paine's criticisms, he had written in

24570-433: The formal, learned style favored by many of Paine's contemporaries. Scholars have put forward various explanations to account for its success, including the historic moment, Paine's easy-to-understand style, his democratic ethos, and his use of psychology and ideology. Common Sense was immensely popular in disseminating to a very wide audience ideas that were already in common use among the elite who comprised Congress and

24765-530: The fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous ... let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb." Paine was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution and was granted honorary French citizenship alongside prominent contemporaries such as Alexander Hamilton , George Washington , Benjamin Franklin and others. Paine's honorary citizenship

24960-500: The government a "high misdemeanour". They also required licences for public meetings, lectures and reading rooms. These restrictions, with the encouragement given to magistrates to use public order powers to close taverns and bookshops regarded as centres of radical activity, wound down the Society's extensive publishing programme—some eighty separate pamphlets and broadsides and two periodicals —and, in general, "hamstrung" its propaganda activity. The rally in LCS membership and activity in

25155-460: The insurrectionist United Irishmen , the government of William Pitt the Younger sought to break the Society, twice charging leading members with complicity in plots to assassinate the King. Measures against the society intensified in the wake of the naval mutinies of 1797 , the 1798 Irish Rebellion and growing protest against the continuation of the war with France . In 1799, new legislation suppressed

25350-459: The king would summon an Estates-General to convene the following May. Brienne resigned and was replaced by Necker . In September 1788, the Parlement of Paris ruled that the Estates-General should convene in the same form as in 1614, meaning that the three estates (the clergy, nobility, and Third Estate or "commons") would meet and vote separately, with votes counted by estate rather than by head. As

25545-564: The land and collected seigneurial dues and rents from their tenants. Most delegates were town-dwelling members of the noblesse d'épée , or traditional aristocracy. Courtiers and representatives of the noblesse de robe (those who derived rank from judicial or administrative posts) were underrepresented. Of the 610 deputies of the Third Estate, about two-thirds held legal qualifications and almost half were venal office holders. Less than 100 were in trade or industry and none were peasants or artisans. To assist delegates, each region completed

25740-403: The law, opening public office to all, freedom of worship, and cancellation of special privileges held by provinces and towns. With the suspension of the 13 regional parlements in November, the key institutional pillars of the old regime had all been abolished in less than four months. From its early stages, the Revolution therefore displayed signs of its radical nature; what remained unclear

25935-479: The leadership cadre of the emerging nation, who rarely cited Paine's arguments in their public calls for independence. The pamphlet probably had little direct influence on the Continental Congress' decision to issue a Declaration of Independence , since that body was more concerned with how declaring independence would affect the war effort. One distinctive idea in Common Sense is Paine's beliefs regarding

26130-420: The liberties transmitted to them by their forefathers. Hardy is said to have been distinguished in radical company by never speaking "but to the purpose at hand" and by his "high organising ability". In promoting the new society, Hardy and his friends rode a wave of popular political engagement lifted by the two-part publication (March 1791, February 1792) of Thomas Paine 's Rights of Man . Selling as many as

26325-508: The lives of 83 attackers. Taken to the Hôtel de Ville , he was executed, his head placed on a pike and paraded around the city; the fortress was then torn down in a remarkably short time. Although rumoured to hold many prisoners, the Bastille held only seven: four forgers, a lunatic, a failed assassin, and a deviant nobleman. Nevertheless, as a potent symbol of the Ancien Régime , its destruction

26520-453: The magazine to discuss worker rights to production. This shift in the conceptualization of politics has been described as a part of "the 'modernization' of political consciousness," and the mobilization of ever greater sections of society into political life. Paine has a claim to the title The Father of the American Revolution , which rests on his pamphlets, especially Common Sense, which crystallized sentiment for independence in 1776. It

26715-484: The manuscript to publisher Joseph Johnson . A visit by government agents dissuaded Johnson, so Paine gave the book to publisher J. S. Jordan, then went to Paris, on William Blake 's advice. He charged three good friends, William Godwin , Thomas Brand Hollis , and Thomas Holcroft , with handling publication details. The book appeared on March 13, 1791, and sold nearly a million copies. It was "eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters, democrats, London craftsmen, and

26910-468: The members of the Estates-General were not informed in advance. On 20 June, when the members of the Third Estate found their meeting place closed, they moved to a nearby tennis court and swore not to disperse until a new constitution had been agreed. At the Royal Session the king announced a series of tax and other reforms and stated that no new taxes or loans would be implemented without the consent of

27105-472: The members of the London Corresponding Society . The government's closure of peaceful avenues for reform agitation, and the prospect of French assistance, encouraged a radical rump to consider the threat implicit in the Copenhagen Fields address: to achieve universal male suffrage and annual parliaments by physical force. In this, they were supported by the United Irishmen. In the summer of 1797, following

27300-564: The mere expression of political opinion as evidence of plots against King and Parliament. When the evidence running to four printed volumes failed to impress in the case of Hardy, the courts were unable to take seriously the charges against his associates: Horne Tooke jeered at the Attorney-General and clowned in the dock, and the Lord Chief Justice slept through the prosecution's summary against Thelwall. The process did deliver Hardy

27495-442: The monarchy with a republic, Louis retained his position but was generally regarded with acute suspicion and forced to swear allegiance to the constitution. A new decree stated retracting this oath, making war upon the nation, or permitting anyone to do so in his name would be considered abdication. However, radicals led by Jacques Pierre Brissot prepared a petition demanding his deposition, and on 17 July, an immense crowd gathered in

27690-591: The nation's leaders. Paine was born on January 29, 1736 ( NS February 9, 1737), the son of Joseph Pain, a tenant farmer and stay-maker , and Frances ( née  Cocke ) Pain, in Thetford , Norfolk, England. Joseph was a Quaker and Frances an Anglican . Despite claims that Paine changed the spelling of his family name upon his emigration to America in 1774, he was using "Paine" in 1769, while still in Lewes , Sussex. He attended Thetford Grammar School (1744–1749), at

27885-523: The next day, upon vacancy. While awaiting that, he worked as a staymaker. In 1767, he was appointed to a position in Grampound , Cornwall. Later he asked to leave this post to await a vacancy, and he became a school teacher in London. On February 19, 1768, he was appointed to Lewes in Sussex , a town with a tradition of opposition to the monarchy and pro-republican sentiments since the revolutionary decades of

28080-504: The north of England the Non-Conformist , principally Unitarian , currents in the new disenfranchised mill towns and manufacturing centres, supported the Society for Constitutional Information (SCI) . This had been founded by, among others, Major John Cartwright , author of Take Your Choice (1776) which called for manhood suffrage, the secret ballot, annual elections and equal electoral districts. In 1788, prominent Unitarian members of

28275-422: The other estates. On the following day, each estate was to separately verify the credentials of their representatives. The Third Estate, however, voted to invite the other estates to join them in verifying all the representatives of the Estates-General in common and to agree that votes should be counted by head. Fruitless negotiations lasted to 12 June when the Third Estate began verifying its own members. On 17 June,

28470-411: The pamphlet was Plain Truth , but Paine's friend, pro-independence advocate Benjamin Rush , suggested Common Sense instead. Finding a printer who was daring enough to commit his print shop to the printing of Common Sense was not easy. At the advice of Rush, Paine commissioned Robert Bell to print his work. The pamphlet came into circulation in January 1776, after the Revolution had started. It

28665-488: The peaceful nature of republics; his views were an early and strong conception of what scholars would come to call the democratic peace theory . Loyalists vigorously attacked Common Sense ; one attack, titled Plain Truth (1776), by Marylander James Chalmers , said Paine was a political quack and warned that without monarchy, the government would "degenerate into democracy". Even some American revolutionaries objected to Common Sense ; late in life John Adams called it

28860-429: The physicians were SCI member James Parkinson , a prolific propagandist, and John Gale Jones , an accomplished orator. But the Society's egalitarian constitution accorded them no definitive preference. Hardy in particular was wary of placing them in positions of authority lest ordinary members be discouraged from "exerting themselves in their own cause". Women participated in some of popular debating societies from which

29055-419: The poor. On March 26, 1771, at age 34, Paine married Elizabeth Ollive, the daughter of his recently deceased landlord, whose business as a grocer and tobacconist he then entered into. From 1772 to 1773, Paine joined excise officers asking Parliament for better pay and working conditions, publishing, in summer of 1772, The Case of the Officers of Excise , a 12-page article, and his first political work, spending

29250-484: The powerful Lee family, who had been Paine's closest ally in Congress, George Washington , Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , all of whom had claims to huge wild tracts that Paine was advocating should be government owned. The view that Paine had advocated eventually prevailed when the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was passed. The animosity Paine felt as a result of the publication of "Public Good" fueled his decision to embark with Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens on

29445-400: The protestors broke into the royal apartments, searching for Marie Antoinette, who escaped. They ransacked the palace, killing several guards. Order was eventually restored, and the royal family and Assembly left for Paris, escorted by the National Guard. Louis had announced his acceptance of the August Decrees and the Declaration, and his official title changed from 'King of France' to 'King of

29640-533: The radical London publisher) a dedication for The Age of Reason and a new edition of the Rights of Man with a new preface." James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. Paine became notorious because of his pamphlets and attacks on his former allies, who he felt had betrayed him. In The Age of Reason and other writings, he advocated Deism , promoted reason and freethought , and argued against religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. In 1796, he published

29835-413: The radical momentum shifted from the Revolution Society back to the SCI and, more decidedly, to a new London society. During the American Revolutionary War , Thomas Hardy , a Scottish shoemaker in London, was convinced of the American cause by the pamphlets of Dr. Richard Price , a Unitarian minister and prominent reformer. A gift of the pamphlet library of the SCI, including a reprint of a proposal from

30030-454: The relationship of Henry Laurens and Paine to Robert Morris as the Superintendent of Finance and his business associate, Thomas Willing, who became the first president of the Bank of North America in January 1782. They had accused Morris of profiteering in 1779 and Willing had voted against the Declaration of Independence. Although Morris did much to restore his reputation in 1780 and 1781, the credit for obtaining these critical loans to "organize"

30225-430: The rentier and mercantile classes, while the living standards fell for wage labourers and peasant farmers who rented their land. Economic recession from 1785, combined with bad harvests in 1787 and 1788, led to high unemployment and food prices, causing a financial and political crisis. While the state also experienced a debt crisis, the level of debt itself was not high compared with Britain's. A significant problem

30420-401: The representation of the Third Estate, but left the question of counting votes for the Estates-General to decide. The Estates-General contained three separate bodies, the First Estate representing 100,000 clergy, the Second the nobility, and the Third the "commons". Since each met separately, and any proposals had to be approved by at least two, the First and Second Estates could outvote

30615-469: The royal bodyguard, and were welcomed with a formal banquet as was common practice. The radical press described this as a 'gluttonous orgy', and claimed the tricolour cockade had been abused, while the Assembly viewed their arrival as an attempt to intimidate them. On 5 October, crowds of women assembled outside the Hôtel de Ville , agitating against high food prices and shortages. These protests quickly turned political, and after seizing weapons stored at

30810-496: The ruling elite , and indecisive policy by Louis XVI and his ministers, the result was a crisis the state was unable to manage. Between 1715 and 1789, the French population grew from 21 to 28 million, 20% of whom lived in towns or cities, Paris alone having over 600,000 inhabitants. This was accompanied by a tripling in the size of the middle class, which comprised almost 10% of the population by 1789. Despite increases in overall prosperity, its benefits were largely restricted to

31005-558: The skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north". Undeterred by the government campaign to discredit him, Paine issued his Rights of Man, Part the Second, Combining Principle and Practice in February 1792. Detailing a representative government with enumerated social programs to remedy the numbing poverty of commoners through progressive tax measures, Paine went much farther than such contemporaries as James Burgh , Robert Potter, John Scott, John Sinclair or Adam Smith . Radically reduced in price to ensure unprecedented circulation, it

31200-412: The source of legitimate authority was more apparent in the provinces, where officers of the Ancien Régime had been swept away, but not yet replaced by new structures. This was less obvious in Paris, since the National Guard made it the best policed city in Europe, but disorder in the provinces inevitably affected members of the Assembly. Centrists led by Sieyès, Lafayette, Mirabeau and Bailly created

31395-423: The state Opening of Parliament , had the windows of his carriage smashed by crowd shouting "No King, No Pitt , No war". Seizing upon this incident, and in response to their earlier humiliation in the courts, the government introduced the so-called "Gagging Acts" of 1795. The Seditious Meetings Act 1795 and the Treason Act 1795 made writing and speaking as much treason as overt acts, and made inciting hatred of

31590-503: The state assumed responsibilities such as paying the clergy and caring for the poor, the sick and the orphaned. On 13 February 1790, religious orders and monasteries were dissolved, while monks and nuns were encouraged to return to private life. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 12 July 1790 made them employees of the state, as well as establishing rates of pay and a system for electing priests and bishops. Pope Pius VI and many French Catholics objected to this since it denied

31785-526: The state authorities feared collaboration with French agents, against whose entry and circulation within the country they had introduced the Aliens Act of 1793 . Partly in response to the surveillance, and in express "imitation of the societies in and about Sheffield " whose cutlers had repudiated deference to Whig constitutionalists, the society adopted a decentralised, democratic structure. The LCS organised in "divisions" each comprising neighbourhood "tithings" of not more than ten members. Each division met twice

31980-459: The summer of 1795 was brief. The problem was not alone Pitt's "reign of terror". As an immediate leader of popular opinion there had been no rival to Paine. But following the purge and mass execution of the Girondins in June 1793, in France Paine found himself a prisoner of the revolution he had defended. In prison, and prior to an obscure American exile, he had produced his second great work, published in 1796 and 1797. The Age of Reason submitted

32175-433: The term in a way that permanently impacted American political thought. He used two ideas from Scottish Common Sense Realism : that ordinary people can indeed make sound judgments on major political issues, and that there exists a body of popular wisdom that is readily apparent to anyone. Paine also used a notion of "common sense" favored by philosophes in the Continental Enlightenment. They held that common sense could refute

32370-409: 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. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it

32565-472: The title "Convention", and including an oath to "live free or die", the "imitation of French forms" did cause the authorities some alarm. Minor prosecutions were instituted. By the time LCS delegates attended their second reform convention in Edinburgh in October 1793, the political climate had changed dramatically. From 1 February 1793 the Crown was at war with the new French Republic . Any association with Paris or defence of its policies, foreign or domestic,

32760-452: The translator was deceiving the convention by distorting the meanings of Paine's words, prompting Paine to provide a copy of the speech as proof that he was being correctly translated. Paine wrote the second part of Rights of Man on a desk in Thomas 'Clio' Rickman 's house, with whom he was staying in 1792 before he fled to France. This desk is currently on display in the People's History Museum in Manchester . Regarded as an ally of

32955-472: The working class membership did take the republican doctrines of Paine to their extreme, posing the claims of an absolute political democracy against those of monarchy and aristocracy. Of these radical democrats, the most renowned was Thomas Spence . Originally from Newcastle , where he had protested the enclosure of commons , Spence re-issued as The Real Rights of Man a penny pamphlet he had produced in 1775, Property in Land Every One's Right . His vision

33150-413: Was " Vive le roi, s'il est de bon foi! ", or "Long live the king – if he keeps his word". Although a minority in the Assembly, control of key committees allowed the Brissotins to provoke Louis into using his veto. They first managed to pass decrees confiscating émigré property and threatening them with the death penalty. This was followed by measures against non-juring priests, whose opposition to

33345-423: Was a clarion call for unity against the corrupt British court, so as to realize America's providential role in providing an asylum for liberty. Written in a direct and lively style, it denounced the decaying despotisms of Europe and pilloried hereditary monarchy as an absurdity. At a time when many still hoped for reconciliation with Britain, Common Sense demonstrated to many the inevitability of separation. Paine

33540-414: Was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 , and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate . Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy , while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse. The causes of the revolution were

33735-451: Was an English-born American Founding Father , French Revolutionary , inventor, and political philosopher. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution , and he helped to inspire the colonial era patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of human rights . Paine

33930-428: Was born in Thetford , Norfolk, and immigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin , arriving just in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every American Patriot read his 47-page pamphlet Common Sense , which catalyzed the call for independence from Great Britain. The American Crisis was a pro-independence pamphlet series. Paine lived in France for most of

34125-423: Was criticised by Jacobin radicals for the severity of his actions. Growing disorder meant many professional officers either left or became émigrés, further destabilising the institution. Held in the Tuileries Palace under virtual house arrest, Louis XVI was urged by his brother and wife to re-assert his independence by taking refuge with Bouillé, who was based at Montmédy with 10,000 soldiers considered loyal to

34320-488: Was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1787, Paine proposed a iron bridge design for crossing the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. Having little success in acquiring funding, Paine returned to Paris, France seeking investors or other opportunities to implement his, at the time, novel iron bridge design. Because Paine had few friends when arriving in France aside from Lafayette and Jefferson, he continued to correspond heavily with Benjamin Franklin,

34515-411: Was followed by a series of radical measures by the Assembly, among them the abolition of feudalism , state control over the Catholic Church , and a declaration of rights . The next three years were dominated by the struggle for political control, and military defeats following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in April 1792 led to an insurrection on 10 August . The monarchy was replaced by

34710-467: Was greeted by Bailly and accepted a tricolore cockade to loud cheers. However, it was clear power had shifted from his court; he was welcomed as 'Louis XVI, father of the French and king of a free people.' The short-lived unity enforced on the Assembly by a common threat quickly dissipated. Deputies argued over constitutional forms, while civil authority rapidly deteriorated. On 22 July, former Finance Minister Joseph Foullon and his son were lynched by

34905-424: Was in recognition of the publishing of his Rights of Man, Part II and the sensation it created within France. Despite his inability to speak French, he was elected to the National Convention , representing the district of Pas-de-Calais . Several weeks after his election to the National Convention, Paine was selected as one of nine deputies to be part of the convention's Constitutional Committee, charged to draft

35100-432: Was not on the whole expressing original ideas in Common Sense , but rather employing rhetoric as a means to arouse resentment of the Crown. To achieve these ends, he pioneered a style of political writing suited to the democratic society he envisioned, with Common Sense serving as a primary example. Part of Paine's work was to render complex ideas intelligible to average readers of the day, with clear, concise writing unlike

35295-438: Was now regarded as treasonable. In May 1793 the House of Commons refused by 282 votes to 41 even to consider petitions asking for reform. At a time when reformers were beginning to mobilise a broad swath of opinion in Britain in favour of a reformed Parliament and a strictly constitutional monarchy, they were being forced, by their early embrace of the French revolution, to defend policies in France they did not advocate at home:

35490-406: Was of a society based on common ownership of land administered democratically, by men and women alike, at the parish level. In 1797, in response to Thomas Paine 's Agrarian Justice, he wrote The Rights of Infants which, in the course of vindicating the right of children to freedom from want and abuse, proposed an unconditional and universal basic income . From the outset, the LCS contended with

35685-444: Was passed around and often read aloud in taverns, contributing significantly to spreading the idea of republicanism, bolstering enthusiasm for separation from Britain, and encouraging recruitment for the Continental Army . Paine provided a new and convincing argument for independence by advocating a complete break with history. Common Sense is oriented to the future in a way that compels the reader to make an immediate choice. It offers

35880-486: Was preposterous and it had a heathenish origin. It was an institution of the devil. Paine pointed to the Old Testament , where almost all kings had seduced the Israelites to worship idols instead of God. Paine also denounced aristocracy, which together with monarchy were "two ancient tyrannies." They violated the laws of nature, human reason, and the "universal order of things," which began with God. That was, Middlekauff says, exactly what most Americans wanted to hear. He calls

36075-459: Was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, and signed anonymously "by an Englishman". It was an immediate success, with Paine estimating it sold 100,000 copies in three months to the two million residents of the 13 colonies. During the course of the American Revolution, one biographer estimated a total of about 500,000 copies were sold, including unauthorized editions. However, some historians dispute these numbers. Paine's original title for

36270-466: Was scandal; together with Paine's conflict with Robert Morris and Silas Deane , it led to Paine's expulsion from the Committee in 1779. However, in 1781, he accompanied John Laurens on his mission to France. Eventually, after much pleading from Paine, New York State recognized his political services by presenting him with an estate at New Rochelle , New York and Paine received money from Pennsylvania and from Congress at Washington's suggestion. During

36465-426: Was sensational in its impact and gave birth to reform societies. An indictment for seditious libel followed, for both publisher and author, while government agents followed Paine and instigated mobs, hate meetings, and burnings in effigy. A fierce pamphlet war also resulted, in which Paine was defended and assailed in dozens of works. The authorities aimed, with ultimate success, to force Paine out of Great Britain. He

36660-400: Was that tax rates varied widely from one region to another, were often different from the official amounts, and collected inconsistently. Its complexity meant uncertainty over the amount contributed by any authorised tax caused resentment among all taxpayers. Attempts to simplify the system were blocked by the regional Parlements which approved financial policy. The resulting impasse led to

36855-406: Was the constitutional mechanism for turning intentions into practical applications. On 9 July, the National Assembly appointed a committee to draft a constitution and statement of rights. Twenty drafts were submitted, which were used by a sub-committee to create a Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , with Mirabeau being the most prominent member. The Declaration was approved by

37050-433: Was the greatest obstacle to obtaining redress" from the "defects and abuses that have crept into the administration of our Government"; and that to remove that obstacle it should be the aim of those subscribing: to instil into [the public] in a legal and constitutional way by means of the press, a sense of their rights as freemen, and of their duty to themselves and their posterity, as good citizens, and hereditary guardians of

37245-449: Was the largest individual landowner in France, controlling nearly 10% of all estates and levied tithes , effectively a 10% tax on income, collected from peasant farmers in the form of crops. In return, it provided a minimal level of social support. The August decrees abolished tithes, and on 2 November the Assembly confiscated all church property, the value of which was used to back a new paper currency known as assignats . In return,

37440-411: Was the scarcely disguised suggestion that such a convention would have a representative legitimacy greater than the corrupted, unreformed Parliament. As the son of a wine importer, Margarot (who alone survived to return to England in 1810) had continental connections, including residence in Paris during the first year of the revolution. These allowed the authorities to draw upon him the suspicion of being

37635-440: Was then tried in absentia and found guilty, but he was beyond the reach of British law. The French translation of Rights of Man, Part II was published in April 1792. The translator, François Lanthenas, eliminated the dedication to Lafayette, as he believed Paine thought too highly of Lafayette, who was seen as a royalist sympathizer at the time. In summer of 1792, he answered the sedition and libel charges thus: "If, to expose

37830-446: Was viewed as a triumph and Bastille Day is still celebrated every year. In French culture, some see its fall as the start of the Revolution. Alarmed by the prospect of losing control of the capital, Louis appointed the Marquis de Lafayette commander of the National Guard , with Jean-Sylvain Bailly as head of a new administrative structure known as the Commune . On 17 July, Louis visited Paris accompanied by 100 deputies, where he

38025-508: Was widespread and by the time of Coigly's arrest the majority view was that the entire business of coordinating with the Directory and the United Irish was a destructive diversion. The Central Committee of Delegates suspected that the government exaggerated the threat of a French invasion, but agreed that in the event members would join their local, government-approved, militias. French Revolution The French Revolution ( French : Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

#514485