agreed, citing people’s inherent evil and the inevitabil-
ity of aggression.
Further Readings
Brock, P. Twentieth Century Pacifism.New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold, 1970.
Mayer, P., ed. The Pacifist Conscience.New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1966.
Paine, Thomas (1737–1809) British/American po-
litical philosopher and revolutionary
Best known for his political pamphlet “Common
Sense,” which argued for the cause of the American
Revolution, Paine was a radical REPUBLICAN thinker
who also wrote Rights of Manand The Age of Reason,
for which he received worldwide fame. Born into a
poor working-class family in Norfolk, England, Paine
was raised in the moralistic Quaker faith. He immi-
grated to America after losing his job, wife, and social
standing by working for labor causes. There, he imme-
diately became active in American revolutionary
causes, encouraging the colonists’ resistance to Britain,
working in General Washington’s army, and writing a
liberal state CONSTITUTION for Pennsylvania (which
included universal SUFFRAGE, annual elections, repre-
sentative government, and religious FREEDOM).
After the successful conclusion of the American
Revolution, Paine traveled to Europe to help with the
French Revolution (1789). He encouraged the French
republic but was later imprisoned by the radical
JACOBINS’ “Reign of Terror,” barely escaping being exe-
cuted. In France, he wrote the book Rights of Man,
assailing Edmund BURKE’s CONSERVATIVEcriticism of the
French Revolution. There, Paine also wrote The Age of
Reason,attacking established religion and CHRISTIANITY
(which even offended Thomas JEFFERSONand Benjamin
FRANKLIN). His criticism of MONARCHYand aristocratic
government (still prevalent in Europe and Britain)
made him one of the most RADICALdemocrats of his
time. Without the subtlety and education of a Jefferson
or MADISON, Paine’s bluntness offended many middle-
class people but appealed to the poor, common people.
Paine’s political philosophy was basically the
SOCIAL-CONTRACT, NATURAL-RIGHTS theories of John
LOCKE: people have rights to Life, LIBERTY, and PROPERTY
that governments are created, by CONSENTof the peo-
ple, to protect; and if the state violates those natural
rights, the people collectively can overthrow the gov-
ernment. From this MODERN, LIBERALperspective, the
old MEDIEVALpolitics of kings, hereditary noblemen,
official state churches, fixed social classes, and human
inequality were a fraud and a crime. Waste, war, cor-
ruption, and expense result from traditional HIERARCHI-
CALgovernment, and only representative DEMOCRACYis
just. This attack on the very foundations of British
political culture caused Paine to be outlawed for sedi-
tious libel and forever banished from his homeland.
Paine further developed his radical political ideas in
his book Agrarian Justice, which advanced almost
SOCIALISTideas. He advocates the WELFARE-STATEpro-
posals of universal public education, poor relief, shel-
ters for the indigent and infirm, maternity grants, and
progressive income and inheritance taxes. Though
most of these policies are now common in Western
democracies, they were exceedingly radical in the 18th
century. So, Paine can be seen as an exceptionally for-
ward-looking thinker, seeing the need for a mixed pri-
vate/public economy in Modern industrial societies.
He even proposed giving a large sum of money to each226 Paine, Thomas
Thomas Paine.(NATIONALARCHIVES)