Thomas Paine Archives -

I stumbled across this quote while reading a novel by Andrew Wareham about the RAF in India during WWII. The protagonist, Group Captain Thomas Stark, is talking to his adjutant Henry.

Good argument in itself, Henry! Whenever someone says “common sense” to me, I know it’s going to be bloody stupid. “Common sense” always means you’re too bloody lazy to learn the facts and apply the science, or too bloody stupid to make something up.
The Last Campaign by Andrew Wareham (#commision earned)

How many times have we heard the phrase “common sense” when applied to a new gun control law, regulation, or other governmental restriction on our rights? When a politician or gun control activist utters those words, I either turn them off or think “BOHICA!” I think Thomas Paine would be appalled at how American politicians have perverted this phrase.

Today, June 8th, is Thomas Paine Day by one calendar. It is also known as Freethinkers Day. Another puts both at January 29th. I’m not sure which is correct so I’m going with today as this is the first I’ve heard of it.

Portrait of Paine and his *Common Sense*
via Wikimedia Commons

Paine didn’t come to America until late 1774 at the urging of Benjamin Franklin. He had recently been fired from his position as an excise officer in Sussex after writing a pamphlet that demanded higher pay for excise officers. Paine is most known in the United States for his pamphlet Common Sense as well as a series called The American Crisis (Kindle version is free on Amazon) It is said that Common Sense sold between 150,000 and 500,000 copies. Given the population of the 13 colonies is estimated to 2.5 million in 1776, that is astounding.

The latter was read to Washington’s dispirited troops at Valley Forge. I still find the first paragraph stirring.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his 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: — ’Tis 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. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to* BIND us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner*, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to GOD.

Paine went back to England in 1787 and then to France somewhere around 1791-1792. He was an early supporter of the French Revolution and almost ended up becoming a victim of it like many of its supporters. He wrote another of his major works The Rights of Man in 1791. After being released from prison in France, he made his way back to the US and eventually died in New York City in 1809.

The Thomas Paine National Historical Association has links to all of his writings. It also has evaluated a number of essays and other writings attributed to him. Some they have removed from “the Paine Canon” as the attribution was erroneous.

I can also recommend David Benner’s Thomas Paine: A Lifetime of Radicalism. It is free with Kindle Unlimited.