Thomas Paine A Success Or Failure

Thomas Paine was a Revolutionary War hero, his pamphlet Common Sense was used to boost the morale of the Revolutionary Army and the scared American public. Without him the Revolutionary War and the future of America would be completely different. Paine came from humble beginnings and struggled through most of his life, but came to America and did very well for himself. His story is a true testament to the American Dream, a rags to riches story. He was a great philosopher that believed that power belonged to the people and that government was a necessary evil. "Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil." (Thomas Paine Common Sense) Paine was a big advocate for representative Government and believed that monarchy, where all the …show more content…
His pamphlets Common Sense and The Crisis Papers were distributed to all the soldiers of the Revolutionary Army, so that they could end tyranny on American soil. He was even involved in foreign affairs and was a strong admire of the French Revolution, he wrote the Rights of Man in defense of it. The idea of liberty for others was very exciting to Paine. Finally he angered the religious community with his work Age of Reason, he attacked organized religion and this upset the American public and alienated him from them. Although before he wrote his pamphlets he was a failure and he died irrelevant, Thomas Paine was an important philosopher in the revolutionary era and his ideas helped drive a new way of thinking that was included in the Declaration of …show more content…
His mother, Frances, was staunch Anglican, part of the Church of England, and his father was a Quaker and a Corset maker. Paine’s Quaker influence from his father explains some of his humanitarian ideals portrayed in many of his pamphlets. His family was poor, and although they were poor his father was able to put him through 5 (1744-1749) years at the local grammar school, Thetford Grammar School, but he failed out of school. After failing out of grammar school Thomas becomes his father’s apprentice as a stay maker, thick rope stays on a sail ship. He briefly became a privateer, and returned to Britain in 1759 and opened up his own business in in Sandwich, Kent, England. On September 27, 1759, he married Mary Lambert, and his business went under soon after. Mary became pregnant, but she went into early labor, where she and the child both passed. Paine moved back to his home town of Thetford in 1761 and became a supernumerary excise officer. In 1762 he moved to Grantham, Lincolnshire, England to except a post as a full excise officer, and in 1764 he was transferred to Alford, England and received a pay of 50 pounds per year. Paine was fired from this post in 1765 for stating that he examined properties that he didn’t actually view. Though he was fired in 1766 he applied for reinstatement, he would be reinstated upon the next available vacancy. While waiting for a vacancy