Talk: Thomas Paine
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what was your stlye for writing?
- He died in Greenwich Village, New York, at 59 Gross Street in New York, New York.
Does this line sound stupid to others? --Sam
Can you make your sources, author, and other information a little more clearer? Because if people need to list a source for information it makes it very, very hard.
Thomas Paine became infatuated with the French Revolution. He believed it would be like the American Revolution. He even wrote a book, The Age of Reason, in defense of the French Revolution. When he saw that the French Revolution resulted in open hostility to Christianity, and the American Revolution resulted in being established in accordance with Christian Principles, Paine recanted his book:
"I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone."
His last words were: "I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God." - Thomas Paine - Davjohn 02:47, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- Some of that is true; much is not. Paine, of course, would roll over in his grave if heard you assert the American Revolution was based on Christian principles, but we'll leave that aside... It was Paine's Rights of Man that was written in defense of the early French Revolution; The Age of Reason was an attack on the ways in which religious traditions were used to buttress corrupt monarchical governments. As the French Revolution veered toward anarchy, he condemned its "avidity to punish" and its abuses of power. He was arrested on 28 December 1793 at the height of the terror and held in the Luxembourg Prision where he spent thirteen months until James Monroe was able to secure his release after the downfall of Robespierre. Paine's detractors have claimed that he recanted The Age of Reason on his deathbed, but it's a made-up story. The words "I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my creator God." are the last words of his last will and testament, not his actual last words. Robert Ingersoll, in 1877, gave this version of Paine's passing: "he died as he had lived. Some ministers were impolite enough to visit him against his will. Several of them he ordered from his room. A couple of Catholic priests, in all the meekness of hypocrisy, called that they might enjoy the agonies of a dying friend of man. Thomas Paine, rising in his bed, the few embers of expiring life blown into flame by the breath of indignation, had the goodness to curse them both. His physician, who seems to have been a meddling fool, just as the cold hand of death was touching the patriot's heart, whispered in the dull ear of the dying man: "Do you believe, or do you wish to believe, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" And the reply was: "I have no wish to believe on that subject." These were the last remembered words of Thomas Paine." The pious lie that Paine recanted anything is first found ten years after his death, in a story perpetrated by a Quaker, Mary Roscoe, afterwards Mary Hinsdale, a servant of Mr. Willet Hicks, who lived near the house where Paine died. When questioned, she would not verify that the recantation had occurred. -- Binky 04:48, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)
I recall (but I have no source) that when Paine was in prison in France under sentence of death the U.S. government did little or nothing on his behalf, and that it was generally believed that George Washington was happy as not to be rid of a man he considered far too radical. Does anyone have sources for this? Or refutation of it? If it's true it certainly belongs in the article; even if false, I believe the story is widespread enough that a refutation of it might belong in the article. -- Jmabel 05:38, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC)
Note to self: http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/roots_paines_radicalism.htm. Neutrality (talk) 14:12, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Cut from article
I cut the following recent addition:
- After his death in New York City on June 8, 1809 the newspapers read, 'He had lived long, did some good and much harm', which time judged to be an unworthy epitaph.
"...the newspapers..." is not exactly a citation. Either this is a quotation from some particular paper or it is useless. The resto of this is just POV. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:57, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC)
- "At Paine's death most U.S. newspapers reprinted the obituary notice from the New York Citizen, which read in part: “He had lived long, did some good and much harm.” —Encyclopaedia Britannica, Philip S. Foner. Dpbsmith (talk) 02:23, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I am going to change "east Brooklyn" to "Eastern England" as that is where Thetford is. I don't know how that crept in.
