Posted on 07/24/2021 6:42:15 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1794, revolutionary firebrand Thomas Paine got a date with the guillotine when the public prosecutor Antoine-Quentin Fouquier-Tinville put his name on the list for the next batch of heads.
Paine — “Mad Tom” to foes of his fire-eating opposition to despotic church and crown — is best-known for his part in the American Revolution; his pamphlet “Common Sense” made an incendiary and influential case for revolution.
More so than any other high-profile compatriot in the cause of American independence, Paine took to heart the age’s revolutionary spirit, the fine principles of solidarity, the zeal to put life and fortune at liberty’s service.
Not content to retire to the estate granted him for his services to the fledgling United States of America — Paine coined that name, by the way — the hellraiser sailed for the Old World to help overthrow the sclerotic Bourbon despotism whose geopolitically-minded aid* had had such material effect for American liberty.
Paine served in France’s National Convention, one of the highest-profile and least-impeachable members of that body as well as one of only two foreigners. These distinctions offered him some safety in the Revolution’s internecine tempests — some, but not quite enough. He drew the ire of the Montagnards by opposing the execution of Louis XVI.
The terrible gears of mass fratricide which apparently doomed Paine as the Terror unfolded turned out to be his refuge, and that of three fortunate fellows with him. Had he gone to the scaffold as a single high-profile traitor, there would have been no mistake about it; now, at the height of the Terror, jailers marked dozens for death by the fallible expedient of chalking their cell doors. If the guillotine made mass execution feasible, the bureaucratic apparatus to manage it was still catching up.
Here’s the version of a Paine’s preservation that he himself later related — albeit second-hand, since he was suffering this day “a violent fever which had nearly terminated my existence” and “was not in a condition to be removed, or to know of what was passing, or of what had passed, for more than a month. It makes a blank in my remembrance of life. The first thing I was informed of was the fall of Robespierre.”....
Thomas Paine was a good man who died with few around him.
His story in his latter years is haunting.
“God save great Thomas Paine
His ‘Rights of Man’ explain
To every soul.
He makes the blind to see
What dupes and slaves they be,
And points out liberty,
From pole to pole.
Thousands cry ‘Church and King’
That well deserve to swing,
All must allow:
Birmingham blush for shame,
Manchester do the same,
Infamous is your name,
Patriots vow.”
Yes. That the Bonneville’s being nearly the only attendees
of his funeral is noteworthy. History lost something
whenever family correspondence was destroyed by a fire
in St. Louis too.
If seeing the Bible only as man-created mythology and believing G-d doesn't have the ability to reveal anything, then yeah.
"Free-thinking" deists weren't atheists only because Darwin's theory hadn't come up yet. They all paved the way to the mess we're in now.
His anti Christian paradigm blinded him to the risks of the more secular and anti Christian French Revolution.
Well I guess Ben Franklin was a bad person.
What do you think about theistic rationalists?
Hmmm. I didn’t know he was executed, let alone by guillotine.
He died in New York City in 1809.
-PJ
Thanks! I thought I would’ve known if he was executed by guillotine. I was educated back at a time when things like this were pertinent, so the article lede surprised me.
For such an influential Founding Father, he was shunned later in life for his views on the Church. When New Rochelle officials denied him the right to vote, declaring that he was not a citizen, he appealed to his contemporaries from the Revolution, who basically gave him the cold shoulder.
-PJ
Thanks again. I’ve got a trip to NY due soon. Not sure when but I’ve seen enough of the city. A trip a few miles up state may be worth it.
That said, it would probably take no more than an hour to see it all. Maybe two if you go slow and walk the grounds, too.
-PJ
Roger that. It would be worth it. His booklet was far more influential than people realize. I don’t know much about his stance on religion, but his appeal to an egalitarian government was the key ingredient to the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and of course to the momentum for Independence. He knew the history of man and of governments over the ages, and that America needed to respect and protect all forms of worship to avoid tribalism and strife.
Read it again. They said almost.
Rochester is more than a few miles upstate. 5 hour drive, I think
It is unclear as to what artifacts were damaged. The property suffered flooding and the basement, which contained school teaching materials, were also flooded.
From the few photos I saw, it's possible that the cottage itself was on higher ground, but the grounds were damaged by rushing water.
-PJ
Thanks for the update, and remembering me :-)
I didn’t get out to NY yet, hopefully later this year. I hope they can restore the museum and its collection.
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