He helped inspire the American Revolution, but Thomas Paine suffered a broad range of indignities afterward: Political cartoonists lampooned him, he was denied the right to vote and a coin was minted that pictured him in a noose.
During the 1770s and 1780s, France faced a growing crisis within the country. Because the king had spent large amounts of money fighting wars against Britain and others, France was bankrupt and following some poor harvests, many of the poorer people of France found themselves penniless and facing starvation. The financial crisis came to a head in 1788, when a meeting was called of the Estates-General, a council representing clergy, commoners and nobility, in order to approve a plan to raise money for the government. At the meeting, a number of the liberal noblemen and many of the clergy decided to join the commoners (the Third Estate). They formed the new National Assembly, which granted itself power to make and carry out the law.
Fall of The Bastille On July 14th, 1789, the infamous prison, known as The Bastille, was stormed by the citizens and, within weeks, the end of feudalism and serfdom was announced. At the end of August, ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen’ was issued by The National Assembly. By October, Parisians, led by a large number of women, marched upon Versailles and forced the royal family to come to Paris as virtual prisoners.
The Flight of the King In 1791 Thomas Paine wrote his book ‘The Rights of Man’ in support of the Revolution in France. The book called for representative democracy and proposed a republican government. On June 21st 1791, whilst visiting France, Thomas Paine witnessed the flight of the Royal family. He founded The Republican Society (La Société des Republicains) and wrote a manifesto (which was plastered on the city walls). The king’s flight, he said, meant abdication and the nation should seize the opportunity to establish a Republic. The royal family were arrested as they attempted to leave France and, in 1792, they were returned to Paris.
Thomas Paine Flees to France
Thomas returned to England in the summer of 1791 and published ‘The Rights of Man, part the Second’ in 1792. He had to flee Britain to avoid arrest and trial but was welcomed as a hero in France and elected to the National Convention, where he held an important position.
17th September 1793: “Law of Suspects” initiates the Terror.
The King is Put on Trial The king was put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death in January 1793. Thomas Paine was opposed to capital punishment and spoke out strongly against the king’s execution – an action which upset Robespierre and would later land Thomas Paine in a French prison. Thomas Paine had implied that to execute the king would be the behaviour of a corrupt despot. Even Robespierre, he said, had in the past publicly denounced capital punishment. The Jacobin, Jean-Paul Marat, tried to have Thomas’s vote nullified, claiming he was a Quaker and hence “his religious views would not let him support capital punishment.” Thomas Paine responded by declaring that France’s only ally in the world, the United States, would not look kindly on the execution.
Thomas Paine’s eyeglasses are displayed among his writings and other effects at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Thomas Paine is Arrested
On June 2nd 1793, The Jacobins led by Robespierre gained power. Thomas had associated himself with the Girondins (now the opposition). On the 3rd of October, Thomas was denounced in the National Convention as a traitor to the Revolution. Robespierre wrote: “Demand that a decree of accusation be passed against Thomas Paine, for the interests of America and France as well.” Early on Christmas Day, 1793, Thomas Paine was arrested. He believed that this was because Robespierre feared he would report to the Americans just how bloody the Revolution had become and how many had been executed.
The Reign of Terror
On October 15th, the Tribunal Criminel-Révolutionnaire began. The Revolution now became much bloodier, as any opponents of the new government were rounded up, hastily tried and executed by guillotine. As many as 40,000 people were killed during the ‘Terror’ of 1793 and 1794. Thomas himself narrowly escaped execution.
Death of Robespierre and the End of the Revolution On July 4th, 1794, Robespierre was executed after his own trial and attempted suicide, ending the Reign of Terror. When the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte was established, in 1799, the Revolution is generally thought to have come to an end.
After the Bastille was torn apart by hand only seven people were alive inside, that is the key to the Bastille that Lafayette brought to George Washington
Additional Information in link below-
On this day in history, Thomas Paine sent a letter to George Washington informing him he was enclosing for him the main key of the Bastille prison, a gift to Washington from the Marquis de Lafayette. George Washington is said to have had a father-son type of relationship with the young Marquis de Lafayette. At […]
The Flight of the King
