Chris Shannon: Mr. Paine, how did you get to America and what was your role in the American Revolution?
Thomas Paine: At first, I was an excise officer in England. I was dismissed, though, after writing that a raise in pay would be the only way to end corruption in the field. I was lucky enough to run into Benjamin Franklin while he was in England though, and he told me that I should move to America and gave me some contacts in the colonies, so I could get a job once I moved there (Foner)
I arrived in America on November 1774 and went to work for the Pennsylvania Magazine for about a year and a half. My most known piece of work would be my pamphlet ‘Common Sense’, where I said that the current war going on in the colonies should be more
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I do believe in God, but as a deist, think that organized religion has been instituted to rule over us. Many labeled me an atheist for this, which at the time was a very bad thing and tarnished my reputation. (Enotes.com)
CS: You also wrote a very controversial letter to George Washington in 1796, and in that letter, you said “treacherous in private friendship… and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any”. (Thomaspaine.org). What made you say this about him?
TP: One of the main reasons I was being held in prison in France was because any attempt I made at an appeal was stopped because I was considered an Englishman to the French, and not an American citizen. It would have taken very little time for Washington or anybody with power in the American government to say that I was an American, but they refused to regard me as one despite all that I did for the country. George’s silence on the matter was extremely insulting to me considering how quickly this could have been resolved. Instead, I was imprisoned for nearly a year before the issue was resolved by James Monroe.