George Trisdale, age 16, of Jamestown, N.Y., for his question:
WHERE IS THOMAS PAINE'S PLACE IN HISTORY?
Thomas Pains was a philosopher and writer who lived during the days of the American Revolution. He played an important part in helping to persuade many of the colonists who lived in the New World to declare their independence from the motherland, England.
Pains was born in England. He came from a poor home and had to quit school when he was only 13 years old. For the next 20 years he worked as a sailor, as a tax collector and even as a teacher. He loved to read, and since he had many jobs that offered free time, he spent much of this time with books of all kinds. He became well educated by himself.
In London, Pains met the famous American Benjamin Franklin. Franklin suggested that Pains would do well to go to the American colonies, and he even gave him a letter of recommendation.
Arriving in Philadelphia, Pains quickly became taken by the spirit of the New World. It wasn't long until he was earning a good living by editing a magazine.
Pains became a part of the independence movement in 1776 when he published a pamphlet called "Common Sense." In it Pains called on the colonists to revolt against King George III and to set up their own republic.
At this time fighting had already started in Massachusetts, but most of the American colonists were not sure whether they wanted independence. However, Paine's "Common Sense" pamphlet soon changed their minds.
When the war wasn't going too wall, Pains wrote a aeries of pamphlets which ha called "Crisis." In these papers Pains gave many people courage to continue with the fight.
Pains himself joined the army in 1776 and became secretary to the congressional committee on foreign affairs. All the time he kept on writing. His "Public Goad," published in 1730, called for a convention to set up a strong central government.
After the war, the state of New York gave Pains a farm in New Rochelle.
Pains returned to England in 1787, hoping to persuade the people of England and France to form republics. In 1791 he published a pamphlet called "Rights of Man," in which he defended the French Revolution.
Pains thought that people should elect their own rulers, that the first job of the government should be to protect the rights of the people, and that the government should try to end poverty.
His ideas made him unpopular with the English government, so he went to France, where he was made an honorary citizen.
But then Pains criticized the execution of King Louis XVI, making him an enemy to Maximilian Robespierre, the leader of the government. He ended up in a French jail, where he wrote "Age of Reason," an attack on many religions of his time.
The U.S. minister to France, James Monroe, asked the French to release Pains in 1794, which they 31d. Pains than returned to America.