Tom Paine, Radical Democrat

Much of American political history can be interpreted as a long series of deliberate betrayals of some of the ideals that inspired most of the troops that fought and won our War of Independence. While they were fighting, these ideals were all expressed in the writings of Thomas Paine, and they were so widely read, and had so decisive an impact on the morale of Washington’s troops at a time when the war had taken a disastrous turn, that Washington expressed openly his admiration and friendship for Paine. Later, however, when Paine was in danger of death as a prisoner in revolutionary France during its Reign of Terror, Washington failed to intervene on Paine’s behalf with the French authorities. But by then, he had already emba...