Thomas Paine in Europe:
Bridge Building and Revolution
James Marcus Safley

In 1775, in the midst of the American Revolution, one enthusiastic journalist published a poem in the Pennsylvania Evening Post:

From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms!
Through the land let the sound of it flee;
Let the far and the near all unite, with a cheer,
In defense of our Liberty Tree.1

With these words Thomas Paine began his long and distinguished career as revolutionary author and statesman. His contributions to the American Revolution, as well as the subsequent revolutions in Europe, were substantial, and his many travels brought him to several hot spots of revolutionary fervor in America, England, and France.

His celebrated pamphlet Common Sense, published first in January 1776, gained wide popularity for its simple, plain, and direct language. The booklet held the king and British ruling classes in contempt, severely criticized British policies toward its colonies, and spelled out several advantages of a complete separation from England. Moreover, it called for the drafting of a declaration of independence, which would, he argued, legitimize a separation, prevent America from being pulled into international conflicts, and open up commercial markets that had been confined by British rule.

Paine also claimed, rightly it turned out, that if America declared independence it would bring France into the war. When, in May 1776, Common Sense made its way to Paris, its anti-British message reached an eager and willing French public. In fact, according to the American Commissioner to France, the booklet “has a greater run, if possible here than in America.”2 Of course, the French translation of Common Sense censored all of Paine’s anti-monarchist views; nevertheless, it made a significant impression – an impression that would ultimately inspire a second wave of revolution.

In the midst of the American Revolution, Paine exalted the prospects of his country as an independent nation: “Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.”3 But by the end of the war with Britain, he recognized the necessity of full diplomatic relations with European powers, and abandoned his seemingly isolationist tone.

In fact, the imminent American victory, as well as the massive outpouring of support from France and other nations, further animated his revolutionary spirit. In his Letter to the Abbé Raynal, published in 1782, he predicted that the American Revolution would affect other nations until “every corner of the mind is swept of its cobwebs, poison and dust, and made fit for the reception of generous happiness.”4 Every nation, he hoped, would soon experience the “happiness” of a republican government.

On April 26, 1787 Paine left America for Europe. Though aware of the underlying social divisions and economic volatility in France, he could not know that within just over two years, a new revolution would emerge in Paris. There were several reasons why he planned a voyage to Europe. Foremost, he sought financial support for a bridge he designed. He hoped that he could secure an endorsement from the Royal Society of London and the French Academy of Sciences, both well respected groups. Moreover, he knew that his close friend and renowned American ally, the Marquis de Lafayette, could help him find support for his plans. The trip would also give him the opportunity to visit his aging parents in England. A month before his departure he told Benjamin Franklin, “My father and mother are yet living whom I am very anxious to see, and have informed them of my coming in the ensuing summer.”5

Paine and Franklin enjoyed an excellent relationship. Ever since Paine’s original voyage to America years before, Franklin recognized his potential as statesman, and served as both a friend and mentor to the young author. In a show of overwhelming support for his voyage to Europe, Franklin wrote several letters of recommendation for Paine. One letter to a French politician was typical:

The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the author of a famous piece entitled Common Sense, published here with great effect on the minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He is an ingenious, honest man, and as such I beg leave to recommend him to your civilities.6

Franklin also wrote Thomas Jefferson, who was in Paris as the American Minister to France, that “you are well acquainted with Mr. Paine’s merit, and need no request of mine to serve him in his views, and introduce him where it may be proper and of advantage to him.”7

Paine arrived in France a month after he departed, and, by merit of Franklin’s endorsements, was well received. Jefferson and Lafayette welcomed him as a fellow patriot, and introduced him to notable aristocrats, including the Duc de la Rochefoucauld d’Enville, the Marquis de Chastellux, and the Comte de Moustier. It is a wonder that Paine maintained his democratic-republican ideals in the company of such affluent noblemen, but he successfully dissociated his political beliefs from his social life. Indeed, he had come to France an apolitical man, interested only in procuring funds for his bridge, not spreading revolutionary sentiments.

When in Paris, Paine submitted his bridge design for review by the Academy of Sciences. After inspecting his plans, the body of scientists reported that “Mr. Paine’s Plan of an Iron Bridge is ingeniously imagined… and that it is deserving of a trial.”8 From his experiences with the Academy, Paine met several famous scientists, including the Marquis de Condorcet and Jean-Babtiste Le Roy. Condorcet and Paine became good friends and, after the Revolution, collaborated on policy reform – that is, until the Terror, when the famous mathematician committed suicide while in jail.

As Paine spent his time in Paris among illustrious company and opulent settings, the French government was facing an economic catastrophe. Impending bankruptcy was foremost on King Louis XVI’s mind when he summoned the Assembly of Notables, a group of prominent aristocrats and clergymen, to resolve the state’s financial troubles. After several aborted attempts to reform the tax code the king dismissed the Assembly, hoping regional parlements would accept his own reform package. However the response was that only the Estates General, which had not been convened for one hundred and fifty years, could legitimately undertake tax reform. No one, including one as politically perceptive as Paine, could foresee that this episode had set the stage for a revolution.

In fact, at the moment, it seemed that Paine had fallen from the revolutionary enthusiasm that had served him so well in Common Sense. During the summer in which he arrived in France, a rebellion in the Netherlands took place in which the people of Holland demanded the creation of a true republic. Britain threw their support to the Stadtholder, the ruler of Holland, while France, the archenemy of Britain, championed the people. But instead of encouraging revolution or French aid to Holland, as one might expect from the American patriot, Paine advocated a peaceful resolution.

To defend his standpoint, he wrote the Prospects on the Rubicon. In it he argued that a war would further decimate an already war-torn France, and that the cost of the war would fall entirely upon the poor taxpayer of France and England: “I defend the cause of the poor, of the manufacturers, of the tradesmen, of he farmers, and of all those on whom the real burden of taxes falls – but above all, I defend the cause of humanity.”9 It is apparent that he recognized the need for internal stability before France could devote itself to external affairs.

In August 1787, Paine traveled to England to visit his parents in Thetford, and found out his father had died some five months earlier. After arranging his mother’s financial affairs, he queried several people whether they were interested in funding his bridge, but without success. In London he met Edmund Burke, whom he admired ever since the Englishman’s 1775 speech “On Reconciliation with America,” where he defended American criticisms of English colonial rule.10 The two developed a keen friendship, and Burke assisted Paine’s efforts in finding investors for his bridge and securing an endorsement from the Royal Society of London. But their mutual affections ran out in less than two years, when the French Revolution revealed their irreconcilable political differences.

For the next two years Paine alternated his time between London and Paris, spending most of his days socializing with the elite and preparing his bridge for final approval. When Louis XVI convened the Estates General on May 5, 1789, Paine was away in England, but he made sure to keep up to date on the events in Paris. The news of the creation of the National Assembly and the fall of the Bastille filled him with profound joy. The relatively moderate course of the Revolution pleased him, for he did not want unnecessary bloodshed (as he demonstrated earlier with the rebellion in Holland). Now was the prospect of a truly republican, and constitutional, government in France, something he desired more than anything.

In June Paine returned to a very different France than when he left a year before. Before he returned, Jefferson sent him an optimistic letter concerning the new revolutionary assembly:

[The National Assembly,] having shown through every stage of these transactions a coolness, wisdom, and resolution to set fire to the four corners of the kingdom… are now in complete and undisputed possession of their sovereignty. The executive and aristocracy are at their feet: the mass of the nation, the mass of the clergy, and the army are with them; they have prostrated the old government, and are now beginning to build one from the foundation.11

It had taken over a decade, but now the people of France were seeking out the “generous happiness” that Paine had predicted the American Revolution would inspire.

For four months Paine assisted the formation of a constitution, helped to draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and witnessed the far-reaching movements to abolish feudal privileges and end royal despotism. In a gesture of international good will, Lafayette presented him the key to the Bastille for presentation to George Washington. In the letter to the president accompanying the key, Paine insisted “that the principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place.”12 Paine’s bridge was eventually built in England, but without due credit or financial success. But more poignant issues occupied his mind: France was to be a republic and he had the privilege to experience the Revolution firsthand.

Notes

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1 Pennsylvania Evening Post (Pennsylvania), 16 September 1775; quoted in Philip S. Foner, The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1993), xii.

2 Silas Deane to “home,” 4 May 1776; quoted in Foner, xiv, n. 2.

3 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, 23 December 1776; quoted in Foner, 54.

4 Paine, Letter to the Abbé Raynal, 1782; quoted in Foner, xxvii.

5 Paine to Benjamin Franklin, 31 March 1787; quoted in Jack Fruchtman, Jr., Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows), 177.

6 Franklin to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, 15 April 1787; quoted in Fruchtman, 178.

7 Franklin to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1787; quoted in Ibid.

8 The French Academy of Sciences, 1787; quoted in Foner, xxvi.

9 Paine, Prospects on the Rubicon, 1787; quoted in Fruchtman, 185.

10 Speech by Edmund Burke, “On Reconciliation with America,” 1775; quoted in Foner xxvii.

11 Jefferson to Paine, July 1789; quoted in David Freeman Hawke, Paine (New York: W. W. Norton, 1974), 197.

12 Paine to George Washington, 1789; quoted in Foner xxvii.