Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/193

 PAINE

PAINE

$300,000, called the Robert Treat Paine associa- tion, for charitable work. He was a representative in the general court from Waltham in 1884 and was unsuccessful Democratic and Independent candidate for representative in the 49th congress in 1884. He was elected president of the Wells Memorial Workingmen's institute, which he organized in 1879 and which included a co- operative bank and building association. He also organized the Workingmen's Loan associa- tion and served as president of the congress of workingmen's clubs. In 1891 he became presi- dent of the Pf^ace association.

PAINE, Thomas, author and diplomatist, was born in Thetford, Norfolk county, England, Jan. 29, 1737; son of Joseph Paine, a Quaker, and by occupation a staymaker. He attended the Thet- ford grammar school until 1750, when he learned the trade of staymaking and engaged in that business until 1755, when he went to sea on a privateer. He soon returned to Thetford, and in 1757 obtained employment with a London stay- maker, becoming interested in the philosophical lectures of Martyn and Ferguson. He removed to Dover in 1858, and the following year established himself as a master staymaker in Sandwich, Kent county. He was married in 1759 to Mary Lambert, an orphan, who was a servant in a woolen draper's family, and in 1760 they removed to Margate, where she died. He abandoned his trade and prepared himself for a position as excise officer, returning to Thetford in 1761 as a supernumerary officer of excise. In 1764 he was appointed to watch smugglers, was discharg- ed from office in August, 1765, and engaged in teaching English in an academy in London, 1765- 66, and in a school in Kensington in 1767. He was re-appointed to the excise service in 1768, and deputed as officer in Lewes, Sussex county. In 1771 he was married to Elizabeth OUive of Lewes. When the excisemen united in signing a plea to parliament for an increase of salary, Paine was entrusted with the prosecution of the matter, and in 1772 prepared his petition, but was unable to get a hearing. He was again dis- missed from the excise service in April, 1774, and in June of the same year became formally separated from his wife. He removed to London, and made the acquaintance of Benjamin Frank- lin, in whose electrical experiments he was interested. In consequence of this acquaintance he left England in 1774, with letters from Franklin to Richard Bache in Pliiladelphia, where he obtained employment as a tutor and was chosen by Robert Aitkin to assist in publishing the Pennsylvania Magazine or American Museum, which he edited for eighteen months. In its columns he urged the extension of independence to the enslaved negro, was the first to advocate

international arbitration and to propose national and international copyright. During the Revolu- tion he published political pamphlets, including " Common Sense" (1775), of which half a million copies were distributed, and donated the copy- right to the colonies for the cause of independence. In July, 1776, he published a pamphlet, entitled "A Dialogue between the Ghost of Gen. Montgomery, Just Arrived from the Elysian Fields, and an American Delegate in a Wood Near Philadelphia." In November, 1776, he joined the Pennsylvania division of the flying camp, and while in the army composed the first number of "Crisis," writing only by night, and publishing the paper, Dec. 19, 1776, just before the battle of Trenton. The opening words, " These are the times that try men's souls," became a familiar watchword in the camp. He was appointed secretary to the commission sent by congress to treat with the Indians at Easton, Pa., Jan. 21, 1777, and was elected secretary of the committee of foreign affairs, April 17, 1777. He resigned his position of secretary on account of a controversy with Silas Deane, and was reduced to a clerkship in Owen Biddle's law office. He was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1780, and in February, 1781, accompanied Col. John Laurens to France, for the purpose of procuring a loan. Their mission was entirely successful and on their return to Philadelphia, Paine became a social lion, but was without means and suffered for want of food. Upon the earnest solicitation of General Washington congress ultimately paid Paine a salary of $800 a year for secret services. After the conclusion of the treaty of peace, upon his endeavor to obtain some recognition of his services. New York state presented him with 277 acres of land at New Rochelle; Pennsylvania voted him £500, and congress paid liim $3,000. He had been engaged on designs for an iron bridge over the Schuylkill, and in April, 1787, he sailed for France to obtain the approval of his work by the French engineers. The plans were sanctioned by the French Academy and sent to the Royal Society. While in France he drew up a proposal for friendship between France and England, and acted as arbitrator. Visiting London, he at once became a social and diplomatic feature of that metropolis. In November, 1790. he began his reply to Edmund Burke's " Reflections on the Revolution in Fiance," entitled "Rights of Man," which he dedicated to George Washing- ton, and which reached a large circulation. The Democratic views set forth in this publica- tion exposed him to punishment for sedition and on the conferment of the title of French citizen by the National Assembly on Aug. 26, 1792. he returned to France. He was elected president of the Constitutional society of Calais, and a