English-born Founding Father, Thomas Paine, migrated to the American colonies in 1774, just in time to author Common Sense (1776), a pamphlet read by virtually every rebel. It so clearly articulated the demand for independence that John Adams said: “Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.” Paine continued to argue for the rights of the people to overthrow their government, most notably in Rights of Man (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution. His authorship of this pamphlet led to his conviction, in absentia, for seditious libel in England the following year. Paine lived in France for much of the 1790s, and was imprisoned there in 1793. During that time, he completed The Age of Reason, a series of pamphlets that advocated deism, freedom of thought, and promoted reason over religion. Freed by the future U.S. President James Monroe in 1794, Paine returned to the U.S. in 1802. Upon his death, and despite his service to the nation, only six people attended his funeral due to his irreligious writings.[1]
