1809 was some year. It was the year history-makers Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born, and we will hear a lot in the months to come about the bicentenary celebrations and achievements of these pioneers of politics and science. But we should also recall another event in this momentous calendar -- the death of Thomas Paine, who faded away alone and in poor circumstances in New York in June of that year.
Paine's legacy is as important to humanity as that of Lincoln and Darwin. His trenchant writing and radical thought left an indelible mark on the the great events of his time including the American war of independence, the French Revolution and the birth of the industrial age.
He was never rewarded. Cheated by the Americans, sentenced to death by the French and outlawed by the British, he died an outcast and lived his last years filled with bitterness over his poor treatment. Yet as an activist journalist there are few to match him. His call to arms to rebellious America in Common Sense was the publishing sensation of the age and the dignified ideas set out in the Rights of Man provide the outline for our modern humanitarian landscape. Let's drink to him this June. His spirit is truly missed in these dark and troubled times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment