Thomas Paine Travel Bug KEY

To hang out near New Jersey so folks can use it to get into the A Hide for My 3rd Son cache.

Thomas Paine was born and raised in England in an area known for being pro-republican and anti-monarchy.  He soaked up much of this culture and entered into local politics.  But by 1774, he was divorced and fighting off being sent to debtors prison.  But he found a friend in Ben Franklin, who helped him leave for America and gave him a letter of introduction.  He soon had a job editing a magazine, which he quickly turned political with fiery essays against slavery and in favor of American liberty in 1775.

 It's taken as an article of faith now that the 13 colonies thought as one when it came to declaring Independence from Great Britain.  And certain men, most visibly John and Sam Adams, had arrived at that thought well before 1776.  But even as the War of Indpedence was being fought, many colonists hoped to reconcile with the King and Parliment or sat on the fence between wanting a new country and hoping to stay part of Britain.  In January 1776, a little pamplet called Common Sense, released anonymously but authored by Thomas Paine, blasted the notion that the colonies should stay part of Great Britain.  This was no mild document, in very clear and simple terms (as opposed to the flowerly language often used in political writing of the day) Paine argued that the colonies had not only the right to leave, that they had a duty to start a new nation that would protect freedoms.  He scoffed at the idea of heriditary monarchs and ridiculed the very notion (despite Europe being almost uniformly run by monarchs at the time).  This pamplet was electric, and more than 500,000 copies were sold (proportional to the population, the best selling American book of all time) and devoured across the 13 colonies.  While it probably didn't change the Continental Congress's path to declaring independence (many members strongly disliked the work and thought it much too radical), it completely changed the conversation about Independence.  After it came out, starting a new country was just "Common Sense" to many colonists-turned-Americans, and they flooded into Washington's army.

1776 was a terrible year for Washington's army.  They were nearly anihilated in battles around New York City and by the end of the year had lost 80-90% of their strength due to deaths, desertion, and captured prisoners.  The outlook of the war was bleak, and the British army settled in across the Delaware River from the remnents of Washington's army to wait for it to fall apart.  Washington came up with a bold plan, but would the soldiers follow it?  

During Washington's retreat across New Jersey, Paine had left the army and headed to Philadelphia, where he rushed out a pamplet, The American Crisis.

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

Washington had this read out loud to every member of the Continental Army, who would soon win stunning victories at Trenton on Christmas Day and then at Princeton.  The pamplet spread around the colonies and, along with Washington's victories, brought fresh soldiers into the army.

Paine led a controversial life after that, angering many of his old friends by speaking out against Western lands being claimed by them and by speaking out against slavery.  He wrote a third major work - the Rights of Man - in the defense of the French Revolution, which he then became a victim of himself when he went to France to support it (he was elected immediately to the legislature, despite not speaking French.  He was later imprisoned, as many people were during the French Revolution).  He angered more people with a letter assailing George Washington, who he was angry with for not asking for his release from prison in France.  But he really upset folks with the final major work of his life, The Age of Reason, a work that attacked organized religion as viciously as he'd once attacked the King of England (he considered himself a Deist).  He died in New York City in 1809 nearly friendless.  Only six people attended his funeral, including two African American freedmen.  His obituary read "He had lived long, did some good, and much harm."  

This travel bug is the KEY to opening the "A Hide for My 3^rd Son” cache.  Please keep it in the general New Jersey area so that folks can find it to open up that cache!