The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume 1 (Philip S. Foner).pdf

Thomas Paine by George Romney

THE COMPLETE WRITINGS OF

THOMAS PAINE

COLLECTED AND EDITED BY PHILIP S. FONER, PH.D.

WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY, AND NOTES AND INTRODUCTIONS

PRESENTING THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PAINE'S WRITINGS

COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES

THE CITADEL PRESS • NEW YORK

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY THE VAIL BALLOU PRESS, INC., B I N G H A M T O N , N. Y.

and left their imprint on democratic thought all over the world.

These volumes represent an attempt to make these writings available

to both the general reader and the student. Every effort has been made

to include all of Paine's writings available at present, and to present

them in a manner that would make clear their historical background.

Emphasis has been placed throughout on presenting Paine's writings

in their essential clarity, and for this purpose efforts have been made,

without in any sense distorting Paine's meaning, to modernize the spell-

ing, capitalization and punctuation wherever it was necessary to make

the meaning clear to a present day reader.

Volume One contains Paine's major works: Common Sense, The

American Crisis, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, and Agrarian

Justice. In Volume Two will be found his other political and economic

essays, theological dissertations, scientific papers and political and per-

sonal correspondence. Much of the material found in the second volume

has never been included in any previous collection of Paine's writings.

In the preparation of these volumes I have had the generous assistance

and cooperation of the libraries and personnel of the Library of Congress,

the New York Public Library, the New York Historical Society, the

American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,

the Library Company of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Li-

brary, the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan,

the American Antiquarian Society, Harvard University Library, the

Henry E. Huntington Library, the John Carter Brown Library of Brown

University, the Wisconsin State Historical Society, the National Ar-

chives, the Boston Public Library, Yale University Library, and the

Thomas Paine National Historical Association. Without their aid it

would have been impossible to present this material to the public.

PHILIP S. FONER

PREFACE

T HE writings of Thomas Paine helped shape the American nation