Not Your Father's Founders (21 page)

Thetford, England
January 29, 1737–June 8, 1809
Roving Revolutionary

Young Thomas Paine exasperated his father and everyone around him. He flunked out of school before he was twelve. He served an apprenticeship with his father as a corsetmaker but refused to be tied down, so he tried his hand as a sailor. That did not work either.

Losing jobs, businesses, and the people he loved was commonplace for Paine in his younger years. He started a business as a corsetmaker in Sandwich, Kent, in 1759, the same year he married Mary Lambert. His business failed. They moved to Margate, England, to get a fresh start. Mary became pregnant, but went into early labor. Lamentably, she and the child died in 1760—less than a year after their wedding.

Later, he obtained a job in 1768 as a tax officer in Lewes, England, working for a government for which he had no particular fondness. Paine functioned as a tax officer for four years. During that time he was fired twice. After being fired the first time, he opened a tobacco shop and married his landlord's daughter, Elizabeth Olive, on March 26, 1771. The shop and the marriage failed. He was able to obtain a second appointment as a tax officer.

Although Paine was unable to hold a job, he found his true calling during his time with the tax authority. He wrote his first political tract in 1772, a twenty-one page pamphlet called
The Case of the Officers of Excise
. In it, he argued on behalf of his fellow tax officers in Lewes for a pay raise and better working conditions. Two years later he was discharged for being absent from his post without permission.

He moved to London, where he met Benjamin Franklin in the early 1770s. Franklin was impressed by Paine's passion. The elder statesman suggested to Paine that a man of his talents—which had not yet been developed fully—should move to America. Paine followed Franklin's advice.

Paine arrived in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774. He began writing articles for
Pennsylvania Magazine
to gain journalistic experience. During his first year in the city he developed an appreciation for the American's pursuit of independence.

On January 10, 1776, Paine published his short work,
Common Sense
, in which he attacked the British form of government and its constitution, opposed reconciliation with Britain, called for an American declaration of independence, and espoused a republican style of government in the new country. The controversial pamphlet was an immediate success.

Paine became an instant hero in America. His words were a clarion call to independence—and war. Paine put down his pen and joined the army. He picked it up again quickly.

Even as Paine joined the army in its retreat across New Jersey, he continued writing. He authored a series of pamphlets known collectively as
The American Crisis
, which bolstered soldiers' flagging morale and kept the spirit of independence alive.

Paine kept writing as the war drew to a close, and Americans continued to draw inspiration from his words. Finally, in
The Crisis, XIII
, he wrote, “The times that tried men's souls are over—and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.” Then he disappeared.

After the fighting ended, there was no need for Paine's pen. He busied himself with more worldly issues, like wheedling money out of Congress. Since he was in dire financial straits after the war, he petitioned various governments for compensation. Congress eventually awarded him $3,000, and New York gave him a farm in New Rochelle it had seized from a Tory sympathizer.

Finally, disenchanted with the United States and its lack of support for him, he moved back to Europe, bouncing between France and England. He wrote pamphlets in support of the French revolutionaries, for which he went to jail.

Paine languished in Luxembourg Prison from December 28, 1793, to November 4, 1794. The new U.S. ambassador to France, James Monroe, finally secured his release.

Friends were getting hard to come by for Paine as the nineteenth century began. He had begun a series of attacks on religion, which was making him persona non grata in Europe. Thomas Jefferson came to his rescue and invited him back to the United States.

News of Paine's attacks on religion reached the United States long before he did in October 1802. When he got back to what he thought was friendly territory, former friends greeted him with less than open arms.

Paine spent his final years in New York City, suffering from alcoholism, poverty, and poor health. He had become a subject of derision, rather than a returning hero. He died at the age of seventy-two, and was buried at his farm in New Rochelle.

Only five people attended Paine's funeral. That was a sad farewell for the man many people called “The Father of the Revolution.”

Charleston, South Carolina
February 25, 1746–August 16, 1825

By any measure, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, not to be confused with his first cousin once removed and fellow prominent South Carolina politician Charles Pinckney, should have been a Tory. His father, South Carolina's agent in Britain, moved the family to England in 1753. Charles was educated at Oxford University and studied law at Middle Temple. He lived in the “Mother Country” for sixteen years. British affiliations notwithstanding, Charles threw in his lot with the colonies in their spat with Britain when he returned to South Carolina in 1769 with his law degree in hand, ready to start his own practice and enter politics.

His first foray into politics occurred in 1769, when he was elected to the South Carolina legislature. Four years later, he was appointed to a position as a regional attorney general. He had to put his career on hold to serve his country as an officer in the Continental Army.

As did so many men in the mid-1700s, Pinckney joined the militia. He did not enlist because he wanted to march off to war. It was more of a social steppingstone for young men of the genteel persuasion. Pinckney joined the prestigious 1st Regiment of South Carolina militia; his peers elected him as a lieutenant. The training came in handy.

There was one major difference between Pinckney's view of the embryonic United States and that of his peers. He believed that patriots had to look at the big picture; they had to fight for a united country rather than strictly for their individual states. Consequently, he joined the Continental Army rather than wait for the British to attack South Carolina. As it turned out, he did plenty of fighting in his home state.

Early in the war Pinckney served as an aide-de-camp to General Washington at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in 1777. He then returned to South Carolina and resumed his duties as a legislator. They were far different from those he had carried out as a soldier.

Leaders in the field started beseeching Pinckney for financial relief and support.

Soon Pinckney was back in the field himself. He served during the siege of Savannah, Georgia, in September and October 1779 and then at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780. The British captured the entire Continental Army fighting at Charleston, and detained Pinckney as a prisoner of war until 1781. That ended his military involvement in the war.

Pinckney served in the South Carolina legislature from 1786–89, with a brief break to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He offered many ideas as discussions progressed. Many of them were not adopted because they were considered radical. Among them, Pinckney wanted to abolish slavery and allow an unlimited number of soldiers in a standing army. Radical ideas aside, he led the successful ratification effort back home in South Carolina. Mostly, he advocated for a strong federal government.

Once the Constitution was adopted, Pinckney became increasingly active in national politics. He turned down offers to serve as the secretary of war and secretary of state, but left the door open for other positions. More importantly, Pinckney and John Adams became good friends—and ran on the same presidential ticket.

Before that happened, President Washington appointed Pinckney in 1796 as minister to France. It was his first trek to Europe in a quarter century, and a most memorable experience—until political reality struck. The French government refused to receive Pinckney, who moved to the Netherlands after his credentials were rejected. His presence in Europe provided a unique opportunity for John Adams, who had replaced Washington as U.S. president. Adams asked Pinckney to join John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry on a committee in Paris to improve diplomatic relations with France, which resulted in the scandalous XYZ affair in 1798.

French officials offered the Americans a deal regarding the ongoing differences between the two countries in the late 1790s. All the Americans had to do was offer a gift—preferably cash—to three unnamed French people (X, Y, and Z) to settle their differences. If they did, the French might sign a peace treaty.

The so-called XYZ affair ended when the Americans refused to offer the bribe, and the French bid the American envoys a less-than-pleasant adieu.

When Adams ran for reelection as president in 1800, Pinckney was the candidate for vice president. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr defeated them. The election results did not faze Pinckney. They whetted his appetite for future presidential campaigns.

Pinckney tried to win the presidency in 1804 and 1808, first against Thomas Jefferson and then against James Madison. He lost by landslides both times.

As suddenly as Pinckney's national political ambitions surfaced, they disappeared. After his second drubbing in a presidential race, Pinckney returned to the solitude of South Carolina. He involved himself in local and state educational and religious matters.

Charles C. Pinckney is remembered for his fierce loyalty to the United States. That was how he lived his life—and that is how he will be remembered in death.