Tom Paine: America's God Father

By W. E. Woodward

THIS book is more a slapdash history of the American and French revolutions, punctuated by copious quotations from the writings of Tom Paine, than a biography. It shows signs of hasty editing; it abounds in enthusiastic assertion; of Paine himself it reveals little that could not be gleaned from his own words.

Mr. Woodward wrote the book, he explains, to refute the accumulation of “lies, false impressions, twisted remarks, and untrue and slanderous episodes” which have disguised Paine’s true place in American history. If vigorous contradiction alone could suffice, Mr. Woodward would get at least a draw for his client: Paine was not an atheist, and Mr. Woodward is able to quote him effectively as a deist. He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views. Today’s readers, Mr. Woodward argues, would count these views anything but startling, and most of his readers will be bound to agree.

Two examples of Mr. Woodward’s technique may be illuminating. Hampered throughout his inquiry by the lack of original sources, he nevertheless disposes boldly of many matters. Of Paine’s imprisonment in France he writes: “The daily life in the Luxembourg prison was not as harsh and unpleasant as one might expect, but this statement is only a deduction growing out of Paine’s silence concerning the matter.” Denying James Cheetham’s description of Paine as a sot, Mr. Woodward explains: “He drank brandy with the idea . . . that it would keep up his strength.”

As to Paine’s last years, one need hardly consult the metaphysical to account for the disagreeable circumstances of his fatal illness. A sclerotic old man, living in poverty, having suffered two strokes of apoplexy, Paine is not to be judged by his final years. However much one might wish to applaud Mr. Woodward’s determination to appraise Paine more fairly, it would seem that the way is still open to future biographers of “America’s Godfather.”

CHARLES W. MORTON