Thomas Paine-A Brief History of the Times That Tried Men's Souls: A Brief History of the Times That Tried Men's Souls

By Jett B. Conner

At the beginning of 1776, and then at the end, Thomas Paine published two highly influential pamphlets that form perfect bookends to that revolutionary year of American history. In January, Common Sense urged Americans to throw off their attachments to Great Britain,

declare their independence, and form a government of their own. Then in

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jett B. Conner, PhD
• Release date: Aug 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781734781731

Book preview

Preface

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homas Paine’s Common Sense helped America achieve independence and his American Crisis No. 1 helped save it. That the two famous pamphlets appearing respectively at the beginning and close of 1776 were written by a recent immigrant was pretty remarkable. But published they were, making their mark then and demonstrating lasting power. Both remain in print long after they were written, more than 240 years ago. Both form perfect bookends to that rebellious year of America’s founding.

Common Sense surged onto the political landscape like no other political tract in its time. That is because it was perfectly crafted to bring to a boil already simmering thoughts of independence in the American colonies. The pamphlet was not the cause for the Declaration of Independence six months later, but it is hard to imagine the timing of that event without its sudden appearance in January. The manifesto of independence that Paine called for in Common Sense was composed and finally declared by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia later that spring and summer. But because the Declaration of Independence was also a formal declaration of war, the bubble of euphoria emerging July 4th was deflated quickly by events taking place on battlefields just a few months later. The American army was being overrun in New York, and the new nation’s capital, Philadelphia, was close to being taken by the British. Independence, it was feared, might be little more than a declaration.

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Plan of the operations of General Washington, against the Kings troops in New Jersey, from the 26th, of December, 1776, to the 3d. January 1777. Library of Congress.

So, a second pamphlet was needed, and Paine delivered once again. The American Crisis No. 1 (hereafter Crisis 1) was written to counter a serious existential threat to a nation barely six months old. It was a superb piece of rhetoric and propaganda designed to boost American morale and commitment at a time when the new country faced the real possibility of an early extinction. The pamphlet was composed during General George Washington’s desperate retreat across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania after the fall of New York in late 1776. Paine, an aide-de-camp to General Nathanael Greene, accompanied Washington’s ragged troops and shared their misery during the oncoming winter weather. And all the while, he was working on the new pamphlet.

Published in Philadelphia on December 19th in the middle of what Paine called the blackest times of the war, the first paragraph of Crisis 1 contains Paine’s most memorable lines, words that perfectly described the circumstances: These are the times that try men’s souls. Supposedly composed by campfire light on a drumhead during the retreat of the Continental Army, his powerful words were meant to rally Washington’s soldiers and American resolve.

Legend holds that General Washington had Paine’s words read to his troops prior to his famous Christmas night crossing of the Delaware and the first Battle of Trenton in order to inspire his soldiers and achieve victory. The legend is retold as part of the annual reenactment of Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania. It continues to be passed along in one version or another in history books and biographies of Paine, and in the George Washington Timeline published by the Library of Congress for the date December 25, 1776. In spite of the tale being repeated again and again, there is little support for the story.

But there is more to the legend. Did Paine do more than just write powerful words in the winter of 1776-77? Did he also fire his musket alongside other American soldiers at both the Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton during those crucial days of the war for independence? Several prominent historians and biographers have said so. Paine may have fired his weapon while retreating with the Continental Army across New Jersey in front of General William Howe’s advancing British army, but there is no support for the claim that he fought at Trenton and Princeton, even though, as will be shown in this book, several prominent historians continue to place Paine in the middle of those actions.

To the contrary, evidence strongly suggests Paine was in Philadelphia the whole time during those engagements, composing a second Crisis article that he published in mid-January 1777, in a continuing effort to maintain the troops’ commitment and win over reluctant New Jersey residents to the American cause. Nothing he wrote later suggests he was a participant in or witness to the battles at Trenton and Princeton. Besides, as several of his comrades in arms said at the time, Paine was a much better writer than he was a soldier. They admired his contributions, especially his war reporting, which gave them a puff in the newspapers, but not so much his soldiering skill; they would have had no problem with Paine sticking to his talent for word craft.

For his part, Washington certainly could have used a puff. Battling feelings of pending failure and exhibiting some symptoms of what today would be considered clear signs of depression, he pondered what to do next on the western banks of the Delaware in December. He knew it wasn’t just the fate of his army that was in his hands; he knew his own leadership was at stake. Murmurs questioning his competence swirled around him, coming not only from members of Congress but from some of his generals and aides, too. Something had to be done. Badly needing a victory and recognizing he had to take a huge risk to get it, Washington planned his next steps. Due to many expiring enlistments, his already depleted army was about to shrink even further in size at the end of the month, leaving him with little to command. If he didn’t move now, the game, he informed his brother a few days before Christmas, was pretty near up.

So how did Paine’s Crisis 1 help Washington turn things positive for the Continental Army and the American cause during those deeply troubling times for the new nation? According to Paine, his mission to get to Philadelphia as soon as he crossed to the western side of the Delaware with Washington’s army in early December and print the pamphlet was official business. And though it is probable that Washington encouraged his efforts, it is unknown whether the general considered Paine’s new work to be part of his overall strategy to reinvigorate his army and renew America’s commitment to achieving independence. Still, the commanding officer with a sword needed a soldier with a pen.

The purpose of this small book is to find out how Crisis 1 came to be written and exactly what role it played in helping Washington move beyond those times that tried men’s souls. Above all, it challenges the legends and myths surrounding the publication of Crisis 1 and tries to offer a clearer picture of the impact the famous pamphlet had in those darkest times of the American Revolution.

Chapter 1

A Beginning

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or a moment, as the shrill sound of bullets pierced an otherwise quiet morning in May, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington sat on his horse awestruck. Then twenty-two, it was his first fight as a soldier, but not his first time in the territory. Leading a regiment of colonial Virginians, his troops had surrounded and surprised a French and Canadian patrol early that morning in the upper Ohio River Valley, an area beyond the Alleghenies contested by both France and Britain on Virginia’s western frontier. Suddenly, someone fired a shot. Just who is disputed. At that moment, it really did not matter.

A friendly band of natives led by a Seneca named Tanacharison, also known as the Half-King, had alerted Washington to the French encampment and joined up with his troops before the encounter. Tanacharison had aligned himself with the British because he determined they offered better protection for his band than the French and Canadians. He probably urged Washington to attack the contingent of French soldiers, who Washington perceived as a threat to his mission. Whatever the case, a skirmish erupted.

Several members of the French patrol, perhaps as many as ten, were killed and, according to Washington’s account, were scalped by the natives. The French leader Joseph Coulon de Jumonville was wounded and, despite protesting that his mission was peaceful, was then killed, his skull likely split open by Tanacharison’s hatchet. Diplomatic explanations be damned. While there is still controversy about exactly what happened at Jumonville Glen, the site in Western Pennsylvania today where the battle took place, one thing is certain. Washington’s actions on the western frontier in 1754 created an international incident that led to the French and Indian War.¹

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George Washington Wearing His Colonel’s Uniform of the Virginia Regiment from the French and Indian War. Painting by Charles Willison Peale. Collection Washington and Lee University. Wikimedia Commons.

This was the beginning of the same war—in Europe called the Seven Years War—that gave nineteen-year-old Englishman Thomas Paine the opportunity to seek his adventure in 1756, by going to sea as a privateersman. An ocean apart at the time, the two men’s lives would become intertwined two decades later as they pursued the same American cause.

After the Jumonville Glen incident, Washington wrote to his brother and relayed his feelings about his first battle: I fortunately escaped without a wound, tho’ the right Wing where I stood was exposed to & received all the Enemy’s fire and was the part where the man was killed & the rest wounded. I can with truth assure you, I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound.²

Curiously, Paine would also describe a similar bit of bravado: I knew the time when I thought the whistling of a cannon ball would have frightened me almost to death, but I have since tried it, and find that I can stand it with as little discomposure as anyone.³ Though Paine learned to endure an enemy’s cannonade calmly, mostly by staying out of harm’s way according to some of his contemporaries’ accounts, Washington managed to get in the way, by all accounts. Both men’s actions were noticed and, in the case of Washington’s, well recorded.

Washington had a mixed record of accomplishments defending British/Virginia interests on the western frontier. Just a few months after the incident at Jumonville Glen, he was the leader of the disastrous defeat