But life abroad had become less and less tenable, and when Paine’s old friend Thomas Jefferson, newly elected president of the United States, offered him safe passage on an American warship, he returned to his adopted country in 1802.

But America had changed since he had left in 1787. Political partisanship was rife. And Paine found that through a number of his radical views—his attack on religion with The Age of Reason, in particular—he had alienated many of his former friends. Common Sense and the climate in which it had been written seemed all but forgotten. Without family or many close friends and in poor health, he spent his remaining years in New York City and at his farm in New Rochelle, continuing his polemical writing nonetheless. Thomas Paine died on June 8, 1809.

THE WORLD OF THOMAS PAINE
AND HIS WRITINGS


1737   Thomas Paine is born in the English village of Thetford, in Norfolk, on January 29 , to Joseph Pain, a Quaker staymaker, and Frances Cocke.
1743   Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, is born. 
1748   Charles-Louis de Montesquieu publishes The Spirit of Laws,  advocating government with separation of powers.
1750   Joseph Pain takes Tom out of grammar school, employing him in his staymaking shop in Thetford. 
1756   The Seven Years War between England and France breaks out. Tom runs away from home, enlisting for work on a privateer, but his father prevents him from boarding ship. 
1757   Paine lives in London working as a staymaker. He attends lectures on science and mathematics. He joins the crew of another privateer, the King of Prussia,  disembarking in August of that year.
1759   Paine sets up a modest staymaking business in Sandwich, Kent. In September he marries his first wife, Mary Lambert, a maid. Voltaire’s Candide  is published.
1760   Mary Lambert dies. Paine studies in preparation for a post as an excise officer. 
1764   Paine begins work as the tax collector for the town of Alford, in Lincolnshire, but continues his study of science. 
1765   Fired from his position as tax collector, Paine works again as a staymaker. 
1766   In London, Paine takes a job teaching English. The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, relieving tensions with the American colonies. 
1767   Paine applies to be readmitted to the Excise Service. 
1768   Paine is commissioned as tax collector for the village of Lewes, Sussex. He joins a political debating club, where he gains a reputation for acute reasoning and obstinate opinions. 
1771   In a marriage of convenience, he weds Elizabeth Ollive, the daughter of his deceased landlord, inheriting the management duties of her father’s shop. 
1772   While petitioning Parliament on behalf of his fellow excise men, Paine writes and prints his first pamphlet, The Case of the Officers of Excise.  Through his friend George Scott, a mathematician, Paine joins an intellectual crowd in London that includes Edward Gibbon, Samuel Johnson, and Benjamin Franklin.
1773   The Boston Tea Party takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. 
1774   The 1772 petition fails, and Paine is dismissed again from his position as an excise officer. He is impoverished, and his goods are auctioned. In June Paine separates from his wife, Elizabeth. In November he emigrates from Britain to the American colonies, arriving on November 30  with an introduction from Benjamin Franklin. The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. Paine writes “Dialogue Between General Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood Near Boston” for the local newspaper.
1775   In March Paine publishes “African Slavery in America,” an article denouncing the hypocrisy of the American slave trade. In April the American Revolution begins at the Battle of Lexington. In October Paine publishes A Serious Thought,  in which he predicts American independence from Britain.
1776  On January 10 Paine publishes Common Sense as an anonymous fifty-page pamphlet that denounces the British monarch and monarchy in general. Its popularity is enormous; more than 150,000 copies are printed. Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.  The Second Continental Congress signs the Declaration of Independence. George Washington commands the Continental Army. Paine volunteers for the army, working as a secretary to General Nathanael Greene. Following a string of defeats by the British, Paine returns
1777   to Philadelphia, where he writes the first of his American Crisis Papers. As Paine continues writing the Crisis Papers,  his influence with the leaders of the Revolution grows.
1778   Paine is appointed secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs and continues the Crisis Papers.  France allies with America, thanks to the efforts of Benjamin Franklin.
1779   Amid controversy over his attacks on war profiteers, Paine resigns from his post as secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs and is appointed clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly. 
1780   Paine works toward the creation of a bank to finance the war effort. He continues the Crisis Papers and is awarded an honorary degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He publishes a pamphlet, Public Good. 
1781   The leader of British forces, General Charles Cornwallis, surrenders to General George Washington, ending military conflict. 
1782   The new government enlists Paine as a propagandist, agitating for the Articles of Confederation. He publishes essays 10, 11, and 12 of the Crisis Papers. 
1783   The Treaty of Paris formally ends the war. Paine petitions the new government for a pension.