"These are the times that try men's souls." "Tryanny, like hell, is not easily conquered."
Thomas Paine's words, captured in a series of pamphlets that he published, were so impassioned that George Washington ordered them to be read to the troops at Valley Forge. Paine, not content to simply write about revolution, served as a foot soldier in the War.
After America won victory over the British, Paine tried farming and failed. When the French Revolution broke out, he sailed to France and was made an honoray citizen there. However, he couldn't stomach the tactics of the Revolutionists, who believed in chopping off the heads of the aristocracy. He preached kindness and tolerance. The French Revolutionists threw him in to The Bastille.
Paine was scheduled for the guillotine himself, but one of the prison guards chalked the wrong side of the prison door. When the door closed, the mark of death was not visible.
What a fascinating story! I had no idea that Thomas Paine fought in the French Revolution or that he was scheduled for death.
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