Thomas Paine: Citizen of the World

This monument honors Thomas Paine, the writer whose words helped light the American Revolution. Born in England in seventeen thirty-seven, Paine arrived in Philadelphia in seventeen seventy-four with little to his name. Within two years he published Common Sense, the pamphlet that made the case for independence in plain language any reader could grasp.

During the darkest days of the war, his American Crisis papers rallied soldiers and civilians. Paine later moved to France, where he supported the French Revolution and narrowly escaped the guillotine. His late work, The Age of Reason, made him deeply unpopular in the United States, and he died in eighteen oh nine nearly forgotten.

The inscription on this marker comes from his own pen: my country is the world, and my religion is to do good. New Jersey has claimed him ever since.