The Thomas Paine Memorial Association was founded to raise a long-overdue monument to honor Thomas Paine in the heart of our nation’s capital. Join us in celebrating an extraordinary American hero.
To our nation’s discredit, Thomas Paine, the man Thomas Jefferson called “the Father of the Revolution,” has no national memorial. Paine’s Common Sense ignited revolutionary fervor in America. His thirteen Crisis essays sustained hope during the times that tried men’s souls. But there is so much more to Paine’s legacy. Thomas Paine envisioned many of the hallmarks of modern-day life. He described an “Association of Nations”—a precursor to the United Nations—and also inspired FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights, penned in 1944. Paine proposed the idea of Social Security, fought for establishing labor unions, and argued for reparations for enslaved peoples. These ideas, implanted in the nation’s mind, still struggle to find fulfillment.
Thomas Paine deserves to take his place in Washington, D.C., as a pivotal American founder and hero. A long-overdue national monument will correct this historical oversight and inspire future generations with Paine’s democratic ideals.
To learn how you can become a valuable part of this effort, contact Margaret Downey at [email protected].
