Supporters press for a DC memorial to Thomas Paine, whose writings helped fuel the Revolutionary War

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 3:00 PM EST, January 10, 2026


NEW YORK (AP) — Some 250 years after “Common Sense” helped inspire the 13 colonies to declare independence, Thomas Paine might receive a long-anticipated tribute from his adopted country.

A Paine memorial in Washington, D.C., authorized by a 2022 law, awaits approval from the U.S. Department of Interior. It would be the first landmark in the nation’s capital to be dedicated to one of the American Revolution’s most stirring, popular and quotable advocates — who also was one of the most intensely debated men of his time.

“He was a critical and singular voice,” said U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a sponsor of the bill that backed the memorial. He said Paine has long been “underrecognized and overlooked.” Saturday marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Paine’s “Common Sense,” among the first major milestones of a yearlong commemoration of the country’s founding and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Paine supporters have waited decades for a memorial in the District of Columbia, and success is still not ensured: Federal memorials are initiated by Congress but usually built through private donations. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush signed bipartisan legislation for such a memorial, but the project was delayed, failed to attract adequate funding and was essentially forgotten by the mid-2000s.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/thomas-paine-memorial-common-sense-america-250-2b02db3670ee5ea2d299784019eb0c86

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There are 2 statues of Paine in the U.S. - both in NJ including in Bordentown, NJ where he lived -



and in Morrisntown, NJ -



Here in Philly, the publisher of Paine's "Common Sense" has a marker right on 3rd St. just below Walnut St. near the intersection with what was renamed to "Thomas Paine Place" (an alley that feeds between 3rd and Dock St... and across from where there used to be a First Pennsylvania Bank branch that I would go to years and years ago) -



And ironically enough also here in Philly, the plaza in front of Philly's Municipal Services building, where the Rizzo statue was eventually torn down, is named "Thomas Paine Plaza".





The art pieces above have since been removed and the plaza currently being completely re-done.

[SamuelTheThird]

1. Probably not gonna happen because...

Well, here's Paine's own words

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter.

[paleotn]

2. One of the reasons he's been downplayed so much over the decades.

That and his bitter attack on George Washington, who had recently been "deified." 100 years later, TR called him a "filthy little atheist." That's rich coming from a guy who got his own men killed, in pursuit of his own, personal glory in the Spanish American War. TR was just as complicated as Paine. Everyone is. But Paine was no atheist. He had his own version of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in his take on religion. Deism. And for the same reason Einstein just couldn't let go of the Steady State theory, even though his calculations told him it was rubbish. Paine couldn't let god go completely. Just couldn't take that last, logical step.

[Martin68]

3. Paine was a useful firebrand for a while, and then his rhetoric got a bit too uncomfortable for the founding fathers.