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Recognizing June 8, 2009 as Thomas Paine Day in Philadelphia in Appreciation of the Tremendous Influence of Paine's Life and Words upon the City of Philadelphia and the Nation on the Occasion of the 200th Anniversary of His Death.
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WHEREAS, In the closing passages of his recent inaugural speech, President Obama quoted from Thomas Paine's essay The Crisis, written in 1776, intoning: "Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it." And thereby, Obama reminded us of the importance of and the inspiration we can continue to draw from the writings of Thomas Paine to this day; and
WHEREAS, Thomas Paine came to Philadelphia, which was the political and cultural center of America in 1774, with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, whom he had met in London; and
WHEREAS, He became the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in this City, as well as friends with a group of political radicals who were centered here; and
WHEREAS, Paine wrote to Benjamin Franklin observing that he could see the slave market from his apartment window and asked Franklin how it was that they could be talking about freedom and allow slavery to exist. And this experience, among others, prompted Paine to write African Slavery in America (1775), wherein he vigorously criticized the visible contradiction existing between the call for an independent citizenry and the practice of slavery; and
WHEREAS, Paine was one of the first members of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society, an organization which still exists here in Philadelphia today; and
WHEREAS, Paine changed what was essentially a tax revolt into a revolution for independence with the widespread dissemination of his pamphlet Common Sense (1776); and
WHEREAS, Paine was one of the first individuals to use the phrase, "United States of America" and whe...
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