Stephen Girard / Thomas Paine

Stephen Girard

Still a young man in his twenties, Stephen Girard has just moored his ship in the port of Philadelphia. A series of mishaps has left Girard with a full cargo of merchandise that he must now find a means of selling.

Stephen Girard: (approaching a man in the London Coffee House) Vous-parlez Francais, Monsieur?

Thomas Paine: Un petit peu. Just a little. My name is Paine. I came to America a year ago from England.

Girard: I myself have just arrived today. The British blockade has forced my ship into the port of Philadelphia. I was to deliver my cargo to my customers in New York.

Paine: You are French then?

Girard: Yes. I’m a merchant mariner from Bordeaux. Je suis enchanté, Monsieur.

Paine: Également. How do you do?

Girard: I have said just now I am a mariner. That’s how I do.

Paine: (laughs) “How do you do?” is like “enhanté.”

Girard: (laughs) I understand. You are as well a seaman?

Paine: No. I write for newspapers and magazines. In England I collected taxes but that was not the job for me.

Girard: Tell me. Is the port of Philadelphia always so full of people?

Paine: You have arrived in Philadelphia at an important time. The American Colonies are about to declare their independence from Great Britain. I hope they do it soon.

Girard: Forgive my innocence. I have no experience in these matters. Is that a good thing to break away from England?

Paine: As you probably know, the British have claimed this part of America since 1608 with the building of Jamestown into the first permanent British colony. Since that time the population has grown and developed into thirteen colonies, having their own local concerns and responsibilities. For the past ten years, the king of Great Britain has demanded more and more taxes from these colonies which the Americans continue to protest. In 1770, there was a massacre in Boston. Three years after that, an angry crowd threw three ship loads of tea into the Boston Harbor because it was too heavily taxed.

Girard: This is probablement a bad time for a foreigner to be here.

Paine: You are certainly in no danger if you stay out of the politics. There are many foreigners in Philadelphia and among them many French settlers. I would suggest that you not try to move your ship out of the harbor at this time; it may be confiscated by the British navy.

Girard: Thank you Mr. Paine. You have been very informative. By the way, will you leave too?

Paine: Absolutely not. Revolutions are my passion. All oppressed people must revolt against injustices of their societies.

Girard: Then you must go one day to France where most of the people are oppressed.

Paine: Perhaps one day I shall go. (Paine stands and shakes Girard’s hand and leaves the London Coffee House)

Girard: (goes to pay for the wine) Bartender, how much is the bill?

Bartender: No charge. Mr. Paine has paid for it.

Girard: That was very generous of him -- a fine gentleman. 

Bartender: He is an important man, the co-editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. You must read his book. He came to Philadelphia from England, embraced the spirit of our rebellion, that began in Boston with the Boston Tea Party. 

Girard: I read in the French newspapers about the start of fighting in April of last year, with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Bartender: In Paine's view the colonies had the right to revolt against the government that taxed them but which did not give them the right to speak their views in the Parliament at Westminster. He went even further. For him there was no reason for the colonies to stay dependent on England. On January 10, 1776 Paine wrote down his ideas on American Independence in his pamphlet Common Sense.

Thomas Paine