Episode Details

In this episode, Luke talks with Jason Maloy, author of several works, including “The Paine-Adams Debate and Its Seventeenth-Century Antecedents,” presented at a conference on Paine hosted by San Jose State University in 2007.

Jason writes that for Paine, “nothing else but a single sovereign assembly can be truly representative of the nation, and nothing else can be accountable to the people of the nation; therefore, nothing else can be either legitimate or safe.” Many influential people disagreed, including John Adams, who countered Paine’s unicameralism with arguments for a multicameral legislature and “mixed” Constitution. Jason also discusses the antecedents of the debate, including in the English Civil War and the Levellers versus Oliver Cromwell, as well as in political struggles in the Massachusetts Bay Colony; the differences between democratic republicans and aristocratic republicans, and unicameral versus bicameral division as a line that split republicanism; and the contemporary importance of reading Paine and understanding this history.

Luke cited Jason’s work in a recent article commemorating the 250th anniversary of the publication of Paine’s Common Sense, and has also written about the importance of the Levellers. We’ve spoken with many people about the relevance of Paine’s work, including Gregory Claeys, Harvey J. Kaye, Matt McManus, and Gary Berton.