Thomas Paine (1739 - 1809), called the Father of the American Revolution, advanced the concepts of independence, equality, democracy, abolition of slavery, representative government, and a constitution with a bill of rights on the American agenda. In a 1789 letter from Europe, he wrote that he would rather see his horse button in his own stable, or eating the grass of Bordentown, than see all the pomp and show of Europe. Paine considered Bordentown his home, and it was here that he invented his bridge.