Revisionist patricide : Thomas Paine's Letter to George Washington

An intertextual examination of Thomas Paine's 'Letter to George Washington' clearly shows the link between his private history and public text. The 'Letter' was written after his incarceration in France, for which he blamed Washington. If his previous texts praised Washington, he attempted to re-write these in his 'Letter.' His revisions, of which he himself was aware, he justified in the name of historical truth. In the end, Paine betrayed not George Washington, but his own self aggrandizement and mythic role in the American Revolution.