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-Project Gutenberg's Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by John E. Remsburg
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
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-
-Title: Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty
-       An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including
-       the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses
-
-Author: John E. Remsburg
-
-Release Date: July 11, 2012 [EBook #40210]
-
-Language: English
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40210 ***
 
 Produced by David Widger
 
@@ -7113,358 +7092,4 @@ and religious creed of this glorious day:
 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by 
 John E. Remsburg
 
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40210 ***
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-Project Gutenberg's Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by John E. Remsburg
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty
-       An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including
-       the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses
-
-Author: John E. Remsburg
-
-Release Date: July 11, 2012 [EBook #40210]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THOMAS PAINE
-
-THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY
-
-An Address Delivered In Chicago, January 29, 1916.
-
-
-INCLUDING THE TESTIMONY OF FIVE HUNDRED WITNESSES.
-
-
-By John E. Remsburg
-President Of American Secular Union
-
-"This effort to right the wrongs of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, a
-service to mankind."--Andrew D. White, LL.D., First President of Cornell
-University, Minister to Russia, and Ambassador to Germany.
-
-1917
-
-IN MEMORY OF THOMAS "CLIO" RICKMAN, WILLIAM COBBETT, GILBERT VALE,
-HORACE SEAVER, ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, MONCURE D. CONWAY, THADDEUS B.
-WAKEMAN and EUGENE M. MACDONALD, noble defenders while living of the
-much maligned dead, this appreciation of our nation's founder and the
-world's greatest apostle of liberty is reverently inscribed.
-
-
-
-
-THOMAS PAINE, THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY.
-
-
-FROM time immemorial men have observed the natal days of their gods and
-heroes. A few weeks ago Christians celebrated the birthday of a god. We
-come to celebrate the birthday of a man.
-
-Within the brief space of twenty-five days occur the anniversaries of
-the births of the three most remarkable men that have appeared on this
-continent--Paine, Washington and Lincoln--the Creator, the Defender and
-the Savior of our Republic. To do honor to the memory of the first
-of these--to acknowledge our indebtedness to him as a patriot and
-philosopher, and to extol his virtues as a man--have we assembled here.
-We come the more willingly and our exercises will be characterized by
-a deeper earnestness because the one whose merits we celebrate has been
-the victim of almost infinite injustice. In the popular mind to utter a
-word in his behalf has been to apologize for wrong--to declare yourself
-the friend of Paine has been to declare yourself the enemy of man. The
-world is not prepared to do him full justice yet. Priestcraft, still
-powerful, uses all its power to prejudice the public mind against
-him and in too many hearts, where love and gratitude should dwell,
-ingratitude and hatred have their home. There are those who will condemn
-this meeting in his name today and some of you may spurn the blossoms I
-have culled to place upon his tomb.
-
-But is it a crime to defend the dead? Has the court of Death issued an
-injunction restraining us from pleading the cause of the departed? We
-defend from the assaults of calumny the fair fame of the living, and not
-more sacred are the reputations of the living than of the absent dead
-whose voiceless lips can utter no defense. The lips of Thomas Paine have
-long been dumb; but mine are not, and while I live I shall defend him.
-As Rizpah stood by the bodies of her murdered sons, keeping back the
-birds of prey, so will I stand by the memory of this good man and drive
-back the foul vultures that feast their greedy selves and feed their
-starving broods on dead men's characters.
-
-On the 29th of January, 1737, at Thetford, England, Thomas Paine was
-born. He was of Quaker parentage. Like nearly all of earth's illustrious
-sons, he was of humble origin. At an early age he left the paternal roof
-and began alone life's struggle,--serving in the British navy, teaching
-in London, engaging in mercantile pursuits, and performing the duties of
-exciseman.
-
-While in London he formed the acquaintance of the learned Franklin, who
-induced him to cross the ocean and cast his lot with the people of the
-New World. He comes to America toward the close of 1774. A year of quiet
-observation enables him to grasp the situation here. He sees thirteen
-feeble colonies struggling against a powerful monarchy; he sees a tyrant
-whom the world styles "king" trampling the fair form of Liberty beneath
-his feet; he sees his subjects crouching and cringing before the throne,
-pleading in vain for a redress of wrongs. Separation and Independence
-have not yet been proposed. It is true that Lexington, and Concord, and
-Bunker Hill have passed into history; it is true that Patrick Henry,
-James Otis, John Hancock, and the Adamses have fearlessly denounced the
-odious measures of the British ministry; yet up to the very close of
-1775, not a voice has been raised in favor of Independence. A redress
-of grievances is all that the boldest have demanded. But the current of
-history is to be turned. Rebellion is to be changed to Revolution. With
-the firm belief that right will triumph, Paine marshals the legions of
-thought that spring from his prolific brain and on the first of January,
-1776, moves in solid columns against this citadel of tyranny. The shock
-is irresistible. The solid masonry gives way, and falls before his
-fierce assault. Into the breach thus made an eager people rush, and on
-the ruins plant the unsoiled banner of a new Republic.
-
-That the Fourth of July, 1776, would not have witnessed the Declaration
-of Independence but for the timely appearance of Paine's "Common Sense,"
-no candid student of history will for a moment question. This book first
-suggested American Independence; in this book appeared, for the first
-time, "The Free and Independent States of America." Nor did Paine's
-labors end with the publication of this work. He was the inspiring
-genius of the long war that followed. When Washington's little army was
-hurled from Long Island, when despondency filled every heart, and all
-seemed lost, Paine came to the rescue with the first number of his
-"Crisis," in which were couched those thrilling words, "These are
-the times that try men's souls." His pamphlet, by orders of the
-commander-in-chief, was read at the head of each regiment. It was
-also sent broadcast over the land. The effect was magical; into the
-dispirited ranks is breathed new life, and in the minds of the people
-planted a determination never to give up the struggle. At critical
-periods during the war number after number of this brave work appeared
-until, at last, he could triumphantly say, "The times that tried men's
-souls are over, and the greatest and completest revolution the world
-ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished."
-
-The pen of Paine was as mighty as the sword of Washington. "Common
-Sense" was the glorious sun that evolved a new political world; each
-number of the "Crisis" a brilliant satellite that helped to illumine
-this New World's long night of Revolution.
-
-In the Old World liberty remained, as it still remains to a large
-extent, yet to be wearisomely achieved. In France the people were
-struggling against a corrupt and oppressive government. Paine enlisted
-his services in the cause of freedom there. He advocated a Republic,
-and organized the first Republican society in France. But Louis was
-permitted to resume his reign, and tranquility having been for a brief
-season restored, Paine went to his native England, where, in reply to
-Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," appeared his "Rights
-of Man." With a desperation characteristic of the detected robber the
-Government suppressed his work; but not until it had kindled a fire in
-Europe which tyrants have not yet succeeded in extinguishing and in the
-glare of whose unquenchable flames may be read the doom of monarchy.
-
-The storms of revolution bursting forth afresh, Paine again repaired to
-France. A joyous reception awaited his arrival at Calais. As his vessel
-entered the harbor a hundred cannon thundered "Welcome!" As he stepped
-upon the shore a thousand voices shouted "_Vive_ Thomas Paine!" Bright
-flowers fell in showers around him; fair hands placed in his hat the
-national cockade. An immense meeting assembled in his honor. Over the
-chair he sat in was placed the bust of Mirabeau with the colors of
-France, England and America united. All France was ready to honor her
-defender.
-
-Three departments, the Oise, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Puy-de-Dome,
-each chose him for its representative. He accepted the honor from
-Calais and proceeded to Paris. His entry into the French capital was a
-triumphal one. He was received as a hero,--an intellectual hero who
-on the field of mental combat had vanquished Europe's most brilliant
-champion of monarchy, and vindicated before the tribunal of the world
-mankind's eternal rights.
-
-He took his seat in the National Convention. A stupendous task devolved
-upon this body--the formation of a new Constitution for Republican
-France. Its most illustrious statesmen and its wisest legislators must
-be chosen to prepare it. A committee of nine was named: Thomas Paine,
-Danton, Condorcet, Brissot, Barrere, Vergniaud, Petion, Gensonne, and
-the Abbe Sieyes. To Paine and Condorcet chiefly was the work of drafting
-it assigned by their colleagues.
-
-Then came the trial of Louis XVI and the beginning of those turbulent
-scenes which culminated in the Reign of Terror. The convention was
-clamoring for blood. Paine had been one of the foremost in overthrowing
-the monarchy. He believed the king to have been tyrannical,--to have
-been the pliant tool of a corrupt nobility, and of a still more corrupt
-priesthood. But he did not deem him deserving of death, nor did he
-believe that the best interests of France would be subserved by such
-harsh measures. But the Terrorists threatened with vengeance all who
-should dare to oppose them. To plead the cause of the king might be to
-share his fate. A vote by any member in favor of saving his life might
-bring an overwhelming vote against that member's own life. They had
-resolved that the king should die, and led by such men as Robespierre
-and Marat, there were assembled the most determined and the most
-dangerous men of France. The galleries, too, were filled with an excited
-mob of fifteen hundred--many of them hired assassins, fresh from the
-September massacre. "We vote," protested Lanjuinais when the balloting
-commenced, "under the daggers and the cannon of the factions." In this
-perilous position what course would Paine pursue? Would he, like others,
-quietly acquiesce in these unjust proceedings? He had never yet faltered
-in his purpose of pursuing what he deemed the right. Would he shrink
-from danger now? No! above the wild storm of that enraged assembly,
-through his interpreter, rose the voice of this brave man in powerful,
-eloquent appeals in behalf of mercy. "Destroy the King," in effect, he
-said, "but save the man! Strike the crown, but spare the heart!"
-
-He pleads in vain; the king must die. "Death within four-and-twenty
-hours," is the decree. Amid the insults and execrations of a frenzied
-mob Louis is torn from the arms of his queen and children and hurried to
-the scaffold.
-
-The Mountain has triumphed. The Jacobins, infuriated by the taste of a
-king's blood, will next devour their fellow-members. The Girondins, the
-heart and brains of France, are expelled from the convention, dragged
-to prison and to the guillotine. Paine's plea for mercy can not be
-forgiven. He is imprisoned; sentence of death is finally pronounced
-against him; the hour for his execution, with that of his
-fellow-prisoners, is set. Fortuitously he escapes. In summoning the
-victims for execution he is overlooked. Soon after, and before the
-mistake is discovered, the bloody Robespierre is overthrown, and his own
-neck receives the blow he meant for Paine. The fall of Robespierre stems
-the crimson torrent and, in time, secures for Paine his freedom. His
-imprisonment has lasted nearly a year, a year never to be forgotten, a
-year of chaos, from which is to arise a fairer and a better France.
-
-Let us contemplate, for a moment, this bloody and protracted drama. Let
-us, in imagination, visit this death-stricken Paris. Buildings--once
-palaces--have been transformed into prisons. Thousands are crowded
-within their walls; beings of both sexes, and of every age and rank;
-grayhaired men who look with stolid indifference upon the scenes around
-them; youth, pale with fear; heroic types of manhood pacing to and fro
-with all the bearing of conquerors; frail women, whose swollen eyes,
-those tear-stained windows of the soul, faintly reveal the heart's
-fierce agony within! The scene is changed. All is bustle and confusion.
-A morbid and excited crowd is gathering; the death tumbrils go rumbling
-by toward the Place de la Revolution; the groans of men, the shrieks of
-women, rend the air and throw a shade of sadness over all deeper than
-midnight's gloom.
-
-Again the scene shifts. The bustle is over now; the crowd has dispersed;
-those shrieks and groans are hushed. But that huge pile of headless
-trunks; the headsman's sack; those pools of blood; that blood-stained
-instrument, to whose edge still cling the straggling hairs of its
-victims, the golden threads of youth mingled with the silver threads of
-age, these remain--grim fragments of the feast where this French Saturn
-made his last repast.
-
-Day after day this carnival of death goes on. Danton, Brissot, and many
-more of the best men of France are butchered; Roland and Condorcet die
-by their own hands; Talleyrand is a refugee in America, and Lafayette
-pines in the dungeon vaults of Austria.
-
-Many noble women, too, are sacrificed. Marie Antoinette follows her
-Louis to the scaffold. In the Conciergerie, companions for a time, are
-held captive two of the purest and noblest of women,--the lovely and
-amiable Josephine Beauhamais, destined to become Napoleon's queen, and
-the beautiful and gifted Madame Roland, whose innocent blood must wet
-the cruel knife of the guillotine.
-
-Such was the French Revolution,--"A mighty truth clad in
-hell-fire,"--the bloodiest, and yet the brightest page in the history
-of France. It might have been a bloodless one, it might have been
-a brighter one, had the wise and moderate counsels of Thomas Paine
-prevailed.
-
-In the shadow of death the crowning effort of his life, the "Age of
-Reason," was composed. His pen had given kingcraft a mortal hurt;
-priestcraft must be destroyed. This book has filled die Orthodox world
-with terror. Around it has raged one of the fiercest intellectual
-conflicts of the age. All the artillery of Christendom has been brought
-to bear upon it; but without effect. Firm, impregnable, like some
-Gibraltar, it still stands unharmed.
-
-Bowed with the weight of sixty-six years Paine returned to America.
-Here the evening of his life was passed,--embittered by a world's
-ingratitude.
-
-    "Men never know their saviors when they come."
-
-The apostle of liberty, of mercy, and of truth, became successively a
-martyr to each. For espousing the cause of liberty England declared
-him an outlaw; for advocating mercy France gave him a prison; and for
-proclaiming the truth America placed upon his aged head the cruel crown
-of thorns.
-
-But death came at last and brought relief to the persecuted sage. On a
-bright June morning (June 8), in 1809, the end came.
-
-Yes, death came. But with it came no fears. No banished Hagar with
-famishing infant haunted him; from the desolate ruins of those Midianite
-homes came no phantoms to strike his soul with terror; no Uriah's ghost
-stood before his bedside and would not down; the hand that with no
-weapon but the pen had made priests and monarchs tremble, now growing
-cold and pallid, was not stained with the blood of a wile or child;
-no agonizing shrieks of a burning Servetus rang in his dying ears.
-Tempestuous as life's voyage had been, the old man readied his port in
-peace. Nature, whom he had deified, fondly and pityingly held him in
-her all-embracing arms, and soothed him in that last sad hour as with
-a mother's love. The morning sun looked kindly down and kissed his
-throbbing temples; gentle breezes, fragrant with the odors of a thousand
-roses, fanned his fevered brow; joyous birds, whose songs he loved so
-well, came to his window and sang their cheeriest notes; while faithful
-friends were at his bedside, ministering to every want. And so, bravely
-and peacefully, with that serenity of soul which only the conscious of a
-well-spent life can give, the grand old patriot passed away.
-
-Thus have I briefly traced the public career of Thomas Paine,--a career
-in which his steadfast devotion to manly principles ranks him with the
-world's worthiest heroes. His private life was not less honorable. In
-his moral nature were united the noblest traits that adorn the human
-character.
-
-His philanthrophy was bounded only by the limits of the world in which
-he lived Jew and Mohammedan, Christian and Infidel, Caucasian and
-Mongolian, the despised negro and the rude Indian, all to him were
-brothers.
-
-His charity was of the broadest kind. He was ever ready to share his
-last dollar or his last comfort with the poor and distressed, and this
-regardless as to whether they were friends or foes. When his Republican
-friend, Bonneville, was crushed and impoverished by Napoleon, Paine gave
-to his family an asylum in America, and willed to them a part of his
-estate. When a brutal English officer assaulted him in Paris--and to
-strike a deputy the penalty was death--he saved him from the guillotine,
-and finding him penniless, from his own purse paid his passage home to
-England.
-
-His patriotism was never questioned. Many have won the name of patriot
-whose services to their country have been inspired by mere selfish
-motives; but with him, fame, wealth, comfort, all were sacrificed for
-his country's welfare. Throughout that eight year's struggle, his life,
-his time, his talents, all were at her service. And, whether serving as
-aid-de-camp to General Greene in that terrible campaign of '76; filling
-with ability the important post of Secretary to the Committee on Foreign
-Affairs; with Laurens at the French court negotiating loans for his
-government; or cheering the despondent and nerving them up to deeds of
-valor,--he was at all times, and in every situation, the same modest,
-magnanimous, unflinching patriot.
-
-In his disinterestedness he stands alone. At the beginning of the
-Revolutionary struggle he was a poor author, lacking at times even the
-bare necessities of life. But he had the opportunity of becoming rich.
-The enormous sale of "Common Sense" would of itself have secured for him
-a handsome competence. But what did he do? did he secure for himself the
-profits to which he was justly entitled? No! he presented to each of the
-thirteen colonies the copyright, and came out indebted to his printer
-for the original edition. When his country languished for want of funds
-to pay her soldiers in the field he started a subscription that brought
-her more than a million, heading it with five hundred dollars, and
-limited his gift to this because he had no more to give. When his
-"Rights of Man" was ready for the press he refused one thousand pounds
-for the copyright and then gave it to the world.
-
-Moral courage was another prominent element in this great man's
-character. His espousal of the cause of American Independence--a cause
-which no other man had up to that time dared to espouse--shows a lofty
-heroism; his attack upon monarchy, in the very capital of a monarchical
-government, knowing, as he must have known, that every effort would be
-made to crush him, was a grand exhibition of moral bravery, while
-his publication of the "Age of Reason" was, in many respects, a more
-courageous act than either. But it was in His heroic defense of Louis
-XVI that his moral courage shone with all the lustre of the sun. Search
-all the annals of the past and say if on the historian's page is found
-one act, one single act, surpassing in moral sublimity that of Thomas
-Paine accepting a prison and, if need be, death, to save a fallen foe!
-
-In the expression of his religious opinions no man has been more frank
-or explicit, while no man's religious opinions have been more grossly
-misrepresented. What was his belief?
-
-"I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this
-life.
-
-"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious
-duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make
-our fellow-creatures happy.
-
-"The world is my country, to do good my religion."
-
-This was his creed; and with a firm belief in the truth and justice of
-this creed he lived and died.
-
-There are, I regret to say, many good people who believe that Thomas
-Paine was a very bad man. They have heard this from the lips of those in
-whose veracity they place implicit confidence. While from infancy they
-have been taught to regard Jesus Christ as the mediator between man and
-God, they have been led to consider Thomas Paine as a sort of negotiator
-between the Devil and man. Now, let me ask these people, do you know
-why Thomas Paine has been so bitterly assailed? You have heard various
-charges preferred against him; but seriously, do you believe any of the
-charges named sufficient to account for the intense, the bitter hatred
-that has been manifested toward him? Have you never been impressed with
-the thought that there might be something back of all this, some secret
-grudge which your informants dare not mention? Let us notice briefly the
-faults and vices imputed to him.
-
-You have been told that he was a pauper, that he died in wretchedness
-and want. Those who told you this were certainly mistaken. The estate
-presented to him by New York, in consideration of his Revolutionary
-services, was valued at $30,000, and the greater portion of this was
-remaining at his death. It is true that during his long and useful
-career he was many times in straitened circumstances; but this was
-the result, not of improvidence, or reckless expenditure, but of
-the devotion of his life to the cause of humanity instead of the
-accumulation of wealth. But what if he had died poor? Is poverty a
-crime? Yes, were this true, is it a thing of which to boast, that in a
-Christian city, within the sound of forty church-bells, an old man was
-suffered to lie neglected and alone, racked by the pangs of hunger and
-disease, piteously pleading for a crust of bread, or a cup of cold water
-to cool his parched and fevered tongue; and do you mean to tell us that
-Christian charity the while stood by unmoved, mocked his sufferings, and
-damned him when he died?
-
-You have been told that he was a drunkard. A baser slander was never
-uttered. No human being ever saw Thomas Paine intoxicated. He was one
-of the most temperate of men. All of his neighbors and acquaintances
-indignantly denied the truth of this imputation. Gilbert Vale tells us
-that he knew more than twenty persons who were intimately acquainted
-with him and not one of whom ever saw him intoxicated. The proprietor of
-the house in New York, a respectable inn at which Paine boarded in his
-later years, says that of all his guests he was the most temperate. But
-supposing that he was a drunkard. Is drunkenness so rare as to secure
-for its victims an immortal notoriety? Are there no living drunkards for
-these omnivorous creatures to devour, that, like hyenas, they must dig
-into a drunkard's grave to fill their empty maws?
-
-You have been told by the clergy that his writings are immoral. I defy
-those who make this charge to point to one immoral sentence in all that
-he has written. They cannot; and I further affirm that they dare not
-permit you to examine his writings and ascertain for yourselves the
-truth or falsity of this assertion. You who have never read his works
-may believe that they contain much that is bad. You may imagine that
-a deadly serpent lurks within them. Let me assure you that there is
-nothing in them that can harm you. The highest moral tone pervades their
-pages. They are full of charity, they glow with patriotism, they are
-warm with love. Even yet, within their lids methinks I feel the beating
-of the generous heart of him who penned them, every throb marking an
-aspiration for the welfare of his fellow-men. But admitting, for the
-sake of argument, that his writings are immoral. Does not the world teem
-with immoral literature? Are there not hundreds of immoral writers even
-among the living? If so, why has all this wrath been concentrated upon
-Paine to the almost total exclusion of the rest?
-
-You have been told that he was an Infidel. Infidel to what? In the
-Christian sense of this term he was. But what peculiar significance
-do your informants attach to this fact? Are not three fourths of the
-world's inhabitants Infidels? Do not the greatest scholars of the age
-go far beyond him in Infidelity? Earth's wisest sons--those who
-have contributed most to the wealth of science, and literature, and
-statesmanship, have been these so-called Infidels. Yet Paine has been
-denounced as if he were the only Infidel that ever lived.
-
-You have been told that he recanted on his deathbed. In other words,
-that he lived a hypocrite; that he only feigned Infidelity for the sake
-of being persecuted. A very plausible reason, surely. But this statement
-has been widely circulated, and that, too, in spite of the fact that
-every person who was with him during his dying hours pronounced it
-false,--those who sat by his bedside and heard every word that fell
-from his lips. It has ever been the custom of the church to make every
-distinguished individual appear as an endorser of her dogmas. See
-those insolent priests haunting the death chamber of Voltaire; see the
-crucifix thrust into the hands of the dying Litre and the dead Sherman;
-see the frantic efforts made to convince the world that Lincoln changed
-his religious views and died a Christian. An honest Quaker who visited
-Paine daily during his last illness testified to having been offered
-money to publicly state that he recanted. But he refused. Others were
-doubtless approached in the same manner, and with the same result.
-Unable to find a deathbed witness base enough to make so foul a charge,
-the calumny was originated by one who did not see him die. A Christian's
-brain conceived and bore that infamous falsehood; and black and hideous
-as the offspring was, nearly every orthodox clergyman was ready to serve
-it in the capacity of a faithful nurse. And in these nurses' arms it
-lived and died. Only a little while ago I saw one of them hugging to his
-breast and endeavoring to resuscitate with holy breath the putrid corpse
-of this dead lie! But supposing that he did recant, that he acknowledged
-the divinity of Christ. If he did this he died in the Christian faith.
-Now does the church treat deathbed penitents in the manner in which
-Paine has been treated? Has not every criminal that has repented in his
-last hours, from the dying thief of nineteen hundred years ago to the
-last murderer sent to Heaven, been held up as an object of admiration?
-Why, then, denounce Paine for having, as they claim, renounced his
-Infidelity? O Consistency, thou art, indeed, a jewel!
-
-And now, assuming all these charges to be true, he would still have been
-naught but a poor, drunken Infidel; and while this would have subjected
-him to much harsh criticism while living, it would have been merely of a
-local character, and would have ceased when he was no more. Death would
-have silenced censure, the mantle of charity would have been spread
-above his grave, and the waves of oblivion would have rolled over his
-memory long ago. Is it possible that all Christendom would have been so
-deeply agitated, that the walls of her churches would have echoed every
-week with the fierce anathemas thundered from a thousand pulpits against
-the inanimate dust of a poor, drunken Infidel!
-
-The conclusion, I think, must irresistibly force itself upon your minds
-that these reputed faults do not constitute the real head and front
-of Thomas Paine's offending. There must be something else. What is it?
-Would you have the mystery solved? If so, read his, "Age of Reason."
-Read it carefully, thoughtfully, critically; read it with your Bibles
-open before you; read it in connection with the ablest refutations that
-have been attempted against it. Do this, and the mystery will be solved.
-You will then know why Thomas Paine has been so bitterly assailed.
-
-Two champions meet in the arena of debate. One of them, is overwhelmed.
-Smiles and groans announce his discomfiture, while shouts of applause
-reward the triumph of his rival. Then one of them grows angry, and stung
-with madness, drops the sword of argument and seizes in its stead the
-bludgeon of malice with which to assail his adversary. But which one
-does this, the successful or the defeated antagonist? I have somewhere
-read that "the bird that soars on pinions strong and free and is not hit
-by the marksman's bullet is not discomposed'"--that "_it is the wounded
-bird that flutters!_"
-
-That Thomas Paine was not the poor, drunken, immoral wretch that
-priestly virulence represents him to have been, is dearly shown by
-the esteem in which he was held by those who knew him best. Would
-Dr. Franklin have retained the friendship of a poor, drunken, immoral
-wretch? Would Lord Erskine have defended against the government of
-England, a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would Bishop Watson have
-crossed swords in theological disputation with a poor, drunken, immoral
-wretch? Would Napoleon Bonaparte, when in the zenith of his fame, have
-invited to his table a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would France's
-greatest women, Roland and De Stael, have stooped to pay the tribute
-of praise to a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would President Jefferson
-have offered a national ship to bear to his home a poor, drunken,
-immoral wretch? Would Washington have acknowledged as one of the most
-potent factors in achieving American Independence, the pen of a poor,
-drunken, immoral wretch? Would the Congress of the United States and the
-National Convention of France have bestowed gifts and conferred, honors
-upon a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Impossible! Every fact connected
-with his public life refutes these charges made against his private
-character.
-
-In support of the claims that I have made for Thomas Paine, in
-refutation of the calumnies that have been circulated against him, I
-bring the testimony of more than _five hundred witnesses_--those who by
-intimate acquaintance, or a careful study of his life, are qualified
-to give a just estimate of his character and works,--historians,
-biographers, encyclopedists, statesmen, divines, and others; men and
-women who have acquired an honorable distinction in the various walks
-of life, and whose names alone are a sufficient guarantee that what they
-testify shall be the truth. From the dead and from the living--from two
-continents--I summon them:
-
-
-
-
-"COMMON SENSE" AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
-
-Dr. Joseph B. Ladd:
-
-     "Immortal Paine! whose pen, surprised we saw,
-     Could fashion empires while it kindled awe.
-
-     "When first with awful front to crush her foes,
-     All bright in glittering arms, Columbia rose,
-     From thee our sons the generous mandate took,
-     As if from Heaven some oracle had spoke;
-     And when thy pen revealed the grand design,
-     'Twas done--Columbia's liberty was thine."
-
-W. C. Braun: "From the brain of Thomas Paine Columbia sprang full
-panoplied, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter."
-
-"Paine was the prophet of American destiny."--_George Jacob Holyoake_.
-
-"Thomas Paine is one of those men who most contributed to the
-establishment of a Republic in America."--_Abbe Sieyes_.
-
-Century Dictionary: "Took a prominent part in support of the American
-Revolution."
-
-"A principal actor in the American Revolution."--_M. Thiers, President
-Third Republic of France_.
-
-John Clark Ridpath, LL. D.: "The Morning Star of the Revolution."
-
-Hon. William Willett: "The first champion of American liberty."
-
-Blackie's Modern Cyclopedia (England): "One of the founders of American
-Independence."
-
-"The apostle of American Independence."--_M. de Lamartine._
-
-William Cobbett: "I saw Paine first pointing the way and then leading a
-nation through perils and difficulties of all sorts to independence and
-to lasting liberty, prosperity and greatness."
-
-"Paine was the first voice in America that was imperial."--_George W.
-Foote_.
-
-Theodore Roosevelt: "Thomas Paine, the famous author of 'Common Sense.'"
-
-Edmund Burke: "That celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds of the
-people for Independence."
-
-Egerton Ryerson, LL. D.: "The sudden and marvelous revolution in the
-American mind was produced chiefly by a pamphlet."
-
-George Bancroft: "Franklin encouraged Thomas Paine,... who was the
-master of a singularly lucid and fascinating style, to write an appeal
-to the people of America."
-
-"With a soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast-moving
-quill. That quill puts down words on paper, words that shall burn
-into the brains of kings like arrows winged with fire and pointed with
-vitriol. Go on, brave author, sitting in your garret alone at this dead
-hour, go on, on through the silent hours, on and God's blessings fall
-like breezes of June upon your damp brow, on and on, for you are writing
-the thoughts of a nation into birth."--_George Lippard_.
-
-Pennsylvania Journal (January 10, 1776): "This day was published and
-is now selling by Robert Bell, in Third street, price two shillings,
-'Common Sense addressed to the inhabitants of North America.'"
-
-From this book came the world's first and greatest republic, the first
-realization of a government of the people, by the people, and for the
-people. Eloquently he pleads for separation and independence:
-
-"The birthday of a new world is at hand."
-
-"Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
-the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part."
-
-"The independence of America should have been considered as dating its
-era from, and published by, the first musket that was fired against
-her."
-
-"O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but
-the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with
-oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa
-have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger and England
-hath given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive, and prepare in
-time an asylum for mankind."
-
-Benjamin Franklin: "A pamphlet that had prodigious effects."
-
-Justin Winsor: "It was printed and reprinted in Philadelphia in
-English and once in German, and in the same year reprinted in Salem,
-Newbury-port, Providence, Boston, Newport, New York, Charleston, and
-also in London and Edinburgh."
-
-Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D, (Chaplain to Congress): "The pamphlet had a
-greater run than any other ever published in our country."
-
-William Massey, M. P.: "'Common Sense' had an immense circulation."
-
-Francis Bowen, A. M.: "It had an enormous sale."
-
-Historians' History of the World: "More than one hundred thousand copies
-of his 'Common Sense' were sold in a short time."
-
-Prof. John Fiske: "More than a hundred thousand copies were speedily
-sold, and it carried conviction wherever it went."
-
-Salmonsen's Conversationslexicon: "It had an immense sale (120,000
-copies) and exerted an enormous influence."
-
-Samuel M. Jackson, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense' (120,000 copies were
-sold in the first three months) struck the keynote of the situation by
-advocating Independence and a Republican form of government."
-
-(Referring to the sale of "Common Sense," Paine's biographer, Dr.
-Moncure D. Conway, says: "In the end probably half a million copies were
-sold.")
-
-Eben Greenough Scott: "It was a plea for independence and a continental
-government."
-
-Best of the World's Classics: "In this work Paine advocated complete
-separation from England."
-
-Nordisk Familjebok Konversationslexicon: "He as boldly as convincingly
-sh owed the necessity of the Colonies tearing themselves away from
-England."
-
-Rev. Charles E. Little: "His 'Common Sense' was widely circulated and
-greatly aided the Revolution by showing the importance and necessity of
-seeking independence."
-
-Robert Bissett, LL. D.: "'Common Sense,' published [written] by Thomas
-Paine, afterwards so famous in Europe, contributed very much to the
-ratification of the independence of America."
-
-John Frost, LL.D.: "It demonstrated the necessity, advantages, and
-practicability of independence."
-
-Dr. George Weber: "Written in an eminently popular style it had an
-immense circulation, and was of great service in preparing the minds of
-the people for Independence."
-
-Henry Howard Brownell: "The book was extensively circulated, and
-exercised, beyond question, a most powerful influence."
-
-Robert Mackenzie: "His treatise had, for those days, a vast circulation
-and an extraordinary influence."
-
-Oscar Fay Adams: "His famous pamphlet 'Common Sense' was of great
-service to the Americans."
-
-Eva M. Tappan: "Its clear and logical arguments were a power in bringing
-on the war."
-
-D. H. Montgomery: "Paine boldly said that the time had come for a 'final
-separation' from England, and that 'arms must decide the contest.'"
-
-Rev. John Schroeder, D.D.: "'Common Sense,' from the pen of Thomas
-Paine, produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-Independence."
-
-Woodrow Wilson: "Pamphlets which argued with slow and sober power gave
-place to pamphlets which rang with passionate appeals: which thrust
-constitutional argument upon one side and spoke flatly for independence.
-One such took precedence of all others, whether for boldness or for
-power, the extraordinary pamphlet which Thomas Paine, but the other
-day come out of England as if upon mere adventure, gave to the world as
-'Common Sense.'"
-
-American Reference Library: "'Common Sense,' more than any other single
-writing furnished the logical basis of Independence."
-
-"'Common Sense' first formulated the demand for Independence."--The
-_Nation_ (London).
-
-Benson J. Lossing, LL.D.: "It was the earliest and most powerful appeal
-in behalf of Independence, and probably did more to fix that idea firmly
-in the public mind than any other instrumentality."
-
-Richard Hildreth: "It argued in that plain and convincing style for
-which Paine was so distinguished."
-
-Edmund Randolph: "A style hitherto unknown on this side of the
-Atlantic."
-
-Charles Kendall Adams, LL.D: "A work which had great influence on the
-Colonists."
-
-"The success and influence of this publication was extraordinary, and
-it won for him the friendship of Washington, Franklin and other
-distinguished American leaders."--_Chambers' Encyclopedia_.
-
-J. Franklin Jameson, LL.D.: "'Common Sense'... exerted a profound
-impression."
-
-John T. Morse, Jr.: "Thomas Paine had sent 'Common Sense' abroad among
-the people and had stirred them profoundly."
-
-Lord Stanhope: "That publication had produced a strong effect."
-
-Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense', written by Thomas
-Paine, produced great effect."
-
-John Howard Hinton: "'Common Sense' from the popular pen of Thomas
-Paine produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-independence."
-
-Dr. David Ramsey: "In union with the feelings and sentiments of the
-people it produced surprising effects."
-
-Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D.: "Of mighty cogency in its tone and
-substance, was that vigorous work of Thomas Paine."
-
-Rev. Jesse A. Spencer, D.D.: "The style, manner and matter of his
-pamphlet were calculated to rouse all the energies of human nature."
-
-William Grimshaw: "'Common Sense' roused the public feeling to a degree
-unequalled by any previous appeal."
-
-Hand Book of American Revolution: "It affected sensibly the current of
-political feeling."
-
-Barnes's Centenary History: "It produced a profound impression."
-
-"The clear and powerful style of Paine made a prodigious impression on
-the American people."--_Thomas Gaspey_.
-
-Charles Morris: "Its stirring tones filled all minds with the thirst for
-liberty."
-
-Nouvelle Biographie Generale (France): "The pamphlet produced a
-prodigious effect."
-
-"The success of this writing of Paine," says the Italian patriot and
-historian, Charles Botta, "cannot be described."
-
-W. H. Bartlett: "This pamphlet produced an indescribable sensation."
-
-John Andrews, LL.D.: "It was received with vast applause."
-
-Timothy Pitkins: "'Common Sense' produced a wonderful effect in the
-different Colonies in favor of Independence."
-
-Rev. William Gordon: "Nothing could have been better timed than this
-performance."
-
-Boston Gazette (April 29, 1776): "Had the spirit of prophecy directed
-the birth of a publication it could not have fallen on a more fortunate
-period than the time in which 'Common Sense' made its appearance."
-
-"In the elements of its strength it was precisely fitted to the hour, to
-the spot and to the passions."--_Prof. Moses Coit Tyler_.
-
-Melville M. Bigelow: "No pamphlet was so timely, none had such an
-effect."
-
-Prof. C. A. Van Tyne: "It was a firebrand which set aflame the ready
-political material in America."
-
-"Every living man in America in 1776 who could read, read 'Common
-Sense.'... This book was the arsenal to which colonists went for their
-mental weapons."--_Theodore Parker_.
-
-Mrs. Robert Burns Peattie: "Men, women and children read it. It was for
-them an education."
-
-C. W. A. Veditz, LL.B.: "The work of Paine became the text book of the
-new era."
-
-Sydney G. Fisher: "Its phrases became household words on the lips of
-every man in the patriot party."
-
-Henry W. Edson: "Its concise, simple and unanswerable style won
-thousands to the cause."
-
-Edward Channing: "It was read and debated in smithy and shop and
-converted thousands."
-
-Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton: "Much that Paine wrote was
-so simple, so convincing, such 'common sense,' that thousands read it
-and concluded that separation was necessary."
-
-William Cullen Bryant and Sydney Howard Gay: "Everybody read it and
-nearly everybody was influenced by it."
-
-Pennsylvania Evening Post (March 17, 1776): "'Common Sense' hath made
-independents of the majority of the country."
-
-Almon's Remembrancer (1776): "'Common Sense' is read by all ranks; and
-as many as read, so many become converted."
-
-"'Common Sense' has converted thousands to Independence who could not
-endure the idea before."
-
-(Where two or more paragraphs of testimony follow the name of a witness,
-all of the testimony cited, unless otherwise credited, belongs to the
-witness named.)
-
-William Robinson (to Nathan Hafle, Feb. 17, 1776): "Upon my word, it is
-well done.... I confess a perusal of it has much reformed my notions."
-
-Joseph Hawley (to Elbridge Gerry, Feb. 18, 1776): "I have read the
-pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of
-America.' and every sentiment has sunk into my well-prepared heart."
-
-"By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find
-that 'Common Sense' is working a powerful change there in the minds of
-many men."--_George Washington_.
-
-Rev. John Drayton: "Colonel Gadsden (having brought the first copy
-of Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense') boldly declared himself [in the
-Provincial Congress at Charleston, Feb. 10, 1776] for the absolute
-Independence of America. This last sentiment came like an explosion of
-thunder on the members."
-
-Bitterly as the Colonists opposed the tyranny of the English Government
-there were no manifestations of disloyalty. If they harbored the thought
-of separation and independence no tongue or pen had dared to give
-expression to it. Referring to this period Hon. Alexander H. Stephens
-says: "Neither did Livingston, nor Washington, nor any of the prominent
-leaders in the cause of the Colonists at that time look to anything but
-a redress of grievances. None were looking to a final separation and
-Independence."
-
-"When I first took command of the army," says Washington, "I abhorred
-the idea of Independence." When admonished that continued resistance to
-the crown might lead to separation, he replied: "If you ever hear of
-me joining in any such measures you have my leave to set me down
-for everything wicked." While Paine was writing his "Common Sense,"
-Jefferson, the reputed author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote
-that he was "looking with fondness toward a reconciliation with Great
-Britain." But a little while before Franklin had assured Lord
-Chatham that "he had never heard in America an expression in favor of
-Independence."
-
-Virginia, the province of Washington and Jefferson, declared in favor
-of "a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of government." In
-November, 1775, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, Franklin's province,
-elected a delegation to the Continental Congress with these
-instructions: "Though the British Parliament and administration have
-compelled us to resist their violence by force of arms, yet we strictly
-enjoin that you dissent from and utterly reject any proposition, should
-such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from the mother
-country."
-
-"Among them all not one had been stirred by that splendid dream of a new
-nation, a nation independent and free. There was but one mind and only
-one that had grasped the great plan. There was one voice crying in the
-wilderness. There was one herald of the dawn, one that did not hesitate
-in that night of hesitancy and reluctancy."--_Dr. J. E. Roberts_.
-
-Dr. David Ramsay, a prominent leader in the Continental Congress and a
-popular historian of the Revolution, describing the effects of "Common
-Sense," says: "Though that measure [Separation] a few months before was
-not only foreign to their wishes, but the object of their abhorrence,
-the current suddenly became so strong in its favor that it bore down all
-before it."
-
-Prof. Moses Coit Tyler: "In one sentiment all persons, Tories and
-Whigs, seemed perfectly to agree, viz., in abhorrence of the project of
-separation from the Empire. Suddenly, however, and within a period
-of less than six months [chiefly as a result of Paine's pamphlet] the
-majority of the Whigs turned completely around, and openly declared for
-Independence."
-
-"Thomas Paine brought to the study of the American Revolution a mind...
-quick to see into things, and marvelous in its power of stating them
-with lucidity, with liveliness and with incisive force."
-
-It is generally supposed that the writing of "Common Sense" with its
-advocacy of separation and independence was suggested by Franklin.
-It was not; Franklin knew nothing of its existence prior to its
-publication. What he suggested was a history of Colonial affairs
-which he believed would convince the world that the grievances of the
-Colonists against the mother country were just. Paine's own account of
-the origin of this work is as follows:
-
-"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials
-as were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
-transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the
-next spring.. I had then formed the outlines of 'Common Sense,' and
-finished nearly the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design
-in getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I
-expected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier
-than he thought of; and without informing him of what I was doing, got
-it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the
-first pamphlet that was printed off."
-
-Regarding the originality of his revolutionary ideas, "Appleton's
-Cyclopedia of American Biography" says: "Beyond doubt Washington,
-Franklin, and all other prominent men of the Revolutionary period gave
-Paine the sole credit for everything that came from his pen."
-
-Washington, Franklin and Jefferson were among Paine's earliest
-converts. Franklin gave his book his immediate approval, and Jefferson's
-endorsement soon followed. Washington, writing to Joseph Reed in the
-same month that it was published, acknowledged its "sound doctrine and
-unanswerable reasoning," and declared for separation.
-
-"Jefferson, Washington and Franklin, who up to that time [publication of
-'Common Sense'] had denounced even the thought of Independence,... all
-changed front, and soon, not a majority, but the effective part of the
-people, followed."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"Washington, now converted, wrote to his friends in praise of 'Common
-Sense'... Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Madison, all the great
-statesmen of the time, wrote praisefully of Paine's 'flaming
-arguments.'"--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_.
-
-"Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered the
-advisability of answering it but came to the conclusion that it was
-unanswerable."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-An Unknown Writer of Charleston, S. C. (Feb. 14, 1776): "Who is the
-author of 'Common Sense'? I can hardly refrain from adoring him. He
-deserves a statue of gold."
-
-Abigail Adams: "I am charmed with the sentiments of 'Common Sense,' and
-wonder how an honest heart, one who wishes the welfare of his country
-and the happiness of posterity, can hesitate one moment at adopting
-them."
-
-"'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, has come in season to clear
-our doubts and fix our choice."
-
-John Winthrop: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments it would satisfy
-the people."
-
-"The public mind was now fully educated to accept the doctrine of
-Independence.... Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet 'Common Sense'
-had sapped the foundation of any remaining loyalty to the British
-Crown."--_John Clark Ridpath, LL. D_.
-
-Prof. Alexander Johnston: "Thomas Paine turned the scale by the
-publication of his pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-
-Richard Frothingham: "The great question which it treated was now
-discussed at every fireside; and the favorite toast at every dinner
-table was; 'May the independent principles of 'Common Sense' be
-confirmed throughout the United Colonies.'"
-
-Henry Clay Watson: "'Common Sense' effected a complete revolution in the
-feelings and sentiments of the great mass of the people."
-
-Rev. Jedediah Morse. "The change of the public mind on this occasion is
-without a parallel."
-
-Dr. Benjamin Rush: "'Common Sense' burst from the press with an
-effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or
-country."
-
-Hon. Salma Hale: "The effect of the pamphlet in making converts
-was astonishing, and is probably without precedent in the annals of
-literature."
-
-James Cheetham (Paine's basest calumniator): "Speaking a language which
-the colonists had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its
-consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the
-press."
-
-General Charles Lee: "Have you [Washington] seen the pamphlet 'Common
-Sense'? I never saw such a masterly irresistible performance."
-
-"He burst forth on the world like Jove in thunder."
-
-Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History: "Its trumpet tones
-awakened the continent, and made every patriot's heart beat with intense
-emotion."
-
-J. Dorman Steele, Ph. D.: "Every line glowed with the spirit of liberty,
-and men's hearts were thrilled as they read."
-
-Larned's Ready Reference History: "A more effective popular appeal never
-went to the bosoms of a nation.... Its effect was instantaneous and
-tremendous."
-
-Henry Cabot Lodge: "The pamphlet marked an epoch, was a very memorable
-production; from the time of its publication the tide flowing in the
-direction of independence began to race with devouring swiftness to high
-water mark."
-
-Encyclopedia Britannica (10th Ed.)--"There is a complete concurrence of
-testimony that Paine's pamphlet issued on the first of January, 1776,
-was a turning point in the struggle, that it roused and consolidated
-public feeling, and swept waverers along with the tide."
-
-Prof. Goldwin Smith: "Colonial resolution had been screwed to the
-sticking point by Tom Paine, the stormy petrel of three countries, with
-his pamphlet 'Common Sense.'"
-
-Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews: "Most potent of all as a cause of the
-resolution to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-
-"No writing ever more instantly swung men to its humor."--_Woodrow
-Wilson_.
-
-Mary L. Booth: "This eloquent production severed the last link that
-bound the Colonies to the mother country."
-
-Mary Howitt: "The cause of Independence took as it were a definite form
-from this moment."
-
-Guilliam Tell Poussin: "It rendered the sentiment of Independence
-national."
-
-"The notion of a new State, wholly free from Great Britain, first found
-full and convincing expression in Paine's 'Common Sense'."--_London
-Times_.
-
-Gen. William A. Stokes: "When 'Common Sense' was published a great blow
-was struck. It was felt from New England to the Carolinas; it resounded
-throughout the world."
-
-The sympathy and assistance of liberty-loving Europeans contributed
-much to the success of the Revolution, and this was due largely to the
-influence of Paine's "Common Sense," which was printed in nearly every
-tongue and read in nearly every country of Continental Europe. Even in
-England thousands of copies were circulated, and the American party,
-the party of Chatham, Fox and Burke, was greatly strengthened, while the
-influence of the king and his ministry was correspondingly weakened by
-the effect of its masterly arguments.
-
-Lord Erskine: "In that great and calamitous conflict, Edmund Burke and
-Thomas Paine fought in the same field together, but with very different
-success. Mr. Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George
-Saville describes it, having no ears but for sounds that flattered its
-corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, spoke to the people, reasoned
-with them, told them they were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty
-further than their own benefit connected them, and, by these powerful
-arguments, prepared the minds of the American people for that glorious,
-just, and happy Revolution."
-
-Marquis de Chastelleaux: "Since my arrival in America I had not yet seen
-Mr. Paine, that author so celebrated in America and throughout Europe
-by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.' Lafayette and myself had
-asked the permission of an interview, and we waited on him
-accordingly with Col. Laurens.... His patriotism and his talents are
-unquestionable."
-
-W. E. H. Lecky: "Paine's 'Common Sense'... was translated into French,
-and was, if possible, even more popular in France than in America."
-
-"The work ran through innumerable editions in America and France. The
-world rang with it."--_Hon. Henry S. Randall_.
-
-Silas DeAne: "'Common Sense' has been translated, and has had a greater
-run here [in France] than in America. A person of distinction, writing
-to his noble friend in office, has these words: 'I think, with you,
-my dear Count, that "Common Sense" is an excellent work, and that its
-author is one of the greatest legislators among the million writers that
-we know.'"
-
-Sir George Trevelyan: "It would be difficult to name any human
-composition which has had an effect at once so instant, so extended,
-and so lasting. It flew through numberless editions. It was pirated,
-and parodied, and imitated, and translated into the language of every
-country where the new Republic had well-wishers, and could hope to
-procure allies.... It was reprinted in all the Colonies with a frequency
-surprising at a time when Colonial printing houses were very few. Three
-months from its first appearance, a hundred and twenty thousand copies
-had been sold in America alone; and, before the demand ceased, it was
-calculated that half a million had seen the light."
-
-"Paine saw beyond precedents and statutes, and constitutional facts or
-fictions, into the depths of human nature; and he knew that, if men are
-to fight to the death, it must be for reasons which all can understand."
-
-John Adams: "'Common Sense' was received in France and in all Europe
-with rapture."
-
-"History is to ascribe the Revolution to Thomas Paine." (Letter to
-Thomas Jefferson).
-
-John Quincy Adams: "Paine's 'Common Sense' crystalized public opinion
-and was the first factor in bringing about the Revolution."
-
-Samuel Adams: "Your 'Common Sense'... unquestionably awakened the
-public mind, and led the people loudly to call for a Declaration of our
-National Independence."
-
-Parker Pillsbury: "Without his 'Common Sense,' written in 1775, we
-should not have had the Declaration of Independence in 1776."
-
-Samuel Bryan: "This book, 'Common Sense,' may be called the Book of
-Genesis, for it was the beginning. From this book spread the Declaration
-of Independence, that not only laid the foundation of liberty in our own
-country, but the good of mankind throughout the world."
-
-"The open movement to Independence dates from its
-publication."--_Encyclopedia Britannica_ (11th Ed.)
-
-Elkanah Watson (one of Paine's calumniators): "It everywhere flashed
-conviction, and aroused a determined spirit which resulted in the
-Declaration of Independence."
-
-Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL. D.: "This spark was sufficient to rouse the
-Americans, who at once signed the Declaration of Independence."
-
-William Howitt: "It at once seized on the imagination of the public,
-cast all other writers into the shades and flew in thousands and tens
-of thousands all over the Colonies.... The common fire blazed up in
-Congress, and the thing was done."
-
-"He became the great oracle on the subject of governments and
-constitutions."
-
-Thomas Gaspey: "He was treated with great consideration by the members
-of the Revolutionary government, who took no steps of importance without
-consulting him."
-
-Grand Dictionary Universel: "He became the political catechism of the
-movement."
-
-Dictionary of National Biography (America): "Joined the Provincial army
-in the autumn [1776] and became a volunteer aid-de-camp to General
-Nathaniel Greene, animating the troops by his writings [the 'Crisis']."
-
-"The pamphlets that stirred like a trumpet call the flagging energies of
-a desponding people."--_Rev. John Snyder_.
-
-"General Greene made him one of his aides-de-camp; but an appointment on
-that staff, during those weeks, carried with it very little, either of
-privilege or luxury. In the flight from Fort Lee Paine lost his baggage
-and his private papers; but he had kept or borrowed a pen. He began
-to write at Newark, the first stage in the calamitous retreat; and
-he worked all night at every halting place until his new pamphlet was
-completed. It was published in Philadelphia on the 19th of December,
-under the title of 'The Crisis,' and at once flew like wildfire through
-all the towns and villages of the Confederacy."--_Sir George Trevelyan_.
-
-This, the first number of the "Crisis," opens with these words: "These
-are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
-patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
-but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and
-woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
-consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the
-triumph."
-
-Samuel Eliot: "His later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name
-of the 'Crisis,' were of equal power [to 'Common Sense']."
-
-Encyclopedia of Social Reform: "The 'Crisis' exerted wide influence for
-Independence and Republicanism."
-
-Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.: "The 'Crisis' [sixteen numbers], written
-by Paine between 1776 and 1783, exercised an enormous influence over men
-and events during the Revolution."
-
-Albert Payson Terhune: "He plunged, heart and soul, into the struggle
-for freedom. His 'Common Sense' and other pamphlets [the 'Crisis'] were
-such strong and eloquent pleas for liberty that Washington ordered some
-of them read aloud to the patriot armies."
-
-National Cyclopedia of American Biography: "Its [the 'Crisis'] initial
-number was, by the order of General Washington, read aloud to each
-regiment and to each detachment."
-
-William S. Stryker: "The effect of its strong patriotic sentences was
-apparent upon the spirits of the army."
-
-George T. Cram: "The whole patriot army was inspirited by it."
-
-Werner's Encyclopedia (Ed. 1899): "Its opening words, 'These are the
-times that try men's souls,' became a battle cry."
-
-Norman Hapgood, LL.B.: "The last sentence [of the first 'Crisis'] sounds
-like a prophecy and the first sentence, 'These are the times that try
-men's souls,' was the watchword [at the battle of Trenton]."
-
-George Lippard: "In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army
-of the Revolution; he shares the crust and the cold with Washington and
-his men; he is with those brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with
-them by the camp fire, with them in the hour of battle.
-
-"Is the day dark? Has the battle been bloody? Do the American soldiers
-despair? Hark! that printing press yonder, which moves with the American
-camp in all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the ranks of
-the army--pamphlets written by the author-soldier; written sometimes on
-the head of a drum, or by the midnight fire, or amid the corpses of the
-dead."
-
-"Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals to the attack
-on Trenton, and there in the dawn of that glorious morning, George
-Washington, standing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian
-Rhol, confessed the magic influence of the author-hero's pen."
-
-"Under that cloud, by Washington's side, was silently at work the force
-that lifted it. Marching by day, listening to the consultations of
-Washington and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp fires; the winter
-storms, the Delaware waves, were mingled with his ink; the half-naked
-soldiers in their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant homes, the
-skulking deserter creeping off in the dusk, the pallid face of the
-heavy-hearted commander, made the awful shadows beneath which was
-written that leaflet."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Of this work Sir George Trevelyan writes: "The 'Crisis' was an
-impassioned appeal to arms. That circumstance endowed Paine's glowing
-rhetoric with a special value in the estimation of Americans. To their
-mind's eye the little work was adorned by an imaginary frontispiece of a
-soldier, writing by the watch-fire's light, with his comrades slumbering
-round him; and it was among those comrades that the author found his
-warmest admirers and his most convinced disciples."
-
-"These words were fire and warmed the soldiers; they were meat and drink
-for the famishing; they were clothes for the naked. The soldiers were
-filled with a courage new and unknown. The battle of Trenton came,
-and as the soldiers entered that conflict, all down the ranks rang the
-battle cry, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' The battle was
-fought and won. The army of the patriots had entered upon a new
-career. And thus he wrote and wrought to the end of the immortal
-struggle."--_Dr. John E. Roberts_.
-
-"In the midnight of Valley Forge the 'Crisis' was the only star that
-glittered in the broad horizon of despair."--_Col. Ingersoll_.
-
-"Paine was the real founder of our Republic. Without his 'Common
-Sense' the independence of the American Colonies never would have been
-declared; without his 'Crisis' it never could have been won. Without his
-services this country, like Canada, India, Australia and South Africa,
-today would be a part of the British Empire.
-
-"We would undoubtedly be under British rule today but for the wise and
-wonderful efforts of Thomas Paine.''--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_.
-
-"Paine's title as the discoverer and inventor of the United States is
-just as plain as Watt's invention of the steam engine, and everything
-that has taken place as a result of organizing the United States of
-America is the result of Thomas Paine's labors."--_Rev. Thomas R.
-Slicer, D.D_.
-
-Timothy Matlack (Oct. 10, 1777): "The Honorable House of Assembly has
-proposed and Council has adopted a plan of obtaining more regular and
-constant intelligence of the proceedings of General Washington's army
-than has hitherto been had. Every one agrees that you [Paine] are the
-proper person for the purpose, and I am directed by his Excellency, the
-President, to write to you.... Proper expresses will be engaged in this
-business. If the expresses which pass from headquarters to Congress can
-be made use of so much the better,--of this you must be the judge."
-
-Col. Asa Bird Gardener, LL.D.: "The entire British fleet was then
-brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the most furious cannonade and
-most desperate but finally unsuccessful defense of the place was made.
-The entire works were demolished, and the most of the garrison killed
-and wounded. Major General Greene being anxious for the garrison and
-desirous of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain.
-He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on Nov. 9, (1777),
-went with Col. Christopher Greene commanding Fort Mercer, in an open
-boat to Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and was there when the enemy
-opened with two gun batteries and a mortar battery. This _very_ gallant
-act shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was."
-
-Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary: "He was secretary to the Committee
-on Foreign Affairs in Congress from April, 1777, to January, 1779."
-
-It has been asserted by Mr. Roosevelt and others that Paine, because
-of his action in the Deane affair, was discharged from his position as
-secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was not discharged,
-nor was he even asked to resign. He resigned of his own volition.
-
-Franklin Steiner: "In 1778 a fraud was about to be committed upon the
-infant republic.... Paine wrote several articles for the press, exposing
-the entire corrupt transaction, and of course made enemies of all
-involved in the dishonest affair, who at once made attempts to have him
-discharged from his position, in which they failed."
-
-"A motion for his dismission was lost."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Congress refused to vote that it was 'an abuse of office,' or to
-discharge him."--_Ibid_.
-
-It was Paine's honesty and patriotism, a desire to protect the interests
-of his adopted country, that caused him to make his exposure. His
-"indiscretion," as some diplomats characterized it, saved the Colonies
-a million livres. Pennsylvania applauded the act and rebuked his
-censors by appointing him clerk of the Assembly. His whole subsequent
-career--his continued labors in behalf of the Colonies--the confidence
-reposed in him by all the people--show that his ability, his integrity,
-and his patriotism were never questioned.
-
-In less than three years after the Deane affair the members of Congress
-who had honestly espoused Deane's cause acknowledged the justice and
-wisdom of Paine's exposure.
-
-John Jay Knox: "In 1780 occurred the darkest days of the Revolutionary
-War. The army was in great distress.... Thomas Paine, the Clerk in the
-Pennsylvania Assembly, in a letter to Blair McClenaghan, suggested a
-subscription for relief of the army and enclosed a contribution of $500.
-
-American Cyclopedia: "A letter [dated May 28, 1780] was received by
-the Assembly of Pennsylvania from Gen. Washington, saying that,
-notwithstanding his confidence in the attachment of the army to the
-cause of the country, he feared their distresses would soon cause mutiny
-in the ranks. This letter was read by Paine as clerk. A despairing
-silence pervaded the hall, and the Assembly soon adjourned. Paine wrote
-to Blair McClenaghan, a merchant of Philadelphia, explaining the urgency
-of affairs, and enclosed in the letter $500, the amount of salary due
-him as clerk, as his contribution toward a relief fund. McClenaghan
-called a meeting next day and read Paine's letter; a subscription
-list was immediately circulated, and in a short time £300,000 [nearly
-$1,500,000] Pennsylvania currency was collected. With this as a capital,
-the Pennsylvania Bank, afterwards expanded into the Bank of North
-America, was established for the relief of the army."
-
-Cassell's Dictionary of Religion: "In 1781 Paine was sent to France with
-Col. Laurens to negotiate a loan in which he was more than successful,
-for the French granted a subsidy of six million livres, and became a
-guarantor of ten millions advanced by Holland."
-
-Lamartine says the King "loaded Paine with favors." His gift of six
-millions was "confided to Franklin and Paine."
-
-Robert Morris (Feb. 10, 1782): "They [Morris, Minister of Finance,
-Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Washington,
-Commander-in-Chief] are agreed that it will be much for the interest
-of the United States that Mr. Paine be retained in their [the United
-States'] service."
-
-Charles Wilson Peale: "Personal acquaintance with him gives me an
-opportunity of knowing that he had done more for our cause than the
-world who had only seen his publications could know."
-
-"America is indebted to few characters more than to you."--_Gen.
-Nathaniel Greene_.
-
-Calvin Blanchard: "He stood the acknowledged leader of American
-statesmanship, and the soul of the Revolution, by the proclamation
-of the legislatures of all the states and that of the Congress of the
-United States."
-
-Pennsylvania Council (Dec. 6, 1784): "So important were his services
-during the late contest that those persons whose own merits in the
-course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly
-honorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him."
-
-"The attention of Pennsylvania is drawn toward Mr. Paine by motives
-equally grateful to the human heart and reputable to the Republic."
-
-Pennsylvania Assembly: "Thomas Paine did, during the progress of the
-Revolution, voluntarily devote himself to the service of the public,
-without accepting recompense therefor, and, moreover, did decline taking
-or receiving the profits which authors are entitled to on the sale of
-their literary works, but relinquished them for the better accommodation
-of the country and the honor of the public cause."
-
-Rev. Dr. M. J. Savage: "He wrote the book which caused the Declaration
-of Independence, a book in such great demand that the presses groaned
-for months in endeavoring to supply the demand; a book, the income
-from the circulation of which, to-day would make a man rich, and yet he
-steadfastly refused to receive a cent for it."
-
-More than fifty years ago, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway, then pastor of a
-church in Cincinnati, in a eulogy on Paine, said: "So disinterested was
-he, that, when his works were printed by the ten thousand, and as fast
-as one edition was out another was demanded, he, a poor and pinched
-author, who might very easily have grown rich, would not accept one cent
-for them, declared that he would not coin his principles, and made to
-the States a present of the copyrights. His brain was his fortune,--nay
-his living; he gave it all to American Independence." Paine also gave
-the copyrights of the several numbers of his "Crisis" to the States. The
-close of the Revolution found him, to quote from Dr. Conway's biography
-of Paine, "a penniless patriot who might easily have had fifty thousand
-pounds in his pocket."
-
-(I shall quote freely from Dr. Conway. For all time this biographer will
-be the standard authority on Thomas Paine. He was a life-long student
-of Paine. In each of the three countries which Paine served, America,
-France and England, he had full access to the national archives of
-Paine's time. He was a distinguished pulpit orator in both hemispheres,
-and had a world-wide reputation as a literary man. Above all his love of
-truth and justice and His rugged honesty and candor make him a witness
-whose testimony is unimpeachable. To him Andrew Carnegie pays this
-tribute: "He has passed, but he has left behind him a precious legacy
-to all who were so fortunate as to be able to call him friend. They are
-better men and women because Moncure Conway lived and entered into their
-lives.")
-
-United States Congress (Aug. 26, 1785): "_Resolved_, That the early,
-unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and
-enforcing the principles of the late Revolution by ingenious and timely
-publications upon the nature of liberty and civil government have been
-well received by the citizens of these States, and merit the approbation
-of Congress."
-
-This resolution was passed by a unanimous vote.
-
-Allibone's Dictionary of Authors: "He was rewarded by a donation from
-Congress of $3,000."
-
-"In 1782, at the suggestion of Washington, Congress granted $800 to
-Paine.... In 1784 the State of New York presented him with 277 acres of
-land at New Rochelle, and Pennsylvania with £500; and in 1785 Congress
-gave him $3,000."--_International Encyclopedia_.
-
-"Some writers have denied his political services, and have declared it
-impossible that a stranger at the outbreak of the Colonial struggle,
-he could have influenced public opinion in America; but such should
-remember that the contemporaries of Paine--and worthy men many of them
-certainly were who associated with Paine--judged differently, and
-not only freely circulated his writings but gave expression to their
-worth,... besides conferring on him the degree of M. A. (Pennsylvania
-University), and membership in their choicest literary association, the
-American Philosophical Society."--_McClintock and Strong's Biblical,
-Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia_.
-
-"Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph,
-and the rest were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto
-deep."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Drake's Dictionary of American Biography: "His powerful exertions to
-promote the independence of America constitutes a high claim upon the
-gratitude of his adopted country."
-
-Ignatius Donnelly: "Paine did a great work during the Revolutionary war
-in behalf of liberty and deserves to be forever remembered."
-
-McClintock and Strong's Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical
-Encyclopedia, to quote again from this standard Christian authority,
-says: "The truth cannot be withheld that Thomas Paine was one of the
-most powerful actors in the Revolutionary drama.... His services to his
-adopted country should not be forgotten."
-
-"As the Tyrtaeus of the Revolution, and it is no exaggeration to style
-him such, we owe everlasting gratitude to his name and memory."--_Rev.
-Solomon Southwick._
-
-John Spencer Bassett: "History cannot forget that he was an important
-promoter of the Revolution."
-
-"Paine's brawny arm applied the torch which set the country in a flame,
-to be extinguished only by the relinquishment of British supremacy;
-and for this, irrespective of his motives and character, he merits the
-gratitude of every American."--_Gen. William A. Stokes._
-
-"No man rendered grander, service to this country, and no man ought
-to be more cherished or remembered than Thomas Paine."--_Rev. Minot J.
-Savage, D. D._
-
-Paul Allen: "Those who regard the independence of the United States as a
-blessing will never cease to cherish the remembrance of Thomas Paine."
-
-"To the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans are not nor can they be
-indifferent."--_James Monroe._
-
-Hon. Elizur Wright: "It was Thomas Paine, more than any other man, or
-any other thing, who turned the current of history in the New World."
-
-Rev. John Snyder: "Paine did more than any other single man to create
-this nation. I simply speak what will some day be the sober judgment of
-history."
-
-"There was no man in the Colonies who contributed so much to bring the
-open Declaration of Independence to a crisis as Thomas Paine."--_William
-Howitt._
-
-"He did more for the American cause and for American independence than
-any other man."--_Sir Hiram Maxim._
-
-"Like a magnificent dream the figure of this republic arose in his
-brain.... The result was victory; and Thomas Paine, the dreamer, the
-writing soldier, had done more than any other man to make this country
-free, and to give it a place among the nations of the world."--_Marshall
-J. Gaumn._
-
-"He was the real founder of the American republic."--_Henry Frank._
-
-"He wrote the word 'Independence,' and created the greatest nation in the
-world."
-
-Hon. John W. Hoyt, LL.D.: "Thomas Paine inspired the Revolution by his
-spirit, maintained it when in the darkest hours of the battle it seemed
-that the spark of liberty would go out."
-
-Dr. J. R. Monroe: "With the wand of his genius he turned aside the
-scroll that concealed the future of our country, and by the inspiring
-picture he thus presented our disheartened and hard-pressed forefathers
-were nerved to press forward, to brave every peril, to dare every
-danger, to defy every death, till tyranny was throttled and man was
-free."
-
-Rev. Martin K. Schermerhorn: "When our children's children shall
-celebrate America's _second_ centennial a hundred years from now, they
-will write in largest letters upon their national banner this sentence
-which all intelligent American citizens will then enthusiastically
-recognize and applaud: 'Thomas Paine--the Patriot... of two hundred
-years ago.'"
-
-Stephen Simpson: "To the genius of Thomas Paine as a popular writer,
-and to that of George Washington as a prudent, skillful, and consummate
-general, are the American people indebted for their rights, liberty and
-independence."
-
-Mrs. Hypatia Bradlaugh-Bonner: "With Washington he played the foremost
-part in the American Revolution. If Washington was the sword and the
-strong arm, Paine was the heart and brains of that great struggle. He
-was the mouth-piece of the aspirations of a continent. He dared to utter
-the thoughts that lay concealed in the secret hearts of the people.
-He sounded the demand for the Independence of the Continent. He bound
-together the separate colonies, and proclaimed 'The Free and Independent
-States of America.'"
-
-Thomas Paine was the creator of this great Republic. He was the real
-father of our country; Washington was its foster father. Paine's pen
-transformed a petty rebellion into a mighty revolution and made a rebel
-chief the triumphant defender of a new-born nation. Washington's fame is
-secure. His right to a place in the pantheon of earth's immortals will
-never be denied. And when the clouds of prejudice are dispelled, as they
-will be, Paine's name will shine with a splendor unsurpassed, never to
-be obscured again.
-
-
-
-
-THE "RIGHTS OF MAN" AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
-
-Thomas H. Dyer, LL.D.: "An active agent in the French Revolution."
-
-"One of those celebrated foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness
-to adopt."--_Madame Roland._
-
-M. Cheslay: "He defended in London the principles of the French
-Revolution."
-
-Brockhaus' Konversatjons-Lexikon: "After he returned to England in 1791
-he published his 'Rights of Man.' (translated into many languages) in
-which he defended the French Revolution against the assaults of Burke."
-
-Porter C. Bliss: "Published, in 1791-92 his 'Rights of Man' [two parts],
-a vindication of the French Revolution, in reply to Burke, which gave
-him immense popularity in France and led to a bestowal of citizenship
-and his election to the French National Convention."
-
-"He was made a French Citizen by the same decree with Washington,
-Hamilton, Priestley and Sir James Mackintosh."--_Joel Barlow_.
-
-Nelson's Encyclopedia: "The book was dedicated to Washington, was
-translated into French and made a, great impression." (The second part
-was dedicated to Lafayette.)
-
-Edmund Gosse, LL.D.: "The circulation was so enormous that it had a
-distinct effect in coloring public opinion."
-
-Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography: "His 'Rights of Man,' if
-the undenied statement as to its circulation (a million and a half of
-copies is correct) was more largely read in England and France than any
-other political work ever published."
-
-Chamber's Encyclopedia: "The most famous of all the replies to Burke's
-'Reflections on the French Revolution.' A million and a half copies were
-sold in England alone."
-
-John Hall (London, January, 1792): "Burke's publication has produced
-nearly fifty different answers. Nothing has ever been so read as
-Paine's answer."
-
-Edward Baines, LL.D.: "Editions were multiplied in every form and
-size; it was alike seen in the hands of the noble and the plebeian, and
-became, at length, translated into the various languages of Europe."
-
-Paris Moniteur (Nov. 8, 1792): "That which will astonish posterity is
-that at Stockholm, five months after the death of Gustavus, and while
-the northern Powers are leaguing themselves against the liberty of
-France, there has been published a translation of Thomas Paine's 'Rights
-of Man,' the translator being one of the King's secretaries."
-
-The following is a summary of Paine's political philosophy as presented
-in the "Rights of Man":
-
-1. Government is the organization of the aggregate natural rights which
-individuals are not competent to secure individually, and therefore
-surrender to the control of society in exchange for the protection of
-all rights.
-
-2. Republican government is that in which the welfare of the whole
-nation is the object.
-
-3. Monarchy is government, more or less arbitrary, in which the
-interests of an individual are paramount to those of the people
-generally.
-
-4. Aristocracy is government, partially arbitrary, in which the
-interests of a class are paramount to the people generally.
-
-5. Democracy is the whole people governing themselves without secondary
-means.
-
-6. Representative government is the control of a nation by persons
-elected by the whole nation.
-
-7. The Rights of Man mean the right of all to representation.
-
-Paine advocated a republic (2.) with a representative government (6.).
-The first real republic with a representative government of importance
-established in the world was in the United States of America, of which,
-when religious prejudice passes away, Thomas Paine will be recognized as
-the founder.
-
-Professor J. B. Bury, LL.D.: "His 'Rights of Man' is an indictment
-of the monarchical form of government, and a plea for representative
-democracy."
-
-Terrible but truthful is Paine's indictment of monarchy: "All the
-monarchical governments are military. War is their trade; plunder and
-revenue their objects. While such governments continue, peace has not
-the absolute security of a day. What is the history of all monarchical
-governments but a disgustful picture of human wretchedness, and the
-accidental respite of a few years repose. Wearied with war and tired
-with human butchery, they sat down to rest and called it peace."
-
-This is his conception of an ideal government:
-
-"When it shall be said in any country in the world, 'My poor are happy;
-neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are
-empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the
-taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend, because I am
-the friend of its happiness,'---when these things can be said, then may
-that country boast of its constitution and its government."
-
-"The political events of our own day--of the present hour--point to the
-time when the ambitions and the wars of monarchy will be at an end, and
-when republican peace will reign throughout the world. Then shall the
-dream of Thomas Paine, the world's greatest citizen of the world, be
-realized."--_Marshall J. Gaitvin._
-
-Washington Irving: "A reprint of Paine's 'Rights of Man,' written
-in reply to Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution, appeared [in
-America] under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson."
-
-In introducing Paine's work to the American people Jefferson, then
-Secretary of State, said: "I have no doubt our citizens will rally a
-second time round the standard of 'Common Sense.'"
-
-The Builders of the Nation: "At this time the Republican party as it
-was called, accepted the views of Jefferson, and as he openly accepted
-Paine's 'Rights of Man' it followed that the advanced views contained
-in that book grew to be held measurably as the party tenets of his
-followers."
-
-Prof. E. D. Adams, Ph. D.: "As a cult [democracy], the theory
-undoubtedly first found adequate expression amongst us in the writings
-of Thomas Paine.... In these two books ['Common Sense' and 'Rights of
-Man'] Paine was then the first to state the ideal of democracy, as it
-later came to be accepted in America under the leadership of Jefferson."
-
-In a letter to Monroe, referring to the censure he had received for
-his endorsement of Paine's book, Jefferson says: "I certainly merit the
-same, for I profess the same principles."
-
-In a letter to Paine (June 19, 1792,) Jefferson says: "Our good people
-are firm and unanimous in their principles of Republicanism, and there
-is no better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it
-with delight."
-
-James Madison declared the "Rights of Man" to be "a written defense of
-the principles on which that [our] Government is based."
-
-For our so-called Jeffersonian Democracy we are indebted to Thomas
-Paine. He formulated its principles. Jefferson, Madison and others of
-his disciples popularized them.
-
-After commending the "Rights of Man" Richard Henry Lee wrote: "I
-sincerely regret that our country could not have offered sufficient
-inducements to have retained as a permanent citizen a man so thoroughly
-republican in sentiment and fearless in the expression of his opinions."
-
-In his book, one of the most brilliant volumes ever penned, Burke, long
-the friend of popular government, defended royalty and aristocracy.
-He sought to arouse the sympathies of Europe in behalf of royalty and
-aristocracy in France which were tottering to their fall, a disaster
-which endangered their existence everywhere. The book was circulated
-by tens of thousands. Captivated by its marvelous beauty a reaction in
-favor of despotism was setting in when Paine's immortal work appeared.
-The glowing rhetoric of Burke went down before the merciless logic of
-Paine.
-
-Burke is filled with sorrow for the French king and nobles whose rule
-and privileges have been abolished or restricted, but expresses none for
-the millions who for centuries have been persecuted, impoverished and
-imprisoned by the ruling classes. In words that come from the heart of
-the author and which reach the hearts of the people, Paine answers him:
-
-"Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserating reflection, that I
-can find throughout his book, has he bestowed on those that lingered out
-the most wretched of lives; a life without hope, in the most miserable
-of prisons. It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to
-corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he has been
-to her. He is not affected by the reality of distress touching upon his
-heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He
-pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss the
-aristocratic hand that hath purloined him from himself, he degenerates
-into a composition of art, and the genuine soul of nature forsakes him.
-His hero or his heroine must be a tragedy-victim, expiring in show, and
-not the real prisoner of misery, sliding into death in the silence of a
-dungeon."
-
-Referring to this intellectual combat William Cobbett, one of England's
-most distinguished political writers, writing more than a quarter of
-a century after Paine's reply to Burke, says: "As my Lord Grenville
-introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of
-a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage
-to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million
-times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."
-
-Lord John Morley: "Thomas Paine replied to them [Burke's 'Reflections']
-with an energy, courage and eloquence worthy of his cause in the 'Rights
-of Man.'"
-
-"In brilliant rhetoric Burke argued its [Natural Rights] dangerous and
-baseless nature.. Paine in his even more brilliant 'Rights of Man,'
-answered Burke."--_Encyclopedia of Social Reform._
-
-Thomas Campbell: "He strongly answered at the bar of public opinion all
-the arguments of Burke. I do not deny that fact; and I should be sorry
-if I could be blind, even with tears in my eyes for Mackintosh, to the
-services that have been rendered to the cause of truth by the shrewdness
-and courage of Thomas Paine."
-
-(Great events inspire great works. Three of the masterpieces of
-literature were inspired by the French Revolution, Edmund Burke's
-"Reflections on the French Revolution" condemning it, and Sir James
-Mackintosh's "Vindiciæ Gallicæ" and Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man"
-defending it.)
-
-Dictionary of National Biography (England): "Paine is the only English
-writer who exposes with uncompromising sharpness the abstract doctrines
-of political rights held by the French Revolutionists."
-
-Charles James Fox: "It ['Rights of Man'] seems as clear and as simple as
-the first rules of arithmetic."
-
-Manchester Constitutional Society (March 13, 1792): "A work of the
-highest importance to every nation under heaven, but particularly to
-this, as containing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and
-considerable reduction of the public expenditure; for the prevention
-of wars; for the extension of our manufactures and commerce; for the
-education of the young; for the comfortable support of the aged; for the
-better maintenance of the poor."
-
-Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information (March 14, 1792): "We
-have derived more true knowledge from the two works of Thomas Paine,
-entitled 'Rights of Man,' Parts First and Second, than from any other
-author. The practice as well as the principle of government is laid down
-in those works in a manner so clear and irresistibly convincing."
-
-James Anthony Froude: "Copies of Paine's 'Rights of Man' were sown
-broadcast [in Ireland]."
-
-"Protestant Belfast had declared itself a disciple of Paine."
-
-"The Irish patriots were red republicans... anxious to establish in
-Ireland the principles of Paine."
-
-"Paine," says his biographer, Dr. Conway, "held a supremacy in the
-constitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre
-over the Jacobins of Paris."
-
-William Pitt (to Lady Hester Stanhope, who had quoted from the "Rights
-of Man"): "Paine is quite in the right, but what am I to do?"
-
-Sir James Mackintosh: "His bold speculations and fierce invectives
-indicated the approach of social confusion."
-
-Prof. G. P. Gooch, M.A.: "The 'Rights of Man,' compelled attention not
-less by the novelty of its ideas than by its consummate pamphleteering
-skill.... The alarm increased when it was known that the book was
-selling by tens of thousands."
-
-Diccionaris Enciclopedico (Spain): "The friends of the Government burned
-Paine in effigy in the streets of London. Later he was proclaimed the
-great apostle of liberty and the father of the Revolution."
-
-Gouverneur Morris: "Bonnville is here [Paris]. He is just returned from
-England. He tells me that Paine's book works mightily in England."
-
-Louis Blanc: "The militia were armed, in the southeast of England
-troops received orders to march to London, the meeting of Parliament was
-advanced forty days, the Tower was reinforced by a new garrison, in
-fine there was enrolled a formidable preparation of war--against Thomas
-Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man.'"
-
-H. D. Traill, D.C.L.: "Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man' was known
-to have an enormous circulation, and he was prosecuted for it under the
-proclamation of May, 1792. Paine's counsel argued in vain that it
-had never been held criminal to express opinions on the problems of
-political philosophy.... Paine was condemned."
-
-"He was defended by Erskine, who was then in the zenith of his glory as
-an advocate, in a speech of marvelous power and eloquence."--_Hon. E. B.
-Washburne._
-
-J. Redman ("London, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1792, 5 P.M."): "Mr. Paine's trial
-is this instant over. Erskine shone like the morning star. The instant
-Erskine closed his speech the venal jury [it was a packed jury]
-interrupted the Attorney General, who was about to make reply, and
-without waiting for any answer, or any summing up by the Judge,
-pronounced him guilty. Such an instance of infernal corruption is
-scarcely upon record."
-
-Paine's case was set for June, 1792, and he was anxious to go to trial
-then. At the request of the Government it was postponed till December.
-In the meantime Paine, having been elected to the National Convention,
-went to France. Had he remained in England death or a long imprisonment
-would have been his fate, the charge against him being high treason.
-
-Alexander Gilchrist: "On Paine's rising to leave [he had delivered a
-radical address in London the night before], Blake [William] laid his
-hand on the orator's shoulder, saying, 'You must not go home, or you are
-a dead man,' and he hurried him off on his way to France.... Those were
-hanging days in England."
-
-Dr. James Currie (1793): "The prosecutions that are commenced all over
-England against printers, publishers, etc., would astonish you; and
-most of these are for offenses committed months ago. The printer of the
-Manchester _Herald_ has had... six different indictments for selling or
-disposing of six different copies of Paine--all previous to the trial of
-Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth £20,000; but these different
-actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."
-
-The trial of Paine was followed by a veritable reign of terror in
-England. Alluding to the prosecutions and persecutions of the publishers
-and venders of Paine's books, Buckle, in his "History of Civilization,"
-says: "It is no exaggeration to say that for some years England was
-ruled by a system of absolute terror."
-
-It was over the writings of Thomas Paine chiefly, his "Rights of Man" at
-first and later his "Age of Reason," that the battle for free speech
-and a free press in England was fought and won. In this great struggle
-England's gifted statesman, Charles James Fox, whom Edmund Burke
-describes as "the greatest debater the world ever saw," and whom Sir
-James Mackintosh declares to De "the most Demosthenian speaker since
-Demosthenes," ably and fearlessly upheld the rights of Paine and the
-disseminators of his writings and teachings. In this struggle the poet
-Shelley, too, did valiant work.
-
-Richard Carlile: "It is not too much to say that if the 'Rights of
-Man' had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and
-Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to that which 'Common
-Sense' did in the United States."
-
-Sir Francis Burdett: "Ministers know that a united people are not to be
-resisted; and it is this that we must understand by what is written in
-the works of an honest man too long calumniated. I mean Thomas Paine."
-
-M. Brissot: "The grievance of the British Cabinet against France is not
-that Louis is in judgment, but that Thomas Paine wrote the 'Rights of
-Man'."
-
-Abbe Sieyes: "His 'Rights of Man,' translated into our language, is
-universally known; and where is the patriotic Frenchman who has not
-already, from the depths of his soul, thanked him for having fortified
-our cause with all the power of his reason and his reputation."
-
-"Paine's 'Rights of Man'," says Dr. Conway, "had been in every French
-home. His portrait, painted by Romney and engraved by Sharp, was in
-every cottage, framed in immortelles." Napoleon Bonaparte said: "I
-always sleep with the 'Rights of Man' beneath my pillow." Hon. Elihu
-B. Washburne, Minister of the United States to France during President
-Grant's administration, and later a prominent candidate for president
-of the United States himself, in a monograph on Thomas Paine, says:
-"He at once became a hero in France, and was everywhere received with
-enthusiasm. The doors of the _salons_ and clubs of Paris were opened to
-him, and he was soon recognized as one of the advanced figures in
-the Revolution, standing by the side of de Bonneville, Brissot and
-Condorcet."
-
-It is a commonly accepted opinion that the French Revolution was
-inspired chiefly by the writings of Rousseau and Voltaire. Hardly
-less potent, however, were Paine's "Rights of Man," published at the
-beginning of the Revolution, and his "Common Sense," which electrified
-France fifteen years before. Referring to these French writings and
-the "Rights of Man," Dr. Conway says: "In this book the philosophy of
-visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes of Rousseau's
-'Contrat Social,' burnt in Paris, rose the 'Rights of Man,' no phoenix,
-but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by any royal sun.
-It comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and
-Washington--the 'Contrat Social' was framed into the Constitution of a
-happy and glorious new earth."
-
-Charles Knight: "In the week of the flight of Louis [June, 1791] Paine
-wrote in English a proclamation to the French nation, which, being
-translated, was affixed to all the walls of Paris. It was an invitation
-to the people to profit by existing circumstances, and establish a
-Republic."
-
-Ida M. Tarbell: "Brissot brought several of his friends to see them [the
-Rolands]. Among the most important of these were Petion and Robespierre.
-In April [1791] Thomas Paine appeared. So agreeable were these informal
-reunions found to be that it was arranged to hold them four times a
-week.... To Madame Roland these gatherings were of absorbing interest."
-
-"With Condorcet, Brissot, and a few others as sympathizers, Paine formed
-a Republican society."
-
-Justin H. McCarthy: "The prospectus of a journal called _Le
-Republicaine_ was posted at the very doors of the General Assembly. It
-was signed by Duchatellet, a colonel of Chasseurs, but is said to have
-been drawn up by Thomas Paine."
-
-Etienne Dumont: "Some of the seed sown by the audacious hand of Paine
-were now budding in leading minds."
-
-Meyers' Gross Konversations-Lexikon: "In Paris Paine was declared
-a French citizen and was elected to the National Convention by the
-department of Pas-de-Calais."
-
-La Grande Encyclopédie: "Declared a French citizen by the National
-Assembly, he was elected a member of the Convention by the departments
-of l'Oise, the Puy-de-Dome and the Pas-de-Calais."
-
-H. Morse Stephens, LL.D.: "Paine, one of the founders of the American
-Republic, was elected by no less than three departments to the
-Convention."
-
-M. Louvet (and thirty-two others): "Your love for humanity, for liberty
-and equality, the useful works that have issued from your pen in their
-defense, have determined our choice. It has been hailed with universal
-and reiterated applause. Come friend of the people, to swell the number
-of patriots in an Assembly which will decide the destiny of a great
-people, perhaps of the human race."
-
-Biographie Universelle: "Amid salvos of artillery and cries of '_Vive_
-Thomas Paine!' his arrival was announced."
-
-Cates' Biographical Dictionary: "The garrison of Calais were under arms
-to receive this friend of liberty. The tri-colored cockade was presented
-to him by the mayor, and the handsomest woman in the town was selected
-to place it in his hat."
-
-W. T. Sherwin: "The hall of the Minimes [in Calais] was so crowded that
-it was with the greatest difficulty they made way for Mr. Paine to the
-side of the president. Over the chair he sat in was placed the bust
-of Mirabeau, and the colors of France, England, and America united.
-A speaker acquainted him from the tribune with his election, amid the
-plaudits of the people. For some minutes after the ceremony nothing was
-heard but '_Vive la Nation! Vive Thomas Paine!_'"
-
-"Ancient Calais, in its time, had received heroes from across the
-channel, but hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries reserved
-for a Thetford Quaker. As the packet sails in a salute is fired from
-the battery; cheers sound along the shore. As the representative for
-Calais steps on French soil soldiers make his avenue, the officers
-embrace him, the national cockade is presented. A beautiful lady
-advances, requesting the honor of setting the cockade in his hat, and
-makes him a pretty speech, ending with Liberty, Equality and France.
-As they move along the Rue de l'Egalité (late Rue du Roi) the air rings
-with '_Vive Thomas Paine_'! At the town hall he is presented to the
-Municipality, by each member embraced, by the Mayor also addressed. At
-the meeting of the Constitutional Society of Calais, in the Minimes, he
-sits beside the president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the united
-colors of France, England and America. There is an official ceremony
-announcing his election, and plaudits of the crowd, '_Vive la Nation!
-Vive Thomas Paine!'"--Dr. Conway_.
-
-Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, LL.D.: "Meantime Paine had been declared in
-Paris worthy of citizenship, and he proceeded thither, where he was
-received with every demonstration of extravagant joy."
-
-"The ovation which Paine received on his arrival in France was one such
-as theretofore only kings had received."--_Theodore Schroeder_.
-
-Hérault de Sechelles, (President of National Assembly): "France calls
-you, Sir, to its bosom to fill the most useful, and consequently the
-most honorable of functions--that of contributing, by wise legislation,
-to the happiness of a people whose destinies interest and unite all who
-think and all who suffer in the world.
-
-"It is meet that the nation which proclaimed the Rights of Man should
-desire to have him among its legislators who first dared to measure all
-their consequences."
-
-Philip Van Ness Myers, LL.D.: "The Convention, consisting of seven
-hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the celebrated
-freethinker, Thomas Paine, embraced two active groups, the Girondins and
-the Mountainists [Jacobins]."
-
-Alphonse de Lamartine: "A stranger sat among the members of the
-Convention--the philosopher, Thomas Paine, born in England, the apostle
-of American independence, the friend of Franklin, author of 'Common
-Sense,' the 'Rights of Man,' and the 'Age of Reason'--three pages of
-the New Evangelist in which he brought back political institutions
-and religious creeds to their primitive justice and lucidity; his name
-possessed great weight among the innovators of the two worlds."
-
-"Everyone," says Paul Desjardins, "turned toward Paine as toward the
-living statue of liberty. The enfranchisement of America consecrated
-him."
-
-The official reports of the National Convention state that when Paine
-arose in the Convention and cast his vote for its first decree the act
-was received by "acclamations of joy, the cries of _Vive la nation!_
-repeated by all the spectators, prolonging themselves for many minutes!"
-
-Referring to this Convention, the Hon. E. B. Washburne says: "Never was
-there a legislative or constituent body which displayed such stupendous
-energy or performed such immense labor. In the delirium of its passions
-it stamped itself on the history of the world not only by its crimes,
-but by its great acts of legislation, which will live as long as
-France shall endure. Thomas Paine was a member of this Convention.
-His popularity in France at this time is shown by the fact that he was
-chosen a member of the Convention by three departments.
-
-"The Convention was not long in giving Paine a striking recognition of
-the consideration in which it held him. One of its earliest decrees was
-to establish a special Commission (committee) of nine members on the
-Constitution. This Commission was composed of the most distinguished men
-of the Convention: Gensonne, Thomas Paine, Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud,
-Barrere, Danton, Condorcet, and the Abbe Sieyes."
-
-Louis Adolphus Thiers: "A sixth committee was charged with the principal
-object for which the Convention had met, to prepare a new constitution.
-It was composed of nine celebrated members. Philosophy had its
-representatives in the persons of Sieyes, Condorcet, and the American
-Thomas Paine, recently elected a French citizen, and a member of the
-Convention. The Gironde was more particularly represented by Gensonne,
-Vergniaud, Petion, and Brissot; the Centre by Barrere, and the Montagne
-by Danton."
-
-The names of these eminent men will live long in history; but dear was
-the price paid for their fame. Danton, Brissot, Gensonne and Vergniaud
-died on the scaffold; Condorcet died in a prison cell, a suicide; Petion
-escaped to a forest where his body was afterward found partly devoured
-by wolves; Barrere was banished, and Paine was imprisoned. Sieyes alone
-escaped unharmed.
-
-Thomas Carlyle: "To make the Constitution; to defend the Republic till
-that be made. Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a Committee
-of Constitution got together. Sieyes, old constituent, constitution
-builder by trade; Condorcet, fit for better things; Deputy Paine,
-foreign benefactor of the species with the black beaming eyes;...
-Hérault de Sechelles, ex-parlementier, one of the handsomest men in
-France,--these, with inferior guild-brethren, are girt cheerfully to the
-task." (Hérault was a supplementary member of the Committee).
-
-John King (referring to Paine): "The chief modeler of their new
-Constitution."
-
-The Constitution was almost entirely the work of Paine and Condorcet. It
-is known as the Paine-Condorcet Constitution.
-
-Dr. David Saville Muzzey: "Paine labored to make this new republic of
-France an example for the monarchy-cursed countries of Europe. It was he
-who protested against the domination of the Assembly by the section of
-Paris which led to the Reign of Terror."
-
-M. Taine: "Compared with the speeches and writings of the times,
-it [Paine's Letter to Danton] produces the strangest effect by its
-practical good sense."
-
-Madame de Stael: "When the sentence of Louis XVI. came under discussion
-Paine alone advised what would have done honor to France if it had been
-adopted."
-
-Henri Martin: "Thomas Paine, the famous representative of the idea of a
-universal Republic, had voted against both an appeal to the people and
-the penalty of death."
-
-Thomas Wright, F. S. A.: "He urged with great earnestness that the
-execution of the sentence of death should be delayed."
-
-M. Guizot: "The last effort was about to be attempted to save the
-life of the King by delaying execution. The anger of the Jacobins was
-extreme; they refused to listen to a speech from Thomas Paine, the
-American, till respect for his courage gained him a hearing.... The
-prayer and the hope were as vain as they were affecting."
-
-Hon. Elihu B. Washburne: "It was on the 19th day of January, 1793, that
-Paine mounted the tribune to speak to this question. This trial of Louis
-XVI. by the National Convention is one of the most remarkable on record.
-The session was made permanent, and the trial went on day and night.
-After a lapse of nearly one hundred years, the painful and dramatic
-scenes stand out with still greater prominence. The _Salle des
-Machines_, in the Pavillon de Flores at the Tuileries, had been
-converted into a grand hall for the sittings of the Convention. The
-galleries were immense and could seat fourteen hundred spectators. In
-an immense city like Paris, convulsed with a political excitement never
-equaled, the trial of a king for his life produced the most profound
-emotions that ever agitated any community. All classes and conditions
-were carried away by the prevailing excitement, and the pressure for
-places exceeded anything ever known.
-
-"The appearance of Thomas Paine at the tribune, with a roll of
-manuscript in his hand, created a sensation in the Convention. By his
-side stood Bancal, who was there to translate the speech into French
-and read it to the Convention. The first declaration of the celebrated
-foreigner produced a commotion on the benches of the Montagne. Coming
-from a democrat like Thomas Paine, a man so intimately allied with the
-Americans, a great thinker and writer, there was fear of their influence
-on the Convention.
-
-"The most violent exclamations broke out, drowning the voice of Bancal,
-the unfortunate interpreter, and creating an indescribable tumult. Never
-was a man in a more embarrassing condition than Paine was at this time.
-Though not understanding the language, he yet realized the fury of the
-storm which raged around him. Standing at the tribune in his half Quaker
-coat, and genteelly attired, he remained undaunted and self-possessed
-during the tempest. This speech of Paine breathed greatness of soul and
-generosity of spirit and will forever honor his memory."
-
-Paine's speech, says Conway, is "unparalleled for argument and art and
-eloquence."
-
-Charlotte M. Yonge: "A brave remonstrance."
-
-Hon. Thomas E. Watson: "Among the brave who would not bend to the storm
-was Thomas Paine. Man enough to defy kings and priests, he was man
-enough, likewise, to defy a howling mob."
-
-E. Belford Bax: "Paine, up to the last, manfully voted in the sense in
-which he had always spoken, for the life of the king at the imminent
-risk of his own."
-
-Writing of the events which preceded and attended the trial and
-execution of Louis XVI, Prince Talleyrand, a profound admirer of Paine,
-says: "It was no longer a question that the king should reign, but that
-he himself, the queen, their children, his sister, should be saved. It
-might have been done. It was at least a duty to attempt it." It was a
-duty, however, whose performance carried with it the probable penalty
-of death. Danton, France's greatest and bravest son, wished to save the
-life of the king, but dared not to vote in favor of it. "Although I may
-save his life," he said, "I shall vote for his death. I am quite willing
-to save his head, but not to lose my own." Even the king's cousin,
-Philip of Orleans, voted for his kinsman's death. Paine did not shirk
-his duty. He, too, loved life, but he loved honor more, and so, defying
-death, voted and pleaded for the life of the fallen monarch.
-
-"Ah, that man who stood there alone in that breathless hall with such
-mighty eloquence warming over his lofty brow! That man was one of
-that illustrious band who had been made citizens of France--France
-the redeemed and newborn! Yess with Mackintosh, Franklin, Hamilton,
-Jefferson and Washington, he had been elected a citizen of France. With
-these great men he hailed the French revolution as the dawn of God's
-millennium. He had hurried to Paris, urged by the same deep love of man
-that accompanied him in the darkest hours of the American revolution,
-and there, there pleading for the traitor-king, alone in that breathless
-hall he stood, the author-hero, Thomas Paine, pleading--even amid that
-sea of scowling faces--for the life of King Louis."--_George Lippard._
-
-"In that maelstrom of thought, in that pandemonium of words, in that
-whirlwind of passion, pleading for the life of the king, Thomas Paine,
-not counting his own life, well knowing the consequences of his act,
-Thomas Paine stood there and pleaded that the life of the king might be
-spared."--_Dr. J. E. Roberts._
-
-A. F. Bertrand de Moleville (French Minister of State): "It must be
-recorded to the eternal shame of this assembly, that Thomas Paine...
-proved himself the wisest, the most humane, the boldest--in a word, the
-most innocent among them."
-
-Victor Hugo: "Thomas Paine, an American and merciful."
-
-"When tidings came of the king's trial and execution, whatever glimpses
-they [Paine's adherents in England] gained of their outlawed leader
-showed him steadfast as a star caught in one wave and another of that
-turbid tide. Many, alas, needed apologies, but Paine required none. That
-one Englishman, standing on the tribune for justice and humanity, amid
-three hundred angry Frenchmen in uproar, was as sublime a sight as
-Europe witnessed in those days."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-"The rank and file followed their Thomas Paine with a faith that crowned
-heads might envy. The London men knew Paine thoroughly. The treasures of
-the world would not draw him, nor any terrors drive him, to the side
-of cruelty and inhumanity. Their eye was upon him. Had Paine, after the
-king's execution, despaired of the republic there might have ensued some
-demoralization among his followers in London. But they saw him by the
-side of the delivered prisoner of the Bastile, Brissot, an author well
-known in England, by the side of Condorcet and others of Franklin's
-honored circle engaged in a death struggle with the fire-breathing
-dragon called 'The Mountain.' That was the same unswerving man they
-had been following, and to all accusations against the revolution their
-answer was--Paine is still there."--_Ibid._
-
-While Paine allied himself to no particular faction of the convention,
-his sympathies were with the Girondins. Lamartine says: "Paine, the
-friend of Madame Roland, Condorcet and Brissot, had been elected by
-the town of Calais; the Girondins consulted him and placed him on the
-committee of surveyance." The Girondins comprised, for the most part,
-the wisest and the best of France's legislators. Had they remained in
-power the excesses of the revolution would, to a great extent, have
-been avoided. But in an evil hour the Jacobins gained the ascendancy and
-while they ruled madness reigned supreme. The Girondins were slaughtered
-or expelled. In one night twenty-two of them--every one a noted
-statesman or orator--the very flower of French manhood, "the eloquent,
-the young, the beautiful, the brave," as Riouffe, their fellow prisoner,
-lovingly describes them, were taken before a Jacobin tribunal and
-condemned to death. Carlyle thus graphically and pathetically tells us
-how they died:
-
-"All Paris is out; such a crowd as no man had seen. The death-carts,
-Valaze's cold corpse [he had committed suicide] stretched among the yet
-living twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound, in their shirt
-sleeves, coat flung loosely round the neck; so fare the eloquent of
-France; bemurmured, beshouted. To the shouts of Vive la Republique,
-some of them keep answering with counter shouts of Vive la Republique.
-Others, as Brissot, sit sunk in silence. At the foot of the scaffold
-they again strike up, with appropriate variations, the hymn of the
-Marseilles. Such an act of music; conceive it well! The yet living chant
-there; the chorus so rapidly wearing weak! Samson's axe is rapid; one
-head per minute, or a little less. The chorus is wearing weak; the
-chorus is worn out; farewell, forevermore, ye Girondins. Te-Deum Fauchet
-has become silent; Valaze's dead head is lopped; the sickle of the
-guillotine has reaped the Girondins all away."
-
-"How Paine loved those men--Brissot, Condorcet, Lasource, Duchatel,
-Vergniaud, Gensonne! Never was man more devoted to his intellectual
-comrades. Even across a century one may realize what it meant to him,
-that march of his best friends to the scaffold."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Eight days after the execution of the Girondins another of Paine's
-friends, Madame Roland, the "Inspiring Soul" of the Girondins--one of
-the greatest, one of the fairest, one of the bravest, and one of the
-noblest women that ever came to brighten our planet--died on the same
-scaffold. Beautiful in life, Madame Roland rose to sublimity in death.
-Standing on the scaffold, robed in white, she seemed like a lovely bride
-before the altar. She asked for pen and paper to record "the strange
-thoughts that were rising in her" as she gazed into the eyes of death.
-This request denied, she turned toward the statue of liberty and, with
-tearful eyes, exclaimed, "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in
-thy name!" Then, seeing the one who was to have preceded her to the
-guillotine trembling with fear, she begged and obtained permission to
-take his place--to die first--that she might soften the terrors of death
-by showing him "how easy it is to die." This is her picture--painted by
-Carlyle: "Noble white vision, with its high queenly face, its soft proud
-eyes, long black hair flowing down to the girdle; and as brave a heart
-as ever beat in woman's bosom! Like a white Grecian statue, serenely
-complete, she shines in that black wreck of things;--long memorable."
-
-"What with the arrestations and flights Paine found himself, in June,
-almost alone. In the convention he was sometimes the solitary figure
-left on the plain, where but now sat the brilliant statesmen of France.
-They, his beloved friends, have started in procession towards the
-guillotine, for even flight must end there; daily others are pressed
-into their ranks; his own summons, he feels, is only a question of a few
-weeks or days."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Madame Roland died in November; Paine was imprisoned in December.
-
-Dictionary of Religious Knowledge: "Here [trial of Louis XVI] his
-honorable moderation won the enmity of Robespierre, who marked him for a
-victim."
-
-Scheaf's Religious Encyclopedia: "He had the courage to vote against the
-execution of Louis XVI., and thus incurred the anger of Robespierre, who
-threw him into prison."
-
-Chambers' Encyclopedia of English Literature: "He offended the
-Robespierre faction, and in 1794 [December 28, 1793], possibly by the
-procurement of the American minister, Gouverneur Morris--who disliked
-the French revolution and the alliance between the new republics--he was
-imprisoned."
-
-Col. Thomas W. Higginson: "They urged him (he was in personal danger) to
-go back to America, the country he had served so long. 'Go there,' they
-said; 'it is your country,' 'No,' he said, 'for the time, this is my
-country.'... So said Thomas Paine, and the doors of the Bastile closed
-around him."
-
-Rev. John W. Chadwick: "A prisoner deserted by the young Republic at
-whose birth he had assisted so efficiently, his life in jeopardy for the
-humanity of his opinions."
-
-Morning Advertiser (England, Feb. 8, 1794): "His arrest was a species of
-triumph to all the tyrants on earth. His papers had been examined, and
-far from finding any dangerous propositions the committee had traced
-only the characters of that burning zeal for liberty--of that eloquence
-of nature and philosophy--and of those principles of public morality
-which had through life procured him the hatred of despots and the love
-of his fellow citizens."
-
-"His arrest and imprisonment, without charges preferred or even the
-pretense of crime, were acts of perfidy without a parallel except in the
-history of the French revolution."--_Hon. E. B. Washburne_.
-
-Major W. Jackson (and other Americans in Paris): "As a countryman of
-ours, as a man above all so dear to the Americans; who like ourselves
-are earnest friends of liberty, we ask you in the name of that goddess
-cherished by the only two republics of the world, to give back Thomas
-Paine to his brethren."
-
-Achille Audibert: "A friend of mankind is groaning in chains--Thomas
-Paine.... But for Robespierre's villainy the friend of man would now be
-free."
-
-At the beginning of the revolution Robespierre was recognized as one
-of the most moderate and humane of men. In the National Assembly he
-advocated the abolition of the death penalty. Describing his advent to
-leadership, Paine's biographer says: "Mirabeau was on his deathbed, and
-Paine witnessed that historic procession, four miles long, which bore
-the orator to his shrine.... With others he strained his eyes to see the
-coming man; with others he sees formidable Danton glaring at Lafayette;
-and presently sees advancing softly between them the sentimental,
-philanthropic--Robespierre."
-
-M. Danton: "What thou hast done for the happiness and liberty of thy
-country I have in vain attempted to do for mine. They are sending us to
-the scaffold."
-
-"It was a strange scene; these two constitution makers, Paine and
-Danton, and for the last time in the prison of the Luxembourg, both
-equally destined for the scaffold."--_Hon. E. B. Washburne_.
-
-Danton was taken to the guillotine; Paine, by mistake, was left.
-
-The manner of Paine's escape, as related by Carlyle, was as follows:
-"The tumbrils move on. But in this set of tumbrils there are two other
-things notable: one notable person; and one want of a notable person.
-The notable person is Lieu-tenant-General Loiserelles, a nobleman by
-birth and by nature; laying down his life for his son. In the prison of
-Saint-Lazare, the night before last, hurrying to the grate to hear the
-death-list read, he caught the name of his son. The son was asleep at
-the moment. 'I am Loiserelles,' cried the old man.... The want of the
-notable person, again, is that of Deputy Paine! Paine has set in the
-Luxembourg since January; and seemed forgotten; but Fouquier had pricked
-him at last. The turnkey, list in hand, is marking with chalk the outer
-doors of to-morrow's fournee. Paine's outer door happened to be open,
-turned back on the wall; the turnkey marked it on the side next him, and
-hurried on; another turnkey came and shut it; no chalkmark now visible,
-the fournee went without Paine. Paine's life lay not there."
-
-In a letter to Washington, Paine thus narrates the inhuman slaughter of
-his fellow-prisoners, from whose fate he so narrowly escaped: "The state
-of things in the prisons [for over four months] was a continued scene
-of horror. No man could count upon life for twenty-four hours. To such a
-pitch of rage and suspicion were Robespierre and his committee arrived,
-that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man to live. Scarcely a
-night passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more were
-not taken out of the prison, carried before a pretended tribunal in the
-morning, and guillotined before night. One hundred and sixty-nine were
-taken out of the Luxembourg one night in July, and one hundred and sixty
-of them guillotined, of whom I know I was to have been one. A list of
-two hundred more, according to the report in the prison, was preparing
-a few days before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have good reason
-to believe I was included."
-
-Concerning this reign of terror Guizot says: "Two thousand four hundred
-prisoners were registered in Paris on the books of the prison, at the
-moment of the deaths of the Girondins; three [four] months later, on the
-1st of March, 1794, the number reached six thousand; on the 2d of May,
-eight thousand unfortunate persons waited for death. From June 10th to
-July 27th, two thousand, two hundred and eighty-five perished on the
-scaffold." (_History of France, Vol. VI, pp. 178, 196_.) Menzies says:
-"The queen, Marie Antoinette, her sister, Madame Elizabeth, Bailly, the
-Girondin chiefs, the Duke of Orleans, General Custine, Madame Roland,
-Lavoisier, Malesherbes, and a thousand other illustrious heads fell by
-the guillotine."
-
-"The light of burning rafters flashed luridly over scenes of blood; soon
-all that is grotesque, or terrible, or loathsome in murder, was enacted
-in the streets of Paris. The lantern posts bore their ghastly fruit;
-the streets flowed with crimson rivers, the life-blood of ten thousand
-hearts, down even to the waters of the Seine. Lafayette and Paine and
-all the heroes were gone from the councils of France, but in their
-place, aye, in the place of poetry, enthusiasm and eloquence, spoke a
-mighty orator--King Guillotine."--_George Lippard_.
-
-With Danton died another of Paine's cherished friends--Hérault de
-Sechelles. Hérault, president of the National Assembly, and, for a time,
-president of the National Convention, was the first to welcome Paine to
-Paris when he came to take his seat in the convention. He was physically
-and intellectually one of France's most magnificent men. He was a
-ripe scholar and a superb orator. He possessed great wealth and a most
-fascinating address. He and Paine and Danton had from the first been
-members of the Convention; they had served together on the Committee of
-the Constitution, Hérault as Paine's suppliant, and they had occupied
-the same prison, the prison set apart for the most illustrious victims
-of the Revolution. I quote from Washburne. I desire to present one of the
-ten thousand tragic and pathetic scenes which compose this mighty and
-immortal drama. "Tragedy walks hand in hand with History and the eyes of
-Glory are wet with tears:"
-
-"More victims were now demanded, and, at this time, the oldest children
-of the Revolution were claimed. They were the 'Dantonists,' among whom
-was included Hérault.... Hérault was unmarried. When imprisoned at
-the Luxembourg awaiting his trial he appeared sad and preoccupied. On
-arriving at the guillotine, on the Place de la Revolution on the day
-of his execution, all his looks were turned toward the hotel of the
-Garde-Meuble, hoping evidently to exchange glances with one with whom
-were all his thoughts at that supreme moment. Behind the shutters, half
-closed, was a beautiful woman who sent to the condemned a last adieu and
-waved a last sigh of tenderness to the dying man: _Je t'aime_ (I love
-thee). It was a beautiful day of the springtime, and the crowd that had
-assembled to witness the execution of Danton, the great Apostle of the
-Revolution, and his associates was enormous. The splendid figure of
-Hérault de Sechelles seemed to take new life, and the serenity of
-courage replaced the inquietude and sadness which had settled upon him.
-The first one to mount the scaffold, he showed himself calm, resolute
-and unmoved. As he was about to lay his head under the knife, he wished
-to present his cheek to the cheek of Danton [their hands were bound],
-as a last farewell. The aids of Samson, the executioner, prevented it.
-'Imbeciles!' indignantly exclaimed Danton, 'it will be but a moment
-before our heads will meet in the basket in spite of you.'"
-
-"Declared an outlaw by the same Convention which he had so long used as
-an instrument of his private vengeance, Robespierre was killed like a
-dog.... The death of Paine's mortal enemy saved his life."--_Ibid._
-
-Madame Lafayette: "The news of your being set at liberty,... has given
-me a moment's consolation in the midst of this abyss of misery."
-
-Madame Lafayette, like Thomas Paine, was a prisoner, daily expecting
-death. Her mother, grandmother and sister, prominent members of the
-French nobility, all died together on the scaffold. Lafayette himself
-was at this time confined in an Austrian dungeon.
-
-Glorious was the freedom born of the French Revolution, but terrible was
-the travail.
-
-Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D.: "His [Minister Monroe's] effort to secure the
-release of Thomas Paine from imprisonment was a noteworthy transaction."
-
-"Released from prison at Monroe's intercession."--_Richard Hildreth._
-
-Stanislaus Murray Hamilton: "Paine was liberated by the Committee of
-General Surety in consequence of Monroe's assertion of his American
-citizenship, and demand for his release; but he had suffered an
-imprisonment of ten months and nine days before Monroe's generous and
-manly aid reached him."
-
-We owe a debt of gratitude to James Monroe.
-
-He rescued Paine from prison and from death. When Paine was thought to
-be dying, as a result of his imprisonment, the Monroes tenderly cared
-for him in their own home and nursed him back to life and health.
-Washington's apparent neglect of Paine, which for nearly a century
-rested as a deep stain upon an otherwise fair name, filled Paine with
-astonishment and grief and caused him to write that bitter letter of
-reproach. It is now known that this seeming indifference of Washington
-was due to the treachery of Monroe's predecessor, Gouverneur Morris.
-
-A. Outram Sherman: "It is a long story, how his secret instructions
-conflicted with Paine's hearty and open love for America's ally, how
-Morris virtually acquiesced in his imprisonment by Robespierre as a
-foreigner, how Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded
-Paine's release as an American, and how he misled Paine to believe that
-Washington had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed."
-
-Nelson's Encyclopedia, in its article on Paine, says: "It seems clear
-that his imprisonment was in part the result of a discreditable intrigue
-to which Gouverneur Morris, the American minister, was a party."
-
-Madison, in a letter to Jefferson, dated January 10, 1796, referring
-to Paine's letter to Washington, says: "It appears that the neglect to
-claim him as an American citizen when confined by Robespierre, or even
-to interfere in any way whatever in his favor, has filled him with
-an indelible rancor against the President, to whom it appears he has
-written on the subject. His letter to me is in the style of a dying one,
-and we hear that he is since dead of the abscess in his side, brought on
-by his imprisonment."
-
-Referring to his letter to Washington, Dr. Conway says: "It was the
-natural outcry of an ill and betrayed man to one whom we now know to
-have been also betrayed. Its bitterness and wrath measure the greatness
-of the love that was wounded."
-
-Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen: "That he was estranged from Washington
-through the malicious representations of others is one of the sad
-episodes of our national life."
-
-M. Thibaudeau: "It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of
-justice. I reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty--Thomas
-Paine. My reclamation is for a man who has honored his age by his
-energy in defense of the rights of humanity, and who is so gloriously
-distinguished by his part in the American Revolution....I demand that he
-be recalled to the bosom of this Convention."
-
-"He was unanimously restored to his seat in the
-Convention."--_International Encyclopedia._
-
-Samuel P. Putnam: "Paine was self-centered. He could stand alone, like
-a mighty rock, with seas and storms breaking upon him. Not Mirabeau, not
-Danton, shone with a more brilliant genius, nor towered with more rugged
-strength and grandeur.
-
-"Paine represented the immortal part of the Revolution.... Voltaire
-emphasized justice, Rousseau emphasized liberty; Paine emphasized both
-liberty and justice."
-
-One of the strongest proofs of Paine's transcendent greatness is
-the fact that while nearly all the leaders of the Revolution--even
-Danton--were swept from their moorings by this volcanic upheaval,
-Paine's career throughout was characterized by wisdom, moderation, and a
-moral courage that was truly sublime.
-
-Thomas Curtis:
-
-     "When France shall lift her banners fair,
-     And brighter hopes shall dawn once more,
-     In counting up her jewels rare
-     She'll not forget the days of yore.
-     For when the name of Lafayette
-     Shall summon others in its train,
-     There's one she never will forget--
-     The author-hero, Thomas Paine."
-
-Prof. Isaac F. Russell, LL.D.: "Paine was one of the immortals who
-worked for liberty in three countries, America, France and England."
-
-Frederick May Holland: "He sought to establish the rights of man
-in France and England as well as in America. In two of these three
-countries his work seemed almost fruitless a hundred years ago; but the
-nineteenth century has given him as complete a victory in England and
-France as he achieved in the United States. These three great nations
-now stand side by side as the bulwarks of freedom."
-
-Hon. George W. Julian: "If any man among the illustrious characters'
-of 'the times that tried men's souls' is to be singled out as the real
-father of American Democracy, it is Thomas Paine."
-
-Lord Beaconsfield (to Gladstone): "How does your reform government
-differ from that of Thomas Paine, except that the sovereign is left in
-name?"
-
-"Today the student of political history may find... in Paine's ['Rights
-of Man'] the living Constitution of Great Britain."--Dr. Conway.
-
-Alexander Dumas: "It is not the liberty of France alone that I [Dr.
-Gilbert, i. e., Paine] dream of; it is the liberty of the whole world."
-
-Alice Hubbard: "England, France and America were made more noble, more
-intelligent, more civilized, by the work Thomas Paine did for each
-country and for all countries."
-
-T. B. Wakeman: "The Father of Republics." "All these glories of three
-great peoples were obtained by revolutions that were fought by a war of
-feelings and thoughts before they came to arms; and in that primal war
-of thoughts and words Thomas Paine was the most known of men and the
-actual leader--the Author Hero."
-
-"The republic--as we now all use that word--the true modern republic, in
-and by which government based upon the consent of all, and administered
-by the cooperation of all, for the protection and benefit of all, was
-not known among men until it was originated by Thomas Paine."
-
-"The so-called 'republics' of antiquity and the Middle Ages were only
-oligarchies resting upon the slavery or serfdom of the masses, and in
-fact the reverse of republics."
-
-National Encyclopedia (England): "Paine, from his first starting in
-public life, was a Republican, uniformly consistent and apparently
-sincere."
-
-"The Democratic movement of the last eighty years, be it a finality or
-only a phase of progress toward a more perfect state, is the grand
-historic fact of modern times, and Paine's name is intimately connected
-with it."--_Atlantic Monthly, July, 1859_.
-
-"After contributing by one publication to the establishment of a
-transatlantic republic in North America, he introduced, with astonishing
-effect the doctrines of democratic government into the first states of
-Europe."--_Edward Baines, LL.D._
-
-"'Invent printing,' wrote Carlyle, 'and you invent democracy.' Not quite
-so! Invent a sort of writing which when printed shall be understood by
-the people, then you invent democracy. And this, earlier and better than
-any other man, is what Thomas Paine did."--_The Nation, London_.
-
-"As the champion of popular power in opposition to the abuses of
-monarchical government, Paine will always stand pre-eminent in the
-world."--_William Cobbett._
-
-Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker: "Thomas Paine dreamed the most glorious dream
-of human freedom that ever enchanted the mind of man; fairer and sweeter
-than lay under the broken marbles of Greece, brighter and better than
-was buried with the dead eagles of Rome."
-
-"Paine stands between two epochs: the epoch of Kings and the epoch of
-Man. To the King he said, 'The night is coming'; to Man he said, 'The
-day is dawning.'"
-
-
-
-
-"AGE OF REASON" AND RECANTATION CALUMNY.
-
-L. K. Washburn: "Paine knew that he was marked for death. What did
-he do? Did he try to escape? No! He sat down and wrote the 'Age of
-Reason.'"
-
-Paine found the world cursed with two great evils, kingcraft and
-priestcraft, twin vultures that from the earliest ages have fed upon the
-vitals of humanity. In his "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" kingcraft
-was dealt the deadliest blows that it has yet received. He had resolved
-to strike a blow at priestcraft before he died. Seeing imprisonment and
-death approaching he hurried to his task. The first part of his immortal
-work was finished six hours before the summons came.
-
-The second part, it is generally believed, was written during his
-confinement in the Luxembourg. And here, undoubtedly, it was planned
-and at least a part of it composed. It was probably finished, and it
-was published, while he lived with James Monroe, after his release from
-prison. This, briefly, is the history of the conception and birth
-of this, the last and greatest of Paine's three great intellectual
-children.
-
-"Just before his arrest he had finished the first part of the 'Age
-of Reason.'... While in prison he worked upon the second
-part."--_International Encyclopedia._
-
-Encyclopedia Americana: "It [first part] was published in London and in
-Paris in 1794. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and in 1795
-published at Paris the second part of the 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-Dr. Francois Lanthenas: "I delivered to Merlin de Thionville a copy of
-the last work of T. Paine, formerly our colleague.... I undertook its
-translation before the Revolution [Reign of Terror] against priests, and
-it was published in French about the same time."
-
-People's Cyclopedia: "During his imprisonment he wrote the 'Age of
-Reason' (second part) against Atheism and against Christianity, and in
-favor of Deism."
-
-"A second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, which
-was published after his release, represents the Deism of the 18th
-century."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-McClintock and Strong's Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical
-Cyclopedia: "The religion which Paine [in his 'Age of Reason'] proposed
-to substitute for Christianity was the belief in one God as revealed by
-science; in immortality as the continuance of conscious existence; in
-the natural equality of man; and in the obligation of justice and mercy
-to one's neighbor."
-
-Rufus Rockwell Wilson: "Of all epoch-making books the one most
-persistently misrepresented and misunderstood."
-
-W. M. van der Weyde: "The total knowledge possessed by many persons
-concerning Paine is that 'he was an Atheist'--which he was not."
-
-Hon. William J. Gaynor: "What a strange thing it is that that
-extraordinary man was so long set down as an Atheist. Some people still
-think that he was an Atheist. And yet no man ever had a fuller belief in
-the existence of God, or a greater reliance upon him."
-
-Washington Times: "It is not at all difficult to find out whether or not
-Thomas Paine was an Atheist. All one has to do to discover his opinion
-on the subject is to go to any bookstore or circulating library, ask for
-his best known work, the 'Age of Reason,' and read the first page:"'I
-believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this
-life.'"
-
-"He was, in fact, no more an Atheist than William Penn, Roger Williams
-or Ralph Waldo Emerson."--_New York World._
-
-In his "Age of Reason" the recognition of a Supreme Being is made more
-than two hundred times.
-
-Rev. Daniel Freeman: "There has never been a believer in God if Thomas
-Paine was not a believer in God."
-
-Rev. Charles Alfred Martin (Roman Catholic): "Thomas Paine while not a
-Christian, was not an Atheist. His biographers declare that he penned
-his most famous book to stem with its Deism the tide of Atheism which
-flooded France at the time of the Revolution."
-
-Major J. Weed Cory: "Thomas Paine was not an Atheist. He wrote against
-Atheism, and Trinitarians will soon be appealing to his works to prove
-the existence of a God."
-
-Henry C. Wright: "Thomas Paine had a clear idea of God. This Being
-embodied his highest conception of truth, love, wisdom, mercy, liberty
-and power."
-
-"Paine was accursed as an Atheist and hunted and maligned by
-institutional religion for writing a book in defense of God."--_W. M.
-van der Weyde._
-
-Henry Rowley: "His 'Age of Reason' was written as much in defense of God
-as in opposition to the church. He could not believe that God was guilty
-of the cruelties and crimes which the writers of the Bible attributed to
-him."
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' was the protest of a highly moral man against the
-doings of a deeply immoral God."
-
-Lucy N. Colman: "Thomas Paine's God was justice."
-
-Bishop Watson: "There is a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas
-when speaking of the Creator of the universe."
-
-The work of orthodox religious teachers, unwittingly to many, is
-confined chiefly to the propagation of fictions and the suppression of
-facts. The Christian who has been surprised to learn that Paine was not
-an Atheist, may be equally surprised to learn that his great compeers,
-Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, were not Christians, but like him,
-Deists.
-
-Washington, who has been claimed by the Episcopal church, was like Paine
-a Deist: His wife was a communicant of this church. During his eight
-years incumbency of the Presidency, and during the Revolution, and
-at other times when Mrs. Washington was with him in Philadelphia, he
-attended, but not regularly, the Episcopal churches of which Bishop
-White, father of the Episcopal church of America, and the Rev. Dr.
-Abercrombie were rectors. When Bishop White was asked if Washington had
-ever communed he replied: "Truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington
-never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial
-minister"--_Memoir of Bishop White,_ pp. 196, 197. The _Western
-Christian Advocate_ accepts this testimony as conclusive. It says:
-"Bishop White seems to have had more intimate relations with Washington
-than any clergyman of his time. His testimony outweighs any amount of
-influential argumentation on the question."
-
-Dr. Abercrombie says: "On sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington,
-immediately after the desk and pulpit services went out with the greater
-part of the congregation--always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other
-communicants."--_Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit_, vol. v., p.
-394.
-
-Fearing the effect of Washington's example Dr. Abercrombie administered
-a mild reproof. Washington, he says, "never afterwards came on the
-morning of sacramental Sunday."--_Ibid_.
-
-Regarding Washington's conduct in Virginia, the Rev. Beverly Tucker,
-D.D., of the Episcopal church, says: "The General was accustomed on
-Communion Sundays to leave the church with her [Nellie Custis, his
-step-granddaughter], sending back the carriage for Mrs. Washington."
-
-The Rev. William Jackson, who was at a later, period, rector of this
-church, conducted an exhaustive search to discover if possible some
-evidence of Washington once having communed. His search was futile. He
-says: "I find no one who ever communed with him."
-
-Early in the last century the Rev. E. D. Neill, a prominent clergyman of
-the Episcopal church, contributed to the Episcopal _Recorder_, the organ
-of the Episcopal church, an article on Washington's religion. Regarding
-Washington's church membership he says: "The President was not a
-communicant, notwithstanding all the pretty stories to the contrary, and
-after the close of the sermon on Sacramental Sundays, had fallen into
-the habit of retiring from the church while his wife remained and
-communed."
-
-The foregoing testimony in disproof of the claim that Washington was a
-communicant, conclusive as it is, is not needed. His own testimony is
-sufficient. To Dr. Abercrombie he declared that "_he had never been a
-communicant._"--Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v., p.
-394.
-
-During the presidential campaign of 1880, the Christian Union, at that
-time the leading church paper of this country, made the frank admission
-that of the nineteen men who up to that time had held the office of
-President of the United States, not one, with the possible exception of
-Washington, had been a member of a Christian church. And Washington, as
-we have seen, cannot be made an exception.
-
-"There is nothing to show that he [Washington] was ever a member of the
-church."--_St. Louis Globe._
-
-"He [Washington] belonged to no church."--_Western Christian Advocate._
-
-"In all the voluminous writings of General Washington, the Holy name of
-Jesus Christ is never once written."--_Catholic World_.
-
-"In several thousand letters the name of Jesus Christ never appears,
-and it is notably absent from his last will."--_General A. W. Greeley in
-Ladies' Home Journal for April, 1896._
-
-"It has been confidently stated to me that he actually refused spiritual
-aid when it was proposed to send for a clergyman."--_Robert Dale Owen_.
-
-The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, president of Princeton College, signer of
-the Declaration of Independence, member of Congress, and chaplain to
-Congress during Washington's administration, says: "Like nearly all the
-founders of the Republic, he [Washington] was not a Christian, but a
-Deist." "He had no belief at all in the divine origin of the Bible."
-
-During Jackson's administration the Rev. Dr. Wilson, a noted
-Presbyterian divine of Albany, preached a famous sermon on "The Religion
-of the Presidents," which was published and had a wide circulation. Dr.
-Wilson showed that of the seven men who up to that time had been elected
-president, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy
-Adams, and Jackson, not one had professed a belief in Christianity.
-In his search for evidence he visited the Washingtons' old pastor, Dr.
-Abercrombie. In answer to Dr. Wilson's inquiry concerning Washington's
-religious belief Dr. Abercrombie's emphatic answer was, "Sir, Washington
-was a Deist." As a result of his investigation Dr. Wilson says: "I think
-anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion
-that he [Washington] was a Deist and nothing more."
-
-Everyone is familiar with the story of Washington's praying at Valley
-Forge. This is a pure fiction. Intelligent Christians reject it. The
-Rev. E. D. Neill, of the Episcopal church, whose father's uncle owned
-the building occupied by Washington at Valley Forge, says: "With the
-capacious and comfortable house at his disposal, it is hardly possible
-that the shy, silent, cautious Washington should leave such retirement
-and enter the leafless woods, in the vicinity of the winter encampment
-of an army and engage in audible prayer."--_Episcopal Recorder_.
-
-Alluding to this subject, the Rev. Dr. Minot J. Savage, in a sermon,
-said: "The pictures that represent him on his knees in the winter forest
-at Valley Forge are silly caricatures."
-
-Dr. Conway, who was employed to edit Washington's letters, and who is
-considered one of the best authorities on his domestic life, says:
-"Many clergymen visited him, but they were never invited to hold family
-prayers, and no grace was ever said at table."
-
-Washington's library contained the Deistical works of Paine, Voltaire
-and other Freethinkers. When the French Freethinker Volney visited this
-country he was the guest of Washington.
-
-"His services as a vestryman had no special significance from a
-religious standpoint. The political affairs of a Virginia county were
-then directed by the vestry, which, having the power to elect its
-own members, was an important instrument of the oligarchy of
-Virginia."--_General A. W. Greeley in Ladies' Home Journal._
-
-George Wilson, whose ancestors occupied the pew next to Washington's in
-Virginia, says.: "At that time the vestry was the county court, and in
-order to have a hand in managing the affairs of the county, in which his
-large property lay, regulating the levy of taxes, etc., Washington had
-to be a vestryman."
-
-Jefferson was a more radical Freethinker than Paine, as the following
-passages from his writings will show. My quotations are from Randolph's
-edition of Jefferson's works, published in 1829.
-
-In a letter to his nephew and ward, Peter Carr, while at school,
-Jefferson writes: "Read the Bible as you would Livy or Tacitus... Fix
-reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact,
-every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a
-God."--_Jefferson's Works, Vol. ii, P. 217._
-
-The God of the Old Testament, the God that Christians worship,
-Jefferson pronounces "a being of terrific character--cruel, vindictive,
-capricious, and unjust."--_Works, vol. iv, p. 325._
-
-In the Four Gospels, which Christians consider the most authentic and
-the most important books of the Bible, Jefferson discovers what he
-terms "a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of
-superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications."--_Ibid._
-
-"Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his
-biographers [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John], I find many passages of fine
-imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence;
-and others, again, of so much ignorance, of so much absurdity, so
-much untruth and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such
-contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate,
-therefore, the gold from the dross, restore to him the former, and leave
-the latter to the stupidity of some and the roguery of others of his
-disciples."--_Works, vol. iv. p. 320._
-
-Jefferson made a compilation of the finer alleged sayings of Jesus which
-have been published and paraded as proof of Jefferson's acceptance of
-Christ. For the man Jesus, Jefferson, like Paine, Ingersoll and other
-Freethinkers, had the greatest admiration, but for the Christ Jesus of
-orthodox Christianity he had the greatest contempt.
-
-"Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Corypheus, and
-first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."--_Vol. iv. p. 327._
-
-"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe
-in the Platonic mysticism that three are one and one is three... But
-this constitutes the craft, the power and profit of the priests. Sweep
-away their gossamer fabrics of fictitious religion and they would catch
-no more flies."--_Ibid, p. 205._
-
-"The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled
-to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw in
-the mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up
-an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit
-everlasting controversy, give employment for their order and introduce
-it to profit, power and preeminence."--_Ibid, p. 242._
-
-"The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body
-and three heads had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
-thousands of martyrs."--_Ibid, p. 360._
-
-"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
-Being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the
-fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."--_Ibid, p.
-365._
-
-"In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women.
-They have their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by
-their priests and sometimes by a henpecked husband, they pour forth the
-effusions of their love to Jesus in terms as amatory and carnal as their
-modesty would permit to a mere earthly lover."--_Ibid, p. 358._
-
-"Jefferson occupied his Sundays at Monticello in writing letters to
-Paine (they are unpublished I believe, but I have seen them) in favor
-of the probabilities that Christ and his Twelve Apostles were only
-personifications of the sun and the Twelve signs of the Zodiac."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-The correspondence of Jefferson and Paine would fill a volume. In these
-letters Jefferson unbosomed himself and gave expression to his most
-radical sentiments. Randolph's edition of Jefferson's works was
-published twenty years after Paine's death. By this time the Orthodox
-ghouls had about completed their work and these letters, although
-containing some of Jefferson's most mature thoughts and best writings,
-remained unpublished.
-
-In a letter to Dr. Woods, Jefferson says: "I have recently been
-examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in
-our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.
-They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies." "Millions
-of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of
-Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we
-have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect
-of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half
-hypocrites."--_Jefferson's Notes on Virginia._
-
-Writing to Jefferson on the 5th of May, 1817, John Adams, giving
-expression to the matured conviction of eighty-two years, says: "This
-would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in
-it." To this radical declaration Jefferson replied: "If by religion we
-are to understand sectarian dogmas in which no two of them agree, then
-your declaration on that hypothesis is just, 'that this would be the
-best of worlds, if there were no religion in it.'"--_Works, vol. iv. p.
-301._
-
-Writing to John Adams just before his death Jefferson makes the
-following declaration of his belief: "I am a Materialist."
-
-"A question has been raised as to Thomas Jefferson's religious views.
-There need be no question, for he has settled that himself. He was an
-Infidel, or, as he chose to term it, a Materialist. By his own account
-he was as heterodox as Colonel Inger-soll, and in some respects even
-more so."--_Chicago Tribune._
-
-Alluding to Jefferson's belief the Rev. Dr. Wilson in his sermon on
-"The Religion of the Presidents," previously quoted, says: "Whatever
-difference of opinion there may have been at the time [of his election],
-it is now rendered certain that he was a Deist.... Since his death, and
-the publication of Randolph, [Jefferson's Works], there remains not the
-shadow of doubt of his Infidel principles. If any man thinks there is,
-let him look at the book itself. I do not recommend the purchase of
-it to any man, for it is one of the most wicked and dangerous books
-extant."
-
-"In religion he was a Freethinker; in morals pure and
-unspotted."--_Benson J. Lossing, in his "Lives of the Signers of the
-Declaration of Independence!'_
-
-"Surely, Christians, your cause must be growing desperate, when, to
-sustain it, you must needs claim for its support so bitter an enemy as
-Thomas Jefferson--a man who affirmed that he was a Materialist; a man
-who recognized in your religion only "our particular superstition,"
-a superstition without "one redeeming feature;" a man who divided the
-Christian world into two classes--"hypocrites and fools;" a man who
-asserted that your Bible is a book abounding with "vulgar ignorance;"
-a man who termed your Father, Son, and Holy Ghost a "hocus-pocus
-phantasm;" a man who denounced your God as "cruel, vindictive, and
-unjust;" a man who intimated that your Savior was "a man of illegitimate
-birth;" a man who declared his disciples, including your oracle Paul,
-to be a "band of dupes and impostors and who characterized your
-modern priesthood, of all denominations, as cannibal priests" and an
-"abandoned confederacy" against public happiness."--_The Fathers of Our
-Republic._
-
-Franklin rejected Christianity when a boy and remained a Rationalist to
-the end of his life.
-
-"Some volumes against deism fell into my hands. They were said to be the
-substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lecture. It happened that they
-produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was intended by
-the writers; for the arguments of the deists, which were cited in order
-to be refuted, appealed to me much more forcibly than the refutation
-itself. In a word I soon became a thorough Deist."--_Franklin's
-Autobiography._
-
-Writing to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, when he was
-eighty-four, he says: "I have with most of the Dissenters in England,
-doubts as to his [Christ's] divinity."
-
-"By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree and
-eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such a reward.... I
-have not the vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect, or the
-ambition to desire it."--_Franklin's Works, vol. vii., p. 75._
-
-"I wish it [Christianity] were more productive of good works than I have
-generally seen it. I mean real good works, works of kindness, charity,
-mercy, and public spirit, not holy-day keeping, sermon hearing and
-reading, performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled
-with flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much
-less capable of pleasing the Deity."--_Ibid._
-
-"Nowadays we have scarcely a little parson that does not think it the
-duty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty ministration,
-and that whoever omits this offends God. To such I wish more
-humility."--_Franklin's Works, vol. vii. pp. 76,77._
-
-"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the
-Christian religion," affirmed Washington (treaty with Tripoli). "Keep
-the church and the state forever separate," said Grant (Des Moines
-speech). And yet, in spite of this declaration and this admonition
-religious liberty has been ignored and a practical union of church and
-state has been maintained--the exemption of ecclesiastical property
-from taxation, the employment of chaplains, appropriations for sectarian
-purposes, religious services, including the use of the Bible, in our
-public schools, the appointment of religious festivals, the judicial
-oath and the enforced observance of Sunday as a Sabbath. Concerning
-these and similar privileges of his time and of our time, Franklin
-says: "I think they were invented not so much to secure religion as the
-emoluments of it. When a religion is good I conceive it will support
-itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care
-to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for help
-of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad
-one."--_Franklin's Works, vol. viii., p. 506._
-
-Theodore Parker, in his "Four Historic Americans," writes as follows
-concerning Franklin's belief: "If belief in the miraculous revelation of
-the Old Testament and the New is required to make a man religious, then
-Franklin had no religion at all. It would be an insult to say that he
-believed in the popular theology of his time, or of ours, for I find not
-a line from his pen indicating any such belief."
-
-The eminent statesman John Hay, in an article on "Franklin in France,"
-published after his death in the _Century Magazine_ for January, 1906,
-ascribes much of Franklin's popularity in France to his espousal of
-Freethought. He says: "Franklin became the fashion of the season. For
-the court dabbled a little in liberal ideas. So powerful was the vast
-impulse of Freethought that then influenced the mind of France--that
-susceptible French mind, that always answers like the wind harp to the
-breath of every true human aspiration--that even the highest classes
-had caught the infection of liberalism." Among Franklin's most intimate
-companions in France Mr. Hay mentions Voltaire, D'Alembert, D'Holbach,
-and Condorcet, four of France's most radical Freethinkers.
-
-Dr. Franklin and Dr. Priestley were intimate friends. After Franklin's
-death Dr. Priestley wrote: "It is much to be lamented that a man of
-Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been
-an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to
-make others unbelievers."--_Priestley's Autobiography, p. 60._
-
-This great man was himself denounced as an Infidel. He was a Unitarian,
-and was mobbed and driven from England on account of his heretical
-opinions and his sympathy with the French Revolution. Franklin's
-Infidelity must have been very pronounced to have provoked the censure
-of Dr. Priestley.
-
-There has been published a religious tract, entitled "Don't Unchain the
-Tiger," which purports to be a letter from Franklin to Paine, advising
-him not to publish his "Age of Reason." The only thing needed to cause a
-rejection of this pious fiction is a knowledge of the fact that Franklin
-had been dead nearly four years when the first page of Paine's book was
-written. Besides, the opinions expressed in this book were the opinions
-of Franklin. Paine's biographer, Dr. Conway, says: "Paine's deism
-differed from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious."
-Franklin's biographer, James Parton, says: "It ['Age of Reason']
-contains not a position which Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson and
-Theodore Parker would have dissented from."
-
-The Rev. John Snyder, of St. Louis, says: "Paine shared the religious
-convictions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin."
-Concerning the belief of these and other noted men, the Rev. Dr. Swing,
-of Chicago, says: "Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Pitt, Burke, Washington,
-Lafayette, Jefferson, Paine and Franklin moved along in a wonderful
-unity of belief, both political and religious."
-
-"Paine wrote the 'Age of Reason' in Paris some years after Franklin
-was dead.... The letter called the letter of Franklin to Paine bears no
-address or date or signature. It may not have been written by Franklin
-to anybody. The evangelists who cite this letter intend to convey the
-impression that the 'Tiger' means unbelief. The indication is that the
-writer had in his mind the beast of fanaticism and detraction. That
-tiger was let loose by the 'Age of Reason' against its author, and the
-animal and its whelps are still with us."--_George E. Macdonald._
-
-Another Franklin myth is that concerning Franklin's motion for prayers
-in the Convention that framed our Constitution. The Convention, it is
-claimed, had labored for weeks without accomplishing anything when, at
-Franklin's suggestion, its sessions were opened with prayer, after
-which its work was speedily performed. While Franklin's proposal was not
-inconsistent with his Deistic belief it was not adopted. There was not a
-prayer offered from the opening to the close of the Convention. Franklin
-himself says: "The Convention, except three or four persons, thought
-prayers unnecessary."
-
-Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine were four of the greatest and
-noblest of men. All held substantially the same religious opinions. All
-were Deists. All rejected Christianity. Yet Washington, Jefferson and
-Franklin are held in grateful remembrance, while Paine has been reviled
-as no other man has been reviled. How do we account for this? Paine's
-mere rejection of Christianity does not account for it.
-
-The "Age of Reason" was suppressed by the government in England. In
-America it could not be suppressed by law. The only way the clergy could
-suppress it here was to resort to slander, to cover its author's name
-with obloquy and make him appear so vile that no respectable bookseller
-would dare to sell it and no respectable reader dare to read it.
-
-"In England it was easy for Paine's chief antagonist, the bishop of
-Llandaff [Watson] to rebuke Paine's strong language, when his lordship
-could sit serenely in the House of Peers with knowledge that his
-opponent was answered with handcuffs for every Englishman who sold his
-book. But in America slander had to take the place of handcuffs."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-Henry A. Beers: "His book was denounced from a hundred pulpits and
-copies of it were carefully locked away from the sight of 'the young,'
-whose religious beliefs it might undermine."
-
-James B. Elliott, of Philadelphia, says he well remembers the "time when
-it was impossible to obtain the 'Age of Reason' except under cover
-of the greatest secrecy and when he who was known to have read it was
-shunned as a dangerous person."
-
-Hugh O. Pentecost: "Paine's offense was not that he was an Infidel, but
-that he made his meaning so clear that the common people could become
-Infidels, too."
-
-"It is true that Paine was Republican and Deist, an enemy of kings
-and churches. But many men of great and undimmed honor held the same
-principles: Washington, Jefferson and Franklin and others of the
-'Fathers' were Deists, and in England that creed was even fashionable in
-certain aristocratic quarters. Paine's real sin was not that he preached
-Deism in the land of Bolingbroke, Hume and Gibbon,... but that he
-succeeded for the first time in inoculating the people with his
-heresies."--_The Nation, London._
-
-"Mimnermus," an English writer, says: "There were critics of the Bible,
-it is true, before Paine's day, but they were mainly scholars whose
-works were not easily understood by ordinary folk. Paine himself, a man
-of genius, had sprung from the people, and he spoke their tongue and
-made their thoughts articulate."
-
-"Paine held that the people at large had the right of access to all new
-ideas, and he wrote so as to reach the people. Hence, his book must be
-suppressed."--_Prof. J. B. Bury, LL.D._
-
-John S. Crosby: "The reason why his writings are excluded from our
-colleges is not on account of what he said about the _prophets_, but for
-fear that the realization of his ideas may diminish the _profits_."
-
-"Recognizing the magic influence that a great name carries with it, the
-clergy have inscribed in the Christian roster the names of hundreds
-who were total disbelievers in their dogmas. As the venders of quack
-nostrums attach the forged certificates of distinguished individuals to
-their worthless drugs, to make them sell, so these theological venders
-present the manufactured endorsements of the great to make their
-nostrums popular. Washington, Jefferson and Franklin have all been
-denominated Christians, not because they were such, for they were not,
-but because of the influence that attaches to their names. Paine's
-opposition to priestcraft was too pronounced and too well known to claim
-him as an adherent of their faith, and so they have sought to destroy
-his influence by destroying his good name. Not only this, knowing the
-prejudice that has prevailed against Atheism, they have misrepresented
-his theological opinions and declared him an Atheist."--_The Fathers of
-Our Republic._
-
-"This injustice to him was perpetrated in defense of a system that
-does not care, because it does not dare to have its credentials and
-foundation critically examined; in other words, Paine has been maligned
-for more than a century by those interested in keeping veiled the image;
-he did what he could--and it was much--to uncover to the gaze of the
-world."--_E. C. Walker._
-
-William M. Salter, A. M.: "It is to the shame of religious prejudice in
-our country that he is not freely and gladly given his place alongside
-of Franklin and Washington."
-
-"The rankest ingratitude the American people have ever exhibited has
-been that of the systematic attempt to blot the name of Paine from the
-memory of succeeding generations, and to allow no historical mention
-in the annals of the nation which he greatly and gloriously helped to
-found. But with the destruction of every error truth rises clear and
-bright. The time will come when his picture will be as familiar to
-school children as those of his great contemporaries, Washington,
-Jefferson and Franklin."--. _J. B. Wilson._
-
-Pretended reviewers of Paine, including the authors of many encyclopedic
-articles on Paine, writers who, for the most part, never read the
-"Age of Reason," characterize it as crude and superficial, declare its
-arguments to be weak and fallacious and its author to have had little
-or no influence in changing the religious opinions of his time. It is a
-sufficient answer to these critics to cite the fact that from thirty
-to forty elaborate replies from Christian writers followed it in rapid
-succession, each writer tacitly admitting that it needed answering and
-that all preceding efforts to answer it had been failures.
-
-Paine's orthodox critics also affect to believe that his "Age of Reason"
-is no longer read, that it is an "out of print" book for which there is
-no demand. The fact is ever since the first London and Paris editions
-were published in 1794 there has been a constant and widespread demand
-for it.
-
-Millions of copies have been printed and sold during this time, and
-today the demand for it is greater than ever before.
-
-Dr. John W. Francis (referring to "Age of Reason"): "No work had the
-demand for readers comparable to that of Paine."
-
-One bookseller of New York says that his sales of the "Age of Reason"
-now average more than five thousand copies a year. He is but one of many
-New York booksellers who sell Paine's book, while New York is but one
-of many cities where it has an extensive sale. A Chicago bookseller says
-that the "Age of Reason" is his best seller, that he sells thousands of
-them every year.
-
-William Heaford (1913): "Two large editions of forty thousand copies
-each will be issued of this invaluable edition of Paine's great text
-book of Biblical exegesis [by Watts & Co., London]."
-
-"There were sold in Burma [mostly to Buddhists] over ten thousand copies
-of the 'Age of Reason' last year."--_U. Dhamaloka, President Buddhist
-Tract Society._
-
-Arthur B. Moss: "During the past fifty years hundreds of thousands
-of copies of the 'Age of Reason' have been circulated in England and
-America alone.... The steady circulation of this work has done more than
-that of any other book to undermine the faith of Christians in all parts
-of the world."
-
-H. Percy Ward (formerly an English clergyman): "Thomas Paine's 'Age of
-Reason' gave the first shock to my faith."
-
-Wilson MacDonald: "I read the 'Age of Reason' when a boy, and I said,
-Paine is the hero for me."
-
-Susan H. Wixon: "I read that book again and again, and always with
-increased interest. It set me to thinking more than any other bode I had
-ever read."
-
-Sir Hiram Maxim: "It is indeed a very remarkable work. As a boy I read
-it with great care; as a man I have read it thoughtfully."
-
-James D. Shaw: "Of all the books ever published, I doubt if any other
-has ever equaled the 'Age of Reason' in breaking from the human mind
-superstition's fetters."
-
-"The effect of this pamphlet was vast."--_London Times._
-
-Edwin P. Whipple: "The most influential assailant of the orthodox faith
-was Thomas Paine."
-
-Francis E. Abbot, Ph.D.: "His 'Age of Reason' was one of the greatest
-historic blows ever struck for freedom. Paine's name ought to be written
-in letters of gold in the roll of the world's heroes."
-
-"It is still a living work, read by thousands, and carrying conviction
-wherever it finds an open mind."--_James F. Morton, Jr._
-
-Daniel Webster: "Mr. Girard got this provision of his will ('a school
-unfettered by religious tenets') from Paine's 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-Paul Desjardines (referring to "Age of Reason"): "The book in which the
-modern conscience first dared, without indirection and without sarcasm,
-to set itself up as the judge of Christian tradition and laid the
-basis of a purified religion reduced to the only beliefs which appeared
-necessary as a foundation of fraternity among men."
-
-Eugene M. Macdonald: "The 'Age of Reason' is irrefutable in its
-arguments, in its presentation of facts, in its analysis of the Bible,
-and absolutely convincing to fair-minded men in its conclusions. It was
-the forerunner of the Higher Criticism."
-
-"During the past thirty years we have heard much of the Higher
-Criticism; hundreds of learned men throughout Christendom have been
-investigating the Bible.... These learned men, after working on the
-problem for many years, have come to the exact conclusions that Thomas
-Paine arrived at so many years ago."--_Sir Hiram Maxim._
-
-"Paine was a precursor of such men as Colenso, and Robertson Smith, and
-a large host of scholars besides."--_Rev. O. B. Frothingham._
-
-"It is a singular tribute to his sagacity and common sense that every
-material fact and conclusion stated by Paine in regard to the Bible
-has been sustained by the explorations and increased learning since his
-day."--_T. B. Wakeman._
-
-"Upon this theological treatise is founded all modern biblical
-criticism."--Elbert Hubbard.
-
-Henry Frank: "There is nothing in the conclusions of the Higher
-Criticism that Paine did not anticipate."
-
-"As to his anticipation of the Higher Criticism. that should be placed
-to his credit."--_W. T. Stead._
-
-Henry Yorke (with Paine in England and France): "There is not a verse in
-it [the Bible] that is not familiar to him."
-
-J. P. Mendum: "As a critic and reviewer of the Bible his 'Age of Reason'
-is unanswerable."
-
-Sir Leslie Stephen: "Paine's book announced a startling fact, against
-which all the flimsy collections of conclusive proofs were powerless.
-It amounted to a proclamation that the creed no longer satisfied the
-instincts of cultivated scholars. When the defenders of the old orders
-tried to conjure with the old charms, the magic had gone out of them.
-In Paine's rough tones they recognized not the mere echo of coffee-house
-gossip, but the voice of deep popular passion. Once and forever, it
-was announced that, for the average mass of mankind, the old creed was
-dead."
-
-Elbert Hubbard: "As Paine's book 'Common Sense,' broke the power of
-Great Britain in America, and the 'Rights of Man' gave free speech and
-a free press to England, so did the 'Age of Reason' give pause to the
-juggernaut of orthodoxy. Thomas Paine was the legitimate ancestor of
-Hosea Ballou who founded the Universalist church, and of Theodore
-Parker who made Unitarianism in America an intellectual torch. Channing,
-Ripley,' Bartol, Martineau, Frothingham, Hale, Curtis, Collyer, Swing,
-Thomas, Conway, Leonard, Savage, Crapsey, yes--even Emerson, and
-Thoreau, were spiritual children, all, of Thomas Paine. He blazed the
-way and made it possible, for men to preach the sweet reasonableness of
-reason. He was the pioneer in a jungle of superstition."
-
-Abraham Lincoln became and remained a disciple of Thomas Paine.
-
-Chicago Herald (Feb., 1892): "In 1834, at New Salem, Ill., Lincoln read
-and circulated Vol-ney's 'Ruins' and Paine's 'Age of Reason,' giving to
-both books the sincere recommendation of his unqualified approval."
-
-Col. Ward H. Lamon (biographer of Lincoln): "He [Lincoln] had made
-himself familiar with the writings of Paine and Volney--the 'Ruins'
-of the one, and the 'Age of Reason' of the other,... and then wrote a
-deliberate essay wherein he reached conclusions similar to theirs."
-
-"In this work he intended to demonstrate:
-
-"'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;
-
-"'Secondly, that Jesus was not the Son of God.'"
-
-(Lincoln's work was never published.)
-
-"You insist on knowing something which you know I possess, and got as
-a secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book on Infidelity.
-Mr. Lincoln did tell me that he _did write a little book on
-Infidelity_"--_Col. James H. Matheny, Lincoln's political manager in
-Illinois._
-
-James Ford Rhodes, LL.D.: "When Lincoln entered upon political life
-he became reticent regarding his religious opinions, for at the age of
-twenty-five, influenced by Thomas Paine,... he had written an extended
-essay against Christianity."
-
-Hon. W. H. Herndon (law partner of Lincoln): "Paine became a part of Mr.
-Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life."
-
-"It was my good fortune to have had for some years an intimate
-acquaintance with Lincoln's partner for twenty-two years. Mr. Herndon
-was a man of academic education, and possessed a number of books that
-in that day would be considered a good library, and he told me that the
-books of his which fairly fascinated Lincoln were Volney's 'Ruins'
-and the works of Thomas Paine, especially the latter, of which he had
-memorized many pages."--Col. E. A. Stevens.
-
-Hon. James Tuttle: "He [Lincoln] was one of the most ardent admirers
-of Thomas Paine I ever met. He was continually quoting from the 'Age of
-Reason.'"
-
-It has been claimed that Lincoln changed his religious opinions after
-he became President. In a letter, written May 27, 1865, Col. John
-G. Nicolay, his private secretary, says: "Mr. Lincoln did not, to my
-knowledge, in any way, change his religious ideas, opinions, or beliefs,
-from the time he left Springfield till the day of his death."
-
-Hon. Leonard Swett, who placed Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency,
-in answer to an inquiry from a friend, wrote as follows: "You ask me
-if Lincoln changed his religion towards the close of his life. I think
-not."
-
-Next to Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's biographer, Colonel Lamon, has made the
-fullest and fairest presentation of Lincoln's religious opinions. He did
-not accept them but he was familiar with them and he was honest enough
-to present them. In Illinois he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln.
-When the time approached for Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and
-the journey from Springfield to Washington was deemed a dangerous one,
-to Colonel Lamon was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him
-to the national capital. During the eventful years that followed he
-remained at the President's side, holding an important official position
-in the District of Columbia. When Lincoln was assassinated, at the great
-funeral pageant in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was,
-with Judge David Davis and Major General Hunter, selected to convey
-the remains to their final resting-place at Springfield. Regarding his
-friend's religious belief Colonel Lamon says: "Mr. Lincoln was never a
-member of any church, nor did he believe in the divinity of Christ or
-the inspiration of the scriptures in the sense understood by evangelical
-Christians" (Life of Lincoln, p. 486). indefinite expressions about
-'Divine Providence,' the 'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,'
-were easy and not inconsistent with his religious notions. In this
-accordingly he indulged freely; but never in all that time [1834 to
-his death] did he let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which
-remotely implied the slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the
-Savior of men (Ibid, p. 502).
-
-After Lincoln's death Mrs. Lincoln, herself a Christian, made the
-following statement: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope, and no faith, in the
-usual acceptation of those words" (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 489).
-
-Judge David Davis, his life-long friend and his executor, says: "He
-[Lincoln] had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term."
-
-Lincoln did not believe in a personal God. His law partner, W. H.
-Herndon, relates the following in proof of this: In 1854 he asked me to
-erase the word _God_ from a speech which I had written and read to him
-for criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas
-he insisted that no such personality ever existed."--_Lamon's Life of
-Lincoln, p. 445._
-
-The Gettysburg address, as delivered by Lincoln, contained no mention
-of Deity. The phrase "under God" was inserted afterward, with Lincoln's
-consent, at the earnest solicitation of a friend. The recognition of God
-in the Emancipation Proclamation was inserted at the urgent request of
-Secretary Chase. The pious phrases to be found in his state papers are
-mostly the work of his cabinet ministers and secretaries.
-
-Thirty years ago Judge James M. Nelson, a son of Thomas Pope Nelson,
-a distinguished statesman of Kentucky, and a great-grandson of Thomas
-Nelson, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was
-intimately acquainted with Lincoln, both in Illinois and at Washington,
-published in the Louisville _Times_ his "Reminiscences of Abraham
-Lincoln." Concerning Lincoln's religious belief Judge Nelson says:
-
-"In religion Mr. Lincoln was of about the same belief as Colonel
-Ingersoll, and there is no account of his ever having changed. He went
-to church a few times with his family while he was President, but so far
-as I have been able to find he remained an unbeliever.... I asked him
-once about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being
-an unbeliever in what was published. 'Oh,' said he, '_that is some of
-Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools!_"
-
-Col. Amos C. Babcock, for many years chairman of the Illinois State
-Republican Committee, and one of Lincoln's confidential agents during
-the war, in an article published in the Peoria _Journal_, says: "Lincoln
-was an Agnostic. During the war he sometimes talked religiously, but it
-was mere statecraft. He knew that everything depended upon his having
-the support of the religious people,... but he was for all that an utter
-disbeliever in the Christian religion."
-
-In Springfield, where he lived, Lincoln's rejection of Christianity was
-known to every person and while he was very popular and greatly beloved
-by all who were not dominated by their religious prejudices, the bigots
-always opposed him. During the presidential campaign of 1860 his
-friends made a canvass of the voters of Springfield for the purpose of
-ascertaining how they were going to vote for president. The list was
-given to Lincoln. With Hon. Newton Bateman, state superintendent of
-public instruction, he went over it carefully, his principal desire
-being to know how the clergy were going to vote. When they had
-finished Lincoln said: "Here are twenty-three ministers, of different
-denominations, and all of them are against me but three; and here are a
-great many prominent' members of the churches, a very great majority of
-whom are against me."--_Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 236._
-
-Why, it may be asked, was Lincoln's Infidelity not used against him
-everywhere in this campaign? Because the managers of both parties knew
-that Douglas, also, was a disbeliever in Christianity. An agitation
-of this question would have weakened the chances of both northern
-candidates while it would have strengthened the chances of Breckinridge,
-the southern candidate.
-
-Lincoln did not believe in prayer. All the stories about his praying,
-without a single exception, are pure inventions. Let me cite an example.
-After Lincoln's death the _Western Christian Advocate_ published the
-following story, a companion piece to Washington's prayer at Valley
-Forge: "On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, as we
-learn from a friend intimate with the late President Lincoln, the
-cabinet meeting was held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the
-President nor any member was able, for a time, to give utterance to his
-feelings. At the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their
-knees, and offered in silence and in tears their humble and heartfelt
-acknowledgment to the Almighty for the triumph he had granted to the
-national cause."
-
-In reply to an inquiry respecting the authenticity of this story Hugh
-McCulloch, Lincoln's last secretary of the treasury, wrote as follows:
-"The description of what occurred at the Executive Mansion, when the
-intelligence was received of the surrender of the Confederate forces,
-which you quote from the _Western Christian Advocate_, is not only
-absolutely groundless, but absurd. After I became Secretary of the
-Treasury I was present at every Cabinet meeting, and I never saw Mr.
-Lincoln or any of his ministers upon his knees or in tears."
-
-Our works of art are mostly mythological. And this is true of Christian
-art, as it is true of Christian theology. The Washington myth is now
-preserved in bronze, and the Lincoln myth will some day find expression
-on canvas.
-
-Herndon says: "It is my opinion that no man ever heard Mr. Lincoln pray
-in the true evangelical sense of that word. His philosophy is against
-all human prayer as a means of reversing God's decrees."
-
-The partnership of Lincoln and Herndon was formed in 1843. It was
-dissolved by the assassin's bullet in 1865. The love of these men
-for each other was like the love of Damon and Pythias. To the moral
-character of his illustrious partner Mr. Herndon pays this tribute: "The
-benevolence of his impulses., the seriousness of his convictions, and
-the nobility of his character, are evidences unimpeachable that his soul
-was ever filled with the exalted purity and the sublime faith of natural
-religion."
-
-Lincoln's religion was the religion of Thomas Paine. "To do good is my
-religion," said Paine; "When I do good I feel good, and when I do bad I
-feel bad," said Lincoln.
-
-For thirty years the church endeavored to crush Lincoln, but when, in
-spite of her malignant opposition, he achieved a glorious immortality,
-this same church, to hide the mediocrity of her devotees, attempts to
-steal his deathless name.
-
-Six Historic Americans: "The Church claims all great men. But the truth
-is, the great men of all nations have, for the most part, rejected
-Christianity. Of these six historic Americans--the six greatest men that
-have lived on this continent [Paine, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson,
-Lincoln and Grant]--not one was a Christian. All were unbelievers.
-
-"It is popularly supposed that Paine was a very irreligious man, while
-Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant were very religious.
-The reverse of this is more nearly true. Paine, although not a
-Christian, was a deeply religious man; while the others, though
-practicing the loftiest morals, cared little for religion."
-
-("Six Historic Americans" contains more than five hundred pages of
-evidence in support of the fact that these six eminent men were all
-disbelievers in orthodox Christianity, including the testimony of one
-hundred witnesses, mostly friends and acquaintences, in proof of
-Lincoln's unbelief.)
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' can now be estimated calmly. It was written from
-the viewpoint of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but
-who held that 'all religions are in their nature mild and benign' when
-not associated with political systems."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-"All national institutions of churches--whether Jewish, Christian or
-Turkish--appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify
-and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit."--_Age of Reason._
-
-"Each of those churches show certain books which they call revelation,
-or the word of God. The Jews say that their word of God was given by God
-to Moses face to face; the Christians say that their word of God came by
-divine inspiration; and the Turks say that their word of God (the Koran)
-was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses
-the others of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them
-all."--_Ibid._
-
-Paine's reason for rejecting the Bible is as logical as it is apparent.
-A plurality of so-called divine revelations cannot be harmonized with
-the attributes ascribed to. Deity. There are many Bibles. The world is
-divided into various religious systems. The adherents of each system
-have their sacred book, or Bible. Brahmins have the Vedas and Puranas,
-Buddhists the Tripitaka, Zoroastrians the Zend Avesta, Confucians the
-King, Mohammedans the Koran, and Christians the Holy Bible. The
-adherents of each claim that their book is a revelation from
-God--that the others are spurious. Now, if the Christian Bible were
-a revelation--if it were God's only revelation, as affirmed--would he
-allow these spurious books to be imposed upon mankind and delude the
-greater portion of his children?
-
-A divine revelation intended for all mankind can be harmonized only with
-a universal acceptance of this revelation. God, it is affirmed, has made
-a revelation to the world. Those who receive and accept this revelation
-are saved; those who fail to receive and accept it are lost. This God,
-it is claimed, is all-powerful and all-just. If he is all-powerful he
-can give his children a revelation. If he is all-just he will give this
-revelation to all. He will not give it to a part of them and allow them
-to be saved and withhold it from the others and suffer them to be lost.
-Your house is on fire. Your children are asleep in their rooms. What
-is your duty? To arouse them and rescue them--to awaken all of them and
-save all of them. If you awaken and save only a part of them when it is
-in your power to save them all, you are a fiend. If you stand outside
-and blow a trumpet and say, "I have warned them, I have done my duty,",
-and they perish, you are still a fiend. If God does not give his
-revelation to all; if he does not disclose his divinity to all; in
-short, if he does not save all, he is the prince of fiends.
-
-If all the world's inhabitants but one accepted the Bible and there was
-one who could not honestly accept it, its rejection by one human being
-would prove that it is not from an all-powerful and an all-just God;
-for an all-powerful God who failed to reach and convince even one of his
-children would not be an all-just God. Has the Bible been given to all
-the world? Do all accept it? Three-fourths of the human race reject it;
-millions have never heard of it.
-
-"The word of God is the creation we behold."--_Age of Reason_.
-
-"It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a
-word of God can unite. The creation speaketh a universal language,
-independently of human speech or human languages, multiplied and various
-as they be. It is an ever-existing original which every man can read.
-It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it
-cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the
-will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself
-from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and
-to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary
-for man to know of God.
-
-"Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of
-the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the
-unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do
-we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with
-which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it
-in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In
-fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the
-Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the scripture called the
-Creation."--_Ibid._
-
-"The moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and
-beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures.
-That seeing as we daily do the goodness of God to all men, it is an
-example calling upon all men to practice the same towards each other;
-and, consequently, that everything of persecution and revenge between
-man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of
-moral duty."--_Ibid._
-
-"I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy
-and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."--Ibid.
-
-"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of
-a child cannot be a true system."--_Ibid._
-
-"I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content
-myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that
-gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he
-pleases, either with or without this body."--_Ibid_.
-
-It has been charged that Paine reviled Jesus in his book. He eulogized
-Jesus. ''Three noble and pathetic tributes to the Man of Nazareth
-are audible from the last century--those of Rousseau, Voltaire and
-Paine."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant
-disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and
-amiable man. The morality that he preached was of the most benevolent
-kind; and though similar Systems of morality had been preached by
-Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers, many years before;
-by the Quakers since, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been
-exceeded by any.... But he preached also against the Jewish priests;
-and this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of
-priesthood."--_Age of Reason_.
-
-History repeats itself. What is alleged to have been the fate of Jesus
-was, in a measure, the fate of Thomas Paine. The penning of his honest
-thoughts on religion caused his good name to be consigned to everlasting
-infamy on earth and his soul doomed to endless misery in hell. The Jews
-who are said to have demanded the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary
-and the Catholics who burned Bruno at Rome are not more deserving of
-execration than are the Protestant assassins of Paine's character in
-England and America.
-
-Referring to Paine's examination and analysis of the Bible and his
-criticisms of the church presented in the "Age of Reason," William
-Thurston Brown, in a lecture, said: "He brought to that, examination and
-analysis what almost no other mind in all the ages has brought: a mind
-absolutely free, a soul absolutely incorruptible, a character unstained
-by one act of compromise or treachery to friend or foe, a nature
-devoted, as few natures in all history have been, to the truth, and,
-more than all, a sense of the relation of moral and intellectual
-integrity to personal character and social well-being never surpassed
-and seldom equaled."
-
-S. Kyd (counselor for Thomas Williams, imprisoned for publishing the
-"Age of Reason"): "I defy the prosecution to find in the 'Age of Reason'
-a single passage inconsistent with the most chaste, the most correct
-system of morals."
-
-Prof. W. F. Jamieson: "I read from this famous book, the 'Age of
-Reason,' as pure sentiments as were ever penned by mortal man."
-
-"When I was a boy I was often told that the writings of Thomas Paine
-'were not fit for anybody to read.' My pastor said so, as did my Sunday
-school teachers and my parents. None of these had ever read them or knew
-anything about them....I believed them, and might still do so, had I not
-accidentally encountered a copy of the 'Age of Reason.' Upon reading it
-I found it to be as conventional as anything I had ever read in
-church or Sunday school, to say nothing of its more lofty
-reasoning."--_Franklin Steiner_.
-
-The Encyclopedia Britannica says that "the 'Age of Reason' contains
-many passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favor of a pure
-morality."
-
-"Its tone throughout is noble and reverent."--_Rufus Rockwell._
-
-Chapman Cohen: "Assuming Paine to be alive today, with his opinions
-unchanged, how much fault would he find with the teachings of many
-preachers? Very little I fancy. But does this mean, or would it mean,
-that Paine had become converted to Christianity? Not a bit of it. It
-would only mean that Christianity had become converted to Paine. In
-its most advanced form today, Christianity is little more than the
-eighteenth century Deism it so bitterly opposed, with a liberal dash of
-the word 'Christ.'"
-
-"What has become of the Bible that Paine attacked? So far as the mere
-paper and type is concerned it is still here. But so tar as belief is
-concerned, it is Paine's Bible that is believed in by the majority of
-educated Christians."
-
-Rev. Dr. E. L. Rexford: "If Paine were now living he would be looked
-upon by all enlightened clergymen and laymen as a very conservative
-critic of the Christian religion."
-
-Rev. George Burman Foster (Gottingen and Chicago Universities): "What
-was radical in regard to the Bible in his day would be conservative
-today."
-
-Rev. S. Fletcher Williams (England): "His principles were right, and
-today an increasing number of religious teachers and religious minded
-men stand only where he stood a century ago."
-
-Dr. T. A. Bland: "The principles of the 'Age of Reason' are embodied in
-sermons--orthodox and radical--all over the country."
-
-John Maddock:--
-
-     "The work of Paine was done so well
-     The Church is now the Infidel."
-
-     "He triumphed--Bibles are revised,
-     Creeds change, and faiths decay,
-     The facts his bitter foes despised
-     Their children prize today."
-    --C. Fannie Aliyn.
-
-Rev. William Channing Gannett, D.D.: "What wonder Thomas Paine wrote his
-strong rank sarcasm! People should remember why he wrote it."
-
-Moncure D. Conway, LL.D.: "It ['Age of Reason'] represents, as no
-elaborate treatise could, the agony and bloody sweat of a heart breaking
-in the presence of crucified Humanity. What dear heads, what noble
-hearts had that man seen laid low; what shrieks had he heard in the
-desolate homes of the Condorcets, the Brissots; what Canaanite and
-Midianite massacres had be seen before the altar of Brotherhood, erected
-by himself! And all because every human being had been taught from his
-cradle that there is something more sacred than humanity, and to which
-man should be sacrificed. Of all those massacred thinkers not one voice
-remains: they have gone silent: over their reeking guillotine sits
-the gloating Apollyon of Inhumanity. But here is one man, a prisoner,
-preparing for his long silence. He alone can speak for those slain
-between the throne and the altar. In these outbursts of laughter and
-tears, these outcries that think not of literary style, these appeals
-from surrounding chaos to the starry realm of order, from the tribune of
-vengeance to the sun shining for all, this passionate horror of cruelty
-in the powerful which will brave a heartless heaven or hell with its
-immortal indignation,--in all these the unfettered mind may hear the
-wail of enthralled Europe, sinking back choked with its blood, under the
-chain it tried to break. So long as a link remains of the same chain,
-binding reason or heart, Paine's 'Age of Reason' will live. It is not a
-mere book--it is a man's heart."
-
-Edgar W. Howe: "The storm that arose over this book was never before
-equaled: it will never be equaled again."
-
-Dr. Bond (A surgeon belonging to General O'Hara's staff): "Mr. Paine
-while hourly expecting to die, read to me parts of his 'Age of Reason';
-and every night when I left him, to be separately locked up, and
-expected not to see him alive in the morning, he always expressed his
-firm belief in the principles of that book, and begged I would tell the
-world such were his dying opinions."
-
-"The doctrines and sentiments which it contains may justly be regarded
-as the expressions of a dying man."--_D. M. Bennett._
-
-"When it [first part] appeared he was a prisoner; his life in Couthon's
-hands. He had personally nothing to gain by its publication--neither
-wife, child, nor relative to reap benefit by its sale. It was published
-as purely for the good of mankind as any work ever written."--_Dr.
-Conway_.
-
-"While in prison he composed the second part, and as he expected
-every day to be guillotined it was penned in the very presence of
-death."--_George W. Foote._
-
-"Paine deserves whatever credit is due to absolute devotion to a creed
-believed by himself to be demonstrably true and beneficial. He showed
-undeniable courage, and is free from any suspicion of mercenary
-motives."--_Sir Leslie Stephen._
-
-Thomas Nixon and Captain Daniel Pelton: "All you have heard of his
-recanting is false. Being aware that such reports would be raised after
-his death by fanatics who infested his house at the time it was expected
-he would die, we, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine, since the year
-1776, went to his house--he was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in
-the full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated him
-on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind or repented
-of anything he had said or written on that subject. He answered, 'Not at
-all.'"
-
-Hon. Francis O. Smith, M. C.: "I have just parted with Hon. Richard
-M. Johnson, now a member of the House of Representatives [afterwards
-Vice-President of the United States], who told me that he visited
-Thomas Paine within the fortnight next preceding Paine's death; that he
-conversed with Paine and expressed a hope that he might recover; that
-Paine replied that he should shortly die, that he should never go out
-of his room again, and requested him to say to Mr. Jefferson that he had
-not changed his religious opinions in the slightest degree."
-
-Walter Morton (with Paine when he died): "In his religious opinions he
-continued to the last as steadfast and tenacious as any sectarian to the
-definition of his own creed."
-
-Dr. Philip Graves: "He [Amasa Woodsworth] told me that he nursed Thomas
-Paine in his last illness and closed his eyes when he was dead. I asked
-him if he recanted and called upon God to save him. He replied, 'No. He
-died as he had taught.'"
-
-John Randel, Jr. (orthodox Christian): "The very worthy mechanic, Amasa
-Woodsworth, who saw Paine daily, told me there was no truth in such
-report."
-
-Gilbert Vale, who interviewed Mr. Woodsworth, says: "As an act of
-kindness, Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks
-before his death; he frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last
-two nights of his life.... Mr. Woodsworth assures us that he neither
-heard nor saw anything to justify the belief of any mental change in the
-opinions of Mr. Paine previous to his death."
-
-The English writer, William Cobbett, a believer in Christianity, who
-lived for a time in this country, and who made a thorough investigation
-of the Paine calumnies, says: "Among other things said against this
-famous man is that he recanted before he died; and that in his last
-illness he discovered horrible fears of death.... It is a pure,
-unadulterated falsehood."
-
-Cobbett, in 1819, announced his intention of publishing a biography of
-Paine. Soon after a pious fanatic of New York, named Collins, attempted
-to persuade him that Paine had recanted and begged him to state the
-fact in his book. He had induced a disreputable woman, Mary Hinsdale, an
-opium fiend, notorious for her lying propensities, to promise that she
-would tell Cobbett that she had visited Paine during his illness and
-that he had confessed to her his disbelief in the "Age of Reason" and
-expressed regret for having published it. Cobbett saw at once that the
-whole thing was a fraud. Collins, he says, "had a sodden face, a simper,
-and maneuvered his features precisely like the most perfidious wretch
-that I have known." However, he called on the woman. But her courage had
-forsaken her. Concerning the result of his visit he says: "She shuffled;
-she evaded; she equivocated; she warded off; she affected not to
-understand me." It was afterward proven that she had not conversed
-with Paine; that she had never seen him. But it did not need Cobbett's
-publication of the lie to secure its acceptance by the church. The
-occupant of nearly every orthodox pulpit was only too willing to publish
-it. This was the origin of the recantation calumny.
-
-"Had Thomas Paine recanted, every citizen of New York would have heard
-of it within twenty-four hours. The news of it would have spread to the
-remotest confines of America and Europe as rapidly as the human agencies
-of that time could have transmitted it. It took ten years for this
-startling revelation to reach the ears of his sickbed attendants."--The
-Fathers of Our Republic.
-
-Rev. Willet Hicks: "I was with him every day during the latter part of
-his sickness. He died as easy as any one I ever saw die, and I have seen
-many die."
-
-"Paine died quietly and at peace."--_Ellery Sedgwick._
-
-"He died placidly and almost without a struggle."--_Gilbert Vale._
-
-"He spent the night in tranquility, and expired in the
-morning."--_Madame Bonneville._
-
-Noble L. Prentiss: "Paine's death-bed terrors were used in the pulpit
-for a long time. It is probable that they never existed. It is living
-not dying, that troubles most of us. When the inevitable hour comes;
-when the lights are being put out, the shutters closed, the end is
-peace."
-
-Concerning Paine's recanting Colonel Ingersoll says: "He died surrounded
-by those who hated and despised him,--who endeavored to wring from the
-lips of death a recantation. But, dying as he was, his soul stood erect
-to the last moment. Nothing like a recantation could be wrung from the
-brave lips of Thomas Paine."
-
-Col. John Fellows: "It [the recantation story] was considered by the
-friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to controvert."
-
-"Thomas Paine did not recant. But the church is recanting. On her
-death-bed tenet after tenet of the absurd and cruel creed which Paine
-opposed is being renounced by her. Time will witness the renunciation of
-her last dogma and her death. Then will the vindication of Thomas Paine
-and the 'Age of Reason' be complete."--_The Fathers of Our Republic_.
-
-
-
-
-PAINE'S PLACE IN LITERATURE.
-
-Royal Tyler: "That head which worked such mickle woe to courts and
-kings."
-
-Dr. Edmund Robinet: "A wise and lucid intellect."
-
-James Thompson Callender: "He possesses both, talent and courage."
-
-Walter Savage Landor:
-
-     "Few dared such homely truths to tell,
-     Or wrote our English half so well."
-
-Zells Encyclopedia: "He early distinguished himself by his literary
-abilities."
-
-Cyclopedia of American Literature: "The merits of Paine's style as a
-prose writer are very great."
-
-B. F. Underwood: "Thomas Paine's style as a writer, in some respects,
-has never been equaled. Every sentence that he wrote was suffused with
-the light of his own luminous mind, and stamped with his own intense
-individuality of character."
-
-"There is a peculiar originality in his style of thought and expression,
-his diction is not vulgar or illiterate, but nervous, simple and
-scientific.... Paine, like the young Spartan warrior, went into the
-field stripped bare to the last thread of prudent conventional disguise;
-and thus not only fixed the gaze of men upon his intrepid singularity,
-but exhibited the vigor of his faculties in full play."--_Rev. George
-Croly_.
-
-John Lendrum: "The style, manner, and language of the author is singular
-and fascinating."
-
-"He was a magnificent writer of the English language."--_Henry Frank_.
-
-"He is the best English writer we know."--_Gilbert Vale_.
-
-"Ease, fluidity, grace, imagination, energy, earnestness, mark his
-style."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"Paine is the first American writer who has a literary style, and we
-have not had so many since but that you may count them on the fingers of
-one hand."--_Ibid._
-
-L. Carroll Judson: "His intellectual powers suddenly burst into a blaze
-of light."
-
-John Horne Tooke: "You are like Jove coming down upon us in a shower of
-gold."
-
-"The man who coined the intellectual gold of the Eighteenth Century was
-Thomas Paine."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-Ebenezer Elliott: "Paine is the greatest master of metaphor I have ever
-read."
-
-"He was not only master of metaphor, he was master of principles. He
-imparted life to great ideas."--_George Jacob Holyoake._
-
-"The keenness of his intellect was matched by the brilliancy of his
-imagination. He stated a truth in a way that men could see, hear,
-and feel it. Take the following epigram: 'To argue with a man who
-has renounced the use of Reason is like administering medicine to the
-dead.'"--_George W. Foote_.
-
-Prof. William Smyth: "Paine is a writer to be numbered with those few
-who are so supereminently fitted to address the great mass of mankind."
-
-Dr. Charles Botta: "No writer, perhaps, ever possessed in a higher
-degree the art of moving and guiding the public at his will."
-
-Elroy McKendree Avery: "No writer ever had a greater influence upon the
-events of his own time than he."
-
-"He threw the charms of poetry over the statue of reason," says Stephen
-Simpson, "and made converts to liberty as if a power of fascination
-presided over his pen."
-
-John Adolphus: "He took with great judgment, a correct aim at the
-feelings and prejudices of those whom he intended to influence."
-
-Hezekiah Butterworth: "He had a surprising power of direct forcible
-argument."
-
-William Hazlitt: "Paine affected to reduce things to first principles,
-to announce self-evident truths."
-
-W. J. Fox, M. P.: "A keen and powerful intellect, and a philosophical
-mind going to the foundation of every question; bringing first
-principles forward in a luminous and impressive manner.
-
-Robert James Mackintosh: "His strong coarse sense and bold dogmatism
-conveyed in an instinctively popular style made Paine a dangerous enemy
-always."
-
-M. Gerard: "You know too well the prodigious effects produced by the
-writings of this celebrated personage."
-
-Madame Roland: "The boldness of his conceptions, the originality of his
-style, the striking truths which he boldly throws out in the midst of
-those whom they offend, must necessarily have produced great effects."
-
-Edward C. Reichwald: "He was an intellectual gladiator who won his
-victories upon the field of thought."
-
-Boston Herald: "There is no better illustration in all history than
-exists in Paine's writings of Bulwer's aphorism, 'The pen is mightier
-than the sword.'"
-
-Hon. John J. Lentz, M. C.: "The pen of the author of 'Common Sense' and
-the 'Crisis' did more to liberate the Colonies than did the sword of the
-commander in chief of the Colonial armies."
-
-Prof. William Denton: "The pen of Paine accomplished more for American
-liberty than the sword of Washington."
-
-General Lee of Revolutionary fame says: "The pen of Thomas Paine did
-more to achieve our Independence than did the sword of Washington." Joel
-Barlow, one of the most popular literary men of his time, a chaplain
-in the American Revolution and a fellow-worker of Paine for political
-liberty, both in England and France, says: "We may venture to say,
-without fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as
-much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington." Even Paine's
-vilest calumniator, Cheetham, makes this admission: "His pen was an
-appendage to the army as necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
-
-Reuben Post Halleck, L.L. D.: "Some have said that the pen of Thomas
-Paine was worth more to the cause of liberty than twenty thousand
-men. In the darkest hours he inspired the colonists with hope and
-enthusiasm... He had an almost Shakespearean intuition of what would
-appeal to the exigencies of each case."
-
-"The real man back of the American Revolution was the man who had the
-ideas and not the man behind the guns.... Paine fought with the weapon
-of the future, and he was one of the very first that made it powerful.
-Paine's weapon was the pen, not the sword. Washington conquered small
-groups of men that had been living twenty or thirty years, but Thomas
-Paine conquered the prejudices of thousands of years."--_Herbert N.
-Casson._
-
-Thomas Jefferson: "These two persons [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine]
-differed remarkably in the style of their writings, each leaving a model
-of what is most perfect in both extremes of the simple' and the sublime.
-No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in
-perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and
-unassuming language."
-
-Abraham Lincoln: "I never tire of reading Paine."
-
-Capel Lofft: "I am glad Paine is living: he cannot be even wrong without
-enlightening mankind, such is the vigor of his intellect, such the
-acuteness of his research, and such the force and vivid perspicuity of
-his expression."
-
-Augustine Birrell, M. P.: "Paine was without knowing it, a born
-journalist. His capacity for writing on the spur of the moment was
-endless, and his delight in doing so was boundless."
-
-Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott: "He was perhaps the most popular pamphleteer of
-the country."
-
-Library of The World's Best Literature: "The pamphlets of Thomas Paine
-were doubtless in their time 'half battles.' Clear, logical, homely,
-by turns warning, appealing, commanding, now sharply satirical, now
-humorous, now pathetic, always desperately in earnest, always written in
-admirably simple English, they constituted their author, in the judgment
-of many, the foremost pamphleteer of the eighteenth century."
-
-Lord Brougham: "The most remarkable spirit in pamphlet literature was
-Thomas Paine.... His style was a model of terseness and force."
-
-"This singular power of clear, vigorous exposition made him unequaled as
-a pamphleteer."--_Sir Leslie Stephen._
-
-London Times (June 8, 1909): "Paine was the greatest of pamphleteers;
-more potent in influence on affairs than Swift, Beaumarchais, or
-Courier, more varied in his activity than any of them; his words
-influencing the actors in two of the chief political revolutions of
-the world and prime movers in a religious revolution scarcely less
-important."
-
-"Perhaps someone, even in far off times, digging in the past, will come
-upon his books and will say, 'These were not words; they were events,
-in political history. This was a born leader who could make men march to
-victory or defeat.'"
-
-Manchester Guardian (June 8, 1909): "He and his works became the
-great influence which set up everywhere constitutional societies and
-encouraged political and religious freedom of thought. He became the
-interpreter to England of the principles of the two Revolutions, and his
-words and ideas leavened speculations among the masses of the English
-people, and still leaven them today. We may forget him or remember
-him awry, but the very stuff of our brains is woven in the loom of his
-devising."
-
-James K. Hosmer, LL. D.: "Few writers have exerted a more powerful
-influence since the world began, if the claim set forth at the time
-and never refuted be just, that his 'Common Sense' made possible the
-Declaration of Independence and therefore the United States of America."
-
-Constitutional Gazette (Feb. 24, 1776): "The author introduces [in
-'Common Sense'] a new system of polices as widely different from the old
-as the Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. This extraordinary
-performance contains as surprising a discovery in politics as the works
-of Sir Isaac Newton do in philosophy."
-
-"It would be difficult to name any human composition which has had an
-effect at once so instant, so extended and so lasting."--_Sir George
-Trevelyan._
-
-Paul Louis Courrier (1824): "Never did any portly volume effect so
-much for the human race. Rallying all hearts and minds to the party of
-Independence, it decided the issue of that great conflict which, ended
-for America, is still proceeding all over the rest of the world."
-
-"Incisive sentences,... as direct and vivid in their appeal as any
-sentences of Swift."--_Woodrow Wilson._
-
-"Like a thunderbolt from the sky came Paine's magnificent argument for
-liberty... No pamphlet ever written sold in such vast numbers, nor did
-any ever before or since produce such marvelous results."--_Ella Wheeler
-Wilcox._
-
-"Who could with almost one stroke of his pen, turn the people in a
-radically new direction? Who must exert an influence that had never,
-in any crisis of history, been exerted by one man before? The American
-Republic today, with its illimitable glory and belting a continent, can
-only reply: Thomas Paine!"--_Samuel P. Putnam._
-
-"The soul of Thomas Paine went forth in that book. Every line of it
-glittered with the fires of his brain. It was written as a poet writes
-his song.... It was like the flowing of a fountain, the sweep of a wind,
-the rush of a comet."--Ibid.
-
-The publication of Thomas Paine's immortal pamphlet, 'Common Sense,'
-will ever deserve to rank among the supremely important events of
-history. The farther we are removed from it in time the larger it will
-loom."--_Rev. Thomas B. Gregory._
-
-"This work marks an era in the history of the world. Its interest will
-last longer than nations."--_Hon. Elizur Wright._
-
-Universal Magazine (April, 1793. From a review of the "Rights of Man."):
-"And now courteous reader, we leave Mr. Paine entirely to thy mercy;
-what wilt thou say of him? Wilt thou address him? 'Thou art a troubler
-of privileged orders--we will tar and feather thee; nobles abhor thee,
-and kings think thee mad!' Or wilt thou put on thy spectacles, study Mr.
-Paine's physiognomy, purchase his print, hang it over thy chimney-piece,
-and, pointing to it, say: 'this is no common man!'"
-
-"Those who know the book ['Rights of Man'] only by hearsay as the work
-of a furious incendiary would be surprised at the dignity, force and
-temperance of the style."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' is acknowledged to be the greatest work ever
-written for political freedom. This masterpiece gave free speech, and a
-free press to England and America."--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
-
-"The thinking men of England now revere the memory of Thomas Paine for
-his great work in the nation's behalf. The most important of the many
-reforms England has undertaken in the century that has elapsed since
-it outlawed Paine have been brought about by Paine's masterly
-work."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' will never die so long as men have rights."--_Alice
-Hubbard._
-
-Richard Henry Lee: "It is a performance of which any man might be
-proud."
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' will be more enduring than all the piles of marble
-and granite man can erect."--_Andrew Jackson_.
-
-Dr. Frank Crane: "It deserves a place among the dozen epoch-making books
-of the race.... It is a milestone in human development that marks a
-point of progress that never can be retraced."
-
-General Arthur O'Connor:
-
-     "I prize above all earthly things
-     The 'Rights of Man' and Common Sense.'"
-
-Prof. Edward McChesney Sait: "Many names which were famous in the
-revolutionary period of the eighteenth century are heard no more; but
-the name of Thomas Paine still lives. It will never die; those noble
-writings, 'Common Sense' and 'Rights of Man,' like the verses of the
-Roman poet, are more lasting than bronze."
-
-Marie Joseph Chenier: "Notable epoch in the life of this philosopher who
-opposed the arms of 'Common Sense' to the sword of tyranny, 'the 'Rights
-of Man' to the machiavelism of English politicians; and who by two
-immortal works has deserved well of the human race."
-
-Victor Robinson: "Another immortal work was being penned behind French
-prison-bars and the hand which held the pen was the hand of Thomas
-Paine."
-
-"There shone on Paine's cell in the Luxembourg a great and imperishable
-vision, which multitudes are still following."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-M. M. Mangasarian: "In his dungeon his pen dropped light into the
-darkness of Europe and America by writing the 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-"One of the most wonderful books ever written." _Edgar W. Howe_.
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' defies the grave where other books of his
-generation sleep."--_George E. Macdonald._
-
-"Not only the one great skeptical work of his time, but the only one
-which seems destined to live for all time."--_J. P. Bland_.
-
-"Paine's 'Age of Reason' is a masterpiece of Rationalistic
-literature."--_William H. Maple_.
-
-"It is a masterpiece in every particular--sound, logical and
-truthful."--_Sir Hiram Maxim_.
-
-"There are the most varied graces of literary style, a profound and
-gentle philosophy, and a genuine love of humanity."--_William Heaford_.
-
-Mimnermus (England): "Out of the charnel-vault of Kingcraft and
-Priestcraft, Rousseau and the other great French Freethinkers saw in
-vision the ideal society of the future. Of this new evangel Paine was
-the prophet and Shelley was the poet.... In the 'Rights of Man' and the
-'Age of Reason,' no less than in the 'Revolt of Islam' and 'Prometheus
-Unbound,' the expression glows with the solemn and majestic inspiration
-of prophecy."
-
-John M. Robertson, M. P.: "The enduring popularity of the chief works of
-Thomas Paine is not the least remarkable fact in the history of opinion.
-It is given to few controversial writers to keep a large audience
-during a hundred years."
-
-"In Paine's public life there are three great tidal periods--the period
-when he was helping more than any other to make the Revolution in
-America; the period when, having come to Europe, after the American
-Revolution, he published the 'Rights of Man' and laid in England the
-foundations of a new democracy in the very teeth of the great reaction
-of which Burke was the prophet; and lastly, the period when, after
-his hopes from the French Revolution had substantially failed, and
-he expected death as his own meed, he wrote his 'Age of Reason,'
-significantly making his last blow the most deadly of all his strokes at
-the reign of tradition."
-
-New York World: "The man whose 'Common Sense,' by Washington's
-testimony, 'worked a powerful change in the minds of men' toward
-American independence; who in the 'Rights of Man' demolished Burke's
-attack on the French Revolution so completely that the British
-government resorted to its suppression, and who in France set the world
-aflame with persecution mania by the 'Age of Reason,' certainly made
-good in three countries his title to literary rank and political power."
-"The three mightiest contributions of political and religious freedom
-which mankind had known came from the brain of Thomas Paine. What he
-wrote changed the whole civilized world."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-Rev. E. P. Powell (referring to the "Crisis"): "Words of fire and logic
-that rang like a berserker's sword on his shield."
-
-"The 'Crisis' is contained in sixteen numbers. They comprise a truer
-history of that event [American Revolution] than does any professed
-history of it yet written. They comprise the soul of it."--_Calvin
-Blanchard._
-
-"Of utterances by the pen none have achieved such vast results as
-Paine's 'Common Sense' and his first 'Crisis.'"--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-In addition to his three literary masterpieces and the "Crisis" Paine
-wrote many remarkable books and pamphlets, the more important of which
-are the following: "Public Good," Philadelphia, 1780; "Letter to Abbé
-Raynal," Philadelphia, 1782; "Dissertation on Government," Philadelphia,
-1786; "Prospects on the Rubicon," London, 1787; "Address of Société
-Républicaine," Paris, 1791; "Address to the Adressers," London, 1792;
-"Plea for Life of Louis Capet," "French Constitution of '93," Paris,
-1793; "On First Principles of Government," Paris, 1795; "Decline and
-Fall of the English System of Finance," published in all the languages
-of Europe. 1796; "Agrarian Justice," "Letter to Camille Jordan, Paris,
-1797; "Essay on Dreams," "Examination of Prophecies," New York,
-1807; "Reply to Bishop of Llandaff," New York, 1810; "Miscellaneous
-Poems,"'London, 1819.
-
-"These [Paine's books] were battles, victories--the simplest, yet
-the grand and notorious facts of that wondrous war and age."--_T. B.
-Wakeman_.
-
-M. de Bonneville, the noted French journalist and Revolutionary leader,
-and the almost constant companion of Paine during the ten or more years
-that he resided in Paris, says: "All his pamphlets have been popular
-and powerful. He wrote with composure and steadiness, as if under the
-guidance of a tutelary genius. If, for an instant, he stopped, it was
-always in the attitude of a man who listens. The Saint Jerome of Raphael
-would give a perfect idea of his contemplative recollection, to listen
-to the voice from on high which makes itself heard in the heart."
-
-"When the old traditions of prejudice have passed, away, Paine's name
-will have its due place not only in our political but in our literary
-history, as that of a man of native genius whose prose bears being read
-beside that of Burke on the same theme, and who found in sincerity the
-secret of a nobler eloquence than his antagonists could draw from their
-stores of literature or the fountain of their ill-will."--_John M.
-Robertson_.
-
-"He was a great writer. Cobbett knew it, Hazlitt knew it, and Landor
-knew it."--_George W. Foote_.
-
-George Brandes: "One of the largest figures in our literary history."
-
-Mrs. M. E. Cadwallader: "His writings have become classics. They Will
-live when those who vilified him are forgotten."
-
-Pittsburgh Press: "The science of criticism, like the spectrum analysis
-which reveals the composition of the stars, points unerringly to Thomas
-Paine as the only man who could have indited that greatest of literary
-masterpieces, the Declaration of Independence."
-
-That the Declaration of Independence is, in its entirety, the work
-of Paine probably can not be proven. That he had much to do with
-its composition, however, can scarcely be doubted. The circumstances
-attending its adoption warrant the assumption, and the style of the
-document confirms it. Knowing the marvelous power of Paine's pen,
-knowing that with it he had led the people to demand independence, to
-suppose that he would not be consulted, that his services would not
-be solicited in regard to its preparation is incredible. Had he been a
-member of the Continental Congress he certainly would have been selected
-to draft the document. He was the soul of the movement and its literary
-leader. The historian Gaspey says: "The Government took no steps of
-importance without consulting him." The fact that his name was not
-mentioned in connection with its authorship at the time argues nothing.
-Had he written every word of it neither he nor the Committee could with
-propriety have divulged its authorship. The authorship of state papers
-and other public documents is assumed by, and credited to, the officials
-issuing them and not to the persons who may have been employed to draft
-them.
-
-"There is much evidence, both internal and external, in the Declaration,
-that some other person than Jefferson was the writer. There is much
-evidence, internal and external, that the author was Thomas Paine."--_W.
-M. van der Weyde_.
-
-A noted writer, Albert Payson Terhune, presents the following as
-the principal arguments that have been adduced in support of Paine's
-authorship of the Declaration of Independence:
-
-"The Declaration's first draft contained the phrase: 'Scotch and foreign
-mercenaries.' Jefferson was fond of the Scotch, and had two Scotch
-tutors; whereas Paine openly hated Scotland and its people.
-
-"The first draft contained the word 'hath' This word is said to be found
-nowhere else in Jefferson's writings, while it abounds in Paine's.
-
-"There was also in this draft a sharp rebuke to the British king for his
-introducing slavery into his provinces. Jefferson was a slave-holder;
-Paine hated slavery.
-
-"That Jefferson, an owner of slaves, should have declared 'all men to be
-equal' and 'entitled to liberty,' has always seemed inconsistent.
-
-"Though unjust taxation was one of the Revolution's chief causes,
-it receives very slight mention in the Declaration. Jefferson was
-supposedly a foe to such taxation. Paine considered the taxation problem
-merely as a side issue.
-
-"Paine's notions concerning government as set forth in his 'Common
-Sense' are largely embodied in the Declaration.
-
-"Jefferson's style of writing was easy and graceful. Paine's was
-forceful, terse, pointed. The Declaration is couched far more in the
-latter style than in the former.
-
-"Phrases and words dear to Paine are scattered broadcast through the
-document.
-
-"The expression 'Nature and Nature's God' fit in with Paine's favorite
-theory that God was to be found in Nature."
-
-"Almost a century ago an American newspaper claimed to have proof that
-Jefferson did not write the Declaration, and strongly hinted that Paine
-wrote it.
-
-"Jefferson, it is said, never formally claimed the authorship until
-after Paine's death, and was always reticent on the subject."
-
-Walton Williams: "Ever since the Revolution there has been a tradition
-in certain parts of the country that the real author of the Declaration
-of Independence was Thomas Paine. The storm of opprobrium that beat upon
-Paine's name because af his religious writings almost eradicated this
-tradition."
-
-Jefferson lived fifty years after the Declaration appeared. During
-all this time--and his silence is significant--he never claimed the
-authorship of the document except in the epitaph which he is said to
-have prepared for his tombstone. He was its accredited author and in an
-official sense was its author, and in this sense the claim made in his
-epitaph is admissible.
-
-Nearly seventy years ago George M. Dallas, then Vice President of the
-United States, and an admirer of Jefferson, contended that Paine wrote
-the Declaration.
-
-"Whoever may have written the Declaration, Paine was its
-author."--_William Cobbett._
-
-New York Sun: "In addition to his great responsibility for the literary
-form of the Declaration of Independence, he contributed to literature a
-number of phrases which have held a place."
-
-"His phrase, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' illuminates
-that gigantic struggle [American Revolution] and has become one of the
-shibboleths of liberty."--_Michael Monahan_.
-
-"No life was ever attuned to a nobler sentiment--'Where liberty is not
-there is my home.'"--_Dr. Lucy Waite_.
-
-"'The world is my country, to do good my religion." Was ever nobler
-thought conceived than this?"--_Eva Ingersoll Brown_.
-
-"Had Paine given to the world nothing more than that matchless phrase
-which he adopted as his motto, 'The world is my country; to do good
-is my religion,' I should still feel that he was indeed entitled to a
-supernal position in the galleries of Fame."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"A jewel which sparkles forever on the outstretched forefinger of
-Time."--_George W. Foote._
-
-Peter Eckler: "Paine's political and religious writings exerted an
-immense influence in America, England and France during his life, and
-since his death that beneficent influence has increased and extended
-throughout the civilized world."
-
-Horace Seaver: "Paine's writings are a noble monument to the loftiness
-of his aims, the brilliancy of his genius, the wealth of benevolence in
-his heart, and the breadth and power of his intellect."
-
-Horace Traubel: "He will always stand there, immortal in history, a
-contemporary giant in whose aggressiveness and fortitude political
-literature discovered a new epoch. He will ever be ranked with the
-masters in theological innovation."
-
-General Nathaniel Greene: "Your fame for your writings will be
-immortal."
-
-
-
-
-REFORMS AND INVENTIONS.
-
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox: "Paine was not only a great author and statesman,
-but he was distinctly a pioneer, an originator, an inventor and creator.
-To him we are indebted for many of the world's greatest ideas and
-reforms."
-
-Winwood Reade: "One of Thomas Paine's first productions was an article
-against slavery."
-
-Universal Cyclopedia: "Published in Bradford's _Pennsylvania Journal
-[Magazine]_ in March, 1775, an article entitled 'African Slavery in
-America,' which probably hastened the first American Anti-Slavery
-Society, April 14, 1775."
-
-Referring to this article Dr. Conway, one of the apostles of
-anti-slavery, says: "It is a most remarkable article. Every argument and
-appeal, moral, religious, military, economic, familiar in our
-subsequent anti-slavery struggle is here found stated with eloquence and
-clearness."
-
-In the very month that Paine lay down in his last illness there was
-born the man who was to complete the work he had begun. On the first of
-January, 1863, Abraham Lincoln pronounced the doom of slavery. In this
-essay of Paine and in the Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln we
-have the beginning and the end--the prologue and the epilogue--of the
-Anti-Slavery drama in America.
-
-"It is a significant fact that a paragraph in favor of the abolition
-of slavery in America, which is surmised to haye been inserted through
-Paine's influence, in the Declaration of Independence was struck out....
-Had Paine's humane suggestion been adopted the United States would
-have been saved the agony and bloody sweat of the Civil. War."--_Hector
-Macpherson, Scotland_.
-
-"In sorrow and bitterness and bloodshed Lincoln wrought the cure for the
-evil which Paine tried peacefully to prevent."--_Mrs. Bradlaugh-Bonner,
-England_.
-
-George W. Foote: "In America the first to publicly demand the liberation
-of the slaves was Thomas Paine. Paine also partly drafted and signed
-the Act of Pennsylvania abolishing slavery--the first of its kind in the
-whole of Christendom."
-
-Paine was not only the first to advocate the abolition of domestic
-slavery in America, he was also a pioneer in the movement which secured
-the abolition of the slave trade in America and Great Britain.
-
-When Louisiana demanded statehood with "the right to continue the
-importation of slaves," from Paine came this stinging rebuke: "Dare you
-put up a petition to Heaven for such power, without fearing to be struck
-from the earth by its justice? Why, then, do you ask it of man against
-man? Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?"
-
-Alfred E. Fletcher: "Paine was the first man in America to demand
-freedom for the slave, to urge international arbitration, justice for
-women and more rational ideas as to marriage and divorce."
-
-"In his August (1775) number _[Pennsylvania Magazine]_ is found the
-earliest American plea for woman."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"His pen is unmistakable in 'Reflections on Unhappy Marriages' (June
-1775)."--_Ibid_.
-
-"The first man in history to speak in clear cut tones for the rights of
-woman."--_Josephine K. Henry_.
-
-"Today we dare to affirm that women as well as men have rights. Paine
-was the pioneer of this thought."--_Alice Hubbard._
-
-Hon. Robert A. Dague: "If I am asked to whom are women indebted for
-the enlarged liberty they now enjoy, my answer is, to Thomas Paine,
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, and to the Universalists,
-Unitarians, Spiritualists and Agnostics."
-
-London Daily News: "He was always a man of peace, and to him is due the
-first project of international arbitration. He was the first publicist
-in America to declare for the emancipation of slaves, the first to
-champion the cause of woman, to insist upon the rights of animals, and
-to expose the criminal folly of dueling."
-
-"He condemned dueling, and the deliberate or thoughtless ill-treatment
-of animals. He spoke up against negro slavery quite as emphatically as
-against hereditary privileges and religious intolerance. He advocated
-international arbitration; international and internal copyright."--_Sir
-George Trevelyan_.
-
-George H. Putxam: "Paine wrote on the necessity of a copyright law in
-1782, a year before Noah Webster canvassed the legislatures of the New
-England states in behalf of such a law.... In 1792, as a member of
-the French Convention, Paine made a statement of the principles of
-international copyright of the author's right in literary work."
-
-Nannie McCormick Coleman: "In 1783, while a member of Congress, Hamilton
-urgently sought to have a [Constitutional] Convention called. In the
-same year... Thomas Paine contributed addresses to the public to the
-same effect."
-
-Paine proposed a constitutional government and a constitutional
-convention as early as 1776.
-
-Referring to our Constitutional Convention Prof. Alexander Johnston of
-Princeton University says: "Thomas Paine had suggested it as long ago as
-his 'Common Sense' pamphlet: 'Let a continental conference to be held to
-frame a continental charter.'"
-
-Not only was Paine the first to propose a constitutional government for
-the United States, the framers of the Constitution adopted to a large
-extent his political ideas. Referring to the principles advocated in his
-"Dissertation on Government" Dr. Conways says: "In the next year those
-principles were embodied in the Constitution; and in 1792, when a State
-pleaded its sovereign right to repudiate a contract the Supreme Court
-affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and
-sometimes his very phrases."
-
-Bankers' Magazine: "The Bank of North America, at Philadelphia,
-organized to assist the government during the War of Independence,
-is admitted to be the first bank in the United States, but it is not
-generally known that Thomas Paine was the man in whose brain the bank
-was born and who was the first subscriber to its stock."
-
-Columbia Encyclopedia: "Paine was chosen by Napoleon to introduce a
-popular form of government into Britain after the Frenchman should have
-invaded and conquered the island."
-
-William Milligan Sloane, LL. D.: "Thomas Paine exercised his power as a
-pamphleteer on the theme of England's approaching bankruptcy, while the
-public crowded one of the theatres [in Paris] to stare at stage pictures
-representing the invasion of England."
-
-Paine prepared plans for this invasion which were adopted by the French
-Directory. Two hundred and fifty gun-boats were speedily built for the
-purpose. Then Napoleon abandoned the expedition against England for the
-one against Egypt.
-
-Paine's approval of this proposed invasion of England was not inspired
-by a spirit of revenge because of his persecution by the English
-Government, but by a sincere love of its people, seeing in it the only
-means of delivering them from the intolerable tyranny of George III. and
-his Ministry. Napoleon at this time had not manifested that insatiable
-thirst for blood which at a later period made him the scourge of Europe.
-
-James A. Edgerton, A. M.: "Thomas Paine first suggested American
-Independence. He first suggested the Federal Union of the States. He
-first proposed the abolition of negro slavery. He first suggested [in
-Christendom] protection for dumb animals. He first suggested equal
-rights for women. He first proposed old age pensions. He first suggested
-the education of poor children at public expense. He first proposed
-arbitration and international peace. He suggested a great republic of
-all the nations of the world."
-
-To the claims made in behalf of Paine by Mr. Edgerton and others the
-following may be added: He was one of the founders, if not the real
-founder, of modern journalism. He labored to provide better facilities
-for the education of young women. His contributions to hygienic science
-were invaluable. His knowledge of astronomy was profound; he affirmed
-the belief that the fixed stars were suns twenty years before Herschel.
-His views regarding taxation were wise and just. He was an advocate of
-land reform. He was recognized as the ablest authority of his time
-on paper money. He was one of the framers of the Constitution of
-Pennsylvania.
-
-Not only was Paine the real founder of our Republic; he was largely
-instrumental in securing for it the greatest of its subsequent
-acquisitions of territory. He shares with Jefferson the honor of being
-the first to propose the purchase from Napoleon of the province of
-Louisiana, an empire in extent--reaching from Florida to the Pacific and
-to what is now British Columbia, a distance of three thousand miles--a
-territory three times as large as the original United States of America
-and from which have been formed, wholly or in part, eighteen of the most
-important states in the Union.
-
-Nearly half a century before Comte, Paine taught the Religion of
-Humanity.
-
-"In 1778 he wrote his sublime sentence about the 'Religion of
-Humanity.'"--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"I have discovered that Paine not only wrote those words, 'the Religion
-of Humanity,'... but he was the real author by this discovery of all
-laws of social science which is called sociology, now the queen of the
-sciences.... If Paine was the real leader in that discovery he stands by
-the side of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Comte, Spencer and Ward, and the
-beneficent results and glory of this discovery, and its discoverer,
-are beyond the words of any mind at present to describe."--_Prof. T. B.
-Wakeman_.
-
-"That his Religion of Humanity took the deistical form was an
-evolutionary necessity."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"The prophet of the Religion of Humanity and the precursor of our modern
-Monism."--_Prof. Ernst Haeckel_.
-
-"How few there are who realize that Thomas Paine anticipated Spencer's
-thought [equal liberty] by many decades, that, more briefly and
-graphically, he formulated the only principle that can weave enduring
-order and peace into the fabric of society."--_Edwin C. Walker_.
-
-Leonard Abbott: "Paine's mind was germinal: in it were the seeds of all
-modern religious, economical, and political movements."
-
-William H. Maple: "The light of truth fell in such grand refulgence upon
-this man as to enable him to utter truisms enough to furnish texts for
-reformers for a thousand years to come."
-
-"The moral originality and courage of his teaching in every direction is
-astonishing."--_John M. Robertson_.
-
-Stephen Pearl Andrews: "The true chief-priest of humanity is the man who
-solves the greatest obstacles in the progress of mankind; and you must
-not be surprised if I rank Thomas Paine not only as a priest, but as
-perhaps the real chief-priest, or pontifex-maximus of his age."
-
-Joel Barlow: "The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his
-mathematical acquirements and his mechanical genius. His invention of
-the iron bridge, which led him to Europe in 1787, has procured him a
-great reputation in that branch of science in France and England."
-
-M. Chaptal: "They [plans for iron bridge over Seine] will be of the
-greatest utility to us when the new kind of construction goes to be
-executed for the first time.... You have rights of more than one kind to
-the gratitude of nations."
-
-International Encyclopedia: "In 1787 Paine went to France, where he
-exhibited his bridge to the Academy of Science in Paris. He also visited
-England, and was lionized in London by the party of Burke and Fox. He
-set up the model of his bridge in Addington Green, and huge crowds went
-to see it."
-
-"This [model of iron bridge] was publicly exhibited in Paris and London
-and attracted great crowds."--_Encyclopedia Britannica_.
-
-Sir Ralph Milbank: "With respect to the bridge over the river Wear at
-Sunderland, it certainly is a work well deserving admiration both for
-its structure, durability, and utility, and I have good grounds for
-saying that the first idea was taken from Mr. Paine's bridge exhibited
-at Paddington."
-
-Mr. Foljambe, M. P.: "I saw the rib of your [Paine's] bridge. In point
-of elegance and beauty it far exceeded my expectations and is certainly
-beyond anything I ever saw."
-
-George Stephenson: "If we are to consider Paine as its [the iron
-bridge's] author, his daring in engineering certainly does full justice
-to the fervor of his political career."
-
-When the building of the Brooklyn bridge was celebrated the Rev. Robert
-Collyer called attention to the fact that to Thomas Paine belonged
-the credit of inventing the iron bridge and deplored the ignorance and
-prejudice which had caused the speakers to ignore it.
-
-Sir Richard Phillips: "In 1778 Thomas Paine proposed, in America, this
-application of steam [the steamboat]."
-
-Watson's Annals of Philadelphia: "In June, 1785, John Fitch called on
-the ingenious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster, to take his opinion of
-his draughts, who informed him that he (Fitch) was not the first person
-who had thought of applying steam to vessels, for that Thomas Paine,
-author of 'Common Sense,' had suggested the same to him (Henry) in the
-winter of 1778."
-
-Concerning Paine's connection with this invention Dr. Conway says:
-"Among his intimate friends at this time [about 1796] was Robert Fulton,
-then residing in Paris. Paine's extensive studies of the steam engine
-and his early discovery of its adaptability to navigation had caused
-Rumsey to seek him in England and Fitch to consult him both in, America
-and Paris. Paine's connection with the invention of the steamboat
-was recognized by Fulton as, indeed, by all of his scientific
-contemporaries. To Fulton he freely gave his ideas" (Life of Paine,
-vol. ii, p. 280). "In the controversy between Rumsey and Fitch, Paine's
-priority to both is conceded" (Ibid).
-
-"A machine for planing boards was his next invention."--_Madame
-Bonneville_.
-
-James Parton: "A benefactor... who conceived the planing machine and the
-iron bridge. A glorious monument to his honor swells aloft in many of
-our great towns. The principle of his arch now sustains the marvelous
-railroad depots that half abolish the distinction between in-doors and
-out."
-
-In a letter to Jefferson, in 1801, Paine anticipates and suggests the
-explosive engine of today.
-
-"The explosive engines which now drive machines over highways and waters
-and through the air are the perfection of Paine's explosive power."--_A.
-Outram Sherman_.
-
-One of Paine's minor inventions which attracted the attention and
-received the approval of Franklin was an improved light.
-
-Another invention, an improved carriage wheel, was greatly admired.
-After Paine's death Robert Fulton made a drawing of the model and
-deposited it at Washington.
-
-Robert R. Livingston (to Paine in Paris): "Make your will; leave the
-mechanics, the iron bridge, the wheels, etc., to America."
-
-Joseph N. Moreau: "The Archimedes of the eighteenth century."
-
-Elihu Palmer: "Probably the most useful man that ever lived."
-
-Refutation of Charges of Immorality.
-
-Louis Masquerier:
-
-    "Paine who wrote in man's defense,
-    'Rights of Man' and 'Common Sense,
-    Let not pious virulence
-    Stain his honest fame."
-
-Paine has been represented by his religious enemies as the embodiment
-of all that is bad. He was, they assert, drunken, filthy, and immoral.
-Banished from respectable society, he associated, they say, only with
-the low and vile. The following testimony covers all the years that
-elapsed from the beginning of his public career to the end of his life.
-
-Dr. Franklin, writing from England while Paine was yet a resident of
-that country, says: "Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as
-an ingenious worthy young man."
-
-That his previous life had been above serious reproach is shown by a
-letter to the Excise Office in which he says: "No complaint of the least
-dishonesty or intemperance has ever appeared against me."
-
-James B. Elliot: "Paine's pamphlet ['Case of the Officers of Excise']
-secured for him the acquaintance of Oliver Goldsmith, who became and
-remained his friend until his death, and by whom he was introduced to
-Benjamin Franklin."
-
-"At a coffeehouse in London Paine met that other great thinker,
-Franklin. They became fast friends."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"Invited by Franklin he went to America."--_Encyclopedia of Social
-Reform_.
-
-"His associates in Philadelphia were people of the highest
-respectability and importance.... He was welcomed everywhere."--_James
-B. Elliott_.
-
-Referring to his first year in America Bancroft says: "In that time he
-had frequented the society of Rittenhouse, Clymer and Samuel Adams." Dr.
-Rush says: "He visited in the families of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Rittenhouse
-and Mr. George Clymer." Referring to the members of the Philosophical
-Society, founded by Franklin, Dr. Conway says: "Paine was welcomed
-into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other
-representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis."
-
-Writing in his journal at a later period John Hall, the English
-mechanician who then resided in Philadelphia, mentions among Paine's
-visitors and intimate associates Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Rush,
-Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rittenhouse, etc.
-
-The Library of the World's Best Literature alludes to scientific
-experiments made by Paine "for the entertainment of Washington whose
-guest he was for some time."
-
-Francis Marion Lemmon: "When my father [a son of one of Washington's
-officers] was about twelve years of age he was employed by George
-Washington to carry messages from his military camp to that of his
-father and other military posts, and for about four years lived as one
-of the family of Washington. It was my father's privilege during his
-service with Washington to meet and become acquainted with a number
-of the most popular and influential men of that time--such as Thomas
-Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, General
-Lafayette and General Francis Marion.... My father told me, when I was
-a boy, of the visits these men paid to Uncle George and Aunt Martha
-Washington, as he always called them, and he told me that Aunt Martha
-always called Paine 'Brother Tom' and always looked forward when a visit
-of Brother Tom was expected."
-
-Alluding to Paine's conduct and public services during the Revolution,
-Dr. Conway says:
-
-"They are best measured in the value set on them by the great leaders
-most cognizant of them,--by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams,
-Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee, Colonel
-Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything dishonorable
-or mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who would have known
-it; but their letters are searched in vain for even the faintest hint of
-anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during those eight
-weary years."
-
-Henry Adams: "Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for
-Europe, in 1787, was a fashionable member of society [in New York],
-admired and courted as the greatest literary genius of his day."
-
-The oldest and one of the most powerful political organizations in
-this country, outside of the regular political parties, is the Tammany
-Society of New York. Whatever shortcomings may be justly charged to this
-society in later times it was in its earlier days, when devoted mainly
-to social and benevolent purposes, one of the most honorable and
-respectable of societies. Paine was the hero of this society.
-
-Dr. Conway says: "At the great celebration (October 12, 1792) of the
-Third Centenary of the discovery of America, by the sons of St. Tammany,
-New York, the first man toasted after Columbus was Paine, and next to
-Paine 'The Rights of Man,' They were also extolled in an ode composed for
-the occasion, and sung." Paine was at this time a resident of France.
-
-"Visited France in the summer of 1787, where he made the acquaintance
-of Buffon, Malesherbes, La Rochefoucauld, and other eminent
-men."--_Chambers' Encyclopedia_.
-
-"Dr. Robinet, the French historian, says on this visit (1787) Paine,
-who had long known the 'soul of the people,' came into' relation with
-eminent men of all groups, philosophical and political--Condorcet,
-Achille Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes also Danton,
-who like the English republican [Paine] was a Freemason."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Gilbert Patten Brown (in Masonic Monthly, July, 1916): "In the St.
-John's Regimental Lodge (the first Masonic body to be constituted among
-the troops) Thomas Paine (like Capt. James Monroe, Capt. John Marshall
-and many other of minor mention) was entered, crafted and raised a
-Master Mason."
-
-Franklin, who in 1774 introduced Paine to the New World as "an ingenious
-worthy young man" in 1787, after an acquaintance of thirteen years,
-reaffirms his former estimate of the man. In a letter of introduction to
-the Duke of Rochefoucauld he says: "The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the
-author of a famous piece entitled 'Common Sense,' published with great
-effect on the minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He
-is an ingenious, honest man; and as such I beg leave to recommend him to
-your civilities."
-
-Lamb's Biographical Dictionary: "Visiting London, he at once became a
-social and diplomatic feature of that metropolis."
-
-Thomas "Clio" Rickman: "Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round
-of philosophical leisure and enjoyment.... Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the
-French and American embassadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the
-painter, Mrs. Wollstonecraft, Joel Barlow,... Dr. Priestley,...
-Mr. Horne Tooke, etc., were among the number of his friends and
-acquaintances."
-
-"His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and
-boundless; in private company and among his friends his conversation had
-every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it."
-
-"Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and
-rather athletic.... His eye, of which the painter could not convey the
-exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant and singularly piercing."
-
-Alexander Wilson: "The penetration and intelligence of his eye bespeak
-the man of genius."
-
-John Adams, in a letter to his wife, refers to Paine as "a man who,
-General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." Carlyle describes him as "the
-man with the black beaming eyes." Walter Morton, who was with him when
-he died, says, "His eye glistened with genius under the pangs of death."
-
-Dr. Thomas Cooper: "I have dined with Mr. Paine in literary society,
-in London, at least a dozen times, when his dress, manners, and
-conversation were such as became the character of an unobtrusive
-intelligent gentleman, accustomed to good society."
-
-Regarding Paine's associations in England his biographer, Dr. Conway,
-says: "There [Rotherham] and in London he was 'lionized' as Franklin had
-been in Paris. We find him now passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at
-the country seat of the Duke of Portland, or enjoying the hospitalities
-of Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth House. He is entertained and consulted
-on public affairs by Fox, Lord Landsdowne, Sir George Staunton, Sir
-Joseph Banks."
-
-"The Americans in London--the artists West and Trumbull, the Alexanders
-(Franklin's connections), and others were fond of him as a friend and
-proud of him as a countryman."--_Ibid_.
-
-"His personal acquaintance," says Dr. Conway, "included nearly every
-great or famous man of his time, in England, America, France."
-
-Paine not only enjoyed the friendship and esteem of the notables of the
-world, he was the idol of the common people who knew him. Before the
-Revolution in France began he spent two years in England, engaged a part
-of the time perfecting his iron bridge. The leading manufacturing firm
-of Rotherham encouraged him and fitted up a shop for him to work in.
-Nearly a half century later Professor Lesley of Philadelphia, then a
-young man, visited Rotherham. Notwithstanding the long time that had
-elapsed he found Paine's memory still green and one of the cherished
-possessions of Yorkshire. The results of his visit are thus related by
-Dr. Conway:
-
-"Professor Lesley of Philadelphia tells me that when visiting in early
-life the works at Rotherham, Paine's workshop and the very tools he used
-were pointed out. They were preserved with care. He conversed with
-an aged and intelligent workman who had worked under Paine as a lad.
-Professor Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice against Paine,
-was impressed by the earnest words of the old man. Mr. Paine he said was
-the most honest man, and the best man he ever knew. After he had been
-there a little time everybody looked up to him, the Walkers and their
-workmen. He knew the people for miles round, and went into their homes;
-his benevolence, his friendliness, his knowledge, made him beloved by
-all, rich and poor. His memory had always lasted there."
-
-M. and Madame de Bonneville: "Not a day [in Paris] escaped without his
-receiving many visits. Mr. Barlow, Mr. [Robert] Fulton, Mr. [Sir Robert]
-Smith, came very often to see him. Many travelers also called on him."
-
-"Paine was, indeed, so overrun with visitors and adventurers that he
-appropriated two mornings of each week at the Philadelphia House for
-levees. These, however, became insufficient to stem the constant stream
-of visitors, including spies and lion-hunters, so that he had little
-time for consultation with the men and women whose cooperation he needed
-in public affairs. He therefore leased an out-of-the-way house [the
-old Madame Pompadour mansion], reserving knowledge of it for particular
-friends, while still retaining his address at the Philadelphia House,
-where the levees were continued."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Here [at Paine's house] gathered sympathetic spirits from America,
-England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, freed from prejudices of
-race, rank, or nationality."--_Ibid_.
-
-"And now the old hotel became the republican capitol of Europe. There
-sat an international Premier with his Cabinet."--_Ibid_.
-
-"A grand dinner was given by Paine at the Hotel de Ville to Dumouriez,
-where this brilliant general met Brissot, Condorcet, Santerre, and
-several eminent English radicals."--_Ibid._
-
-"In the beautiful courtyard of the Palais Royal, I saw today for the
-first time the statue of Camille Desmoulins, one of the most heroic
-figures of the French Revolution.... He was one of Paine's warmest
-friends in Paris. Desmoulins had known Paine when the latter was a
-member of the Convention and doubtless was one of the interesting
-coterie that met at Paine's house in the Faubourg St. Denis."--_William
-M. van der Weyde_.
-
-"When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Paine and invited him
-to dinner."--_Clio Rickman_.
-
-"Among the persons I was in the habit of receiving Paine deserves to be
-mentioned."--_Madame Roland._
-
-Among Paine's most intimate French friends, besides the Bonnevilles with
-whom he lived for several years, were the Rolands, the Brissots, the
-Condorcets, and the Lafayettes, France's purest and noblest souls.
-
-Baron Pichon: "Paine lived in Monroe's house at Paris."
-
-While James Monroe was minister to France Paine was for a year and
-a half a member of his household, enjoying in the highest degree the
-esteem of both Mr. and Mrs. Monroe.
-
-Paine was one of the most amiable of men and possessed a most charming
-personality. Nicolas and Margaret Bonneville, with whom he resided in
-Paris, in a biographical sketch of him, written after his death and
-revised by Cobbett, bear this testimony: "Thomas Paine loved his friends
-with sincere and tender affection. His simplicity of heart and that
-happy kind of openness, or rather, carelessness, which charms our
-hearts in reading the fables of the good Lafontaine, made him extremely
-amiable. If little children were near him he patted them, searched his
-pockets for the store of cakes, biscuits, sugar-plums, pieces of sugar,
-of which he used to take possession as of a treasure belonging to them,
-and the distribution of which belonged to him."
-
-"He was always gentle to children and to animals."--_Ellery Sedgwick_.
-
-The deep affection entertained for Paine by his Parisian friends was
-shown when, grievously ill and believed to be dying, he was carried from
-his cot in the Luxembourg to the home of the Monroes. I quote again from
-Dr. Conway: "Paine had been restored by the tenderness and devotion of
-friends. Had it not been for friendship he could hardly have been saved.
-We are little able, in the present day, to appreciate the reverence and
-affection with which Thomas Paine was regarded by those who saw in him
-the greatest apostle of liberty in the world.... In Paris there
-were ladies and gentlemen who had known something of the cost of
-liberty--Col. and Mrs. Monroe, Sir Robert and Lady Smith, Madame
-Lafayette, Mr. and Mrs. Barlow, M. and Madame de Bonneville. They
-had known what it was to watch through anxious nights with terrors
-surrounding them. He who % had suffered most was to them a sacred
-person. He had come out of the succession of ordeals, so weak in body,
-so wounded by American ingratitude, so sore at heart, that no delicate
-child needed more tender care.... Men say their Arthur is dead, but
-their love is stronger than death. And though the service of these
-friends might at first have been reverential, it ended with attachment,
-so great was Paine's power, so wonderful and pathetic his memories, so
-charming the play of his wit, so full his response to kindness."
-
-"In Luxembourg prison," says Conway, "he won all hearts."
-
-Augustus C. Buel: "Jones [John Paul] liked Tom Paine and Paine
-almost worshiped Jones [they were in Paris]. All through the American
-Revolution they had been fast friends, familiarly calling each other
-'Tom' and 'Paul.'"
-
-Joseph Mazzini Wheeler: "Landor [Walter Savage] told my friend Mr. Birch
-of Florence that he particularly admired Paine, and that he visited him,
-having first obtained an interview at the house of General Dumouriez
-[the most famous general of the Revolution]. Landor declared that Paine
-was always called 'Tom,' not out of disrespect, but because he was a
-jolly good fellow."
-
-Lord Edward Fitzgerald (to his mother): "I lodge with my friend Paine
-[in Paris]; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The more I see of his
-interior the more I like and respect him. I cannot express how kind he
-is to me. There is a simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a
-strength of mind in him that I never knew a man before to possess."
-
-Lady Lucy Fitzgerald: "Although he [Lord Edward] was unsuccessful in the
-glorious attempt of liberating his country [Ireland] from slavery, still
-he was not unmindful of the lessons you taught him. Accept, then, his
-picture from his unhappy sister. Its place is in your house; my heart
-will be satisfied with such a Pantheon: it knows no consolation but the
-approbation of such men as you, and the soothing recollection that he
-did his duty and died faithful to the cause of liberty."
-
-Zachariah Wilkes: "Let me tell you what he did for me. I was arrested in
-Paris and condemned to die. I had no friend here; and it was at a time
-when no friend would have served me: Robespierre ruled. 'I am innocent!'
-I cried in desperation. 'I am innocent, so help me God! I am condemned
-for the offense of another.' I wrote a statement of my case with
-a pencil; thinking at first of addressing it to my judge, then of
-directing it to the president of the Convention."
-
-[Wilkes, who was an Englishman, had important business to transact which
-involved his honor and he could not bear the thought of dying with it
-unperformed. The jailer referred him to Paine, who, though a prisoner,
-had much influence with the authorities.]
-
-"He [Paine] examined me closer than my judge had done; he required my
-proofs. After a long time I satisfied him. He then said: 'The leaders of
-the Convention would rather have my life than yours. If by any means
-I can obtain your release on my own security, will you promise me to
-return in twenty days?'"
-
-Wilkes promised to return. Paine then obtained permission for him to
-leave the prison, guaranteeing his return and agreeing to take his
-place at the guillotine if he failed to do so. Wilkes kept his word. He
-returned to the prison, drawing from Paine the exclamation, "There is
-yet English blood in England!" Wilkes had been opposed to Paine both in
-politics and religion.
-
-Another instance of Paine's noble magnanimity is related by Dr. Conway:
-"This personage [Captain Grimstone, R. A.], during a dinner party at the
-Palais Egalité, got into a controversy with Paine, and, forgetting that
-the English Jove could not in Paris answer argument with thunder, called
-Paine a traitor to his country and struck him a violent blow. Death was
-the penalty for striking a deputy and Paine's friends were not unwilling
-to see the penalty inflicted on this stout young captain who had struck
-a man of fifty-six. Paine had much trouble in obtaining from Barrere,
-of the Committee of Public Safety, a passport out of the country for
-Captain Grimstone, whose traveling expenses were supplied by the man he
-had struck."
-
-Lady Smith: "If the usual style of gallantry was as clever as your 'New
-Covenant' [a beautiful poem by Paine addressed to Lady Smith] many a
-fair lady's heart would be in danger; but the Little Corner of the
-World [Lady Smith] receives it from the Castle in the Air [Paine]; it is
-agreeable to her as being the elegant fancy of a friend."
-
-Sir Robert and Lady Smith were Paine's most devoted English friends in
-Paris. When Paine was languishing in prison Lady Smith wrote him letters
-of cheer and comfort, signing herself "Little Corner of the World."
-
-Frederick Freeman: "He [Captain Rowland Crocker] had taken the great
-Napoleon by the hand; he had familiarly known Paine.... He remembered
-Paine as a well-dressed and most gentlemanly man, of sound and orthodox
-republican principles, of a good heart, a strong intellect, and a
-fascinating address."
-
-Among the many calumnies circulated against Paine is the charge that
-during his later years, after he wrote the "Age of Reason," he was, both
-in France and in America, a drunkard. This charge is false. Paine
-was one of the most temperate men of his time. Concerning his use of
-intoxicants in France his old friend Clio Rickman, who visited him
-in Paris, who was with him during his last day in that city, and who
-accompanied him to Havre when he sailed for America, says: "He did not
-drink spirits, and wine he took moderately; he even objected to any
-spirits being laid in as a part of his sea-stock."
-
-Hon. E. B. Washburne, who made a thorough investigation of Paine's
-career in France, bears the following testimony: "A somewhat extended
-study of the French Revolution during the extraordinary period in which
-Paine was so intimately connected with it, fails to show anything to the
-prejudice of his personal or political character."
-
-"Returned to the United States on the invitation of Jefferson in
-1802."--_Library of World's Best Literature_.
-
-Charles T. Sprading: "Jefferson offered him return passage from Europe
-on a United States man-of-war."
-
-National Intelligencer (Washington, Nov. 10, 1802): "Thomas Paine has
-arrived in this city and has received a cordial reception from the Whigs
-of Seventy-six and the Republicans of 1800."
-
-"He was cordially received by the President, Thomas Jefferson. He also
-visited the heads of the departments."--_Boston Post_.
-
-Philadelphia Aurora, Washington Correspondent of (November 26, 1802):
-"His address is unaffected and unceremonious. He neither shuns nor
-courts observation. At table he enjoys what is good with the appetite
-of temperance and vigor, and puts to shame his calumniators by the
-moderation with which he partakes of the common beverage of the
-boarders.... I am proud to find a man whose political writings upon the
-whole have never been equaled, and whom I have admired on that account,
-free from the contamination of debauchery and habits of inebriety which
-have been so grossly and falsely sent abroad concerning him."
-
-Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, M. C. (Washington, Dec. 11, 1802): "At Mr.
-Gallatin's I saw for the first time the celebrated Thomas Paine. We had
-some conversation before dinner and we sat side by side at the table....
-This extraordinary man contributed exceedingly much to entertain the
-company."
-
-Albert Gallatin was at this time Secretary of the Treasury. Referring to
-this period, including all the remaining years of his life, Conway
-says: "Paine's defamers have manifested an eagerness to ascribe his
-maltreatment to personal faults. This is not the case.... He was neat
-in his attire. In all portraits, French and American, his dress is in
-accordance with the fashion. There was not, so far as I can discover, a
-suggestion while he was at Washington, that he was not a suitable guest
-for any drawing-room in the capital."
-
-Gilbert Vale, next to Dr. Conway, one of Paine's best biographers, says:
-"Mr. Paine was as much esteemed in his private life as in his public.
-He was a welcome visitor to the tables of the most distinguished
-citizens.... He possessed every prominent virtue in large proportions,
-and to these he added the most social qualities."
-
-Annie Cary Morris: "Mr. Jefferson, it was said, received him warmly,
-dined him at the White House, and could be seen walking arm in arm with
-him on the street any fine afternoon."
-
-"The author [Paine] was for some days a guest in the President's
-family."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-In his old age Paine received the following, one of many similar
-assurances of Jefferson's affection: "That you may live long to continue
-your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations,
-is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances of my high esteem and
-affectionate attachment."
-
-"Jefferson's dearest friend," says Albert Payson Terhune, "was Thomas
-Paine."
-
-Albert Badeau: "My mother [in whose mother's family, prominent and
-wealthy residents of New Rochelle, Paine boarded for a time during
-his later years] would never tolerate the aspersions on Mr. Paine.
-She declared steadfastly to the end of her life that he was a
-perfect gentleman, and a most faithful friend, amiable, gentle,
-never intemperate in eating or drinking. My mother declared that my
-grandmother equally pronounced the disparaging reports about Mr. Paine
-slanders. I never remembered to have seen my mother angry except when
-she heard such calumnies of Mr. Paine, when she would almost insult
-those who uttered them. My mother and grandmother were very religious,
-members of the Episcopal church."
-
-The handsome monument erected to Paine at New Rochelle is said to have
-been suggested by Mrs. Badeau.
-
-D. Burger (one of Paine's acquaintances at New Rochelle, who often took
-him out riding): "Mr. Paine was really abstemious, and when pressed to
-drink by those on whom he called during his rides he usually refused
-with great firmness, but politely."
-
-D. M. Bennett of New York, writing forty years ago, says: "I have
-conversed with Major A. Coutant and Mr. Barker of New Rochelle, now
-very far advanced in life, but who distinctly remember Mr. Paine. They
-remember him as a pleasant, genial man, who lived on good terms with his
-neighbors and was not known to ever have been intoxicated." Judge J. B.
-Stallo, Minister to Italy during President Cleveland's administration,
-told Dr. Conway "that in early life he visited the place [New Rochelle]
-and saw persons who had known Paine, and who declared that Paine resided
-there without fault."
-
-Judge Tabor: "I was an associate editor of the New York _Beacon_ with
-Col. John Fellows, then (1836) advanced in years but retaining all the
-vigor and fire of his manhood. He was a ripe scholar, a most agreeable
-companion, and had been the correspondent and friend of Jefferson,
-Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams, under all of whom he held a
-responsible office. One of his productions was dedicated, by permission,
-to Adams and was republished and favorably received in England. Colonel
-Fellows was the soul of honor and inflexible in his adhesion to
-truth. He was intimate with Paine during the whole time he lived after
-returning to this country, and boarded for a year in the same house with
-him. I also was acquainted with Judge Herttell of New York city, a man
-of wealth and position, being a member of the New York Legislature, both
-in the Senate and Assembly, and serving likewise on the judicial bench.
-Like Colonel Fellows he was an author and a man of unblemished life and
-irreproachable character. These men assured me of their own knowledge
-derived from constant personal intercourse during the last seven years
-of Paine's life that he never kept any company but what was entirely
-respectable, and that all accusations of drunkenness were grossly
-untrue. They saw him under all circumstances and _knew_ that he was
-never intoxicated. Nay, more, they said for that day he was even
-abstemious."
-
-W. J. Hilton (1877): "It is over twenty years ago that professionally
-I made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom, a justice of the peace of
-Rensselaer county, New York. He was then over seventy years of age and
-had the reputation of being a man of candor and integrity. He was a
-great admirer of Paine. He told me that he was personally acquainted
-with him and used to see him frequently during the last years of his
-life in the city of New York, where Hogeboom then resided. I asked him
-if there was any truth in the charge that Paine was in the habit of
-getting drunk. He said that it was utterly false; that he never heard of
-such a thing during the lifetime cf Mr. Paine and did not believe anyone
-else did."
-
-Mr. Lovet (Proprietor of City Hotel, New York): "Paine boarded for a
-time at my hotel. He drank the least of all my boarders."
-
-Gilbert Vale says: "We know more than twenty persons who were more or
-less acquainted with Mr. Paine, and not one of whom ever saw him in
-liquor." "We know that he was not only temperate in after life, but even
-abstemious."
-
-"He was accused of offenses he had never committed and of conduct
-impossible to him."--_Library of the World's Best Literature_.
-
-"That he was a very likeable man is shown... by the prediction of the
-brilliant Home Tooke that whoever should be at a certain dinner party,
-Paine would be sure to say the best things said; and by the friendships
-he made so easily. In middle age, at least, he was fastidious in
-his dress, inclined to elegance in his manners, and attractive in
-looks."--_Ibid_.
-
-"There are eleven original portraits of Thomas Paine, besides a death
-mask, a bust, and the profile copied in this [Conway's] work.... In all
-of the original portraits of Paine his dress is neat and in accordance
-with fashion."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-The foregoing testimonials regarding Paine's personal appearance and
-dress are equally true of his old age. The Jarvis painting, executed
-when he was an old man of sixty-seven, is a mute witness to this. This
-portrait is that of a handsome, temperate, well-preserved man. It is
-of itself a standing refutation of the slanders of his defamers, and
-especially of the charge that he was addicted to drunkenness in his old
-age.
-
-Aaron Burr: "I always considered Mr. Paine a gentleman, a pleasant
-companion, and a good-natured and intelligent man, _decidedly
-temperate_."
-
-Regarding another base calumny, Dr. Conway says: "During Paine's life
-the world heard no hint of sexual immorality connected with him,
-but after his death Cheetham published [in his 'Life of Paine'] the
-following: 'Paine brought with him from Paris, and from her husband in
-whose house he had lived, Margaret Brazier Bonneville, and her three
-sons. Thomas has the features, countenance, and temper of Paine.'"
-Madame Bonneville was a lady of unblemished character, educated,
-cultured and refined. For this vile insinuation its author, a
-disreputable publisher of New York, who boasted of having nine libel
-suits pending against him at one time, was pronounced guilty of slander
-by a jury composed mostly of Christians.
-
-Counsellor Sampson (Cheetham's prosecutor): "It is argued that
-everything should be intended to favor the defendant, who has written
-so godly a work against the prince of deists and for the Holy Gospel....
-His book, a godly book--a vile obscene, and filthy compilation, which
-bears throughout the character of rancorous malice!"
-
-Commenting on this case, Ellery Sedgwick, the able editor of the
-_Atlantic Monthly_, in his Beacon biography of Paine, says: "The
-evidence which her (Madame Bonneville's) lawyers adduced at the trial
-was conclusive, and the jury found Cheetham guilty; but Judge Hoffman,
-with casuistry worthy of his version of Christianity, held that Mr.
-Cheetham, while guilty of libel, had written a very useful book in
-favor of religion, and fixed the damages at the modest sum of $150. Thus
-sheltered, Cheetham's lies grew into history."
-
-Some years ago the evangelist, Rev. Dr. R. A. Torrey, while in England,
-made a brutal attack upon Paine's character, repeating the slanders
-that have been circulated against him. W. T. Stead, the noted editor and
-publisher of the _Review of Reviews_, London, who later perished on
-the ill-fated Titanic, in his magazine defended Paine and refuted the
-slanders of Torrey. Of the Madame Bonneville slander he says:
-
-"The 'commonly believed outrageous action' [quoting Torrey] of Thomas
-Paine in living with another man's wife was shown to have been the
-kindly hospitality shown by an old man of sixty-seven to the refugee
-family of his French benefactor. The only man who had ever imputed a
-shadow of obloquy to Paine in this connection went into the witness-box
-after Paine's death and solemnly swore that there was no foundation for
-his calumny."
-
-The basis of this calumny was one of the many noble acts of Paine's
-life. When it became known that Napoleon had designs against the
-liberties of France, and was planning to elevate himself to power, Paine
-and Bonneville opposed him. Concerning the results of this rupture Stead
-quotes from Conway as follows:
-
-"In return Bonaparte suppressed Bonneville's paper, threw Bonneville
-into prison and placed Paine in surveillance. Afterwards by the
-intervention of the American minister Paine was permitted to leave the
-country. Bonneville was forbidden to quit France. A year after Paine
-crossed the Atlantic Madame Bonneville with her children escaped to
-America.... So far from Paine having taken Bonneville's wife away from
-her husband, he did everything to induce Napoleon to free Bonneville
-from surveillance and to allow him to rejoin his wife in New York."
-
-Stead finally forced Torrey to eat his words and to make the following
-retraction: "It is the obligation of those who make the charges to prove
-them, and to my mind this particular charge against Paine has not been
-proven."
-
-M. and Madame Bonneville had befriended Paine, had invited him to their
-home where for years he enjoyed their hospitality. When Bonneville was
-imprisoned and impoverished and his family reduced to penury, Paine
-would have been a base ingrate had he not befriended them.
-
-Dr. Lucy Waite: "The one circumstance in the life of Thomas Paine that
-to my mind more than any other reflects credit upon him as a man,
-has been made the target of the most bitter attacks against him--his
-relations to Madame Bonneville.... His detractors would no doubt have
-considered it a more 'moral' act if he had sent them to the poor-farm
-instead of to his own farm at New Rochelle; but to the everlasting
-credit of this great man he defied the town gossips, and made them
-comfortable in his own home."
-
-Slanders concerning Paine's marital troubles have been published. He
-was married twice before coming to America, in 1759 to Mary Lambert, who
-died, and in 1771 to Elizabeth Olive, from whom he was separated. The
-separation was by mutual consent and nothing discreditable to either
-party was alleged. As to the cause of the separation all that is known,
-or rather surmised, is stated in McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, an
-Orthodox authority: "His first wife had died about a year after
-their marriage; he lived about three years with his second, when they
-separated by mutual consent, it is said, on account of her physical
-disability."
-
-Paine's subsequent treatment of his wife was in the highest degree
-honorable. He had but little property, but what he had he gave to her.
-Regarding his conduct in this matter Clio Rickman, his most intimate
-friend in England, and a highly honorable man, bears this testimony:
-
-"This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke tenderly and
-respectfully of his wife; and sent her several times pecuniary aid,
-without her knowing even whence it came."
-
-Concerning this slander W. T. Stead says: "No one even among Paine's
-worst libelers suggests that she had any reason of complaint against
-him." One of Paine's calumniators, "Francis Oldys" (George Chalmers), a
-pretended biographer of Paine whose statements are nearly all false or
-misleading, says that while he was an excise officer he bought smuggled
-tobacco and was dismissed from the service for the offense. This
-statement is false. Dr. Conway says:
-
-"I have before me the minutes of the Board concerning Paine, and there
-is no hint whatever of any such accusation."
-
-Falsehoods generally grow rather than diminish with age, and now we are
-told that Paine himself was a smuggler and was dismissed for smuggling.
-The Excise laws were the most odious laws in England, odious alike to
-the people and to the excise officers, who were underpaid (fifty pounds
-a year) and otherwise mistreated. Paine espoused the cause of his
-fellow excisemen and in a memorial addressed to Parliament pleaded for
-a redress of their grievances. His activity in this matter offended
-the Government and a trivial irregularity commonly practiced by the
-excisemen was made a pretext for his dismissal.
-
-The Everyman Encyclopedia: "Became an excise officer, but agitating for
-the removal of grievances, was dismissed from the service."
-
-Had Paine been discharged for any dishonest or immoral act Franklin
-would have known it and would not have recommended him as "a worthy
-young man."
-
-Paine's dismissal was for him, for England, for America and for the
-world one of the most fortunate things that ever occurred. His loss of
-the excise office which occurred in April, 1774, took him to America in
-November of the same year. The independence of the United States and the
-agitation in behalf of popular government throughout the civilized world
-followed as a result.
-
-Rev. Willet Hicks, a Quaker minister, who was with Paine when he died,
-testified that emissaries of the church tried to bribe him to slander
-Paine. He says: "I could have had any sums if I would have said anything
-against Thomas Paine, or if even I would have consented to remain
-silent. They informed me that the doctor was willing to say something
-that would satisfy them if I would engage to be silent. Mr. Paine was a
-good man--an honest man."
-
-Rev. G. H. Humphrey: "He was honest. Nor was he uncharitable. He
-abstained from profanity and rebuked it in others."
-
-Boston Post (Jan. 29, 1856): "Calumny has blistered her relentless hand
-in trying to stamp him as profane, intemperate and mendacious. The
-real truth appears to be that he was never habituated to profanity,
-to drunkenness, nor to falsehood; and that his calumniators are
-unconsciously his eulogists."
-
-The Manchester _Guardian_, probably the most influential journal in
-the British empire, outside of London, says that while the popular
-conception of Paine is that of a blatant and immoral demagogue he was
-noted by his companions "for his shyness, his benevolence, and his
-gentleness." Joel Barlow, who saw much of him, both in London and Paris,
-as well as in America, says: "He was one of the most benevolent and
-disinterested of mankind." "He was always charitable to the poor beyond
-his means." Clio Rickman, most intimate of all his associates, says:
-"He was mild, unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble and unassuming." Dr.
-Bond, who was imprisoned with him in the Luxembourg, says: "He was the
-most conscientious man I ever knew." James Parton says: "He loved the
-truth for its own sake; and he stood by what he conceived to be the
-truth when all around him reviled it." Ellery Sedgwick says: "The goal
-which he sought was the happiness of his fellow-men."
-
-Hon. George W. Julian, the first Antislavery nominee for Vice-President,
-one of the founders of the Republican party, and for many years a
-distinguished leader in Congress, says: "Paine was a perfectly unselfish
-and incorruptible patriot; he was a philanthropist in the best sense of
-the word; he was a man of the rarest intelligence and moral courage."
-
-Charles Watts of England says: "Thomas Paine had a generous and
-affectionate nature, a mind superior to fear and selfish interests; a
-mind governed by the principles of uniform rectitude and integrity; a
-mind the same in prosperity and adversity; a mind which no bribe could
-seduce and no terror overawe."
-
-Eva Ingersoll Brown: "Thomas Paine was one of the mental and moral
-giants of his time. He ranked among the foremost of his age. He was
-royal in rectitude, kingly in compassion, sovereign in sympathy. His
-reverence for truth and justice was sublime; his love of mercy and his
-ardor for liberty were unsurpassed.... His was a religion untainted
-by touch of dogma or of sect; a thing stainless and pure; of wondrous
-beauty and grandeur."
-
-While the orthodox clergy, with a few noble exceptions, have been,
-to their overlasting shame, mainly responsible for the ignorance
-and prejudice that have prevailed concerning Thomas Paine, Liberal
-ministers, many of them, to their eternal honor, have braved public
-sentiment and dared to do him justice. In an address more than fifty
-years ago the Rev. Moncure D. Conway paid this tribute to the moral
-character of Thomas Paine: "In his life, in his justice, in his truth,
-in his adherence to high principles, I look in vain for a parallel in
-those times and in these times. I am selecting my words. I know I am to
-be held accountable for them." Rev. Theodore Parker says: "I think
-he did more to promote piety and morality among men than a hundred
-ministers of that age in America."
-
-Prof. L. F. Laybarger: "Great was Thomas Paine intellectually, morally
-he was greater."
-
-Col. E. A. Stevens: "May Americans long appreciate the genius and
-reverence the virtues of their noble benefactor, for he left them a
-legacy greater than his works--the contemplation of his high-souled,
-unselfish character."
-
-Every person who has charged Paine with immorality has either invented
-a falsehood or repeated one. The character of Paine; was as blameless as
-that of Washington. Both men, in their last days, were bitterly assailed
-by political enemies. With their deaths political censure, for the most
-part, ceased. But Paine's religious opinions were not forgotten, and
-could not be forgiven. His "Age of Reason" continued to be read, and
-remained unanswered, because unanswerable. What "Common Sense" had
-done to kingcraft in America the "Age of Reason" promised to do to
-priestcraft throughout the world. In her desperation the church seized
-her only available weapon, slander. Every inventor of a calumny against
-Paine was hailed as a defender of the faith. Unscrupulous biographers
-and historians, like Cheetham and McMaster, to curry favor with the
-church, have recorded these calumnies as facts; and others, accepting
-these writers as reliable authorities, have innocently repeated them.
-Many who have acknowledged Paine's services to mankind have felt
-compelled to apologize for his supposed errors. Sir Leslie Stephen, who
-had accepted some of these charges, thus frankly admits that he had been
-deceived: "I regret to say that I had accepted certain charges against
-Paine's character, which Mr. Conway has shown to rest upon worse than
-suspicious evidence.... I fully admit that I was entirely misled by a
-hasty reliance upon worthless testimony." (_History of English Thought
-in the Eighteenth Century, 3rd ed., vol. ii, p. 261, note._)
-
-William H. Burr: "While the corpse of the philanthropist lay cooling in
-the ground the English Tory Cheetham wrote a biography full of malignity
-and detraction."
-
-Cheetham had a double motive in writing his Life of Paine--revenge and
-gain. He was an Englishman and had been an ardent Republican. But he had
-betrayed his party and as a result of this he and Paine became engaged
-in a bitter controversy. Paine's punishment of the renegade was
-terrible. His wounds still smarting when his adversary died, Cheetham
-wreaked his vengeance by writing a book in which he presented as facts
-all the calumnies that Paine's political and religious enemies had
-circulated concerning him, supplemented by all that his own malignant
-mind could invent. Realizing that his career in America was ended he had
-decided to return to England and the book, he believed, would win for
-him the favor and patronage of England's two most powerful institutions,
-the Tory Government and the Orthodox Church.
-
-"When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubtless was, disappointed
-and a renegade, with talents, as he certainly possessed, but embittered
-in feelings and regardless of truth, as all circumstances contribute to
-show--what could be expected from such a man but just what he produced,
-a Life of Paine abounding in bold falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and
-addressed to a people who wished to be deceived."--_Gilbert Vale_.
-
-"Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written."--_Dr.
-Conway_.
-
-"We have no hesitation in saying that we knew perfectly well at the time
-the motives of that author [Cheetham] for writing and publishing a work,
-which, we have every reason to believe, is a libel almost from beginning
-to end."--_Rev. Solomon Southwick._
-
-Eighteen years prior to the appearance of Cheetham's book George
-Chalmers, an English writer, under the pseudonymn of "Francis Oldys,"
-backed by the friends of the English Tory government and for a
-consideration, it is claimed, of £500, to counteract the influence
-of the "Rights of Man" which was threatening to overthrow monarchy in
-England, wrote a pretended biography of Paine filled with slander and
-vituperation. Referring to this book and the corrupt English political
-and religious age in which it was written, Edward Smith, an English
-author, writing nearly a century later, characterizes it as "one of the
-most horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced."
-
-Excepting Cheetham and Chalmers, all of the biographers of
-Paine--Conway, Vale, Rickman, Sedgwick, Sherwin, Blanchard, Linton and
-others--have endeavored to do him justice. But Cheetham's and Chalmer's
-books have been the arsenals where the orthodox of England and America
-have gone for their weapons with which to attack the author of the "Age
-of Reason." Not only have they tried to suppress Paine's book, they have
-tried to banish from the public library and book-store every work that
-has appeared in defense of it or its author. For three-quarters of a
-century the only biographies of Paine to be found in the London library
-were those of Cheetham and Chalmers; the only one to be found in the
-public libraries of America was that of Cheetham. Is it any wonder,
-then, that nearly all the pictures of Paine, even those drawn by
-friendly hands, to be found in our histories, biographical dictionaries,
-encyclopedias and other works, should be largely caricatures?
-
-One of the foulest of these caricatures is that drawn by the historian
-John Bach McMaster. For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no
-excuse can be offered. The plea of ignorance of Paine's true character
-and history cannot be urged in his behalf. He had before him the
-authentic records of Paine's career, in America, at least. He knew
-that his statements were untruthful and unjust. His tirade of abuse is
-seemingly for the sole purpose of securing for his books the endorsement
-of the clerical bigots who dominate our schools and colleges.
-
-Louisa Harding: "One would imagine that even the religious bigot would
-know that he [McMaster] drew for us the picture of a great man, looming
-up tall and wide behind the chronicler who strove to pull him down....
-In the course of a careful, impartial investigation of the various
-lives of, and articles on, Paine, it became necessary to resort to
-the explanation of blinding religious prejudice; and that, too, having
-failed to fit the case, there seems to be no recourse save to use a
-shorter, uglier word--John Bach McMaster _lies_."
-
-A little while ago a prominent American, misled by Paine's calumniators
-and too proud to retract it when the error was called to his
-attention, applied to the author-hero the brutal epithet "filthy little
-Atheist"--three falsehoods in three words, for Paine was neither filthy,
-little, nor an Atheist.
-
-    [See the works of President Theodore Roosevelt for
-    this quotation of his opinion of Thomas Paine.  DW]
-
-"Every syllable of that characterization is a shameful
-falsehood."--_William M. Salter, A.M._
-
-"One of the most transparently false and indefensible slanders that ever
-came from lip or pen."--_J. P. Bland, B. D._
-
-"Was he filthy? He was the friend and associate of Washington and
-Franklin. He was a member of the most conspicuous philosophical society
-in the new world. He was associated with the most distinguished men
-of the philosophical circles of France. Was he little? He entered an
-intellectual combat with Edmund Burke, and won immortal renown. Was he
-little? He was big enough and mighty enough to make the throne of Great
-Britain tremble. Was he little? He was big enough to make in America as
-well as in France the cause of human liberty his debtor forever "--_Dr.
-John E. Roberts._
-
-Commenting on this slander the _Nation_ of England says: "After all,
-our feelings of resentment at such a brutality are assuaged by the
-reflection that whereas, this man, will in a quick generation sink to
-the obscurity from which a series of accidents lifted him for a few
-years, history will gradually set in its proper place among the makers
-of the Republic the memory of the man whom he defamed."
-
-"All this vilification is really the tribute that mediocrity pays to
-genius."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-Walt Whitman: "Paine was double damnably lied about."
-
-"Anything lower, meaner, more contemptible, I cannot imagine, to take
-an aged man--a man tired to death after a complicated life of toil,
-struggle, anxiety--weak, dragged down, at death's door;... then to
-pull him into the mud, distort everything he does and says; oh, it's
-infamous."
-
-"Thomas Paine had a noble personality, as exhibited in presence,
-face, voice, dress, manner, and what may be called his atmosphere and
-magnetism, especially the later years of his life. I am sure of it. Of
-the foul and foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his
-decease, the absolute fact is that he lived a good life, after its kind;
-he died calmly and philosophically, as became him."
-
-Dr. Morrison Davidson: "He died as he lived, one of the grandest
-examples of intellectual piety, fidelity and rectitude that ever lived."
-
-New York Advertiser (June 9, 1809): "With heartfelt sorrow and poignant
-regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is
-no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to
-the cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any
-man's memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of
-the deceased, for,
-
-     "'Take him for all in all,
-     We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'"
-
-(Paine's remains were buried on his farm at New Rochelle. Ten years
-later, because of America's ingratitude and neglect, William Cobbett
-had his bones disinterred and sent to England. In connection with
-their reinterment he had planned a great popular demonstration. "When I
-return," he said, "I shall cause them to speak the common sense of
-the great man; I shall gather together the people of Liverpool and
-Manchester in one assembly with those of London, and those bones will
-effect the reformation of England in Church and State."
-
-Cobbett, probably waiting for a more opportune time, failed to carry out
-his cherished scheme. The bones of Paine reposed for nearly thirty
-years in their coffin and then disappeared. As late as 1854 a Unitarian
-clergyman claimed to have in his possession "the skull and the right
-hand of Thomas Paine.")
-
-"The skull and the right hand of Thomas Paine!" What priceless relics!
-Could they be found America should repossess them, place them in a
-casket of gold and preserve them in a shrine at her national capitol.
-Within that skull was conceived this great republic. That hand wrote the
-inspired volume which transformed a vague dream into a glorious reality.
-That hand, too, wrote two other immortal works which, slowly but surely,
-are effecting what Cobbett contemplated, "the reformation of England in
-Church and State."
-
-"His 'Rights of Man' is now the political constitution of England,
-his 'Age of Reason' is the growing constitution of its Church."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-"As to his bones, no man knows the place of their rest to this day. His
-principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown
-about the world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no
-human being has been born in the civilized world without some spiritual
-tincture from that heart whose every pulse was for humanity, whose
-last beat broke a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of
-thrones."--_Ibid._
-
-Rev. Charles Wendt, DD.: "A much abused name."
-
-Rev. O. B. Frothingham: "No private character has been more foully
-calumniated in the name of God than that of Thomas Paine."
-
-"No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or
-cold-blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful
-instance of public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine experienced
-from an age and country which he had so faithfully served."--_Rev.
-Solomon Southwick_.
-
-Referring to Paine, the Boston _Herald_ says: "It has, perhaps, never
-fallen to the lot of any really great man to be so traduced in his
-lifetime, and, after the grave has closed over him, to have his
-memory so weighted down with obloquy of unsparing critics." Mrs.
-Bradlaugh-Bonner of England, daughter of Charles Bradlaugh, one of
-England's noted orators and statesmen, says: "Paine's politics were
-politics for the people, and the people were taught to deny him; his
-ideal religion was 'the Religion of Humanity,' and humanity would not
-even grant him a grave." Col. Ingersoll says: "I challenge the world
-to show that Thomas Paine ever wrote one line, one word in favor of
-tyranny--in favor of immorality; one line, one word against what he
-believed to be for the highest and best interests of mankind; one
-line, one word against justice, charity or liberty; and yet he has been
-pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell."
-
-Harriet Law: "There are few to whom the world owes more, and probably
-none to whose memory it has been more ungrateful."
-
-Edward D. Mead: "There is no other man in our religious or political
-history who has been the victim of such misrepresentation, of such
-persistent obloquy, as Thomas Paine."
-
-"As we go back into the Dark Ages we read of the horrible atrocities
-perpetrated in the name of religion, and this feeling had not yet passed
-away during the time that Thomas Paine lived."--_Admiral George W.
-Melville._
-
-Hon. Andrew D. White, LL. D.: "Great, and, indeed, cruel injustice
-was done him in his day, and has been continued in large measure ever
-since."
-
-Eastern Daily Press (England): "The fires still burn, although a hundred
-years have passed."
-
-"For more than a century his name has been as a touchstone revealing
-the unappeasable malevolence of men's intolerance."--_Mrs.
-Bradlaugh-Bonner._
-
-Kumar Krishna de Varma, L. T. O. (Bombay, India): "The Orthodox have
-always slandered the immortal author of the 'Age of Reason' and the
-'Rights of Man.'"
-
-Prof. Ernst Haeckel: "Thomas Paine, the immortal author of the
-celebrated books, 'Age of Reason,' 'Common Sense,' 'Rights of Man,' and
-'Crisis,' belongs to those meritorious Truththinkers who during their
-lifetime were not accorded the honor and acknowledgment that they well
-merited. The traditional historians of schoolbooks not only neglected
-him for many years but deliberately maligned and slandered him."
-
-"Religious bigots have done all in their power to defame his character
-and rob him of the laurels with which we crown him to-day."--_Elizabeth
-Cady Stanton_.
-
-D. M. Bennett: "Does a man with such a brilliant career, one having made
-such a magnificent record, and one to whom the world owes far more
-than it can ever pay, deserve to have his name maligned, his memory
-blackened, and all his actions and motives belied and misrepresented? Is
-it honorable? Is it manly? Is it just?"
-
-Helen H. Gardener: "So long as a man, whether he be layman, bishop,
-cardinal or pope, is willing to bear false witness against his neighbor,
-whether that neighbor be living or dead, just so long will all the blood
-of all the Redeemers of all the nations of the earth be unable to wash
-his soul white enough to place it beside that of the patriot hero,
-Thomas Paine."
-
-William T. Stead: "Paine and Ingersoll are assailed by the same weapons,
-subjected to the same aspersions, and misrepresented in the same
-merciless fashion as He [Christ] was assailed and misrepresented by the
-orthodox of his time.... If it is right to treat Paine and Ingersoll
-in this harsh, carping, uncharitable, malevolent fashion, then it is
-equally right to apply it to the founder of the faith."
-
-Elmina Drake Slenker: "And this mild work, the 'Age of Reason,' is the
-real cause of all the cruel calumnies that the world has circulated
-about the hero, the scholar, the philosopher, the scientist, the
-inventor, the humanitarian, Thomas Paine."
-
-Lillian Leland: "Paine... had ideals of intellectual and religious
-freedom, and was flung down from the pedestal of honor, broken, cast
-off and ostracized for venturing to criticise the received forms of
-religion."
-
-"The replies to Thomas Paine," says George W. Foote of London, "were the
-work of Christian ruffians. Bishop Watson was the only one who attempted
-to answer Paine's arguments. The others only called him names;
-apparently on the principle that to charge a Freethinker with
-drunkenness and profligacy is the shortest and easiest way of proving
-that the Bible is the Word of God."
-
-George E. Macdonald of New York, says: "The strongest defense of the
-Bible against the 'Age of Reason' was the allegation that Paine drank
-brandy, although the Bible commends liquor drinking and the ministers of
-that period were unrestricted in their potations."
-
-"Around New Rochelle, where Thomas Paine lived, and where this myth
-about his drunkenness has its geography, there were deacons by the dozen
-who were drinking regularly more than Thomas Paine ever drank, without
-in the slightest degree affecting their religious reputation. I speak of
-these things, which I have investigated, because I feel so strongly the
-wrong which has been done to this man."--_Edward D. Mead._
-
-Gilbert Vale: "Could the 'Age of Reason' and 'Rights of Man' have been
-replied to as he replied to Burke we should have never heard these
-slanders."
-
-William Ware Cotter:
-
-     "Let libelers' gall-envenomed tongues
-     Make bitter every word they speak;
-     Time will disclose the patriot's wrongs
-     And blanch with shame the slanderer's cheek."
-
-
-
-
-TESTIMONIALS AND TRIBUTES.
-
-M. Coupé: "Faithful friend of liberty."
-
-M. Courtois: "He has labored to found liberty in two worlds."
-
-Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.: "Thomas Paine in England and America and
-Thomas Jefferson in America became the chanticleers of liberty."
-
-Hon. John J. Ingalls: "Paine was one of the great apostles of human
-liberty, and did much to emancipate mankind from the shackles of ancient
-prejudice and error."
-
-"A warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human
-race."--_Samuel Adams._
-
-Prof. Lester F. Ward, LL.D.: "Thanks to Paine and other great reformers,
-we have emerged from the condition where the political struggle is the
-main issue. In other words political liberty has been attained."
-
-T. J. Bowles, M. D.: "At the close of the eighteenth century it dawned
-upon the minds of the immortal Paine, Jefferson and Franklin that all
-men are created equal, and this conception born in the minds of this
-trinity of saviors made the nineteenth century the most marvelous and
-the happiest period in the history of the world."
-
-Earl John Francis Stanley Russell: "A great reformer and an illustrious
-heretical pioneer."
-
-"His name stands for mental freedom and moral courage."--_George W.
-Foote_.
-
-"Thomas Paine was a heroic innovator. He said what he thought and he
-meant what he said."--_Rev. George Burman Foster_.
-
-John Wesley Jarvis: "He devoted his whole life to the attainment of two
-objects--rights of man and freedom of conscience."
-
-Prof. H. M. Kottinger, A. M.: "Thomas Paine fought as courageously for
-religious liberty as he did for civil liberty."
-
-"I dare not say how much of what our Union is owing and enjoying
-to-day--its independence--its ardent belief in, and substantial practice
-of, radical human rights--and the severance of its government from all
-ecclesiastical and superstitious dominions--I dare not say how much of
-all this is owing to Thomas Paine, but I am inclined to think a good
-portion of it decidedly is."--_Walt. Whitman_.
-
-"It was his clear head and brave and righteous soul that inspired the
-men who declared our independence, and put into the Constitution of
-the United States such a veto against ecclesiastical domination as has
-defied its proud and conceited usurpation to the present day."--_Elizur
-Wright_.
-
-H. Lee-Warner: "Its [Thetford's] great man who taught the world to
-respect the right of free-thought."
-
-(The one hundredth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine was observed
-at his birthplace. The mayor of Thetford presided, and four members of
-the British Parliament delivered eulogistic addresses.)
-
-George Anderson: "One of the noblest Freethinkers in the world's
-history.
-
-"Paine is the idol of Freethinkers. He is enthroned in our hearts
-because he gave his life to freedom."--_L. K. Washburn._
-
-"In both worlds he offered his blood for the good of man. In the
-wilderness of America, in the French Convention, in the sombre cell
-awaiting death, he was the same unflinching, unwavering friend of his
-race; the same undaunted champion of freedom."--_Ingersoll._
-
-Martin L. Bunge: "I owe much to Thomas Paine. His words have guided me
-in my struggle for liberty and truth. The more I study him the more I
-love the human race."
-
-Isador Ladoff: "Freethought was to him not a mere attitude of mind, but
-a philosophy of life and action."
-
-Prof. M. N. Wright: "He will always stand as an illustrious example of
-that higher reverence, that diviner faith of the incoming religion--a
-religion based in the common wants of a common humanity."
-
-William Marion Reedy: "He glorified common sense.... He is one of the
-chief saints of the Church of Man."
-
-Rev. Paul Jordan Smith: "When Thomas Paine first saw the light of day it
-was the custom of certain disciples of peace and good will to beat and
-burn the man who wanted to think.... And down the days that since
-have passed it has been the fashion of the blatant orthodox to cry,
-'Infidel!' 'Infidel!' at the man who said: 'Any system of religion that
-shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.' 'The world is my
-country; to do good my religion.'"
-
-Robert Blatchford: "Paine left Moses and Isaiah centuries behind when he
-wrote: 'The world is my country; to do good my religion.'"
-
-Stoughton Cooley: "One of the most devoted spirits in the cause of
-liberty."
-
-East Anglian Daily Times: "The Rights of Man' and the 'Age of Reason'
-may have scandalized orthodox opinion, but their author was never
-engaged in any but a generous and noble cause, that had complete
-personal liberty for its sole object and aim."
-
-"They [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine] were alike in making bitter
-enemies of the priests and pharisees of their day. Both were honest men;
-both advocates of human liberty."--_Thomas Jefferson._
-
-J. C. Hannon: "Liberty, hunted around the globe, has ever found its
-highest hope, its safest refuge, in the affections of those upon whose
-grand and noble foreheads the tyrants of the world have ever branded
-the indelible stigma of Infidelity. Thomas Paine, who has done more for
-human liberty than any other man who ever lived, has borne it with a
-grace amounting to sublimity."
-
-Dr. J. B. Wilson: "Towering spires, blazing altars, jeweled palaces, and
-golden thrones had awed and subdued the Eastern nations for all time.
-It remained for Thomas Paine, standing upon the shores of this western
-world, to tear away the blinds of superstition, hypocrisy, selfishness,
-and imperial pretense, and awaken mankind to a consciousness of its own
-power and capacity for self-government."
-
-Walter Holloway: "Age after age men have struggled toward the ideal,
-with toil and tears, praying in their pain, sobbing out their sorrows in
-the half-light of hope, forever beaten back from the coveted goal. Wise
-men long ago saw that the gods must be dethroned and the government
-of earth given into the hands of men. That was the passionate dream of
-Thomas Paine."
-
-M. Felix Rabbe: "Thomas Paine has suffered the fate of all those who,
-listening only to their conscience of honest manhood, solely attentive
-to the voices of Nature and Reason, raised principles above all
-considerations of frontiers, parties, sects, and sacrificed without
-hesitation the mean calculations of a temporizing policy to the higher
-interests of eternal justice."
-
-"The world has had few such men, those who divest themselves of selfish
-motives of gain or pride and are willing to suffer obloquy and poverty
-for a conviction."--_Edward C. Wentworth_.
-
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton.: "We cannot be too grateful to those who through
-poverty, persecution, imprisonment, and death have given us the light
-of science in the place of blind faith on questions of government,
-religion, and social life. Thomas Paine is a worthy name in the long
-line of martyrs to liberal political and religious principles."
-
-"Poor, abused, maligned, hated and persecuted, Paine stood alone in the
-ocean of superstition, ignorance and prejudice as the Liberty Statue
-of religious thought while the waves of malice, ostracism and anathema
-lashed against his kind and manly brow."--_Rev. David W. Bash._
-
-Rev. Dr. Thomas Slicer: "The progress of the world in political and
-religious liberty will be written in the estimates that the world has
-learned to take of Thomas Paine during the hundred years since he fell
-into an unnoticed grave."
-
-"Thomas Paine made it impossible to write the history of human liberty
-with his name left out. He was one of the creators of light. He was one
-of the heralds of the dawn."--_Col. R. G. Ingersoll._
-
-"I enjoy myself when I think how free I am, and I thank this man for it.
-When I think of that the whole horizon is full of glory, and joy comes
-to me in every ray of sunshine and every rustle of the winds."--_Ibid._
-
-James F. Morton, Jr.:
-
-     "Since time began,
-     No greater prophet faced the savage ban
-     Of priest and king."
-
-Rev. David W. Bush: "How unwise to deny myself the companionship of one
-of the greatest, bravest, most self-sacrificing men of all time because
-he has written things I cannot accept."
-
-Pearl W. Geer: "This is the beauty of Free-thought--the glory of
-Infidelity. We recognize good in everything where good is to be found.
-While we do not accept all of Thomas Paine's ideas we recognize in him
-the greatest man the world has ever known."
-
-"There is not in Illinois a monument that stands as high as Abraham
-Lincoln; nor in Massachusetts as high as Ralph Waldo Emerson; nor in the
-world as high as Thomas Paine."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-     "The wisest, brightest, humblest son of earth."
-    --Clio Rickman.
-
-Rev. George Croly: "An impartial estimate of this remarkable man has
-been rarely formed and still more rarely expressed. He was assuredly one
-of the original men of the age in which he lived."
-
-Col. Charles Stedman (a Tory officer in the Revolution): "Thomas Paine
-has rendered his name famous on the theatre of Europe and of the world."
-
-Robert Shelton Mackenzie: "We cannot ignore the fact that he was one of
-the ablest politicians of his time and that liberal minds all over the
-world recognize him as such."
-
-"Washington recognized his practical insight, Napoleon picked him out
-from the crowd of 'ideaologues' and consulted him."--_London Times_.
-
-William Cobbett, one of the most notable figures in English politics,
-who, misled by Paine's enemies, had been one of his most violent
-assailants, thus frankly acknowledges his indebtedness to him: "Old age
-having laid his hand upon this truly great man, this truly philosophical
-politician, at his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper."
-
-Charles Bradlaugh: "He was a sturdy, true man. Though Norfolk born,
-not English, but human, and with nothing of geographical limit to that
-humanity. As a politician, or rather as a thinker on politics he stands
-for England as Jean Jacques Rousseau has stood for France. You on your
-side ought to reverence him for the timely words which gave form and
-reality to vague, unspoken thought. We, on our side, too, ought to honor
-him for the 'Rights of Man' yet to be wearisomely achieved."
-
-Atlantic Monthly: (July, 1859): "His career was wonderful, even for the
-age of miraculous events he lived in. In America he was a Revolutionary
-hero of the first rank, who carried letters in his pocket from George
-Washington, thanking him for his services. And he managed besides to
-write his radical name in large letters in the History of England and
-France."
-
-W. W. Bartlett: "He was undeniably preeminent among statesmen, and by
-his many-sidedness he succeeded in rousing the whole civilized world."
-
-Marshall J. Gauvin: "In honoring the memory of Thomas Paine we recognize
-and salute one of the greatest forces in history."
-
-"Other men have followed events; Paine actually created them.... he
-wanted a Declaration of Independence, and he produced the wish for
-it."--_Gilbert Vale._
-
-Hugh Byron Brown: "There are a few great men who, like milestones along
-the road of progress, are so distinguished and prominent, and who have
-so influenced the destinies of nations, as to mark an epoch in the
-world's history. Such a man was Thomas Paine."
-
-Michael Monahan: "One of the notables of history."
-
-Rev. E. M. Frank: "Thomas Paine was, in his time, one who stood in the
-forefront of human progress."
-
-Dr. Edward Bond Foote: "As Lincoln was the man for his time and place,
-so Paine fitted perfectly and filled remarkably the niche which history
-allotted to him."
-
-Horace L. Green: "Thomas Paine, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
-the glorious trinity of Independence."
-
-Eugene V. Debs: "The revolutionary history of the United. States and
-France stirred me deeply and its heroes and martyrs became my idols.
-Thomas Paine towered above them all."
-
-Knut Martin Teigen, M.D., Ph.D.: "Thomas Paine was, beyond all doubt, a
-true genius."
-
-Dr. John Walker (with Paine in France): "There can be no question
-that Paine was a man of the most gigantic genius and of the soundest
-practical knowledge."
-
-Joel Barlow, ambassador to France during Napoleon's reign, Paine's
-companion in London and Paris, and to whom he entrusted the manuscript
-of his "Age of Reason" when he was taken to prison, says: "Paine was
-endowed with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original
-genius, and the greatest depth of thought.... As a visiting acquaintance
-and literary friend, he was one of the most instructive men I have ever
-known."
-
-"He ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating
-luminaries of the age in which he lived."--_Ibid._
-
-"To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the
-earth."--_Horace Seaver._
-
-"One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place
-in her Hall of Fame."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen._
-
-Rev. Dr. L. M. Birkhead: "Paine in days to come will be considered one
-of the greatest men and statesmen the world has ever known."
-
-"I regard Thomas Paine as one of the greatest men the world has ever
-produced, and all ought to be proud that he belonged to our race."--_Sir
-Hiram Maxim._
-
-Glasgow Herald: "Paine was greater than he knew."
-
-"The two men who have left the richest heritage of thought and made the
-deepest imprint upon the minds of mankind for future ages,... Thomas
-Paine and Charles Darwin [Darwin was born in the year that Paine
-died], were in turn the Elijah and the Elisha of the eighteenth and the
-nineteenth centuries of the Christian era. One hundred years ago today
-Thomas Paine let fall his mantle of light upon the infant shoulders of
-Charles Darwin and vanished in a chariot of fire that shall blaze
-the trail of the seeker after truth from generation unto
-generation."--_Alden Freeman_.
-
-Edward G Wentworth: "Giordano Bruno was one of the world's martyrs who
-died for a cause. Thomas Paine was one of the world's martyrs who lived
-for a cause. Each has created an imperishable name."
-
-George Jacob Holyoake: "Paine was the most intrepid and influential
-Englishman that ever sprang from the ranks of the people."
-
-"The man who was the confidant of Burke, the counsellor of Franklin, and
-the friend and colleague of Washington, must have had great qualities."
-
-"He belongs to England. His fame is the property of England; and if no
-other people will show that they value that fame, the people of England
-will:"--_William Cobbett_.
-
-Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, LL. D.: "Great souls are the key-stones in the
-arches that unite the races.... German provincialism died when Lessing,
-Schiller, and Goethe were born. The insignificant island lost its
-insular character when Shakespeare wrote. The emaciated thirteen
-colonies became great when Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Jefferson
-spoke for them."
-
-Mohammed Ali Webb: "All educated Mohammedans know him. The intelligent
-Moslem places Thomas Paine among the world's admirable men and holds his
-memory in great reverence."
-
-U. Dhammaloka: "The Buddhist Tract Society of Burmah observed the
-one hundreth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine. We had large
-audiences. I myself [president of this society] spoke to an audience of
-about five thousand at a town in Upper Burmah."
-
-Kedàrnath Basu (of India): "My countrymen are beginning to admire and
-revere the noble character of Thomas Paine."
-
-Yoshiro Oyama (Japan): "Thomas Paine was one of the greatest of the
-great men of the world."
-
-Francois Thane: "The French people would be proud to have his ashes rest
-in the Pantheon beside the grave of Voltaire."
-
-George Legg Henderson: "The time is not far distant when all the world
-will recognize in Thomas Paine the martyr, the hero, the man."
-
-Prof. A. L. Rawson, LL. D.: "More men like Paine are wanted, and will
-appear from time to time, until the whole human race has grown in
-intelligence, reason and taste."
-
-Judge Arnold Krekel, LL. D.: "Let us carry forward, then, the work in
-which the man we honor was so largely and so successfully engaged."
-
-Libby C. Macdonald: "The lips of Thomas Paine are still in death, but we
-can voice his principles through ours."
-
-"I commend the study of the life of Paine to the young men of
-today."--_Hon. William J. Gaynor._
-
-"Time will come when the problem of school education will be how to make
-good citizens of our boys and girls, and there are no better books for
-this purpose than those of Thomas Paine."--_John S. Crosby._
-
-"With the spirit of Thomas Paine in our hearts no despot, foreign or
-domestic, will ever be able to build his throne beside the grave of our
-liberty."--_Rev. Thomas B. Gregory._
-
-"Had the world but heeded the wise counsels of Thomas Paine, Europe
-would not now be drenched in blood."--_W. M. van der Weyde._
-
-Rev. J. Page Hopps: "Paine was a splendid radical prophet, and
-therefore, though a thoroughly practical man, was only a teacher and
-leader born too soon."
-
-Rev. Marie J. Howe: "Paine did not belong to the eighteenth century, but
-was only born in it. He belongs to this."
-
-Clarence Darrow: "Thomas Paine was so far beyond his age that a hundred
-years has not been long enough for the world to catch up. Sometime he
-will stand out as the wisest, truest, bravest friend of liberty that
-America can boast."
-
-Henry Gaylord Wilshire: "Paine was the greatest man this country has
-produced, and it is only a question of time when we will come to realize
-it."
-
-"Paine, being a genius, saw a vision of the future and the glories that
-should be. The herd did not, and we do not, but we shall some day."
-
-Rev. Robert J. Lockhart: "He was a light that shed a splendor whose
-origin no man could declare. He was greater than the times he lived in."
-
-Horace J. Bridges: "Some men are too great and too far ahead of
-their times to get justice at contemporary hands. Being too broad
-and impartial for any single party, they offend all parties, and are
-rejected and reviled by all. Such in England was the fate of Cromwell
-and Milton; and such in America has been the fate of Paine."
-
-Herbert N. Casson: "Paine was a man who did not belong to his time, a
-man who was far larger than the men among whom he lived. He was loaned,
-as it were, from a larger planet to this small one. And he was given to
-this country at a time when the country most needed a guide and a wise
-teacher in the cause of independence and truth."
-
-Rev. Dwight Galloupe, U. S. A.: "I am proud to speak the name of one
-who, in too many memories, lives only as an outcast and Ishmael among
-men--Thomas Paine. I cannot forget that when all was dark his eye saw
-a star of hope, his faith heard the tramping of millions of free people
-yet unborn. His devotion kept him steadfast until the Stars and Stripes
-compelled the recognition of the world."
-
-"The man whose eloquent and reasoned appeal, 'Common Sense,' first
-formulated the demand for Independence, the first coiner of the great
-thought and expression, 'The United States of America,' the man whom
-Washington and Jefferson were proud to call their friend, and whose
-magnificent work for the liberty of their country they acknowledged with
-unstinted praise."--_The Nation_.
-
-George Washington: "That his 'Common Sense' and many of his 'Crisis'
-were well timed and had a happy effect on the public mind, none, I
-believe, who will turn to the epochs at which they were published will
-deny."
-
-"Must the merits of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream
-of time unrewarded by his country? His writings certainly have had a
-powerful effect on the public mind,--ought they not then to meet an
-adequate return?"
-
-"If you will come to this place and partake with me I shall be
-exceedingly glad to see you at it. Your presence may remind Congress of
-your past services to this country; and if it is in my power to impress
-them, command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered
-cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance of
-your works."
-
-"I am in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy
-of former [Revolutionary] times. In these it will be your glory to have
-steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living."--_Thomas
-Jefferson_.
-
-Colonel John Laurens: "You will be received with open arms, and all that
-affection and respect which our citizens are anxious to testify to the
-author of 'Common Sense' and the 'Crisis.'"
-
-"I wish you to regard this part of America [the Carolinas] as your
-particular home--and every thing that I can command in it to be in
-common between us."
-
-Robert Emmett: "To be associated with Mr. Paine, whose services to
-America are reflected in the glory of her Republic and the happiness
-of her people, must be to any one who loves liberty, or regards private
-virtues and public accomplishments, a source of peculiar pride."
-
-James Monroe: "The citizens of the United States cannot look back upon
-the times of their own Revolution without recollecting among the names
-of their most distinguished patriots that of Thomas Paine. The services
-he rendered to his country in its struggle for freedom have implanted in
-the hearts of his countrymen a sense of gratitude never to be effaced as
-long as they deserve the title of a just and generous people."
-
-"The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will
-stain our national character. You are considered by them as not only
-having rendered an important service in our Revolution, but as being on
-a more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distinguished
-and able advocate in favor of public liberty."
-
-James Madison (to Washington): "Whether a greater disposition to reward
-patriotic and distinguished efforts of genius will be found on any
-succeeding occasion, is not for me to predetermine. Should it
-finally appear that the merits of the man whose writings have so much
-contributed to infuse and foster the spirit of independence in the
-people of America, are unable to inspire them with a just beneficence,
-the world, it is to be feared, will give us as little credit for our
-policy as for our gratitude in this particular."
-
-Madison, Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and others urged the appointment of
-Paine to a place in Washington's cabinet.
-
-"A little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to humanity,
-and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on the part of the
-people he sought to free, and he would have been President of the United
-States."--_Calvin Blanchard_.
-
-Marquis de Lafayette: "To me America without her Thomas Paine is
-unthinkable."
-
-Should you ever visit Mount Vernon you will see among the many
-interesting relics preserved there a key. It is the Key of the Bastille,
-the demolition of which, on the 14th of July, 1789, was France's
-Declaration of Independence. This key passed through the hands of three
-celebrated men and associates in the mind the world's two greatest
-revolutions. Its history, briefly stated, is as follows: "Jefferson
-[then Minister to France] had sailed [for America] in September,
-and Paine was recognized by Lafayette and other leaders as the
-representative of the United States. To Paine Lafayette gave for
-presentation to Washington the key of the destroyed Bastille, ever since
-visible at Mount Vernon--symbol of the fact that, in Paine's words, 'the
-principles of America opened the Bastille.'"--_Conway_.
-
-Dr. J. Rudis-Jicinsky: "When, in Germany, I read for the first time
-Paine's 'Common Sense' I thought that in the land of liberty, the United
-States, this hero who upheld the cause of the Colonies must be glorified
-and his works known to every patriotic citizen... To my astonishment I
-found that in this country the name of this great writer was not even
-known to all its citizens. Then a flood of light flashed through my
-brain and by its rays I spelled the word 'Ingratitude.'"
-
-Unknown Writer (written in an old volume of Paine's works in a
-Philadelphia library): "He has no name. The country for which he labored
-and suffered knows him not. His ashes rest in a foreign land. A rough
-grass-grown mound, from which the bones have been purloined [now
-surmounted by a handsome monument] is all that remains on the continent
-of America to tell of the hero, the statesman, and the friend of man."
-
-Rev. John Snyder of St. Louis says: "Paine is one of his country's
-half-forgotten saviors. In the mind of that country his heresy has
-canceled the years of loving and priceless service he rendered to
-a new-born nation. The clamor of bigotry has drowned the voice of
-gratitude."
-
-"His patriotism shows not the slightest stain, and yet children have
-been taught to abhor his name."--_Ibid._
-
-"The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's
-ingratitude to Thomas Paine."--_James P. Bland, B.D._
-
-"It is time the world awakened to his merits."--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
-
-"It is time that justice should be done the memory of the man who strove
-and suffered for his fellowmen."--_William Marion Reedy_.
-
-"The Republic owes so much to him that it is hardly seemly that it
-should continue doing less than justice to his memory."--_New York
-World._
-
-Hon. Henry S. Randall: "Concede all the allegations against him and it
-still leaves him the author of 'Common Sense' and certain other papers,
-which rung like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary
-struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pestilence-stricken as
-the pen of no other man ever inspired them."
-
-"_Shame rest on the pen which dares not to do him justice._"
-
-"A religion which will incite its followers, with virtual unanimity, to
-pursue with malignant hatred and to blacken with all the refinements of
-insatiable malice the memory of a distinguished benefactor of the human
-race, on the sole ground of his renunciation of certain theological
-dogmas, is undeniably the embodiment of a spirit hostile to intellectual
-liberty and human progress."--_James F. Morton, Jr._
-
-"The national ingratitude displayed toward him on account of the fact
-of his theological heresies has hardly a parallel in history. In
-vindicating his memory, and calling attention, afresh to his invaluable
-services, we are not indulging in a blind hero worship, but are
-establishing a principle. The securing of justice to Paine, against the
-venomous hatred invoked by his priestly enemies, involves a crushing
-blow to clerical malice, and the winning of a victory which will have
-large consequences. In the person of Paine, we are vindicating
-the principles of religious liberty and confounding its
-antagonists."--_Ibid._
-
-"The Atheists and Secularists of our time are printing, reading,
-revering a work ['Age of Reason'] that opposes their opinions. For above
-its arguments and criticisms they see the faithful heart contending with
-a mighty Apollyon, girt with all the forces of revolutionary and royal
-Terrorism. Just this one Englishman, born again in America, confronting
-George III. and Robespierre on earth and tearing the like of them
-from the throne of the universe! Were it only for the grandeur of this
-spectacle in the past Paine would maintain his hold on thoughtful minds.
-But in America the hold is deeper than that. In this self-forgetting
-insurrection of the human heart against deified Inhumanity there is an
-expression of the inarticulate wrath of humanity against continuance of
-the same wrong... There is still visible, however refined, the sting
-and claw of the Apollyon against whom Paine hurled his far-reaching
-dart."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Judge Thomas Herttell: "No man in modern ages has done more to benefit
-mankind, or distinguished himself more for the immense moral good he has
-effected for his species, than Thomas Paine."
-
-Ernestine L. Rose: "He was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
-
-Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life
-was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."
-
-"We find in Paine united two qualities which were rare in the eighteenth
-century--political sagacity and humanity."--_Hector Macpherson._
-
-"His career is only reduced to intelligible consistency when we
-recognize that the impelling force behind his social, political
-and religious activities was an overmastering passion for
-humanity."--_Ibid._
-
-Edwin C. Walker:. "Paine was the least insular, the least
-provincial--the most cosmopolitan--of all whose names have come down
-to us from the ages gone... His sympathies were broader even than all
-humanity, for they enclosed other forms of life as well, and were as
-varied as the needs of all who suffered and aspired."
-
-Ellery Sedgwick: "He hated cruelty in every form. He hated war, he hated
-slavery, he hated injustice; and his public life was one long battle
-against every form of oppression."
-
-"His free lance was ever at the service of the poor and oppressed, but
-never to be bought by favors of the court, or awed by the menaces of
-kings or the anathemas of priests."--_Hugh Byron Brown._
-
-J. W. Whicker: "The growth of knowledge in the passing years will hallow
-the name of this author, this patriot, this hero of two continents. His
-life and his deeds are one sweet story of service for his kind."
-
-John R. Charlesworth: "His weapon was a pen. His mind jeweled with
-gems of thought, richer by far than silver or gold, he gave of his
-intellectual treasures without price."
-
-     "Long live the man, in early contest found,
-     Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
-     Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
-     Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
-    --Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
-
-Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human
-rights and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
-
-Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever
-trod the planet."
-
-Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of
-opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind,
-unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank,
-and wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard
-the revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my
-heart that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius,
-is clamorous in the publication of its defects.
-
-"Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so
-forward now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of
-Paine!--where were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you,
-to assist his infant merit, would diminish even the surplus of your
-debaucheries? Where the mitred charity, the practical religion?
-Consistent declaimers, rail on! What though his genius was the gift of
-Heaven, his heart the altar of friendship! What though wit and eloquence
-and anecdote flowed freely from his tongue, while Conviction made his
-voice her messenger! What though thrones trembled, and prejudice fled,
-and freedom came, at his command! He dared to question the creed
-which you, believing, contradicted, and to despise the rank which you,
-boasting of, debased."
-
-William Lee:
-
-     "Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"
-
-C. Fannie Allyn:
-
-     "Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
-     Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
-     Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
-     As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
-
-     "Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
-     Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
-     And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
-     As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
-
-Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into
-the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers
-of our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution--Thomas
-Paine."
-
-Samuel H. Preston: "He who will live forever in the history of this
-republic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who consecrated
-a long, laborious life in both hemispheres to the sacred cause of
-humanity; he who, in his sublime patriotism, adopted the world for his
-country, and who, in his boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind
-for his brethren; this man--this great, and grand, and good, and heroic
-man--has been robbed of honor and reputation, and blackened and hunted
-by the sleuth-hounds of superstition, as though he had been the embodied
-curse of earth.
-
-"But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal destiny, shall
-justice be awarded Thomas Paine. The flowers of poesy will be woven in
-amaranthine wreaths above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened
-name will whiten with purity through all the wasteless years."
-
-Rev. Frank S. C. Wicks: "Why this ingratitude? In one word, bigotry!
-Religious bigotry, that serpent that has left its trail of slime all
-over the pages of human history.
-
-"He was pursued by religious bigotry, and but for religious bigotry the
-name of Thomas Paine would share with Washington the love and honor of
-his countrymen."
-
-Rev. Thomas B. Gregory: "Our gratitude has been abundantly shown to
-Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others who figured in the
-great drama, but to our shame it must be said we have been slow in
-acknowledging our debt to the man who did more than any other to bring
-about this country's freedom.
-
-"But superstition is slowly dying, ignorance is gradually disappearing,
-and by and by Thomas Paine will come into his own and take his place
-along with the greatest in our national pantheon."
-
-Rev. Solomon Southwick, D.D.: "Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman
-patriot in olden times, and performed the same services as he did for
-this country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pantheon
-would have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his
-memory with the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and
-Cicero. But posterity will do him justice. Time, that destroys envy and
-establishes truth, will clothe his character in the habiliments that
-justly belong to it."
-
-"Paine was one of the glories of his age.... He has a powerful
-vindicator--posterity."--_M. M. Mangasarian_.
-
-Frances Wright D'Arusmont: "Rest in peace, noble patriot; a glorious
-resurrection awaits thee."
-
-"For nearly a century this noble man--the real founder of our
-republic--has been buried beneath the cruel stones of obloquy. But
-slowly the angels of Justice are rolling back these stones from his
-sepulchre, and the resurrection of Thomas Paine is at hand."--_Six
-Historic Americans_.
-
-Current Literature: "The present indications are that posterity will
-preserve the favorable, rather than the unfavorable, picture of Thomas
-Paine. His influence is steadily growing."
-
-Col. John C. Bundy: "Paine's influence is waxing broader, deeper
-and more aggressive with each succeeding generation. At the end of a
-century, more of his theological and political works are sold each year
-than those of any other theologian or politician America has ever known.
-All the progress of the century has been in the direction in which he
-steered."
-
-The Nation (London): "The magnitude, variety, and immediate efficacy of
-Paine's writings constitute him one of the chief personal forces of the
-revolutionary age.... He carried into the New England across the water
-a consuming passion for human justice and liberty, not as platform
-phrases, but as hard, concrete goods worth fighting and dying for, which
-set America afire, when she was confusedly pondering an impossible and
-unnatural reconciliation. From America to France, fresh in the throes of
-her great upheaval, he passed, not as an incendiary, but as a moderating
-and constructive influence in her national convention, risking his very
-life for the cause of clemency in dealing with a traitorous king. From
-France to England, carrying the same doctrines of liberty in politics
-and religion, not a cold utilitarian conception of individual rights,
-but a rich human gospel of a commonwealth sustained by a passion of
-humanity as deep and real as ever influenced the soul of man.
-
-"He will recover a glorious though tardy fame among those who take the
-necessary trouble to rectify false estimates and to do honor to one of
-the most truly honorable men who have striven to serve mankind."
-
-"He died broken with many griefs, to be remembered by a later age as the
-great Commoner of mankind."--_Library of The World's Best Literature._
-
-Charles Edward Russell: "The soul of Thomas Paine was 'like a star and
-dwelt apart.' He kept his own self-respect and the integrity of his
-mind."
-
-"He lived a long, laborious, and useful life. The world is better for
-his having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach.
-He ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him
-because he was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the respect
-of what is called society, but kept his own. His life is what the world
-calls a failure, and what history calls success."--_Ingersoll._
-
-Daniel Edwin Wheeler: "History continually reverses her statements
-at the command of Truth, and the latter is slowly but certainly
-rehabilitating the name and fame of Paine. The slime of a mythology
-which has for over a century stained his reputation is disappearing and
-the prophet pamphleteer is coming into his own."
-
-Dr. Muzzey, of New York, honored by Harvard, the Sorbonne of Paris, and
-the University of Berlin, at the tomb of Thomas Paine, in 1909, gave
-utterance to this tribute: "The democracy for which Robert Burns sang
-and for which Thomas Paine labored is still a bright ideal in the
-distant future, the star of brotherhood over a humanity still in
-the cradle. Today, and only today, Thomas Paine is beginning to be
-appreciated as the prophet of that democracy which means full human
-brotherhood. His fame will grow with the years. The marvelous services
-of his brain, of his pen, which was never dipped in the ink of malice
-or slander, of his wonderful devotion as a soldier, as a prophet of
-freedom,... is coming to be understood. As the realization of that
-service of Paine grows, it will loom larger and larger. And when the day
-of democracy shall have come, when the principles for which Paine stood
-shall have fully replaced the awful dogmas of the past, as they are
-slowly and surely replacing those dogmas, then he will come to his own."
-
-Rev. James Kay Applebee: "I see Thomas Paine as he looms up in
-history--a great, grand figure. The reputation bigots have created for
-him fades away, even as the creeds for which they raved and lied fade
-away; but distinct and luminous, there remains the noble character of
-Thomas Paine created by himself."
-
-"The stigma is on his detractors, not on him."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman
-Shippen._
-
-R. B. Marsh: "No feeling of shame has been so poignant as that which
-overwhelmed me when I saw that ignorantly and blindly following my
-instructors I had added my voice to the all but universal outcry against
-this man.
-
-"His fame and memory have been obscured for a hundred years, only to
-shine with greater luster when the truth is known. The day-dawn of his
-fame even now is brightening the sky.
-
-"He has been the victim of almost infinite injustice; but I rejoice
-in the confident belief that time will fully vindicate his memory, and
-restore him to his just rank among the heroes of humanity."--_Hon.
-George W. Julian._
-
-That there is a rapidly growing disposition to do justice to the memory
-of Thomas Paine is attested by a recent occurrence. On the 14th of
-October, 1905, at New Rochelle, where, less than one hundred years
-before, Paine, because of his religious belief, was denied burial in
-a Christian cemetery, the beautiful monument erected at his grave by
-admiring friends was rededicated and assigned to the custody of that
-city, where, held as a sacred treasure, it is now guarded with watchful
-and loving care. The nation, the state, and the city united to make
-the event a memorable one. Major General Frederick D. Grant sent two
-companies of United States troops and a regimental band; the state of
-New York sent a battery which fired a salute of thirteen guns; the mayor
-delivered a eulogy on Paine, and the city council participated in the
-exercises. The school children of New Rochelle sang the "Star Spangled
-Banner" and one of Paine's own songs. Various civic and military
-societies also took part in the celebration--the Grand Army of the
-Republic, Woman's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, Spanish
-War Veterans, Minutemen, Washington Continental Guards, and Sons of
-the American Revolution. Dr. Conway, Paine's faithful biographer, sent
-a letter of greeting from Paris, and a daughter of France a handsome
-wreath to lay upon the patriot's tomb.
-
-Henry S. Clark (Mayor of New Rochelle):
-
-"This memorial should serve and will remain an object lesson,
-inculcating not only patriotism, but the fundamental idea which appeared
-only in Paine's writings--political equality for all men."
-
-"We accept this splendid memorial and pledge ourselves to ever protect
-and preserve it."
-
-"The two chief centers by which the lovers of liberty, humanity and
-progress will love to linger and gather inspiration in America will
-henceforth be the mausoleum of Washington by the Potomac, and
-this monument of Paine by his old home in your lovely city of New
-Rochelle."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps
-his dream will come true, and when there is a Republic of the World,
-here will be the shrine of all nations."--_A. Outrant Sherman._
-
-John Burroughs: "I honor the memory of Thomas Paine and am glad to know
-that it shines brighter and brighter as time goes on."
-
-Rear Admiral George W. Melville: "Greater honor is coming to the name of
-Thomas Paine as the years roll on.... In America he will always be known
-as one of the greatest and brightest minds that stood for the liberties
-of men."
-
-Hon. D. W. Wilder: "After a century of abuse it is pleasing to know that
-a pure patriot and a very great man is at last being appreciated."
-
-Theodore Schroeder: "Paine's sympathy for mankind had made kings
-his foes, his mercy cost him his liberty, his generosity kept him in
-poverty, his charity made him enemies, and by intellectual honesty he
-lost his friends. Federalist judges of election, for whose liberty he
-had fought, denied him the right to vote, because he was a citizen of
-France; imprisoned in France because he was not a citizen of France;
-maligned because he was brave; shunned because he was honest; hated by
-those to whom he had devoted his whole existence; denied a burial place
-in the soil he helped make free by the church which first taught him the
-lesson of humanity; thus ended the life of Thomas Paine.
-
-"The world is growing better, more just and more hospitable. The narrow
-intolerance which once threatened to erase Paine's hame from the pages
-of history is passing away. Gradually we are coming to know that a
-kingly crown or priestly robe never rested upon a nobler man."
-
-"His unselfish devotion to the rights of man is now being recognized,
-and the brutal intolerance which tried to obliterate his name from
-history is rapidly disappearing."--_Yoshiro Oyama_.
-
-"The verdict of a century is being reversed today. In a little while the
-voice of detraction will be hushed forever."--_Marshall J. Gauvin_.
-
-Hector Macpherson: "The wheel of time has come round full circle. Men
-of all sorts and conditions are willing to do justice to the man who, in
-the midst of great obstacles and with unflinching and self-sacrificing
-purpose held aloft the lighted torch of humanitarianism, and passed it
-on to succeeding generations."
-
-George Allen White: "What turbulent curses and ravenous conspiracies
-fell for decades afoul thy noble head! How did the welkin ring with the
-uttermost invectives of hell-brewed hate! But a hundred years later and
-Thomas Paine--Thomas Paine the unspeakable--has been rehabilitated. His
-fame is secure and untarnished now. Rising the monuments. Splendid
-the horoscope of his future. Smoking the calumets. Like an impossible,
-unbelievable dream vanishes the memory of those tempestuous days of
-shameless bigotry."
-
-Judge Charles B. Waite: "King and priest stood side by side, the one
-enslaving the body, the other the mind. Men and women were subjected
-to the most atrocious cruelties. Now and then, while mankind were
-struggling with their destiny, voices were heard--voices in the
-night--penetrating the surrounding gloom and reaching every ear. Such
-a voice was that of Shelley; such a voice was that of Voltaire; such a
-voice was that of Goethe; such was that of Thomas Paine.
-
-"Thomas Paine has been pursued with falsehood and calumny for more than
-a hundred years, but his name and fame grow brighter and brighter as the
-years roll by. Already he is enrolled among the immortals as one of the
-real saviors of the World."
-
-Mrs. Josephine K. Henry: "Thomas Paine--'One of the few, the immortal
-names that were not born to die."
-
-"As an American woman I enshrine with gratitude the memory of the
-philosopher, poet, counselor, historian, moralist, statesman and
-liberator--the immortal Thomas Paine."
-
-J. Atwood Culbertson: "Whether his remains now lie wrapped in the
-immaculate shroud of winter snow, or, hid beneath earth's coverlet of
-green, feed to fragrance the springtime flowers, kissed to life by April
-sun; or whether his dust imparts the gold to the summer's grain, or
-lends the tint to the autumn leaf, we do not know, we cannot say; but
-immortal is the name of Thomas Paine."
-
-Charles Watts: "Not of one age, but for all time."
-
-William Thurston Brown: "Thomas Paine belongs to the ages--not because
-he was Thomas Paine, but because the light which illumined his mind
-and the principles which motived his life are the noblest and richest
-blossoms the tree of human life can bear. Toward the heights he climbed
-leads every upward road that the fearless feet of seekers after truth in
-this or any age have trod."
-
-"The purpose of his life, unequaled in purity, beneficence and grandeur
-of hope, 'lives and ever will live in the republics he invented,
-inspired and organized, and in the Religion of Humanity upon which they
-rest."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"These words [Religion of Humanity] have blessed every religion.
-These three magic words, first uttered by Paine, will work on and on
-forever."--Ibid.
-
-Harry Weir Boland:
-
-     "His heart the world embracing
-     He served our sorest need,
-     His mind his church displacing,
-     Humanity his creed.
-     Humanity his creed,
-     Truth follows in his train,
-     And of all those names the fairest
-     Is that of Thomas Paine."
-
-Mrs. Mattie Parry Krekel: "Let us all, then, lay the trifle of a word, a
-thought, a tear on the altar of the memory of him who will be one of the
-pillars of that coming church where all men's hands shall be clasped in
-the beautiful light of the sun of truth; the church which shall give us
-one Father--Nature, and one brotherhood--the whole wide world."
-
-"I for one here cheerfully, reverently, throw my pebble on the cairn of
-his memory."--_Walt Whitman._
-
-Napoleon Bonaparte: "A statue of gold ought to be erected to you in
-every city in the universe."
-
-Andrew Jackson: "Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands; he has
-erected himself a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty."
-
-J. P. Bland, B.D.: "Thomas Paine needs no marble to perpetuate his name,
-needs no granite to preserve his fame; for scattered through the whole
-wide world he has to-day a million living monuments, the harbingers of
-millions yet to come, and who, till time shall be no more, will bow the
-head in reverence and lift the heart in praise of him who so gloriously
-stood for reason and for right."
-
-Dr. John E. Roberts: "So long as human rights are sacred and their
-defenders held in grateful remembrance; so long as liberty has a flag
-flung to the skies, a sanctuary in the hearts of men; so long, upon the
-eternal granite of history, luminous as light and imperishable as the
-stars, will be engraven the name of Thomas Paine."
-
-Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll: "If to love your fellow-men more than self
-is goodness, Thomas Paine was good.
-
-"If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the direction of
-right is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
-
-"If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of
-death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero."
-
-"He died in the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to the
-skies. Slander cannot touch him now; hatred cannot reach him more."
-
-George E. Macdonald:
-
-     "O Champion, bravest in all the past!
-     O Freedom, fairest of all the dames.
-     Long may the pledge of your fealty last,
-     Forever united be your names.
-     And long as the flowers from the sod shall spring,
-     Touched by a May day's warmth and light,
-     A blossom and tear shall the lady bring
-     To drop on the grave of her faithful knight."
-
-Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim twilight of the
-eighteenth century his prophetic eye pierced through the intervening
-years to and beyond the gray dawn of the twentieth. And when he viewed
-man's progress and beheld his glorious destiny, this matchless seer
-"rang out the old, rang in the new," rang out the rule and tyranny of
-king, rang out the dogmas and the ghosts of priest; rang in the reign of
-liberty and justice, rang in the faith of Reason and Humanity.
-
-Yes, in the cause of man the battle of his life was fought, a fierce
-and stormy conflict. And as the night of death closed over the eventful
-struggle, from her accursed abode the gaunt figure of Bigotry stalked
-forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter danced around his prostrate
-form, rejoicing that her deadliest foe was gone. Her imps still live.
-How often do we see one of them in the pulpit take up this good man's
-name, and after covering it with all the slime that the venomous spirit
-of calumny has distilled, hold it up before his congregation, and with
-a counterfeited look of holy horror, affecting all the meekness of an
-expiring calf, rolling up the whites of his snaky eyes to cover the
-blackness of his brutal soul, exclaim, "This is Tom Paine!"
-
-Vile creatures! let them do their worst. Let them summon to their aid
-all their hideous allies. Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let
-the dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let Hatred rave and curse;
-let the darts of Calumny pierce the white breast of Truth, and Slander
-clothe the tongues of all their minions. They strive in vain. The Crisis
-is past, the Age of Reason has dawned. Common Sense is fast supplanting
-Superstition, the Rights of Man are bound to triumph, and the
-author-hero's name will gather lustre as the years roll by.
-
-     "That man is thought a knave or fool,
-     Or bigot plotting crime,
-     Who for the advancement of his kind,
-     Is wiser than his time.
-     For him the hemlock shall distil,
-     For him the axe be bared;
-     For him the gibbet shall be built,
-     For him the stake prepared.
-     Him shall the scorn and wrath of men
-     Pursue with deadly aim;
-     And malice, envy, spite, and lies
-     Shall desecrate his name.
-     But never a truth has been destroyed,
-     They may curse it, and call it crime;
-     Pervert and betray, and slander and slay
-     Its teachers for a time:
-     But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky,
-     As round and round we run;
-     And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
-     And justice shall be done."
-
-Ungrateful Athens bade her savior drain the poisoned cup. It did its
-work, the spark of life was quenched; but the name of Socrates shines
-on, undimmed by the flight of more than twenty centuries. Columbus
-languished in chains, forged by the nation he had made renowned; but
-no chains can bind the towering fame his genius won. Religious zealots
-sealed the lips of a philosopher; but could they stop the revolving
-earth? Could they control the rising tide that rolled upon the boundless
-sea of thought? No! the earth went round, the wave rolled on. To-day,
-the very church that persecuted Galileo reveres his name, accepts
-his teachings, and through his telescope, the instrument she once,
-condemned, her votaries, with eager eye and throbbing pulse, explore the
-starry fields of heaven. It is ever so: "Truth crushed to earth shall
-rise again." Each fierce Thermopylae she meets inspires some crowning
-Salamis. The wrongs of Thomas Paine shall be avenged. In vain his
-country passed to him the bitter cup; the fetters forged to chain his
-noble spirit to the dust were forged for naught; loving lips whisper,
-"It still moves!"
-
-I pity the man whose soul is so small that he cannot rise above the
-level of his creed to do justice to those whose religious opinions have
-not been gauged by his particular standard. I am no Christian, but may I
-never become so ungrateful as to ignore my obligations to those who are.
-When war was desolating our fair land, and my young heart yearned to
-enlist in its defense, a Christian mother printed a kiss upon the cheek
-of her only boy and bade him go; Christian hands made the grand old flag
-we followed; Christian women visited our hospitals, ministering to the
-sick and wiping the death-damp from the brows of the dying; Christian
-generals led their troops on many a hard-fought field; and tonight the
-stately oak, the drooping willow, and the moaning pine stand sentinel
-by many a Christian soldier's grave. But they are not alone. Beside his
-Christian comrade--beneath the shadows of the same trees--a martyr to
-the same cause--sleeps the unbeliever. And would you strew with flowers
-and moisten with tears the grave that enfolds the one, and trample with
-scorn the turf that grows upon the other? Side by side they grandly
-marched to war; side by side they bravely fought; side by side
-heroically they fell; and in the murmuring stream that, wanders by their
-resting-place is heard the funeral chant of no religious creed, but
-nature's eternal sweet, sad requiem to all.
-
-Go to the grave of Thomas Paine, my Christian friend. Stand beside the
-tomb where rest the ashes of this unappreciated genius. Take up his
-little volume "Common Sense." Open its pages and peruse its burning
-words. When done, unfold the map upon which are delineated "The Free
-and Independent States of America." Contemplate the inspiring picture
-wrought thereon--wrought by the author-hero's magic pen--then refuse the
-simple tribute of a tear or flower!
-
-Who is responsible for the obloquy that has been cast upon the memory
-of this noble man? The church, the orthodox church alone, is responsible
-for it. And let me say to the church, it ill becomes you to point to
-the alleged moral delinquencies of this man while your own garments are
-soiled and crimsoned with the vice and crime of centuries. You claim
-that amid the thunders of Sinai God gave the Decalogue as a moral guide
-to man. Judged even by this standard the moral character of Thomas Paine
-will not suffer from a comparison with that of yours.
-
-"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." "I believe in one God and no
-more," said Thomas Paine.
-
-"Thou shalt worship no graven image." No worshiper of images was he.
-
-"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." He abstained
-from profanity himself and rebuked it in others.
-
-"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He observed this law as
-faithfully as did his Christian neighbors.
-
-"Honor thy father and thy mother." His parents were the objects of his
-reverence and love.
-
-"Thou shalt not kill." He did not kill. He labored to abolish war and
-murder.
-
-"Thout shalt not commit adultery." He was charged with adultery, and the
-foul beast who made the charge was forced to pay a heavy fine for his
-libelous assault.
-
-"Thou shalt not steal." Were all mankind as honest as he was the
-locksmith's avocation would be gone.
-
-"Thou shalt not bear false witness." From his truthful lips no one ever
-heard a falsehood fall.
-
-"Thou shalt not covet." A man who consecrates his life to the cause of
-humanity, and who steadily refuses to be recompensed for his services,
-cannot be accused of covetousness.
-
-Now, let me ask the church, what is your record? How have you kept even
-the commandments of your own law?
-
-"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And yet, you have persecuted,
-imprisoned, tortured, butchered, and burned thousands for not believing
-in a trinity of gods.
-
-"Before no idol shalt thou bow thy knee." Your places of public
-worship are filled with idols--virgins, and saints, and crucifixes, and
-Bibles--objects of as blind adoration as the idols of heathen lands.
-
-"Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain." On every hand our
-ears are greeted by the oaths of those who, whether belonging to any
-particular sect or not, believe in the existence of the God and the
-divinity of the Christ they curse.
-
-"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." For eighteen hundred years
-you have not kept a Sabbath of your God. You observe a day he never
-authorized you to observe.
-
-"Honor thy father and thy mother." The Christ you worship spurned the
-loving mother who bore him and declared that he who hated not father and
-mother could not be his disciple.
-
-"Thou shalt not kill." You have made of earth a slaughter house. For
-centuries it resounded with the shrieks of murdered millions, victims
-of your relentless fury. And today your votaries are drenching Europe's
-soil with blood.
-
-"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Your most immaculate saints violate
-this commandment and become a stench in the nostrils of decent people.
-
-"Thou shalt not steal." Today the prisons of Europe and America shelter
-three hundred thousand Christian thieves.
-
-"Thou shalt not bear false witness." Perjury is rife in Christendom; and
-even in heathen lands the very name of Christianity has become a synonym
-for falsehood and deceit.
-
-"Thou shalt not covet." Your history is the history of covetousness
-itself. Christian Rome has tried to devour the world. A little while ago
-we saw the Greek cross planted upon the Balkan--saw the Russian eagle
-perched upon those snowy crags, gloating over the misfortunes of
-Turkey, eager to clutch in his greedy talons the territory of Islam, and
-prevented only by the jealous wolves of Protestantism.
-
-No wonder that the warmest hearts and brightest intellects are leaving
-you. Upon your walls they read the fateful words that met the terrified
-gaze of Babylon's sinful king. Your devotees are looking forward to a
-millennium when your power on earth shall be supreme. Delusive phantom!
-your millennium has come and gone. That dark blot on the page of
-history--that withering pall stretching across the centuries from
-Constantine to Luther--that constitutes the thousand years of Christian
-rule foretold in the Apocalypse. But that has past, and your power is
-vanishing, never to be restored again. From the ashes of that dauntless
-hero, Giordano Bruno, young Science, phoenixlike, arose, and in the soil
-prepared by Luther, sowed the seed whose harvest is your death. Even now
-I hear your death-knell ringing; even now I gaze into a sepulchre where
-soon must lie your Bible and your creeds--your stakes, your gibbets and
-your racks--your priests, your devil and your God! And when the last
-have been entombed, then gather up the crumbling bones of the one
-hundred million human beings who have perished at your hands, and let
-this ghastly pile remain, a most befitting monument to your unbounded
-cruelties and crimes!
-
-It is a pleasing thought to know that bigotry is fading from the
-earth. It can flourish only in the malarial swamps of ignorance and
-superstition, and the poisonous vapors arising from these loathsome
-regions are being fast dispelled by the sun of science.
-
-An incident in the life of Nicholas I. of Russia furnishes a fitting
-parallel to what the bigots of our time are now experiencing. Among
-the many admirers of that other great Deist, Voltaire, was the Empress
-Catharine, who ordered a statue of him from the leading sculptor of
-Europe. When it arrived Catharine was dying, and for years it lay
-untouched in the box in which it had been shipped.
-
-At length Alexander caused it to be set up in a room of the imperial
-palace, where it remained until Nicholas ascended the throne. Nicholas
-was a most admirable type of the religious bigot; he was ignorant and
-intolerant, and the character of Voltaire was the object of his especial
-hatred. Hardly had he donned the imperial robes before he began to
-realize
-
-     "How uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
-
-An insurrection had broken out in one of his provinces. Troubled and
-perplexed, he was wandering through the halls of the palace when,
-suddenly, he stood face to face with the statue of Voltaire. That
-haughty smile, so natural to the face of the living Voltaire, had been
-transferred to his marble image; and now it seemed to mock the troubled
-emperor. He summoned one of his ministers and ordered him to remove the
-offensive work. The minister did so, placing it in an old lumber room of
-the palace. All went well with the emperor until one night the cry of
-"fire!" resounded in his ears. The palace was on fire. Rushing to the
-scene of the conflagration he chanced to pass through the very room to
-which the statue had been removed, and again he stood before the object
-of his hatred. The red glare of the flames added to the terrors of the
-scene, and, for a moment, Nicholas fancied himself translated to the
-dominions of Satan and standing before his throne. The flames were
-finally extinguished, the greater portion of the palace was saved, and
-with it the statue. But the remembrance of this terrible scene haunted
-him like an apparition all night long. He could not sleep. In the
-morning he summoned his minister and ordered him to destroy the work of
-art. Out of respect for the dead Catharine the order was unheeded. Years
-rolled by; the armies of England and France had invaded the Crimea and
-defeated with frightful slaughter the armies of the czar. Then flashed
-to St. Petersburg news of the bombardment of Sebastopol which ultimately
-fell. It was night, and, wild with anguish, Nicholas was again wandering
-through those desolate halls--lighted only by the weird moonbeams that
-came straggling through the palace windows--when, for the third time,
-he was confronted by the ghostly statue. Again he summoned his minister.
-But his iconoclastic spirit was broken. He no longer demanded the
-destruction of the statue, but simply begged his official to remove it
-to where he should never more behold it. The wily minister bethought
-him of a place never visited by his sovereign, and accordingly had it
-removed to the imperial library. Nicholas is no more; but the statue
-remains--a silent monarch in that realm of thought--an object, not of
-abhorrence and dread, but of admiration.
-
-As the Russian bigot was haunted by the statue of Voltaire, so the
-bigots of our day and country are haunted by the memory of Paine.
-Theological insurrections are breaking out on every hand; the
-intellectual fires of the twentieth century are encircling and consuming
-the rude palace of Superstition; they hear the cannon of Science
-thundering before the walls of their Sebastopol. Terror-stricken,
-aimlessly and hopelessly they wander on, only to be confronted at every
-turn by the ghost of Thomas Paine. Unhappy beings, this will not forever
-last. Not always will the good name of Thomas Paine stand as a phantom
-to frighten bigots. Gently and lovingly his friends are removing it,
-passing it on from generation to generation, to a better and a grander
-age--to an age across whose threshold no bigot's foot shall ever pass.
-Then, when the Republic of the World has been established, and the
-Religion of Humanity has become the universal religion, all mankind will
-recognize the worth and revere the memory of him who wrote the political
-and religious creed of this glorious day:
-
---THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, TO DO GOOD MY RELIGION.
-
-
-               THE END.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by 
-John E. Remsburg
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-  <head>
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-      Thomas Paine, by John E. Remsburg
-    </title>
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-
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-    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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-
-Project Gutenberg's Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by John E. Remsburg
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty
-       An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including
-              the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses
-
-Author: John E. Remsburg
-
-Release Date: July 11, 2012 [EBook #40210]
-Last Updated: January 25, 2013
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-    <div style="height: 8em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h1>
-      THOMAS PAINE
-    </h1>
-    <h2>
-      THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      An Address Delivered In Chicago, January 29, 1916.
-    </h3>
-    <h3>
-      INCLUDING THE TESTIMONY OF FIVE HUNDRED WITNESSES.
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <h2>
-      By John E. Remsburg
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      President Of American Secular Union
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        "This effort to right the wrongs of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, a
-        service to mankind."&mdash;Andrew D. White, LL.D., First President of
-        Cornell University, Minister to Russia, and Ambassador to Germany.
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <h3>
-      1917
-    </h3>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        IN MEMORY OF THOMAS "CLIO" RICKMAN, WILLIAM COBBETT, GILBERT VALE,
-        HORACE SEAVER, ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, MONCURE D. CONWAY, THADDEUS B.
-        WAKEMAN and EUGENE M. MACDONALD, noble defenders while living of the
-        much maligned dead, this appreciation of our nation's founder and the
-        world's greatest apostle of liberty is reverently inscribed.
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> THOMAS PAINE, THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> "COMMON SENSE" AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE "RIGHTS OF MAN" AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
-      </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> "AGE OF REASON" AND RECANTATION CALUMNY. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> PAINE'S PLACE IN LITERATURE. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> REFORMS AND INVENTIONS. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> TESTIMONIALS AND TRIBUTES. </a>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <h2>
-      THOMAS PAINE, THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      FROM time immemorial men have observed the natal days of their gods and
-      heroes. A few weeks ago Christians celebrated the birthday of a god. We
-      come to celebrate the birthday of a man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Within the brief space of twenty-five days occur the anniversaries of the
-      births of the three most remarkable men that have appeared on this
-      continent&mdash;Paine, Washington and Lincoln&mdash;the Creator, the
-      Defender and the Savior of our Republic. To do honor to the memory of the
-      first of these&mdash;to acknowledge our indebtedness to him as a patriot
-      and philosopher, and to extol his virtues as a man&mdash;have we assembled
-      here. We come the more willingly and our exercises will be characterized
-      by a deeper earnestness because the one whose merits we celebrate has been
-      the victim of almost infinite injustice. In the popular mind to utter a
-      word in his behalf has been to apologize for wrong&mdash;to declare
-      yourself the friend of Paine has been to declare yourself the enemy of
-      man. The world is not prepared to do him full justice yet. Priestcraft,
-      still powerful, uses all its power to prejudice the public mind against
-      him and in too many hearts, where love and gratitude should dwell,
-      ingratitude and hatred have their home. There are those who will condemn
-      this meeting in his name today and some of you may spurn the blossoms I
-      have culled to place upon his tomb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But is it a crime to defend the dead? Has the court of Death issued an
-      injunction restraining us from pleading the cause of the departed? We
-      defend from the assaults of calumny the fair fame of the living, and not
-      more sacred are the reputations of the living than of the absent dead
-      whose voiceless lips can utter no defense. The lips of Thomas Paine have
-      long been dumb; but mine are not, and while I live I shall defend him. As
-      Rizpah stood by the bodies of her murdered sons, keeping back the birds of
-      prey, so will I stand by the memory of this good man and drive back the
-      foul vultures that feast their greedy selves and feed their starving
-      broods on dead men's characters.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the 29th of January, 1737, at Thetford, England, Thomas Paine was born.
-      He was of Quaker parentage. Like nearly all of earth's illustrious sons,
-      he was of humble origin. At an early age he left the paternal roof and
-      began alone life's struggle,&mdash;serving in the British navy, teaching
-      in London, engaging in mercantile pursuits, and performing the duties of
-      exciseman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While in London he formed the acquaintance of the learned Franklin, who
-      induced him to cross the ocean and cast his lot with the people of the New
-      World. He comes to America toward the close of 1774. A year of quiet
-      observation enables him to grasp the situation here. He sees thirteen
-      feeble colonies struggling against a powerful monarchy; he sees a tyrant
-      whom the world styles "king" trampling the fair form of Liberty beneath
-      his feet; he sees his subjects crouching and cringing before the throne,
-      pleading in vain for a redress of wrongs. Separation and Independence have
-      not yet been proposed. It is true that Lexington, and Concord, and Bunker
-      Hill have passed into history; it is true that Patrick Henry, James Otis,
-      John Hancock, and the Adamses have fearlessly denounced the odious
-      measures of the British ministry; yet up to the very close of 1775, not a
-      voice has been raised in favor of Independence. A redress of grievances is
-      all that the boldest have demanded. But the current of history is to be
-      turned. Rebellion is to be changed to Revolution. With the firm belief
-      that right will triumph, Paine marshals the legions of thought that spring
-      from his prolific brain and on the first of January, 1776, moves in solid
-      columns against this citadel of tyranny. The shock is irresistible. The
-      solid masonry gives way, and falls before his fierce assault. Into the
-      breach thus made an eager people rush, and on the ruins plant the unsoiled
-      banner of a new Republic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That the Fourth of July, 1776, would not have witnessed the Declaration of
-      Independence but for the timely appearance of Paine's "Common Sense," no
-      candid student of history will for a moment question. This book first
-      suggested American Independence; in this book appeared, for the first
-      time, "The Free and Independent States of America." Nor did Paine's labors
-      end with the publication of this work. He was the inspiring genius of the
-      long war that followed. When Washington's little army was hurled from Long
-      Island, when despondency filled every heart, and all seemed lost, Paine
-      came to the rescue with the first number of his "Crisis," in which were
-      couched those thrilling words, "These are the times that try men's souls."
-      His pamphlet, by orders of the commander-in-chief, was read at the head of
-      each regiment. It was also sent broadcast over the land. The effect was
-      magical; into the dispirited ranks is breathed new life, and in the minds
-      of the people planted a determination never to give up the struggle. At
-      critical periods during the war number after number of this brave work
-      appeared until, at last, he could triumphantly say, "The times that tried
-      men's souls are over, and the greatest and completest revolution the world
-      ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The pen of Paine was as mighty as the sword of Washington. "Common Sense"
-      was the glorious sun that evolved a new political world; each number of
-      the "Crisis" a brilliant satellite that helped to illumine this New
-      World's long night of Revolution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the Old World liberty remained, as it still remains to a large extent,
-      yet to be wearisomely achieved. In France the people were struggling
-      against a corrupt and oppressive government. Paine enlisted his services
-      in the cause of freedom there. He advocated a Republic, and organized the
-      first Republican society in France. But Louis was permitted to resume his
-      reign, and tranquility having been for a brief season restored, Paine went
-      to his native England, where, in reply to Burke's "Reflections on the
-      French Revolution," appeared his "Rights of Man." With a desperation
-      characteristic of the detected robber the Government suppressed his work;
-      but not until it had kindled a fire in Europe which tyrants have not yet
-      succeeded in extinguishing and in the glare of whose unquenchable flames
-      may be read the doom of monarchy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The storms of revolution bursting forth afresh, Paine again repaired to
-      France. A joyous reception awaited his arrival at Calais. As his vessel
-      entered the harbor a hundred cannon thundered "Welcome!" As he stepped
-      upon the shore a thousand voices shouted "<i>Vive</i> Thomas Paine!"
-      Bright flowers fell in showers around him; fair hands placed in his hat
-      the national cockade. An immense meeting assembled in his honor. Over the
-      chair he sat in was placed the bust of Mirabeau with the colors of France,
-      England and America united. All France was ready to honor her defender.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Three departments, the Oise, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Puy-de-Dome, each
-      chose him for its representative. He accepted the honor from Calais and
-      proceeded to Paris. His entry into the French capital was a triumphal one.
-      He was received as a hero,&mdash;an intellectual hero who on the field of
-      mental combat had vanquished Europe's most brilliant champion of monarchy,
-      and vindicated before the tribunal of the world mankind's eternal rights.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He took his seat in the National Convention. A stupendous task devolved
-      upon this body&mdash;the formation of a new Constitution for Republican
-      France. Its most illustrious statesmen and its wisest legislators must be
-      chosen to prepare it. A committee of nine was named: Thomas Paine, Danton,
-      Condorcet, Brissot, Barrere, Vergniaud, Petion, Gensonne, and the Abbe
-      Sieyes. To Paine and Condorcet chiefly was the work of drafting it
-      assigned by their colleagues.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then came the trial of Louis XVI and the beginning of those turbulent
-      scenes which culminated in the Reign of Terror. The convention was
-      clamoring for blood. Paine had been one of the foremost in overthrowing
-      the monarchy. He believed the king to have been tyrannical,&mdash;to have
-      been the pliant tool of a corrupt nobility, and of a still more corrupt
-      priesthood. But he did not deem him deserving of death, nor did he believe
-      that the best interests of France would be subserved by such harsh
-      measures. But the Terrorists threatened with vengeance all who should dare
-      to oppose them. To plead the cause of the king might be to share his fate.
-      A vote by any member in favor of saving his life might bring an
-      overwhelming vote against that member's own life. They had resolved that
-      the king should die, and led by such men as Robespierre and Marat, there
-      were assembled the most determined and the most dangerous men of France.
-      The galleries, too, were filled with an excited mob of fifteen hundred&mdash;many
-      of them hired assassins, fresh from the September massacre. "We vote,"
-      protested Lanjuinais when the balloting commenced, "under the daggers and
-      the cannon of the factions." In this perilous position what course would
-      Paine pursue? Would he, like others, quietly acquiesce in these unjust
-      proceedings? He had never yet faltered in his purpose of pursuing what he
-      deemed the right. Would he shrink from danger now? No! above the wild
-      storm of that enraged assembly, through his interpreter, rose the voice of
-      this brave man in powerful, eloquent appeals in behalf of mercy. "Destroy
-      the King," in effect, he said, "but save the man! Strike the crown, but
-      spare the heart!"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He pleads in vain; the king must die. "Death within four-and-twenty
-      hours," is the decree. Amid the insults and execrations of a frenzied mob
-      Louis is torn from the arms of his queen and children and hurried to the
-      scaffold.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Mountain has triumphed. The Jacobins, infuriated by the taste of a
-      king's blood, will next devour their fellow-members. The Girondins, the
-      heart and brains of France, are expelled from the convention, dragged to
-      prison and to the guillotine. Paine's plea for mercy can not be forgiven.
-      He is imprisoned; sentence of death is finally pronounced against him; the
-      hour for his execution, with that of his fellow-prisoners, is set.
-      Fortuitously he escapes. In summoning the victims for execution he is
-      overlooked. Soon after, and before the mistake is discovered, the bloody
-      Robespierre is overthrown, and his own neck receives the blow he meant for
-      Paine. The fall of Robespierre stems the crimson torrent and, in time,
-      secures for Paine his freedom. His imprisonment has lasted nearly a year,
-      a year never to be forgotten, a year of chaos, from which is to arise a
-      fairer and a better France.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Let us contemplate, for a moment, this bloody and protracted drama. Let
-      us, in imagination, visit this death-stricken Paris. Buildings&mdash;once
-      palaces&mdash;have been transformed into prisons. Thousands are crowded
-      within their walls; beings of both sexes, and of every age and rank;
-      grayhaired men who look with stolid indifference upon the scenes around
-      them; youth, pale with fear; heroic types of manhood pacing to and fro
-      with all the bearing of conquerors; frail women, whose swollen eyes, those
-      tear-stained windows of the soul, faintly reveal the heart's fierce agony
-      within! The scene is changed. All is bustle and confusion. A morbid and
-      excited crowd is gathering; the death tumbrils go rumbling by toward the
-      Place de la Revolution; the groans of men, the shrieks of women, rend the
-      air and throw a shade of sadness over all deeper than midnight's gloom.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Again the scene shifts. The bustle is over now; the crowd has dispersed;
-      those shrieks and groans are hushed. But that huge pile of headless
-      trunks; the headsman's sack; those pools of blood; that blood-stained
-      instrument, to whose edge still cling the straggling hairs of its victims,
-      the golden threads of youth mingled with the silver threads of age, these
-      remain&mdash;grim fragments of the feast where this French Saturn made his
-      last repast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Day after day this carnival of death goes on. Danton, Brissot, and many
-      more of the best men of France are butchered; Roland and Condorcet die by
-      their own hands; Talleyrand is a refugee in America, and Lafayette pines
-      in the dungeon vaults of Austria.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Many noble women, too, are sacrificed. Marie Antoinette follows her Louis
-      to the scaffold. In the Conciergerie, companions for a time, are held
-      captive two of the purest and noblest of women,&mdash;the lovely and
-      amiable Josephine Beauhamais, destined to become Napoleon's queen, and the
-      beautiful and gifted Madame Roland, whose innocent blood must wet the
-      cruel knife of the guillotine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Such was the French Revolution,&mdash;"A mighty truth clad in hell-fire,"&mdash;the
-      bloodiest, and yet the brightest page in the history of France. It might
-      have been a bloodless one, it might have been a brighter one, had the wise
-      and moderate counsels of Thomas Paine prevailed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the shadow of death the crowning effort of his life, the "Age of
-      Reason," was composed. His pen had given kingcraft a mortal hurt;
-      priestcraft must be destroyed. This book has filled die Orthodox world
-      with terror. Around it has raged one of the fiercest intellectual
-      conflicts of the age. All the artillery of Christendom has been brought to
-      bear upon it; but without effect. Firm, impregnable, like some Gibraltar,
-      it still stands unharmed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Bowed with the weight of sixty-six years Paine returned to America. Here
-      the evening of his life was passed,&mdash;embittered by a world's
-      ingratitude.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-    "Men never know their saviors when they come."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      The apostle of liberty, of mercy, and of truth, became successively a
-      martyr to each. For espousing the cause of liberty England declared him an
-      outlaw; for advocating mercy France gave him a prison; and for proclaiming
-      the truth America placed upon his aged head the cruel crown of thorns.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But death came at last and brought relief to the persecuted sage. On a
-      bright June morning (June 8), in 1809, the end came.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yes, death came. But with it came no fears. No banished Hagar with
-      famishing infant haunted him; from the desolate ruins of those Midianite
-      homes came no phantoms to strike his soul with terror; no Uriah's ghost
-      stood before his bedside and would not down; the hand that with no weapon
-      but the pen had made priests and monarchs tremble, now growing cold and
-      pallid, was not stained with the blood of a wile or child; no agonizing
-      shrieks of a burning Servetus rang in his dying ears. Tempestuous as
-      life's voyage had been, the old man readied his port in peace. Nature,
-      whom he had deified, fondly and pityingly held him in her all-embracing
-      arms, and soothed him in that last sad hour as with a mother's love. The
-      morning sun looked kindly down and kissed his throbbing temples; gentle
-      breezes, fragrant with the odors of a thousand roses, fanned his fevered
-      brow; joyous birds, whose songs he loved so well, came to his window and
-      sang their cheeriest notes; while faithful friends were at his bedside,
-      ministering to every want. And so, bravely and peacefully, with that
-      serenity of soul which only the conscious of a well-spent life can give,
-      the grand old patriot passed away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thus have I briefly traced the public career of Thomas Paine,&mdash;a
-      career in which his steadfast devotion to manly principles ranks him with
-      the world's worthiest heroes. His private life was not less honorable. In
-      his moral nature were united the noblest traits that adorn the human
-      character.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His philanthrophy was bounded only by the limits of the world in which he
-      lived Jew and Mohammedan, Christian and Infidel, Caucasian and Mongolian,
-      the despised negro and the rude Indian, all to him were brothers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His charity was of the broadest kind. He was ever ready to share his last
-      dollar or his last comfort with the poor and distressed, and this
-      regardless as to whether they were friends or foes. When his Republican
-      friend, Bonneville, was crushed and impoverished by Napoleon, Paine gave
-      to his family an asylum in America, and willed to them a part of his
-      estate. When a brutal English officer assaulted him in Paris&mdash;and to
-      strike a deputy the penalty was death&mdash;he saved him from the
-      guillotine, and finding him penniless, from his own purse paid his passage
-      home to England.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His patriotism was never questioned. Many have won the name of patriot
-      whose services to their country have been inspired by mere selfish
-      motives; but with him, fame, wealth, comfort, all were sacrificed for his
-      country's welfare. Throughout that eight year's struggle, his life, his
-      time, his talents, all were at her service. And, whether serving as
-      aid-de-camp to General Greene in that terrible campaign of '76; filling
-      with ability the important post of Secretary to the Committee on Foreign
-      Affairs; with Laurens at the French court negotiating loans for his
-      government; or cheering the despondent and nerving them up to deeds of
-      valor,&mdash;he was at all times, and in every situation, the same modest,
-      magnanimous, unflinching patriot.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In his disinterestedness he stands alone. At the beginning of the
-      Revolutionary struggle he was a poor author, lacking at times even the
-      bare necessities of life. But he had the opportunity of becoming rich. The
-      enormous sale of "Common Sense" would of itself have secured for him a
-      handsome competence. But what did he do? did he secure for himself the
-      profits to which he was justly entitled? No! he presented to each of the
-      thirteen colonies the copyright, and came out indebted to his printer for
-      the original edition. When his country languished for want of funds to pay
-      her soldiers in the field he started a subscription that brought her more
-      than a million, heading it with five hundred dollars, and limited his gift
-      to this because he had no more to give. When his "Rights of Man" was ready
-      for the press he refused one thousand pounds for the copyright and then
-      gave it to the world.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Moral courage was another prominent element in this great man's character.
-      His espousal of the cause of American Independence&mdash;a cause which no
-      other man had up to that time dared to espouse&mdash;shows a lofty
-      heroism; his attack upon monarchy, in the very capital of a monarchical
-      government, knowing, as he must have known, that every effort would be
-      made to crush him, was a grand exhibition of moral bravery, while his
-      publication of the "Age of Reason" was, in many respects, a more
-      courageous act than either. But it was in His heroic defense of Louis XVI
-      that his moral courage shone with all the lustre of the sun. Search all
-      the annals of the past and say if on the historian's page is found one
-      act, one single act, surpassing in moral sublimity that of Thomas Paine
-      accepting a prison and, if need be, death, to save a fallen foe!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the expression of his religious opinions no man has been more frank or
-      explicit, while no man's religious opinions have been more grossly
-      misrepresented. What was his belief?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this
-      life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties
-      consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our
-      fellow-creatures happy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The world is my country, to do good my religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This was his creed; and with a firm belief in the truth and justice of
-      this creed he lived and died.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There are, I regret to say, many good people who believe that Thomas Paine
-      was a very bad man. They have heard this from the lips of those in whose
-      veracity they place implicit confidence. While from infancy they have been
-      taught to regard Jesus Christ as the mediator between man and God, they
-      have been led to consider Thomas Paine as a sort of negotiator between the
-      Devil and man. Now, let me ask these people, do you know why Thomas Paine
-      has been so bitterly assailed? You have heard various charges preferred
-      against him; but seriously, do you believe any of the charges named
-      sufficient to account for the intense, the bitter hatred that has been
-      manifested toward him? Have you never been impressed with the thought that
-      there might be something back of all this, some secret grudge which your
-      informants dare not mention? Let us notice briefly the faults and vices
-      imputed to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      You have been told that he was a pauper, that he died in wretchedness and
-      want. Those who told you this were certainly mistaken. The estate
-      presented to him by New York, in consideration of his Revolutionary
-      services, was valued at $30,000, and the greater portion of this was
-      remaining at his death. It is true that during his long and useful career
-      he was many times in straitened circumstances; but this was the result,
-      not of improvidence, or reckless expenditure, but of the devotion of his
-      life to the cause of humanity instead of the accumulation of wealth. But
-      what if he had died poor? Is poverty a crime? Yes, were this true, is it a
-      thing of which to boast, that in a Christian city, within the sound of
-      forty church-bells, an old man was suffered to lie neglected and alone,
-      racked by the pangs of hunger and disease, piteously pleading for a crust
-      of bread, or a cup of cold water to cool his parched and fevered tongue;
-      and do you mean to tell us that Christian charity the while stood by
-      unmoved, mocked his sufferings, and damned him when he died?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      You have been told that he was a drunkard. A baser slander was never
-      uttered. No human being ever saw Thomas Paine intoxicated. He was one of
-      the most temperate of men. All of his neighbors and acquaintances
-      indignantly denied the truth of this imputation. Gilbert Vale tells us
-      that he knew more than twenty persons who were intimately acquainted with
-      him and not one of whom ever saw him intoxicated. The proprietor of the
-      house in New York, a respectable inn at which Paine boarded in his later
-      years, says that of all his guests he was the most temperate. But
-      supposing that he was a drunkard. Is drunkenness so rare as to secure for
-      its victims an immortal notoriety? Are there no living drunkards for these
-      omnivorous creatures to devour, that, like hyenas, they must dig into a
-      drunkard's grave to fill their empty maws?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      You have been told by the clergy that his writings are immoral. I defy
-      those who make this charge to point to one immoral sentence in all that he
-      has written. They cannot; and I further affirm that they dare not permit
-      you to examine his writings and ascertain for yourselves the truth or
-      falsity of this assertion. You who have never read his works may believe
-      that they contain much that is bad. You may imagine that a deadly serpent
-      lurks within them. Let me assure you that there is nothing in them that
-      can harm you. The highest moral tone pervades their pages. They are full
-      of charity, they glow with patriotism, they are warm with love. Even yet,
-      within their lids methinks I feel the beating of the generous heart of him
-      who penned them, every throb marking an aspiration for the welfare of his
-      fellow-men. But admitting, for the sake of argument, that his writings are
-      immoral. Does not the world teem with immoral literature? Are there not
-      hundreds of immoral writers even among the living? If so, why has all this
-      wrath been concentrated upon Paine to the almost total exclusion of the
-      rest?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      You have been told that he was an Infidel. Infidel to what? In the
-      Christian sense of this term he was. But what peculiar significance do
-      your informants attach to this fact? Are not three fourths of the world's
-      inhabitants Infidels? Do not the greatest scholars of the age go far
-      beyond him in Infidelity? Earth's wisest sons&mdash;those who have
-      contributed most to the wealth of science, and literature, and
-      statesmanship, have been these so-called Infidels. Yet Paine has been
-      denounced as if he were the only Infidel that ever lived.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      You have been told that he recanted on his deathbed. In other words, that
-      he lived a hypocrite; that he only feigned Infidelity for the sake of
-      being persecuted. A very plausible reason, surely. But this statement has
-      been widely circulated, and that, too, in spite of the fact that every
-      person who was with him during his dying hours pronounced it false,&mdash;those
-      who sat by his bedside and heard every word that fell from his lips. It
-      has ever been the custom of the church to make every distinguished
-      individual appear as an endorser of her dogmas. See those insolent priests
-      haunting the death chamber of Voltaire; see the crucifix thrust into the
-      hands of the dying Litre and the dead Sherman; see the frantic efforts
-      made to convince the world that Lincoln changed his religious views and
-      died a Christian. An honest Quaker who visited Paine daily during his last
-      illness testified to having been offered money to publicly state that he
-      recanted. But he refused. Others were doubtless approached in the same
-      manner, and with the same result. Unable to find a deathbed witness base
-      enough to make so foul a charge, the calumny was originated by one who did
-      not see him die. A Christian's brain conceived and bore that infamous
-      falsehood; and black and hideous as the offspring was, nearly every
-      orthodox clergyman was ready to serve it in the capacity of a faithful
-      nurse. And in these nurses' arms it lived and died. Only a little while
-      ago I saw one of them hugging to his breast and endeavoring to resuscitate
-      with holy breath the putrid corpse of this dead lie! But supposing that he
-      did recant, that he acknowledged the divinity of Christ. If he did this he
-      died in the Christian faith. Now does the church treat deathbed penitents
-      in the manner in which Paine has been treated? Has not every criminal that
-      has repented in his last hours, from the dying thief of nineteen hundred
-      years ago to the last murderer sent to Heaven, been held up as an object
-      of admiration? Why, then, denounce Paine for having, as they claim,
-      renounced his Infidelity? O Consistency, thou art, indeed, a jewel!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      And now, assuming all these charges to be true, he would still have been
-      naught but a poor, drunken Infidel; and while this would have subjected
-      him to much harsh criticism while living, it would have been merely of a
-      local character, and would have ceased when he was no more. Death would
-      have silenced censure, the mantle of charity would have been spread above
-      his grave, and the waves of oblivion would have rolled over his memory
-      long ago. Is it possible that all Christendom would have been so deeply
-      agitated, that the walls of her churches would have echoed every week with
-      the fierce anathemas thundered from a thousand pulpits against the
-      inanimate dust of a poor, drunken Infidel!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The conclusion, I think, must irresistibly force itself upon your minds
-      that these reputed faults do not constitute the real head and front of
-      Thomas Paine's offending. There must be something else. What is it? Would
-      you have the mystery solved? If so, read his, "Age of Reason." Read it
-      carefully, thoughtfully, critically; read it with your Bibles open before
-      you; read it in connection with the ablest refutations that have been
-      attempted against it. Do this, and the mystery will be solved. You will
-      then know why Thomas Paine has been so bitterly assailed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Two champions meet in the arena of debate. One of them, is overwhelmed.
-      Smiles and groans announce his discomfiture, while shouts of applause
-      reward the triumph of his rival. Then one of them grows angry, and stung
-      with madness, drops the sword of argument and seizes in its stead the
-      bludgeon of malice with which to assail his adversary. But which one does
-      this, the successful or the defeated antagonist? I have somewhere read
-      that "the bird that soars on pinions strong and free and is not hit by the
-      marksman's bullet is not discomposed'"&mdash;that "<i>it is the wounded
-      bird that flutters!</i>"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That Thomas Paine was not the poor, drunken, immoral wretch that priestly
-      virulence represents him to have been, is dearly shown by the esteem in
-      which he was held by those who knew him best. Would Dr. Franklin have
-      retained the friendship of a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would Lord
-      Erskine have defended against the government of England, a poor, drunken,
-      immoral wretch? Would Bishop Watson have crossed swords in theological
-      disputation with a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would Napoleon
-      Bonaparte, when in the zenith of his fame, have invited to his table a
-      poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would France's greatest women, Roland and
-      De Stael, have stooped to pay the tribute of praise to a poor, drunken,
-      immoral wretch? Would President Jefferson have offered a national ship to
-      bear to his home a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would Washington have
-      acknowledged as one of the most potent factors in achieving American
-      Independence, the pen of a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would the
-      Congress of the United States and the National Convention of France have
-      bestowed gifts and conferred, honors upon a poor, drunken, immoral wretch?
-      Impossible! Every fact connected with his public life refutes these
-      charges made against his private character.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In support of the claims that I have made for Thomas Paine, in refutation
-      of the calumnies that have been circulated against him, I bring the
-      testimony of more than <i>five hundred witnesses</i>&mdash;those who by
-      intimate acquaintance, or a careful study of his life, are qualified to
-      give a just estimate of his character and works,&mdash;historians,
-      biographers, encyclopedists, statesmen, divines, and others; men and women
-      who have acquired an honorable distinction in the various walks of life,
-      and whose names alone are a sufficient guarantee that what they testify
-      shall be the truth. From the dead and from the living&mdash;from two
-      continents&mdash;I summon them:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      "COMMON SENSE" AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Dr. Joseph B. Ladd:
-    </h3>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Immortal Paine! whose pen, surprised we saw,
-     Could fashion empires while it kindled awe.
-
-     "When first with awful front to crush her foes,
-     All bright in glittering arms, Columbia rose,
-     From thee our sons the generous mandate took,
-     As if from Heaven some oracle had spoke;
-     And when thy pen revealed the grand design,
-     'Twas done&mdash;Columbia's liberty was thine."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      W. C. Braun: "From the brain of Thomas Paine Columbia sprang full
-      panoplied, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was the prophet of American destiny."&mdash;<i>George Jacob
-      Holyoake</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine is one of those men who most contributed to the
-      establishment of a Republic in America."&mdash;<i>Abbe Sieyes</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Century Dictionary: "Took a prominent part in support of the American
-      Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A principal actor in the American Revolution."&mdash;<i>M. Thiers,
-      President Third Republic of France</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Clark Ridpath, LL. D.: "The Morning Star of the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. William Willett: "The first champion of American liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Blackie's Modern Cyclopedia (England): "One of the founders of American
-      Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The apostle of American Independence."&mdash;<i>M. de Lamartine.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Cobbett: "I saw Paine first pointing the way and then leading a
-      nation through perils and difficulties of all sorts to independence and to
-      lasting liberty, prosperity and greatness."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was the first voice in America that was imperial."&mdash;<i>George
-      W. Foote</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Theodore Roosevelt: "Thomas Paine, the famous author of 'Common Sense.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edmund Burke: "That celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds of the
-      people for Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Egerton Ryerson, LL. D.: "The sudden and marvelous revolution in the
-      American mind was produced chiefly by a pamphlet."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Bancroft: "Franklin encouraged Thomas Paine,... who was the master
-      of a singularly lucid and fascinating style, to write an appeal to the
-      people of America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "With a soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast-moving
-      quill. That quill puts down words on paper, words that shall burn into the
-      brains of kings like arrows winged with fire and pointed with vitriol. Go
-      on, brave author, sitting in your garret alone at this dead hour, go on,
-      on through the silent hours, on and God's blessings fall like breezes of
-      June upon your damp brow, on and on, for you are writing the thoughts of a
-      nation into birth."&mdash;<i>George Lippard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pennsylvania Journal (January 10, 1776): "This day was published and is
-      now selling by Robert Bell, in Third street, price two shillings, 'Common
-      Sense addressed to the inhabitants of North America.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From this book came the world's first and greatest republic, the first
-      realization of a government of the people, by the people, and for the
-      people. Eloquently he pleads for separation and independence:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The birthday of a new world is at hand."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
-      the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The independence of America should have been considered as dating its era
-      from, and published by, the first musket that was fired against her."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but
-      the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with
-      oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have
-      long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger and England hath
-      given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive, and prepare in time
-      an asylum for mankind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Benjamin Franklin: "A pamphlet that had prodigious effects."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Justin Winsor: "It was printed and reprinted in Philadelphia in English
-      and once in German, and in the same year reprinted in Salem, Newbury-port,
-      Providence, Boston, Newport, New York, Charleston, and also in London and
-      Edinburgh."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D, (Chaplain to Congress): "The pamphlet had a
-      greater run than any other ever published in our country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Massey, M. P.: "'Common Sense' had an immense circulation."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Francis Bowen, A. M.: "It had an enormous sale."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Historians' History of the World: "More than one hundred thousand copies
-      of his 'Common Sense' were sold in a short time."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. John Fiske: "More than a hundred thousand copies were speedily sold,
-      and it carried conviction wherever it went."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Salmonsen's Conversationslexicon: "It had an immense sale (120,000 copies)
-      and exerted an enormous influence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel M. Jackson, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense' (120,000 copies were sold
-      in the first three months) struck the keynote of the situation by
-      advocating Independence and a Republican form of government."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (Referring to the sale of "Common Sense," Paine's biographer, Dr. Moncure
-      D. Conway, says: "In the end probably half a million copies were sold.")
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eben Greenough Scott: "It was a plea for independence and a continental
-      government."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Best of the World's Classics: "In this work Paine advocated complete
-      separation from England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nordisk Familjebok Konversationslexicon: "He as boldly as convincingly sh
-      owed the necessity of the Colonies tearing themselves away from England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Charles E. Little: "His 'Common Sense' was widely circulated and
-      greatly aided the Revolution by showing the importance and necessity of
-      seeking independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Bissett, LL. D.: "'Common Sense,' published [written] by Thomas
-      Paine, afterwards so famous in Europe, contributed very much to the
-      ratification of the independence of America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Frost, LL.D.: "It demonstrated the necessity, advantages, and
-      practicability of independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. George Weber: "Written in an eminently popular style it had an immense
-      circulation, and was of great service in preparing the minds of the people
-      for Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Howard Brownell: "The book was extensively circulated, and
-      exercised, beyond question, a most powerful influence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Mackenzie: "His treatise had, for those days, a vast circulation
-      and an extraordinary influence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Oscar Fay Adams: "His famous pamphlet 'Common Sense' was of great service
-      to the Americans."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eva M. Tappan: "Its clear and logical arguments were a power in bringing
-      on the war."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      D. H. Montgomery: "Paine boldly said that the time had come for a 'final
-      separation' from England, and that 'arms must decide the contest.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. John Schroeder, D.D.: "'Common Sense,' from the pen of Thomas Paine,
-      produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-      Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Woodrow Wilson: "Pamphlets which argued with slow and sober power gave
-      place to pamphlets which rang with passionate appeals: which thrust
-      constitutional argument upon one side and spoke flatly for independence.
-      One such took precedence of all others, whether for boldness or for power,
-      the extraordinary pamphlet which Thomas Paine, but the other day come out
-      of England as if upon mere adventure, gave to the world as 'Common
-      Sense.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      American Reference Library: "'Common Sense,' more than any other single
-      writing furnished the logical basis of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'Common Sense' first formulated the demand for Independence."&mdash;The
-      <i>Nation</i> (London).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Benson J. Lossing, LL.D.: "It was the earliest and most powerful appeal in
-      behalf of Independence, and probably did more to fix that idea firmly in
-      the public mind than any other instrumentality."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Richard Hildreth: "It argued in that plain and convincing style for which
-      Paine was so distinguished."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edmund Randolph: "A style hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Kendall Adams, LL.D: "A work which had great influence on the
-      Colonists."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The success and influence of this publication was extraordinary, and it
-      won for him the friendship of Washington, Franklin and other distinguished
-      American leaders."&mdash;<i>Chambers' Encyclopedia</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. Franklin Jameson, LL.D.: "'Common Sense'... exerted a profound
-      impression."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John T. Morse, Jr.: "Thomas Paine had sent 'Common Sense' abroad among the
-      people and had stirred them profoundly."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord Stanhope: "That publication had produced a strong effect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense', written by Thomas Paine,
-      produced great effect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Howard Hinton: "'Common Sense' from the popular pen of Thomas Paine
-      produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-      independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. David Ramsey: "In union with the feelings and sentiments of the people
-      it produced surprising effects."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D.: "Of mighty cogency in its tone and substance,
-      was that vigorous work of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Jesse A. Spencer, D.D.: "The style, manner and matter of his pamphlet
-      were calculated to rouse all the energies of human nature."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Grimshaw: "'Common Sense' roused the public feeling to a degree
-      unequalled by any previous appeal."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hand Book of American Revolution: "It affected sensibly the current of
-      political feeling."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Barnes's Centenary History: "It produced a profound impression."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The clear and powerful style of Paine made a prodigious impression on the
-      American people."&mdash;<i>Thomas Gaspey</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Morris: "Its stirring tones filled all minds with the thirst for
-      liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nouvelle Biographie Generale (France): "The pamphlet produced a prodigious
-      effect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The success of this writing of Paine," says the Italian patriot and
-      historian, Charles Botta, "cannot be described."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. H. Bartlett: "This pamphlet produced an indescribable sensation."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Andrews, LL.D.: "It was received with vast applause."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Timothy Pitkins: "'Common Sense' produced a wonderful effect in the
-      different Colonies in favor of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. William Gordon: "Nothing could have been better timed than this
-      performance."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Boston Gazette (April 29, 1776): "Had the spirit of prophecy directed the
-      birth of a publication it could not have fallen on a more fortunate period
-      than the time in which 'Common Sense' made its appearance."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In the elements of its strength it was precisely fitted to the hour, to
-      the spot and to the passions."&mdash;<i>Prof. Moses Coit Tyler</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Melville M. Bigelow: "No pamphlet was so timely, none had such an effect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. C. A. Van Tyne: "It was a firebrand which set aflame the ready
-      political material in America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Every living man in America in 1776 who could read, read 'Common
-      Sense.'... This book was the arsenal to which colonists went for their
-      mental weapons."&mdash;<i>Theodore Parker</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Robert Burns Peattie: "Men, women and children read it. It was for
-      them an education."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      C. W. A. Veditz, LL.B.: "The work of Paine became the text book of the new
-      era."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sydney G. Fisher: "Its phrases became household words on the lips of every
-      man in the patriot party."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry W. Edson: "Its concise, simple and unanswerable style won thousands
-      to the cause."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edward Channing: "It was read and debated in smithy and shop and converted
-      thousands."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton: "Much that Paine wrote was so
-      simple, so convincing, such 'common sense,' that thousands read it and
-      concluded that separation was necessary."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Cullen Bryant and Sydney Howard Gay: "Everybody read it and nearly
-      everybody was influenced by it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pennsylvania Evening Post (March 17, 1776): "'Common Sense' hath made
-      independents of the majority of the country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Almon's Remembrancer (1776): "'Common Sense' is read by all ranks; and as
-      many as read, so many become converted."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'Common Sense' has converted thousands to Independence who could not
-      endure the idea before."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (Where two or more paragraphs of testimony follow the name of a witness,
-      all of the testimony cited, unless otherwise credited, belongs to the
-      witness named.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Robinson (to Nathan Hafle, Feb. 17, 1776): "Upon my word, it is
-      well done.... I confess a perusal of it has much reformed my notions."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Joseph Hawley (to Elbridge Gerry, Feb. 18, 1776): "I have read the
-      pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of America.'
-      and every sentiment has sunk into my well-prepared heart."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find
-      that 'Common Sense' is working a powerful change there in the minds of
-      many men."&mdash;<i>George Washington</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. John Drayton: "Colonel Gadsden (having brought the first copy of
-      Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense') boldly declared himself [in the
-      Provincial Congress at Charleston, Feb. 10, 1776] for the absolute
-      Independence of America. This last sentiment came like an explosion of
-      thunder on the members."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Bitterly as the Colonists opposed the tyranny of the English Government
-      there were no manifestations of disloyalty. If they harbored the thought
-      of separation and independence no tongue or pen had dared to give
-      expression to it. Referring to this period Hon. Alexander H. Stephens
-      says: "Neither did Livingston, nor Washington, nor any of the prominent
-      leaders in the cause of the Colonists at that time look to anything but a
-      redress of grievances. None were looking to a final separation and
-      Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When I first took command of the army," says Washington, "I abhorred the
-      idea of Independence." When admonished that continued resistance to the
-      crown might lead to separation, he replied: "If you ever hear of me
-      joining in any such measures you have my leave to set me down for
-      everything wicked." While Paine was writing his "Common Sense," Jefferson,
-      the reputed author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote that he was
-      "looking with fondness toward a reconciliation with Great Britain." But a
-      little while before Franklin had assured Lord Chatham that "he had never
-      heard in America an expression in favor of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Virginia, the province of Washington and Jefferson, declared in favor of
-      "a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of government." In
-      November, 1775, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, Franklin's province, elected
-      a delegation to the Continental Congress with these instructions: "Though
-      the British Parliament and administration have compelled us to resist
-      their violence by force of arms, yet we strictly enjoin that you dissent
-      from and utterly reject any proposition, should such be made, that may
-      cause or lead to a separation from the mother country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Among them all not one had been stirred by that splendid dream of a new
-      nation, a nation independent and free. There was but one mind and only one
-      that had grasped the great plan. There was one voice crying in the
-      wilderness. There was one herald of the dawn, one that did not hesitate in
-      that night of hesitancy and reluctancy."&mdash;<i>Dr. J. E. Roberts</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. David Ramsay, a prominent leader in the Continental Congress and a
-      popular historian of the Revolution, describing the effects of "Common
-      Sense," says: "Though that measure [Separation] a few months before was
-      not only foreign to their wishes, but the object of their abhorrence, the
-      current suddenly became so strong in its favor that it bore down all
-      before it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Moses Coit Tyler: "In one sentiment all persons, Tories and Whigs,
-      seemed perfectly to agree, viz., in abhorrence of the project of
-      separation from the Empire. Suddenly, however, and within a period of less
-      than six months [chiefly as a result of Paine's pamphlet] the majority of
-      the Whigs turned completely around, and openly declared for Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine brought to the study of the American Revolution a mind...
-      quick to see into things, and marvelous in its power of stating them with
-      lucidity, with liveliness and with incisive force."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is generally supposed that the writing of "Common Sense" with its
-      advocacy of separation and independence was suggested by Franklin. It was
-      not; Franklin knew nothing of its existence prior to its publication. What
-      he suggested was a history of Colonial affairs which he believed would
-      convince the world that the grievances of the Colonists against the mother
-      country were just. Paine's own account of the origin of this work is as
-      follows:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as were
-      in his hands towards completing a history of the present transactions, and
-      seemed desirous of having the first volume out the next spring.. I had
-      then formed the outlines of 'Common Sense,' and finished nearly the first
-      part; and as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a history was
-      to open the new year with a new system, I expected to surprise him with a
-      production on that subject much earlier than he thought of; and without
-      informing him of what I was doing, got it ready for the press as fast as I
-      conveniently could, and sent him the first pamphlet that was printed off."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Regarding the originality of his revolutionary ideas, "Appleton's
-      Cyclopedia of American Biography" says: "Beyond doubt Washington,
-      Franklin, and all other prominent men of the Revolutionary period gave
-      Paine the sole credit for everything that came from his pen."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington, Franklin and Jefferson were among Paine's earliest converts.
-      Franklin gave his book his immediate approval, and Jefferson's endorsement
-      soon followed. Washington, writing to Joseph Reed in the same month that
-      it was published, acknowledged its "sound doctrine and unanswerable
-      reasoning," and declared for separation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Jefferson, Washington and Franklin, who up to that time [publication of
-      'Common Sense'] had denounced even the thought of Independence,... all
-      changed front, and soon, not a majority, but the effective part of the
-      people, followed."&mdash;<i>T. B. Wakeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Washington, now converted, wrote to his friends in praise of 'Common
-      Sense'... Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Madison, all the great
-      statesmen of the time, wrote praisefully of Paine's 'flaming arguments.'"&mdash;<i>Ella
-      Wheeler Wilcox</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered the advisability
-      of answering it but came to the conclusion that it was unanswerable."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia
-      Britannica.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      An Unknown Writer of Charleston, S. C. (Feb. 14, 1776): "Who is the author
-      of 'Common Sense'? I can hardly refrain from adoring him. He deserves a
-      statue of gold."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Abigail Adams: "I am charmed with the sentiments of 'Common Sense,' and
-      wonder how an honest heart, one who wishes the welfare of his country and
-      the happiness of posterity, can hesitate one moment at adopting them."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, has come in season to clear our
-      doubts and fix our choice."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Winthrop: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments it would satisfy
-      the people."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The public mind was now fully educated to accept the doctrine of
-      Independence.... Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet 'Common Sense' had
-      sapped the foundation of any remaining loyalty to the British Crown."&mdash;<i>John
-      Clark Ridpath, LL. D</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Alexander Johnston: "Thomas Paine turned the scale by the
-      publication of his pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Richard Frothingham: "The great question which it treated was now
-      discussed at every fireside; and the favorite toast at every dinner table
-      was; 'May the independent principles of 'Common Sense' be confirmed
-      throughout the United Colonies.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Clay Watson: "'Common Sense' effected a complete revolution in the
-      feelings and sentiments of the great mass of the people."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Jedediah Morse. "The change of the public mind on this occasion is
-      without a parallel."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Benjamin Rush: "'Common Sense' burst from the press with an effect
-      which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Salma Hale: "The effect of the pamphlet in making converts was
-      astonishing, and is probably without precedent in the annals of
-      literature."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Cheetham (Paine's basest calumniator): "Speaking a language which
-      the colonists had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its
-      consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the
-      press."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      General Charles Lee: "Have you [Washington] seen the pamphlet 'Common
-      Sense'? I never saw such a masterly irresistible performance."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He burst forth on the world like Jove in thunder."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History: "Its trumpet tones
-      awakened the continent, and made every patriot's heart beat with intense
-      emotion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. Dorman Steele, Ph. D.: "Every line glowed with the spirit of liberty,
-      and men's hearts were thrilled as they read."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Larned's Ready Reference History: "A more effective popular appeal never
-      went to the bosoms of a nation.... Its effect was instantaneous and
-      tremendous."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Cabot Lodge: "The pamphlet marked an epoch, was a very memorable
-      production; from the time of its publication the tide flowing in the
-      direction of independence began to race with devouring swiftness to high
-      water mark."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Encyclopedia Britannica (10th Ed.)&mdash;"There is a complete concurrence
-      of testimony that Paine's pamphlet issued on the first of January, 1776,
-      was a turning point in the struggle, that it roused and consolidated
-      public feeling, and swept waverers along with the tide."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Goldwin Smith: "Colonial resolution had been screwed to the sticking
-      point by Tom Paine, the stormy petrel of three countries, with his
-      pamphlet 'Common Sense.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews: "Most potent of all as a cause of the resolution
-      to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "No writing ever more instantly swung men to its humor."&mdash;<i>Woodrow
-      Wilson</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mary L. Booth: "This eloquent production severed the last link that bound
-      the Colonies to the mother country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mary Howitt: "The cause of Independence took as it were a definite form
-      from this moment."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Guilliam Tell Poussin: "It rendered the sentiment of Independence
-      national."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The notion of a new State, wholly free from Great Britain, first found
-      full and convincing expression in Paine's 'Common Sense'."&mdash;<i>London
-      Times</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gen. William A. Stokes: "When 'Common Sense' was published a great blow
-      was struck. It was felt from New England to the Carolinas; it resounded
-      throughout the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sympathy and assistance of liberty-loving Europeans contributed much
-      to the success of the Revolution, and this was due largely to the
-      influence of Paine's "Common Sense," which was printed in nearly every
-      tongue and read in nearly every country of Continental Europe. Even in
-      England thousands of copies were circulated, and the American party, the
-      party of Chatham, Fox and Burke, was greatly strengthened, while the
-      influence of the king and his ministry was correspondingly weakened by the
-      effect of its masterly arguments.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord Erskine: "In that great and calamitous conflict, Edmund Burke and
-      Thomas Paine fought in the same field together, but with very different
-      success. Mr. Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George
-      Saville describes it, having no ears but for sounds that flattered its
-      corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, spoke to the people, reasoned
-      with them, told them they were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty
-      further than their own benefit connected them, and, by these powerful
-      arguments, prepared the minds of the American people for that glorious,
-      just, and happy Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Marquis de Chastelleaux: "Since my arrival in America I had not yet seen
-      Mr. Paine, that author so celebrated in America and throughout Europe by
-      his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.' Lafayette and myself had asked
-      the permission of an interview, and we waited on him accordingly with Col.
-      Laurens.... His patriotism and his talents are unquestionable."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. E. H. Lecky: "Paine's 'Common Sense'... was translated into French, and
-      was, if possible, even more popular in France than in America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The work ran through innumerable editions in America and France. The
-      world rang with it."&mdash;<i>Hon. Henry S. Randall</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Silas DeAne: "'Common Sense' has been translated, and has had a greater
-      run here [in France] than in America. A person of distinction, writing to
-      his noble friend in office, has these words: 'I think, with you, my dear
-      Count, that "Common Sense" is an excellent work, and that its author is
-      one of the greatest legislators among the million writers that we know.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir George Trevelyan: "It would be difficult to name any human composition
-      which has had an effect at once so instant, so extended, and so lasting.
-      It flew through numberless editions. It was pirated, and parodied, and
-      imitated, and translated into the language of every country where the new
-      Republic had well-wishers, and could hope to procure allies.... It was
-      reprinted in all the Colonies with a frequency surprising at a time when
-      Colonial printing houses were very few. Three months from its first
-      appearance, a hundred and twenty thousand copies had been sold in America
-      alone; and, before the demand ceased, it was calculated that half a
-      million had seen the light."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine saw beyond precedents and statutes, and constitutional facts or
-      fictions, into the depths of human nature; and he knew that, if men are to
-      fight to the death, it must be for reasons which all can understand."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Adams: "'Common Sense' was received in France and in all Europe with
-      rapture."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "History is to ascribe the Revolution to Thomas Paine." (Letter to Thomas
-      Jefferson).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Quincy Adams: "Paine's 'Common Sense' crystalized public opinion and
-      was the first factor in bringing about the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel Adams: "Your 'Common Sense'... unquestionably awakened the public
-      mind, and led the people loudly to call for a Declaration of our National
-      Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Parker Pillsbury: "Without his 'Common Sense,' written in 1775, we should
-      not have had the Declaration of Independence in 1776."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel Bryan: "This book, 'Common Sense,' may be called the Book of
-      Genesis, for it was the beginning. From this book spread the Declaration
-      of Independence, that not only laid the foundation of liberty in our own
-      country, but the good of mankind throughout the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The open movement to Independence dates from its publication."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia
-      Britannica</i> (11th Ed.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elkanah Watson (one of Paine's calumniators): "It everywhere flashed
-      conviction, and aroused a determined spirit which resulted in the
-      Declaration of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL. D.: "This spark was sufficient to rouse the
-      Americans, who at once signed the Declaration of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Howitt: "It at once seized on the imagination of the public, cast
-      all other writers into the shades and flew in thousands and tens of
-      thousands all over the Colonies.... The common fire blazed up in Congress,
-      and the thing was done."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He became the great oracle on the subject of governments and
-      constitutions."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Gaspey: "He was treated with great consideration by the members of
-      the Revolutionary government, who took no steps of importance without
-      consulting him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Grand Dictionary Universel: "He became the political catechism of the
-      movement."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dictionary of National Biography (America): "Joined the Provincial army in
-      the autumn 1776 and became a volunteer
-      aid-de-camp to General Nathaniel Greene, animating the troops by his
-      writings [the 'Crisis']."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The pamphlets that stirred like a trumpet call the flagging energies of a
-      desponding people."&mdash;<i>Rev. John Snyder</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "General Greene made him one of his aides-de-camp; but an appointment on
-      that staff, during those weeks, carried with it very little, either of
-      privilege or luxury. In the flight from Fort Lee Paine lost his baggage
-      and his private papers; but he had kept or borrowed a pen. He began to
-      write at Newark, the first stage in the calamitous retreat; and he worked
-      all night at every halting place until his new pamphlet was completed. It
-      was published in Philadelphia on the 19th of December, under the title of
-      'The Crisis,' and at once flew like wildfire through all the towns and
-      villages of the Confederacy."&mdash;<i>Sir George Trevelyan</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This, the first number of the "Crisis," opens with these words: "These are
-      the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
-      patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but
-      he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
-      Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation
-      with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel Eliot: "His later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name
-      of the 'Crisis,' were of equal power [to 'Common Sense']."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Encyclopedia of Social Reform: "The 'Crisis' exerted wide influence for
-      Independence and Republicanism."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.: "The 'Crisis' [sixteen numbers], written by
-      Paine between 1776 and 1783, exercised an enormous influence over men and
-      events during the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Albert Payson Terhune: "He plunged, heart and soul, into the struggle for
-      freedom. His 'Common Sense' and other pamphlets [the 'Crisis'] were such
-      strong and eloquent pleas for liberty that Washington ordered some of them
-      read aloud to the patriot armies."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      National Cyclopedia of American Biography: "Its [the 'Crisis'] initial
-      number was, by the order of General Washington, read aloud to each
-      regiment and to each detachment."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William S. Stryker: "The effect of its strong patriotic sentences was
-      apparent upon the spirits of the army."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George T. Cram: "The whole patriot army was inspirited by it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Werner's Encyclopedia (Ed. 1899): "Its opening words, 'These are the times
-      that try men's souls,' became a battle cry."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Norman Hapgood, LL.B.: "The last sentence [of the first 'Crisis'] sounds
-      like a prophecy and the first sentence, 'These are the times that try
-      men's souls,' was the watchword [at the battle of Trenton]."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Lippard: "In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army of
-      the Revolution; he shares the crust and the cold with Washington and his
-      men; he is with those brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with them by
-      the camp fire, with them in the hour of battle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Is the day dark? Has the battle been bloody? Do the American soldiers
-      despair? Hark! that printing press yonder, which moves with the American
-      camp in all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the ranks of
-      the army&mdash;pamphlets written by the author-soldier; written sometimes
-      on the head of a drum, or by the midnight fire, or amid the corpses of the
-      dead."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals to the attack on
-      Trenton, and there in the dawn of that glorious morning, George
-      Washington, standing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian Rhol,
-      confessed the magic influence of the author-hero's pen."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Under that cloud, by Washington's side, was silently at work the force
-      that lifted it. Marching by day, listening to the consultations of
-      Washington and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp fires; the winter
-      storms, the Delaware waves, were mingled with his ink; the half-naked
-      soldiers in their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant homes, the
-      skulking deserter creeping off in the dusk, the pallid face of the
-      heavy-hearted commander, made the awful shadows beneath which was written
-      that leaflet."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Of this work Sir George Trevelyan writes: "The 'Crisis' was an impassioned
-      appeal to arms. That circumstance endowed Paine's glowing rhetoric with a
-      special value in the estimation of Americans. To their mind's eye the
-      little work was adorned by an imaginary frontispiece of a soldier, writing
-      by the watch-fire's light, with his comrades slumbering round him; and it
-      was among those comrades that the author found his warmest admirers and
-      his most convinced disciples."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "These words were fire and warmed the soldiers; they were meat and drink
-      for the famishing; they were clothes for the naked. The soldiers were
-      filled with a courage new and unknown. The battle of Trenton came, and as
-      the soldiers entered that conflict, all down the ranks rang the battle
-      cry, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' The battle was fought and
-      won. The army of the patriots had entered upon a new career. And thus he
-      wrote and wrought to the end of the immortal struggle."&mdash;<i>Dr. John
-      E. Roberts</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In the midnight of Valley Forge the 'Crisis' was the only star that
-      glittered in the broad horizon of despair."&mdash;<i>Col. Ingersoll</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was the real founder of our Republic. Without his 'Common Sense'
-      the independence of the American Colonies never would have been declared;
-      without his 'Crisis' it never could have been won. Without his services
-      this country, like Canada, India, Australia and South Africa, today would
-      be a part of the British Empire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "We would undoubtedly be under British rule today but for the wise and
-      wonderful efforts of Thomas Paine.''&mdash;<i>Ella Wheeler Wilcox</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine's title as the discoverer and inventor of the United States is just
-      as plain as Watt's invention of the steam engine, and everything that has
-      taken place as a result of organizing the United States of America is the
-      result of Thomas Paine's labors."&mdash;<i>Rev. Thomas R. Slicer, D.D</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Timothy Matlack (Oct. 10, 1777): "The Honorable House of Assembly has
-      proposed and Council has adopted a plan of obtaining more regular and
-      constant intelligence of the proceedings of General Washington's army than
-      has hitherto been had. Every one agrees that you [Paine] are the proper
-      person for the purpose, and I am directed by his Excellency, the
-      President, to write to you.... Proper expresses will be engaged in this
-      business. If the expresses which pass from headquarters to Congress can be
-      made use of so much the better,&mdash;of this you must be the judge."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. Asa Bird Gardener, LL.D.: "The entire British fleet was then brought
-      up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the most furious cannonade and most
-      desperate but finally unsuccessful defense of the place was made. The
-      entire works were demolished, and the most of the garrison killed and
-      wounded. Major General Greene being anxious for the garrison and desirous
-      of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain. He
-      accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on Nov. 9, (1777), went
-      with Col. Christopher Greene commanding Fort Mercer, in an open boat to
-      Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and was there when the enemy opened
-      with two gun batteries and a mortar battery. This <i>very</i> gallant act
-      shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary: "He was secretary to the Committee
-      on Foreign Affairs in Congress from April, 1777, to January, 1779."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It has been asserted by Mr. Roosevelt and others that Paine, because of
-      his action in the Deane affair, was discharged from his position as
-      secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was not discharged, nor
-      was he even asked to resign. He resigned of his own volition.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Franklin Steiner: "In 1778 a fraud was about to be committed upon the
-      infant republic.... Paine wrote several articles for the press, exposing
-      the entire corrupt transaction, and of course made enemies of all involved
-      in the dishonest affair, who at once made attempts to have him discharged
-      from his position, in which they failed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A motion for his dismission was lost."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Congress refused to vote that it was 'an abuse of office,' or to
-      discharge him."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was Paine's honesty and patriotism, a desire to protect the interests
-      of his adopted country, that caused him to make his exposure. His
-      "indiscretion," as some diplomats characterized it, saved the Colonies a
-      million livres. Pennsylvania applauded the act and rebuked his censors by
-      appointing him clerk of the Assembly. His whole subsequent career&mdash;his
-      continued labors in behalf of the Colonies&mdash;the confidence reposed in
-      him by all the people&mdash;show that his ability, his integrity, and his
-      patriotism were never questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In less than three years after the Deane affair the members of Congress
-      who had honestly espoused Deane's cause acknowledged the justice and
-      wisdom of Paine's exposure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Jay Knox: "In 1780 occurred the darkest days of the Revolutionary
-      War. The army was in great distress.... Thomas Paine, the Clerk in the
-      Pennsylvania Assembly, in a letter to Blair McClenaghan, suggested a
-      subscription for relief of the army and enclosed a contribution of $500.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      American Cyclopedia: "A letter [dated May 28, 1780] was received by the
-      Assembly of Pennsylvania from Gen. Washington, saying that,
-      notwithstanding his confidence in the attachment of the army to the cause
-      of the country, he feared their distresses would soon cause mutiny in the
-      ranks. This letter was read by Paine as clerk. A despairing silence
-      pervaded the hall, and the Assembly soon adjourned. Paine wrote to Blair
-      McClenaghan, a merchant of Philadelphia, explaining the urgency of
-      affairs, and enclosed in the letter $500, the amount of salary due him as
-      clerk, as his contribution toward a relief fund. McClenaghan called a
-      meeting next day and read Paine's letter; a subscription list was
-      immediately circulated, and in a short time £300,000 [nearly $1,500,000]
-      Pennsylvania currency was collected. With this as a capital, the
-      Pennsylvania Bank, afterwards expanded into the Bank of North America, was
-      established for the relief of the army."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cassell's Dictionary of Religion: "In 1781 Paine was sent to France with
-      Col. Laurens to negotiate a loan in which he was more than successful, for
-      the French granted a subsidy of six million livres, and became a guarantor
-      of ten millions advanced by Holland."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lamartine says the King "loaded Paine with favors." His gift of six
-      millions was "confided to Franklin and Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Morris (Feb. 10, 1782): "They [Morris, Minister of Finance,
-      Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Washington,
-      Commander-in-Chief] are agreed that it will be much for the interest of
-      the United States that Mr. Paine be retained in their [the United States']
-      service."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Wilson Peale: "Personal acquaintance with him gives me an
-      opportunity of knowing that he had done more for our cause than the world
-      who had only seen his publications could know."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "America is indebted to few characters more than to you."&mdash;<i>Gen.
-      Nathaniel Greene</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Calvin Blanchard: "He stood the acknowledged leader of American
-      statesmanship, and the soul of the Revolution, by the proclamation of the
-      legislatures of all the states and that of the Congress of the United
-      States."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pennsylvania Council (Dec. 6, 1784): "So important were his services
-      during the late contest that those persons whose own merits in the course
-      of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly honorable
-      unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The attention of Pennsylvania is drawn toward Mr. Paine by motives
-      equally grateful to the human heart and reputable to the Republic."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pennsylvania Assembly: "Thomas Paine did, during the progress of the
-      Revolution, voluntarily devote himself to the service of the public,
-      without accepting recompense therefor, and, moreover, did decline taking
-      or receiving the profits which authors are entitled to on the sale of
-      their literary works, but relinquished them for the better accommodation
-      of the country and the honor of the public cause."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. M. J. Savage: "He wrote the book which caused the Declaration of
-      Independence, a book in such great demand that the presses groaned for
-      months in endeavoring to supply the demand; a book, the income from the
-      circulation of which, to-day would make a man rich, and yet he steadfastly
-      refused to receive a cent for it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      More than fifty years ago, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway, then pastor of a
-      church in Cincinnati, in a eulogy on Paine, said: "So disinterested was
-      he, that, when his works were printed by the ten thousand, and as fast as
-      one edition was out another was demanded, he, a poor and pinched author,
-      who might very easily have grown rich, would not accept one cent for them,
-      declared that he would not coin his principles, and made to the States a
-      present of the copyrights. His brain was his fortune,&mdash;nay his
-      living; he gave it all to American Independence." Paine also gave the
-      copyrights of the several numbers of his "Crisis" to the States. The close
-      of the Revolution found him, to quote from Dr. Conway's biography of
-      Paine, "a penniless patriot who might easily have had fifty thousand
-      pounds in his pocket."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (I shall quote freely from Dr. Conway. For all time this biographer will
-      be the standard authority on Thomas Paine. He was a life-long student of
-      Paine. In each of the three countries which Paine served, America, France
-      and England, he had full access to the national archives of Paine's time.
-      He was a distinguished pulpit orator in both hemispheres, and had a
-      world-wide reputation as a literary man. Above all his love of truth and
-      justice and His rugged honesty and candor make him a witness whose
-      testimony is unimpeachable. To him Andrew Carnegie pays this tribute: "He
-      has passed, but he has left behind him a precious legacy to all who were
-      so fortunate as to be able to call him friend. They are better men and
-      women because Moncure Conway lived and entered into their lives.")
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      United States Congress (Aug. 26, 1785): "<i>Resolved</i>, That the early,
-      unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and
-      enforcing the principles of the late Revolution by ingenious and timely
-      publications upon the nature of liberty and civil government have been
-      well received by the citizens of these States, and merit the approbation
-      of Congress."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This resolution was passed by a unanimous vote.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Allibone's Dictionary of Authors: "He was rewarded by a donation from
-      Congress of $3,000."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In 1782, at the suggestion of Washington, Congress granted $800 to
-      Paine.... In 1784 the State of New York presented him with 277 acres of
-      land at New Rochelle, and Pennsylvania with £500; and in 1785 Congress
-      gave him $3,000."&mdash;<i>International Encyclopedia</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Some writers have denied his political services, and have declared it
-      impossible that a stranger at the outbreak of the Colonial struggle, he
-      could have influenced public opinion in America; but such should remember
-      that the contemporaries of Paine&mdash;and worthy men many of them
-      certainly were who associated with Paine&mdash;judged differently, and not
-      only freely circulated his writings but gave expression to their worth,...
-      besides conferring on him the degree of M. A. (Pennsylvania University),
-      and membership in their choicest literary association, the American
-      Philosophical Society."&mdash;<i>McClintock and Strong's Biblical,
-      Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph,
-      and the rest were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto deep."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Drake's Dictionary of American Biography: "His powerful exertions to
-      promote the independence of America constitutes a high claim upon the
-      gratitude of his adopted country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ignatius Donnelly: "Paine did a great work during the Revolutionary war in
-      behalf of liberty and deserves to be forever remembered."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McClintock and Strong's Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical
-      Encyclopedia, to quote again from this standard Christian authority, says:
-      "The truth cannot be withheld that Thomas Paine was one of the most
-      powerful actors in the Revolutionary drama.... His services to his adopted
-      country should not be forgotten."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As the Tyrtaeus of the Revolution, and it is no exaggeration to style him
-      such, we owe everlasting gratitude to his name and memory."&mdash;<i>Rev.
-      Solomon Southwick.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Spencer Bassett: "History cannot forget that he was an important
-      promoter of the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine's brawny arm applied the torch which set the country in a flame, to
-      be extinguished only by the relinquishment of British supremacy; and for
-      this, irrespective of his motives and character, he merits the gratitude
-      of every American."&mdash;<i>Gen. William A. Stokes.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "No man rendered grander, service to this country, and no man ought to be
-      more cherished or remembered than Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>Rev. Minot J.
-      Savage, D. D.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paul Allen: "Those who regard the independence of the United States as a
-      blessing will never cease to cherish the remembrance of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "To the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans are not nor can they be
-      indifferent."&mdash;<i>James Monroe.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Elizur Wright: "It was Thomas Paine, more than any other man, or any
-      other thing, who turned the current of history in the New World."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. John Snyder: "Paine did more than any other single man to create this
-      nation. I simply speak what will some day be the sober judgment of
-      history."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There was no man in the Colonies who contributed so much to bring the
-      open Declaration of Independence to a crisis as Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>William
-      Howitt.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He did more for the American cause and for American independence than any
-      other man."&mdash;<i>Sir Hiram Maxim.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Like a magnificent dream the figure of this republic arose in his
-      brain.... The result was victory; and Thomas Paine, the dreamer, the
-      writing soldier, had done more than any other man to make this country
-      free, and to give it a place among the nations of the world."&mdash;<i>Marshall
-      J. Gaumn.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was the real founder of the American republic."&mdash;<i>Henry Frank.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He wrote the word 'Independence,' and created the greatest nation in the
-      world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. John W. Hoyt, LL.D.: "Thomas Paine inspired the Revolution by his
-      spirit, maintained it when in the darkest hours of the battle it seemed
-      that the spark of liberty would go out."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. J. R. Monroe: "With the wand of his genius he turned aside the scroll
-      that concealed the future of our country, and by the inspiring picture he
-      thus presented our disheartened and hard-pressed forefathers were nerved
-      to press forward, to brave every peril, to dare every danger, to defy
-      every death, till tyranny was throttled and man was free."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Martin K. Schermerhorn: "When our children's children shall celebrate
-      America's <i>second</i> centennial a hundred years from now, they will
-      write in largest letters upon their national banner this sentence which
-      all intelligent American citizens will then enthusiastically recognize and
-      applaud: 'Thomas Paine&mdash;the Patriot... of two hundred years ago.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stephen Simpson: "To the genius of Thomas Paine as a popular writer, and
-      to that of George Washington as a prudent, skillful, and consummate
-      general, are the American people indebted for their rights, liberty and
-      independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Hypatia Bradlaugh-Bonner: "With Washington he played the foremost
-      part in the American Revolution. If Washington was the sword and the
-      strong arm, Paine was the heart and brains of that great struggle. He was
-      the mouth-piece of the aspirations of a continent. He dared to utter the
-      thoughts that lay concealed in the secret hearts of the people. He sounded
-      the demand for the Independence of the Continent. He bound together the
-      separate colonies, and proclaimed 'The Free and Independent States of
-      America.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Paine was the creator of this great Republic. He was the real
-      father of our country; Washington was its foster father. Paine's pen
-      transformed a petty rebellion into a mighty revolution and made a rebel
-      chief the triumphant defender of a new-born nation. Washington's fame is
-      secure. His right to a place in the pantheon of earth's immortals will
-      never be denied. And when the clouds of prejudice are dispelled, as they
-      will be, Paine's name will shine with a splendor unsurpassed, never to be
-      obscured again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      THE "RIGHTS OF MAN" AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Thomas H. Dyer, LL.D.: "An active agent in the French Revolution."
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      "One of those celebrated foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness
-      to adopt."&mdash;<i>Madame Roland.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Cheslay: "He defended in London the principles of the French
-      Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Brockhaus' Konversatjons-Lexikon: "After he returned to England in 1791 he
-      published his 'Rights of Man.' (translated into many languages) in which
-      he defended the French Revolution against the assaults of Burke."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Porter C. Bliss: "Published, in 1791-92 his 'Rights of Man' [two parts], a
-      vindication of the French Revolution, in reply to Burke, which gave him
-      immense popularity in France and led to a bestowal of citizenship and his
-      election to the French National Convention."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was made a French Citizen by the same decree with Washington,
-      Hamilton, Priestley and Sir James Mackintosh."&mdash;<i>Joel Barlow</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nelson's Encyclopedia: "The book was dedicated to Washington, was
-      translated into French and made a, great impression." (The second part was
-      dedicated to Lafayette.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edmund Gosse, LL.D.: "The circulation was so enormous that it had a
-      distinct effect in coloring public opinion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography: "His 'Rights of Man,' if the
-      undenied statement as to its circulation (a million and a half of copies
-      is correct) was more largely read in England and France than any other
-      political work ever published."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Chamber's Encyclopedia: "The most famous of all the replies to Burke's
-      'Reflections on the French Revolution.' A million and a half copies were
-      sold in England alone."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Hall (London, January, 1792): "Burke's publication has produced
-      nearly fifty different answers. Nothing has ever been so read as Paine's
-      answer."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edward Baines, LL.D.: "Editions were multiplied in every form and size; it
-      was alike seen in the hands of the noble and the plebeian, and became, at
-      length, translated into the various languages of Europe."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paris Moniteur (Nov. 8, 1792): "That which will astonish posterity is that
-      at Stockholm, five months after the death of Gustavus, and while the
-      northern Powers are leaguing themselves against the liberty of France,
-      there has been published a translation of Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man,'
-      the translator being one of the King's secretaries."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The following is a summary of Paine's political philosophy as presented in
-      the "Rights of Man":
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      1. Government is the organization of the aggregate natural rights which
-      individuals are not competent to secure individually, and therefore
-      surrender to the control of society in exchange for the protection of all
-      rights.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      2. Republican government is that in which the welfare of the whole nation
-      is the object.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      3. Monarchy is government, more or less arbitrary, in which the interests
-      of an individual are paramount to those of the people generally.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      4. Aristocracy is government, partially arbitrary, in which the interests
-      of a class are paramount to the people generally.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      5. Democracy is the whole people governing themselves without secondary
-      means.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      6. Representative government is the control of a nation by persons elected
-      by the whole nation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      7. The Rights of Man mean the right of all to representation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine advocated a republic (2.) with a representative government (6.). The
-      first real republic with a representative government of importance
-      established in the world was in the United States of America, of which,
-      when religious prejudice passes away, Thomas Paine will be recognized as
-      the founder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Professor J. B. Bury, LL.D.: "His 'Rights of Man' is an indictment of the
-      monarchical form of government, and a plea for representative democracy."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Terrible but truthful is Paine's indictment of monarchy: "All the
-      monarchical governments are military. War is their trade; plunder and
-      revenue their objects. While such governments continue, peace has not the
-      absolute security of a day. What is the history of all monarchical
-      governments but a disgustful picture of human wretchedness, and the
-      accidental respite of a few years repose. Wearied with war and tired with
-      human butchery, they sat down to rest and called it peace."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This is his conception of an ideal government:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When it shall be said in any country in the world, 'My poor are happy;
-      neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are
-      empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the
-      taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend, because I am
-      the friend of its happiness,'&mdash;-when these things can be said, then
-      may that country boast of its constitution and its government."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The political events of our own day&mdash;of the present hour&mdash;point
-      to the time when the ambitions and the wars of monarchy will be at an end,
-      and when republican peace will reign throughout the world. Then shall the
-      dream of Thomas Paine, the world's greatest citizen of the world, be
-      realized."&mdash;<i>Marshall J. Gaitvin.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington Irving: "A reprint of Paine's 'Rights of Man,' written in reply
-      to Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution, appeared [in America] under
-      the auspices of Mr. Jefferson."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In introducing Paine's work to the American people Jefferson, then
-      Secretary of State, said: "I have no doubt our citizens will rally a
-      second time round the standard of 'Common Sense.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Builders of the Nation: "At this time the Republican party as it was
-      called, accepted the views of Jefferson, and as he openly accepted Paine's
-      'Rights of Man' it followed that the advanced views contained in that book
-      grew to be held measurably as the party tenets of his followers."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. E. D. Adams, Ph. D.: "As a cult [democracy], the theory undoubtedly
-      first found adequate expression amongst us in the writings of Thomas
-      Paine.... In these two books ['Common Sense' and 'Rights of Man'] Paine
-      was then the first to state the ideal of democracy, as it later came to be
-      accepted in America under the leadership of Jefferson."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to Monroe, referring to the censure he had received for his
-      endorsement of Paine's book, Jefferson says: "I certainly merit the same,
-      for I profess the same principles."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to Paine (June 19, 1792,) Jefferson says: "Our good people are
-      firm and unanimous in their principles of Republicanism, and there is no
-      better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it with
-      delight."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Madison declared the "Rights of Man" to be "a written defense of the
-      principles on which that [our] Government is based."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For our so-called Jeffersonian Democracy we are indebted to Thomas Paine.
-      He formulated its principles. Jefferson, Madison and others of his
-      disciples popularized them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After commending the "Rights of Man" Richard Henry Lee wrote: "I sincerely
-      regret that our country could not have offered sufficient inducements to
-      have retained as a permanent citizen a man so thoroughly republican in
-      sentiment and fearless in the expression of his opinions."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In his book, one of the most brilliant volumes ever penned, Burke, long
-      the friend of popular government, defended royalty and aristocracy. He
-      sought to arouse the sympathies of Europe in behalf of royalty and
-      aristocracy in France which were tottering to their fall, a disaster which
-      endangered their existence everywhere. The book was circulated by tens of
-      thousands. Captivated by its marvelous beauty a reaction in favor of
-      despotism was setting in when Paine's immortal work appeared. The glowing
-      rhetoric of Burke went down before the merciless logic of Paine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Burke is filled with sorrow for the French king and nobles whose rule and
-      privileges have been abolished or restricted, but expresses none for the
-      millions who for centuries have been persecuted, impoverished and
-      imprisoned by the ruling classes. In words that come from the heart of the
-      author and which reach the hearts of the people, Paine answers him:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserating reflection, that I
-      can find throughout his book, has he bestowed on those that lingered out
-      the most wretched of lives; a life without hope, in the most miserable of
-      prisons. It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt
-      himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he has been to her. He
-      is not affected by the reality of distress touching upon his heart, but by
-      the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the
-      plumage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss the aristocratic
-      hand that hath purloined him from himself, he degenerates into a
-      composition of art, and the genuine soul of nature forsakes him. His hero
-      or his heroine must be a tragedy-victim, expiring in show, and not the
-      real prisoner of misery, sliding into death in the silence of a dungeon."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to this intellectual combat William Cobbett, one of England's
-      most distinguished political writers, writing more than a quarter of a
-      century after Paine's reply to Burke, says: "As my Lord Grenville
-      introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of a
-      man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage to
-      seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million times
-      where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord John Morley: "Thomas Paine replied to them [Burke's 'Reflections']
-      with an energy, courage and eloquence worthy of his cause in the 'Rights
-      of Man.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In brilliant rhetoric Burke argued its [Natural Rights] dangerous and
-      baseless nature.. Paine in his even more brilliant 'Rights of Man,'
-      answered Burke."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia of Social Reform.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Campbell: "He strongly answered at the bar of public opinion all
-      the arguments of Burke. I do not deny that fact; and I should be sorry if
-      I could be blind, even with tears in my eyes for Mackintosh, to the
-      services that have been rendered to the cause of truth by the shrewdness
-      and courage of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (Great events inspire great works. Three of the masterpieces of literature
-      were inspired by the French Revolution, Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the
-      French Revolution" condemning it, and Sir James Mackintosh's "Vindiciæ
-      Gallicæ" and Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" defending it.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dictionary of National Biography (England): "Paine is the only English
-      writer who exposes with uncompromising sharpness the abstract doctrines of
-      political rights held by the French Revolutionists."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles James Fox: "It ['Rights of Man'] seems as clear and as simple as
-      the first rules of arithmetic."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Manchester Constitutional Society (March 13, 1792): "A work of the highest
-      importance to every nation under heaven, but particularly to this, as
-      containing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and considerable
-      reduction of the public expenditure; for the prevention of wars; for the
-      extension of our manufactures and commerce; for the education of the
-      young; for the comfortable support of the aged; for the better maintenance
-      of the poor."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information (March 14, 1792): "We
-      have derived more true knowledge from the two works of Thomas Paine,
-      entitled 'Rights of Man,' Parts First and Second, than from any other
-      author. The practice as well as the principle of government is laid down
-      in those works in a manner so clear and irresistibly convincing."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Anthony Froude: "Copies of Paine's 'Rights of Man' were sown
-      broadcast [in Ireland]."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Protestant Belfast had declared itself a disciple of Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Irish patriots were red republicans... anxious to establish in
-      Ireland the principles of Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine," says his biographer, Dr. Conway, "held a supremacy in the
-      constitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre
-      over the Jacobins of Paris."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Pitt (to Lady Hester Stanhope, who had quoted from the "Rights of
-      Man"): "Paine is quite in the right, but what am I to do?"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir James Mackintosh: "His bold speculations and fierce invectives
-      indicated the approach of social confusion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. G. P. Gooch, M.A.: "The 'Rights of Man,' compelled attention not
-      less by the novelty of its ideas than by its consummate pamphleteering
-      skill.... The alarm increased when it was known that the book was selling
-      by tens of thousands."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Diccionaris Enciclopedico (Spain): "The friends of the Government burned
-      Paine in effigy in the streets of London. Later he was proclaimed the
-      great apostle of liberty and the father of the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gouverneur Morris: "Bonnville is here [Paris]. He is just returned from
-      England. He tells me that Paine's book works mightily in England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Louis Blanc: "The militia were armed, in the southeast of England troops
-      received orders to march to London, the meeting of Parliament was advanced
-      forty days, the Tower was reinforced by a new garrison, in fine there was
-      enrolled a formidable preparation of war&mdash;against Thomas Paine's book
-      on the 'Rights of Man.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      H. D. Traill, D.C.L.: "Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man' was known to
-      have an enormous circulation, and he was prosecuted for it under the
-      proclamation of May, 1792. Paine's counsel argued in vain that it had
-      never been held criminal to express opinions on the problems of political
-      philosophy.... Paine was condemned."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was defended by Erskine, who was then in the zenith of his glory as an
-      advocate, in a speech of marvelous power and eloquence."&mdash;<i>Hon. E.
-      B. Washburne.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. Redman ("London, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1792, 5 P.M."): "Mr. Paine's trial
-      is this instant over. Erskine shone like the morning star. The instant
-      Erskine closed his speech the venal jury [it was a packed jury]
-      interrupted the Attorney General, who was about to make reply, and without
-      waiting for any answer, or any summing up by the Judge, pronounced him
-      guilty. Such an instance of infernal corruption is scarcely upon record."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's case was set for June, 1792, and he was anxious to go to trial
-      then. At the request of the Government it was postponed till December. In
-      the meantime Paine, having been elected to the National Convention, went
-      to France. Had he remained in England death or a long imprisonment would
-      have been his fate, the charge against him being high treason.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alexander Gilchrist: "On Paine's rising to leave [he had delivered a
-      radical address in London the night before], Blake [William] laid his hand
-      on the orator's shoulder, saying, 'You must not go home, or you are a dead
-      man,' and he hurried him off on his way to France.... Those were hanging
-      days in England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. James Currie (1793): "The prosecutions that are commenced all over
-      England against printers, publishers, etc., would astonish you; and most
-      of these are for offenses committed months ago. The printer of the
-      Manchester <i>Herald</i> has had... six different indictments for selling
-      or disposing of six different copies of Paine&mdash;all previous to the
-      trial of Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth £20,000; but these
-      different actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The trial of Paine was followed by a veritable reign of terror in England.
-      Alluding to the prosecutions and persecutions of the publishers and
-      venders of Paine's books, Buckle, in his "History of Civilization," says:
-      "It is no exaggeration to say that for some years England was ruled by a
-      system of absolute terror."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was over the writings of Thomas Paine chiefly, his "Rights of Man" at
-      first and later his "Age of Reason," that the battle for free speech and a
-      free press in England was fought and won. In this great struggle England's
-      gifted statesman, Charles James Fox, whom Edmund Burke describes as "the
-      greatest debater the world ever saw," and whom Sir James Mackintosh
-      declares to De "the most Demosthenian speaker since Demosthenes," ably and
-      fearlessly upheld the rights of Paine and the disseminators of his
-      writings and teachings. In this struggle the poet Shelley, too, did
-      valiant work.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Richard Carlile: "It is not too much to say that if the 'Rights of Man'
-      had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and Scotland,
-      it would have produced a similar effect to that which 'Common Sense' did
-      in the United States."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Francis Burdett: "Ministers know that a united people are not to be
-      resisted; and it is this that we must understand by what is written in the
-      works of an honest man too long calumniated. I mean Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Brissot: "The grievance of the British Cabinet against France is not
-      that Louis is in judgment, but that Thomas Paine wrote the 'Rights of
-      Man'."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Abbe Sieyes: "His 'Rights of Man,' translated into our language, is
-      universally known; and where is the patriotic Frenchman who has not
-      already, from the depths of his soul, thanked him for having fortified our
-      cause with all the power of his reason and his reputation."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine's 'Rights of Man'," says Dr. Conway, "had been in every French
-      home. His portrait, painted by Romney and engraved by Sharp, was in every
-      cottage, framed in immortelles." Napoleon Bonaparte said: "I always sleep
-      with the 'Rights of Man' beneath my pillow." Hon. Elihu B. Washburne,
-      Minister of the United States to France during President Grant's
-      administration, and later a prominent candidate for president of the
-      United States himself, in a monograph on Thomas Paine, says: "He at once
-      became a hero in France, and was everywhere received with enthusiasm. The
-      doors of the <i>salons</i> and clubs of Paris were opened to him, and he
-      was soon recognized as one of the advanced figures in the Revolution,
-      standing by the side of de Bonneville, Brissot and Condorcet."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is a commonly accepted opinion that the French Revolution was inspired
-      chiefly by the writings of Rousseau and Voltaire. Hardly less potent,
-      however, were Paine's "Rights of Man," published at the beginning of the
-      Revolution, and his "Common Sense," which electrified France fifteen years
-      before. Referring to these French writings and the "Rights of Man," Dr.
-      Conway says: "In this book the philosophy of visionary reformers took
-      practical shape. From the ashes of Rousseau's 'Contrat Social,' burnt in
-      Paris, rose the 'Rights of Man,' no phoenix, but an eagle of the new
-      world, with eye not blinded by any royal sun. It comes to tell how by
-      union of France and America&mdash;of Lafayette and Washington&mdash;the
-      'Contrat Social' was framed into the Constitution of a happy and glorious
-      new earth."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Knight: "In the week of the flight of Louis [June, 1791] Paine
-      wrote in English a proclamation to the French nation, which, being
-      translated, was affixed to all the walls of Paris. It was an invitation to
-      the people to profit by existing circumstances, and establish a Republic."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ida M. Tarbell: "Brissot brought several of his friends to see them [the
-      Rolands]. Among the most important of these were Petion and Robespierre.
-      In April 1791 Thomas Paine appeared. So
-      agreeable were these informal reunions found to be that it was arranged to
-      hold them four times a week.... To Madame Roland these gatherings were of
-      absorbing interest."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "With Condorcet, Brissot, and a few others as sympathizers, Paine formed a
-      Republican society."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Justin H. McCarthy: "The prospectus of a journal called <i>Le Republicaine</i>
-      was posted at the very doors of the General Assembly. It was signed by
-      Duchatellet, a colonel of Chasseurs, but is said to have been drawn up by
-      Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Etienne Dumont: "Some of the seed sown by the audacious hand of Paine were
-      now budding in leading minds."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Meyers' Gross Konversations-Lexikon: "In Paris Paine was declared a French
-      citizen and was elected to the National Convention by the department of
-      Pas-de-Calais."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      La Grande Encyclopédie: "Declared a French citizen by the National
-      Assembly, he was elected a member of the Convention by the departments of
-      l'Oise, the Puy-de-Dome and the Pas-de-Calais."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      H. Morse Stephens, LL.D.: "Paine, one of the founders of the American
-      Republic, was elected by no less than three departments to the
-      Convention."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Louvet (and thirty-two others): "Your love for humanity, for liberty
-      and equality, the useful works that have issued from your pen in their
-      defense, have determined our choice. It has been hailed with universal and
-      reiterated applause. Come friend of the people, to swell the number of
-      patriots in an Assembly which will decide the destiny of a great people,
-      perhaps of the human race."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Biographie Universelle: "Amid salvos of artillery and cries of '<i>Vive</i>
-      Thomas Paine!' his arrival was announced."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cates' Biographical Dictionary: "The garrison of Calais were under arms to
-      receive this friend of liberty. The tri-colored cockade was presented to
-      him by the mayor, and the handsomest woman in the town was selected to
-      place it in his hat."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. T. Sherwin: "The hall of the Minimes [in Calais] was so crowded that it
-      was with the greatest difficulty they made way for Mr. Paine to the side
-      of the president. Over the chair he sat in was placed the bust of
-      Mirabeau, and the colors of France, England, and America united. A speaker
-      acquainted him from the tribune with his election, amid the plaudits of
-      the people. For some minutes after the ceremony nothing was heard but '<i>Vive
-      la Nation! Vive Thomas Paine!</i>'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Ancient Calais, in its time, had received heroes from across the channel,
-      but hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries reserved for a
-      Thetford Quaker. As the packet sails in a salute is fired from the
-      battery; cheers sound along the shore. As the representative for Calais
-      steps on French soil soldiers make his avenue, the officers embrace him,
-      the national cockade is presented. A beautiful lady advances, requesting
-      the honor of setting the cockade in his hat, and makes him a pretty
-      speech, ending with Liberty, Equality and France. As they move along the
-      Rue de l'Egalité (late Rue du Roi) the air rings with '<i>Vive Thomas
-      Paine</i>'! At the town hall he is presented to the Municipality, by each
-      member embraced, by the Mayor also addressed. At the meeting of the
-      Constitutional Society of Calais, in the Minimes, he sits beside the
-      president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the united colors of France,
-      England and America. There is an official ceremony announcing his
-      election, and plaudits of the crowd, '<i>Vive la Nation! Vive Thomas
-      Paine!'"&mdash;Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, LL.D.: "Meantime Paine had been declared in Paris
-      worthy of citizenship, and he proceeded thither, where he was received
-      with every demonstration of extravagant joy."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The ovation which Paine received on his arrival in France was one such as
-      theretofore only kings had received."&mdash;<i>Theodore Schroeder</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hérault de Sechelles, (President of National Assembly): "France calls you,
-      Sir, to its bosom to fill the most useful, and consequently the most
-      honorable of functions&mdash;that of contributing, by wise legislation, to
-      the happiness of a people whose destinies interest and unite all who think
-      and all who suffer in the world.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is meet that the nation which proclaimed the Rights of Man should
-      desire to have him among its legislators who first dared to measure all
-      their consequences."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Philip Van Ness Myers, LL.D.: "The Convention, consisting of seven hundred
-      and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the celebrated freethinker, Thomas
-      Paine, embraced two active groups, the Girondins and the Mountainists
-      [Jacobins]."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alphonse de Lamartine: "A stranger sat among the members of the Convention&mdash;the
-      philosopher, Thomas Paine, born in England, the apostle of American
-      independence, the friend of Franklin, author of 'Common Sense,' the
-      'Rights of Man,' and the 'Age of Reason'&mdash;three pages of the New
-      Evangelist in which he brought back political institutions and religious
-      creeds to their primitive justice and lucidity; his name possessed great
-      weight among the innovators of the two worlds."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Everyone," says Paul Desjardins, "turned toward Paine as toward the
-      living statue of liberty. The enfranchisement of America consecrated him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The official reports of the National Convention state that when Paine
-      arose in the Convention and cast his vote for its first decree the act was
-      received by "acclamations of joy, the cries of <i>Vive la nation!</i>
-      repeated by all the spectators, prolonging themselves for many minutes!"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to this Convention, the Hon. E. B. Washburne says: "Never was
-      there a legislative or constituent body which displayed such stupendous
-      energy or performed such immense labor. In the delirium of its passions it
-      stamped itself on the history of the world not only by its crimes, but by
-      its great acts of legislation, which will live as long as France shall
-      endure. Thomas Paine was a member of this Convention. His popularity in
-      France at this time is shown by the fact that he was chosen a member of
-      the Convention by three departments.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Convention was not long in giving Paine a striking recognition of the
-      consideration in which it held him. One of its earliest decrees was to
-      establish a special Commission (committee) of nine members on the
-      Constitution. This Commission was composed of the most distinguished men
-      of the Convention: Gensonne, Thomas Paine, Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud,
-      Barrere, Danton, Condorcet, and the Abbe Sieyes."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Louis Adolphus Thiers: "A sixth committee was charged with the principal
-      object for which the Convention had met, to prepare a new constitution. It
-      was composed of nine celebrated members. Philosophy had its
-      representatives in the persons of Sieyes, Condorcet, and the American
-      Thomas Paine, recently elected a French citizen, and a member of the
-      Convention. The Gironde was more particularly represented by Gensonne,
-      Vergniaud, Petion, and Brissot; the Centre by Barrere, and the Montagne by
-      Danton."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The names of these eminent men will live long in history; but dear was the
-      price paid for their fame. Danton, Brissot, Gensonne and Vergniaud died on
-      the scaffold; Condorcet died in a prison cell, a suicide; Petion escaped
-      to a forest where his body was afterward found partly devoured by wolves;
-      Barrere was banished, and Paine was imprisoned. Sieyes alone escaped
-      unharmed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Carlyle: "To make the Constitution; to defend the Republic till
-      that be made. Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a Committee of
-      Constitution got together. Sieyes, old constituent, constitution builder
-      by trade; Condorcet, fit for better things; Deputy Paine, foreign
-      benefactor of the species with the black beaming eyes;... Hérault de
-      Sechelles, ex-parlementier, one of the handsomest men in France,&mdash;these,
-      with inferior guild-brethren, are girt cheerfully to the task." (Hérault
-      was a supplementary member of the Committee).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John King (referring to Paine): "The chief modeler of their new
-      Constitution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Constitution was almost entirely the work of Paine and Condorcet. It
-      is known as the Paine-Condorcet Constitution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. David Saville Muzzey: "Paine labored to make this new republic of
-      France an example for the monarchy-cursed countries of Europe. It was he
-      who protested against the domination of the Assembly by the section of
-      Paris which led to the Reign of Terror."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Taine: "Compared with the speeches and writings of the times, it
-      [Paine's Letter to Danton] produces the strangest effect by its practical
-      good sense."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madame de Stael: "When the sentence of Louis XVI. came under discussion
-      Paine alone advised what would have done honor to France if it had been
-      adopted."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henri Martin: "Thomas Paine, the famous representative of the idea of a
-      universal Republic, had voted against both an appeal to the people and the
-      penalty of death."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Wright, F. S. A.: "He urged with great earnestness that the
-      execution of the sentence of death should be delayed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Guizot: "The last effort was about to be attempted to save the life of
-      the King by delaying execution. The anger of the Jacobins was extreme;
-      they refused to listen to a speech from Thomas Paine, the American, till
-      respect for his courage gained him a hearing.... The prayer and the hope
-      were as vain as they were affecting."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Elihu B. Washburne: "It was on the 19th day of January, 1793, that
-      Paine mounted the tribune to speak to this question. This trial of Louis
-      XVI. by the National Convention is one of the most remarkable on record.
-      The session was made permanent, and the trial went on day and night. After
-      a lapse of nearly one hundred years, the painful and dramatic scenes stand
-      out with still greater prominence. The <i>Salle des Machines</i>, in the
-      Pavillon de Flores at the Tuileries, had been converted into a grand hall
-      for the sittings of the Convention. The galleries were immense and could
-      seat fourteen hundred spectators. In an immense city like Paris, convulsed
-      with a political excitement never equaled, the trial of a king for his
-      life produced the most profound emotions that ever agitated any community.
-      All classes and conditions were carried away by the prevailing excitement,
-      and the pressure for places exceeded anything ever known.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The appearance of Thomas Paine at the tribune, with a roll of manuscript
-      in his hand, created a sensation in the Convention. By his side stood
-      Bancal, who was there to translate the speech into French and read it to
-      the Convention. The first declaration of the celebrated foreigner produced
-      a commotion on the benches of the Montagne. Coming from a democrat like
-      Thomas Paine, a man so intimately allied with the Americans, a great
-      thinker and writer, there was fear of their influence on the Convention.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The most violent exclamations broke out, drowning the voice of Bancal,
-      the unfortunate interpreter, and creating an indescribable tumult. Never
-      was a man in a more embarrassing condition than Paine was at this time.
-      Though not understanding the language, he yet realized the fury of the
-      storm which raged around him. Standing at the tribune in his half Quaker
-      coat, and genteelly attired, he remained undaunted and self-possessed
-      during the tempest. This speech of Paine breathed greatness of soul and
-      generosity of spirit and will forever honor his memory."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's speech, says Conway, is "unparalleled for argument and art and
-      eloquence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charlotte M. Yonge: "A brave remonstrance."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Thomas E. Watson: "Among the brave who would not bend to the storm
-      was Thomas Paine. Man enough to defy kings and priests, he was man enough,
-      likewise, to defy a howling mob."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      E. Belford Bax: "Paine, up to the last, manfully voted in the sense in
-      which he had always spoken, for the life of the king at the imminent risk
-      of his own."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Writing of the events which preceded and attended the trial and execution
-      of Louis XVI, Prince Talleyrand, a profound admirer of Paine, says: "It
-      was no longer a question that the king should reign, but that he himself,
-      the queen, their children, his sister, should be saved. It might have been
-      done. It was at least a duty to attempt it." It was a duty, however, whose
-      performance carried with it the probable penalty of death. Danton,
-      France's greatest and bravest son, wished to save the life of the king,
-      but dared not to vote in favor of it. "Although I may save his life," he
-      said, "I shall vote for his death. I am quite willing to save his head,
-      but not to lose my own." Even the king's cousin, Philip of Orleans, voted
-      for his kinsman's death. Paine did not shirk his duty. He, too, loved
-      life, but he loved honor more, and so, defying death, voted and pleaded
-      for the life of the fallen monarch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Ah, that man who stood there alone in that breathless hall with such
-      mighty eloquence warming over his lofty brow! That man was one of that
-      illustrious band who had been made citizens of France&mdash;France the
-      redeemed and newborn! Yess with Mackintosh, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson
-      and Washington, he had been elected a citizen of France. With these great
-      men he hailed the French revolution as the dawn of God's millennium. He
-      had hurried to Paris, urged by the same deep love of man that accompanied
-      him in the darkest hours of the American revolution, and there, there
-      pleading for the traitor-king, alone in that breathless hall he stood, the
-      author-hero, Thomas Paine, pleading&mdash;even amid that sea of scowling
-      faces&mdash;for the life of King Louis."&mdash;<i>George Lippard.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In that maelstrom of thought, in that pandemonium of words, in that
-      whirlwind of passion, pleading for the life of the king, Thomas Paine, not
-      counting his own life, well knowing the consequences of his act, Thomas
-      Paine stood there and pleaded that the life of the king might be spared."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      J. E. Roberts.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A. F. Bertrand de Moleville (French Minister of State): "It must be
-      recorded to the eternal shame of this assembly, that Thomas Paine...
-      proved himself the wisest, the most humane, the boldest&mdash;in a word,
-      the most innocent among them."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Victor Hugo: "Thomas Paine, an American and merciful."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When tidings came of the king's trial and execution, whatever glimpses
-      they [Paine's adherents in England] gained of their outlawed leader showed
-      him steadfast as a star caught in one wave and another of that turbid
-      tide. Many, alas, needed apologies, but Paine required none. That one
-      Englishman, standing on the tribune for justice and humanity, amid three
-      hundred angry Frenchmen in uproar, was as sublime a sight as Europe
-      witnessed in those days."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The rank and file followed their Thomas Paine with a faith that crowned
-      heads might envy. The London men knew Paine thoroughly. The treasures of
-      the world would not draw him, nor any terrors drive him, to the side of
-      cruelty and inhumanity. Their eye was upon him. Had Paine, after the
-      king's execution, despaired of the republic there might have ensued some
-      demoralization among his followers in London. But they saw him by the side
-      of the delivered prisoner of the Bastile, Brissot, an author well known in
-      England, by the side of Condorcet and others of Franklin's honored circle
-      engaged in a death struggle with the fire-breathing dragon called 'The
-      Mountain.' That was the same unswerving man they had been following, and
-      to all accusations against the revolution their answer was&mdash;Paine is
-      still there."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While Paine allied himself to no particular faction of the convention, his
-      sympathies were with the Girondins. Lamartine says: "Paine, the friend of
-      Madame Roland, Condorcet and Brissot, had been elected by the town of
-      Calais; the Girondins consulted him and placed him on the committee of
-      surveyance." The Girondins comprised, for the most part, the wisest and
-      the best of France's legislators. Had they remained in power the excesses
-      of the revolution would, to a great extent, have been avoided. But in an
-      evil hour the Jacobins gained the ascendancy and while they ruled madness
-      reigned supreme. The Girondins were slaughtered or expelled. In one night
-      twenty-two of them&mdash;every one a noted statesman or orator&mdash;the
-      very flower of French manhood, "the eloquent, the young, the beautiful,
-      the brave," as Riouffe, their fellow prisoner, lovingly describes them,
-      were taken before a Jacobin tribunal and condemned to death. Carlyle thus
-      graphically and pathetically tells us how they died:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "All Paris is out; such a crowd as no man had seen. The death-carts,
-      Valaze's cold corpse [he had committed suicide] stretched among the yet
-      living twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound, in their shirt
-      sleeves, coat flung loosely round the neck; so fare the eloquent of
-      France; bemurmured, beshouted. To the shouts of Vive la Republique, some
-      of them keep answering with counter shouts of Vive la Republique. Others,
-      as Brissot, sit sunk in silence. At the foot of the scaffold they again
-      strike up, with appropriate variations, the hymn of the Marseilles. Such
-      an act of music; conceive it well! The yet living chant there; the chorus
-      so rapidly wearing weak! Samson's axe is rapid; one head per minute, or a
-      little less. The chorus is wearing weak; the chorus is worn out; farewell,
-      forevermore, ye Girondins. Te-Deum Fauchet has become silent; Valaze's
-      dead head is lopped; the sickle of the guillotine has reaped the Girondins
-      all away."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "How Paine loved those men&mdash;Brissot, Condorcet, Lasource, Duchatel,
-      Vergniaud, Gensonne! Never was man more devoted to his intellectual
-      comrades. Even across a century one may realize what it meant to him, that
-      march of his best friends to the scaffold."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eight days after the execution of the Girondins another of Paine's
-      friends, Madame Roland, the "Inspiring Soul" of the Girondins&mdash;one of
-      the greatest, one of the fairest, one of the bravest, and one of the
-      noblest women that ever came to brighten our planet&mdash;died on the same
-      scaffold. Beautiful in life, Madame Roland rose to sublimity in death.
-      Standing on the scaffold, robed in white, she seemed like a lovely bride
-      before the altar. She asked for pen and paper to record "the strange
-      thoughts that were rising in her" as she gazed into the eyes of death.
-      This request denied, she turned toward the statue of liberty and, with
-      tearful eyes, exclaimed, "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy
-      name!" Then, seeing the one who was to have preceded her to the guillotine
-      trembling with fear, she begged and obtained permission to take his place&mdash;to
-      die first&mdash;that she might soften the terrors of death by showing him
-      "how easy it is to die." This is her picture&mdash;painted by Carlyle:
-      "Noble white vision, with its high queenly face, its soft proud eyes, long
-      black hair flowing down to the girdle; and as brave a heart as ever beat
-      in woman's bosom! Like a white Grecian statue, serenely complete, she
-      shines in that black wreck of things;&mdash;long memorable."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "What with the arrestations and flights Paine found himself, in June,
-      almost alone. In the convention he was sometimes the solitary figure left
-      on the plain, where but now sat the brilliant statesmen of France. They,
-      his beloved friends, have started in procession towards the guillotine,
-      for even flight must end there; daily others are pressed into their ranks;
-      his own summons, he feels, is only a question of a few weeks or days."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madame Roland died in November; Paine was imprisoned in December.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dictionary of Religious Knowledge: "Here [trial of Louis XVI] his
-      honorable moderation won the enmity of Robespierre, who marked him for a
-      victim."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Scheaf's Religious Encyclopedia: "He had the courage to vote against the
-      execution of Louis XVI., and thus incurred the anger of Robespierre, who
-      threw him into prison."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Chambers' Encyclopedia of English Literature: "He offended the Robespierre
-      faction, and in 1794 [December 28, 1793], possibly by the procurement of
-      the American minister, Gouverneur Morris&mdash;who disliked the French
-      revolution and the alliance between the new republics&mdash;he was
-      imprisoned."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. Thomas W. Higginson: "They urged him (he was in personal danger) to
-      go back to America, the country he had served so long. 'Go there,' they
-      said; 'it is your country,' 'No,' he said, 'for the time, this is my
-      country.'... So said Thomas Paine, and the doors of the Bastile closed
-      around him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. John W. Chadwick: "A prisoner deserted by the young Republic at whose
-      birth he had assisted so efficiently, his life in jeopardy for the
-      humanity of his opinions."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Morning Advertiser (England, Feb. 8, 1794): "His arrest was a species of
-      triumph to all the tyrants on earth. His papers had been examined, and far
-      from finding any dangerous propositions the committee had traced only the
-      characters of that burning zeal for liberty&mdash;of that eloquence of
-      nature and philosophy&mdash;and of those principles of public morality
-      which had through life procured him the hatred of despots and the love of
-      his fellow citizens."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His arrest and imprisonment, without charges preferred or even the
-      pretense of crime, were acts of perfidy without a parallel except in the
-      history of the French revolution."&mdash;<i>Hon. E. B. Washburne</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Major W. Jackson (and other Americans in Paris): "As a countryman of ours,
-      as a man above all so dear to the Americans; who like ourselves are
-      earnest friends of liberty, we ask you in the name of that goddess
-      cherished by the only two republics of the world, to give back Thomas
-      Paine to his brethren."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Achille Audibert: "A friend of mankind is groaning in chains&mdash;Thomas
-      Paine.... But for Robespierre's villainy the friend of man would now be
-      free."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the beginning of the revolution Robespierre was recognized as one of
-      the most moderate and humane of men. In the National Assembly he advocated
-      the abolition of the death penalty. Describing his advent to leadership,
-      Paine's biographer says: "Mirabeau was on his deathbed, and Paine
-      witnessed that historic procession, four miles long, which bore the orator
-      to his shrine.... With others he strained his eyes to see the coming man;
-      with others he sees formidable Danton glaring at Lafayette; and presently
-      sees advancing softly between them the sentimental, philanthropic&mdash;Robespierre."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Danton: "What thou hast done for the happiness and liberty of thy
-      country I have in vain attempted to do for mine. They are sending us to
-      the scaffold."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It was a strange scene; these two constitution makers, Paine and Danton,
-      and for the last time in the prison of the Luxembourg, both equally
-      destined for the scaffold."&mdash;<i>Hon. E. B. Washburne</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Danton was taken to the guillotine; Paine, by mistake, was left.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The manner of Paine's escape, as related by Carlyle, was as follows: "The
-      tumbrils move on. But in this set of tumbrils there are two other things
-      notable: one notable person; and one want of a notable person. The notable
-      person is Lieu-tenant-General Loiserelles, a nobleman by birth and by
-      nature; laying down his life for his son. In the prison of Saint-Lazare,
-      the night before last, hurrying to the grate to hear the death-list read,
-      he caught the name of his son. The son was asleep at the moment. 'I am
-      Loiserelles,' cried the old man.... The want of the notable person, again,
-      is that of Deputy Paine! Paine has set in the Luxembourg since January;
-      and seemed forgotten; but Fouquier had pricked him at last. The turnkey,
-      list in hand, is marking with chalk the outer doors of to-morrow's
-      fournee. Paine's outer door happened to be open, turned back on the wall;
-      the turnkey marked it on the side next him, and hurried on; another
-      turnkey came and shut it; no chalkmark now visible, the fournee went
-      without Paine. Paine's life lay not there."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to Washington, Paine thus narrates the inhuman slaughter of
-      his fellow-prisoners, from whose fate he so narrowly escaped: "The state
-      of things in the prisons [for over four months] was a continued scene of
-      horror. No man could count upon life for twenty-four hours. To such a
-      pitch of rage and suspicion were Robespierre and his committee arrived,
-      that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man to live. Scarcely a night
-      passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more were not taken
-      out of the prison, carried before a pretended tribunal in the morning, and
-      guillotined before night. One hundred and sixty-nine were taken out of the
-      Luxembourg one night in July, and one hundred and sixty of them
-      guillotined, of whom I know I was to have been one. A list of two hundred
-      more, according to the report in the prison, was preparing a few days
-      before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have good reason to believe I
-      was included."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Concerning this reign of terror Guizot says: "Two thousand four hundred
-      prisoners were registered in Paris on the books of the prison, at the
-      moment of the deaths of the Girondins; three [four] months later, on the
-      1st of March, 1794, the number reached six thousand; on the 2d of May,
-      eight thousand unfortunate persons waited for death. From June 10th to
-      July 27th, two thousand, two hundred and eighty-five perished on the
-      scaffold." (<i>History of France, Vol. VI, pp. 178, 196</i>.) Menzies
-      says: "The queen, Marie Antoinette, her sister, Madame Elizabeth, Bailly,
-      the Girondin chiefs, the Duke of Orleans, General Custine, Madame Roland,
-      Lavoisier, Malesherbes, and a thousand other illustrious heads fell by the
-      guillotine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The light of burning rafters flashed luridly over scenes of blood; soon
-      all that is grotesque, or terrible, or loathsome in murder, was enacted in
-      the streets of Paris. The lantern posts bore their ghastly fruit; the
-      streets flowed with crimson rivers, the life-blood of ten thousand hearts,
-      down even to the waters of the Seine. Lafayette and Paine and all the
-      heroes were gone from the councils of France, but in their place, aye, in
-      the place of poetry, enthusiasm and eloquence, spoke a mighty orator&mdash;King
-      Guillotine."&mdash;<i>George Lippard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With Danton died another of Paine's cherished friends&mdash;Hérault de
-      Sechelles. Hérault, president of the National Assembly, and, for a time,
-      president of the National Convention, was the first to welcome Paine to
-      Paris when he came to take his seat in the convention. He was physically
-      and intellectually one of France's most magnificent men. He was a ripe
-      scholar and a superb orator. He possessed great wealth and a most
-      fascinating address. He and Paine and Danton had from the first been
-      members of the Convention; they had served together on the Committee of
-      the Constitution, Hérault as Paine's suppliant, and they had occupied the
-      same prison, the prison set apart for the most illustrious victims of the
-      Revolution. I quote from Washburne. I desire to present one of the ten
-      thousand tragic and pathetic scenes which compose this mighty and immortal
-      drama. "Tragedy walks hand in hand with History and the eyes of Glory are
-      wet with tears:"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "More victims were now demanded, and, at this time, the oldest children of
-      the Revolution were claimed. They were the 'Dantonists,' among whom was
-      included Hérault.... Hérault was unmarried. When imprisoned at the
-      Luxembourg awaiting his trial he appeared sad and preoccupied. On arriving
-      at the guillotine, on the Place de la Revolution on the day of his
-      execution, all his looks were turned toward the hotel of the Garde-Meuble,
-      hoping evidently to exchange glances with one with whom were all his
-      thoughts at that supreme moment. Behind the shutters, half closed, was a
-      beautiful woman who sent to the condemned a last adieu and waved a last
-      sigh of tenderness to the dying man: <i>Je t'aime</i> (I love thee). It
-      was a beautiful day of the springtime, and the crowd that had assembled to
-      witness the execution of Danton, the great Apostle of the Revolution, and
-      his associates was enormous. The splendid figure of Hérault de Sechelles
-      seemed to take new life, and the serenity of courage replaced the
-      inquietude and sadness which had settled upon him. The first one to mount
-      the scaffold, he showed himself calm, resolute and unmoved. As he was
-      about to lay his head under the knife, he wished to present his cheek to
-      the cheek of Danton [their hands were bound], as a last farewell. The aids
-      of Samson, the executioner, prevented it. 'Imbeciles!' indignantly
-      exclaimed Danton, 'it will be but a moment before our heads will meet in
-      the basket in spite of you.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Declared an outlaw by the same Convention which he had so long used as an
-      instrument of his private vengeance, Robespierre was killed like a dog....
-      The death of Paine's mortal enemy saved his life."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madame Lafayette: "The news of your being set at liberty,... has given me
-      a moment's consolation in the midst of this abyss of misery."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madame Lafayette, like Thomas Paine, was a prisoner, daily expecting
-      death. Her mother, grandmother and sister, prominent members of the French
-      nobility, all died together on the scaffold. Lafayette himself was at this
-      time confined in an Austrian dungeon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Glorious was the freedom born of the French Revolution, but terrible was
-      the travail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D.: "His [Minister Monroe's] effort to secure the
-      release of Thomas Paine from imprisonment was a noteworthy transaction."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Released from prison at Monroe's intercession."&mdash;<i>Richard
-      Hildreth.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stanislaus Murray Hamilton: "Paine was liberated by the Committee of
-      General Surety in consequence of Monroe's assertion of his American
-      citizenship, and demand for his release; but he had suffered an
-      imprisonment of ten months and nine days before Monroe's generous and
-      manly aid reached him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We owe a debt of gratitude to James Monroe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He rescued Paine from prison and from death. When Paine was thought to be
-      dying, as a result of his imprisonment, the Monroes tenderly cared for him
-      in their own home and nursed him back to life and health. Washington's
-      apparent neglect of Paine, which for nearly a century rested as a deep
-      stain upon an otherwise fair name, filled Paine with astonishment and
-      grief and caused him to write that bitter letter of reproach. It is now
-      known that this seeming indifference of Washington was due to the
-      treachery of Monroe's predecessor, Gouverneur Morris.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A. Outram Sherman: "It is a long story, how his secret instructions
-      conflicted with Paine's hearty and open love for America's ally, how
-      Morris virtually acquiesced in his imprisonment by Robespierre as a
-      foreigner, how Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded Paine's
-      release as an American, and how he misled Paine to believe that Washington
-      had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nelson's Encyclopedia, in its article on Paine, says: "It seems clear that
-      his imprisonment was in part the result of a discreditable intrigue to
-      which Gouverneur Morris, the American minister, was a party."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madison, in a letter to Jefferson, dated January 10, 1796, referring to
-      Paine's letter to Washington, says: "It appears that the neglect to claim
-      him as an American citizen when confined by Robespierre, or even to
-      interfere in any way whatever in his favor, has filled him with an
-      indelible rancor against the President, to whom it appears he has written
-      on the subject. His letter to me is in the style of a dying one, and we
-      hear that he is since dead of the abscess in his side, brought on by his
-      imprisonment."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to his letter to Washington, Dr. Conway says: "It was the
-      natural outcry of an ill and betrayed man to one whom we now know to have
-      been also betrayed. Its bitterness and wrath measure the greatness of the
-      love that was wounded."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen: "That he was estranged from Washington through
-      the malicious representations of others is one of the sad episodes of our
-      national life."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Thibaudeau: "It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of
-      justice. I reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty&mdash;Thomas
-      Paine. My reclamation is for a man who has honored his age by his energy
-      in defense of the rights of humanity, and who is so gloriously
-      distinguished by his part in the American Revolution....I demand that he
-      be recalled to the bosom of this Convention."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was unanimously restored to his seat in the Convention."&mdash;<i>International
-      Encyclopedia.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel P. Putnam: "Paine was self-centered. He could stand alone, like a
-      mighty rock, with seas and storms breaking upon him. Not Mirabeau, not
-      Danton, shone with a more brilliant genius, nor towered with more rugged
-      strength and grandeur.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine represented the immortal part of the Revolution.... Voltaire
-      emphasized justice, Rousseau emphasized liberty; Paine emphasized both
-      liberty and justice."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      One of the strongest proofs of Paine's transcendent greatness is the fact
-      that while nearly all the leaders of the Revolution&mdash;even Danton&mdash;were
-      swept from their moorings by this volcanic upheaval, Paine's career
-      throughout was characterized by wisdom, moderation, and a moral courage
-      that was truly sublime.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Curtis:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "When France shall lift her banners fair,
-     And brighter hopes shall dawn once more,
-     In counting up her jewels rare
-     She'll not forget the days of yore.
-     For when the name of Lafayette
-     Shall summon others in its train,
-     There's one she never will forget&mdash;
-     The author-hero, Thomas Paine."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Isaac F. Russell, LL.D.: "Paine was one of the immortals who worked
-      for liberty in three countries, America, France and England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Frederick May Holland: "He sought to establish the rights of man in France
-      and England as well as in America. In two of these three countries his
-      work seemed almost fruitless a hundred years ago; but the nineteenth
-      century has given him as complete a victory in England and France as he
-      achieved in the United States. These three great nations now stand side by
-      side as the bulwarks of freedom."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. George W. Julian: "If any man among the illustrious characters' of
-      'the times that tried men's souls' is to be singled out as the real father
-      of American Democracy, it is Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord Beaconsfield (to Gladstone): "How does your reform government differ
-      from that of Thomas Paine, except that the sovereign is left in name?"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Today the student of political history may find... in Paine's ['Rights of
-      Man'] the living Constitution of Great Britain."&mdash;Dr. Conway.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alexander Dumas: "It is not the liberty of France alone that I [Dr.
-      Gilbert, i. e., Paine] dream of; it is the liberty of the whole world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alice Hubbard: "England, France and America were made more noble, more
-      intelligent, more civilized, by the work Thomas Paine did for each country
-      and for all countries."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      T. B. Wakeman: "The Father of Republics." "All these glories of three
-      great peoples were obtained by revolutions that were fought by a war of
-      feelings and thoughts before they came to arms; and in that primal war of
-      thoughts and words Thomas Paine was the most known of men and the actual
-      leader&mdash;the Author Hero."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The republic&mdash;as we now all use that word&mdash;the true modern
-      republic, in and by which government based upon the consent of all, and
-      administered by the cooperation of all, for the protection and benefit of
-      all, was not known among men until it was originated by Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The so-called 'republics' of antiquity and the Middle Ages were only
-      oligarchies resting upon the slavery or serfdom of the masses, and in fact
-      the reverse of republics."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      National Encyclopedia (England): "Paine, from his first starting in public
-      life, was a Republican, uniformly consistent and apparently sincere."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Democratic movement of the last eighty years, be it a finality or
-      only a phase of progress toward a more perfect state, is the grand
-      historic fact of modern times, and Paine's name is intimately connected
-      with it."&mdash;<i>Atlantic Monthly, July, 1859</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "After contributing by one publication to the establishment of a
-      transatlantic republic in North America, he introduced, with astonishing
-      effect the doctrines of democratic government into the first states of
-      Europe."&mdash;<i>Edward Baines, LL.D.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'Invent printing,' wrote Carlyle, 'and you invent democracy.' Not quite
-      so! Invent a sort of writing which when printed shall be understood by the
-      people, then you invent democracy. And this, earlier and better than any
-      other man, is what Thomas Paine did."&mdash;<i>The Nation, London</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As the champion of popular power in opposition to the abuses of
-      monarchical government, Paine will always stand pre-eminent in the world."&mdash;<i>William
-      Cobbett.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker: "Thomas Paine dreamed the most glorious dream of
-      human freedom that ever enchanted the mind of man; fairer and sweeter than
-      lay under the broken marbles of Greece, brighter and better than was
-      buried with the dead eagles of Rome."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine stands between two epochs: the epoch of Kings and the epoch of Man.
-      To the King he said, 'The night is coming'; to Man he said, 'The day is
-      dawning.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      "AGE OF REASON" AND RECANTATION CALUMNY.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      L. K. Washburn: "Paine knew that he was marked for death. What did he do?
-      Did he try to escape? No! He sat down and wrote the 'Age of Reason.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine found the world cursed with two great evils, kingcraft and
-      priestcraft, twin vultures that from the earliest ages have fed upon the
-      vitals of humanity. In his "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" kingcraft
-      was dealt the deadliest blows that it has yet received. He had resolved to
-      strike a blow at priestcraft before he died. Seeing imprisonment and death
-      approaching he hurried to his task. The first part of his immortal work
-      was finished six hours before the summons came.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The second part, it is generally believed, was written during his
-      confinement in the Luxembourg. And here, undoubtedly, it was planned and
-      at least a part of it composed. It was probably finished, and it was
-      published, while he lived with James Monroe, after his release from
-      prison. This, briefly, is the history of the conception and birth of this,
-      the last and greatest of Paine's three great intellectual children.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Just before his arrest he had finished the first part of the 'Age of
-      Reason.'... While in prison he worked upon the second part."&mdash;<i>International
-      Encyclopedia.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Encyclopedia Americana: "It [first part] was published in London and in
-      Paris in 1794. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and in 1795
-      published at Paris the second part of the 'Age of Reason.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Francois Lanthenas: "I delivered to Merlin de Thionville a copy of the
-      last work of T. Paine, formerly our colleague.... I undertook its
-      translation before the Revolution [Reign of Terror] against priests, and
-      it was published in French about the same time."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      People's Cyclopedia: "During his imprisonment he wrote the 'Age of Reason'
-      (second part) against Atheism and against Christianity, and in favor of
-      Deism."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, which was
-      published after his release, represents the Deism of the 18th century."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia
-      Britannica.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McClintock and Strong's Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical
-      Cyclopedia: "The religion which Paine [in his 'Age of Reason'] proposed to
-      substitute for Christianity was the belief in one God as revealed by
-      science; in immortality as the continuance of conscious existence; in the
-      natural equality of man; and in the obligation of justice and mercy to
-      one's neighbor."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rufus Rockwell Wilson: "Of all epoch-making books the one most
-      persistently misrepresented and misunderstood."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. M. van der Weyde: "The total knowledge possessed by many persons
-      concerning Paine is that 'he was an Atheist'&mdash;which he was not."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. William J. Gaynor: "What a strange thing it is that that
-      extraordinary man was so long set down as an Atheist. Some people still
-      think that he was an Atheist. And yet no man ever had a fuller belief in
-      the existence of God, or a greater reliance upon him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington Times: "It is not at all difficult to find out whether or not
-      Thomas Paine was an Atheist. All one has to do to discover his opinion on
-      the subject is to go to any bookstore or circulating library, ask for his
-      best known work, the 'Age of Reason,' and read the first page:"'I believe
-      in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was, in fact, no more an Atheist than William Penn, Roger Williams or
-      Ralph Waldo Emerson."&mdash;<i>New York World.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In his "Age of Reason" the recognition of a Supreme Being is made more
-      than two hundred times.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Daniel Freeman: "There has never been a believer in God if Thomas
-      Paine was not a believer in God."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Charles Alfred Martin (Roman Catholic): "Thomas Paine while not a
-      Christian, was not an Atheist. His biographers declare that he penned his
-      most famous book to stem with its Deism the tide of Atheism which flooded
-      France at the time of the Revolution."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Major J. Weed Cory: "Thomas Paine was not an Atheist. He wrote against
-      Atheism, and Trinitarians will soon be appealing to his works to prove the
-      existence of a God."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry C. Wright: "Thomas Paine had a clear idea of God. This Being
-      embodied his highest conception of truth, love, wisdom, mercy, liberty and
-      power."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was accursed as an Atheist and hunted and maligned by institutional
-      religion for writing a book in defense of God."&mdash;<i>W. M. van der
-      Weyde.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Rowley: "His 'Age of Reason' was written as much in defense of God
-      as in opposition to the church. He could not believe that God was guilty
-      of the cruelties and crimes which the writers of the Bible attributed to
-      him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Age of Reason' was the protest of a highly moral man against the
-      doings of a deeply immoral God."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lucy N. Colman: "Thomas Paine's God was justice."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Bishop Watson: "There is a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas
-      when speaking of the Creator of the universe."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The work of orthodox religious teachers, unwittingly to many, is confined
-      chiefly to the propagation of fictions and the suppression of facts. The
-      Christian who has been surprised to learn that Paine was not an Atheist,
-      may be equally surprised to learn that his great compeers, Washington,
-      Jefferson and Franklin, were not Christians, but like him, Deists.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington, who has been claimed by the Episcopal church, was like Paine a
-      Deist: His wife was a communicant of this church. During his eight years
-      incumbency of the Presidency, and during the Revolution, and at other
-      times when Mrs. Washington was with him in Philadelphia, he attended, but
-      not regularly, the Episcopal churches of which Bishop White, father of the
-      Episcopal church of America, and the Rev. Dr. Abercrombie were rectors.
-      When Bishop White was asked if Washington had ever communed he replied:
-      "Truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington never received the
-      communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister"&mdash;<i>Memoir
-      of Bishop White,</i> pp. 196, 197. The <i>Western Christian Advocate</i>
-      accepts this testimony as conclusive. It says: "Bishop White seems to have
-      had more intimate relations with Washington than any clergyman of his
-      time. His testimony outweighs any amount of influential argumentation on
-      the question."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Abercrombie says: "On sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington,
-      immediately after the desk and pulpit services went out with the greater
-      part of the congregation&mdash;always leaving Mrs. Washington with the
-      other communicants."&mdash;<i>Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit</i>,
-      vol. v., p. 394.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Fearing the effect of Washington's example Dr. Abercrombie administered a
-      mild reproof. Washington, he says, "never afterwards came on the morning
-      of sacramental Sunday."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Regarding Washington's conduct in Virginia, the Rev. Beverly Tucker, D.D.,
-      of the Episcopal church, says: "The General was accustomed on Communion
-      Sundays to leave the church with her [Nellie Custis, his
-      step-granddaughter], sending back the carriage for Mrs. Washington."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Rev. William Jackson, who was at a later, period, rector of this
-      church, conducted an exhaustive search to discover if possible some
-      evidence of Washington once having communed. His search was futile. He
-      says: "I find no one who ever communed with him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Early in the last century the Rev. E. D. Neill, a prominent clergyman of
-      the Episcopal church, contributed to the Episcopal <i>Recorder</i>, the
-      organ of the Episcopal church, an article on Washington's religion.
-      Regarding Washington's church membership he says: "The President was not a
-      communicant, notwithstanding all the pretty stories to the contrary, and
-      after the close of the sermon on Sacramental Sundays, had fallen into the
-      habit of retiring from the church while his wife remained and communed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The foregoing testimony in disproof of the claim that Washington was a
-      communicant, conclusive as it is, is not needed. His own testimony is
-      sufficient. To Dr. Abercrombie he declared that "<i>he had never been a
-      communicant.</i>"&mdash;Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v.,
-      p. 394.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      During the presidential campaign of 1880, the Christian Union, at that
-      time the leading church paper of this country, made the frank admission
-      that of the nineteen men who up to that time had held the office of
-      President of the United States, not one, with the possible exception of
-      Washington, had been a member of a Christian church. And Washington, as we
-      have seen, cannot be made an exception.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There is nothing to show that he [Washington] was ever a member of the
-      church."&mdash;<i>St. Louis Globe.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He [Washington] belonged to no church."&mdash;<i>Western Christian
-      Advocate.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In all the voluminous writings of General Washington, the Holy name of
-      Jesus Christ is never once written."&mdash;<i>Catholic World</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In several thousand letters the name of Jesus Christ never appears, and
-      it is notably absent from his last will."&mdash;<i>General A. W. Greeley
-      in Ladies' Home Journal for April, 1896.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It has been confidently stated to me that he actually refused spiritual
-      aid when it was proposed to send for a clergyman."&mdash;<i>Robert Dale
-      Owen</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, president of Princeton College, signer of the
-      Declaration of Independence, member of Congress, and chaplain to Congress
-      during Washington's administration, says: "Like nearly all the founders of
-      the Republic, he [Washington] was not a Christian, but a Deist." "He had
-      no belief at all in the divine origin of the Bible."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      During Jackson's administration the Rev. Dr. Wilson, a noted Presbyterian
-      divine of Albany, preached a famous sermon on "The Religion of the
-      Presidents," which was published and had a wide circulation. Dr. Wilson
-      showed that of the seven men who up to that time had been elected
-      president, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy
-      Adams, and Jackson, not one had professed a belief in Christianity. In his
-      search for evidence he visited the Washingtons' old pastor, Dr.
-      Abercrombie. In answer to Dr. Wilson's inquiry concerning Washington's
-      religious belief Dr. Abercrombie's emphatic answer was, "Sir, Washington
-      was a Deist." As a result of his investigation Dr. Wilson says: "I think
-      anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion
-      that he [Washington] was a Deist and nothing more."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Everyone is familiar with the story of Washington's praying at Valley
-      Forge. This is a pure fiction. Intelligent Christians reject it. The Rev.
-      E. D. Neill, of the Episcopal church, whose father's uncle owned the
-      building occupied by Washington at Valley Forge, says: "With the capacious
-      and comfortable house at his disposal, it is hardly possible that the shy,
-      silent, cautious Washington should leave such retirement and enter the
-      leafless woods, in the vicinity of the winter encampment of an army and
-      engage in audible prayer."&mdash;<i>Episcopal Recorder</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alluding to this subject, the Rev. Dr. Minot J. Savage, in a sermon, said:
-      "The pictures that represent him on his knees in the winter forest at
-      Valley Forge are silly caricatures."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Conway, who was employed to edit Washington's letters, and who is
-      considered one of the best authorities on his domestic life, says: "Many
-      clergymen visited him, but they were never invited to hold family prayers,
-      and no grace was ever said at table."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington's library contained the Deistical works of Paine, Voltaire and
-      other Freethinkers. When the French Freethinker Volney visited this
-      country he was the guest of Washington.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His services as a vestryman had no special significance from a religious
-      standpoint. The political affairs of a Virginia county were then directed
-      by the vestry, which, having the power to elect its own members, was an
-      important instrument of the oligarchy of Virginia."&mdash;<i>General A. W.
-      Greeley in Ladies' Home Journal.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Wilson, whose ancestors occupied the pew next to Washington's in
-      Virginia, says.: "At that time the vestry was the county court, and in
-      order to have a hand in managing the affairs of the county, in which his
-      large property lay, regulating the levy of taxes, etc., Washington had to
-      be a vestryman."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jefferson was a more radical Freethinker than Paine, as the following
-      passages from his writings will show. My quotations are from Randolph's
-      edition of Jefferson's works, published in 1829.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to his nephew and ward, Peter Carr, while at school, Jefferson
-      writes: "Read the Bible as you would Livy or Tacitus... Fix reason firmly
-      in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question
-      with boldness even the existence of a God."&mdash;<i>Jefferson's Works,
-      Vol. ii, P. 217.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The God of the Old Testament, the God that Christians worship, Jefferson
-      pronounces "a being of terrific character&mdash;cruel, vindictive,
-      capricious, and unjust."&mdash;<i>Works, vol. iv, p. 325.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the Four Gospels, which Christians consider the most authentic and the
-      most important books of the Bible, Jefferson discovers what he terms "a
-      groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions,
-      fanaticisms, and fabrications."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his
-      biographers [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John], I find many passages of fine
-      imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and
-      others, again, of so much ignorance, of so much absurdity, so much untruth
-      and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions
-      should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold
-      from the dross, restore to him the former, and leave the latter to the
-      stupidity of some and the roguery of others of his disciples."&mdash;<i>Works,
-      vol. iv. p. 320.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jefferson made a compilation of the finer alleged sayings of Jesus which
-      have been published and paraded as proof of Jefferson's acceptance of
-      Christ. For the man Jesus, Jefferson, like Paine, Ingersoll and other
-      Freethinkers, had the greatest admiration, but for the Christ Jesus of
-      orthodox Christianity he had the greatest contempt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Corypheus, and
-      first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."&mdash;<i>Vol. iv. p. 327.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in
-      the Platonic mysticism that three are one and one is three... But this
-      constitutes the craft, the power and profit of the priests. Sweep away
-      their gossamer fabrics of fictitious religion and they would catch no more
-      flies."&mdash;<i>Ibid, p. 205.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to
-      every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw in the
-      mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up an artificial
-      system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting
-      controversy, give employment for their order and introduce it to profit,
-      power and preeminence."&mdash;<i>Ibid, p. 242.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body
-      and three heads had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
-      thousands of martyrs."&mdash;<i>Ibid, p. 360.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
-      Being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the
-      fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."&mdash;<i>Ibid,
-      p. 365.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women.
-      They have their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by
-      their priests and sometimes by a henpecked husband, they pour forth the
-      effusions of their love to Jesus in terms as amatory and carnal as their
-      modesty would permit to a mere earthly lover."&mdash;<i>Ibid, p. 358.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Jefferson occupied his Sundays at Monticello in writing letters to Paine
-      (they are unpublished I believe, but I have seen them) in favor of the
-      probabilities that Christ and his Twelve Apostles were only
-      personifications of the sun and the Twelve signs of the Zodiac."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The correspondence of Jefferson and Paine would fill a volume. In these
-      letters Jefferson unbosomed himself and gave expression to his most
-      radical sentiments. Randolph's edition of Jefferson's works was published
-      twenty years after Paine's death. By this time the Orthodox ghouls had
-      about completed their work and these letters, although containing some of
-      Jefferson's most mature thoughts and best writings, remained unpublished.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to Dr. Woods, Jefferson says: "I have recently been examining
-      all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our
-      particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all
-      alike, founded upon fables and mythologies." "Millions of innocent men,
-      women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been
-      burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch
-      toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half
-      the world fools, and the other half hypocrites."&mdash;<i>Jefferson's
-      Notes on Virginia.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Writing to Jefferson on the 5th of May, 1817, John Adams, giving
-      expression to the matured conviction of eighty-two years, says: "This
-      would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it."
-      To this radical declaration Jefferson replied: "If by religion we are to
-      understand sectarian dogmas in which no two of them agree, then your
-      declaration on that hypothesis is just, 'that this would be the best of
-      worlds, if there were no religion in it.'"&mdash;<i>Works, vol. iv. p.
-      301.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Writing to John Adams just before his death Jefferson makes the following
-      declaration of his belief: "I am a Materialist."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A question has been raised as to Thomas Jefferson's religious views.
-      There need be no question, for he has settled that himself. He was an
-      Infidel, or, as he chose to term it, a Materialist. By his own account he
-      was as heterodox as Colonel Inger-soll, and in some respects even more
-      so."&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alluding to Jefferson's belief the Rev. Dr. Wilson in his sermon on "The
-      Religion of the Presidents," previously quoted, says: "Whatever difference
-      of opinion there may have been at the time [of his election], it is now
-      rendered certain that he was a Deist.... Since his death, and the
-      publication of Randolph, [Jefferson's Works], there remains not the shadow
-      of doubt of his Infidel principles. If any man thinks there is, let him
-      look at the book itself. I do not recommend the purchase of it to any man,
-      for it is one of the most wicked and dangerous books extant."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In religion he was a Freethinker; in morals pure and unspotted."&mdash;<i>Benson
-      J. Lossing, in his "Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of
-      Independence!'</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Surely, Christians, your cause must be growing desperate, when, to
-      sustain it, you must needs claim for its support so bitter an enemy as
-      Thomas Jefferson&mdash;a man who affirmed that he was a Materialist; a man
-      who recognized in your religion only "our particular superstition," a
-      superstition without "one redeeming feature;" a man who divided the
-      Christian world into two classes&mdash;"hypocrites and fools;" a man who
-      asserted that your Bible is a book abounding with "vulgar ignorance;" a
-      man who termed your Father, Son, and Holy Ghost a "hocus-pocus phantasm;"
-      a man who denounced your God as "cruel, vindictive, and unjust;" a man who
-      intimated that your Savior was "a man of illegitimate birth;" a man who
-      declared his disciples, including your oracle Paul, to be a "band of dupes
-      and impostors and who characterized your modern priesthood, of all
-      denominations, as cannibal priests" and an "abandoned confederacy" against
-      public happiness."&mdash;<i>The Fathers of Our Republic.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Franklin rejected Christianity when a boy and remained a Rationalist to
-      the end of his life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Some volumes against deism fell into my hands. They were said to be the
-      substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lecture. It happened that they
-      produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was intended by the
-      writers; for the arguments of the deists, which were cited in order to be
-      refuted, appealed to me much more forcibly than the refutation itself. In
-      a word I soon became a thorough Deist."&mdash;<i>Franklin's Autobiography.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Writing to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, when he was
-      eighty-four, he says: "I have with most of the Dissenters in England,
-      doubts as to his [Christ's] divinity."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree and
-      eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such a reward.... I have
-      not the vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect, or the ambition
-      to desire it."&mdash;<i>Franklin's Works, vol. vii., p. 75.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I wish it [Christianity] were more productive of good works than I have
-      generally seen it. I mean real good works, works of kindness, charity,
-      mercy, and public spirit, not holy-day keeping, sermon hearing and
-      reading, performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled with
-      flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much less
-      capable of pleasing the Deity."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Nowadays we have scarcely a little parson that does not think it the duty
-      of every man within his reach to sit under his petty ministration, and
-      that whoever omits this offends God. To such I wish more humility."&mdash;<i>Franklin's
-      Works, vol. vii. pp. 76,77.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the
-      Christian religion," affirmed Washington (treaty with Tripoli). "Keep the
-      church and the state forever separate," said Grant (Des Moines speech).
-      And yet, in spite of this declaration and this admonition religious
-      liberty has been ignored and a practical union of church and state has
-      been maintained&mdash;the exemption of ecclesiastical property from
-      taxation, the employment of chaplains, appropriations for sectarian
-      purposes, religious services, including the use of the Bible, in our
-      public schools, the appointment of religious festivals, the judicial oath
-      and the enforced observance of Sunday as a Sabbath. Concerning these and
-      similar privileges of his time and of our time, Franklin says: "I think
-      they were invented not so much to secure religion as the emoluments of it.
-      When a religion is good I conceive it will support itself; and when it
-      does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that
-      its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a
-      sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."&mdash;<i>Franklin's Works,
-      vol. viii., p. 506.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Theodore Parker, in his "Four Historic Americans," writes as follows
-      concerning Franklin's belief: "If belief in the miraculous revelation of
-      the Old Testament and the New is required to make a man religious, then
-      Franklin had no religion at all. It would be an insult to say that he
-      believed in the popular theology of his time, or of ours, for I find not a
-      line from his pen indicating any such belief."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The eminent statesman John Hay, in an article on "Franklin in France,"
-      published after his death in the <i>Century Magazine</i> for January,
-      1906, ascribes much of Franklin's popularity in France to his espousal of
-      Freethought. He says: "Franklin became the fashion of the season. For the
-      court dabbled a little in liberal ideas. So powerful was the vast impulse
-      of Freethought that then influenced the mind of France&mdash;that
-      susceptible French mind, that always answers like the wind harp to the
-      breath of every true human aspiration&mdash;that even the highest classes
-      had caught the infection of liberalism." Among Franklin's most intimate
-      companions in France Mr. Hay mentions Voltaire, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, and
-      Condorcet, four of France's most radical Freethinkers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Franklin and Dr. Priestley were intimate friends. After Franklin's
-      death Dr. Priestley wrote: "It is much to be lamented that a man of
-      Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an
-      unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make
-      others unbelievers."&mdash;<i>Priestley's Autobiography, p. 60.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This great man was himself denounced as an Infidel. He was a Unitarian,
-      and was mobbed and driven from England on account of his heretical
-      opinions and his sympathy with the French Revolution. Franklin's
-      Infidelity must have been very pronounced to have provoked the censure of
-      Dr. Priestley.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There has been published a religious tract, entitled "Don't Unchain the
-      Tiger," which purports to be a letter from Franklin to Paine, advising him
-      not to publish his "Age of Reason." The only thing needed to cause a
-      rejection of this pious fiction is a knowledge of the fact that Franklin
-      had been dead nearly four years when the first page of Paine's book was
-      written. Besides, the opinions expressed in this book were the opinions of
-      Franklin. Paine's biographer, Dr. Conway, says: "Paine's deism differed
-      from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious." Franklin's
-      biographer, James Parton, says: "It ['Age of Reason'] contains not a
-      position which Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson and Theodore Parker would
-      have dissented from."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Rev. John Snyder, of St. Louis, says: "Paine shared the religious
-      convictions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin."
-      Concerning the belief of these and other noted men, the Rev. Dr. Swing, of
-      Chicago, says: "Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Pitt, Burke, Washington, Lafayette,
-      Jefferson, Paine and Franklin moved along in a wonderful unity of belief,
-      both political and religious."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine wrote the 'Age of Reason' in Paris some years after Franklin was
-      dead.... The letter called the letter of Franklin to Paine bears no
-      address or date or signature. It may not have been written by Franklin to
-      anybody. The evangelists who cite this letter intend to convey the
-      impression that the 'Tiger' means unbelief. The indication is that the
-      writer had in his mind the beast of fanaticism and detraction. That tiger
-      was let loose by the 'Age of Reason' against its author, and the animal
-      and its whelps are still with us."&mdash;<i>George E. Macdonald.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Another Franklin myth is that concerning Franklin's motion for prayers in
-      the Convention that framed our Constitution. The Convention, it is
-      claimed, had labored for weeks without accomplishing anything when, at
-      Franklin's suggestion, its sessions were opened with prayer, after which
-      its work was speedily performed. While Franklin's proposal was not
-      inconsistent with his Deistic belief it was not adopted. There was not a
-      prayer offered from the opening to the close of the Convention. Franklin
-      himself says: "The Convention, except three or four persons, thought
-      prayers unnecessary."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine were four of the greatest and
-      noblest of men. All held substantially the same religious opinions. All
-      were Deists. All rejected Christianity. Yet Washington, Jefferson and
-      Franklin are held in grateful remembrance, while Paine has been reviled as
-      no other man has been reviled. How do we account for this? Paine's mere
-      rejection of Christianity does not account for it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The "Age of Reason" was suppressed by the government in England. In
-      America it could not be suppressed by law. The only way the clergy could
-      suppress it here was to resort to slander, to cover its author's name with
-      obloquy and make him appear so vile that no respectable bookseller would
-      dare to sell it and no respectable reader dare to read it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In England it was easy for Paine's chief antagonist, the bishop of
-      Llandaff [Watson] to rebuke Paine's strong language, when his lordship
-      could sit serenely in the House of Peers with knowledge that his opponent
-      was answered with handcuffs for every Englishman who sold his book. But in
-      America slander had to take the place of handcuffs."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry A. Beers: "His book was denounced from a hundred pulpits and copies
-      of it were carefully locked away from the sight of 'the young,' whose
-      religious beliefs it might undermine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James B. Elliott, of Philadelphia, says he well remembers the "time when
-      it was impossible to obtain the 'Age of Reason' except under cover of the
-      greatest secrecy and when he who was known to have read it was shunned as
-      a dangerous person."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hugh O. Pentecost: "Paine's offense was not that he was an Infidel, but
-      that he made his meaning so clear that the common people could become
-      Infidels, too."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is true that Paine was Republican and Deist, an enemy of kings and
-      churches. But many men of great and undimmed honor held the same
-      principles: Washington, Jefferson and Franklin and others of the 'Fathers'
-      were Deists, and in England that creed was even fashionable in certain
-      aristocratic quarters. Paine's real sin was not that he preached Deism in
-      the land of Bolingbroke, Hume and Gibbon,... but that he succeeded for the
-      first time in inoculating the people with his heresies."&mdash;<i>The
-      Nation, London.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Mimnermus," an English writer, says: "There were critics of the Bible, it
-      is true, before Paine's day, but they were mainly scholars whose works
-      were not easily understood by ordinary folk. Paine himself, a man of
-      genius, had sprung from the people, and he spoke their tongue and made
-      their thoughts articulate."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine held that the people at large had the right of access to all new
-      ideas, and he wrote so as to reach the people. Hence, his book must be
-      suppressed."&mdash;<i>Prof. J. B. Bury, LL.D.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John S. Crosby: "The reason why his writings are excluded from our
-      colleges is not on account of what he said about the <i>prophets</i>, but
-      for fear that the realization of his ideas may diminish the <i>profits</i>."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Recognizing the magic influence that a great name carries with it, the
-      clergy have inscribed in the Christian roster the names of hundreds who
-      were total disbelievers in their dogmas. As the venders of quack nostrums
-      attach the forged certificates of distinguished individuals to their
-      worthless drugs, to make them sell, so these theological venders present
-      the manufactured endorsements of the great to make their nostrums popular.
-      Washington, Jefferson and Franklin have all been denominated Christians,
-      not because they were such, for they were not, but because of the
-      influence that attaches to their names. Paine's opposition to priestcraft
-      was too pronounced and too well known to claim him as an adherent of their
-      faith, and so they have sought to destroy his influence by destroying his
-      good name. Not only this, knowing the prejudice that has prevailed against
-      Atheism, they have misrepresented his theological opinions and declared
-      him an Atheist."&mdash;<i>The Fathers of Our Republic.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This injustice to him was perpetrated in defense of a system that does
-      not care, because it does not dare to have its credentials and foundation
-      critically examined; in other words, Paine has been maligned for more than
-      a century by those interested in keeping veiled the image; he did what he
-      could&mdash;and it was much&mdash;to uncover to the gaze of the world."&mdash;<i>E.
-      C. Walker.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William M. Salter, A. M.: "It is to the shame of religious prejudice in
-      our country that he is not freely and gladly given his place alongside of
-      Franklin and Washington."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The rankest ingratitude the American people have ever exhibited has been
-      that of the systematic attempt to blot the name of Paine from the memory
-      of succeeding generations, and to allow no historical mention in the
-      annals of the nation which he greatly and gloriously helped to found. But
-      with the destruction of every error truth rises clear and bright. The time
-      will come when his picture will be as familiar to school children as those
-      of his great contemporaries, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin."&mdash;.
-      <i>J. B. Wilson.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pretended reviewers of Paine, including the authors of many encyclopedic
-      articles on Paine, writers who, for the most part, never read the "Age of
-      Reason," characterize it as crude and superficial, declare its arguments
-      to be weak and fallacious and its author to have had little or no
-      influence in changing the religious opinions of his time. It is a
-      sufficient answer to these critics to cite the fact that from thirty to
-      forty elaborate replies from Christian writers followed it in rapid
-      succession, each writer tacitly admitting that it needed answering and
-      that all preceding efforts to answer it had been failures.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's orthodox critics also affect to believe that his "Age of Reason"
-      is no longer read, that it is an "out of print" book for which there is no
-      demand. The fact is ever since the first London and Paris editions were
-      published in 1794 there has been a constant and widespread demand for it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Millions of copies have been printed and sold during this time, and today
-      the demand for it is greater than ever before.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. John W. Francis (referring to "Age of Reason"): "No work had the
-      demand for readers comparable to that of Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      One bookseller of New York says that his sales of the "Age of Reason" now
-      average more than five thousand copies a year. He is but one of many New
-      York booksellers who sell Paine's book, while New York is but one of many
-      cities where it has an extensive sale. A Chicago bookseller says that the
-      "Age of Reason" is his best seller, that he sells thousands of them every
-      year.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Heaford (1913): "Two large editions of forty thousand copies each
-      will be issued of this invaluable edition of Paine's great text book of
-      Biblical exegesis [by Watts &amp; Co., London]."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There were sold in Burma [mostly to Buddhists] over ten thousand copies
-      of the 'Age of Reason' last year."&mdash;<i>U. Dhamaloka, President
-      Buddhist Tract Society.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Arthur B. Moss: "During the past fifty years hundreds of thousands of
-      copies of the 'Age of Reason' have been circulated in England and America
-      alone.... The steady circulation of this work has done more than that of
-      any other book to undermine the faith of Christians in all parts of the
-      world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      H. Percy Ward (formerly an English clergyman): "Thomas Paine's 'Age of
-      Reason' gave the first shock to my faith."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wilson MacDonald: "I read the 'Age of Reason' when a boy, and I said,
-      Paine is the hero for me."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Susan H. Wixon: "I read that book again and again, and always with
-      increased interest. It set me to thinking more than any other bode I had
-      ever read."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Hiram Maxim: "It is indeed a very remarkable work. As a boy I read it
-      with great care; as a man I have read it thoughtfully."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James D. Shaw: "Of all the books ever published, I doubt if any other has
-      ever equaled the 'Age of Reason' in breaking from the human mind
-      superstition's fetters."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The effect of this pamphlet was vast."&mdash;<i>London Times.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edwin P. Whipple: "The most influential assailant of the orthodox faith
-      was Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Francis E. Abbot, Ph.D.: "His 'Age of Reason' was one of the greatest
-      historic blows ever struck for freedom. Paine's name ought to be written
-      in letters of gold in the roll of the world's heroes."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is still a living work, read by thousands, and carrying conviction
-      wherever it finds an open mind."&mdash;<i>James F. Morton, Jr.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Daniel Webster: "Mr. Girard got this provision of his will ('a school
-      unfettered by religious tenets') from Paine's 'Age of Reason.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paul Desjardines (referring to "Age of Reason"): "The book in which the
-      modern conscience first dared, without indirection and without sarcasm, to
-      set itself up as the judge of Christian tradition and laid the basis of a
-      purified religion reduced to the only beliefs which appeared necessary as
-      a foundation of fraternity among men."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eugene M. Macdonald: "The 'Age of Reason' is irrefutable in its arguments,
-      in its presentation of facts, in its analysis of the Bible, and absolutely
-      convincing to fair-minded men in its conclusions. It was the forerunner of
-      the Higher Criticism."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "During the past thirty years we have heard much of the Higher Criticism;
-      hundreds of learned men throughout Christendom have been investigating the
-      Bible.... These learned men, after working on the problem for many years,
-      have come to the exact conclusions that Thomas Paine arrived at so many
-      years ago."&mdash;<i>Sir Hiram Maxim.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was a precursor of such men as Colenso, and Robertson Smith, and a
-      large host of scholars besides."&mdash;<i>Rev. O. B. Frothingham.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is a singular tribute to his sagacity and common sense that every
-      material fact and conclusion stated by Paine in regard to the Bible has
-      been sustained by the explorations and increased learning since his day."&mdash;<i>T.
-      B. Wakeman.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Upon this theological treatise is founded all modern biblical criticism."&mdash;Elbert
-      Hubbard.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Frank: "There is nothing in the conclusions of the Higher Criticism
-      that Paine did not anticipate."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As to his anticipation of the Higher Criticism. that should be placed to
-      his credit."&mdash;<i>W. T. Stead.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Yorke (with Paine in England and France): "There is not a verse in
-      it [the Bible] that is not familiar to him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. P. Mendum: "As a critic and reviewer of the Bible his 'Age of Reason'
-      is unanswerable."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Leslie Stephen: "Paine's book announced a startling fact, against
-      which all the flimsy collections of conclusive proofs were powerless. It
-      amounted to a proclamation that the creed no longer satisfied the
-      instincts of cultivated scholars. When the defenders of the old orders
-      tried to conjure with the old charms, the magic had gone out of them. In
-      Paine's rough tones they recognized not the mere echo of coffee-house
-      gossip, but the voice of deep popular passion. Once and forever, it was
-      announced that, for the average mass of mankind, the old creed was dead."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elbert Hubbard: "As Paine's book 'Common Sense,' broke the power of Great
-      Britain in America, and the 'Rights of Man' gave free speech and a free
-      press to England, so did the 'Age of Reason' give pause to the juggernaut
-      of orthodoxy. Thomas Paine was the legitimate ancestor of Hosea Ballou who
-      founded the Universalist church, and of Theodore Parker who made
-      Unitarianism in America an intellectual torch. Channing, Ripley,' Bartol,
-      Martineau, Frothingham, Hale, Curtis, Collyer, Swing, Thomas, Conway,
-      Leonard, Savage, Crapsey, yes&mdash;even Emerson, and Thoreau, were
-      spiritual children, all, of Thomas Paine. He blazed the way and made it
-      possible, for men to preach the sweet reasonableness of reason. He was the
-      pioneer in a jungle of superstition."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Abraham Lincoln became and remained a disciple of Thomas Paine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Chicago Herald (Feb., 1892): "In 1834, at New Salem, Ill., Lincoln read
-      and circulated Vol-ney's 'Ruins' and Paine's 'Age of Reason,' giving to
-      both books the sincere recommendation of his unqualified approval."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. Ward H. Lamon (biographer of Lincoln): "He [Lincoln] had made himself
-      familiar with the writings of Paine and Volney&mdash;the 'Ruins' of the
-      one, and the 'Age of Reason' of the other,... and then wrote a deliberate
-      essay wherein he reached conclusions similar to theirs."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In this work he intended to demonstrate:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'Secondly, that Jesus was not the Son of God.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (Lincoln's work was never published.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "You insist on knowing something which you know I possess, and got as a
-      secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book on Infidelity. Mr.
-      Lincoln did tell me that he <i>did write a little book on Infidelity</i>"&mdash;<i>Col.
-      James H. Matheny, Lincoln's political manager in Illinois.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Ford Rhodes, LL.D.: "When Lincoln entered upon political life he
-      became reticent regarding his religious opinions, for at the age of
-      twenty-five, influenced by Thomas Paine,... he had written an extended
-      essay against Christianity."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. W. H. Herndon (law partner of Lincoln): "Paine became a part of Mr.
-      Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It was my good fortune to have had for some years an intimate
-      acquaintance with Lincoln's partner for twenty-two years. Mr. Herndon was
-      a man of academic education, and possessed a number of books that in that
-      day would be considered a good library, and he told me that the books of
-      his which fairly fascinated Lincoln were Volney's 'Ruins' and the works of
-      Thomas Paine, especially the latter, of which he had memorized many
-      pages."&mdash;Col. E. A. Stevens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. James Tuttle: "He [Lincoln] was one of the most ardent admirers of
-      Thomas Paine I ever met. He was continually quoting from the 'Age of
-      Reason.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It has been claimed that Lincoln changed his religious opinions after he
-      became President. In a letter, written May 27, 1865, Col. John G. Nicolay,
-      his private secretary, says: "Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any
-      way, change his religious ideas, opinions, or beliefs, from the time he
-      left Springfield till the day of his death."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Leonard Swett, who placed Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency,
-      in answer to an inquiry from a friend, wrote as follows: "You ask me if
-      Lincoln changed his religion towards the close of his life. I think not."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Next to Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's biographer, Colonel Lamon, has made the
-      fullest and fairest presentation of Lincoln's religious opinions. He did
-      not accept them but he was familiar with them and he was honest enough to
-      present them. In Illinois he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln. When
-      the time approached for Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and the
-      journey from Springfield to Washington was deemed a dangerous one, to
-      Colonel Lamon was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him to the
-      national capital. During the eventful years that followed he remained at
-      the President's side, holding an important official position in the
-      District of Columbia. When Lincoln was assassinated, at the great funeral
-      pageant in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was, with Judge
-      David Davis and Major General Hunter, selected to convey the remains to
-      their final resting-place at Springfield. Regarding his friend's religious
-      belief Colonel Lamon says: "Mr. Lincoln was never a member of any church,
-      nor did he believe in the divinity of Christ or the inspiration of the
-      scriptures in the sense understood by evangelical Christians" (Life of
-      Lincoln, p. 486). indefinite expressions about 'Divine Providence,' the
-      'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,' were easy and not
-      inconsistent with his religious notions. In this accordingly he indulged
-      freely; but never in all that time [1834 to his death] did he let fall
-      from his lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied the
-      slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of men (Ibid, p.
-      502).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After Lincoln's death Mrs. Lincoln, herself a Christian, made the
-      following statement: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope, and no faith, in the usual
-      acceptation of those words" (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 489).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Judge David Davis, his life-long friend and his executor, says: "He
-      [Lincoln] had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lincoln did not believe in a personal God. His law partner, W. H. Herndon,
-      relates the following in proof of this: In 1854 he asked me to erase the
-      word <i>God</i> from a speech which I had written and read to him for
-      criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas he
-      insisted that no such personality ever existed."&mdash;<i>Lamon's Life of
-      Lincoln, p. 445.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Gettysburg address, as delivered by Lincoln, contained no mention of
-      Deity. The phrase "under God" was inserted afterward, with Lincoln's
-      consent, at the earnest solicitation of a friend. The recognition of God
-      in the Emancipation Proclamation was inserted at the urgent request of
-      Secretary Chase. The pious phrases to be found in his state papers are
-      mostly the work of his cabinet ministers and secretaries.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thirty years ago Judge James M. Nelson, a son of Thomas Pope Nelson, a
-      distinguished statesman of Kentucky, and a great-grandson of Thomas
-      Nelson, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was intimately
-      acquainted with Lincoln, both in Illinois and at Washington, published in
-      the Louisville <i>Times</i> his "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln."
-      Concerning Lincoln's religious belief Judge Nelson says:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In religion Mr. Lincoln was of about the same belief as Colonel
-      Ingersoll, and there is no account of his ever having changed. He went to
-      church a few times with his family while he was President, but so far as I
-      have been able to find he remained an unbeliever.... I asked him once
-      about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being an
-      unbeliever in what was published. 'Oh,' said he, '<i>that is some of
-      Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools!</i>"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. Amos C. Babcock, for many years chairman of the Illinois State
-      Republican Committee, and one of Lincoln's confidential agents during the
-      war, in an article published in the Peoria <i>Journal</i>, says: "Lincoln
-      was an Agnostic. During the war he sometimes talked religiously, but it
-      was mere statecraft. He knew that everything depended upon his having the
-      support of the religious people,... but he was for all that an utter
-      disbeliever in the Christian religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In Springfield, where he lived, Lincoln's rejection of Christianity was
-      known to every person and while he was very popular and greatly beloved by
-      all who were not dominated by their religious prejudices, the bigots
-      always opposed him. During the presidential campaign of 1860 his friends
-      made a canvass of the voters of Springfield for the purpose of
-      ascertaining how they were going to vote for president. The list was given
-      to Lincoln. With Hon. Newton Bateman, state superintendent of public
-      instruction, he went over it carefully, his principal desire being to know
-      how the clergy were going to vote. When they had finished Lincoln said:
-      "Here are twenty-three ministers, of different denominations, and all of
-      them are against me but three; and here are a great many prominent'
-      members of the churches, a very great majority of whom are against me."&mdash;<i>Holland's
-      Life of Lincoln, p. 236.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Why, it may be asked, was Lincoln's Infidelity not used against him
-      everywhere in this campaign? Because the managers of both parties knew
-      that Douglas, also, was a disbeliever in Christianity. An agitation of
-      this question would have weakened the chances of both northern candidates
-      while it would have strengthened the chances of Breckinridge, the southern
-      candidate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lincoln did not believe in prayer. All the stories about his praying,
-      without a single exception, are pure inventions. Let me cite an example.
-      After Lincoln's death the <i>Western Christian Advocate</i> published the
-      following story, a companion piece to Washington's prayer at Valley Forge:
-      "On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, as we learn from a
-      friend intimate with the late President Lincoln, the cabinet meeting was
-      held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the President nor any member was
-      able, for a time, to give utterance to his feelings. At the suggestion of
-      Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their knees, and offered in silence and in
-      tears their humble and heartfelt acknowledgment to the Almighty for the
-      triumph he had granted to the national cause."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In reply to an inquiry respecting the authenticity of this story Hugh
-      McCulloch, Lincoln's last secretary of the treasury, wrote as follows:
-      "The description of what occurred at the Executive Mansion, when the
-      intelligence was received of the surrender of the Confederate forces,
-      which you quote from the <i>Western Christian Advocate</i>, is not only
-      absolutely groundless, but absurd. After I became Secretary of the
-      Treasury I was present at every Cabinet meeting, and I never saw Mr.
-      Lincoln or any of his ministers upon his knees or in tears."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Our works of art are mostly mythological. And this is true of Christian
-      art, as it is true of Christian theology. The Washington myth is now
-      preserved in bronze, and the Lincoln myth will some day find expression on
-      canvas.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Herndon says: "It is my opinion that no man ever heard Mr. Lincoln pray in
-      the true evangelical sense of that word. His philosophy is against all
-      human prayer as a means of reversing God's decrees."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The partnership of Lincoln and Herndon was formed in 1843. It was
-      dissolved by the assassin's bullet in 1865. The love of these men for each
-      other was like the love of Damon and Pythias. To the moral character of
-      his illustrious partner Mr. Herndon pays this tribute: "The benevolence of
-      his impulses., the seriousness of his convictions, and the nobility of his
-      character, are evidences unimpeachable that his soul was ever filled with
-      the exalted purity and the sublime faith of natural religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lincoln's religion was the religion of Thomas Paine. "To do good is my
-      religion," said Paine; "When I do good I feel good, and when I do bad I
-      feel bad," said Lincoln.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For thirty years the church endeavored to crush Lincoln, but when, in
-      spite of her malignant opposition, he achieved a glorious immortality,
-      this same church, to hide the mediocrity of her devotees, attempts to
-      steal his deathless name.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Six Historic Americans: "The Church claims all great men. But the truth
-      is, the great men of all nations have, for the most part, rejected
-      Christianity. Of these six historic Americans&mdash;the six greatest men
-      that have lived on this continent [Paine, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson,
-      Lincoln and Grant]&mdash;not one was a Christian. All were unbelievers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is popularly supposed that Paine was a very irreligious man, while
-      Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant were very religious.
-      The reverse of this is more nearly true. Paine, although not a Christian,
-      was a deeply religious man; while the others, though practicing the
-      loftiest morals, cared little for religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      ("Six Historic Americans" contains more than five hundred pages of
-      evidence in support of the fact that these six eminent men were all
-      disbelievers in orthodox Christianity, including the testimony of one
-      hundred witnesses, mostly friends and acquaintences, in proof of Lincoln's
-      unbelief.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Age of Reason' can now be estimated calmly. It was written from the
-      viewpoint of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but who
-      held that 'all religions are in their nature mild and benign' when not
-      associated with political systems."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia Britannica.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "All national institutions of churches&mdash;whether Jewish, Christian or
-      Turkish&mdash;appear to me no other than human inventions set up to
-      terrify and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit."&mdash;<i>Age
-      of Reason.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Each of those churches show certain books which they call revelation, or
-      the word of God. The Jews say that their word of God was given by God to
-      Moses face to face; the Christians say that their word of God came by
-      divine inspiration; and the Turks say that their word of God (the Koran)
-      was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the
-      others of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's reason for rejecting the Bible is as logical as it is apparent. A
-      plurality of so-called divine revelations cannot be harmonized with the
-      attributes ascribed to. Deity. There are many Bibles. The world is divided
-      into various religious systems. The adherents of each system have their
-      sacred book, or Bible. Brahmins have the Vedas and Puranas, Buddhists the
-      Tripitaka, Zoroastrians the Zend Avesta, Confucians the King, Mohammedans
-      the Koran, and Christians the Holy Bible. The adherents of each claim that
-      their book is a revelation from God&mdash;that the others are spurious.
-      Now, if the Christian Bible were a revelation&mdash;if it were God's only
-      revelation, as affirmed&mdash;would he allow these spurious books to be
-      imposed upon mankind and delude the greater portion of his children?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A divine revelation intended for all mankind can be harmonized only with a
-      universal acceptance of this revelation. God, it is affirmed, has made a
-      revelation to the world. Those who receive and accept this revelation are
-      saved; those who fail to receive and accept it are lost. This God, it is
-      claimed, is all-powerful and all-just. If he is all-powerful he can give
-      his children a revelation. If he is all-just he will give this revelation
-      to all. He will not give it to a part of them and allow them to be saved
-      and withhold it from the others and suffer them to be lost. Your house is
-      on fire. Your children are asleep in their rooms. What is your duty? To
-      arouse them and rescue them&mdash;to awaken all of them and save all of
-      them. If you awaken and save only a part of them when it is in your power
-      to save them all, you are a fiend. If you stand outside and blow a trumpet
-      and say, "I have warned them, I have done my duty,", and they perish, you
-      are still a fiend. If God does not give his revelation to all; if he does
-      not disclose his divinity to all; in short, if he does not save all, he is
-      the prince of fiends.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If all the world's inhabitants but one accepted the Bible and there was
-      one who could not honestly accept it, its rejection by one human being
-      would prove that it is not from an all-powerful and an all-just God; for
-      an all-powerful God who failed to reach and convince even one of his
-      children would not be an all-just God. Has the Bible been given to all the
-      world? Do all accept it? Three-fourths of the human race reject it;
-      millions have never heard of it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The word of God is the creation we behold."&mdash;<i>Age of Reason</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word
-      of God can unite. The creation speaketh a universal language,
-      independently of human speech or human languages, multiplied and various
-      as they be. It is an ever-existing original which every man can read. It
-      cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot
-      be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of
-      man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end
-      of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds;
-      and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know
-      of God.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the
-      Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the
-      unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we
-      want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which
-      he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his
-      not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we
-      want to know what God is? Search not the book called the Scripture, which
-      any human hand might make, but the scripture called the Creation."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and
-      beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures.
-      That seeing as we daily do the goodness of God to all men, it is an
-      example calling upon all men to practice the same towards each other; and,
-      consequently, that everything of persecution and revenge between man and
-      man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy
-      and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."&mdash;Ibid.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a
-      child cannot be a true system."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content
-      myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that
-      gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he
-      pleases, either with or without this body."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It has been charged that Paine reviled Jesus in his book. He eulogized
-      Jesus. ''Three noble and pathetic tributes to the Man of Nazareth are
-      audible from the last century&mdash;those of Rousseau, Voltaire and
-      Paine."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant
-      disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and
-      amiable man. The morality that he preached was of the most benevolent
-      kind; and though similar Systems of morality had been preached by
-      Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers, many years before; by
-      the Quakers since, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been
-      exceeded by any.... But he preached also against the Jewish priests; and
-      this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of
-      priesthood."&mdash;<i>Age of Reason</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      History repeats itself. What is alleged to have been the fate of Jesus
-      was, in a measure, the fate of Thomas Paine. The penning of his honest
-      thoughts on religion caused his good name to be consigned to everlasting
-      infamy on earth and his soul doomed to endless misery in hell. The Jews
-      who are said to have demanded the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary and the
-      Catholics who burned Bruno at Rome are not more deserving of execration
-      than are the Protestant assassins of Paine's character in England and
-      America.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to Paine's examination and analysis of the Bible and his
-      criticisms of the church presented in the "Age of Reason," William
-      Thurston Brown, in a lecture, said: "He brought to that, examination and
-      analysis what almost no other mind in all the ages has brought: a mind
-      absolutely free, a soul absolutely incorruptible, a character unstained by
-      one act of compromise or treachery to friend or foe, a nature devoted, as
-      few natures in all history have been, to the truth, and, more than all, a
-      sense of the relation of moral and intellectual integrity to personal
-      character and social well-being never surpassed and seldom equaled."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      S. Kyd (counselor for Thomas Williams, imprisoned for publishing the "Age
-      of Reason"): "I defy the prosecution to find in the 'Age of Reason' a
-      single passage inconsistent with the most chaste, the most correct system
-      of morals."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. W. F. Jamieson: "I read from this famous book, the 'Age of Reason,'
-      as pure sentiments as were ever penned by mortal man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When I was a boy I was often told that the writings of Thomas Paine 'were
-      not fit for anybody to read.' My pastor said so, as did my Sunday school
-      teachers and my parents. None of these had ever read them or knew anything
-      about them....I believed them, and might still do so, had I not
-      accidentally encountered a copy of the 'Age of Reason.' Upon reading it I
-      found it to be as conventional as anything I had ever read in church or
-      Sunday school, to say nothing of its more lofty reasoning."&mdash;<i>Franklin
-      Steiner</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Encyclopedia Britannica says that "the 'Age of Reason' contains many
-      passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favor of a pure morality."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Its tone throughout is noble and reverent."&mdash;<i>Rufus Rockwell.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Chapman Cohen: "Assuming Paine to be alive today, with his opinions
-      unchanged, how much fault would he find with the teachings of many
-      preachers? Very little I fancy. But does this mean, or would it mean, that
-      Paine had become converted to Christianity? Not a bit of it. It would only
-      mean that Christianity had become converted to Paine. In its most advanced
-      form today, Christianity is little more than the eighteenth century Deism
-      it so bitterly opposed, with a liberal dash of the word 'Christ.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "What has become of the Bible that Paine attacked? So far as the mere
-      paper and type is concerned it is still here. But so tar as belief is
-      concerned, it is Paine's Bible that is believed in by the majority of
-      educated Christians."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. E. L. Rexford: "If Paine were now living he would be looked upon
-      by all enlightened clergymen and laymen as a very conservative critic of
-      the Christian religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. George Burman Foster (Gottingen and Chicago Universities): "What was
-      radical in regard to the Bible in his day would be conservative today."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. S. Fletcher Williams (England): "His principles were right, and today
-      an increasing number of religious teachers and religious minded men stand
-      only where he stood a century ago."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. T. A. Bland: "The principles of the 'Age of Reason' are embodied in
-      sermons&mdash;orthodox and radical&mdash;all over the country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Maddock:&mdash;
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "The work of Paine was done so well
-     The Church is now the Infidel."
-
-     "He triumphed&mdash;Bibles are revised,
-     Creeds change, and faiths decay,
-     The facts his bitter foes despised
-     Their children prize today."
-    &mdash;C. Fannie Aliyn.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Rev. William Channing Gannett, D.D.: "What wonder Thomas Paine wrote his
-      strong rank sarcasm! People should remember why he wrote it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Moncure D. Conway, LL.D.: "It ['Age of Reason'] represents, as no
-      elaborate treatise could, the agony and bloody sweat of a heart breaking
-      in the presence of crucified Humanity. What dear heads, what noble hearts
-      had that man seen laid low; what shrieks had he heard in the desolate
-      homes of the Condorcets, the Brissots; what Canaanite and Midianite
-      massacres had be seen before the altar of Brotherhood, erected by himself!
-      And all because every human being had been taught from his cradle that
-      there is something more sacred than humanity, and to which man should be
-      sacrificed. Of all those massacred thinkers not one voice remains: they
-      have gone silent: over their reeking guillotine sits the gloating Apollyon
-      of Inhumanity. But here is one man, a prisoner, preparing for his long
-      silence. He alone can speak for those slain between the throne and the
-      altar. In these outbursts of laughter and tears, these outcries that think
-      not of literary style, these appeals from surrounding chaos to the starry
-      realm of order, from the tribune of vengeance to the sun shining for all,
-      this passionate horror of cruelty in the powerful which will brave a
-      heartless heaven or hell with its immortal indignation,&mdash;in all these
-      the unfettered mind may hear the wail of enthralled Europe, sinking back
-      choked with its blood, under the chain it tried to break. So long as a
-      link remains of the same chain, binding reason or heart, Paine's 'Age of
-      Reason' will live. It is not a mere book&mdash;it is a man's heart."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edgar W. Howe: "The storm that arose over this book was never before
-      equaled: it will never be equaled again."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Bond (A surgeon belonging to General O'Hara's staff): "Mr. Paine while
-      hourly expecting to die, read to me parts of his 'Age of Reason'; and
-      every night when I left him, to be separately locked up, and expected not
-      to see him alive in the morning, he always expressed his firm belief in
-      the principles of that book, and begged I would tell the world such were
-      his dying opinions."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The doctrines and sentiments which it contains may justly be regarded as
-      the expressions of a dying man."&mdash;<i>D. M. Bennett.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When it [first part] appeared he was a prisoner; his life in Couthon's
-      hands. He had personally nothing to gain by its publication&mdash;neither
-      wife, child, nor relative to reap benefit by its sale. It was published as
-      purely for the good of mankind as any work ever written."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "While in prison he composed the second part, and as he expected every day
-      to be guillotined it was penned in the very presence of death."&mdash;<i>George
-      W. Foote.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine deserves whatever credit is due to absolute devotion to a creed
-      believed by himself to be demonstrably true and beneficial. He showed
-      undeniable courage, and is free from any suspicion of mercenary motives."&mdash;<i>Sir
-      Leslie Stephen.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Nixon and Captain Daniel Pelton: "All you have heard of his
-      recanting is false. Being aware that such reports would be raised after
-      his death by fanatics who infested his house at the time it was expected
-      he would die, we, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine, since the year
-      1776, went to his house&mdash;he was sitting up in a chair, and apparently
-      in the full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated him
-      on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind or repented of
-      anything he had said or written on that subject. He answered, 'Not at
-      all.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Francis O. Smith, M. C.: "I have just parted with Hon. Richard M.
-      Johnson, now a member of the House of Representatives [afterwards
-      Vice-President of the United States], who told me that he visited Thomas
-      Paine within the fortnight next preceding Paine's death; that he conversed
-      with Paine and expressed a hope that he might recover; that Paine replied
-      that he should shortly die, that he should never go out of his room again,
-      and requested him to say to Mr. Jefferson that he had not changed his
-      religious opinions in the slightest degree."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Walter Morton (with Paine when he died): "In his religious opinions he
-      continued to the last as steadfast and tenacious as any sectarian to the
-      definition of his own creed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Philip Graves: "He [Amasa Woodsworth] told me that he nursed Thomas
-      Paine in his last illness and closed his eyes when he was dead. I asked
-      him if he recanted and called upon God to save him. He replied, 'No. He
-      died as he had taught.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Randel, Jr. (orthodox Christian): "The very worthy mechanic, Amasa
-      Woodsworth, who saw Paine daily, told me there was no truth in such
-      report."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilbert Vale, who interviewed Mr. Woodsworth, says: "As an act of
-      kindness, Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before
-      his death; he frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last two
-      nights of his life.... Mr. Woodsworth assures us that he neither heard nor
-      saw anything to justify the belief of any mental change in the opinions of
-      Mr. Paine previous to his death."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The English writer, William Cobbett, a believer in Christianity, who lived
-      for a time in this country, and who made a thorough investigation of the
-      Paine calumnies, says: "Among other things said against this famous man is
-      that he recanted before he died; and that in his last illness he
-      discovered horrible fears of death.... It is a pure, unadulterated
-      falsehood."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cobbett, in 1819, announced his intention of publishing a biography of
-      Paine. Soon after a pious fanatic of New York, named Collins, attempted to
-      persuade him that Paine had recanted and begged him to state the fact in
-      his book. He had induced a disreputable woman, Mary Hinsdale, an opium
-      fiend, notorious for her lying propensities, to promise that she would
-      tell Cobbett that she had visited Paine during his illness and that he had
-      confessed to her his disbelief in the "Age of Reason" and expressed regret
-      for having published it. Cobbett saw at once that the whole thing was a
-      fraud. Collins, he says, "had a sodden face, a simper, and maneuvered his
-      features precisely like the most perfidious wretch that I have known."
-      However, he called on the woman. But her courage had forsaken her.
-      Concerning the result of his visit he says: "She shuffled; she evaded; she
-      equivocated; she warded off; she affected not to understand me." It was
-      afterward proven that she had not conversed with Paine; that she had never
-      seen him. But it did not need Cobbett's publication of the lie to secure
-      its acceptance by the church. The occupant of nearly every orthodox pulpit
-      was only too willing to publish it. This was the origin of the recantation
-      calumny.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Had Thomas Paine recanted, every citizen of New York would have heard of
-      it within twenty-four hours. The news of it would have spread to the
-      remotest confines of America and Europe as rapidly as the human agencies
-      of that time could have transmitted it. It took ten years for this
-      startling revelation to reach the ears of his sickbed attendants."&mdash;The
-      Fathers of Our Republic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Willet Hicks: "I was with him every day during the latter part of his
-      sickness. He died as easy as any one I ever saw die, and I have seen many
-      die."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine died quietly and at peace."&mdash;<i>Ellery Sedgwick.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He died placidly and almost without a struggle."&mdash;<i>Gilbert Vale.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He spent the night in tranquility, and expired in the morning."&mdash;<i>Madame
-      Bonneville.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Noble L. Prentiss: "Paine's death-bed terrors were used in the pulpit for
-      a long time. It is probable that they never existed. It is living not
-      dying, that troubles most of us. When the inevitable hour comes; when the
-      lights are being put out, the shutters closed, the end is peace."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Concerning Paine's recanting Colonel Ingersoll says: "He died surrounded
-      by those who hated and despised him,&mdash;who endeavored to wring from
-      the lips of death a recantation. But, dying as he was, his soul stood
-      erect to the last moment. Nothing like a recantation could be wrung from
-      the brave lips of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. John Fellows: "It [the recantation story] was considered by the
-      friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to controvert."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine did not recant. But the church is recanting. On her
-      death-bed tenet after tenet of the absurd and cruel creed which Paine
-      opposed is being renounced by her. Time will witness the renunciation of
-      her last dogma and her death. Then will the vindication of Thomas Paine
-      and the 'Age of Reason' be complete."&mdash;<i>The Fathers of Our Republic</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      PAINE'S PLACE IN LITERATURE.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      Royal Tyler: "That head which worked such mickle woe to courts and kings."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Edmund Robinet: "A wise and lucid intellect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Thompson Callender: "He possesses both, talent and courage."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Walter Savage Landor:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Few dared such homely truths to tell,
-     Or wrote our English half so well."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Zells Encyclopedia: "He early distinguished himself by his literary
-      abilities."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cyclopedia of American Literature: "The merits of Paine's style as a prose
-      writer are very great."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      B. F. Underwood: "Thomas Paine's style as a writer, in some respects, has
-      never been equaled. Every sentence that he wrote was suffused with the
-      light of his own luminous mind, and stamped with his own intense
-      individuality of character."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There is a peculiar originality in his style of thought and expression,
-      his diction is not vulgar or illiterate, but nervous, simple and
-      scientific.... Paine, like the young Spartan warrior, went into the field
-      stripped bare to the last thread of prudent conventional disguise; and
-      thus not only fixed the gaze of men upon his intrepid singularity, but
-      exhibited the vigor of his faculties in full play."&mdash;<i>Rev. George
-      Croly</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Lendrum: "The style, manner, and language of the author is singular
-      and fascinating."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was a magnificent writer of the English language."&mdash;<i>Henry
-      Frank</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He is the best English writer we know."&mdash;<i>Gilbert Vale</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Ease, fluidity, grace, imagination, energy, earnestness, mark his style."&mdash;<i>Elbert
-      Hubbard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine is the first American writer who has a literary style, and we have
-      not had so many since but that you may count them on the fingers of one
-      hand."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      L. Carroll Judson: "His intellectual powers suddenly burst into a blaze of
-      light."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Horne Tooke: "You are like Jove coming down upon us in a shower of
-      gold."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The man who coined the intellectual gold of the Eighteenth Century was
-      Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>L. K. Washburn</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ebenezer Elliott: "Paine is the greatest master of metaphor I have ever
-      read."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was not only master of metaphor, he was master of principles. He
-      imparted life to great ideas."&mdash;<i>George Jacob Holyoake.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The keenness of his intellect was matched by the brilliancy of his
-      imagination. He stated a truth in a way that men could see, hear, and feel
-      it. Take the following epigram: 'To argue with a man who has renounced the
-      use of Reason is like administering medicine to the dead.'"&mdash;<i>George
-      W. Foote</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. William Smyth: "Paine is a writer to be numbered with those few who
-      are so supereminently fitted to address the great mass of mankind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Charles Botta: "No writer, perhaps, ever possessed in a higher degree
-      the art of moving and guiding the public at his will."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elroy McKendree Avery: "No writer ever had a greater influence upon the
-      events of his own time than he."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He threw the charms of poetry over the statue of reason," says Stephen
-      Simpson, "and made converts to liberty as if a power of fascination
-      presided over his pen."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Adolphus: "He took with great judgment, a correct aim at the feelings
-      and prejudices of those whom he intended to influence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hezekiah Butterworth: "He had a surprising power of direct forcible
-      argument."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Hazlitt: "Paine affected to reduce things to first principles, to
-      announce self-evident truths."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. J. Fox, M. P.: "A keen and powerful intellect, and a philosophical mind
-      going to the foundation of every question; bringing first principles
-      forward in a luminous and impressive manner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert James Mackintosh: "His strong coarse sense and bold dogmatism
-      conveyed in an instinctively popular style made Paine a dangerous enemy
-      always."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Gerard: "You know too well the prodigious effects produced by the
-      writings of this celebrated personage."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madame Roland: "The boldness of his conceptions, the originality of his
-      style, the striking truths which he boldly throws out in the midst of
-      those whom they offend, must necessarily have produced great effects."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edward C. Reichwald: "He was an intellectual gladiator who won his
-      victories upon the field of thought."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Boston Herald: "There is no better illustration in all history than exists
-      in Paine's writings of Bulwer's aphorism, 'The pen is mightier than the
-      sword.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. John J. Lentz, M. C.: "The pen of the author of 'Common Sense' and
-      the 'Crisis' did more to liberate the Colonies than did the sword of the
-      commander in chief of the Colonial armies."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. William Denton: "The pen of Paine accomplished more for American
-      liberty than the sword of Washington."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      General Lee of Revolutionary fame says: "The pen of Thomas Paine did more
-      to achieve our Independence than did the sword of Washington." Joel
-      Barlow, one of the most popular literary men of his time, a chaplain in
-      the American Revolution and a fellow-worker of Paine for political
-      liberty, both in England and France, says: "We may venture to say, without
-      fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as much to the
-      pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington." Even Paine's vilest
-      calumniator, Cheetham, makes this admission: "His pen was an appendage to
-      the army as necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Reuben Post Halleck, L.L. D.: "Some have said that the pen of Thomas Paine
-      was worth more to the cause of liberty than twenty thousand men. In the
-      darkest hours he inspired the colonists with hope and enthusiasm... He had
-      an almost Shakespearean intuition of what would appeal to the exigencies
-      of each case."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The real man back of the American Revolution was the man who had the
-      ideas and not the man behind the guns.... Paine fought with the weapon of
-      the future, and he was one of the very first that made it powerful.
-      Paine's weapon was the pen, not the sword. Washington conquered small
-      groups of men that had been living twenty or thirty years, but Thomas
-      Paine conquered the prejudices of thousands of years."&mdash;<i>Herbert N.
-      Casson.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas Jefferson: "These two persons [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine]
-      differed remarkably in the style of their writings, each leaving a model
-      of what is most perfect in both extremes of the simple' and the sublime.
-      No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in
-      perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and
-      unassuming language."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Abraham Lincoln: "I never tire of reading Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Capel Lofft: "I am glad Paine is living: he cannot be even wrong without
-      enlightening mankind, such is the vigor of his intellect, such the
-      acuteness of his research, and such the force and vivid perspicuity of his
-      expression."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Augustine Birrell, M. P.: "Paine was without knowing it, a born
-      journalist. His capacity for writing on the spur of the moment was
-      endless, and his delight in doing so was boundless."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott: "He was perhaps the most popular pamphleteer of the
-      country."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Library of The World's Best Literature: "The pamphlets of Thomas Paine
-      were doubtless in their time 'half battles.' Clear, logical, homely, by
-      turns warning, appealing, commanding, now sharply satirical, now humorous,
-      now pathetic, always desperately in earnest, always written in admirably
-      simple English, they constituted their author, in the judgment of many,
-      the foremost pamphleteer of the eighteenth century."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord Brougham: "The most remarkable spirit in pamphlet literature was
-      Thomas Paine.... His style was a model of terseness and force."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This singular power of clear, vigorous exposition made him unequaled as a
-      pamphleteer."&mdash;<i>Sir Leslie Stephen.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      London Times (June 8, 1909): "Paine was the greatest of pamphleteers; more
-      potent in influence on affairs than Swift, Beaumarchais, or Courier, more
-      varied in his activity than any of them; his words influencing the actors
-      in two of the chief political revolutions of the world and prime movers in
-      a religious revolution scarcely less important."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Perhaps someone, even in far off times, digging in the past, will come
-      upon his books and will say, 'These were not words; they were events, in
-      political history. This was a born leader who could make men march to
-      victory or defeat.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Manchester Guardian (June 8, 1909): "He and his works became the great
-      influence which set up everywhere constitutional societies and encouraged
-      political and religious freedom of thought. He became the interpreter to
-      England of the principles of the two Revolutions, and his words and ideas
-      leavened speculations among the masses of the English people, and still
-      leaven them today. We may forget him or remember him awry, but the very
-      stuff of our brains is woven in the loom of his devising."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James K. Hosmer, LL. D.: "Few writers have exerted a more powerful
-      influence since the world began, if the claim set forth at the time and
-      never refuted be just, that his 'Common Sense' made possible the
-      Declaration of Independence and therefore the United States of America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Constitutional Gazette (Feb. 24, 1776): "The author introduces [in 'Common
-      Sense'] a new system of polices as widely different from the old as the
-      Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. This extraordinary performance
-      contains as surprising a discovery in politics as the works of Sir Isaac
-      Newton do in philosophy."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It would be difficult to name any human composition which has had an
-      effect at once so instant, so extended and so lasting."&mdash;<i>Sir
-      George Trevelyan.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paul Louis Courrier (1824): "Never did any portly volume effect so much
-      for the human race. Rallying all hearts and minds to the party of
-      Independence, it decided the issue of that great conflict which, ended for
-      America, is still proceeding all over the rest of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Incisive sentences,... as direct and vivid in their appeal as any
-      sentences of Swift."&mdash;<i>Woodrow Wilson.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Like a thunderbolt from the sky came Paine's magnificent argument for
-      liberty... No pamphlet ever written sold in such vast numbers, nor did any
-      ever before or since produce such marvelous results."&mdash;<i>Ella
-      Wheeler Wilcox.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Who could with almost one stroke of his pen, turn the people in a
-      radically new direction? Who must exert an influence that had never, in
-      any crisis of history, been exerted by one man before? The American
-      Republic today, with its illimitable glory and belting a continent, can
-      only reply: Thomas Paine!"&mdash;<i>Samuel P. Putnam.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The soul of Thomas Paine went forth in that book. Every line of it
-      glittered with the fires of his brain. It was written as a poet writes his
-      song.... It was like the flowing of a fountain, the sweep of a wind, the
-      rush of a comet."&mdash;Ibid.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The publication of Thomas Paine's immortal pamphlet, 'Common Sense,' will
-      ever deserve to rank among the supremely important events of history. The
-      farther we are removed from it in time the larger it will loom."&mdash;<i>Rev.
-      Thomas B. Gregory.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This work marks an era in the history of the world. Its interest will
-      last longer than nations."&mdash;<i>Hon. Elizur Wright.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Universal Magazine (April, 1793. From a review of the "Rights of Man."):
-      "And now courteous reader, we leave Mr. Paine entirely to thy mercy; what
-      wilt thou say of him? Wilt thou address him? 'Thou art a troubler of
-      privileged orders&mdash;we will tar and feather thee; nobles abhor thee,
-      and kings think thee mad!' Or wilt thou put on thy spectacles, study Mr.
-      Paine's physiognomy, purchase his print, hang it over thy chimney-piece,
-      and, pointing to it, say: 'this is no common man!'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Those who know the book ['Rights of Man'] only by hearsay as the work of
-      a furious incendiary would be surprised at the dignity, force and
-      temperance of the style."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia Britannica.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Rights of Man' is acknowledged to be the greatest work ever written
-      for political freedom. This masterpiece gave free speech, and a free press
-      to England and America."&mdash;<i>Ella Wheeler Wilcox.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The thinking men of England now revere the memory of Thomas Paine for his
-      great work in the nation's behalf. The most important of the many reforms
-      England has undertaken in the century that has elapsed since it outlawed
-      Paine have been brought about by Paine's masterly work."&mdash;<i>Elbert
-      Hubbard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Rights of Man' will never die so long as men have rights."&mdash;<i>Alice
-      Hubbard.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Richard Henry Lee: "It is a performance of which any man might be proud."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Rights of Man' will be more enduring than all the piles of marble
-      and granite man can erect."&mdash;<i>Andrew Jackson</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Frank Crane: "It deserves a place among the dozen epoch-making books
-      of the race.... It is a milestone in human development that marks a point
-      of progress that never can be retraced."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      General Arthur O'Connor:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "I prize above all earthly things
-     The 'Rights of Man' and Common Sense.'"
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Edward McChesney Sait: "Many names which were famous in the
-      revolutionary period of the eighteenth century are heard no more; but the
-      name of Thomas Paine still lives. It will never die; those noble writings,
-      'Common Sense' and 'Rights of Man,' like the verses of the Roman poet, are
-      more lasting than bronze."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Marie Joseph Chenier: "Notable epoch in the life of this philosopher who
-      opposed the arms of 'Common Sense' to the sword of tyranny, 'the 'Rights
-      of Man' to the machiavelism of English politicians; and who by two
-      immortal works has deserved well of the human race."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Victor Robinson: "Another immortal work was being penned behind French
-      prison-bars and the hand which held the pen was the hand of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There shone on Paine's cell in the Luxembourg a great and imperishable
-      vision, which multitudes are still following."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. M. Mangasarian: "In his dungeon his pen dropped light into the darkness
-      of Europe and America by writing the 'Age of Reason.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "One of the most wonderful books ever written." <i>Edgar W. Howe</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Age of Reason' defies the grave where other books of his generation
-      sleep."&mdash;<i>George E. Macdonald.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Not only the one great skeptical work of his time, but the only one which
-      seems destined to live for all time."&mdash;<i>J. P. Bland</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine's 'Age of Reason' is a masterpiece of Rationalistic literature."&mdash;<i>William
-      H. Maple</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is a masterpiece in every particular&mdash;sound, logical and
-      truthful."&mdash;<i>Sir Hiram Maxim</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There are the most varied graces of literary style, a profound and gentle
-      philosophy, and a genuine love of humanity."&mdash;<i>William Heaford</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mimnermus (England): "Out of the charnel-vault of Kingcraft and
-      Priestcraft, Rousseau and the other great French Freethinkers saw in
-      vision the ideal society of the future. Of this new evangel Paine was the
-      prophet and Shelley was the poet.... In the 'Rights of Man' and the 'Age
-      of Reason,' no less than in the 'Revolt of Islam' and 'Prometheus
-      Unbound,' the expression glows with the solemn and majestic inspiration of
-      prophecy."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John M. Robertson, M. P.: "The enduring popularity of the chief works of
-      Thomas Paine is not the least remarkable fact in the history of opinion.
-      It is given to few controversial writers to keep a large audience during a
-      hundred years."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In Paine's public life there are three great tidal periods&mdash;the
-      period when he was helping more than any other to make the Revolution in
-      America; the period when, having come to Europe, after the American
-      Revolution, he published the 'Rights of Man' and laid in England the
-      foundations of a new democracy in the very teeth of the great reaction of
-      which Burke was the prophet; and lastly, the period when, after his hopes
-      from the French Revolution had substantially failed, and he expected death
-      as his own meed, he wrote his 'Age of Reason,' significantly making his
-      last blow the most deadly of all his strokes at the reign of tradition."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      New York World: "The man whose 'Common Sense,' by Washington's testimony,
-      'worked a powerful change in the minds of men' toward American
-      independence; who in the 'Rights of Man' demolished Burke's attack on the
-      French Revolution so completely that the British government resorted to
-      its suppression, and who in France set the world aflame with persecution
-      mania by the 'Age of Reason,' certainly made good in three countries his
-      title to literary rank and political power." "The three mightiest
-      contributions of political and religious freedom which mankind had known
-      came from the brain of Thomas Paine. What he wrote changed the whole
-      civilized world."&mdash;<i>L. K. Washburn</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. E. P. Powell (referring to the "Crisis"): "Words of fire and logic
-      that rang like a berserker's sword on his shield."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'Crisis' is contained in sixteen numbers. They comprise a truer
-      history of that event [American Revolution] than does any professed
-      history of it yet written. They comprise the soul of it."&mdash;<i>Calvin
-      Blanchard.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Of utterances by the pen none have achieved such vast results as Paine's
-      'Common Sense' and his first 'Crisis.'"&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In addition to his three literary masterpieces and the "Crisis" Paine
-      wrote many remarkable books and pamphlets, the more important of which are
-      the following: "Public Good," Philadelphia, 1780; "Letter to Abbé Raynal,"
-      Philadelphia, 1782; "Dissertation on Government," Philadelphia, 1786;
-      "Prospects on the Rubicon," London, 1787; "Address of Société
-      Républicaine," Paris, 1791; "Address to the Adressers," London, 1792;
-      "Plea for Life of Louis Capet," "French Constitution of '93," Paris, 1793;
-      "On First Principles of Government," Paris, 1795; "Decline and Fall of the
-      English System of Finance," published in all the languages of Europe.
-      1796; "Agrarian Justice," "Letter to Camille Jordan, Paris, 1797; "Essay
-      on Dreams," "Examination of Prophecies," New York, 1807; "Reply to Bishop
-      of Llandaff," New York, 1810; "Miscellaneous Poems,"'London, 1819.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "These [Paine's books] were battles, victories&mdash;the simplest, yet the
-      grand and notorious facts of that wondrous war and age."&mdash;<i>T. B.
-      Wakeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. de Bonneville, the noted French journalist and Revolutionary leader,
-      and the almost constant companion of Paine during the ten or more years
-      that he resided in Paris, says: "All his pamphlets have been popular and
-      powerful. He wrote with composure and steadiness, as if under the guidance
-      of a tutelary genius. If, for an instant, he stopped, it was always in the
-      attitude of a man who listens. The Saint Jerome of Raphael would give a
-      perfect idea of his contemplative recollection, to listen to the voice
-      from on high which makes itself heard in the heart."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When the old traditions of prejudice have passed, away, Paine's name will
-      have its due place not only in our political but in our literary history,
-      as that of a man of native genius whose prose bears being read beside that
-      of Burke on the same theme, and who found in sincerity the secret of a
-      nobler eloquence than his antagonists could draw from their stores of
-      literature or the fountain of their ill-will."&mdash;<i>John M. Robertson</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was a great writer. Cobbett knew it, Hazlitt knew it, and Landor knew
-      it."&mdash;<i>George W. Foote</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Brandes: "One of the largest figures in our literary history."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. M. E. Cadwallader: "His writings have become classics. They Will live
-      when those who vilified him are forgotten."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pittsburgh Press: "The science of criticism, like the spectrum analysis
-      which reveals the composition of the stars, points unerringly to Thomas
-      Paine as the only man who could have indited that greatest of literary
-      masterpieces, the Declaration of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That the Declaration of Independence is, in its entirety, the work of
-      Paine probably can not be proven. That he had much to do with its
-      composition, however, can scarcely be doubted. The circumstances attending
-      its adoption warrant the assumption, and the style of the document
-      confirms it. Knowing the marvelous power of Paine's pen, knowing that with
-      it he had led the people to demand independence, to suppose that he would
-      not be consulted, that his services would not be solicited in regard to
-      its preparation is incredible. Had he been a member of the Continental
-      Congress he certainly would have been selected to draft the document. He
-      was the soul of the movement and its literary leader. The historian Gaspey
-      says: "The Government took no steps of importance without consulting him."
-      The fact that his name was not mentioned in connection with its authorship
-      at the time argues nothing. Had he written every word of it neither he nor
-      the Committee could with propriety have divulged its authorship. The
-      authorship of state papers and other public documents is assumed by, and
-      credited to, the officials issuing them and not to the persons who may
-      have been employed to draft them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There is much evidence, both internal and external, in the Declaration,
-      that some other person than Jefferson was the writer. There is much
-      evidence, internal and external, that the author was Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>W.
-      M. van der Weyde</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A noted writer, Albert Payson Terhune, presents the following as the
-      principal arguments that have been adduced in support of Paine's
-      authorship of the Declaration of Independence:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Declaration's first draft contained the phrase: 'Scotch and foreign
-      mercenaries.' Jefferson was fond of the Scotch, and had two Scotch tutors;
-      whereas Paine openly hated Scotland and its people.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The first draft contained the word 'hath' This word is said to be found
-      nowhere else in Jefferson's writings, while it abounds in Paine's.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There was also in this draft a sharp rebuke to the British king for his
-      introducing slavery into his provinces. Jefferson was a slave-holder;
-      Paine hated slavery.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "That Jefferson, an owner of slaves, should have declared 'all men to be
-      equal' and 'entitled to liberty,' has always seemed inconsistent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Though unjust taxation was one of the Revolution's chief causes, it
-      receives very slight mention in the Declaration. Jefferson was supposedly
-      a foe to such taxation. Paine considered the taxation problem merely as a
-      side issue.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine's notions concerning government as set forth in his 'Common Sense'
-      are largely embodied in the Declaration.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Jefferson's style of writing was easy and graceful. Paine's was forceful,
-      terse, pointed. The Declaration is couched far more in the latter style
-      than in the former.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Phrases and words dear to Paine are scattered broadcast through the
-      document.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The expression 'Nature and Nature's God' fit in with Paine's favorite
-      theory that God was to be found in Nature."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Almost a century ago an American newspaper claimed to have proof that
-      Jefferson did not write the Declaration, and strongly hinted that Paine
-      wrote it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Jefferson, it is said, never formally claimed the authorship until after
-      Paine's death, and was always reticent on the subject."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Walton Williams: "Ever since the Revolution there has been a tradition in
-      certain parts of the country that the real author of the Declaration of
-      Independence was Thomas Paine. The storm of opprobrium that beat upon
-      Paine's name because af his religious writings almost eradicated this
-      tradition."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jefferson lived fifty years after the Declaration appeared. During all
-      this time&mdash;and his silence is significant&mdash;he never claimed the
-      authorship of the document except in the epitaph which he is said to have
-      prepared for his tombstone. He was its accredited author and in an
-      official sense was its author, and in this sense the claim made in his
-      epitaph is admissible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nearly seventy years ago George M. Dallas, then Vice President of the
-      United States, and an admirer of Jefferson, contended that Paine wrote the
-      Declaration.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Whoever may have written the Declaration, Paine was its author."&mdash;<i>William
-      Cobbett.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      New York Sun: "In addition to his great responsibility for the literary
-      form of the Declaration of Independence, he contributed to literature a
-      number of phrases which have held a place."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His phrase, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' illuminates that
-      gigantic struggle [American Revolution] and has become one of the
-      shibboleths of liberty."&mdash;<i>Michael Monahan</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "No life was ever attuned to a nobler sentiment&mdash;'Where liberty is
-      not there is my home.'"&mdash;<i>Dr. Lucy Waite</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "'The world is my country, to do good my religion." Was ever nobler
-      thought conceived than this?"&mdash;<i>Eva Ingersoll Brown</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Had Paine given to the world nothing more than that matchless phrase
-      which he adopted as his motto, 'The world is my country; to do good is my
-      religion,' I should still feel that he was indeed entitled to a supernal
-      position in the galleries of Fame."&mdash;<i>Elbert Hubbard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A jewel which sparkles forever on the outstretched forefinger of Time."&mdash;<i>George
-      W. Foote.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Peter Eckler: "Paine's political and religious writings exerted an immense
-      influence in America, England and France during his life, and since his
-      death that beneficent influence has increased and extended throughout the
-      civilized world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Horace Seaver: "Paine's writings are a noble monument to the loftiness of
-      his aims, the brilliancy of his genius, the wealth of benevolence in his
-      heart, and the breadth and power of his intellect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Horace Traubel: "He will always stand there, immortal in history, a
-      contemporary giant in whose aggressiveness and fortitude political
-      literature discovered a new epoch. He will ever be ranked with the masters
-      in theological innovation."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      General Nathaniel Greene: "Your fame for your writings will be immortal."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      REFORMS AND INVENTIONS.
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      Ella Wheeler Wilcox: "Paine was not only a great author and statesman, but
-      he was distinctly a pioneer, an originator, an inventor and creator. To
-      him we are indebted for many of the world's greatest ideas and reforms."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Winwood Reade: "One of Thomas Paine's first productions was an article
-      against slavery."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Universal Cyclopedia: "Published in Bradford's <i>Pennsylvania Journal
-      [Magazine]</i> in March, 1775, an article entitled 'African Slavery in
-      America,' which probably hastened the first American Anti-Slavery Society,
-      April 14, 1775."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to this article Dr. Conway, one of the apostles of anti-slavery,
-      says: "It is a most remarkable article. Every argument and appeal, moral,
-      religious, military, economic, familiar in our subsequent anti-slavery
-      struggle is here found stated with eloquence and clearness."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the very month that Paine lay down in his last illness there was born
-      the man who was to complete the work he had begun. On the first of
-      January, 1863, Abraham Lincoln pronounced the doom of slavery. In this
-      essay of Paine and in the Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln we have the
-      beginning and the end&mdash;the prologue and the epilogue&mdash;of the
-      Anti-Slavery drama in America.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is a significant fact that a paragraph in favor of the abolition of
-      slavery in America, which is surmised to haye been inserted through
-      Paine's influence, in the Declaration of Independence was struck out....
-      Had Paine's humane suggestion been adopted the United States would have
-      been saved the agony and bloody sweat of the Civil. War."&mdash;<i>Hector
-      Macpherson, Scotland</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In sorrow and bitterness and bloodshed Lincoln wrought the cure for the
-      evil which Paine tried peacefully to prevent."&mdash;<i>Mrs.
-      Bradlaugh-Bonner, England</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George W. Foote: "In America the first to publicly demand the liberation
-      of the slaves was Thomas Paine. Paine also partly drafted and signed the
-      Act of Pennsylvania abolishing slavery&mdash;the first of its kind in the
-      whole of Christendom."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine was not only the first to advocate the abolition of domestic slavery
-      in America, he was also a pioneer in the movement which secured the
-      abolition of the slave trade in America and Great Britain.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Louisiana demanded statehood with "the right to continue the
-      importation of slaves," from Paine came this stinging rebuke: "Dare you
-      put up a petition to Heaven for such power, without fearing to be struck
-      from the earth by its justice? Why, then, do you ask it of man against
-      man? Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alfred E. Fletcher: "Paine was the first man in America to demand freedom
-      for the slave, to urge international arbitration, justice for women and
-      more rational ideas as to marriage and divorce."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In his August (1775) number <i>[Pennsylvania Magazine]</i> is found the
-      earliest American plea for woman."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His pen is unmistakable in 'Reflections on Unhappy Marriages' (June
-      1775)."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The first man in history to speak in clear cut tones for the rights of
-      woman."&mdash;<i>Josephine K. Henry</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Today we dare to affirm that women as well as men have rights. Paine was
-      the pioneer of this thought."&mdash;<i>Alice Hubbard.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Robert A. Dague: "If I am asked to whom are women indebted for the
-      enlarged liberty they now enjoy, my answer is, to Thomas Paine, Elizabeth
-      Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, and to the Universalists, Unitarians,
-      Spiritualists and Agnostics."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      London Daily News: "He was always a man of peace, and to him is due the
-      first project of international arbitration. He was the first publicist in
-      America to declare for the emancipation of slaves, the first to champion
-      the cause of woman, to insist upon the rights of animals, and to expose
-      the criminal folly of dueling."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He condemned dueling, and the deliberate or thoughtless ill-treatment of
-      animals. He spoke up against negro slavery quite as emphatically as
-      against hereditary privileges and religious intolerance. He advocated
-      international arbitration; international and internal copyright."&mdash;<i>Sir
-      George Trevelyan</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George H. Putxam: "Paine wrote on the necessity of a copyright law in
-      1782, a year before Noah Webster canvassed the legislatures of the New
-      England states in behalf of such a law.... In 1792, as a member of the
-      French Convention, Paine made a statement of the principles of
-      international copyright of the author's right in literary work."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nannie McCormick Coleman: "In 1783, while a member of Congress, Hamilton
-      urgently sought to have a [Constitutional] Convention called. In the same
-      year... Thomas Paine contributed addresses to the public to the same
-      effect."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine proposed a constitutional government and a constitutional convention
-      as early as 1776.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to our Constitutional Convention Prof. Alexander Johnston of
-      Princeton University says: "Thomas Paine had suggested it as long ago as
-      his 'Common Sense' pamphlet: 'Let a continental conference to be held to
-      frame a continental charter.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Not only was Paine the first to propose a constitutional government for
-      the United States, the framers of the Constitution adopted to a large
-      extent his political ideas. Referring to the principles advocated in his
-      "Dissertation on Government" Dr. Conways says: "In the next year those
-      principles were embodied in the Constitution; and in 1792, when a State
-      pleaded its sovereign right to repudiate a contract the Supreme Court
-      affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and
-      sometimes his very phrases."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Bankers' Magazine: "The Bank of North America, at Philadelphia, organized
-      to assist the government during the War of Independence, is admitted to be
-      the first bank in the United States, but it is not generally known that
-      Thomas Paine was the man in whose brain the bank was born and who was the
-      first subscriber to its stock."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Columbia Encyclopedia: "Paine was chosen by Napoleon to introduce a
-      popular form of government into Britain after the Frenchman should have
-      invaded and conquered the island."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Milligan Sloane, LL. D.: "Thomas Paine exercised his power as a
-      pamphleteer on the theme of England's approaching bankruptcy, while the
-      public crowded one of the theatres [in Paris] to stare at stage pictures
-      representing the invasion of England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine prepared plans for this invasion which were adopted by the French
-      Directory. Two hundred and fifty gun-boats were speedily built for the
-      purpose. Then Napoleon abandoned the expedition against England for the
-      one against Egypt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's approval of this proposed invasion of England was not inspired by
-      a spirit of revenge because of his persecution by the English Government,
-      but by a sincere love of its people, seeing in it the only means of
-      delivering them from the intolerable tyranny of George III. and his
-      Ministry. Napoleon at this time had not manifested that insatiable thirst
-      for blood which at a later period made him the scourge of Europe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James A. Edgerton, A. M.: "Thomas Paine first suggested American
-      Independence. He first suggested the Federal Union of the States. He first
-      proposed the abolition of negro slavery. He first suggested [in
-      Christendom] protection for dumb animals. He first suggested equal rights
-      for women. He first proposed old age pensions. He first suggested the
-      education of poor children at public expense. He first proposed
-      arbitration and international peace. He suggested a great republic of all
-      the nations of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the claims made in behalf of Paine by Mr. Edgerton and others the
-      following may be added: He was one of the founders, if not the real
-      founder, of modern journalism. He labored to provide better facilities for
-      the education of young women. His contributions to hygienic science were
-      invaluable. His knowledge of astronomy was profound; he affirmed the
-      belief that the fixed stars were suns twenty years before Herschel. His
-      views regarding taxation were wise and just. He was an advocate of land
-      reform. He was recognized as the ablest authority of his time on paper
-      money. He was one of the framers of the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Not only was Paine the real founder of our Republic; he was largely
-      instrumental in securing for it the greatest of its subsequent
-      acquisitions of territory. He shares with Jefferson the honor of being the
-      first to propose the purchase from Napoleon of the province of Louisiana,
-      an empire in extent&mdash;reaching from Florida to the Pacific and to what
-      is now British Columbia, a distance of three thousand miles&mdash;a
-      territory three times as large as the original United States of America
-      and from which have been formed, wholly or in part, eighteen of the most
-      important states in the Union.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nearly half a century before Comte, Paine taught the Religion of Humanity.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In 1778 he wrote his sublime sentence about the 'Religion of Humanity.'"&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I have discovered that Paine not only wrote those words, 'the Religion of
-      Humanity,'... but he was the real author by this discovery of all laws of
-      social science which is called sociology, now the queen of the
-      sciences.... If Paine was the real leader in that discovery he stands by
-      the side of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Comte, Spencer and Ward, and the
-      beneficent results and glory of this discovery, and its discoverer, are
-      beyond the words of any mind at present to describe."&mdash;<i>Prof. T. B.
-      Wakeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "That his Religion of Humanity took the deistical form was an evolutionary
-      necessity."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The prophet of the Religion of Humanity and the precursor of our modern
-      Monism."&mdash;<i>Prof. Ernst Haeckel</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "How few there are who realize that Thomas Paine anticipated Spencer's
-      thought [equal liberty] by many decades, that, more briefly and
-      graphically, he formulated the only principle that can weave enduring
-      order and peace into the fabric of society."&mdash;<i>Edwin C. Walker</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Leonard Abbott: "Paine's mind was germinal: in it were the seeds of all
-      modern religious, economical, and political movements."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William H. Maple: "The light of truth fell in such grand refulgence upon
-      this man as to enable him to utter truisms enough to furnish texts for
-      reformers for a thousand years to come."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The moral originality and courage of his teaching in every direction is
-      astonishing."&mdash;<i>John M. Robertson</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stephen Pearl Andrews: "The true chief-priest of humanity is the man who
-      solves the greatest obstacles in the progress of mankind; and you must not
-      be surprised if I rank Thomas Paine not only as a priest, but as perhaps
-      the real chief-priest, or pontifex-maximus of his age."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Joel Barlow: "The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his
-      mathematical acquirements and his mechanical genius. His invention of the
-      iron bridge, which led him to Europe in 1787, has procured him a great
-      reputation in that branch of science in France and England."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Chaptal: "They [plans for iron bridge over Seine] will be of the
-      greatest utility to us when the new kind of construction goes to be
-      executed for the first time.... You have rights of more than one kind to
-      the gratitude of nations."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      International Encyclopedia: "In 1787 Paine went to France, where he
-      exhibited his bridge to the Academy of Science in Paris. He also visited
-      England, and was lionized in London by the party of Burke and Fox. He set
-      up the model of his bridge in Addington Green, and huge crowds went to see
-      it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This [model of iron bridge] was publicly exhibited in Paris and London
-      and attracted great crowds."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Ralph Milbank: "With respect to the bridge over the river Wear at
-      Sunderland, it certainly is a work well deserving admiration both for its
-      structure, durability, and utility, and I have good grounds for saying
-      that the first idea was taken from Mr. Paine's bridge exhibited at
-      Paddington."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mr. Foljambe, M. P.: "I saw the rib of your [Paine's] bridge. In point of
-      elegance and beauty it far exceeded my expectations and is certainly
-      beyond anything I ever saw."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Stephenson: "If we are to consider Paine as its [the iron bridge's]
-      author, his daring in engineering certainly does full justice to the
-      fervor of his political career."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the building of the Brooklyn bridge was celebrated the Rev. Robert
-      Collyer called attention to the fact that to Thomas Paine belonged the
-      credit of inventing the iron bridge and deplored the ignorance and
-      prejudice which had caused the speakers to ignore it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Richard Phillips: "In 1778 Thomas Paine proposed, in America, this
-      application of steam [the steamboat]."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Watson's Annals of Philadelphia: "In June, 1785, John Fitch called on the
-      ingenious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster, to take his opinion of his
-      draughts, who informed him that he (Fitch) was not the first person who
-      had thought of applying steam to vessels, for that Thomas Paine, author of
-      'Common Sense,' had suggested the same to him (Henry) in the winter of
-      1778."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Concerning Paine's connection with this invention Dr. Conway says: "Among
-      his intimate friends at this time [about 1796] was Robert Fulton, then
-      residing in Paris. Paine's extensive studies of the steam engine and his
-      early discovery of its adaptability to navigation had caused Rumsey to
-      seek him in England and Fitch to consult him both in, America and Paris.
-      Paine's connection with the invention of the steamboat was recognized by
-      Fulton as, indeed, by all of his scientific contemporaries. To Fulton he
-      freely gave his ideas" (Life of Paine, vol. ii, p. 280). "In the
-      controversy between Rumsey and Fitch, Paine's priority to both is
-      conceded" (Ibid).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A machine for planing boards was his next invention."&mdash;<i>Madame
-      Bonneville</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Parton: "A benefactor... who conceived the planing machine and the
-      iron bridge. A glorious monument to his honor swells aloft in many of our
-      great towns. The principle of his arch now sustains the marvelous railroad
-      depots that half abolish the distinction between in-doors and out."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a letter to Jefferson, in 1801, Paine anticipates and suggests the
-      explosive engine of today.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The explosive engines which now drive machines over highways and waters
-      and through the air are the perfection of Paine's explosive power."&mdash;<i>A.
-      Outram Sherman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      One of Paine's minor inventions which attracted the attention and received
-      the approval of Franklin was an improved light.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Another invention, an improved carriage wheel, was greatly admired. After
-      Paine's death Robert Fulton made a drawing of the model and deposited it
-      at Washington.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert R. Livingston (to Paine in Paris): "Make your will; leave the
-      mechanics, the iron bridge, the wheels, etc., to America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Joseph N. Moreau: "The Archimedes of the eighteenth century."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elihu Palmer: "Probably the most useful man that ever lived."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Refutation of Charges of Immorality.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Louis Masquerier:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-    "Paine who wrote in man's defense,
-    'Rights of Man' and 'Common Sense,
-    Let not pious virulence
-    Stain his honest fame."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Paine has been represented by his religious enemies as the embodiment of
-      all that is bad. He was, they assert, drunken, filthy, and immoral.
-      Banished from respectable society, he associated, they say, only with the
-      low and vile. The following testimony covers all the years that elapsed
-      from the beginning of his public career to the end of his life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Franklin, writing from England while Paine was yet a resident of that
-      country, says: "Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as an
-      ingenious worthy young man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That his previous life had been above serious reproach is shown by a
-      letter to the Excise Office in which he says: "No complaint of the least
-      dishonesty or intemperance has ever appeared against me."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James B. Elliot: "Paine's pamphlet ['Case of the Officers of Excise']
-      secured for him the acquaintance of Oliver Goldsmith, who became and
-      remained his friend until his death, and by whom he was introduced to
-      Benjamin Franklin."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "At a coffeehouse in London Paine met that other great thinker, Franklin.
-      They became fast friends."&mdash;<i>Elbert Hubbard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Invited by Franklin he went to America."&mdash;<i>Encyclopedia of Social
-      Reform</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His associates in Philadelphia were people of the highest respectability
-      and importance.... He was welcomed everywhere."&mdash;<i>James B. Elliott</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to his first year in America Bancroft says: "In that time he had
-      frequented the society of Rittenhouse, Clymer and Samuel Adams." Dr. Rush
-      says: "He visited in the families of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Rittenhouse and Mr.
-      George Clymer." Referring to the members of the Philosophical Society,
-      founded by Franklin, Dr. Conway says: "Paine was welcomed into their
-      circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other representatives
-      of the scientific and literary metropolis."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Writing in his journal at a later period John Hall, the English
-      mechanician who then resided in Philadelphia, mentions among Paine's
-      visitors and intimate associates Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Rush,
-      Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rittenhouse, etc.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Library of the World's Best Literature alludes to scientific
-      experiments made by Paine "for the entertainment of Washington whose guest
-      he was for some time."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Francis Marion Lemmon: "When my father [a son of one of Washington's
-      officers] was about twelve years of age he was employed by George
-      Washington to carry messages from his military camp to that of his father
-      and other military posts, and for about four years lived as one of the
-      family of Washington. It was my father's privilege during his service with
-      Washington to meet and become acquainted with a number of the most popular
-      and influential men of that time&mdash;such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
-      Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, General Lafayette and General Francis
-      Marion.... My father told me, when I was a boy, of the visits these men
-      paid to Uncle George and Aunt Martha Washington, as he always called them,
-      and he told me that Aunt Martha always called Paine 'Brother Tom' and
-      always looked forward when a visit of Brother Tom was expected."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alluding to Paine's conduct and public services during the Revolution, Dr.
-      Conway says:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "They are best measured in the value set on them by the great leaders most
-      cognizant of them,&mdash;by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams,
-      Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee, Colonel Laurens,
-      General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything dishonorable or
-      mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who would have known it;
-      but their letters are searched in vain for even the faintest hint of
-      anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during those eight
-      weary years."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Adams: "Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for Europe,
-      in 1787, was a fashionable member of society [in New York], admired and
-      courted as the greatest literary genius of his day."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The oldest and one of the most powerful political organizations in this
-      country, outside of the regular political parties, is the Tammany Society
-      of New York. Whatever shortcomings may be justly charged to this society
-      in later times it was in its earlier days, when devoted mainly to social
-      and benevolent purposes, one of the most honorable and respectable of
-      societies. Paine was the hero of this society.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Conway says: "At the great celebration (October 12, 1792) of the Third
-      Centenary of the discovery of America, by the sons of St. Tammany, New
-      York, the first man toasted after Columbus was Paine, and next to Paine
-      'The Rights of Man,' They were also extolled in an ode composed for the
-      occasion, and sung." Paine was at this time a resident of France.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Visited France in the summer of 1787, where he made the acquaintance of
-      Buffon, Malesherbes, La Rochefoucauld, and other eminent men."&mdash;<i>Chambers'
-      Encyclopedia</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Dr. Robinet, the French historian, says on this visit (1787) Paine, who
-      had long known the 'soul of the people,' came into' relation with eminent
-      men of all groups, philosophical and political&mdash;Condorcet, Achille
-      Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes also Danton, who like
-      the English republican [Paine] was a Freemason."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilbert Patten Brown (in Masonic Monthly, July, 1916): "In the St. John's
-      Regimental Lodge (the first Masonic body to be constituted among the
-      troops) Thomas Paine (like Capt. James Monroe, Capt. John Marshall and
-      many other of minor mention) was entered, crafted and raised a Master
-      Mason."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Franklin, who in 1774 introduced Paine to the New World as "an ingenious
-      worthy young man" in 1787, after an acquaintance of thirteen years,
-      reaffirms his former estimate of the man. In a letter of introduction to
-      the Duke of Rochefoucauld he says: "The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the
-      author of a famous piece entitled 'Common Sense,' published with great
-      effect on the minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He
-      is an ingenious, honest man; and as such I beg leave to recommend him to
-      your civilities."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lamb's Biographical Dictionary: "Visiting London, he at once became a
-      social and diplomatic feature of that metropolis."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Thomas "Clio" Rickman: "Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round of
-      philosophical leisure and enjoyment.... Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French
-      and American embassadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the painter,
-      Mrs. Wollstonecraft, Joel Barlow,... Dr. Priestley,... Mr. Horne Tooke,
-      etc., were among the number of his friends and acquaintances."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and
-      boundless; in private company and among his friends his conversation had
-      every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and rather
-      athletic.... His eye, of which the painter could not convey the exquisite
-      meaning, was full, brilliant and singularly piercing."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Alexander Wilson: "The penetration and intelligence of his eye bespeak the
-      man of genius."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Adams, in a letter to his wife, refers to Paine as "a man who,
-      General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." Carlyle describes him as "the
-      man with the black beaming eyes." Walter Morton, who was with him when he
-      died, says, "His eye glistened with genius under the pangs of death."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Thomas Cooper: "I have dined with Mr. Paine in literary society, in
-      London, at least a dozen times, when his dress, manners, and conversation
-      were such as became the character of an unobtrusive intelligent gentleman,
-      accustomed to good society."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Regarding Paine's associations in England his biographer, Dr. Conway,
-      says: "There [Rotherham] and in London he was 'lionized' as Franklin had
-      been in Paris. We find him now passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at
-      the country seat of the Duke of Portland, or enjoying the hospitalities of
-      Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth House. He is entertained and consulted on
-      public affairs by Fox, Lord Landsdowne, Sir George Staunton, Sir Joseph
-      Banks."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Americans in London&mdash;the artists West and Trumbull, the
-      Alexanders (Franklin's connections), and others were fond of him as a
-      friend and proud of him as a countryman."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His personal acquaintance," says Dr. Conway, "included nearly every great
-      or famous man of his time, in England, America, France."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine not only enjoyed the friendship and esteem of the notables of the
-      world, he was the idol of the common people who knew him. Before the
-      Revolution in France began he spent two years in England, engaged a part
-      of the time perfecting his iron bridge. The leading manufacturing firm of
-      Rotherham encouraged him and fitted up a shop for him to work in. Nearly a
-      half century later Professor Lesley of Philadelphia, then a young man,
-      visited Rotherham. Notwithstanding the long time that had elapsed he found
-      Paine's memory still green and one of the cherished possessions of
-      Yorkshire. The results of his visit are thus related by Dr. Conway:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Professor Lesley of Philadelphia tells me that when visiting in early
-      life the works at Rotherham, Paine's workshop and the very tools he used
-      were pointed out. They were preserved with care. He conversed with an aged
-      and intelligent workman who had worked under Paine as a lad. Professor
-      Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice against Paine, was impressed
-      by the earnest words of the old man. Mr. Paine he said was the most honest
-      man, and the best man he ever knew. After he had been there a little time
-      everybody looked up to him, the Walkers and their workmen. He knew the
-      people for miles round, and went into their homes; his benevolence, his
-      friendliness, his knowledge, made him beloved by all, rich and poor. His
-      memory had always lasted there."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. and Madame de Bonneville: "Not a day [in Paris] escaped without his
-      receiving many visits. Mr. Barlow, Mr. [Robert] Fulton, Mr. [Sir Robert]
-      Smith, came very often to see him. Many travelers also called on him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was, indeed, so overrun with visitors and adventurers that he
-      appropriated two mornings of each week at the Philadelphia House for
-      levees. These, however, became insufficient to stem the constant stream of
-      visitors, including spies and lion-hunters, so that he had little time for
-      consultation with the men and women whose cooperation he needed in public
-      affairs. He therefore leased an out-of-the-way house [the old Madame
-      Pompadour mansion], reserving knowledge of it for particular friends,
-      while still retaining his address at the Philadelphia House, where the
-      levees were continued."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Here [at Paine's house] gathered sympathetic spirits from America,
-      England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, freed from prejudices of
-      race, rank, or nationality."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "And now the old hotel became the republican capitol of Europe. There sat
-      an international Premier with his Cabinet."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A grand dinner was given by Paine at the Hotel de Ville to Dumouriez,
-      where this brilliant general met Brissot, Condorcet, Santerre, and several
-      eminent English radicals."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In the beautiful courtyard of the Palais Royal, I saw today for the first
-      time the statue of Camille Desmoulins, one of the most heroic figures of
-      the French Revolution.... He was one of Paine's warmest friends in Paris.
-      Desmoulins had known Paine when the latter was a member of the Convention
-      and doubtless was one of the interesting coterie that met at Paine's house
-      in the Faubourg St. Denis."&mdash;<i>William M. van der Weyde</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Paine and invited him to
-      dinner."&mdash;<i>Clio Rickman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Among the persons I was in the habit of receiving Paine deserves to be
-      mentioned."&mdash;<i>Madame Roland.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Among Paine's most intimate French friends, besides the Bonnevilles with
-      whom he lived for several years, were the Rolands, the Brissots, the
-      Condorcets, and the Lafayettes, France's purest and noblest souls.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Baron Pichon: "Paine lived in Monroe's house at Paris."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While James Monroe was minister to France Paine was for a year and a half
-      a member of his household, enjoying in the highest degree the esteem of
-      both Mr. and Mrs. Monroe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine was one of the most amiable of men and possessed a most charming
-      personality. Nicolas and Margaret Bonneville, with whom he resided in
-      Paris, in a biographical sketch of him, written after his death and
-      revised by Cobbett, bear this testimony: "Thomas Paine loved his friends
-      with sincere and tender affection. His simplicity of heart and that happy
-      kind of openness, or rather, carelessness, which charms our hearts in
-      reading the fables of the good Lafontaine, made him extremely amiable. If
-      little children were near him he patted them, searched his pockets for the
-      store of cakes, biscuits, sugar-plums, pieces of sugar, of which he used
-      to take possession as of a treasure belonging to them, and the
-      distribution of which belonged to him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was always gentle to children and to animals."&mdash;<i>Ellery
-      Sedgwick</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The deep affection entertained for Paine by his Parisian friends was shown
-      when, grievously ill and believed to be dying, he was carried from his cot
-      in the Luxembourg to the home of the Monroes. I quote again from Dr.
-      Conway: "Paine had been restored by the tenderness and devotion of
-      friends. Had it not been for friendship he could hardly have been saved.
-      We are little able, in the present day, to appreciate the reverence and
-      affection with which Thomas Paine was regarded by those who saw in him the
-      greatest apostle of liberty in the world.... In Paris there were ladies
-      and gentlemen who had known something of the cost of liberty&mdash;Col.
-      and Mrs. Monroe, Sir Robert and Lady Smith, Madame Lafayette, Mr. and Mrs.
-      Barlow, M. and Madame de Bonneville. They had known what it was to watch
-      through anxious nights with terrors surrounding them. He who % had
-      suffered most was to them a sacred person. He had come out of the
-      succession of ordeals, so weak in body, so wounded by American
-      ingratitude, so sore at heart, that no delicate child needed more tender
-      care.... Men say their Arthur is dead, but their love is stronger than
-      death. And though the service of these friends might at first have been
-      reverential, it ended with attachment, so great was Paine's power, so
-      wonderful and pathetic his memories, so charming the play of his wit, so
-      full his response to kindness."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In Luxembourg prison," says Conway, "he won all hearts."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Augustus C. Buel: "Jones [John Paul] liked Tom Paine and Paine almost
-      worshiped Jones [they were in Paris]. All through the American Revolution
-      they had been fast friends, familiarly calling each other 'Tom' and
-      'Paul.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Joseph Mazzini Wheeler: "Landor [Walter Savage] told my friend Mr. Birch
-      of Florence that he particularly admired Paine, and that he visited him,
-      having first obtained an interview at the house of General Dumouriez [the
-      most famous general of the Revolution]. Landor declared that Paine was
-      always called 'Tom,' not out of disrespect, but because he was a jolly
-      good fellow."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord Edward Fitzgerald (to his mother): "I lodge with my friend Paine [in
-      Paris]; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The more I see of his
-      interior the more I like and respect him. I cannot express how kind he is
-      to me. There is a simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a
-      strength of mind in him that I never knew a man before to possess."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lady Lucy Fitzgerald: "Although he [Lord Edward] was unsuccessful in the
-      glorious attempt of liberating his country [Ireland] from slavery, still
-      he was not unmindful of the lessons you taught him. Accept, then, his
-      picture from his unhappy sister. Its place is in your house; my heart will
-      be satisfied with such a Pantheon: it knows no consolation but the
-      approbation of such men as you, and the soothing recollection that he did
-      his duty and died faithful to the cause of liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Zachariah Wilkes: "Let me tell you what he did for me. I was arrested in
-      Paris and condemned to die. I had no friend here; and it was at a time
-      when no friend would have served me: Robespierre ruled. 'I am innocent!' I
-      cried in desperation. 'I am innocent, so help me God! I am condemned for
-      the offense of another.' I wrote a statement of my case with a pencil;
-      thinking at first of addressing it to my judge, then of directing it to
-      the president of the Convention."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      [Wilkes, who was an Englishman, had important business to transact which
-      involved his honor and he could not bear the thought of dying with it
-      unperformed. The jailer referred him to Paine, who, though a prisoner, had
-      much influence with the authorities.]
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He [Paine] examined me closer than my judge had done; he required my
-      proofs. After a long time I satisfied him. He then said: 'The leaders of
-      the Convention would rather have my life than yours. If by any means I can
-      obtain your release on my own security, will you promise me to return in
-      twenty days?'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wilkes promised to return. Paine then obtained permission for him to leave
-      the prison, guaranteeing his return and agreeing to take his place at the
-      guillotine if he failed to do so. Wilkes kept his word. He returned to the
-      prison, drawing from Paine the exclamation, "There is yet English blood in
-      England!" Wilkes had been opposed to Paine both in politics and religion.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Another instance of Paine's noble magnanimity is related by Dr. Conway:
-      "This personage [Captain Grimstone, R. A.], during a dinner party at the
-      Palais Egalité, got into a controversy with Paine, and, forgetting that
-      the English Jove could not in Paris answer argument with thunder, called
-      Paine a traitor to his country and struck him a violent blow. Death was
-      the penalty for striking a deputy and Paine's friends were not unwilling
-      to see the penalty inflicted on this stout young captain who had struck a
-      man of fifty-six. Paine had much trouble in obtaining from Barrere, of the
-      Committee of Public Safety, a passport out of the country for Captain
-      Grimstone, whose traveling expenses were supplied by the man he had
-      struck."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lady Smith: "If the usual style of gallantry was as clever as your 'New
-      Covenant' [a beautiful poem by Paine addressed to Lady Smith] many a fair
-      lady's heart would be in danger; but the Little Corner of the World [Lady
-      Smith] receives it from the Castle in the Air [Paine]; it is agreeable to
-      her as being the elegant fancy of a friend."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sir Robert and Lady Smith were Paine's most devoted English friends in
-      Paris. When Paine was languishing in prison Lady Smith wrote him letters
-      of cheer and comfort, signing herself "Little Corner of the World."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Frederick Freeman: "He [Captain Rowland Crocker] had taken the great
-      Napoleon by the hand; he had familiarly known Paine.... He remembered
-      Paine as a well-dressed and most gentlemanly man, of sound and orthodox
-      republican principles, of a good heart, a strong intellect, and a
-      fascinating address."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Among the many calumnies circulated against Paine is the charge that
-      during his later years, after he wrote the "Age of Reason," he was, both
-      in France and in America, a drunkard. This charge is false. Paine was one
-      of the most temperate men of his time. Concerning his use of intoxicants
-      in France his old friend Clio Rickman, who visited him in Paris, who was
-      with him during his last day in that city, and who accompanied him to
-      Havre when he sailed for America, says: "He did not drink spirits, and
-      wine he took moderately; he even objected to any spirits being laid in as
-      a part of his sea-stock."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. E. B. Washburne, who made a thorough investigation of Paine's career
-      in France, bears the following testimony: "A somewhat extended study of
-      the French Revolution during the extraordinary period in which Paine was
-      so intimately connected with it, fails to show anything to the prejudice
-      of his personal or political character."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Returned to the United States on the invitation of Jefferson in 1802."&mdash;<i>Library
-      of World's Best Literature</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles T. Sprading: "Jefferson offered him return passage from Europe on
-      a United States man-of-war."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      National Intelligencer (Washington, Nov. 10, 1802): "Thomas Paine has
-      arrived in this city and has received a cordial reception from the Whigs
-      of Seventy-six and the Republicans of 1800."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was cordially received by the President, Thomas Jefferson. He also
-      visited the heads of the departments."&mdash;<i>Boston Post</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Philadelphia Aurora, Washington Correspondent of (November 26, 1802): "His
-      address is unaffected and unceremonious. He neither shuns nor courts
-      observation. At table he enjoys what is good with the appetite of
-      temperance and vigor, and puts to shame his calumniators by the moderation
-      with which he partakes of the common beverage of the boarders.... I am
-      proud to find a man whose political writings upon the whole have never
-      been equaled, and whom I have admired on that account, free from the
-      contamination of debauchery and habits of inebriety which have been so
-      grossly and falsely sent abroad concerning him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, M. C. (Washington, Dec. 11, 1802): "At Mr.
-      Gallatin's I saw for the first time the celebrated Thomas Paine. We had
-      some conversation before dinner and we sat side by side at the table....
-      This extraordinary man contributed exceedingly much to entertain the
-      company."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Albert Gallatin was at this time Secretary of the Treasury. Referring to
-      this period, including all the remaining years of his life, Conway says:
-      "Paine's defamers have manifested an eagerness to ascribe his maltreatment
-      to personal faults. This is not the case.... He was neat in his attire. In
-      all portraits, French and American, his dress is in accordance with the
-      fashion. There was not, so far as I can discover, a suggestion while he
-      was at Washington, that he was not a suitable guest for any drawing-room
-      in the capital."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilbert Vale, next to Dr. Conway, one of Paine's best biographers, says:
-      "Mr. Paine was as much esteemed in his private life as in his public. He
-      was a welcome visitor to the tables of the most distinguished citizens....
-      He possessed every prominent virtue in large proportions, and to these he
-      added the most social qualities."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Annie Cary Morris: "Mr. Jefferson, it was said, received him warmly, dined
-      him at the White House, and could be seen walking arm in arm with him on
-      the street any fine afternoon."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The author [Paine] was for some days a guest in the President's family."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In his old age Paine received the following, one of many similar
-      assurances of Jefferson's affection: "That you may live long to continue
-      your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations, is
-      my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances of my high esteem and
-      affectionate attachment."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Jefferson's dearest friend," says Albert Payson Terhune, "was Thomas
-      Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Albert Badeau: "My mother [in whose mother's family, prominent and wealthy
-      residents of New Rochelle, Paine boarded for a time during his later
-      years] would never tolerate the aspersions on Mr. Paine. She declared
-      steadfastly to the end of her life that he was a perfect gentleman, and a
-      most faithful friend, amiable, gentle, never intemperate in eating or
-      drinking. My mother declared that my grandmother equally pronounced the
-      disparaging reports about Mr. Paine slanders. I never remembered to have
-      seen my mother angry except when she heard such calumnies of Mr. Paine,
-      when she would almost insult those who uttered them. My mother and
-      grandmother were very religious, members of the Episcopal church."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The handsome monument erected to Paine at New Rochelle is said to have
-      been suggested by Mrs. Badeau.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      D. Burger (one of Paine's acquaintances at New Rochelle, who often took
-      him out riding): "Mr. Paine was really abstemious, and when pressed to
-      drink by those on whom he called during his rides he usually refused with
-      great firmness, but politely."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      D. M. Bennett of New York, writing forty years ago, says: "I have
-      conversed with Major A. Coutant and Mr. Barker of New Rochelle, now very
-      far advanced in life, but who distinctly remember Mr. Paine. They remember
-      him as a pleasant, genial man, who lived on good terms with his neighbors
-      and was not known to ever have been intoxicated." Judge J. B. Stallo,
-      Minister to Italy during President Cleveland's administration, told Dr.
-      Conway "that in early life he visited the place [New Rochelle] and saw
-      persons who had known Paine, and who declared that Paine resided there
-      without fault."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Judge Tabor: "I was an associate editor of the New York <i>Beacon</i> with
-      Col. John Fellows, then (1836) advanced in years but retaining all the
-      vigor and fire of his manhood. He was a ripe scholar, a most agreeable
-      companion, and had been the correspondent and friend of Jefferson,
-      Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams, under all of whom he held a
-      responsible office. One of his productions was dedicated, by permission,
-      to Adams and was republished and favorably received in England. Colonel
-      Fellows was the soul of honor and inflexible in his adhesion to truth. He
-      was intimate with Paine during the whole time he lived after returning to
-      this country, and boarded for a year in the same house with him. I also
-      was acquainted with Judge Herttell of New York city, a man of wealth and
-      position, being a member of the New York Legislature, both in the Senate
-      and Assembly, and serving likewise on the judicial bench. Like Colonel
-      Fellows he was an author and a man of unblemished life and irreproachable
-      character. These men assured me of their own knowledge derived from
-      constant personal intercourse during the last seven years of Paine's life
-      that he never kept any company but what was entirely respectable, and that
-      all accusations of drunkenness were grossly untrue. They saw him under all
-      circumstances and <i>knew</i> that he was never intoxicated. Nay, more,
-      they said for that day he was even abstemious."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. J. Hilton (1877): "It is over twenty years ago that professionally I
-      made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom, a justice of the peace of
-      Rensselaer county, New York. He was then over seventy years of age and had
-      the reputation of being a man of candor and integrity. He was a great
-      admirer of Paine. He told me that he was personally acquainted with him
-      and used to see him frequently during the last years of his life in the
-      city of New York, where Hogeboom then resided. I asked him if there was
-      any truth in the charge that Paine was in the habit of getting drunk. He
-      said that it was utterly false; that he never heard of such a thing during
-      the lifetime cf Mr. Paine and did not believe anyone else did."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mr. Lovet (Proprietor of City Hotel, New York): "Paine boarded for a time
-      at my hotel. He drank the least of all my boarders."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilbert Vale says: "We know more than twenty persons who were more or less
-      acquainted with Mr. Paine, and not one of whom ever saw him in liquor."
-      "We know that he was not only temperate in after life, but even
-      abstemious."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was accused of offenses he had never committed and of conduct
-      impossible to him."&mdash;<i>Library of the World's Best Literature</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "That he was a very likeable man is shown... by the prediction of the
-      brilliant Home Tooke that whoever should be at a certain dinner party,
-      Paine would be sure to say the best things said; and by the friendships he
-      made so easily. In middle age, at least, he was fastidious in his dress,
-      inclined to elegance in his manners, and attractive in looks."&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There are eleven original portraits of Thomas Paine, besides a death
-      mask, a bust, and the profile copied in this [Conway's] work.... In all of
-      the original portraits of Paine his dress is neat and in accordance with
-      fashion."&mdash;<i>Dr. Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The foregoing testimonials regarding Paine's personal appearance and dress
-      are equally true of his old age. The Jarvis painting, executed when he was
-      an old man of sixty-seven, is a mute witness to this. This portrait is
-      that of a handsome, temperate, well-preserved man. It is of itself a
-      standing refutation of the slanders of his defamers, and especially of the
-      charge that he was addicted to drunkenness in his old age.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Aaron Burr: "I always considered Mr. Paine a gentleman, a pleasant
-      companion, and a good-natured and intelligent man, <i>decidedly temperate</i>."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Regarding another base calumny, Dr. Conway says: "During Paine's life the
-      world heard no hint of sexual immorality connected with him, but after his
-      death Cheetham published [in his 'Life of Paine'] the following: 'Paine
-      brought with him from Paris, and from her husband in whose house he had
-      lived, Margaret Brazier Bonneville, and her three sons. Thomas has the
-      features, countenance, and temper of Paine.'" Madame Bonneville was a lady
-      of unblemished character, educated, cultured and refined. For this vile
-      insinuation its author, a disreputable publisher of New York, who boasted
-      of having nine libel suits pending against him at one time, was pronounced
-      guilty of slander by a jury composed mostly of Christians.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Counsellor Sampson (Cheetham's prosecutor): "It is argued that everything
-      should be intended to favor the defendant, who has written so godly a work
-      against the prince of deists and for the Holy Gospel.... His book, a godly
-      book&mdash;a vile obscene, and filthy compilation, which bears throughout
-      the character of rancorous malice!"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Commenting on this case, Ellery Sedgwick, the able editor of the <i>Atlantic
-      Monthly</i>, in his Beacon biography of Paine, says: "The evidence which
-      her (Madame Bonneville's) lawyers adduced at the trial was conclusive, and
-      the jury found Cheetham guilty; but Judge Hoffman, with casuistry worthy
-      of his version of Christianity, held that Mr. Cheetham, while guilty of
-      libel, had written a very useful book in favor of religion, and fixed the
-      damages at the modest sum of $150. Thus sheltered, Cheetham's lies grew
-      into history."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Some years ago the evangelist, Rev. Dr. R. A. Torrey, while in England,
-      made a brutal attack upon Paine's character, repeating the slanders that
-      have been circulated against him. W. T. Stead, the noted editor and
-      publisher of the <i>Review of Reviews</i>, London, who later perished on
-      the ill-fated Titanic, in his magazine defended Paine and refuted the
-      slanders of Torrey. Of the Madame Bonneville slander he says:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The 'commonly believed outrageous action' [quoting Torrey] of Thomas
-      Paine in living with another man's wife was shown to have been the kindly
-      hospitality shown by an old man of sixty-seven to the refugee family of
-      his French benefactor. The only man who had ever imputed a shadow of
-      obloquy to Paine in this connection went into the witness-box after
-      Paine's death and solemnly swore that there was no foundation for his
-      calumny."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The basis of this calumny was one of the many noble acts of Paine's life.
-      When it became known that Napoleon had designs against the liberties of
-      France, and was planning to elevate himself to power, Paine and Bonneville
-      opposed him. Concerning the results of this rupture Stead quotes from
-      Conway as follows:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In return Bonaparte suppressed Bonneville's paper, threw Bonneville into
-      prison and placed Paine in surveillance. Afterwards by the intervention of
-      the American minister Paine was permitted to leave the country. Bonneville
-      was forbidden to quit France. A year after Paine crossed the Atlantic
-      Madame Bonneville with her children escaped to America.... So far from
-      Paine having taken Bonneville's wife away from her husband, he did
-      everything to induce Napoleon to free Bonneville from surveillance and to
-      allow him to rejoin his wife in New York."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stead finally forced Torrey to eat his words and to make the following
-      retraction: "It is the obligation of those who make the charges to prove
-      them, and to my mind this particular charge against Paine has not been
-      proven."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. and Madame Bonneville had befriended Paine, had invited him to their
-      home where for years he enjoyed their hospitality. When Bonneville was
-      imprisoned and impoverished and his family reduced to penury, Paine would
-      have been a base ingrate had he not befriended them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Lucy Waite: "The one circumstance in the life of Thomas Paine that to
-      my mind more than any other reflects credit upon him as a man, has been
-      made the target of the most bitter attacks against him&mdash;his relations
-      to Madame Bonneville.... His detractors would no doubt have considered it
-      a more 'moral' act if he had sent them to the poor-farm instead of to his
-      own farm at New Rochelle; but to the everlasting credit of this great man
-      he defied the town gossips, and made them comfortable in his own home."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Slanders concerning Paine's marital troubles have been published. He was
-      married twice before coming to America, in 1759 to Mary Lambert, who died,
-      and in 1771 to Elizabeth Olive, from whom he was separated. The separation
-      was by mutual consent and nothing discreditable to either party was
-      alleged. As to the cause of the separation all that is known, or rather
-      surmised, is stated in McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, an Orthodox
-      authority: "His first wife had died about a year after their marriage; he
-      lived about three years with his second, when they separated by mutual
-      consent, it is said, on account of her physical disability."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's subsequent treatment of his wife was in the highest degree
-      honorable. He had but little property, but what he had he gave to her.
-      Regarding his conduct in this matter Clio Rickman, his most intimate
-      friend in England, and a highly honorable man, bears this testimony:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke tenderly and respectfully
-      of his wife; and sent her several times pecuniary aid, without her knowing
-      even whence it came."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Concerning this slander W. T. Stead says: "No one even among Paine's worst
-      libelers suggests that she had any reason of complaint against him." One
-      of Paine's calumniators, "Francis Oldys" (George Chalmers), a pretended
-      biographer of Paine whose statements are nearly all false or misleading,
-      says that while he was an excise officer he bought smuggled tobacco and
-      was dismissed from the service for the offense. This statement is false.
-      Dr. Conway says:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I have before me the minutes of the Board concerning Paine, and there is
-      no hint whatever of any such accusation."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Falsehoods generally grow rather than diminish with age, and now we are
-      told that Paine himself was a smuggler and was dismissed for smuggling.
-      The Excise laws were the most odious laws in England, odious alike to the
-      people and to the excise officers, who were underpaid (fifty pounds a
-      year) and otherwise mistreated. Paine espoused the cause of his fellow
-      excisemen and in a memorial addressed to Parliament pleaded for a redress
-      of their grievances. His activity in this matter offended the Government
-      and a trivial irregularity commonly practiced by the excisemen was made a
-      pretext for his dismissal.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Everyman Encyclopedia: "Became an excise officer, but agitating for
-      the removal of grievances, was dismissed from the service."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Had Paine been discharged for any dishonest or immoral act Franklin would
-      have known it and would not have recommended him as "a worthy young man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Paine's dismissal was for him, for England, for America and for the world
-      one of the most fortunate things that ever occurred. His loss of the
-      excise office which occurred in April, 1774, took him to America in
-      November of the same year. The independence of the United States and the
-      agitation in behalf of popular government throughout the civilized world
-      followed as a result.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Willet Hicks, a Quaker minister, who was with Paine when he died,
-      testified that emissaries of the church tried to bribe him to slander
-      Paine. He says: "I could have had any sums if I would have said anything
-      against Thomas Paine, or if even I would have consented to remain silent.
-      They informed me that the doctor was willing to say something that would
-      satisfy them if I would engage to be silent. Mr. Paine was a good man&mdash;an
-      honest man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. G. H. Humphrey: "He was honest. Nor was he uncharitable. He abstained
-      from profanity and rebuked it in others."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Boston Post (Jan. 29, 1856): "Calumny has blistered her relentless hand in
-      trying to stamp him as profane, intemperate and mendacious. The real truth
-      appears to be that he was never habituated to profanity, to drunkenness,
-      nor to falsehood; and that his calumniators are unconsciously his
-      eulogists."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Manchester <i>Guardian</i>, probably the most influential journal in
-      the British empire, outside of London, says that while the popular
-      conception of Paine is that of a blatant and immoral demagogue he was
-      noted by his companions "for his shyness, his benevolence, and his
-      gentleness." Joel Barlow, who saw much of him, both in London and Paris,
-      as well as in America, says: "He was one of the most benevolent and
-      disinterested of mankind." "He was always charitable to the poor beyond
-      his means." Clio Rickman, most intimate of all his associates, says: "He
-      was mild, unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble and unassuming." Dr. Bond,
-      who was imprisoned with him in the Luxembourg, says: "He was the most
-      conscientious man I ever knew." James Parton says: "He loved the truth for
-      its own sake; and he stood by what he conceived to be the truth when all
-      around him reviled it." Ellery Sedgwick says: "The goal which he sought
-      was the happiness of his fellow-men."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. George W. Julian, the first Antislavery nominee for Vice-President,
-      one of the founders of the Republican party, and for many years a
-      distinguished leader in Congress, says: "Paine was a perfectly unselfish
-      and incorruptible patriot; he was a philanthropist in the best sense of
-      the word; he was a man of the rarest intelligence and moral courage."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Watts of England says: "Thomas Paine had a generous and
-      affectionate nature, a mind superior to fear and selfish interests; a mind
-      governed by the principles of uniform rectitude and integrity; a mind the
-      same in prosperity and adversity; a mind which no bribe could seduce and
-      no terror overawe."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eva Ingersoll Brown: "Thomas Paine was one of the mental and moral giants
-      of his time. He ranked among the foremost of his age. He was royal in
-      rectitude, kingly in compassion, sovereign in sympathy. His reverence for
-      truth and justice was sublime; his love of mercy and his ardor for liberty
-      were unsurpassed.... His was a religion untainted by touch of dogma or of
-      sect; a thing stainless and pure; of wondrous beauty and grandeur."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While the orthodox clergy, with a few noble exceptions, have been, to
-      their overlasting shame, mainly responsible for the ignorance and
-      prejudice that have prevailed concerning Thomas Paine, Liberal ministers,
-      many of them, to their eternal honor, have braved public sentiment and
-      dared to do him justice. In an address more than fifty years ago the Rev.
-      Moncure D. Conway paid this tribute to the moral character of Thomas
-      Paine: "In his life, in his justice, in his truth, in his adherence to
-      high principles, I look in vain for a parallel in those times and in these
-      times. I am selecting my words. I know I am to be held accountable for
-      them." Rev. Theodore Parker says: "I think he did more to promote piety
-      and morality among men than a hundred ministers of that age in America."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. L. F. Laybarger: "Great was Thomas Paine intellectually, morally he
-      was greater."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. E. A. Stevens: "May Americans long appreciate the genius and
-      reverence the virtues of their noble benefactor, for he left them a legacy
-      greater than his works&mdash;the contemplation of his high-souled,
-      unselfish character."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Every person who has charged Paine with immorality has either invented a
-      falsehood or repeated one. The character of Paine; was as blameless as
-      that of Washington. Both men, in their last days, were bitterly assailed
-      by political enemies. With their deaths political censure, for the most
-      part, ceased. But Paine's religious opinions were not forgotten, and could
-      not be forgiven. His "Age of Reason" continued to be read, and remained
-      unanswered, because unanswerable. What "Common Sense" had done to
-      kingcraft in America the "Age of Reason" promised to do to priestcraft
-      throughout the world. In her desperation the church seized her only
-      available weapon, slander. Every inventor of a calumny against Paine was
-      hailed as a defender of the faith. Unscrupulous biographers and
-      historians, like Cheetham and McMaster, to curry favor with the church,
-      have recorded these calumnies as facts; and others, accepting these
-      writers as reliable authorities, have innocently repeated them. Many who
-      have acknowledged Paine's services to mankind have felt compelled to
-      apologize for his supposed errors. Sir Leslie Stephen, who had accepted
-      some of these charges, thus frankly admits that he had been deceived: "I
-      regret to say that I had accepted certain charges against Paine's
-      character, which Mr. Conway has shown to rest upon worse than suspicious
-      evidence.... I fully admit that I was entirely misled by a hasty reliance
-      upon worthless testimony." (<i>History of English Thought in the
-      Eighteenth Century, 3rd ed., vol. ii, p. 261, note.</i>)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William H. Burr: "While the corpse of the philanthropist lay cooling in
-      the ground the English Tory Cheetham wrote a biography full of malignity
-      and detraction."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cheetham had a double motive in writing his Life of Paine&mdash;revenge
-      and gain. He was an Englishman and had been an ardent Republican. But he
-      had betrayed his party and as a result of this he and Paine became engaged
-      in a bitter controversy. Paine's punishment of the renegade was terrible.
-      His wounds still smarting when his adversary died, Cheetham wreaked his
-      vengeance by writing a book in which he presented as facts all the
-      calumnies that Paine's political and religious enemies had circulated
-      concerning him, supplemented by all that his own malignant mind could
-      invent. Realizing that his career in America was ended he had decided to
-      return to England and the book, he believed, would win for him the favor
-      and patronage of England's two most powerful institutions, the Tory
-      Government and the Orthodox Church.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubtless was, disappointed
-      and a renegade, with talents, as he certainly possessed, but embittered in
-      feelings and regardless of truth, as all circumstances contribute to show&mdash;what
-      could be expected from such a man but just what he produced, a Life of
-      Paine abounding in bold falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and addressed to
-      a people who wished to be deceived."&mdash;<i>Gilbert Vale</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "We have no hesitation in saying that we knew perfectly well at the time
-      the motives of that author [Cheetham] for writing and publishing a work,
-      which, we have every reason to believe, is a libel almost from beginning
-      to end."&mdash;<i>Rev. Solomon Southwick.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eighteen years prior to the appearance of Cheetham's book George Chalmers,
-      an English writer, under the pseudonymn of "Francis Oldys," backed by the
-      friends of the English Tory government and for a consideration, it is
-      claimed, of £500, to counteract the influence of the "Rights of Man" which
-      was threatening to overthrow monarchy in England, wrote a pretended
-      biography of Paine filled with slander and vituperation. Referring to this
-      book and the corrupt English political and religious age in which it was
-      written, Edward Smith, an English author, writing nearly a century later,
-      characterizes it as "one of the most horrible collections of abuse which
-      even that venal day produced."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Excepting Cheetham and Chalmers, all of the biographers of Paine&mdash;Conway,
-      Vale, Rickman, Sedgwick, Sherwin, Blanchard, Linton and others&mdash;have
-      endeavored to do him justice. But Cheetham's and Chalmer's books have been
-      the arsenals where the orthodox of England and America have gone for their
-      weapons with which to attack the author of the "Age of Reason." Not only
-      have they tried to suppress Paine's book, they have tried to banish from
-      the public library and book-store every work that has appeared in defense
-      of it or its author. For three-quarters of a century the only biographies
-      of Paine to be found in the London library were those of Cheetham and
-      Chalmers; the only one to be found in the public libraries of America was
-      that of Cheetham. Is it any wonder, then, that nearly all the pictures of
-      Paine, even those drawn by friendly hands, to be found in our histories,
-      biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias and other works, should be
-      largely caricatures?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      One of the foulest of these caricatures is that drawn by the historian
-      John Bach McMaster. For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no excuse
-      can be offered. The plea of ignorance of Paine's true character and
-      history cannot be urged in his behalf. He had before him the authentic
-      records of Paine's career, in America, at least. He knew that his
-      statements were untruthful and unjust. His tirade of abuse is seemingly
-      for the sole purpose of securing for his books the endorsement of the
-      clerical bigots who dominate our schools and colleges.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Louisa Harding: "One would imagine that even the religious bigot would
-      know that he [McMaster] drew for us the picture of a great man, looming up
-      tall and wide behind the chronicler who strove to pull him down.... In the
-      course of a careful, impartial investigation of the various lives of, and
-      articles on, Paine, it became necessary to resort to the explanation of
-      blinding religious prejudice; and that, too, having failed to fit the
-      case, there seems to be no recourse save to use a shorter, uglier word&mdash;John
-      Bach McMaster <i>lies</i>."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A little while ago a prominent American, misled by Paine's calumniators
-      and too proud to retract it when the error was called to his attention,
-      applied to the author-hero the brutal epithet "filthy little Atheist"&mdash;three
-      falsehoods in three words, for Paine was neither filthy, little, nor an
-      Atheist.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-    [See the works of President Theodore Roosevelt for
-    this quotation of his opinion of Thomas Paine.  DW]
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      "Every syllable of that characterization is a shameful falsehood."&mdash;<i>William
-      M. Salter, A.M.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "One of the most transparently false and indefensible slanders that ever
-      came from lip or pen."&mdash;<i>J. P. Bland, B. D.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Was he filthy? He was the friend and associate of Washington and
-      Franklin. He was a member of the most conspicuous philosophical society in
-      the new world. He was associated with the most distinguished men of the
-      philosophical circles of France. Was he little? He entered an intellectual
-      combat with Edmund Burke, and won immortal renown. Was he little? He was
-      big enough and mighty enough to make the throne of Great Britain tremble.
-      Was he little? He was big enough to make in America as well as in France
-      the cause of human liberty his debtor forever "&mdash;<i>Dr. John E.
-      Roberts.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Commenting on this slander the <i>Nation</i> of England says: "After all,
-      our feelings of resentment at such a brutality are assuaged by the
-      reflection that whereas, this man, will in a quick generation sink to the
-      obscurity from which a series of accidents lifted him for a few years,
-      history will gradually set in its proper place among the makers of the
-      Republic the memory of the man whom he defamed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "All this vilification is really the tribute that mediocrity pays to
-      genius."&mdash;<i>Elbert Hubbard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Walt Whitman: "Paine was double damnably lied about."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Anything lower, meaner, more contemptible, I cannot imagine, to take an
-      aged man&mdash;a man tired to death after a complicated life of toil,
-      struggle, anxiety&mdash;weak, dragged down, at death's door;... then to
-      pull him into the mud, distort everything he does and says; oh, it's
-      infamous."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine had a noble personality, as exhibited in presence, face,
-      voice, dress, manner, and what may be called his atmosphere and magnetism,
-      especially the later years of his life. I am sure of it. Of the foul and
-      foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his decease, the
-      absolute fact is that he lived a good life, after its kind; he died calmly
-      and philosophically, as became him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Morrison Davidson: "He died as he lived, one of the grandest examples
-      of intellectual piety, fidelity and rectitude that ever lived."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      New York Advertiser (June 9, 1809): "With heartfelt sorrow and poignant
-      regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is no
-      more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to the
-      cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any man's
-      memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of the
-      deceased, for,
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "'Take him for all in all,
-     We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'"
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      (Paine's remains were buried on his farm at New Rochelle. Ten years later,
-      because of America's ingratitude and neglect, William Cobbett had his
-      bones disinterred and sent to England. In connection with their
-      reinterment he had planned a great popular demonstration. "When I return,"
-      he said, "I shall cause them to speak the common sense of the great man; I
-      shall gather together the people of Liverpool and Manchester in one
-      assembly with those of London, and those bones will effect the reformation
-      of England in Church and State."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Cobbett, probably waiting for a more opportune time, failed to carry out
-      his cherished scheme. The bones of Paine reposed for nearly thirty years
-      in their coffin and then disappeared. As late as 1854 a Unitarian
-      clergyman claimed to have in his possession "the skull and the right hand
-      of Thomas Paine.")
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The skull and the right hand of Thomas Paine!" What priceless relics!
-      Could they be found America should repossess them, place them in a casket
-      of gold and preserve them in a shrine at her national capitol. Within that
-      skull was conceived this great republic. That hand wrote the inspired
-      volume which transformed a vague dream into a glorious reality. That hand,
-      too, wrote two other immortal works which, slowly but surely, are
-      effecting what Cobbett contemplated, "the reformation of England in Church
-      and State."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His 'Rights of Man' is now the political constitution of England, his
-      'Age of Reason' is the growing constitution of its Church."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As to his bones, no man knows the place of their rest to this day. His
-      principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown
-      about the world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no human
-      being has been born in the civilized world without some spiritual tincture
-      from that heart whose every pulse was for humanity, whose last beat broke
-      a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of thrones."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Charles Wendt, DD.: "A much abused name."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. O. B. Frothingham: "No private character has been more foully
-      calumniated in the name of God than that of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or
-      cold-blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful
-      instance of public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine experienced
-      from an age and country which he had so faithfully served."&mdash;<i>Rev.
-      Solomon Southwick</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Referring to Paine, the Boston <i>Herald</i> says: "It has, perhaps, never
-      fallen to the lot of any really great man to be so traduced in his
-      lifetime, and, after the grave has closed over him, to have his memory so
-      weighted down with obloquy of unsparing critics." Mrs. Bradlaugh-Bonner of
-      England, daughter of Charles Bradlaugh, one of England's noted orators and
-      statesmen, says: "Paine's politics were politics for the people, and the
-      people were taught to deny him; his ideal religion was 'the Religion of
-      Humanity,' and humanity would not even grant him a grave." Col. Ingersoll
-      says: "I challenge the world to show that Thomas Paine ever wrote one
-      line, one word in favor of tyranny&mdash;in favor of immorality; one line,
-      one word against what he believed to be for the highest and best interests
-      of mankind; one line, one word against justice, charity or liberty; and
-      yet he has been pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Harriet Law: "There are few to whom the world owes more, and probably none
-      to whose memory it has been more ungrateful."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edward D. Mead: "There is no other man in our religious or political
-      history who has been the victim of such misrepresentation, of such
-      persistent obloquy, as Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As we go back into the Dark Ages we read of the horrible atrocities
-      perpetrated in the name of religion, and this feeling had not yet passed
-      away during the time that Thomas Paine lived."&mdash;<i>Admiral George W.
-      Melville.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Andrew D. White, LL. D.: "Great, and, indeed, cruel injustice was
-      done him in his day, and has been continued in large measure ever since."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eastern Daily Press (England): "The fires still burn, although a hundred
-      years have passed."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "For more than a century his name has been as a touchstone revealing the
-      unappeasable malevolence of men's intolerance."&mdash;<i>Mrs.
-      Bradlaugh-Bonner.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Kumar Krishna de Varma, L. T. O. (Bombay, India): "The Orthodox have
-      always slandered the immortal author of the 'Age of Reason' and the
-      'Rights of Man.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Ernst Haeckel: "Thomas Paine, the immortal author of the celebrated
-      books, 'Age of Reason,' 'Common Sense,' 'Rights of Man,' and 'Crisis,'
-      belongs to those meritorious Truththinkers who during their lifetime were
-      not accorded the honor and acknowledgment that they well merited. The
-      traditional historians of schoolbooks not only neglected him for many
-      years but deliberately maligned and slandered him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Religious bigots have done all in their power to defame his character and
-      rob him of the laurels with which we crown him to-day."&mdash;<i>Elizabeth
-      Cady Stanton</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      D. M. Bennett: "Does a man with such a brilliant career, one having made
-      such a magnificent record, and one to whom the world owes far more than it
-      can ever pay, deserve to have his name maligned, his memory blackened, and
-      all his actions and motives belied and misrepresented? Is it honorable? Is
-      it manly? Is it just?"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Helen H. Gardener: "So long as a man, whether he be layman, bishop,
-      cardinal or pope, is willing to bear false witness against his neighbor,
-      whether that neighbor be living or dead, just so long will all the blood
-      of all the Redeemers of all the nations of the earth be unable to wash his
-      soul white enough to place it beside that of the patriot hero, Thomas
-      Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William T. Stead: "Paine and Ingersoll are assailed by the same weapons,
-      subjected to the same aspersions, and misrepresented in the same merciless
-      fashion as He [Christ] was assailed and misrepresented by the orthodox of
-      his time.... If it is right to treat Paine and Ingersoll in this harsh,
-      carping, uncharitable, malevolent fashion, then it is equally right to
-      apply it to the founder of the faith."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elmina Drake Slenker: "And this mild work, the 'Age of Reason,' is the
-      real cause of all the cruel calumnies that the world has circulated about
-      the hero, the scholar, the philosopher, the scientist, the inventor, the
-      humanitarian, Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lillian Leland: "Paine... had ideals of intellectual and religious
-      freedom, and was flung down from the pedestal of honor, broken, cast off
-      and ostracized for venturing to criticise the received forms of religion."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The replies to Thomas Paine," says George W. Foote of London, "were the
-      work of Christian ruffians. Bishop Watson was the only one who attempted
-      to answer Paine's arguments. The others only called him names; apparently
-      on the principle that to charge a Freethinker with drunkenness and
-      profligacy is the shortest and easiest way of proving that the Bible is
-      the Word of God."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George E. Macdonald of New York, says: "The strongest defense of the Bible
-      against the 'Age of Reason' was the allegation that Paine drank brandy,
-      although the Bible commends liquor drinking and the ministers of that
-      period were unrestricted in their potations."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Around New Rochelle, where Thomas Paine lived, and where this myth about
-      his drunkenness has its geography, there were deacons by the dozen who
-      were drinking regularly more than Thomas Paine ever drank, without in the
-      slightest degree affecting their religious reputation. I speak of these
-      things, which I have investigated, because I feel so strongly the wrong
-      which has been done to this man."&mdash;<i>Edward D. Mead.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Gilbert Vale: "Could the 'Age of Reason' and 'Rights of Man' have been
-      replied to as he replied to Burke we should have never heard these
-      slanders."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Ware Cotter:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Let libelers' gall-envenomed tongues
-     Make bitter every word they speak;
-     Time will disclose the patriot's wrongs
-     And blanch with shame the slanderer's cheek."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      TESTIMONIALS AND TRIBUTES.
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      M. Coupé: "Faithful friend of liberty."
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      M. Courtois: "He has labored to found liberty in two worlds."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.: "Thomas Paine in England and America and Thomas
-      Jefferson in America became the chanticleers of liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. John J. Ingalls: "Paine was one of the great apostles of human
-      liberty, and did much to emancipate mankind from the shackles of ancient
-      prejudice and error."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human race."&mdash;<i>Samuel
-      Adams.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. Lester F. Ward, LL.D.: "Thanks to Paine and other great reformers,
-      we have emerged from the condition where the political struggle is the
-      main issue. In other words political liberty has been attained."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      T. J. Bowles, M. D.: "At the close of the eighteenth century it dawned
-      upon the minds of the immortal Paine, Jefferson and Franklin that all men
-      are created equal, and this conception born in the minds of this trinity
-      of saviors made the nineteenth century the most marvelous and the happiest
-      period in the history of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Earl John Francis Stanley Russell: "A great reformer and an illustrious
-      heretical pioneer."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His name stands for mental freedom and moral courage."&mdash;<i>George W.
-      Foote</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine was a heroic innovator. He said what he thought and he meant
-      what he said."&mdash;<i>Rev. George Burman Foster</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Wesley Jarvis: "He devoted his whole life to the attainment of two
-      objects&mdash;rights of man and freedom of conscience."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. H. M. Kottinger, A. M.: "Thomas Paine fought as courageously for
-      religious liberty as he did for civil liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I dare not say how much of what our Union is owing and enjoying to-day&mdash;its
-      independence&mdash;its ardent belief in, and substantial practice of,
-      radical human rights&mdash;and the severance of its government from all
-      ecclesiastical and superstitious dominions&mdash;I dare not say how much
-      of all this is owing to Thomas Paine, but I am inclined to think a good
-      portion of it decidedly is."&mdash;<i>Walt. Whitman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It was his clear head and brave and righteous soul that inspired the men
-      who declared our independence, and put into the Constitution of the United
-      States such a veto against ecclesiastical domination as has defied its
-      proud and conceited usurpation to the present day."&mdash;<i>Elizur Wright</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      H. Lee-Warner: "Its [Thetford's] great man who taught the world to respect
-      the right of free-thought."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      (The one hundredth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine was observed
-      at his birthplace. The mayor of Thetford presided, and four members of the
-      British Parliament delivered eulogistic addresses.)
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Anderson: "One of the noblest Freethinkers in the world's history.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine is the idol of Freethinkers. He is enthroned in our hearts because
-      he gave his life to freedom."&mdash;<i>L. K. Washburn.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "In both worlds he offered his blood for the good of man. In the
-      wilderness of America, in the French Convention, in the sombre cell
-      awaiting death, he was the same unflinching, unwavering friend of his
-      race; the same undaunted champion of freedom."&mdash;<i>Ingersoll.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Martin L. Bunge: "I owe much to Thomas Paine. His words have guided me in
-      my struggle for liberty and truth. The more I study him the more I love
-      the human race."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Isador Ladoff: "Freethought was to him not a mere attitude of mind, but a
-      philosophy of life and action."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. M. N. Wright: "He will always stand as an illustrious example of
-      that higher reverence, that diviner faith of the incoming religion&mdash;a
-      religion based in the common wants of a common humanity."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Marion Reedy: "He glorified common sense.... He is one of the
-      chief saints of the Church of Man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Paul Jordan Smith: "When Thomas Paine first saw the light of day it
-      was the custom of certain disciples of peace and good will to beat and
-      burn the man who wanted to think.... And down the days that since have
-      passed it has been the fashion of the blatant orthodox to cry, 'Infidel!'
-      'Infidel!' at the man who said: 'Any system of religion that shocks the
-      mind of a child cannot be a true system.' 'The world is my country; to do
-      good my religion.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Blatchford: "Paine left Moses and Isaiah centuries behind when he
-      wrote: 'The world is my country; to do good my religion.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stoughton Cooley: "One of the most devoted spirits in the cause of
-      liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      East Anglian Daily Times: "The Rights of Man' and the 'Age of Reason' may
-      have scandalized orthodox opinion, but their author was never engaged in
-      any but a generous and noble cause, that had complete personal liberty for
-      its sole object and aim."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "They [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine] were alike in making bitter
-      enemies of the priests and pharisees of their day. Both were honest men;
-      both advocates of human liberty."&mdash;<i>Thomas Jefferson.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. C. Hannon: "Liberty, hunted around the globe, has ever found its
-      highest hope, its safest refuge, in the affections of those upon whose
-      grand and noble foreheads the tyrants of the world have ever branded the
-      indelible stigma of Infidelity. Thomas Paine, who has done more for human
-      liberty than any other man who ever lived, has borne it with a grace
-      amounting to sublimity."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. J. B. Wilson: "Towering spires, blazing altars, jeweled palaces, and
-      golden thrones had awed and subdued the Eastern nations for all time. It
-      remained for Thomas Paine, standing upon the shores of this western world,
-      to tear away the blinds of superstition, hypocrisy, selfishness, and
-      imperial pretense, and awaken mankind to a consciousness of its own power
-      and capacity for self-government."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Walter Holloway: "Age after age men have struggled toward the ideal, with
-      toil and tears, praying in their pain, sobbing out their sorrows in the
-      half-light of hope, forever beaten back from the coveted goal. Wise men
-      long ago saw that the gods must be dethroned and the government of earth
-      given into the hands of men. That was the passionate dream of Thomas
-      Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      M. Felix Rabbe: "Thomas Paine has suffered the fate of all those who,
-      listening only to their conscience of honest manhood, solely attentive to
-      the voices of Nature and Reason, raised principles above all
-      considerations of frontiers, parties, sects, and sacrificed without
-      hesitation the mean calculations of a temporizing policy to the higher
-      interests of eternal justice."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The world has had few such men, those who divest themselves of selfish
-      motives of gain or pride and are willing to suffer obloquy and poverty for
-      a conviction."&mdash;<i>Edward C. Wentworth</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elizabeth Cady Stanton.: "We cannot be too grateful to those who through
-      poverty, persecution, imprisonment, and death have given us the light of
-      science in the place of blind faith on questions of government, religion,
-      and social life. Thomas Paine is a worthy name in the long line of martyrs
-      to liberal political and religious principles."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Poor, abused, maligned, hated and persecuted, Paine stood alone in the
-      ocean of superstition, ignorance and prejudice as the Liberty Statue of
-      religious thought while the waves of malice, ostracism and anathema lashed
-      against his kind and manly brow."&mdash;<i>Rev. David W. Bash.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. Thomas Slicer: "The progress of the world in political and
-      religious liberty will be written in the estimates that the world has
-      learned to take of Thomas Paine during the hundred years since he fell
-      into an unnoticed grave."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine made it impossible to write the history of human liberty
-      with his name left out. He was one of the creators of light. He was one of
-      the heralds of the dawn."&mdash;<i>Col. R. G. Ingersoll.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I enjoy myself when I think how free I am, and I thank this man for it.
-      When I think of that the whole horizon is full of glory, and joy comes to
-      me in every ray of sunshine and every rustle of the winds."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James F. Morton, Jr.:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Since time began,
-     No greater prophet faced the savage ban
-     Of priest and king."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Rev. David W. Bush: "How unwise to deny myself the companionship of one of
-      the greatest, bravest, most self-sacrificing men of all time because he
-      has written things I cannot accept."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Pearl W. Geer: "This is the beauty of Free-thought&mdash;the glory of
-      Infidelity. We recognize good in everything where good is to be found.
-      While we do not accept all of Thomas Paine's ideas we recognize in him the
-      greatest man the world has ever known."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "There is not in Illinois a monument that stands as high as Abraham
-      Lincoln; nor in Massachusetts as high as Ralph Waldo Emerson; nor in the
-      world as high as Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>L. K. Washburn</i>.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "The wisest, brightest, humblest son of earth."
-    &mdash;Clio Rickman.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Rev. George Croly: "An impartial estimate of this remarkable man has been
-      rarely formed and still more rarely expressed. He was assuredly one of the
-      original men of the age in which he lived."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. Charles Stedman (a Tory officer in the Revolution): "Thomas Paine has
-      rendered his name famous on the theatre of Europe and of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Shelton Mackenzie: "We cannot ignore the fact that he was one of
-      the ablest politicians of his time and that liberal minds all over the
-      world recognize him as such."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Washington recognized his practical insight, Napoleon picked him out from
-      the crowd of 'ideaologues' and consulted him."&mdash;<i>London Times</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Cobbett, one of the most notable figures in English politics, who,
-      misled by Paine's enemies, had been one of his most violent assailants,
-      thus frankly acknowledges his indebtedness to him: "Old age having laid
-      his hand upon this truly great man, this truly philosophical politician,
-      at his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Bradlaugh: "He was a sturdy, true man. Though Norfolk born, not
-      English, but human, and with nothing of geographical limit to that
-      humanity. As a politician, or rather as a thinker on politics he stands
-      for England as Jean Jacques Rousseau has stood for France. You on your
-      side ought to reverence him for the timely words which gave form and
-      reality to vague, unspoken thought. We, on our side, too, ought to honor
-      him for the 'Rights of Man' yet to be wearisomely achieved."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Atlantic Monthly: (July, 1859): "His career was wonderful, even for the
-      age of miraculous events he lived in. In America he was a Revolutionary
-      hero of the first rank, who carried letters in his pocket from George
-      Washington, thanking him for his services. And he managed besides to write
-      his radical name in large letters in the History of England and France."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      W. W. Bartlett: "He was undeniably preeminent among statesmen, and by his
-      many-sidedness he succeeded in rousing the whole civilized world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Marshall J. Gauvin: "In honoring the memory of Thomas Paine we recognize
-      and salute one of the greatest forces in history."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Other men have followed events; Paine actually created them.... he wanted
-      a Declaration of Independence, and he produced the wish for it."&mdash;<i>Gilbert
-      Vale.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hugh Byron Brown: "There are a few great men who, like milestones along
-      the road of progress, are so distinguished and prominent, and who have so
-      influenced the destinies of nations, as to mark an epoch in the world's
-      history. Such a man was Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Michael Monahan: "One of the notables of history."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. E. M. Frank: "Thomas Paine was, in his time, one who stood in the
-      forefront of human progress."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Edward Bond Foote: "As Lincoln was the man for his time and place, so
-      Paine fitted perfectly and filled remarkably the niche which history
-      allotted to him."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Horace L. Green: "Thomas Paine, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the
-      glorious trinity of Independence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Eugene V. Debs: "The revolutionary history of the United. States and
-      France stirred me deeply and its heroes and martyrs became my idols.
-      Thomas Paine towered above them all."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Knut Martin Teigen, M.D., Ph.D.: "Thomas Paine was, beyond all doubt, a
-      true genius."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. John Walker (with Paine in France): "There can be no question that
-      Paine was a man of the most gigantic genius and of the soundest practical
-      knowledge."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Joel Barlow, ambassador to France during Napoleon's reign, Paine's
-      companion in London and Paris, and to whom he entrusted the manuscript of
-      his "Age of Reason" when he was taken to prison, says: "Paine was endowed
-      with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and
-      the greatest depth of thought.... As a visiting acquaintance and literary
-      friend, he was one of the most instructive men I have ever known."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries
-      of the age in which he lived."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the earth."&mdash;<i>Horace
-      Seaver.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place in
-      her Hall of Fame."&mdash;<i>Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. L. M. Birkhead: "Paine in days to come will be considered one of
-      the greatest men and statesmen the world has ever known."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I regard Thomas Paine as one of the greatest men the world has ever
-      produced, and all ought to be proud that he belonged to our race."&mdash;<i>Sir
-      Hiram Maxim.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Glasgow Herald: "Paine was greater than he knew."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The two men who have left the richest heritage of thought and made the
-      deepest imprint upon the minds of mankind for future ages,... Thomas Paine
-      and Charles Darwin [Darwin was born in the year that Paine died], were in
-      turn the Elijah and the Elisha of the eighteenth and the nineteenth
-      centuries of the Christian era. One hundred years ago today Thomas Paine
-      let fall his mantle of light upon the infant shoulders of Charles Darwin
-      and vanished in a chariot of fire that shall blaze the trail of the seeker
-      after truth from generation unto generation."&mdash;<i>Alden Freeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edward G Wentworth: "Giordano Bruno was one of the world's martyrs who
-      died for a cause. Thomas Paine was one of the world's martyrs who lived
-      for a cause. Each has created an imperishable name."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Jacob Holyoake: "Paine was the most intrepid and influential
-      Englishman that ever sprang from the ranks of the people."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The man who was the confidant of Burke, the counsellor of Franklin, and
-      the friend and colleague of Washington, must have had great qualities."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He belongs to England. His fame is the property of England; and if no
-      other people will show that they value that fame, the people of England
-      will:"&mdash;<i>William Cobbett</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, LL. D.: "Great souls are the key-stones in the arches
-      that unite the races.... German provincialism died when Lessing, Schiller,
-      and Goethe were born. The insignificant island lost its insular character
-      when Shakespeare wrote. The emaciated thirteen colonies became great when
-      Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Jefferson spoke for them."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mohammed Ali Webb: "All educated Mohammedans know him. The intelligent
-      Moslem places Thomas Paine among the world's admirable men and holds his
-      memory in great reverence."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      U. Dhammaloka: "The Buddhist Tract Society of Burmah observed the one
-      hundreth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine. We had large audiences.
-      I myself [president of this society] spoke to an audience of about five
-      thousand at a town in Upper Burmah."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Kedàrnath Basu (of India): "My countrymen are beginning to admire and
-      revere the noble character of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yoshiro Oyama (Japan): "Thomas Paine was one of the greatest of the great
-      men of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Francois Thane: "The French people would be proud to have his ashes rest
-      in the Pantheon beside the grave of Voltaire."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Legg Henderson: "The time is not far distant when all the world
-      will recognize in Thomas Paine the martyr, the hero, the man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Prof. A. L. Rawson, LL. D.: "More men like Paine are wanted, and will
-      appear from time to time, until the whole human race has grown in
-      intelligence, reason and taste."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Judge Arnold Krekel, LL. D.: "Let us carry forward, then, the work in
-      which the man we honor was so largely and so successfully engaged."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Libby C. Macdonald: "The lips of Thomas Paine are still in death, but we
-      can voice his principles through ours."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I commend the study of the life of Paine to the young men of today."&mdash;<i>Hon.
-      William J. Gaynor.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Time will come when the problem of school education will be how to make
-      good citizens of our boys and girls, and there are no better books for
-      this purpose than those of Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>John S. Crosby.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "With the spirit of Thomas Paine in our hearts no despot, foreign or
-      domestic, will ever be able to build his throne beside the grave of our
-      liberty."&mdash;<i>Rev. Thomas B. Gregory.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Had the world but heeded the wise counsels of Thomas Paine, Europe would
-      not now be drenched in blood."&mdash;<i>W. M. van der Weyde.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. J. Page Hopps: "Paine was a splendid radical prophet, and therefore,
-      though a thoroughly practical man, was only a teacher and leader born too
-      soon."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Marie J. Howe: "Paine did not belong to the eighteenth century, but
-      was only born in it. He belongs to this."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Clarence Darrow: "Thomas Paine was so far beyond his age that a hundred
-      years has not been long enough for the world to catch up. Sometime he will
-      stand out as the wisest, truest, bravest friend of liberty that America
-      can boast."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry Gaylord Wilshire: "Paine was the greatest man this country has
-      produced, and it is only a question of time when we will come to realize
-      it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine, being a genius, saw a vision of the future and the glories that
-      should be. The herd did not, and we do not, but we shall some day."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Robert J. Lockhart: "He was a light that shed a splendor whose origin
-      no man could declare. He was greater than the times he lived in."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Horace J. Bridges: "Some men are too great and too far ahead of their
-      times to get justice at contemporary hands. Being too broad and impartial
-      for any single party, they offend all parties, and are rejected and
-      reviled by all. Such in England was the fate of Cromwell and Milton; and
-      such in America has been the fate of Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Herbert N. Casson: "Paine was a man who did not belong to his time, a man
-      who was far larger than the men among whom he lived. He was loaned, as it
-      were, from a larger planet to this small one. And he was given to this
-      country at a time when the country most needed a guide and a wise teacher
-      in the cause of independence and truth."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dwight Galloupe, U. S. A.: "I am proud to speak the name of one who,
-      in too many memories, lives only as an outcast and Ishmael among men&mdash;Thomas
-      Paine. I cannot forget that when all was dark his eye saw a star of hope,
-      his faith heard the tramping of millions of free people yet unborn. His
-      devotion kept him steadfast until the Stars and Stripes compelled the
-      recognition of the world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The man whose eloquent and reasoned appeal, 'Common Sense,' first
-      formulated the demand for Independence, the first coiner of the great
-      thought and expression, 'The United States of America,' the man whom
-      Washington and Jefferson were proud to call their friend, and whose
-      magnificent work for the liberty of their country they acknowledged with
-      unstinted praise."&mdash;<i>The Nation</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Washington: "That his 'Common Sense' and many of his 'Crisis' were
-      well timed and had a happy effect on the public mind, none, I believe, who
-      will turn to the epochs at which they were published will deny."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Must the merits of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream of time
-      unrewarded by his country? His writings certainly have had a powerful
-      effect on the public mind,&mdash;ought they not then to meet an adequate
-      return?"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "If you will come to this place and partake with me I shall be exceedingly
-      glad to see you at it. Your presence may remind Congress of your past
-      services to this country; and if it is in my power to impress them,
-      command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered
-      cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance of your
-      works."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I am in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy of
-      former [Revolutionary] times. In these it will be your glory to have
-      steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living."&mdash;<i>Thomas
-      Jefferson</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Colonel John Laurens: "You will be received with open arms, and all that
-      affection and respect which our citizens are anxious to testify to the
-      author of 'Common Sense' and the 'Crisis.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I wish you to regard this part of America [the Carolinas] as your
-      particular home&mdash;and every thing that I can command in it to be in
-      common between us."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Robert Emmett: "To be associated with Mr. Paine, whose services to America
-      are reflected in the glory of her Republic and the happiness of her
-      people, must be to any one who loves liberty, or regards private virtues
-      and public accomplishments, a source of peculiar pride."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Monroe: "The citizens of the United States cannot look back upon the
-      times of their own Revolution without recollecting among the names of
-      their most distinguished patriots that of Thomas Paine. The services he
-      rendered to his country in its struggle for freedom have implanted in the
-      hearts of his countrymen a sense of gratitude never to be effaced as long
-      as they deserve the title of a just and generous people."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will
-      stain our national character. You are considered by them as not only
-      having rendered an important service in our Revolution, but as being on a
-      more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distinguished and
-      able advocate in favor of public liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      James Madison (to Washington): "Whether a greater disposition to reward
-      patriotic and distinguished efforts of genius will be found on any
-      succeeding occasion, is not for me to predetermine. Should it finally
-      appear that the merits of the man whose writings have so much contributed
-      to infuse and foster the spirit of independence in the people of America,
-      are unable to inspire them with a just beneficence, the world, it is to be
-      feared, will give us as little credit for our policy as for our gratitude
-      in this particular."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Madison, Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and others urged the appointment of
-      Paine to a place in Washington's cabinet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to humanity,
-      and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on the part of the
-      people he sought to free, and he would have been President of the United
-      States."&mdash;<i>Calvin Blanchard</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Marquis de Lafayette: "To me America without her Thomas Paine is
-      unthinkable."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Should you ever visit Mount Vernon you will see among the many interesting
-      relics preserved there a key. It is the Key of the Bastille, the
-      demolition of which, on the 14th of July, 1789, was France's Declaration
-      of Independence. This key passed through the hands of three celebrated men
-      and associates in the mind the world's two greatest revolutions. Its
-      history, briefly stated, is as follows: "Jefferson [then Minister to
-      France] had sailed [for America] in September, and Paine was recognized by
-      Lafayette and other leaders as the representative of the United States. To
-      Paine Lafayette gave for presentation to Washington the key of the
-      destroyed Bastille, ever since visible at Mount Vernon&mdash;symbol of the
-      fact that, in Paine's words, 'the principles of America opened the
-      Bastille.'"&mdash;<i>Conway</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. J. Rudis-Jicinsky: "When, in Germany, I read for the first time
-      Paine's 'Common Sense' I thought that in the land of liberty, the United
-      States, this hero who upheld the cause of the Colonies must be glorified
-      and his works known to every patriotic citizen... To my astonishment I
-      found that in this country the name of this great writer was not even
-      known to all its citizens. Then a flood of light flashed through my brain
-      and by its rays I spelled the word 'Ingratitude.'"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Unknown Writer (written in an old volume of Paine's works in a
-      Philadelphia library): "He has no name. The country for which he labored
-      and suffered knows him not. His ashes rest in a foreign land. A rough
-      grass-grown mound, from which the bones have been purloined [now
-      surmounted by a handsome monument] is all that remains on the continent of
-      America to tell of the hero, the statesman, and the friend of man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. John Snyder of St. Louis says: "Paine is one of his country's
-      half-forgotten saviors. In the mind of that country his heresy has
-      canceled the years of loving and priceless service he rendered to a
-      new-born nation. The clamor of bigotry has drowned the voice of
-      gratitude."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His patriotism shows not the slightest stain, and yet children have been
-      taught to abhor his name."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's ingratitude
-      to Thomas Paine."&mdash;<i>James P. Bland, B.D.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is time the world awakened to his merits."&mdash;<i>Ella Wheeler
-      Wilcox.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "It is time that justice should be done the memory of the man who strove
-      and suffered for his fellowmen."&mdash;<i>William Marion Reedy</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Republic owes so much to him that it is hardly seemly that it should
-      continue doing less than justice to his memory."&mdash;<i>New York World.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. Henry S. Randall: "Concede all the allegations against him and it
-      still leaves him the author of 'Common Sense' and certain other papers,
-      which rung like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary
-      struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pestilence-stricken as
-      the pen of no other man ever inspired them."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "<i>Shame rest on the pen which dares not to do him justice.</i>"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "A religion which will incite its followers, with virtual unanimity, to
-      pursue with malignant hatred and to blacken with all the refinements of
-      insatiable malice the memory of a distinguished benefactor of the human
-      race, on the sole ground of his renunciation of certain theological
-      dogmas, is undeniably the embodiment of a spirit hostile to intellectual
-      liberty and human progress."&mdash;<i>James F. Morton, Jr.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The national ingratitude displayed toward him on account of the fact of
-      his theological heresies has hardly a parallel in history. In vindicating
-      his memory, and calling attention, afresh to his invaluable services, we
-      are not indulging in a blind hero worship, but are establishing a
-      principle. The securing of justice to Paine, against the venomous hatred
-      invoked by his priestly enemies, involves a crushing blow to clerical
-      malice, and the winning of a victory which will have large consequences.
-      In the person of Paine, we are vindicating the principles of religious
-      liberty and confounding its antagonists."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The Atheists and Secularists of our time are printing, reading, revering
-      a work ['Age of Reason'] that opposes their opinions. For above its
-      arguments and criticisms they see the faithful heart contending with a
-      mighty Apollyon, girt with all the forces of revolutionary and royal
-      Terrorism. Just this one Englishman, born again in America, confronting
-      George III. and Robespierre on earth and tearing the like of them from the
-      throne of the universe! Were it only for the grandeur of this spectacle in
-      the past Paine would maintain his hold on thoughtful minds. But in America
-      the hold is deeper than that. In this self-forgetting insurrection of the
-      human heart against deified Inhumanity there is an expression of the
-      inarticulate wrath of humanity against continuance of the same wrong...
-      There is still visible, however refined, the sting and claw of the
-      Apollyon against whom Paine hurled his far-reaching dart."&mdash;<i>Dr.
-      Conway.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Judge Thomas Herttell: "No man in modern ages has done more to benefit
-      mankind, or distinguished himself more for the immense moral good he has
-      effected for his species, than Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ernestine L. Rose: "He was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life
-      was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "We find in Paine united two qualities which were rare in the eighteenth
-      century&mdash;political sagacity and humanity."&mdash;<i>Hector
-      Macpherson.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His career is only reduced to intelligible consistency when we recognize
-      that the impelling force behind his social, political and religious
-      activities was an overmastering passion for humanity."&mdash;<i>Ibid.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Edwin C. Walker:. "Paine was the least insular, the least provincial&mdash;the
-      most cosmopolitan&mdash;of all whose names have come down to us from the
-      ages gone... His sympathies were broader even than all humanity, for they
-      enclosed other forms of life as well, and were as varied as the needs of
-      all who suffered and aspired."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ellery Sedgwick: "He hated cruelty in every form. He hated war, he hated
-      slavery, he hated injustice; and his public life was one long battle
-      against every form of oppression."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His free lance was ever at the service of the poor and oppressed, but
-      never to be bought by favors of the court, or awed by the menaces of kings
-      or the anathemas of priests."&mdash;<i>Hugh Byron Brown.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. W. Whicker: "The growth of knowledge in the passing years will hallow
-      the name of this author, this patriot, this hero of two continents. His
-      life and his deeds are one sweet story of service for his kind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John R. Charlesworth: "His weapon was a pen. His mind jeweled with gems of
-      thought, richer by far than silver or gold, he gave of his intellectual
-      treasures without price."
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Long live the man, in early contest found,
-     Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
-     Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
-     Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
-    &mdash;Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human rights
-      and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever
-      trod the planet."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of
-      opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind,
-      unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank, and
-      wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard the
-      revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my heart
-      that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius, is
-      clamorous in the publication of its defects.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so forward
-      now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of Paine!&mdash;where
-      were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you, to assist his infant
-      merit, would diminish even the surplus of your debaucheries? Where the
-      mitred charity, the practical religion? Consistent declaimers, rail on!
-      What though his genius was the gift of Heaven, his heart the altar of
-      friendship! What though wit and eloquence and anecdote flowed freely from
-      his tongue, while Conviction made his voice her messenger! What though
-      thrones trembled, and prejudice fled, and freedom came, at his command! He
-      dared to question the creed which you, believing, contradicted, and to
-      despise the rank which you, boasting of, debased."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Lee:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      C. Fannie Allyn:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
-     Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
-     Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
-     As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
-
-     "Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
-     Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
-     And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
-     As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into
-      the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers of
-      our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution&mdash;Thomas
-      Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Samuel H. Preston: "He who will live forever in the history of this
-      republic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who consecrated a long,
-      laborious life in both hemispheres to the sacred cause of humanity; he
-      who, in his sublime patriotism, adopted the world for his country, and
-      who, in his boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind for his brethren;
-      this man&mdash;this great, and grand, and good, and heroic man&mdash;has
-      been robbed of honor and reputation, and blackened and hunted by the
-      sleuth-hounds of superstition, as though he had been the embodied curse of
-      earth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal destiny, shall justice
-      be awarded Thomas Paine. The flowers of poesy will be woven in amaranthine
-      wreaths above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened name will
-      whiten with purity through all the wasteless years."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Frank S. C. Wicks: "Why this ingratitude? In one word, bigotry!
-      Religious bigotry, that serpent that has left its trail of slime all over
-      the pages of human history.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He was pursued by religious bigotry, and but for religious bigotry the
-      name of Thomas Paine would share with Washington the love and honor of his
-      countrymen."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Thomas B. Gregory: "Our gratitude has been abundantly shown to
-      Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others who figured in the great drama,
-      but to our shame it must be said we have been slow in acknowledging our
-      debt to the man who did more than any other to bring about this country's
-      freedom.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "But superstition is slowly dying, ignorance is gradually disappearing,
-      and by and by Thomas Paine will come into his own and take his place along
-      with the greatest in our national pantheon."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. Solomon Southwick, D.D.: "Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman
-      patriot in olden times, and performed the same services as he did for this
-      country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pantheon would
-      have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his memory with
-      the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and Cicero. But posterity
-      will do him justice. Time, that destroys envy and establishes truth, will
-      clothe his character in the habiliments that justly belong to it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Paine was one of the glories of his age.... He has a powerful vindicator&mdash;posterity."&mdash;<i>M.
-      M. Mangasarian</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Frances Wright D'Arusmont: "Rest in peace, noble patriot; a glorious
-      resurrection awaits thee."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "For nearly a century this noble man&mdash;the real founder of our
-      republic&mdash;has been buried beneath the cruel stones of obloquy. But
-      slowly the angels of Justice are rolling back these stones from his
-      sepulchre, and the resurrection of Thomas Paine is at hand."&mdash;<i>Six
-      Historic Americans</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Current Literature: "The present indications are that posterity will
-      preserve the favorable, rather than the unfavorable, picture of Thomas
-      Paine. His influence is steadily growing."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Col. John C. Bundy: "Paine's influence is waxing broader, deeper and more
-      aggressive with each succeeding generation. At the end of a century, more
-      of his theological and political works are sold each year than those of
-      any other theologian or politician America has ever known. All the
-      progress of the century has been in the direction in which he steered."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Nation (London): "The magnitude, variety, and immediate efficacy of
-      Paine's writings constitute him one of the chief personal forces of the
-      revolutionary age.... He carried into the New England across the water a
-      consuming passion for human justice and liberty, not as platform phrases,
-      but as hard, concrete goods worth fighting and dying for, which set
-      America afire, when she was confusedly pondering an impossible and
-      unnatural reconciliation. From America to France, fresh in the throes of
-      her great upheaval, he passed, not as an incendiary, but as a moderating
-      and constructive influence in her national convention, risking his very
-      life for the cause of clemency in dealing with a traitorous king. From
-      France to England, carrying the same doctrines of liberty in politics and
-      religion, not a cold utilitarian conception of individual rights, but a
-      rich human gospel of a commonwealth sustained by a passion of humanity as
-      deep and real as ever influenced the soul of man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He will recover a glorious though tardy fame among those who take the
-      necessary trouble to rectify false estimates and to do honor to one of the
-      most truly honorable men who have striven to serve mankind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He died broken with many griefs, to be remembered by a later age as the
-      great Commoner of mankind."&mdash;<i>Library of The World's Best
-      Literature.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Edward Russell: "The soul of Thomas Paine was 'like a star and
-      dwelt apart.' He kept his own self-respect and the integrity of his mind."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He lived a long, laborious, and useful life. The world is better for his
-      having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach. He
-      ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him because he
-      was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the respect of what is
-      called society, but kept his own. His life is what the world calls a
-      failure, and what history calls success."&mdash;<i>Ingersoll.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Daniel Edwin Wheeler: "History continually reverses her statements at the
-      command of Truth, and the latter is slowly but certainly rehabilitating
-      the name and fame of Paine. The slime of a mythology which has for over a
-      century stained his reputation is disappearing and the prophet pamphleteer
-      is coming into his own."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. Muzzey, of New York, honored by Harvard, the Sorbonne of Paris, and
-      the University of Berlin, at the tomb of Thomas Paine, in 1909, gave
-      utterance to this tribute: "The democracy for which Robert Burns sang and
-      for which Thomas Paine labored is still a bright ideal in the distant
-      future, the star of brotherhood over a humanity still in the cradle.
-      Today, and only today, Thomas Paine is beginning to be appreciated as the
-      prophet of that democracy which means full human brotherhood. His fame
-      will grow with the years. The marvelous services of his brain, of his pen,
-      which was never dipped in the ink of malice or slander, of his wonderful
-      devotion as a soldier, as a prophet of freedom,... is coming to be
-      understood. As the realization of that service of Paine grows, it will
-      loom larger and larger. And when the day of democracy shall have come,
-      when the principles for which Paine stood shall have fully replaced the
-      awful dogmas of the past, as they are slowly and surely replacing those
-      dogmas, then he will come to his own."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rev. James Kay Applebee: "I see Thomas Paine as he looms up in history&mdash;a
-      great, grand figure. The reputation bigots have created for him fades
-      away, even as the creeds for which they raved and lied fade away; but
-      distinct and luminous, there remains the noble character of Thomas Paine
-      created by himself."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The stigma is on his detractors, not on him."&mdash;<i>Rev. Eugene Rodman
-      Shippen.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      R. B. Marsh: "No feeling of shame has been so poignant as that which
-      overwhelmed me when I saw that ignorantly and blindly following my
-      instructors I had added my voice to the all but universal outcry against
-      this man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His fame and memory have been obscured for a hundred years, only to shine
-      with greater luster when the truth is known. The day-dawn of his fame even
-      now is brightening the sky.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He has been the victim of almost infinite injustice; but I rejoice in the
-      confident belief that time will fully vindicate his memory, and restore
-      him to his just rank among the heroes of humanity."&mdash;<i>Hon. George
-      W. Julian.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That there is a rapidly growing disposition to do justice to the memory of
-      Thomas Paine is attested by a recent occurrence. On the 14th of October,
-      1905, at New Rochelle, where, less than one hundred years before, Paine,
-      because of his religious belief, was denied burial in a Christian
-      cemetery, the beautiful monument erected at his grave by admiring friends
-      was rededicated and assigned to the custody of that city, where, held as a
-      sacred treasure, it is now guarded with watchful and loving care. The
-      nation, the state, and the city united to make the event a memorable one.
-      Major General Frederick D. Grant sent two companies of United States
-      troops and a regimental band; the state of New York sent a battery which
-      fired a salute of thirteen guns; the mayor delivered a eulogy on Paine,
-      and the city council participated in the exercises. The school children of
-      New Rochelle sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and one of Paine's own songs.
-      Various civic and military societies also took part in the celebration&mdash;the
-      Grand Army of the Republic, Woman's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the
-      Republic, Spanish War Veterans, Minutemen, Washington Continental Guards,
-      and Sons of the American Revolution. Dr. Conway, Paine's faithful
-      biographer, sent a letter of greeting from Paris, and a daughter of France
-      a handsome wreath to lay upon the patriot's tomb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Henry S. Clark (Mayor of New Rochelle):
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "This memorial should serve and will remain an object lesson, inculcating
-      not only patriotism, but the fundamental idea which appeared only in
-      Paine's writings&mdash;political equality for all men."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "We accept this splendid memorial and pledge ourselves to ever protect and
-      preserve it."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The two chief centers by which the lovers of liberty, humanity and
-      progress will love to linger and gather inspiration in America will
-      henceforth be the mausoleum of Washington by the Potomac, and this
-      monument of Paine by his old home in your lovely city of New Rochelle."&mdash;<i>T.
-      B. Wakeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps
-      his dream will come true, and when there is a Republic of the World, here
-      will be the shrine of all nations."&mdash;<i>A. Outrant Sherman.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      John Burroughs: "I honor the memory of Thomas Paine and am glad to know
-      that it shines brighter and brighter as time goes on."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Rear Admiral George W. Melville: "Greater honor is coming to the name of
-      Thomas Paine as the years roll on.... In America he will always be known
-      as one of the greatest and brightest minds that stood for the liberties of
-      men."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hon. D. W. Wilder: "After a century of abuse it is pleasing to know that a
-      pure patriot and a very great man is at last being appreciated."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Theodore Schroeder: "Paine's sympathy for mankind had made kings his foes,
-      his mercy cost him his liberty, his generosity kept him in poverty, his
-      charity made him enemies, and by intellectual honesty he lost his friends.
-      Federalist judges of election, for whose liberty he had fought, denied him
-      the right to vote, because he was a citizen of France; imprisoned in
-      France because he was not a citizen of France; maligned because he was
-      brave; shunned because he was honest; hated by those to whom he had
-      devoted his whole existence; denied a burial place in the soil he helped
-      make free by the church which first taught him the lesson of humanity;
-      thus ended the life of Thomas Paine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The world is growing better, more just and more hospitable. The narrow
-      intolerance which once threatened to erase Paine's hame from the pages of
-      history is passing away. Gradually we are coming to know that a kingly
-      crown or priestly robe never rested upon a nobler man."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "His unselfish devotion to the rights of man is now being recognized, and
-      the brutal intolerance which tried to obliterate his name from history is
-      rapidly disappearing."&mdash;<i>Yoshiro Oyama</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The verdict of a century is being reversed today. In a little while the
-      voice of detraction will be hushed forever."&mdash;<i>Marshall J. Gauvin</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hector Macpherson: "The wheel of time has come round full circle. Men of
-      all sorts and conditions are willing to do justice to the man who, in the
-      midst of great obstacles and with unflinching and self-sacrificing purpose
-      held aloft the lighted torch of humanitarianism, and passed it on to
-      succeeding generations."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George Allen White: "What turbulent curses and ravenous conspiracies fell
-      for decades afoul thy noble head! How did the welkin ring with the
-      uttermost invectives of hell-brewed hate! But a hundred years later and
-      Thomas Paine&mdash;Thomas Paine the unspeakable&mdash;has been
-      rehabilitated. His fame is secure and untarnished now. Rising the
-      monuments. Splendid the horoscope of his future. Smoking the calumets.
-      Like an impossible, unbelievable dream vanishes the memory of those
-      tempestuous days of shameless bigotry."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Judge Charles B. Waite: "King and priest stood side by side, the one
-      enslaving the body, the other the mind. Men and women were subjected to
-      the most atrocious cruelties. Now and then, while mankind were struggling
-      with their destiny, voices were heard&mdash;voices in the night&mdash;penetrating
-      the surrounding gloom and reaching every ear. Such a voice was that of
-      Shelley; such a voice was that of Voltaire; such a voice was that of
-      Goethe; such was that of Thomas Paine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thomas Paine has been pursued with falsehood and calumny for more than a
-      hundred years, but his name and fame grow brighter and brighter as the
-      years roll by. Already he is enrolled among the immortals as one of the
-      real saviors of the World."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Josephine K. Henry: "Thomas Paine&mdash;'One of the few, the immortal
-      names that were not born to die."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "As an American woman I enshrine with gratitude the memory of the
-      philosopher, poet, counselor, historian, moralist, statesman and liberator&mdash;the
-      immortal Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. Atwood Culbertson: "Whether his remains now lie wrapped in the
-      immaculate shroud of winter snow, or, hid beneath earth's coverlet of
-      green, feed to fragrance the springtime flowers, kissed to life by April
-      sun; or whether his dust imparts the gold to the summer's grain, or lends
-      the tint to the autumn leaf, we do not know, we cannot say; but immortal
-      is the name of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Charles Watts: "Not of one age, but for all time."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      William Thurston Brown: "Thomas Paine belongs to the ages&mdash;not
-      because he was Thomas Paine, but because the light which illumined his
-      mind and the principles which motived his life are the noblest and richest
-      blossoms the tree of human life can bear. Toward the heights he climbed
-      leads every upward road that the fearless feet of seekers after truth in
-      this or any age have trod."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "The purpose of his life, unequaled in purity, beneficence and grandeur of
-      hope, 'lives and ever will live in the republics he invented, inspired and
-      organized, and in the Religion of Humanity upon which they rest."&mdash;<i>T.
-      B. Wakeman</i>.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "These words [Religion of Humanity] have blessed every religion. These
-      three magic words, first uttered by Paine, will work on and on forever."&mdash;Ibid.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Harry Weir Boland:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "His heart the world embracing
-     He served our sorest need,
-     His mind his church displacing,
-     Humanity his creed.
-     Humanity his creed,
-     Truth follows in his train,
-     And of all those names the fairest
-     Is that of Thomas Paine."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Mattie Parry Krekel: "Let us all, then, lay the trifle of a word, a
-      thought, a tear on the altar of the memory of him who will be one of the
-      pillars of that coming church where all men's hands shall be clasped in
-      the beautiful light of the sun of truth; the church which shall give us
-      one Father&mdash;Nature, and one brotherhood&mdash;the whole wide world."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "I for one here cheerfully, reverently, throw my pebble on the cairn of
-      his memory."&mdash;<i>Walt Whitman.</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Napoleon Bonaparte: "A statue of gold ought to be erected to you in every
-      city in the universe."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Andrew Jackson: "Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands; he has
-      erected himself a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      J. P. Bland, B.D.: "Thomas Paine needs no marble to perpetuate his name,
-      needs no granite to preserve his fame; for scattered through the whole
-      wide world he has to-day a million living monuments, the harbingers of
-      millions yet to come, and who, till time shall be no more, will bow the
-      head in reverence and lift the heart in praise of him who so gloriously
-      stood for reason and for right."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Dr. John E. Roberts: "So long as human rights are sacred and their
-      defenders held in grateful remembrance; so long as liberty has a flag
-      flung to the skies, a sanctuary in the hearts of men; so long, upon the
-      eternal granite of history, luminous as light and imperishable as the
-      stars, will be engraven the name of Thomas Paine."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll: "If to love your fellow-men more than self is
-      goodness, Thomas Paine was good.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the direction of
-      right is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of
-      death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "He died in the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to the
-      skies. Slander cannot touch him now; hatred cannot reach him more."
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      George E. Macdonald:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "O Champion, bravest in all the past!
-     O Freedom, fairest of all the dames.
-     Long may the pledge of your fealty last,
-     Forever united be your names.
-     And long as the flowers from the sod shall spring,
-     Touched by a May day's warmth and light,
-     A blossom and tear shall the lady bring
-     To drop on the grave of her faithful knight."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim twilight of the eighteenth
-      century his prophetic eye pierced through the intervening years to and
-      beyond the gray dawn of the twentieth. And when he viewed man's progress
-      and beheld his glorious destiny, this matchless seer "rang out the old,
-      rang in the new," rang out the rule and tyranny of king, rang out the
-      dogmas and the ghosts of priest; rang in the reign of liberty and justice,
-      rang in the faith of Reason and Humanity.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yes, in the cause of man the battle of his life was fought, a fierce and
-      stormy conflict. And as the night of death closed over the eventful
-      struggle, from her accursed abode the gaunt figure of Bigotry stalked
-      forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter danced around his prostrate
-      form, rejoicing that her deadliest foe was gone. Her imps still live. How
-      often do we see one of them in the pulpit take up this good man's name,
-      and after covering it with all the slime that the venomous spirit of
-      calumny has distilled, hold it up before his congregation, and with a
-      counterfeited look of holy horror, affecting all the meekness of an
-      expiring calf, rolling up the whites of his snaky eyes to cover the
-      blackness of his brutal soul, exclaim, "This is Tom Paine!"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Vile creatures! let them do their worst. Let them summon to their aid all
-      their hideous allies. Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let the
-      dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let Hatred rave and curse; let
-      the darts of Calumny pierce the white breast of Truth, and Slander clothe
-      the tongues of all their minions. They strive in vain. The Crisis is past,
-      the Age of Reason has dawned. Common Sense is fast supplanting
-      Superstition, the Rights of Man are bound to triumph, and the
-      author-hero's name will gather lustre as the years roll by.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "That man is thought a knave or fool,
-     Or bigot plotting crime,
-     Who for the advancement of his kind,
-     Is wiser than his time.
-     For him the hemlock shall distil,
-     For him the axe be bared;
-     For him the gibbet shall be built,
-     For him the stake prepared.
-     Him shall the scorn and wrath of men
-     Pursue with deadly aim;
-     And malice, envy, spite, and lies
-     Shall desecrate his name.
-     But never a truth has been destroyed,
-     They may curse it, and call it crime;
-     Pervert and betray, and slander and slay
-     Its teachers for a time:
-     But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky,
-     As round and round we run;
-     And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
-     And justice shall be done."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      Ungrateful Athens bade her savior drain the poisoned cup. It did its work,
-      the spark of life was quenched; but the name of Socrates shines on,
-      undimmed by the flight of more than twenty centuries. Columbus languished
-      in chains, forged by the nation he had made renowned; but no chains can
-      bind the towering fame his genius won. Religious zealots sealed the lips
-      of a philosopher; but could they stop the revolving earth? Could they
-      control the rising tide that rolled upon the boundless sea of thought? No!
-      the earth went round, the wave rolled on. To-day, the very church that
-      persecuted Galileo reveres his name, accepts his teachings, and through
-      his telescope, the instrument she once, condemned, her votaries, with
-      eager eye and throbbing pulse, explore the starry fields of heaven. It is
-      ever so: "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again." Each fierce
-      Thermopylae she meets inspires some crowning Salamis. The wrongs of Thomas
-      Paine shall be avenged. In vain his country passed to him the bitter cup;
-      the fetters forged to chain his noble spirit to the dust were forged for
-      naught; loving lips whisper, "It still moves!"
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I pity the man whose soul is so small that he cannot rise above the level
-      of his creed to do justice to those whose religious opinions have not been
-      gauged by his particular standard. I am no Christian, but may I never
-      become so ungrateful as to ignore my obligations to those who are. When
-      war was desolating our fair land, and my young heart yearned to enlist in
-      its defense, a Christian mother printed a kiss upon the cheek of her only
-      boy and bade him go; Christian hands made the grand old flag we followed;
-      Christian women visited our hospitals, ministering to the sick and wiping
-      the death-damp from the brows of the dying; Christian generals led their
-      troops on many a hard-fought field; and tonight the stately oak, the
-      drooping willow, and the moaning pine stand sentinel by many a Christian
-      soldier's grave. But they are not alone. Beside his Christian comrade&mdash;beneath
-      the shadows of the same trees&mdash;a martyr to the same cause&mdash;sleeps
-      the unbeliever. And would you strew with flowers and moisten with tears
-      the grave that enfolds the one, and trample with scorn the turf that grows
-      upon the other? Side by side they grandly marched to war; side by side
-      they bravely fought; side by side heroically they fell; and in the
-      murmuring stream that, wanders by their resting-place is heard the funeral
-      chant of no religious creed, but nature's eternal sweet, sad requiem to
-      all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Go to the grave of Thomas Paine, my Christian friend. Stand beside the
-      tomb where rest the ashes of this unappreciated genius. Take up his little
-      volume "Common Sense." Open its pages and peruse its burning words. When
-      done, unfold the map upon which are delineated "The Free and Independent
-      States of America." Contemplate the inspiring picture wrought thereon&mdash;wrought
-      by the author-hero's magic pen&mdash;then refuse the simple tribute of a
-      tear or flower!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Who is responsible for the obloquy that has been cast upon the memory of
-      this noble man? The church, the orthodox church alone, is responsible for
-      it. And let me say to the church, it ill becomes you to point to the
-      alleged moral delinquencies of this man while your own garments are soiled
-      and crimsoned with the vice and crime of centuries. You claim that amid
-      the thunders of Sinai God gave the Decalogue as a moral guide to man.
-      Judged even by this standard the moral character of Thomas Paine will not
-      suffer from a comparison with that of yours.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." "I believe in one God and no
-      more," said Thomas Paine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt worship no graven image." No worshiper of images was he.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." He abstained
-      from profanity himself and rebuked it in others.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He observed this law as
-      faithfully as did his Christian neighbors.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Honor thy father and thy mother." His parents were the objects of his
-      reverence and love.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not kill." He did not kill. He labored to abolish war and
-      murder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thout shalt not commit adultery." He was charged with adultery, and the
-      foul beast who made the charge was forced to pay a heavy fine for his
-      libelous assault.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not steal." Were all mankind as honest as he was the
-      locksmith's avocation would be gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not bear false witness." From his truthful lips no one ever
-      heard a falsehood fall.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not covet." A man who consecrates his life to the cause of
-      humanity, and who steadily refuses to be recompensed for his services,
-      cannot be accused of covetousness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Now, let me ask the church, what is your record? How have you kept even
-      the commandments of your own law?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And yet, you have persecuted,
-      imprisoned, tortured, butchered, and burned thousands for not believing in
-      a trinity of gods.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Before no idol shalt thou bow thy knee." Your places of public worship
-      are filled with idols&mdash;virgins, and saints, and crucifixes, and
-      Bibles&mdash;objects of as blind adoration as the idols of heathen lands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain." On every hand our ears are
-      greeted by the oaths of those who, whether belonging to any particular
-      sect or not, believe in the existence of the God and the divinity of the
-      Christ they curse.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." For eighteen hundred years you
-      have not kept a Sabbath of your God. You observe a day he never authorized
-      you to observe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Honor thy father and thy mother." The Christ you worship spurned the
-      loving mother who bore him and declared that he who hated not father and
-      mother could not be his disciple.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not kill." You have made of earth a slaughter house. For
-      centuries it resounded with the shrieks of murdered millions, victims of
-      your relentless fury. And today your votaries are drenching Europe's soil
-      with blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Your most immaculate saints violate this
-      commandment and become a stench in the nostrils of decent people.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not steal." Today the prisons of Europe and America shelter
-      three hundred thousand Christian thieves.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Perjury is rife in Christendom; and
-      even in heathen lands the very name of Christianity has become a synonym
-      for falsehood and deceit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      "Thou shalt not covet." Your history is the history of covetousness
-      itself. Christian Rome has tried to devour the world. A little while ago
-      we saw the Greek cross planted upon the Balkan&mdash;saw the Russian eagle
-      perched upon those snowy crags, gloating over the misfortunes of Turkey,
-      eager to clutch in his greedy talons the territory of Islam, and prevented
-      only by the jealous wolves of Protestantism.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      No wonder that the warmest hearts and brightest intellects are leaving
-      you. Upon your walls they read the fateful words that met the terrified
-      gaze of Babylon's sinful king. Your devotees are looking forward to a
-      millennium when your power on earth shall be supreme. Delusive phantom!
-      your millennium has come and gone. That dark blot on the page of history&mdash;that
-      withering pall stretching across the centuries from Constantine to Luther&mdash;that
-      constitutes the thousand years of Christian rule foretold in the
-      Apocalypse. But that has past, and your power is vanishing, never to be
-      restored again. From the ashes of that dauntless hero, Giordano Bruno,
-      young Science, phoenixlike, arose, and in the soil prepared by Luther,
-      sowed the seed whose harvest is your death. Even now I hear your
-      death-knell ringing; even now I gaze into a sepulchre where soon must lie
-      your Bible and your creeds&mdash;your stakes, your gibbets and your racks&mdash;your
-      priests, your devil and your God! And when the last have been entombed,
-      then gather up the crumbling bones of the one hundred million human beings
-      who have perished at your hands, and let this ghastly pile remain, a most
-      befitting monument to your unbounded cruelties and crimes!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It is a pleasing thought to know that bigotry is fading from the earth. It
-      can flourish only in the malarial swamps of ignorance and superstition,
-      and the poisonous vapors arising from these loathsome regions are being
-      fast dispelled by the sun of science.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      An incident in the life of Nicholas I. of Russia furnishes a fitting
-      parallel to what the bigots of our time are now experiencing. Among the
-      many admirers of that other great Deist, Voltaire, was the Empress
-      Catharine, who ordered a statue of him from the leading sculptor of
-      Europe. When it arrived Catharine was dying, and for years it lay
-      untouched in the box in which it had been shipped.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At length Alexander caused it to be set up in a room of the imperial
-      palace, where it remained until Nicholas ascended the throne. Nicholas was
-      a most admirable type of the religious bigot; he was ignorant and
-      intolerant, and the character of Voltaire was the object of his especial
-      hatred. Hardly had he donned the imperial robes before he began to realize
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     "How uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
-</pre>
-    <p>
-      An insurrection had broken out in one of his provinces. Troubled and
-      perplexed, he was wandering through the halls of the palace when,
-      suddenly, he stood face to face with the statue of Voltaire. That haughty
-      smile, so natural to the face of the living Voltaire, had been transferred
-      to his marble image; and now it seemed to mock the troubled emperor. He
-      summoned one of his ministers and ordered him to remove the offensive
-      work. The minister did so, placing it in an old lumber room of the palace.
-      All went well with the emperor until one night the cry of "fire!"
-      resounded in his ears. The palace was on fire. Rushing to the scene of the
-      conflagration he chanced to pass through the very room to which the statue
-      had been removed, and again he stood before the object of his hatred. The
-      red glare of the flames added to the terrors of the scene, and, for a
-      moment, Nicholas fancied himself translated to the dominions of Satan and
-      standing before his throne. The flames were finally extinguished, the
-      greater portion of the palace was saved, and with it the statue. But the
-      remembrance of this terrible scene haunted him like an apparition all
-      night long. He could not sleep. In the morning he summoned his minister
-      and ordered him to destroy the work of art. Out of respect for the dead
-      Catharine the order was unheeded. Years rolled by; the armies of England
-      and France had invaded the Crimea and defeated with frightful slaughter
-      the armies of the czar. Then flashed to St. Petersburg news of the
-      bombardment of Sebastopol which ultimately fell. It was night, and, wild
-      with anguish, Nicholas was again wandering through those desolate halls&mdash;lighted
-      only by the weird moonbeams that came straggling through the palace
-      windows&mdash;when, for the third time, he was confronted by the ghostly
-      statue. Again he summoned his minister. But his iconoclastic spirit was
-      broken. He no longer demanded the destruction of the statue, but simply
-      begged his official to remove it to where he should never more behold it.
-      The wily minister bethought him of a place never visited by his sovereign,
-      and accordingly had it removed to the imperial library. Nicholas is no
-      more; but the statue remains&mdash;a silent monarch in that realm of
-      thought&mdash;an object, not of abhorrence and dread, but of admiration.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the Russian bigot was haunted by the statue of Voltaire, so the bigots
-      of our day and country are haunted by the memory of Paine. Theological
-      insurrections are breaking out on every hand; the intellectual fires of
-      the twentieth century are encircling and consuming the rude palace of
-      Superstition; they hear the cannon of Science thundering before the walls
-      of their Sebastopol. Terror-stricken, aimlessly and hopelessly they wander
-      on, only to be confronted at every turn by the ghost of Thomas Paine.
-      Unhappy beings, this will not forever last. Not always will the good name
-      of Thomas Paine stand as a phantom to frighten bigots. Gently and lovingly
-      his friends are removing it, passing it on from generation to generation,
-      to a better and a grander age&mdash;to an age across whose threshold no
-      bigot's foot shall ever pass. Then, when the Republic of the World has
-      been established, and the Religion of Humanity has become the universal
-      religion, all mankind will recognize the worth and revere the memory of
-      him who wrote the political and religious creed of this glorious day:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &mdash;THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, TO DO GOOD MY RELIGION.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-               THE END.
-</pre>
-    <div style="height: 6em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-
-
-
-
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-Project Gutenberg's Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by John E. Remsburg
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty
-       An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including
-       the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses
-
-Author: John E. Remsburg
-
-Release Date: July 11, 2012 [EBook #40210]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THOMAS PAINE
-
-THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY
-
-An Address Delivered In Chicago, January 29, 1916.
-
-
-INCLUDING THE TESTIMONY OF FIVE HUNDRED WITNESSES.
-
-
-By John E. Remsburg
-President Of American Secular Union
-
-"This effort to right the wrongs of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, a
-service to mankind."--Andrew D. White, LL.D., First President of Cornell
-University, Minister to Russia, and Ambassador to Germany.
-
-1917
-
-IN MEMORY OF THOMAS "CLIO" RICKMAN, WILLIAM COBBETT, GILBERT VALE,
-HORACE SEAVER, ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, MONCURE D. CONWAY, THADDEUS B.
-WAKEMAN and EUGENE M. MACDONALD, noble defenders while living of the
-much maligned dead, this appreciation of our nation's founder and the
-world's greatest apostle of liberty is reverently inscribed.
-
-
-
-
-THOMAS PAINE, THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY.
-
-
-FROM time immemorial men have observed the natal days of their gods and
-heroes. A few weeks ago Christians celebrated the birthday of a god. We
-come to celebrate the birthday of a man.
-
-Within the brief space of twenty-five days occur the anniversaries of
-the births of the three most remarkable men that have appeared on this
-continent--Paine, Washington and Lincoln--the Creator, the Defender and
-the Savior of our Republic. To do honor to the memory of the first
-of these--to acknowledge our indebtedness to him as a patriot and
-philosopher, and to extol his virtues as a man--have we assembled here.
-We come the more willingly and our exercises will be characterized by
-a deeper earnestness because the one whose merits we celebrate has been
-the victim of almost infinite injustice. In the popular mind to utter a
-word in his behalf has been to apologize for wrong--to declare yourself
-the friend of Paine has been to declare yourself the enemy of man. The
-world is not prepared to do him full justice yet. Priestcraft, still
-powerful, uses all its power to prejudice the public mind against
-him and in too many hearts, where love and gratitude should dwell,
-ingratitude and hatred have their home. There are those who will condemn
-this meeting in his name today and some of you may spurn the blossoms I
-have culled to place upon his tomb.
-
-But is it a crime to defend the dead? Has the court of Death issued an
-injunction restraining us from pleading the cause of the departed? We
-defend from the assaults of calumny the fair fame of the living, and not
-more sacred are the reputations of the living than of the absent dead
-whose voiceless lips can utter no defense. The lips of Thomas Paine have
-long been dumb; but mine are not, and while I live I shall defend him.
-As Rizpah stood by the bodies of her murdered sons, keeping back the
-birds of prey, so will I stand by the memory of this good man and drive
-back the foul vultures that feast their greedy selves and feed their
-starving broods on dead men's characters.
-
-On the 29th of January, 1737, at Thetford, England, Thomas Paine was
-born. He was of Quaker parentage. Like nearly all of earth's illustrious
-sons, he was of humble origin. At an early age he left the paternal roof
-and began alone life's struggle,--serving in the British navy, teaching
-in London, engaging in mercantile pursuits, and performing the duties of
-exciseman.
-
-While in London he formed the acquaintance of the learned Franklin, who
-induced him to cross the ocean and cast his lot with the people of the
-New World. He comes to America toward the close of 1774. A year of quiet
-observation enables him to grasp the situation here. He sees thirteen
-feeble colonies struggling against a powerful monarchy; he sees a tyrant
-whom the world styles "king" trampling the fair form of Liberty beneath
-his feet; he sees his subjects crouching and cringing before the throne,
-pleading in vain for a redress of wrongs. Separation and Independence
-have not yet been proposed. It is true that Lexington, and Concord, and
-Bunker Hill have passed into history; it is true that Patrick Henry,
-James Otis, John Hancock, and the Adamses have fearlessly denounced the
-odious measures of the British ministry; yet up to the very close of
-1775, not a voice has been raised in favor of Independence. A redress
-of grievances is all that the boldest have demanded. But the current of
-history is to be turned. Rebellion is to be changed to Revolution. With
-the firm belief that right will triumph, Paine marshals the legions of
-thought that spring from his prolific brain and on the first of January,
-1776, moves in solid columns against this citadel of tyranny. The shock
-is irresistible. The solid masonry gives way, and falls before his
-fierce assault. Into the breach thus made an eager people rush, and on
-the ruins plant the unsoiled banner of a new Republic.
-
-That the Fourth of July, 1776, would not have witnessed the Declaration
-of Independence but for the timely appearance of Paine's "Common Sense,"
-no candid student of history will for a moment question. This book first
-suggested American Independence; in this book appeared, for the first
-time, "The Free and Independent States of America." Nor did Paine's
-labors end with the publication of this work. He was the inspiring
-genius of the long war that followed. When Washington's little army was
-hurled from Long Island, when despondency filled every heart, and all
-seemed lost, Paine came to the rescue with the first number of his
-"Crisis," in which were couched those thrilling words, "These are
-the times that try men's souls." His pamphlet, by orders of the
-commander-in-chief, was read at the head of each regiment. It was
-also sent broadcast over the land. The effect was magical; into the
-dispirited ranks is breathed new life, and in the minds of the people
-planted a determination never to give up the struggle. At critical
-periods during the war number after number of this brave work appeared
-until, at last, he could triumphantly say, "The times that tried men's
-souls are over, and the greatest and completest revolution the world
-ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished."
-
-The pen of Paine was as mighty as the sword of Washington. "Common
-Sense" was the glorious sun that evolved a new political world; each
-number of the "Crisis" a brilliant satellite that helped to illumine
-this New World's long night of Revolution.
-
-In the Old World liberty remained, as it still remains to a large
-extent, yet to be wearisomely achieved. In France the people were
-struggling against a corrupt and oppressive government. Paine enlisted
-his services in the cause of freedom there. He advocated a Republic,
-and organized the first Republican society in France. But Louis was
-permitted to resume his reign, and tranquility having been for a brief
-season restored, Paine went to his native England, where, in reply to
-Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution," appeared his "Rights
-of Man." With a desperation characteristic of the detected robber the
-Government suppressed his work; but not until it had kindled a fire in
-Europe which tyrants have not yet succeeded in extinguishing and in the
-glare of whose unquenchable flames may be read the doom of monarchy.
-
-The storms of revolution bursting forth afresh, Paine again repaired to
-France. A joyous reception awaited his arrival at Calais. As his vessel
-entered the harbor a hundred cannon thundered "Welcome!" As he stepped
-upon the shore a thousand voices shouted "_Vive_ Thomas Paine!" Bright
-flowers fell in showers around him; fair hands placed in his hat the
-national cockade. An immense meeting assembled in his honor. Over the
-chair he sat in was placed the bust of Mirabeau with the colors of
-France, England and America united. All France was ready to honor her
-defender.
-
-Three departments, the Oise, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Puy-de-Dome,
-each chose him for its representative. He accepted the honor from
-Calais and proceeded to Paris. His entry into the French capital was a
-triumphal one. He was received as a hero,--an intellectual hero who
-on the field of mental combat had vanquished Europe's most brilliant
-champion of monarchy, and vindicated before the tribunal of the world
-mankind's eternal rights.
-
-He took his seat in the National Convention. A stupendous task devolved
-upon this body--the formation of a new Constitution for Republican
-France. Its most illustrious statesmen and its wisest legislators must
-be chosen to prepare it. A committee of nine was named: Thomas Paine,
-Danton, Condorcet, Brissot, Barrere, Vergniaud, Petion, Gensonne, and
-the Abbe Sieyes. To Paine and Condorcet chiefly was the work of drafting
-it assigned by their colleagues.
-
-Then came the trial of Louis XVI and the beginning of those turbulent
-scenes which culminated in the Reign of Terror. The convention was
-clamoring for blood. Paine had been one of the foremost in overthrowing
-the monarchy. He believed the king to have been tyrannical,--to have
-been the pliant tool of a corrupt nobility, and of a still more corrupt
-priesthood. But he did not deem him deserving of death, nor did he
-believe that the best interests of France would be subserved by such
-harsh measures. But the Terrorists threatened with vengeance all who
-should dare to oppose them. To plead the cause of the king might be to
-share his fate. A vote by any member in favor of saving his life might
-bring an overwhelming vote against that member's own life. They had
-resolved that the king should die, and led by such men as Robespierre
-and Marat, there were assembled the most determined and the most
-dangerous men of France. The galleries, too, were filled with an excited
-mob of fifteen hundred--many of them hired assassins, fresh from the
-September massacre. "We vote," protested Lanjuinais when the balloting
-commenced, "under the daggers and the cannon of the factions." In this
-perilous position what course would Paine pursue? Would he, like others,
-quietly acquiesce in these unjust proceedings? He had never yet faltered
-in his purpose of pursuing what he deemed the right. Would he shrink
-from danger now? No! above the wild storm of that enraged assembly,
-through his interpreter, rose the voice of this brave man in powerful,
-eloquent appeals in behalf of mercy. "Destroy the King," in effect, he
-said, "but save the man! Strike the crown, but spare the heart!"
-
-He pleads in vain; the king must die. "Death within four-and-twenty
-hours," is the decree. Amid the insults and execrations of a frenzied
-mob Louis is torn from the arms of his queen and children and hurried to
-the scaffold.
-
-The Mountain has triumphed. The Jacobins, infuriated by the taste of a
-king's blood, will next devour their fellow-members. The Girondins, the
-heart and brains of France, are expelled from the convention, dragged
-to prison and to the guillotine. Paine's plea for mercy can not be
-forgiven. He is imprisoned; sentence of death is finally pronounced
-against him; the hour for his execution, with that of his
-fellow-prisoners, is set. Fortuitously he escapes. In summoning the
-victims for execution he is overlooked. Soon after, and before the
-mistake is discovered, the bloody Robespierre is overthrown, and his own
-neck receives the blow he meant for Paine. The fall of Robespierre stems
-the crimson torrent and, in time, secures for Paine his freedom. His
-imprisonment has lasted nearly a year, a year never to be forgotten, a
-year of chaos, from which is to arise a fairer and a better France.
-
-Let us contemplate, for a moment, this bloody and protracted drama. Let
-us, in imagination, visit this death-stricken Paris. Buildings--once
-palaces--have been transformed into prisons. Thousands are crowded
-within their walls; beings of both sexes, and of every age and rank;
-grayhaired men who look with stolid indifference upon the scenes around
-them; youth, pale with fear; heroic types of manhood pacing to and fro
-with all the bearing of conquerors; frail women, whose swollen eyes,
-those tear-stained windows of the soul, faintly reveal the heart's
-fierce agony within! The scene is changed. All is bustle and confusion.
-A morbid and excited crowd is gathering; the death tumbrils go rumbling
-by toward the Place de la Revolution; the groans of men, the shrieks of
-women, rend the air and throw a shade of sadness over all deeper than
-midnight's gloom.
-
-Again the scene shifts. The bustle is over now; the crowd has dispersed;
-those shrieks and groans are hushed. But that huge pile of headless
-trunks; the headsman's sack; those pools of blood; that blood-stained
-instrument, to whose edge still cling the straggling hairs of its
-victims, the golden threads of youth mingled with the silver threads of
-age, these remain--grim fragments of the feast where this French Saturn
-made his last repast.
-
-Day after day this carnival of death goes on. Danton, Brissot, and many
-more of the best men of France are butchered; Roland and Condorcet die
-by their own hands; Talleyrand is a refugee in America, and Lafayette
-pines in the dungeon vaults of Austria.
-
-Many noble women, too, are sacrificed. Marie Antoinette follows her
-Louis to the scaffold. In the Conciergerie, companions for a time, are
-held captive two of the purest and noblest of women,--the lovely and
-amiable Josephine Beauhamais, destined to become Napoleon's queen, and
-the beautiful and gifted Madame Roland, whose innocent blood must wet
-the cruel knife of the guillotine.
-
-Such was the French Revolution,--"A mighty truth clad in
-hell-fire,"--the bloodiest, and yet the brightest page in the history
-of France. It might have been a bloodless one, it might have been
-a brighter one, had the wise and moderate counsels of Thomas Paine
-prevailed.
-
-In the shadow of death the crowning effort of his life, the "Age of
-Reason," was composed. His pen had given kingcraft a mortal hurt;
-priestcraft must be destroyed. This book has filled die Orthodox world
-with terror. Around it has raged one of the fiercest intellectual
-conflicts of the age. All the artillery of Christendom has been brought
-to bear upon it; but without effect. Firm, impregnable, like some
-Gibraltar, it still stands unharmed.
-
-Bowed with the weight of sixty-six years Paine returned to America.
-Here the evening of his life was passed,--embittered by a world's
-ingratitude.
-
-    "Men never know their saviors when they come."
-
-The apostle of liberty, of mercy, and of truth, became successively a
-martyr to each. For espousing the cause of liberty England declared
-him an outlaw; for advocating mercy France gave him a prison; and for
-proclaiming the truth America placed upon his aged head the cruel crown
-of thorns.
-
-But death came at last and brought relief to the persecuted sage. On a
-bright June morning (June 8), in 1809, the end came.
-
-Yes, death came. But with it came no fears. No banished Hagar with
-famishing infant haunted him; from the desolate ruins of those Midianite
-homes came no phantoms to strike his soul with terror; no Uriah's ghost
-stood before his bedside and would not down; the hand that with no
-weapon but the pen had made priests and monarchs tremble, now growing
-cold and pallid, was not stained with the blood of a wile or child;
-no agonizing shrieks of a burning Servetus rang in his dying ears.
-Tempestuous as life's voyage had been, the old man readied his port in
-peace. Nature, whom he had deified, fondly and pityingly held him in
-her all-embracing arms, and soothed him in that last sad hour as with
-a mother's love. The morning sun looked kindly down and kissed his
-throbbing temples; gentle breezes, fragrant with the odors of a thousand
-roses, fanned his fevered brow; joyous birds, whose songs he loved so
-well, came to his window and sang their cheeriest notes; while faithful
-friends were at his bedside, ministering to every want. And so, bravely
-and peacefully, with that serenity of soul which only the conscious of a
-well-spent life can give, the grand old patriot passed away.
-
-Thus have I briefly traced the public career of Thomas Paine,--a career
-in which his steadfast devotion to manly principles ranks him with the
-world's worthiest heroes. His private life was not less honorable. In
-his moral nature were united the noblest traits that adorn the human
-character.
-
-His philanthrophy was bounded only by the limits of the world in which
-he lived Jew and Mohammedan, Christian and Infidel, Caucasian and
-Mongolian, the despised negro and the rude Indian, all to him were
-brothers.
-
-His charity was of the broadest kind. He was ever ready to share his
-last dollar or his last comfort with the poor and distressed, and this
-regardless as to whether they were friends or foes. When his Republican
-friend, Bonneville, was crushed and impoverished by Napoleon, Paine gave
-to his family an asylum in America, and willed to them a part of his
-estate. When a brutal English officer assaulted him in Paris--and to
-strike a deputy the penalty was death--he saved him from the guillotine,
-and finding him penniless, from his own purse paid his passage home to
-England.
-
-His patriotism was never questioned. Many have won the name of patriot
-whose services to their country have been inspired by mere selfish
-motives; but with him, fame, wealth, comfort, all were sacrificed for
-his country's welfare. Throughout that eight year's struggle, his life,
-his time, his talents, all were at her service. And, whether serving as
-aid-de-camp to General Greene in that terrible campaign of '76; filling
-with ability the important post of Secretary to the Committee on Foreign
-Affairs; with Laurens at the French court negotiating loans for his
-government; or cheering the despondent and nerving them up to deeds of
-valor,--he was at all times, and in every situation, the same modest,
-magnanimous, unflinching patriot.
-
-In his disinterestedness he stands alone. At the beginning of the
-Revolutionary struggle he was a poor author, lacking at times even the
-bare necessities of life. But he had the opportunity of becoming rich.
-The enormous sale of "Common Sense" would of itself have secured for him
-a handsome competence. But what did he do? did he secure for himself the
-profits to which he was justly entitled? No! he presented to each of the
-thirteen colonies the copyright, and came out indebted to his printer
-for the original edition. When his country languished for want of funds
-to pay her soldiers in the field he started a subscription that brought
-her more than a million, heading it with five hundred dollars, and
-limited his gift to this because he had no more to give. When his
-"Rights of Man" was ready for the press he refused one thousand pounds
-for the copyright and then gave it to the world.
-
-Moral courage was another prominent element in this great man's
-character. His espousal of the cause of American Independence--a cause
-which no other man had up to that time dared to espouse--shows a lofty
-heroism; his attack upon monarchy, in the very capital of a monarchical
-government, knowing, as he must have known, that every effort would be
-made to crush him, was a grand exhibition of moral bravery, while
-his publication of the "Age of Reason" was, in many respects, a more
-courageous act than either. But it was in His heroic defense of Louis
-XVI that his moral courage shone with all the lustre of the sun. Search
-all the annals of the past and say if on the historian's page is found
-one act, one single act, surpassing in moral sublimity that of Thomas
-Paine accepting a prison and, if need be, death, to save a fallen foe!
-
-In the expression of his religious opinions no man has been more frank
-or explicit, while no man's religious opinions have been more grossly
-misrepresented. What was his belief?
-
-"I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this
-life.
-
-"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious
-duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make
-our fellow-creatures happy.
-
-"The world is my country, to do good my religion."
-
-This was his creed; and with a firm belief in the truth and justice of
-this creed he lived and died.
-
-There are, I regret to say, many good people who believe that Thomas
-Paine was a very bad man. They have heard this from the lips of those in
-whose veracity they place implicit confidence. While from infancy they
-have been taught to regard Jesus Christ as the mediator between man and
-God, they have been led to consider Thomas Paine as a sort of negotiator
-between the Devil and man. Now, let me ask these people, do you know
-why Thomas Paine has been so bitterly assailed? You have heard various
-charges preferred against him; but seriously, do you believe any of the
-charges named sufficient to account for the intense, the bitter hatred
-that has been manifested toward him? Have you never been impressed with
-the thought that there might be something back of all this, some secret
-grudge which your informants dare not mention? Let us notice briefly the
-faults and vices imputed to him.
-
-You have been told that he was a pauper, that he died in wretchedness
-and want. Those who told you this were certainly mistaken. The estate
-presented to him by New York, in consideration of his Revolutionary
-services, was valued at $30,000, and the greater portion of this was
-remaining at his death. It is true that during his long and useful
-career he was many times in straitened circumstances; but this was
-the result, not of improvidence, or reckless expenditure, but of
-the devotion of his life to the cause of humanity instead of the
-accumulation of wealth. But what if he had died poor? Is poverty a
-crime? Yes, were this true, is it a thing of which to boast, that in a
-Christian city, within the sound of forty church-bells, an old man was
-suffered to lie neglected and alone, racked by the pangs of hunger and
-disease, piteously pleading for a crust of bread, or a cup of cold water
-to cool his parched and fevered tongue; and do you mean to tell us that
-Christian charity the while stood by unmoved, mocked his sufferings, and
-damned him when he died?
-
-You have been told that he was a drunkard. A baser slander was never
-uttered. No human being ever saw Thomas Paine intoxicated. He was one
-of the most temperate of men. All of his neighbors and acquaintances
-indignantly denied the truth of this imputation. Gilbert Vale tells us
-that he knew more than twenty persons who were intimately acquainted
-with him and not one of whom ever saw him intoxicated. The proprietor of
-the house in New York, a respectable inn at which Paine boarded in his
-later years, says that of all his guests he was the most temperate. But
-supposing that he was a drunkard. Is drunkenness so rare as to secure
-for its victims an immortal notoriety? Are there no living drunkards for
-these omnivorous creatures to devour, that, like hyenas, they must dig
-into a drunkard's grave to fill their empty maws?
-
-You have been told by the clergy that his writings are immoral. I defy
-those who make this charge to point to one immoral sentence in all that
-he has written. They cannot; and I further affirm that they dare not
-permit you to examine his writings and ascertain for yourselves the
-truth or falsity of this assertion. You who have never read his works
-may believe that they contain much that is bad. You may imagine that
-a deadly serpent lurks within them. Let me assure you that there is
-nothing in them that can harm you. The highest moral tone pervades their
-pages. They are full of charity, they glow with patriotism, they are
-warm with love. Even yet, within their lids methinks I feel the beating
-of the generous heart of him who penned them, every throb marking an
-aspiration for the welfare of his fellow-men. But admitting, for the
-sake of argument, that his writings are immoral. Does not the world teem
-with immoral literature? Are there not hundreds of immoral writers even
-among the living? If so, why has all this wrath been concentrated upon
-Paine to the almost total exclusion of the rest?
-
-You have been told that he was an Infidel. Infidel to what? In the
-Christian sense of this term he was. But what peculiar significance
-do your informants attach to this fact? Are not three fourths of the
-world's inhabitants Infidels? Do not the greatest scholars of the age
-go far beyond him in Infidelity? Earth's wisest sons--those who
-have contributed most to the wealth of science, and literature, and
-statesmanship, have been these so-called Infidels. Yet Paine has been
-denounced as if he were the only Infidel that ever lived.
-
-You have been told that he recanted on his deathbed. In other words,
-that he lived a hypocrite; that he only feigned Infidelity for the sake
-of being persecuted. A very plausible reason, surely. But this statement
-has been widely circulated, and that, too, in spite of the fact that
-every person who was with him during his dying hours pronounced it
-false,--those who sat by his bedside and heard every word that fell
-from his lips. It has ever been the custom of the church to make every
-distinguished individual appear as an endorser of her dogmas. See
-those insolent priests haunting the death chamber of Voltaire; see the
-crucifix thrust into the hands of the dying Litre and the dead Sherman;
-see the frantic efforts made to convince the world that Lincoln changed
-his religious views and died a Christian. An honest Quaker who visited
-Paine daily during his last illness testified to having been offered
-money to publicly state that he recanted. But he refused. Others were
-doubtless approached in the same manner, and with the same result.
-Unable to find a deathbed witness base enough to make so foul a charge,
-the calumny was originated by one who did not see him die. A Christian's
-brain conceived and bore that infamous falsehood; and black and hideous
-as the offspring was, nearly every orthodox clergyman was ready to serve
-it in the capacity of a faithful nurse. And in these nurses' arms it
-lived and died. Only a little while ago I saw one of them hugging to his
-breast and endeavoring to resuscitate with holy breath the putrid corpse
-of this dead lie! But supposing that he did recant, that he acknowledged
-the divinity of Christ. If he did this he died in the Christian faith.
-Now does the church treat deathbed penitents in the manner in which
-Paine has been treated? Has not every criminal that has repented in his
-last hours, from the dying thief of nineteen hundred years ago to the
-last murderer sent to Heaven, been held up as an object of admiration?
-Why, then, denounce Paine for having, as they claim, renounced his
-Infidelity? O Consistency, thou art, indeed, a jewel!
-
-And now, assuming all these charges to be true, he would still have been
-naught but a poor, drunken Infidel; and while this would have subjected
-him to much harsh criticism while living, it would have been merely of a
-local character, and would have ceased when he was no more. Death would
-have silenced censure, the mantle of charity would have been spread
-above his grave, and the waves of oblivion would have rolled over his
-memory long ago. Is it possible that all Christendom would have been so
-deeply agitated, that the walls of her churches would have echoed every
-week with the fierce anathemas thundered from a thousand pulpits against
-the inanimate dust of a poor, drunken Infidel!
-
-The conclusion, I think, must irresistibly force itself upon your minds
-that these reputed faults do not constitute the real head and front
-of Thomas Paine's offending. There must be something else. What is it?
-Would you have the mystery solved? If so, read his, "Age of Reason."
-Read it carefully, thoughtfully, critically; read it with your Bibles
-open before you; read it in connection with the ablest refutations that
-have been attempted against it. Do this, and the mystery will be solved.
-You will then know why Thomas Paine has been so bitterly assailed.
-
-Two champions meet in the arena of debate. One of them, is overwhelmed.
-Smiles and groans announce his discomfiture, while shouts of applause
-reward the triumph of his rival. Then one of them grows angry, and stung
-with madness, drops the sword of argument and seizes in its stead the
-bludgeon of malice with which to assail his adversary. But which one
-does this, the successful or the defeated antagonist? I have somewhere
-read that "the bird that soars on pinions strong and free and is not hit
-by the marksman's bullet is not discomposed'"--that "_it is the wounded
-bird that flutters!_"
-
-That Thomas Paine was not the poor, drunken, immoral wretch that
-priestly virulence represents him to have been, is dearly shown by
-the esteem in which he was held by those who knew him best. Would
-Dr. Franklin have retained the friendship of a poor, drunken, immoral
-wretch? Would Lord Erskine have defended against the government of
-England, a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would Bishop Watson have
-crossed swords in theological disputation with a poor, drunken, immoral
-wretch? Would Napoleon Bonaparte, when in the zenith of his fame, have
-invited to his table a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would France's
-greatest women, Roland and De Stael, have stooped to pay the tribute
-of praise to a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would President Jefferson
-have offered a national ship to bear to his home a poor, drunken,
-immoral wretch? Would Washington have acknowledged as one of the most
-potent factors in achieving American Independence, the pen of a poor,
-drunken, immoral wretch? Would the Congress of the United States and the
-National Convention of France have bestowed gifts and conferred, honors
-upon a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Impossible! Every fact connected
-with his public life refutes these charges made against his private
-character.
-
-In support of the claims that I have made for Thomas Paine, in
-refutation of the calumnies that have been circulated against him, I
-bring the testimony of more than _five hundred witnesses_--those who by
-intimate acquaintance, or a careful study of his life, are qualified
-to give a just estimate of his character and works,--historians,
-biographers, encyclopedists, statesmen, divines, and others; men and
-women who have acquired an honorable distinction in the various walks
-of life, and whose names alone are a sufficient guarantee that what they
-testify shall be the truth. From the dead and from the living--from two
-continents--I summon them:
-
-
-
-
-"COMMON SENSE" AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
-
-Dr. Joseph B. Ladd:
-
-     "Immortal Paine! whose pen, surprised we saw,
-     Could fashion empires while it kindled awe.
-
-     "When first with awful front to crush her foes,
-     All bright in glittering arms, Columbia rose,
-     From thee our sons the generous mandate took,
-     As if from Heaven some oracle had spoke;
-     And when thy pen revealed the grand design,
-     'Twas done--Columbia's liberty was thine."
-
-W. C. Braun: "From the brain of Thomas Paine Columbia sprang full
-panoplied, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter."
-
-"Paine was the prophet of American destiny."--_George Jacob Holyoake_.
-
-"Thomas Paine is one of those men who most contributed to the
-establishment of a Republic in America."--_Abbe Sieyes_.
-
-Century Dictionary: "Took a prominent part in support of the American
-Revolution."
-
-"A principal actor in the American Revolution."--_M. Thiers, President
-Third Republic of France_.
-
-John Clark Ridpath, LL. D.: "The Morning Star of the Revolution."
-
-Hon. William Willett: "The first champion of American liberty."
-
-Blackie's Modern Cyclopedia (England): "One of the founders of American
-Independence."
-
-"The apostle of American Independence."--_M. de Lamartine._
-
-William Cobbett: "I saw Paine first pointing the way and then leading a
-nation through perils and difficulties of all sorts to independence and
-to lasting liberty, prosperity and greatness."
-
-"Paine was the first voice in America that was imperial."--_George W.
-Foote_.
-
-Theodore Roosevelt: "Thomas Paine, the famous author of 'Common Sense.'"
-
-Edmund Burke: "That celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds of the
-people for Independence."
-
-Egerton Ryerson, LL. D.: "The sudden and marvelous revolution in the
-American mind was produced chiefly by a pamphlet."
-
-George Bancroft: "Franklin encouraged Thomas Paine,... who was the
-master of a singularly lucid and fascinating style, to write an appeal
-to the people of America."
-
-"With a soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast-moving
-quill. That quill puts down words on paper, words that shall burn
-into the brains of kings like arrows winged with fire and pointed with
-vitriol. Go on, brave author, sitting in your garret alone at this dead
-hour, go on, on through the silent hours, on and God's blessings fall
-like breezes of June upon your damp brow, on and on, for you are writing
-the thoughts of a nation into birth."--_George Lippard_.
-
-Pennsylvania Journal (January 10, 1776): "This day was published and
-is now selling by Robert Bell, in Third street, price two shillings,
-'Common Sense addressed to the inhabitants of North America.'"
-
-From this book came the world's first and greatest republic, the first
-realization of a government of the people, by the people, and for the
-people. Eloquently he pleads for separation and independence:
-
-"The birthday of a new world is at hand."
-
-"Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
-the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part."
-
-"The independence of America should have been considered as dating its
-era from, and published by, the first musket that was fired against
-her."
-
-"O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but
-the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with
-oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa
-have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger and England
-hath given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive, and prepare in
-time an asylum for mankind."
-
-Benjamin Franklin: "A pamphlet that had prodigious effects."
-
-Justin Winsor: "It was printed and reprinted in Philadelphia in
-English and once in German, and in the same year reprinted in Salem,
-Newbury-port, Providence, Boston, Newport, New York, Charleston, and
-also in London and Edinburgh."
-
-Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D, (Chaplain to Congress): "The pamphlet had a
-greater run than any other ever published in our country."
-
-William Massey, M. P.: "'Common Sense' had an immense circulation."
-
-Francis Bowen, A. M.: "It had an enormous sale."
-
-Historians' History of the World: "More than one hundred thousand copies
-of his 'Common Sense' were sold in a short time."
-
-Prof. John Fiske: "More than a hundred thousand copies were speedily
-sold, and it carried conviction wherever it went."
-
-Salmonsen's Conversationslexicon: "It had an immense sale (120,000
-copies) and exerted an enormous influence."
-
-Samuel M. Jackson, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense' (120,000 copies were
-sold in the first three months) struck the keynote of the situation by
-advocating Independence and a Republican form of government."
-
-(Referring to the sale of "Common Sense," Paine's biographer, Dr.
-Moncure D. Conway, says: "In the end probably half a million copies were
-sold.")
-
-Eben Greenough Scott: "It was a plea for independence and a continental
-government."
-
-Best of the World's Classics: "In this work Paine advocated complete
-separation from England."
-
-Nordisk Familjebok Konversationslexicon: "He as boldly as convincingly
-sh owed the necessity of the Colonies tearing themselves away from
-England."
-
-Rev. Charles E. Little: "His 'Common Sense' was widely circulated and
-greatly aided the Revolution by showing the importance and necessity of
-seeking independence."
-
-Robert Bissett, LL. D.: "'Common Sense,' published [written] by Thomas
-Paine, afterwards so famous in Europe, contributed very much to the
-ratification of the independence of America."
-
-John Frost, LL.D.: "It demonstrated the necessity, advantages, and
-practicability of independence."
-
-Dr. George Weber: "Written in an eminently popular style it had an
-immense circulation, and was of great service in preparing the minds of
-the people for Independence."
-
-Henry Howard Brownell: "The book was extensively circulated, and
-exercised, beyond question, a most powerful influence."
-
-Robert Mackenzie: "His treatise had, for those days, a vast circulation
-and an extraordinary influence."
-
-Oscar Fay Adams: "His famous pamphlet 'Common Sense' was of great
-service to the Americans."
-
-Eva M. Tappan: "Its clear and logical arguments were a power in bringing
-on the war."
-
-D. H. Montgomery: "Paine boldly said that the time had come for a 'final
-separation' from England, and that 'arms must decide the contest.'"
-
-Rev. John Schroeder, D.D.: "'Common Sense,' from the pen of Thomas
-Paine, produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-Independence."
-
-Woodrow Wilson: "Pamphlets which argued with slow and sober power gave
-place to pamphlets which rang with passionate appeals: which thrust
-constitutional argument upon one side and spoke flatly for independence.
-One such took precedence of all others, whether for boldness or for
-power, the extraordinary pamphlet which Thomas Paine, but the other
-day come out of England as if upon mere adventure, gave to the world as
-'Common Sense.'"
-
-American Reference Library: "'Common Sense,' more than any other single
-writing furnished the logical basis of Independence."
-
-"'Common Sense' first formulated the demand for Independence."--The
-_Nation_ (London).
-
-Benson J. Lossing, LL.D.: "It was the earliest and most powerful appeal
-in behalf of Independence, and probably did more to fix that idea firmly
-in the public mind than any other instrumentality."
-
-Richard Hildreth: "It argued in that plain and convincing style for
-which Paine was so distinguished."
-
-Edmund Randolph: "A style hitherto unknown on this side of the
-Atlantic."
-
-Charles Kendall Adams, LL.D: "A work which had great influence on the
-Colonists."
-
-"The success and influence of this publication was extraordinary, and
-it won for him the friendship of Washington, Franklin and other
-distinguished American leaders."--_Chambers' Encyclopedia_.
-
-J. Franklin Jameson, LL.D.: "'Common Sense'... exerted a profound
-impression."
-
-John T. Morse, Jr.: "Thomas Paine had sent 'Common Sense' abroad among
-the people and had stirred them profoundly."
-
-Lord Stanhope: "That publication had produced a strong effect."
-
-Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., LL.D.: "'Common Sense', written by Thomas
-Paine, produced great effect."
-
-John Howard Hinton: "'Common Sense' from the popular pen of Thomas
-Paine produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favor of
-independence."
-
-Dr. David Ramsey: "In union with the feelings and sentiments of the
-people it produced surprising effects."
-
-Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D.: "Of mighty cogency in its tone and
-substance, was that vigorous work of Thomas Paine."
-
-Rev. Jesse A. Spencer, D.D.: "The style, manner and matter of his
-pamphlet were calculated to rouse all the energies of human nature."
-
-William Grimshaw: "'Common Sense' roused the public feeling to a degree
-unequalled by any previous appeal."
-
-Hand Book of American Revolution: "It affected sensibly the current of
-political feeling."
-
-Barnes's Centenary History: "It produced a profound impression."
-
-"The clear and powerful style of Paine made a prodigious impression on
-the American people."--_Thomas Gaspey_.
-
-Charles Morris: "Its stirring tones filled all minds with the thirst for
-liberty."
-
-Nouvelle Biographie Generale (France): "The pamphlet produced a
-prodigious effect."
-
-"The success of this writing of Paine," says the Italian patriot and
-historian, Charles Botta, "cannot be described."
-
-W. H. Bartlett: "This pamphlet produced an indescribable sensation."
-
-John Andrews, LL.D.: "It was received with vast applause."
-
-Timothy Pitkins: "'Common Sense' produced a wonderful effect in the
-different Colonies in favor of Independence."
-
-Rev. William Gordon: "Nothing could have been better timed than this
-performance."
-
-Boston Gazette (April 29, 1776): "Had the spirit of prophecy directed
-the birth of a publication it could not have fallen on a more fortunate
-period than the time in which 'Common Sense' made its appearance."
-
-"In the elements of its strength it was precisely fitted to the hour, to
-the spot and to the passions."--_Prof. Moses Coit Tyler_.
-
-Melville M. Bigelow: "No pamphlet was so timely, none had such an
-effect."
-
-Prof. C. A. Van Tyne: "It was a firebrand which set aflame the ready
-political material in America."
-
-"Every living man in America in 1776 who could read, read 'Common
-Sense.'... This book was the arsenal to which colonists went for their
-mental weapons."--_Theodore Parker_.
-
-Mrs. Robert Burns Peattie: "Men, women and children read it. It was for
-them an education."
-
-C. W. A. Veditz, LL.B.: "The work of Paine became the text book of the
-new era."
-
-Sydney G. Fisher: "Its phrases became household words on the lips of
-every man in the patriot party."
-
-Henry W. Edson: "Its concise, simple and unanswerable style won
-thousands to the cause."
-
-Edward Channing: "It was read and debated in smithy and shop and
-converted thousands."
-
-Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton: "Much that Paine wrote was
-so simple, so convincing, such 'common sense,' that thousands read it
-and concluded that separation was necessary."
-
-William Cullen Bryant and Sydney Howard Gay: "Everybody read it and
-nearly everybody was influenced by it."
-
-Pennsylvania Evening Post (March 17, 1776): "'Common Sense' hath made
-independents of the majority of the country."
-
-Almon's Remembrancer (1776): "'Common Sense' is read by all ranks; and
-as many as read, so many become converted."
-
-"'Common Sense' has converted thousands to Independence who could not
-endure the idea before."
-
-(Where two or more paragraphs of testimony follow the name of a witness,
-all of the testimony cited, unless otherwise credited, belongs to the
-witness named.)
-
-William Robinson (to Nathan Hafle, Feb. 17, 1776): "Upon my word, it is
-well done.... I confess a perusal of it has much reformed my notions."
-
-Joseph Hawley (to Elbridge Gerry, Feb. 18, 1776): "I have read the
-pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of
-America.' and every sentiment has sunk into my well-prepared heart."
-
-"By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find
-that 'Common Sense' is working a powerful change there in the minds of
-many men."--_George Washington_.
-
-Rev. John Drayton: "Colonel Gadsden (having brought the first copy
-of Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense') boldly declared himself [in the
-Provincial Congress at Charleston, Feb. 10, 1776] for the absolute
-Independence of America. This last sentiment came like an explosion of
-thunder on the members."
-
-Bitterly as the Colonists opposed the tyranny of the English Government
-there were no manifestations of disloyalty. If they harbored the thought
-of separation and independence no tongue or pen had dared to give
-expression to it. Referring to this period Hon. Alexander H. Stephens
-says: "Neither did Livingston, nor Washington, nor any of the prominent
-leaders in the cause of the Colonists at that time look to anything but
-a redress of grievances. None were looking to a final separation and
-Independence."
-
-"When I first took command of the army," says Washington, "I abhorred
-the idea of Independence." When admonished that continued resistance to
-the crown might lead to separation, he replied: "If you ever hear of
-me joining in any such measures you have my leave to set me down
-for everything wicked." While Paine was writing his "Common Sense,"
-Jefferson, the reputed author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote
-that he was "looking with fondness toward a reconciliation with Great
-Britain." But a little while before Franklin had assured Lord
-Chatham that "he had never heard in America an expression in favor of
-Independence."
-
-Virginia, the province of Washington and Jefferson, declared in favor
-of "a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of government." In
-November, 1775, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, Franklin's province,
-elected a delegation to the Continental Congress with these
-instructions: "Though the British Parliament and administration have
-compelled us to resist their violence by force of arms, yet we strictly
-enjoin that you dissent from and utterly reject any proposition, should
-such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from the mother
-country."
-
-"Among them all not one had been stirred by that splendid dream of a new
-nation, a nation independent and free. There was but one mind and only
-one that had grasped the great plan. There was one voice crying in the
-wilderness. There was one herald of the dawn, one that did not hesitate
-in that night of hesitancy and reluctancy."--_Dr. J. E. Roberts_.
-
-Dr. David Ramsay, a prominent leader in the Continental Congress and a
-popular historian of the Revolution, describing the effects of "Common
-Sense," says: "Though that measure [Separation] a few months before was
-not only foreign to their wishes, but the object of their abhorrence,
-the current suddenly became so strong in its favor that it bore down all
-before it."
-
-Prof. Moses Coit Tyler: "In one sentiment all persons, Tories and
-Whigs, seemed perfectly to agree, viz., in abhorrence of the project of
-separation from the Empire. Suddenly, however, and within a period
-of less than six months [chiefly as a result of Paine's pamphlet] the
-majority of the Whigs turned completely around, and openly declared for
-Independence."
-
-"Thomas Paine brought to the study of the American Revolution a mind...
-quick to see into things, and marvelous in its power of stating them
-with lucidity, with liveliness and with incisive force."
-
-It is generally supposed that the writing of "Common Sense" with its
-advocacy of separation and independence was suggested by Franklin.
-It was not; Franklin knew nothing of its existence prior to its
-publication. What he suggested was a history of Colonial affairs
-which he believed would convince the world that the grievances of the
-Colonists against the mother country were just. Paine's own account of
-the origin of this work is as follows:
-
-"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials
-as were in his hands towards completing a history of the present
-transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the
-next spring.. I had then formed the outlines of 'Common Sense,' and
-finished nearly the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design
-in getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I
-expected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier
-than he thought of; and without informing him of what I was doing, got
-it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the
-first pamphlet that was printed off."
-
-Regarding the originality of his revolutionary ideas, "Appleton's
-Cyclopedia of American Biography" says: "Beyond doubt Washington,
-Franklin, and all other prominent men of the Revolutionary period gave
-Paine the sole credit for everything that came from his pen."
-
-Washington, Franklin and Jefferson were among Paine's earliest
-converts. Franklin gave his book his immediate approval, and Jefferson's
-endorsement soon followed. Washington, writing to Joseph Reed in the
-same month that it was published, acknowledged its "sound doctrine and
-unanswerable reasoning," and declared for separation.
-
-"Jefferson, Washington and Franklin, who up to that time [publication of
-'Common Sense'] had denounced even the thought of Independence,... all
-changed front, and soon, not a majority, but the effective part of the
-people, followed."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"Washington, now converted, wrote to his friends in praise of 'Common
-Sense'... Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Madison, all the great
-statesmen of the time, wrote praisefully of Paine's 'flaming
-arguments.'"--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_.
-
-"Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered the
-advisability of answering it but came to the conclusion that it was
-unanswerable."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-An Unknown Writer of Charleston, S. C. (Feb. 14, 1776): "Who is the
-author of 'Common Sense'? I can hardly refrain from adoring him. He
-deserves a statue of gold."
-
-Abigail Adams: "I am charmed with the sentiments of 'Common Sense,' and
-wonder how an honest heart, one who wishes the welfare of his country
-and the happiness of posterity, can hesitate one moment at adopting
-them."
-
-"'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, has come in season to clear
-our doubts and fix our choice."
-
-John Winthrop: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments it would satisfy
-the people."
-
-"The public mind was now fully educated to accept the doctrine of
-Independence.... Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet 'Common Sense'
-had sapped the foundation of any remaining loyalty to the British
-Crown."--_John Clark Ridpath, LL. D_.
-
-Prof. Alexander Johnston: "Thomas Paine turned the scale by the
-publication of his pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-
-Richard Frothingham: "The great question which it treated was now
-discussed at every fireside; and the favorite toast at every dinner
-table was; 'May the independent principles of 'Common Sense' be
-confirmed throughout the United Colonies.'"
-
-Henry Clay Watson: "'Common Sense' effected a complete revolution in the
-feelings and sentiments of the great mass of the people."
-
-Rev. Jedediah Morse. "The change of the public mind on this occasion is
-without a parallel."
-
-Dr. Benjamin Rush: "'Common Sense' burst from the press with an
-effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or
-country."
-
-Hon. Salma Hale: "The effect of the pamphlet in making converts
-was astonishing, and is probably without precedent in the annals of
-literature."
-
-James Cheetham (Paine's basest calumniator): "Speaking a language which
-the colonists had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its
-consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the
-press."
-
-General Charles Lee: "Have you [Washington] seen the pamphlet 'Common
-Sense'? I never saw such a masterly irresistible performance."
-
-"He burst forth on the world like Jove in thunder."
-
-Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History: "Its trumpet tones
-awakened the continent, and made every patriot's heart beat with intense
-emotion."
-
-J. Dorman Steele, Ph. D.: "Every line glowed with the spirit of liberty,
-and men's hearts were thrilled as they read."
-
-Larned's Ready Reference History: "A more effective popular appeal never
-went to the bosoms of a nation.... Its effect was instantaneous and
-tremendous."
-
-Henry Cabot Lodge: "The pamphlet marked an epoch, was a very memorable
-production; from the time of its publication the tide flowing in the
-direction of independence began to race with devouring swiftness to high
-water mark."
-
-Encyclopedia Britannica (10th Ed.)--"There is a complete concurrence of
-testimony that Paine's pamphlet issued on the first of January, 1776,
-was a turning point in the struggle, that it roused and consolidated
-public feeling, and swept waverers along with the tide."
-
-Prof. Goldwin Smith: "Colonial resolution had been screwed to the
-sticking point by Tom Paine, the stormy petrel of three countries, with
-his pamphlet 'Common Sense.'"
-
-Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews: "Most potent of all as a cause of the
-resolution to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense'."
-
-"No writing ever more instantly swung men to its humor."--_Woodrow
-Wilson_.
-
-Mary L. Booth: "This eloquent production severed the last link that
-bound the Colonies to the mother country."
-
-Mary Howitt: "The cause of Independence took as it were a definite form
-from this moment."
-
-Guilliam Tell Poussin: "It rendered the sentiment of Independence
-national."
-
-"The notion of a new State, wholly free from Great Britain, first found
-full and convincing expression in Paine's 'Common Sense'."--_London
-Times_.
-
-Gen. William A. Stokes: "When 'Common Sense' was published a great blow
-was struck. It was felt from New England to the Carolinas; it resounded
-throughout the world."
-
-The sympathy and assistance of liberty-loving Europeans contributed
-much to the success of the Revolution, and this was due largely to the
-influence of Paine's "Common Sense," which was printed in nearly every
-tongue and read in nearly every country of Continental Europe. Even in
-England thousands of copies were circulated, and the American party,
-the party of Chatham, Fox and Burke, was greatly strengthened, while the
-influence of the king and his ministry was correspondingly weakened by
-the effect of its masterly arguments.
-
-Lord Erskine: "In that great and calamitous conflict, Edmund Burke and
-Thomas Paine fought in the same field together, but with very different
-success. Mr. Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George
-Saville describes it, having no ears but for sounds that flattered its
-corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, spoke to the people, reasoned
-with them, told them they were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty
-further than their own benefit connected them, and, by these powerful
-arguments, prepared the minds of the American people for that glorious,
-just, and happy Revolution."
-
-Marquis de Chastelleaux: "Since my arrival in America I had not yet seen
-Mr. Paine, that author so celebrated in America and throughout Europe
-by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.' Lafayette and myself had
-asked the permission of an interview, and we waited on him
-accordingly with Col. Laurens.... His patriotism and his talents are
-unquestionable."
-
-W. E. H. Lecky: "Paine's 'Common Sense'... was translated into French,
-and was, if possible, even more popular in France than in America."
-
-"The work ran through innumerable editions in America and France. The
-world rang with it."--_Hon. Henry S. Randall_.
-
-Silas DeAne: "'Common Sense' has been translated, and has had a greater
-run here [in France] than in America. A person of distinction, writing
-to his noble friend in office, has these words: 'I think, with you,
-my dear Count, that "Common Sense" is an excellent work, and that its
-author is one of the greatest legislators among the million writers that
-we know.'"
-
-Sir George Trevelyan: "It would be difficult to name any human
-composition which has had an effect at once so instant, so extended,
-and so lasting. It flew through numberless editions. It was pirated,
-and parodied, and imitated, and translated into the language of every
-country where the new Republic had well-wishers, and could hope to
-procure allies.... It was reprinted in all the Colonies with a frequency
-surprising at a time when Colonial printing houses were very few. Three
-months from its first appearance, a hundred and twenty thousand copies
-had been sold in America alone; and, before the demand ceased, it was
-calculated that half a million had seen the light."
-
-"Paine saw beyond precedents and statutes, and constitutional facts or
-fictions, into the depths of human nature; and he knew that, if men are
-to fight to the death, it must be for reasons which all can understand."
-
-John Adams: "'Common Sense' was received in France and in all Europe
-with rapture."
-
-"History is to ascribe the Revolution to Thomas Paine." (Letter to
-Thomas Jefferson).
-
-John Quincy Adams: "Paine's 'Common Sense' crystalized public opinion
-and was the first factor in bringing about the Revolution."
-
-Samuel Adams: "Your 'Common Sense'... unquestionably awakened the
-public mind, and led the people loudly to call for a Declaration of our
-National Independence."
-
-Parker Pillsbury: "Without his 'Common Sense,' written in 1775, we
-should not have had the Declaration of Independence in 1776."
-
-Samuel Bryan: "This book, 'Common Sense,' may be called the Book of
-Genesis, for it was the beginning. From this book spread the Declaration
-of Independence, that not only laid the foundation of liberty in our own
-country, but the good of mankind throughout the world."
-
-"The open movement to Independence dates from its
-publication."--_Encyclopedia Britannica_ (11th Ed.)
-
-Elkanah Watson (one of Paine's calumniators): "It everywhere flashed
-conviction, and aroused a determined spirit which resulted in the
-Declaration of Independence."
-
-Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL. D.: "This spark was sufficient to rouse the
-Americans, who at once signed the Declaration of Independence."
-
-William Howitt: "It at once seized on the imagination of the public,
-cast all other writers into the shades and flew in thousands and tens
-of thousands all over the Colonies.... The common fire blazed up in
-Congress, and the thing was done."
-
-"He became the great oracle on the subject of governments and
-constitutions."
-
-Thomas Gaspey: "He was treated with great consideration by the members
-of the Revolutionary government, who took no steps of importance without
-consulting him."
-
-Grand Dictionary Universel: "He became the political catechism of the
-movement."
-
-Dictionary of National Biography (America): "Joined the Provincial army
-in the autumn [1776] and became a volunteer aid-de-camp to General
-Nathaniel Greene, animating the troops by his writings [the 'Crisis']."
-
-"The pamphlets that stirred like a trumpet call the flagging energies of
-a desponding people."--_Rev. John Snyder_.
-
-"General Greene made him one of his aides-de-camp; but an appointment on
-that staff, during those weeks, carried with it very little, either of
-privilege or luxury. In the flight from Fort Lee Paine lost his baggage
-and his private papers; but he had kept or borrowed a pen. He began
-to write at Newark, the first stage in the calamitous retreat; and
-he worked all night at every halting place until his new pamphlet was
-completed. It was published in Philadelphia on the 19th of December,
-under the title of 'The Crisis,' and at once flew like wildfire through
-all the towns and villages of the Confederacy."--_Sir George Trevelyan_.
-
-This, the first number of the "Crisis," opens with these words: "These
-are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
-patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
-but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and
-woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
-consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the
-triumph."
-
-Samuel Eliot: "His later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name
-of the 'Crisis,' were of equal power [to 'Common Sense']."
-
-Encyclopedia of Social Reform: "The 'Crisis' exerted wide influence for
-Independence and Republicanism."
-
-Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.: "The 'Crisis' [sixteen numbers], written
-by Paine between 1776 and 1783, exercised an enormous influence over men
-and events during the Revolution."
-
-Albert Payson Terhune: "He plunged, heart and soul, into the struggle
-for freedom. His 'Common Sense' and other pamphlets [the 'Crisis'] were
-such strong and eloquent pleas for liberty that Washington ordered some
-of them read aloud to the patriot armies."
-
-National Cyclopedia of American Biography: "Its [the 'Crisis'] initial
-number was, by the order of General Washington, read aloud to each
-regiment and to each detachment."
-
-William S. Stryker: "The effect of its strong patriotic sentences was
-apparent upon the spirits of the army."
-
-George T. Cram: "The whole patriot army was inspirited by it."
-
-Werner's Encyclopedia (Ed. 1899): "Its opening words, 'These are the
-times that try men's souls,' became a battle cry."
-
-Norman Hapgood, LL.B.: "The last sentence [of the first 'Crisis'] sounds
-like a prophecy and the first sentence, 'These are the times that try
-men's souls,' was the watchword [at the battle of Trenton]."
-
-George Lippard: "In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army
-of the Revolution; he shares the crust and the cold with Washington and
-his men; he is with those brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with
-them by the camp fire, with them in the hour of battle.
-
-"Is the day dark? Has the battle been bloody? Do the American soldiers
-despair? Hark! that printing press yonder, which moves with the American
-camp in all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the ranks of
-the army--pamphlets written by the author-soldier; written sometimes on
-the head of a drum, or by the midnight fire, or amid the corpses of the
-dead."
-
-"Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals to the attack
-on Trenton, and there in the dawn of that glorious morning, George
-Washington, standing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian
-Rhol, confessed the magic influence of the author-hero's pen."
-
-"Under that cloud, by Washington's side, was silently at work the force
-that lifted it. Marching by day, listening to the consultations of
-Washington and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp fires; the winter
-storms, the Delaware waves, were mingled with his ink; the half-naked
-soldiers in their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant homes, the
-skulking deserter creeping off in the dusk, the pallid face of the
-heavy-hearted commander, made the awful shadows beneath which was
-written that leaflet."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Of this work Sir George Trevelyan writes: "The 'Crisis' was an
-impassioned appeal to arms. That circumstance endowed Paine's glowing
-rhetoric with a special value in the estimation of Americans. To their
-mind's eye the little work was adorned by an imaginary frontispiece of a
-soldier, writing by the watch-fire's light, with his comrades slumbering
-round him; and it was among those comrades that the author found his
-warmest admirers and his most convinced disciples."
-
-"These words were fire and warmed the soldiers; they were meat and drink
-for the famishing; they were clothes for the naked. The soldiers were
-filled with a courage new and unknown. The battle of Trenton came,
-and as the soldiers entered that conflict, all down the ranks rang the
-battle cry, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' The battle was
-fought and won. The army of the patriots had entered upon a new
-career. And thus he wrote and wrought to the end of the immortal
-struggle."--_Dr. John E. Roberts_.
-
-"In the midnight of Valley Forge the 'Crisis' was the only star that
-glittered in the broad horizon of despair."--_Col. Ingersoll_.
-
-"Paine was the real founder of our Republic. Without his 'Common
-Sense' the independence of the American Colonies never would have been
-declared; without his 'Crisis' it never could have been won. Without his
-services this country, like Canada, India, Australia and South Africa,
-today would be a part of the British Empire.
-
-"We would undoubtedly be under British rule today but for the wise and
-wonderful efforts of Thomas Paine.''--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_.
-
-"Paine's title as the discoverer and inventor of the United States is
-just as plain as Watt's invention of the steam engine, and everything
-that has taken place as a result of organizing the United States of
-America is the result of Thomas Paine's labors."--_Rev. Thomas R.
-Slicer, D.D_.
-
-Timothy Matlack (Oct. 10, 1777): "The Honorable House of Assembly has
-proposed and Council has adopted a plan of obtaining more regular and
-constant intelligence of the proceedings of General Washington's army
-than has hitherto been had. Every one agrees that you [Paine] are the
-proper person for the purpose, and I am directed by his Excellency, the
-President, to write to you.... Proper expresses will be engaged in this
-business. If the expresses which pass from headquarters to Congress can
-be made use of so much the better,--of this you must be the judge."
-
-Col. Asa Bird Gardener, LL.D.: "The entire British fleet was then
-brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the most furious cannonade and
-most desperate but finally unsuccessful defense of the place was made.
-The entire works were demolished, and the most of the garrison killed
-and wounded. Major General Greene being anxious for the garrison and
-desirous of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain.
-He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on Nov. 9, (1777),
-went with Col. Christopher Greene commanding Fort Mercer, in an open
-boat to Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and was there when the enemy
-opened with two gun batteries and a mortar battery. This _very_ gallant
-act shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was."
-
-Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary: "He was secretary to the Committee
-on Foreign Affairs in Congress from April, 1777, to January, 1779."
-
-It has been asserted by Mr. Roosevelt and others that Paine, because
-of his action in the Deane affair, was discharged from his position as
-secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was not discharged,
-nor was he even asked to resign. He resigned of his own volition.
-
-Franklin Steiner: "In 1778 a fraud was about to be committed upon the
-infant republic.... Paine wrote several articles for the press, exposing
-the entire corrupt transaction, and of course made enemies of all
-involved in the dishonest affair, who at once made attempts to have him
-discharged from his position, in which they failed."
-
-"A motion for his dismission was lost."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Congress refused to vote that it was 'an abuse of office,' or to
-discharge him."--_Ibid_.
-
-It was Paine's honesty and patriotism, a desire to protect the interests
-of his adopted country, that caused him to make his exposure. His
-"indiscretion," as some diplomats characterized it, saved the Colonies
-a million livres. Pennsylvania applauded the act and rebuked his
-censors by appointing him clerk of the Assembly. His whole subsequent
-career--his continued labors in behalf of the Colonies--the confidence
-reposed in him by all the people--show that his ability, his integrity,
-and his patriotism were never questioned.
-
-In less than three years after the Deane affair the members of Congress
-who had honestly espoused Deane's cause acknowledged the justice and
-wisdom of Paine's exposure.
-
-John Jay Knox: "In 1780 occurred the darkest days of the Revolutionary
-War. The army was in great distress.... Thomas Paine, the Clerk in the
-Pennsylvania Assembly, in a letter to Blair McClenaghan, suggested a
-subscription for relief of the army and enclosed a contribution of $500.
-
-American Cyclopedia: "A letter [dated May 28, 1780] was received by
-the Assembly of Pennsylvania from Gen. Washington, saying that,
-notwithstanding his confidence in the attachment of the army to the
-cause of the country, he feared their distresses would soon cause mutiny
-in the ranks. This letter was read by Paine as clerk. A despairing
-silence pervaded the hall, and the Assembly soon adjourned. Paine wrote
-to Blair McClenaghan, a merchant of Philadelphia, explaining the urgency
-of affairs, and enclosed in the letter $500, the amount of salary due
-him as clerk, as his contribution toward a relief fund. McClenaghan
-called a meeting next day and read Paine's letter; a subscription
-list was immediately circulated, and in a short time L300,000 [nearly
-$1,500,000] Pennsylvania currency was collected. With this as a capital,
-the Pennsylvania Bank, afterwards expanded into the Bank of North
-America, was established for the relief of the army."
-
-Cassell's Dictionary of Religion: "In 1781 Paine was sent to France with
-Col. Laurens to negotiate a loan in which he was more than successful,
-for the French granted a subsidy of six million livres, and became a
-guarantor of ten millions advanced by Holland."
-
-Lamartine says the King "loaded Paine with favors." His gift of six
-millions was "confided to Franklin and Paine."
-
-Robert Morris (Feb. 10, 1782): "They [Morris, Minister of Finance,
-Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Washington,
-Commander-in-Chief] are agreed that it will be much for the interest
-of the United States that Mr. Paine be retained in their [the United
-States'] service."
-
-Charles Wilson Peale: "Personal acquaintance with him gives me an
-opportunity of knowing that he had done more for our cause than the
-world who had only seen his publications could know."
-
-"America is indebted to few characters more than to you."--_Gen.
-Nathaniel Greene_.
-
-Calvin Blanchard: "He stood the acknowledged leader of American
-statesmanship, and the soul of the Revolution, by the proclamation
-of the legislatures of all the states and that of the Congress of the
-United States."
-
-Pennsylvania Council (Dec. 6, 1784): "So important were his services
-during the late contest that those persons whose own merits in the
-course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly
-honorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him."
-
-"The attention of Pennsylvania is drawn toward Mr. Paine by motives
-equally grateful to the human heart and reputable to the Republic."
-
-Pennsylvania Assembly: "Thomas Paine did, during the progress of the
-Revolution, voluntarily devote himself to the service of the public,
-without accepting recompense therefor, and, moreover, did decline taking
-or receiving the profits which authors are entitled to on the sale of
-their literary works, but relinquished them for the better accommodation
-of the country and the honor of the public cause."
-
-Rev. Dr. M. J. Savage: "He wrote the book which caused the Declaration
-of Independence, a book in such great demand that the presses groaned
-for months in endeavoring to supply the demand; a book, the income
-from the circulation of which, to-day would make a man rich, and yet he
-steadfastly refused to receive a cent for it."
-
-More than fifty years ago, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway, then pastor of a
-church in Cincinnati, in a eulogy on Paine, said: "So disinterested was
-he, that, when his works were printed by the ten thousand, and as fast
-as one edition was out another was demanded, he, a poor and pinched
-author, who might very easily have grown rich, would not accept one cent
-for them, declared that he would not coin his principles, and made to
-the States a present of the copyrights. His brain was his fortune,--nay
-his living; he gave it all to American Independence." Paine also gave
-the copyrights of the several numbers of his "Crisis" to the States. The
-close of the Revolution found him, to quote from Dr. Conway's biography
-of Paine, "a penniless patriot who might easily have had fifty thousand
-pounds in his pocket."
-
-(I shall quote freely from Dr. Conway. For all time this biographer will
-be the standard authority on Thomas Paine. He was a life-long student
-of Paine. In each of the three countries which Paine served, America,
-France and England, he had full access to the national archives of
-Paine's time. He was a distinguished pulpit orator in both hemispheres,
-and had a world-wide reputation as a literary man. Above all his love of
-truth and justice and His rugged honesty and candor make him a witness
-whose testimony is unimpeachable. To him Andrew Carnegie pays this
-tribute: "He has passed, but he has left behind him a precious legacy
-to all who were so fortunate as to be able to call him friend. They are
-better men and women because Moncure Conway lived and entered into their
-lives.")
-
-United States Congress (Aug. 26, 1785): "_Resolved_, That the early,
-unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and
-enforcing the principles of the late Revolution by ingenious and timely
-publications upon the nature of liberty and civil government have been
-well received by the citizens of these States, and merit the approbation
-of Congress."
-
-This resolution was passed by a unanimous vote.
-
-Allibone's Dictionary of Authors: "He was rewarded by a donation from
-Congress of $3,000."
-
-"In 1782, at the suggestion of Washington, Congress granted $800 to
-Paine.... In 1784 the State of New York presented him with 277 acres of
-land at New Rochelle, and Pennsylvania with L500; and in 1785 Congress
-gave him $3,000."--_International Encyclopedia_.
-
-"Some writers have denied his political services, and have declared it
-impossible that a stranger at the outbreak of the Colonial struggle,
-he could have influenced public opinion in America; but such should
-remember that the contemporaries of Paine--and worthy men many of them
-certainly were who associated with Paine--judged differently, and
-not only freely circulated his writings but gave expression to their
-worth,... besides conferring on him the degree of M. A. (Pennsylvania
-University), and membership in their choicest literary association, the
-American Philosophical Society."--_McClintock and Strong's Biblical,
-Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia_.
-
-"Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph,
-and the rest were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto
-deep."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Drake's Dictionary of American Biography: "His powerful exertions to
-promote the independence of America constitutes a high claim upon the
-gratitude of his adopted country."
-
-Ignatius Donnelly: "Paine did a great work during the Revolutionary war
-in behalf of liberty and deserves to be forever remembered."
-
-McClintock and Strong's Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical
-Encyclopedia, to quote again from this standard Christian authority,
-says: "The truth cannot be withheld that Thomas Paine was one of the
-most powerful actors in the Revolutionary drama.... His services to his
-adopted country should not be forgotten."
-
-"As the Tyrtaeus of the Revolution, and it is no exaggeration to style
-him such, we owe everlasting gratitude to his name and memory."--_Rev.
-Solomon Southwick._
-
-John Spencer Bassett: "History cannot forget that he was an important
-promoter of the Revolution."
-
-"Paine's brawny arm applied the torch which set the country in a flame,
-to be extinguished only by the relinquishment of British supremacy;
-and for this, irrespective of his motives and character, he merits the
-gratitude of every American."--_Gen. William A. Stokes._
-
-"No man rendered grander, service to this country, and no man ought
-to be more cherished or remembered than Thomas Paine."--_Rev. Minot J.
-Savage, D. D._
-
-Paul Allen: "Those who regard the independence of the United States as a
-blessing will never cease to cherish the remembrance of Thomas Paine."
-
-"To the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans are not nor can they be
-indifferent."--_James Monroe._
-
-Hon. Elizur Wright: "It was Thomas Paine, more than any other man, or
-any other thing, who turned the current of history in the New World."
-
-Rev. John Snyder: "Paine did more than any other single man to create
-this nation. I simply speak what will some day be the sober judgment of
-history."
-
-"There was no man in the Colonies who contributed so much to bring the
-open Declaration of Independence to a crisis as Thomas Paine."--_William
-Howitt._
-
-"He did more for the American cause and for American independence than
-any other man."--_Sir Hiram Maxim._
-
-"Like a magnificent dream the figure of this republic arose in his
-brain.... The result was victory; and Thomas Paine, the dreamer, the
-writing soldier, had done more than any other man to make this country
-free, and to give it a place among the nations of the world."--_Marshall
-J. Gaumn._
-
-"He was the real founder of the American republic."--_Henry Frank._
-
-"He wrote the word 'Independence,' and created the greatest nation in the
-world."
-
-Hon. John W. Hoyt, LL.D.: "Thomas Paine inspired the Revolution by his
-spirit, maintained it when in the darkest hours of the battle it seemed
-that the spark of liberty would go out."
-
-Dr. J. R. Monroe: "With the wand of his genius he turned aside the
-scroll that concealed the future of our country, and by the inspiring
-picture he thus presented our disheartened and hard-pressed forefathers
-were nerved to press forward, to brave every peril, to dare every
-danger, to defy every death, till tyranny was throttled and man was
-free."
-
-Rev. Martin K. Schermerhorn: "When our children's children shall
-celebrate America's _second_ centennial a hundred years from now, they
-will write in largest letters upon their national banner this sentence
-which all intelligent American citizens will then enthusiastically
-recognize and applaud: 'Thomas Paine--the Patriot... of two hundred
-years ago.'"
-
-Stephen Simpson: "To the genius of Thomas Paine as a popular writer,
-and to that of George Washington as a prudent, skillful, and consummate
-general, are the American people indebted for their rights, liberty and
-independence."
-
-Mrs. Hypatia Bradlaugh-Bonner: "With Washington he played the foremost
-part in the American Revolution. If Washington was the sword and the
-strong arm, Paine was the heart and brains of that great struggle. He
-was the mouth-piece of the aspirations of a continent. He dared to utter
-the thoughts that lay concealed in the secret hearts of the people.
-He sounded the demand for the Independence of the Continent. He bound
-together the separate colonies, and proclaimed 'The Free and Independent
-States of America.'"
-
-Thomas Paine was the creator of this great Republic. He was the real
-father of our country; Washington was its foster father. Paine's pen
-transformed a petty rebellion into a mighty revolution and made a rebel
-chief the triumphant defender of a new-born nation. Washington's fame is
-secure. His right to a place in the pantheon of earth's immortals will
-never be denied. And when the clouds of prejudice are dispelled, as they
-will be, Paine's name will shine with a splendor unsurpassed, never to
-be obscured again.
-
-
-
-
-THE "RIGHTS OF MAN" AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
-
-Thomas H. Dyer, LL.D.: "An active agent in the French Revolution."
-
-"One of those celebrated foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness
-to adopt."--_Madame Roland._
-
-M. Cheslay: "He defended in London the principles of the French
-Revolution."
-
-Brockhaus' Konversatjons-Lexikon: "After he returned to England in 1791
-he published his 'Rights of Man.' (translated into many languages) in
-which he defended the French Revolution against the assaults of Burke."
-
-Porter C. Bliss: "Published, in 1791-92 his 'Rights of Man' [two parts],
-a vindication of the French Revolution, in reply to Burke, which gave
-him immense popularity in France and led to a bestowal of citizenship
-and his election to the French National Convention."
-
-"He was made a French Citizen by the same decree with Washington,
-Hamilton, Priestley and Sir James Mackintosh."--_Joel Barlow_.
-
-Nelson's Encyclopedia: "The book was dedicated to Washington, was
-translated into French and made a, great impression." (The second part
-was dedicated to Lafayette.)
-
-Edmund Gosse, LL.D.: "The circulation was so enormous that it had a
-distinct effect in coloring public opinion."
-
-Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography: "His 'Rights of Man,' if
-the undenied statement as to its circulation (a million and a half of
-copies is correct) was more largely read in England and France than any
-other political work ever published."
-
-Chamber's Encyclopedia: "The most famous of all the replies to Burke's
-'Reflections on the French Revolution.' A million and a half copies were
-sold in England alone."
-
-John Hall (London, January, 1792): "Burke's publication has produced
-nearly fifty different answers. Nothing has ever been so read as
-Paine's answer."
-
-Edward Baines, LL.D.: "Editions were multiplied in every form and
-size; it was alike seen in the hands of the noble and the plebeian, and
-became, at length, translated into the various languages of Europe."
-
-Paris Moniteur (Nov. 8, 1792): "That which will astonish posterity is
-that at Stockholm, five months after the death of Gustavus, and while
-the northern Powers are leaguing themselves against the liberty of
-France, there has been published a translation of Thomas Paine's 'Rights
-of Man,' the translator being one of the King's secretaries."
-
-The following is a summary of Paine's political philosophy as presented
-in the "Rights of Man":
-
-1. Government is the organization of the aggregate natural rights which
-individuals are not competent to secure individually, and therefore
-surrender to the control of society in exchange for the protection of
-all rights.
-
-2. Republican government is that in which the welfare of the whole
-nation is the object.
-
-3. Monarchy is government, more or less arbitrary, in which the
-interests of an individual are paramount to those of the people
-generally.
-
-4. Aristocracy is government, partially arbitrary, in which the
-interests of a class are paramount to the people generally.
-
-5. Democracy is the whole people governing themselves without secondary
-means.
-
-6. Representative government is the control of a nation by persons
-elected by the whole nation.
-
-7. The Rights of Man mean the right of all to representation.
-
-Paine advocated a republic (2.) with a representative government (6.).
-The first real republic with a representative government of importance
-established in the world was in the United States of America, of which,
-when religious prejudice passes away, Thomas Paine will be recognized as
-the founder.
-
-Professor J. B. Bury, LL.D.: "His 'Rights of Man' is an indictment
-of the monarchical form of government, and a plea for representative
-democracy."
-
-Terrible but truthful is Paine's indictment of monarchy: "All the
-monarchical governments are military. War is their trade; plunder and
-revenue their objects. While such governments continue, peace has not
-the absolute security of a day. What is the history of all monarchical
-governments but a disgustful picture of human wretchedness, and the
-accidental respite of a few years repose. Wearied with war and tired
-with human butchery, they sat down to rest and called it peace."
-
-This is his conception of an ideal government:
-
-"When it shall be said in any country in the world, 'My poor are happy;
-neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are
-empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the
-taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend, because I am
-the friend of its happiness,'---when these things can be said, then may
-that country boast of its constitution and its government."
-
-"The political events of our own day--of the present hour--point to the
-time when the ambitions and the wars of monarchy will be at an end, and
-when republican peace will reign throughout the world. Then shall the
-dream of Thomas Paine, the world's greatest citizen of the world, be
-realized."--_Marshall J. Gaitvin._
-
-Washington Irving: "A reprint of Paine's 'Rights of Man,' written
-in reply to Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution, appeared [in
-America] under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson."
-
-In introducing Paine's work to the American people Jefferson, then
-Secretary of State, said: "I have no doubt our citizens will rally a
-second time round the standard of 'Common Sense.'"
-
-The Builders of the Nation: "At this time the Republican party as it
-was called, accepted the views of Jefferson, and as he openly accepted
-Paine's 'Rights of Man' it followed that the advanced views contained
-in that book grew to be held measurably as the party tenets of his
-followers."
-
-Prof. E. D. Adams, Ph. D.: "As a cult [democracy], the theory
-undoubtedly first found adequate expression amongst us in the writings
-of Thomas Paine.... In these two books ['Common Sense' and 'Rights of
-Man'] Paine was then the first to state the ideal of democracy, as it
-later came to be accepted in America under the leadership of Jefferson."
-
-In a letter to Monroe, referring to the censure he had received for
-his endorsement of Paine's book, Jefferson says: "I certainly merit the
-same, for I profess the same principles."
-
-In a letter to Paine (June 19, 1792,) Jefferson says: "Our good people
-are firm and unanimous in their principles of Republicanism, and there
-is no better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it
-with delight."
-
-James Madison declared the "Rights of Man" to be "a written defense of
-the principles on which that [our] Government is based."
-
-For our so-called Jeffersonian Democracy we are indebted to Thomas
-Paine. He formulated its principles. Jefferson, Madison and others of
-his disciples popularized them.
-
-After commending the "Rights of Man" Richard Henry Lee wrote: "I
-sincerely regret that our country could not have offered sufficient
-inducements to have retained as a permanent citizen a man so thoroughly
-republican in sentiment and fearless in the expression of his opinions."
-
-In his book, one of the most brilliant volumes ever penned, Burke, long
-the friend of popular government, defended royalty and aristocracy.
-He sought to arouse the sympathies of Europe in behalf of royalty and
-aristocracy in France which were tottering to their fall, a disaster
-which endangered their existence everywhere. The book was circulated
-by tens of thousands. Captivated by its marvelous beauty a reaction in
-favor of despotism was setting in when Paine's immortal work appeared.
-The glowing rhetoric of Burke went down before the merciless logic of
-Paine.
-
-Burke is filled with sorrow for the French king and nobles whose rule
-and privileges have been abolished or restricted, but expresses none for
-the millions who for centuries have been persecuted, impoverished and
-imprisoned by the ruling classes. In words that come from the heart of
-the author and which reach the hearts of the people, Paine answers him:
-
-"Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserating reflection, that I
-can find throughout his book, has he bestowed on those that lingered out
-the most wretched of lives; a life without hope, in the most miserable
-of prisons. It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to
-corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he has been
-to her. He is not affected by the reality of distress touching upon his
-heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He
-pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss the
-aristocratic hand that hath purloined him from himself, he degenerates
-into a composition of art, and the genuine soul of nature forsakes him.
-His hero or his heroine must be a tragedy-victim, expiring in show, and
-not the real prisoner of misery, sliding into death in the silence of a
-dungeon."
-
-Referring to this intellectual combat William Cobbett, one of England's
-most distinguished political writers, writing more than a quarter of
-a century after Paine's reply to Burke, says: "As my Lord Grenville
-introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of
-a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage
-to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million
-times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."
-
-Lord John Morley: "Thomas Paine replied to them [Burke's 'Reflections']
-with an energy, courage and eloquence worthy of his cause in the 'Rights
-of Man.'"
-
-"In brilliant rhetoric Burke argued its [Natural Rights] dangerous and
-baseless nature.. Paine in his even more brilliant 'Rights of Man,'
-answered Burke."--_Encyclopedia of Social Reform._
-
-Thomas Campbell: "He strongly answered at the bar of public opinion all
-the arguments of Burke. I do not deny that fact; and I should be sorry
-if I could be blind, even with tears in my eyes for Mackintosh, to the
-services that have been rendered to the cause of truth by the shrewdness
-and courage of Thomas Paine."
-
-(Great events inspire great works. Three of the masterpieces of
-literature were inspired by the French Revolution, Edmund Burke's
-"Reflections on the French Revolution" condemning it, and Sir James
-Mackintosh's "Vindiciae Gallicae" and Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man"
-defending it.)
-
-Dictionary of National Biography (England): "Paine is the only English
-writer who exposes with uncompromising sharpness the abstract doctrines
-of political rights held by the French Revolutionists."
-
-Charles James Fox: "It ['Rights of Man'] seems as clear and as simple as
-the first rules of arithmetic."
-
-Manchester Constitutional Society (March 13, 1792): "A work of the
-highest importance to every nation under heaven, but particularly to
-this, as containing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and
-considerable reduction of the public expenditure; for the prevention
-of wars; for the extension of our manufactures and commerce; for the
-education of the young; for the comfortable support of the aged; for the
-better maintenance of the poor."
-
-Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information (March 14, 1792): "We
-have derived more true knowledge from the two works of Thomas Paine,
-entitled 'Rights of Man,' Parts First and Second, than from any other
-author. The practice as well as the principle of government is laid down
-in those works in a manner so clear and irresistibly convincing."
-
-James Anthony Froude: "Copies of Paine's 'Rights of Man' were sown
-broadcast [in Ireland]."
-
-"Protestant Belfast had declared itself a disciple of Paine."
-
-"The Irish patriots were red republicans... anxious to establish in
-Ireland the principles of Paine."
-
-"Paine," says his biographer, Dr. Conway, "held a supremacy in the
-constitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre
-over the Jacobins of Paris."
-
-William Pitt (to Lady Hester Stanhope, who had quoted from the "Rights
-of Man"): "Paine is quite in the right, but what am I to do?"
-
-Sir James Mackintosh: "His bold speculations and fierce invectives
-indicated the approach of social confusion."
-
-Prof. G. P. Gooch, M.A.: "The 'Rights of Man,' compelled attention not
-less by the novelty of its ideas than by its consummate pamphleteering
-skill.... The alarm increased when it was known that the book was
-selling by tens of thousands."
-
-Diccionaris Enciclopedico (Spain): "The friends of the Government burned
-Paine in effigy in the streets of London. Later he was proclaimed the
-great apostle of liberty and the father of the Revolution."
-
-Gouverneur Morris: "Bonnville is here [Paris]. He is just returned from
-England. He tells me that Paine's book works mightily in England."
-
-Louis Blanc: "The militia were armed, in the southeast of England
-troops received orders to march to London, the meeting of Parliament was
-advanced forty days, the Tower was reinforced by a new garrison, in
-fine there was enrolled a formidable preparation of war--against Thomas
-Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man.'"
-
-H. D. Traill, D.C.L.: "Paine's book on the 'Rights of Man' was known
-to have an enormous circulation, and he was prosecuted for it under the
-proclamation of May, 1792. Paine's counsel argued in vain that it
-had never been held criminal to express opinions on the problems of
-political philosophy.... Paine was condemned."
-
-"He was defended by Erskine, who was then in the zenith of his glory as
-an advocate, in a speech of marvelous power and eloquence."--_Hon. E. B.
-Washburne._
-
-J. Redman ("London, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1792, 5 P.M."): "Mr. Paine's trial
-is this instant over. Erskine shone like the morning star. The instant
-Erskine closed his speech the venal jury [it was a packed jury]
-interrupted the Attorney General, who was about to make reply, and
-without waiting for any answer, or any summing up by the Judge,
-pronounced him guilty. Such an instance of infernal corruption is
-scarcely upon record."
-
-Paine's case was set for June, 1792, and he was anxious to go to trial
-then. At the request of the Government it was postponed till December.
-In the meantime Paine, having been elected to the National Convention,
-went to France. Had he remained in England death or a long imprisonment
-would have been his fate, the charge against him being high treason.
-
-Alexander Gilchrist: "On Paine's rising to leave [he had delivered a
-radical address in London the night before], Blake [William] laid his
-hand on the orator's shoulder, saying, 'You must not go home, or you are
-a dead man,' and he hurried him off on his way to France.... Those were
-hanging days in England."
-
-Dr. James Currie (1793): "The prosecutions that are commenced all over
-England against printers, publishers, etc., would astonish you; and
-most of these are for offenses committed months ago. The printer of the
-Manchester _Herald_ has had... six different indictments for selling or
-disposing of six different copies of Paine--all previous to the trial of
-Paine. The man was opulent, supposed worth L20,000; but these different
-actions will ruin him, as they were intended to do."
-
-The trial of Paine was followed by a veritable reign of terror in
-England. Alluding to the prosecutions and persecutions of the publishers
-and venders of Paine's books, Buckle, in his "History of Civilization,"
-says: "It is no exaggeration to say that for some years England was
-ruled by a system of absolute terror."
-
-It was over the writings of Thomas Paine chiefly, his "Rights of Man" at
-first and later his "Age of Reason," that the battle for free speech
-and a free press in England was fought and won. In this great struggle
-England's gifted statesman, Charles James Fox, whom Edmund Burke
-describes as "the greatest debater the world ever saw," and whom Sir
-James Mackintosh declares to De "the most Demosthenian speaker since
-Demosthenes," ably and fearlessly upheld the rights of Paine and the
-disseminators of his writings and teachings. In this struggle the poet
-Shelley, too, did valiant work.
-
-Richard Carlile: "It is not too much to say that if the 'Rights of
-Man' had obtained two or three years' free circulation in England and
-Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect to that which 'Common
-Sense' did in the United States."
-
-Sir Francis Burdett: "Ministers know that a united people are not to be
-resisted; and it is this that we must understand by what is written in
-the works of an honest man too long calumniated. I mean Thomas Paine."
-
-M. Brissot: "The grievance of the British Cabinet against France is not
-that Louis is in judgment, but that Thomas Paine wrote the 'Rights of
-Man'."
-
-Abbe Sieyes: "His 'Rights of Man,' translated into our language, is
-universally known; and where is the patriotic Frenchman who has not
-already, from the depths of his soul, thanked him for having fortified
-our cause with all the power of his reason and his reputation."
-
-"Paine's 'Rights of Man'," says Dr. Conway, "had been in every French
-home. His portrait, painted by Romney and engraved by Sharp, was in
-every cottage, framed in immortelles." Napoleon Bonaparte said: "I
-always sleep with the 'Rights of Man' beneath my pillow." Hon. Elihu
-B. Washburne, Minister of the United States to France during President
-Grant's administration, and later a prominent candidate for president
-of the United States himself, in a monograph on Thomas Paine, says:
-"He at once became a hero in France, and was everywhere received with
-enthusiasm. The doors of the _salons_ and clubs of Paris were opened to
-him, and he was soon recognized as one of the advanced figures in
-the Revolution, standing by the side of de Bonneville, Brissot and
-Condorcet."
-
-It is a commonly accepted opinion that the French Revolution was
-inspired chiefly by the writings of Rousseau and Voltaire. Hardly
-less potent, however, were Paine's "Rights of Man," published at the
-beginning of the Revolution, and his "Common Sense," which electrified
-France fifteen years before. Referring to these French writings and
-the "Rights of Man," Dr. Conway says: "In this book the philosophy of
-visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes of Rousseau's
-'Contrat Social,' burnt in Paris, rose the 'Rights of Man,' no phoenix,
-but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by any royal sun.
-It comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and
-Washington--the 'Contrat Social' was framed into the Constitution of a
-happy and glorious new earth."
-
-Charles Knight: "In the week of the flight of Louis [June, 1791] Paine
-wrote in English a proclamation to the French nation, which, being
-translated, was affixed to all the walls of Paris. It was an invitation
-to the people to profit by existing circumstances, and establish a
-Republic."
-
-Ida M. Tarbell: "Brissot brought several of his friends to see them [the
-Rolands]. Among the most important of these were Petion and Robespierre.
-In April [1791] Thomas Paine appeared. So agreeable were these informal
-reunions found to be that it was arranged to hold them four times a
-week.... To Madame Roland these gatherings were of absorbing interest."
-
-"With Condorcet, Brissot, and a few others as sympathizers, Paine formed
-a Republican society."
-
-Justin H. McCarthy: "The prospectus of a journal called _Le
-Republicaine_ was posted at the very doors of the General Assembly. It
-was signed by Duchatellet, a colonel of Chasseurs, but is said to have
-been drawn up by Thomas Paine."
-
-Etienne Dumont: "Some of the seed sown by the audacious hand of Paine
-were now budding in leading minds."
-
-Meyers' Gross Konversations-Lexikon: "In Paris Paine was declared
-a French citizen and was elected to the National Convention by the
-department of Pas-de-Calais."
-
-La Grande Encyclopedie: "Declared a French citizen by the National
-Assembly, he was elected a member of the Convention by the departments
-of l'Oise, the Puy-de-Dome and the Pas-de-Calais."
-
-H. Morse Stephens, LL.D.: "Paine, one of the founders of the American
-Republic, was elected by no less than three departments to the
-Convention."
-
-M. Louvet (and thirty-two others): "Your love for humanity, for liberty
-and equality, the useful works that have issued from your pen in their
-defense, have determined our choice. It has been hailed with universal
-and reiterated applause. Come friend of the people, to swell the number
-of patriots in an Assembly which will decide the destiny of a great
-people, perhaps of the human race."
-
-Biographie Universelle: "Amid salvos of artillery and cries of '_Vive_
-Thomas Paine!' his arrival was announced."
-
-Cates' Biographical Dictionary: "The garrison of Calais were under arms
-to receive this friend of liberty. The tri-colored cockade was presented
-to him by the mayor, and the handsomest woman in the town was selected
-to place it in his hat."
-
-W. T. Sherwin: "The hall of the Minimes [in Calais] was so crowded that
-it was with the greatest difficulty they made way for Mr. Paine to the
-side of the president. Over the chair he sat in was placed the bust
-of Mirabeau, and the colors of France, England, and America united.
-A speaker acquainted him from the tribune with his election, amid the
-plaudits of the people. For some minutes after the ceremony nothing was
-heard but '_Vive la Nation! Vive Thomas Paine!_'"
-
-"Ancient Calais, in its time, had received heroes from across the
-channel, but hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries reserved
-for a Thetford Quaker. As the packet sails in a salute is fired from
-the battery; cheers sound along the shore. As the representative for
-Calais steps on French soil soldiers make his avenue, the officers
-embrace him, the national cockade is presented. A beautiful lady
-advances, requesting the honor of setting the cockade in his hat, and
-makes him a pretty speech, ending with Liberty, Equality and France.
-As they move along the Rue de l'Egalite (late Rue du Roi) the air rings
-with '_Vive Thomas Paine_'! At the town hall he is presented to the
-Municipality, by each member embraced, by the Mayor also addressed. At
-the meeting of the Constitutional Society of Calais, in the Minimes, he
-sits beside the president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the united
-colors of France, England and America. There is an official ceremony
-announcing his election, and plaudits of the crowd, '_Vive la Nation!
-Vive Thomas Paine!'"--Dr. Conway_.
-
-Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, LL.D.: "Meantime Paine had been declared in
-Paris worthy of citizenship, and he proceeded thither, where he was
-received with every demonstration of extravagant joy."
-
-"The ovation which Paine received on his arrival in France was one such
-as theretofore only kings had received."--_Theodore Schroeder_.
-
-Herault de Sechelles, (President of National Assembly): "France calls
-you, Sir, to its bosom to fill the most useful, and consequently the
-most honorable of functions--that of contributing, by wise legislation,
-to the happiness of a people whose destinies interest and unite all who
-think and all who suffer in the world.
-
-"It is meet that the nation which proclaimed the Rights of Man should
-desire to have him among its legislators who first dared to measure all
-their consequences."
-
-Philip Van Ness Myers, LL.D.: "The Convention, consisting of seven
-hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the celebrated
-freethinker, Thomas Paine, embraced two active groups, the Girondins and
-the Mountainists [Jacobins]."
-
-Alphonse de Lamartine: "A stranger sat among the members of the
-Convention--the philosopher, Thomas Paine, born in England, the apostle
-of American independence, the friend of Franklin, author of 'Common
-Sense,' the 'Rights of Man,' and the 'Age of Reason'--three pages of
-the New Evangelist in which he brought back political institutions
-and religious creeds to their primitive justice and lucidity; his name
-possessed great weight among the innovators of the two worlds."
-
-"Everyone," says Paul Desjardins, "turned toward Paine as toward the
-living statue of liberty. The enfranchisement of America consecrated
-him."
-
-The official reports of the National Convention state that when Paine
-arose in the Convention and cast his vote for its first decree the act
-was received by "acclamations of joy, the cries of _Vive la nation!_
-repeated by all the spectators, prolonging themselves for many minutes!"
-
-Referring to this Convention, the Hon. E. B. Washburne says: "Never was
-there a legislative or constituent body which displayed such stupendous
-energy or performed such immense labor. In the delirium of its passions
-it stamped itself on the history of the world not only by its crimes,
-but by its great acts of legislation, which will live as long as
-France shall endure. Thomas Paine was a member of this Convention.
-His popularity in France at this time is shown by the fact that he was
-chosen a member of the Convention by three departments.
-
-"The Convention was not long in giving Paine a striking recognition of
-the consideration in which it held him. One of its earliest decrees was
-to establish a special Commission (committee) of nine members on the
-Constitution. This Commission was composed of the most distinguished men
-of the Convention: Gensonne, Thomas Paine, Brissot, Petion, Vergniaud,
-Barrere, Danton, Condorcet, and the Abbe Sieyes."
-
-Louis Adolphus Thiers: "A sixth committee was charged with the principal
-object for which the Convention had met, to prepare a new constitution.
-It was composed of nine celebrated members. Philosophy had its
-representatives in the persons of Sieyes, Condorcet, and the American
-Thomas Paine, recently elected a French citizen, and a member of the
-Convention. The Gironde was more particularly represented by Gensonne,
-Vergniaud, Petion, and Brissot; the Centre by Barrere, and the Montagne
-by Danton."
-
-The names of these eminent men will live long in history; but dear was
-the price paid for their fame. Danton, Brissot, Gensonne and Vergniaud
-died on the scaffold; Condorcet died in a prison cell, a suicide; Petion
-escaped to a forest where his body was afterward found partly devoured
-by wolves; Barrere was banished, and Paine was imprisoned. Sieyes alone
-escaped unharmed.
-
-Thomas Carlyle: "To make the Constitution; to defend the Republic till
-that be made. Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a Committee
-of Constitution got together. Sieyes, old constituent, constitution
-builder by trade; Condorcet, fit for better things; Deputy Paine,
-foreign benefactor of the species with the black beaming eyes;...
-Herault de Sechelles, ex-parlementier, one of the handsomest men in
-France,--these, with inferior guild-brethren, are girt cheerfully to the
-task." (Herault was a supplementary member of the Committee).
-
-John King (referring to Paine): "The chief modeler of their new
-Constitution."
-
-The Constitution was almost entirely the work of Paine and Condorcet. It
-is known as the Paine-Condorcet Constitution.
-
-Dr. David Saville Muzzey: "Paine labored to make this new republic of
-France an example for the monarchy-cursed countries of Europe. It was he
-who protested against the domination of the Assembly by the section of
-Paris which led to the Reign of Terror."
-
-M. Taine: "Compared with the speeches and writings of the times,
-it [Paine's Letter to Danton] produces the strangest effect by its
-practical good sense."
-
-Madame de Stael: "When the sentence of Louis XVI. came under discussion
-Paine alone advised what would have done honor to France if it had been
-adopted."
-
-Henri Martin: "Thomas Paine, the famous representative of the idea of a
-universal Republic, had voted against both an appeal to the people and
-the penalty of death."
-
-Thomas Wright, F. S. A.: "He urged with great earnestness that the
-execution of the sentence of death should be delayed."
-
-M. Guizot: "The last effort was about to be attempted to save the
-life of the King by delaying execution. The anger of the Jacobins was
-extreme; they refused to listen to a speech from Thomas Paine, the
-American, till respect for his courage gained him a hearing.... The
-prayer and the hope were as vain as they were affecting."
-
-Hon. Elihu B. Washburne: "It was on the 19th day of January, 1793, that
-Paine mounted the tribune to speak to this question. This trial of Louis
-XVI. by the National Convention is one of the most remarkable on record.
-The session was made permanent, and the trial went on day and night.
-After a lapse of nearly one hundred years, the painful and dramatic
-scenes stand out with still greater prominence. The _Salle des
-Machines_, in the Pavillon de Flores at the Tuileries, had been
-converted into a grand hall for the sittings of the Convention. The
-galleries were immense and could seat fourteen hundred spectators. In
-an immense city like Paris, convulsed with a political excitement never
-equaled, the trial of a king for his life produced the most profound
-emotions that ever agitated any community. All classes and conditions
-were carried away by the prevailing excitement, and the pressure for
-places exceeded anything ever known.
-
-"The appearance of Thomas Paine at the tribune, with a roll of
-manuscript in his hand, created a sensation in the Convention. By his
-side stood Bancal, who was there to translate the speech into French
-and read it to the Convention. The first declaration of the celebrated
-foreigner produced a commotion on the benches of the Montagne. Coming
-from a democrat like Thomas Paine, a man so intimately allied with the
-Americans, a great thinker and writer, there was fear of their influence
-on the Convention.
-
-"The most violent exclamations broke out, drowning the voice of Bancal,
-the unfortunate interpreter, and creating an indescribable tumult. Never
-was a man in a more embarrassing condition than Paine was at this time.
-Though not understanding the language, he yet realized the fury of the
-storm which raged around him. Standing at the tribune in his half Quaker
-coat, and genteelly attired, he remained undaunted and self-possessed
-during the tempest. This speech of Paine breathed greatness of soul and
-generosity of spirit and will forever honor his memory."
-
-Paine's speech, says Conway, is "unparalleled for argument and art and
-eloquence."
-
-Charlotte M. Yonge: "A brave remonstrance."
-
-Hon. Thomas E. Watson: "Among the brave who would not bend to the storm
-was Thomas Paine. Man enough to defy kings and priests, he was man
-enough, likewise, to defy a howling mob."
-
-E. Belford Bax: "Paine, up to the last, manfully voted in the sense in
-which he had always spoken, for the life of the king at the imminent
-risk of his own."
-
-Writing of the events which preceded and attended the trial and
-execution of Louis XVI, Prince Talleyrand, a profound admirer of Paine,
-says: "It was no longer a question that the king should reign, but that
-he himself, the queen, their children, his sister, should be saved. It
-might have been done. It was at least a duty to attempt it." It was a
-duty, however, whose performance carried with it the probable penalty
-of death. Danton, France's greatest and bravest son, wished to save the
-life of the king, but dared not to vote in favor of it. "Although I may
-save his life," he said, "I shall vote for his death. I am quite willing
-to save his head, but not to lose my own." Even the king's cousin,
-Philip of Orleans, voted for his kinsman's death. Paine did not shirk
-his duty. He, too, loved life, but he loved honor more, and so, defying
-death, voted and pleaded for the life of the fallen monarch.
-
-"Ah, that man who stood there alone in that breathless hall with such
-mighty eloquence warming over his lofty brow! That man was one of
-that illustrious band who had been made citizens of France--France
-the redeemed and newborn! Yess with Mackintosh, Franklin, Hamilton,
-Jefferson and Washington, he had been elected a citizen of France. With
-these great men he hailed the French revolution as the dawn of God's
-millennium. He had hurried to Paris, urged by the same deep love of man
-that accompanied him in the darkest hours of the American revolution,
-and there, there pleading for the traitor-king, alone in that breathless
-hall he stood, the author-hero, Thomas Paine, pleading--even amid that
-sea of scowling faces--for the life of King Louis."--_George Lippard._
-
-"In that maelstrom of thought, in that pandemonium of words, in that
-whirlwind of passion, pleading for the life of the king, Thomas Paine,
-not counting his own life, well knowing the consequences of his act,
-Thomas Paine stood there and pleaded that the life of the king might be
-spared."--_Dr. J. E. Roberts._
-
-A. F. Bertrand de Moleville (French Minister of State): "It must be
-recorded to the eternal shame of this assembly, that Thomas Paine...
-proved himself the wisest, the most humane, the boldest--in a word, the
-most innocent among them."
-
-Victor Hugo: "Thomas Paine, an American and merciful."
-
-"When tidings came of the king's trial and execution, whatever glimpses
-they [Paine's adherents in England] gained of their outlawed leader
-showed him steadfast as a star caught in one wave and another of that
-turbid tide. Many, alas, needed apologies, but Paine required none. That
-one Englishman, standing on the tribune for justice and humanity, amid
-three hundred angry Frenchmen in uproar, was as sublime a sight as
-Europe witnessed in those days."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-"The rank and file followed their Thomas Paine with a faith that crowned
-heads might envy. The London men knew Paine thoroughly. The treasures of
-the world would not draw him, nor any terrors drive him, to the side
-of cruelty and inhumanity. Their eye was upon him. Had Paine, after the
-king's execution, despaired of the republic there might have ensued some
-demoralization among his followers in London. But they saw him by the
-side of the delivered prisoner of the Bastile, Brissot, an author well
-known in England, by the side of Condorcet and others of Franklin's
-honored circle engaged in a death struggle with the fire-breathing
-dragon called 'The Mountain.' That was the same unswerving man they
-had been following, and to all accusations against the revolution their
-answer was--Paine is still there."--_Ibid._
-
-While Paine allied himself to no particular faction of the convention,
-his sympathies were with the Girondins. Lamartine says: "Paine, the
-friend of Madame Roland, Condorcet and Brissot, had been elected by
-the town of Calais; the Girondins consulted him and placed him on the
-committee of surveyance." The Girondins comprised, for the most part,
-the wisest and the best of France's legislators. Had they remained in
-power the excesses of the revolution would, to a great extent, have
-been avoided. But in an evil hour the Jacobins gained the ascendancy and
-while they ruled madness reigned supreme. The Girondins were slaughtered
-or expelled. In one night twenty-two of them--every one a noted
-statesman or orator--the very flower of French manhood, "the eloquent,
-the young, the beautiful, the brave," as Riouffe, their fellow prisoner,
-lovingly describes them, were taken before a Jacobin tribunal and
-condemned to death. Carlyle thus graphically and pathetically tells us
-how they died:
-
-"All Paris is out; such a crowd as no man had seen. The death-carts,
-Valaze's cold corpse [he had committed suicide] stretched among the yet
-living twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound, in their shirt
-sleeves, coat flung loosely round the neck; so fare the eloquent of
-France; bemurmured, beshouted. To the shouts of Vive la Republique,
-some of them keep answering with counter shouts of Vive la Republique.
-Others, as Brissot, sit sunk in silence. At the foot of the scaffold
-they again strike up, with appropriate variations, the hymn of the
-Marseilles. Such an act of music; conceive it well! The yet living chant
-there; the chorus so rapidly wearing weak! Samson's axe is rapid; one
-head per minute, or a little less. The chorus is wearing weak; the
-chorus is worn out; farewell, forevermore, ye Girondins. Te-Deum Fauchet
-has become silent; Valaze's dead head is lopped; the sickle of the
-guillotine has reaped the Girondins all away."
-
-"How Paine loved those men--Brissot, Condorcet, Lasource, Duchatel,
-Vergniaud, Gensonne! Never was man more devoted to his intellectual
-comrades. Even across a century one may realize what it meant to him,
-that march of his best friends to the scaffold."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Eight days after the execution of the Girondins another of Paine's
-friends, Madame Roland, the "Inspiring Soul" of the Girondins--one of
-the greatest, one of the fairest, one of the bravest, and one of the
-noblest women that ever came to brighten our planet--died on the same
-scaffold. Beautiful in life, Madame Roland rose to sublimity in death.
-Standing on the scaffold, robed in white, she seemed like a lovely bride
-before the altar. She asked for pen and paper to record "the strange
-thoughts that were rising in her" as she gazed into the eyes of death.
-This request denied, she turned toward the statue of liberty and, with
-tearful eyes, exclaimed, "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in
-thy name!" Then, seeing the one who was to have preceded her to the
-guillotine trembling with fear, she begged and obtained permission to
-take his place--to die first--that she might soften the terrors of death
-by showing him "how easy it is to die." This is her picture--painted by
-Carlyle: "Noble white vision, with its high queenly face, its soft proud
-eyes, long black hair flowing down to the girdle; and as brave a heart
-as ever beat in woman's bosom! Like a white Grecian statue, serenely
-complete, she shines in that black wreck of things;--long memorable."
-
-"What with the arrestations and flights Paine found himself, in June,
-almost alone. In the convention he was sometimes the solitary figure
-left on the plain, where but now sat the brilliant statesmen of France.
-They, his beloved friends, have started in procession towards the
-guillotine, for even flight must end there; daily others are pressed
-into their ranks; his own summons, he feels, is only a question of a few
-weeks or days."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Madame Roland died in November; Paine was imprisoned in December.
-
-Dictionary of Religious Knowledge: "Here [trial of Louis XVI] his
-honorable moderation won the enmity of Robespierre, who marked him for a
-victim."
-
-Scheaf's Religious Encyclopedia: "He had the courage to vote against the
-execution of Louis XVI., and thus incurred the anger of Robespierre, who
-threw him into prison."
-
-Chambers' Encyclopedia of English Literature: "He offended the
-Robespierre faction, and in 1794 [December 28, 1793], possibly by the
-procurement of the American minister, Gouverneur Morris--who disliked
-the French revolution and the alliance between the new republics--he was
-imprisoned."
-
-Col. Thomas W. Higginson: "They urged him (he was in personal danger) to
-go back to America, the country he had served so long. 'Go there,' they
-said; 'it is your country,' 'No,' he said, 'for the time, this is my
-country.'... So said Thomas Paine, and the doors of the Bastile closed
-around him."
-
-Rev. John W. Chadwick: "A prisoner deserted by the young Republic at
-whose birth he had assisted so efficiently, his life in jeopardy for the
-humanity of his opinions."
-
-Morning Advertiser (England, Feb. 8, 1794): "His arrest was a species of
-triumph to all the tyrants on earth. His papers had been examined, and
-far from finding any dangerous propositions the committee had traced
-only the characters of that burning zeal for liberty--of that eloquence
-of nature and philosophy--and of those principles of public morality
-which had through life procured him the hatred of despots and the love
-of his fellow citizens."
-
-"His arrest and imprisonment, without charges preferred or even the
-pretense of crime, were acts of perfidy without a parallel except in the
-history of the French revolution."--_Hon. E. B. Washburne_.
-
-Major W. Jackson (and other Americans in Paris): "As a countryman of
-ours, as a man above all so dear to the Americans; who like ourselves
-are earnest friends of liberty, we ask you in the name of that goddess
-cherished by the only two republics of the world, to give back Thomas
-Paine to his brethren."
-
-Achille Audibert: "A friend of mankind is groaning in chains--Thomas
-Paine.... But for Robespierre's villainy the friend of man would now be
-free."
-
-At the beginning of the revolution Robespierre was recognized as one
-of the most moderate and humane of men. In the National Assembly he
-advocated the abolition of the death penalty. Describing his advent to
-leadership, Paine's biographer says: "Mirabeau was on his deathbed, and
-Paine witnessed that historic procession, four miles long, which bore
-the orator to his shrine.... With others he strained his eyes to see the
-coming man; with others he sees formidable Danton glaring at Lafayette;
-and presently sees advancing softly between them the sentimental,
-philanthropic--Robespierre."
-
-M. Danton: "What thou hast done for the happiness and liberty of thy
-country I have in vain attempted to do for mine. They are sending us to
-the scaffold."
-
-"It was a strange scene; these two constitution makers, Paine and
-Danton, and for the last time in the prison of the Luxembourg, both
-equally destined for the scaffold."--_Hon. E. B. Washburne_.
-
-Danton was taken to the guillotine; Paine, by mistake, was left.
-
-The manner of Paine's escape, as related by Carlyle, was as follows:
-"The tumbrils move on. But in this set of tumbrils there are two other
-things notable: one notable person; and one want of a notable person.
-The notable person is Lieu-tenant-General Loiserelles, a nobleman by
-birth and by nature; laying down his life for his son. In the prison of
-Saint-Lazare, the night before last, hurrying to the grate to hear the
-death-list read, he caught the name of his son. The son was asleep at
-the moment. 'I am Loiserelles,' cried the old man.... The want of the
-notable person, again, is that of Deputy Paine! Paine has set in the
-Luxembourg since January; and seemed forgotten; but Fouquier had pricked
-him at last. The turnkey, list in hand, is marking with chalk the outer
-doors of to-morrow's fournee. Paine's outer door happened to be open,
-turned back on the wall; the turnkey marked it on the side next him, and
-hurried on; another turnkey came and shut it; no chalkmark now visible,
-the fournee went without Paine. Paine's life lay not there."
-
-In a letter to Washington, Paine thus narrates the inhuman slaughter of
-his fellow-prisoners, from whose fate he so narrowly escaped: "The state
-of things in the prisons [for over four months] was a continued scene
-of horror. No man could count upon life for twenty-four hours. To such a
-pitch of rage and suspicion were Robespierre and his committee arrived,
-that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man to live. Scarcely a
-night passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more were
-not taken out of the prison, carried before a pretended tribunal in the
-morning, and guillotined before night. One hundred and sixty-nine were
-taken out of the Luxembourg one night in July, and one hundred and sixty
-of them guillotined, of whom I know I was to have been one. A list of
-two hundred more, according to the report in the prison, was preparing
-a few days before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have good reason
-to believe I was included."
-
-Concerning this reign of terror Guizot says: "Two thousand four hundred
-prisoners were registered in Paris on the books of the prison, at the
-moment of the deaths of the Girondins; three [four] months later, on the
-1st of March, 1794, the number reached six thousand; on the 2d of May,
-eight thousand unfortunate persons waited for death. From June 10th to
-July 27th, two thousand, two hundred and eighty-five perished on the
-scaffold." (_History of France, Vol. VI, pp. 178, 196_.) Menzies says:
-"The queen, Marie Antoinette, her sister, Madame Elizabeth, Bailly, the
-Girondin chiefs, the Duke of Orleans, General Custine, Madame Roland,
-Lavoisier, Malesherbes, and a thousand other illustrious heads fell by
-the guillotine."
-
-"The light of burning rafters flashed luridly over scenes of blood; soon
-all that is grotesque, or terrible, or loathsome in murder, was enacted
-in the streets of Paris. The lantern posts bore their ghastly fruit;
-the streets flowed with crimson rivers, the life-blood of ten thousand
-hearts, down even to the waters of the Seine. Lafayette and Paine and
-all the heroes were gone from the councils of France, but in their
-place, aye, in the place of poetry, enthusiasm and eloquence, spoke a
-mighty orator--King Guillotine."--_George Lippard_.
-
-With Danton died another of Paine's cherished friends--Herault de
-Sechelles. Herault, president of the National Assembly, and, for a time,
-president of the National Convention, was the first to welcome Paine to
-Paris when he came to take his seat in the convention. He was physically
-and intellectually one of France's most magnificent men. He was a
-ripe scholar and a superb orator. He possessed great wealth and a most
-fascinating address. He and Paine and Danton had from the first been
-members of the Convention; they had served together on the Committee of
-the Constitution, Herault as Paine's suppliant, and they had occupied
-the same prison, the prison set apart for the most illustrious victims
-of the Revolution. I quote from Washburne. I desire to present one of the
-ten thousand tragic and pathetic scenes which compose this mighty and
-immortal drama. "Tragedy walks hand in hand with History and the eyes of
-Glory are wet with tears:"
-
-"More victims were now demanded, and, at this time, the oldest children
-of the Revolution were claimed. They were the 'Dantonists,' among whom
-was included Herault.... Herault was unmarried. When imprisoned at
-the Luxembourg awaiting his trial he appeared sad and preoccupied. On
-arriving at the guillotine, on the Place de la Revolution on the day
-of his execution, all his looks were turned toward the hotel of the
-Garde-Meuble, hoping evidently to exchange glances with one with whom
-were all his thoughts at that supreme moment. Behind the shutters, half
-closed, was a beautiful woman who sent to the condemned a last adieu and
-waved a last sigh of tenderness to the dying man: _Je t'aime_ (I love
-thee). It was a beautiful day of the springtime, and the crowd that had
-assembled to witness the execution of Danton, the great Apostle of the
-Revolution, and his associates was enormous. The splendid figure of
-Herault de Sechelles seemed to take new life, and the serenity of
-courage replaced the inquietude and sadness which had settled upon him.
-The first one to mount the scaffold, he showed himself calm, resolute
-and unmoved. As he was about to lay his head under the knife, he wished
-to present his cheek to the cheek of Danton [their hands were bound],
-as a last farewell. The aids of Samson, the executioner, prevented it.
-'Imbeciles!' indignantly exclaimed Danton, 'it will be but a moment
-before our heads will meet in the basket in spite of you.'"
-
-"Declared an outlaw by the same Convention which he had so long used as
-an instrument of his private vengeance, Robespierre was killed like a
-dog.... The death of Paine's mortal enemy saved his life."--_Ibid._
-
-Madame Lafayette: "The news of your being set at liberty,... has given
-me a moment's consolation in the midst of this abyss of misery."
-
-Madame Lafayette, like Thomas Paine, was a prisoner, daily expecting
-death. Her mother, grandmother and sister, prominent members of the
-French nobility, all died together on the scaffold. Lafayette himself
-was at this time confined in an Austrian dungeon.
-
-Glorious was the freedom born of the French Revolution, but terrible was
-the travail.
-
-Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D.: "His [Minister Monroe's] effort to secure the
-release of Thomas Paine from imprisonment was a noteworthy transaction."
-
-"Released from prison at Monroe's intercession."--_Richard Hildreth._
-
-Stanislaus Murray Hamilton: "Paine was liberated by the Committee of
-General Surety in consequence of Monroe's assertion of his American
-citizenship, and demand for his release; but he had suffered an
-imprisonment of ten months and nine days before Monroe's generous and
-manly aid reached him."
-
-We owe a debt of gratitude to James Monroe.
-
-He rescued Paine from prison and from death. When Paine was thought to
-be dying, as a result of his imprisonment, the Monroes tenderly cared
-for him in their own home and nursed him back to life and health.
-Washington's apparent neglect of Paine, which for nearly a century
-rested as a deep stain upon an otherwise fair name, filled Paine with
-astonishment and grief and caused him to write that bitter letter of
-reproach. It is now known that this seeming indifference of Washington
-was due to the treachery of Monroe's predecessor, Gouverneur Morris.
-
-A. Outram Sherman: "It is a long story, how his secret instructions
-conflicted with Paine's hearty and open love for America's ally, how
-Morris virtually acquiesced in his imprisonment by Robespierre as a
-foreigner, how Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded
-Paine's release as an American, and how he misled Paine to believe that
-Washington had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed."
-
-Nelson's Encyclopedia, in its article on Paine, says: "It seems clear
-that his imprisonment was in part the result of a discreditable intrigue
-to which Gouverneur Morris, the American minister, was a party."
-
-Madison, in a letter to Jefferson, dated January 10, 1796, referring
-to Paine's letter to Washington, says: "It appears that the neglect to
-claim him as an American citizen when confined by Robespierre, or even
-to interfere in any way whatever in his favor, has filled him with
-an indelible rancor against the President, to whom it appears he has
-written on the subject. His letter to me is in the style of a dying one,
-and we hear that he is since dead of the abscess in his side, brought on
-by his imprisonment."
-
-Referring to his letter to Washington, Dr. Conway says: "It was the
-natural outcry of an ill and betrayed man to one whom we now know to
-have been also betrayed. Its bitterness and wrath measure the greatness
-of the love that was wounded."
-
-Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen: "That he was estranged from Washington
-through the malicious representations of others is one of the sad
-episodes of our national life."
-
-M. Thibaudeau: "It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of
-justice. I reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty--Thomas
-Paine. My reclamation is for a man who has honored his age by his
-energy in defense of the rights of humanity, and who is so gloriously
-distinguished by his part in the American Revolution....I demand that he
-be recalled to the bosom of this Convention."
-
-"He was unanimously restored to his seat in the
-Convention."--_International Encyclopedia._
-
-Samuel P. Putnam: "Paine was self-centered. He could stand alone, like
-a mighty rock, with seas and storms breaking upon him. Not Mirabeau, not
-Danton, shone with a more brilliant genius, nor towered with more rugged
-strength and grandeur.
-
-"Paine represented the immortal part of the Revolution.... Voltaire
-emphasized justice, Rousseau emphasized liberty; Paine emphasized both
-liberty and justice."
-
-One of the strongest proofs of Paine's transcendent greatness is
-the fact that while nearly all the leaders of the Revolution--even
-Danton--were swept from their moorings by this volcanic upheaval,
-Paine's career throughout was characterized by wisdom, moderation, and a
-moral courage that was truly sublime.
-
-Thomas Curtis:
-
-     "When France shall lift her banners fair,
-     And brighter hopes shall dawn once more,
-     In counting up her jewels rare
-     She'll not forget the days of yore.
-     For when the name of Lafayette
-     Shall summon others in its train,
-     There's one she never will forget--
-     The author-hero, Thomas Paine."
-
-Prof. Isaac F. Russell, LL.D.: "Paine was one of the immortals who
-worked for liberty in three countries, America, France and England."
-
-Frederick May Holland: "He sought to establish the rights of man
-in France and England as well as in America. In two of these three
-countries his work seemed almost fruitless a hundred years ago; but the
-nineteenth century has given him as complete a victory in England and
-France as he achieved in the United States. These three great nations
-now stand side by side as the bulwarks of freedom."
-
-Hon. George W. Julian: "If any man among the illustrious characters'
-of 'the times that tried men's souls' is to be singled out as the real
-father of American Democracy, it is Thomas Paine."
-
-Lord Beaconsfield (to Gladstone): "How does your reform government
-differ from that of Thomas Paine, except that the sovereign is left in
-name?"
-
-"Today the student of political history may find... in Paine's ['Rights
-of Man'] the living Constitution of Great Britain."--Dr. Conway.
-
-Alexander Dumas: "It is not the liberty of France alone that I [Dr.
-Gilbert, i. e., Paine] dream of; it is the liberty of the whole world."
-
-Alice Hubbard: "England, France and America were made more noble, more
-intelligent, more civilized, by the work Thomas Paine did for each
-country and for all countries."
-
-T. B. Wakeman: "The Father of Republics." "All these glories of three
-great peoples were obtained by revolutions that were fought by a war of
-feelings and thoughts before they came to arms; and in that primal war
-of thoughts and words Thomas Paine was the most known of men and the
-actual leader--the Author Hero."
-
-"The republic--as we now all use that word--the true modern republic, in
-and by which government based upon the consent of all, and administered
-by the cooperation of all, for the protection and benefit of all, was
-not known among men until it was originated by Thomas Paine."
-
-"The so-called 'republics' of antiquity and the Middle Ages were only
-oligarchies resting upon the slavery or serfdom of the masses, and in
-fact the reverse of republics."
-
-National Encyclopedia (England): "Paine, from his first starting in
-public life, was a Republican, uniformly consistent and apparently
-sincere."
-
-"The Democratic movement of the last eighty years, be it a finality or
-only a phase of progress toward a more perfect state, is the grand
-historic fact of modern times, and Paine's name is intimately connected
-with it."--_Atlantic Monthly, July, 1859_.
-
-"After contributing by one publication to the establishment of a
-transatlantic republic in North America, he introduced, with astonishing
-effect the doctrines of democratic government into the first states of
-Europe."--_Edward Baines, LL.D._
-
-"'Invent printing,' wrote Carlyle, 'and you invent democracy.' Not quite
-so! Invent a sort of writing which when printed shall be understood by
-the people, then you invent democracy. And this, earlier and better than
-any other man, is what Thomas Paine did."--_The Nation, London_.
-
-"As the champion of popular power in opposition to the abuses of
-monarchical government, Paine will always stand pre-eminent in the
-world."--_William Cobbett._
-
-Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker: "Thomas Paine dreamed the most glorious dream
-of human freedom that ever enchanted the mind of man; fairer and sweeter
-than lay under the broken marbles of Greece, brighter and better than
-was buried with the dead eagles of Rome."
-
-"Paine stands between two epochs: the epoch of Kings and the epoch of
-Man. To the King he said, 'The night is coming'; to Man he said, 'The
-day is dawning.'"
-
-
-
-
-"AGE OF REASON" AND RECANTATION CALUMNY.
-
-L. K. Washburn: "Paine knew that he was marked for death. What did
-he do? Did he try to escape? No! He sat down and wrote the 'Age of
-Reason.'"
-
-Paine found the world cursed with two great evils, kingcraft and
-priestcraft, twin vultures that from the earliest ages have fed upon the
-vitals of humanity. In his "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" kingcraft
-was dealt the deadliest blows that it has yet received. He had resolved
-to strike a blow at priestcraft before he died. Seeing imprisonment and
-death approaching he hurried to his task. The first part of his immortal
-work was finished six hours before the summons came.
-
-The second part, it is generally believed, was written during his
-confinement in the Luxembourg. And here, undoubtedly, it was planned
-and at least a part of it composed. It was probably finished, and it
-was published, while he lived with James Monroe, after his release from
-prison. This, briefly, is the history of the conception and birth
-of this, the last and greatest of Paine's three great intellectual
-children.
-
-"Just before his arrest he had finished the first part of the 'Age
-of Reason.'... While in prison he worked upon the second
-part."--_International Encyclopedia._
-
-Encyclopedia Americana: "It [first part] was published in London and in
-Paris in 1794. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and in 1795
-published at Paris the second part of the 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-Dr. Francois Lanthenas: "I delivered to Merlin de Thionville a copy of
-the last work of T. Paine, formerly our colleague.... I undertook its
-translation before the Revolution [Reign of Terror] against priests, and
-it was published in French about the same time."
-
-People's Cyclopedia: "During his imprisonment he wrote the 'Age of
-Reason' (second part) against Atheism and against Christianity, and in
-favor of Deism."
-
-"A second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, which
-was published after his release, represents the Deism of the 18th
-century."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-McClintock and Strong's Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical
-Cyclopedia: "The religion which Paine [in his 'Age of Reason'] proposed
-to substitute for Christianity was the belief in one God as revealed by
-science; in immortality as the continuance of conscious existence; in
-the natural equality of man; and in the obligation of justice and mercy
-to one's neighbor."
-
-Rufus Rockwell Wilson: "Of all epoch-making books the one most
-persistently misrepresented and misunderstood."
-
-W. M. van der Weyde: "The total knowledge possessed by many persons
-concerning Paine is that 'he was an Atheist'--which he was not."
-
-Hon. William J. Gaynor: "What a strange thing it is that that
-extraordinary man was so long set down as an Atheist. Some people still
-think that he was an Atheist. And yet no man ever had a fuller belief in
-the existence of God, or a greater reliance upon him."
-
-Washington Times: "It is not at all difficult to find out whether or not
-Thomas Paine was an Atheist. All one has to do to discover his opinion
-on the subject is to go to any bookstore or circulating library, ask for
-his best known work, the 'Age of Reason,' and read the first page:"'I
-believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this
-life.'"
-
-"He was, in fact, no more an Atheist than William Penn, Roger Williams
-or Ralph Waldo Emerson."--_New York World._
-
-In his "Age of Reason" the recognition of a Supreme Being is made more
-than two hundred times.
-
-Rev. Daniel Freeman: "There has never been a believer in God if Thomas
-Paine was not a believer in God."
-
-Rev. Charles Alfred Martin (Roman Catholic): "Thomas Paine while not a
-Christian, was not an Atheist. His biographers declare that he penned
-his most famous book to stem with its Deism the tide of Atheism which
-flooded France at the time of the Revolution."
-
-Major J. Weed Cory: "Thomas Paine was not an Atheist. He wrote against
-Atheism, and Trinitarians will soon be appealing to his works to prove
-the existence of a God."
-
-Henry C. Wright: "Thomas Paine had a clear idea of God. This Being
-embodied his highest conception of truth, love, wisdom, mercy, liberty
-and power."
-
-"Paine was accursed as an Atheist and hunted and maligned by
-institutional religion for writing a book in defense of God."--_W. M.
-van der Weyde._
-
-Henry Rowley: "His 'Age of Reason' was written as much in defense of God
-as in opposition to the church. He could not believe that God was guilty
-of the cruelties and crimes which the writers of the Bible attributed to
-him."
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' was the protest of a highly moral man against the
-doings of a deeply immoral God."
-
-Lucy N. Colman: "Thomas Paine's God was justice."
-
-Bishop Watson: "There is a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas
-when speaking of the Creator of the universe."
-
-The work of orthodox religious teachers, unwittingly to many, is
-confined chiefly to the propagation of fictions and the suppression of
-facts. The Christian who has been surprised to learn that Paine was not
-an Atheist, may be equally surprised to learn that his great compeers,
-Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, were not Christians, but like him,
-Deists.
-
-Washington, who has been claimed by the Episcopal church, was like Paine
-a Deist: His wife was a communicant of this church. During his eight
-years incumbency of the Presidency, and during the Revolution, and
-at other times when Mrs. Washington was with him in Philadelphia, he
-attended, but not regularly, the Episcopal churches of which Bishop
-White, father of the Episcopal church of America, and the Rev. Dr.
-Abercrombie were rectors. When Bishop White was asked if Washington had
-ever communed he replied: "Truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington
-never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial
-minister"--_Memoir of Bishop White,_ pp. 196, 197. The _Western
-Christian Advocate_ accepts this testimony as conclusive. It says:
-"Bishop White seems to have had more intimate relations with Washington
-than any clergyman of his time. His testimony outweighs any amount of
-influential argumentation on the question."
-
-Dr. Abercrombie says: "On sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington,
-immediately after the desk and pulpit services went out with the greater
-part of the congregation--always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other
-communicants."--_Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit_, vol. v., p.
-394.
-
-Fearing the effect of Washington's example Dr. Abercrombie administered
-a mild reproof. Washington, he says, "never afterwards came on the
-morning of sacramental Sunday."--_Ibid_.
-
-Regarding Washington's conduct in Virginia, the Rev. Beverly Tucker,
-D.D., of the Episcopal church, says: "The General was accustomed on
-Communion Sundays to leave the church with her [Nellie Custis, his
-step-granddaughter], sending back the carriage for Mrs. Washington."
-
-The Rev. William Jackson, who was at a later, period, rector of this
-church, conducted an exhaustive search to discover if possible some
-evidence of Washington once having communed. His search was futile. He
-says: "I find no one who ever communed with him."
-
-Early in the last century the Rev. E. D. Neill, a prominent clergyman of
-the Episcopal church, contributed to the Episcopal _Recorder_, the organ
-of the Episcopal church, an article on Washington's religion. Regarding
-Washington's church membership he says: "The President was not a
-communicant, notwithstanding all the pretty stories to the contrary, and
-after the close of the sermon on Sacramental Sundays, had fallen into
-the habit of retiring from the church while his wife remained and
-communed."
-
-The foregoing testimony in disproof of the claim that Washington was a
-communicant, conclusive as it is, is not needed. His own testimony is
-sufficient. To Dr. Abercrombie he declared that "_he had never been a
-communicant._"--Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v., p.
-394.
-
-During the presidential campaign of 1880, the Christian Union, at that
-time the leading church paper of this country, made the frank admission
-that of the nineteen men who up to that time had held the office of
-President of the United States, not one, with the possible exception of
-Washington, had been a member of a Christian church. And Washington, as
-we have seen, cannot be made an exception.
-
-"There is nothing to show that he [Washington] was ever a member of the
-church."--_St. Louis Globe._
-
-"He [Washington] belonged to no church."--_Western Christian Advocate._
-
-"In all the voluminous writings of General Washington, the Holy name of
-Jesus Christ is never once written."--_Catholic World_.
-
-"In several thousand letters the name of Jesus Christ never appears,
-and it is notably absent from his last will."--_General A. W. Greeley in
-Ladies' Home Journal for April, 1896._
-
-"It has been confidently stated to me that he actually refused spiritual
-aid when it was proposed to send for a clergyman."--_Robert Dale Owen_.
-
-The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, president of Princeton College, signer of
-the Declaration of Independence, member of Congress, and chaplain to
-Congress during Washington's administration, says: "Like nearly all the
-founders of the Republic, he [Washington] was not a Christian, but a
-Deist." "He had no belief at all in the divine origin of the Bible."
-
-During Jackson's administration the Rev. Dr. Wilson, a noted
-Presbyterian divine of Albany, preached a famous sermon on "The Religion
-of the Presidents," which was published and had a wide circulation. Dr.
-Wilson showed that of the seven men who up to that time had been elected
-president, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy
-Adams, and Jackson, not one had professed a belief in Christianity.
-In his search for evidence he visited the Washingtons' old pastor, Dr.
-Abercrombie. In answer to Dr. Wilson's inquiry concerning Washington's
-religious belief Dr. Abercrombie's emphatic answer was, "Sir, Washington
-was a Deist." As a result of his investigation Dr. Wilson says: "I think
-anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion
-that he [Washington] was a Deist and nothing more."
-
-Everyone is familiar with the story of Washington's praying at Valley
-Forge. This is a pure fiction. Intelligent Christians reject it. The
-Rev. E. D. Neill, of the Episcopal church, whose father's uncle owned
-the building occupied by Washington at Valley Forge, says: "With the
-capacious and comfortable house at his disposal, it is hardly possible
-that the shy, silent, cautious Washington should leave such retirement
-and enter the leafless woods, in the vicinity of the winter encampment
-of an army and engage in audible prayer."--_Episcopal Recorder_.
-
-Alluding to this subject, the Rev. Dr. Minot J. Savage, in a sermon,
-said: "The pictures that represent him on his knees in the winter forest
-at Valley Forge are silly caricatures."
-
-Dr. Conway, who was employed to edit Washington's letters, and who is
-considered one of the best authorities on his domestic life, says:
-"Many clergymen visited him, but they were never invited to hold family
-prayers, and no grace was ever said at table."
-
-Washington's library contained the Deistical works of Paine, Voltaire
-and other Freethinkers. When the French Freethinker Volney visited this
-country he was the guest of Washington.
-
-"His services as a vestryman had no special significance from a
-religious standpoint. The political affairs of a Virginia county were
-then directed by the vestry, which, having the power to elect its
-own members, was an important instrument of the oligarchy of
-Virginia."--_General A. W. Greeley in Ladies' Home Journal._
-
-George Wilson, whose ancestors occupied the pew next to Washington's in
-Virginia, says.: "At that time the vestry was the county court, and in
-order to have a hand in managing the affairs of the county, in which his
-large property lay, regulating the levy of taxes, etc., Washington had
-to be a vestryman."
-
-Jefferson was a more radical Freethinker than Paine, as the following
-passages from his writings will show. My quotations are from Randolph's
-edition of Jefferson's works, published in 1829.
-
-In a letter to his nephew and ward, Peter Carr, while at school,
-Jefferson writes: "Read the Bible as you would Livy or Tacitus... Fix
-reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact,
-every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a
-God."--_Jefferson's Works, Vol. ii, P. 217._
-
-The God of the Old Testament, the God that Christians worship,
-Jefferson pronounces "a being of terrific character--cruel, vindictive,
-capricious, and unjust."--_Works, vol. iv, p. 325._
-
-In the Four Gospels, which Christians consider the most authentic and
-the most important books of the Bible, Jefferson discovers what he
-terms "a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of
-superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications."--_Ibid._
-
-"Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his
-biographers [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John], I find many passages of fine
-imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence;
-and others, again, of so much ignorance, of so much absurdity, so
-much untruth and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such
-contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate,
-therefore, the gold from the dross, restore to him the former, and leave
-the latter to the stupidity of some and the roguery of others of his
-disciples."--_Works, vol. iv. p. 320._
-
-Jefferson made a compilation of the finer alleged sayings of Jesus which
-have been published and paraded as proof of Jefferson's acceptance of
-Christ. For the man Jesus, Jefferson, like Paine, Ingersoll and other
-Freethinkers, had the greatest admiration, but for the Christ Jesus of
-orthodox Christianity he had the greatest contempt.
-
-"Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Corypheus, and
-first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."--_Vol. iv. p. 327._
-
-"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe
-in the Platonic mysticism that three are one and one is three... But
-this constitutes the craft, the power and profit of the priests. Sweep
-away their gossamer fabrics of fictitious religion and they would catch
-no more flies."--_Ibid, p. 205._
-
-"The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled
-to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw in
-the mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up
-an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit
-everlasting controversy, give employment for their order and introduce
-it to profit, power and preeminence."--_Ibid, p. 242._
-
-"The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body
-and three heads had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
-thousands of martyrs."--_Ibid, p. 360._
-
-"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
-Being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the
-fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."--_Ibid, p.
-365._
-
-"In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women.
-They have their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by
-their priests and sometimes by a henpecked husband, they pour forth the
-effusions of their love to Jesus in terms as amatory and carnal as their
-modesty would permit to a mere earthly lover."--_Ibid, p. 358._
-
-"Jefferson occupied his Sundays at Monticello in writing letters to
-Paine (they are unpublished I believe, but I have seen them) in favor
-of the probabilities that Christ and his Twelve Apostles were only
-personifications of the sun and the Twelve signs of the Zodiac."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-The correspondence of Jefferson and Paine would fill a volume. In these
-letters Jefferson unbosomed himself and gave expression to his most
-radical sentiments. Randolph's edition of Jefferson's works was
-published twenty years after Paine's death. By this time the Orthodox
-ghouls had about completed their work and these letters, although
-containing some of Jefferson's most mature thoughts and best writings,
-remained unpublished.
-
-In a letter to Dr. Woods, Jefferson says: "I have recently been
-examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in
-our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.
-They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies." "Millions
-of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of
-Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we
-have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect
-of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half
-hypocrites."--_Jefferson's Notes on Virginia._
-
-Writing to Jefferson on the 5th of May, 1817, John Adams, giving
-expression to the matured conviction of eighty-two years, says: "This
-would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in
-it." To this radical declaration Jefferson replied: "If by religion we
-are to understand sectarian dogmas in which no two of them agree, then
-your declaration on that hypothesis is just, 'that this would be the
-best of worlds, if there were no religion in it.'"--_Works, vol. iv. p.
-301._
-
-Writing to John Adams just before his death Jefferson makes the
-following declaration of his belief: "I am a Materialist."
-
-"A question has been raised as to Thomas Jefferson's religious views.
-There need be no question, for he has settled that himself. He was an
-Infidel, or, as he chose to term it, a Materialist. By his own account
-he was as heterodox as Colonel Inger-soll, and in some respects even
-more so."--_Chicago Tribune._
-
-Alluding to Jefferson's belief the Rev. Dr. Wilson in his sermon on
-"The Religion of the Presidents," previously quoted, says: "Whatever
-difference of opinion there may have been at the time [of his election],
-it is now rendered certain that he was a Deist.... Since his death, and
-the publication of Randolph, [Jefferson's Works], there remains not the
-shadow of doubt of his Infidel principles. If any man thinks there is,
-let him look at the book itself. I do not recommend the purchase of
-it to any man, for it is one of the most wicked and dangerous books
-extant."
-
-"In religion he was a Freethinker; in morals pure and
-unspotted."--_Benson J. Lossing, in his "Lives of the Signers of the
-Declaration of Independence!'_
-
-"Surely, Christians, your cause must be growing desperate, when, to
-sustain it, you must needs claim for its support so bitter an enemy as
-Thomas Jefferson--a man who affirmed that he was a Materialist; a man
-who recognized in your religion only "our particular superstition,"
-a superstition without "one redeeming feature;" a man who divided the
-Christian world into two classes--"hypocrites and fools;" a man who
-asserted that your Bible is a book abounding with "vulgar ignorance;"
-a man who termed your Father, Son, and Holy Ghost a "hocus-pocus
-phantasm;" a man who denounced your God as "cruel, vindictive, and
-unjust;" a man who intimated that your Savior was "a man of illegitimate
-birth;" a man who declared his disciples, including your oracle Paul,
-to be a "band of dupes and impostors and who characterized your
-modern priesthood, of all denominations, as cannibal priests" and an
-"abandoned confederacy" against public happiness."--_The Fathers of Our
-Republic._
-
-Franklin rejected Christianity when a boy and remained a Rationalist to
-the end of his life.
-
-"Some volumes against deism fell into my hands. They were said to be the
-substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lecture. It happened that they
-produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was intended by
-the writers; for the arguments of the deists, which were cited in order
-to be refuted, appealed to me much more forcibly than the refutation
-itself. In a word I soon became a thorough Deist."--_Franklin's
-Autobiography._
-
-Writing to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, when he was
-eighty-four, he says: "I have with most of the Dissenters in England,
-doubts as to his [Christ's] divinity."
-
-"By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree and
-eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such a reward.... I
-have not the vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect, or the
-ambition to desire it."--_Franklin's Works, vol. vii., p. 75._
-
-"I wish it [Christianity] were more productive of good works than I have
-generally seen it. I mean real good works, works of kindness, charity,
-mercy, and public spirit, not holy-day keeping, sermon hearing and
-reading, performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled
-with flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much
-less capable of pleasing the Deity."--_Ibid._
-
-"Nowadays we have scarcely a little parson that does not think it the
-duty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty ministration,
-and that whoever omits this offends God. To such I wish more
-humility."--_Franklin's Works, vol. vii. pp. 76,77._
-
-"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the
-Christian religion," affirmed Washington (treaty with Tripoli). "Keep
-the church and the state forever separate," said Grant (Des Moines
-speech). And yet, in spite of this declaration and this admonition
-religious liberty has been ignored and a practical union of church and
-state has been maintained--the exemption of ecclesiastical property
-from taxation, the employment of chaplains, appropriations for sectarian
-purposes, religious services, including the use of the Bible, in our
-public schools, the appointment of religious festivals, the judicial
-oath and the enforced observance of Sunday as a Sabbath. Concerning
-these and similar privileges of his time and of our time, Franklin
-says: "I think they were invented not so much to secure religion as the
-emoluments of it. When a religion is good I conceive it will support
-itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care
-to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for help
-of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad
-one."--_Franklin's Works, vol. viii., p. 506._
-
-Theodore Parker, in his "Four Historic Americans," writes as follows
-concerning Franklin's belief: "If belief in the miraculous revelation of
-the Old Testament and the New is required to make a man religious, then
-Franklin had no religion at all. It would be an insult to say that he
-believed in the popular theology of his time, or of ours, for I find not
-a line from his pen indicating any such belief."
-
-The eminent statesman John Hay, in an article on "Franklin in France,"
-published after his death in the _Century Magazine_ for January, 1906,
-ascribes much of Franklin's popularity in France to his espousal of
-Freethought. He says: "Franklin became the fashion of the season. For
-the court dabbled a little in liberal ideas. So powerful was the vast
-impulse of Freethought that then influenced the mind of France--that
-susceptible French mind, that always answers like the wind harp to the
-breath of every true human aspiration--that even the highest classes
-had caught the infection of liberalism." Among Franklin's most intimate
-companions in France Mr. Hay mentions Voltaire, D'Alembert, D'Holbach,
-and Condorcet, four of France's most radical Freethinkers.
-
-Dr. Franklin and Dr. Priestley were intimate friends. After Franklin's
-death Dr. Priestley wrote: "It is much to be lamented that a man of
-Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been
-an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to
-make others unbelievers."--_Priestley's Autobiography, p. 60._
-
-This great man was himself denounced as an Infidel. He was a Unitarian,
-and was mobbed and driven from England on account of his heretical
-opinions and his sympathy with the French Revolution. Franklin's
-Infidelity must have been very pronounced to have provoked the censure
-of Dr. Priestley.
-
-There has been published a religious tract, entitled "Don't Unchain the
-Tiger," which purports to be a letter from Franklin to Paine, advising
-him not to publish his "Age of Reason." The only thing needed to cause a
-rejection of this pious fiction is a knowledge of the fact that Franklin
-had been dead nearly four years when the first page of Paine's book was
-written. Besides, the opinions expressed in this book were the opinions
-of Franklin. Paine's biographer, Dr. Conway, says: "Paine's deism
-differed from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious."
-Franklin's biographer, James Parton, says: "It ['Age of Reason']
-contains not a position which Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson and
-Theodore Parker would have dissented from."
-
-The Rev. John Snyder, of St. Louis, says: "Paine shared the religious
-convictions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin."
-Concerning the belief of these and other noted men, the Rev. Dr. Swing,
-of Chicago, says: "Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Pitt, Burke, Washington,
-Lafayette, Jefferson, Paine and Franklin moved along in a wonderful
-unity of belief, both political and religious."
-
-"Paine wrote the 'Age of Reason' in Paris some years after Franklin
-was dead.... The letter called the letter of Franklin to Paine bears no
-address or date or signature. It may not have been written by Franklin
-to anybody. The evangelists who cite this letter intend to convey the
-impression that the 'Tiger' means unbelief. The indication is that the
-writer had in his mind the beast of fanaticism and detraction. That
-tiger was let loose by the 'Age of Reason' against its author, and the
-animal and its whelps are still with us."--_George E. Macdonald._
-
-Another Franklin myth is that concerning Franklin's motion for prayers
-in the Convention that framed our Constitution. The Convention, it is
-claimed, had labored for weeks without accomplishing anything when, at
-Franklin's suggestion, its sessions were opened with prayer, after
-which its work was speedily performed. While Franklin's proposal was not
-inconsistent with his Deistic belief it was not adopted. There was not a
-prayer offered from the opening to the close of the Convention. Franklin
-himself says: "The Convention, except three or four persons, thought
-prayers unnecessary."
-
-Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine were four of the greatest and
-noblest of men. All held substantially the same religious opinions. All
-were Deists. All rejected Christianity. Yet Washington, Jefferson and
-Franklin are held in grateful remembrance, while Paine has been reviled
-as no other man has been reviled. How do we account for this? Paine's
-mere rejection of Christianity does not account for it.
-
-The "Age of Reason" was suppressed by the government in England. In
-America it could not be suppressed by law. The only way the clergy could
-suppress it here was to resort to slander, to cover its author's name
-with obloquy and make him appear so vile that no respectable bookseller
-would dare to sell it and no respectable reader dare to read it.
-
-"In England it was easy for Paine's chief antagonist, the bishop of
-Llandaff [Watson] to rebuke Paine's strong language, when his lordship
-could sit serenely in the House of Peers with knowledge that his
-opponent was answered with handcuffs for every Englishman who sold his
-book. But in America slander had to take the place of handcuffs."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-Henry A. Beers: "His book was denounced from a hundred pulpits and
-copies of it were carefully locked away from the sight of 'the young,'
-whose religious beliefs it might undermine."
-
-James B. Elliott, of Philadelphia, says he well remembers the "time when
-it was impossible to obtain the 'Age of Reason' except under cover
-of the greatest secrecy and when he who was known to have read it was
-shunned as a dangerous person."
-
-Hugh O. Pentecost: "Paine's offense was not that he was an Infidel, but
-that he made his meaning so clear that the common people could become
-Infidels, too."
-
-"It is true that Paine was Republican and Deist, an enemy of kings
-and churches. But many men of great and undimmed honor held the same
-principles: Washington, Jefferson and Franklin and others of the
-'Fathers' were Deists, and in England that creed was even fashionable in
-certain aristocratic quarters. Paine's real sin was not that he preached
-Deism in the land of Bolingbroke, Hume and Gibbon,... but that he
-succeeded for the first time in inoculating the people with his
-heresies."--_The Nation, London._
-
-"Mimnermus," an English writer, says: "There were critics of the Bible,
-it is true, before Paine's day, but they were mainly scholars whose
-works were not easily understood by ordinary folk. Paine himself, a man
-of genius, had sprung from the people, and he spoke their tongue and
-made their thoughts articulate."
-
-"Paine held that the people at large had the right of access to all new
-ideas, and he wrote so as to reach the people. Hence, his book must be
-suppressed."--_Prof. J. B. Bury, LL.D._
-
-John S. Crosby: "The reason why his writings are excluded from our
-colleges is not on account of what he said about the _prophets_, but for
-fear that the realization of his ideas may diminish the _profits_."
-
-"Recognizing the magic influence that a great name carries with it, the
-clergy have inscribed in the Christian roster the names of hundreds
-who were total disbelievers in their dogmas. As the venders of quack
-nostrums attach the forged certificates of distinguished individuals to
-their worthless drugs, to make them sell, so these theological venders
-present the manufactured endorsements of the great to make their
-nostrums popular. Washington, Jefferson and Franklin have all been
-denominated Christians, not because they were such, for they were not,
-but because of the influence that attaches to their names. Paine's
-opposition to priestcraft was too pronounced and too well known to claim
-him as an adherent of their faith, and so they have sought to destroy
-his influence by destroying his good name. Not only this, knowing the
-prejudice that has prevailed against Atheism, they have misrepresented
-his theological opinions and declared him an Atheist."--_The Fathers of
-Our Republic._
-
-"This injustice to him was perpetrated in defense of a system that
-does not care, because it does not dare to have its credentials and
-foundation critically examined; in other words, Paine has been maligned
-for more than a century by those interested in keeping veiled the image;
-he did what he could--and it was much--to uncover to the gaze of the
-world."--_E. C. Walker._
-
-William M. Salter, A. M.: "It is to the shame of religious prejudice in
-our country that he is not freely and gladly given his place alongside
-of Franklin and Washington."
-
-"The rankest ingratitude the American people have ever exhibited has
-been that of the systematic attempt to blot the name of Paine from the
-memory of succeeding generations, and to allow no historical mention
-in the annals of the nation which he greatly and gloriously helped to
-found. But with the destruction of every error truth rises clear and
-bright. The time will come when his picture will be as familiar to
-school children as those of his great contemporaries, Washington,
-Jefferson and Franklin."--. _J. B. Wilson._
-
-Pretended reviewers of Paine, including the authors of many encyclopedic
-articles on Paine, writers who, for the most part, never read the
-"Age of Reason," characterize it as crude and superficial, declare its
-arguments to be weak and fallacious and its author to have had little
-or no influence in changing the religious opinions of his time. It is a
-sufficient answer to these critics to cite the fact that from thirty
-to forty elaborate replies from Christian writers followed it in rapid
-succession, each writer tacitly admitting that it needed answering and
-that all preceding efforts to answer it had been failures.
-
-Paine's orthodox critics also affect to believe that his "Age of Reason"
-is no longer read, that it is an "out of print" book for which there is
-no demand. The fact is ever since the first London and Paris editions
-were published in 1794 there has been a constant and widespread demand
-for it.
-
-Millions of copies have been printed and sold during this time, and
-today the demand for it is greater than ever before.
-
-Dr. John W. Francis (referring to "Age of Reason"): "No work had the
-demand for readers comparable to that of Paine."
-
-One bookseller of New York says that his sales of the "Age of Reason"
-now average more than five thousand copies a year. He is but one of many
-New York booksellers who sell Paine's book, while New York is but one
-of many cities where it has an extensive sale. A Chicago bookseller says
-that the "Age of Reason" is his best seller, that he sells thousands of
-them every year.
-
-William Heaford (1913): "Two large editions of forty thousand copies
-each will be issued of this invaluable edition of Paine's great text
-book of Biblical exegesis [by Watts & Co., London]."
-
-"There were sold in Burma [mostly to Buddhists] over ten thousand copies
-of the 'Age of Reason' last year."--_U. Dhamaloka, President Buddhist
-Tract Society._
-
-Arthur B. Moss: "During the past fifty years hundreds of thousands
-of copies of the 'Age of Reason' have been circulated in England and
-America alone.... The steady circulation of this work has done more than
-that of any other book to undermine the faith of Christians in all parts
-of the world."
-
-H. Percy Ward (formerly an English clergyman): "Thomas Paine's 'Age of
-Reason' gave the first shock to my faith."
-
-Wilson MacDonald: "I read the 'Age of Reason' when a boy, and I said,
-Paine is the hero for me."
-
-Susan H. Wixon: "I read that book again and again, and always with
-increased interest. It set me to thinking more than any other bode I had
-ever read."
-
-Sir Hiram Maxim: "It is indeed a very remarkable work. As a boy I read
-it with great care; as a man I have read it thoughtfully."
-
-James D. Shaw: "Of all the books ever published, I doubt if any other
-has ever equaled the 'Age of Reason' in breaking from the human mind
-superstition's fetters."
-
-"The effect of this pamphlet was vast."--_London Times._
-
-Edwin P. Whipple: "The most influential assailant of the orthodox faith
-was Thomas Paine."
-
-Francis E. Abbot, Ph.D.: "His 'Age of Reason' was one of the greatest
-historic blows ever struck for freedom. Paine's name ought to be written
-in letters of gold in the roll of the world's heroes."
-
-"It is still a living work, read by thousands, and carrying conviction
-wherever it finds an open mind."--_James F. Morton, Jr._
-
-Daniel Webster: "Mr. Girard got this provision of his will ('a school
-unfettered by religious tenets') from Paine's 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-Paul Desjardines (referring to "Age of Reason"): "The book in which the
-modern conscience first dared, without indirection and without sarcasm,
-to set itself up as the judge of Christian tradition and laid the
-basis of a purified religion reduced to the only beliefs which appeared
-necessary as a foundation of fraternity among men."
-
-Eugene M. Macdonald: "The 'Age of Reason' is irrefutable in its
-arguments, in its presentation of facts, in its analysis of the Bible,
-and absolutely convincing to fair-minded men in its conclusions. It was
-the forerunner of the Higher Criticism."
-
-"During the past thirty years we have heard much of the Higher
-Criticism; hundreds of learned men throughout Christendom have been
-investigating the Bible.... These learned men, after working on the
-problem for many years, have come to the exact conclusions that Thomas
-Paine arrived at so many years ago."--_Sir Hiram Maxim._
-
-"Paine was a precursor of such men as Colenso, and Robertson Smith, and
-a large host of scholars besides."--_Rev. O. B. Frothingham._
-
-"It is a singular tribute to his sagacity and common sense that every
-material fact and conclusion stated by Paine in regard to the Bible
-has been sustained by the explorations and increased learning since his
-day."--_T. B. Wakeman._
-
-"Upon this theological treatise is founded all modern biblical
-criticism."--Elbert Hubbard.
-
-Henry Frank: "There is nothing in the conclusions of the Higher
-Criticism that Paine did not anticipate."
-
-"As to his anticipation of the Higher Criticism. that should be placed
-to his credit."--_W. T. Stead._
-
-Henry Yorke (with Paine in England and France): "There is not a verse in
-it [the Bible] that is not familiar to him."
-
-J. P. Mendum: "As a critic and reviewer of the Bible his 'Age of Reason'
-is unanswerable."
-
-Sir Leslie Stephen: "Paine's book announced a startling fact, against
-which all the flimsy collections of conclusive proofs were powerless.
-It amounted to a proclamation that the creed no longer satisfied the
-instincts of cultivated scholars. When the defenders of the old orders
-tried to conjure with the old charms, the magic had gone out of them.
-In Paine's rough tones they recognized not the mere echo of coffee-house
-gossip, but the voice of deep popular passion. Once and forever, it
-was announced that, for the average mass of mankind, the old creed was
-dead."
-
-Elbert Hubbard: "As Paine's book 'Common Sense,' broke the power of
-Great Britain in America, and the 'Rights of Man' gave free speech and
-a free press to England, so did the 'Age of Reason' give pause to the
-juggernaut of orthodoxy. Thomas Paine was the legitimate ancestor of
-Hosea Ballou who founded the Universalist church, and of Theodore
-Parker who made Unitarianism in America an intellectual torch. Channing,
-Ripley,' Bartol, Martineau, Frothingham, Hale, Curtis, Collyer, Swing,
-Thomas, Conway, Leonard, Savage, Crapsey, yes--even Emerson, and
-Thoreau, were spiritual children, all, of Thomas Paine. He blazed the
-way and made it possible, for men to preach the sweet reasonableness of
-reason. He was the pioneer in a jungle of superstition."
-
-Abraham Lincoln became and remained a disciple of Thomas Paine.
-
-Chicago Herald (Feb., 1892): "In 1834, at New Salem, Ill., Lincoln read
-and circulated Vol-ney's 'Ruins' and Paine's 'Age of Reason,' giving to
-both books the sincere recommendation of his unqualified approval."
-
-Col. Ward H. Lamon (biographer of Lincoln): "He [Lincoln] had made
-himself familiar with the writings of Paine and Volney--the 'Ruins'
-of the one, and the 'Age of Reason' of the other,... and then wrote a
-deliberate essay wherein he reached conclusions similar to theirs."
-
-"In this work he intended to demonstrate:
-
-"'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;
-
-"'Secondly, that Jesus was not the Son of God.'"
-
-(Lincoln's work was never published.)
-
-"You insist on knowing something which you know I possess, and got as
-a secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book on Infidelity.
-Mr. Lincoln did tell me that he _did write a little book on
-Infidelity_"--_Col. James H. Matheny, Lincoln's political manager in
-Illinois._
-
-James Ford Rhodes, LL.D.: "When Lincoln entered upon political life
-he became reticent regarding his religious opinions, for at the age of
-twenty-five, influenced by Thomas Paine,... he had written an extended
-essay against Christianity."
-
-Hon. W. H. Herndon (law partner of Lincoln): "Paine became a part of Mr.
-Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life."
-
-"It was my good fortune to have had for some years an intimate
-acquaintance with Lincoln's partner for twenty-two years. Mr. Herndon
-was a man of academic education, and possessed a number of books that
-in that day would be considered a good library, and he told me that the
-books of his which fairly fascinated Lincoln were Volney's 'Ruins'
-and the works of Thomas Paine, especially the latter, of which he had
-memorized many pages."--Col. E. A. Stevens.
-
-Hon. James Tuttle: "He [Lincoln] was one of the most ardent admirers
-of Thomas Paine I ever met. He was continually quoting from the 'Age of
-Reason.'"
-
-It has been claimed that Lincoln changed his religious opinions after
-he became President. In a letter, written May 27, 1865, Col. John
-G. Nicolay, his private secretary, says: "Mr. Lincoln did not, to my
-knowledge, in any way, change his religious ideas, opinions, or beliefs,
-from the time he left Springfield till the day of his death."
-
-Hon. Leonard Swett, who placed Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency,
-in answer to an inquiry from a friend, wrote as follows: "You ask me
-if Lincoln changed his religion towards the close of his life. I think
-not."
-
-Next to Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's biographer, Colonel Lamon, has made the
-fullest and fairest presentation of Lincoln's religious opinions. He did
-not accept them but he was familiar with them and he was honest enough
-to present them. In Illinois he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln.
-When the time approached for Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and
-the journey from Springfield to Washington was deemed a dangerous one,
-to Colonel Lamon was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him
-to the national capital. During the eventful years that followed he
-remained at the President's side, holding an important official position
-in the District of Columbia. When Lincoln was assassinated, at the great
-funeral pageant in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was,
-with Judge David Davis and Major General Hunter, selected to convey
-the remains to their final resting-place at Springfield. Regarding his
-friend's religious belief Colonel Lamon says: "Mr. Lincoln was never a
-member of any church, nor did he believe in the divinity of Christ or
-the inspiration of the scriptures in the sense understood by evangelical
-Christians" (Life of Lincoln, p. 486). indefinite expressions about
-'Divine Providence,' the 'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,'
-were easy and not inconsistent with his religious notions. In this
-accordingly he indulged freely; but never in all that time [1834 to
-his death] did he let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which
-remotely implied the slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the
-Savior of men (Ibid, p. 502).
-
-After Lincoln's death Mrs. Lincoln, herself a Christian, made the
-following statement: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope, and no faith, in the
-usual acceptation of those words" (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 489).
-
-Judge David Davis, his life-long friend and his executor, says: "He
-[Lincoln] had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term."
-
-Lincoln did not believe in a personal God. His law partner, W. H.
-Herndon, relates the following in proof of this: In 1854 he asked me to
-erase the word _God_ from a speech which I had written and read to him
-for criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas
-he insisted that no such personality ever existed."--_Lamon's Life of
-Lincoln, p. 445._
-
-The Gettysburg address, as delivered by Lincoln, contained no mention
-of Deity. The phrase "under God" was inserted afterward, with Lincoln's
-consent, at the earnest solicitation of a friend. The recognition of God
-in the Emancipation Proclamation was inserted at the urgent request of
-Secretary Chase. The pious phrases to be found in his state papers are
-mostly the work of his cabinet ministers and secretaries.
-
-Thirty years ago Judge James M. Nelson, a son of Thomas Pope Nelson,
-a distinguished statesman of Kentucky, and a great-grandson of Thomas
-Nelson, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was
-intimately acquainted with Lincoln, both in Illinois and at Washington,
-published in the Louisville _Times_ his "Reminiscences of Abraham
-Lincoln." Concerning Lincoln's religious belief Judge Nelson says:
-
-"In religion Mr. Lincoln was of about the same belief as Colonel
-Ingersoll, and there is no account of his ever having changed. He went
-to church a few times with his family while he was President, but so far
-as I have been able to find he remained an unbeliever.... I asked him
-once about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being
-an unbeliever in what was published. 'Oh,' said he, '_that is some of
-Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools!_"
-
-Col. Amos C. Babcock, for many years chairman of the Illinois State
-Republican Committee, and one of Lincoln's confidential agents during
-the war, in an article published in the Peoria _Journal_, says: "Lincoln
-was an Agnostic. During the war he sometimes talked religiously, but it
-was mere statecraft. He knew that everything depended upon his having
-the support of the religious people,... but he was for all that an utter
-disbeliever in the Christian religion."
-
-In Springfield, where he lived, Lincoln's rejection of Christianity was
-known to every person and while he was very popular and greatly beloved
-by all who were not dominated by their religious prejudices, the bigots
-always opposed him. During the presidential campaign of 1860 his
-friends made a canvass of the voters of Springfield for the purpose of
-ascertaining how they were going to vote for president. The list was
-given to Lincoln. With Hon. Newton Bateman, state superintendent of
-public instruction, he went over it carefully, his principal desire
-being to know how the clergy were going to vote. When they had
-finished Lincoln said: "Here are twenty-three ministers, of different
-denominations, and all of them are against me but three; and here are a
-great many prominent' members of the churches, a very great majority of
-whom are against me."--_Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 236._
-
-Why, it may be asked, was Lincoln's Infidelity not used against him
-everywhere in this campaign? Because the managers of both parties knew
-that Douglas, also, was a disbeliever in Christianity. An agitation
-of this question would have weakened the chances of both northern
-candidates while it would have strengthened the chances of Breckinridge,
-the southern candidate.
-
-Lincoln did not believe in prayer. All the stories about his praying,
-without a single exception, are pure inventions. Let me cite an example.
-After Lincoln's death the _Western Christian Advocate_ published the
-following story, a companion piece to Washington's prayer at Valley
-Forge: "On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, as we
-learn from a friend intimate with the late President Lincoln, the
-cabinet meeting was held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the
-President nor any member was able, for a time, to give utterance to his
-feelings. At the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their
-knees, and offered in silence and in tears their humble and heartfelt
-acknowledgment to the Almighty for the triumph he had granted to the
-national cause."
-
-In reply to an inquiry respecting the authenticity of this story Hugh
-McCulloch, Lincoln's last secretary of the treasury, wrote as follows:
-"The description of what occurred at the Executive Mansion, when the
-intelligence was received of the surrender of the Confederate forces,
-which you quote from the _Western Christian Advocate_, is not only
-absolutely groundless, but absurd. After I became Secretary of the
-Treasury I was present at every Cabinet meeting, and I never saw Mr.
-Lincoln or any of his ministers upon his knees or in tears."
-
-Our works of art are mostly mythological. And this is true of Christian
-art, as it is true of Christian theology. The Washington myth is now
-preserved in bronze, and the Lincoln myth will some day find expression
-on canvas.
-
-Herndon says: "It is my opinion that no man ever heard Mr. Lincoln pray
-in the true evangelical sense of that word. His philosophy is against
-all human prayer as a means of reversing God's decrees."
-
-The partnership of Lincoln and Herndon was formed in 1843. It was
-dissolved by the assassin's bullet in 1865. The love of these men
-for each other was like the love of Damon and Pythias. To the moral
-character of his illustrious partner Mr. Herndon pays this tribute: "The
-benevolence of his impulses., the seriousness of his convictions, and
-the nobility of his character, are evidences unimpeachable that his soul
-was ever filled with the exalted purity and the sublime faith of natural
-religion."
-
-Lincoln's religion was the religion of Thomas Paine. "To do good is my
-religion," said Paine; "When I do good I feel good, and when I do bad I
-feel bad," said Lincoln.
-
-For thirty years the church endeavored to crush Lincoln, but when, in
-spite of her malignant opposition, he achieved a glorious immortality,
-this same church, to hide the mediocrity of her devotees, attempts to
-steal his deathless name.
-
-Six Historic Americans: "The Church claims all great men. But the truth
-is, the great men of all nations have, for the most part, rejected
-Christianity. Of these six historic Americans--the six greatest men that
-have lived on this continent [Paine, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson,
-Lincoln and Grant]--not one was a Christian. All were unbelievers.
-
-"It is popularly supposed that Paine was a very irreligious man, while
-Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant were very religious.
-The reverse of this is more nearly true. Paine, although not a
-Christian, was a deeply religious man; while the others, though
-practicing the loftiest morals, cared little for religion."
-
-("Six Historic Americans" contains more than five hundred pages of
-evidence in support of the fact that these six eminent men were all
-disbelievers in orthodox Christianity, including the testimony of one
-hundred witnesses, mostly friends and acquaintences, in proof of
-Lincoln's unbelief.)
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' can now be estimated calmly. It was written from
-the viewpoint of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but
-who held that 'all religions are in their nature mild and benign' when
-not associated with political systems."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-"All national institutions of churches--whether Jewish, Christian or
-Turkish--appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify
-and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit."--_Age of Reason._
-
-"Each of those churches show certain books which they call revelation,
-or the word of God. The Jews say that their word of God was given by God
-to Moses face to face; the Christians say that their word of God came by
-divine inspiration; and the Turks say that their word of God (the Koran)
-was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses
-the others of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them
-all."--_Ibid._
-
-Paine's reason for rejecting the Bible is as logical as it is apparent.
-A plurality of so-called divine revelations cannot be harmonized with
-the attributes ascribed to. Deity. There are many Bibles. The world is
-divided into various religious systems. The adherents of each system
-have their sacred book, or Bible. Brahmins have the Vedas and Puranas,
-Buddhists the Tripitaka, Zoroastrians the Zend Avesta, Confucians the
-King, Mohammedans the Koran, and Christians the Holy Bible. The
-adherents of each claim that their book is a revelation from
-God--that the others are spurious. Now, if the Christian Bible were
-a revelation--if it were God's only revelation, as affirmed--would he
-allow these spurious books to be imposed upon mankind and delude the
-greater portion of his children?
-
-A divine revelation intended for all mankind can be harmonized only with
-a universal acceptance of this revelation. God, it is affirmed, has made
-a revelation to the world. Those who receive and accept this revelation
-are saved; those who fail to receive and accept it are lost. This God,
-it is claimed, is all-powerful and all-just. If he is all-powerful he
-can give his children a revelation. If he is all-just he will give this
-revelation to all. He will not give it to a part of them and allow them
-to be saved and withhold it from the others and suffer them to be lost.
-Your house is on fire. Your children are asleep in their rooms. What
-is your duty? To arouse them and rescue them--to awaken all of them and
-save all of them. If you awaken and save only a part of them when it is
-in your power to save them all, you are a fiend. If you stand outside
-and blow a trumpet and say, "I have warned them, I have done my duty,",
-and they perish, you are still a fiend. If God does not give his
-revelation to all; if he does not disclose his divinity to all; in
-short, if he does not save all, he is the prince of fiends.
-
-If all the world's inhabitants but one accepted the Bible and there was
-one who could not honestly accept it, its rejection by one human being
-would prove that it is not from an all-powerful and an all-just God;
-for an all-powerful God who failed to reach and convince even one of his
-children would not be an all-just God. Has the Bible been given to all
-the world? Do all accept it? Three-fourths of the human race reject it;
-millions have never heard of it.
-
-"The word of God is the creation we behold."--_Age of Reason_.
-
-"It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a
-word of God can unite. The creation speaketh a universal language,
-independently of human speech or human languages, multiplied and various
-as they be. It is an ever-existing original which every man can read.
-It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it
-cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the
-will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself
-from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and
-to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary
-for man to know of God.
-
-"Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of
-the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the
-unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do
-we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with
-which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it
-in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In
-fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the
-Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the scripture called the
-Creation."--_Ibid._
-
-"The moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and
-beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures.
-That seeing as we daily do the goodness of God to all men, it is an
-example calling upon all men to practice the same towards each other;
-and, consequently, that everything of persecution and revenge between
-man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of
-moral duty."--_Ibid._
-
-"I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy
-and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."--Ibid.
-
-"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of
-a child cannot be a true system."--_Ibid._
-
-"I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content
-myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that
-gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he
-pleases, either with or without this body."--_Ibid_.
-
-It has been charged that Paine reviled Jesus in his book. He eulogized
-Jesus. ''Three noble and pathetic tributes to the Man of Nazareth
-are audible from the last century--those of Rousseau, Voltaire and
-Paine."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant
-disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and
-amiable man. The morality that he preached was of the most benevolent
-kind; and though similar Systems of morality had been preached by
-Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers, many years before;
-by the Quakers since, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been
-exceeded by any.... But he preached also against the Jewish priests;
-and this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of
-priesthood."--_Age of Reason_.
-
-History repeats itself. What is alleged to have been the fate of Jesus
-was, in a measure, the fate of Thomas Paine. The penning of his honest
-thoughts on religion caused his good name to be consigned to everlasting
-infamy on earth and his soul doomed to endless misery in hell. The Jews
-who are said to have demanded the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary
-and the Catholics who burned Bruno at Rome are not more deserving of
-execration than are the Protestant assassins of Paine's character in
-England and America.
-
-Referring to Paine's examination and analysis of the Bible and his
-criticisms of the church presented in the "Age of Reason," William
-Thurston Brown, in a lecture, said: "He brought to that, examination and
-analysis what almost no other mind in all the ages has brought: a mind
-absolutely free, a soul absolutely incorruptible, a character unstained
-by one act of compromise or treachery to friend or foe, a nature
-devoted, as few natures in all history have been, to the truth, and,
-more than all, a sense of the relation of moral and intellectual
-integrity to personal character and social well-being never surpassed
-and seldom equaled."
-
-S. Kyd (counselor for Thomas Williams, imprisoned for publishing the
-"Age of Reason"): "I defy the prosecution to find in the 'Age of Reason'
-a single passage inconsistent with the most chaste, the most correct
-system of morals."
-
-Prof. W. F. Jamieson: "I read from this famous book, the 'Age of
-Reason,' as pure sentiments as were ever penned by mortal man."
-
-"When I was a boy I was often told that the writings of Thomas Paine
-'were not fit for anybody to read.' My pastor said so, as did my Sunday
-school teachers and my parents. None of these had ever read them or knew
-anything about them....I believed them, and might still do so, had I not
-accidentally encountered a copy of the 'Age of Reason.' Upon reading it
-I found it to be as conventional as anything I had ever read in
-church or Sunday school, to say nothing of its more lofty
-reasoning."--_Franklin Steiner_.
-
-The Encyclopedia Britannica says that "the 'Age of Reason' contains
-many passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favor of a pure
-morality."
-
-"Its tone throughout is noble and reverent."--_Rufus Rockwell._
-
-Chapman Cohen: "Assuming Paine to be alive today, with his opinions
-unchanged, how much fault would he find with the teachings of many
-preachers? Very little I fancy. But does this mean, or would it mean,
-that Paine had become converted to Christianity? Not a bit of it. It
-would only mean that Christianity had become converted to Paine. In
-its most advanced form today, Christianity is little more than the
-eighteenth century Deism it so bitterly opposed, with a liberal dash of
-the word 'Christ.'"
-
-"What has become of the Bible that Paine attacked? So far as the mere
-paper and type is concerned it is still here. But so tar as belief is
-concerned, it is Paine's Bible that is believed in by the majority of
-educated Christians."
-
-Rev. Dr. E. L. Rexford: "If Paine were now living he would be looked
-upon by all enlightened clergymen and laymen as a very conservative
-critic of the Christian religion."
-
-Rev. George Burman Foster (Gottingen and Chicago Universities): "What
-was radical in regard to the Bible in his day would be conservative
-today."
-
-Rev. S. Fletcher Williams (England): "His principles were right, and
-today an increasing number of religious teachers and religious minded
-men stand only where he stood a century ago."
-
-Dr. T. A. Bland: "The principles of the 'Age of Reason' are embodied in
-sermons--orthodox and radical--all over the country."
-
-John Maddock:--
-
-     "The work of Paine was done so well
-     The Church is now the Infidel."
-
-     "He triumphed--Bibles are revised,
-     Creeds change, and faiths decay,
-     The facts his bitter foes despised
-     Their children prize today."
-    --C. Fannie Aliyn.
-
-Rev. William Channing Gannett, D.D.: "What wonder Thomas Paine wrote his
-strong rank sarcasm! People should remember why he wrote it."
-
-Moncure D. Conway, LL.D.: "It ['Age of Reason'] represents, as no
-elaborate treatise could, the agony and bloody sweat of a heart breaking
-in the presence of crucified Humanity. What dear heads, what noble
-hearts had that man seen laid low; what shrieks had he heard in the
-desolate homes of the Condorcets, the Brissots; what Canaanite and
-Midianite massacres had be seen before the altar of Brotherhood, erected
-by himself! And all because every human being had been taught from his
-cradle that there is something more sacred than humanity, and to which
-man should be sacrificed. Of all those massacred thinkers not one voice
-remains: they have gone silent: over their reeking guillotine sits
-the gloating Apollyon of Inhumanity. But here is one man, a prisoner,
-preparing for his long silence. He alone can speak for those slain
-between the throne and the altar. In these outbursts of laughter and
-tears, these outcries that think not of literary style, these appeals
-from surrounding chaos to the starry realm of order, from the tribune of
-vengeance to the sun shining for all, this passionate horror of cruelty
-in the powerful which will brave a heartless heaven or hell with its
-immortal indignation,--in all these the unfettered mind may hear the
-wail of enthralled Europe, sinking back choked with its blood, under the
-chain it tried to break. So long as a link remains of the same chain,
-binding reason or heart, Paine's 'Age of Reason' will live. It is not a
-mere book--it is a man's heart."
-
-Edgar W. Howe: "The storm that arose over this book was never before
-equaled: it will never be equaled again."
-
-Dr. Bond (A surgeon belonging to General O'Hara's staff): "Mr. Paine
-while hourly expecting to die, read to me parts of his 'Age of Reason';
-and every night when I left him, to be separately locked up, and
-expected not to see him alive in the morning, he always expressed his
-firm belief in the principles of that book, and begged I would tell the
-world such were his dying opinions."
-
-"The doctrines and sentiments which it contains may justly be regarded
-as the expressions of a dying man."--_D. M. Bennett._
-
-"When it [first part] appeared he was a prisoner; his life in Couthon's
-hands. He had personally nothing to gain by its publication--neither
-wife, child, nor relative to reap benefit by its sale. It was published
-as purely for the good of mankind as any work ever written."--_Dr.
-Conway_.
-
-"While in prison he composed the second part, and as he expected
-every day to be guillotined it was penned in the very presence of
-death."--_George W. Foote._
-
-"Paine deserves whatever credit is due to absolute devotion to a creed
-believed by himself to be demonstrably true and beneficial. He showed
-undeniable courage, and is free from any suspicion of mercenary
-motives."--_Sir Leslie Stephen._
-
-Thomas Nixon and Captain Daniel Pelton: "All you have heard of his
-recanting is false. Being aware that such reports would be raised after
-his death by fanatics who infested his house at the time it was expected
-he would die, we, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine, since the year
-1776, went to his house--he was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in
-the full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated him
-on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind or repented
-of anything he had said or written on that subject. He answered, 'Not at
-all.'"
-
-Hon. Francis O. Smith, M. C.: "I have just parted with Hon. Richard
-M. Johnson, now a member of the House of Representatives [afterwards
-Vice-President of the United States], who told me that he visited
-Thomas Paine within the fortnight next preceding Paine's death; that he
-conversed with Paine and expressed a hope that he might recover; that
-Paine replied that he should shortly die, that he should never go out
-of his room again, and requested him to say to Mr. Jefferson that he had
-not changed his religious opinions in the slightest degree."
-
-Walter Morton (with Paine when he died): "In his religious opinions he
-continued to the last as steadfast and tenacious as any sectarian to the
-definition of his own creed."
-
-Dr. Philip Graves: "He [Amasa Woodsworth] told me that he nursed Thomas
-Paine in his last illness and closed his eyes when he was dead. I asked
-him if he recanted and called upon God to save him. He replied, 'No. He
-died as he had taught.'"
-
-John Randel, Jr. (orthodox Christian): "The very worthy mechanic, Amasa
-Woodsworth, who saw Paine daily, told me there was no truth in such
-report."
-
-Gilbert Vale, who interviewed Mr. Woodsworth, says: "As an act of
-kindness, Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks
-before his death; he frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last
-two nights of his life.... Mr. Woodsworth assures us that he neither
-heard nor saw anything to justify the belief of any mental change in the
-opinions of Mr. Paine previous to his death."
-
-The English writer, William Cobbett, a believer in Christianity, who
-lived for a time in this country, and who made a thorough investigation
-of the Paine calumnies, says: "Among other things said against this
-famous man is that he recanted before he died; and that in his last
-illness he discovered horrible fears of death.... It is a pure,
-unadulterated falsehood."
-
-Cobbett, in 1819, announced his intention of publishing a biography of
-Paine. Soon after a pious fanatic of New York, named Collins, attempted
-to persuade him that Paine had recanted and begged him to state the
-fact in his book. He had induced a disreputable woman, Mary Hinsdale, an
-opium fiend, notorious for her lying propensities, to promise that she
-would tell Cobbett that she had visited Paine during his illness and
-that he had confessed to her his disbelief in the "Age of Reason" and
-expressed regret for having published it. Cobbett saw at once that the
-whole thing was a fraud. Collins, he says, "had a sodden face, a simper,
-and maneuvered his features precisely like the most perfidious wretch
-that I have known." However, he called on the woman. But her courage had
-forsaken her. Concerning the result of his visit he says: "She shuffled;
-she evaded; she equivocated; she warded off; she affected not to
-understand me." It was afterward proven that she had not conversed
-with Paine; that she had never seen him. But it did not need Cobbett's
-publication of the lie to secure its acceptance by the church. The
-occupant of nearly every orthodox pulpit was only too willing to publish
-it. This was the origin of the recantation calumny.
-
-"Had Thomas Paine recanted, every citizen of New York would have heard
-of it within twenty-four hours. The news of it would have spread to the
-remotest confines of America and Europe as rapidly as the human agencies
-of that time could have transmitted it. It took ten years for this
-startling revelation to reach the ears of his sickbed attendants."--The
-Fathers of Our Republic.
-
-Rev. Willet Hicks: "I was with him every day during the latter part of
-his sickness. He died as easy as any one I ever saw die, and I have seen
-many die."
-
-"Paine died quietly and at peace."--_Ellery Sedgwick._
-
-"He died placidly and almost without a struggle."--_Gilbert Vale._
-
-"He spent the night in tranquility, and expired in the
-morning."--_Madame Bonneville._
-
-Noble L. Prentiss: "Paine's death-bed terrors were used in the pulpit
-for a long time. It is probable that they never existed. It is living
-not dying, that troubles most of us. When the inevitable hour comes;
-when the lights are being put out, the shutters closed, the end is
-peace."
-
-Concerning Paine's recanting Colonel Ingersoll says: "He died surrounded
-by those who hated and despised him,--who endeavored to wring from the
-lips of death a recantation. But, dying as he was, his soul stood erect
-to the last moment. Nothing like a recantation could be wrung from the
-brave lips of Thomas Paine."
-
-Col. John Fellows: "It [the recantation story] was considered by the
-friends of Mr. Paine generally to be too contemptible to controvert."
-
-"Thomas Paine did not recant. But the church is recanting. On her
-death-bed tenet after tenet of the absurd and cruel creed which Paine
-opposed is being renounced by her. Time will witness the renunciation of
-her last dogma and her death. Then will the vindication of Thomas Paine
-and the 'Age of Reason' be complete."--_The Fathers of Our Republic_.
-
-
-
-
-PAINE'S PLACE IN LITERATURE.
-
-Royal Tyler: "That head which worked such mickle woe to courts and
-kings."
-
-Dr. Edmund Robinet: "A wise and lucid intellect."
-
-James Thompson Callender: "He possesses both, talent and courage."
-
-Walter Savage Landor:
-
-     "Few dared such homely truths to tell,
-     Or wrote our English half so well."
-
-Zells Encyclopedia: "He early distinguished himself by his literary
-abilities."
-
-Cyclopedia of American Literature: "The merits of Paine's style as a
-prose writer are very great."
-
-B. F. Underwood: "Thomas Paine's style as a writer, in some respects,
-has never been equaled. Every sentence that he wrote was suffused with
-the light of his own luminous mind, and stamped with his own intense
-individuality of character."
-
-"There is a peculiar originality in his style of thought and expression,
-his diction is not vulgar or illiterate, but nervous, simple and
-scientific.... Paine, like the young Spartan warrior, went into the
-field stripped bare to the last thread of prudent conventional disguise;
-and thus not only fixed the gaze of men upon his intrepid singularity,
-but exhibited the vigor of his faculties in full play."--_Rev. George
-Croly_.
-
-John Lendrum: "The style, manner, and language of the author is singular
-and fascinating."
-
-"He was a magnificent writer of the English language."--_Henry Frank_.
-
-"He is the best English writer we know."--_Gilbert Vale_.
-
-"Ease, fluidity, grace, imagination, energy, earnestness, mark his
-style."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"Paine is the first American writer who has a literary style, and we
-have not had so many since but that you may count them on the fingers of
-one hand."--_Ibid._
-
-L. Carroll Judson: "His intellectual powers suddenly burst into a blaze
-of light."
-
-John Horne Tooke: "You are like Jove coming down upon us in a shower of
-gold."
-
-"The man who coined the intellectual gold of the Eighteenth Century was
-Thomas Paine."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-Ebenezer Elliott: "Paine is the greatest master of metaphor I have ever
-read."
-
-"He was not only master of metaphor, he was master of principles. He
-imparted life to great ideas."--_George Jacob Holyoake._
-
-"The keenness of his intellect was matched by the brilliancy of his
-imagination. He stated a truth in a way that men could see, hear,
-and feel it. Take the following epigram: 'To argue with a man who
-has renounced the use of Reason is like administering medicine to the
-dead.'"--_George W. Foote_.
-
-Prof. William Smyth: "Paine is a writer to be numbered with those few
-who are so supereminently fitted to address the great mass of mankind."
-
-Dr. Charles Botta: "No writer, perhaps, ever possessed in a higher
-degree the art of moving and guiding the public at his will."
-
-Elroy McKendree Avery: "No writer ever had a greater influence upon the
-events of his own time than he."
-
-"He threw the charms of poetry over the statue of reason," says Stephen
-Simpson, "and made converts to liberty as if a power of fascination
-presided over his pen."
-
-John Adolphus: "He took with great judgment, a correct aim at the
-feelings and prejudices of those whom he intended to influence."
-
-Hezekiah Butterworth: "He had a surprising power of direct forcible
-argument."
-
-William Hazlitt: "Paine affected to reduce things to first principles,
-to announce self-evident truths."
-
-W. J. Fox, M. P.: "A keen and powerful intellect, and a philosophical
-mind going to the foundation of every question; bringing first
-principles forward in a luminous and impressive manner.
-
-Robert James Mackintosh: "His strong coarse sense and bold dogmatism
-conveyed in an instinctively popular style made Paine a dangerous enemy
-always."
-
-M. Gerard: "You know too well the prodigious effects produced by the
-writings of this celebrated personage."
-
-Madame Roland: "The boldness of his conceptions, the originality of his
-style, the striking truths which he boldly throws out in the midst of
-those whom they offend, must necessarily have produced great effects."
-
-Edward C. Reichwald: "He was an intellectual gladiator who won his
-victories upon the field of thought."
-
-Boston Herald: "There is no better illustration in all history than
-exists in Paine's writings of Bulwer's aphorism, 'The pen is mightier
-than the sword.'"
-
-Hon. John J. Lentz, M. C.: "The pen of the author of 'Common Sense' and
-the 'Crisis' did more to liberate the Colonies than did the sword of the
-commander in chief of the Colonial armies."
-
-Prof. William Denton: "The pen of Paine accomplished more for American
-liberty than the sword of Washington."
-
-General Lee of Revolutionary fame says: "The pen of Thomas Paine did
-more to achieve our Independence than did the sword of Washington." Joel
-Barlow, one of the most popular literary men of his time, a chaplain
-in the American Revolution and a fellow-worker of Paine for political
-liberty, both in England and France, says: "We may venture to say,
-without fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as
-much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington." Even Paine's
-vilest calumniator, Cheetham, makes this admission: "His pen was an
-appendage to the army as necessary and as formidable as its cannon."
-
-Reuben Post Halleck, L.L. D.: "Some have said that the pen of Thomas
-Paine was worth more to the cause of liberty than twenty thousand
-men. In the darkest hours he inspired the colonists with hope and
-enthusiasm... He had an almost Shakespearean intuition of what would
-appeal to the exigencies of each case."
-
-"The real man back of the American Revolution was the man who had the
-ideas and not the man behind the guns.... Paine fought with the weapon
-of the future, and he was one of the very first that made it powerful.
-Paine's weapon was the pen, not the sword. Washington conquered small
-groups of men that had been living twenty or thirty years, but Thomas
-Paine conquered the prejudices of thousands of years."--_Herbert N.
-Casson._
-
-Thomas Jefferson: "These two persons [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine]
-differed remarkably in the style of their writings, each leaving a model
-of what is most perfect in both extremes of the simple' and the sublime.
-No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in
-perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and
-unassuming language."
-
-Abraham Lincoln: "I never tire of reading Paine."
-
-Capel Lofft: "I am glad Paine is living: he cannot be even wrong without
-enlightening mankind, such is the vigor of his intellect, such the
-acuteness of his research, and such the force and vivid perspicuity of
-his expression."
-
-Augustine Birrell, M. P.: "Paine was without knowing it, a born
-journalist. His capacity for writing on the spur of the moment was
-endless, and his delight in doing so was boundless."
-
-Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott: "He was perhaps the most popular pamphleteer of
-the country."
-
-Library of The World's Best Literature: "The pamphlets of Thomas Paine
-were doubtless in their time 'half battles.' Clear, logical, homely,
-by turns warning, appealing, commanding, now sharply satirical, now
-humorous, now pathetic, always desperately in earnest, always written in
-admirably simple English, they constituted their author, in the judgment
-of many, the foremost pamphleteer of the eighteenth century."
-
-Lord Brougham: "The most remarkable spirit in pamphlet literature was
-Thomas Paine.... His style was a model of terseness and force."
-
-"This singular power of clear, vigorous exposition made him unequaled as
-a pamphleteer."--_Sir Leslie Stephen._
-
-London Times (June 8, 1909): "Paine was the greatest of pamphleteers;
-more potent in influence on affairs than Swift, Beaumarchais, or
-Courier, more varied in his activity than any of them; his words
-influencing the actors in two of the chief political revolutions of
-the world and prime movers in a religious revolution scarcely less
-important."
-
-"Perhaps someone, even in far off times, digging in the past, will come
-upon his books and will say, 'These were not words; they were events,
-in political history. This was a born leader who could make men march to
-victory or defeat.'"
-
-Manchester Guardian (June 8, 1909): "He and his works became the
-great influence which set up everywhere constitutional societies and
-encouraged political and religious freedom of thought. He became the
-interpreter to England of the principles of the two Revolutions, and his
-words and ideas leavened speculations among the masses of the English
-people, and still leaven them today. We may forget him or remember
-him awry, but the very stuff of our brains is woven in the loom of his
-devising."
-
-James K. Hosmer, LL. D.: "Few writers have exerted a more powerful
-influence since the world began, if the claim set forth at the time
-and never refuted be just, that his 'Common Sense' made possible the
-Declaration of Independence and therefore the United States of America."
-
-Constitutional Gazette (Feb. 24, 1776): "The author introduces [in
-'Common Sense'] a new system of polices as widely different from the old
-as the Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. This extraordinary
-performance contains as surprising a discovery in politics as the works
-of Sir Isaac Newton do in philosophy."
-
-"It would be difficult to name any human composition which has had an
-effect at once so instant, so extended and so lasting."--_Sir George
-Trevelyan._
-
-Paul Louis Courrier (1824): "Never did any portly volume effect so
-much for the human race. Rallying all hearts and minds to the party of
-Independence, it decided the issue of that great conflict which, ended
-for America, is still proceeding all over the rest of the world."
-
-"Incisive sentences,... as direct and vivid in their appeal as any
-sentences of Swift."--_Woodrow Wilson._
-
-"Like a thunderbolt from the sky came Paine's magnificent argument for
-liberty... No pamphlet ever written sold in such vast numbers, nor did
-any ever before or since produce such marvelous results."--_Ella Wheeler
-Wilcox._
-
-"Who could with almost one stroke of his pen, turn the people in a
-radically new direction? Who must exert an influence that had never,
-in any crisis of history, been exerted by one man before? The American
-Republic today, with its illimitable glory and belting a continent, can
-only reply: Thomas Paine!"--_Samuel P. Putnam._
-
-"The soul of Thomas Paine went forth in that book. Every line of it
-glittered with the fires of his brain. It was written as a poet writes
-his song.... It was like the flowing of a fountain, the sweep of a wind,
-the rush of a comet."--Ibid.
-
-The publication of Thomas Paine's immortal pamphlet, 'Common Sense,'
-will ever deserve to rank among the supremely important events of
-history. The farther we are removed from it in time the larger it will
-loom."--_Rev. Thomas B. Gregory._
-
-"This work marks an era in the history of the world. Its interest will
-last longer than nations."--_Hon. Elizur Wright._
-
-Universal Magazine (April, 1793. From a review of the "Rights of Man."):
-"And now courteous reader, we leave Mr. Paine entirely to thy mercy;
-what wilt thou say of him? Wilt thou address him? 'Thou art a troubler
-of privileged orders--we will tar and feather thee; nobles abhor thee,
-and kings think thee mad!' Or wilt thou put on thy spectacles, study Mr.
-Paine's physiognomy, purchase his print, hang it over thy chimney-piece,
-and, pointing to it, say: 'this is no common man!'"
-
-"Those who know the book ['Rights of Man'] only by hearsay as the work
-of a furious incendiary would be surprised at the dignity, force and
-temperance of the style."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' is acknowledged to be the greatest work ever
-written for political freedom. This masterpiece gave free speech, and a
-free press to England and America."--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
-
-"The thinking men of England now revere the memory of Thomas Paine for
-his great work in the nation's behalf. The most important of the many
-reforms England has undertaken in the century that has elapsed since
-it outlawed Paine have been brought about by Paine's masterly
-work."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' will never die so long as men have rights."--_Alice
-Hubbard._
-
-Richard Henry Lee: "It is a performance of which any man might be
-proud."
-
-"The 'Rights of Man' will be more enduring than all the piles of marble
-and granite man can erect."--_Andrew Jackson_.
-
-Dr. Frank Crane: "It deserves a place among the dozen epoch-making books
-of the race.... It is a milestone in human development that marks a
-point of progress that never can be retraced."
-
-General Arthur O'Connor:
-
-     "I prize above all earthly things
-     The 'Rights of Man' and Common Sense.'"
-
-Prof. Edward McChesney Sait: "Many names which were famous in the
-revolutionary period of the eighteenth century are heard no more; but
-the name of Thomas Paine still lives. It will never die; those noble
-writings, 'Common Sense' and 'Rights of Man,' like the verses of the
-Roman poet, are more lasting than bronze."
-
-Marie Joseph Chenier: "Notable epoch in the life of this philosopher who
-opposed the arms of 'Common Sense' to the sword of tyranny, 'the 'Rights
-of Man' to the machiavelism of English politicians; and who by two
-immortal works has deserved well of the human race."
-
-Victor Robinson: "Another immortal work was being penned behind French
-prison-bars and the hand which held the pen was the hand of Thomas
-Paine."
-
-"There shone on Paine's cell in the Luxembourg a great and imperishable
-vision, which multitudes are still following."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-M. M. Mangasarian: "In his dungeon his pen dropped light into the
-darkness of Europe and America by writing the 'Age of Reason.'"
-
-"One of the most wonderful books ever written." _Edgar W. Howe_.
-
-"The 'Age of Reason' defies the grave where other books of his
-generation sleep."--_George E. Macdonald._
-
-"Not only the one great skeptical work of his time, but the only one
-which seems destined to live for all time."--_J. P. Bland_.
-
-"Paine's 'Age of Reason' is a masterpiece of Rationalistic
-literature."--_William H. Maple_.
-
-"It is a masterpiece in every particular--sound, logical and
-truthful."--_Sir Hiram Maxim_.
-
-"There are the most varied graces of literary style, a profound and
-gentle philosophy, and a genuine love of humanity."--_William Heaford_.
-
-Mimnermus (England): "Out of the charnel-vault of Kingcraft and
-Priestcraft, Rousseau and the other great French Freethinkers saw in
-vision the ideal society of the future. Of this new evangel Paine was
-the prophet and Shelley was the poet.... In the 'Rights of Man' and the
-'Age of Reason,' no less than in the 'Revolt of Islam' and 'Prometheus
-Unbound,' the expression glows with the solemn and majestic inspiration
-of prophecy."
-
-John M. Robertson, M. P.: "The enduring popularity of the chief works of
-Thomas Paine is not the least remarkable fact in the history of opinion.
-It is given to few controversial writers to keep a large audience
-during a hundred years."
-
-"In Paine's public life there are three great tidal periods--the period
-when he was helping more than any other to make the Revolution in
-America; the period when, having come to Europe, after the American
-Revolution, he published the 'Rights of Man' and laid in England the
-foundations of a new democracy in the very teeth of the great reaction
-of which Burke was the prophet; and lastly, the period when, after
-his hopes from the French Revolution had substantially failed, and
-he expected death as his own meed, he wrote his 'Age of Reason,'
-significantly making his last blow the most deadly of all his strokes at
-the reign of tradition."
-
-New York World: "The man whose 'Common Sense,' by Washington's
-testimony, 'worked a powerful change in the minds of men' toward
-American independence; who in the 'Rights of Man' demolished Burke's
-attack on the French Revolution so completely that the British
-government resorted to its suppression, and who in France set the world
-aflame with persecution mania by the 'Age of Reason,' certainly made
-good in three countries his title to literary rank and political power."
-"The three mightiest contributions of political and religious freedom
-which mankind had known came from the brain of Thomas Paine. What he
-wrote changed the whole civilized world."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-Rev. E. P. Powell (referring to the "Crisis"): "Words of fire and logic
-that rang like a berserker's sword on his shield."
-
-"The 'Crisis' is contained in sixteen numbers. They comprise a truer
-history of that event [American Revolution] than does any professed
-history of it yet written. They comprise the soul of it."--_Calvin
-Blanchard._
-
-"Of utterances by the pen none have achieved such vast results as
-Paine's 'Common Sense' and his first 'Crisis.'"--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-In addition to his three literary masterpieces and the "Crisis" Paine
-wrote many remarkable books and pamphlets, the more important of which
-are the following: "Public Good," Philadelphia, 1780; "Letter to Abbe
-Raynal," Philadelphia, 1782; "Dissertation on Government," Philadelphia,
-1786; "Prospects on the Rubicon," London, 1787; "Address of Societe
-Republicaine," Paris, 1791; "Address to the Adressers," London, 1792;
-"Plea for Life of Louis Capet," "French Constitution of '93," Paris,
-1793; "On First Principles of Government," Paris, 1795; "Decline and
-Fall of the English System of Finance," published in all the languages
-of Europe. 1796; "Agrarian Justice," "Letter to Camille Jordan, Paris,
-1797; "Essay on Dreams," "Examination of Prophecies," New York,
-1807; "Reply to Bishop of Llandaff," New York, 1810; "Miscellaneous
-Poems,"'London, 1819.
-
-"These [Paine's books] were battles, victories--the simplest, yet
-the grand and notorious facts of that wondrous war and age."--_T. B.
-Wakeman_.
-
-M. de Bonneville, the noted French journalist and Revolutionary leader,
-and the almost constant companion of Paine during the ten or more years
-that he resided in Paris, says: "All his pamphlets have been popular
-and powerful. He wrote with composure and steadiness, as if under the
-guidance of a tutelary genius. If, for an instant, he stopped, it was
-always in the attitude of a man who listens. The Saint Jerome of Raphael
-would give a perfect idea of his contemplative recollection, to listen
-to the voice from on high which makes itself heard in the heart."
-
-"When the old traditions of prejudice have passed, away, Paine's name
-will have its due place not only in our political but in our literary
-history, as that of a man of native genius whose prose bears being read
-beside that of Burke on the same theme, and who found in sincerity the
-secret of a nobler eloquence than his antagonists could draw from their
-stores of literature or the fountain of their ill-will."--_John M.
-Robertson_.
-
-"He was a great writer. Cobbett knew it, Hazlitt knew it, and Landor
-knew it."--_George W. Foote_.
-
-George Brandes: "One of the largest figures in our literary history."
-
-Mrs. M. E. Cadwallader: "His writings have become classics. They Will
-live when those who vilified him are forgotten."
-
-Pittsburgh Press: "The science of criticism, like the spectrum analysis
-which reveals the composition of the stars, points unerringly to Thomas
-Paine as the only man who could have indited that greatest of literary
-masterpieces, the Declaration of Independence."
-
-That the Declaration of Independence is, in its entirety, the work
-of Paine probably can not be proven. That he had much to do with
-its composition, however, can scarcely be doubted. The circumstances
-attending its adoption warrant the assumption, and the style of the
-document confirms it. Knowing the marvelous power of Paine's pen,
-knowing that with it he had led the people to demand independence, to
-suppose that he would not be consulted, that his services would not
-be solicited in regard to its preparation is incredible. Had he been a
-member of the Continental Congress he certainly would have been selected
-to draft the document. He was the soul of the movement and its literary
-leader. The historian Gaspey says: "The Government took no steps of
-importance without consulting him." The fact that his name was not
-mentioned in connection with its authorship at the time argues nothing.
-Had he written every word of it neither he nor the Committee could with
-propriety have divulged its authorship. The authorship of state papers
-and other public documents is assumed by, and credited to, the officials
-issuing them and not to the persons who may have been employed to draft
-them.
-
-"There is much evidence, both internal and external, in the Declaration,
-that some other person than Jefferson was the writer. There is much
-evidence, internal and external, that the author was Thomas Paine."--_W.
-M. van der Weyde_.
-
-A noted writer, Albert Payson Terhune, presents the following as
-the principal arguments that have been adduced in support of Paine's
-authorship of the Declaration of Independence:
-
-"The Declaration's first draft contained the phrase: 'Scotch and foreign
-mercenaries.' Jefferson was fond of the Scotch, and had two Scotch
-tutors; whereas Paine openly hated Scotland and its people.
-
-"The first draft contained the word 'hath' This word is said to be found
-nowhere else in Jefferson's writings, while it abounds in Paine's.
-
-"There was also in this draft a sharp rebuke to the British king for his
-introducing slavery into his provinces. Jefferson was a slave-holder;
-Paine hated slavery.
-
-"That Jefferson, an owner of slaves, should have declared 'all men to be
-equal' and 'entitled to liberty,' has always seemed inconsistent.
-
-"Though unjust taxation was one of the Revolution's chief causes,
-it receives very slight mention in the Declaration. Jefferson was
-supposedly a foe to such taxation. Paine considered the taxation problem
-merely as a side issue.
-
-"Paine's notions concerning government as set forth in his 'Common
-Sense' are largely embodied in the Declaration.
-
-"Jefferson's style of writing was easy and graceful. Paine's was
-forceful, terse, pointed. The Declaration is couched far more in the
-latter style than in the former.
-
-"Phrases and words dear to Paine are scattered broadcast through the
-document.
-
-"The expression 'Nature and Nature's God' fit in with Paine's favorite
-theory that God was to be found in Nature."
-
-"Almost a century ago an American newspaper claimed to have proof that
-Jefferson did not write the Declaration, and strongly hinted that Paine
-wrote it.
-
-"Jefferson, it is said, never formally claimed the authorship until
-after Paine's death, and was always reticent on the subject."
-
-Walton Williams: "Ever since the Revolution there has been a tradition
-in certain parts of the country that the real author of the Declaration
-of Independence was Thomas Paine. The storm of opprobrium that beat upon
-Paine's name because af his religious writings almost eradicated this
-tradition."
-
-Jefferson lived fifty years after the Declaration appeared. During
-all this time--and his silence is significant--he never claimed the
-authorship of the document except in the epitaph which he is said to
-have prepared for his tombstone. He was its accredited author and in an
-official sense was its author, and in this sense the claim made in his
-epitaph is admissible.
-
-Nearly seventy years ago George M. Dallas, then Vice President of the
-United States, and an admirer of Jefferson, contended that Paine wrote
-the Declaration.
-
-"Whoever may have written the Declaration, Paine was its
-author."--_William Cobbett._
-
-New York Sun: "In addition to his great responsibility for the literary
-form of the Declaration of Independence, he contributed to literature a
-number of phrases which have held a place."
-
-"His phrase, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' illuminates
-that gigantic struggle [American Revolution] and has become one of the
-shibboleths of liberty."--_Michael Monahan_.
-
-"No life was ever attuned to a nobler sentiment--'Where liberty is not
-there is my home.'"--_Dr. Lucy Waite_.
-
-"'The world is my country, to do good my religion." Was ever nobler
-thought conceived than this?"--_Eva Ingersoll Brown_.
-
-"Had Paine given to the world nothing more than that matchless phrase
-which he adopted as his motto, 'The world is my country; to do good
-is my religion,' I should still feel that he was indeed entitled to a
-supernal position in the galleries of Fame."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"A jewel which sparkles forever on the outstretched forefinger of
-Time."--_George W. Foote._
-
-Peter Eckler: "Paine's political and religious writings exerted an
-immense influence in America, England and France during his life, and
-since his death that beneficent influence has increased and extended
-throughout the civilized world."
-
-Horace Seaver: "Paine's writings are a noble monument to the loftiness
-of his aims, the brilliancy of his genius, the wealth of benevolence in
-his heart, and the breadth and power of his intellect."
-
-Horace Traubel: "He will always stand there, immortal in history, a
-contemporary giant in whose aggressiveness and fortitude political
-literature discovered a new epoch. He will ever be ranked with the
-masters in theological innovation."
-
-General Nathaniel Greene: "Your fame for your writings will be
-immortal."
-
-
-
-
-REFORMS AND INVENTIONS.
-
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox: "Paine was not only a great author and statesman,
-but he was distinctly a pioneer, an originator, an inventor and creator.
-To him we are indebted for many of the world's greatest ideas and
-reforms."
-
-Winwood Reade: "One of Thomas Paine's first productions was an article
-against slavery."
-
-Universal Cyclopedia: "Published in Bradford's _Pennsylvania Journal
-[Magazine]_ in March, 1775, an article entitled 'African Slavery in
-America,' which probably hastened the first American Anti-Slavery
-Society, April 14, 1775."
-
-Referring to this article Dr. Conway, one of the apostles of
-anti-slavery, says: "It is a most remarkable article. Every argument and
-appeal, moral, religious, military, economic, familiar in our
-subsequent anti-slavery struggle is here found stated with eloquence and
-clearness."
-
-In the very month that Paine lay down in his last illness there was
-born the man who was to complete the work he had begun. On the first of
-January, 1863, Abraham Lincoln pronounced the doom of slavery. In this
-essay of Paine and in the Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln we
-have the beginning and the end--the prologue and the epilogue--of the
-Anti-Slavery drama in America.
-
-"It is a significant fact that a paragraph in favor of the abolition
-of slavery in America, which is surmised to haye been inserted through
-Paine's influence, in the Declaration of Independence was struck out....
-Had Paine's humane suggestion been adopted the United States would
-have been saved the agony and bloody sweat of the Civil. War."--_Hector
-Macpherson, Scotland_.
-
-"In sorrow and bitterness and bloodshed Lincoln wrought the cure for the
-evil which Paine tried peacefully to prevent."--_Mrs. Bradlaugh-Bonner,
-England_.
-
-George W. Foote: "In America the first to publicly demand the liberation
-of the slaves was Thomas Paine. Paine also partly drafted and signed
-the Act of Pennsylvania abolishing slavery--the first of its kind in the
-whole of Christendom."
-
-Paine was not only the first to advocate the abolition of domestic
-slavery in America, he was also a pioneer in the movement which secured
-the abolition of the slave trade in America and Great Britain.
-
-When Louisiana demanded statehood with "the right to continue the
-importation of slaves," from Paine came this stinging rebuke: "Dare you
-put up a petition to Heaven for such power, without fearing to be struck
-from the earth by its justice? Why, then, do you ask it of man against
-man? Do you want to renew in Louisiana the horrors of Domingo?"
-
-Alfred E. Fletcher: "Paine was the first man in America to demand
-freedom for the slave, to urge international arbitration, justice for
-women and more rational ideas as to marriage and divorce."
-
-"In his August (1775) number _[Pennsylvania Magazine]_ is found the
-earliest American plea for woman."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"His pen is unmistakable in 'Reflections on Unhappy Marriages' (June
-1775)."--_Ibid_.
-
-"The first man in history to speak in clear cut tones for the rights of
-woman."--_Josephine K. Henry_.
-
-"Today we dare to affirm that women as well as men have rights. Paine
-was the pioneer of this thought."--_Alice Hubbard._
-
-Hon. Robert A. Dague: "If I am asked to whom are women indebted for
-the enlarged liberty they now enjoy, my answer is, to Thomas Paine,
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, and to the Universalists,
-Unitarians, Spiritualists and Agnostics."
-
-London Daily News: "He was always a man of peace, and to him is due the
-first project of international arbitration. He was the first publicist
-in America to declare for the emancipation of slaves, the first to
-champion the cause of woman, to insist upon the rights of animals, and
-to expose the criminal folly of dueling."
-
-"He condemned dueling, and the deliberate or thoughtless ill-treatment
-of animals. He spoke up against negro slavery quite as emphatically as
-against hereditary privileges and religious intolerance. He advocated
-international arbitration; international and internal copyright."--_Sir
-George Trevelyan_.
-
-George H. Putxam: "Paine wrote on the necessity of a copyright law in
-1782, a year before Noah Webster canvassed the legislatures of the New
-England states in behalf of such a law.... In 1792, as a member of
-the French Convention, Paine made a statement of the principles of
-international copyright of the author's right in literary work."
-
-Nannie McCormick Coleman: "In 1783, while a member of Congress, Hamilton
-urgently sought to have a [Constitutional] Convention called. In the
-same year... Thomas Paine contributed addresses to the public to the
-same effect."
-
-Paine proposed a constitutional government and a constitutional
-convention as early as 1776.
-
-Referring to our Constitutional Convention Prof. Alexander Johnston of
-Princeton University says: "Thomas Paine had suggested it as long ago as
-his 'Common Sense' pamphlet: 'Let a continental conference to be held to
-frame a continental charter.'"
-
-Not only was Paine the first to propose a constitutional government for
-the United States, the framers of the Constitution adopted to a large
-extent his political ideas. Referring to the principles advocated in his
-"Dissertation on Government" Dr. Conways says: "In the next year those
-principles were embodied in the Constitution; and in 1792, when a State
-pleaded its sovereign right to repudiate a contract the Supreme Court
-affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and
-sometimes his very phrases."
-
-Bankers' Magazine: "The Bank of North America, at Philadelphia,
-organized to assist the government during the War of Independence,
-is admitted to be the first bank in the United States, but it is not
-generally known that Thomas Paine was the man in whose brain the bank
-was born and who was the first subscriber to its stock."
-
-Columbia Encyclopedia: "Paine was chosen by Napoleon to introduce a
-popular form of government into Britain after the Frenchman should have
-invaded and conquered the island."
-
-William Milligan Sloane, LL. D.: "Thomas Paine exercised his power as a
-pamphleteer on the theme of England's approaching bankruptcy, while the
-public crowded one of the theatres [in Paris] to stare at stage pictures
-representing the invasion of England."
-
-Paine prepared plans for this invasion which were adopted by the French
-Directory. Two hundred and fifty gun-boats were speedily built for the
-purpose. Then Napoleon abandoned the expedition against England for the
-one against Egypt.
-
-Paine's approval of this proposed invasion of England was not inspired
-by a spirit of revenge because of his persecution by the English
-Government, but by a sincere love of its people, seeing in it the only
-means of delivering them from the intolerable tyranny of George III. and
-his Ministry. Napoleon at this time had not manifested that insatiable
-thirst for blood which at a later period made him the scourge of Europe.
-
-James A. Edgerton, A. M.: "Thomas Paine first suggested American
-Independence. He first suggested the Federal Union of the States. He
-first proposed the abolition of negro slavery. He first suggested [in
-Christendom] protection for dumb animals. He first suggested equal
-rights for women. He first proposed old age pensions. He first suggested
-the education of poor children at public expense. He first proposed
-arbitration and international peace. He suggested a great republic of
-all the nations of the world."
-
-To the claims made in behalf of Paine by Mr. Edgerton and others the
-following may be added: He was one of the founders, if not the real
-founder, of modern journalism. He labored to provide better facilities
-for the education of young women. His contributions to hygienic science
-were invaluable. His knowledge of astronomy was profound; he affirmed
-the belief that the fixed stars were suns twenty years before Herschel.
-His views regarding taxation were wise and just. He was an advocate of
-land reform. He was recognized as the ablest authority of his time
-on paper money. He was one of the framers of the Constitution of
-Pennsylvania.
-
-Not only was Paine the real founder of our Republic; he was largely
-instrumental in securing for it the greatest of its subsequent
-acquisitions of territory. He shares with Jefferson the honor of being
-the first to propose the purchase from Napoleon of the province of
-Louisiana, an empire in extent--reaching from Florida to the Pacific and
-to what is now British Columbia, a distance of three thousand miles--a
-territory three times as large as the original United States of America
-and from which have been formed, wholly or in part, eighteen of the most
-important states in the Union.
-
-Nearly half a century before Comte, Paine taught the Religion of
-Humanity.
-
-"In 1778 he wrote his sublime sentence about the 'Religion of
-Humanity.'"--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"I have discovered that Paine not only wrote those words, 'the Religion
-of Humanity,'... but he was the real author by this discovery of all
-laws of social science which is called sociology, now the queen of the
-sciences.... If Paine was the real leader in that discovery he stands by
-the side of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Comte, Spencer and Ward, and the
-beneficent results and glory of this discovery, and its discoverer,
-are beyond the words of any mind at present to describe."--_Prof. T. B.
-Wakeman_.
-
-"That his Religion of Humanity took the deistical form was an
-evolutionary necessity."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"The prophet of the Religion of Humanity and the precursor of our modern
-Monism."--_Prof. Ernst Haeckel_.
-
-"How few there are who realize that Thomas Paine anticipated Spencer's
-thought [equal liberty] by many decades, that, more briefly and
-graphically, he formulated the only principle that can weave enduring
-order and peace into the fabric of society."--_Edwin C. Walker_.
-
-Leonard Abbott: "Paine's mind was germinal: in it were the seeds of all
-modern religious, economical, and political movements."
-
-William H. Maple: "The light of truth fell in such grand refulgence upon
-this man as to enable him to utter truisms enough to furnish texts for
-reformers for a thousand years to come."
-
-"The moral originality and courage of his teaching in every direction is
-astonishing."--_John M. Robertson_.
-
-Stephen Pearl Andrews: "The true chief-priest of humanity is the man who
-solves the greatest obstacles in the progress of mankind; and you must
-not be surprised if I rank Thomas Paine not only as a priest, but as
-perhaps the real chief-priest, or pontifex-maximus of his age."
-
-Joel Barlow: "The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his
-mathematical acquirements and his mechanical genius. His invention of
-the iron bridge, which led him to Europe in 1787, has procured him a
-great reputation in that branch of science in France and England."
-
-M. Chaptal: "They [plans for iron bridge over Seine] will be of the
-greatest utility to us when the new kind of construction goes to be
-executed for the first time.... You have rights of more than one kind to
-the gratitude of nations."
-
-International Encyclopedia: "In 1787 Paine went to France, where he
-exhibited his bridge to the Academy of Science in Paris. He also visited
-England, and was lionized in London by the party of Burke and Fox. He
-set up the model of his bridge in Addington Green, and huge crowds went
-to see it."
-
-"This [model of iron bridge] was publicly exhibited in Paris and London
-and attracted great crowds."--_Encyclopedia Britannica_.
-
-Sir Ralph Milbank: "With respect to the bridge over the river Wear at
-Sunderland, it certainly is a work well deserving admiration both for
-its structure, durability, and utility, and I have good grounds for
-saying that the first idea was taken from Mr. Paine's bridge exhibited
-at Paddington."
-
-Mr. Foljambe, M. P.: "I saw the rib of your [Paine's] bridge. In point
-of elegance and beauty it far exceeded my expectations and is certainly
-beyond anything I ever saw."
-
-George Stephenson: "If we are to consider Paine as its [the iron
-bridge's] author, his daring in engineering certainly does full justice
-to the fervor of his political career."
-
-When the building of the Brooklyn bridge was celebrated the Rev. Robert
-Collyer called attention to the fact that to Thomas Paine belonged
-the credit of inventing the iron bridge and deplored the ignorance and
-prejudice which had caused the speakers to ignore it.
-
-Sir Richard Phillips: "In 1778 Thomas Paine proposed, in America, this
-application of steam [the steamboat]."
-
-Watson's Annals of Philadelphia: "In June, 1785, John Fitch called on
-the ingenious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster, to take his opinion of
-his draughts, who informed him that he (Fitch) was not the first person
-who had thought of applying steam to vessels, for that Thomas Paine,
-author of 'Common Sense,' had suggested the same to him (Henry) in the
-winter of 1778."
-
-Concerning Paine's connection with this invention Dr. Conway says:
-"Among his intimate friends at this time [about 1796] was Robert Fulton,
-then residing in Paris. Paine's extensive studies of the steam engine
-and his early discovery of its adaptability to navigation had caused
-Rumsey to seek him in England and Fitch to consult him both in, America
-and Paris. Paine's connection with the invention of the steamboat
-was recognized by Fulton as, indeed, by all of his scientific
-contemporaries. To Fulton he freely gave his ideas" (Life of Paine,
-vol. ii, p. 280). "In the controversy between Rumsey and Fitch, Paine's
-priority to both is conceded" (Ibid).
-
-"A machine for planing boards was his next invention."--_Madame
-Bonneville_.
-
-James Parton: "A benefactor... who conceived the planing machine and the
-iron bridge. A glorious monument to his honor swells aloft in many of
-our great towns. The principle of his arch now sustains the marvelous
-railroad depots that half abolish the distinction between in-doors and
-out."
-
-In a letter to Jefferson, in 1801, Paine anticipates and suggests the
-explosive engine of today.
-
-"The explosive engines which now drive machines over highways and waters
-and through the air are the perfection of Paine's explosive power."--_A.
-Outram Sherman_.
-
-One of Paine's minor inventions which attracted the attention and
-received the approval of Franklin was an improved light.
-
-Another invention, an improved carriage wheel, was greatly admired.
-After Paine's death Robert Fulton made a drawing of the model and
-deposited it at Washington.
-
-Robert R. Livingston (to Paine in Paris): "Make your will; leave the
-mechanics, the iron bridge, the wheels, etc., to America."
-
-Joseph N. Moreau: "The Archimedes of the eighteenth century."
-
-Elihu Palmer: "Probably the most useful man that ever lived."
-
-Refutation of Charges of Immorality.
-
-Louis Masquerier:
-
-    "Paine who wrote in man's defense,
-    'Rights of Man' and 'Common Sense,
-    Let not pious virulence
-    Stain his honest fame."
-
-Paine has been represented by his religious enemies as the embodiment
-of all that is bad. He was, they assert, drunken, filthy, and immoral.
-Banished from respectable society, he associated, they say, only with
-the low and vile. The following testimony covers all the years that
-elapsed from the beginning of his public career to the end of his life.
-
-Dr. Franklin, writing from England while Paine was yet a resident of
-that country, says: "Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as
-an ingenious worthy young man."
-
-That his previous life had been above serious reproach is shown by a
-letter to the Excise Office in which he says: "No complaint of the least
-dishonesty or intemperance has ever appeared against me."
-
-James B. Elliot: "Paine's pamphlet ['Case of the Officers of Excise']
-secured for him the acquaintance of Oliver Goldsmith, who became and
-remained his friend until his death, and by whom he was introduced to
-Benjamin Franklin."
-
-"At a coffeehouse in London Paine met that other great thinker,
-Franklin. They became fast friends."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-"Invited by Franklin he went to America."--_Encyclopedia of Social
-Reform_.
-
-"His associates in Philadelphia were people of the highest
-respectability and importance.... He was welcomed everywhere."--_James
-B. Elliott_.
-
-Referring to his first year in America Bancroft says: "In that time he
-had frequented the society of Rittenhouse, Clymer and Samuel Adams." Dr.
-Rush says: "He visited in the families of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Rittenhouse
-and Mr. George Clymer." Referring to the members of the Philosophical
-Society, founded by Franklin, Dr. Conway says: "Paine was welcomed
-into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other
-representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis."
-
-Writing in his journal at a later period John Hall, the English
-mechanician who then resided in Philadelphia, mentions among Paine's
-visitors and intimate associates Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Rush,
-Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rittenhouse, etc.
-
-The Library of the World's Best Literature alludes to scientific
-experiments made by Paine "for the entertainment of Washington whose
-guest he was for some time."
-
-Francis Marion Lemmon: "When my father [a son of one of Washington's
-officers] was about twelve years of age he was employed by George
-Washington to carry messages from his military camp to that of his
-father and other military posts, and for about four years lived as one
-of the family of Washington. It was my father's privilege during his
-service with Washington to meet and become acquainted with a number
-of the most popular and influential men of that time--such as Thomas
-Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, General
-Lafayette and General Francis Marion.... My father told me, when I was
-a boy, of the visits these men paid to Uncle George and Aunt Martha
-Washington, as he always called them, and he told me that Aunt Martha
-always called Paine 'Brother Tom' and always looked forward when a visit
-of Brother Tom was expected."
-
-Alluding to Paine's conduct and public services during the Revolution,
-Dr. Conway says:
-
-"They are best measured in the value set on them by the great leaders
-most cognizant of them,--by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams,
-Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee, Colonel
-Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything dishonorable
-or mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who would have known
-it; but their letters are searched in vain for even the faintest hint of
-anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during those eight
-weary years."
-
-Henry Adams: "Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for
-Europe, in 1787, was a fashionable member of society [in New York],
-admired and courted as the greatest literary genius of his day."
-
-The oldest and one of the most powerful political organizations in
-this country, outside of the regular political parties, is the Tammany
-Society of New York. Whatever shortcomings may be justly charged to this
-society in later times it was in its earlier days, when devoted mainly
-to social and benevolent purposes, one of the most honorable and
-respectable of societies. Paine was the hero of this society.
-
-Dr. Conway says: "At the great celebration (October 12, 1792) of the
-Third Centenary of the discovery of America, by the sons of St. Tammany,
-New York, the first man toasted after Columbus was Paine, and next to
-Paine 'The Rights of Man,' They were also extolled in an ode composed for
-the occasion, and sung." Paine was at this time a resident of France.
-
-"Visited France in the summer of 1787, where he made the acquaintance
-of Buffon, Malesherbes, La Rochefoucauld, and other eminent
-men."--_Chambers' Encyclopedia_.
-
-"Dr. Robinet, the French historian, says on this visit (1787) Paine,
-who had long known the 'soul of the people,' came into' relation with
-eminent men of all groups, philosophical and political--Condorcet,
-Achille Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes also Danton,
-who like the English republican [Paine] was a Freemason."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-Gilbert Patten Brown (in Masonic Monthly, July, 1916): "In the St.
-John's Regimental Lodge (the first Masonic body to be constituted among
-the troops) Thomas Paine (like Capt. James Monroe, Capt. John Marshall
-and many other of minor mention) was entered, crafted and raised a
-Master Mason."
-
-Franklin, who in 1774 introduced Paine to the New World as "an ingenious
-worthy young man" in 1787, after an acquaintance of thirteen years,
-reaffirms his former estimate of the man. In a letter of introduction to
-the Duke of Rochefoucauld he says: "The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the
-author of a famous piece entitled 'Common Sense,' published with great
-effect on the minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He
-is an ingenious, honest man; and as such I beg leave to recommend him to
-your civilities."
-
-Lamb's Biographical Dictionary: "Visiting London, he at once became a
-social and diplomatic feature of that metropolis."
-
-Thomas "Clio" Rickman: "Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round
-of philosophical leisure and enjoyment.... Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the
-French and American embassadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the
-painter, Mrs. Wollstonecraft, Joel Barlow,... Dr. Priestley,...
-Mr. Horne Tooke, etc., were among the number of his friends and
-acquaintances."
-
-"His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and
-boundless; in private company and among his friends his conversation had
-every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it."
-
-"Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and
-rather athletic.... His eye, of which the painter could not convey the
-exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant and singularly piercing."
-
-Alexander Wilson: "The penetration and intelligence of his eye bespeak
-the man of genius."
-
-John Adams, in a letter to his wife, refers to Paine as "a man who,
-General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." Carlyle describes him as "the
-man with the black beaming eyes." Walter Morton, who was with him when
-he died, says, "His eye glistened with genius under the pangs of death."
-
-Dr. Thomas Cooper: "I have dined with Mr. Paine in literary society,
-in London, at least a dozen times, when his dress, manners, and
-conversation were such as became the character of an unobtrusive
-intelligent gentleman, accustomed to good society."
-
-Regarding Paine's associations in England his biographer, Dr. Conway,
-says: "There [Rotherham] and in London he was 'lionized' as Franklin had
-been in Paris. We find him now passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at
-the country seat of the Duke of Portland, or enjoying the hospitalities
-of Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth House. He is entertained and consulted
-on public affairs by Fox, Lord Landsdowne, Sir George Staunton, Sir
-Joseph Banks."
-
-"The Americans in London--the artists West and Trumbull, the Alexanders
-(Franklin's connections), and others were fond of him as a friend and
-proud of him as a countryman."--_Ibid_.
-
-"His personal acquaintance," says Dr. Conway, "included nearly every
-great or famous man of his time, in England, America, France."
-
-Paine not only enjoyed the friendship and esteem of the notables of the
-world, he was the idol of the common people who knew him. Before the
-Revolution in France began he spent two years in England, engaged a part
-of the time perfecting his iron bridge. The leading manufacturing firm
-of Rotherham encouraged him and fitted up a shop for him to work in.
-Nearly a half century later Professor Lesley of Philadelphia, then a
-young man, visited Rotherham. Notwithstanding the long time that had
-elapsed he found Paine's memory still green and one of the cherished
-possessions of Yorkshire. The results of his visit are thus related by
-Dr. Conway:
-
-"Professor Lesley of Philadelphia tells me that when visiting in early
-life the works at Rotherham, Paine's workshop and the very tools he used
-were pointed out. They were preserved with care. He conversed with
-an aged and intelligent workman who had worked under Paine as a lad.
-Professor Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice against Paine,
-was impressed by the earnest words of the old man. Mr. Paine he said was
-the most honest man, and the best man he ever knew. After he had been
-there a little time everybody looked up to him, the Walkers and their
-workmen. He knew the people for miles round, and went into their homes;
-his benevolence, his friendliness, his knowledge, made him beloved by
-all, rich and poor. His memory had always lasted there."
-
-M. and Madame de Bonneville: "Not a day [in Paris] escaped without his
-receiving many visits. Mr. Barlow, Mr. [Robert] Fulton, Mr. [Sir Robert]
-Smith, came very often to see him. Many travelers also called on him."
-
-"Paine was, indeed, so overrun with visitors and adventurers that he
-appropriated two mornings of each week at the Philadelphia House for
-levees. These, however, became insufficient to stem the constant stream
-of visitors, including spies and lion-hunters, so that he had little
-time for consultation with the men and women whose cooperation he needed
-in public affairs. He therefore leased an out-of-the-way house [the
-old Madame Pompadour mansion], reserving knowledge of it for particular
-friends, while still retaining his address at the Philadelphia House,
-where the levees were continued."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-"Here [at Paine's house] gathered sympathetic spirits from America,
-England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, freed from prejudices of
-race, rank, or nationality."--_Ibid_.
-
-"And now the old hotel became the republican capitol of Europe. There
-sat an international Premier with his Cabinet."--_Ibid_.
-
-"A grand dinner was given by Paine at the Hotel de Ville to Dumouriez,
-where this brilliant general met Brissot, Condorcet, Santerre, and
-several eminent English radicals."--_Ibid._
-
-"In the beautiful courtyard of the Palais Royal, I saw today for the
-first time the statue of Camille Desmoulins, one of the most heroic
-figures of the French Revolution.... He was one of Paine's warmest
-friends in Paris. Desmoulins had known Paine when the latter was a
-member of the Convention and doubtless was one of the interesting
-coterie that met at Paine's house in the Faubourg St. Denis."--_William
-M. van der Weyde_.
-
-"When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Paine and invited him
-to dinner."--_Clio Rickman_.
-
-"Among the persons I was in the habit of receiving Paine deserves to be
-mentioned."--_Madame Roland._
-
-Among Paine's most intimate French friends, besides the Bonnevilles with
-whom he lived for several years, were the Rolands, the Brissots, the
-Condorcets, and the Lafayettes, France's purest and noblest souls.
-
-Baron Pichon: "Paine lived in Monroe's house at Paris."
-
-While James Monroe was minister to France Paine was for a year and
-a half a member of his household, enjoying in the highest degree the
-esteem of both Mr. and Mrs. Monroe.
-
-Paine was one of the most amiable of men and possessed a most charming
-personality. Nicolas and Margaret Bonneville, with whom he resided in
-Paris, in a biographical sketch of him, written after his death and
-revised by Cobbett, bear this testimony: "Thomas Paine loved his friends
-with sincere and tender affection. His simplicity of heart and that
-happy kind of openness, or rather, carelessness, which charms our
-hearts in reading the fables of the good Lafontaine, made him extremely
-amiable. If little children were near him he patted them, searched his
-pockets for the store of cakes, biscuits, sugar-plums, pieces of sugar,
-of which he used to take possession as of a treasure belonging to them,
-and the distribution of which belonged to him."
-
-"He was always gentle to children and to animals."--_Ellery Sedgwick_.
-
-The deep affection entertained for Paine by his Parisian friends was
-shown when, grievously ill and believed to be dying, he was carried from
-his cot in the Luxembourg to the home of the Monroes. I quote again from
-Dr. Conway: "Paine had been restored by the tenderness and devotion of
-friends. Had it not been for friendship he could hardly have been saved.
-We are little able, in the present day, to appreciate the reverence and
-affection with which Thomas Paine was regarded by those who saw in him
-the greatest apostle of liberty in the world.... In Paris there
-were ladies and gentlemen who had known something of the cost of
-liberty--Col. and Mrs. Monroe, Sir Robert and Lady Smith, Madame
-Lafayette, Mr. and Mrs. Barlow, M. and Madame de Bonneville. They
-had known what it was to watch through anxious nights with terrors
-surrounding them. He who % had suffered most was to them a sacred
-person. He had come out of the succession of ordeals, so weak in body,
-so wounded by American ingratitude, so sore at heart, that no delicate
-child needed more tender care.... Men say their Arthur is dead, but
-their love is stronger than death. And though the service of these
-friends might at first have been reverential, it ended with attachment,
-so great was Paine's power, so wonderful and pathetic his memories, so
-charming the play of his wit, so full his response to kindness."
-
-"In Luxembourg prison," says Conway, "he won all hearts."
-
-Augustus C. Buel: "Jones [John Paul] liked Tom Paine and Paine
-almost worshiped Jones [they were in Paris]. All through the American
-Revolution they had been fast friends, familiarly calling each other
-'Tom' and 'Paul.'"
-
-Joseph Mazzini Wheeler: "Landor [Walter Savage] told my friend Mr. Birch
-of Florence that he particularly admired Paine, and that he visited him,
-having first obtained an interview at the house of General Dumouriez
-[the most famous general of the Revolution]. Landor declared that Paine
-was always called 'Tom,' not out of disrespect, but because he was a
-jolly good fellow."
-
-Lord Edward Fitzgerald (to his mother): "I lodge with my friend Paine
-[in Paris]; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The more I see of his
-interior the more I like and respect him. I cannot express how kind he
-is to me. There is a simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a
-strength of mind in him that I never knew a man before to possess."
-
-Lady Lucy Fitzgerald: "Although he [Lord Edward] was unsuccessful in the
-glorious attempt of liberating his country [Ireland] from slavery, still
-he was not unmindful of the lessons you taught him. Accept, then, his
-picture from his unhappy sister. Its place is in your house; my heart
-will be satisfied with such a Pantheon: it knows no consolation but the
-approbation of such men as you, and the soothing recollection that he
-did his duty and died faithful to the cause of liberty."
-
-Zachariah Wilkes: "Let me tell you what he did for me. I was arrested in
-Paris and condemned to die. I had no friend here; and it was at a time
-when no friend would have served me: Robespierre ruled. 'I am innocent!'
-I cried in desperation. 'I am innocent, so help me God! I am condemned
-for the offense of another.' I wrote a statement of my case with
-a pencil; thinking at first of addressing it to my judge, then of
-directing it to the president of the Convention."
-
-[Wilkes, who was an Englishman, had important business to transact which
-involved his honor and he could not bear the thought of dying with it
-unperformed. The jailer referred him to Paine, who, though a prisoner,
-had much influence with the authorities.]
-
-"He [Paine] examined me closer than my judge had done; he required my
-proofs. After a long time I satisfied him. He then said: 'The leaders of
-the Convention would rather have my life than yours. If by any means
-I can obtain your release on my own security, will you promise me to
-return in twenty days?'"
-
-Wilkes promised to return. Paine then obtained permission for him to
-leave the prison, guaranteeing his return and agreeing to take his
-place at the guillotine if he failed to do so. Wilkes kept his word. He
-returned to the prison, drawing from Paine the exclamation, "There is
-yet English blood in England!" Wilkes had been opposed to Paine both in
-politics and religion.
-
-Another instance of Paine's noble magnanimity is related by Dr. Conway:
-"This personage [Captain Grimstone, R. A.], during a dinner party at the
-Palais Egalite, got into a controversy with Paine, and, forgetting that
-the English Jove could not in Paris answer argument with thunder, called
-Paine a traitor to his country and struck him a violent blow. Death was
-the penalty for striking a deputy and Paine's friends were not unwilling
-to see the penalty inflicted on this stout young captain who had struck
-a man of fifty-six. Paine had much trouble in obtaining from Barrere,
-of the Committee of Public Safety, a passport out of the country for
-Captain Grimstone, whose traveling expenses were supplied by the man he
-had struck."
-
-Lady Smith: "If the usual style of gallantry was as clever as your 'New
-Covenant' [a beautiful poem by Paine addressed to Lady Smith] many a
-fair lady's heart would be in danger; but the Little Corner of the
-World [Lady Smith] receives it from the Castle in the Air [Paine]; it is
-agreeable to her as being the elegant fancy of a friend."
-
-Sir Robert and Lady Smith were Paine's most devoted English friends in
-Paris. When Paine was languishing in prison Lady Smith wrote him letters
-of cheer and comfort, signing herself "Little Corner of the World."
-
-Frederick Freeman: "He [Captain Rowland Crocker] had taken the great
-Napoleon by the hand; he had familiarly known Paine.... He remembered
-Paine as a well-dressed and most gentlemanly man, of sound and orthodox
-republican principles, of a good heart, a strong intellect, and a
-fascinating address."
-
-Among the many calumnies circulated against Paine is the charge that
-during his later years, after he wrote the "Age of Reason," he was, both
-in France and in America, a drunkard. This charge is false. Paine
-was one of the most temperate men of his time. Concerning his use of
-intoxicants in France his old friend Clio Rickman, who visited him
-in Paris, who was with him during his last day in that city, and who
-accompanied him to Havre when he sailed for America, says: "He did not
-drink spirits, and wine he took moderately; he even objected to any
-spirits being laid in as a part of his sea-stock."
-
-Hon. E. B. Washburne, who made a thorough investigation of Paine's
-career in France, bears the following testimony: "A somewhat extended
-study of the French Revolution during the extraordinary period in which
-Paine was so intimately connected with it, fails to show anything to the
-prejudice of his personal or political character."
-
-"Returned to the United States on the invitation of Jefferson in
-1802."--_Library of World's Best Literature_.
-
-Charles T. Sprading: "Jefferson offered him return passage from Europe
-on a United States man-of-war."
-
-National Intelligencer (Washington, Nov. 10, 1802): "Thomas Paine has
-arrived in this city and has received a cordial reception from the Whigs
-of Seventy-six and the Republicans of 1800."
-
-"He was cordially received by the President, Thomas Jefferson. He also
-visited the heads of the departments."--_Boston Post_.
-
-Philadelphia Aurora, Washington Correspondent of (November 26, 1802):
-"His address is unaffected and unceremonious. He neither shuns nor
-courts observation. At table he enjoys what is good with the appetite
-of temperance and vigor, and puts to shame his calumniators by the
-moderation with which he partakes of the common beverage of the
-boarders.... I am proud to find a man whose political writings upon the
-whole have never been equaled, and whom I have admired on that account,
-free from the contamination of debauchery and habits of inebriety which
-have been so grossly and falsely sent abroad concerning him."
-
-Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, M. C. (Washington, Dec. 11, 1802): "At Mr.
-Gallatin's I saw for the first time the celebrated Thomas Paine. We had
-some conversation before dinner and we sat side by side at the table....
-This extraordinary man contributed exceedingly much to entertain the
-company."
-
-Albert Gallatin was at this time Secretary of the Treasury. Referring to
-this period, including all the remaining years of his life, Conway
-says: "Paine's defamers have manifested an eagerness to ascribe his
-maltreatment to personal faults. This is not the case.... He was neat
-in his attire. In all portraits, French and American, his dress is in
-accordance with the fashion. There was not, so far as I can discover, a
-suggestion while he was at Washington, that he was not a suitable guest
-for any drawing-room in the capital."
-
-Gilbert Vale, next to Dr. Conway, one of Paine's best biographers, says:
-"Mr. Paine was as much esteemed in his private life as in his public.
-He was a welcome visitor to the tables of the most distinguished
-citizens.... He possessed every prominent virtue in large proportions,
-and to these he added the most social qualities."
-
-Annie Cary Morris: "Mr. Jefferson, it was said, received him warmly,
-dined him at the White House, and could be seen walking arm in arm with
-him on the street any fine afternoon."
-
-"The author [Paine] was for some days a guest in the President's
-family."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-In his old age Paine received the following, one of many similar
-assurances of Jefferson's affection: "That you may live long to continue
-your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations,
-is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances of my high esteem and
-affectionate attachment."
-
-"Jefferson's dearest friend," says Albert Payson Terhune, "was Thomas
-Paine."
-
-Albert Badeau: "My mother [in whose mother's family, prominent and
-wealthy residents of New Rochelle, Paine boarded for a time during
-his later years] would never tolerate the aspersions on Mr. Paine.
-She declared steadfastly to the end of her life that he was a
-perfect gentleman, and a most faithful friend, amiable, gentle,
-never intemperate in eating or drinking. My mother declared that my
-grandmother equally pronounced the disparaging reports about Mr. Paine
-slanders. I never remembered to have seen my mother angry except when
-she heard such calumnies of Mr. Paine, when she would almost insult
-those who uttered them. My mother and grandmother were very religious,
-members of the Episcopal church."
-
-The handsome monument erected to Paine at New Rochelle is said to have
-been suggested by Mrs. Badeau.
-
-D. Burger (one of Paine's acquaintances at New Rochelle, who often took
-him out riding): "Mr. Paine was really abstemious, and when pressed to
-drink by those on whom he called during his rides he usually refused
-with great firmness, but politely."
-
-D. M. Bennett of New York, writing forty years ago, says: "I have
-conversed with Major A. Coutant and Mr. Barker of New Rochelle, now
-very far advanced in life, but who distinctly remember Mr. Paine. They
-remember him as a pleasant, genial man, who lived on good terms with his
-neighbors and was not known to ever have been intoxicated." Judge J. B.
-Stallo, Minister to Italy during President Cleveland's administration,
-told Dr. Conway "that in early life he visited the place [New Rochelle]
-and saw persons who had known Paine, and who declared that Paine resided
-there without fault."
-
-Judge Tabor: "I was an associate editor of the New York _Beacon_ with
-Col. John Fellows, then (1836) advanced in years but retaining all the
-vigor and fire of his manhood. He was a ripe scholar, a most agreeable
-companion, and had been the correspondent and friend of Jefferson,
-Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams, under all of whom he held a
-responsible office. One of his productions was dedicated, by permission,
-to Adams and was republished and favorably received in England. Colonel
-Fellows was the soul of honor and inflexible in his adhesion to
-truth. He was intimate with Paine during the whole time he lived after
-returning to this country, and boarded for a year in the same house with
-him. I also was acquainted with Judge Herttell of New York city, a man
-of wealth and position, being a member of the New York Legislature, both
-in the Senate and Assembly, and serving likewise on the judicial bench.
-Like Colonel Fellows he was an author and a man of unblemished life and
-irreproachable character. These men assured me of their own knowledge
-derived from constant personal intercourse during the last seven years
-of Paine's life that he never kept any company but what was entirely
-respectable, and that all accusations of drunkenness were grossly
-untrue. They saw him under all circumstances and _knew_ that he was
-never intoxicated. Nay, more, they said for that day he was even
-abstemious."
-
-W. J. Hilton (1877): "It is over twenty years ago that professionally
-I made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom, a justice of the peace of
-Rensselaer county, New York. He was then over seventy years of age and
-had the reputation of being a man of candor and integrity. He was a
-great admirer of Paine. He told me that he was personally acquainted
-with him and used to see him frequently during the last years of his
-life in the city of New York, where Hogeboom then resided. I asked him
-if there was any truth in the charge that Paine was in the habit of
-getting drunk. He said that it was utterly false; that he never heard of
-such a thing during the lifetime cf Mr. Paine and did not believe anyone
-else did."
-
-Mr. Lovet (Proprietor of City Hotel, New York): "Paine boarded for a
-time at my hotel. He drank the least of all my boarders."
-
-Gilbert Vale says: "We know more than twenty persons who were more or
-less acquainted with Mr. Paine, and not one of whom ever saw him in
-liquor." "We know that he was not only temperate in after life, but even
-abstemious."
-
-"He was accused of offenses he had never committed and of conduct
-impossible to him."--_Library of the World's Best Literature_.
-
-"That he was a very likeable man is shown... by the prediction of the
-brilliant Home Tooke that whoever should be at a certain dinner party,
-Paine would be sure to say the best things said; and by the friendships
-he made so easily. In middle age, at least, he was fastidious in
-his dress, inclined to elegance in his manners, and attractive in
-looks."--_Ibid_.
-
-"There are eleven original portraits of Thomas Paine, besides a death
-mask, a bust, and the profile copied in this [Conway's] work.... In all
-of the original portraits of Paine his dress is neat and in accordance
-with fashion."--_Dr. Conway_.
-
-The foregoing testimonials regarding Paine's personal appearance and
-dress are equally true of his old age. The Jarvis painting, executed
-when he was an old man of sixty-seven, is a mute witness to this. This
-portrait is that of a handsome, temperate, well-preserved man. It is
-of itself a standing refutation of the slanders of his defamers, and
-especially of the charge that he was addicted to drunkenness in his old
-age.
-
-Aaron Burr: "I always considered Mr. Paine a gentleman, a pleasant
-companion, and a good-natured and intelligent man, _decidedly
-temperate_."
-
-Regarding another base calumny, Dr. Conway says: "During Paine's life
-the world heard no hint of sexual immorality connected with him,
-but after his death Cheetham published [in his 'Life of Paine'] the
-following: 'Paine brought with him from Paris, and from her husband in
-whose house he had lived, Margaret Brazier Bonneville, and her three
-sons. Thomas has the features, countenance, and temper of Paine.'"
-Madame Bonneville was a lady of unblemished character, educated,
-cultured and refined. For this vile insinuation its author, a
-disreputable publisher of New York, who boasted of having nine libel
-suits pending against him at one time, was pronounced guilty of slander
-by a jury composed mostly of Christians.
-
-Counsellor Sampson (Cheetham's prosecutor): "It is argued that
-everything should be intended to favor the defendant, who has written
-so godly a work against the prince of deists and for the Holy Gospel....
-His book, a godly book--a vile obscene, and filthy compilation, which
-bears throughout the character of rancorous malice!"
-
-Commenting on this case, Ellery Sedgwick, the able editor of the
-_Atlantic Monthly_, in his Beacon biography of Paine, says: "The
-evidence which her (Madame Bonneville's) lawyers adduced at the trial
-was conclusive, and the jury found Cheetham guilty; but Judge Hoffman,
-with casuistry worthy of his version of Christianity, held that Mr.
-Cheetham, while guilty of libel, had written a very useful book in
-favor of religion, and fixed the damages at the modest sum of $150. Thus
-sheltered, Cheetham's lies grew into history."
-
-Some years ago the evangelist, Rev. Dr. R. A. Torrey, while in England,
-made a brutal attack upon Paine's character, repeating the slanders
-that have been circulated against him. W. T. Stead, the noted editor and
-publisher of the _Review of Reviews_, London, who later perished on
-the ill-fated Titanic, in his magazine defended Paine and refuted the
-slanders of Torrey. Of the Madame Bonneville slander he says:
-
-"The 'commonly believed outrageous action' [quoting Torrey] of Thomas
-Paine in living with another man's wife was shown to have been the
-kindly hospitality shown by an old man of sixty-seven to the refugee
-family of his French benefactor. The only man who had ever imputed a
-shadow of obloquy to Paine in this connection went into the witness-box
-after Paine's death and solemnly swore that there was no foundation for
-his calumny."
-
-The basis of this calumny was one of the many noble acts of Paine's
-life. When it became known that Napoleon had designs against the
-liberties of France, and was planning to elevate himself to power, Paine
-and Bonneville opposed him. Concerning the results of this rupture Stead
-quotes from Conway as follows:
-
-"In return Bonaparte suppressed Bonneville's paper, threw Bonneville
-into prison and placed Paine in surveillance. Afterwards by the
-intervention of the American minister Paine was permitted to leave the
-country. Bonneville was forbidden to quit France. A year after Paine
-crossed the Atlantic Madame Bonneville with her children escaped to
-America.... So far from Paine having taken Bonneville's wife away from
-her husband, he did everything to induce Napoleon to free Bonneville
-from surveillance and to allow him to rejoin his wife in New York."
-
-Stead finally forced Torrey to eat his words and to make the following
-retraction: "It is the obligation of those who make the charges to prove
-them, and to my mind this particular charge against Paine has not been
-proven."
-
-M. and Madame Bonneville had befriended Paine, had invited him to their
-home where for years he enjoyed their hospitality. When Bonneville was
-imprisoned and impoverished and his family reduced to penury, Paine
-would have been a base ingrate had he not befriended them.
-
-Dr. Lucy Waite: "The one circumstance in the life of Thomas Paine that
-to my mind more than any other reflects credit upon him as a man,
-has been made the target of the most bitter attacks against him--his
-relations to Madame Bonneville.... His detractors would no doubt have
-considered it a more 'moral' act if he had sent them to the poor-farm
-instead of to his own farm at New Rochelle; but to the everlasting
-credit of this great man he defied the town gossips, and made them
-comfortable in his own home."
-
-Slanders concerning Paine's marital troubles have been published. He
-was married twice before coming to America, in 1759 to Mary Lambert, who
-died, and in 1771 to Elizabeth Olive, from whom he was separated. The
-separation was by mutual consent and nothing discreditable to either
-party was alleged. As to the cause of the separation all that is known,
-or rather surmised, is stated in McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, an
-Orthodox authority: "His first wife had died about a year after
-their marriage; he lived about three years with his second, when they
-separated by mutual consent, it is said, on account of her physical
-disability."
-
-Paine's subsequent treatment of his wife was in the highest degree
-honorable. He had but little property, but what he had he gave to her.
-Regarding his conduct in this matter Clio Rickman, his most intimate
-friend in England, and a highly honorable man, bears this testimony:
-
-"This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke tenderly and
-respectfully of his wife; and sent her several times pecuniary aid,
-without her knowing even whence it came."
-
-Concerning this slander W. T. Stead says: "No one even among Paine's
-worst libelers suggests that she had any reason of complaint against
-him." One of Paine's calumniators, "Francis Oldys" (George Chalmers), a
-pretended biographer of Paine whose statements are nearly all false or
-misleading, says that while he was an excise officer he bought smuggled
-tobacco and was dismissed from the service for the offense. This
-statement is false. Dr. Conway says:
-
-"I have before me the minutes of the Board concerning Paine, and there
-is no hint whatever of any such accusation."
-
-Falsehoods generally grow rather than diminish with age, and now we are
-told that Paine himself was a smuggler and was dismissed for smuggling.
-The Excise laws were the most odious laws in England, odious alike to
-the people and to the excise officers, who were underpaid (fifty pounds
-a year) and otherwise mistreated. Paine espoused the cause of his
-fellow excisemen and in a memorial addressed to Parliament pleaded for
-a redress of their grievances. His activity in this matter offended
-the Government and a trivial irregularity commonly practiced by the
-excisemen was made a pretext for his dismissal.
-
-The Everyman Encyclopedia: "Became an excise officer, but agitating for
-the removal of grievances, was dismissed from the service."
-
-Had Paine been discharged for any dishonest or immoral act Franklin
-would have known it and would not have recommended him as "a worthy
-young man."
-
-Paine's dismissal was for him, for England, for America and for the
-world one of the most fortunate things that ever occurred. His loss of
-the excise office which occurred in April, 1774, took him to America in
-November of the same year. The independence of the United States and the
-agitation in behalf of popular government throughout the civilized world
-followed as a result.
-
-Rev. Willet Hicks, a Quaker minister, who was with Paine when he died,
-testified that emissaries of the church tried to bribe him to slander
-Paine. He says: "I could have had any sums if I would have said anything
-against Thomas Paine, or if even I would have consented to remain
-silent. They informed me that the doctor was willing to say something
-that would satisfy them if I would engage to be silent. Mr. Paine was a
-good man--an honest man."
-
-Rev. G. H. Humphrey: "He was honest. Nor was he uncharitable. He
-abstained from profanity and rebuked it in others."
-
-Boston Post (Jan. 29, 1856): "Calumny has blistered her relentless hand
-in trying to stamp him as profane, intemperate and mendacious. The
-real truth appears to be that he was never habituated to profanity,
-to drunkenness, nor to falsehood; and that his calumniators are
-unconsciously his eulogists."
-
-The Manchester _Guardian_, probably the most influential journal in
-the British empire, outside of London, says that while the popular
-conception of Paine is that of a blatant and immoral demagogue he was
-noted by his companions "for his shyness, his benevolence, and his
-gentleness." Joel Barlow, who saw much of him, both in London and Paris,
-as well as in America, says: "He was one of the most benevolent and
-disinterested of mankind." "He was always charitable to the poor beyond
-his means." Clio Rickman, most intimate of all his associates, says:
-"He was mild, unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble and unassuming." Dr.
-Bond, who was imprisoned with him in the Luxembourg, says: "He was the
-most conscientious man I ever knew." James Parton says: "He loved the
-truth for its own sake; and he stood by what he conceived to be the
-truth when all around him reviled it." Ellery Sedgwick says: "The goal
-which he sought was the happiness of his fellow-men."
-
-Hon. George W. Julian, the first Antislavery nominee for Vice-President,
-one of the founders of the Republican party, and for many years a
-distinguished leader in Congress, says: "Paine was a perfectly unselfish
-and incorruptible patriot; he was a philanthropist in the best sense of
-the word; he was a man of the rarest intelligence and moral courage."
-
-Charles Watts of England says: "Thomas Paine had a generous and
-affectionate nature, a mind superior to fear and selfish interests; a
-mind governed by the principles of uniform rectitude and integrity; a
-mind the same in prosperity and adversity; a mind which no bribe could
-seduce and no terror overawe."
-
-Eva Ingersoll Brown: "Thomas Paine was one of the mental and moral
-giants of his time. He ranked among the foremost of his age. He was
-royal in rectitude, kingly in compassion, sovereign in sympathy. His
-reverence for truth and justice was sublime; his love of mercy and his
-ardor for liberty were unsurpassed.... His was a religion untainted
-by touch of dogma or of sect; a thing stainless and pure; of wondrous
-beauty and grandeur."
-
-While the orthodox clergy, with a few noble exceptions, have been,
-to their overlasting shame, mainly responsible for the ignorance
-and prejudice that have prevailed concerning Thomas Paine, Liberal
-ministers, many of them, to their eternal honor, have braved public
-sentiment and dared to do him justice. In an address more than fifty
-years ago the Rev. Moncure D. Conway paid this tribute to the moral
-character of Thomas Paine: "In his life, in his justice, in his truth,
-in his adherence to high principles, I look in vain for a parallel in
-those times and in these times. I am selecting my words. I know I am to
-be held accountable for them." Rev. Theodore Parker says: "I think
-he did more to promote piety and morality among men than a hundred
-ministers of that age in America."
-
-Prof. L. F. Laybarger: "Great was Thomas Paine intellectually, morally
-he was greater."
-
-Col. E. A. Stevens: "May Americans long appreciate the genius and
-reverence the virtues of their noble benefactor, for he left them a
-legacy greater than his works--the contemplation of his high-souled,
-unselfish character."
-
-Every person who has charged Paine with immorality has either invented
-a falsehood or repeated one. The character of Paine; was as blameless as
-that of Washington. Both men, in their last days, were bitterly assailed
-by political enemies. With their deaths political censure, for the most
-part, ceased. But Paine's religious opinions were not forgotten, and
-could not be forgiven. His "Age of Reason" continued to be read, and
-remained unanswered, because unanswerable. What "Common Sense" had
-done to kingcraft in America the "Age of Reason" promised to do to
-priestcraft throughout the world. In her desperation the church seized
-her only available weapon, slander. Every inventor of a calumny against
-Paine was hailed as a defender of the faith. Unscrupulous biographers
-and historians, like Cheetham and McMaster, to curry favor with the
-church, have recorded these calumnies as facts; and others, accepting
-these writers as reliable authorities, have innocently repeated them.
-Many who have acknowledged Paine's services to mankind have felt
-compelled to apologize for his supposed errors. Sir Leslie Stephen, who
-had accepted some of these charges, thus frankly admits that he had been
-deceived: "I regret to say that I had accepted certain charges against
-Paine's character, which Mr. Conway has shown to rest upon worse than
-suspicious evidence.... I fully admit that I was entirely misled by a
-hasty reliance upon worthless testimony." (_History of English Thought
-in the Eighteenth Century, 3rd ed., vol. ii, p. 261, note._)
-
-William H. Burr: "While the corpse of the philanthropist lay cooling in
-the ground the English Tory Cheetham wrote a biography full of malignity
-and detraction."
-
-Cheetham had a double motive in writing his Life of Paine--revenge and
-gain. He was an Englishman and had been an ardent Republican. But he had
-betrayed his party and as a result of this he and Paine became engaged
-in a bitter controversy. Paine's punishment of the renegade was
-terrible. His wounds still smarting when his adversary died, Cheetham
-wreaked his vengeance by writing a book in which he presented as facts
-all the calumnies that Paine's political and religious enemies had
-circulated concerning him, supplemented by all that his own malignant
-mind could invent. Realizing that his career in America was ended he had
-decided to return to England and the book, he believed, would win for
-him the favor and patronage of England's two most powerful institutions,
-the Tory Government and the Orthodox Church.
-
-"When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubtless was, disappointed
-and a renegade, with talents, as he certainly possessed, but embittered
-in feelings and regardless of truth, as all circumstances contribute to
-show--what could be expected from such a man but just what he produced,
-a Life of Paine abounding in bold falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and
-addressed to a people who wished to be deceived."--_Gilbert Vale_.
-
-"Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written."--_Dr.
-Conway_.
-
-"We have no hesitation in saying that we knew perfectly well at the time
-the motives of that author [Cheetham] for writing and publishing a work,
-which, we have every reason to believe, is a libel almost from beginning
-to end."--_Rev. Solomon Southwick._
-
-Eighteen years prior to the appearance of Cheetham's book George
-Chalmers, an English writer, under the pseudonymn of "Francis Oldys,"
-backed by the friends of the English Tory government and for a
-consideration, it is claimed, of L500, to counteract the influence
-of the "Rights of Man" which was threatening to overthrow monarchy in
-England, wrote a pretended biography of Paine filled with slander and
-vituperation. Referring to this book and the corrupt English political
-and religious age in which it was written, Edward Smith, an English
-author, writing nearly a century later, characterizes it as "one of the
-most horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced."
-
-Excepting Cheetham and Chalmers, all of the biographers of
-Paine--Conway, Vale, Rickman, Sedgwick, Sherwin, Blanchard, Linton and
-others--have endeavored to do him justice. But Cheetham's and Chalmer's
-books have been the arsenals where the orthodox of England and America
-have gone for their weapons with which to attack the author of the "Age
-of Reason." Not only have they tried to suppress Paine's book, they have
-tried to banish from the public library and book-store every work that
-has appeared in defense of it or its author. For three-quarters of a
-century the only biographies of Paine to be found in the London library
-were those of Cheetham and Chalmers; the only one to be found in the
-public libraries of America was that of Cheetham. Is it any wonder,
-then, that nearly all the pictures of Paine, even those drawn by
-friendly hands, to be found in our histories, biographical dictionaries,
-encyclopedias and other works, should be largely caricatures?
-
-One of the foulest of these caricatures is that drawn by the historian
-John Bach McMaster. For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no
-excuse can be offered. The plea of ignorance of Paine's true character
-and history cannot be urged in his behalf. He had before him the
-authentic records of Paine's career, in America, at least. He knew
-that his statements were untruthful and unjust. His tirade of abuse is
-seemingly for the sole purpose of securing for his books the endorsement
-of the clerical bigots who dominate our schools and colleges.
-
-Louisa Harding: "One would imagine that even the religious bigot would
-know that he [McMaster] drew for us the picture of a great man, looming
-up tall and wide behind the chronicler who strove to pull him down....
-In the course of a careful, impartial investigation of the various
-lives of, and articles on, Paine, it became necessary to resort to
-the explanation of blinding religious prejudice; and that, too, having
-failed to fit the case, there seems to be no recourse save to use a
-shorter, uglier word--John Bach McMaster _lies_."
-
-A little while ago a prominent American, misled by Paine's calumniators
-and too proud to retract it when the error was called to his
-attention, applied to the author-hero the brutal epithet "filthy little
-Atheist"--three falsehoods in three words, for Paine was neither filthy,
-little, nor an Atheist.
-
-    [See the works of President Theodore Roosevelt for
-    this quotation of his opinion of Thomas Paine.  DW]
-
-"Every syllable of that characterization is a shameful
-falsehood."--_William M. Salter, A.M._
-
-"One of the most transparently false and indefensible slanders that ever
-came from lip or pen."--_J. P. Bland, B. D._
-
-"Was he filthy? He was the friend and associate of Washington and
-Franklin. He was a member of the most conspicuous philosophical society
-in the new world. He was associated with the most distinguished men
-of the philosophical circles of France. Was he little? He entered an
-intellectual combat with Edmund Burke, and won immortal renown. Was he
-little? He was big enough and mighty enough to make the throne of Great
-Britain tremble. Was he little? He was big enough to make in America as
-well as in France the cause of human liberty his debtor forever "--_Dr.
-John E. Roberts._
-
-Commenting on this slander the _Nation_ of England says: "After all,
-our feelings of resentment at such a brutality are assuaged by the
-reflection that whereas, this man, will in a quick generation sink to
-the obscurity from which a series of accidents lifted him for a few
-years, history will gradually set in its proper place among the makers
-of the Republic the memory of the man whom he defamed."
-
-"All this vilification is really the tribute that mediocrity pays to
-genius."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
-
-Walt Whitman: "Paine was double damnably lied about."
-
-"Anything lower, meaner, more contemptible, I cannot imagine, to take
-an aged man--a man tired to death after a complicated life of toil,
-struggle, anxiety--weak, dragged down, at death's door;... then to
-pull him into the mud, distort everything he does and says; oh, it's
-infamous."
-
-"Thomas Paine had a noble personality, as exhibited in presence,
-face, voice, dress, manner, and what may be called his atmosphere and
-magnetism, especially the later years of his life. I am sure of it. Of
-the foul and foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his
-decease, the absolute fact is that he lived a good life, after its kind;
-he died calmly and philosophically, as became him."
-
-Dr. Morrison Davidson: "He died as he lived, one of the grandest
-examples of intellectual piety, fidelity and rectitude that ever lived."
-
-New York Advertiser (June 9, 1809): "With heartfelt sorrow and poignant
-regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is
-no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to
-the cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any
-man's memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of
-the deceased, for,
-
-     "'Take him for all in all,
-     We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'"
-
-(Paine's remains were buried on his farm at New Rochelle. Ten years
-later, because of America's ingratitude and neglect, William Cobbett
-had his bones disinterred and sent to England. In connection with
-their reinterment he had planned a great popular demonstration. "When I
-return," he said, "I shall cause them to speak the common sense of
-the great man; I shall gather together the people of Liverpool and
-Manchester in one assembly with those of London, and those bones will
-effect the reformation of England in Church and State."
-
-Cobbett, probably waiting for a more opportune time, failed to carry out
-his cherished scheme. The bones of Paine reposed for nearly thirty
-years in their coffin and then disappeared. As late as 1854 a Unitarian
-clergyman claimed to have in his possession "the skull and the right
-hand of Thomas Paine.")
-
-"The skull and the right hand of Thomas Paine!" What priceless relics!
-Could they be found America should repossess them, place them in a
-casket of gold and preserve them in a shrine at her national capitol.
-Within that skull was conceived this great republic. That hand wrote the
-inspired volume which transformed a vague dream into a glorious reality.
-That hand, too, wrote two other immortal works which, slowly but surely,
-are effecting what Cobbett contemplated, "the reformation of England in
-Church and State."
-
-"His 'Rights of Man' is now the political constitution of England,
-his 'Age of Reason' is the growing constitution of its Church."--_Dr.
-Conway._
-
-"As to his bones, no man knows the place of their rest to this day. His
-principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown
-about the world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no
-human being has been born in the civilized world without some spiritual
-tincture from that heart whose every pulse was for humanity, whose
-last beat broke a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of
-thrones."--_Ibid._
-
-Rev. Charles Wendt, DD.: "A much abused name."
-
-Rev. O. B. Frothingham: "No private character has been more foully
-calumniated in the name of God than that of Thomas Paine."
-
-"No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or
-cold-blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful
-instance of public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine experienced
-from an age and country which he had so faithfully served."--_Rev.
-Solomon Southwick_.
-
-Referring to Paine, the Boston _Herald_ says: "It has, perhaps, never
-fallen to the lot of any really great man to be so traduced in his
-lifetime, and, after the grave has closed over him, to have his
-memory so weighted down with obloquy of unsparing critics." Mrs.
-Bradlaugh-Bonner of England, daughter of Charles Bradlaugh, one of
-England's noted orators and statesmen, says: "Paine's politics were
-politics for the people, and the people were taught to deny him; his
-ideal religion was 'the Religion of Humanity,' and humanity would not
-even grant him a grave." Col. Ingersoll says: "I challenge the world
-to show that Thomas Paine ever wrote one line, one word in favor of
-tyranny--in favor of immorality; one line, one word against what he
-believed to be for the highest and best interests of mankind; one
-line, one word against justice, charity or liberty; and yet he has been
-pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell."
-
-Harriet Law: "There are few to whom the world owes more, and probably
-none to whose memory it has been more ungrateful."
-
-Edward D. Mead: "There is no other man in our religious or political
-history who has been the victim of such misrepresentation, of such
-persistent obloquy, as Thomas Paine."
-
-"As we go back into the Dark Ages we read of the horrible atrocities
-perpetrated in the name of religion, and this feeling had not yet passed
-away during the time that Thomas Paine lived."--_Admiral George W.
-Melville._
-
-Hon. Andrew D. White, LL. D.: "Great, and, indeed, cruel injustice
-was done him in his day, and has been continued in large measure ever
-since."
-
-Eastern Daily Press (England): "The fires still burn, although a hundred
-years have passed."
-
-"For more than a century his name has been as a touchstone revealing
-the unappeasable malevolence of men's intolerance."--_Mrs.
-Bradlaugh-Bonner._
-
-Kumar Krishna de Varma, L. T. O. (Bombay, India): "The Orthodox have
-always slandered the immortal author of the 'Age of Reason' and the
-'Rights of Man.'"
-
-Prof. Ernst Haeckel: "Thomas Paine, the immortal author of the
-celebrated books, 'Age of Reason,' 'Common Sense,' 'Rights of Man,' and
-'Crisis,' belongs to those meritorious Truththinkers who during their
-lifetime were not accorded the honor and acknowledgment that they well
-merited. The traditional historians of schoolbooks not only neglected
-him for many years but deliberately maligned and slandered him."
-
-"Religious bigots have done all in their power to defame his character
-and rob him of the laurels with which we crown him to-day."--_Elizabeth
-Cady Stanton_.
-
-D. M. Bennett: "Does a man with such a brilliant career, one having made
-such a magnificent record, and one to whom the world owes far more
-than it can ever pay, deserve to have his name maligned, his memory
-blackened, and all his actions and motives belied and misrepresented? Is
-it honorable? Is it manly? Is it just?"
-
-Helen H. Gardener: "So long as a man, whether he be layman, bishop,
-cardinal or pope, is willing to bear false witness against his neighbor,
-whether that neighbor be living or dead, just so long will all the blood
-of all the Redeemers of all the nations of the earth be unable to wash
-his soul white enough to place it beside that of the patriot hero,
-Thomas Paine."
-
-William T. Stead: "Paine and Ingersoll are assailed by the same weapons,
-subjected to the same aspersions, and misrepresented in the same
-merciless fashion as He [Christ] was assailed and misrepresented by the
-orthodox of his time.... If it is right to treat Paine and Ingersoll
-in this harsh, carping, uncharitable, malevolent fashion, then it is
-equally right to apply it to the founder of the faith."
-
-Elmina Drake Slenker: "And this mild work, the 'Age of Reason,' is the
-real cause of all the cruel calumnies that the world has circulated
-about the hero, the scholar, the philosopher, the scientist, the
-inventor, the humanitarian, Thomas Paine."
-
-Lillian Leland: "Paine... had ideals of intellectual and religious
-freedom, and was flung down from the pedestal of honor, broken, cast
-off and ostracized for venturing to criticise the received forms of
-religion."
-
-"The replies to Thomas Paine," says George W. Foote of London, "were the
-work of Christian ruffians. Bishop Watson was the only one who attempted
-to answer Paine's arguments. The others only called him names;
-apparently on the principle that to charge a Freethinker with
-drunkenness and profligacy is the shortest and easiest way of proving
-that the Bible is the Word of God."
-
-George E. Macdonald of New York, says: "The strongest defense of the
-Bible against the 'Age of Reason' was the allegation that Paine drank
-brandy, although the Bible commends liquor drinking and the ministers of
-that period were unrestricted in their potations."
-
-"Around New Rochelle, where Thomas Paine lived, and where this myth
-about his drunkenness has its geography, there were deacons by the dozen
-who were drinking regularly more than Thomas Paine ever drank, without
-in the slightest degree affecting their religious reputation. I speak of
-these things, which I have investigated, because I feel so strongly the
-wrong which has been done to this man."--_Edward D. Mead._
-
-Gilbert Vale: "Could the 'Age of Reason' and 'Rights of Man' have been
-replied to as he replied to Burke we should have never heard these
-slanders."
-
-William Ware Cotter:
-
-     "Let libelers' gall-envenomed tongues
-     Make bitter every word they speak;
-     Time will disclose the patriot's wrongs
-     And blanch with shame the slanderer's cheek."
-
-
-
-
-TESTIMONIALS AND TRIBUTES.
-
-M. Coupe: "Faithful friend of liberty."
-
-M. Courtois: "He has labored to found liberty in two worlds."
-
-Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.: "Thomas Paine in England and America and
-Thomas Jefferson in America became the chanticleers of liberty."
-
-Hon. John J. Ingalls: "Paine was one of the great apostles of human
-liberty, and did much to emancipate mankind from the shackles of ancient
-prejudice and error."
-
-"A warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human
-race."--_Samuel Adams._
-
-Prof. Lester F. Ward, LL.D.: "Thanks to Paine and other great reformers,
-we have emerged from the condition where the political struggle is the
-main issue. In other words political liberty has been attained."
-
-T. J. Bowles, M. D.: "At the close of the eighteenth century it dawned
-upon the minds of the immortal Paine, Jefferson and Franklin that all
-men are created equal, and this conception born in the minds of this
-trinity of saviors made the nineteenth century the most marvelous and
-the happiest period in the history of the world."
-
-Earl John Francis Stanley Russell: "A great reformer and an illustrious
-heretical pioneer."
-
-"His name stands for mental freedom and moral courage."--_George W.
-Foote_.
-
-"Thomas Paine was a heroic innovator. He said what he thought and he
-meant what he said."--_Rev. George Burman Foster_.
-
-John Wesley Jarvis: "He devoted his whole life to the attainment of two
-objects--rights of man and freedom of conscience."
-
-Prof. H. M. Kottinger, A. M.: "Thomas Paine fought as courageously for
-religious liberty as he did for civil liberty."
-
-"I dare not say how much of what our Union is owing and enjoying
-to-day--its independence--its ardent belief in, and substantial practice
-of, radical human rights--and the severance of its government from all
-ecclesiastical and superstitious dominions--I dare not say how much of
-all this is owing to Thomas Paine, but I am inclined to think a good
-portion of it decidedly is."--_Walt. Whitman_.
-
-"It was his clear head and brave and righteous soul that inspired the
-men who declared our independence, and put into the Constitution of
-the United States such a veto against ecclesiastical domination as has
-defied its proud and conceited usurpation to the present day."--_Elizur
-Wright_.
-
-H. Lee-Warner: "Its [Thetford's] great man who taught the world to
-respect the right of free-thought."
-
-(The one hundredth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine was observed
-at his birthplace. The mayor of Thetford presided, and four members of
-the British Parliament delivered eulogistic addresses.)
-
-George Anderson: "One of the noblest Freethinkers in the world's
-history.
-
-"Paine is the idol of Freethinkers. He is enthroned in our hearts
-because he gave his life to freedom."--_L. K. Washburn._
-
-"In both worlds he offered his blood for the good of man. In the
-wilderness of America, in the French Convention, in the sombre cell
-awaiting death, he was the same unflinching, unwavering friend of his
-race; the same undaunted champion of freedom."--_Ingersoll._
-
-Martin L. Bunge: "I owe much to Thomas Paine. His words have guided me
-in my struggle for liberty and truth. The more I study him the more I
-love the human race."
-
-Isador Ladoff: "Freethought was to him not a mere attitude of mind, but
-a philosophy of life and action."
-
-Prof. M. N. Wright: "He will always stand as an illustrious example of
-that higher reverence, that diviner faith of the incoming religion--a
-religion based in the common wants of a common humanity."
-
-William Marion Reedy: "He glorified common sense.... He is one of the
-chief saints of the Church of Man."
-
-Rev. Paul Jordan Smith: "When Thomas Paine first saw the light of day it
-was the custom of certain disciples of peace and good will to beat and
-burn the man who wanted to think.... And down the days that since
-have passed it has been the fashion of the blatant orthodox to cry,
-'Infidel!' 'Infidel!' at the man who said: 'Any system of religion that
-shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.' 'The world is my
-country; to do good my religion.'"
-
-Robert Blatchford: "Paine left Moses and Isaiah centuries behind when he
-wrote: 'The world is my country; to do good my religion.'"
-
-Stoughton Cooley: "One of the most devoted spirits in the cause of
-liberty."
-
-East Anglian Daily Times: "The Rights of Man' and the 'Age of Reason'
-may have scandalized orthodox opinion, but their author was never
-engaged in any but a generous and noble cause, that had complete
-personal liberty for its sole object and aim."
-
-"They [Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine] were alike in making bitter
-enemies of the priests and pharisees of their day. Both were honest men;
-both advocates of human liberty."--_Thomas Jefferson._
-
-J. C. Hannon: "Liberty, hunted around the globe, has ever found its
-highest hope, its safest refuge, in the affections of those upon whose
-grand and noble foreheads the tyrants of the world have ever branded
-the indelible stigma of Infidelity. Thomas Paine, who has done more for
-human liberty than any other man who ever lived, has borne it with a
-grace amounting to sublimity."
-
-Dr. J. B. Wilson: "Towering spires, blazing altars, jeweled palaces, and
-golden thrones had awed and subdued the Eastern nations for all time.
-It remained for Thomas Paine, standing upon the shores of this western
-world, to tear away the blinds of superstition, hypocrisy, selfishness,
-and imperial pretense, and awaken mankind to a consciousness of its own
-power and capacity for self-government."
-
-Walter Holloway: "Age after age men have struggled toward the ideal,
-with toil and tears, praying in their pain, sobbing out their sorrows in
-the half-light of hope, forever beaten back from the coveted goal. Wise
-men long ago saw that the gods must be dethroned and the government
-of earth given into the hands of men. That was the passionate dream of
-Thomas Paine."
-
-M. Felix Rabbe: "Thomas Paine has suffered the fate of all those who,
-listening only to their conscience of honest manhood, solely attentive
-to the voices of Nature and Reason, raised principles above all
-considerations of frontiers, parties, sects, and sacrificed without
-hesitation the mean calculations of a temporizing policy to the higher
-interests of eternal justice."
-
-"The world has had few such men, those who divest themselves of selfish
-motives of gain or pride and are willing to suffer obloquy and poverty
-for a conviction."--_Edward C. Wentworth_.
-
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton.: "We cannot be too grateful to those who through
-poverty, persecution, imprisonment, and death have given us the light
-of science in the place of blind faith on questions of government,
-religion, and social life. Thomas Paine is a worthy name in the long
-line of martyrs to liberal political and religious principles."
-
-"Poor, abused, maligned, hated and persecuted, Paine stood alone in the
-ocean of superstition, ignorance and prejudice as the Liberty Statue
-of religious thought while the waves of malice, ostracism and anathema
-lashed against his kind and manly brow."--_Rev. David W. Bash._
-
-Rev. Dr. Thomas Slicer: "The progress of the world in political and
-religious liberty will be written in the estimates that the world has
-learned to take of Thomas Paine during the hundred years since he fell
-into an unnoticed grave."
-
-"Thomas Paine made it impossible to write the history of human liberty
-with his name left out. He was one of the creators of light. He was one
-of the heralds of the dawn."--_Col. R. G. Ingersoll._
-
-"I enjoy myself when I think how free I am, and I thank this man for it.
-When I think of that the whole horizon is full of glory, and joy comes
-to me in every ray of sunshine and every rustle of the winds."--_Ibid._
-
-James F. Morton, Jr.:
-
-     "Since time began,
-     No greater prophet faced the savage ban
-     Of priest and king."
-
-Rev. David W. Bush: "How unwise to deny myself the companionship of one
-of the greatest, bravest, most self-sacrificing men of all time because
-he has written things I cannot accept."
-
-Pearl W. Geer: "This is the beauty of Free-thought--the glory of
-Infidelity. We recognize good in everything where good is to be found.
-While we do not accept all of Thomas Paine's ideas we recognize in him
-the greatest man the world has ever known."
-
-"There is not in Illinois a monument that stands as high as Abraham
-Lincoln; nor in Massachusetts as high as Ralph Waldo Emerson; nor in the
-world as high as Thomas Paine."--_L. K. Washburn_.
-
-     "The wisest, brightest, humblest son of earth."
-    --Clio Rickman.
-
-Rev. George Croly: "An impartial estimate of this remarkable man has
-been rarely formed and still more rarely expressed. He was assuredly one
-of the original men of the age in which he lived."
-
-Col. Charles Stedman (a Tory officer in the Revolution): "Thomas Paine
-has rendered his name famous on the theatre of Europe and of the world."
-
-Robert Shelton Mackenzie: "We cannot ignore the fact that he was one of
-the ablest politicians of his time and that liberal minds all over the
-world recognize him as such."
-
-"Washington recognized his practical insight, Napoleon picked him out
-from the crowd of 'ideaologues' and consulted him."--_London Times_.
-
-William Cobbett, one of the most notable figures in English politics,
-who, misled by Paine's enemies, had been one of his most violent
-assailants, thus frankly acknowledges his indebtedness to him: "Old age
-having laid his hand upon this truly great man, this truly philosophical
-politician, at his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper."
-
-Charles Bradlaugh: "He was a sturdy, true man. Though Norfolk born,
-not English, but human, and with nothing of geographical limit to that
-humanity. As a politician, or rather as a thinker on politics he stands
-for England as Jean Jacques Rousseau has stood for France. You on your
-side ought to reverence him for the timely words which gave form and
-reality to vague, unspoken thought. We, on our side, too, ought to honor
-him for the 'Rights of Man' yet to be wearisomely achieved."
-
-Atlantic Monthly: (July, 1859): "His career was wonderful, even for the
-age of miraculous events he lived in. In America he was a Revolutionary
-hero of the first rank, who carried letters in his pocket from George
-Washington, thanking him for his services. And he managed besides to
-write his radical name in large letters in the History of England and
-France."
-
-W. W. Bartlett: "He was undeniably preeminent among statesmen, and by
-his many-sidedness he succeeded in rousing the whole civilized world."
-
-Marshall J. Gauvin: "In honoring the memory of Thomas Paine we recognize
-and salute one of the greatest forces in history."
-
-"Other men have followed events; Paine actually created them.... he
-wanted a Declaration of Independence, and he produced the wish for
-it."--_Gilbert Vale._
-
-Hugh Byron Brown: "There are a few great men who, like milestones along
-the road of progress, are so distinguished and prominent, and who have
-so influenced the destinies of nations, as to mark an epoch in the
-world's history. Such a man was Thomas Paine."
-
-Michael Monahan: "One of the notables of history."
-
-Rev. E. M. Frank: "Thomas Paine was, in his time, one who stood in the
-forefront of human progress."
-
-Dr. Edward Bond Foote: "As Lincoln was the man for his time and place,
-so Paine fitted perfectly and filled remarkably the niche which history
-allotted to him."
-
-Horace L. Green: "Thomas Paine, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
-the glorious trinity of Independence."
-
-Eugene V. Debs: "The revolutionary history of the United. States and
-France stirred me deeply and its heroes and martyrs became my idols.
-Thomas Paine towered above them all."
-
-Knut Martin Teigen, M.D., Ph.D.: "Thomas Paine was, beyond all doubt, a
-true genius."
-
-Dr. John Walker (with Paine in France): "There can be no question
-that Paine was a man of the most gigantic genius and of the soundest
-practical knowledge."
-
-Joel Barlow, ambassador to France during Napoleon's reign, Paine's
-companion in London and Paris, and to whom he entrusted the manuscript
-of his "Age of Reason" when he was taken to prison, says: "Paine was
-endowed with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original
-genius, and the greatest depth of thought.... As a visiting acquaintance
-and literary friend, he was one of the most instructive men I have ever
-known."
-
-"He ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating
-luminaries of the age in which he lived."--_Ibid._
-
-"To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the
-earth."--_Horace Seaver._
-
-"One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place
-in her Hall of Fame."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen._
-
-Rev. Dr. L. M. Birkhead: "Paine in days to come will be considered one
-of the greatest men and statesmen the world has ever known."
-
-"I regard Thomas Paine as one of the greatest men the world has ever
-produced, and all ought to be proud that he belonged to our race."--_Sir
-Hiram Maxim._
-
-Glasgow Herald: "Paine was greater than he knew."
-
-"The two men who have left the richest heritage of thought and made the
-deepest imprint upon the minds of mankind for future ages,... Thomas
-Paine and Charles Darwin [Darwin was born in the year that Paine
-died], were in turn the Elijah and the Elisha of the eighteenth and the
-nineteenth centuries of the Christian era. One hundred years ago today
-Thomas Paine let fall his mantle of light upon the infant shoulders of
-Charles Darwin and vanished in a chariot of fire that shall blaze
-the trail of the seeker after truth from generation unto
-generation."--_Alden Freeman_.
-
-Edward G Wentworth: "Giordano Bruno was one of the world's martyrs who
-died for a cause. Thomas Paine was one of the world's martyrs who lived
-for a cause. Each has created an imperishable name."
-
-George Jacob Holyoake: "Paine was the most intrepid and influential
-Englishman that ever sprang from the ranks of the people."
-
-"The man who was the confidant of Burke, the counsellor of Franklin, and
-the friend and colleague of Washington, must have had great qualities."
-
-"He belongs to England. His fame is the property of England; and if no
-other people will show that they value that fame, the people of England
-will:"--_William Cobbett_.
-
-Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, LL. D.: "Great souls are the key-stones in the
-arches that unite the races.... German provincialism died when Lessing,
-Schiller, and Goethe were born. The insignificant island lost its
-insular character when Shakespeare wrote. The emaciated thirteen
-colonies became great when Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Jefferson
-spoke for them."
-
-Mohammed Ali Webb: "All educated Mohammedans know him. The intelligent
-Moslem places Thomas Paine among the world's admirable men and holds his
-memory in great reverence."
-
-U. Dhammaloka: "The Buddhist Tract Society of Burmah observed the
-one hundreth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine. We had large
-audiences. I myself [president of this society] spoke to an audience of
-about five thousand at a town in Upper Burmah."
-
-Kedarnath Basu (of India): "My countrymen are beginning to admire and
-revere the noble character of Thomas Paine."
-
-Yoshiro Oyama (Japan): "Thomas Paine was one of the greatest of the
-great men of the world."
-
-Francois Thane: "The French people would be proud to have his ashes rest
-in the Pantheon beside the grave of Voltaire."
-
-George Legg Henderson: "The time is not far distant when all the world
-will recognize in Thomas Paine the martyr, the hero, the man."
-
-Prof. A. L. Rawson, LL. D.: "More men like Paine are wanted, and will
-appear from time to time, until the whole human race has grown in
-intelligence, reason and taste."
-
-Judge Arnold Krekel, LL. D.: "Let us carry forward, then, the work in
-which the man we honor was so largely and so successfully engaged."
-
-Libby C. Macdonald: "The lips of Thomas Paine are still in death, but we
-can voice his principles through ours."
-
-"I commend the study of the life of Paine to the young men of
-today."--_Hon. William J. Gaynor._
-
-"Time will come when the problem of school education will be how to make
-good citizens of our boys and girls, and there are no better books for
-this purpose than those of Thomas Paine."--_John S. Crosby._
-
-"With the spirit of Thomas Paine in our hearts no despot, foreign or
-domestic, will ever be able to build his throne beside the grave of our
-liberty."--_Rev. Thomas B. Gregory._
-
-"Had the world but heeded the wise counsels of Thomas Paine, Europe
-would not now be drenched in blood."--_W. M. van der Weyde._
-
-Rev. J. Page Hopps: "Paine was a splendid radical prophet, and
-therefore, though a thoroughly practical man, was only a teacher and
-leader born too soon."
-
-Rev. Marie J. Howe: "Paine did not belong to the eighteenth century, but
-was only born in it. He belongs to this."
-
-Clarence Darrow: "Thomas Paine was so far beyond his age that a hundred
-years has not been long enough for the world to catch up. Sometime he
-will stand out as the wisest, truest, bravest friend of liberty that
-America can boast."
-
-Henry Gaylord Wilshire: "Paine was the greatest man this country has
-produced, and it is only a question of time when we will come to realize
-it."
-
-"Paine, being a genius, saw a vision of the future and the glories that
-should be. The herd did not, and we do not, but we shall some day."
-
-Rev. Robert J. Lockhart: "He was a light that shed a splendor whose
-origin no man could declare. He was greater than the times he lived in."
-
-Horace J. Bridges: "Some men are too great and too far ahead of
-their times to get justice at contemporary hands. Being too broad
-and impartial for any single party, they offend all parties, and are
-rejected and reviled by all. Such in England was the fate of Cromwell
-and Milton; and such in America has been the fate of Paine."
-
-Herbert N. Casson: "Paine was a man who did not belong to his time, a
-man who was far larger than the men among whom he lived. He was loaned,
-as it were, from a larger planet to this small one. And he was given to
-this country at a time when the country most needed a guide and a wise
-teacher in the cause of independence and truth."
-
-Rev. Dwight Galloupe, U. S. A.: "I am proud to speak the name of one
-who, in too many memories, lives only as an outcast and Ishmael among
-men--Thomas Paine. I cannot forget that when all was dark his eye saw
-a star of hope, his faith heard the tramping of millions of free people
-yet unborn. His devotion kept him steadfast until the Stars and Stripes
-compelled the recognition of the world."
-
-"The man whose eloquent and reasoned appeal, 'Common Sense,' first
-formulated the demand for Independence, the first coiner of the great
-thought and expression, 'The United States of America,' the man whom
-Washington and Jefferson were proud to call their friend, and whose
-magnificent work for the liberty of their country they acknowledged with
-unstinted praise."--_The Nation_.
-
-George Washington: "That his 'Common Sense' and many of his 'Crisis'
-were well timed and had a happy effect on the public mind, none, I
-believe, who will turn to the epochs at which they were published will
-deny."
-
-"Must the merits of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream
-of time unrewarded by his country? His writings certainly have had a
-powerful effect on the public mind,--ought they not then to meet an
-adequate return?"
-
-"If you will come to this place and partake with me I shall be
-exceedingly glad to see you at it. Your presence may remind Congress of
-your past services to this country; and if it is in my power to impress
-them, command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered
-cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance of
-your works."
-
-"I am in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy
-of former [Revolutionary] times. In these it will be your glory to have
-steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living."--_Thomas
-Jefferson_.
-
-Colonel John Laurens: "You will be received with open arms, and all that
-affection and respect which our citizens are anxious to testify to the
-author of 'Common Sense' and the 'Crisis.'"
-
-"I wish you to regard this part of America [the Carolinas] as your
-particular home--and every thing that I can command in it to be in
-common between us."
-
-Robert Emmett: "To be associated with Mr. Paine, whose services to
-America are reflected in the glory of her Republic and the happiness
-of her people, must be to any one who loves liberty, or regards private
-virtues and public accomplishments, a source of peculiar pride."
-
-James Monroe: "The citizens of the United States cannot look back upon
-the times of their own Revolution without recollecting among the names
-of their most distinguished patriots that of Thomas Paine. The services
-he rendered to his country in its struggle for freedom have implanted in
-the hearts of his countrymen a sense of gratitude never to be effaced as
-long as they deserve the title of a just and generous people."
-
-"The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will
-stain our national character. You are considered by them as not only
-having rendered an important service in our Revolution, but as being on
-a more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distinguished
-and able advocate in favor of public liberty."
-
-James Madison (to Washington): "Whether a greater disposition to reward
-patriotic and distinguished efforts of genius will be found on any
-succeeding occasion, is not for me to predetermine. Should it
-finally appear that the merits of the man whose writings have so much
-contributed to infuse and foster the spirit of independence in the
-people of America, are unable to inspire them with a just beneficence,
-the world, it is to be feared, will give us as little credit for our
-policy as for our gratitude in this particular."
-
-Madison, Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and others urged the appointment of
-Paine to a place in Washington's cabinet.
-
-"A little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to humanity,
-and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on the part of the
-people he sought to free, and he would have been President of the United
-States."--_Calvin Blanchard_.
-
-Marquis de Lafayette: "To me America without her Thomas Paine is
-unthinkable."
-
-Should you ever visit Mount Vernon you will see among the many
-interesting relics preserved there a key. It is the Key of the Bastille,
-the demolition of which, on the 14th of July, 1789, was France's
-Declaration of Independence. This key passed through the hands of three
-celebrated men and associates in the mind the world's two greatest
-revolutions. Its history, briefly stated, is as follows: "Jefferson
-[then Minister to France] had sailed [for America] in September,
-and Paine was recognized by Lafayette and other leaders as the
-representative of the United States. To Paine Lafayette gave for
-presentation to Washington the key of the destroyed Bastille, ever since
-visible at Mount Vernon--symbol of the fact that, in Paine's words, 'the
-principles of America opened the Bastille.'"--_Conway_.
-
-Dr. J. Rudis-Jicinsky: "When, in Germany, I read for the first time
-Paine's 'Common Sense' I thought that in the land of liberty, the United
-States, this hero who upheld the cause of the Colonies must be glorified
-and his works known to every patriotic citizen... To my astonishment I
-found that in this country the name of this great writer was not even
-known to all its citizens. Then a flood of light flashed through my
-brain and by its rays I spelled the word 'Ingratitude.'"
-
-Unknown Writer (written in an old volume of Paine's works in a
-Philadelphia library): "He has no name. The country for which he labored
-and suffered knows him not. His ashes rest in a foreign land. A rough
-grass-grown mound, from which the bones have been purloined [now
-surmounted by a handsome monument] is all that remains on the continent
-of America to tell of the hero, the statesman, and the friend of man."
-
-Rev. John Snyder of St. Louis says: "Paine is one of his country's
-half-forgotten saviors. In the mind of that country his heresy has
-canceled the years of loving and priceless service he rendered to
-a new-born nation. The clamor of bigotry has drowned the voice of
-gratitude."
-
-"His patriotism shows not the slightest stain, and yet children have
-been taught to abhor his name."--_Ibid._
-
-"The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's
-ingratitude to Thomas Paine."--_James P. Bland, B.D._
-
-"It is time the world awakened to his merits."--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
-
-"It is time that justice should be done the memory of the man who strove
-and suffered for his fellowmen."--_William Marion Reedy_.
-
-"The Republic owes so much to him that it is hardly seemly that it
-should continue doing less than justice to his memory."--_New York
-World._
-
-Hon. Henry S. Randall: "Concede all the allegations against him and it
-still leaves him the author of 'Common Sense' and certain other papers,
-which rung like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary
-struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pestilence-stricken as
-the pen of no other man ever inspired them."
-
-"_Shame rest on the pen which dares not to do him justice._"
-
-"A religion which will incite its followers, with virtual unanimity, to
-pursue with malignant hatred and to blacken with all the refinements of
-insatiable malice the memory of a distinguished benefactor of the human
-race, on the sole ground of his renunciation of certain theological
-dogmas, is undeniably the embodiment of a spirit hostile to intellectual
-liberty and human progress."--_James F. Morton, Jr._
-
-"The national ingratitude displayed toward him on account of the fact
-of his theological heresies has hardly a parallel in history. In
-vindicating his memory, and calling attention, afresh to his invaluable
-services, we are not indulging in a blind hero worship, but are
-establishing a principle. The securing of justice to Paine, against the
-venomous hatred invoked by his priestly enemies, involves a crushing
-blow to clerical malice, and the winning of a victory which will have
-large consequences. In the person of Paine, we are vindicating
-the principles of religious liberty and confounding its
-antagonists."--_Ibid._
-
-"The Atheists and Secularists of our time are printing, reading,
-revering a work ['Age of Reason'] that opposes their opinions. For above
-its arguments and criticisms they see the faithful heart contending with
-a mighty Apollyon, girt with all the forces of revolutionary and royal
-Terrorism. Just this one Englishman, born again in America, confronting
-George III. and Robespierre on earth and tearing the like of them
-from the throne of the universe! Were it only for the grandeur of this
-spectacle in the past Paine would maintain his hold on thoughtful minds.
-But in America the hold is deeper than that. In this self-forgetting
-insurrection of the human heart against deified Inhumanity there is an
-expression of the inarticulate wrath of humanity against continuance of
-the same wrong... There is still visible, however refined, the sting
-and claw of the Apollyon against whom Paine hurled his far-reaching
-dart."--_Dr. Conway._
-
-Judge Thomas Herttell: "No man in modern ages has done more to benefit
-mankind, or distinguished himself more for the immense moral good he has
-effected for his species, than Thomas Paine."
-
-Ernestine L. Rose: "He was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
-
-Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life
-was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."
-
-"We find in Paine united two qualities which were rare in the eighteenth
-century--political sagacity and humanity."--_Hector Macpherson._
-
-"His career is only reduced to intelligible consistency when we
-recognize that the impelling force behind his social, political
-and religious activities was an overmastering passion for
-humanity."--_Ibid._
-
-Edwin C. Walker:. "Paine was the least insular, the least
-provincial--the most cosmopolitan--of all whose names have come down
-to us from the ages gone... His sympathies were broader even than all
-humanity, for they enclosed other forms of life as well, and were as
-varied as the needs of all who suffered and aspired."
-
-Ellery Sedgwick: "He hated cruelty in every form. He hated war, he hated
-slavery, he hated injustice; and his public life was one long battle
-against every form of oppression."
-
-"His free lance was ever at the service of the poor and oppressed, but
-never to be bought by favors of the court, or awed by the menaces of
-kings or the anathemas of priests."--_Hugh Byron Brown._
-
-J. W. Whicker: "The growth of knowledge in the passing years will hallow
-the name of this author, this patriot, this hero of two continents. His
-life and his deeds are one sweet story of service for his kind."
-
-John R. Charlesworth: "His weapon was a pen. His mind jeweled with
-gems of thought, richer by far than silver or gold, he gave of his
-intellectual treasures without price."
-
-     "Long live the man, in early contest found,
-     Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
-     Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
-     Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
-    --Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
-
-Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human
-rights and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
-
-Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever
-trod the planet."
-
-Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of
-opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind,
-unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank,
-and wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard
-the revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my
-heart that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius,
-is clamorous in the publication of its defects.
-
-"Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so
-forward now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of
-Paine!--where were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you,
-to assist his infant merit, would diminish even the surplus of your
-debaucheries? Where the mitred charity, the practical religion?
-Consistent declaimers, rail on! What though his genius was the gift of
-Heaven, his heart the altar of friendship! What though wit and eloquence
-and anecdote flowed freely from his tongue, while Conviction made his
-voice her messenger! What though thrones trembled, and prejudice fled,
-and freedom came, at his command! He dared to question the creed
-which you, believing, contradicted, and to despise the rank which you,
-boasting of, debased."
-
-William Lee:
-
-     "Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"
-
-C. Fannie Allyn:
-
-     "Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
-     Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
-     Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
-     As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
-
-     "Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
-     Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
-     And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
-     As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
-
-Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into
-the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers
-of our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution--Thomas
-Paine."
-
-Samuel H. Preston: "He who will live forever in the history of this
-republic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who consecrated
-a long, laborious life in both hemispheres to the sacred cause of
-humanity; he who, in his sublime patriotism, adopted the world for his
-country, and who, in his boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind
-for his brethren; this man--this great, and grand, and good, and heroic
-man--has been robbed of honor and reputation, and blackened and hunted
-by the sleuth-hounds of superstition, as though he had been the embodied
-curse of earth.
-
-"But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal destiny, shall
-justice be awarded Thomas Paine. The flowers of poesy will be woven in
-amaranthine wreaths above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened
-name will whiten with purity through all the wasteless years."
-
-Rev. Frank S. C. Wicks: "Why this ingratitude? In one word, bigotry!
-Religious bigotry, that serpent that has left its trail of slime all
-over the pages of human history.
-
-"He was pursued by religious bigotry, and but for religious bigotry the
-name of Thomas Paine would share with Washington the love and honor of
-his countrymen."
-
-Rev. Thomas B. Gregory: "Our gratitude has been abundantly shown to
-Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others who figured in the
-great drama, but to our shame it must be said we have been slow in
-acknowledging our debt to the man who did more than any other to bring
-about this country's freedom.
-
-"But superstition is slowly dying, ignorance is gradually disappearing,
-and by and by Thomas Paine will come into his own and take his place
-along with the greatest in our national pantheon."
-
-Rev. Solomon Southwick, D.D.: "Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman
-patriot in olden times, and performed the same services as he did for
-this country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pantheon
-would have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his
-memory with the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and
-Cicero. But posterity will do him justice. Time, that destroys envy and
-establishes truth, will clothe his character in the habiliments that
-justly belong to it."
-
-"Paine was one of the glories of his age.... He has a powerful
-vindicator--posterity."--_M. M. Mangasarian_.
-
-Frances Wright D'Arusmont: "Rest in peace, noble patriot; a glorious
-resurrection awaits thee."
-
-"For nearly a century this noble man--the real founder of our
-republic--has been buried beneath the cruel stones of obloquy. But
-slowly the angels of Justice are rolling back these stones from his
-sepulchre, and the resurrection of Thomas Paine is at hand."--_Six
-Historic Americans_.
-
-Current Literature: "The present indications are that posterity will
-preserve the favorable, rather than the unfavorable, picture of Thomas
-Paine. His influence is steadily growing."
-
-Col. John C. Bundy: "Paine's influence is waxing broader, deeper
-and more aggressive with each succeeding generation. At the end of a
-century, more of his theological and political works are sold each year
-than those of any other theologian or politician America has ever known.
-All the progress of the century has been in the direction in which he
-steered."
-
-The Nation (London): "The magnitude, variety, and immediate efficacy of
-Paine's writings constitute him one of the chief personal forces of the
-revolutionary age.... He carried into the New England across the water
-a consuming passion for human justice and liberty, not as platform
-phrases, but as hard, concrete goods worth fighting and dying for, which
-set America afire, when she was confusedly pondering an impossible and
-unnatural reconciliation. From America to France, fresh in the throes of
-her great upheaval, he passed, not as an incendiary, but as a moderating
-and constructive influence in her national convention, risking his very
-life for the cause of clemency in dealing with a traitorous king. From
-France to England, carrying the same doctrines of liberty in politics
-and religion, not a cold utilitarian conception of individual rights,
-but a rich human gospel of a commonwealth sustained by a passion of
-humanity as deep and real as ever influenced the soul of man.
-
-"He will recover a glorious though tardy fame among those who take the
-necessary trouble to rectify false estimates and to do honor to one of
-the most truly honorable men who have striven to serve mankind."
-
-"He died broken with many griefs, to be remembered by a later age as the
-great Commoner of mankind."--_Library of The World's Best Literature._
-
-Charles Edward Russell: "The soul of Thomas Paine was 'like a star and
-dwelt apart.' He kept his own self-respect and the integrity of his
-mind."
-
-"He lived a long, laborious, and useful life. The world is better for
-his having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach.
-He ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him
-because he was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the respect
-of what is called society, but kept his own. His life is what the world
-calls a failure, and what history calls success."--_Ingersoll._
-
-Daniel Edwin Wheeler: "History continually reverses her statements
-at the command of Truth, and the latter is slowly but certainly
-rehabilitating the name and fame of Paine. The slime of a mythology
-which has for over a century stained his reputation is disappearing and
-the prophet pamphleteer is coming into his own."
-
-Dr. Muzzey, of New York, honored by Harvard, the Sorbonne of Paris, and
-the University of Berlin, at the tomb of Thomas Paine, in 1909, gave
-utterance to this tribute: "The democracy for which Robert Burns sang
-and for which Thomas Paine labored is still a bright ideal in the
-distant future, the star of brotherhood over a humanity still in
-the cradle. Today, and only today, Thomas Paine is beginning to be
-appreciated as the prophet of that democracy which means full human
-brotherhood. His fame will grow with the years. The marvelous services
-of his brain, of his pen, which was never dipped in the ink of malice
-or slander, of his wonderful devotion as a soldier, as a prophet of
-freedom,... is coming to be understood. As the realization of that
-service of Paine grows, it will loom larger and larger. And when the day
-of democracy shall have come, when the principles for which Paine stood
-shall have fully replaced the awful dogmas of the past, as they are
-slowly and surely replacing those dogmas, then he will come to his own."
-
-Rev. James Kay Applebee: "I see Thomas Paine as he looms up in
-history--a great, grand figure. The reputation bigots have created for
-him fades away, even as the creeds for which they raved and lied fade
-away; but distinct and luminous, there remains the noble character of
-Thomas Paine created by himself."
-
-"The stigma is on his detractors, not on him."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman
-Shippen._
-
-R. B. Marsh: "No feeling of shame has been so poignant as that which
-overwhelmed me when I saw that ignorantly and blindly following my
-instructors I had added my voice to the all but universal outcry against
-this man.
-
-"His fame and memory have been obscured for a hundred years, only to
-shine with greater luster when the truth is known. The day-dawn of his
-fame even now is brightening the sky.
-
-"He has been the victim of almost infinite injustice; but I rejoice
-in the confident belief that time will fully vindicate his memory, and
-restore him to his just rank among the heroes of humanity."--_Hon.
-George W. Julian._
-
-That there is a rapidly growing disposition to do justice to the memory
-of Thomas Paine is attested by a recent occurrence. On the 14th of
-October, 1905, at New Rochelle, where, less than one hundred years
-before, Paine, because of his religious belief, was denied burial in
-a Christian cemetery, the beautiful monument erected at his grave by
-admiring friends was rededicated and assigned to the custody of that
-city, where, held as a sacred treasure, it is now guarded with watchful
-and loving care. The nation, the state, and the city united to make
-the event a memorable one. Major General Frederick D. Grant sent two
-companies of United States troops and a regimental band; the state of
-New York sent a battery which fired a salute of thirteen guns; the mayor
-delivered a eulogy on Paine, and the city council participated in the
-exercises. The school children of New Rochelle sang the "Star Spangled
-Banner" and one of Paine's own songs. Various civic and military
-societies also took part in the celebration--the Grand Army of the
-Republic, Woman's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, Spanish
-War Veterans, Minutemen, Washington Continental Guards, and Sons of
-the American Revolution. Dr. Conway, Paine's faithful biographer, sent
-a letter of greeting from Paris, and a daughter of France a handsome
-wreath to lay upon the patriot's tomb.
-
-Henry S. Clark (Mayor of New Rochelle):
-
-"This memorial should serve and will remain an object lesson,
-inculcating not only patriotism, but the fundamental idea which appeared
-only in Paine's writings--political equality for all men."
-
-"We accept this splendid memorial and pledge ourselves to ever protect
-and preserve it."
-
-"The two chief centers by which the lovers of liberty, humanity and
-progress will love to linger and gather inspiration in America will
-henceforth be the mausoleum of Washington by the Potomac, and
-this monument of Paine by his old home in your lovely city of New
-Rochelle."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps
-his dream will come true, and when there is a Republic of the World,
-here will be the shrine of all nations."--_A. Outrant Sherman._
-
-John Burroughs: "I honor the memory of Thomas Paine and am glad to know
-that it shines brighter and brighter as time goes on."
-
-Rear Admiral George W. Melville: "Greater honor is coming to the name of
-Thomas Paine as the years roll on.... In America he will always be known
-as one of the greatest and brightest minds that stood for the liberties
-of men."
-
-Hon. D. W. Wilder: "After a century of abuse it is pleasing to know that
-a pure patriot and a very great man is at last being appreciated."
-
-Theodore Schroeder: "Paine's sympathy for mankind had made kings
-his foes, his mercy cost him his liberty, his generosity kept him in
-poverty, his charity made him enemies, and by intellectual honesty he
-lost his friends. Federalist judges of election, for whose liberty he
-had fought, denied him the right to vote, because he was a citizen of
-France; imprisoned in France because he was not a citizen of France;
-maligned because he was brave; shunned because he was honest; hated by
-those to whom he had devoted his whole existence; denied a burial place
-in the soil he helped make free by the church which first taught him the
-lesson of humanity; thus ended the life of Thomas Paine.
-
-"The world is growing better, more just and more hospitable. The narrow
-intolerance which once threatened to erase Paine's hame from the pages
-of history is passing away. Gradually we are coming to know that a
-kingly crown or priestly robe never rested upon a nobler man."
-
-"His unselfish devotion to the rights of man is now being recognized,
-and the brutal intolerance which tried to obliterate his name from
-history is rapidly disappearing."--_Yoshiro Oyama_.
-
-"The verdict of a century is being reversed today. In a little while the
-voice of detraction will be hushed forever."--_Marshall J. Gauvin_.
-
-Hector Macpherson: "The wheel of time has come round full circle. Men
-of all sorts and conditions are willing to do justice to the man who, in
-the midst of great obstacles and with unflinching and self-sacrificing
-purpose held aloft the lighted torch of humanitarianism, and passed it
-on to succeeding generations."
-
-George Allen White: "What turbulent curses and ravenous conspiracies
-fell for decades afoul thy noble head! How did the welkin ring with the
-uttermost invectives of hell-brewed hate! But a hundred years later and
-Thomas Paine--Thomas Paine the unspeakable--has been rehabilitated. His
-fame is secure and untarnished now. Rising the monuments. Splendid
-the horoscope of his future. Smoking the calumets. Like an impossible,
-unbelievable dream vanishes the memory of those tempestuous days of
-shameless bigotry."
-
-Judge Charles B. Waite: "King and priest stood side by side, the one
-enslaving the body, the other the mind. Men and women were subjected
-to the most atrocious cruelties. Now and then, while mankind were
-struggling with their destiny, voices were heard--voices in the
-night--penetrating the surrounding gloom and reaching every ear. Such
-a voice was that of Shelley; such a voice was that of Voltaire; such a
-voice was that of Goethe; such was that of Thomas Paine.
-
-"Thomas Paine has been pursued with falsehood and calumny for more than
-a hundred years, but his name and fame grow brighter and brighter as the
-years roll by. Already he is enrolled among the immortals as one of the
-real saviors of the World."
-
-Mrs. Josephine K. Henry: "Thomas Paine--'One of the few, the immortal
-names that were not born to die."
-
-"As an American woman I enshrine with gratitude the memory of the
-philosopher, poet, counselor, historian, moralist, statesman and
-liberator--the immortal Thomas Paine."
-
-J. Atwood Culbertson: "Whether his remains now lie wrapped in the
-immaculate shroud of winter snow, or, hid beneath earth's coverlet of
-green, feed to fragrance the springtime flowers, kissed to life by April
-sun; or whether his dust imparts the gold to the summer's grain, or
-lends the tint to the autumn leaf, we do not know, we cannot say; but
-immortal is the name of Thomas Paine."
-
-Charles Watts: "Not of one age, but for all time."
-
-William Thurston Brown: "Thomas Paine belongs to the ages--not because
-he was Thomas Paine, but because the light which illumined his mind
-and the principles which motived his life are the noblest and richest
-blossoms the tree of human life can bear. Toward the heights he climbed
-leads every upward road that the fearless feet of seekers after truth in
-this or any age have trod."
-
-"The purpose of his life, unequaled in purity, beneficence and grandeur
-of hope, 'lives and ever will live in the republics he invented,
-inspired and organized, and in the Religion of Humanity upon which they
-rest."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
-
-"These words [Religion of Humanity] have blessed every religion.
-These three magic words, first uttered by Paine, will work on and on
-forever."--Ibid.
-
-Harry Weir Boland:
-
-     "His heart the world embracing
-     He served our sorest need,
-     His mind his church displacing,
-     Humanity his creed.
-     Humanity his creed,
-     Truth follows in his train,
-     And of all those names the fairest
-     Is that of Thomas Paine."
-
-Mrs. Mattie Parry Krekel: "Let us all, then, lay the trifle of a word, a
-thought, a tear on the altar of the memory of him who will be one of the
-pillars of that coming church where all men's hands shall be clasped in
-the beautiful light of the sun of truth; the church which shall give us
-one Father--Nature, and one brotherhood--the whole wide world."
-
-"I for one here cheerfully, reverently, throw my pebble on the cairn of
-his memory."--_Walt Whitman._
-
-Napoleon Bonaparte: "A statue of gold ought to be erected to you in
-every city in the universe."
-
-Andrew Jackson: "Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands; he has
-erected himself a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty."
-
-J. P. Bland, B.D.: "Thomas Paine needs no marble to perpetuate his name,
-needs no granite to preserve his fame; for scattered through the whole
-wide world he has to-day a million living monuments, the harbingers of
-millions yet to come, and who, till time shall be no more, will bow the
-head in reverence and lift the heart in praise of him who so gloriously
-stood for reason and for right."
-
-Dr. John E. Roberts: "So long as human rights are sacred and their
-defenders held in grateful remembrance; so long as liberty has a flag
-flung to the skies, a sanctuary in the hearts of men; so long, upon the
-eternal granite of history, luminous as light and imperishable as the
-stars, will be engraven the name of Thomas Paine."
-
-Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll: "If to love your fellow-men more than self
-is goodness, Thomas Paine was good.
-
-"If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the direction of
-right is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
-
-"If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of
-death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero."
-
-"He died in the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to the
-skies. Slander cannot touch him now; hatred cannot reach him more."
-
-George E. Macdonald:
-
-     "O Champion, bravest in all the past!
-     O Freedom, fairest of all the dames.
-     Long may the pledge of your fealty last,
-     Forever united be your names.
-     And long as the flowers from the sod shall spring,
-     Touched by a May day's warmth and light,
-     A blossom and tear shall the lady bring
-     To drop on the grave of her faithful knight."
-
-Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim twilight of the
-eighteenth century his prophetic eye pierced through the intervening
-years to and beyond the gray dawn of the twentieth. And when he viewed
-man's progress and beheld his glorious destiny, this matchless seer
-"rang out the old, rang in the new," rang out the rule and tyranny of
-king, rang out the dogmas and the ghosts of priest; rang in the reign of
-liberty and justice, rang in the faith of Reason and Humanity.
-
-Yes, in the cause of man the battle of his life was fought, a fierce
-and stormy conflict. And as the night of death closed over the eventful
-struggle, from her accursed abode the gaunt figure of Bigotry stalked
-forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter danced around his prostrate
-form, rejoicing that her deadliest foe was gone. Her imps still live.
-How often do we see one of them in the pulpit take up this good man's
-name, and after covering it with all the slime that the venomous spirit
-of calumny has distilled, hold it up before his congregation, and with
-a counterfeited look of holy horror, affecting all the meekness of an
-expiring calf, rolling up the whites of his snaky eyes to cover the
-blackness of his brutal soul, exclaim, "This is Tom Paine!"
-
-Vile creatures! let them do their worst. Let them summon to their aid
-all their hideous allies. Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let
-the dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let Hatred rave and curse;
-let the darts of Calumny pierce the white breast of Truth, and Slander
-clothe the tongues of all their minions. They strive in vain. The Crisis
-is past, the Age of Reason has dawned. Common Sense is fast supplanting
-Superstition, the Rights of Man are bound to triumph, and the
-author-hero's name will gather lustre as the years roll by.
-
-     "That man is thought a knave or fool,
-     Or bigot plotting crime,
-     Who for the advancement of his kind,
-     Is wiser than his time.
-     For him the hemlock shall distil,
-     For him the axe be bared;
-     For him the gibbet shall be built,
-     For him the stake prepared.
-     Him shall the scorn and wrath of men
-     Pursue with deadly aim;
-     And malice, envy, spite, and lies
-     Shall desecrate his name.
-     But never a truth has been destroyed,
-     They may curse it, and call it crime;
-     Pervert and betray, and slander and slay
-     Its teachers for a time:
-     But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky,
-     As round and round we run;
-     And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
-     And justice shall be done."
-
-Ungrateful Athens bade her savior drain the poisoned cup. It did its
-work, the spark of life was quenched; but the name of Socrates shines
-on, undimmed by the flight of more than twenty centuries. Columbus
-languished in chains, forged by the nation he had made renowned; but
-no chains can bind the towering fame his genius won. Religious zealots
-sealed the lips of a philosopher; but could they stop the revolving
-earth? Could they control the rising tide that rolled upon the boundless
-sea of thought? No! the earth went round, the wave rolled on. To-day,
-the very church that persecuted Galileo reveres his name, accepts
-his teachings, and through his telescope, the instrument she once,
-condemned, her votaries, with eager eye and throbbing pulse, explore the
-starry fields of heaven. It is ever so: "Truth crushed to earth shall
-rise again." Each fierce Thermopylae she meets inspires some crowning
-Salamis. The wrongs of Thomas Paine shall be avenged. In vain his
-country passed to him the bitter cup; the fetters forged to chain his
-noble spirit to the dust were forged for naught; loving lips whisper,
-"It still moves!"
-
-I pity the man whose soul is so small that he cannot rise above the
-level of his creed to do justice to those whose religious opinions have
-not been gauged by his particular standard. I am no Christian, but may I
-never become so ungrateful as to ignore my obligations to those who are.
-When war was desolating our fair land, and my young heart yearned to
-enlist in its defense, a Christian mother printed a kiss upon the cheek
-of her only boy and bade him go; Christian hands made the grand old flag
-we followed; Christian women visited our hospitals, ministering to the
-sick and wiping the death-damp from the brows of the dying; Christian
-generals led their troops on many a hard-fought field; and tonight the
-stately oak, the drooping willow, and the moaning pine stand sentinel
-by many a Christian soldier's grave. But they are not alone. Beside his
-Christian comrade--beneath the shadows of the same trees--a martyr to
-the same cause--sleeps the unbeliever. And would you strew with flowers
-and moisten with tears the grave that enfolds the one, and trample with
-scorn the turf that grows upon the other? Side by side they grandly
-marched to war; side by side they bravely fought; side by side
-heroically they fell; and in the murmuring stream that, wanders by their
-resting-place is heard the funeral chant of no religious creed, but
-nature's eternal sweet, sad requiem to all.
-
-Go to the grave of Thomas Paine, my Christian friend. Stand beside the
-tomb where rest the ashes of this unappreciated genius. Take up his
-little volume "Common Sense." Open its pages and peruse its burning
-words. When done, unfold the map upon which are delineated "The Free
-and Independent States of America." Contemplate the inspiring picture
-wrought thereon--wrought by the author-hero's magic pen--then refuse the
-simple tribute of a tear or flower!
-
-Who is responsible for the obloquy that has been cast upon the memory
-of this noble man? The church, the orthodox church alone, is responsible
-for it. And let me say to the church, it ill becomes you to point to
-the alleged moral delinquencies of this man while your own garments are
-soiled and crimsoned with the vice and crime of centuries. You claim
-that amid the thunders of Sinai God gave the Decalogue as a moral guide
-to man. Judged even by this standard the moral character of Thomas Paine
-will not suffer from a comparison with that of yours.
-
-"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." "I believe in one God and no
-more," said Thomas Paine.
-
-"Thou shalt worship no graven image." No worshiper of images was he.
-
-"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." He abstained
-from profanity himself and rebuked it in others.
-
-"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He observed this law as
-faithfully as did his Christian neighbors.
-
-"Honor thy father and thy mother." His parents were the objects of his
-reverence and love.
-
-"Thou shalt not kill." He did not kill. He labored to abolish war and
-murder.
-
-"Thout shalt not commit adultery." He was charged with adultery, and the
-foul beast who made the charge was forced to pay a heavy fine for his
-libelous assault.
-
-"Thou shalt not steal." Were all mankind as honest as he was the
-locksmith's avocation would be gone.
-
-"Thou shalt not bear false witness." From his truthful lips no one ever
-heard a falsehood fall.
-
-"Thou shalt not covet." A man who consecrates his life to the cause of
-humanity, and who steadily refuses to be recompensed for his services,
-cannot be accused of covetousness.
-
-Now, let me ask the church, what is your record? How have you kept even
-the commandments of your own law?
-
-"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And yet, you have persecuted,
-imprisoned, tortured, butchered, and burned thousands for not believing
-in a trinity of gods.
-
-"Before no idol shalt thou bow thy knee." Your places of public
-worship are filled with idols--virgins, and saints, and crucifixes, and
-Bibles--objects of as blind adoration as the idols of heathen lands.
-
-"Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain." On every hand our
-ears are greeted by the oaths of those who, whether belonging to any
-particular sect or not, believe in the existence of the God and the
-divinity of the Christ they curse.
-
-"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." For eighteen hundred years
-you have not kept a Sabbath of your God. You observe a day he never
-authorized you to observe.
-
-"Honor thy father and thy mother." The Christ you worship spurned the
-loving mother who bore him and declared that he who hated not father and
-mother could not be his disciple.
-
-"Thou shalt not kill." You have made of earth a slaughter house. For
-centuries it resounded with the shrieks of murdered millions, victims
-of your relentless fury. And today your votaries are drenching Europe's
-soil with blood.
-
-"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Your most immaculate saints violate
-this commandment and become a stench in the nostrils of decent people.
-
-"Thou shalt not steal." Today the prisons of Europe and America shelter
-three hundred thousand Christian thieves.
-
-"Thou shalt not bear false witness." Perjury is rife in Christendom; and
-even in heathen lands the very name of Christianity has become a synonym
-for falsehood and deceit.
-
-"Thou shalt not covet." Your history is the history of covetousness
-itself. Christian Rome has tried to devour the world. A little while ago
-we saw the Greek cross planted upon the Balkan--saw the Russian eagle
-perched upon those snowy crags, gloating over the misfortunes of
-Turkey, eager to clutch in his greedy talons the territory of Islam, and
-prevented only by the jealous wolves of Protestantism.
-
-No wonder that the warmest hearts and brightest intellects are leaving
-you. Upon your walls they read the fateful words that met the terrified
-gaze of Babylon's sinful king. Your devotees are looking forward to a
-millennium when your power on earth shall be supreme. Delusive phantom!
-your millennium has come and gone. That dark blot on the page of
-history--that withering pall stretching across the centuries from
-Constantine to Luther--that constitutes the thousand years of Christian
-rule foretold in the Apocalypse. But that has past, and your power is
-vanishing, never to be restored again. From the ashes of that dauntless
-hero, Giordano Bruno, young Science, phoenixlike, arose, and in the soil
-prepared by Luther, sowed the seed whose harvest is your death. Even now
-I hear your death-knell ringing; even now I gaze into a sepulchre where
-soon must lie your Bible and your creeds--your stakes, your gibbets and
-your racks--your priests, your devil and your God! And when the last
-have been entombed, then gather up the crumbling bones of the one
-hundred million human beings who have perished at your hands, and let
-this ghastly pile remain, a most befitting monument to your unbounded
-cruelties and crimes!
-
-It is a pleasing thought to know that bigotry is fading from the
-earth. It can flourish only in the malarial swamps of ignorance and
-superstition, and the poisonous vapors arising from these loathsome
-regions are being fast dispelled by the sun of science.
-
-An incident in the life of Nicholas I. of Russia furnishes a fitting
-parallel to what the bigots of our time are now experiencing. Among
-the many admirers of that other great Deist, Voltaire, was the Empress
-Catharine, who ordered a statue of him from the leading sculptor of
-Europe. When it arrived Catharine was dying, and for years it lay
-untouched in the box in which it had been shipped.
-
-At length Alexander caused it to be set up in a room of the imperial
-palace, where it remained until Nicholas ascended the throne. Nicholas
-was a most admirable type of the religious bigot; he was ignorant and
-intolerant, and the character of Voltaire was the object of his especial
-hatred. Hardly had he donned the imperial robes before he began to
-realize
-
-     "How uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
-
-An insurrection had broken out in one of his provinces. Troubled and
-perplexed, he was wandering through the halls of the palace when,
-suddenly, he stood face to face with the statue of Voltaire. That
-haughty smile, so natural to the face of the living Voltaire, had been
-transferred to his marble image; and now it seemed to mock the troubled
-emperor. He summoned one of his ministers and ordered him to remove the
-offensive work. The minister did so, placing it in an old lumber room of
-the palace. All went well with the emperor until one night the cry of
-"fire!" resounded in his ears. The palace was on fire. Rushing to the
-scene of the conflagration he chanced to pass through the very room to
-which the statue had been removed, and again he stood before the object
-of his hatred. The red glare of the flames added to the terrors of the
-scene, and, for a moment, Nicholas fancied himself translated to the
-dominions of Satan and standing before his throne. The flames were
-finally extinguished, the greater portion of the palace was saved, and
-with it the statue. But the remembrance of this terrible scene haunted
-him like an apparition all night long. He could not sleep. In the
-morning he summoned his minister and ordered him to destroy the work of
-art. Out of respect for the dead Catharine the order was unheeded. Years
-rolled by; the armies of England and France had invaded the Crimea and
-defeated with frightful slaughter the armies of the czar. Then flashed
-to St. Petersburg news of the bombardment of Sebastopol which ultimately
-fell. It was night, and, wild with anguish, Nicholas was again wandering
-through those desolate halls--lighted only by the weird moonbeams that
-came straggling through the palace windows--when, for the third time,
-he was confronted by the ghostly statue. Again he summoned his minister.
-But his iconoclastic spirit was broken. He no longer demanded the
-destruction of the statue, but simply begged his official to remove it
-to where he should never more behold it. The wily minister bethought
-him of a place never visited by his sovereign, and accordingly had it
-removed to the imperial library. Nicholas is no more; but the statue
-remains--a silent monarch in that realm of thought--an object, not of
-abhorrence and dread, but of admiration.
-
-As the Russian bigot was haunted by the statue of Voltaire, so the
-bigots of our day and country are haunted by the memory of Paine.
-Theological insurrections are breaking out on every hand; the
-intellectual fires of the twentieth century are encircling and consuming
-the rude palace of Superstition; they hear the cannon of Science
-thundering before the walls of their Sebastopol. Terror-stricken,
-aimlessly and hopelessly they wander on, only to be confronted at every
-turn by the ghost of Thomas Paine. Unhappy beings, this will not forever
-last. Not always will the good name of Thomas Paine stand as a phantom
-to frighten bigots. Gently and lovingly his friends are removing it,
-passing it on from generation to generation, to a better and a grander
-age--to an age across whose threshold no bigot's foot shall ever pass.
-Then, when the Republic of the World has been established, and the
-Religion of Humanity has become the universal religion, all mankind will
-recognize the worth and revere the memory of him who wrote the political
-and religious creed of this glorious day:
-
---THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, TO DO GOOD MY RELIGION.
-
-
-               THE END.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by
-John E. Remsburg
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