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diff --git a/40210-0.txt b/40210-0.txt index 5bd66ca..7a994e3 100644 --- a/40210-0.txt +++ b/40210-0.txt @@ -1,25 +1,4 @@ -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 - -*** 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 *** - -***** This file should be named 40210-8.txt or 40210-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/2/1/40210/ - -Produced by David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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. 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Remsburg - </title> - <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> - - body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} - P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } - H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } - hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} - .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } - blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} - .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} - .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} - .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} - div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } - div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } - .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} - .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} - .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; - margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; - text-align: right;} - pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} - -</style> - </head> - <body> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - -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."—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—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. - </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,—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,—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—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,—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!" - </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—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. - </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—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,—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,—"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. - </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,—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,—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—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. - </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,—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—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! - </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—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,—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'"—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>—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: - </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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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.'"—<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."—<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."—<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.)—"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."—<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'."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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.''—<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."—<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,—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."—<i>Dr. Conway</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Congress refused to vote that it was 'an abuse of office,' or to - discharge him."—<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—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. - </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."—<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,—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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<i>William - Howitt.</i> - </p> - <p> - "He did more for the American cause and for American independence than any - other man."—<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."—<i>Marshall - J. Gaumn.</i> - </p> - <p> - "He was the real founder of the American republic."—<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—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."—<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."—<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,'—-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—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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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—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—of Lafayette and Washington—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!'"—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."—<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—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—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." - </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,—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—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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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—Paine is - still there."—<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—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: - </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—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."—<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—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." - </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."—<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—who disliked the French - revolution and the alliance between the new republics—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—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." - </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."—<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—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—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."—<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—King - Guillotine."—<i>George Lippard</i>. - </p> - <p> - 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:" - </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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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—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. - </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— - 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."—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—the Author Hero." - </p> - <p> - "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." - </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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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'—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."—<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."—<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"—<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—always leaving Mrs. Washington with the - other communicants."—<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."—<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>"—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."—<i>St. Louis Globe.</i> - </p> - <p> - "He [Washington] belonged to no church."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—cruel, vindictive, - capricious, and unjust."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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.'"—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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—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. - </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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—and it was much—to uncover to the gaze of the world."—<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."—. - <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 & Co., London]." - </p> - <p> - "There were sold in Burma [mostly to Buddhists] over ten thousand copies - of the 'Age of Reason' last year."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<i>T. - B. Wakeman.</i> - </p> - <p> - "Upon this theological treatise is founded all modern biblical criticism."—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."—<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—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—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>"—<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."—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."—<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."—<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—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. - </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."—<i>Encyclopedia Britannica.</i> - </p> - <p> - "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."—<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."—<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—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? - </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—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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Ibid.</i> - </p> - <p> - "I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy - and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."—Ibid. - </p> - <p> - "Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a - child cannot be a true system."—<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."—<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—those of Rousseau, Voltaire and - Paine."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—orthodox and radical—all over the country." - </p> - <p> - John Maddock:— - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - "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. -</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,—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." - </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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—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."—<i>Ellery Sedgwick.</i> - </p> - <p> - "He died placidly and almost without a struggle."—<i>Gilbert Vale.</i> - </p> - <p> - "He spent the night in tranquility, and expired in the morning."—<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,—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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Henry - Frank</i>. - </p> - <p> - "He is the best English writer we know."—<i>Gilbert Vale</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Ease, fluidity, grace, imagination, energy, earnestness, mark his style."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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.'"—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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!"—<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."—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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Elbert - Hubbard</i>. - </p> - <p> - "The 'Rights of Man' will never die so long as men have rights."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<i>J. P. Bland</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Paine's 'Age of Reason' is a masterpiece of Rationalistic literature."—<i>William - H. Maple</i>. - </p> - <p> - "It is a masterpiece in every particular—sound, logical and - truthful."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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.'"—<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—the simplest, yet the - grand and notorious facts of that wondrous war and age."—<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."—<i>John M. Robertson</i>. - </p> - <p> - "He was a great writer. Cobbett knew it, Hazlitt knew it, and Landor knew - it."—<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."—<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—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. - </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."—<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."—<i>Michael Monahan</i>. - </p> - <p> - "No life was ever attuned to a nobler sentiment—'Where liberty is - not there is my home.'"—<i>Dr. Lucy Waite</i>. - </p> - <p> - "'The world is my country, to do good my religion." Was ever nobler - thought conceived than this?"—<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."—<i>Elbert Hubbard</i>. - </p> - <p> - "A jewel which sparkles forever on the outstretched forefinger of Time."—<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—the prologue and the epilogue—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."—<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."—<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—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."—<i>Dr. Conway</i>. - </p> - <p> - "His pen is unmistakable in 'Reflections on Unhappy Marriages' (June - 1775)."—<i>Ibid</i>. - </p> - <p> - "The first man in history to speak in clear cut tones for the rights of - woman."—<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."—<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."—<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—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. - </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.'"—<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."—<i>Prof. T. B. - Wakeman</i>. - </p> - <p> - "That his Religion of Humanity took the deistical form was an evolutionary - necessity."—<i>Dr. Conway</i>. - </p> - <p> - "The prophet of the Religion of Humanity and the precursor of our modern - Monism."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Elbert Hubbard</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Invited by Franklin he went to America."—<i>Encyclopedia of Social - Reform</i>. - </p> - <p> - "His associates in Philadelphia were people of the highest respectability - and importance.... He was welcomed everywhere."—<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—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,—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."—<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—Condorcet, Achille - Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes also Danton, who like - the English republican [Paine] was a Freemason."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Ibid</i>. - </p> - <p> - "And now the old hotel became the republican capitol of Europe. There sat - an international Premier with his Cabinet."—<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."—<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."—<i>William M. van der Weyde</i>. - </p> - <p> - "When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Paine and invited him to - dinner."—<i>Clio Rickman</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Among the persons I was in the habit of receiving Paine deserves to be - mentioned."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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—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—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—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—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—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."—<i>Gilbert Vale</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written."—<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."—<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—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? - </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—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"—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."—<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."—<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 "—<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."—<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—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." - </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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<i>George W. - Foote</i>. - </p> - <p> - "Thomas Paine was a heroic innovator. He said what he thought and he meant - what he said."—<i>Rev. George Burman Foster</i>. - </p> - <p> - John Wesley Jarvis: "He devoted his whole life to the attainment of two - objects—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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<i>L. K. Washburn</i>. - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - "The wisest, brightest, humblest son of earth." - —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."—<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."—<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."—<i>Ibid.</i> - </p> - <p> - "To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the earth."—<i>Horace - Seaver.</i> - </p> - <p> - "One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place in - her Hall of Fame."—<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."—<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."—<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:"—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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,—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."—<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—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."—<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—symbol of the - fact that, in Paine's words, 'the principles of America opened the - Bastille.'"—<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."—<i>Ibid.</i> - </p> - <p> - "The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's ingratitude - to Thomas Paine."—<i>James P. Bland, B.D.</i> - </p> - <p> - "It is time the world awakened to his merits."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—political sagacity and humanity."—<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."—<i>Ibid.</i> - </p> - <p> - 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." - </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."—<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." - —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!—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—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—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. - </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—posterity."—<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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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."—<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."—<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—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—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."—<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."—<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."—<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."—<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—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." - </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—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. - </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—'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—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—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."—<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."—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—Nature, and one brotherhood—the whole wide world." - </p> - <p> - "I for one here cheerfully, reverently, throw my pebble on the cairn of - his memory."—<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—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. - </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—wrought - by the author-hero's magic pen—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—virgins, and saints, and crucifixes, and - Bibles—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—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—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! - </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—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. - </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—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> - —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"> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by -John E. 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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. 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