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
"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:
"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.
"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.'"
"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.
"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."
"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."
"Since time began,
No greater prophet faced the savage ban
Of priest and king."
Rev. David W. Bush: "How unwise to deny myself the companionship of one of
the greatest, bravest, most self-sacrificing men of all time because he
has written things I cannot accept."
Pearl W. Geer: "This is the beauty of Free-thought—the glory of
Infidelity. We recognize good in everything where good is to be found.
While we do not accept all of Thomas Paine's ideas we recognize in him the
greatest man the world has ever known."
"There is not in Illinois a monument that stands as high as Abraham
Lincoln; nor in Massachusetts as high as Ralph Waldo Emerson; nor in the
world as high as Thomas Paine."—L. K. Washburn.
"The wisest, brightest, humblest son of earth."
—Clio Rickman.
Rev. George Croly: "An impartial estimate of this remarkable man has been
rarely formed and still more rarely expressed. He was assuredly one of the
original men of the age in which he lived."
Col. Charles Stedman (a Tory officer in the Revolution): "Thomas Paine has
rendered his name famous on the theatre of Europe and of the world."
Robert Shelton Mackenzie: "We cannot ignore the fact that he was one of
the ablest politicians of his time and that liberal minds all over the
world recognize him as such."
"Washington recognized his practical insight, Napoleon picked him out from
the crowd of 'ideaologues' and consulted him."—London Times.
William Cobbett, one of the most notable figures in English politics, who,
misled by Paine's enemies, had been one of his most violent assailants,
thus frankly acknowledges his indebtedness to him: "Old age having laid
his hand upon this truly great man, this truly philosophical politician,
at his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper."
Charles Bradlaugh: "He was a sturdy, true man. Though Norfolk born, not
English, but human, and with nothing of geographical limit to that
humanity. As a politician, or rather as a thinker on politics he stands
for England as Jean Jacques Rousseau has stood for France. You on your
side ought to reverence him for the timely words which gave form and
reality to vague, unspoken thought. We, on our side, too, ought to honor
him for the 'Rights of Man' yet to be wearisomely achieved."
Atlantic Monthly: (July, 1859): "His career was wonderful, even for the
age of miraculous events he lived in. In America he was a Revolutionary
hero of the first rank, who carried letters in his pocket from George
Washington, thanking him for his services. And he managed besides to write
his radical name in large letters in the History of England and France."
W. W. Bartlett: "He was undeniably preeminent among statesmen, and by his
many-sidedness he succeeded in rousing the whole civilized world."
Marshall J. Gauvin: "In honoring the memory of Thomas Paine we recognize
and salute one of the greatest forces in history."
"Other men have followed events; Paine actually created them.... he wanted
a Declaration of Independence, and he produced the wish for it."—Gilbert
Vale.
Hugh Byron Brown: "There are a few great men who, like milestones along
the road of progress, are so distinguished and prominent, and who have so
influenced the destinies of nations, as to mark an epoch in the world's
history. Such a man was Thomas Paine."
Michael Monahan: "One of the notables of history."
Rev. E. M. Frank: "Thomas Paine was, in his time, one who stood in the
forefront of human progress."
Dr. Edward Bond Foote: "As Lincoln was the man for his time and place, so
Paine fitted perfectly and filled remarkably the niche which history
allotted to him."
Horace L. Green: "Thomas Paine, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the
glorious trinity of Independence."
Eugene V. Debs: "The revolutionary history of the United. States and
France stirred me deeply and its heroes and martyrs became my idols.
Thomas Paine towered above them all."
Knut Martin Teigen, M.D., Ph.D.: "Thomas Paine was, beyond all doubt, a
true genius."
Dr. John Walker (with Paine in France): "There can be no question that
Paine was a man of the most gigantic genius and of the soundest practical
knowledge."
Joel Barlow, ambassador to France during Napoleon's reign, Paine's
companion in London and Paris, and to whom he entrusted the manuscript of
his "Age of Reason" when he was taken to prison, says: "Paine was endowed
with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and
the greatest depth of thought.... As a visiting acquaintance and literary
friend, he was one of the most instructive men I have ever known."
"He ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries
of the age in which he lived."—Ibid.
"To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the earth."—Horace
Seaver.
"One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place in
her Hall of Fame."—Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen.
Rev. Dr. L. M. Birkhead: "Paine in days to come will be considered one of
the greatest men and statesmen the world has ever known."
"I regard Thomas Paine as one of the greatest men the world has ever
produced, and all ought to be proud that he belonged to our race."—Sir
Hiram Maxim.
Glasgow Herald: "Paine was greater than he knew."
"The two men who have left the richest heritage of thought and made the
deepest imprint upon the minds of mankind for future ages,... Thomas Paine
and Charles Darwin [Darwin was born in the year that Paine died], were in
turn the Elijah and the Elisha of the eighteenth and the nineteenth
centuries of the Christian era. One hundred years ago today Thomas Paine
let fall his mantle of light upon the infant shoulders of Charles Darwin
and vanished in a chariot of fire that shall blaze the trail of the seeker
after truth from generation unto generation."—Alden Freeman.
Edward G Wentworth: "Giordano Bruno was one of the world's martyrs who
died for a cause. Thomas Paine was one of the world's martyrs who lived
for a cause. Each has created an imperishable name."
George Jacob Holyoake: "Paine was the most intrepid and influential
Englishman that ever sprang from the ranks of the people."
"The man who was the confidant of Burke, the counsellor of Franklin, and
the friend and colleague of Washington, must have had great qualities."
"He belongs to England. His fame is the property of England; and if no
other people will show that they value that fame, the people of England
will:"—William Cobbett.
Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, LL. D.: "Great souls are the key-stones in the arches
that unite the races.... German provincialism died when Lessing, Schiller,
and Goethe were born. The insignificant island lost its insular character
when Shakespeare wrote. The emaciated thirteen colonies became great when
Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Jefferson spoke for them."
Mohammed Ali Webb: "All educated Mohammedans know him. The intelligent
Moslem places Thomas Paine among the world's admirable men and holds his
memory in great reverence."
U. Dhammaloka: "The Buddhist Tract Society of Burmah observed the one
hundreth anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine. We had large audiences.
I myself [president of this society] spoke to an audience of about five
thousand at a town in Upper Burmah."
Kedàrnath Basu (of India): "My countrymen are beginning to admire and
revere the noble character of Thomas Paine."
Yoshiro Oyama (Japan): "Thomas Paine was one of the greatest of the great
men of the world."
Francois Thane: "The French people would be proud to have his ashes rest
in the Pantheon beside the grave of Voltaire."
George Legg Henderson: "The time is not far distant when all the world
will recognize in Thomas Paine the martyr, the hero, the man."
Prof. A. L. Rawson, LL. D.: "More men like Paine are wanted, and will
appear from time to time, until the whole human race has grown in
intelligence, reason and taste."
Judge Arnold Krekel, LL. D.: "Let us carry forward, then, the work in
which the man we honor was so largely and so successfully engaged."
Libby C. Macdonald: "The lips of Thomas Paine are still in death, but we
can voice his principles through ours."
"I commend the study of the life of Paine to the young men of today."—Hon.
William J. Gaynor.
"Time will come when the problem of school education will be how to make
good citizens of our boys and girls, and there are no better books for
this purpose than those of Thomas Paine."—John S. Crosby.
"With the spirit of Thomas Paine in our hearts no despot, foreign or
domestic, will ever be able to build his throne beside the grave of our
liberty."—Rev. Thomas B. Gregory.
"Had the world but heeded the wise counsels of Thomas Paine, Europe would
not now be drenched in blood."—W. M. van der Weyde.
Rev. J. Page Hopps: "Paine was a splendid radical prophet, and therefore,
though a thoroughly practical man, was only a teacher and leader born too
soon."
Rev. Marie J. Howe: "Paine did not belong to the eighteenth century, but
was only born in it. He belongs to this."
Clarence Darrow: "Thomas Paine was so far beyond his age that a hundred
years has not been long enough for the world to catch up. Sometime he will
stand out as the wisest, truest, bravest friend of liberty that America
can boast."
Henry Gaylord Wilshire: "Paine was the greatest man this country has
produced, and it is only a question of time when we will come to realize
it."
"Paine, being a genius, saw a vision of the future and the glories that
should be. The herd did not, and we do not, but we shall some day."
Rev. Robert J. Lockhart: "He was a light that shed a splendor whose origin
no man could declare. He was greater than the times he lived in."
Horace J. Bridges: "Some men are too great and too far ahead of their
times to get justice at contemporary hands. Being too broad and impartial
for any single party, they offend all parties, and are rejected and
reviled by all. Such in England was the fate of Cromwell and Milton; and
such in America has been the fate of Paine."
Herbert N. Casson: "Paine was a man who did not belong to his time, a man
who was far larger than the men among whom he lived. He was loaned, as it
were, from a larger planet to this small one. And he was given to this
country at a time when the country most needed a guide and a wise teacher
in the cause of independence and truth."
Rev. Dwight Galloupe, U. S. A.: "I am proud to speak the name of one who,
in too many memories, lives only as an outcast and Ishmael among men—Thomas
Paine. I cannot forget that when all was dark his eye saw a star of hope,
his faith heard the tramping of millions of free people yet unborn. His
devotion kept him steadfast until the Stars and Stripes compelled the
recognition of the world."
"The man whose eloquent and reasoned appeal, 'Common Sense,' first
formulated the demand for Independence, the first coiner of the great
thought and expression, 'The United States of America,' the man whom
Washington and Jefferson were proud to call their friend, and whose
magnificent work for the liberty of their country they acknowledged with
unstinted praise."—The Nation.
George Washington: "That his 'Common Sense' and many of his 'Crisis' were
well timed and had a happy effect on the public mind, none, I believe, who
will turn to the epochs at which they were published will deny."
"Must the merits of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream of time
unrewarded by his country? His writings certainly have had a powerful
effect on the public mind,—ought they not then to meet an adequate
return?"
"If you will come to this place and partake with me I shall be exceedingly
glad to see you at it. Your presence may remind Congress of your past
services to this country; and if it is in my power to impress them,
command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered
cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance of your
works."
"I am in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy of
former [Revolutionary] times. In these it will be your glory to have
steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living."—Thomas
Jefferson.
Colonel John Laurens: "You will be received with open arms, and all that
affection and respect which our citizens are anxious to testify to the
author of 'Common Sense' and the 'Crisis.'"
"I wish you to regard this part of America [the Carolinas] as your
particular home—and every thing that I can command in it to be in
common between us."
Robert Emmett: "To be associated with Mr. Paine, whose services to America
are reflected in the glory of her Republic and the happiness of her
people, must be to any one who loves liberty, or regards private virtues
and public accomplishments, a source of peculiar pride."
James Monroe: "The citizens of the United States cannot look back upon the
times of their own Revolution without recollecting among the names of
their most distinguished patriots that of Thomas Paine. The services he
rendered to his country in its struggle for freedom have implanted in the
hearts of his countrymen a sense of gratitude never to be effaced as long
as they deserve the title of a just and generous people."
"The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will
stain our national character. You are considered by them as not only
having rendered an important service in our Revolution, but as being on a
more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distinguished and
able advocate in favor of public liberty."
James Madison (to Washington): "Whether a greater disposition to reward
patriotic and distinguished efforts of genius will be found on any
succeeding occasion, is not for me to predetermine. Should it finally
appear that the merits of the man whose writings have so much contributed
to infuse and foster the spirit of independence in the people of America,
are unable to inspire them with a just beneficence, the world, it is to be
feared, will give us as little credit for our policy as for our gratitude
in this particular."
Madison, Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and others urged the appointment of
Paine to a place in Washington's cabinet.
"A little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to humanity,
and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on the part of the
people he sought to free, and he would have been President of the United
States."—Calvin Blanchard.
Marquis de Lafayette: "To me America without her Thomas Paine is
unthinkable."
Should you ever visit Mount Vernon you will see among the many interesting
relics preserved there a key. It is the Key of the Bastille, the
demolition of which, on the 14th of July, 1789, was France's Declaration
of Independence. This key passed through the hands of three celebrated men
and associates in the mind the world's two greatest revolutions. Its
history, briefly stated, is as follows: "Jefferson [then Minister to
France] had sailed [for America] in September, and Paine was recognized by
Lafayette and other leaders as the representative of the United States. To
Paine Lafayette gave for presentation to Washington the key of the
destroyed Bastille, ever since visible at Mount Vernon—symbol of the
fact that, in Paine's words, 'the principles of America opened the
Bastille.'"—Conway.
Dr. J. Rudis-Jicinsky: "When, in Germany, I read for the first time
Paine's 'Common Sense' I thought that in the land of liberty, the United
States, this hero who upheld the cause of the Colonies must be glorified
and his works known to every patriotic citizen... To my astonishment I
found that in this country the name of this great writer was not even
known to all its citizens. Then a flood of light flashed through my brain
and by its rays I spelled the word 'Ingratitude.'"
Unknown Writer (written in an old volume of Paine's works in a
Philadelphia library): "He has no name. The country for which he labored
and suffered knows him not. His ashes rest in a foreign land. A rough
grass-grown mound, from which the bones have been purloined [now
surmounted by a handsome monument] is all that remains on the continent of
America to tell of the hero, the statesman, and the friend of man."
Rev. John Snyder of St. Louis says: "Paine is one of his country's
half-forgotten saviors. In the mind of that country his heresy has
canceled the years of loving and priceless service he rendered to a
new-born nation. The clamor of bigotry has drowned the voice of
gratitude."
"His patriotism shows not the slightest stain, and yet children have been
taught to abhor his name."—Ibid.
"The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's ingratitude
to Thomas Paine."—James P. Bland, B.D.
"It is time the world awakened to his merits."—Ella Wheeler
Wilcox.
"It is time that justice should be done the memory of the man who strove
and suffered for his fellowmen."—William Marion Reedy.
"The Republic owes so much to him that it is hardly seemly that it should
continue doing less than justice to his memory."—New York World.
Hon. Henry S. Randall: "Concede all the allegations against him and it
still leaves him the author of 'Common Sense' and certain other papers,
which rung like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary
struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pestilence-stricken as
the pen of no other man ever inspired them."
"Shame rest on the pen which dares not to do him justice."
"A religion which will incite its followers, with virtual unanimity, to
pursue with malignant hatred and to blacken with all the refinements of
insatiable malice the memory of a distinguished benefactor of the human
race, on the sole ground of his renunciation of certain theological
dogmas, is undeniably the embodiment of a spirit hostile to intellectual
liberty and human progress."—James F. Morton, Jr.
"The national ingratitude displayed toward him on account of the fact of
his theological heresies has hardly a parallel in history. In vindicating
his memory, and calling attention, afresh to his invaluable services, we
are not indulging in a blind hero worship, but are establishing a
principle. The securing of justice to Paine, against the venomous hatred
invoked by his priestly enemies, involves a crushing blow to clerical
malice, and the winning of a victory which will have large consequences.
In the person of Paine, we are vindicating the principles of religious
liberty and confounding its antagonists."—Ibid.
"The Atheists and Secularists of our time are printing, reading, revering
a work ['Age of Reason'] that opposes their opinions. For above its
arguments and criticisms they see the faithful heart contending with a
mighty Apollyon, girt with all the forces of revolutionary and royal
Terrorism. Just this one Englishman, born again in America, confronting
George III. and Robespierre on earth and tearing the like of them from the
throne of the universe! Were it only for the grandeur of this spectacle in
the past Paine would maintain his hold on thoughtful minds. But in America
the hold is deeper than that. In this self-forgetting insurrection of the
human heart against deified Inhumanity there is an expression of the
inarticulate wrath of humanity against continuance of the same wrong...
There is still visible, however refined, the sting and claw of the
Apollyon against whom Paine hurled his far-reaching dart."—Dr.
Conway.
Judge Thomas Herttell: "No man in modern ages has done more to benefit
mankind, or distinguished himself more for the immense moral good he has
effected for his species, than Thomas Paine."
Ernestine L. Rose: "He was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind."
Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life
was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."
"We find in Paine united two qualities which were rare in the eighteenth
century—political sagacity and humanity."—Hector
Macpherson.
"His career is only reduced to intelligible consistency when we recognize
that the impelling force behind his social, political and religious
activities was an overmastering passion for humanity."—Ibid.
Edwin C. Walker:. "Paine was the least insular, the least provincial—the
most cosmopolitan—of all whose names have come down to us from the
ages gone... His sympathies were broader even than all humanity, for they
enclosed other forms of life as well, and were as varied as the needs of
all who suffered and aspired."
Ellery Sedgwick: "He hated cruelty in every form. He hated war, he hated
slavery, he hated injustice; and his public life was one long battle
against every form of oppression."
"His free lance was ever at the service of the poor and oppressed, but
never to be bought by favors of the court, or awed by the menaces of kings
or the anathemas of priests."—Hugh Byron Brown.
J. W. Whicker: "The growth of knowledge in the passing years will hallow
the name of this author, this patriot, this hero of two continents. His
life and his deeds are one sweet story of service for his kind."
John R. Charlesworth: "His weapon was a pen. His mind jeweled with gems of
thought, richer by far than silver or gold, he gave of his intellectual
treasures without price."
"Long live the man, in early contest found,
Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
—Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human rights
and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever
trod the planet."
Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of
opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind,
unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank, and
wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard the
revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my heart
that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius, is
clamorous in the publication of its defects.
"Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so forward
now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of Paine!—where
were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you, to assist his infant
merit, would diminish even the surplus of your debaucheries? Where the
mitred charity, the practical religion? Consistent declaimers, rail on!
What though his genius was the gift of Heaven, his heart the altar of
friendship! What though wit and eloquence and anecdote flowed freely from
his tongue, while Conviction made his voice her messenger! What though
thrones trembled, and prejudice fled, and freedom came, at his command! He
dared to question the creed which you, believing, contradicted, and to
despise the rank which you, boasting of, debased."
William Lee:
"Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"
C. Fannie Allyn:
"Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
"Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into
the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers of
our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution—Thomas
Paine."
Samuel H. Preston: "He who will live forever in the history of this
republic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who consecrated a long,
laborious life in both hemispheres to the sacred cause of humanity; he
who, in his sublime patriotism, adopted the world for his country, and
who, in his boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind for his brethren;
this man—this great, and grand, and good, and heroic man—has
been robbed of honor and reputation, and blackened and hunted by the
sleuth-hounds of superstition, as though he had been the embodied curse of
earth.
"But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal destiny, shall justice
be awarded Thomas Paine. The flowers of poesy will be woven in amaranthine
wreaths above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened name will
whiten with purity through all the wasteless years."
Rev. Frank S. C. Wicks: "Why this ingratitude? In one word, bigotry!
Religious bigotry, that serpent that has left its trail of slime all over
the pages of human history.
"He was pursued by religious bigotry, and but for religious bigotry the
name of Thomas Paine would share with Washington the love and honor of his
countrymen."
Rev. Thomas B. Gregory: "Our gratitude has been abundantly shown to
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others who figured in the great drama,
but to our shame it must be said we have been slow in acknowledging our
debt to the man who did more than any other to bring about this country's
freedom.
"But superstition is slowly dying, ignorance is gradually disappearing,
and by and by Thomas Paine will come into his own and take his place along
with the greatest in our national pantheon."
Rev. Solomon Southwick, D.D.: "Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman
patriot in olden times, and performed the same services as he did for this
country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pantheon would
have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his memory with
the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and Cicero. But posterity
will do him justice. Time, that destroys envy and establishes truth, will
clothe his character in the habiliments that justly belong to it."
"Paine was one of the glories of his age.... He has a powerful vindicator—posterity."—M.
M. Mangasarian.
Frances Wright D'Arusmont: "Rest in peace, noble patriot; a glorious
resurrection awaits thee."
"For nearly a century this noble man—the real founder of our
republic—has been buried beneath the cruel stones of obloquy. But
slowly the angels of Justice are rolling back these stones from his
sepulchre, and the resurrection of Thomas Paine is at hand."—Six
Historic Americans.
Current Literature: "The present indications are that posterity will
preserve the favorable, rather than the unfavorable, picture of Thomas
Paine. His influence is steadily growing."
Col. John C. Bundy: "Paine's influence is waxing broader, deeper and more
aggressive with each succeeding generation. At the end of a century, more
of his theological and political works are sold each year than those of
any other theologian or politician America has ever known. All the
progress of the century has been in the direction in which he steered."
The Nation (London): "The magnitude, variety, and immediate efficacy of
Paine's writings constitute him one of the chief personal forces of the
revolutionary age.... He carried into the New England across the water a
consuming passion for human justice and liberty, not as platform phrases,
but as hard, concrete goods worth fighting and dying for, which set
America afire, when she was confusedly pondering an impossible and
unnatural reconciliation. From America to France, fresh in the throes of
her great upheaval, he passed, not as an incendiary, but as a moderating
and constructive influence in her national convention, risking his very
life for the cause of clemency in dealing with a traitorous king. From
France to England, carrying the same doctrines of liberty in politics and
religion, not a cold utilitarian conception of individual rights, but a
rich human gospel of a commonwealth sustained by a passion of humanity as
deep and real as ever influenced the soul of man.
"He will recover a glorious though tardy fame among those who take the
necessary trouble to rectify false estimates and to do honor to one of the
most truly honorable men who have striven to serve mankind."
"He died broken with many griefs, to be remembered by a later age as the
great Commoner of mankind."—Library of The World's Best
Literature.
Charles Edward Russell: "The soul of Thomas Paine was 'like a star and
dwelt apart.' He kept his own self-respect and the integrity of his mind."
"He lived a long, laborious, and useful life. The world is better for his
having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach. He
ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him because he
was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the respect of what is
called society, but kept his own. His life is what the world calls a
failure, and what history calls success."—Ingersoll.
Daniel Edwin Wheeler: "History continually reverses her statements at the
command of Truth, and the latter is slowly but certainly rehabilitating
the name and fame of Paine. The slime of a mythology which has for over a
century stained his reputation is disappearing and the prophet pamphleteer
is coming into his own."
Dr. Muzzey, of New York, honored by Harvard, the Sorbonne of Paris, and
the University of Berlin, at the tomb of Thomas Paine, in 1909, gave
utterance to this tribute: "The democracy for which Robert Burns sang and
for which Thomas Paine labored is still a bright ideal in the distant
future, the star of brotherhood over a humanity still in the cradle.
Today, and only today, Thomas Paine is beginning to be appreciated as the
prophet of that democracy which means full human brotherhood. His fame
will grow with the years. The marvelous services of his brain, of his pen,
which was never dipped in the ink of malice or slander, of his wonderful
devotion as a soldier, as a prophet of freedom,... is coming to be
understood. As the realization of that service of Paine grows, it will
loom larger and larger. And when the day of democracy shall have come,
when the principles for which Paine stood shall have fully replaced the
awful dogmas of the past, as they are slowly and surely replacing those
dogmas, then he will come to his own."
Rev. James Kay Applebee: "I see Thomas Paine as he looms up in history—a
great, grand figure. The reputation bigots have created for him fades
away, even as the creeds for which they raved and lied fade away; but
distinct and luminous, there remains the noble character of Thomas Paine
created by himself."
"The stigma is on his detractors, not on him."—Rev. Eugene Rodman
Shippen.
R. B. Marsh: "No feeling of shame has been so poignant as that which
overwhelmed me when I saw that ignorantly and blindly following my
instructors I had added my voice to the all but universal outcry against
this man.
"His fame and memory have been obscured for a hundred years, only to shine
with greater luster when the truth is known. The day-dawn of his fame even
now is brightening the sky.
"He has been the victim of almost infinite injustice; but I rejoice in the
confident belief that time will fully vindicate his memory, and restore
him to his just rank among the heroes of humanity."—Hon. George
W. Julian.
That there is a rapidly growing disposition to do justice to the memory of
Thomas Paine is attested by a recent occurrence. On the 14th of October,
1905, at New Rochelle, where, less than one hundred years before, Paine,
because of his religious belief, was denied burial in a Christian
cemetery, the beautiful monument erected at his grave by admiring friends
was rededicated and assigned to the custody of that city, where, held as a
sacred treasure, it is now guarded with watchful and loving care. The
nation, the state, and the city united to make the event a memorable one.
Major General Frederick D. Grant sent two companies of United States
troops and a regimental band; the state of New York sent a battery which
fired a salute of thirteen guns; the mayor delivered a eulogy on Paine,
and the city council participated in the exercises. The school children of
New Rochelle sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and one of Paine's own songs.
Various civic and military societies also took part in the celebration—the
Grand Army of the Republic, Woman's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the
Republic, Spanish War Veterans, Minutemen, Washington Continental Guards,
and Sons of the American Revolution. Dr. Conway, Paine's faithful
biographer, sent a letter of greeting from Paris, and a daughter of France
a handsome wreath to lay upon the patriot's tomb.
Henry S. Clark (Mayor of New Rochelle):
"This memorial should serve and will remain an object lesson, inculcating
not only patriotism, but the fundamental idea which appeared only in
Paine's writings—political equality for all men."
"We accept this splendid memorial and pledge ourselves to ever protect and
preserve it."
"The two chief centers by which the lovers of liberty, humanity and
progress will love to linger and gather inspiration in America will
henceforth be the mausoleum of Washington by the Potomac, and this
monument of Paine by his old home in your lovely city of New Rochelle."—T.
B. Wakeman.
"Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps
his dream will come true, and when there is a Republic of the World, here
will be the shrine of all nations."—A. Outrant Sherman.
John Burroughs: "I honor the memory of Thomas Paine and am glad to know
that it shines brighter and brighter as time goes on."
Rear Admiral George W. Melville: "Greater honor is coming to the name of
Thomas Paine as the years roll on.... In America he will always be known
as one of the greatest and brightest minds that stood for the liberties of
men."
Hon. D. W. Wilder: "After a century of abuse it is pleasing to know that a
pure patriot and a very great man is at last being appreciated."
Theodore Schroeder: "Paine's sympathy for mankind had made kings his foes,
his mercy cost him his liberty, his generosity kept him in poverty, his
charity made him enemies, and by intellectual honesty he lost his friends.
Federalist judges of election, for whose liberty he had fought, denied him
the right to vote, because he was a citizen of France; imprisoned in
France because he was not a citizen of France; maligned because he was
brave; shunned because he was honest; hated by those to whom he had
devoted his whole existence; denied a burial place in the soil he helped
make free by the church which first taught him the lesson of humanity;
thus ended the life of Thomas Paine.
"The world is growing better, more just and more hospitable. The narrow
intolerance which once threatened to erase Paine's hame from the pages of
history is passing away. Gradually we are coming to know that a kingly
crown or priestly robe never rested upon a nobler man."
"His unselfish devotion to the rights of man is now being recognized, and
the brutal intolerance which tried to obliterate his name from history is
rapidly disappearing."—Yoshiro Oyama.
"The verdict of a century is being reversed today. In a little while the
voice of detraction will be hushed forever."—Marshall J. Gauvin.
Hector Macpherson: "The wheel of time has come round full circle. Men of
all sorts and conditions are willing to do justice to the man who, in the
midst of great obstacles and with unflinching and self-sacrificing purpose
held aloft the lighted torch of humanitarianism, and passed it on to
succeeding generations."
George Allen White: "What turbulent curses and ravenous conspiracies fell
for decades afoul thy noble head! How did the welkin ring with the
uttermost invectives of hell-brewed hate! But a hundred years later and
Thomas Paine—Thomas Paine the unspeakable—has been
rehabilitated. His fame is secure and untarnished now. Rising the
monuments. Splendid the horoscope of his future. Smoking the calumets.
Like an impossible, unbelievable dream vanishes the memory of those
tempestuous days of shameless bigotry."
Judge Charles B. Waite: "King and priest stood side by side, the one
enslaving the body, the other the mind. Men and women were subjected to
the most atrocious cruelties. Now and then, while mankind were struggling
with their destiny, voices were heard—voices in the night—penetrating
the surrounding gloom and reaching every ear. Such a voice was that of
Shelley; such a voice was that of Voltaire; such a voice was that of
Goethe; such was that of Thomas Paine.
"Thomas Paine has been pursued with falsehood and calumny for more than a
hundred years, but his name and fame grow brighter and brighter as the
years roll by. Already he is enrolled among the immortals as one of the
real saviors of the World."
Mrs. Josephine K. Henry: "Thomas Paine—'One of the few, the immortal
names that were not born to die."
"As an American woman I enshrine with gratitude the memory of the
philosopher, poet, counselor, historian, moralist, statesman and liberator—the
immortal Thomas Paine."
J. Atwood Culbertson: "Whether his remains now lie wrapped in the
immaculate shroud of winter snow, or, hid beneath earth's coverlet of
green, feed to fragrance the springtime flowers, kissed to life by April
sun; or whether his dust imparts the gold to the summer's grain, or lends
the tint to the autumn leaf, we do not know, we cannot say; but immortal
is the name of Thomas Paine."
Charles Watts: "Not of one age, but for all time."
William Thurston Brown: "Thomas Paine belongs to the ages—not
because he was Thomas Paine, but because the light which illumined his
mind and the principles which motived his life are the noblest and richest
blossoms the tree of human life can bear. Toward the heights he climbed
leads every upward road that the fearless feet of seekers after truth in
this or any age have trod."
"The purpose of his life, unequaled in purity, beneficence and grandeur of
hope, 'lives and ever will live in the republics he invented, inspired and
organized, and in the Religion of Humanity upon which they rest."—T.
B. Wakeman.
"These words [Religion of Humanity] have blessed every religion. These
three magic words, first uttered by Paine, will work on and on forever."—Ibid.
Harry Weir Boland:
"His heart the world embracing
He served our sorest need,
His mind his church displacing,
Humanity his creed.
Humanity his creed,
Truth follows in his train,
And of all those names the fairest
Is that of Thomas Paine."
Mrs. Mattie Parry Krekel: "Let us all, then, lay the trifle of a word, a
thought, a tear on the altar of the memory of him who will be one of the
pillars of that coming church where all men's hands shall be clasped in
the beautiful light of the sun of truth; the church which shall give us
one Father—Nature, and one brotherhood—the whole wide world."
"I for one here cheerfully, reverently, throw my pebble on the cairn of
his memory."—Walt Whitman.
Napoleon Bonaparte: "A statue of gold ought to be erected to you in every
city in the universe."
Andrew Jackson: "Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands; he has
erected himself a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty."
J. P. Bland, B.D.: "Thomas Paine needs no marble to perpetuate his name,
needs no granite to preserve his fame; for scattered through the whole
wide world he has to-day a million living monuments, the harbingers of
millions yet to come, and who, till time shall be no more, will bow the
head in reverence and lift the heart in praise of him who so gloriously
stood for reason and for right."
Dr. John E. Roberts: "So long as human rights are sacred and their
defenders held in grateful remembrance; so long as liberty has a flag
flung to the skies, a sanctuary in the hearts of men; so long, upon the
eternal granite of history, luminous as light and imperishable as the
stars, will be engraven the name of Thomas Paine."
Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll: "If to love your fellow-men more than self is
goodness, Thomas Paine was good.
"If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the direction of
right is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
"If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of
death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero."
"He died in the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to the
skies. Slander cannot touch him now; hatred cannot reach him more."
George E. Macdonald:
"O Champion, bravest in all the past!
O Freedom, fairest of all the dames.
Long may the pledge of your fealty last,
Forever united be your names.
And long as the flowers from the sod shall spring,
Touched by a May day's warmth and light,
A blossom and tear shall the lady bring
To drop on the grave of her faithful knight."
Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim twilight of the eighteenth
century his prophetic eye pierced through the intervening years to and
beyond the gray dawn of the twentieth. And when he viewed man's progress
and beheld his glorious destiny, this matchless seer﹃rang out the old,
rang in the new,﹄rang out the rule and tyranny of king, rang out the
dogmas and the ghosts of priest; rang in the reign of liberty and justice,
rang in the faith of Reason and Humanity.
Yes, in the cause of man the battle of his life was fought, a fierce and
stormy conflict. And as the night of death closed over the eventful
struggle, from her accursed abode the gaunt figure of Bigotry stalked
forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter danced around his prostrate
form, rejoicing that her deadliest foe was gone. Her imps still live. How
often do we see one of them in the pulpit take up this good man's name,
and after covering it with all the slime that the venomous spirit of
calumny has distilled, hold it up before his congregation, and with a
counterfeited look of holy horror, affecting all the meekness of an
expiring calf, rolling up the whites of his snaky eyes to cover the
blackness of his brutal soul, exclaim, "This is Tom Paine!"
Vile creatures! let them do their worst. Let them summon to their aid all
their hideous allies. Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let the
dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let Hatred rave and curse; let
the darts of Calumny pierce the white breast of Truth, and Slander clothe
the tongues of all their minions. They strive in vain. The Crisis is past,
the Age of Reason has dawned. Common Sense is fast supplanting
Superstition, the Rights of Man are bound to triumph, and the
author-hero's name will gather lustre as the years roll by.
"That man is thought a knave or fool,
Or bigot plotting crime,
Who for the advancement of his kind,
Is wiser than his time.
For him the hemlock shall distil,
For him the axe be bared;
For him the gibbet shall be built,
For him the stake prepared.
Him shall the scorn and wrath of men
Pursue with deadly aim;
And malice, envy, spite, and lies
Shall desecrate his name.
But never a truth has been destroyed,
They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, and slander and slay
Its teachers for a time:
But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done."
Ungrateful Athens bade her savior drain the poisoned cup. It did its work,
the spark of life was quenched; but the name of Socrates shines on,
undimmed by the flight of more than twenty centuries. Columbus languished
in chains, forged by the nation he had made renowned; but no chains can
bind the towering fame his genius won. Religious zealots sealed the lips
of a philosopher; but could they stop the revolving earth? Could they
control the rising tide that rolled upon the boundless sea of thought? No!
the earth went round, the wave rolled on. To-day, the very church that
persecuted Galileo reveres his name, accepts his teachings, and through
his telescope, the instrument she once, condemned, her votaries, with
eager eye and throbbing pulse, explore the starry fields of heaven. It is
ever so: "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again." Each fierce
Thermopylae she meets inspires some crowning Salamis. The wrongs of Thomas
Paine shall be avenged. In vain his country passed to him the bitter cup;
the fetters forged to chain his noble spirit to the dust were forged for
naught; loving lips whisper, "It still moves!"
I pity the man whose soul is so small that he cannot rise above the level
of his creed to do justice to those whose religious opinions have not been
gauged by his particular standard. I am no Christian, but may I never
become so ungrateful as to ignore my obligations to those who are. When
war was desolating our fair land, and my young heart yearned to enlist in
its defense, a Christian mother printed a kiss upon the cheek of her only
boy and bade him go; Christian hands made the grand old flag we followed;
Christian women visited our hospitals, ministering to the sick and wiping
the death-damp from the brows of the dying; Christian generals led their
troops on many a hard-fought field; and tonight the stately oak, the
drooping willow, and the moaning pine stand sentinel by many a Christian
soldier's grave. But they are not alone. Beside his Christian comrade—beneath
the shadows of the same trees—a martyr to the same cause—sleeps
the unbeliever. And would you strew with flowers and moisten with tears
the grave that enfolds the one, and trample with scorn the turf that grows
upon the other? Side by side they grandly marched to war; side by side
they bravely fought; side by side heroically they fell; and in the
murmuring stream that, wanders by their resting-place is heard the funeral
chant of no religious creed, but nature's eternal sweet, sad requiem to
all.
Go to the grave of Thomas Paine, my Christian friend. Stand beside the
tomb where rest the ashes of this unappreciated genius. Take up his little
volume "Common Sense." Open its pages and peruse its burning words. When
done, unfold the map upon which are delineated﹃The Free and Independent
States of America.﹄Contemplate the inspiring picture wrought thereon—wrought
by the author-hero's magic pen—then refuse the simple tribute of a
tear or flower!
Who is responsible for the obloquy that has been cast upon the memory of
this noble man? The church, the orthodox church alone, is responsible for
it. And let me say to the church, it ill becomes you to point to the
alleged moral delinquencies of this man while your own garments are soiled
and crimsoned with the vice and crime of centuries. You claim that amid
the thunders of Sinai God gave the Decalogue as a moral guide to man.
Judged even by this standard the moral character of Thomas Paine will not
suffer from a comparison with that of yours.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."﹃I believe in one God and no
more,﹄said Thomas Paine.
"Thou shalt worship no graven image." No worshiper of images was he.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." He abstained
from profanity himself and rebuked it in others.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He observed this law as
faithfully as did his Christian neighbors.
"Honor thy father and thy mother." His parents were the objects of his
reverence and love.
"Thou shalt not kill." He did not kill. He labored to abolish war and
murder.
"Thout shalt not commit adultery." He was charged with adultery, and the
foul beast who made the charge was forced to pay a heavy fine for his
libelous assault.
"Thou shalt not steal." Were all mankind as honest as he was the
locksmith's avocation would be gone.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness." From his truthful lips no one ever
heard a falsehood fall.
"Thou shalt not covet." A man who consecrates his life to the cause of
humanity, and who steadily refuses to be recompensed for his services,
cannot be accused of covetousness.
Now, let me ask the church, what is your record? How have you kept even
the commandments of your own law?
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And yet, you have persecuted,
imprisoned, tortured, butchered, and burned thousands for not believing in
a trinity of gods.
"Before no idol shalt thou bow thy knee." Your places of public worship
are filled with idols—virgins, and saints, and crucifixes, and
Bibles—objects of as blind adoration as the idols of heathen lands.
"Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain." On every hand our ears are
greeted by the oaths of those who, whether belonging to any particular
sect or not, believe in the existence of the God and the divinity of the
Christ they curse.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." For eighteen hundred years you
have not kept a Sabbath of your God. You observe a day he never authorized
you to observe.
"Honor thy father and thy mother." The Christ you worship spurned the
loving mother who bore him and declared that he who hated not father and
mother could not be his disciple.
"Thou shalt not kill." You have made of earth a slaughter house. For
centuries it resounded with the shrieks of murdered millions, victims of
your relentless fury. And today your votaries are drenching Europe's soil
with blood.
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Your most immaculate saints violate this
commandment and become a stench in the nostrils of decent people.
"Thou shalt not steal." Today the prisons of Europe and America shelter
three hundred thousand Christian thieves.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness." Perjury is rife in Christendom; and
even in heathen lands the very name of Christianity has become a synonym
for falsehood and deceit.
"Thou shalt not covet." Your history is the history of covetousness
itself. Christian Rome has tried to devour the world. A little while ago
we saw the Greek cross planted upon the Balkan—saw the Russian eagle
perched upon those snowy crags, gloating over the misfortunes of Turkey,
eager to clutch in his greedy talons the territory of Islam, and prevented
only by the jealous wolves of Protestantism.
No wonder that the warmest hearts and brightest intellects are leaving
you. Upon your walls they read the fateful words that met the terrified
gaze of Babylon's sinful king. Your devotees are looking forward to a
millennium when your power on earth shall be supreme. Delusive phantom!
your millennium has come and gone. That dark blot on the page of history—that
withering pall stretching across the centuries from Constantine to Luther—that
constitutes the thousand years of Christian rule foretold in the
Apocalypse. But that has past, and your power is vanishing, never to be
restored again. From the ashes of that dauntless hero, Giordano Bruno,
young Science, phoenixlike, arose, and in the soil prepared by Luther,
sowed the seed whose harvest is your death. Even now I hear your
death-knell ringing; even now I gaze into a sepulchre where soon must lie
your Bible and your creeds—your stakes, your gibbets and your racks—your
priests, your devil and your God! And when the last have been entombed,
then gather up the crumbling bones of the one hundred million human beings
who have perished at your hands, and let this ghastly pile remain, a most
befitting monument to your unbounded cruelties and crimes!
It is a pleasing thought to know that bigotry is fading from the earth. It
can flourish only in the malarial swamps of ignorance and superstition,
and the poisonous vapors arising from these loathsome regions are being
fast dispelled by the sun of science.
An incident in the life of Nicholas I. of Russia furnishes a fitting
parallel to what the bigots of our time are now experiencing. Among the
many admirers of that other great Deist, Voltaire, was the Empress
Catharine, who ordered a statue of him from the leading sculptor of
Europe. When it arrived Catharine was dying, and for years it lay
untouched in the box in which it had been shipped.
At length Alexander caused it to be set up in a room of the imperial
palace, where it remained until Nicholas ascended the throne. Nicholas was
a most admirable type of the religious bigot; he was ignorant and
intolerant, and the character of Voltaire was the object of his especial
hatred. Hardly had he donned the imperial robes before he began to realize
"How uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
An insurrection had broken out in one of his provinces. Troubled and
perplexed, he was wandering through the halls of the palace when,
suddenly, he stood face to face with the statue of Voltaire. That haughty
smile, so natural to the face of the living Voltaire, had been transferred
to his marble image; and now it seemed to mock the troubled emperor. He
summoned one of his ministers and ordered him to remove the offensive
work. The minister did so, placing it in an old lumber room of the palace.
All went well with the emperor until one night the cry of "fire!"
resounded in his ears. The palace was on fire. Rushing to the scene of the
conflagration he chanced to pass through the very room to which the statue
had been removed, and again he stood before the object of his hatred. The
red glare of the flames added to the terrors of the scene, and, for a
moment, Nicholas fancied himself translated to the dominions of Satan and
standing before his throne. The flames were finally extinguished, the
greater portion of the palace was saved, and with it the statue. But the
remembrance of this terrible scene haunted him like an apparition all
night long. He could not sleep. In the morning he summoned his minister
and ordered him to destroy the work of art. Out of respect for the dead
Catharine the order was unheeded. Years rolled by; the armies of England
and France had invaded the Crimea and defeated with frightful slaughter
the armies of the czar. Then flashed to St. Petersburg news of the
bombardment of Sebastopol which ultimately fell. It was night, and, wild
with anguish, Nicholas was again wandering through those desolate halls—lighted
only by the weird moonbeams that came straggling through the palace
windows—when, for the third time, he was confronted by the ghostly
statue. Again he summoned his minister. But his iconoclastic spirit was
broken. He no longer demanded the destruction of the statue, but simply
begged his official to remove it to where he should never more behold it.
The wily minister bethought him of a place never visited by his sovereign,
and accordingly had it removed to the imperial library. Nicholas is no
more; but the statue remains—a silent monarch in that realm of
thought—an object, not of abhorrence and dread, but of admiration.
As the Russian bigot was haunted by the statue of Voltaire, so the bigots
of our day and country are haunted by the memory of Paine. Theological
insurrections are breaking out on every hand; the intellectual fires of
the twentieth century are encircling and consuming the rude palace of
Superstition; they hear the cannon of Science thundering before the walls
of their Sebastopol. Terror-stricken, aimlessly and hopelessly they wander
on, only to be confronted at every turn by the ghost of Thomas Paine.
Unhappy beings, this will not forever last. Not always will the good name
of Thomas Paine stand as a phantom to frighten bigots. Gently and lovingly
his friends are removing it, passing it on from generation to generation,
to a better and a grander age—to an age across whose threshold no
bigot's foot shall ever pass. Then, when the Republic of the World has
been established, and the Religion of Humanity has become the universal
religion, all mankind will recognize the worth and revere the memory of
him who wrote the political and religious creed of this glorious day:
—THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, TO DO GOOD MY RELIGION.
THE END.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Paine, The Apostle of Liberty, by
John E. Remsburg
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS PAINE ***
***** This file should be named 40210-h.htm or 40210-h.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. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase『Project
Gutenberg』is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
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
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the『Right
of Replacement or Refund』described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809
North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email
contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
gbnewby@pglaf.org
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.