UC-NRLF. 
 
 ITS fllE 
 
 H 
 
UBRAR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 

SPEECH 
 
 COUNSELLOR SAMPSON, 
 
 ox THE TRIAL OF 
 
 JAMES CHJEETHAUt, 
 
 FOR LIBELLING 
 
 MADAME BONNEVILLE, 
 
 IN HIS - 
 
 Hife of &oma Paine? 
 
 WITH A 
 
 SHORT SKETCH OF THE. 
 
 TRIA1L. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED BY CHARLES HQtT, 
 
 181Q. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 I/O 
 
 THE public interest and curiosity have been so 
 strongly excited by the detached portions which 
 have been given in the newspapers, of the ar- 
 guments of the counsel, on the trial of Mr. 
 Cheetham, for libelling Mrs. Bonneville, in his 
 Life of Paine, that it is deemed useful to collect 
 those sketches into a pamphlet form, for the gra- 
 tification of those who have not been able to ob- 
 tain the newspapers, and for the convenience of 
 preserving them beyond the ephemeral existence 
 of a diurnal publication. 
 
 It was hoped that a more full and correct re- 
 port of the trial would have been given to the 
 public; but no indications of such a compilation 
 appearing, the following brief account is given. 
 
 The extracts from the indictment are taken 
 from the records of the court. 
 
 The sketch of Mr. Rose's argument is from 
 the American Citizen, a newspaper of which the 
 defendant is the editor. 
 
 And the speech of Mr. Sampson is copied from 
 the Columbian, in three separate numbers of 
 which it first appeared. 
 
 The whole is given without alteration or re- 
 mark, by 
 
 THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 July 20, 1810. 
 
NEW-YORK GENERAL SESSIONS. 
 
 THE PEOPLE vs. JAMES CHEETHAM. 
 
 Indictment for a Libel on Madame Bonneville. Tried June 
 19, 1810. C. D. GOLDEN , district Attorney. 
 
 Present The Hon. JACOB RADCLIFF, Esq. Mayor, 
 JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN, Esq. Recorder, 
 PETER MESIER, > ^ 
 WILLIAM TORREY, } Es V s ' Aldemien ' 
 
 
 
 THE libel charged in the indictment is as follows : 
 
 c< Thomas (alluding to a son of Mrs. Bonneville) has the fea- 
 tures, countenance and temper of Paine. Madame Bonneville 
 arrived at Baltimore a few days after her paramour." 
 
 " Encouraged, therefore, by the President, countenanced by 
 the presence of Bonneville's wife, and cheered with his bottle., 
 he commenced at Washington the publication of half a dozen 
 letters, addressed to the citizens of the United States." 
 
 " In making his arrangements for a permanent residence a- 
 mongst us, he contemplated the abandonment of Madame Bon- 
 neviile, whom he had seduced from her husband in Paris and 
 brought amongst strangers." 
 
 " But his cruel treatment of her soon dissipated the delusion, 
 and convinced all who knew him, that to the crime of seduction 
 he was adding that of inhumanity." 
 
 " She (alluding to Mrs. Bonneville) presented the order. Paine 
 said, I'll put it in my pocket and read it in the morning. No, 
 said she > you must sign it to-night ; I want to return and get the 
 things to-morrow. I cannot read in the night, I'll keep it till 
 morning. Then, said Madame Bonneville, with some temper, 
 if you wont read it to-night, give it me back. Paine resisted all 
 her importunities : he kept the paper until the morning, when he 
 found that instead of an order for clothing, it was a bond duly 
 drawn for seven hundred pounds." 
 
 cc She wished that he was dead." 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 ce He was guilty of the worst species of seduction ; the alien- 
 ation of a wife and children from a husband and a father." 
 
 The defendant was found GUILTY, and the judgment of the 
 court is as follows : 
 
 " Fined one hundred and fifty dollars, .the costs to be 
 taken out of it." 
 
 Counsel for the prosecution, Messieurs Golden and Sampson ; 
 for the defendant, Messieurs Rose,- Griffin, and D. B. Ogden. 
 
 The publication being admitted by the defendant, the question 
 of libel or no libel was brought immediately before the jury. 
 
 Mr. ROSE opened the cause of the defendant in a speech which 
 was admired by all who heard it, for its neatness and perspicuity, 
 and which, though our limits do not allow us to give more than 
 an outline of tne trial, we regret it is not in our power to lay 
 before the reader in the elegant diction in which it was clothed. 
 Having stated in terms of approbation which we cannot repeat, 
 the motives of Mr. Cheetham for writing the life of Paine, Mr. 
 Rose said, there is much truth in the adage tell me the com- 
 pany you keep, and I will tell you what you are ; that he could 
 not refrain from begging the particular attention of the jury to 
 it. Mr. Sampson has told you that the lady sues for her reputa- 
 tion. A woman, gentlemen, that complains of the loss of re* 
 putation should, (Mr. Rose observed) have had the reputation to 
 lose. What could we think of the character of a mother, the 
 wife of a man in Paris, who had placed herself and children un- 
 der the protection of a man, who having raised to himself a co- 
 lumn of immortal glory by \vriting against the kings of the 
 t-arth, had wantonly and wickedly demolished it by waging an 
 impious war against the' King of Heaven ? Yet my client had 
 no wish to meddle with the character of this woman. That 
 which he has published was communicated to him in a way 
 which authorised him to communicate it to the public, and had 
 nothing of the malice which is essential to a libel. He does not 
 know Madame Bonneville, whom he has never to this moment 
 seen. HOWJ then, could he be actuated by malice towards her ? 
 It was merely to illustrate the character of Paine, by stating his 
 connexions with her, that she was introduced into the work at 
 all. We all remember the late philosophical president Jefferson, 
 \vho in his Notes on Virginia particularizes the murder of Logan's 
 family by Cresap. (Here Mr. Rose cited the narrative of the 
 murder, and repeated a part of Logan's celebrated speech.)- 
 ]Vlr. Martin (Mr. Rose continued) publicly addressed several let- 
 ters to Mr. Jefferson, in which he denied the truth of his state- 
 ment, respecting Cresap. In the appendix of a recent edition of 
 
'the Notes, Mr. Jefferson investigates the complaint of Mr. Martin, 
 and blames him for stepping at once into the newspapers, with- 
 out having previously and privately enquired on what grounds 
 the author had related the pathetic story. If Cresap was slan- 
 dered, Logan, not Mr. Jefferson was the slanderer, for Logan, 
 in the delicious eloquence which he has left us, stated the cir- 
 cumstances of the murder to others, who had communicated them 
 to Mr. Jefferson, in a manner which justified that gentleman in 
 the propagation of them in the form in which they are now 
 found. So of Madame Bonneville. If she be libelled, those who 
 communicated the facts to Mr. Cheetham so as to warrant his 
 statement of them, are the libellers. She ought therefore to 
 have called upon Mr. Cheetham's informants, and if there were 
 ground for complaint, to have made them answerable. Yet 
 when Mr. Emmet wrote to the defendant and pointed out to him 
 on the behalf of Madame Bonneville, what he considered as er- 
 rors of fact, Mr. Cheetham readily consented to correct them 
 on the authority of Mr. Emmet. Did this show malice ? What 
 more could be expected ? And here it was concluded that the 
 matter was at rest. The required alterations were made in the 
 work ; new sheets were printed at considerable expence, and 
 the old ones expunged from it. What then has dragged this 
 settlement from its oblivion ? Who advised the prosecution ? 
 Deism had no hand in it ? Would to God we could bring the 
 man to court who has prompted Madame Bonneville to this pro* 
 secution, and who advised Paine on his death-bed not to ac- 
 knowledge his Saviour lest Christians should triumph ! Here Mr. 
 Rose was interrupted by Mr. Golden, on the allegation that Mr. 
 Rose was going beyond the matter at issue. Mr. Rose con- 
 tinued Think you this cause would have been brought into this 
 court if Deism was not the basis of it ? The object of the pro- 
 secution is undoubtedly to suppress a work which [Mr. Rose 
 paid some compliments to the work, which the reader must ex- 
 cuse us for not repeating.] But we are told of the unfeelingness 
 of bringing an innocent female before the public in an odious 
 light. Yes, another Cleopatra is to be introduced upon the stage 
 to grace a deistical triumph. And who is Madame Bonneville ? 
 Would to God her son was here to testify that he reproached 
 her with living with a man who had broken up the tranquillity of 
 his father's house ? Here Mr. Golden again interrupted Mr. 
 Rose, on the ground that this part of his opening was irrelevant, 
 there being no testimony to support it. The court reserving the 
 question, decided that Mr. Rose might proceed. Who is Madame 
 
 Bonneville ? for I will again, said Mr. Rose, ask the question 
 
 To this enquiry Mr, Golden again objected, as extraneous. 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 What then was Paine, the household deity of Madame Bomie- 
 ville? A man devoid of morality, a drunkard, and a blasphemer 
 of our Saviour. Was this an altar for a mother to teach her 
 children to kneel at ? Mr. Rose concluded with asserting that 
 the only discoverable malice was in the prosecution, with re- 
 peating that the object of it was to suppress a work which a- 
 larmed the Deists, and with maintaining that &s the defendant 
 had published nothing respecting Madame Bonneville, which had 
 not been communicated to him, which he did not believe to be 
 true, and had reasonable ground for his belief, he was not guilty 
 of a libeK 
 
 MR. SAMPSON'S REPLY. 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, 
 
 The counsel who closed the defence finished by cautioning 
 you against the eloquent declamation of his adversaries; with 
 what justice you can judge. It scarcely became him to do so, 
 after he and his colleagues had added to every practical resource 
 that skill and deep finesse could offer, a torrent of declamation, 
 and a display of talent worthy a better cause. Far different is 
 the track I shall pursue. It would be of little profit to the peo- 
 ple, in whose behalf I now appear, or to that injured lady in de- 
 fence of whose unsullied honour I stand -forward, to mix her 
 claim with any topic foreign to her cause. The rattling tongue 
 of saucy eloquence, the loud audacious rant of boisterous words, 
 would ill accord with the sad accents of woman's tender sor- 
 rows, and those instructions she has given, which are commands 
 to me. If I could lay before you the silent anguish of her grief- 
 worn soul, her wounded spirit, and her broken heart, I should 
 be eloquent, and eloquent enough. 
 
 But who is he that can describe the wounds that show not 
 outwardly, but bleed within, which art can never cicatrize nor 
 time assuage ? Who can relate the torments of that moment, 
 when first she felt the stroke of sudden desolation, and found 
 the barbed arrow in her heart ? She who stood spotless before 
 God and man, who never had in word or deed offended. Who 
 after many griefs and sore adversities, had sought a refuge on 
 your hospitable shores, Wbo had in this obeyed the counsel of 
 
her lawful husband, and brought with her, as to a land where 
 law aitd justice reigned, one half of those dear infants whose 
 love bound them together by a mutual tie, and grappled their af- 
 fections to a weary world. 
 
 Was it not enough to satiate this cruel libeller, that he had 
 scattered far and wide his venomed shafts through all this terrified 
 community ? that he had carried discord, pain and sorrow to 
 every heart, poisoned the cup of friendship, troubled the social 
 board, and rioted in mischief? that he had spared no principle, 
 no party, no virtue, nor no friend ? but must a wretched female, 
 whose merit and misfortune would command respect from any 
 but a savage, whose modest life and laudable endeavors to be 
 useful, were crowned with approbation by those whose confidence 
 should be to her and to the world a stamp of sterling worth ; 
 was she, too, to be dragged from modest privacy, to make a part 
 of his obscene and blasphemous histories ? coupled with the cele- 
 brity of Paine, and in whatever country of the earth, whatever 
 distant period of time yet to come, the searching eye of curiosity, 
 or keener scent of scandal should fix upon this work, which he 
 calls history and I call villainy, to stand therein emblazoned as 
 the guilty heroine of the odious tale, the strumpet of one des- 
 cribed to be the foulest and the filthiest of men ! 
 
 But what is strange to me, who am not versed in secret his- 
 tory, who meddle little with the hidden springs of others' ac- 
 tions, or the unseen motives that bring mysterious things to lighf^ 
 is this, that he should find to justify this crime, the eloquent 
 tongues which very lately had depicted him as the most scurri- 
 lous and monstrous libeller that ever suffered from offended jus- 
 tice. That any man could countenance such acts I must lament; 
 that honest men should do it with such zeal I am pained to see. 
 But what these honorable gentlemen have done is but perhaps a 
 course which their profession warrants. Perhaps within them- 
 selves they are contented because they think that while they 
 make a proud display of talent, it is impossible cruel success or 
 unjust victory can follow. So they may reason with their con- 
 sciences, but 1 esteem them well enough to think that in their 
 hearts they would despise the verdict that crowned their efforts. 
 
 1 do not envy them their cause, although I feel how much it is 
 more easy and more light to sport with topics when the heart is 
 free, and where defeat itself brings pleasure with it, than to 
 wield a cause in which to fail would be to suffer, not the little 
 mortification of being vanquished in a game of skill, but the 
 deep and poignant dejection that afflicts the honest mind, when 
 crime and insolence obtains a triumph over humanity. 
 
 B 
 
The confidence with which this cause was opened to you, the 
 bold effrontery with which he who stands accused came forward 
 in the sanctuary of the law to justify a now acknowledged libel 
 and a ralshood, by scandal still more heinous and more barefaced, 
 with compurgators who would within but two years past have 
 spurned hion from them, seemed to bespeak what I shall never 
 name. The thought is shocking to an honest mind ; may hea- 
 ven avert such shame from all of us. 
 
 For me, I find all words so poor to paint the sense I have of 
 such injustice, That if I thought it possible that the defendant's 
 confidence was grounded in the favor of any of his judges, I 
 should resolve to sit me down, commend the lady's cause in 
 silent prayer to heaven, and trust to him whose ways are mer- 
 ciful to compass her with his benign protection. Indeed to him 
 alone she now must look for consolation ; for man can give her 
 little, and reparation she can never have, nor peace this side the 
 grave. Already has hc-r sad celebrity flown to the furthest cor- 
 ner of the earth ; already has the wanton calumny reached those 
 distant friends whose kind remembrances were all the balm fate 
 had reserved for her. She feels their anguish added to her own. 
 It is one wound that pierces many hearts. She cannot name the 
 father of her children; if she does, the thought like lightning 
 flashes on her mind, that her once tender name is now reproach- 
 ful. She cannot cast a look of mother's love upon her innocent 
 infants, but the keen idea shoots through her soul, that they are 
 stigmatized in history with infamy and bastardy, blighted and 
 blasted in their dawn of life. 
 
 In every other grief than that which this historian has inflict- 
 ed on her, the innocent find comfort ; for innocence is in all 
 other wrongs, against all other strokes of man's injustice, a se- 
 venfold shield. Not so where woman's honour is assailed. 
 Suspicion there is worse than death itself. It is that shame to 
 which the chaste Lucretia, rather than seem consenting, pre- 
 ferred to plunge a dagger in her heart. It is that shame for 
 which alone the innocent wife of Caesar was repudiated. The 
 man who dares attack a woman's honor, is of all other crimi- 
 nals the greatest. If he be not a traitor, it is for -this alone, 
 that he is worse. For many a man has suffered as a traitor, 
 whom after-ages have revered and honored. But never yet 
 was he who set his cloven foot upon a woman's honor, worthy 
 the name of man. 
 
 [Here the defendant rose and claimed the protection of the 
 court, not so much with a desire to prevent the range of the 
 ingenious counsel, as to prevent the utterance of personalities 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 that it would not be thought prudent perhaps to repeat out pi 
 court. 
 
 While the defendant was addressing the court, the counsel 
 calmly advanced, and taking a pinch of snuff, modestly observ- 
 ed that what he was doing now was in court, and what was to 
 be done out of court was not to be talked of here. Then point- 
 ing to the defendant, and casting a significant look upon him, he 
 proceeded.] 
 
 This unrighteous man has by this very movement of his cho- 
 ler justified ail that I can ever say. If he complains of person- 
 alities, he who is hardened in every gross abuse; who lives re- 
 viling and reviled ; who might construct himself a monument 
 with no materials but those records to which he is a party and in 
 which he stands enrolled a libeller, if he cannot sit still to hear 
 his accusation, but calls for the protection of the court against a 
 counsel whose duty is to make his crimes appear ; how much 
 does she deserve protection, whom he has driven to the sad ne- 
 cessity of coming here to vindicate her honor from personalities 
 which he has lavished on her ? Did not his opening counsel say 
 before you, that he could make the color fade upon this lady's 
 .cheek, and wish that she might be in court to hear him ? regret 
 that her own son was not here present to testify against her ? 
 Was not this monstrous personality ? And when it is considered 
 that before this very cause drew near its close, the other counsel 
 of this same defendant rose and told you, that they admitted her 
 character was spotless, and for the reason that no reproach was 
 cast upon it, desire you to acquit their innocent client, who is a 
 mere historian, who never could have malice, who was more 
 ready to rectify his errors than others to observe them. 
 
 But it is well, and I am glad that I was interrupted ; for the 
 very evil genius that waits upon his life, has here for once work- 
 ed to an honest end. And whilst my voice was almost choaked 
 with crowding truths struggling for utterance, and whilst the 
 swell of honest indignation rose even to suffocation, he came 
 'forward and pointed my attention to that subject which first de- 
 served rebuke. 
 
 I had said that in the catalogue of crimes., none 'could be found 
 more base than his. Not treason, for the reasons I have given. 
 Not murder for he who murders life, murders all sorrow with 
 it ; but he has doomed this lady to days of sorrow and to linger- 
 ing death. The pirate meets his foe or seeks his prey when 
 death or danger stare him in the face ; and when he falls before 
 the sword of justice, some sympathy may mingle with hjs 
 shame, and men regret that one so brave in manly enterprise 
 should fall so ignominiously. But here is an attack upon a woj 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 jan, far from her husband's side, from friends and home, whose 
 infant sons are yet too tender to avenge their mother's wrongs. 
 The forger counterfeits some instrument to cheat you of your 
 money, and for that crime spins out his wretched days in hard 
 captivity, in infamy and labor: will you compare his crime with 
 that of one who, by his fabricated histories, pilfers from helpless 
 woman the only precious jewel which she prizes, her more than 
 life, her all, her spotless name ? That which the robber or the 
 thief purloins, may be retrieved or may be spared ; but not the 
 worth of twenty thousand beings such as this libeller, were he 
 worth twenty thousand times as much as ever he will be, re- 
 form how he may, would pay the twenty thousandth part of tha^ 
 which he has taken. 
 
 The libeller who writes against abuse of unjust power, who 
 vindicates the cause of liberty and right, when he exceeds thro* 
 zeal for liberty, or through the w armth of opposition, or even a 
 stubborn spirit, is often I ved, and often, though found guilty, 
 he still has friends that honor and respect him. But the histo- 
 rian who takes such pains to rake up filth from every dirty and 
 polluted source, to make a history, of which the scandal may 
 enhance the sale, is a corrupt malicious slanderer, without one 
 circumstance that can excuse or palliate. 
 
 I had almost forgot it is set up as his defence that he is an 
 historian. It is the first time that I ever heard a rule of law so 
 dangerous as that a gazetteer who strings communications, ar- 
 ticles, and paragraphs, with notes, that overrun his feeble text, 
 like brambles shooting up and down and across in some rank un- 
 cultivated soil ; that this man has any privilege to libel names 
 fairer than his own. Is it because his sheets are stitched together 
 in octavo form and covered with some pasteboard ! that there- 
 fore he is privileged in slander ? It would have been well, 
 some days ago, if his brother editors, against whom he got da- 
 mages for being his historian, and calling him a British emissary, 
 had sold their works in boards; they might most readily have 
 found as many witnesses, and full as good as he has called, to say, 
 flot that it was true, but that they had enquired and were told it, 
 and verily believed it. They might have said it first themselves, 
 if they had been corrupt enough to do it, then received it back 
 again^ and published it as the history, not of Tom Paine, but of 
 that greater man who rendered a wondrous benefit to succumb- 
 ing faith by putting Paine down just after the grave-digger had 
 pu im under ground. 
 
 It is argued that every thing should be intended in favour of 
 thi? defendant who has written so godly a work against the 
 prince of deists, and for the holy gospel. I am sorry to hear ar- 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 guments advanced; to burlesque religion. He a man of 
 God ! He write for the love of God ! His book a godly book ! 
 a vile, obscene, and filthy compilation, which bears throughout, 
 the character of rancor, and tramples upon every Christian cha- 
 rity. Libel an innocent woman, lie and calumniate for the sake 
 of Christianity! If this be the only godly deed this man has 
 done, I pray to Heaven to be more merciful to him than he has 
 been to Mrs. Bonneville, and for this very work of godliness that 
 he may not be damned. If you be Christian jurors, punish him ; 
 for be assured of this, that twenty Paines, were twenty such just 
 now upon this earth, could not conjointly do more harm to Chris- 
 tianity by their most violent efforts, than this man by defending 
 it would do. If any one of wavering faith should hear that the 
 best vindication of God's word was this most libellous and scan- 
 dalous work, he never would be Christian from that hour. Not 
 every one that saithLord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 Heaven, but least of all he that makes the blessed name of God 
 a cloak for malice and iniquity. He may be like those priests of 
 whom we read in history, who with their holy cross in one hand, 
 and bloody sabre in the other, commit atrocities at which nature 
 shudders. Where did he learn that the God of mercy took de- 
 light in human sacrifices, and that to do him honor a woman's 
 heart must palpitate upon a bloody altar ? Has he ever read the 
 word of God ; or, this heavenly historian, does he know one 
 letter of the gospel history ? If he does he is as blunt and dull 
 in understanding, as he is dead to sensibility and delicacy. When 
 a woman was brought before the author of the Christian faith, 
 taken in the very fact of adultery, what did he say ? He left 
 behind him a lesson of tenderness ever memorable and divine. 
 Let him, he said to the fanatical and malignant rabble, let him who 
 is innocent cast the first stone. And if this Christian historian had 
 ever known or felt the benignant spirit of holy inspiration, would 
 he not be sensible that he was not that innocent ? If he be in- 
 nocent, then are tigers gentle. If Mrs. Boimcville were as guilty 
 as he no later than this day proposed to prove her, was there no 
 better way to recommend the Christian faith than by upbraiding 
 her with such pert and contumelous insolence ? But when we 
 prove her innocent, when she comes from out the fiery furnace 
 unhurt, unscorched, then " the more angel she, and he the 
 blacker devil." 
 
 But it is said he acted bona fide. He made inquiry" and he 
 was deceived. And being an historian) is justified even for the 
 blasphemies he this day uttered by his counsel's lips. If this be 
 so, much as I love this country, admire its people, am! revere its 
 -, I would rather once more tempt my wandering destinies 
 
than live where one historian was unpenned, unmuzzled or un- 
 chained. I had rather be exposed to some defoimed thine: v/ith 
 claws, and horns, and tusks ; some spit-fire dragon who^e breath 
 was poisonous, whose tooth was cankered. Tell me of all the 
 monsters that ancient history or fable treats of; of harpies, hy- 
 dras, Caledonian boars, of Minotaurs and Pythons, of Gorgons 
 and Chimeraes, of fierce ferocious animals that prowl the desert 
 or fright the haunts of men, and I will tell you of a more fearful 
 monsterthat is, an historian ! If every man that keeps the 
 worst of company, that gofs about to hunt for lies and scandal, 
 whose organic and natural perceptions are turned to wickedness, 
 whose scent is fitted only to run the track of slander ; if such an 
 one be an historian, and may vend in open market the scandal he 
 runs down ; better that letters never had been known, printing 
 invented, nor history composed. 
 
 The plagues that accident or nature bring must be endured ; 
 the ills with which an angry providence sometimes thinks fit to 
 scourge the sinful sons of man must be submitted to with pious 
 resignation ; but that a common libeller should be invested with 
 more than kingly power and prerogative, is what I never heard 
 of. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have been drawn in to say more of religion than 
 I could wish to do. Not that such things are not both good and 
 fit to say ; but I would willingly avoid a topic so sacred, be- 
 cause I am not worthy to discuss it, and because it sometimes is 
 a cant ; and nothing is more odious than a canting lawyer ; not 
 even a canting libeller. I have cited cases where it has been 
 held no justification of a libeller that what he published had be- 
 fore been published by many others, and uncontradicted. I have 
 produced the statute which declares the truth itself to be no jus- 
 tification, unless the defendant make it satisfactorily appear that 
 he published that truth with good and justifiable motives. I have 
 cited English cases where the good intention of the defendant 
 was not allowed to justify him, for this plain reason, that acts 
 in their own essence criminal furnish the inference of malice and 
 of bad intention. As well the robber or the murderer might say 
 that some one told him the victim of his fury deserved death, 
 and upon such suggestion constitute himself h;s legislator, hi* ac- 
 cuser, his judge and executioner. 
 
 If the defendant's counsel had proved their client an idiot from 
 liis nativity, or one deranged in mind, or under the influence of 
 temporary phrenzy, they might then have excused him : but on 
 the contrary, they have compared him to the great names of 
 Burke and Bishop Watson ; nay more, they have modestly pre- 
 ferred him to them both; for they assert that his vile book has 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 been the ablest refutation of the Age of Reason that ever issued 
 from the pen of man. Was not this gross and rank ! Mark 
 but the difference. When Paine was in the vigor of his mind, 
 when his extraordinary writings had partizans and countenance 
 to back them, they attacked him with manly energy. They 
 provoked an answer, which gave the world to judge between 
 their arguments, and left behind a monument of splendid contro- 
 versy. Not so this man, who lurched, and dodged, and crouched, 
 till death had done his work, and then came forward, after his 
 adversary's tongue was mute for ever, to prove he was a beast. 
 If he was a beast, even, he was king of beasts compared to this 
 one : for you remember all what kind of beast that was that 
 kicked at the dead lion. 
 
 'But since we are upon the subject of this God-like work, this 
 history which 1 could never wade through, the very preface is 
 enough to show you what the writer is, and whether he has 
 written faithfully, without deceit or malice : 
 
 In the 2 1 st page of his preface, he states, that on the arrival 
 of Tom Paine, he was the chosen man that took upon him to 
 procure a lodging for him, and the first that sat at the same 
 board with him. " I engaged a room for him in Lovet's hotel, 
 supposing him to be a gentleman." And in the 23d page of his 
 preface he says " My acquaintance continued with him, with 
 various views, two or three years." Now weigh this well. 
 Paine was as much a devil then as when he died. The defend- 
 ant knew him for no other than Tom Paine 5 the author of that 
 very Age of Reason which holy inspiration now calls upou him to 
 arraign. Yes, he was the first to wait upon him and to welcome 
 him ; to take a lodging for him, and to continue his intimacy 
 with him with various views, two or three years. <( My inter- 
 course (says this historian) was more frequent with him than a- 
 greeable ; but what I suffered in feelings from his want of good 
 manners, his dogmatism, the tyranny of his opinions, his peevish- 
 ness, his intemperance, and the low company he kept, was per- 
 haps compensated by acquiring a knowledge of the man. The 
 latter part of his life was spent in the city of New- York uridt; my 
 own eye ; but I have made particular enquiries of the persons in 
 whose houses he successively lived, as to his manner of living, his 
 temper, and his habits. The facts respecting his death and burial 
 I have from a humane and sensible quaker gentleman, from Dr. 
 Manley, his kind and attentive physician, and from his nurse, a 
 woman of intelligence and piety." Well said I humanity and 
 piety ! Most humane doctor ! most pious nurse ! benevolent and 
 chaste historian, that haunts the living to revile the dead; that 
 keeps his ravenous eye upon his prey, and follows him just as the 
 
shark does the distempered vessel, to feed upon the carcase ; thai 
 leagues with honest doctors and pious nurses, whose babbling 
 gossip he vouches for the truth of his most Christian history ; 
 doctors and pious nurses who betray the wretched secrets of hu- 
 man frailty and dissolving nature, to this evangelical historian, 
 who gloats with pleasure at the ordurious details, and gives them 
 to the world as the generous dedications of apostolic zeal, that 
 labours in the vineyard of faith to save poor sinners' souls! Oh, 
 vile hypocrisy ! oh, gross imposture ! And will you, honorable 
 citizens, be gulled by this ? Will you believe it possible that this 
 man has no malice ? To my imagination his own story presents 
 the image of some nasty vermin engendering in the morbid parte 
 of some decaying body ; the creature of corruption ; the precur- 
 sor of dissolution ; that like a worm or a maggot, begins but 
 where life ends, and battens in the bowels of disease. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I do not speak at random. This history is now in evidence, 
 and every line of it is now before you. I never read it : but my 
 eye has caught some passages, that warrant me to say, the au- 
 thor was malicious and unfair, and neither could nor did believe 
 the truth of what he wrote, nor in the honesty of those from 
 whom he got it. No ; but he went about, like those that buy old 
 rags and broken glass, and sought for nothing sound, or whole or 
 cleanly. He went to the house of Mr. Hitt, (I have marked the 
 page down for your inspection) and Mr. Hitt being too honor- 
 able to hold such vile communion, or furnish a libeller of the 
 living and the dead with any vicious calumny against the man 
 his roof had once protected, or violate the faith of hospitality, he 
 sets him forth in history as a concealer of all heavenly truths, 
 and travels round to gather scandalous gossip from angry ene- 
 mies, from disappointed claimants, from soured expectant?, from 
 adverse litigants ; from pious nurses, and from chagrined doctors, 
 whose bills and charges were disputed ; and then returns with 
 his dirty budget, not like the bee that sucks sweet honey from the 
 fragrant flowers, but like a wasp whose only industry is in his 
 sting, or like a serpent, who leaves the wholesome food that na- 
 ture spreads, to feed his venomous maw with what is rank. 
 
 He knew Tom Paine to be the author of the Age of Reason ; 
 yet in his book he states himself to be the very man who took upon 
 himself the friendly and amiliar office, on his return from France, 
 to take a lodging for him. In the very preface of his history yon 
 may read this. He sat at table with him, whilst he ate beef- 
 steaks, drank beer, and looked so ugly. He continued his ac- 
 quaintance with him tc with various views." He was his eulo- 
 gist and his commemorator, that is notorious. And on this trial 
 
he seems to have no friends to vouch for him but all the worst of 
 Paint's. What could his counsel mean, who opened with the 
 pi overb, Teil me your company, and I'll tell you who you are. 
 You see how truth will pierce through brazen walls. But he 
 goes further, and in his history he gives to the world some of 
 Paine's writings, which the public eye had never seen before, so 
 proiiuble is his industry ! 
 
 I never saw Tom Paine but twice or thrice. The first time was 
 in Paris ; even then he seemed to me the type of fallen manhood, 
 a melancholy ruin. His habits then, not suiting well with mine, 
 1 left him to himself. I had no " various view?." I never did 
 commemorate him living, nor libel him when dead. 1 never 
 was his host, his guest, nor tavern companion. 1 take his pic" 
 ture, therefore, from his historian ; and 1 ask, could he believe, 
 that such as he describes him, a wallowing, withered, filthy be- 
 ing, iincleaiilier than the swine, the filthiest thing that ever 
 walked erect; old, petulant, ill-natured; carbuncled, cuprosed, 
 a drunkard, a stinkard, and a miser; a hater of the sex, who 
 did not consummate his lawful marriage I ask it in the name of 
 heaven and truth, if this were so (and if it be not so the historian 
 lies) could he believe that such a one as that ever seduced a. wo- 
 man ? Did he believe that such a piece of flesh, and, at a time 
 when he was both proscribed and pennyless, lodged by the bounty 
 of a husband, immersed in d-mgerous controversies ; that such a 
 one could be the gay and fortunate seducer of a lady, bred up 
 at Paris, in the pride of life, of polished habits, and personal at- 
 tractions ; and have seduced her from the father of her children, 
 a man of .personal figure, manners, and shining acquisitions ? 
 One of his counsel argued, as if he thought his client's cause the 
 safer, the more it was entrenched in heaps of calumny ; that if 
 she did not love his person she did worse, she loved his principles. 
 Gentlemen, this lady had no more to do with his opinions than 
 you with those of Mr. Cheetham. She neither hated him nor Mr. 
 Cheetham, as those who love his new-born virtues did two years 
 ago. And at this hour she is perhaps to learn his opinions, so fo- 
 reign are such topics to her guileless nature and her feminine spirit. 
 Nay, more ; she did not even speak Paine's language, nor he 
 hers. This you may gather from the evidence, and from the his- 
 tory, which is now evidence. Paine never could speak French, 
 though he could read it ; she never spoke the English, till she 
 learned it here ; and Mr. Underbill, the defendant's witness, has 
 confirmed this, because in mimickry he tells you, that after years 
 of residence she spoke imperfectly, and challed her child Paine's 
 $hild. 
 
 C 
 
( Iff ) 
 
 Could this man then believe, even on an atheist's faith, t'hougfc 
 lie affirmed it with uplifted hands, or on the faith of the most 
 ** pious and intelligent nurse," that kites and doves would bill and 
 beck together? If he is not credulous enough for this and more 
 than this, he does not, nor he did not when he wrote, believe the 
 horrible slander. No> gentlemen ; but truth was not his wish. 
 He wanted filthy anecdotes to swell his scandalous chronicles, and 
 make his history a precious merchandize for all the idle and illiber- 
 al, who take delight in wonders and in wickedness. 
 
 But it is said, all this must be excused, because he is a laborer 
 iii the vineyard, a Christian hero, and historian. Whence fell 
 this sudden dispensation upon him ? Did the star shine upon him 
 from the west, or from the east, whence wise men come ? or 
 who ordained him to uphold that faith which no man in this coun- 
 trv except his atheist friends and he himself had questioned ? or 
 if it was in danger and likely to succumb, could it receive from 
 the attacks of twenty such as Paine so great an injury as from 
 one single advocate like him, who lives by writing down all char- 
 acter, and trampling under foot all Christian charities ? Are there 
 not venerable men enough, who spend their youths in studying, 
 and their maturer years in teaching Christianity ; and do they want 
 the aid of common libellers ? Are there not those, the chosen 
 of their flock, whose pure and innocent lives give efficacy to their 
 words ? good fathers, faithful friends, and tender husbands, who 
 - practise what they preach ; whose gentle manners and mild in- 
 tercourse inspire your souls with reverence and love ? whom you 
 cau hear with confidence and follow with delight ? who in your 
 sickness visit you, in your afflictions comfort you ? with whom 
 you and your families can join in modest prayer before the altar of 
 eternal mercy, in blessed hope of everlasting life ? with whom in- 
 voke his power, who by whatever name he may be called, thro 3 
 whatsoever medium the erring eye of weak mortality may view 
 his image, is ever God ? But shall such ruffian accents interlope 
 between God and his ministry, and trouble the peace of heaven 
 and of man ? Has he not libelled woman ? He has! and never 
 could the foe of woman's peace be friend to God or man ! 
 
 I do not say that reformation may not light upon the veriest sin- 
 ner. And we are told there is more joy in heaven for one re- 
 penting than ninety-nine that never went astray. Be it so. But 
 true contrition is marked with meekness and humility. Has his 
 been so ? No ! If he now repents, 'tis like an angry wolf that 
 stands at bay grinding his teeth, and who repents of nothing but 
 of this, that he is caught. The words his counsel opened with 
 this day, were they like penitence, when he threatened deep 
 Shame and ruin to this lady and her friends ? to make the colour 
 
lade upon her cheek ? regretted that her son waff not then pre- 
 sent to stuprate his own mother, and hoped she might be then in 
 court to hear him say so ? Was it repentance to have first pur- 
 sued her into the privacy of modest life, and at the shrine of 
 blessed hospitality, before *the household gods of her protectors, 
 like to a sanguinary savage, assail her with his club ? Was it like 
 penitence, within this hour, here in the sanctuary of the law, 
 once more to lift his worse than homicidal arm, and aim another 
 dagger at her breast ? Is this that true repentance in sackcloth 
 and in ashes, that moves man's pity and heaven's mercy ? 
 
 There was a monastery where deadly crimes were expiated, 
 called La Trappe : when sinners entered it they made a terrible 
 vow of everlasting silence, and from that awful moment never 
 littered word, and daily with their nails dug their own graves. 
 When midnight bells tolled them to prayer, they left their solitary 
 cells, and moved with noiseless step through gloomy cloisters and 
 whispering aisles, with downcast look, turning their rosaries, but 
 aever spake. Such is the penitence, such the eternal silence that 
 would become the ruthless slanderer of woman's honor. But he 
 who acts the bully and the bravo, and calls himself the champion 
 *>f high heaven, what words can paint the horror he inspires! 
 Then let us leave him . 
 
 My duty calls me now to recapitulate the testimony of all his 
 witnesses. The first and principal is Mr. Carver, He with up- 
 lifted hand, affirmed, by the everliving God, the truth of what 
 he testified and what was that? His letter tells us all- That 
 he and Paine had a dispute for maney ; and in their correspond- 
 ence you may find the crimes and baseness they reciprocally urged 
 against each other. Mr. Carver, whose vulgar scurrilous letter 
 makes the chief buttress of this man's defence, the more to spite 
 his adversaries, flings out some calumny against the lady he be- 
 friended. Carver himself admits, that when she got a sight of it> 
 she threatened to prosecute him for that very letter. Yet on no 
 better ground thaia on that letter has this audacious libeller defam- 
 ed her reputation. 
 
 From the same source springs the infernal hint that little 
 Thomas Bonneville had the countenance and features of Tom 
 Paine. In his little nose no doubt the historian could discern, 
 by learned inspection, the germs of future blossoms, and gems 
 that in due course of nature should come to this world's light. 
 
 Carver gives evidence of what he heard from Paine of Mrs. 
 Bonneville, which he himself retailed to Cheetham ; and Cheet- 
 ham, rat' er 'ian such sublime history should not shine forth to 
 save poor sinners' souls, becomes historian for the love of God, 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 and gives them to the world as history. This is the history of 
 this Historian, and this historian's history. 
 
 Novv, gentlemen, supported thus, the historian had such faith 
 in atheists, as rather to presume their slanders true than any wo- 
 man virtuous. Again, the story of Mrs. Bonneville's never hav- 
 ing been the wife of Mr. Bonne ville, which Carver writes that 
 Paine did say in speaking harshly of her, and which is evidence 
 before you now of this man's malice, being in his history ; this, I 
 say, he could not have believed, because it came from Paine, of 
 whom both he and Carver writ?- that ae did never speak a word of 
 truth. And more, see what a strange diiemma he is in, when 
 fi . -t tie state* t'jat Mr, Paine seduced her from her husband, and 
 tlien 'ue shows you in another page she never liad a husband* 
 How beautiful and uniform is truth! How multiform and intricate 
 b Vjrhood ! How like the spider's flimsy web! How like the 
 co in g ot the scaly serpent the windings of the guil'y. 
 
 My eye ju>t glanced upon some words where there is mention 
 made of Paine's last will. That is the key to the mysterious 
 league of apostolic slanderers, mortified expectants and disap- 
 peared speculators. 
 
 Perhaps the lady's greatest crime was that which did not come 
 to light till Paine was " in the dark and narrow house," that in re- 
 turn for the compassion her husband had bestowed upon him in bis 
 \vorstdaysof tribulation, he constituted his benefactor's wife and 
 children his legatees. Hence too, the strong resemblance grew 
 more strong between the god-son and god-father. It is a blessed 
 thing that whensoever wickedness and anger is most rife, the 
 worst of slanderers finds at his elbow an historian that w illgive 
 Jjody and duration to the troubled passions of his soul, who will 
 noi give them time to cool, who will not even wait till they are 
 brought to him, but goes about to look for them as beggars do 
 that pray for broken meat and offals at your kitchen door. 
 
 In this godly history is Madame Bonneville charged not only 
 with adulterous prostitution, but with swindling: and it is said 
 she offered Paine a bond to sign, alledging that it was an order 
 for some clothing for her children. For this, too, Mr. Carver is 
 the author ; although this day he swears he never saw that bond, 
 nor is there one in life that ever did. It is a slanderous tale, 
 that ought to choak the utterer, and stands at best on what Paine 
 said on the report of Carver, which Paine (both Carver, and 
 Cheetham the historian, say) never told any truth. But can he 
 be believed, who came this morning to protest, and swagger, 
 and maintain this truth, and now has no defence but that the 
 same is false, though not malicious ? If it be not malicious,, 
 panthers are gentle, aw} vipers very harmless* 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 I cross-examined Mr. Carver, and asked him this, whether 
 his evidence bad not been disallowed in courts of justice by rea- 
 son of his infidelity. This I did, not from any canting motive of 
 self-arrogated niety, for that is odious, but to show that the main 
 prop of all this godliness, and proud defeat of atheists and deists, 
 was himself an atheist, and perhaps the only one this country 
 ever saw. 
 
 He first evaded. I asked him whether Mr. Emmett, there 
 before him, had not made that objection, and if it was allowed ? 
 There was, says he, some such objection made, I was not 
 sworn, and I walked away ! 
 
 I asked him, then, if Mr. Griffin, the defendant's present 
 counsel, who this day bestowed upon this lady the sharpness of 
 the bitterest invective that tongue could utter, but who not long 
 since had gained the palm of eloquence by painting his now cli- 
 ent as the veriest monster that disturbed the walks of men ; I 
 asked Carver whether he too had not objected to him. Again he 
 parlied. I stated to him the question and his own answer " Do 
 you believe in a future state of rewards and punishments ?" " I 
 once did not, but since I have recanted those opinions ; for see- 
 ing that kings commit so many crimes, and that there is no 
 power to punish them, and lawyers never think themselves e- 
 nou>j;h rewarded in this life, I carwe to the conclusion that there 
 must be some future state, when kings would meet their punish- 
 ment, and lawyers get their last reward." Gentlemen, such as 
 Mr. Carver may seem to you, at best a witty profligate, yet I 
 would rather trust him still, than the defendant, who seeks to 
 throw his crimes upon his head. He that professes open deism, or 
 even atheism, which is a mere equivocation and abuse of words, 
 as that there is a power greater than man none ever truly doubt- 
 ed he still is less obnoxious in my sight, than t>ne who without 
 any spark of faith or charity, professes outwardly to be a Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 Mr. Carver adds, it was about two years, or three year?, since 
 through these meditations- upon kings and lawyers he became a 
 convert : till then, he swears with his uplifted hand, he was an 
 atheist ; but now he is a firm believing deist, and in such quality 
 can furnish matter to any Christian book-maker who is disposed to 
 write down woman, the fairest of God's creatures, for the love 
 of God. 
 
 I pushed him further, and he stated that he and Mrs. Carwr 9 
 his own wife, had often gone to Mr. Purdy's, on the farm, to visit 
 Mrs. Bonueville. Then it was, that seeing the toils in which \>L< 
 honesty and decency had fallen, he tapered off by saying, he JU.-VIT 
 had seen the slightest indication of any meretricious or Hhcit conv 
 
acierce between Tom Paine and Mrs. Bonneville ; that they never 
 were alone together; and that all the three children, the little 
 god-son Tom and all, were alike the objects of Paine's care. 
 Yet upon this authority did the defendant say, in terrible menace, 
 to the surrounding and astonished crowd, not that he was mis- 
 taken, not that he was repented of all that he had published, and 
 sorry for what he had done, but that he would prove it true, and 
 prove much worse, and other things more shocking and more 
 cruel than ever till that hour had proceeded from the tongue of 
 honorable counsel or good men against a woman. 
 
 Mrs. Ryder, whom he has dared to vouch among his compur- 
 gators, damns him deeper still Paine lived with her, and Mrs. 
 Bonneville often came to visit him. She never saw but decency 
 with Mrs. Bonneville. She never staid there but one night, when 
 Paine was very sick. And when the historian came to mal-t in- 
 quiries as an historian, he never questioned her, but inquired on- 
 ly of her husband. Why not -ask of her? Women, however 
 amiable, are keen observers of each other. But he knew, per- 
 haps, that she would tell him what she now swears here, that 
 the demeanor of this lady was decent and respectable : and 
 such accounts would be to this historian, even as the taste of 
 manna and of bitter herbs ; for slander only suits hib appetite. 
 But Mrs.Ryder often told Paine the child was like him. Did she 
 so ? And is every innocent saying of a merry wife, who tries 
 to force a smile upon the furrowed cheek of tottering age ; every 
 playful joke that fondling mothers use and gossips prattle, to be 
 distilled in the alembic of the poisoner, to make up deadly po- 
 tions ? 
 
 Then Mrs. Dean was called to prove the lying story of the 
 bond. She tells you, on her oath, she never told him of it, as 
 he states she did. She tells him to his beard she never saw his 
 face before, nor spoke to him of that or any thing. In this dis- 
 grace he calls upon his Mentor, his demi-god Carver, the atheist, 
 (or, if you will, the deist) to belie the honest gentlewoman, and 
 prove by the scrupulous virtue of his uplifted hand, that she his 
 witness was a perjurer ; thus adding to the crime of Mrs. Bon- 
 neville's wrongs, an insult to another virtuous woman. 
 
 Next came the reverend Mr. Foster. To reverend men great 
 reverence be given. He has a claim against the estate of Paine, 
 for the tuition of the little Bonnevilles. It is disputed, I believe, 
 in lavv. He was called to justify the historian on his own au- 
 thority, for having written that Mr. Paine seduced her from her 
 husband. What does he say ? He says that " Mrs. Bonneville 
 might possibly have said as much as that but for Paine she 
 ,vou!d not have come here ;" and that Paine was under special 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 obligations to provide for her children. In this Mr. Foster has 
 proved the defendant more guilty than he was before ; because- 
 these words, if true, could never warrant him or the historian, 
 unless they both were fools, to say that Mr. Paine was Mrs. 
 Bouneville's paramour. he thing was plain enough, when 
 malice did not warp it. Her husband had been kind to Paine in 
 Paris. He promised gratitude and mutual succor, if ever terror 
 or disastrous fortune should banish the family of Mr. Bonnevilk 
 from their native land, One child he had adopted, he was hit- 
 god-son ; the others he had promised to protect. Who but a. 
 fiend would have inferred from this, who but a slanderer have 
 published in a history, that this old man seduced that lady from 
 her husband's bed ? If such historians are allowed to write down 
 character, better have that lion's mouth which once belonged to 
 the inquisitorial government of Venice, where every vile infor- 
 mer or denouncer might throw in what he pleased, and ruin 
 whom he chose. 
 
 Doctor Manley said, she wished that Paine was dead, and 
 Mr. Cheetham had that news from him ; but whether from feel- 
 ing and compassion for his sufferings, or other motives, he could 
 not tell. These qualifications being in the work, we are con- 
 tented to give up that count, and I shall make but this remark, 
 that if there was not malice, it was worse than useless to intro- 
 duce that fact into the history. And let me just observe, that 
 Dr. Manley had also a dispute touching his bill, which was ob- 
 jected to as being unreasonable, and reduced. 
 
 And now for Peter Underbill. A few days since the defend- 
 ant postponed his trial, by swearing to the court that Peter Under- 
 bill was a material witness, without the benefit of whose testi- 
 mony he could not, as advised by counsel, and as he verily be* 
 lieved, proceed to trial. What does this said Peter swear to-day? 
 That lie (said Peter Underbill) one day told Mrs. Bonnevjlle, that 
 feer child resembled Paine, and Mrs. Bomieviile said- it was Paiu-e 7 -- 
 *shild. If Mr. Underbill said this in any other way than miao- 
 cent mirth, he proves himself unmannerly aiid insolent, for hav- 
 ing so affronted any lady. If Mrs. Boimeville answered sis lit 
 says, it must have been out of good nature, and that gaiety the 
 characteristic of her countrywomen, that plays around them like, 
 a lambent light, even in their sorrows, which none but sour aawi 
 ignorant boors w 7 ill construe into guilt. Did Mr. Underbill, or the 
 historian who promulged his slander for the love of God, believe- 
 that any woman, would, apropos of nothing, without induce- 
 ment or motive whatsoever, seriously holdout her child and say 
 to him, I am Paine's whore, and this my infant is his bastard? 
 To the character of this Tw^ferkrwitness we called two wif- 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 nesses. The first was Mr. Pelton, who knew something parti- 
 cular of him that was wrong, but scrupled to declare his gener- 
 al character : but at the same time told you that Mrs. Bonne- 
 ville was a modest woman, and an acquaintance of his own 
 wife, and tiiat her children were all alike the objects of Paine's 
 care . 
 
 Judge Sommerville, of Westchester county, supplied al'l that 
 was wanting in the testimony of Mr. Ptltcn : for lie said that in 
 one single transaction- be could say good of him, but that his 
 general character vyas had. But as to Mrs. Bonneville, judge 
 Sommerville s&iu, he often saw her, and never heard the flirlit- 
 est word against her, and that Paine always spoke of her with 
 respect. t 
 
 litre ends the black conspiracy and conjuration for the love of 
 God. And now the sickem d soul revives, and a bright scene 
 appears A group of matrons, led by the hands which holy 
 wedlock had joined to theirs forever. Heads of families, beloved, 
 distinguished, full of respect and honor ; in form so bright, in 
 innocence so lovely ; so pure in unsuspected truth, so proud in 
 conscious worth and dignity; who never till that hour had cros- 
 sed tiie threshold of a court of justice ; or been where discord 
 reigns; whose lips bad never uttered other oaths than those winch 
 bound them by the willing ties of constancy and love ; who, 
 when tiie seraph voice of pity called them down, first glided 
 From their spheres upon the wings of heaven-born charity, and, 
 having done their mission, disappeared. But oh! it was a holy 
 sacrament, when wife and husband twined their oaths together 
 with such solemnity, such beaming truth, as when they made be- 
 fore the altar of tueir God, that vow, so full at once of joy and 
 awe, that linked their future destiny together, and made them 
 ever one. They would have told you of this lady's sorrows and 
 her resignation, of her spotless conduct, of her merit; how they 
 entrusted to her care and tutelage the jewels of their souls, the 
 children of their hearts; with what reproachless truth, what 
 anxious duty she answered to the trust ; had not the rules of 
 evidence and technical formalities of law cut short their story. 
 Her general character was all they were allowed to testify. 
 Their words were few, but like so many messages of grace or 
 high commands from heaven.* 
 
 * The group of matrons alluded to was, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. 
 Turnbull, Mrs. Thomas, and Mrs. Ludlow. Mr. Edgar, Mr. Em- 
 met, Mr. Fulton, and Col. Few, were also witnesses to the irre- 
 proachable character of Mrs. Bonneville ; and Mr. Jarvis, Mr. 
 Hitt, Mr. Ryder, and Mr. Purdy, at whose houses Paine had 
 lived, at different periods, and Mr. Doyer, who had known Mrs. 
 BonaevjJle only since last fail. 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 Then, as the day dispels the shades of night, the ugly goblin* 
 fled. i'uen, the menaced and trembling victim, delivered from 
 their spells, came forth arrayed in the white robe of innocence. 
 Then, Lucifer was lorced to bow in homage to the truth. Then 
 all his conjurations vanished like frightful dreams, leaving no 
 vestige to the waking senses, but that vague horror that lingers 
 like sulphureous odors after extinguished flames ; and the same 
 tongues that within one short hour had spoken such words as 
 never honest men before (and honest men I still must think they 
 are) had launched against tiie honor of a woman, then they too 
 changed their tune ; and he who last addressed you,* with pal- 
 sied tongue, and eloquence subdued, too good to persevere in 
 spite of idea ven, cried out pcccavi. True, we have sinned, 
 said he, true we have written lies and calumnies, but we are 
 innocent ; for what we wrote, we were set on to write. We 
 were historians, and Carver told it to us, it was in Carver's let- 
 ter, his scurnluus letter to his friend and inmate, and touching 
 the companion of his wife ; how could we doubt that it was 
 pnre and t'aitnful ? For Carver was both atheist and defct ; what 
 motive could we then suppose in him, but that which prompted 
 us, the love of Christ, whose militant we are ! ! ! 
 
 And further say his counsel, the lady should have brought a 
 civil action, if we had brought such action and sought damages, 
 then would they not have cried, see how this lady prefers her 
 private interest to public justice, how she makes merchandize of 
 reputation ? They say we should have prosecuted Carver, and 
 Mr. Cljettham would have been our witness to prove him guilty. 
 I will not answer to such mockery. We scorn the testimony of 
 approvers and parties in the suit, much more of principals. How 
 ever bad Carver may be, he is better still than Cheetham. He 
 was an atheist, he is a deist, but he tells you boldly what he is ; 
 and even in that there is more honesty than if he did profess 
 himself a Christian and was not one. A deist may be honest, 
 many are so, and between this publican and pharisee, he goes 
 away justified rather than the other. 
 
 They say that less will justify on an indictment than a civil 
 action, which 1 deny ; the reason is the law, which says that no 
 man shall disturb the peace by uttering reproachful, malicious and 
 provoking sayings, however true. And it is plain and simple* 
 If any have committed crimes they should be brought to justice 
 and to trial ; but no man has the right, not even an historian, to 
 usurp, as 1 have said, at once the powers of legislator and accu- 
 ser, ef prosecutor, judge and executioner, and mow down all be- 
 
 * Mr. David B. Ogde> 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 fore him. Whereas in civil actions, there may be mischief done, 
 and yet no right to damages, as in the case of common libellers, 
 who have wolves' heads, and being in hostility with mankind, 
 have no claim for that right of private reputation which they do 
 not respect. English judges have gone much farther, and have 
 said, the greater the truth the greater still the libel. I do not 
 justify that saying, although it was the saying of the great lord 
 Mansfield. It was wrong, and I have always set myself against 
 it, even at my peril, and to my loss. 
 
 I have cited English cases, where it was held that good inten- 
 tion would not justify, because no man shall stultify himself. But 
 if that was here the justification, the counsel should have main- 
 tained, not that the client was a wise and great historian, but a 
 maniac without a lucid interval, or idiot from his birth. The 
 guilty act alone is evidence of malice; the fact of being an histo- 
 rian no more rebuts it, than if a man should murder, and then 
 say, I was told to murder ; I saw a letter which made me think 
 the man I murdered guilty ; I murdered him, but not from any 
 malice : though I am an assasin, and live by killing, I kill none 
 but those I am told are guilty ; I do it then for God's sake ; I 
 have no malice. I have shown American cases that bear on the 
 same point : but above all, the statute of this state, which says, 
 that in such prosecutions as the present, the truth itself shall never 
 justify, unless it be moreover made satisfactorily appear in evi- 
 den e, that the publication was from good and justifiable motives. 
 The truth is now abandoned, the falshood owned. But it is said, 
 the English cases are not law, and that the statute here does not 
 apply. I never liked the English law of libels, nor ever under- 
 stood it. It seems to me to have its roots in the Star Chamber, 
 or to have shot in storms and convulsions when the powerful 
 party still shaped and stretched it to its purpose. I have often de- 
 fended persecuted printers against its oppressions, but never till 
 this day prosecuted any. With utmost deference I say it now, I 
 do not like the law laid down this day : and if the right of taking 
 an exception extended to a criminal case, and why it does not I 
 know not, I would humbly and respectfully do that. The mighty 
 judge that I have mentioned, lord Mansfield, erred on the same 
 subject; and the findii g of juries against his charge, who by the 
 constitution in such cases are judges of the law and of the fact, 
 were sanctioned afterwards in England by parliament and peo- 
 ple, and brought about a statutory law, in confirmation of their 
 right. If any law be stated now to you, to which your under- 
 standings or your consciences cannot assent, I would then refer 
 you to that paramount sanction which is above all human law* 
 The wivc 4 s of your own bosoms are not more pure than this injur- 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 ed lady is proved, nay more, admitted now to be. If they wert 
 stigmatized by an historian, what would you say of him ; that 
 he was innocent or guilty ? 
 
 You have heard the witnesses for Mrs. Bonneville, and you 
 may judge if this historian had inquired of them, instead of grub- 
 bing filth from every dunghill, how bright a name she then would 
 have deserved, who has been, notwithstanding, doomed by this 
 terrible man to misery. 
 
 If he had begged access to any of those high distinguished per- 
 sons, whose children she had taught ; of Mr. Emmet, who op- 
 presses no one, but protects the innocent ; or of Mr. Fulton, who 
 knew her and her husband in their native country ; if he had 
 asked of Mr. Jarvis, that man of keen sagacity, of observation, 
 with knowledge of mankind, and of all the parties, whose curio- 
 sity might have induced him to entertain the man, but never to 
 betray him; if he had been satisfied with Mr. Hitt's words, ra- 
 ther than that of " pious nurses, and kind attending doctors," and 
 reverend teachers, who had disputes and law-suits, lie would 
 have known what all but his mutinous genius now concede. I 
 have no cause of private malice against Mr. Cheetham, but quite 
 the contrary. When he had any spark of character, he praised 
 me more than ever I could merit, and I could not but thank him. 
 When he had nothing good to give but his abuse, without offence 
 or change in me, he gave me that with equal liberality, and again 
 I thanked him. If I could ask a favour of him now, it would be 
 to abuse me more and more, but never let his malice go the 
 length of praising me ; for though my friends who know me well 
 might not despise me, yet in this community where I am little 
 known, and still almost a stranger, I may not yet have formed 
 sufficient character to stand against his praise, nor be entitled to 
 so much indulgence, that it should be believed that 1 could have 
 his praise and yet be honest. 
 
 I have not chosen to be his historian, nor to inquire into his 
 private and domestic virtues; that is beneath me. I have not 
 used those common topics of abuse, that he was bred an ignorant 
 mechanic ; because, if he had raised himself by talents from that 
 station, it would be to his honor, and rather serve to excuse the 
 coarseness of his style and manners, than to aggravate them, i 
 call the Judge of All to witness for the honest motives with 
 which I have arraigned him : and having labored in a good and 
 sacred cause to do my duty, I finally protest against injustice 
 from whatever quarter : I register that protest in the archives of 
 heaven, and leave the rest to you. 
 
 THE END.