TT 
 
 Qaitt? 
 
 Qatrtnl 
 
 By A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 
 
C-f 
 
THOMAS PAINE 
 
 THE PATRIOT 
 
 H 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 
 A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 
 
 'Delivered before 
 
 T HE HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y. 
 
 At the Opening of the Paine House July 14, 1910 
 
 PRICE 20 CENTS 
 
 Special Library Edition printed for the Thmnux r,,i,,,- .\,(tin,,,tl llixtoriru!. ,v-vvr// 
 120 Lexington Avenue, Ne\v York City 
 
Westchester Press, Publishers 
 Rye, N. Y. 
 
 : *'' '.*:: : 
 
THOMAS PAINE, THE PATRIOT 
 
 g PATRIOT is defined as one who loves his country, 
 and the distinction has been generally won by those 
 who. have borne arms and risked life, liberty and 
 property for such a noble sentiment. All this Thomas 
 Paine did, and more; he not only risked but suffered in life and 
 liberty and gave his property without stint. The common vir- 
 tue of physical bravery was his also but he counted as trifling 
 and ordinary duty his acts of bravery while bearing arms. As 
 his heroism was more complete, more glorious, his patriotism 
 was broader, deeper, more intense, great as his country, whic 
 was the world. f He fought the battles of mankind with his 
 mighty pen. Wherever tyranny and oppression stood against 
 liberty, justice, and the rights of man, he advanced with his 
 potent weapon, not from security nor by stealth but in the open 
 where the vengeance of the mighty sought ever to tear him 
 down. England's proud navy ploughed up and down the ocean 
 in impotent rage for" years with the one object of capturing 
 this man who had made her king tremble on his throne. Paine's 
 life-long friend and patron who introduced him to America was 
 the great patriot Benjamin Franklin who loved America be- 
 cause here he had won recognition, honor and advancement in 
 life, but Paine came to her while she was in distress, he owed 
 her nothing, but her misery roused his love. Franklin said to 
 him: "Where liberty is, there is my country." Paine replied: 
 V "\Yhere liberty is not, there is mine," and his whole life proves 
 he spoke truly. "Perhaps America would feel the less obliga- 
 tion to me," he said, "did she know that it was neither the place 
 nor the people but the cause itself that irresistibly engaged me 
 in its support; for I should have acted the same part in any 
 other country could the same circumstances have arisen there 
 which have happened here." This declaration he made before 
 he had finished his service for American independence; he 
 
 3 
 
 264771 
 
proved that it was ho idle boast for thereafter he aroused Eng- 
 land "through the channels of the press," which he declared to 
 he "the tongue of the world," by his Rights of Man. France, 
 however, became aflame for liberty and thither he rushed to 
 fan the fire that already burned too fast and soon consumed 
 friends and foes alike and in its fury nearly annihiliated him. 
 
 But this wonderful man, seemed never to allow injury to 
 hmiself to 'stay his efforts to accomplish M^-aioU which was 
 to thwart tyranny and oppression in every direction and to 
 /establish the principles of human liberty and progress. To 
 /spread knowledge of such principles was his great object. "Ig- 
 norance is of a peculiar nature;" he wrote "once* dispelled it is 
 impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of it- 
 self, but is only the absence of knowledge, and though a man 
 may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant. * * There 
 does not exist in the compass of language an arrangement of 
 words to express so much as the ' means of effecting * * an 
 obliteration of knowledge, and it has never yet been discovered 
 how to make a man unknow his knowledge, or unthink his 
 thoughts. * * Already the conviction that government by repre- 
 sentation k trie true system of government is spreading itself 
 fast in the world," he declared as he prepared to leave France, 
 ind wrote: <^An army of principles will penetrate where an 
 army of soldiers cannot! it will succeed where diplomatic man- 
 agement would fail; ifis neither the Rhine, the Channel nor 
 the ocean that can arrest its progress; it will march on the 
 horizon of the world, and it will conquer." 
 
 I will strive to show, briefly, as I must, how Paine mar- 
 shalled such an army; how he armed it with unanswerable argu- 
 ments ; how he lead it in attack against entrenched and forti- 
 fied error; how, with the sword of sarcasm, the dagger of ridi- 
 vule, the poniard of wit he hurled his army against established 
 oppression and hereditary rule, how his principles conquered 
 and how they penetrated, as he declared they would, into every 
 land;how his army is still marching on, and how today it has 
 reached, as he prophesied, the horizon of the world,- for China 
 is now considering a constitutional government, the establish- 
 ment of which by all mankind, it was Paine's first and life-long 
 endeavor to promote. 
 
 It will be possible in this short paper to mention, only in 
 
the briefest manner, the many achievements of "Paine the 
 patriot" and if I can rouse your interest enough to lead you 
 to read his life, as written by the late historian Moncure D. 
 Conway, I shall be well satisfied. That scholarly and impartial 
 book will give you an entirely different idea of the man, con- 
 cerning whom the author writes: '"The educated ignorance is ^/ 
 astounding." Paine's relentless attacks upon old authorities in /\ 
 power, and officials that he thought in the \vrong brought him 
 most powerful enemies who found ready agents in his religious^ 
 opponents to revenge them upon his memory; Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, between whom and Paine there w r as an unbroken mutual 
 admiration, said that Paine's political enemies were his bitter- 
 
 The first life of Thomas Paine to appear after his death \ 
 was written by a man, who was defendant in a suit for libel 
 brought by Paine against him and which was pending at the 
 time of Paine's death. This book, in the main a barefaced 
 falsehood, most cunningly, most cruelly concocted to blight his 
 fame has been quoted and copied into histories. Deeds of 
 charity and noble self-denial are therein made to appear crimes. 
 Here in our county Bolton, the historian of Paige's last home 
 community, mentions with a sneer an act of Paine's which if 
 truly stated was more than what Christ described as : "Greater 
 love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
 his friends." Warned of his danger; told it would mean his 
 death, conscious of the guillotine's incessant falling on victim 
 after victim guilty of nothing but of incurring Robespierre's 
 anger, in the presence of that murderer and the blood-thirsty 
 crew of the French convention in uproar, demanding Louis 
 XVTs head, Thomas Paine thus offers his life not for his own 
 friend but for the friend of our country by opposing the death 
 of Louis. "Ah, Citizens, give not the tyrant of England," he 
 said, "the triumph of seeing the man perish on the scaffold 
 who had aided my much-loved America to break his chains!'' 
 Friends and neighbors all that your children have been 
 told of this act of almost sublime nobility, by a resident of this 
 town and county, in our local history is this : "He was a com- 
 panion of the detested Robespierre and was on the trial of the 
 innocent Louis XVI." As well, as truthfully, as fairly say, 
 "Washington was a companion of the traitor Benedict Arnold 
 and was connected with the trial of the unfortunate Andre." 
 
THOMAS PAINE. 
 
Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, January 27, 
 1737, of Quaker parentage. It is surprising that it was pos- 
 sible for him to acquire the broad knowledge and clear insight 
 .into the wide range of subjects that his writings and inven- 
 tions prove he possessed, when we consider the poverty and 
 severe struggles of his youth. He was removed from school X 
 at the age of thirteen to be taught the trade of a stay-maker 
 and he was afterwards^an excise man. From this office he 
 was dismissed for irregularity in reporting on importations 
 without actually surveying the articles but in his petition for 
 restoration to office, which was granted, he stated: "No com- 
 plaint of the least dishonesty or intemperance ever appeared 
 against me." He championed the cause of his fellow excise- 
 men and sought to petition Parliament in their behalf. While , 
 thus engaged he was removed again for "quitting his business, / 
 without leave.'' Though no dishonor is to be attached to hiy 
 conduct, you will find his libelers ignoring the records and stat- 
 ing that he was dismissed for dishonesty. While in London he 
 had an opportunity to study the workings of Government. He 
 met there Goldsmith and Benjamin Franklin. The latter recog- 
 nizing his ability, induced him to go to America, giving him a 
 letter of introduction to his son-in-law. 
 
 Once in America, Paine's inborn love of liberty, his almosV 
 quixotic desire to right every wrong that afflicted mankind was 
 roused into action by the opportunity the discontent of the Am- 
 erican Colonies against Great Britain afforded. Let me, from his 
 writings take extracts to show how his mind worked, stirred 
 by his heart beating for his fellow men, yet always controlled 
 by logic and almost mathematical exactness to the laws of 
 justice. He writes in First Principles of Govermnent: "It is by( 
 tracing things to their origin that we learn to understand thorn ;< 
 and it is by keeping that line and that origin always in view that , 
 we never forget them," and again, "Rights become duties by re- 
 riprocity. The right which I enjoy becomes my duty to guaran- 
 tee it to another and he to me" and "He that would make his 
 own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression, 
 for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will 
 reach to himself," and "when all other rights are taken away, 
 Ihe right of rebellion is made perfect. '^7 
 
 In conformity to his reason and his fairness, Paine's first 
 
/ essay, "Justice and Humanity** was an appeal for the abolition 
 of slavery throughout the colonies. He asks them "with what 
 consistency or decency they complain so loudly of 'ittempts to 
 enslave them, while they hold so many hundreds in slavery." 
 yThus he was the first Abolitionist. He soon afterwards partly 
 drew 'and signed the Pennsylvania Act abolishing slavery. 
 
 Next we find him writing: "If we take a survey of ages 
 and of countries, we shall find the women, almost without ex- 
 ception at all times and in all places, adored and oppressed 
 * * affronted in one country by polygamy, which gives them 
 their rivals for inseparable companions; enslaved in another by 
 indissoluble ties, which often join the gentle to the rude, and 
 sensibility to brutality. Even in countries where they may be 
 esteemed most happy, constrained in their desires in the dis- 
 posal of their goods, robbed of freedom of will by the laws, the 
 slaves of opinion, which rules them with absolute sway. Such, 
 I am sorry to say is the lot of women over the whole earth." 
 Before his mighty plea for freedom of government, he made an 
 appeal for the lowly negro, and he sought to elevate to her 
 true station the better half of humanity. Two principles of 
 .justice he armed and enlisted in his army of principles. One 
 has already conquered, one still is fighting on. 
 
 On October 18, 1775, writing again of Great Britain's in- 
 troduction of slavery into the colonies he declares, "when I re- 
 flect on these, I hesitate not for a moment to believe that the 
 
 \/ Almighty will finally separate America from Britain. Call it 
 Independence or what you will, it is the cause of God and hu- 
 manity. It will go on. And when-the Almighty shall have blest 
 us, and made us a people dependent only upon Hinvthen may 
 our first gratitude be shown by an act of continental legisla- 
 tion, which shall put a stop to the importation of negroes for 
 sale, soften the hard fate/ of those already here, and in time 
 procure their freedom.'' yThis was the earliest anticipation of 
 the Declaration of Independence eight months before July 4, 
 1776, but it was more, it was the anticipation of the Proclama- 
 tion of Emancipation eighty-six years before Lincoln issued it. 
 . We glory, as well we may, in the great Declaration of our 
 fathers of their freedom, but if they had coupled with it the 
 grant of freedom to their bondsmen, what added lustre would 
 have enshrined the names of the old thirteen colonies, what 
 
 8 
 
suffering humanity would have been spared, what sorrow, 
 blood and treasure would have been saved! 
 
 Through these writings, Paine had become known. Ed- 
 mund Randolph, our first Attorney General, who had been on 
 Washington's staff at the beginning of the war, and conducted 
 much of his correspondence, ascribed Independence primarily to 
 George III. but next to "Thomas Paine, an Englishman b ' 
 birth, and possessing an imagination which happily combined 
 political topics, poured forth in a style hitherto unknown on this 
 side of the Atlantic, from the ease with which it insinuated itself 
 into the hearts of the people who were unlearned, or of the 
 learned." 
 
 On January 10, 1776, Paine issued his great pamphlet 
 "Common Sense." The unanimous testimony of every con- 
 temporary of his proves that the effect of this document has/ 
 never been paralleled in literary history, Washington wrote 
 on receiving a copy *'A few more such flaming arguments as 
 were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk added to the sound 
 doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamph- 
 let 'Common Sense' will leave numbers at a loss to decide upon 
 the propriety of separation." 
 
 Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, wrote of Paine's political writings: "They burst from the 
 press with an effect that has rarely been produced by type and 
 paper in any age or country. Gen. Lee said: "He has genius 
 in his eyes," and "I own he has convinced me." Joseph Haw- 
 ley writes (February 18, 1776, to Eldridge Gerry): "I have 
 read the pamphlet, entitled, 'Common Sense, Addressed to the 
 Inhabitants of America,' and every sentiment has sunk into my 
 well-prepared heart." Franklin said : "It has had a prodigious 
 effect.'' Ramsay the historian said: "He deserves a statue of 
 gold." John Adams writes to his wife : "I sent you a pamphlet 
 entitled 'Common Sense,' written in vindication of doctrines, 
 which there is reason to expect, that the further encroachments 
 of tyranny and depredations of oppression will soon mal^e the 
 common faith." That brilliant woman, after the receipt of the 
 pamphlet, wrote : " 'Common Sense/ like a ray of revelation, 
 has come in season to clear our doubts and fix our choice." 
 John Winthrop said: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments, 
 * it would satisfy the people." "Colonel Gadsden brought the 
 
 9 
 
first copy of 'Common Sense' into Congress March 8th," says 
 Hazelton in his late history, "and .boldly declared himself in 
 favor of Independence.'' The members had no thought of it and 
 his statement came like an "explosion of thunder/' Adam's 
 "Life of Gallatin" says: "It is now almost forgotten that 
 Thomas Paine in 1787, before he went to Paris, was a fashion- 
 able member of society, admired and courted as the greatest 
 literary genius of the day." Samuel Adams wrote to Paine : 
 "Your 'Common Sense' and your 'Crisis' unquestionably awaked 
 the public mind and led the people loudly to call for a declara- 
 tion of our national independence. I therefore esteem you as 
 a warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human 
 
 race." 
 
 James Madison wrote Washington concerning Paine: 
 "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 u as little credit for our policy as for our gratitude 
 in this particular." The Constitutional Gazette of February 
 24, 1776 declared: "The pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense' is 
 indeed a wonderful production. It is completely calculated for 
 the meridian of North America. The author introduces^ new. 
 /systenTofpoHtics as widely different from the old, as the Coper- 
 
 mean system is to the Ptolemaic. The blood wantonly spilt by 
 the British troops at Lexington gave birth to this extraordin- 
 ary performance, which contains as surprising a discovery in 
 politics as the works of Sir Isaac Newton do in philosophy. 
 
 "This animated piece dispels, with irresistible energy, the 
 prejudice of the mind against the doctrine of independence, and 
 pours in upon it such an inundation of light and truth, as will 
 produce an instantaneous and marvelous change of temper in 
 the views and feeling of an American." 
 
 Those of you who have never read Paine's "Common 
 Sense" have skipped the Genesis of America's Bible, and when 
 
 study the Declaration of Independence and the Constitu- 
 tion of these United States you are reading largely a repetition 
 f his thoughts, an embodiment of his ideas, the execution of 
 is suggestions, for the plan and ground work of both he en- 
 ters into in "Common Sense." He suggested the method of 
 
 TO 
 
calling the Constitutional Convention and many of the principles^ 
 therein adopted. Indeed it is extraordinary the field he cov-' 
 ered in this famous pamphlet and ideas there advanced, often 
 quoted by others, have been credited to them as their original 
 thoughts. For instance he wrote : "As Europe is our market 
 for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any' 
 part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of 
 European contentions." ^Washington in his farewell address 
 used nearly these same wflrds, and it has become a text for 
 our public speakers who credit it to Washington, never to its 
 real author. 
 
 By letters in the press Paine supported his first pamphlet 
 from attack, with more burning arguments, encouraging the 
 faltering, stirring the dormant into patriotic action. Then 
 came the declaration, then came the war. "I am thus far a 
 Quaker that I would gladly agree with all the world to lay 
 aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiation; but 
 unless the whole will, the matter ends and I take up my mus- 
 ket and thank Heaven he has put it in my power," he said, 
 and he enlisted in the Flying Camp of ten thousand men who 
 were to be sent wherever needed. The enlistment was a brief / 
 one and when it expired Paine at once enlistd again and was 
 appointed Aide de Camp under General Greene. Continually 
 under fire, signal acts of bravery are recorded of him. Rowing in 
 an open boat during a cannonade from Fort Mercer to Fort / 
 Mifflin is one. He was with Washington at Valley Forge. v 
 Marching by night and day he still wielded his weapon, the pen, 
 so much mightier than his sword. While bearing all the bur- 
 den of the soldier he wrote his Crisis. It was read by Wash- 
 ington's order, to every Corporal's Guard in the army and 
 those bare-foot and disheartened soldiers listened to the words 
 not as coming from an agitator writing in security and seclu-Lx 
 sion, but from a comrade, whom they knew was bearing the 
 brunt and danger with themselves. "These are the times that 
 try men's souls," a tried soul had written, and their roused 
 spirits cheered the man, as well as his immortal words. I can- 
 not go into detail. Read them, the thirteen Crises of Paine. By 
 Washington the orders w r ere given, Paine inspired his fol- 
 lowers to obey. . 
 April 17, 1777 Congress elected Paine Secretary to the Com-// 
 
 ii 
 
12 
 
- 5 
 
 s* 
 
 c 2 
 
 Hi 
 
 1! "8 
 
 .c o 
 
 ** c 
 
 4H -O 
 
 C 
 
 M 
 
 II 
 
 M 
 
mittee of Foreign Affairs, beside which he undertook to report 
 to the Pennsylvania Council intelligence of Washington's army, 
 and keeping up his literary work besides, he still found time to 
 write constantly to members of Congress on many subjects. 
 .The Silas Deane incident, which led to Paine's resignation of 
 *4iis secretaryship of the Foreign Relations Committee, though 
 it detracts from his ability as a diplomat, which in fact he was 
 not, and by his temperament never could have been, does not 
 v reflect on his nobleness of character, but rather brings into re- 
 \lief the simple truthfulness of his nature. The whole incident 
 about which volumes have been written is not to this day clear. 
 A million lires had been paid to Beaumarchais before Deane 
 reached France and six months before Franklin arrived there. 
 Beaumarchais confided the fact to Arthur Lee, the secret agent 
 of Congress in London and also the fact that it was to appear 
 as a commercial transaction and it was to be reported that 
 tobacco would be paid for the advance. Lee so understood and 
 informed Paine. Beaumarchais afterwards attempted to actu- 
 ally collect and Deane tried to .aid him. 
 
 That the advance was a gift, was to be kept a secret even 
 from the body of Congress, to protect the French King from 
 the charge of breaking his treaty arrangement with England. 
 Paine by his oath of office was sworn to disclose no matter, the 
 knowledge of which was acquired in consequence of his office, 
 "that he shall be directed to keep secret." Concerning this 
 matter he had received no such instruction, and when Silas 
 Deane rushed into print in support of himself and Beaumarchais, 
 Paine replied stating the facts as he knew them. The French 
 Minister at once appealed to Congress to save Louis from em- 
 barrassment with England. Congress summoned Paine and 
 asked him one question: "Did you write this article?" On his 
 replying that he was the author, he was asked to retire from 
 the hearing. He wrote demanding that he be heard further. 
 "I have obtained fame, honor, and credit in this country. I 
 Am proud of these honors. * * they cannot be taken from me 
 by unjust censure grounded on a concealed charge." The sub- 
 ject simply had to be kept quiet, Paine received no further 
 hearing, Deane's friends moved his dismissal but this was 
 voted against. He however sent in his resignation in writing, 
 which is of record, but in spite of that fact, all his libelers state 
 
 14 
 
that he was dismissed but the truth is indisputably as he stated 
 in his letter of resignation : "As I came into office an honest 
 man, I go out of it with the same character." 1 
 
 Though Paine was not allowed to disclose more before 
 Congress M. Gerard, the French Minister, knew Paine's power 
 and tried to retain him and offered him a salary,- to employ 
 his pen to impress the people in favor of France. M. Gerard 
 wrote his superior in France : "You know too well the prodigi- 
 ous effect produced by the writings of this famous personage 
 among the people of the States to cause me any fear of your 
 disapproval of my resolution," which was to retain Paine, but 
 Paine felt great repugnance at being in any way a paid writer. 
 He afterward wrote of this incident and stated : "My answer 
 to the offer was precisely in these words, 'any service I can 
 render to either of the countries in alliance, or to both, I. ever 
 have done and shall readily do, and M. Gerard's esteem will be 
 the only compensation I shall desire." This esteem however 
 he did not get as the wily diplomat took offense and retaliated 
 by misrepresenting Paine, and abusing him. Paine however, 
 at once published the offer made to him. 
 
 According to English information Gerard himself was 
 personally interested in the payment for the supplies and had 
 private reasons for resisting Paine's theory of their gratuitous 
 character. "Whatever might be thought of Paine's course in 
 the Deane-Beaumarchais affair," writes Mr. Conway, "there 
 could be no doubt that the country was saved from a question- 
 able payment unjustly pressed at a time when it must have 
 crippled the Revolution for which the French subsidies were 
 given. Congress was relieved, and he who relieved it was the 
 sufferer." Paine had lost the most important secretaryship but 
 his patriotic interest continued, though he wrote to Henry 
 Laurens, that at last he would have to think of himself as well 
 as others, and he planned to publish his writings in two vol- 
 umes. This was in 1779. During this yean he wrote to the 
 Press that if Great Britain should come to terms of peace "to 
 leave the fisheries wholly out on any pretense whatever, is to 
 sow the seed of another war." This man certainly had almost 
 the power of prophecy. In 1783 he went to Rhode Island and 
 carried on a campaign in the press there, to induce that state 
 to pay the quota allotted to her by the Continental Congress 
 
 15 
 
which ' she was withholding. Robert Morris and others in- 
 . duced him to undertake the mission and saw that he was paid. 
 I have lately seen an unpublished autograph letter of Paine's 
 written to Morris from Providence in which he states: "There 
 is one idea which occurs very strongly to me, which will finally 
 show the extreme ill policy of Rhode Island. The fisheries, in 
 all probability will be the last and most difficult point to settle 
 in a negociation and yet this foolish state, which has so great 
 a dependence on them, is creating a necessity for clos- 
 ing with the best terms of peace that pan be first ob- 
 jtained." The fisheries would be "the seeds " of another 
 jwar." It came. "The point would be last to be set- 
 tled." As we are gathered here one hundred and seven years 
 after he wrote this letter, our representatives are discussing 
 /this "last point" with England in a court of arbitration, another 
 'fond dream of Thomas Paine's. In his "Rights of Man" he 
 records that Henry IV. of France whom he describes us "a 
 man of enlarged and benevolent heart" suggested such a court 
 in the year 1610. Paine discussed and enlarged the idea in his 
 writings. The year 1779 was a "year of poverty to the man 
 whose writings were, the while, having a sale, to use his own 
 words, which are verified by the evidence on every hand, "most 
 rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published in this 
 \/ country, or perhaps any other. The single pamphlet 'Com- 
 \rnon Sense' would, at that time of day, have produced a toler- 
 able fortune, t/but he gave it to his country without profit 
 to himself. Finally however he was elected, at a small salary, 
 t/Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the following year 
 1780, Washington's letter* telling of the distress of his army, 
 Paine read to the Assembly. Five hundred dollaj^ was then 
 due him in salary. He drew it, enclosed it in "a letter on June 
 8, to M'Clenaghan advising others to subscribe and showing 
 the wisdom it would be for the rich to do so. The subscrip- 
 tion spread. Three hundred thousand pounds were raised and 
 the bank founded, which was incorporatecTby Congress in De- 
 cember 2 ist following. 
 
 The financial power of America is now the greatest in 
 the world, as her rivers whose mighty flow exceeds in volume 
 when they reach the seas the floods of other lands, but the 
 source of each, if we would find it, is hidden away in some pure 
 
 16 
 
unnoticed spring, starting from the bosom of the 
 the clouds, and so the beginning of our great financi! 
 started from a pure, generous but forgotten act that* 
 from the patriotic impulse in the heart of Thomas Paine. 
 
 In this year Paine wrote an article entitled "Public Good," 
 in which he showed that the Virginia Colony was wrong in its 
 contention as to publi(;jands,. The truth and logic of his state- 
 
 PAINE HOUSE. 
 
 House built by Thomas Paine on the farm presented to him by the State 
 of New York for his patriotic services. 
 
 ments were admitted even by Virginians, but later the politi- 
 cians defeated a grant to him by that state in retaliation for 
 his pointing out the error of their ways. Madison deplored this 
 refusal to reward Paine in the letter to Washington from which 
 I have quoted. Paine also this year wrote to the Count de 
 Vergennes in France an account of America's distress for 
 money and asked for French aid. This letter was shown to 
 the French legation and led Congress to appoint Col. John Lau- 
 rens, one of Washington's aids, to visit France. He agreed to 
 go if Paine would accompany him. Paine consented. They 
 
 17 
 
yfeailed from Boston in February 1781 and returned to that city 
 ^August 25 with 2,500,000 lires in silver. Lamartine stated that 
 the French King "loaded Paine with favors" and that the gift 
 for America "was confided into the hands of Franklin and 
 Paine." For this great service Paine never received any pay- 
 ment or acknowledgment. He conceived the plan and mainly 
 executed it, for Laurens was a young man and came near ruin- 
 ing the venture by an imprudent advocacy, of which Vergennes 
 complained, while ascribing it to his inexperience. 
 
 Pennsylvania gave Paine $2,500, Congress $3,800, and New 
 York this farm of two hundred and seventy-five acres. Wash- 
 ington wrote to Richard H. Lee and Madison "unsolicited by 
 and unknown to Mr. Paine'' as he states, in behalf of a grant 
 by Virginia to Paine. "His services," he wrote, "hitherto have 
 past unnoticed * * Does not common justice then point to 
 some compensation?" It is not possible to understand the 
 value of Paine's labors at this day. His writings read even yet, 
 stir the heart and inflame the imagination of an American. But 
 the best evidence of their great yalue is the unequivocal and 
 unanimous testimony of the greatest men of his times. Frank- 
 lin put into his hands much material which that great charac- 
 ter had gathered and asked him to write a history of our Revo- 
 lution. This data and Paine's own collection of letters, which 
 were the result of a correspondence with all the great men of 
 England, France and America during most momentous times, 
 jwas destroyed by fire years afterward at St. Louis. What a 
 cruel loss was this! What secrets were confided then to flames, 
 of which we speak in metaphor as having tongues. Ah, what 
 a misnomer! Such tongues can never talk and in this case 
 they have stricken history dumb. 
 
 It is not within my text to refer to Paine's inventive genius ; 
 this intimancy with the early experimenters in s^team naviga- 
 tion; his priority of suggestion and his acquaintance with 
 Henry and Fulton and Livingston; his letter on "the terms 
 attraction of cohesion," which anticipated modern thought ; his 
 iron bridge; his planing machine. As the turbine principle of 
 application of steam to the wheel in the steamboat was his 
 idea of the proper theory, so always his thoughts seemed to 
 jrun way beyond his age. In a letter to Jefferson in 1801, he 
 discusses "for amusement" the means of generating motion for 
 
 18 
 
mechanical uses and writes : "The thing wanted is something 
 to contain the greatest quantity of power in the least quantity 
 of weight, * * if the power which an ounce of gun powder con- 
 tains could be detailed out so as to act with- equal force thro' 
 a given time as steam or water can be, it would be a most!/ 
 commodious natural power because of its small weight and 
 little bulk * * might not gun powder be mixed with some other ' 
 
 Rear view of Paine House since it's removal to a spot within a few yards 
 of Paine's grave. 
 
 material?" The explosive engines, which now drive machinesX 
 over highways and waters and through the air, are the perfec- \ 
 tion of Paine's explosive power. Gun powder was the only 
 familiar substance, and to others it represented only an agent 
 of war, but Paine writes : "When I consider the wisdom of Na- 
 ture I must think that she endowed matter with this extraor- 
 dinary property for other purposes than that of destruction."! 
 For his confidence in her beneficence Nature seems to have 
 whispered to him her secrets as Time unrolled to his discerning 
 thoughts, tales she meant not to disclose to others for ages. 
 
 19 
 
America was free. Paine was unembarrassed by pecuniary 
 ants, "A fashionable member of society admired and courted 
 as the greatest literary light of his day." But the world was 
 his country and he must be ever stirring in its cause. He went 
 to England and became intimate with Burke, America's friend, 
 and with many men in public life. He then went to Paris. 
 The French Revolution came on, he believed it would be pro- 
 ductive of good. "I have seen enough of war to wish it might 
 never more have existence in the world," he wrote Jefferson. 
 Burke wrote a pamphlet against the French Revolution and in 
 favor of monarchy. Paine took up his pen to reply and began 
 
 ^is "Rights of Man." "From the part Burke took in the Ameri- 
 can Revolution it was natural I should consider him a friend 
 of mankiiul.'' "The Rights of Man" is one of Paine's great 
 master-pOTes, full of wisdom and originality, it cuts to the 
 quick the Hereditary aristocracy. "There never did, there never 
 will, and there cannot exist a Parliament of any description of 
 men or any generation of men in any country, possessed of the 
 right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the 
 end of time * * I am not contending for or against any form of 
 government, nor for nor against any party, here or elsewhere. 
 
 ZxThat which a whole nation chooses to do, it has a right to 
 do!" -Rousseau's writings had been studied by Paine as they 
 had by most of the founders of this republic, as is evinced by 
 
 , numerous references found in the letters and documents of the 
 times. But the " 'Rights of Man' was the earliest complete 
 
 \\ statement of republican principles" in Mr. Conway's opinion. 
 
 England has since enacted into her laws some of the recom- 
 mendations it contained. 
 
 England was in an uproar. By direction of the authorities 
 the book was burned, its author also in effigy. The publisher 
 was arrested and was to be tried for sedition. The hereditary 
 title holders immediately called meetings to denounce Paine 
 and his publisher. In one instance a Lord Onslow presided 
 over a meeting of the gentry, he was a bed-chamber Lord, a 
 sinecure paying 1,000 pounds with a pension of 3,000 pounds. 
 Paine sent to the meeting a hundred copies of his book and 
 as an illustration of the severity and cutting nature of his at- 
 tacks when roused, let me quote an abstract from his letter 
 to Lord Onslow: "What honor or happiness you can derive 
 
 20 
 
from being the principal pauper of the neighborhood and oc- 
 casioning a greater expense than the poor, the aged, and the 
 infirm for ten miles round, I leave you to enjoy. At the same 
 time I can see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous 
 in suppressing a book which strikes at the root of these abuses." 
 But while royalty was aghast, the people sang: 
 
 "God save the Rights of Man! 
 Give him a heart to scan 
 
 Blessings so dear 
 Let them be spread around, 
 Wherever Man is found, 
 And with the welcome sound 
 Ravish his ear! 
 
 God save great Thomas Paine, 
 His Rights of Man proclaim 
 From pole to pole." 
 
 But France called him, he crossed the Channel and three %/ 
 departments elected him to represent them in the convention. 
 I/ have mentioned his heroic stand to save the life of Louis XVI. 
 theKing," he said, "but save the Man." Gouverneur 
 
 -^ 
 
 Morris was the American minister to France ; it is a long story, 
 how his secret instructions conflicted with Paine's hearty and 
 open love for America's ally, how Morris virtually acquiesced 
 in his imprisonment by Robespierre, as a foreigner, and how 
 Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded Paine's 
 - an American, how he misled Paine to believe that 
 Washington had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed. 
 These cruel subterfuges, on Morris's part, led Paine after- j 
 wards to write his severe and regrettable letter to Washington, 
 who received it without understanding why it was addressed 
 to him. So that these two great and good men, who had 
 fought and worked in confidence and side by side for humanity, 
 died misunderstanding each other, each distressed and puzzled 
 at the other's conduct. Paine trusted Morris but the truth .was 
 as he said : "A treacherous friend in power is the most danger- 
 ous of enemies." For nearly eight months Robespierre kept 
 Paine in prison as a foreigner, although France had with enthu- 
 
 21 
 
siasm conferred upon him the title of "citizen." In England he 
 was outlawed for. his "Rights of Man/' written in reply to 
 Burke's attack on France. In the United States of America, 
 Paine was the first to write the name, his title to citizenship 
 as the same as Washington's and the other patriots'. Yet 
 the great apostle of liberty remained in prison. He has writ- 
 ten a description of the awful times. He tells of how one hun- 
 dred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the Luxem- 
 bourg in one night and all but eight guillotined the next day 
 and he describes how he and his three room mates escaped. 
 The guards used to mark the number to be taken from the dif- 
 ferent rooms. The door of Paine's room was opened back 
 against the wall when marked, and at night being closed, the 
 mark was on the wrong side and not seen. Robespierre fell, 
 Monroe replaced Morris as minister and he bent every energy 
 "to get Paine released. He took him to his house and nursed him 
 back to health, for when he left prison, Monroe wrote, his 
 health was such that he could not live longer than a month, 
 he thought, at the furthest. "I. shall pay the utmost attention 
 to this gentleman, as he is one of those whose merits in our 
 Revolution were most distinguished," he wrote. 
 
 Paine, after a long wait to recover his health and to avoid 
 England's patrolling fleet in the Channel, returned to America. 
 In the meantime, while under the shadow of the guillotine, he 
 had written the First Part of the Age of Reason, and it was 
 while hovering between life and death that he wrote the Sec- 
 ond Part. He wrote, he said, primarily to stop the headlong 
 rush into infidelity in France, for he was a most devoted Dej^t. 
 "Several of my colleagues have given me the example ofmak- 
 ing their individual profession of faith. I also will make mine," 
 he wrote. "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 endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.'' 
 The lawyer asked Christ, saying "Master, which is the great 
 commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul 
 and with all thy mind. 
 
 "This is the first and great commandment. And the second 
 is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On 
 
 22 
 
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 
 It is not within my subject to discuss Paine's religion, but 
 I want to lay these two statements side' by side in your mind, 
 that you may- see, though others have called Thomas Paine an 
 infidel, his confession of his faith contained all that Jesus Christ 
 said was essential. 
 
 Paine, on his return to America, found many bitter po- 
 litical enemies. John Adams and his party, Paine had bitterly / 
 opposed; Adams was believed by Paine to desire the establish- J 
 ment of a hereditary office in his family, and both Jefferson and 
 Madison appear to have given serious consideration to the same 
 fear. At any rate, John Adams was fierce in his attacks on 
 Paine and he received in return cutting replies, but even with 
 Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and many other powerful friends, 
 still a broken old man, in only moderate circumstances, he was 
 at terrible odds with the power of the orthodox in religion and 
 a great political party bitter against him. While he was able 
 to strike with his pen he could hold his own, but he had no 
 heir to protect his good name and, as I have shown, his reputa- 
 tion was simply pounced upon and destroyed unscrupulously, 
 and since then each thoughtless writer has quoted and made 
 more blighting the slanders. Mr. Conway has at last refuted/ 
 every charge; the best and most reliable evidence shows that 
 Paine never drank to excess, except once in Paris, when his 
 friends were being guillotined one after the other, then, after^ 
 wards lie told a friend, "that borne down by public and private)' 
 affliction he had been driven to excesses," but the story of hisl 
 dying a drunkard has been disproved. 
 
 Even to this day there are men who seem to be unable to 
 do .Paine justice, deeming it necessary, apparently, to follow cus- 
 tom, by neglecting or abusing him. There has been published, 
 within the last five years, a very excellent history of The Decla- 
 ration of Independence, and many of the letters and statements 
 that I have quoted may be found in that volume, but if you 
 consult it you will find that Paine or "Common Sense" is not 
 to be found in the index until a reference occurs to a sneering 
 statement from John Adams' biography. There are fifteen or 
 more quotations commending and crediting Paine with great 
 power and influence, even one, from John Adams himself, be- 
 fore he became Paine's enemy, but the otherwise very complete 
 
 23 
 

 jndex does not refer to them and the author makes no comment 
 except to Paine's prejudice. 
 
 It is not possible, in one afternoon, to give anything, like 
 ^ clear idea of the greatness, the breadth, the nobility of Paine's 
 life and works. When he was called a libeller by the authori- 
 ties in England for his "Rights of Man," he said, "Let every 
 man read and judge for himself, not only of the merits and de- 
 merits of the Work, but of the matters therein contained, which 
 relate to his own interests and happiness. If to expose the 
 fraud and imposition of monarchy, and every species of heredi- 
 tary government to lessen the oppression of taxes to pro- 
 pose plans for the education of helpless infancy, and the .com- 
 fortable support of the aged and distressed to endeavour to 
 conciliate nations to each other to extirpate the horrid prac- 
 tice of war to promote universal peace, civilization, commerce 
 [ and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise de- 
 graded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous, let 
 me live the life of a libeller, and let the name of Libeller be en- 
 graved on my tomb." 
 
 Mrs. Bonneville said to the dying Paine: "You will be 
 buried on your farm." "I have no objection to that/' he said, 
 "but the farm will be sold and they will dig my bones up be- 
 fore they be half rotten." "Mr. Paine," she replied, "have qon- 
 fidence in your friends. I assure you that the place where you 
 will be buried shall never be sold." Paine's power of prophecy 
 still proved good concerning his bones; their travels and fate 
 is an interesting story of itself. 
 
 Your society is now carrying out a part of the promise 
 
 made to the dying patriot. Here he lived and here a part of 
 
 his mighty brain still moulders. His heart is lost somewhere 
 
 on the earth, which may not now be regretted, for living, it 
 
 beat for the whole world and so, even in death, it happens, no 
 
 land can claim it. Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred 
 
 to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps his dream will come true,, and 
 
 jwhen there is a Republic of the World, here will be the shrine 
 
 tof all nations. 
 

KETURN TO 
 
 USE 
 
 WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 ^ e rs 
 
 Renewedbooksare subiectto 
 
 LD 2lA-50m-8,'57 
 (C8481slO)476B 
 
 University of California 
 Berkeley 
 
 r 
 
TO 
 n 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFpRNIA LIBRARY