A,, 
 
 4- 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 
 COMMON SENSE, THE CRISIS, RIGHTS OF MAK ? 
 &c. See. &c. 
 
 BY JAMES CHEETHAM. 
 
 " SPEAK OP ME AS I AM.", SHAKSPEARE, 
 
 NEW- YORK : 
 
 PRINTED BY SOUTHWICK AND PFJLSUE, 
 
 NO. 3, NEW-STKtET. 
 
 1809. 
 

 
 District ofJYeiv- York, s*. 
 
 BEIT REMEMBERED, That on the thirtieth day of August, 
 
 in the thirty-fourth year of the independence ot the 
 
 United States of America, James Cheetham, of the 
 
 said district, hath deposited in this office the title of 
 
 L. s. a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in 
 
 the words following, to wit : " The Life of Thomas 
 
 Paine, author of Common Sense, the Crisis, Rights; 
 
 of Man, &c. &c. &c. By James Cheetham. " Speak of me 
 
 as I am." Shakspeare." 
 
 In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United 
 States, entitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, 
 by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the 
 authors and proprietors of such copies during the times there 
 in mentioned," and also to an act entitled, ** An act supple 
 mentary to the act entitled an act for the encouragement 
 of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and 
 Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during 
 the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits 
 thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and e* ling histo 
 rical and other prints." 
 
 CHARLES CLINTON, 
 Clerk of the District of New-York. 
 
 , 
 
 
TO 
 
 GEORGE CLINTON, 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 WITHOUT asking your permission, allow me to dedi 
 cate to you, as a tribute of my admiration of your pri 
 vate and public virtues, the following Life of the Au 
 thor of Common Sense. I know not, indeed, that a 
 work, which necessarily treats in some respect of re 
 volutions, could more properly be dedicated than to 
 one, who, in the struggles of the colonies for indepen 
 dence, animated his countrymen by his patriotism, en 
 courage ", them by his firmness, and supported them with 
 his sword. " Had it, said Mr. Burke, adverting with 
 pious resignation to the death of his son ; had it pleased 
 God to continue to me the hopes of succession, I should 
 have been a sort of founder of a family." You, sir, 
 have been more favoured by Providence. You have 
 not only the great felicity of being the founder of a 
 family, every branch of which I hope but dare not 
 believe will emulate your virtues, but you have also 
 the glory of being enrolled amongst the most conspi- 
 / cuous founders of a great empire. 
 
 743240 
 
lv 
 
 In whatever light we contemplate your character, it 
 is worthy of all imitation. When, at the commence 
 ment of the war of independence, irresolution, like a 
 pestilence, shook the nerves of the state ; when, awed 
 by hostile appearances, by the power of a formidable 
 enemy, by the absence of preparation for defence, and 
 the want of adequate resources, not a few of your con 
 temporaries shrunk from the responsibility, the suf 
 frages of your fellow citizens called you to the chair 
 of the state, and, evincing an intrepidity which the 
 exigencies of the times required, you obeyed their 
 voice. Your country beheld you with enthusiasm and 
 joy in the triple character of an unyielding patriot, an 
 enlightened goveraour, a gallant general. At that pe 
 riod, pregnant with consequences to posterity the most 
 baneful or the most happy, no caucuses* were held to 
 cheat you out of the affections of the people. Those 
 who applauded your heroick defence of Forts Mont 
 gomery and Clinton, against a greatly superior force, 
 although they envied you the glory, were far from 
 courting the danger of the command. The steadiness 
 of your course, the prudence of your measures, the 
 bravery of your conduct, the sagacity of your councils, 
 
 * A cant term, used amongst us to designate a political 
 cabal ; an assemblage of intriguers, privately convened to 
 plot their own elevation, upon the ruin, npt unfrecjuently, of 
 better men. 
 
DEDICATOR V 
 
 civil and military, attracted the notice of WASHINGTON, 
 your illustrious companion in arms, and pointed you 
 ; ut in the event of his death as commander in. 
 chief of the American army. Never were the civil 
 and military functions, mingled by necessity, more 
 mildly, more faithfully, or more ably executed. 
 
 The peace, which gave you a nation and crowned you 
 with immortality, did not efface from the minds of your 
 fellow citizens the just impressions which your merito 
 rious services had stamped upon them. For twenty-one 
 years you administered the government of the state ! 
 There is no eulogium of language that can equal the 
 eulogium of the fact. He who in a republick like ours, 
 where a revolution had let loose the passions where 
 the press is licentious beyond all example- where suf 
 frage, with few exceptions, is in every man s hands 
 where the popular will is almost without restraint where 
 demagogues, greedy of money, avaricious of popular 
 honour, are numerous and ambitious, and, like all other 
 demagogues, hypocritical, perfidious, remorseless ; in 
 ,guch a republick, under such circumstances, his merit 
 Vanust be great, who, without flattering the vanity of the 
 multitude, without courting their capricious favours, dig- 
 nifiedly retains a station so elevated for a period so long. 
 I like, said Lord Mansfield, that popularity which fol 
 lows, not that which is run after. That great man 
 liked, I fear, what he never enjoyed. You, sir, more 
 happy, enjoyed, in plenitude, that which he liked. 
 
Vi DEDICATION. 
 
 From the chief magistracy of the state you were 
 elected, in the year 1805, almost without your know 
 ledge, certainly without your agency, to the second 
 office in the national government. Here, maintaining 
 the solid reputation you had acquired, it was expected, 
 from your services and experience, from your capacity 
 and the gradations of office, that you would have 
 succeeded to the presidency, when Mr. Jefferson 
 retired from it. This expectation would have been 
 realized, had the election been free. Popularity still 
 followed you, and, in its course and current, gained 
 both rapidity and strength. But, although you were the 
 favourite of the people, you were not the choice of the 
 reigning president, and strange as it may seem, the 
 president and his party, (and the president is too often 
 the president of a party) by intrigue and manoeuvre, 
 by trick and stratagem, can elude the principles of the 
 constitution, and render them nugatory. Ill, sir, in 
 this regard as you have been treated, prominent as the 
 injustice and ingratitude of the nation are, I do not 
 complain entirely on your account. If the example of. 
 Mr. Jefferson is to be followed ; if it is to be " omnip- 
 tent" and "binding," leaving us, as has been contended 
 for by his friends^ no " option," the constitution is a 
 dead letter ; it is worse ; it is a mockery ; for whilst 
 it deludes us ivith the show, and thrills us with the sound 
 of freedom, it ingeniously, and almost without the 
 
DEDICATION. Vll 
 
 possibility of a peaceful remedy, reduces us to a state 
 of vassalage. Between this doctrine and practice, and 
 the nature of an hereditary executive, I cannot per 
 ceive any essential difference. 
 
 The president and vice president are chosen by 
 electors, who in some of the states are elected imme 
 diately by the people ; in others, by the state legisla 
 tures. The constitution excludes, in terms, members 
 of congress and persons holding places of honour and 
 profit under it from the electoral functions. The ex 
 cluding provision was intended to keep out of the 
 election the influence of gentlemen of both descriptions, 
 but how easily is it dispensed with in practice ! 
 
 Your locks, sir, are whitened in the service of your 
 country. You have the age of ripe experience, and 
 the experience of mature age. Yet Mr. Madison was 
 the choice of Mr. Jefferson, for he was committed, it 
 was thought, to his singular system of administra* 
 tion. 
 
 To Mr. Jefferson, a re-election had been offered by 
 his party, but declined by him. In his circular letter 
 of declension to the several states, he assigns, as rea 
 sons for declining, that he had served two terms ; that 
 as the constitution had not limited the duration of the 
 service of a president, and evils of great magnitude 
 might grow out of long incumbency, it was an act of 
 patriotism to make a voluntary resignation of the office. 
 
Vlll DEDICATION, 
 
 In a popular government, professions so fair, conceal* 
 ing a purpose so foul, are sure to be applauded. The 
 sage spoke like an angel, and it was therefore conclud 
 ed that his actions must be angelick. 
 
 But forgetting, in the course of writing his circular, 
 the reasons he had assigned for his voluntary retire 
 ment, perhaps in the intenseness of his purpose to 
 strike a blow in favour of Mr. Madison, he unneces 
 sarily went out of his way to deliver an homily on 
 old age. In this he mentioned, in very pathetick terms, 
 that the cares of office were too great for his advanced 
 years ; that his exhausted nature, sinking under those 
 cares, urged tranquillity and ease ; and he artfully 
 pointed every one to the inference which he meant to be 
 drawn, and which was drawn ; that a gentleman, as far 
 advanced in years as himself, (and you, sir, it was known 
 
 5 one or two years older) was unfit to be presi- 
 ent of the United States ! 
 
 He who under our system of government and man 
 agement of parties obtains, no matter by what means, 
 a nomination to an elective office, is sure to be elected, 
 if his party, of the two parties into which the nation is 
 divided, be the stronger. Every thing, therefore, de 
 pends upon starting, and the adroitness with which the 
 candidate is started. When the candidate is nominated, 
 (and the nomination is always made by a few) party 
 doctrine and discipline are, that he must be supported* 
 
DEDICATION. J x 
 
 Party vengeance is next denounced against the noncom- 
 formist, and though he may not, perhaps, be consum 
 ed by fire and faggot, he is put out of the pale of the 
 political church, and it becomes dangerous to give 
 him encouragement in his business, or countenance 
 in any other way.* By party law it cannot be asked, 
 whether the candidate be a good moral man, or qualified 
 by capacity and acquirements for the business of legis 
 lation. Questions of this nature, when nominations 
 are made, are heresies, which, if obstinately persevered 
 in, never fail to be punished. 
 
 Aware, when he composed his elegy on the cares of 
 office and the quiet of old age, of this overbearing doc 
 trine and overwhelming practice, Mr. Jefferson was 
 sensible, that nothing was essential to the election of Mr. 
 Madison, but the nomination of Mr. Madison, and 
 that nothing was necessary to that nomination, but the 
 
 * The republican process js this. A meeting is publickly 
 called at an ale-house. Resolutions, denouncing the dissenter 
 by name, are drawn up ; passed ; signed by the chairman and 
 secretary, and published in the newspapers. A person hold 
 ing an office, or some way dependant on popular favour, is 
 asked to officiate as chairman. If from the iniquity of the 
 act which is about to be committed, he refuse, he is himself 
 deemed recreant, and deprived of office, or of the popular 
 favour, as the case may be. But there is no danger of this. 
 A demagogue cares nothing about means but in their adapta 
 tion to his sinister purposes. 
 
, x DEDICATION. 
 
 expression of his own wish, however indirectly, that 
 Mr. Madison should be nominated. 
 
 Accordingly, soon after the publication of his cir 
 cular, a caucus of members of congress, whose influ 
 ence the constitution excludes from the election, was 
 suddenly convened, at Washington city, under his own 
 eyes, and by this caucus, Mr. Madison was nominated 
 for the presidency. 
 
 The old, uniform, and slavish doctrine, was now 
 again brought forth in all its horrours. The republicans 
 were sorry, very sorry, they said so, and I believed 
 them, that you, sir, were not nominated by the caucus ; 
 but, shrugging up their shoulders in token of regret, 
 these champions of freedom, or rather, I must say, 
 for I will speak out, these ignorant tramplers on con 
 stitutional law, or deliberate assassins of constitutional 
 principles, mourniully added, that the nomination must 
 be supported, or the party would be undone. They 
 felt no solicitude for the cause ; none for the principle ; 
 all was for the party; that is, in respect to the party 
 chiefs, for immediate personal interest. 
 
 This act of intrigue on the one side, slavishness on 
 the other, and ingratitude on all ; this violation of the 
 constitution, was carried triumphantly into effect by 
 force of the logick which is frequently employed to 
 preserve it. The PEOPLE, in whom the power of de 
 legation resides, and to whom, at short stated period^, 
 
DEDICATION. XI 
 
 the power having been exercised, it reverts, are the ar 
 biters of political life and death. Wheresoever the elective 
 power is not with the intelligence of a nation, and it is not 
 nor can it be where suffrage is universal, the exertion of 
 power will often be capricious, and not seldom in the 
 highest degree tyrannical. In such a country, parties are 
 more distinctly marked, more rancorous, more vindic 
 tive, more really hostile to each other, than in those 
 nations, where liberty lives, moves, and has her being in 
 a medium. And the more clearly parties are divided, the 
 more cordial with each other the members of each are ; 
 the more mutual in their efforts ; the more narrow and 
 despotick in their opinions and practices. Hence it is that 
 when the republican party succeeds against the federal 
 in the election of a president, his administration must 
 be, without exception, in gross, implicitly and zealously 
 supported by his party ; whether it be wise or foolish, 
 weak or wicked, for the interest or against the interest 
 of his country. It will be perceived, that in a state of 
 things so discouraging, a republican president is in prac 
 tice, though not in theory, of greater weight and con 
 sequence in the republick, than the royal personage is 
 in a limited monarchy, and that he is backed by a 
 force- the force of the press- the force of zeal the 
 force of popular assemblages the force of inexorable 
 party discipline, greater and less yielding than a king 
 of England can even hope for. And that which is a 
 
x ji DEDICATION. 
 
 rule out of congress is a rule in it, for the popular 
 will, dealing out rewards and punishments, commands 
 in the representative, if he desire to retain his seat, 
 the most rigid and humiliating obedience. Thus cor 
 roborated by a victorious party in the national legisla 
 ture, to which the law, never openly, is yet always 
 given by the president, is it surprising that Mr. Jeffer* 
 son, wrapped up in popular mummy, in effect nominated 
 his successor, controuled the national elective power, 
 and broke down the national constitution ; or that his 
 party, that it might be entire, supported and applauded 
 the violence ? 
 
 Having witnessed the success of this combination of 
 criminal intrigue and reprehensible acquiescence, my 
 hopes of the duration of the republick are, I acknow 
 ledge, much less sanguine than they were wont to be. 
 The substance of the constitution is essentially gone ; 
 the name, the unessential name, I may say only, is 
 retained. The late practice is to be the permanent 
 one ; party has had it so ; party will have it so : all 
 argument has been derided. 
 
 Behold then the mode of election which is now es 
 tablished ! See to what a shadow our boasted liberty is 
 reduced ! 
 
 The president, having gratified his own ambition, is 
 about to retire : a successor is to be elected. The 
 majority of congress, elected by the dominant party, 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 are assembled at Washington, in the character of legis 
 lators. The president, to whom more deference is paid 
 by his party, and therefore by his party s representatives 
 in congress, than is usually paid to a king of England, 
 indicates the person whom he wishes for his successor. 
 The party members of congress assemble in caucus, 
 nominate the favourite of the retiring president, pub 
 lish the nomination, and the party at large, which under 
 all circumstances must be united, assemble in popular 
 meetings. These meetings, which, whether visibly or 
 not, are always directed and governed by two or three 
 leading men, pass resolutions, applauding the nomina 
 tion as truly republican, pledge themselves to its sup 
 port, and intimate anathemas against those of the party 
 who by speaking or writing manifest opposition to it : 
 all this is matter of routine. A legislator who dissents 
 cannot, but by a miracle, be re-elected ; he loses his 
 popularity ; and where popularity is so precious, who 
 will risk it ? A disobedient placeman forfeits his place, 
 and as office and emolument are every thing, it will not 
 be inferred, that nonconformists amongst this class of 
 citizens will be numerous. 
 
 Such is the rule ; such the practice. The president 
 may therefore appoint his successor. The presidency, 
 therefore, though not in name, is yet in party manage 
 ment and detail next to hereditary : it is not elective, 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 for such a process cannot amount to any thing more 
 than a mockery of election. 
 
 In addition to party influence on party representatives, 
 (and they are all party representatives) other motives 
 dispose them to gratify the wishes of the retiring pre 
 sident. In appointments to office, the national execu 
 tive has very extensive patronage. Several members of 
 the caucus by which Mr. Madison was nominated, 
 resigning their seats in congress seemingly for the pur 
 pose, were immediately appointed to distinguished and 
 lucrative places by Mr. Jefferson. Nor can the new 
 president be unmindful of those to whom he is indebted 
 for his election. He will not be ungrateful. 
 
 These evils are reluctantly confessed by the friends 
 of a nomination of the president by congress ; by those 
 who fiercely support it ; by those who outrage freedom 
 of opinion to carry it successfully into effect j but they 
 at the same time contend, in a manner that leaves no 
 hope of a mitigation of the practice, that there is no 
 other commodious or feasible rule. This is thought 
 fully dispensing with the constitution as visionary and 
 impracticable. It is true that the constitutional method 
 might sometimes put party prevalence in jeopardy ; I 
 admit the possibility, but if this were an evil, it should 
 be remembered, that national freedom may best be 
 maintained by an alternate succession to power of the 
 rival parties. 
 
DEDICATION. xv 
 
 By executive management, by party obedience, by 
 that inordinate love of popularity and place which 
 characterize the more intelligent part of our citizens, 
 the constitution has suffered a severe shock, and you, 
 venerable patriot, who were the choice of the people 
 for the presidency, have been deprived of their support 
 for that office. 
 
 You have lived, sir, to see two revolutions ; one 
 from a monarchy to a republick ; the other from a re- 
 publick to something very like a monarchy. In the first 
 you acted, acted nobly ; in the second, you and the 
 nation have been acted upon ; acted upon unworthily. 
 
 Perhaps there never was a nation, enjoying lights like 
 those of the present age, and possessing a government 
 whose elements are free, which in so short a period 
 after its establishment was in such imminent danger 
 of losing its freedom. 
 
 In other nations, governments, by force or by fraud, 
 have abridged the liberty of the people, but, dividing 
 ourselves into two parties, each more intent upon its 
 preservation against the other than watchful over the 
 liberties of the whole, we knowingly recede from 
 freedom, and offer our necks for the yoke. 
 
 Every thing is inverted. Party is not modelled by 
 the constitution, nor does it yield to its force. If the 
 preservation of constitutional principles be incompati- 
 Igk with the maintenance of party maxims, drawn from 
 
XVI DEDICATION. 
 
 party animosity, from party struggles, from party con 
 venience, of which the personal aggrandizement of . 
 few demagogues is the main spring, constitutional prin 
 ciples are no longer estimable. That a .retiring national 
 executive, co-operating with expectant members of 
 congress, should avail themselves of this delirium to 
 impose upon the nation a president of their own choice, 
 suiting their own views, answering their own purposes, 
 can excite no surprise. A people that invites slavery 
 cannot long be free. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 With the greatest respect, 
 Your most obedient 
 Jlumble servant, 
 
 JAMES CHEETHAM* 
 
 New-York, October, 1809. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TWO lives of Mr. Paine have been published ; 
 one by " Francis Oldys, of Philadelphia," a large 
 octavo pamphlet, printed by Stockdale, London, 
 1792;* and an " Impartial Sketch," an anony 
 mous pamphlet of ten pages, published by T. 
 Brown, Drury-Lane, in the same year. To these 
 may be added a continuation of Oldys s Life, by 
 William Cobbett, Philadelphia, 1796. 
 
 Francis Oldys is, I believe, a fictitious name ; 
 " of Philadelphia," was probably subjoined to give 
 interest and authenticity to the work. The 
 French revolution, that terrible concussion which 
 had perniciously affected all Europe, and parti- 
 
 *I have not seen a London copy of Oldys sLife, nor is there 
 one either in our bookstores or in our city library. Mr. Cob 
 bett says, that it was published in London in 1793, but as the 
 * Impartial Sketch," which was avowedly written to correct 
 some of the extravagancies of Oldys, bears upon its title-page 
 the London imprint of 1792, I conclude from that circum 
 stance, and from Paine s Rights of Man, part second, having 
 been published in February of the same year, that Mr. Cobbett 
 was mistaken in the date. 
 
 G 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 cularly England, had prepared the clubs for the 
 unhinging doctrines of the " Rights of Man." 
 Never did the parched earth receive refreshing 
 rain with more welcome, than that with which 
 the revolutionary people of England admitted 
 amongst them the tumultuous writings of Paine. 
 To that which was his object ; to commotion, to 
 the overthrow of the government, and to blood 
 shed, in all its horrid forms, they were rapidly 
 hastening. Thus predisposed, the cordiality and 
 enthusiasm with which the first part of the Rights 
 of Man was greeted, although flattering to the 
 vanity and encouraging to the hopes of the au 
 thor, were not surprising. The clubs, zealous to 
 a degree of frenzy j always vigil ent, always alert, 
 published a groat edition of thirty thousand co 
 pies of the work, which was distributed amongst 
 the poor, who could not afford to purchase. In 
 the great manufacturing towns, Paine was consi 
 dered by the ignorant as an apostle of freedom.* 
 The government, alarmed, knew not how to meet 
 the evil.t BURKE did, however, by his successive 
 
 * A song was privately circuited, beginning with 
 God save great Thomas Paine, 
 His Rights of Man proclaim, 
 From Pole to Pole ! 
 
 ) Mr. Burke, alluding to the language of the .ga^inet, says, 
 " But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed 
 
PREFACE, XIX 
 
 and impressive appeals, animate them to precau 
 tionary measures. In these, Oldys slife may, I 
 think, be included. To deprive Paine of the mo 
 mentary and undeserved popularity which he had 
 acquired amongst the illiterate, whose passions 
 were to have been worked up to a revolutionary 
 pitch, was no doubt esteemed by the cabinet an 
 object of some importance. To effect this pur 
 pose, Oldys s life was written ; and perhaps I am 
 not mistaken in ascribing it to the agency of the 
 ministry. With many facts, such as Fame s birth, 
 his education, his employment in the excise, his 
 dismission from it, and his separation from his 
 wife, are mingled more misrepresentations and 
 distortions. On a work so evidently of a party 
 nature, one cannot implicitly draw. 
 
 The " Impartial Sketch," written by a friend 
 of Paine, is not worthy of particular remark. Id 
 is a compilation from such parts of Oldys s narra 
 tive as suited the views of the writer, stripped of 
 Oldys s exaggerations. 
 
 Mr. Cobbett s is really a continuation of Oldys s 
 life. His superadditions are in the spirit of the 
 
 of such a nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. 
 It is this ; " you know their promptitude in writing, and their 
 diligence in caballing : to write, speak, or act against them, 
 will only stimulate them to new efforts." Appeal from the 
 new to the old whigs. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 original. His vigourous pen was wielded against 
 Paine by passions yet more vigourous. Roused 
 by the confusion which the author of the " Age 
 of Reason" was endeavouring to raise all over 
 the world, and dreading the prevalence of it in 
 the United States, he censured to excess ; cen 
 sured, perhaps, without judgment, censuring with 
 out discrimination. 
 
 My information respecting Paine before he left 
 England in 1774, is derived from persons who 
 knew him when he was a boy when he was at 
 school when he worked with his father at stay- 
 making when he was in the excise when he 
 was married, and when he separated from his 
 wife : much of this agrees with Oldys s facts re 
 ferring to the same time. 
 
 Of his career in the colonies after his arrival in 
 1774, my sources of information, in addition to 
 the journals of congress, histories of the revolu 
 tionary war, &c. are gentlemen of the highest po 
 litical standing, several of whom were members 
 of the revolutionary congress. 
 
 When the Rights of Man was first published, I 
 was in England, involved in politicks, and tolera- 
 f bly well acquainted with political parties. 
 
 Respecting the conduct of Paine while in Pa 
 ris, I draw the chief part of my information from 
 notorious facts : and gentlemen equally distin 
 guished in diplomacy and in literature, have fa 
 voured me with their correspondence. t 
 
PREFACE. 2UU 
 
 After his return to the United States from 
 France, I became acquainted with him on hu ar 
 rival in New- York, in the year 1 802. He intro 
 duced himself to me by letter from Washington 
 City, requesting me to take lodgings for him in 
 New- York. I accordingly engaged a room in Lo- 
 vett s Hotel, supposing him to be a gentleman, and 
 apprised him of the number. On his arrival, 
 about ten at night, he wrote me a note desiring 
 to see me immediately. I waited on him at Lo- 
 vett s, in company with Mr. George Clinton, jun. 
 We rapped at the door : a small figure opened it 
 within, meanly dressed, having on an old top coat 
 without an under one ; a dirty silk handkerchief, 
 loosely thrown round his neck ; a long beard of 
 more than a week s growth ; a face, well car- 
 bunckled, fiery as the setting sun,* and the whole 
 figure staggering under a load of inebriation. I 
 was on the point of inquiring for Mr. Paine, when 
 I saw in his countenance something of the por 
 traits I had seen of him. We were desired to be 
 seated. He had before him a small round table, 
 on which were a beef-stake, some beer, a pint of 
 brandy, a pitcher of water, and a glass. He sat 
 eating, drinking, and talking, with as much com 
 posure as if he had lived with us all his life. I 
 
 * Falstaff s description of Bardolph s nose, would have suit 
 ed Paine s. 
 
XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 soon perceived that he had a very retentive memo 
 ry, and was full of anecdote. The Bishop of 
 Landaff was almost the first word he uttered, arid 
 it was followed by informing us, that he had in 
 his trunk a manuscript reply to the Bishop s Apo 
 logy. He then, calmly mumbling his stake, and 
 ever and anon drinking his brandy and beer, re 
 peated the introduction to his reply, which occu 
 pied him near half an hour. This was done with 
 deliberation, the utmost clearness, and a perfect 
 apprehension, intoxicated as he was, of all that he 
 repeated. Scarcely a word would he allow us to 
 speak. He always, I afterwards found, in all 
 companies, drunk or sober, w r ould be listened to, 
 but in this regard there were no rights of men with 
 him, no equality, no reciprocal immunities and 
 obligations, for he would listen to no one. Hav 
 ing repeated the introduction to his manuscript 
 reply, he gave us the substance of the reply itself. 
 He then recited from memory, in a voice very 
 plaintive, some Asiatick lines, as specimens of 
 morality equalling at least the sublime doctrines 
 of the New Testament. He had read but little 
 in the course of his life, much less than may have 
 been supposed, but that little he had sorted, laid 
 up in his intellectual store-house with care, and 
 could deal it out with a facility and discrimina 
 tion, which, however hated or despised, or on 
 whatever account, was truly admirable. 
 
PREFACE. XXlli 
 
 My acquaintance with him continued, with 
 very various views, two or three years. My in 
 tercourse with him was more frequent than agree- 
 ble, but what I suffered in feeling from his want 
 of good manners, his dogmatism, the tyranny of 
 his opinions, his peevishness, his intemperance, 
 and the low company he kept, was perhaps com 
 pensated by acquiring a knowledge of the man. 
 The latter part of his life was spent in the city of 
 New- York, in a great measure under my own 
 eye, but I have yet made particular inquiries 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, 
 and the opinions which he obstinately maintained 
 on his death-bed, I have from a sensible and hu 
 mane Quaker gentleman ; from Doctor Manley, 
 his kind and attending physician, and from his 
 nurse, a woman of intelligence and piety. 
 
 The object of my labour is neither to please 
 nor to displease any political party. I have writ 
 ten the life of Mr. Paine, not his panegyrick. 
 
 
LIFE, &c. 
 
 OVER families not distinguished by birth, by 
 fortune, or by extraordinary talent, time throws 
 an obscurity that cannot be removed. Of the 
 grand-parents of Mr. Paine* we know 4ittle ; of 
 his ancestors still more remote, nothing. It is in 
 timated, possibly as imparting respectability, that 
 his grand father was a small but respectable far 
 mer.^) 
 
 His father, who bore a good character, was a 
 staymaker by trade, and a Quaker by religion. 
 His mother, the daughter of a country attorney, 
 was of the Church of England. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE was born at Thetford, in the 
 county of Norfolk, England, in January, 1737. 
 Whether he was baptised or not, is uncertain. 
 Oldys affirms, that, probably owing to a religious 
 disagreement between his parents, he was not, but 
 that, through the care of his aunt, he was confirm 
 ed at the customary age by the bishop of Norwich. 
 
 () Impartial Sketch.. 
 
 P 
 
26 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 The penury of his parents did not enable them 
 to give him a college education. He was taught 
 reading, writing, and arithmetick, at the Thet- 
 ford free school, under the care Qf the Rev. Mr. 
 Knowles.(/>) His education was merely and scan 
 tily English. He left school at the age of thir 
 teen. The few ordinary Latin phrases which we 
 meet with in his works, he picked up when he 
 found them either convenient or ostentatious, (c) 
 
 From school he was taken to his father s shop- 
 board, where he was taught staymaking. He 
 worked with his father several years : Oldys and 
 the Impartial Sketch say five, (d) 
 
 From his father s, perhaps without his father s 
 permission, he went, when sixteen, to London, 
 
 () " My parents were not able to give me a shilling beyond 
 what they gave me in education, and to do this they distressed 
 themselves." Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 (c) He was, however, of opinion, towards the close of his 
 life, that the old languages are superfluous. " As there is now 
 nothing new to be learned from the dead languages, all the use 
 ful books being already translated, the languages are become 
 useless, and the time expended in teaching and learning them 
 is wasted." Age of Reason, part 1. 
 
 (c?) " When little more than sixteen years of age, I entered 
 on board the Terrible Privateer, Captain Death." Rights of 
 Man, part 2. Oldys remarks, that the Terrible " was 
 not fitted out till some years afterwards ;" but it is probable 
 that Paine s statement is correct, and if it be, he could not 
 Have worked with his father more than two or three years. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 27 
 
 whither Scotchmen and provincial adventurous 
 English flock to make or mar their fortunes. 
 But necessity obliged him to work a few weeks 
 at his trade, with a Mr. Morris, a staymaker, in 
 Hanover street. From London he journeyed to 
 Dover, where he worked at staymaking with a 
 Mr. Grace. 
 
 About this time he entered on board the Ter 
 rible,^) from which adventure, he observes, " I 
 was happily prevented by the affectionate and 
 moral remonstrance of a good father, who from 
 his own habits of life, being of the quaker pro 
 fession, must begin to look upon me as lost."(/) 
 
 The effects of the moral remonstrance were 
 not, however, durable. Disliking his trade, we 
 may presume, he soon after entered in the " King 
 of Prussia privateer, and went to sea."(^) How 
 long he was at sea, or what the fruits of his cruise 
 were, w r e do not learn. Brave in political war 
 fare at his desk, he was not made to seek the bub 
 ble reputation in the canno?i > s mouth. 
 
 In the year 1 759, he settled at Sandwich, as a 
 master staymaker.(/z) 
 
 (e) Paine s Conversation. 
 (/) Rights of Man, part 2. 
 (5*) Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 (h) Oldys asserts, that ten pounds which he had borrowed 
 of Miss Grace upon a promise of marriage, daughter of Mr, 
 
28 LIFE OF THOMAS PATNE. 
 
 At Sandwich he married Mary Lambert, 
 daughter of an exciseman, who shortly after went 
 with him to Margate, where, in the year 1 760, 
 she died.(V) From Margate he went to London> 
 and from London to his father s, at Thetford. 
 
 Perhaps his marriage with Miss Lambert led 
 him to wish for a place in the excise, which, aid 
 ed by the recorder of Thetford, he obtained, af 
 ter much preparatory study for it, in the year 
 1761. It is not probable that the recorder would 
 have used his influence for him, if his conduct to 
 wards his wife had been as atrocious as Oldys rep 
 resents it. I am right in this conclusion, or the 
 recorder could not have been acquainted with 
 him, a circumstance which is not probable. 
 
 He retained his station in the excise until Au 
 gust, 1765, when, being guilty, Oldys says, of 
 scandalous misconduct, he was dismissed from the 
 office. The same author admits that he was re 
 stored to the excise the following year. This res 
 toration does, I think, disprove that fact. If he 
 had been dismissed for gross misconduct, it is not 
 
 Grace, fctaymaker, of Dover, with whom he had worked, en 
 abled him to commence business, but that he neither repaid 
 the money nor married the girl. He adds, that at Sandwich, 
 Paine preached at his lodgings as an independent minister. 
 
 (/) Oldys insinuates that she died of a premature birth, oo 
 easioned by ill usage. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 29 
 
 probable that he would have been restored. The 
 offence was no doubt a venial one. During his 
 dismission, he resided in London, where he taught 
 English, in an Academy, at a salary of twenty- 
 jfive pounds a year. 
 
 In March, 1 768, he was stationed as an excise 
 man at Lewes, in Sussex, where he lived with 
 Samuel Ollive, grocer and tobacconist. Mr. Ol- 
 live died the following year. Shortly after his 
 death, Paine, probably with the approbation of 
 his widow and daughter, opened the grocery and 
 worked the tobacco mill, in his own name. In 
 1771, he married ELIZABETH OLLIVE, daughter of 
 Samuel. 
 
 It is mentioned that he this year wrote an elec 
 tioneering song for one of the candidates for the 
 honour of representing New-Shoreham, in parlia 
 ment, for which he got three guineas, and that in 
 the next year he wrote the case(&) of the ex 
 cisemen, who, united throughout the kingdom, 
 were applying for an increase of salary. Whe 
 ther the song and the case were written by him or 
 not, is very problematical. In the Crisis, No. 3, 
 he says : " I never troubled others with my no 
 tions till very lately, and never published a sylla 
 ble in England in my life ;" but he was not al 
 ways veracious. 
 
 () Said to be an octavo Pamphlet, of 21 pages* 
 
30 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 In April, 1774, sinking under accumulated mis 
 fortunes, the effects of his shop were sold to pay 
 his debts. In the same month, having dealt as a 
 grocer in exciseable articles, and being suspected, 
 I know not how justly, of mal-practices in the ex 
 cise,^) he was a second time dismissed. He pe 
 titioned to be restored, but without success. 
 
 In May of the same year, Paine and his wife 
 entered into articles of separation, which, in the 
 following June, probably in consequence of a de 
 fect in formality, were redrawn.(#z) 
 
 ^ (/) Oldys says, that availing himself of his place in the ex- 
 cisc, he smuggled tobacco for the use of his mill. 
 
 (/tt) Mr. Carver, of this city, who when a boy went to school 
 1 with Miss Ollive, and was well acquainted with her and Paine 
 when they were married, relates to me, as having -been no 
 torious in Lewes, the following extraordinary fact. From some 
 cause which Paine would not explain, and which is yet unas 
 certained, he never, Mr. Carver affirms, had sexual inter 
 course with his wife. This almost incredible circumstance, 
 which became the subject of the borough conversation, Mr. 
 Carver adds, was stated by Mrs. Paine in answer to a ques 
 tion which had been put to her by her friend, Mrs. Tibott, on 
 observing, some weeks after their marriage, the gloominess 
 cf her mind. Despised by the women, jeered by the men, 
 and charged with a want of virility, Paine submitted, Mr. 
 Carver continues, to a professional scrutiny. He was exam- 
 + ined by Doctors Turner, Ridge, and Manning, who pro- 
 * nounced that there was no natural defect. On Doctor Tur 
 ner s inquiring into the cause of his abstinence, Paine answer 
 ed, that it was no body s business but his own ; that he had 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 31 
 
 His little property having been sold himself a 
 second time dismissed from the excise the sepa 
 ration from his wife completed, and being reduced 
 almost to beggary, Paine, in want of every thing 
 that makes life agreeable, travelled, mournfully 
 no doubt, from Lewes to London. What he had 
 recourse to in the metropolis for a livelihood, nei 
 ther Oldys nor the Impartial Sketch offers a con 
 jecture, but a member of the revolutionary con 
 gress told me, that when Dr. Franklin first knew 
 him, which was about the middle of the year 
 1 774, he was a garret writer. In this situation, 
 he procured an introduction to Dr. Franklin, who 
 advised him to goto America. (/z) He accord- 
 
 cause for it, but that he would not name it to any one. It ap 
 pears that he accompanied his wife from the altar, but that, 
 though they lived in the same house for three years after 
 their marriage, they had from the day of their nuptials se 
 parate beds, and never cohabited together. Of these facts 
 Mr. Carver has offered me an affidavit, but I have thought it 
 unnecessary. He stated them all to Paine in a private letter 
 which he wrote to him about a year before his death; to which 
 no answer was returned : Mr. Carver showed me the letter 
 soon after it was written. 
 
 Paine lived with Mr. Carver in this city : they were bosom 
 friends. Mr. Carver kept his company three or four years, 
 which was perhaps as long as any body could keep it. 
 
 f/z) " The favour of Dr. Franklin s friendship I possessed 
 in England, and my introduction to this part of the world, was 
 through his patronage." Crisis, No. S. 
 
62 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ingly sailed from England in September, 1774, 
 and arrived at Philadelphia just before the affair 
 at Lexington, which happened April 19, 1775.(o) 
 Here his political career commences. While in 
 England, we find him struggling, indeed, with 
 poverty, but, with regard to politicks, not at all 
 discontented.(/>) No opposition is mentioned ei 
 ther by his partial or his impartial biographer. 
 Nor did he, if in conversation he ever recurred to 
 this infelicitous period of his life, speak of him 
 self as having meddled with government.^) His 
 
 (o) " It was my fate to come to America a few months be 
 fore the breaking out of hostilities." Crisis, No. T. 
 
 (/i) " I had no disposition for what was called politicks." . 
 Age of Reason, part 1, p. 66, New- York, 1795. He alludes 
 to the time when he was a second time dismissed from the 
 excise. 
 
 (g} The following anecdote, which in conversation he re 
 lated himself, first turned his thoughts, he remarked, to gov 
 ernment, " After playing at Bowls, at Lewes, retiring to 
 drink some punch, Mr. Verril, one of the Bowlers, observed, 
 alluding to the wars of Frederick, that the king of Prussia 
 was the best fellow in the world for a king, he had so much 
 of the devil in him. This, striking me with great force, occa 
 sioned the reflection, that if it were necessary for a king to 
 have so much of the devil in him, kings might very benefi 
 cially be dispensed with." 
 
 The thought was not, however, in England, followed up by 
 action. There > he was neither a ministerialist nor an anti- 
 ministerialist. Whenever he turned his attention to govern- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 83 
 
 only opposition to it seems to have been that of an 
 exciseman, who naturally enough wanted addi 
 tional pay. If he had been reinstated in the ex 
 cise after his second dismission, and could have 
 retained his place, it is probable that he would 
 have lived and died in his native land. But he 
 was abandoned, it may be said, by man and wo 
 man, and he did well to change the scene. Eng 
 land had no longer any enjoyment for him. Poor, 
 resourceless, and almost without hope, from go 
 vernment he expected nothing, and if he turned 
 his thoughts upon his wife, upon that which should 
 have been his home, and upon all their endear 
 ing and inappreciable ties, what would have been 
 his feelings had he possessed the ordinary sensi 
 bility of an ordinary man ? 
 
 His first engagement in Philadelphia was with 
 Mr. Aitkin, a reputable Bookseller. In January, 
 1775, Mr. Aitkin commenced the publication of 
 the Pennsylvania Magazine, and Paine s business 
 was to edit it. His introduction to the Magazine, 
 dated January 24th, 1775, is thus concluded : 
 
 " Thus encompassed with difficulties, this first 
 number of the Pennsylvania Magazine entreats a 
 
 ment, it was only for a place, or for an increase of the salary 
 of that which he held : he was thirty seven when he left Eng 
 land. 
 
34 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 favourable reception ; of which we shall only say, 
 [that,] like the early snow drop, it comes forth in 
 a barren season, and contents itself with fore 
 telling, that CHOICER FLOWERS are preparing to ap 
 pear." 
 
 To the politeness of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, 
 who was a member of the memorable congress, 
 which, on the 4th July, 1776, declared the colo 
 nies " Free and Independent States," I am in 
 debted for the following interesting letter. 
 
 "Philadelphia, July \lth, 1809. 
 SIR, 
 
 " In compliance with your request, I send you 
 herewith, answers to your questions relative to 
 the late Thomas Paine. 
 
 " He came to Philadelphia about the year 
 1772,(r) with a short letter of introduction from 
 Dr. Franklin to one of his friends. His design 
 was to open a school for the instruction of young 
 ladies in several branches of knowledge, which, 
 at that time, were seldom taught in the female 
 schools of our country. 
 
 " About the year 1 773,(Y) I met him acciden 
 tally in Mr. Aitkin s bookstore, and was introdu 
 ced to him by Mr. Aitkin, We conversed a few 
 
 (r) .Dr. Rush is mistaken. It was 1774. (s) 1775. 
 
JUFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 35 
 
 minutes, when I left him. Soon afterwards I read 
 , short essay with which I was much pleased, in 
 one of Bradford s papers, against the slavery 
 of the Africans in our country, and which 1 was 
 informed was written by Mr. Paine. This exci 
 ted my desire to be better acquainted with him. 
 We met soon afterwards in Mr. Aitkin s book 
 store, where I did homage to his principles and 
 pen upon the subject of the enslaved Africans. 
 He told me the essay to which I alluded, was the 
 first thing he had ever published in his life. Af 
 ter this Mr. Aitkin employed him as the editor of 
 his Magazine, with a salary of fifty pounds cur 
 rency a year. This work was well supported by 
 him. His song upon the death of Gen. \\ohe, (t) 
 and his reflections upon the death of Lord Clive, 
 
 (?) I have procured this beautiful Song, and as some ground 
 less doubts have been expressed whether or no Paine was the 
 author of it, I will here insert it. 
 
 GENERAL WOLFE. 
 
 IN a mouldering cave where the wretched retreat 
 
 Britannia sat wasted with care ; 
 She mourn d for her Wolfe, and exclaim d against fate, 
 
 And gave herself up to despair : 
 The walls of her cell she had sculptur d around 
 
 With the feats of her favourite son ; 
 And even the dust as it lay on the ground 
 
 Was engrav d with some deeds he. had done. 
 
3t> LIFE OF THOMAS PAItfE. 
 
 gave it a sudden currency which few works of 
 that kind have since had in our country. 
 
 " When the subject of American Independence 
 began to be agitated in conversation, I observed the 
 publick mind to be loaded with an immense mass 
 of prejudice and error relative to it. Something 
 appeared to be wanting, to remove them, beyond 
 
 The sire of the gods from his Crystalline throne 
 
 Beheld the disconsolate Dame ; 
 And mov d with her tears he sent Mercury down 
 
 And these were the Tidings that came : 
 Britannia, forbear, not a sigh or a tear 
 
 For thy Wolfe, so deservedly lov d ; 
 Your tears shall be chang d into triumphs of joy, 
 
 For Wolfe is not dead, but remov d. 
 
 The sons of the east, the proud giants of old, 
 
 Have crept from their darksome abodes ; 
 And this is the news, as in Heav n it was told, 
 
 They were Marching to War with the Gods ; 
 A Council was held in the Chambers of Jove 
 
 And this was their final decree : 
 That Wolfe should be call d to the Army above, 
 
 And the charge was intrusted to me. 
 
 To the plains of Quebec with the orders I flew, 
 
 He begg d for a moment s delay ; 
 He cry d, oh forbear, let me Victory hear, 
 
 And then thy command I ll obey : 
 With a darksome thick film I encompass d his eyes 
 
 And bore him away in an urn ; 
 Lest the fondness he bore to his own native shore 
 
 Should induce him again to return. 
 
LIFE " OF THOMAS PAINE. 37 
 
 the ordinary short and cold addresses of newspa- ^ 
 per publications. At this time I called upon Mr, " 
 Paine and suggested to him the propriety of pre 
 paring our citizens for a perpetual separation of 
 our country from Great Britain, by means of a 
 work of such length as would obviate all the ob 
 jections to it. He seized the idea with avidity, 
 and immediately began his famous pamphlet in 
 favour of that measure. He read the sheets to me 
 at my house as he composed them. When he 
 had finished them, I advised him to put them into 
 the hands of Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams, and 
 the late Judge Wilson, assuring him, at the same 
 time, that they all held the same opinions that he- 
 had defended. The first of those gentlemen saw 
 the manuscript, and I believe the second, but 
 Judge Wilson being from home when Mr. Paine 
 called upon him, it was not subjected to his in 
 spection. No addition was made to it by Dr. 
 Franklin, but a passage was struck out, or omit 
 ted in printing it, which I conceived to be one of 
 the most striking in it. It W 7 as the following " A 
 greater absurdity cannot be conceived of, than 
 three millions of people running to their sea coast 
 every time a ship arrives from London, to know 
 what portion of liberty they should enjoy." 
 
 " A title only was wanted for this pamphlet be 
 fore it was committed to the press. Mr. Paine 
 proposed to call it " plain truth." I objected to < 
 
38 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 it and suggested the title of " Common Sense." 
 This was instantly adapted, and nothing now re 
 mained, but to find a printer who had boldness 
 enough to publish it. At that time there was a 
 certain Robert Bell, an intelligent Scotch booksel 
 ler and printer in Philadelphia, whom I knew to 
 foe as high toned as Mr. Paine upon the subject of 
 American Independence. I mentioned the pam 
 phlet to him, and he at once consented to run the 
 risk of publishing it. The author and the printer 
 were immediately brought together, and " Com 
 mon Sense" bursted from the press of the latter 
 in a few days with an effect which has rarely 
 been produced by types and paper in any age or 
 country. 
 
 " Between the time of the publication of this 
 pamphlet, and the 4th of July, 1 776, Mr. Paine 
 published a number of essays in Mr. Bradford s 
 j, - paper, under the signature of " The Forester," in 
 defence of the opinions contained in his Common 
 Sense. 
 
 " In the summer and autumn of 1 776, he ser 
 ved as a volunteer, in the American army under 
 General Washington. Whether he received pay 
 and rations, I cannot tell. He lived a good deal 
 with the officers of the first rank in the army, at 
 whose tables his " Common Sense" always made 
 him a welcome guest. 
 
 " The legislature of Pennsylvania gave Mr, 
 
JLIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 89 
 
 Paine 6007. as an acknowledgment of the servi 
 ces he had rendered the United States by his pub 
 lications. 
 
 " He acted as clerk to the legislature of Penn 
 sylvania about the year 1780. I do not know the 
 compensation he received for his services in that 
 station. He acted for a while as secretary of the 
 Secret Committee of Congress, but was dismissed 
 by them for publishing some of their secrets rela 
 tive to Mr. Dean. 
 
 " Mr. Paine s manner of life was desultory. 
 He often visited in the families of Dr. Franklin, 
 Mr. Rittenhouse, and Mr. George Clymer, where 
 he made himself acceptable by a turn he discove- 
 ed for philosophical, as well as political subjects. 
 
 " After the year 1776, my intercourse with Mr. 
 Paine was casual. I met him now and then at 
 the tables of some of our whig citizens, where he 
 spoke but little, but was always inoffensive in his 
 manner and conversation. 
 
 " I possess one of his letters written to me from 
 France upon the subject of the abolition of the 
 slave trade. An extract from it was published in 
 the Columbian Magazine. 
 
 " I did not see Mr. Paine when he passed 
 through Philadelphia a few years ago. His prin 
 ciples, avowed in his " Age of Reason," were so 
 offensive to me that I did not wish to renew ray 
 Intercourse with him. 
 
40 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 " I have thus briefly and in great haste endea 
 voured to answer your questions. Should you 
 publish this letter, I beg my testimony against Mr. 
 Paine s infidelity may not be omitted in it." 
 " From, sir, 
 " Yours, 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 BENJN. RUSH. 
 " MR. CHEETHAM." 
 
 Paine continued his superintendence of the 
 magazine several months. In one of his lucu- 
 
 v3 
 
 brations, adverting to the riches of the earth, 
 the diligence which is necessary to discover, and 
 the labour to possess them, he thus elegantly in 
 vites us to industry and research. 
 
 " Though nature is gay, polite, and generous 
 abroad, she is sullen, rude, and niggardly at 
 home : Return the visit, and she admits you with 
 all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance 
 of an antiquated beauty retired to replenish her 
 charms. Bred up in antideluvian notions, she^ias 
 not yet acquired the European taste of receiving 
 visitants in her dressing-room : She locks and 
 bolts up her private recesses with extraordinary 
 care, as if not only resolved to preserve her 
 hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the re 
 mains of a face that was young and lovely in the 
 days of Adam. He that would view nature in 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 her undress, and partake of her internal trea 
 sures, must proceed with the resolution of a rob 
 ber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation to 
 follow her to the cavern The external earth 
 makes no proclamation of the interior stores, but 
 leaves to chance and industry, the discovery of 
 the whole. In such gifts as nature can annually 
 re-create, she is noble and profuse, and entertains 
 the whole w r orld with the interest of her fortunes ; 
 but watches over the capital with the care of a 
 miser. Her gold and jewels lie concealed in the 
 earth in caves of utter darkness ; the hoards of 
 wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, 
 like the riches of a necromancer s cell. It must 
 be very pleasant to an adventurous speculatist to 
 make excursions into these Gothic regions ; and 
 in his travels he may possibly come to a cabinet 
 locked up in some rocky vault, whose treasures 
 shall reward his toil, and enable him to shine on 
 his return, as splendidly as nature herself." 
 
 At what period he left the employ of Mr. Ait- 
 kin, who died some years since, I have not been 
 able to ascertain, but probably not until early in 
 the year, 1776. 
 
 Of the independence of the colonies, for some 
 time after the affair at Lexington, few thought 
 and no one wrote. Here and there it was indis 
 tinctly mentioned, but no where encouraged. 
 Never were a people more attached to a govern- 
 
 F 
 
42 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 ment and nation, than were the colonists to the 
 v government and people of England. Reconcilia 
 tion so adjusted as to have left them the right of 
 granting their own money by their Provincial As 
 semblies, would have been universally satisfactory. 
 x There was no wish for a separation ; none for a 
 tepublick. That indulgence which might have 
 been allowed, which was compatible with the 
 British constitution, and essential to freedom, 
 would have retained the colonies to the Crown, 
 we know not how long, but probably for a cen 
 tury at least.(<v) In this spirit of cordial affection, 
 congress, on the 8th of July, 1 775, petitioned the 
 king, most humbly imploring his majesty to de 
 vise some method by which English freedom 
 might be extended and secured to the colonies. 
 
 (w) Alluding to the predominant wishes of the colonists 
 soon after his arrival, Paine says ; " I found the disposition 
 of the people such, that they might have been led by a 
 thread, and governed by a reed. Their attachment to Bri 
 tain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason 
 to speak against it : they disliked the ministry, but they 
 Esteemed the nation. Their idea of grievance operated with 
 out resentment, and their single object was reconciliation. 1 * 
 Crisis, No. 7. 
 
 " Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare even to 
 wards the conclusion of the year 75. All our politicks had 
 been founded on the hope or expectation of making the matter 
 up ; a hope, which though general on the side of America, 
 had never entered the head or heart of the British 
 Crisis, No. 3. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 4 
 
 4i Attached, they say, to your majesty s person, 
 family, and government, with all the devotion 
 which principle and affection can inspire ; con 
 nected with Great Britain by the strongest ties 
 that can unite societies, and deploring every event 
 that tends in any degree to weaken them, we sol 
 emnly assure your majesty, that we not only most 
 ardently desire the former harmony between her 
 and these colonies may be restored, but that a 
 concord may be established between them upon 
 so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings, unin 
 terrupted by any future dissentions, to succeeding 
 generations in both countries." 
 
 " We therefore beseech your majesty, that your 
 royal authority and influence may be graciously 
 interposed to procure us relief from our afflicting 
 fears and jealousies, and to settle peace through 
 every part of your dominions ; with all humility 
 submitting to your majesty s wise consideration, 
 whether it may not be expedient, for facilitating 
 these important purposes, that your majesty be 
 pleased to direct some mode by which the united 
 applications of your faithful colonists to the 
 throne, may be improved into a happy and perma 
 nent reconciliation."^) 
 
 (TJ] Journals of Congress. 
 
 Mr. Burke has a passage respecting Dr. Franklin which 
 evinces the Doctor s attachment tp the British government, 
 
44 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Congress directed the petition, on which the 
 hopes of the colonists principally rested, to be pre 
 sented to the king by Mr. Penn, who was sent to 
 England on purpose, accompanied by the colony 
 agents residing in London. On the first of Sep- 
 
 how strongly soever he may have been opposed to some of its acts, 
 "What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of their 
 leaders, it is impossible to say. As far as a man, so locked up as 
 Dr. Franklin, could be expected to communicate his ideas, I be 
 lieve he opened them to Mr. Burke, It was, I think, the very 
 day before he sat out for America, that a very long conversa 
 tion passed between them, and with a greater air of openness 
 on the Doctor s side than Mr. Burke had observed in him 
 before. In this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and with ap 
 parent sincerity, the separation which he feared was inevita 
 ble between Great Britain and her Colonies. He certainly 
 spoke of it as an event which gave him the greatest concern. 
 America, he said, would never again see such happy days as 
 she had passed under the protection of England. He observ 
 ed, that ours was the only instance of a great empire, 
 in which the most distant parts and members had been as 
 well governed as the metropolis and its vicinage; but that 
 the Americans were going to lose the means which secured to 
 them this rare and precious advantage. The question with 
 them was not whether they were to remain as they had been 
 before the troubles, for better, he allowed, they could not hope 
 to be, but whether they were to give up so happy a situation 
 without a struggle ? Mr. Burke had several other conversa 
 tions with him about that time, in none of which, soured and 
 exasperated as his mind certainly was, did he discover any 
 other wish in favour of America than for a security of its 
 ancient condition. " Appeal from the new to the old whigs, 
 works, vol. 6, p. 121-2, London, 1803. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 45 
 
 tember, 1775, it was presented, and on the fourth 
 of the same month, Mr. Penn was told, by Lord 
 Dartmouth, that "no answer would be given to it." 
 
 The king s haughty and contumelious decision 
 was received by congress at the close of October, 
 and the effect of it on the colonists was inconceiv 
 able. From the top of expectation they were all 
 at once precipitated down to the lowest abyss of 
 despondency. All prospect of relief from Eng 
 land had vanished. With the images of their 
 brethren slaughtered at Lexington fresh in me 
 mory, their condition was a defenceless one. 
 Called upon for unconditional submission, they 
 were menaced with military execution in case of 
 disobedience. Still, even now, few thought se 
 riously of independence. The mind was over 
 powered by fear, rather than alive to safety. 
 
 Paine, like Milton s vanquished fiend, looking 
 back malignantly on England as a Paradise lost 
 to him ; availing himself of this awful pause, 
 and joyously turning to his account the high 
 handed measures of an infatuated cabinet, wrote 
 his COMMON SENSE ; probably in revenge for his 
 expulsion from the excise. This pamphlet, of 
 forty octavo pages, (w) holding out relief by pro 
 posing INDEPENDENCE to an oppressed and despair- 
 
 Philadelphia eel. 1797. 
 
IJFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ing people, was published in January, 1776.- 
 Speaking a language which the colonists had felt 
 but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its 
 consequences to the parent country, w r as unex 
 ampled in the history of the press.(#) At first, 
 involving the colonists, it was thought, in the 
 crime of rebellion, and pointing to a road leading 
 inevitably to ruin, it was read with indignation 
 and alarm, but when the reader, (and every 
 body read it) recovering from the first shock, re- 
 perused it, its arguments, nourishing his feel 
 ings and appealing to his pride, reanimated his 
 hopes and satisfied his understanding, that COM 
 MON SENSE, backed by the resources and force of 
 
 (.r) " Nothing could be better timed than this performance. 
 In union with the feelings and sentiments of the people, it pro^- 
 duced surprising effects. Many thousands were convinced, 
 and were led to approve and long for a separation from the 
 mother country: though that measure, a few months before, 
 was not only foreign from their wishes but the object of their 
 abhorrence, the current suddenly became so strong in its fa^ 
 vour that it bore down all before it." Ramsay s Rev. vol. 1, 
 p. 336-7, London, 1793. 
 
 " The publications which have appeared, have greatly pro 
 moted the- spirit of independency, but no one so much as the 
 pamphlet under the signature of Common Sense, written by 
 Mr. Thomas Paine, an Englishman. Nothing could have 
 been better timed than this performance : it has produced 
 most astonishing effects." Gordon s Rev. vol. 2, p. 78. New- 
 York, 1794. 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINJ6, 47 
 
 V 
 
 the colonies, poor and feeble as they were, could 
 alone rescue them from the unqualified oppression 
 with which they were threatened. The unknown 
 author, in the moments of enthusiasm which 
 succeeded, was hailed as an angel sent from 
 heaven to save from all the horrours of slavery, 
 by his timely, powerful, and unerring councils, 
 a faithful, but abused, a brave, but misrepresented 
 people, (y) 
 
 As a literary work, Common Sense, energetic 
 ally as it promoted the cause of independence, has 
 no merit. Defective in arrangement, inelegant in 
 diction, here and there a sentence excepted ; with 
 no profundity of argument, no felicity of remark f 
 no extent of research, no classical allusion, nor 
 comprehension of thought, it is fugitive in nature, 
 and cannot be appealed to as authority on the sub? 
 
 (t/) When Common Sense arrived in Albany, the Conven 
 tion of New- York was in session. General Scott, a leading 
 Member, alarmed at the boldness and novelty of its argu 
 ments, mentioned his fears to several of his distinguished col 
 leagues, and suggested a private meeting in the evening, for 
 the purpose of writing an answer. They accordingly met, and 
 Mr. Me Kesson read the pamphlet through. At first it was 
 deemed both necessary and expedient to answer it without 
 delay, but casting about for the requisite arguments, they 
 concluded to adjourn and meet again. In a few evenings 
 they re-assembled, but so rapid was the change of opinion in 
 the colonies at large, in favour of independence, that they ul 
 timately agreed not to oppose it. 
 
48 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ject of government. Its distinguishing charac- 
 teristicks are boldness and zeal ; low sarcasm and 
 deep-rooted malevolence. It owed its unprece 
 dented popularity, on the one hand, to the British 
 cabinet, which sought to triumph by bare-faced 
 force instead of generous measures ; and, on the 
 other, to the manly spirit of the colonists, which, 
 though often depressed, could not be conquered. 
 
 Yet Paine, vain beyond any man I ever read 
 of, (z) or ever knew, was of opinion, in which in 
 deed he was partly correct, that he was not only 
 an efficacious agent in effecting the independence 
 of the colonies, the very prop and stfy of the 
 ko2/se, but that the revolution, of which he was in 
 a great measure the parent, " led to the discovery 
 of the principles of government :" The assertion 
 was undoubtedly a dictate of gross ignorance. 
 " One of the great advantages of the American 
 revolution has been, that it led to the discovery of 
 the principles, and laid open the impositions of 
 government."(V) He might have correctly said 
 that it led, in some respects, to a new practice* 
 but certainly no new principle was discovered. 
 
 (z) " I possess more of what is called consequence in the 
 world, than any one in Mr. Burke s catalogue of Aristocrats. 
 Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 (ff) Rights of Man, part 2, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 49 
 
 But if a new principle had been discovered, it 
 is obvious that Paine, the chief if not the only 
 writer who with success supported the revolution, 
 considered himself as a second Columbus, and 
 that as we owe the discovery of the land to the 
 genius of the one, so we are indebted for the prin 
 ciple to the researches of the other. 
 
 Common Sense treats of the " origin and de 
 sign of government ; of monarchy and hereditary 
 succession ; of the ability of America" to become 
 independent. 
 
 On the first two heads, which alone afforded 
 scope for the discovery of a new principle, he is 
 brief and feeble. He had, indeed, thought on 
 the subject, but not deeply ; perhaps he had read, 
 though he affirms that he had not.(Z?) If this oe 
 so, as no force of g nius can adequately supply 
 the defects of study, so nj prooaole degree of 
 vanity could have flattered him with the high ex 
 pectation of being ranked in history with the 
 Harringtons, the Sydneys, and the Lockes of 
 England ; men who have enlightened the world 
 with their works ; enlightened England ; Eng- 
 
 (6) Adverting to the commencement of his revolutionary 
 labours in America, he rem irks: " I saw an opportunity in 
 -which I thought I could do some good, and I followed exactly 
 what my heart dictated. I neither read books nor studied 
 other peoples opinions." Rights of Man, part 2, 
 
 G 
 
50 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 land, whence we have drawn all that is excellent 
 in our constitution and wwthy in our practice. 
 f His observations on the origin of government, 
 but lightly touching the subject, are trite ; those 
 
 ton monarchy and hereditary succession, of no 
 greater solidity, are not new : it was on the lat 
 ter, however, that he valued himself. Here, if 
 he had not discovered a new principle, he fancied 
 he had applied a new argument. Let us examine 
 his pretensions. 
 
 " To the evils of monarchy we have added 
 that of hereditary succession ; and as the first is 
 a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the 
 second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult 
 and imposition on posterity. For all men being 
 originally equal, no one by birth could Jiave a 
 right to set up his own family in perpetual prefer 
 ence to all others forever, and though himself 
 might deserve some decent degree of honours 
 of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might 
 be too unworthy to inherit tliem. One of the 
 / strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary 
 I right in kings is, that nature disapproves it, 
 otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into 
 J ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."(c) 
 
 (c) Common Sense, p. 13, Phil. 1797. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 This is the only argument contained in Common j 
 Sense against hereditary succession. The con 
 clusion, that which he terms the " strongest na 
 tural proof," although, the period of its publica 
 tion considered, perhaps very popular, is an im 
 pertinent and vulgar sarcasm altogether unwor 
 thy of the subject. The first part, that which 
 alone is entitled to the appellation of an argu 
 ment, I should have judged he had clandestinely 
 taken from Locke, had he not told us that he 
 " read no books, studied no man s opinions." 
 
 " Men being, as has been said, by nature, all 
 free, equal, and independent, no one can be put 
 out of his estate, and subjected to the political 
 power of another without his consent."(cQ 
 
 " It is true, that whatever engagement or pro 
 mises any one has made for himself, he is under 
 the obligation of them, but cannot, by any com 
 pact whatever, bind his children or posterity ; for 
 his son, when a man, being altogether as free as 
 his father, an act of his father can no more give 
 away the liberty of his son than it can of any 
 body else.(f) 
 
 His strictures on the ability of the colonies to 
 become independent, contain nothing remarkable. 
 A very ordinary writer might have written them. 
 
 (d] Locke of Government, works, vol. 5, p. 594, Loncl. 1^01. 
 (<?) Locke of Government, works, vol. o, p. 407-8, Lond. 
 1801. 
 
52 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ^ Accident directed the thoughts of the Americans 
 to a republick. When Common Sense was writ 
 ten, the friends of independence were not repub 
 licans. Paine s invectives against monarchy 
 were intended against the monarchy of England, 
 rather than against monarchy in general, and they 
 were popular in the degree to which the measures 
 and designs of the British cabinet were odious.(/) 
 
 For a long course of years, my amiable young friends, 
 before the birth of the oldest of you, I was called to act with 
 your fathers in concerting measures the most disagreeable and 
 dangerous, not from a desire of innovation, not from discontent 
 with the government, under which nue were born and bred, 
 but to preserve the honour of our country, and vindicate the 
 immemorial liberties of our ancestors. In pursuit of these 
 measures, it became, not an object of predilection and choice, 
 but of indispensable necessity, to assert our independence." 
 President Adams s reply to the address of the young men of 
 Philadelphia, 1798. Boston Ed. 
 
 Here he plainly says that he was indeed in favour of inde 
 pendence, but not of a form of government different from that 
 of England. He was attached " to the immemorial liberty 
 of his ancestors!" What liberty? That which, according to 
 the constitution of England, is allowed by the king, the house 
 of lords, and the house of commons. 
 
 " I have had doubts of John Adams ever since the year 
 1776. In conversation with me at that time, concerning a 
 pamphlet of mine, [Common Sense] he censured it because 
 it attacked monarchial governments." Paine s second letter 
 to the people of the United States, dated Washington City, 
 1802. 
 
 As Paine rarely hesitated at the propagation of a falsehood, 
 ministering either to his vanity or to his malice, I would not 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 53 
 
 The question, when no alternative but colonial 
 vassalage or national independence presented it 
 self, was one merely of independence, for as Mr. 
 Adams truly remarked, the colonists had no wish 
 but for the ^ immemorial liberties of their ances 
 tors." To this may be added the observation of 
 Dr. Franklin, that they could not even hope for a 
 government under which they could enjoy liber 
 ties more precious. 
 
 On the fourth of July, 1 776, congress declared 
 the colonies " free and independent states,"^) 
 
 have quoted him in favour of my position,, that the friends of 
 independence were not originally advocates of a republick, if 
 he were not in this instance strengthened and confirmed by a 
 thousand facts and circumstances. Paine s remark is as ap 
 plicable to the whole of the congress of 1774-5-6, and so on, 
 and to the colonists at large, as to Mr. Adams. 
 
 (,) The writer of the declaration of Independence has 
 been applauded much beyond the merits of the composition. 
 The declaration consists of two parts ; a solemn recognition 
 and enunciation of a principle, and an enumeration of the 
 grievances of the colonists. To the enumeration, no extraor 
 dinary ability was necessary, and as to the principle, it is ev 
 idently taken from Locke, without the candour of an acknow 
 ledgment. 
 
 " Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that government should 
 not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly 
 all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to 
 suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by 
 abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 1 " Decla 
 ration of Independence. 
 
 " It is true such men may stir whenever they please, but it 
 will be only to Uieu- own just ruin etna perdition, for until iae 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 \vhich was as soon after the publication of Com 
 mon Sense, Paine remarks " as the work could 
 spread through such an extensive country."^) 
 
 mischief be grown general, and the evil designs of the rulers 
 become visible, the people, who are more disposed to suffer 
 than to right themselves by resistance, are not apt to stir." 
 Locke of Government, vol. 5, p. 474-5, Lond. 1801. 
 
 * But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
 invariably the same course, evinces a design to reduce them 
 under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to 
 throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
 their future safety." Declaration of Independence. 
 
 " But if a long train of abuses, prevarications, and artifices, 
 all tending the same way, make the design visible to the 
 people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under and see 
 whither they are going, it is not to be wondered that they 
 should then rouse themselves, and endeavour to put the rule 
 into such hands -which may secure to them the ends for which 
 government was first erected." Locke of Government, vol. 5, 
 p. 472, Lond. 1801. 
 
 There is great similarity in the following sentences, except 
 ing only the superiour energy and eloquence of Milton s style. 
 
 Speaking of " reason and free inquiry," Mr. Jefferson says : 
 * Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, 
 by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of 
 their investigation : they are the natural enemies of errour, 
 and of errour only." Notes on Virginia, p. 236, New-York, 
 1801. 
 
 " And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose 
 to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuri 
 ously to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grap 
 ple, who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and opea 
 encounter ?" Milton s speech for the liberty of unlicensed 
 printing, works, vol. 1. p. 326. Lond. 1866. 
 
 (//) See his Will in the appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 55 
 
 Paine now accompanied the army of indepen 
 dence as a sort of itinerant writer, of which his 
 pen was an appendage almost as necessary and 
 formidable as its cannon. Having no property, he 
 fared as the army fared, and at the same expence, 
 but to what mess he was attached I have not 
 been able to learn, although, from what I hear 
 and know, it must, I think, though he was 
 sometimes admitted into higher company, have 
 been a subaltern one. When the colonists droop 
 ed, he revived them with a CRISIS. The first of 
 these numbers he published early in December, 
 1776. (The object of it was good, the method 
 excellent, and the language, suited to the depress 
 ed spirits of the army, of publick bodies, and of 
 private citizens, cheering! WASHINGTON, defeated 
 on Long-Island, had retreated to New- York, and 
 been driven with great loss from Forts Washing 
 ton and Lee. The gallant little army, overwhelm 
 ed with a rapid succession of misfortunes, was 
 dwindling away, and all seemed to be over 
 with the cause when scarcely a blow had been 
 struck. " These, said the CRISIS, are the times 
 that try rnens souls. The summer soldier and the 
 sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the 
 service of his country, but he that stands it NOW, 
 deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. 
 Tyranny,like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we 
 kave this consolation with us, that the harder the 
 
56 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 conflict the more glorious the triumph ; what \ve 
 obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly/ 
 
 The number was read in the camp, to every 
 corporal s guard, and in the army and out of it 
 had more than the intended effect. The conven 
 tion of New- York, reduced by despersion, occa 
 sioned by alarm, to nine members, was rallied and 
 reanimated.(/) Militia-men, who, already tired 
 of the war, were straggling from the army, re 
 turned. Hope succeeded to despair, cheerfulness 
 to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the 
 confidence which it inspired may be attributed 
 much of the brilliant little affair which in the same 
 month followed at Trenton. 
 
 On this event, elevating American confidence 
 and breathing caution into the British army, 
 Paine, in January, 1776, congratulated the "Free 
 and independent States" in a second number of 
 the CRISIS. It is addressed to lord Howe, and rid 
 icules his proclamation " commanding all congres 
 ses, committees, &c. to desist and cease from their 
 treasonable doings." Against the king and his 
 purposes, it is full of invective, but of a sort rath 
 er popular than exquisite. Fortunately for the 
 United States the British commander in chief 
 dealt more in impotent proclamations than in the 
 
 (z) Mr. Gelston, now Collector of the port of New- York, 
 was one of the nine members who remained at their post. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 57 
 
 efficacy of arms. Washington s retreat to Tren 
 ton was a compulsive one. He had not from 
 choice and by military skill drawn the Hessians 
 into the toil in which they were ensnared. I do 
 not believe that even a number of the CRISIS 
 could have saved the American army and cause 
 from annihilation, if Howe had been an active 
 and persevering, an enlightened and energetick 
 commander. Washington s patience and care, 
 his admirable coolness and prudence, although 
 often, in the course of the war, provoked to 
 battle by a thousand irritating circumstances, by 
 internal faction, and by British sneers, saved 
 America to freedom, while the idle dissipation of 
 Howe, his devotion to licentious pleasures, his 
 unmartial spirit and conduct, lost it to the crown. 
 On the 19th of April, 1776, he published, at 
 Philadelphia, the third number of the CRISIS. As 
 there had been no military operations from the 
 capture of the Hessians at Trenton, it was de 
 voted to an examination of occurrences since 
 the declaration of independence, and, as he seems 
 to have been in lack of matter, to a repetition of 
 the arguments which he had employed in Com 
 mon Sense in favour of independence. To these 
 are incidentally added, as if to lengthen out the 
 number, light immaterial observations on paper 
 emissions. Except some sensible remarks on the 
 utility of reflecting on past transactions, the only 
 H 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 thing in this number worthy of observation, and 
 that but for reprehension, is the following vul 
 garity. 
 
 " There is not such a being in America as a 
 tory from conscience ; some secret defect or other 
 is interwoven in the character of all those, be 
 they men or women, who can look with pa 
 tience on the brutality, luxury, and debauchery 
 of the British court, and the violations of their 
 army here. A woman s virtue must sit very 
 lightly on her who can even hint a favourable 
 sentiment in their behalf. It is remarkable that 
 the whole race of prostitutes in New- York were 
 tories ; and the schemes for supporting the tory 
 cause in this city, for which several are now in 
 gaol, and one hanged, were concerted and carried 
 on in bawdy houses, assisted by those who kept 
 them." 
 
 On the 17th of April, 1777, he was elected by 
 Congress secretary to the Committee of Foreign 
 AfTairs.(y) He now left the army to attend the 
 Committee. 
 
 (/) "Resolved, that the stile of the committee o-f secret cor 
 respondence be altered,, and that for the future it be stiled the 
 Committee of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 " That a secretary be appointed to the said committee with 
 a. salary of seventy-five dollars a month. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Bitterly as lie pretended to be opposed to 
 TITLES, when grasping the pillars of the British 
 government he endeavoured to subvert it, he 
 was yet so fond of them, in reality, that he not 
 only assumed to himself a title to which he had 
 no claim, but he seems to have gloried in the 
 fraudulent assumption. In the title-page of his 
 Rights of Man, he styles himself " Secretary for 
 Foreign Affairs to the Congress of the United 
 States, in the late war." The foreign affairs of 
 the United States were conducted, as w r e see, by 
 a Committee, or Board, of which he was secre 
 tary, or cl^t ; clerk more properly, at a very 
 low salary. His business was merely to copy 
 papers, number and file them, and, generally, 
 to do the duty of what is now called a clerk in 
 the Foreign Department. He was, however, 
 
 " That the said secretary, previous to his entering on his 
 office, take an oath to be administered by the president, well 
 and faithfully to execute the trust reposed in him according to 
 his best skill and judgment, and to disclose no matter the 
 knowledge of which shall be acquired in consequence of such 
 his office, that he shall be directed to keep secret ;" also the 
 oath prescribed for the officers of the army, and passed the 
 21st day of October, 1776, and that a certificate thereof be 
 given to the president, and lodged with the secretary of con 
 gress. 
 
 " Congress proceeded to the election of the said secretary, 
 and the ballots being taken, Thomas Paine was elected".*-- 
 Journals of Congress. 
 
60 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 determined to give himself a higher title. Un 
 substantial in essence as superadditions to names 
 are, he nevertheless liked them, and seemed to 
 be aware that, universally, they possess a charm(&) 
 to which he was by no means insensible. From 
 this and many other circumstances we may in 
 fer, that his objections to being himself a lord of 
 the bed chamber, or a groom of the stole, a mas 
 ter of the hounds, or a gentleman in waiting, 
 would not have been stronger than were his 
 wishes to be retained in the excise, gutjiejwas 
 totally unfit to be secretary^^ta^_tie_JJtle 
 which ~He~Tiatrimpudently assumed. ^|He had nei 
 
 ther the sobernessol hait, the reservednes of de 
 portment, the urbanity of manners, the courteous- 
 ness of language, the extent of reading, nor the 
 wide range of thought, which a station so distin 
 guished requires,! He was formed, as has often 
 been observed, to pull down, not to set up. His 
 fort was anarchy. Order was the perpetual and 
 
 () There is perhaps no nation so fond of titles as our own, 
 Every man in office, or who has been in office, is addressed 
 by the appellation of it : Mr. President, Mr. Constable, Co 
 lonel such-a-one, and Judge such-a-one ; though the Colonel, 
 out of commission, is working at his bench, and the country 
 Judge, out of court, is serving his customers in a tavern. 
 This is universal, and we feel neglected if our title be for 
 gotten. Yet we smile contemptuously at the weakness of 
 nations by which titles arfe acknowledged ! 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 61 
 
 invincible enemy of his talents. In tranquillity, 
 he sunk into the kennel of intemperance ; in a 
 commotion of the political elements, he rode con 
 spicuously on the surge.(/) 
 
 On the 12th day of September, 1777, he pub 
 lished, at Philadelphia, the fourth number of the 
 CRISIS. Howe, gaining some advantage at Bran- 
 dywine, had nevertheless deemed it prudent to 
 fall back on the Schuylkill. Paine s object 
 was to convince the people that a victory so tri 
 fling, followed by a retiring march, was in fact a 
 defeat. Exhorting the army to perseverance, and 
 conjuring the people to reinforce it, nothing w r as 
 necessary, he ingeniously urged, to drive Howe 
 from the Schuylkill, but conduct at once prompt, 
 spirited, and energetick. 
 
 (/) Madame Roland describes him admirably. " Amonj 
 the persons whom I was in the habit of seeing, Paine deserves 
 to be mentioned. I think him better fitted to sow the seeds of 
 popular commotion, than to lay the foundations or prepare 
 the form of government. He throws light on a revolution, 
 better than he concurs in the making of a constitution. He 
 takes Up and establishes those great principles, of which the 
 exposition strikes every eye, gains the applause of a club, or 
 excites the enthusiasm of a tavern, but for a cool discussion 
 in a. committee or the regular labours of a legislator, I con 
 ceive David Williams, [an Englishman] infinitely more pro 
 per than Paine" Roland s Appeal, vol. 1, part 2, p. 45, New- 
 York, 1798. 
 
62 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Number five of the CRISIS, addressed " to Gen 
 eral Sir William Howe," was published at Lan 
 caster, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1778. It ridi 
 cules at great length Sir William s TITLE. In 
 this sort of writing, always successful when ap 
 pealing to popular, feeling, he was not always 
 refined. He describes Sir William as a " savage, 
 holding humanity in contempt." Deriving his 
 commission from the " royal brute," he thinks it 
 di honourable. 
 
 For language so rude, some apology may per 
 haps be found in the nature and operations of 
 the war. His business was to excite and keep 
 up a revolutionary spirit. He charges Sir Wil 
 liam with having forged continental paper 
 represents him as a felon speaks of the ease 
 with which the offence might be dreadfully re 
 torted upon England, " a nation of paper money," 
 and reminds him, that the laws of his country 
 punish forgery with death ! He associates Sir 
 William with the Indians, who had been let loose, 
 it was said, on our defenceless inhabitants. Of 
 the conquest of Burgoyne he writes in trium 
 phant terms. On the military conduct of WASH 
 INGTON he is glowingly encomiastick, but of his 
 just eulogiums on that extraordinary man, it will 
 be proper to pay more particular attention when 
 we approach the defamations which he subse 
 quently wrote in Paris. He advises Sir William 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 63 
 
 to go home, and pronounces the States uncon- / 
 querable. This number is the most judicious and 
 able of the series. 
 
 Number six of the CRISIS, without date,(*w) is 
 addressed to the " Inhabitants of America." 
 " As a good opinion of ourselves," he observes, 
 is necessary to the support of a national charac 
 ter," he very good naturedly compares the Ame 
 ricans with the Greeks and Romans ; thinks them 
 equal in courage, and very superior in wisdom. 
 This must have been an agreeable number. 
 
 Number seven of the CRISIS, published in Phi 
 ladelphia, October 20, 1778, is addressed to the 
 4< Earl of Carlisle, General Clinton, and William 
 Eden, Esq. Commissioners at New-York." These 
 gentlemen, when the States were proudly confi 
 dent of ultimate success, laughably enough re 
 vived the paper-war which general Howe had 
 farcically commenced and vigourously prose 
 cuted. In a proclamation, announcing the " be 
 nevolent intentions of the king," they alternately 
 coaxed and threatened. Coaxing was now ridi 
 culously out of character, and menacing, with 
 the surrender of Burgoyne staring them in the 
 face, was sufficiently impotent. Paine handled 
 
 (in} It is termed, with some others, an extraordinary or 
 supernumerary Crisis, but it will be less embarrassing t 
 them all. 
 
64: LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 both topicks with an acuteness which the States 
 must have admired, and a force which the Com 
 missioners undoubtedly felt. 
 
 The CRISIS, number eight, published in Phila 
 delphia, November 21, 1778, is addressed " To 
 the People of England." This is an appeal, as 
 a Christian, to the justice and magnanimity of 
 Englishmen in favour of the States, and repre 
 sents, with great cogency of argument, the pos 
 sible success of the ministry, which he does not 
 however admit, as detrimental in its consequen 
 ces to the freedom and prosperity of England. 
 BURKE is, however, on this, as on all other sub 
 jects on which they write, infinitely his superiour. 
 " Considering the Americans on that defensive 
 footing, he thought Great Britain ought instantly 
 to have closed with them by the repeal of the 
 taxing act. He was of opinion that our general 
 rights over that country would have been pre 
 served by this timely concession. When, instead 
 of this a Boston port bill, a Massachusetts charter 
 bill, a fishery bill, an intercourse bill, I know not 
 how many hostile bills rushed out like so many 
 tempests from all parts of the compass, and were 
 accompanied first with great fleets and armies, 
 and followed afterwards with great bodies of fo 
 reign troops, he thought that their cause grew 
 daily better, because daily more defensive, and 
 that ours, because daily more offensive, grew 
 
s 
 t- 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 65 
 
 daily worse." " So circumstanced, he certainly 
 never could and never did wish the colonists to 
 be subdued by arms. He was fully persuaded, 
 that if such should be the event, they must be 
 held in that subdued state by a great body of 
 standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. 
 He was strongly of opinion that such armies, 
 first victorious over Englishmen, in a conflict for 
 English constitutional rights and privileges, and 
 afterwards habituated (though in America) to 
 keep an English people in a state of abject sub 
 jection, would prove fatal in the end to the lib 
 erty of England itself."^) Of the philosophy of 
 politicks, Paine chuses to think the cabinet of 
 England totally ignorant. He considers the go 
 vernment as one of precedent and venality only, 
 and, whether deservedly or not, thus pleasantly 
 satirises its prime minister. " As to Lord North, 
 it is his happiness to have in him more of philoso 
 phy than sentiment, for he bears flogging like a 
 top, and sleeps the better for it. His punishment 
 becomes his support, for while he suffers the lash 
 for his sins, he keeps himself up by twirling 
 about." 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1 779, he compulsively 
 resigned his clerkship to the committee of foreign 
 
 (n) Burke s Appeal from the new to the old whigs, works, 
 vol. 6, p. 123-4, Loud. 1803. 
 
 I 
 
66 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 affairs, having held it twenty-one months. As 
 the circumstances occasioning and accompanying 
 his resignation, have not, materially as they af 
 fect his character, been fully explained, a state 
 ment of them somewhat minute may find in its 
 pertinence an apology for its prolixity. 
 
 Very early in the struggle for independence, 
 before, I believe, it was declared, Silas Deane, 
 an artful speculator on the revolution, but a man 
 neither of solid nor splendid acquirements, was 
 employed by the committee of secret correspon 
 dence, afterwards the committee of foreign af 
 fairs, to purchase in France, as a merchant, or 
 to obtain from the French government for con 
 gress, certain military supplies. He was soon 
 after named by the secret committee of corres- 
 pondencej with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee, in a 
 commission to the court of France. 
 
 At this period, Louis the XVI. intent on a 
 comparative aggrandizement of his power by 
 abridging the power of his rival, and with char- 
 acteristical perfidy secretly fomenting the dispute 
 between England and the colonists, cordially and 
 promptly granted the supplies, which Paine 
 says, (a) and probably in this instance he may be 
 credited, were furnished from the king s arse- 
 
 (o) ee his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 67 
 
 nal. But as the issue of the contest on the side 
 of America was exceedingly problematical, and 
 his most Christian majesty was, precisely for that 
 reason, falsely disavowing to England all connex 
 ion with the colonists, and protesting to her and for 
 her sentiments of the purest amity, secrecy was 
 mutually pledged by the king and the secret com 
 mittee of correspondence, that the supplies, which 
 were a present from Louis, an exciting gratuity, 
 should never be known as such. The transac 
 tion was therefore to assume the air of an ordi 
 nary mercantile one, and a Mr. Beaumarchais, a 
 creature of Louis, or of Silas Deane, perhaps of 
 both, was the agent in whose name the supplies 
 were to be despatched. Three ships, the Ainphi- 
 trite, Seine, and Mercury, loaded with supplies, 
 were cleared for Cape Francaise, and consigned 
 to Roderick Hortalis & Co. an imaginary house. 
 After the Declaration of Independence, after the 
 capture of the Hessians, after the surrender of 
 Burgoyne, and when, therefore, the politick court 
 of France concluded, that, with a little aid, the 
 colonies might be severed forever from the Brit 
 ish crown, the alliance between France and the 
 States, the effect of those brilliant events, was 
 formed and ratified. Still, notwithstanding the 
 alliance, as the supplies were a gratuity, as the 
 king s word, which was the king s honour, and 
 the word of the secret committee of correspon- 
 
68 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 dence had been given, that they should be so 
 considered, the alliance neither varied the trans 
 action, nor absolved the parties from the mutual 
 obligations of confidence. 
 
 In this state of affairs, Silas Deane, who for 
 misconduct had been recalled from the French 
 court, appeared before a committee appointed 
 by congress to audit his accounts. Deane, clearly, 
 I think, with fraudulent designs, had left in 
 France the principal part of his papers. Consi 
 dering, however, both France and America bound 
 not to disclose the nature of the supplies, he pre- 
 s nted h.ms^lf, in settling his accounts, as a kind 
 of co-agent, with a Mr. Francey, for Beaumar- 
 chais, in whose name he claimed compensation 
 for them. The auditing committee, perhaps made 
 acquainted by the secret committee of correspon 
 dence with the nature of the supplies, questioned 
 the justice of the claim. Deane, surely a bold 
 faced villain, appealed to the publick. With 
 Deane, Paine entered the field of newspaper dis 
 pute, under the imposing head of " Common 
 Sense to the publick on Deane s affairs." In this 
 controversy, pursuing with ardour an empty 
 newspaper triumph, and disregarding his official 
 duty, he remarked : " If Mr. Deane or any 
 other gentleman will procure an order from con 
 gress to inspect an account in my office, or any 
 of Mr. Deane s friends in congress will take the 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 69 
 
 trouble of coming themselves, I will give him or 
 them my attendance, and show them in hand 
 writing which Mr. Deane is well acquainted with, 
 that the SUPPLIES he so pompously plumes himself 
 upon, were presented and engaged, and that AS 
 A PRESENT, before he even arrived in France." 
 
 Here Paine, " Secretary for Foreign Affairs to 
 the Congress of the United States," who had 
 taken an oath to " disclose no matter, the know 
 ledge of which shall be acquired in consequence 
 of his office," not only wantonly and without 
 any sort of necessity (and no necessity could 
 mitigate the offence) violated his oath and embar 
 rassed congress, but proclaimed to the world the 
 insidious conduct of France, and the falsities of 
 the king s declarations to England, at and subse 
 quent to the time when the " PRESENT" was made. 
 Deane s accounts were not to be settled by the 
 " publick," but by the guardians of the publick. 
 The publick, in the gross character of a publick, 
 had nothing to do with the transaction but quietly 
 to receive the benefit of it. His appeal to them 
 was consequently as unnecessary as is was repre 
 hensible. But, he says,(/>) " I prevented Deane s 
 fraudulent demand being paid, and so far the 
 country is obliged to me, but I became the vie- 
 
 (//) See his letter to congress in tke Appendix. 
 
70 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 tim of my integrity." To an enormous violation 
 of his official duty and oath, which he decks 
 with the epithet of integrity, this is adding a 
 gross, and, if he were not, which is not probable, 
 totally ignorant of a notorious fact, a wilful 
 falsehood. His newspaper victory(^) had not, 
 could not have had, the effect which he ascribes 
 to it. How could he by an appeal to the publick 
 have prevented the payment of the demand by 
 the auditing committee ? If the committee had 
 been disposed to yield to the collusive and nefa 
 rious claim of the sharpers, Beaumarchais and 
 Deane, and his publications had deterred them 
 from their purpose, then his conclusion, without 
 varying his offence, would have been admissible. 
 But what induced Deane s appeal, to which Paine 
 replied, and in replying divulged the secret ? The 
 ill treatment of the committee, as Deane termed it 
 their rigorous scrutiny into his accounts their 
 refusal to pay the claim(r) their referring him 
 to congress, who alone could authorise an inspec- 
 
 (?) No doubt he obtained one, for besides being a rogue, 
 Deane was extremely illiterate. See his defence published in 
 London after the peace, and re-published by Hudson and 
 Goodwin, Hartford, Connecticut, 1784. 
 
 (r) See Gordon s History of the Revolution, vol. 2, page 
 405-6-7, where, although the transaction is inaccurately and 
 feebly stated, it will be seen, that the conduct of the auditing 
 committee, firm and dignified undoubtedly, was rather haughty 
 than yielding. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINI. 71 
 
 tion or exposition of the secret papers. A re 
 sult exactly the reverse of that mentioned by 
 Paine was the fact Instead of preventing by 
 his publications the payment of Beaumarchais s 
 claim, his publications were the means, fraudu 
 lent as it was, of compelling congress to adopt 
 it. The moment his publications appeared in 
 Dunlap s paper, the minister of France, Gerard, 
 alarmed at the developement of the secret, at 
 the exposition of his master, presented a memorial 
 to congress. What was the consequence ? Why, 
 that congress, in order to quiet the fears of Ge 
 rard, and to cover as well as they could the 
 word of honour which his most Christian majesty 
 had given to England, Resolved, as appears in 
 their proceedings below in reference to Paine, 
 which I quote at length,^) that the PRESENT was 
 
 (*) " Tuesday, January 5, 1779. 
 
 " A memorial from the minister of France, was read, res 
 pecting sundry passages ia two news-papers annexed of the 
 2d and 5th inst. 
 
 " Ordered, That the consideration thereof be postponed till 
 to-morrow. 
 
 " Wednesday, January 6, 1779. 
 
 " A letter, of this day, from Thomas Paine, was read ; 
 whereupon, 
 
 * The order of the day on the memorial of the minister of 
 France was called for, and the said memorial being read : 
 
 " Ordered, That Mr. John Dunlap, printer, and Mr. Tho 
 mas Faine, attend immediately at the bar of this house. 
 
72 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 not a present ; that Beaumarchais s claim should 
 be paid, and, in addition, that the president of 
 congress be directed to write him a complimentary 
 letter, thanking him for his exertions and assuring 
 
 " Mr. John Dunlap attending, was called in, and the news 
 papers of the 2d and 5th of Jan. inst. intitled, * Pennsylvania 
 Packet or General Advertiser, being shewn to him, he was 
 asked whether he was the publisher ; to which he answered, 
 yes: 
 
 " He was then asked who is the author of the pieces in the 
 said papers, under the title " Common Sense to the public 
 on Mr. Deane s affairs ;" to which he answered, Mr. Thomas 
 Paine : he was then ordei ed to withdraw. 
 
 " Mr. Thomas Paine attending, was called in, and being 
 asked if he was the author of the pieces in the Pennsylvania 
 Packet or General Advertiser of Jan. 2d and 5th, 1779, un 
 der the title * Common Sense to the public on Mr. Deane s af 
 fairs ; he answered that he was the author of those pieces : 
 he was then ordered to withdraw. 
 
 " Thursday , January 7, 1779. 
 
 " Congress resumed the consideration of the subject which 
 was under debate yesterday. And the following set of reso 
 lutions were moved ; 
 
 ** That all the late publications in the General Advertiser, 
 printed by John Dunlap, relative to American foreign affairs, 
 are ill-judged, premature and indiscrete, and that as they 
 must in general be founded on very partial documents, and 
 consequently depend much on conjecture, they ought not by 
 any means to be considered as justly authenticated : 
 
 " That congress never has given occasion for or sanction to 
 any of the said publications : 
 
 " That congress never has received any species of military 
 stores as a present from the court of France, or from any 
 other court or persons in Europe : 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 73 
 
 him of their regard." Upon these proceedings, 
 forced upon congress by Paine s publications, 
 Beaumarchais, supported by his imperial majesty 
 and king, Napoleon, founded a substantial claim, 
 
 " That Mr. Thomas Paine for his imprudence ought imme 
 diately to be dismissed from his office of secretary to the 
 committee of foreign affairs, and the said committee are di 
 rected to dismiss him accordingly, and to take such further 
 steps relative to his misapplication of public papers as they 
 shall deem necessary. 
 
 " In amendment, and as a substitute to the foregoing, the 
 following set of resolutions was moved : 
 
 " Whereas Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee of 
 foreign affairs, has acknowledged himself to be the author of 
 a piece in the Pennsylvania Packet of Jan. 2d, 1779, under the 
 title of Common Sense to the public on Mr. Deane s affairs^ 
 in which is the following paragraph, viz. " If Mr. Deane or 
 any other gentleman will procure an order from congress to 
 inspect an account in my office, or any of Mr. Deane s friends 
 in congress will take the trouble of coming themselves, I will 
 give him or them my attendance, and shew them in hand 
 writing, which Mr. Deane is well acquainted with, that the 
 supplies he so pompously plumes himself upon were promised 
 and engaged, and that, as a present, before he even arrived 
 in France ; and the part that fell to Mr. Deane was only to 
 see it done, and how he has performed that service the public 
 are now acquainted with." The last paragraph in the ac 
 count is, " upon Mr. Deane s arrival in France the business 
 went into his hands, and the aids were at length embarked in 
 the Amphitrite, Mercury, and Seine." And, whereas, the 
 said Thomas Paine hath also acknowledged himself to be the 
 author of a piece in the succeeding Packet of January 5th, 
 1779, under the same title, in which is the following para 
 graph, to wit, " and in the second instance, that those who 
 
 K 
 
74 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and prosecuted it with such vigour and success, 
 that, in the year 1808, he obtained from the at 
 torney general of the United States, through 
 congress, a report in favour of satisfying his 
 
 are now her allies, prefaced that alliance by an early and 
 generous friendship, yet that we might not attribute too much 
 to human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were these supplies, 
 that only one ship out of the three arrived ; the Mercury and 
 Seine fell into the hands of the enemy ;" 
 
 " Resolved^ That the insinuation contained in the said pub 
 lications, that the supplies sent to America in the Amphitrite, 
 Seine, and Mercury were a present from France, is untrue : 
 
 " That the publications above recited tend to impose upon, 
 mislead, and deceive the public : 
 
 " That the attempt of the said Thomas Paine to authenti 
 cate the said false insinuations, by referring to papers in the 
 office of the committtee of foreign affairs, is an abuse of 
 office ; 
 
 " That the said Thomas Paine be, and he hereby is, dis 
 missed from his said office. 
 
 " A third set of resolutions was moved as an amendment 
 and substitute to the two foregoing sets, viz. 
 
 " That congress are deeply concerned at the imprudent 
 publication of Mr. Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee 
 of foreign affaris, referred to by the minister of France in his me 
 morial of the Sthinst. and are ready to adopt any measure con 
 sistent with good policy and their own honour, for correcting 
 any assertions or insinuations in the said publications, deroga 
 tory to the honour of the court of France : 
 
 " That a committee be appointed to consider the said me 
 morial and paragraphs referred to, that they confer with the 
 minister of France on the subject, and report as soon as 
 may be. 
 
IJFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 75 
 
 claim. According to the report of the attorney- 
 general, more than a million of dollars are to be 
 paid to Beaumarchais in compensation for the 
 supplies ! 
 
 " In lieu of the whole the following resolution was moved as 
 a substitute, viz. 
 
 " Whereas exceptionable passages have appeared in Mr. 
 Dunlap s Pennsylvania Packet, of the 2d and 5th inst. under 
 the character of Common Sense ; and Thomas Paine, secre 
 tary to the committee of foreign affafrs, being called before 
 congress, avowed his being the author of those publications : 
 
 " Resolved, That Thomas Paine be summoned to appear 
 before congress at eleven o clock to-morrow, and be informed 
 what those exceptionable passages are, and called upon to ex 
 plain and to shew by what authority he made those publica 
 tions, in order that congress may take proper measures 
 relative thereto. 
 
 " The previous question was moved on the last amendment; 
 whereupon, the sense of the house was taken, whether the 
 previous question is in order on an amendment : 
 
 " Resolved, That it is not in order. 
 
 " On the question to substitute the last resolution as an 
 amendment to the whole, the yeas and nays being required by 
 Mr. G. Morris, 
 
 New-Hampshire, Mr. Whifijile, ay \ ay 
 
 Massachusetts-Bay, Mr. Gerry, 
 
 Mr. Lo-vell, 
 
 Mr. Holten, 
 Rhode-Island, Mr. JRlleru, 
 
 Mr. Collins, 
 Connecticut, Mr. Di/er, 
 
 Mr. Root, 
 New-York, Mr. Jay, 
 
 Mr. Duane, 
 
 Mr. G. Morris, 
 
 Mr. Lewis, 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Of neither of these facts could Paine have been 
 ignorant. The one happened in the middle of 
 his Deane-controversy, a few days after his 
 dismission. The other, the ultimate decision of 
 the attorney-general, long before his death. 
 
 JVetv- Jersey, Mr. Withersfioon, no 
 
 Mr. Scudder, no ^>no 
 
 Mr. Fell, no 
 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Eoberdeau, ay 
 
 Mr. AUee, no 
 
 Mr. St j arle, ay 
 
 Delaware, Mr. M<Kean, ay \ ay 
 
 Maryland, Mr. Paca, no 
 
 Mr. Carmichael, no 
 
 Mr. Henry, ay 
 
 Virginia, Mr. T.Adams, no 
 
 Mr. ^. i. Zee, ay 
 Mr. Af. Smith, no 
 
 North- Carolina, Mr. Penn, no 
 
 Mr. /#//, TZO 
 
 Mr. Burke, no 
 
 South-Carolina, Mr. Laurcns, ay 
 
 Mr. Drayton, no >TZO 
 
 Mr. Hutson, no 
 
 Georgia, Mr. Langivorthy, no \ no 
 
 So it passed in the negative. 
 
 " Friday, January 8, 1779. 
 
 * A letter, of this day, from Thomas Paine, was read, by 
 which he resigns his office of secretary to the committee of 
 foreign affairs, and in which are the following words, " finding 
 by the journals of this house of yesterday that I am not to be 
 heard," See. whereupon, 
 
 " A member desired to be informed how Mr. Paine had ac 
 quired that knowledge, and the secretary was deaired to 
 inform the house whether Mr. Paine had access to the jour 
 nal ; the secretary answered, " that Mr. Paine had not seen 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 77 
 
 In the opinion of congress, Paine, in whom 
 it was ascertained that official trust could not be 
 reposed, now sunk into vileness. Dismissed 
 from his clerkship to the committee for a scanda- 
 
 the journal of yesterday, nor had any other person had access 
 to it since the last adjournment, as he had taken it home last 
 night, and brought it with him to congress this morning, so 
 that even the clerks in the office had not seen the minutes of 
 yesterday, and that since the last adjournment he had not 
 seen Mr. Paine, nor communicated the proceedings of con 
 gress to any person whatever." 
 
 " A motion was then made, that Mr: Thomas Paime, secre 
 tary to the committee of foreign affairs, be directed immedi 
 ately to attend at the bar of this house, to answer to certain 
 questions respecting the contents of his letter to the president 
 of congress of this day. 
 
 " After debate, a substitute was moved as follows : 
 
 * That the members of congress be separately examined by 
 the president, on their honour, whether they have communir 
 cated the resolutions of yesterday to Mr. Thomas Paine, and 
 if so, in what manner they have made such representation. 
 
 " After debate, when the question was about to be put, Mr. 
 Laurens arose and declared that he had informed Mr. Paine, 
 that a motion had been made for hearing him to-morrow at 
 eleven o clock, which had been seconded, that the yeas and 
 nays had been taken thereon and passed in the negative ; and 
 that he referred him to Mr. Thompson for a sight ot the 
 journals, which would inform him more certainly, and he was 
 persuaded Mr. Thompson would readily show the journal. 
 " Saturday, January 9, 1779. 
 
 " Congress resumed the consideration of the letter of the 
 8th, from Thomas Paine ; whereupon, 
 
 Resolved, That the determination of the question of the 7th 
 jnst. for substituting the last amendment in lieu of all the sets 
 
78 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 lous breach of office, his prospects, except the 
 popular hold which he still had on the people, to 
 whom his misconduct was not perhaps known, 
 were almost as discouraging as when, a second 
 
 of resolutions moved prior to it, on which the yeas and nays 
 were called for by Mr. G. Morris, did not imply, nor can it be 
 justly construed to imply, that congress had determined that 
 Mr. Thomas Paine was not to be heard. 
 
 " Monday, January 11, 1779. 
 
 " A memorial dated the 10th inst. from the hon. sieur Ge 
 rard, minister plenipotentiary of France, was read : 
 
 " Ordered, That the Subject under debate on Thursday 
 last, be immediately taken into consideration. 
 
 " On the question to substitute the third set of resolutions in 
 lieu of the two foregoing : 
 
 " Passed in the negative. 
 
 " On the question to substitute the second set of resolutions 
 in the room of the first : 
 
 " Resolved in the affirmative. 
 
 " The first resolution in the second set was then read : 
 
 " Resolved, That the consideration of the subject be post 
 poned till to-morrow. 
 
 " Tuesday, January 12, 1779. 
 
 " Congress resumed the consideration of the publications in 
 the Pennsylvania Packet of the 2d and 5th inst. under the 
 title of Common Sense to the public on Mr. Deane s affairs, of 
 which Mr. Thomas Paine, secretary of the committee of fo 
 reign affairs, has acknowledged himself to be the author ; 
 and also the memorials of the minister plenipotentiary of 
 France of the 5th and 10th inst. respecting the said publica 
 tions ; whereupon, 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That in answer to the memorials 
 of the hon. sieur Gerard, minister plenipotentiary of his most 
 Christian majesty, of the 5th and 10th inst. the president be 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 79 
 
 time dismissed from the excise in England, he 
 was assailed with continuous pains of hunger. 
 His salary for officiating as clerk to the commit 
 tee, parsimonious and spunging as he was, was 
 
 directed to assure the said minister, that congress do fully, 
 in the clearest and most explicit manner, disavow the publi 
 cations referred to in his said memorials ; and as they are 
 convinced by indisputable evidence, that the supplies shipped 
 in the Amphitrite, Seine, and Mercury were not a present, 
 and that his most Christian majesty, the great and generous 
 ally of these United States, did not preface his alliance with 
 any supplies whatever sent to America, so they have not au 
 thorized the writer of the said publications to make any such 
 assertions as are contained therein, but on the contrary do 
 highly disapprove of the same. 
 
 " Friday, January 15, 1779. 
 
 " The committee, consisting of Mr. M. Smith, Mr. Ellery, 
 Mr. Drayton, to whom was referred the letter of the 28th of 
 November last from Mons. de Francey, having brought in a 
 report, the same was taken into consideration ; and thereup 
 on, 
 
 " Rosolved, That according to the agreement entered into 
 with Mr. de Francey, agent of Mons. de Beaumarchais, at 
 York, on the 7th day of April, 1778, remittance should be 
 made with all-convenient dispatch to the said Mr. de Beau 
 marchais. 
 
 " Resolved, That the requisition of Mr. de Francey in his 
 letter of the 28th of November last, is reasonable, and that 
 SOOO hogsheads of tobacco, on account of these United States, 
 be purchased, to be laden on board the ships mentioned in the 
 said letter. 
 
 " Resolved, That the following letter be written to. Mr. de 
 Beaumarchais : 
 
80 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 scarcely adequate, considering the depreciation 
 of the currency in which it was paid, to the ex 
 penses of his board. He had therefore made no 
 provision for the forlorn condition in which he 
 
 "SIR, 
 
 " r )The congress of the United States of America, sensible of 
 your exertions in their favour, present you their thanks, and 
 assure you of their regard. 
 
 " They lament the inconveniences you have suffered by the 
 great advances made in support of these states. Circumstan 
 ces have prevented a compliance with their wishes, but they 
 will take the most effectual measures in their power to dis 
 charge the debt due to you. 
 
 " The liberal sentiments and extensive views which alone 
 could dictate a conduct like yours, are conspicuous in your ac 
 tions and adorn your character. While with great talents you 
 served your prince, you have gained the esteem of this infant 
 republic, and will receive the merited applause of a new 
 world. 
 
 BY ORDER OF CONGRESS, 
 
 President. 
 " Saturday, January 16, 1779. 
 
 " Resol~ved y That congress agree to the report. 
 
 " Congress took into consideration the letters from Thomas 
 Paine ; whereupon a motion was made, 
 
 " That Mr. Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee ol 
 foreign affairs, be dismissed from office. 
 
 44 To which an amendment was offered as a substitute in 
 the following words, 
 
 " That Thomas Paine be directed to attend at the bar of 
 this house on Monday next, at 11 o clock, to answer whether 
 he had any direction or permission from the committee of for* 
 eign affairs, for the publications of which, he confessed him 
 self to be the author when he was before the house on the 6th 
 day of January last. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE". 81 
 
 now found himself, for as yet publick bounty had 
 not, bating his maintenance by the army while he 
 was with it, been extended to him for his political 
 labours. Thus situated, thus abandoned by the as- 
 
 * Another amendment was moved as a substitute to both the 
 foregoing propositions in the words following, 
 
 " Whereas congress were about to proceed against Thomas 
 Paine, secretary t the committee of foreign affairs, for certain 
 publications and letter? as being inconsistent with his official 
 character and duty, when the said Thomas Paine resigned 
 his office ; thereupon, 
 
 " Resolved, That the said Thomas Paine is dismissed from 
 any farther service in the said office, and the committee of 
 foreign affairs are directed to call upon the said Thomas Paine, 
 and receive from him on oath all public letters, papers and 
 documents in his possession. 
 
 " A fourth amendment was moved as a substitute to the 
 whole in the words following, 
 
 " Resolved, That the committee of foreign affairs be direct 
 ed to take out of the possession of Thomas Paine, all the pub 
 lic papers entrusted to him as secretary to that committee, 
 and then discharge him from that office. 
 
 " When the question was about to ba put, a division was 
 called for, and the question being put to adopt the first part, 
 
 " Passed in the affirmative. 
 
 ** On the question to adopt the second part, the yeas and 
 nays being required by Mr. Lovell, 
 
 " It was resolved in the affirmative, 
 
 " The question being then about to be put on the main ques,- 
 tion, a division was called for, and the yeas and nays being 
 required on the first part by Mr. M Kean, 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously ^ in the affirmative. 
 
 " On the question to agree to the second clause, nameiy. 
 L 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 sembled wisdom and patriotism of the states, he 
 hired himself as a clerk to Owen Biddle, of Phi- 
 ladelph:a,(#) In this clerkship, where, perhaps, 
 he had no secrets to betray, he prosecuted his 
 
 - and then discharge him from that office, the yeas and nay? 
 being required by Mr. Penn, 
 
 New- Hampshire, 
 
 Mr. Whipfile, 
 
 no | 
 
 Massachusetts-Bay, 
 
 Mr. Gerry, 
 
 720*} 
 
 
 Mr. S. Adams, 
 
 720 r 
 
 
 Mr. Lovell, 
 
 720 X" 
 
 
 Mr. Holten, 
 
 r/z/ \ 
 
 Rhode-Island, 
 
 Mr. Ellery, 
 
 wo 7 
 
 
 Mr. Collins, 
 
 y3 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 Mr. Dyer, 
 
 770 "> ; 
 
 
 Mr. Root, 
 
 720 _) 
 
 J\ e-w- York, 
 
 Mr. Jay, 
 
 ft v? 
 
 
 Mr. Lewis, 
 
 cy5 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 Mr. Roberdeau, 
 Mr. Searle, 
 Mr. Atlee, 
 Mr. Shijifien, 
 
 720 "^ 
 
 720 f 
 
 cry r 
 
 720 1 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 Mr. M^Kean, 
 
 710 | i 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 Mr. Paca, 
 
 d-y^l 
 
 
 Mr. Carmichael, 
 
 !/y 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 Mr. T.Adams, 
 
 a y-J 
 
 
 Mr. /?. Z. -, 
 
 no >< 
 
 
 Mr. AT. Smith, 
 
 cz/ J 
 
 North- Carolina, 
 
 Mr. Penn, 
 
 a y~) 
 
 
 Mr. .///, 
 
 ay C( 
 
 
 Mr. Burke, 
 
 ttyJ 
 
 South-Carolina, 
 
 Mr. Drayton, 
 
 dz/ f 
 
 
 Mr. Hutson, 
 
 t ^ 
 
 wo 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 no 
 
 !/ 
 
 divided 
 
 Mr. Langworthy, ay \ ay 
 
 " So the states being divided the clause was lost." 
 
 (0 An attorney, I believe : see his letter to congress in the 
 Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 83 
 
 controversy with Deane, who, he remarks, " ab^ 
 sconded and took poison" in England.(?/) The 
 poisoning, if true, but it is not, must, I have no 
 doubt from his manner of mentioning it, from 
 the constitution of his mind, and from the ma 
 lignity of feelings which he indulged, have 
 afforded him great satisfaction. But Deane, 
 whatever causes he might have had in other res 
 pects for self-upbraiding and condemnation, and 
 he must have ha d many, certainly had none in 
 reference to Beaumarchais s claim, which, as he 
 knew before he " absconded," had, through the 
 impertinent meddling of Paine, succeeded with 
 congress. The probability is that he triumphantly 
 returned to Paris, (77) to receive from Beaumar- 
 chais, his colleague in the fraud, the infamous 
 reward of his infamous conduct. 
 
 Having finished his disputation with Deane, 
 and being, it is probable, uneasy in the service of 
 Mr. Biddle, he somehow obtained, early in the 
 year 1780, the subordinate appointment of clerk 
 to the assembly of Pennsylvania. (w) 
 
 As if nothing had happened personally to 
 himself, he now returned to the CRISIS, and pub 
 lished, in March, 1780, the ninth number. This 
 
 (u} See his letter to congress in the Appendix, 
 
 (x) From Paris he went to London. 
 
 (w) See his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
84 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 is a continuation of his address to the people of 
 England. It is an ordinary description of the 
 ordinary calamities of war, but mentions them 
 as operating with almost peculiar severity on the 
 colonists. Being well calculated to keep up the 
 revolutionary spirit, it was probably serviceable. 
 
 In the following June, he published, at Phila 
 delphia, the tenth number of the CRISIS. After 
 desolating the southern states, Charleston had 
 fallen into the hands of the British forces. The 
 purpose of the number was to inspire confidence 
 by dissipating gloom. He represents the attacks 
 in the south as so many indications of military 
 weakness, and zealously concludes with the re 
 mark, that " the man who does not now feel for 
 the honour of the best and noblest cause that ever 
 a country engaged in, and exert himself accord 
 ingly, is no longer worthy of a peaceable resi 
 dence among a people determined to be free." 
 
 Number eleven of the CRISIS was published, 
 at Philadelphia, the succeeding October. The 
 fiscal means of congress being exhausted, from 
 an unaccountable unwillingness in the people to 
 bear increased burthens, he runs a consoling 
 parallel between the expenses of England in car 
 rying on the war, and those of her American 
 antagonist ; between the taxes of the one nation 
 and those of the other. He points out a mode 
 in which he thinks additional supplies, which are 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 85 
 
 indispensable, maybe commensurately raised with 
 out greatly incommoding the people. Congress had 
 recommended the funding of its paper at forty 
 for one, and the issuing of new money in lieu of 
 it. Against the recommendation, Pennsylvania 
 petitioned her assembly. Paine ardently pleads 
 in favour of a compliance, and bluntly tells the 
 petitioners that they are unacquainted with the 
 subject. He knew the great and urgent wants 
 of the army, and he was for supplying them at 
 all events, but the means were of more difficult 
 access than he had imagined. 
 
 Amid this financical distress, congress framed 
 a mission to France, in order to obtain a loan. 
 Col Laurens, son of the late president of congress, 
 was appointed to fill it. Paine, at the solicitation 
 of the colonel, he says,(V) but certainly without 
 the agency or approbation of congress, accom 
 panied him to France, but in what capacity is 
 not known, as Major Jackson was the colonel s 
 secretary. They sailed in February, 1781 ar 
 rived in France the following month obtained 
 a loan of ten millions of livres and a present of 
 
 . (x\ See his letter to congress in the Appendix. He inti- 
 mates that the mission originated from him, and takes to 
 himself the credit of it, but as I knew him, my mind involun 
 tarily doubts almost all his assertions. He was rarely to be 
 believed. 
 
86 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 six, and landed in America the succeeding Au 
 gust, with two millions and a half in silver. Ac 
 cording to Paine, this aid enabled the army to 
 " move to York-Town," where Cornwallis and 
 his troops surrendered.(y) 
 
 But he was guilty of an egregious falsehood, 
 The combined armies under Washington and 
 Rochambeau had moved before the money ar 
 rived. Assertion so strong should be supported 
 by proof, " We sailed from Brest, Paine ob 
 serves, in the Resolve frigate the first of June, 
 and arrived at Boston the 25th of August, bring 
 ing with us two millions and a half in silver, and 
 convoying a ship and brig laden with clothing 
 and military stores. The money was transported 
 in sixteen oiv teams to the national bank at Phi 
 ladelphia, which enabled the army to move toYork- 
 Town to attack, in conjunction with the French 
 army under Rochambeau, the British army under 
 Cor?iwaUis."(z) This is a specimen, a poor one 
 indeed, of the almost treasonable arguments 
 which his invincible attachment to France in pre 
 ference to all other nations, not excepting his 
 " beloved America," often prompted him to use 
 in newspaper effusions in the years 1 807-8 ; at- \ 
 tachment strong enough to have led him to a \ 
 
 (y} See his letter in the Appendix, 
 (z) See his letter in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 87 
 
 base surrender of our national independence to y 
 the bloody usurper.^ 
 
 Now if I show that the attack on York-Town 
 was planned, not before the arrival of the money 
 in August, but before its departure from Brest in 
 June, and that in pursuance of the plan, and not 
 in consequence of the supplies, the combined 
 American and French armies had moved to 
 wards the theatre of the decisive event, I humbly 
 presume that I shall have attached to the memory 
 of Paine the falsehood of which I have accused 
 him. To do this nothing more is necessary than 
 to recur to the history of the revolutionary war. 
 
 " May 6. The plan of operations [against 
 Cornwallis] had been so well digested, and was 
 so faithfully executed by the different command 
 ers, that General Washington and Count Ro- 
 chambeau had passed the British head quarters at 
 New- York, and were considerably advanced in 
 their way to York-Town, before Count De 
 Grasse had reached the American coast."(#) 
 
 It appears, according to Ramsay, that the plan 
 was laid more than three months anteriour to the 
 arrival of the money at Boston in August, and 
 that on the 6th of May the armies had " passed 
 the British head quarters at New- York, and. were 
 
 (a) Ramsay s Hist. Rev. vol. 3, p. 264, 
 
88 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 considerably advanced in their way to York 
 Town. 5 / j 
 
 Gordon, perhaps generally less copious and 
 elegant, is yet more precise to the point. " The 
 French and American armies continued their 
 march from the northward till they arrived at the 
 head of Elk. The greatest harmony subsisted 
 between Washington and Rochambeau. The 
 former being without a sufficiency of money to 
 supply his troops, applied to the Count [do 
 Grasse] for a loan, which was instantly granted. 
 General Washington and Rochambeau, with 
 their suites and other officers, arrived at Wil- 
 liamsburgh by hard travelling, on the 14th 
 
 September."^) 
 
 The loan then was applied for by Washington 
 when he was at the head of Elk in Maryland, 
 which w y as at the latter end of August, or, at 
 furthest, on the first or second of September. 
 At this time the money, which arrived at Boston 
 on the 25th of August, and was from thence 
 conveyed in ox teams to Philadelphia, must have 
 been on its way to, for it could not have arrived 
 at, the " National Bank." The combined ar 
 mies, therefore, had not only " mov*,d" without 
 the money of which Paine speaks, to which he 
 
 Gordon s Hist. Rev. vol. 3. p. 254. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 89 
 
 adverts as saving America, on which he vaunt- 
 ingly plumes himself, and the credit of which he 
 arrogantly places to his own account, but Wash 
 ington had arrived at the head of Elk without a 
 cent of it, and even then, so far from relying on, 
 or even thinking of it, we find him applying for 
 a loan to de Grasse to enable him to complete his 
 march to the scene of triumph. It is probable 
 that when Washington reached Williamsburgh, 
 he was ignorant of the arrival of the money at 
 Boston. 
 
 Number twelve of the Crisis, without date, was 
 published early in the year 1782. The king had 
 delivered a speech on which it is a commentary. 
 In the speech his majesty speaks of himself as the 
 sovereign of a free people. Paine considers the 
 term as misapplied, ridicules it, and attributes it 
 to fear in the king lest his people should " send 
 him to Hanover." With wit, at whatever ex- 
 pence, we are pleased, but with miserable abor 
 tions of it we are always disgusted. The num 
 ber contains, however, some sensible reflections. 
 
 The CRISIS, number thirteen, published at Phi 
 ladelphia in March, 1782, is on the finances of 
 the states. It has no interest. The war was 
 now in fact over, and Paine s pen declined with 
 the discontinuance of military operations. He 
 lived in a tempest. He was lost in a calm. 
 
 In the following May, he published, at Philadel- 
 M 
 
90 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 phia, the CRISIS number fourteen, on the "Present 
 state of News." Conjecturing that England 
 would first endeavour to detach France from 
 America and make a separate peace with her, 
 and that afterwards* if unsuccessful, she w r ould 
 make a similar attempt upon the fidelity of 
 the states, it sets forth the reasons for the jea 
 lousy which it suggests. The astonishment and 
 indignation which, equally overpowering the 
 organs of speech and the faculty of the pen, the 
 imaginary artifice of the British court excited in 
 him, he thus forcibly describes, happily illus 
 trates. 
 
 "We sometimes experience sensations to w T hich 
 language is not equal. The conception is too 
 bulky to be born alive, and in the torture of 
 thinking, we stand dumb. Our feelings, impri 
 soned by their magnitude, find no way out, and 
 in the struggle of expression, every finger tries 
 to be a tongue. The machinery of the body 
 seems too little for the mind, and we look about 
 for helps to show our thoughts by." 
 
 That which he had imagined never happened ; 
 that which he had not imagined, and of which he 
 seems not to have thought, really occurred. 
 France, when peace was on the tapis, endea 
 voured, by propositions which she made to 
 England, but which England rejected, essential 
 ly to deprive the states of the sovereignty for 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 1 
 
 which they had long and arduously strug 
 gled.^) 
 
 In the same month he published, at Philadel 
 phia, addressed to Sir Guy Carlton, number fif 
 teen of the CRISIS. Passing by indulgently some 
 palpable malice and indiscriminate aspersion, this 
 is an able appeal to Sir Guy on the atrocious 
 murder of Capt Hudcly, by Lippincot, a refugee, 
 and the interesting situation of Capt. Asgill. The 
 issue of AsgilPs captivity and doom is known. 
 After suffering all the pang s of death, diminish 
 ed only by the interposition of that comforting 
 and encouraging hope which under the pressure 
 of events most exciting to despair never wholly 
 forsakes us, his life was spared. The humanity 
 of Washington could not disport in the blood of 
 amiable innocence in revenge for a murder com 
 mitted by a wretch over whose actions Asgill had 
 no controul. 
 
 In October, 1782, he published, at Philadel 
 phia, number sixteen of the CRISIS, addressed to 
 Earl Shelburne. Peace was about to be con 
 cluded, and his Lordship, who was opposed to 
 it, had delivered a very unseasonable and silly 
 speech preparatory to a discussion of its terms in 
 
 (r ) See Mr. Jay s and Mr. John Adams s correspondence 
 with Congress. 
 
92 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Parliament. On this speech, Paine invectively 
 and un^rofitably animadverts. 
 
 The last CRISIS was published at Philadelphia, 
 April 19th, 1783. Peace was now substantially 
 concluded, and the INDEPENDENCE of the UNITED 
 STATES acknowledged. He who if not the sug- 
 gester was the ablest literary advocate of inde 
 pendence, could do no less, when independence 
 was acquired, than salute the nation on the great 
 event. He is not, however, content with 
 proudly reflecting on past and triumphantly re 
 velling in present circumstances. He still looks 
 forward ; still suggests > still advises. He points 
 to the formation of a national character, that 
 broad and solid foundation of national safety, 
 happiness, greatness, and glory, and strenuously 
 recommends an UNION OF THE STATES. 
 
 This was not, however, though so^denominated, 
 the last CRISIS. In the folio wing October he publish 
 ed, at New-York, the concluding number, which 
 is a trifling notice of Lord Sheffield s " Observa 
 tions on the Commerce of the American States ;" 
 but as he seems to have been unacquainted with 
 commercial principles and details, his Lordship 
 had no formidable opponent in Paine. 
 
 *< Public Good," a pamphlet of thirty-three 
 octavo pages, written in the year 1780, and pub 
 lished it does not appear when, but probably 
 soon after the peace, relates w r holly to Virginia 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS- PAINE. 93 
 
 and her claim to the vacant Western Territory. 
 It is an elaborate investigation of a royal patent, 
 very local and uninteresting. 
 
 His letter to the Abbe Raynal, an octavo pam 
 phlet of fifty-eight pages, published at Philadel 
 phia, August, 1782, is a repetition of the argu 
 ments and facts contained in Common Sense and 
 the Crisis. There could have been no motive 
 for writing it but that of detecting the Abbe in 
 some plagiarism from Common Sense, 
 
 In 1783, when the army was on the point of 
 being disbanded, General Washington, at the 
 request of congress, removed his quarters to 
 Rocky Hill, the seat of their deliberations. The 
 general availed himself of this opportunity to ob 
 tain from congress some permanent provision for 
 Paine. One of the several members with whom 
 he conversed on the subject, has related to me 
 what follows. Paine, the general remarked, was at ^ 
 least supposed to have rendered his country some 
 services by his writings, and that it would be 
 pleasing to him, and perhaps obviate charges of 
 ingratitude, if Congress would place him in a 
 state of ease : that he had offered Paine a seat 
 at his table, but that he would doubtless prefer 
 something more independent. In consequence" 1 
 of the general s suggestion, a motion was made 
 in congress by my informant to appoint Paine 
 Historiographer to the United States^ with a sal- 
 
94 UFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ary sufficient to support him through life, but it 
 was received by the house with such a burst of 
 indignation, that the mover found it prudent to 
 withdraw it. Congress had not got over the 
 irritation which Paine s conduct in Deane s case 
 had excited. 
 
 / In 1785, congress granted him three thousand 
 dollars for his revolutionary writings. 
 
 " Friday, August 26, 1785. 
 
 " On the report of a committee consisting of 
 Mr. Gerry, Mr. Petit, and Mr. King, to whom 
 was referred a letter of the 1 3th from Thomas 
 Paine : 
 
 " Resolved, That the early, unsolicited, and 
 continued labours of Mr. Thomas Paine, in 
 explaining and enforcing the principles of the 
 late revolution by ingenious and timely pub 
 lications upon the nature of liberty and civil 
 government, have been well received by the 
 citizens of these states, and merit the appro 
 bation of congress ; and that in consideration of 
 these services, and the benefits produced thereby, 
 Mr. Paine is entitled to a liberal gratification 
 from the United States." 
 
 " Monday, October 3, 1785. 
 
 " On the report of a committee consisting of 
 Mr. Gerry, Mr. Howell, and Mr. Long, to whom 
 were referred sundry letters from Mr. Thomas 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 95 
 
 Paine, and a report on his letter of 14th of Sep 
 tember : 
 
 " Resolved, That the board of treasury take 
 order for paying to Mr. Thomas Paine the sum 
 of three thousand dollars, for the considerations 
 mentioned in the resolution of the 26th of August 
 last." Journals of Congress. 
 
 As the journals of congress do not of course 
 containPaine s letter mentioned in the preamble of 
 the resolution of August 26, arid I have not been 
 able to obtain a copy of it, we are referred for its 
 import to Paine himself. One would naturally con 
 clude from the phraseology of the journals, that 
 the letter was an application to congress claiming 
 compensation for his revolutionary writings. 
 Upon that letter the committee report, that for 
 his " early, unsolicited, and continued labours* 
 in explaining and enforcing by numerous timely 
 publications," &c. (referring undoubtedly to his 
 Common Sense and the Crisis, for these are the 
 only productions which, during the revolution, 
 he published) he is " entitled to a liberal 
 compensation." This liberal compensation is 
 three thousand dollars, or about six hundred 
 guineas ! Yet as Paine asserts in his Common 
 Sense, repeats in the Crisis, the Rights of Man, 
 in almost all his subsequent European publica 
 tions, in the Letters which he addressed to the 
 citizens of the United States after his return 
 
96 LIFE OF* THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 from France, and in his letter to congress in 
 1808,(rf) that he never claimed, nor thought of 
 claiming, being too disinterested, any compen 
 sation for his revolutionary writings, there is 
 either a capital errour in the phraseology of the 
 journals, or Paine has imposed himself upon the 
 world for a more immaculate patriot than he 
 . really was : the latter is by much the more prob 
 able. 
 
 In his letter to congress of 1808,(<?) he claims 
 compensation for accompanying Colon el Laurens 
 to France, and for nothing else, and he thinks 
 he is the more entitled to it, because the supplies 
 which they obtained, or rather which he obtain 
 ed, for he makes himself the hero of the piece, 
 enabled Washington to attack Cornwallis. I 
 have already noticed the supplies, and the mo 
 tion which Paine affirms they gave to Washing 
 ton s army. 
 
 Now if we suppose, and we cannot, I think, 
 but suppose, his letter of 1808, to be in substance 
 his letter of August 13, 1785, mentioned in the 
 journals, then the latter refers to the mission of 
 Colonel Laurens only, and we are of course in 
 the possession of materials enabling us to judge 
 of the propriety of his application, and of the 
 nature of the decision of congress upon it. 
 
 (cf) See the Appendix. (r) See the Appendix- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 97 
 
 For accompanying Colonel Laurens he certain- \ 
 ly had no claim on congress for recompense. ) 
 Did congress employ him ? No. Did congress 
 sanction the employment of him by Colonel 
 Laurens ? Did they approve of it ? Were 
 they, consulted about it? Certainly not, for 
 congress, by whom he had been dismissed for 
 betraying official trust* could not, without for 
 feiting all claim to consistency and sense, have 
 confidence in him in the mission. Congress con 
 sequently decided in August, 1785, if in his 
 letter of that month he claimed compensation for 
 going to France, and if he did not the case is 
 infinitely stronger against him, that he had no ^ 
 title to compensation. Congress, therefore, in 
 1785, resolved, whatever the nature of his ap 
 plication at that time was, that for his revolu 
 tionary writings only, he was entitled to a liberal 
 gratification. If congress were really of this 
 opinion, and we are to take it for granted that 
 they were, so finding it on the journals, then 
 their ideas of liberality were singular enough. 
 For whether Paine was or was not a patriot, a^d 
 that he was not is more than probable ; whether 
 he was or was not in the excise a dissatisfied 
 and from it a rejected placeman, and he undoubt 
 edly was, is out of the question in relation to the 
 effect which Common Sense and the Crisis had 
 on American independence. That effect was 
 
 N 
 
98 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 unquestionably great, and, therefore, if his 
 " early, unsolicited, and continued labours" had 
 been " well received by the citizens" and had 
 * benefited" the states, the recompense should 
 have been commensurate with the benefit. Was 
 a grant of three thousand dollars of that charac 
 ter ? If with great ability to reward exertions 
 which were deemed meritorious and beneficial ; 
 with an immense domain, not indeed immediate 
 ly productive ; with resources capable of being 
 called forth to the utmost amplitude of the ut 
 most hope ; with a debt worthy of consideration 
 only as a precious bond of tranquillity and 
 
 \r union; if with these rich possessions congress 
 considered three thousand dollars a liberal com 
 pensation, then we are acquainted with the value 
 which they placed on the quantity and quality 
 of his revolutionary waitings. 
 J Two only of the states noticed by gratuities 
 
 ^ his revolutionary labours. Pennsylvania, the 
 seat of his Common Sense a.nd the Crisis, a state 
 which, if his productions were honourable, was 
 most honoured, gave him, in the year 1 785, by 
 an act of the legislature, five hundred pounds 
 currency ! . 
 
 New- York was more liberal/ VThey gave him 
 the confiscated estate of Frederick Davoe, a roy 
 alist. This estate, situate at New-Rochelle, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 99 
 
 county of Westchester, consisting of more than 
 three hundred acres of land, was in high culti 
 vation. There was upon it, besides out-build 
 ings, an elegant stone house, one hundred and 
 twenty by twenty-eight feet. 
 
 In 1786, he published, in Philadelphia, " Dis 
 sertations on Government, the affairs of the 
 bank, aad paper money," an octavo pamphlet of 
 sixty-four pages. .The bank alluded to is the 
 bank of North America. There is an unhappy 
 fatality attending a similar establishment. By men 
 borne down by a heavy load of vulgar prejudice, 
 or lamentably labouring under incurable igno 
 rance, or utterly disregarding publick utility and 
 faith in a vehement pursuit of sinister purposes, 
 the bank of North America was then, as the 
 latter has been since, and is now, systematically 
 attacked. Paine gives at length a history of the 
 origin of the former, which is so closely inter 
 woven with the revolution and allied to its most 
 distressing period, that I cannot refuse myself 
 the pleasure of briefly describing it. 
 
 In the year 1780, when the British army, 
 having laid waste the southern states, closed its 
 ravages by the capture of Charleston ; when the 
 financial sources of congress were dried up ; 
 when the publick treasury was empty, and the 
 army of independence paralised by want, a 
 voluntary subscription for its relief was raised in 
 
100 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Philadelphia. (/) This voluntary fund, amount 
 ing to three hundred thousand pounds, after 
 wards converted into a bank by the subscribers, 
 headed by Robert Morris, supplied the wants of 
 the army. Probably the aids which it furnished 
 enabled Washington to carry into execution his 
 well-concerted plan against Cornwallis. Con 
 gress, in the year 1781, incorporated the sub 
 scribers to the fund under the title of the Bank 
 of North America. In the following year it was 
 further incorporated by an act of the Pennsylva 
 nia assembly. 
 
 When the war was over when extreme dis 
 tress had ceased, and the services which the bank 
 had rendered were forgotten, it was attacked as 
 an institution incompatible with individual pros 
 perity and publick safety. All those recondite 
 arguments which we every day hear, that banks 
 are dangerous to freedom, were, with the cus 
 tomary eloquence of those who use them,(g-) 
 
 (/) Paine states that he drew five hundred dollars of the 
 salary of his clerkship to the Pennsylvania Assembly, and 
 subscribed it to the fund. As usual, he takes all the merit 
 of the plan and subscription to himself. He proposed it. He 
 was every thing. 
 
 (5*) A sort of unread, innate republicans, who make them 
 selves happy with thinking, that their tendency to a state of 
 perfect freedom is determined by the near approaches which 
 they make towards the savage condition. I must do them the 
 justice to say that their progress is uncommonly rapid. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 101 
 
 forcibly urged in petitions to the Pennsylvania 
 assembly against the bank of North America. 
 The assembly, which was truly the representa 
 tive of the petitioners, which thought as they 
 thought, and was as wise as they were, was 
 prayed to repeal the state act of incorporation. 
 The petitions were referred to a select committee, 
 who, recapitulating in character the deep reason 
 ing of the petitioners, reported in favour of the 
 repeal. Here was an attempt under the pretence 
 of promoting liberty, happiness, and safety, to 
 violate them all by a most tyrannical iavasion of 
 private property ! Paine very unceremoniously 
 and vigourously assailed both the assembly and 
 its petitioners, and probably averted the act of 
 despotism which the freemeji were about to com 
 mit. 
 
 Paine is now to figure on another and a differ* 
 ent stage. We must follow him to Europe. 
 He had long formed the design of revolutionizing 
 England, and if he had not the arrogance to 
 suppose he could succeed, he had the turpitude 
 to attempt to carry his project into execution. 
 
 " During the war, in the latter end of the year ^^ 
 1780, I formed to myself a design of coming 
 over to England, and communicated it to Gene 
 ral Greene. I was strongly impressed with the 
 idea, that, if I could get over to England with 
 out being known and only remain in safety till I 
 
102 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 could get out a publication, that I could open the 
 eyes of the country with respect to the madness 
 and stupidity of its government. I saw that the 
 parties in parliament had pitted themselves as far 
 as they could go, and could make no new im 
 pression on each other. General Greene wrote 
 very pressingly to me to give up the design, 
 which, with reluctance, I did. But I am now 
 certain, that, if I could have executed it, that it 
 would not have been altogether unsuccessful."^) 
 It was of importance to Paine to represent 
 himself in England as a man of importance in 
 the United States. Strongly impressed with this 
 idea, and much as he ridiculed and affected to 
 be opposed to titles, we have seen him an 
 nex to his name the appendage of " secreta 
 ry for foreign affairs. / In the same spirit and 
 practice of imposture, from the same bad motive, 
 and with a worse view, he connects himself with 
 the skilful, enterprising, and warlike Greene. 
 In the year 1780, Greene was probably too much 
 employed in the southern states, the defence of 
 which had been committed to his care, to attend 
 to Paine s detestable scheme for revolutionizing 
 England. Besides, Paine was then in disgrace, 
 and almost in want of bread. It was but Ihe 
 
 (A) Note in the Rights of Man, part 2, Philadelphia, 1797. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 103 
 
 preceding year that he had been dismissed by 
 congress with every epithet of opprobrium that 
 legislative decorum could use. If Greene noticed 
 him before his dismission, which is probable, 
 after it he must have thought him unworthy of 
 his attention. Had Paine told us, that when 
 banished from the confidence and employ of 
 congress when forced by imperious circumstan 
 ces, as in the year 1780, into the ungracious 
 service of Mr. Eiddle when all propitious scenes 
 had closed upon him, he thought of returning to 
 England to stir up commotion, that he might find 
 in national uproar individual gratification, he 
 might have been believed. 
 
 Having, in the year 1785, procured from con 
 gress by much importunity three thousand dol 
 lars, from Pennsylvania five hundred pounds, 
 and from the opulent and more liberal state of 
 New- York the confiscated estate of Mr. Davoe, 
 he sailed, in April, 1787,(/) from the United 
 States for France. In Paris, he exhibited to the 
 Academy of Sciences the model of his bridge. 
 
 At this period the French revolutionary prin-> 
 ciples, principles which uprooted and laid waste 
 every thing valuable, were vigourously germi 
 nating in that ill fated country. Upstart philo-> 
 
 (/) See his letter to general Washington. 
 
 
104 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 sophers in Paris, then in daily intercourse with 
 Mr. Jefferson, were plotting confusion. Men 
 without wealth were eyeing wealth to be plun 
 dered. Atheists were sacking the churches in 
 thought. Sanguinary wretches, with honied 
 words issuing from their lips, were revelling by 
 anticipation in blood. That Paine was admitted 
 into the philosophical caverns of the philgsophick 
 banditti, is probable. What these tigers of Eu 
 rope machinated for the benefit of France, of 
 England, and of the world, is left to conjecture, 
 but after what Europe and America have seen 
 and suffered, we cannot, I think, conjecture 
 amiss. 
 
 From France, Paine passed over to England 
 with the model of his bridge : he arrived in 
 London in September, 1787. From London, he 
 went to Thetford to see his mother, whom he 
 had the merit of allowing nine shillings sterling 
 a week for her support, until his American re 
 compense money was expended. In England, 
 he became acquainted with my friend THOMAS 
 WALKER, of Manchester, a man than whom one 
 more enlightened and patriotick, more generous 
 v and noble, perhaps never lived. Mr. Walker, 
 the friend and companion of Fox, was, what the 
 Washingtons, the Clintons, the Hancocks, and 
 the Adamses were before the declaration of in 
 dependence was forced upon the colonies, an 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 105 
 
 ENGLISH WHIG. He was indeed a zealous advo 
 cate of a reform in parliament that would have 
 led, or I am now greatly mistaken, to a revolu 
 tion which he would have abhorred, for he was a 
 rational and solid friend of freedom, and had no 
 inclination to the shedding of English blood by 
 English hands. Principally at the expense of 
 Mr. Walker, who was a liberal encourager of 
 the arts, Paine went to Rotheram, in Yorkshire, 
 where an iron arch of his bridge was cast. The 
 bridge obtained for him amongst the mathema 
 ticians of Europe a high reputation. 
 
 Early in the year 1788, he published in Lon 
 don, his " Prospects on the Rubicon/ an octavo 
 pamphlet of thirty-three pages. The United 
 Provinces having abridged the assumed power of 
 the prince of Orange, and finding themselves in 
 consequence involved with the Prussian mo 
 narch, who chose to consider the curtailment as 
 a personal offence to him, had successfully ap 
 plied for succour to Louis the XVI. England, 
 it was thought, would embark in the war, which 
 seemed to be threatened. The " Rubicon" was 
 on this subject, but possessing no merit it at 
 tracted no notice. It betrays, however, his revo 
 lutionary design. " The people of France, he 
 observes, are beginning to think for themselves, 
 
 and the people of England resigning up the priv- 
 
 o 
 
106 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 ilege of thinking.(y) This is both ill intentioned 
 and false. The people of France were not be 
 ginning to think. A few men in France, begin 
 ning to act-, were about to let loose the people 
 from all restraint as instruments of their medi 
 tated mischief. The people of England had 
 long thought j nor will they ever resign their 
 triple and undoubted privileges of freely thinking, 
 freely speaking, and freely printing. He 
 meant that France was approximating to a revo 
 lution, to a national hurricane of national pas 
 sions, and that England was calm. He knew 
 that revolution was intended in the one country, 
 and he regretted, that from present appearances, 
 tranquillity could not be disturbed in the other. 
 
 In the middle of the year 1789, he was ar- 
 \ -j .ted in London for debt. The books of White- 
 side, a merchant who had failed, having passed 
 into the hands of his creditors, it was found that 
 Paine was a debtor to the bankrupt estate in the 
 sum of near seven hundred pounds. Arrested 
 by the assignees, he was released from a three 
 weeks imprisonment by.Clagget and Murdoch, 
 American merchants. 
 
 How he became indebted, is not and perhaps 
 cannot be satisfactorily explained. It is alleged 
 that Whiteside was employed to receive his re- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 107 
 
 mittances from the United States. Having no 
 property but the American donatives, his remit 
 tances must have consisted of two sums only ; 
 the three thousand dollars which he had obtained 
 from, congress in 1785, and the five hundred 
 pounds which Pennsylvania gave him in the 
 same year. As he remained in America a year 
 and a half after, and was probably in debt when 
 the grants were made, it requires no extraordi 
 nary degree of credulity to believe, that the ag 
 gregate of the grants had been diminished before 
 his departure from America upon his revolutiona 
 ry expedition to England. But I deduce the 
 inference from a supposition which is contrary to 
 his usual practice; that if he was in debt, he 
 paid his debts, and that when he was able to 
 keep himself, he did not force himself upon 
 others to maintain him. 
 
 At all events he would take his money w 7 ith 
 him, or with some of it purchase bills on White- 
 side, we will suppose ; in which case he would 
 see them transmitted, or be assured that they 
 would be by a different vessel. Whiteside re 
 ceives them, and Paine has a credit with him. 
 He arrived in London in September, 1787. 
 Eighteen months after, he had overdrawn his 
 merchant in the sum of near seven hundred 
 pounds. He could not in this short time have 
 expended that publick bounty and this private 
 

 108 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 exaction, for generally he lived in holes and 
 corners, and his diet, while I knew him, and 
 long, I believe, before, was the poorest and 
 filthiest ; and though he was generally inebriated, 
 yet it will be remembered that brandy was his 
 liquor, and that if he drank a quart a day, which 
 he did not sometimes exceed, it could not have 
 exhausted his pecuniary funds. As to the cast 
 ings for his bridge, they cost him next to nothing, 
 the expense having been principally defrayed by 
 Mr. Walker. If his grants were not expended, 
 and we cannot from his grovelling and imposing 
 habits imagine how they could have been, his 
 unwarrantable draughts on Whiteside may be 
 explained in a way which would not illumine the 
 dark shades of his character. 
 
 Daily occurrences were now kind to his hopes. 
 The French revolution, the pretended object of 
 which, like the pretended object of all revolu 
 tions, was at first mild and beneficent reform, 
 was advancing with accelerated velocity to its 
 acme of spoliation and blood. Paine, peeping 
 out of his lurking hole in the purlieus of Lon 
 don, watched with ecstacy every advance. The 
 assembly of the Notables had been succeeded by 
 the States-General, and the States-General, at 
 the suggestion of the proteus Syeyes, without 
 any delegation by the people, and therefore by 
 usurpation, had declared itself the NATIONAL 
 
JL1FE OF THOMAS PAINE. 109 
 
 ASSEMBLY. The king was taken captive by men, 
 who, vowing to each other republican attach 
 ments, were individually planning assassination 
 and pillage to encompass and wear his crown. 
 An unread, an unlettered populace, just enough 
 oppressed by old masters to become the willing 
 victims of greater oppression from new, were 
 artfully and mercilessly freed, by those who W 7 ere 
 to be their tyrants and scourges, from those high 
 obligations which they owed to themselves, their 
 country, and their God, and with which they 
 could not dispense without suffering, as they 
 did, the greatest calamities, the most excruci 
 ating pains. Overjoyed at appearances in France, 
 Paine, from imprisonment in London for debt, 
 passed, while those measures were in train, to 
 Paris for commotion. 
 
 " The edicts, he says, were again tendered 
 to them, and the Count D Artois undertook to 
 act as representative for the king. For this pur 
 pose, he came from Versailles to Paris, in a train 
 of procession ; and the parliament were assem 
 bled to receive him. But show and parade had 
 lost their influence in France ; and whatever 
 ideas of importance he might set off with, he 
 Tiad to return with those of mortification and 
 disappointment. On alighting from his carriage 
 to ascend the steps of the parliament house, the 
 crowd (which was numerously collected) threw 
 
110 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 out trite expressions, saying, " this is monsieur 
 D Artois, who wants more of our money to 
 spend." The marked disapprobation which he 
 saw, impressed him with apprehensions ; and the 
 word aux arms (to arms} \vas given out by the 
 officer of the guard who attended him. It w r as 
 so loudly vociferated, that it echoed through the 
 avenues of the house, and produced a temporary 
 confusion : I was then standing in one of the 
 apartments through which he had to pass."Qf) 
 
 Having viewed with rapture the many muta 
 tions in the affairs of France ; the sudden and 
 magical shifting of power from the government 
 to the people ; from those who had sometimes 
 abused it to those who could not use it well ; 
 from the few who had now and then oppressed 
 to the many who must necessarily and without 
 remission grind ; from those who had unfre- 
 quently devoted for days the rich to the bastile, 
 to those who would convert all France into a 
 bastile infinitely more gloomy and horrid; having 
 whetted his keen appetite for subversion and 
 ruin and massacre by cabals with the grand con 
 structors of anarchy and desolation in France, 
 the incendiary returned, to fire England. 
 
 The usurpation of the National Assembly, ne- 
 
 () Rights of Miin, part 1. 
 
\ 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Ill 
 
 eessary in the process of confounding valuable, es 
 sential, and unalterable distinctions ; necessary in 
 the process of tumult and carnage; necessary in the 
 throes which a great nation must suffer in going 
 down from some oppression to all anarchy, and 
 from all anarchy to what we now see and feel, 
 all possible despotism ; that act of assumption 
 worked up all England, a few men of cool re 
 flection, deep penetration, great experience, and 
 greater solidity excepted, to a pitch of enthusiasm 
 little short of madness. There was indeed 
 something perhaps awfully grand, certainly hor- 
 rour-exciting, in the ruins of an ancient and 
 splendid government ; in the transfer of all power 
 from those who had excluded the people from 
 any participation of it, to the people themselves, 
 who knew not what to do with it; who could 
 give it no form, no direction, and who, in a 
 tumult of joy, excited by being masters, without 
 knowing how to master themselves, could not 
 but commit in a few months, probably in so 
 many days, acts of tyranny and cruelty for 
 which an age of well regulated freedom could 
 not adequately compensate. Englishmen, whose V 
 hearts were sound, w 7 hose intentions were good, 
 who loved their country, who idolised its solid 
 and venerable freedom, but whose notions, as 
 events have proved, w T ere visionary, were in 
 raptures at the disenthralment of a neighbouring 
 
112 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 nation, from long continued bondage. If excess 
 of gratulation, and, to England, the danger of 
 excess, could have been avoided, there would 
 have been in all this a humanity of character, a 
 generosity of feeling, a nobleness of spirit, which 
 future ages would have admired and applauded. 
 But men of property, men of sense, men of let 
 ters, men who therefore should not have suffered 
 reflection to be overpowered by gorgeous novel 
 ties, by real mockeries, by changes which are 
 productive of nothing but mischief, forgot that 
 they were free, forgot that they were English 
 men, and, bounding in exulting thought over 
 the precincts of their isle, became Frenchmen ; 
 not of the Notables, nor of the States-General, 
 nor of the National Assembly, nor of its famous 
 declaration of rights, for they had more liberty 
 than the National Assembly could comprehend, 
 or France enjoy, but, in the moments of frenzy, 
 for frenzy it surely was, deposing Frenchmen ; 
 Frenchmen of the national razor stamp.(#) The 
 world was to become a republick of licentious 
 ness in fact; a fraternity of incongruous and 
 
 (/?) All this T felt myself, out time, with the reflection and 
 experience which time brings with it, has settled me down 
 in that substantial medium which cannot be overstepped, 
 whatever be the pretence, whatever the cause or the object, 
 without violating every principle and attribute of freedom. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 113 
 
 Repelling atoms ; a brotherhood of absurd prin 
 ciples and irredueible rules. This was the phi 
 losophy ; this the charm ; as if all nature, at the 
 command of presumptuous and impious French 
 men, would at once give way ; as if, to use the 
 language of Fielding s Square, the eternal fitness 
 of things could be unfitted, recreated, and new 
 modelled. Parisian jacobin clubs were imitated 
 in London. Fraternal hugs were interchanged 
 by jacobin plenipotentiaries. Revolution dinners 
 were had all over England, and revolutionary 
 toasts drank. Even Dr. Price gave for his toast 
 at one of these jubilees of preparatory commo 
 tion, " the parliament of England ; may it be 
 come a National Assembly /" Could his meaning 
 be mistaken ? The National Assembly of France 
 had declared for a limited monarchy, which 
 England had. It had Established, or rather it 
 had prescribed upon paper, trial by jury. Was 
 England without this palladium of safety ? All 
 the paper immunities which the National Assem 
 bly had allowed in its declaration of rights, 
 which were never reduced to practice, fell vastly 
 short of the excellence of British enjoyment. 
 But France was only in the adolescence of her 
 work. From limited monarchy she was verging 
 to unlimited devastation. She was to be a spick- 
 and-span new nation. All old things were to be 
 done away. England too was to be new-born; 
 
 p 
 
114 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINS. 
 
 The world a republick or a desart was one of 
 the humane dogmas. Hunted, pillaged, and 
 blood-sucked, a desert it might be, but a repub 
 lick, and least of all a republick like that to 
 which France was hastening, it could not be. 
 
 A tempest so tremendous as that of France, 
 in which all has been wrecked, directing its 
 dreadful course towards England, where, as if 
 lost to all the means of safety, the people invited 
 its approach, rendered it necessary for some 
 Nelson to clear the national ship, and prepare it 
 triumphantly to resist the pitiless peltings of the 
 / pitiless storm. BURKE, whose enlightened patriot 
 ism had been grateful to America, and whose 
 oratory in the British senate had delighted Eu 
 rope, came forth from the tranquil scenes of 
 closing life to avert the whelming danger. His 
 " Reflections," uniting to profoundest sagacity 
 unrivalled eloquence, have drawn from the 
 world an undivided tribute of reluctant pane- 
 gyrick. Who now can question its prophetick 
 truths ? All the enormities which, from the na 
 ture of the French revolution, he sagaciously 
 predicted and admirably described, have been 
 committed by the French people. Its never* 
 ending fluctuations but in a despotism infinitely 
 more terrible than that which the united labours 
 of the National Assembly and Convention over 
 drew, he foretold and delineated with wonderful 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 115 
 
 precision and force. Who, now that the events 
 have happened which he prognosticated, can call 
 his deep insight into human nature, rhapsody ; 
 his predictions, which have all been verified, the 
 chimeras of a rhetorician s brain ? He saw 
 cause and effect and their connexion, and the 
 great energy of his great mind, roused by the 
 horrour which perfect vision had excited, was 
 exerted to save Iris country. The safety of 
 England, which is in truth the safety of the 
 world, was his primary object. He was sure 
 that neither the French revolution nor its delete 
 rious effects could be kept within the limits of 
 France. French audacity had already embold 
 ened British presumption. From the subversion 
 of the one government, transitions had been 
 made to that of the other. Dr. Price had propa 
 gated from the pulpit the right of the nation to 
 " cashier" the king for misconduct. That it has 
 the right is indubitable, and that it has more 
 than once practically asserted it, is certain. But 
 as the nation was well acquainted with its right 
 of cashiering for a deliberate, systematick, con 
 tinued, and undoubted effort to destroy its free 
 dom ; and as cashiering was the daily right and 
 practice of France, with whom he was fra 
 ternizing, could it be that no more was intended 
 by the doctor, amiable as it is said he was, than 
 to remind the people of what they well knew, 
 
116 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 and of which they had not lost the recollection ? 
 The clubs and the nation, judging from the 
 noise that was made, supported the drum eccle- 
 siastick. Cashiering was in the mouths of men 
 who had been taught nothing but that it meant 
 violence, a deposing of the king, an extinction 
 of the house of peers, a destruction of the whole 
 government. Little was heard but cashiering, 
 Nor was encouragement withheld from France, 
 The English spirit of English reform was to be 
 quickened by French revolutionists. 
 
 BURKE S Reflections were published early in the 
 year 1 790. Paine, who had been a Parisian spec 
 tator of Parisian scenes, went over from France to 
 England in order to hasten the business of re- 
 ^ form. In March, 1 79 1 , he published " TheRights 
 of Man, part first," in answer, as he thought fit 
 to style it, to Burke s Reflections. This misera- 
 
 x ble production was, from similarity of causes, 
 as popular in England as his Common Sense had 
 
 i/ 1 been in America. France was in confusion ; 
 England was getting into confusion ; rebellion 
 was the order of the day. With Dr. Price and 
 
 ^ the clubs, Paine was for cashiering. He went, 
 however, in language, a little further than they 
 did. What he wanted of the elegance of the 
 English reformers, he made up in impudent and 
 vulgar boldness. In terms at once bland and 
 fascinating, they contended for the abstract right 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 117 
 
 of cashiering ; Paine, coarsely and bluntly, not 
 only for the right but for the necessity of imme 
 diate action. They did not, however, essentially 
 differ, if at all, either in spirit or in object. The 
 clubs patronized his work, and widely extended 
 its circulation. Did this look like disapproba 
 tion ? 
 
 Having experienced an unprecedented sale of ^ 
 his pamphlet ;(/) having perceived the anarchial 
 spirit that was up ; being sure that the govern 
 ment would be overthrown, broken into frag 
 ments, wholly demolished, and that, as in France, 
 the wholesome doctrine of reform would be 
 superceded by the bloody work of revolution, he 
 returned, in the following May, to Paris, where 
 violence was increasing in degree and swiftness 
 far exceeding the calculations, but not the hopes, 
 of the most expert and sanguinary citizen of the 
 terrible repiiUiclc, 
 
 That he was well received at the seat of uni 
 versal havock, will not be doubted. His British u 
 fame ; the popular celebrity of his despicable 
 work, had preceded him, and rendered a parti- 
 
 (z) " Between forty and fifty thousand copies were so/c?." 
 Rights of Man, part second. Probably more than a hundred 
 thousand copies were published. This is a much greater 
 number than was published of his Common Sense. 
 
1 1 8 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 / cular report to his co-plotters unnecessary. The 
 fraternizing spirit in ruin which pervaded Eng 
 land, of whose existence he could give irrefraga 
 ble assurances, must have delighted those artifi 
 cers of the greatest human misery that human 
 means ever inflicted. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, the king fled from Paris. 
 On his return, Paine was in some danger of be 
 coming the victim of a sedition which he had 
 disseminated in London, and of which he was a 
 friend in France. On the appearance of the 
 king, " an officer proclaimed the will of the Na 
 tional Assembly, that all should be silent and 
 
 i covered : in a minute all hats were on. Paine 
 had lost his cockade, the emblem of liberty and 
 equality. A cry arose ; aristocrat ! aristocrat ! 
 aristocrat ! a la lanterne ! a la lanterne ! He 
 was desired by those who stood near him to put 
 on his hat, and it was not till after some time 
 that the mob was satisfied by explanation."(y) 
 
 The mob, elevated to liberty and equality, 
 going a la lanterne with one of the most distin 
 guished champions of disorder, would have been 
 a scene curious enough ; but he was unknown to 
 them. Poor abused wretches they were unac 
 quainted with his mission to England, and with 
 
 (}} Impartial Sketch. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. lit 
 
 what he had done for their cause, or they would 
 not have threatened to hang him at a lamp post 
 for neglecting to put into his hat the emblem of 
 liberty and equality ! He is dead. It may be 
 well that the bloodhounds, whom he had assisted 
 in letting loose upon shrieking innocence, did not 
 add to their crimes by tearing him to pieces. 
 
 The abbe Syeyes now perceived, and this is 
 the fatal errour of many sensible men, that he had 
 gone too far, but he saw it only when he could 
 not impede the onward course of the tumult and 
 desolation to whose motion he had greatly con 
 tributed. He now began to apprehend that the 
 kingly office, as well as the king, was in dan 
 ger ; he was sure that France was unfit for a 
 republick, and that the destruction of the mon 
 archy and the monarch would be followed, as it 
 was, by the destruction of civil and social order. 
 When the disease was beyond the power of the 
 physician, he publickly challenged all writers in 
 defence of the monarchial against the republican 
 system. " If it be asked, he said, what is my 
 opinion w r ith respect to hereditary right, I an 
 swer, without hesitation, that, in good theory, 
 an hereditary transmission of any power or office, 
 can never accord with the laws of a true repre 
 sentation. Hereditaryship is, in this sense, as 
 much an attaint upon principle as an outrage 
 upon society : But, refer to the histories of all 
 
120 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 elective monarchies and principalities : is there* 
 one in which the elective mode is not worse than 
 the hereditary succession ?" 
 
 Paine, elate with the rare work which was 
 going on in France, as well as with his British 
 success, accepted the challenge. His publick 
 letter of acceptance is dated Paris, July 8, 1791, 
 the moment of his departure for England. 
 France was now in a condition to complete her 
 own ruin without his pad. His post w r as Eng 
 land, where the work of subversion, dismay, 
 and horrour was to be prosecuted. 
 
 On the 1 3th of the same month, he arrived in- 
 London, where the French revolution was to be 
 celebrated by party feasting and toasts, prepared 
 by party arts. He was not, however, one of the 
 dinner celebrators. It was " not thought pru 
 dent that he should attend." (&) 
 
 But he attended a meeting of the reformists at 
 the Thatched House Tavern on the 20th of the 
 following August, where an inflammatory ad 
 dress and declaration were read and afterwards 
 published. Home Tooke, perhaps the most 
 acute man of the age, was at the meeting ; and 
 as it was rumoured, Paine observes, (/) that the 
 great grammarian was the author of the ad- 
 
 } Rights of Man, part Z> (/) Iligl.ts of Man, part 2, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 121 
 
 dress, he takes the liberty of mentioning the fact, 
 that he wrote it himself. I never heard of the 
 rumour, which was doubtless a fiction formed and 
 asserted by Paine, merely to gratify his egotism. 
 No ona could mistake the uncouth and ungram- 
 matical writings of the one for the correct and 
 elegant productions of the other. 
 
 " On the 4th of November he assisted, on the 
 eve of the gunpowdei\plot, at the customary ce 
 lebration of the oth, by the revolution society. 
 He was thanked for his Rights of Man, and gave 
 for his toast The revolution of the world l"(m) 
 
 In February, 1792, he published the second 
 part of his Rights of Man. Part first, is full of 
 sedition ; part second openly and fearlessly calls 
 on the people to revolt, and unequivocally ad 
 vocates a subversion of the government. 
 
 Never before had the freedom, the protection, 
 and the hospitality of the nation, or of any other 
 nation, been so daringly and outrageously abused. 
 Whatever irregularities or oppressions Mr. Pitt 
 may afterwards have committed, occasioned and 
 probably rendered indispensable by the irregu 
 larities and the oppressions of the times, surely 
 he was patient and forbearing with Paine to a 
 fault. Paine was an alien. He was indeed an 
 
 (w) Oldys, 
 
122 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Englishman by birth, but the obligations of birth 
 had been dispensed with by the one party, and 
 alienated by the other, in the treaty of peace of 
 1783. What government, besides that of Eng 
 land, would have suffered an alien to beard it 
 to set it at defiance to pronounce it an usurpa 
 tion in principle and corrupt in practice to 
 propose its overthrow in language that nobody 
 could mistake to invite the people to revolution 
 and blood ? Would not the government of the 
 United States energetically exert its power to 
 punish offences, committed even by a citizen, so 
 intrinsically traitorous ? Would the people al- 
 low an alien thus to interfere in their affairs ? I 
 know that the government would promptly and 
 vigourously punish ; it ought to do so. I know 
 that the people, were they to relish a dismember 
 ment of the union, a destruction of the national 
 government, if suggested and enforced by a 
 jmtive citizen, would rise indignantly against 
 both, if proposed and urged by an alien. On 
 the subject of alienism, there is no nation so 
 tender as the American. Is a man an alien? 
 Does he meddle with politicks ? If so, he is 
 told, and with few exceptions he is universally 
 told, that, being an alien, he has no right to 
 speak, much less to write, on our political con 
 cerns. Native opposition to alien meddling ex 
 tends much further. Emigrants, settled with 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 123 
 
 their families and fortunes for ever, and natural* 
 ized by all the forms of law, are always con 
 sidered, and by all parties treated, as foreign- 
 ers.(n) 
 
 But there is in England much more liberality. 
 Keeping within constitutional bounds and who 
 ought to transcend them ? he might have writ 
 ten as much and as long as he pleased, unre- 
 proached with beinga foreigner. There is, how 
 ever, in extreme cases a material difference be 
 tween an alien who has no claim to protection 
 but that which the common hospitalities of all 
 nations give, and a subject or citizen who of 
 
 (ri) On the subject of foreigners, Paine, in the first part of 
 his Rights of Man, sought to deceive the English people by 
 representations which he knew to be false. " France and 7 
 America bid all comers welcome, and initiate them into all . 
 the rights of citizenship." Two years after this, unceremo- ; 
 nious assertion, France imprisoned him because he was born . 
 in England! As to the constitution and laws of the United,.^ 
 States, they do indeed bid all comers welcome, and initiate 
 them, by naturalization, after five or ten years residence, (*) 
 
 (*) The first naturalization act under the federal govern- 
 in ent required a previous residence of two years. The se 
 cond, that of T798, passed by the federal party, then in 
 power, who found that naturalizing operated against them, 
 required fourteen. The third and last and present act, passed 
 by the rejiublican party in the year 1801, who had just got 
 into power, wanted strength, and knew that eight-tenths 
 of the persons naturalized arrange themselves with the re 
 publican party, and generally vote for their masters, requires 
 Jive years previous residence, but it is so clogged with forms, 
 
124 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 right owes allegiance and enjoys protection. But 
 in either, inflammatory invitations to rebellion 
 are, especially in periods of great agitation, an 
 offence, and the offence is aggravated if com 
 mitted by an alien who has no interest either in 
 the peace or in the integrity of the state in which 
 he sojourns. Whatever, therefore, party and 
 passion, prejudice and malignity, ignorance and 
 injustice may roundly assert, Paine experienced 
 from the British government a mildness, a for 
 bearance, which no man, urging amongst us in 
 the boldest language of sedition a dissolution of 
 the union, a destruction of the national govern- 
 
 into all the rights of native citizenship, but one or two. But 
 what are constitutions and laws when almost universally op 
 posed by obstinate opinion, unconquerable prejudices, and 
 cherished habits ? Birth in the United States would have 
 covered all Paine s faults in his controversy with Deane. 
 LEE S military genius was repressed, even during the revo 
 lutionary war, because it was not native. Montgomery s 
 death befqre Quebec is mentioned only at elections, and then 
 but to operate on the generous feelings of Irishmen in favour 
 
 such as giving two years notice of intention to become citi 
 zens, that the average time of probation may be said to be 
 eight years. Indeed the time of greatest probation, if that 
 mean punishment, is after naturalization, for the only right 
 allowed the naturalized, is that of voting for a native. Natu 
 ralized citizens are to the Americans what the Helots were 
 to the Grecians. There can be no greater slavery no 
 greater punishment for human pride and presumption ; I 
 might add, for disaffection in one s native land. 
 
UFK OF THOMAS PAINE. 125 
 
 ment, and a consequent civil war, could expect 
 from the government of the United States. The 
 first part of his Rights of Man, not a jot less 
 intemperate and rebellious than the second, was 
 published not only with impunity, but without 
 notice from the government. I do not mention 
 the fact in commendation. Paine ought to have 
 been punished. Alarm, if the government was 
 alarmed, is a poor apology. When did fear 
 beget respect ? When did imbecility avert 
 danger ? 
 
 Parliament had been frequently petitioned for 
 a reform in the representation of the house of 
 
 of the republican party. Gates s conquest of Burgoyne was 
 envied, and is now rarely mentioned, because he was an En 
 glishman. General Hamilton, who was born in one of the 
 English West-India islands, came to the colonies when a 
 lad entered into the revolutionary war with zeal became, 
 early in the war, one of the aids of Washington gallantly 
 commanded a regiment at the capture of Cornwallis fought 
 through the revolution was a member of the Convention from 
 which our national constitution originated was the first secre 
 tary of the treasury, or chancellor of the exchequer, under 
 the national government he formed the department and 
 brought order out of chaos he was perhaps the ablest writer 
 and most eloquent man in America; even HAMILTON, one 
 of the most ingenuous and disinterested of mankind, was called, 
 considered, and treated as a foreigner ! His early distinc 
 tions are to be ascribed to the circumstances of the times ; 
 to a poverty of talents. The late president Adams, wh 
 is now in newspaper essays defending or explaining his ad 
 ministration, says, that being a foreigner^ it could not be 
 
126 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 
 
 commons, and the petitions had been amply and 
 ably discussed by the orators of both parties. 
 These petitions were, however, uniformly and 
 necessarily unsuccessful. I say necessarily, for 
 the ministers and their friends knowing, as I 
 hope, that one innovation would, by an unavoid 
 able succession of innovations, lead to a dissolu 
 tion of the government, opposed it, and the chiefs 
 of the petitioning party did not agree as to the 
 nature and extent of reform. Fox, the Demost 
 henes of the Whigs, was vehemently adverse, 
 and in this he was wise, to universal suffrage. 
 Grey, Sheridan, Erskine, and the rest, with per- 
 
 supposed that Hamilton could have American feelings, or 
 be well informed on American affairs ! And yet he was a 
 youth when he came. All that he knew, and he knew 
 as much as man well can know, he learnt during his resi 
 dence amongst us, which was from the first day of his land 
 ing in the colonies. Mr. Gallatin, the present secretary of 
 the treasury, born in Geneva, a gentleman but little if at all 
 inferiour to Hamilton in capacity and acquirements, is, like 
 all the rest, stigmatized as a foreigner by all parties. He 
 was appointed by Mr. Jefferson, who, great as his other faults 
 are, is, I believe, but undoubtedly in a great measure, exempt 
 from this prejudice. Mr. Madison, on his accession to the 
 presidency, fixed on Mr. Gallatin for his secretary of state, 
 but he was driven from an intended nomination of him to th 
 senate by his own party in that body, who threatened, at all 
 hazards, to negative it if made, because he was a FOREIGNER. 
 In this instance the new president was overawed by his party 
 in the senate. He was obliged to nominate Mr. Robert Smith, 
 a native ; a gentleman, indeed, in manners, but, as may tye 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 127 
 
 haps one or two exceptions, coincided \vith him. 
 Their notions of a reform, for they had none of 
 an element that is naturally and necessarily al 
 ways tumultuous, were judiciously limited. But 
 Paine was against all petitioning. He considered 
 petitioning as a sort of playful skirmishing very 
 unlike that bloody battle which he wished to see 
 fought, and to which he was endeavouring to 
 inspirit the people of England. " I confess I have 
 no idea of petitioning for rights. Whatever the 
 rights of the people are, they have a right to 
 
 seen in his diplomatick correspondence, with talents fitting 
 him only for a counting house clerk. The senate readily and 
 unanimously consented to his appointment. Against foreigners 
 by birth and citizens by adoption, universal prejudice has 
 formed an universal conspiracy. The subjoined address, 
 written by me at the suggestion of some of the gentlemen of 
 the meeting by which it was adopted and published, will 
 more fully explain this subject. Its great length may be 
 excused by what may be considered its importance in illus 
 trating our national opinions, national prejudices, national 
 manners, and party management. 
 
 At a respectable meeting, consisting of about five hundred 
 Adopted Republican Citizens of the City of New-York, 
 held at Lyon s Hotel, Mott-street, on Friday Evening, April 
 14, 1809. 
 
 Mr. Archibald Taylor being unanimously called to the chair, 
 and Dr. Stephen Demfiscy appointed Secretary. 
 
 The subjoined address was unanimously adopted, and or 
 dered to be published. 
 
 To the Adopted Republican Citizens of the City New-York. 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS, 
 A long train of disagreeable circumstances have called u* 
 
 together, and induced us to address you upon a subject, which* 
 
128 LIFE OF THOMAS FAIN!. 
 
 them, and none have a right either to withhold 
 them or to grant them."(o) 
 
 If he would not petition, what would he do ? 
 Why, revolt take up arms plunge the nation 
 into civil war batter down the government with 
 cannon. 
 
 But apart from the criminality of the inten 
 tion, what shall we say of his reasoning ? 
 That, as is usual with him, it is very despi 
 cable. "What say you, citizens of the Unit 
 ed States ? If you are wronged, if you are ag 
 grieved, if you but imagine either, do you not 
 petition congress ; do you not petition your state 
 
 for years, we have acutely felt and deeply deplored. Some 
 of you, groaning under oppression in your native land, hare 
 voluntarily emigrated from it, whilst others, more afflicted 
 by despotism and less favoured by propitious events, find your 
 selves in the condition of involuntary exile. All, however, 
 have chosen as a resting place in the journey through life, 
 this " asylum for the oppressed of all nations." Here, per 
 haps mistaking the character of human nature, we pleasingly- 
 anticipated, from those who avow themselves the friends of 
 freedom, exemption from that religious persecution and civil 
 tyranny, whose inexorable reign had forced us from our na 
 tive country. Alas ! how greatly were we mistaken ! how 
 egregionsly have we been disappointed ! Our constitutions and 
 governments are indeed free, but between these admirable 
 institutions and ourselves a tyranny is intervened, much less 
 tolerable than that from which we fled. We are denominated 
 FOREIGNERS and treated as SLAVES. 
 
 (o) Rights of Man, part 2, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 129 
 
 legislatures ? Is it not your right and your duty to 
 do so ? Would you disdain to petition ? Would 
 you, without petitioning, without laying your griev 
 ances before your legislatures, rashly and ruin 
 ously fly to arms ? A maxim like Paine s, as 
 foolish as it is wicked, must be abhorred. A 
 doctrine like his rebel against all law is not 
 nor can it be tolerated by any government or 
 people. If it should be said in his behalf that 
 parliament had often been petitioned in vain, and 
 that petitioning had, therefore, become useless ; 
 then we perceive the mischievous design ; then 
 we perceive the motive, and nothing is necessary 
 
 On this odious subject, we beseech you, fellow citizens, to 
 listen to us. 
 
 The land in which we live, discovered by an illustrious 
 Spaniard, was settled by our free, enterprising, and hardy 
 countrymen. Oppression in church and state, to which they 
 were too proud and enlightened to submit, forced them, as it 
 has compelled you, to leave their native homes, and to seek, 
 in the wilds of America, freedom and repose. Here, where 
 the panther, and man not less ferocious than the panther, 
 held dominion, they settled, resting their weary limbs and pi 
 ously thanking God for their deliverance from the intolerance 
 of the church and the despotism of the state ; here, our no 
 ble and high minded ancestors introducing our principles, our 
 language, our laws, and our habits, laid the foundation of this 
 vast empire; for themselves, for their descendants^ and for their 
 countrymen. This therefore is truly, and we may emphati 
 cally assert, the land of our fathers. Why then are we per 
 secuted ? Why are invidious distinctions malignantly dissenai- 
 
 R 
 
130 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 or should follow but swift and exemplary punish 
 ment. 
 
 That his meaning might not be misunderstood, 
 and I see not how it could be, he illustrates it, 
 in another place, by example. " Much is to be 
 learned from the French constitution. Conquest 
 and tyranny transplanted themselves with Wil 
 liam the conqueror from Normandy into Eng 
 land, and the country is yet disfigured with the 
 marks. May the example of all France contri 
 bute to regenerate the freedom which a province 
 of it destroyed."O) 
 
 What was the example of France ? Revolu- 
 
 natcd and industriously maintained ? Why are we branded 
 with the offensive epithet of FOREIGNERS? 
 
 Fellow Citizens, we are thirty-three years old as a nation. 
 The moment before the Declaration of Independence was 
 promulgated by congress and confirmed by the Provincial 
 Legislatures, every man in the colonies was a subject of the 
 King of England. Then, the Irish, the English, the Scotch, 
 and the native descendants of our countrymen, owed the same 
 allegiance and received the same protection. All, with few 
 exceptions, revolted, and of those exceptions the native de 
 scendants of our ancestors were the most numerous. In the 
 memorable war for independence, (freedom was afterwards 
 to be established and maintained) the Europeans, who con 
 stituted a full moiety of our efficient force, were distinguished 
 for fidelity to the country, zeal in its cause, wisdom in its 
 councils, and intrepidity in the field. Upon the illustrious 
 
 (/O Rights of Man, part I. 
 
UFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 18 1 
 
 tion : a la lanterne I What was her constitu 
 tion, from which much may be learned ? A 
 paper of absurdities ; an instrument that lasted 
 nearly a year ; a charter, unlike Magna Charta, 
 of which we have wisely taken much into our 
 federal constitution ; an unsubstantial production 
 of men trivial in good, but potent in mischief. 
 
 Still the government moved not. Even this 
 avowal of his revolutionary mission from France, 
 neither awakened its vigilance nor brought into 
 action its self-preserving powers. Encouraged 
 by lenity, he proceeded. 
 
 " The bill which the present Mr. Pitt brought 
 
 names of Montgomery, of Gates, and of Mercer, we refleet 
 with proud satisfaction. Irishmen! the gallant MONTGOME 
 RY, who nobly fell in defence of our independence, drew his 
 first breath in the land, exuberant in poets and in orators, 
 whose green fields have for ages been drenched in the blood 
 ef her children, for having made generous efforts to obtain 
 national independence and republican freedom. Englishmen! 
 that accomplished soldier, GATES, the conqueror of Burgoyne, 
 the atchiever of a military event most splendid in our history, 
 and upon which in a great measure the success of the revolu 
 tion depended, was born in that island which gave birth to 
 Shakspeare and to Milton, to Newton and to Locke, to Sydney 
 and to Russel; to many sages and martyrs of freedom, and 
 from which all our correct notions of civil liberty are drawn. 
 Scotchmen ! descendants of a learned and gallant ancestry, 
 MERCER, who bravely sealed with his blood the independence of 
 the United States, was the countryman of Bruce and Wallace, 
 of Home and Burns, of Hume and Robertson. All, at the 
 brilliant period of our history to which we refer, were undistin- 
 
132 ESFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 into parliament some years ago to reform parlia 
 ment, was on the same erroneous principles. 
 The right of reform is in the nation in its ori 
 ginal character, and the constitutional method 
 would be by general convention elected for the 
 purpose. A government on the principles in 
 which constitutional governments, arising out of 
 society, are established, cannot have the right of 
 altering itself. "(#) 
 
 This is one of the best of his uniformly bad 
 arguments. There never was in any nation, 
 nor can there be, a right like that for which 
 
 guished but by merit. All, in case of failure in our revolution 
 ary struggles, had committed the same offence, and incurred 
 the same punishment, for all were subjects of the same mon 
 arch. Then, animated with a noble ardour in a glorious cause, 
 and united by common danger and common advantages, envi 
 ous distinctions between citizens of native and foreign birth, 
 the effect of ignorance or the dictate of personal agrandize- 
 ment, were unknown. Fayette was eulogised Hamilton 
 caressed Pulaski lamented, and Steuben revered. Congress, 
 following the sage example of Peter the Great; cherishing a 
 liberal and enlightened policy ; knowing that national popula 
 tion is national strength, and that literature and the sciences 
 
 (g) Rights of Man, part 2. It was probably this passage 
 that suggested the British Convention, which sat in Scotland 
 the following year, of which Gerald and Margaret were 
 members. The convention was a self-created and unauthor 
 ised body, organized to overawe parliament and accelerate 
 revolution. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINK. 138 
 
 he contends, and which he considers as funda 
 mental and unalienable. 
 
 Amongst a people without government, (if 
 there ever were such a people) and over whom 
 government is to be, a convention, arisitig out of 
 society (if such a people can be called society) 
 would be a prerequisite to just government. 
 But where government is established, there never 
 was, I apprehend, a distinct convention consti 
 tuted for the sole purpose of correcting its abuses : 
 the solecism has been, as yet, too great for the 
 world, and I am pretty certain that it will con 
 tinue to be so. Such a convention would be a 
 
 constitute the solid foundations of national greatness, invited 
 and encouraged emigration. In one of the many express^re 
 and eloquent appeals to reason and to the passions which were 
 issued to an admiring world by that sagacious and illustrious 
 body, more than native immunities were held forth, as incen 
 tives to emigrants. Is the endearing address of congress to 
 the people of Ireland forgotten ? Has faction absorbed has 
 clamour banished revolutionary opinions, and violence stunned 
 revolutionary feelings ? Are we a degenerate race, unworthy 
 of the renown, incapable of appreciating, and unable justly 
 to estimate the virtues of those times ? In that address, the 
 people of Ireland were saluted as brethren of the same prin 
 ciples victims of the same oppression involved in the same 
 ignominy, and co-inheritors of the same benefits, with which 
 the efforts of congress might or might not be crowned. They 
 were represented as identified with revolutionary America in 
 consanguinity, in cause, in feeling, and in interest, and they 
 \vere cordially invited to come and equally partake of the new 
 world. We cheerfully availed ourselves of the invitation ; we 
 
134 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 supreme power, rendering the government at once 
 a preposterous and useless existence. Paine 
 might perhaps have allowed, I think he does in 
 his Rights of Man, that the present government 
 of the United States arose out of society. Now, 
 being established, does it admit of a distinct 
 convention, constituted for the purpose of re 
 forming it ? No, it does not, and he knew it, 
 or he was very ignorant. The government of 
 the United States I include all its branches is 
 its own censor, and it would denominate a con 
 vention, even arising out of society, organized 
 to correct its abuses? to overawe and to controul 
 
 came : we have made permanent settlements in the land of 
 our forefathers ; we admire and we are attached to our repub 
 lican institutions ; we have complied with the injunctions of 
 the constitutions and the laws, and we will support them, 
 upon equal terms, with our lives and our fortunes. But how 
 are we treated ? What has been our reception ? Has good faith 
 been observed ? Have the promises been performed ? Are not 
 we, who are CITIZENS by all the solemnities and obligations 
 of law, treated as aliens stigmatised as foreigners made 
 use of for personal and party purposes, but carefully excluded 
 even from choice in the selection of our rulers ? Can any other 
 definition of slavery be given ? Can human ingenuity devise 
 offence more galling and complete, more humiliating and de 
 grading ? We complain not of the constitutions andhe laws: 
 they are liberal in principle and benign in operation. They 
 enjoin an abjuration of former allegiance: have we not with 
 alacrity complied with the injunction ? They require an oath 
 of fidelity to the union and to the states : devoted in spirit and 
 iji truth to both, we have eagerly taken it. What more is 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 135 
 
 it, a treasonable body, and as such, if not guilty 
 of a base and cowardly desertion of its duty, act 
 against it. Nor is such a convention admissible 
 amongst us for any purpose ^whatsoever. The 
 people cannot with regard either to the national 
 government or to the governments of the respec 
 tive states, establish a convention for any one 
 purpose of government. Operative propositions 
 for altering our constitutions cannot come from 
 the people : they must come from the national or 
 from the state legislatures, or they cannot ap 
 proach us at all. The constitution of the state 
 of New- York was altered, I will not say amend- 
 
 required ? What more can be expected ? The laws require 
 no more. Shall an under-plot, a counter operation, individual 
 jealousy, and pale-faced cabal, frowned upon by the very 
 elements of the state, subvert the law put it at defiance 
 trample it under foot ? The law places upon the same undis- 
 tinguishable level, the citizen of native and the citizen of 
 foreign birth. Are we to be told in this enlightened age that 
 the law is not to govern ; that the essence of well-ordered so 
 ciety is not a government of laws, but a government of the 
 worst passions ? Go back then to a state of anarchy ; tear out 
 the bowels of society ; revert to the rude condition of untutored 
 nature, and let the strongest govern. We have never ceased 
 to cherish and to inculcate those opinions which are most con 
 sonant to the civil and social state. We have remonstrated 
 against distinctions, at once impolitick and unjust, between 
 native and adopted citizens ; but have not our remonstrances 
 and efforts been i vain ? No zeal, no exertions, no services, 
 however disinterested, unremitted, or great, have been suffi 
 cient to shield us from an epithet which, while it poisons the 
 
136 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ed, a few years since, by a convention of the 
 state. But did the convention proceed from the 
 people ? It did not ; it was convened by the 
 state legislature, and if it had not been, there 
 would have been no convention ; the people 
 having no right, and they know it, to form one. 
 But even this convention, so called by the state 
 legislature, was not for reforming the abuses of 
 the government ; that is a very different and a 
 very inadmissible thing. As to our federal con 
 vention, out of which the national government 
 arose, it was not assembled by the national gov 
 ernment, for we had none, nor by the people, 
 
 social and impairs the enjoyment of political life, must ulti^ 
 mately terminate in the ruin of the republican party in this 
 city. We have been incessantly calumniated for having been 
 born in the land which gave birth to the fathers of this coun 
 try. After long and patient suffering under accumulated abuse, 
 from many of the very party which we have zealously and at 
 great expense of labour and money supported, a line of de- 
 markation is at length drawn, too legible to be mistaken, and 
 too offensive not to rouse your feelings. Fellow citizens, you 
 are systematically excluded from the republican committee of 
 nomination, now assembled to name representatives to govern 
 you. Look at the ward committees, read over their names, 
 and lo ! how entirely, and with what caution and care you 
 have been excluded from a vote in the selection of legislators, 
 by whose acts your lives, your liberty, and your property, 
 will be bound ? Is not this the very slavery from which you 
 revolted in your native land? Is it not in kind and degree 
 exactly the despotism from which the colonies, now United 
 States, revolted when under the dominion of the British king ? 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 137 
 
 for they assumed no such power : it was recom 
 mended by a competent authority. I say that 
 we had no national government, for that cannot 
 be government which has not enforcing powers. 
 In whatever light Paine s argument for no 
 doubt he called it an argument be viewed ; whe 
 ther in respect to abstract principles, as to which 
 it is exceedingly absurd, or in reference to prac 
 tice, of which there is not nor can there be any 
 example, it was equally weak and mischievous. 
 It abused the ignorant by deceiving them. It was 
 laughed at or despised by the wise. 
 
 The second part of the Rights of Man is, with 
 
 What greater tyranny can you be under than that which call* 
 upon you to support legislators, in the selection of whom you 
 have no choice ? " Representation and taxation," congress 
 asserted when it severed the ties which had bound the colonies 
 to the parent state, " are inseparable." The maxim was just 
 then ; is it not so now ? If it at any time stood in need of 
 the force of authority "or the persuasions of eloquence, both 
 were lavished upon it in the parliament of England, when 
 England was transporting hither her fleets and armies to 
 repress the welcome risings of a free spirit. " My position,* 
 said the great lord Camden in the house of lords, is this ; I 
 repeat it; I will maintain it to my last hour. Taxation and 
 representation are inseparable. This position is founded on, 
 the laws of nature. It is more ; it is itself an eternal law of 
 nature. For whatever is a man s own, is absolutely his own. 
 No man has a right to take it from him without his consent. 
 Whoever attempts to do it, attempts an injury ; whoever 
 does it, commits a robbery." Alas ! has our republick turned 
 upon itself, and in the short period of twenty years (from the 
 
 S 
 
138 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 unimportant alterations and additions, merely a 
 transcript of the first. Part the second contains 
 chapters 
 
 " Of Society and Civilization, 
 
 " Of the origin of the present old governments, 
 
 " Of the old and new systems of government. 
 
 " On Constitutions :" to which a miscellaneous 
 chapter is added. 
 
 Whoever recurs to the chapter on " Society 
 and Civilization," in the hope or expectation of 
 finding a regular and able disquisition, will be 
 miserably disappointed. A few loose observa 
 tions are thrown together without method, and 
 
 adoption of the constitution) abandoned its own principles ? 
 To you, fellow citizens, the maxim is NOW denied : Taxation 
 and representation are no longer inseparable ! The sam 
 despotism which England attempted to impose upon the 
 United States, is now lorded over you. You will be called 
 upon in the imperious name of the law to contribute your pro 
 portion to the maintenance of government : for you, laws will 
 be made, prescribing punishment and awarding death ; but 
 remember, that the persons, who view you as their slaves, 
 have assiduously excluded you from the selection of the men 
 to whom power so important and of such magnitude is to be 
 confided. Shall we again name the known and alleged cause 
 of this exclusion ? It is said that you are FOREIGNERS ! 
 Yes, you who have complied with all the requisites of the 
 constitution and the laws, and are of right and to all intents 
 and purposes citizens^ are banished, by men calling them 
 selves republicans, from publick confidence ! Countrymen 
 of Emmet and of Tone, of Gerald and of Margaret, of 
 Fletcher and of Skirving, what say you to this ? If all self- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 1 39 
 
 made without either elegance or force. Of the 
 progress from the primitive state to that which is 
 termed the civilized, nothing is said ; and as to 
 the diversified nature of society, the infinite com 
 plexity of its actions and features, and the prin 
 ciples from which they proceed, there is nothing 
 to recompense the labour of perusal ; 110 original 
 ity, no order, no vigour of thought, no grace 
 fulness of expression ; nothing to admire, nor 
 any thing to condemn, but malice of design, and 
 a gross imposition of a formal chapter on inform 
 al nothing. 
 
 His chapter " of the origin of the present old 
 
 respect and national recollections be not extinct if you are 
 not the inglorious descendants of illustrious ancestors if all 
 remembrance of the tyranny which you yourselves have suf 
 fered, and the toils and perils which you have encountered to 
 escape from its deadly grasp, be not removed from the seat 
 of memory if your feelings be not blunted by faction if 
 your hearts are susceptible of a pang, you will rcstsl this 
 systematic effort to reduce you to the condition of slaves. 
 You will be called upon to vote for the republican ticket. 
 Vote not at all. Those who for years have ridiculed many of 
 you and calumniated you all, and who have at length capped 
 the climax of their sneers and their insults by excluding you 
 from the committee of nomination, will solicit, flatter, and 
 cajole you in behalf of a ticket, ivhich they harae Jdndly nomi 
 nated for you! Fellow citizens, WITHHOLD YOUR VOTES! 
 Tell them, if you condescend to listen to their importunities 
 for your suffrages, that you will extend your aid to the repub 
 lican cause when their liberality, equalling the liberality of 
 the laws, will admit you to an equal participation. Resolve 
 
140 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 governments," consists of two pages ! The title 
 is a misnomer, for of the plural he takes no no 
 tice. Its wretched contents are confined to the 
 British government, whose origin he ignorantly 
 refers to the Norman conquest. He either knew 
 nothing of the Saxon principles, which form the 
 basis of it, as well as of our own, or, in order 
 to excite the people to tumult and devote the 
 government to subversion, he chose falsely to 
 represent it as one of conquest only. The Nor 
 man conquest did not annihilate the ancient 
 liberty of England. It did indeed introduce a 
 new line of kings, and it suspended for a time 
 
 to abstain from the polls, and teach your would-be-masters, 
 by mildness of demeanour and firmness of resolution, that 
 resisting tyranny wherever you find it, or from whatever 
 quarter it may come, you will be respected. 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Whereas the just resistance of the colonies, now United 
 States, to the government of England, was founded upon the 
 fact, that the colonies were not represented in the parlia 
 ment, and that therefore they were not bound by its laws ; 
 and whereas our countrymen essentially contributed to the 
 atchievement of our independence ; and whereas we have 
 been systematically excluded from the general republican 
 committee, now assembled, and therefore from all choice in 
 the selection of members who are ,to represent the city of 
 New-York in the assembly of the^ sfSlfe Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, unanimously. That repelling with just indigna 
 tion a distinction made between republican citizens of the 
 same state, we will not support a ticket, in the formation of 
 which we have been excluded from any participation. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. HI 
 
 its freedom. But liberty afterwards shone forth 
 with more than its ancient Saxon splendour. 
 The great charter was succeeded by the treason 
 law of Edward the III. the principal provision of 
 which has been wisely incorporated into our fed 
 eral constitution. And these and other glorious 
 acts were again followed by those substantial 
 ones of freedom, which were passed at the set 
 tlement of William the HI. If, therefore, his 
 anomalous thoughts, his worthless remarks, were 
 applicable to England at the period of the Nor 
 man conquest, subsequent events had superceded 
 and rendered them inapplicable and impertinent ^ 
 when he wrote them. But his object was not to 
 reason : it was to misrepresent ; it was to involve 
 the people in misery, the government in ruin. 
 
 On " the old and new systems of govern 
 ments," he is yet more seditious, but not more 
 argumentative. The new differs from the old in 
 the difference, in his opinion, between represent 
 ative and hereditary functions. If he meant that 
 a representative executive in contradistinction to 
 
 Resolved, unanimously. That 500 copies of the above ad 
 dress and resolution be printed in hand bills, for the benefit of 
 our fellow republican adopted citizens. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the said address and resolu 
 tions be published in the American Citizen. 
 
 ARCHIBALD TAYLOR, Chairman. 
 S. JDEMPSEY, Secretary. 
 
142 UFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 one that is hereditary, is a branch of government 
 altogether new, what shall we say of his igno 
 rance ? Had he no acquaintance with the his 
 tories of those nations, ancient and modern, 
 over which executives, no matter by what name 
 called, whether kings or emperours, consuls or 
 dictators, had been elected . ? Was he ignorant 
 of their perpetual turbulence ; of the many re 
 volutions which their elections occasioned ; of the 
 oceans of blood which were shed, for no purpose 
 but that of capricious and useless change ? But 
 these elections were made by a few ; by a se 
 nate ; by a diet ; by a cabal ; not by the people. 
 Indeed ! Does then the mere extension of a fun 
 damental principle of a government constitute a 
 new principle and a new government ? I wish 
 too to know what nation, when his rebellious 
 Rights of Man burst upon the world, was in pos 
 session of this new government. The United 
 States ? Not at all ; and yet he alluded to the 
 United States, and to no other nation, for then 
 France had not cut off the head of her monarch, 
 nor overturned her government, nor plundered 
 her churches, nor covered the face of her soil 
 with blood. The constitution of the United 
 States peremptorily denies to the people, abso 
 lutely withholds from them, the right of electing 
 their president; and it does so undoubtedly upon 
 the presumption, which is the fact, that they 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINS. 143 
 
 are incompetent to a wise choice. If this be noC 
 the reason, then the right is wantonly and tyran 
 nically withheld. The president, by the consti 
 tution, is to be chosen by electors, an interme 
 diate aristocratical body, thrust in between the 
 president and the people, who may indeed be 
 elected by the people, or be chosen by the state 
 legislatures, as the state legislatures see fit. This 
 was the principle when the anarchist w 7 rote, but 
 what is the practice to which it has since been 
 reduced by Mr. Jefferson, who is considered by 
 his party as the quintessence of all republicanism ; 
 as the very marrow of the new system ? Consi 
 dering the constitutional relation of the people to 
 the electors, completely aristocratical as the pro 
 cess of the election is, as too near, he indirectly, 
 but all powerfully, nominates his successor ; a 
 caucus of members of congress is convened at his 
 nod, and managed by him ; it echoes his nomi 
 nation ; the people clap their hands and shout for 
 republicanism, and the electors, awed by the 
 popular will, which always obeys the mandate of 
 the president, are forced, by their love of popu 
 larity, by considerations of office, if they have 
 any, by present expectations and future pros 
 pects, to vote for the successor nominated by the 
 expiring president. Is this election ? Is this the " 
 new system ? Is it not as old as intrigue, and is y 
 not intrigue as old as politicks ? If this be not 
 
144 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 monarchy in fact, with hypocrisy and abominable 
 delusion added to it, then a right angle is a 
 square. 
 
 And yet in this very chapter, contrasting the 
 hereditary and representative systems, Paine 
 says : " but the case is, that the representative 
 system diffuses such a body of knowledge 
 throughout a nation, on the subject of govern 
 ment, as to explode ignorance a?id preclude impo 
 sition ! The craft of courts cannot be acted on 
 that ground : there is no place for mystery ; no 
 where for it to be begun." 
 
 How heartily our politicians must laugh at his 
 ignorance, or applaud his imposition ! 
 
 I hazard nothing in remarking, unless it be ha 
 zardous to state the truth, that, however excel 
 lent the system of our government may be in 
 theory, the whole operation of our system of po 
 liticks in practice, with the chiefs who lead the 
 two parties, and who by hook or by crook govern 
 the nation, is one of mystery, craft, and imposi 
 tion. In these articles, which abound amongst 
 us, no nation can vie with the United ^States. 
 That I hold to be impossible. 
 
 His chapter " on constitutions," is a tedious 
 history of the rise, progress, and final adoption 
 of our national constitution. Upon this he builds 
 an argument which is at war with fact. The 
 constitution, he gravely and didactically remarks, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 145 
 
 is a law to the government, as the statutes of the 
 government are laws to the people. I grant that 
 it is so in theory, and that it cannot be so in 
 practice. But he affirms that the constitution 
 cannot be broken by the government, as in all 
 disputed points, being printed, it can be produced 
 to settle them. Poor iimo cent man ! He makes 
 this philosophical assertion in the hope of con 
 vincing the people of England, that they would 
 be greatly advantaged by a revolution ; by de 
 stroying their government, and, if either com 
 motion or usurpation would permit, by making a 
 paper constitution, which, being a law to the 
 government as in the United States, the govern 
 ment could not violate. 
 
 How many instances have we of a total disre- 
 gard by congress of the principles, the spirit, and 
 the letter of the constitution ? How often has 
 this law been violated ? The chiefs of the two 
 parties do indeed sometimes read it, although, 
 generally speaking, they do not read much ; but 
 having different politicp, different expectations, 
 different designs, they expound it differently. 
 To a federalist, it means one thing ; to a repub 
 lican, another, exactly the reverse ; and both 
 bend it and break it at pleasure to suit their pur 
 poses. Neither party respects it when it is in 
 their way. It has now, in the twenty-second 
 year of its age, been oftener infracted than the 
 
 T 
 
H6 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 English bill of rights has during a period of more 
 than one hundred years. The people of England 
 have another advantage over us. Opposed to all 
 violations of that inestimable act, they have the 
 merit of not being involved in the guilt of its 
 transgression. But when the federal majority in 
 congress, to answer some party purpose, violate 
 it, and they have often/done so, the federal par 
 ty, always folio wing their leaders, commend and 
 support the violation ; and when, by ever-fluc 
 tuating popular will, power shifts, and the repub 
 lican majority in congress tear the paper constitu 
 tion to tatters-) to -very rags r the republican party, 
 also following their leaders in atrocious acts, and 
 leading them, when, sometimes, they wish not 
 to commit them, ring peals of joy throughout the 
 country^ Some advantage has been gained over 
 the opposite party, and , as the constitution is al 
 ways out of the question in party struggles, that 
 is subject enough for triumph. In party marches 
 and counter-marches, skirmishes and battles, the 
 constitution is no impediment in the way of party 
 victory and despotism. 
 
 The miscellaneous chapter was peculiarly in 
 tended to make the soldiery and the poor eager 
 for a revolution, by holding out to them suitable 
 rewards. It proposes, on the supposition of a 
 new government being established, an augment 
 ation of the pay of the army a national gift to 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 147 
 
 new married people a premium to parents for 
 children a fund for the poor and the aged for 
 men out of work, and for the education of a mil 
 lion and a half of children. Did we not know 
 that his object was to assort and to organize all 
 the means of national destruction, we might dig 
 nify his project with the epithet of chimerical. 
 
 He " takes it for granted," in another part of 
 the chapter,(r) " that an alliance may be formed 
 between England, France, and America, and 
 that the national expenses of France and England 
 may consequently be lessened. The same fleets 
 and armies will no longer be necessary to either, 
 and the reduction may be made ship for ship on 
 each side. Though, he adds, I have no direct. 
 authority on the part of America, I have good 
 reason to conclude that she is disposed to enter 
 into a consideration of such a measure, provided 
 that the governments with which she might ally 
 acted as national governments, and not as courts 
 enveloped in intrigue and mystery." 
 
 No doubt France would be pleased not only 
 with the reduction but with the destruction of the 
 
 (r) When the Rights of Man reached Lewes, where Paine v 
 married Miss Ollive, the women, as with one voice, said : 
 ** Od rot im, let im come ear if he dast, an we ll tell im what 
 the rights of ivomen is : we ll toss im in a blanket and ring 
 fan out o Lewes wi our frying pans." 
 
t 
 148 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 British fleet. There is not a jacobin either in 
 Europe or in the United States that does not 
 sigh for the ruin of that force, that proud and 
 triumphant force, which is the safety of the 
 world against the ambition and tyranny of Na 
 poleon. Something there is unaccountably and 
 unutterably silly in the proposition. It contem 
 plates a national government ; a government 
 formed according to the atheistical principles 9f 
 the desolaters of France, upon the destruction of 
 the old, experienced, solid, and free government 
 of England. If, which God forbid, England 
 should ever have the misfortune to be a repub- 
 lick, still a fleet, with all its present rights and 
 privileges, and even its abuses ; all its spirit, all 
 its gallantry, and all its success, would be essen 
 tial to the maintenance of what I hope will be 
 eternal in duration, her NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 But as to the alliance, which America would 
 be " willing to enter into with England, provided 
 she had a national government," he had not, for 
 sooth, direct authority from the United States 
 to make a specifick proposition. No, I think 
 not, nor any indirect authority either, though 
 he wished to make the people of England be 
 lieve, that, being a man of great consequence, 
 he had some sort of a mission, even from the 
 United States, to revolutionize England, and, if 
 successful, then to propose an alliance with the 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 149 
 
 national government. Of all his impostures and 
 vanities, all his presumptions on ignorance of his 
 character, this is the greatest. No direct autho 
 rity from a government which had found itself 
 obliged to dismiss him from a clerkship for a 
 breach of office ! 
 
 Wretched as Paine s Common Sense is in point 
 of literary merit, his Rights of Man, a pandect of 
 anarchy, is still its iftferiour. Home Tooke, it 
 was said, corrected its grammatical errours, but 
 every page of the work refutes the assertion. He 
 could not have sanctioned with his name such 
 sentences as the following, which occur in almost 
 every page of the book. 
 
 " He introduced his proposal to the doctor by 
 letter, which is now in the hands. of Mr. Beaumar- 
 chais in Paris, stating, that, as the Americans 
 had dismissed their king, that they w r ould want 
 another." Rights of Man, part 1. 
 
 " In France aristocracy had one feature less 
 in its countenance than what it had in some other 
 countries." Rights of Man, part 1. 
 
 " He did not, it is true, threaten to go over 
 and conquer America, but only with great digni 
 ty proposed, that, if his offer was not accepted, 
 that an acknowledgment of about 30,0001. might 
 be made to him." Part 1. 
 
 " It may therefore be of service to Mr. Burke s 
 doctrine to make this story known, and to in- 
 
* 
 150 LI FE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 form him, that, in case of that natural extinction 
 to which all nobility is subject, that kings may 
 be had again from Normandy." Part 1 . 
 
 " The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf be 
 fore the noble of nature, and in the few instances 
 in whom nature, as by a miracle, has survived in 
 aristocracy, those men despise it." Part 1. 
 
 " Several other reasons contributed to produce 
 this determination. I wished to know the manner 
 in which a work, written in a style of thinking 
 different to what had been customary in England, 
 would be received before I proceeded further." 
 Part 2. 
 
 " The authority of the present assembly is dif 
 ferent to what the authority of future assemblies 
 will be." Part 1. 
 
 In the few instances in which he was forcible 
 and elegant, it was the force and elegance of na 
 ture, irresistibly making their way through an 
 uncultivated and undisciplined mind. 
 
 Paine, upon the hypothesis that his motive as 
 to England was not revengeful, which is not 
 probable, and that he had not an understanding 
 with the French revolutionists, which I do not 
 believe, was one of those robustious anarchists 
 who are for tearing every thing up by the roots 
 which they do not like ; for prostrating govern 
 ment by violence ; for inflicting upon a nation 
 the heaviest calamities, without considering the 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 151 
 
 r fid. They who stir up a nation to revolt with a 
 view to change its form of government, should 
 not only have one to substitute which can and 
 will obtain, but they should be sure that it is in 
 comparably better than that which is to be sub 
 verted. And herein they always assume an 
 awful responsibility, for what can assure them 
 but the fact ? A revolution is a positive, a tre 
 mendous evil ; whefeas the object of it is a con 
 tingent, and, even if successful, a very problem 
 atical good. And when all is destroyed when 
 the tranquil operations of systematized society 
 are interrupted by violence when nothing is 
 heard but the frightful howl of commotion no 
 thing seen but savage man embruing his hands in 
 human blood when ignorance and passion are 
 let loose to tyrannize and to prey, and revolu 
 tionary factions, never seeking the common 
 good, stop at no means, however base and cruel, 
 to aggrandize themselves ; is it certain that the 
 government, the issue of scenes so unnatural, so 
 shocking, would be the one which was originally 
 intended ? Look at France look at the scenes 
 of confiscation and carnage through which she 
 has passed, if you have a heart stout enough to 
 gaze upon them, and then reflect upon the sort 
 of government in which those scenes of horrour 
 have finally terminated ! Would the means be 
 milder in England, the end less deplorable ? I 
 
152 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 think not ; both would be much the same. But 
 in case of a revolution, and the final establish 
 ment of what is called a representative repub- 
 lick, like ours, for example, of what advantage 
 could it be to England ? It would be an errour 
 in fact as well as in argument to consider the re 
 lative condition of England and France now, as 
 the relative condition of England and France at 
 the usurpation of Cromwell. If we go a little 
 further back, in order to make ourselves some 
 what more familiar with what has been, we may 
 say, that the days of Azincour and Cressy are 
 passed : Shakspeare does, indeed, sometimes 
 remind us of them, else they would be forgotten. 
 Taking circumstances then as they are, I think 
 that if England were a republick like ours, 
 England would be undone : she would be an 
 adjunct of France in a few years ; she could not 
 avoid being so. France cannot indeed conquer 
 . her, but universal suffrage would. The people, 
 in whose hands the votes of the nation would be 
 placed, and to whose blind direction the power 
 of the nation would be confided, feel, but they 
 do not think ; they cannot, I mean, think as is 
 necessary to save a nation. War brings distress 
 along with it even upon England, opulent and 
 powerful as she is. Imagine Manchester, Bir 
 mingham, Sheffield, &c. and the chief part of the 
 immense population of London, going to the polls 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 153 
 
 of election, pressed by poverty, operated upon by 
 all the arts of demagogues out of power, who 
 want to get in, and suffering, perhaps, the pains 
 of hunger : Need we ask what the consequences 
 would be ? New men would come into the go 
 vernment ; peace must be made ; even a peace 
 which would be the forerunner of national sub 
 jugation. France would know that this would 
 be unavoidable ; she would know that there 
 could be no escape for England but to a govern 
 ment like that which now preserves her indepen 
 dence, her power, and her grandeur. 
 
 I am not drawing from fancy, but from life. 
 What I have said of England in a supposed case 
 applies to us in a real one. It w r ould be foreign 
 from my purpose to inquire into the cause of our 
 late memorable embargo, but it was suspected 
 that, in advising it, Mr. Jefferson was actuated 
 by a strong desire to co-operate with France in 
 the commercial warfare W 7 hich her tyrant had 
 waged against England. I was of this opinion 
 then ; I am so still, and there is conclusive 
 circumstantial evidence that the opinion is 
 correct. Suppose, however, that which is not 
 true, that the cause for the embargo was a suffi 
 cient one ; that the measure was forced upon us 
 by imperious circumstances ; that the honour of 
 the country was grossly insulted, and her rights 
 wantonly and flagitiously infringed by England, 
 
 u 
 
154 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 as was alleged ; what would follow ? Why, 
 that as the embargo was the most coercive and 
 vindictive measure to which we could resort, not 
 being in a condition to commence offensive war 
 with muskets, cannon, &c. we were called upon 
 by every consideration of duty to support it until 
 it had righted all our wrongs and closed up the 
 breaches which had been made in our honour. 
 But, easy as the people generally are in their 
 circumstances, the embargo occasioned very 
 great distress, and after suffering it a year, and 
 the people, with their inii-versal suffrage, came to 
 the polls of the election, the government found 
 that they must either remove the embargo or the 
 people \vould remove them. No one could mis 
 take the choice that would be made. The em 
 bargo was abandoned. 
 
 And yet the distress, compared with the dis 
 tress which war would occasion, was nothing. 
 What then should even we do with our universal 
 suffrage in case of war? If the war were at 
 home, as in the revolution ; in our harbours, in 
 our streets, upon our farms, we might do, per- 
 haps % well enough with it, (Y) for as the bayonet 
 
 (.7) It would be curious enough to see an army voting, and 
 the vote would, perhaps, be still more curious. The men 
 would vote as the officers would wish, and the officers would 
 wish as the government desired. Or, it may be, that the offi 
 cers and the men would turn out the government. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 155 
 
 would be at our breasts, safety, not suffrage, not 
 party, nor party triumphs, nor party power and 
 emolument, would be the only consideration. 
 But if it were a war carried on abroad, increas 
 ing expenses and occasioning distress at home, 
 universal suffrage, managed by our very expert 
 leaders, would speedily bring it to an issue, but 
 whether for the reputation and safety of the 
 country or not, whether with the government 
 with which it was commenced, are problems 
 which I will not attempt to solve. 
 
 And pray what in England would be the ob 
 ject of universal suffrage ? Without it, the 
 wisdom of England, generally speaking, is in 
 parliament ; with it, the wisdom of the United 
 States is out of Congress. Virginia, indeed, sends 
 a few able men to congress, and perhaps the rea 
 son is, because universal suffrage is there consi 
 dered anarchial in theory, and not allowed in 
 practice. The honest, the enlightened, the patri- 
 otick, and the eloquent Mr. John Randolph, 
 proudly boasts, and well he may, that, in oppo 
 sition to the wishes of Mr. Jefferson, to whose 
 administration he was opposed, and with the in 
 fluence and efforts of the government against 
 him, the freeholders of his district returned him 
 to congress. Here and there, out of Virginia, 
 an able man, as it were by accident, is elected, 
 but the chances are a million to one against him. 
 
156 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 If in the city of New- York, where universal 
 suffrage is in the/;/// tide of successful experiment; 
 where those govern who cannot govern them 
 selves, and who ought every where to be go 
 verned, a statesman should ever be elected, it 
 will be by surprizing the popular will. Universal 
 suffrage has a mortal aversion from talents. It 
 looks to itself for representatives. If in its dis 
 trict shoemakers, for instance, are the most nu 
 merous class, every thing being decided by vote, 
 a shoemaker, a very honest kind of a man no 
 doubt, is transferred from his knife and last to 
 the hall of legislation. No nation can be govern 
 ed by well meaning but incapable men. Eng 
 land can only be ruined by presumptuous igno 
 rance at the head of her affairs. 
 
 Government was at length roused to a sense of 
 what was due to its own dignity, and to the 
 safety and tranquillity of the kingdom. On the 
 21st of May, 1792, the king issued a proclama 
 tion for suppressing " wicked and seditious publi 
 cations ;" alluding to but not naming the Rights 
 of Man. On the same day the attorney-general 
 commenced a prosecution against Paine as au 
 thor of the work. An action had been previous 
 ly commenced against Jordan the publisher of it, 
 but as he had made concessions which were sa 
 tisfactory to the government, the prosecution was 
 discontinued. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 157 
 
 The king s proclamation was an act of graci- 
 ousness. The work was clearly seditious in the 
 malice of intention as well as in the criminality 
 of object. As thousands of persons besides the 
 booksellers had industriously published it, the 
 law, if the administrators of it had been vindict 
 ively inclined, had full scope for operation. The 
 proclamation notified the kingdom of the diaboli 
 cal intentions of the author, the tendency of his 
 demoralizing work, and the penalties which all 
 publishers of it incurred of those admirable laws, 
 not that were made for the case, but those 
 ancient and free laws which the United States 
 have adopted for the government of the press. 
 It was therefore preventive, not retributive jus 
 tice. MACKINTOSH had published, as he now 
 doubtless regrets, his Vindicice Gallicce, an ela 
 borate and eloquent defence of the French revo 
 lution ; of all its excesses, all its robberies and 
 butcheries, in reply to Mr. Burke s Reflections. 
 He too considered the British government, no 
 doubt truly, as having abused its constitutional 
 trust, but he was an advocate of a tranquil and 
 constitutional reform ; not of a dissolution of the 
 state, not of revolution, not of blood. No legal 
 impediments, therefore, were thrown in the way 
 of the publication of his book, nor any legal 
 animadversions pronounced upon it, for in no 
 nation is the press allowed to go greater lengths 
 
158 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 than in England. Fox, controverting in parlia 
 ment in moments of reformation-zeal, some of 
 the maxims of Mr. Burke, quoted Mackintosh s 
 defence in a strain of the finest eulogium. This 
 enlightened friend of enlightened and durable 
 freedom, speaking, however, of the Rights of 
 Man in terms of indignant contempt, called it, 
 as it really was, a libel(t) on the constitution. 
 The proclamation, view it in whatever light we 
 may, was intended to render unnecessary the 
 operation of the laws, by preventing the commis 
 sion of offences against them, and to preserve the 
 lives, the liberty, and the property of the subjects, 
 by averting that revolution which was the object 
 of Paine. 
 
 Loyal associations now sprung up to counteract 
 the revolutionary efforts of the revolution clubs. 
 Passion met passion until, in the struggle, on the 
 one side for a dissolution of the government, on 
 the other for its existence, the nation became 
 more and more agitated. In this state of things, 
 Paine published, about August, 1792, his " Ad 
 dress to the Addressers." This is a miserable 
 lampoon on the orators in parliament who had 
 spoken on the side of the king s proclamation, as 
 well as on those placemen into whose offices 
 
 (/) Paine s Address to the Addressers. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 159 
 
 Paine would willingly have crept before he left 
 England, in the year 1 774. He states that a pro 
 secution had been commenced against him de 
 clares the incompetency of &jury to decide on a 
 work so recondite and important as the Rights of 
 Man talks quite philosophically of the propriety 
 of taking the sense of the natio?i upon it by polling 
 each man pronounces the laws in relation to the 
 press as fundamentally bad, the administration of 
 them by the courts as notoriously corrupt, and 
 denies that the Rights of Man is seditious, for 
 that it " contains a plan for augmenting the pay 
 of the soldiers, and meliorating the condition of 
 the poor!" While he was preparing this stuff 
 for the press, he published letters to the chairmen 
 of several of the meetings which were convened 
 to compliment the king on his proclamation. 
 He was now evidently awed by the vigour of the 
 government and the patriotick spirit of the na 
 tion. All over England he was carried about in 
 effigy with a pair of stays under his arm, and 
 the populace, staymakers and all, alternately 
 laughed and swore at the impudent attempts of a 
 staymaker to destroy their government. 
 
 His trial was to come on in the following De 
 cember. Whilst he foresaw and no doubt dread^ 
 ed the imprisonment which awaited him, a 
 French deputation announced to him in London, 
 in the preceding September, that the department 
 
160 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 of Calais had elected him a member of the Na 
 tional Convention. This was doubly grateful ; 
 grateful in the escape which it afforded him from 
 a just punishment, without the imputation of 
 cowardice ; grateful in the honour which bloody 
 anarchists had conferred upon him by electing him 
 a member of their order. Without delay he 
 proceeded to Dover, where a custom-house officer 
 examined his baggage, and finally let him pass. 
 He had not, however, sailed from Dover for 
 Calais more than twenty minutes, when an order 
 was received from the government to detain him. 
 He states his detention and examination at Dover 
 in a letter to Mr. Dundas, dated Calais, Septem 
 ber 15, 1792. 
 
 On the 25th of September, he published a letter 
 addressed to the people of France, in which, sa 
 luting them as " fellow citizens," as they certain 
 ly were, he says : " I receive with affectionate 
 gratitude the honour which the late National 
 Assembly has conferred upon me by adopting 
 me a citizen of France, and the additional honour 
 of being elected by my fellow citizens a member 
 
 /of the National Convention." He is aware 
 that the " moment of any great change, is 
 unavoidably a moment of terrour and con- 
 
 ,/ fusion." This terrour and confusion, he had, 
 however, endeavoured to excite in England. 
 The world has reason to be thankful that 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 161 
 
 he did not succeed. He encourages the revo 
 lutionists of France to persevere by all the argu 
 ments which he could draw from his combustible 
 magazine. A new constitution, he observes, 
 must be formed, in which the "bagatelles of 
 monarchy, royalty, regency, and hereditary suc 
 cession shall be exposed." Another new consti 
 tution has since been formed, in which the tyrant 
 who now governs France has taken to himself all 
 those " bagatelles /" This is the natural effect 
 of revolution ; of " terrour and confusion." A ! 
 mild and wholesome reform of the government 
 would have prevented the confiscations, the pro 
 scriptions, and the murders which have been 
 committed; preserved the peace of the world, 
 and left France with much of freedom, of which 
 she has nothing now. 
 
 Notwithstanding his escape from England, and 
 his election to the National Convention by his 
 fellow citizens of France, his trial, as if present, 
 came on at Guildhall, London, December 18, 
 1792, before Lord Kenyon and a special jury. 
 Mr. Percival, now chancellor of the exchequer, 
 opened the information. Paine was tried for 
 libellous passages contained in the Rights of Man, 
 part second. The attorney-general, Mr. Mac- 
 donald, carelessly, and therefore with little abili 
 ty, opened the case to the jury. 
 
162 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 A circumstance had, however, occurred, of 
 which he dexterously and powerfully availed 
 himself. Paine had foolishly written a private 
 letter to the attorney-general, dated "Paris, llth 
 November, first year of the republick," which 
 he read to the jury. In this letter he says : 
 " the time, sir, is becoming too serious to play 
 with court prosecutions and sport with national 
 rights. The terrible examples that have taken 
 place here upon men who less than a year ago 
 thought themselves as secure as any prosecuting 
 judge, jury, or attorney-general can now do in 
 England, ought to have some weight with men 
 in your situation. 
 
 " That the government of England is as great 
 if not the greatest perfection of fraud and cor 
 ruption that ever took place since governments 
 began, is what you cannot be a stranger to, un 
 less the constant habit of seeing it has blinded 
 your senses, 
 
 " Is it possible that you or I can believe, or 
 that reason can make any other man believe, 
 that the capacity of such a man as Mr. Guelph, 
 or any of his profligate sons, is necessary to the 
 government of a nation ?" 
 
 If the atrocious libel itself, coupled with the 
 situation of France, did not fire the jury with 
 indignation, this insolent letter must have done 
 ,so. The terrible examples of France, which 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 163 
 
 he plainly threatened should be brought home 
 to England, could not but alarm men of feeling 
 and reflection. 
 
 In behalf of Paine, Mr. Erskine amused the ** 
 court with an ingenious and eloquent speech. 
 The attorney-general rose to reply, but the jury 
 told him that it was unnecessary, and instantly 
 returned a verdict of GUILTY. 
 
 As the testimony given by Mr. Chapman upon 
 the trial illustrates the character of Paine, I will 
 here introduce it. 
 
 Mr. Chapman, whom Paine calls " an honest 
 man,"( ? /) was the printer of the second part of 
 the Rights of Man. When a few sheets were 
 printed, concluding from the sale of the first part 
 that he could gain something by purchasing the 
 second, he offered Paine a thousand pounds for 
 the copy-right. But when he had printed to page 
 112, finding that it was highly seditious, he 
 declined to have any thing more to do with it, 
 and returned to its author the remainder of his 
 copy. Paine insinuates(V) that the offer to 
 purchase came in fact from the minister through 
 Chapman ; that Chapman, contrary to all the 
 rules of printing, had shown the manuscript to 
 
 () Appendix to the Rights of Man, pavt . 
 (t) Appendix. 
 
164 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Mr. Pitt, and that having ascertained that the 
 work could not be suppressed by purchase, Mr. 
 Pitt had persuaded Chapman to print no more of 
 it. All this accords very well with the vanity 
 of Paine. The reader will now understand 
 Chapman s testimony, which I quote from the 
 London edition, 1793, of the trial. 
 
 " THOMAS CHAPMAN sworn. 
 Examined by Mr. Solicitor General. 
 
 ft. What business are you ? 
 
 A. A printer, sir. 
 
 Q. Do you know the defendant, Thomas 
 Paine ? 
 
 A. I do, sir. 
 
 ft. Upon what occasion did you become ac 
 quainted with him ? 
 
 A. Upon the recommendation of Mr. Thomas 
 Christie. 
 
 ft. For what purpose was Mr. Paine introduc 
 ed to you, or you to him ? 
 
 A. I was introduced by Mr. Christie to Mr, 
 Paine, as a printer, to print some book he had. 
 
 ft. You were introduced by Mr. Christie to Mr, 
 Paine to print some book ? 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 ft. When was that introduction ? 
 
 A. I cannot exactly remember ; it was the be 
 ginning of the last year. 
 
 ft. The year 1791 ? 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 165 
 
 A. I think it was. 
 
 Q. Do you remember what book it was that 
 you say Mr. Paine had ? 
 
 A. It was the first part of the Rights of Man. 
 
 ft. Are you a publisher as well as a printer ? 
 
 A. I am not, sir ; I am merely a printer. 
 
 Q. Did you print the first part of the Rights of 
 Man? 
 
 A. I did, Sir. 
 
 ft. Who was the selling bookseller ? 
 
 A. Mr. Jordan, of Fleet-street. 
 
 ft. Had you any intercourse with Jordan and 
 Paine upon that book ? 
 
 A. I had, sir. 
 
 ft. What was that intercourse relative to ? 
 
 A. Merely relative to the manner of publishing 
 the book. 
 
 ft. Did Jordan in fact publish the book ? 
 
 A. He did, sir. 
 
 ft. Had you any intercourse with Mr. Paine 
 relative to printing this book which I have in my 
 hand ? (shewing the book to Mr. Chapman.) 
 
 A. The first edition of this book I had, sir ; I 
 don t conceive I printed this edition, but the first 
 edition I did the first part of the Rights of Man 
 I printed. 
 
 ft. Is this the first or second part ? 
 
 A. This is the second part. 
 
 ft. Look at that. 
 
166 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 A. I printed a part of the second parf. 
 
 Mr. Erskine. ft. Do you mean that very 
 book, can you swear to that book ? 
 
 A. I cannot, sir. 
 
 Mr. Solicitor General. ft. Then this second 
 part of the Rights of Man, you say you printed a 
 part of it ? 
 
 A. A part of it ?. 
 
 ft. Will you inform my lord and the jury what 
 part of it you did print ? 
 
 A. I printed as far as page 112, signature H. 
 
 ft. By signature H, you mean that letter Hat 
 the bottom of the page ? 
 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 ft. Now upon whose employment did you print 
 so much of the second part of the Rights of 
 Man? 
 
 A. Mr. Paine s employment. 
 
 ft. Did you, Mr. Chapman, print the rest of the 
 work, from letter H to the conclusion of it ? 
 
 A. I had the copy in my possession of it so far 
 as 146. 
 
 ft. What do you mean by the copy ? 
 
 A. The manuscript, sir ; I had the manuscript 
 as far as 146. 
 
 ft. Did you stop at 1 12, signature H. 
 
 A. I stopped at 112, but my people had com 
 posed to page 146, which was not printed by me. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 167 
 
 Q. Now had you any conversation with Mr. 
 Paine relative to printing the remainder of the 
 work ? 
 
 A. I had. 
 
 Q. And if you had, what was that conversa 
 tion ? 
 
 A. When I had finished page 112, or sheet H 9 
 the proof sheet / came into nvy hands. 
 
 Court. When you printed <7, you say / came 
 into your hands ? 
 
 A. No, H. 
 
 Q. And then the proof sheet I came into your 
 hands ? 
 
 A. The proof sheet J upon examining sheet 
 7, there was a part which, in my weak judgment, 
 appeared of a dangerous tendency ; I, therefore, 
 immediately concluded in my mind not to pro 
 ceed any further. Accordingly, in determining 
 not to proceed in the work, I wrote a short note 
 to Mr. Paine, about 2 o clock in the afternoon, 
 determining to send the letter with the copy the 
 following morning. I felt a degree of reluctance 
 and unpleasantness in my own mind, from the 
 circumstance of Mr. Paine s civilities, that I had 
 received, as a gentleman and my employer ; and 
 I was fearful I should not have courage in the 
 morning to deliver up his copy ; but a circum 
 stance occurred in the course of the day that en 
 abled me to do jit with pleasure to myself. 
 
168 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Q. Was Mr. Paine present when that circum 
 stance happened ? 
 
 A. He was and as it may exculpate me, in 
 the eyes of the court, from a charge Mr. Paine 
 thought proper to enter, in his appendix, against 
 me as a printer, I should esteem it as a favour of 
 the court if they will suffer me to mention the 
 circumstance. 
 
 Court. Certainly. 
 
 A. That very day at six o clock Mr. Paine 
 called upon me, 
 
 Q. What day was that ? 
 
 A. I have a copy of my letter dated 1 7th of Ja 
 nuary,^) so he must have called upon me on 
 the 16th; Mr. Paine called upon me, and, which 
 was unusual with him, he was rather intoxicated 
 
 (w) SIR, January 17, 1792. 
 
 I am much obliged by the favour of your printing, and 
 should have esteemed myself happy in the expectation of your 
 future interest and friendship ; but there appear so many ob 
 servations in the sheet (I) directly personal against the king 
 and government, that I feel myself under the necessity of re 
 questing you will get the remaining sheets printed at another 
 office. Sheet (H) I am willing to finish, but no farther on any 
 account. I beg, therefore, sir, to inclose the remaining part 
 ef the copy ; 
 
 And am, sir, 
 
 Your obliged humble servant, 
 
 T. CHAPMAN, 
 T. Paine, Esq, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 169 
 
 with liquor ; he had been dining with Mr. John 
 son, I believe, in St. Paul s Church yard, accord 
 ing to his own account ; being intoxicated, he 
 introduced his favourite topic and subject, upon 
 which we unfortunately differed, namely reli 
 gion-) a favourite topic with him when he is in 
 toxicated. I am sorry to mention the circum 
 stance, only as it may justify me in the eyes of 
 the public, as his false insinuation in his Appendix 
 respecting his copy has done me material injury 
 in my profession. The subject of debate ran high, 
 and Mr. Paine proceeded in his argument, till ifc 
 came at length to personal abuse both to myself 
 and Mrs. Chapman. An observation w r as made 
 late in the evening (I believe near 10 o clock) at 
 which Mr. Paine was particularly offended, and 
 rising up, in a great passion, he declared he had 
 not been so personally affronted in the whole 
 course of his life. 
 
 Mr. Erskine. The information charges no ex 
 trinsic matter. 
 
 Lord Kenyon. It appears at present important. 
 
 Mr. Erskine. I cannot admit that letter, as I 
 have no reason to believe the existence of it. 
 
 Mr, Solicitor General. The circumstances are 
 proper to be explained by him to vindicate him 
 self. 
 
 Witness. Mr. Paine rose up in a great passion, 
 declaring as I w r as a dissenter, he had a very bad 
 w 
 
170 ^ FE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 opinion of dissenters in general, believing them 
 all to be a pack of hypocrites, and he should 
 deal with them accordingly, and desired me to 
 deliver up his accounts the next morning $ which 
 I did, and felt a degree of pleasure at the cir 
 cumstance. I delivered a letter enclosing the 
 whole of his copy he called upon me immedi 
 ately, and made many apologies for what he 
 had said, observing it was the effect of the liquor, 
 and hoped I would pass it over, and proceed 
 in the work ; but I had determined I would 
 not. 
 
 Q. Did you explain to Mr. Paine your reasons 
 why you would not ? 
 
 A. I did Sir ; my letter told him. 
 
 Court. Did you explain the ground why you 
 would not proceed with the work ? 
 
 A. I did. 
 
 Mr. Solicitor General. You have told us that 
 Mr. Paine was your employer to print so far as 
 you did print. 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Did you ever make any offer to any body^ 
 to buy the copy of that you call the Second Part 
 of the Rights of Man ? 
 
 A. I did. 
 
 Q. To whom? 
 
 A. To Mr. Paine, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 171 
 
 Q. When you made those offers, did Mr. 
 Paine accept, or refuse, or how treat them 
 
 A. I made three separate offers in the differ 
 ent stages of the work : The first, I believe, was 
 100 guineas; the second, 500 : the last, 1000. 
 
 Q. To those offers what did Mr. Paine an 
 swer ? 
 
 A. Mr. Paine, to the best of my recollection, 
 answered, as it was* his intention to publish a 
 small edition of the work, he wished to reserve 
 it in his own hands." 
 
 Those who personally knew Paine, will fully 
 credit Chapman s very accurate representation 
 of his abuse of Mrs. Chapman, and of his hav 
 ing a " very bad opinion of dissenters in general, 
 believing them all to be a pack of hypocrites ;" 
 both being exactly in character, and a pack of 
 hijprocrites precisely his words upon all occa 
 sions, when inveighing, as was his custom, against 
 religion. To the sex, whether animated with 
 liquor, or in his temperate moments depressed 
 with reflection, he paid no sort of deference. He 
 was at all times at war with man and woman, 
 heaven and earth. 
 
 The attorney-general now outlawed him, a 
 measure of which he afterwards felt the incon 
 venience. 
 
 The revolutionary ferment in England increas 
 ed. The issue of Paine s trial W 7 as far from tran- 
 
172 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 quillizing the passions. The seed of rebellion 
 had been sown, and nothing seemed capable of 
 stopping its growth. Projects of parliamentary 
 reform were vehemently pressed upon parliament, 
 as if at a crisis threatening universal commotion, 
 visionary schemes of imaginary good could be 
 either coolly entertained or safely carried into 
 effect. At a period like this, parliamentary re 
 form would have been fatal. Partial success 
 would have invited more desperate efforts at a 
 total overthrow of the government : nothing 
 could have preserved it. The atrocious conven 
 tion, meditating the murder of Louis, had passed 
 their decree of the 19th of November, 1792, 
 exciting the people of Europe to insurrection 
 against their governments, and promising " as 
 sistance and fraternity" Upon the publication 
 of this infamous decree, parliament, which w r as 
 to have met on the third day of the following 
 January, was convened by proclamation on the 
 1 3th of the preceding December. What, under 
 all these circumstances, could have saved the na 
 tion from all the horrours of revolution, but war ? 
 The remedy was indeed an evil, but it was one 
 infinitely less than that with which it was me 
 naced by the French republick and by Paine ; 
 co-operating w r ith the thoughtless or mistaken 
 people of England. Early in January, 1793, 
 JLquis was decapitated. On the 23d of the same 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 173 
 
 month, his minister, Chauvelin, resident in Lon 
 don, was ordered by the British government to 
 quit the kingdom, and on the first of the following 
 month, the " French Republick" declared war 
 against Great Britain. 
 
 Upon the Trial of Louis the XVI, Paine, who 
 had been employed as a copier of papers to the 
 committee of foreign affairs, and dismissed by 
 congress for perjury,, sat in judgment! He had 
 voted in the convention for the trial of the king, 
 but, upon his trial, he was in favour of imprison 
 ing him during the war, and of transporting him 
 afterwards. His mild nature could not bear the 
 thought of spilling the king s blood ! Yes, the *"" 
 man who had endeavoured to raise revolt in Eng 
 land, that the land might be covered with human 
 gore, advanced pretensions to the attributes of 
 humanity ! " It has already been proposed," he 
 observes in his speech in the convention, " to 
 abolish the punishment of death, and it is with 
 infinite satisfaction that I recollect the humane and 
 excellent oration pronounced by Robespierre on 
 the subject, in the constituent assembly." The ^ 
 whole of his speech is hypocritical, fawning, time 
 serving, and pussillanimous. He felt that in the 
 terrible republic^ whose course and conduct he 
 had recommended to England, there was neither 
 freedom nor safety. If the king was guilty of 
 the charges which murderous and sacrilegious 
 
174 IJFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 faction had conjured tip against him, death was 
 <* the punishment of his crimes, but as Paine, from 
 the context of his dastardly speech, evidently 
 considered him innocent, imprisonment during 
 the war, and banishment afterwards, proposed 
 by him, were atrocious injustice. 
 
 While the trial of the king was going on, the 
 committee of the convention, of which Paine had 
 the honour of being a member, were framing the 
 new constitution of 1793. In the short space of 
 two or three years, the Assembly of the Notables, 
 the States-General, and the National Assembly, 
 with its declaration of rights, which Paine had 
 held out to the people of England as worthy of 
 their imitation, had all, with every thing else, 
 been overthrown. All those assemblies were now 
 superceded by a convention, whose business, be 
 sides despatching the king, and sounding some 
 notes of dreadful preparation, w 7 as to make ano 
 ther constitution. This prodigy of human intel 
 lect, or rather, this sediment of ever-renewed in 
 toxication, was presented to the convention on 
 the 15th of February, 1793. In this dispropor- 
 tioned thing, this dream of well-meaning fana- 
 ticks, or deliberate act of cool dilapidators, uni 
 versal suffrage was laid down to perfection. 
 The executive power was vested in an executive 
 council, the members of which were to be elected 
 by the sanguinary rabble of France, whose hands 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 175 
 
 were already clotted with human blood. A 
 power which, if it be any where or at any time 
 usefully practicable, requires the utmost tranquil 
 lity and the most unimpassioned judgment, was 
 to be exercised by a national mob in the highest 
 state of frenzy. Is the voice of such men as the 
 convention and its committee were composed of 
 ever to be listened to ? They seem to have paid 
 no attention to the state of France. Their sys 
 tem was not at all adapted to the nature and con 
 dition of the subject on whom it was to operate. 
 What could be expected but that which followed? 
 In March, the next month, the new constitution 
 of Condorcet, Paine, and the rest of the com 
 mittee, was in effect nearly annihilated. The 
 convention, to which supreme and almost exclu 
 sive power had been unaccountably left, awed 
 as it was by the jacobins in and out of it, organi 
 zed, in March, 1793, the revolutionary tribunal, 
 with its publick accuser and its two assistants. 
 This court, consisting of six judges, or rather of 
 six assassins, having all France within its func 
 tions and subject to its power, summarily pro 
 nounced sentence without appeal, and sent its 
 victims forthwith to execution. From its terrible 
 operations there was no escape. Suspicion was 
 sufficient cause of death. Nor was a ferocious 
 countenance of any advantage to its possessor, 
 
176 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and a mild one, indicating all possible goodness, 
 was fatal. 
 
 In the following month, April, 1793, the pow 
 ers of another engine of horrour, the committee 
 of publick safety, were so amplified as to com 
 plete the destruction of the executive council. 
 This again was followed in May by a declaration, 
 that the " republick is one and indivisible." In 
 June, 1793, the new constitution of Condorcet, 
 Paine, &c. was formally destroyed, and another 
 new constitution, consisting of a hundred and 
 twenty-four articles, more suited, if possible, to 
 jacobin tyranny, was as formally adopted by the 
 convention. The queen was now executed, and 
 this act of unmanly revenge was followed, in 
 October, 1793, by the murder of Brissot and his 
 colleagues. In December, 1793, Paine himself, 
 who had laboured hard to produce a similar state 
 of things in England, was thrown into prison by 
 the committee of safety ! 
 
 " This even-handed justice 
 
 Commends the ingredients of our poison d chalice 
 To our own lips." 
 
 He had just finished, when arrested, the first 
 
 part of his Age of Reason ;(#) but considering 
 
 the work as unsafe in the hands of the represen* 
 
 (x} Preface to Age of Reason, part 2. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 177 
 
 tatives of a free people, he called on Mr. Barlow, j 
 author of the Columbiad, in his way to prison, 
 and left it with him. 
 
 It has been intimated to me, by a gentleman 
 who has favoured me with his correspondence on 
 the subject of this work, whose name I am not 
 at liberty to mention, that Paine s deistical pro 
 ductions do not form* in him a distijictive charac 
 ter, so many able men of different ages and na 
 tions having written on the same side of the sub 
 ject ; and therefore, perhaps he would infer, it 
 would be superfluous, if not impertinent, to say 
 one word upon it in writing his life. 
 
 With becoming deference I must, however, 
 say, that indistinctiveness of character, or the 
 sameness of his opinions with the opinions of 
 his deistical predecessors, even if granted, could 
 form no solid objection to a liberal notice of his 
 Age of Reason. How could I account, in wri 
 ting his life, for so large a chasm as an omission 
 of it would make ? 
 
 But his deistical writings do in my judgment 
 help to make out, I do not mean to say that, 
 alone, they constitute, a distinctive character. 
 As a political writer, celebrated as he has been 
 by the illiterate for originality, he was original in 
 nothing but intention. In the United States, or 
 rather in the colonies and during the war for in 
 dependence, he was a very subordinate retailer 
 
 x 
 
178 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 of the works of the great men of England. As 
 a cleistical controversialist, the same observation 
 applies, taking in with some learned men of 
 England, Voltaire, and others of different na 
 tions. Here too he had nothing original but in 
 tention. His Age of Reason is an acrimonious 
 attack, not 011 priestcraft, nor on the abuses of 
 religion, nor on the irregularities of its ministers, 
 but on religion itself. In this he was not origi 
 nal ; in this he had been preceded by distinguish 
 ed statesmen, "profound philosophers, and grave 
 historians; by Bolingbroke, by Hume, and by 
 others, to whose works we may turn as curious 
 speculations ; as specimens of admirable reason 
 ing, upon premises however false. Nor w r as he 
 original in his impertinent witticisms, his shock 
 ing indecencies, his indecorous scoffs. In these, 
 Voltaire had gone before and surpassed him. A 
 deist even one indeed who outstrips a deist and 
 sneeringly and contemptuously views him as a 
 religious fanatick ; an atheist, if such a being- 
 exists, who thinks himself nothing, that he came 
 from nothing, that he is accountable to nothing, 
 and that there is nothing superiour to himself ; 
 even he, if he has read Hume on miracles, can 
 not peruse the wretched scurrillity of Paine. 
 
 The intention of Paine, and the intention only? 
 both in politicks and religion, constitutes a cha 
 racter entirely original. His intention was more 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 179 
 
 completely destructive than that of any other 
 -author that perhaps ever lived. While conspiring 
 to subvert all government, he meditated the over 
 throw of all religion. Whilst planning devasta 
 tion and blood on earth, he wus hatching rebel 
 lion against heaven. With him, the mortal and 
 the immortal parts were to sink together in the 
 dust. With him, ruin was to be complete. In 
 this he was original ; in this he had a distinctive- 
 ness of character. Bolingbroke was.no anarch 
 ist in government : Hume wasfa* & very solid 
 and durable one ; and Voltaire, if he was no,t a 
 monarchist, affected to adore the Prussian mon 
 arch. But in hypocrisy, for Paine was a hypo- 
 crite, he was not original. 
 
 In the preface (y) to the first part of his Age 
 of Reason, he says : " It has been my intention, 
 for several years, to publish my thoughts upon 
 religion." The Age of Reason sufficiently tells 
 us what his thoughts were. In the same pre 
 face,^) he adds : " Soon after I published the 
 pamphlet, COMMON SENSE, in America, I saw 
 the exceeding probability that a re-volution in the 
 system of government, would be followed by a 
 revolution in the system of religion." 
 
 (y) Page 7, New-York, 1795. 
 J v .r; Pafre 9, 
 
180 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 AH was to be overthrown. The world was to 
 be undone. 
 
 The word system, affords no refuge even for a 
 quibble in favour of Paine. He was not attack 
 ing the church of England as established by law j 
 he was not assailing this or that church, but 
 the subject of all churches. Those amongst us 
 who may be opposed to the church of England, 
 can draw from the word system no apology for 
 Paine, if they consider to whom the Age of 
 Reason is dedicated. 
 
 We have no one church established by law in 
 preference to another. All our churches are, thank 
 God, under the protection of the law, but there 
 is no legal preeminence given to any one of the 
 numerous sects which flourish amongst us. We, 
 therefore, have no system, in the sense which 
 Paine s friends may according to circumstances 
 wish to be understood. And yet it is dedicated 
 to us, he puts it under our protection," he 
 sent amongst us an edition of several thousand 
 copies, and they were spread from one end of the 
 union to the other with an alacrity which he must 
 Jiave commended. What then was his Abject 
 here? The same as it was every where : licen- 
 riousness - confusion an abolition of the forms 
 of religion annihilation of religion itself a let 
 ting " loose of reason," as Mr. Jefferson terms 
 it, which, in good English, means madness *a 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 181 
 
 loss of memory a loss of Judgment a forget- 
 fulness of obligations to God and man a state of 
 society more savage, more furious, more crimin 
 al, by having been civilized, than the primitive 
 condition of the Choctaws. Surely where the 
 sweets of religion are most sweet, there was no 
 necessity for a work even against a system of re 
 ligion. Every man amongst us can worship God, 
 without pains or disabilities, according to the dic 
 tates of his conscience. In no nation is religion 
 more free. In no condition of man, feeling, be 
 nevolent, thinking, and good, can a more per 
 fect state of religious freedom exist. And yet 
 even here it was to be attacked ; even here, all 
 the holds of the state, and the hopes of individu 
 als, were to be destroyed. 
 
 Soon after the publication of Common Sense 
 in America, and, by fair inference, when he 
 wrote Common Sense, he saw that a revolution 
 in government would be followed by a revolution 
 in religion; such a revolution as he advocates; a 
 destructio?i of religio?i : but he intended this des 
 perate effort as the " last offering he would make 
 to his fellow citizens of all nations."() In the 
 mean while the well masked dissimulator pretend 
 ed to be a pious Christian. This he would de- 
 
 fa) Preface to the Age of Reason, Part First. 
 
182 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 nominate State Craft, which, he told the people 
 of England in his Rights of Man, cannot exist 
 in America ! 
 
 " For myself, he observes, I fully and conscien 
 tiously believe that it is the will of the Almighty 
 that there should be a diversity of religious opin 
 ions amongst us : it affords a larger field for our 
 Christian kindness." Here he is a Christian, full 
 of Christian kindness ! And yet he had decided 
 in favour of a * revolution in religion," and re 
 solved to unite his efforts to the efforts of conge 
 nial men, to effect it, but would reserve the act 
 for one of the last of his life. 
 
 " Should Howe be now expelled, I wish, with 
 all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of 
 whig and tory may never more be mentioned."^) 
 
 This he wrote a year after the publication of 
 Common Sense. " Soon after I had published 
 Common Sense, I saw that a revolution in gov 
 ernment would be followed by a revolution in re- 
 ,,. ligion." Was he not a hypocrite? Was he not 
 an impostor ? 
 
 The same dissimulation, though not in the 
 same degree, is continued in the Rights of Man. 
 He seems to have unmasked himself as he saw the 
 world ripening for his purposes. Even after the 
 
 Crisis, Number I. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 185 
 
 French revolutionists had plundered the churches 
 and sent their clergy to the lamp post, he was 
 a Christian, yet not quite so full of " Christian 
 kindness." But he had to deal with the English 
 people, with whom a revolution in government 
 was to precede a revolution in religion. Perdi 
 tion was to develope itself by degrees. 
 
 " Governments, thus established, he says, lasC 
 as long as the power to support them lasts ; but 
 that they might avail themselves of every engine 
 in their favour, they united fraud to force, and 
 set up an idol which they called divine rights^ 
 and which in contradistinction to the founder of 
 the Christian religion, twisted itself afterwards in 
 to an idol of another shape." (c) 
 
 When he wrote this passage, in which he af 
 fects to be a disciple of Christ, whose maxims he 
 admires, he had resolved to defer his " last work" 
 no longer ; he had decided to write, and proba 
 bly had commenced, the Age of Reason. He 
 tells us so himself in another place. 
 
 " I have mentioned, in the former part of the 
 Age of Reason, that it had long been my inten 
 tion to publish my thoughts upon religion ; but 
 that I originally reserved it to a later period in 
 life, intending it to be the last work I should un* 
 
 (c) Rights ,f Man, Part I, 
 
184 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 dertake. The circumstances, however, which 
 existed in France, in the latter end of the year 
 
 1790, DETERMINED ME TO DELAY IT NO LONGER."(rf) 
 
 The Rights of Man, part first, was published in 
 London in 1791, a year after the " circumstances 
 which existed in France had determined him to 
 delay no longer," his attack on religion ! And 
 yet in the Rights of Man he passes himself off 
 for a Christian ! But as he advanced in com 
 posing the work, he cast off the trammels of hy 
 pocrisy. The National Assembly of France, 
 that first cause of the national wreck which fol 
 lowed, having displeased him in an article of its 
 declaration of rights, he comments, at the close 
 of his work, undisguisedly and severely upon 
 it. 
 
 Article " X. No man ought to be molested on 
 account of his opinions, not even of his religious 
 opinions, provided his avowal of them does not 
 disturb the publick order established by law"(e) 
 
 Paine thinks, and so he expresses himself, that 
 the proviso is an outrage on the rights of man 
 almost as great as any ever committed even by 
 the British government ! Society, he is clearly 
 
 (</) Preface to the Age of Reason, part 2, page 1, New- 
 York, 1796. 
 
 (e) Declaration of Rights of the National Assembly, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 185 
 
 of opinion, has nothing to do with doctrines, 
 whether they disturb its tranquillity or not ! 
 
 4 It is questioned, he says, by some very good 
 people in France, as well as in other countries, 
 whether the tenth article sufficiently guarantees 
 the right it is intended to accord with. Besides 
 which, it takes off from the divine dignity of re 
 ligion, and weakens its operative force upon the 
 mind, to make it a subject of human laws."(/) 
 
 Now what is it in the article that takes off front 
 the divine dignity of religion?" That which 
 allows all freedom in religious opinions but such 
 as disturbs the publicls order establish, d by 
 law ! According to Paine, therefore, divine 
 dignity in religion consists in disturbing the pub- 
 lick peace- 1 
 
 In this he goes, I think, but I am not quite 
 sure, further than Mr. Jefferson. " The legiti 
 mate powers of government extend to such acts 
 only as are injurious to others. But it does me 
 no injury for my neighbour to say [that] there 
 are twenty Gods or no God.(V) It neither picks 
 my pocket nor breaks my 
 
 (/) Rights of Man, part 1, p. 69, Phil. ed. 1797. 
 
 (#) Mr. Jefferson writes " lengthy" for long. Notes, p. 
 348, New Appendix. 
 
 (/j) Notes on Virginia, p. 235, New-York, 
 Y 
 
186 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson admits, that the legitimate powers 
 of government extend to such acts as are inju 
 rious to others ; yet that his neighbour s decla 
 ration, that there is no God, may neither pick 
 his pocket nor break his leg. But suppose that 
 the denial of God should so harden his neigh 
 bour s heart and vitiate his mind as to induce him 
 to break the sage s leg, or to pick his pocket, 
 which I think very likely, it would then follow, 
 from his own doctrine, that as picking pockets 
 and breaking legs are injurious acts, they may 
 be legitinmtely punished. If I am right in thus 
 construing the late president s meaning, he stops 
 short of Paine, who declares, that to disturb the 
 publick order established by law, is an essential 
 part of the " divine dignity of religion." 
 
 The human mind is apt to run to extreme s 
 From doubting the divinity of the Christian reli 
 gion, it descends to deism, and it would be sur 
 prising if, in sinking, the deist stopped short of 
 atheism. In deism, Paine was, in all probability, 
 a hypocrite. Generally, he expressed detestation 
 of atheism, and yet he has uttered opinions fav- 
 ourable to it. He believes, he asserts in his Age of 
 Reason, in one God, but it is probable that he be 
 lieved in nothing superiour to matter. In con 
 versation with Mrs. Palmer, widow of the deist- 
 ical haranguer, in the presence of Mr. Carver, of 
 this city, from whom I have the fact, he let out 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 187 
 
 his materialism. Stewart, " the traveller," an 
 insane man, had published a pamphlet, which 
 he called Opus Maximum, denying the existence 
 of every thing but matter. Referring to it, Mrs. 
 Palmer remarked : " Stewart s doctrine, Mr. 
 Paine, may be correct." " It is well enough, 
 replied Paine, to say nothing about it ; the time 
 is not yet come /" Death then was with him, as 
 well as with the French convention, eternal 
 sleep. To this horrid sentence, therefore, this 
 impious declaration, wrapping man in gloom 
 here, robbing him of his brightest hopes of 
 hereafter, Paine wrote nothing in opposition. 
 Robespierre, however, reversed the atheistical *- 
 decree of the convention. Death, he said, is not 
 eternal sleep. The French people, he caused to 
 be proclaimed, believe in the Supreme Being, 
 and the immortality of the soul. Paine now 
 published the first part of his Age of Reason. He 
 too believed, he affirmed, in one God, but, to 
 use his own language, the " time had not yet 
 come 9 for a naked expression of his opinion. 
 As to the scriptures, he confesses that he had not 
 read them. How then, as a reasonable man, 
 could he write against them ? He had early 
 thought that governments could not be subverted, 
 that havock could not be commenced, that mi 
 sery could not be complete, without discarding 
 religion, and this seems to have been cause 
 
188 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 enough with him, without reading, without re 
 flection, to commence the work. 
 
 He suffered eleven months imprisonment in 
 France ; from December, 1793, to the 4th of No 
 vember, 1794. In one placeQ he ascribes his 
 escape from the guillotine to a fever with which 
 he was aiilicted ; in another, to Providence.(y) 
 v The fever was the effect of intemperance. A 
 medical gentleman of great eminence, who ren 
 dered him professional service in France, tells 
 me that his body was in a state of putrefaction, 
 probably occasioned by drinking brandy, and that, 
 so offensive was the stench which issued from 
 it, he could hardly be approached. It does not, 
 however, appear, that he constantly drank to 
 excess before he left America, in 1787: he was 
 poor. His habitual drunkenness seems to have 
 commenced with the delirium of the French re 
 volution. The practice gained upon him in Lon 
 don. " Reason had been let loose." Wiklness 
 naturally followed. A commotion of thoughts is 
 necessarily succeeded by a commotion in action. 
 In France, after he was elected to a seat in the 
 Convention, by whose committee he was im- 
 
 (z) Letter to general Washington. 
 
 (y) Letters written at Washington, addressed to the citi 
 zens of the United States. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 189 
 
 mured, his intemperance seems to have increased 
 with the increase of French violence. Some 
 gentlemen have ascribed it to an imputed neglect 
 on the part of general Washington during his im 
 prisonment. Was Paine then so weak ? But 
 they overlook dates. The putrescent state of his 
 body while in prison, was brought on by drink 
 ing before his imprisonment. His habits were 
 sordid, his thirst for liquor had been great, and 
 to quench it, he had associated with the meanest 
 company in Paris for months before his incarce 
 ration. 
 
 After his liberation, he found an asylum in the 
 hospitable house of Mr. Munroe, our minister. 
 The near approach of death, for he expected 
 every moment to die, either by the guillotine or 
 by natural dissolution, neither frightened nor dis 
 suaded him from immoderate drinking. Mr. 
 Munroe kept him in his house eighteen months. 
 At first, he drank as he pleased, and therefore to 
 excess. But for his own good, as well as for the 
 reputation of the mission, the minister found it 
 necessary to stint him. Yet what he could not 
 get in the house, he got out of it. A drunkard 
 will have liquor. Intemperance and imprison 
 ment laid w r aste his mind, such as it had been. 
 
 During his imprisonment, an extraordinary re 
 volution happened. The atrocious Robespierre 
 and his accomplices had expiated at the guilbtine 
 
190 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 their proscriptions and massacres. Paine, on his 
 release from his dungeon, was invited to resume 
 his seat in the convention. 
 
 As the new faction had triumphed over the 
 old, a new paper constitution was now to be made. 
 Paine and Co. s constitution of 1793 was in 
 formally abolished a month after it was presented. 
 The two committees of revolution and safety, 
 which had grown out of that constitution, were 
 now to be destroyed. 
 
 In April, 1 795, a committee of eleven was ap 
 pointed for the purpose of organizing a fresh con 
 stitution, which was reported on the 23d of the 
 following June by Boissy D Anglas. This was 
 the constitution of elders and youngsters ; a coun 
 cil of five hundred, a council of ancients, and an 
 executive directory of five. It formally abolishes 
 the convention ; it artfully rejects universal suf 
 frage ; it establishes electoral assemblies between 
 the people and the government ; it permits a citi* 
 zen of France, if he has paid direct taxes, fought 
 a campaign, and possesses several other qualifica 
 tions, to vote for electors. The directory was to 
 be chosen after Mr. Jefferson s manner ; by the 
 legislature, but not, I believe, on the suggestion of 
 the directory itself. 
 
 On the 7th of July, the convention granted per 
 mission to Paine to make a speech against the con 
 stitution of Boissy D Anglas. 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 191 
 
 This he tremblingly begins with adverting to 
 his imprisonment, and to the fever with which he 
 had been afflicted. He states that he was " pro 
 scribed in England for vindicating the French re 
 volution," and that he had been cast into prison 
 in France for doing the same thing. He then 
 commences his objections to the constitution as a 
 Virginia slave would remonstrate against the ty 
 ranny and cruelty of his master. On the subject 
 of universal suffrage, he is, however, silent. As 
 the operation of that principle in his own consti 
 tution had brought upon him eleven months du 
 resse, he seems not to have been very anxious 
 about it. To the electoral assemblies, intervened 
 between those who were allowed to vote, and the 
 government, he makes no objection. If brandy 
 had not mellowed his understanding, confinement 
 seems to have mitigated his zeal. His objections, 
 fearfully urged, are two. He rejects the usual 
 distinction between direct and indirect taxation, 
 which is in fact a nominal one, and is of opinion, 
 that the citizen who pays any sort of taxes, should 
 be allowed to vote for the electors, who w r ere to 
 choose the council, older and younger. As to the 
 service of a campaign in the army, w T hich was a 
 prerequisite to citizenship, where direct taxes were 
 not paid, he considers it quite as despotick as any 
 thing even in the British government; because the 
 father who fights for his own liberty, he observes, 
 
192 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 fights also for the liberty of his children, who he 
 thinks should be suffered to vote for the electors 
 without serving a campaign, and even without 
 paying direct taxes. But in this he is at enmity 
 with himself, his doctrine being clearly, I think, 
 an hereditary transmission of right and power. 
 For as the father cannot bind his son to posterity, 
 so he cannot acquire rights for the son, which the 
 son, without any merit of his own, shall exercise 
 with and over posterity. Let the son fight a cam 
 paign, as the father did, or pay direct taxes, as 
 he did, as the price of voting for electors who are 
 to elect his rulers. The present age is as free as 
 the age which preceded it : i. e. to acquire immu 
 nities for itself; to pull down that which it finds 
 established, and to build up anew. This isPaine s 
 doctrine in his Rights of Man, not mine ; a doc 
 trine which he unwittingly combats in his speech 
 against Boissy D Anglas s constitution. The truth 
 is that every age, whether it will or not, derives 
 benefits from the age which preceded it. In this 
 sense, whatever be the form of government un 
 der which we live, there is an hereditary trans 
 mission from father to son which is so natural and 
 necessary, that no form of government can des 
 troy it. We are let in to a happy state of socie 
 ty without having contributed an effort to pro 
 duce it. Resting upon individual rights and ex 
 ertions, the rights and exertions of the present 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 193 
 
 age, without reference to those of the ages which 
 have preceded it, are born to the condition of the 
 untutored Indian. It is by the civilization of the 
 ages which are passed, that we are civilized ; it 
 is by the privileges which they acquired, that we 
 have privileges. For the liberty we enjoy in the 
 United States, we are indebted to our ancestors. 
 We have acquired nothing of it ourselves : not a 
 jot of it is our owri. All that we have done, is 
 the effecting of a separation from the parent 
 country : all that we have achieved, is indepen 
 dence. But we have no liberty but that which 
 we have derived from England. We owe it all 
 to our ancestors. The wild parts of the British 
 constitution are, indeed, more wild amongst us, 
 but it may be questioned whether we have the 
 solid portion of it, that which secures life, liberty, 
 and property, in equal perfection. Burr, charged 
 with treason, and tried by the statute of Edward 
 the III. would have had a less vexatious if not a 
 more impartial trial in London, than he had in 
 the capital of Virginia. In England, the presses 
 would not have conspired to terrify the presiding 
 judge, by detestable menaces and denunciations, 
 into a violation of the law, in order that the accus 
 ed, right or wrong, might be hanged. They did not, 
 however, even with us, succeed. The admirable 
 patience and firmness of chief justice Marshall 
 enabled the law to triumph over the machinations 
 
 z 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS- PAINE; 
 
 of the president, the outrages of the press, and 
 the systematick violence of a party. 
 
 No notice was taken by the convention of 
 Paine s speech. Boissy d Anglas s constitution 
 was adopted in October, 1795, but not without 
 a little depletion of blood. The convention had 
 passed a decree, that, at the first election under the 
 new constitution, two-thirds of its present numbers, 
 should be returned. This was to keep out the jaco 
 bins, who with and since the fall of Robespierre, 
 had been driven from the convention. Now as all 
 outs want to get ///, and the principal jacobins 
 could not succeed without forcibly and victorious 
 ly resisting the decree, their creatures were or 
 ganized and a battle was fought near the hall of 
 the convention. After blowing into the air with 
 cannon about two thousand of the insurgents, and 
 striking off the heads, with the national razor, of 
 we know not how many more, the constitution 
 went quietly into operation according to the 
 decree. The convention was now formally de 
 stroyed, and as Paine was never afterwards 
 elected, the constitution of Boissy d Anglas ter 
 minated his publick functions in France. 
 
 With his speech, he presented to the conven 
 tion his "Dissertation on the first principles of 
 government," an octavo pamphlet of eighteen 
 pages. " This little work, he observes, I did in 
 tend to have dedicated to the people of Holland, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 vvho about the time I began to write it, were de 
 termined to accomplish a revolution in their go 
 vernment, rather than to the people of France, 
 who had long before effected \hakglorious object. * 
 French principles and force had got into oppress 
 ed Holland, and poisoned and overturned every 
 thing. His dissertation is a weak iteration of his 
 Common Sense and Rights of Man. 
 
 His next work was an octavo pamphlet of 
 twenty-two pages, on the English system of fi 
 nance ; a system which the United States have 
 adopted: it was published in April, 1796. In 
 this effusion of malevolence, he predicts, that 
 the system " will not continue to the end of Mr, 
 Pitt s life, supposing him to live the usual age of 
 a man." The pamphlet has only -served to show 
 his ignorance on financial subjects. 
 
 In the following July, he published, in Paris, 
 his Letter to GENERAL WASHINGTON, an octavo 
 pamphlet of sixty-four pages. This is a causeless, 
 ungrateful, virulent, and profligate attack on 
 one of the greatest and best men that ever lived. 
 
 The French convention, in December, 1793, 
 passed a decree for the expulsion of all the mem 
 bers of it who were foreigners by birth. Paine 
 coming, as it was thought, within the scope of its 
 operations, was of course expdled. 
 
 That decree was followed in the same month 
 by one for imprisoning every man in France born 
 
196 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 in England. Under this decree he was impri 
 soned. 
 
 The cause of the attack on president Wash 
 ington is, as alleged by Paine, that being a citi 
 zen of the United States, the president did not 
 exert his official influence with the French go 
 vernment to obtain his liberation. This is the 
 ground-work of sixty -four pages of impotent in 
 vective and malicious slander. 
 
 His premises and conclusion are, that in be 
 coming a member of the convention, and a dti- 
 "zen of France, he did not forfeit his citizenship 
 in the United States, and that, therefore, re 
 maining a citizen, and being of course entitled 
 to protection as such, official duty and personal 
 gratitude required the interposition of the Ame 
 rican executive in his behalf. 
 
 His expulsion from the convention seems to 
 favour his position, that he was not considered 
 a citizen of France. His imprisonment for 
 being an Englishman, which immediately suc 
 ceeded, is quite as auspicious to his attack. 
 
 It should, however, be remembered, that the 
 convention, when he was expelled from it, was 
 governed by jacobin violence, stimulated and 
 headed by Robespierre, and that after the exe 
 cution of Robespierre, the introduction of a new 
 faction, a little more moderate, and violence had 
 for a moment ceased, he was invited to resume 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 197 
 
 his seat in the convention, and that he did re 
 sume it. 
 
 But Paine says : " I have always considered 
 that a foreigner, such as I was in fact with respect 
 to France, might be a member of a convention 
 for forming a constitution without affecting his 
 right of citizenship in the country to which he 
 belongs, but not q member of a government after 
 a constitution is formed ; and I have uniformly 
 acted upon this distinction "(fc) 
 
 He was an adopted citizen of France. But as 
 many gentlemen amongst us, who have never cross- 
 ed the Atlantick, have been complimented, if it be a 
 compliment, with a similar adoption, the mere 
 act of adoption would make nothing against him, 
 if the fraternal process had stopped there. 
 
 But he was not only an adopted citizen of 
 France : he went there in consequence of his 
 adoption and election, and he took the oath of 
 allegiance to the French rcpublick. Every mem 
 ber of the convention took it as matter of 
 course, and so did Paine. If, therefore, in be 
 coming a citizen of France by adoption, and 
 taking the oath of allegiance, he could alienate 
 his citizenship in the United States, he ceased to 
 be a citizen. 
 
 ) Letter to General Washington, p. 14. 
 
198 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Besides, his own argument is its own refutation. 
 He might, he affirms, be a f< member of a con 
 vention for making a constitution, without affect 
 ing his right of citizenship in the country to which 
 he belongs, but not a member of a government 
 after a constitution informed" 
 
 If then after the constitution was formed, in the 
 making of which he had a hand, he was a mem 
 ber of the government, his citizenship in the 
 United States, according to his^own doctrine, was 
 a nullity. In order to take away, therefore, the 
 very pretext for his attack on Washington, all 
 that is necessary is to show, that he was a mem 
 ber of the government after the constitution was 
 formed. 
 
 The constitution of Condorcet and Paine was 
 formed and presented in February, 1 793. Here, 
 therefore, his functions ceased. If afterwards 
 he was a member of the government, he ad 
 mits that he forfeited his right of citizenship in 
 the United States. 
 
 Now he was not only a member of the go 
 vernment, when, in December, 1793, ten months 
 after the constitution was formed and presented, 
 he was expelled from it by the decree, but after 
 his imprisonment ; and we find him as late as 
 July, 1795, making a speech in the government 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 199 
 
 after his own constitution was destroyed, against 
 another constitution. 
 
 Again. He was not a member of the con 
 vention for forming a constitution only j he was 
 a member to all intents and purposes. He spoke 
 on the trial of the king ; he voted on the trial of 
 the king. Was that forming a constitution ? He 
 generally assisted ;n the transaction of publick 
 business. 
 
 So much I have said merely to evince how er 
 roneous his arguments are even upon his own 
 premises. 
 
 And his premises were assumptions of false 
 facts. No act of his in France, no citizenship ; 
 nothing that he could do could alienate his alle 
 giance from the United States. 
 
 The article in our national constitution, which 
 he imperfectly quotes, has no reference to situa 
 tions like his. It applies exclusively to " persons 
 holding any office of profit or trust under the 
 United States." He held no office of profit ; cer* 
 tainly none of trust. 
 
 Neither our national constitution nor our laws 
 allows of self-expatriation. In this regard both 
 are precisely the same as the constitution and 
 law r s of England. He who is once a citizen, as 
 Paine was, is always a citizen. He cannot with 
 draw his allegiance. Our national government* 
 
200 LIFE OF THOMAS ^AINE, 
 
 | can always claim his services. It always owes him 
 j protection, and he always owes it obedience.(7) 
 
 But this makes nothing for Paine. Washington 
 was not consequentially bound, nor was it any part 
 of his duty, as executive of the United States, to 
 interfere with the French government for his re 
 lease from prison. What was he arrested for ? 
 For being an Englishman by birth. Was not that 
 the fact ? Was he not an Englishman ? On this 
 point only the principles of the three governments 
 concur. No Frenchman can dispense with his 
 allegiance to his country ; and the law is so in the 
 
 (/) Williams s case, tried before Chief Justice Ellsworth, is 
 the only one that has come before the United States courts. In 
 1792, Williamswas commissioned by the French Consul-Gen 
 eral residing in America as a lieutenant onboard the Jupiter, a 
 French seventy-four. The Jupiter sailed in the autumn of the 
 same year for Rochefort, where Williams was naturalized, 
 renouncing his allegiance to the United States. After his na 
 turalization, he was commissioned by the French Republick a 
 second lieutenant on board the French frigate, the Caront. 
 He continued in the commission and service of France until 
 the 27th of February, 1797, when he was seized and arrested 
 for accepting a commission from the French Republick, to 
 commit acts of violence against the king of Great Britain, and 
 his subjects, with whom we were at peace. Williams plead 
 ed in justification his naturalization in France, and his renun 
 ciation of his allegiance to the United States. Chief Justice 
 Ellsworth gave the following opinion. 
 
 " The common law of this country remains the same as it 
 was before the revolution. The present question is to be de.- 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 United States, as well as in England. If Paine 
 had been arrested merely because he was a citi* 
 zen of the United States, then, upon a due repre 
 sentation of the fact to our national executive, it 
 would have been the duty of Washington to have 
 interfered in his behalf. But he was arrested un 
 der a decree passed against persons born in Eng 
 land. Paine was born there. Could Washington 
 have said that he was not ? Could he have arro 
 gantly insisted on a repeal of the decree ? 
 
 As a matter of right he had no claim upon the 
 interposition of our executive. Asa point of ex~ 
 
 eided by two great principles; one is that all the members of the 
 civil community are bound to each other by compact, the other 
 is, that one of the parties to this compact cannot dissolve it by 
 his own act. The compact between our community and its 
 members is, that the community shall protect its members, 
 and on the part of the members, that they will at all times be 
 obedient to the laws of the community and faithful in its de 
 fence. This compact distinguishes our government from those 
 which are founded in violence or fraud. It necessarily results 
 that a member cannot dissolve this compact, without the 
 consent or default of the community. There has been no 
 consent no default. Default is not pretended. Express 
 consent is not claimed ; but it has been argued that the con 
 sent of the community is implied by its policy its condi 
 tion and its acts. In countries so crowded with 1 inhabitants, 
 that the means of subsistence are difficult to be obtained, it is 
 reason and policy to permit emigration ; but our policy is dif 
 ferent ; for our country is but scarcely settled, and we have 
 ao inhabitants to spare. 
 
 A a 
 
202 WFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 pediency, of mercy, or of sympathy, he had no 
 title to it at all. 
 
 In the first place he had deliberately embarked 
 in all the horrours of the French revolution. He 
 had written in England for France he had en 
 deavoured to effect a revolution in England in 
 favour of France he had been elected a mem 
 ber of the convention, and coolly and thankfully 
 taken his seat he had been adopted a citizen of 
 and taken the oath of allegiance to France. Was 
 he to be pitied when one of the inevitable conse 
 quences of the revolution came upon him ? Was 
 
 " CONSENT has been argued from the condition of the/ 
 country, because we were in a state of peace. But though we 
 were in peace, the war had commenced in Europe. We 
 wished to have nothing to do with the war; but the war 
 would have something to do with us. It has been extremely 
 difficult for us to keep out of this war ; the progress of it has 
 threatened to involve us. It has been necessary for our go 
 vernment to be vigilant in restraining our own citizens from 
 those acts which would involve us in hostilities. The most 
 visionary writers on this subject do not contend for the princi 
 ple in the unlimited extent, that a citizen may at any, and at 
 ail times, renounce his own, and join himself to a foreign 
 country. 
 
 " CONSENT has been argued, from the acts of our govern 
 ment permitting the naturalization of foreigners. When a 
 foreigner presents himself here, and proves himself to be of 
 a good moral character, well affected to the constitution and 
 government of the United States, and a friend to the good or 
 der and happiness of civil society ; if he has resided here the 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 the power of the United States to be employed, 
 through the medium of their executive, to extri 
 cate him from one of the natural effects of that 
 stupendous violence, tyranny, and rapine, which 
 he had applauded in France, when others were 
 the subjects of them, and which he had exerted 
 himself to stir up and bring about in England ? 
 He calls his imprisonment despotism, and he ac 
 cordingly complains of it. What, the free re- 
 publick of France, whose example he had held 
 up to England, guilty of despotism ! But it was 
 the violence of Robespierre ! And was not Ro 
 bespierre s violence an effect of the revolution ; 
 
 time prescribed by law, we grant him the privileges of a ci 
 tizen. We do not enquire what his relation is to his own coun 
 try ; we have not the means of knowing, and the enquiry 
 would be indelicate ; we leave him to judge of that. If 
 he embarrasses himself by contracting contradictory obliga 
 tions, the fault and the folly are his own ; but this implies no 
 consent of the government, that our own citizens should ex 
 patriate themselves. 
 
 " It is therefore my opinion, that the facts which the 
 prisoner offers to prove in his defence, are totally irrevelent ; 
 they can have no operation in law, and the jury ought not to 
 be embarrassed or troubled with them ; but by the constitu 
 tion of the court, the evidence must go to the jury." 
 
 "The cause and the evidence were accordingly committed 
 to the jury. The jury soon agreed on a verdict, and found the 
 prisoner GUILTY. 
 
 " The court sentenced him to pay a fine of 1000 dollars, 
 and to suffer four months imprisonment." 
 
204 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 of a lawless course, a lawless power ? If he did 
 not foresee that such a despotism would grow out 
 of such a revolution, he was unfit to write ; and 
 if, writing as he did, he did foresee it, he was 
 ^ unfit to live. 
 
 During his imprisonment we had differences 
 with England, which Mr. Jay, honourably to 
 \ himself and greatly for the interest of his coun? 
 try, happily adjusted. Was this a time for ge 
 neral Washington to use his influence with the 
 rulers of France for the liberation of a man so 
 justly obnoxious to the British government as 
 Paine ? Who that knows any thing of the inter- 
 X course between nation and nation will say that it 
 was ? What would the British government have 
 thought of our professions of friendship ; of our 
 desire to be upon good terms with them ? 
 
 At that period top we also felt the effects of the 
 French revolution ; of those anarchial principles 
 which Paine had broached in his Rights of Man, 
 v and which he had endeavoured to propagate all 
 N over Europe. Our government was nearly, though 
 not quite deposed by French revolutionary agents. 
 Our sovereignty had been usurped by a French 
 minister. The President, impartially, ably, and 
 with dignity administering the government, was, 
 in the official communications of that minister to 
 l)im, grossly insulted. The most opprobrious 
 terms ^vyere assiduously culled from the language, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 205 
 
 as if to try how patiently a good government 
 could brook contumely and insult. Vindicating 
 its conduct upon the principles of the law of na 
 tions, that minister said : " I do not recollect 
 what the warm-eaten writings of Grotius, Puffen- 
 dorff, or Vattel, say on the subject : I thank 
 God I have forgotton what these hired jitrispru- 
 dists have written upon the rights of nations at a 
 period when all were enchained" ! France thank 
 ed God too, no doubt, with her minister, that 
 she had forgotten both law and justice. Paine 
 had largely contributed to this horrid state of 
 things. What feelings then could WAHSINGTON 
 have had for him ? Those of friendship ? Impos 
 sible ! 
 
 As to gratitude, Washington certainly owed 
 him none : he had himself done more than any 
 man living for the independence of his country. 
 But if he ever was in debt to Paine on that score, 
 he discharged it at the end of the war by his 
 strenuous though unsuccessful efforts to procure 
 for him from congress a provision for life. That 
 the national and two of the state governments did 
 more than adequately reward his revolutionary 
 efforts, is certain. They made him for life inde 
 pendent in his pecuniary circumstances, and that 
 was surely paying him liberally for his trifling re 
 volutionary labour ; for writing Common Sense 
 
206 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and the Crisis, two pamphlets, both making not 
 more than two hundred and twenty pages. 
 
 The real cause of the attack, if the French ru 
 lers had not set him on, was our commercial trea 
 ty with England. He lived and died at war with 
 the government by which he had been dismissed 
 from the excise, as well as with the nation which 
 contained his wife. 
 
 His total want of principle and disregard of 
 every thing like consistency, are in nothing more 
 manifest than in his calumnies against Washing 
 ton. 
 
 4 < The victory over the Hessians at Princeton, 
 he observes, by a harrassed and wearied party, 
 is attended with such a scene of circumstances 
 and superiority of generalship, as will ever give 
 it a place in the first line in the history of great 
 actions." Crisis, No. 5. 
 
 But in his Parisian assault, Washington is quite 
 a different character. In this, " it is time, he 
 says, to speak the undisguised language of histori 
 cal truth."(?ra) It is no longer necessary, he thinks, 
 to play the hypocrite. He then adds, that " the 
 
 (TO) Letter to Washington, p, 10. He remarked to Mrs. 
 Palmer : " It is well enough to say nothing about it ; the 
 time is not yet come" But the time z> now come to speak, 
 as he calls it, the truth of Washington ! 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 207 
 
 successful skirmishes at the close of the campaign 
 of 1776,(fl) make the brilliant exploits of General 
 Washington s seven campaigns. No wonder we 
 see so much pusillanimity in the president(o) 
 when we see so little enterprize in the general." 
 Letter to Washington, p. 31. 
 
 Here are too opposite representations of the 
 same action. In the one, that of the Crisis, there 
 was such " a superiority of generalship, as will 
 ever give it a place in the first line in the history 
 of GREAT ACTIONS." In the other, that of the 
 Letter to Washington, there was no enterprize, 
 no generalship at all, and the GREAT ACTION be 
 comes an insignificant skirmish \ 
 
 " Voltaire has remarked, he tells us, that king 
 William never appeared to full advantage but in 
 difficulties and in action. The same remark 
 may be made of General Washington, for the 
 character suits him. There is a natural firmness 
 in some minds which cannot be unlocked by 
 trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a 
 cabinet of fortitude ; and I reckon it among 
 those kind of publick blessings, which we do not 
 immediately see, that God hath blessed him with 
 
 (ri) The capture of the Hessians. 
 
 (o) Alluding to tlje ratification of the British treaty. 
 
208 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that 
 can even flourish upon care." Crisis, No* 1. 
 
 This .was written during the war. After 
 he received his compensation-money from con** 
 gress, he seems to have entertained the same 
 opinion of the virtue, resolution, and philosophy 
 of Washington, to whom he thus dedicates the 
 first part of his Rights of Man. 
 
 " I present you a small treatise in defence of 
 those principles of freedom which your exempla 
 ry virtue hath so eminently contributed to estab 
 lish. That the Rights of Man may become as 
 universal as your benevolence can wish, and that 
 you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the new 
 world regenerate the old, is the prayer of 
 sir," &c. 
 
 But Washington is the antipodes of all this in 
 his Parisian letter. " As to you, sir, treacherous 
 in private friendship, and a hypocrite in publick 
 life, the world will be puzzled to decide, whether 
 you are an apostate or an impostor ; whether you 
 have abandoned good principles, or whether you 
 ever had any !" Letter to Washington, p. 34.(/>) 
 
 (//) At the same time he wrote, but never printed, the 
 following epigram, which he gave tome soon after his arrival 
 in New- York. 
 
 ** Take from the mine the hardest, roughest stone, 
 
 It needs no fashion, it is WASHINGTON : 
 
 But if you chisel, let your strokes be rude, 
 
 And on his breast engrave ingratitude* 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 209 
 
 From vilifying Washington, he returned to 
 his abuse of the Christian religion. In October, 
 1796, he published tiie second part of the Age of 
 Reason. He had now furnished himself with a 
 Bible and Testament, and "I can say, he adds, 
 that I have found them to be much worse books 
 than I had conceived. 7 
 
 It appears throughout both the first and second 
 part of the Age of Reason, that, as in govern 
 ment, his object was not the maintenance, as a 
 man of letters, if such he considered himself, 
 of a speculative point about which philosophers 
 in their elaborate investigations of abstruse sub- 
 jects may very harmlessly differ, but the propa 
 gation of licentious doctrines amongst the low r er 
 orders, with a view to weaken if not to destroy, 
 in practice, that awful fear which restrains 
 them from the commission of sins against 
 God and crimes against man. Admitting that 
 he was not unfaithful to himself in the crude 
 deistical opinions which he rudely diffused, yet 
 as he wrote not for reading and thinking men, 
 could he have had any oth*r object than that of 
 mingling with his wasteful anarchy in the affairs 
 of government, a more detestable anarchy in the 
 more solemn affairs of religion ? Our well being 
 here, without considering the more weighty 
 matter of hereafter, is so inseparable from, so 
 identified with religion, that we have nothing tp 
 
 B b 
 
210 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 expect from a relaxation of its high obligations 
 but robberies more vast, ruin more complete, ty 
 ranny more intolerable, than the plunderings and 
 butcheries and despotisms, of which France was 
 for so many years the hapless subject. What 
 eligion could be substituted of equal excellence 
 with that which sways Christendom, and mollifies 
 the natural ferocity of man ? I am putting the 
 divinity of it out of the question, and consider 
 ing it only in reference to its benign influence 
 upon society. I have associated with deists; 
 I have listened to the dogmas of deism, and 
 although priestly intolerance and persecution, 
 the abuses of the Christian religion, are prin 
 cipally the alleged causes of their aversion 
 from the one and their attachment to the 
 other, yet I have found them in spirit more in 
 tolerant and persecuting, if possible, than any 
 thing which distinguishes the sufferings of the 
 Hugonots or the bloody reign of Mary. Elihu 
 Palmer, the deistical spouter, was, in the small 
 circle of his church, more priestly, more fulmi 
 nating, and looked for more reverence and ado 
 ration from his disciples, than the Lauds and Gar- 
 diners of England. Without the means, he af 
 fected all the haughtiness of Wolsey. Professing 
 to adore reason, he was in a rage if any body 
 reasoned with him. He view r ed himself as an 
 oracle, whose sayings na one was to question. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 211 
 
 Paine was equally a dogmatizer ; equally a deal 
 er in authority, which was himself. They who 
 tested every thing but their own opinions, suffer 
 ed not their own opinions to be tested. 
 
 In the year 1797, he published a " Letter to 
 the honourable Thomas Erskine." Williams, of 
 London, a bookseller, had been convicted for 
 publishing the Age of Reason, and Erskine had 
 conducted the prosecution for the crown. His 
 speech was sufficiently excellent to excite the 
 rancour of Paine : of the rare eloquence of that 
 gentleman, it is, perhaps, the choicest specimen. 
 The letter repeats, in coarse and indecent lan 
 guage, the ribaldry of his Age of Reason. 
 
 In January of this year the " Society of the 
 Theophilanthropists," calling themselves "adorers 
 of God and lovers of man," a knot of atheists 
 and deists, was commenced in Paris. To these 
 gloomy misanthropists, Paine, the high priest, 
 delivered a discourse, the object of which was to 
 prove the " existence of a " superiour" cause, or 
 that which man calls God." It begins with a 
 vapid declamation against atheism ; just such a 
 one as a man would write who was anxious for 
 the prevalence of that most execrable of all dog 
 mas. Atheists, he admits, for to the scandal of 
 human nature there have been such persons, 
 reason well upon the maxims which they have 
 assumed, but, explorers of all nature as he thinks 
 
212 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 they are, they have overlooked a principle, he 
 says, which &?has discovered, and which, alone, 
 he is positive, introduces us to a knowledge of 
 the existence of God. This he calls a circum 
 stance, and that circumstance is motion, which, he 
 adds, is not a property of matter, and therefore, 
 not being a property of matter, and yet existing, 
 its existence proves the existence of God. This 
 is the amount of his discourse ; of his indubitable 
 proof of the being of God ! To evince, there 
 fore, upon this old principle, which he advances 
 as newi that there is no God, as " the fool hath 
 said in his heart," it is only necessary to show, 
 that motion is a property of matter. Was it with 
 this view that he advanced the doctrine I Surely 
 he was not ignorant that we can have no idea of 
 matter without motion, positive or relative, nor 
 of motion without matter. Mirabeau, in his 
 " System of Nature," founds his atheism upon 
 the dogma, that nature is constantly in brisk mo 
 tion, decomposing and recomposing ; that the 
 " dissolution of one body, which we call death, is 
 but the beginning of life and animation in ano 
 ther," and that matter is never at rest. If of the 
 being of God, of which all existence, ajl that we 
 see and know and feel are so many demonstra 
 tions, we had no better proof than Paine s elabo 
 rately obscure, weak, and impious discourse, 
 then would our condition here be indeed mise- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 213 
 
 rable ; then should we have no dread of some- 
 tlung hereafter ; no hope of happiness beyond 
 the grave. 
 
 In the same year he published a small tract 
 which he entitled " Agrarian Justice." This is 
 a proposition submitted to all nations, for compel 
 ling all land holders to pay a tenth part of the 
 value of their estates, towards constituting a fund 
 out of which every person at the age of twenty- 
 one should receive fifteen pounds sterling, and 
 ten pounds when arrived at fifty. Of all the theo 
 ries of the wretched innovators of the present 
 age, those miserable empericks who have disturb 
 ed and desolated the world, this is one of the 
 most visionary, and yet it is probable, that like 
 other fanciful and levelling schemes, it has its ad 
 vocates. Paine is of opinion, that the exaction 
 would be just, and he grounds it upon the as 
 sumption, that no man has a right to appropriate 
 land to himself, God having given it in common 
 to all. " It is the value of the improvement 
 only, he says, and not the earth itself, that is 
 individual property. Every proprietor therefore 
 of cultivated land owes to the community a 
 ground rent," of ten per cent, according to his 
 estimate, to be extorted and applied as I have 
 stated. 
 
 On a subject like this there is much of folly in 
 going back in argument to that rude or natural 
 
214 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 state to which society never can revert in prac 
 tice. But passing over the inutility of the one, 
 and the impracticability of the other, Paine s ar 
 gument, on the supposition of a state of nature, 
 in which there is no location or appropriation of 
 land, is fundamentally erroneous, and is, besides, 
 at variance with itself. With regard to his con 
 tradictions, he affirms, that as the earth cannot 
 become individual property, those who have par 
 celled it out and possess it, "owe a ground rent 
 to the community. * The community then can 
 own it ; that is his meaning, else individuals who 
 happen to hold cannot rightfully owe to the com- 
 jnunity any thing for the possession of that to 
 which the community has no title. The commu 
 nity, nation, or government, for in the argument 
 they are one and the same thing, being made up of 
 individuals, how, if individuals cannot locate or 
 appropriate to themselves any portion of the earth, 
 can the aggregate of individuals, the nation, locate 
 and appropriate to itself the whole ? If he had said 
 that it necessarily belongs to the sovereignty, he 
 would have found himself in the same dilemma, for 
 the COMMON is then gone ; it is no longer a common . 
 it is located ; it is the property of the govern 
 ment, and those who wish to cultivate any por 
 tion of it for sustenance, must purchase. He 
 would give to all that which he denies to all it? 
 parts, and therefore to all. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 215 
 
 The rightful acquisition of land is contempora 
 ry with and inseparable from its cultivation, 
 which is antecedent to a community, as civiliza 
 tion, in whatever degree, always precedes go 
 vernment. There is, in the rude state which 
 he has supposed, no community, no govern 
 ment ; every thing is in common, and yet there is 
 no common consent, no common rule of ac 
 tion, which means government. In this condi 
 tion location is essential to cultivation and sus 
 tenance; and as no one \vould bestow labour 
 upon that which he would be unable to secure to 
 himself, and which could not be secured to him j 
 cultivation and acquisition are, in this imagina 
 ry state of things, necessarily one and the same 
 rightful act. 
 
 This year he also published^) a cc Letter 
 to the People of France, and the French Ar 
 mies, on the event of the 18th Fructidor" The 
 18th Fructidor [September 4, 1797, in Christian 
 language] introduced to Paris a fresh explosion, 
 and Paine s letter w r as intended to reconcile the 
 armies, &c. to the event. Boissy D Anglas s con 
 stitution of 1 795, the constitution of elders and 
 youngsters, and of a directory of five, w T hich 
 
 (17) His Agrarian Justice, he states in the preface, was 
 written in the winter of 1795-6. 
 
216 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 lasted until the approach of this Fructidor, had 
 made way for the presidency of Pichegru over 
 the council of five hundred. Pichegru and his 
 associates sought to mitigate the rigours of the 
 revolution by re-opening some of the churches, 
 inviting the return of many of the clergy, and 
 curtailing the proscription list. These comforting 
 measures being deemed a conspiracy against the 
 republick, a new revolution happened, in which, 
 to the total disregard of the constitution, Piche 
 gru and his fellow labourers were, without trial, 
 banished. 
 
 Paine, who, if he were not a pander of the 
 French government, was a base trembling slave, 
 writes his letter in justification of this " extraor 
 dinary measure," as he himself terms it in the 
 very first page, although he admits that the mea 
 sure, which he is vindicating, was unconstitu 
 tional! 
 
 And as if to heighten the degree of his own 
 offence and the atrocity of the government, he 
 pronounces upon the constitution which has been 
 violated a most extravagant panegyrick. " A 
 better organized constitution, he says, never was 
 devised by human wisdom. It is, in its organi 
 zation, free from all the defects to which other 
 forms of government are more or less subject."(r) 
 
 (r) Page 1. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 217 
 
 This is the constitution which destroyed the uni 
 versal suffrage which he and Condorcet had pre 
 scribed in theirs. This is the constitution which 
 makes a campaign in the army one of the innu 
 merable qualifications of a citizen ; which places 
 between the citizen and his government electoral 
 colleges; which, therefore, does not permit the 
 citizen to vote for a member either of the elders 
 or the youngsters / and which, lastly, Paine him 
 self pusillanimously opposed in his speech to the 
 convention, in July, 1795. 
 
 His encomiums on this violated constitution, 
 which, in 1795, he opposed as a bad one, and 
 which, in 1797, he declares ie the best that " hu 
 man wisdom ever devised," are regular and sys- 
 tematick, beginning with the council of ancients, 
 proceeding to that of five hundred, and ending 
 with a laboured eulogium on the directory of 
 five. Every branch has his cordial approbation, 
 but with the executive of five he is passionately 
 in love. 
 
 " In the first place, he remarks, speaking of 
 the directory of five, shall the executive by elec 
 tion be an individual or a plurality ?(s) 
 
 (.s) There was no question about a new constitution. He is 
 only endeavouring to show that that which is, is right, 
 
 C c 
 
218 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 / " An individual by election" [as in the United 
 States] " is almost as bad, he continues, as the 
 HEREDITARY SYSTEM, except that there is always 
 a better chance of not having an ideot. But he 
 will never be any thing more than a chief of a 
 party, and none but those of that party will 
 have access to him."(Y) 
 
 This is the reverse of the language which, in 
 his Rights of Man, he sprfe to the people of 
 England. There, the constitution of the United 
 States was the paragon of all constitutions : it 
 was the new system 7 in contradistinction to the 
 old. There, the election of the president was 
 sumptuously described as embracing all excel 
 lence. But compared with Boissy D Anglas s con 
 stitution, in which the executive was not elected 
 by the people, nor by the electoral colleges, but by 
 the legislative body, that excellence becomes 
 " almost as bad as the hereditary system !" The 
 only " exception," in Paine s opinion, to the 
 equal baseness of. the two is, that, by election, 
 there is a better " chance of not having an idiot !" 
 Preferring a plural executive to an individual, 
 the next question is, he observes, " what shall 
 be the number of that plurality ?" 
 
 (/O Page 6. In the latter remark he is undoubtedly cor- 
 rec,t. It ia so iu the United States. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 219 
 
 " Three are too few, either for the variety or 
 the quantity of business. The constitution has 
 adopted five, and experience has shown that this 
 number of directors is sufficient for all the pur 
 poses, and therefore a greater number would only 
 be an unnecessary expense."( ?/ ) 
 
 The number which France had hit upon, and 
 which, I agree with him, is quite sufficient, he 
 seems to think designed by nature for all govern-, 
 ments, although human wisdom, in no part of 
 the world, except in France, has as yet adopted 
 it. Nature, he says, has given us exactly five 
 senses, and the same number of ringers and toes, 
 pointing out to us, by this kindness, the propriety 
 of an executive directory of five, precisely as in 
 France.(z>) If one sense, he continues, had been 
 sufficient, she would have given us no more : an 
 individual executive, he therefore infers, is uiv 
 natural and unphilosophical, " individuality being 
 exploded by nature." Surely tyranny never had 
 a more fawning parasite, freedom a more decided 
 enemy. 
 
 The efficacy of paper constitutions, as describ 
 ed by him in the Rights of Man, w 7 as, in the 
 proceeding against Pichegru and his friends, not 
 
 (w) Page 67. 
 (r) Pa-e 7. 
 
220 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 only disproved by the fact, but the fact itself, 
 which was very agreeable to him, gave the lie to 
 his former doctrines. During the ascendancy of 
 the two committees of revolution and safety, 
 there w r as a form of trial ; a mockery indeed 
 and an outrage, but under the paper constitution 
 of Boissy D Anglas, which it was supposed had 
 terminated summary proceedings and instant ex 
 ecutions, Pichegru and his colleagues were ban 
 ished from the council of five hundred without 
 even the ceremony of a trial. Where now was 
 the cogency and omnipotence of a paper consti 
 tution ? Party and injustice had laid it aside, 
 and Paine panegyrizes the act ! Suspicion was 
 sufficient even with him to authorise a dispensa 
 tion with all constitutional obligations. There 
 was no evidence of guilt : none was produced ; 
 none was sought for. Nor was guilt, in his 
 estimation, necessary ; presumption, ill-grounded 
 presumption was enough. " The obstinacy with 
 which the conspiracy, he says, persevered in its 
 repeated attacks upon the directory, in framing 
 laws in favour of emigrants and refractory priest s^ 
 admitted of no other direct interpretation than 
 that something was rotten in the council of five 
 hundred. The evidence of circumstances became 
 every day too visible not to be seen."(**0 
 
 (sy) Page 14. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 221 
 
 I feel great difficulty in repressing the indigna 
 tion which rises from reviewing the nefarious 
 publications and conduct of this man. Robes 
 pierre, he says, was a tyrant. Why ? Because 
 he sent men to their account on suspicion. 
 Speaking of his own case, when in prison, he 
 remarks, that owing to the prevalence of this doc 
 trine of suspicion, " there was no time when I 
 could think my life worth twenty-four hours."(V) 
 What difference w r as there between Robespierre 
 and himself ? Suspicion was enough with Robes 
 pierre ; suspicio?i was enough with Paine. Robes 
 pierre called out conspiracy, and off went a head; 
 Paine, when he himself was not the subject of the 
 same despotism and cruelty, echoed the cry, and 
 Pichegru and his associates were banished. Pich- 
 egru, he asserts, was guilty of a conspiracy 
 against the state. In w r hat was he a conspirator ? 
 Paine tells us " in framing laws in favour of 
 emigrants and refractory priests. This was the 
 conspiracy ! Admitting that the framing of such 
 laws was treason, where is the proof; what is 
 it ? The " evidence, Paine answers, of circum 
 stances" Without accusation, then, without trial, 
 circumstances, susceptible of a thousand inter 
 pretations, authorised the banishment of Pichc- 
 
 (u.-) Letters to the citizens of the United States. 
 
222 LIFE OF THOMAS PAItfE. 
 
 gru, and the destruction of the paper constitu 
 tion ! 
 
 Pichegru and his banished associates were le 
 gislators. If, wishing to relax the rigours and 
 the proscriptions, and to lessen the miseries of the 
 revolution, they had "framed laws favouring 
 emigrants and refractory priests ;" had they not, 
 as legislators, a right to do so ? It did not 
 follow, because such acts were framed, that 
 the acts would become laws. If, as members, 
 they had no voice in legislation, they were pup 
 pets ; and if they erred in opinion, is errour of 
 opinion criminal in a legislator ? And banish 
 them too without trial ! Is this republicanism ? 
 Is this freedom ? 
 
 In the early stages of the revolution, the armed 
 force, at the beck of the dominant party, over 
 awed the legislative body. Boissy D Anglas s 
 constitution had guarded against this dreadful 
 evil, as far as a paper constitution could do so. 
 The armed force was not to approach nearer to 
 Paris than twelve leagues. But the party in the 
 government to which Paine was attached, and of 
 which he was an infamous tool, meditating the 
 overthrow of Pichegru and his friends, ordered 
 the armed force within the constitutional limits, 
 as instruments of their designs. This indication 
 of a bloody purpose excited alarm. Paine justi 
 fies the march of the troops ; Paine vindicates 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 this atrocious violence committed on the paper 
 constitution, " Conspiracy, he observes, is quick 
 of suspicion, and the fear which the faction in 
 the council of five hundred manifested upon this 
 occasion, could not have suggested itself to inno 
 cent men. Neither would innocent men have ex 
 postulated with the directory upon the case." 
 " The leaders of the faction conceived that the 
 troops were inarching against them, and the con 
 duct they adopted in consequence of it, was suf 
 ficient to justify the measure, even if it had been 
 so. From what other motive than the conscious 
 ness of their own designs could they have 
 fear ?"(*/) The murderous sayings of Jeffreys to 
 Sydney are inferiour in atrocity to this. Paine 
 infers guilt from a meritorious act. The consti 
 tution is outraged by the march of the troops. 
 The faction, as he indecorously denominates a 
 part of the legislative body, express fear in behalf 
 of the constitution. This fear, so natural, so 
 commendable, so patriotick, he construes into 
 guilt, and this guilt, he profligately asserts, was 
 " sufficient to justify the marching of the troops 
 against the legislators !" Can there be baseness, 
 can there be despotism greater than this ? 
 
 (w) Page 15. 
 
224 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 His letter to the army was his last work in 
 France. Wearied with the republick, though 
 obstinately bent on maintaining his principles 
 against his feelings, he now sighed to return to 
 the United States, " whose election of the chief 
 magistrate is almost as bad as the hereditary sys 
 tem." He knew not indeed what to do with 
 himself. He could not return to England, where 
 he had been wisely outlawed, and he was aware 
 that he was odious in the United States. Wash 
 ington justly considered him an anarchist in go- 
 ^s* vernment, and an infidel in religion. He had no 
 country in the world, and it may truly be said 
 that he had not a friend. Was ever man so 
 wretched ? Was ever enormous sinner so justly 
 punished ? He must, however, return to the 
 United States, for he was poor ; the plunderers 
 of France having plundered only for themselves. 
 / He still retained his farm at New-Rochelle, and 
 he was sensible, that greatly increased in value, 
 it would abundantly supply all his wants. 
 
 But how to get to the United States with safe 
 ty, was the question. The ocean, bearing proud 
 ly upon its swelling bosom the gallant force of 
 England, was impassable to him. He now felt 
 the force of the prosecution at which he had 
 laughed. By it he was limited to the bastile of 
 France, and compelled to endure all its horrours. 
 \/ He had made arrangements, he says, to return 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 22$ 
 
 with Mr. Monroe, and that it was fortunate he 
 did not, as the vessel in which that minister re 
 turned was " boarded by a British frigate on her 
 passage, and every part of her searched, dow j n 
 even to her hold, for Thomas Paine."(~) Imme 
 diately after he went to Havre, in order to em 
 bark, but as several British frigates were cruising 
 off the port, he returned to Paris. " I then, he 
 states, wrote to Mr. Jefferson, that if the fate of 
 the election should put him in the chair of the 
 presidency, and he should have occasion to send 
 a frigate to France, he would give me an oppor 
 tunity of returning by it, which he did. But I 
 declined coming by the Maryland, the vessel 
 that was offered me, and waited for the frigate 
 that was to bring the new minister, Chancellor 
 Livingston, to France, but that frigate was or 
 dered round to the Mediterranean ; and as at that 
 time the war was over, and the British cruisers 
 [were] called in, I could come any way. I then 
 agreed to come with Commodore Barney, in a 
 vessel he had engaged. I was again fortunate I 
 did not, for the vessel sunk at sea, and the peo 
 ple were preserved in a boat."(a) 
 
 He continued in France from the year 1797, 
 the date of his letter to the French army, to the 
 
 (z} Letter .4 to the people of the United States,, 
 (c) Ibid. 
 
 D d 
 
2:26 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 year 1802, associating, during that time, with the 
 lowest company, and indulging, to still greater 
 excess, his thirst for liquor. He became so filthy 
 in his person, so mean in dress, and so notorious 
 a sot, that all men of decency in Paris avoided 
 him. 
 
 On the 30th of October, 1 802, he arrived at 
 Baltimore, under the protection of President Jef 
 ferson. The subjoined is an extract of Mr. Jef 
 ferson s answer to Paine s request for permission 
 to return to the United States in a publick vessel. 
 
 " You expressed a wish in your letter to return 
 to America by a national ship ; Mr. Dawson, who 
 brings over the treaty, and who will present you 
 with this letter, is charged with orders to the 
 captain of the Maryland to receive and accom 
 modate you back, if you can be ready to depart 
 at such a short warning. You will in general 
 find us returned to sentiments worthy of former 
 times ; in these it will be your glory to have 
 steadily laboured, and with as much effect as 
 any man living. That you may live long to con 
 tinue your useful labours, and reap the reward 
 in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere 
 prayer. Accept the assurances of my high es 
 teem, and affectionate attachment. 
 
 " THOMAS JEFFERSON." 
 
 Paine brought with him from Paris, and from 
 her husband, in whose house he had lived, Mar- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 227 
 
 garet Brazier Bonneville, and her three sons; , 
 Lewis, Benjamin, and Thomas. Thomas has the 
 features, countenance, and temper of Paine. / 
 Madame Bonneville arrived at Baltimore a few 
 clays after her paramour. 
 
 From Baltimore he went to Washington, in 
 order to make his compliments to President Jef 
 ferson : he was soon after followed by Madame 
 Bonneville and her sons. His reception at Wash 
 ington was cold and forbidding. Even Mr. Jeffer 
 son received him with politick circumspection; and 
 such of the members of congress as suffered him 
 to approach them, did so from motives of curios 
 ity. Policy dictated this course. If Paine had 
 been popular, no matter how despicable or how 
 wicked, he would have been courted, but as he 
 was not, he was shunned. The leaders of the 
 party in power were apprehensive that he would 
 write for it, and they were sure that if he did, 
 he w^ould injure it ; hence he was contemptuously 
 neglected by them. His figure was indeed much 
 against him: it was that of a little old man, bro 
 ken down by intemperance, and utterly disre- 
 gardful of personal cleanliness. His intemperance 
 he could not conceal, nor had he, to all appear 
 ance, a wish to conceal it. He was daily drunk 
 with his favourite brandy, and every body saw 
 or heard of his intoxication. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Fearful as the leaders of the party were that 
 he would injure their popular prospects by pub 
 lishing, his pen could not be restrained. Suffi 
 ciently intrenched with popularity to trample 
 upon the constitution, to sanction political anar 
 chy, or to countenance irreligion, Mr. Jefferson 
 had expressed a wish that he would " continue 
 his useful labours," and, in this instance grate 
 ful, he had resolved not to disappoint his expec 
 tations. Encouraged, therefore, by the president, 
 countenanced by the presence of Bonne ville 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." These, except his letter to Samuel 
 Adams, are party, rude, malignant effusions. 
 In one of them he remarks, with equal coarseness, 
 impudence, and vanity : " The scribblers who 
 know me not, and who fill their papers with 
 paragraphs about me, besides their want of ta 
 lents, drink too many slings and drams in a morn* 
 ing to have any chance with me."() This he 
 published at Washington, where it was notorious 
 that he was in the constant practice of drinking 
 slings and drams, not only in the morning, but 
 all the day through. 
 
 Letter 4, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAJN. 
 
 His letter to Samuel Adams was in reply to a 
 cool and cautious one which that gentleman, 
 respected for the services he had rendered his 
 country, and interesting from the loss of his 
 sight, had written to him on the subject of the 
 Christian religion. " When, he observes, I heard 
 that you had turned your mind to a defence of 
 infidelity, I felt myself much astonished and 
 more grieved, that you had attempted a measure 
 so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to 
 the interest of the citizens of the United States. 
 Will you excite among them the spirit of angry 
 controversy ? I am told that some of the news 
 papers have announced your intention to publish 
 an additional pamphlet on the principles of your 
 Age of Reason. Do you think that your pen, 
 or the pen of any other man, can unchristianize 
 the mass of our citizens ? We ought to think 
 ourselves happy in the enjoyment of opinion, 
 without the danger of persecution by civil or 
 ecclesiastical law." 
 
 Paine s answer w r as returned through the me 
 dium of the newspapers ! In this he counterfeits 
 a friendship for -Mr. Adams, which he was inca 
 pable of feeling for any human being. Rejoicing 
 in the opportunity which the letter had given him, 
 to propagate his deistical doctrines, his answer is 
 full of vulgar sayings and impertinent sneers. 
 He assigns some reasons for publishing, sooner 
 
230 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 than he had originally intended, his Age of Rea 
 son* which, that his disciples in the United States 
 might be countenanced and encouraged, he vin 
 dicates. Speaking of the causes which induced 
 him to publish the Age of Reason when he did, 
 he observes : " In the first place, I saw my life 
 in continual danger. My friends were falling as 
 fast as the guillotine could cut their heads off; 
 and as I every day expected the same fate, I re 
 solved to begin my work." 
 
 Paine s memory was uncommonly good, but 
 his great want of veracity often got the better 
 of it. 
 
 If the reasons which he here assigns for wri 
 ting the Age of Reason when he did be true, 
 those which he had assigned before are false. 
 The period of which he speaks was the year 1 793. 
 It was then that his friends were losing their 
 heads in Paris as fast as the national razor could 
 cut them off; it was then that he every day ex 
 pected the same fate. His election to the national 
 assembly was announced to him in London, on 
 the 13th of September, 1792. On the 15th of 
 the same month, he wrote his letter at Calais, 
 addressed to Mr. Dundas. In January, 1793, 
 the king was decapitated. In the summer of the 
 same year, Robespierre cut off heads in gross 
 and without ceremony. In December, 1793, 
 Paine himself was imprisoned. Having witness- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 231 
 
 ed all these catastrophes, but his own, which 
 he anticipated, " I resolved, he adds, to begin 
 my work/ Let us compare this with what fol 
 lows. 
 
 In his preface to the Age of Reason, part se 
 cond, is the subjoined passage, which, in another 
 place, and for another purpose, I have quoted. 
 
 " I have already mentioned, in the former part 
 of the Age of Reason, that it had long been my 
 intention to publish my thoughts upon religion, 
 but that I had originally reserved it to a late period 
 of life, intending it to be the last work I should 
 undertake. Some circumstances, however, which 
 existed in France in the latter end of the year 
 NINETY, determined me to delay it no longer. The 
 just and humane principles of the revolution, 
 which philosophy had diffused, had been departed 
 from/ 
 
 Here, he had " determined" in the year 1790, 
 to delay the work no longer, because the humane 
 principles of the revolution, even then, had been 
 departed from. 
 
 But in his letter to Mr. Adams, it was not, he 
 says, until the year 1793, that * I resolved to be 
 gin niy work," and he assigns very different rea 
 sons for it. These are, because the heads of his 
 friends were struck off, and because he himself 
 every day expected the same fate. No two ac 
 counts of the same fact could be more contradic- 
 
232 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 tory and opposite. The first in date is probably 
 true, being first written. The last, which is not 
 true, was written in the hope of inducing Mr. 
 Adams to believe, that he had something of hu 
 manity about him. 
 
 Having paid his compliments to Mr. Jefferson, 
 and gratified him by " continuing his useful la 
 bours," he left Washington for New-York, accom 
 panied with Madame Bonneville and her sons :(c) 
 he arrived, as I have mentioned in the preface. 
 He found his farm at New-Rochelle greatly in 
 creased in value, notwithstanding the consumable 
 part of the mansion had, in the year 1 790, been 
 accidentally destroyed by fire. " Even in my 
 worldly concerns, he observes, I have been blessed. 
 The little property I left in America has been 
 encreasing in the value of its capital more than 
 eight hundred dollars every year for the fourteen 
 years and more, that I have been absent from 
 it."(rf) In another place he remarks : " My 
 
 (c) Passing through Baltimore, he was accosted by the 
 Reverend Mr. Hargrove, minister of a new sect called the 
 New Jerusalemites. You are Mr. Paine, said Mr. Hargrove. 
 Yes. My name is Hargrove^ sir, I am minister of the New 
 Jerusalem Church here. We, sir, explain the scripture in its 
 true meaning. The key has been lost above four thousand 
 years, and we have found it. Then, said Paiae, drily, if 
 must have been very rusty. 
 
 (d) Letter 4 to the citizens of the United States. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 233 
 
 property in this country is now worth six thou* 
 sand pounds sterling, which put in the funds 
 will bring me 400/. sterling a year."(<?) Yet with 
 all this property, meanness and avarice would not 
 permit him to remain at Lovett s hotel more than / 
 eight or ten days. During his stay, he was visit 
 ed by the labouring class of emigrants from Eng 
 land, Ireland and Scotland, who had there ad 
 mired his Rights of Man. With these he drank 
 grog in the tap-room, morning, noon and night. 
 Admired and praised by them, he strutted about, 
 or rather staggered about, showing himself to all 
 and shaking hands with all. One day labourer 
 would say ; drink with me Mr. Paine ; another, 
 drink with me, and he very condescendingly S 
 gratified them all. The leaders of the party to 
 which he had attached himself, paid him no at 
 tention : he was studiously avoided by them. ^ 
 But two or three persons of any thing like distinc-^ 
 tion publickly visited him, and seeing his vulgari 
 ty and love of liquor, their visit was short. He 
 complained of inattention without perceiving the 
 cause. While at Lovett s, he fell over a high * 
 stair-case in a paroxysm of intoxication. Being- 
 
 (e) Letter to Thomas Clio Rickman, of London. See the 
 London cd. 1804, of his letters to the citizens of the United 
 States. 
 
 EC 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 much hurt, it was given out that his fall was oc 
 casioned by an apoplectick fit ! 
 
 v/ In making his arrangements for a permanent 
 residence amongst us, he contemplated the aban 
 donment of Madame Bonneville, whom he had 
 seduced from her husband in Paris, and brought 
 amongst strangers ! Besides his estate at New- 
 Rochelle, he had a small house and a few barren 
 acres at Bordentown, New-Jersey. This little 
 property, which he afterwards sold for seven 
 hundred and fifty dollars, he proposed to give to 
 her, and to settle her upon it as a school mistress, 
 but she resolutely and successfully resisted his 
 unfeeling project. For a long time he represented 
 her as the wife of his friend, a republican printer 
 in Paris, with whom he had boarded, and who, 
 disliking the new order of things under the First 
 Consul, was every day expected to emigrate to 
 
 t/ the United States. Those who believed him 
 thought well of that kindness in which his frieijd s 
 wife and her children had found refuge, but his 
 cruel treatment of her soon dissipated the delu 
 sion, and convinced all who knew him, that to 
 the crime of seduction, he was adding that of in 
 humanity^/) 
 
 . (./ ) The elder Bonneville, about fourteen, returned to his 
 father in Paris, in the year 1805. He detested Paine, and lad 
 as lie was, Would scarcely speak to him. Ah ! he would oftea 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 235 
 
 From Lovett s he went to the house of 
 Mr. Carver, farrier, in Cedar-street, whom I 
 have already mentioned ; an honest, faith 
 ful, industrious man, who gratuitously ac 
 commodated him for a few weeks. At Carver s 
 he finally concluded to live on his farm, as soon 
 as he could remove Mr. Purdy, the occupant, 
 from it ; to take the two children with him, and 
 to leave Madame Bonneville in the city, to pro 
 vide for herself as well as she could. 
 
 But before his departure for New-Rochelle, the 
 persons who had paid him attention at Lovett s, 
 angry at the neglect of the higher orders, were 
 anxious to testify their esteem for him by giving 
 him a publick dinner, if a sufficient number could 
 be prevailed with to be present. The intended 
 honour was mentioned to Paine, who highly 
 approved of it, and manifested great solicitude 
 for its accomplishment. After many consulta 
 tions on the sort of dinner which could be given, 
 and the sort of persons who on such an occasion 
 would probably attend in open day at Lovett s, 
 
 say, Paine is not so well known in the United States as in 
 Paris. He has broken up the tranquillity of my father s 
 house \ Paine would not pay his passage to France. The boy 
 returned in a French ship, in which his mother procured him 
 a passage gratis. Benjamin and Thomas remained with 
 Paine. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 the proposed place of feasting, a subscription was 
 set on foot, and the city canvassed for names. 
 Two or three weeks of diligent search and impor 
 tunity obtained between sixty and seventy. The 
 dinner was therefore given, and Paine conducted 
 from the table as mellow as he wished to be.(^) 
 
 From Mr. Carver s, he went in June, 1 803, to 
 New-Rochelle, and boarded on his farm with Pur- 
 dy, leaving Madame Bonneville in the city. Un 
 protected and distressed, she followed him, after 
 the lapse of six or seven weeks, and lived with 
 him and her children at Purdy s until the fall of 
 the year, when they all returned to New- York. 
 
 (,) Paine, as he himself observes, had a taste and talent 
 for pcetry. The following effusion of fancy, addressed to 
 Mrs. Smith, lady of Sir Robert, which he wrote in Paris, he 
 repeated to me, from memory, soon after his arrival in New- 
 York. He thus introduced the lines himself. 
 
 " Mr. Paine corresponded with a lady, and dated his letters 
 from The Castle in Air, while she addressed hers from The 
 Little Corner of the World. For reasons which he knew 
 not,* their intercourse was suddenly suspended, and for some 
 time he believed his fair friend in obscurity and distress. Many 
 years afterwards, however, he met her unexpectedly at Paris^ 
 in the most affluent circumstances, and married to Sir Robert." 
 
 FROM THE CASTLE IN AIR, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD. 
 
 IN the region of clouds where the whirlwinds arise, 
 My castle of fancy was built ; 
 
 * No one but himself could mistake them. A delicate fe 
 male could not bear his company. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 237 
 
 Purdy s family, who were very poor ; Paine, Ma 
 dame Bonneville,and her children, all ate together. 
 Paine had a small room to himself. His furni 
 ture were a miserable straw bed, on which he 
 slept, a small deal table, a chair, a Bible, and a 
 jug of spiritous liquors. He preferred brandy, but 
 being too dear in the country for his penurious spi 
 rit, he drank New-JEngland Rum. Sometimes the 
 young Bonnevilles went to school at New-Ro- 
 chelle, but, generally, they rambled in the fields, 
 unheeded and almost unnoticed. Although Tom 
 was Paine s favourite, both were always dirty 
 and shabbily dressed, frequently without shoes 
 
 The turrets reflected the blue of the skies, 
 And the windows with sun-beams were gilt. 
 
 The rainbow sometimes in its beautiful state, 
 
 Enamell d the mansion around, 
 And the figures that fancy in clouds can create 
 
 Supplied me with gardens and ground. 
 
 I had grottos and fountains, and orange tree groves, 
 
 I had all that enchantment has told ; 
 I had sweet shady walks for the Gods and their Loves, 
 
 I had mountains of coral and geld, 
 
 But a storm that I felt not, had risen and roll d. 
 
 While wrapp d in a slumber I lay ; 
 And when I look d out in the morning, behold ! 
 
 My castle was carried away. 
 
 It pass d over rivers, and vallies, and groves, 
 The world, it was all in my view 
 
238 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and stockings. In the winter, he lived in Dover- 
 street, a sort of rendezvous for sailors. 
 
 In the spring of 1804, he returned to his 
 farm at New-Rochelle, Purdy having left it, tak 
 ing with him the two Bonnevilles, and leaving their 
 mother in the city. Not chusing to live upon the 
 farm himself, he hired one Christopher Derick, 
 an old man, to work it for him. While Derick 
 was husbanding the farm, Paine and the two 
 young Bonnevilles boarded, sometimes with Mr. 
 Wilburn, in Gold-street, in the city, but princi 
 pally with Mr. Andrew A. Dean, at New-Ro 
 chelle. Mrs. Dean, with whom I have conversed, 
 
 I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves,. 
 And often, full often, of you. 
 
 At length it came over a beautiful scene, 
 
 That nature in silence had made : 
 The place was but small but twas sweetly serene. 
 
 And chequer d with sunshine and shade. 
 
 I gaz d and I envied with painful good will. 
 
 And grew tired of my seat in the air : 
 When all of a sudden my castle stood still, 
 
 As if some attraction was there. 
 
 Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down. 
 
 And plac d me exactly in view 
 When who should I meet, in this charming retreat, 
 
 This corner of calmness but you. 
 
 Delighted to find you in honour and ease, 
 
 I felt no more sorrow nor pain, 
 And the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze, 
 
 And went back with my castle again." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 239 
 
 tells me that he was daily drunk at their house, 
 and that, in his few sober moments, he was always 
 quarrelling with her and disturbing the peace of 
 the family. She represents him as deliberately 
 and disgustingly filthy; as chusing Jo perform 
 the offices of nature in his bed ! It is not surpris 
 ing, therefore, that she importuned her husband 
 to turn him out of the house, but owing to Mr. 
 Dean s predilection for his political writings, 
 her importunities were, for several weeks, una 
 vailing. Constant domestick disquiet very natur 
 ally ensued, which was increased by Paine s 
 peevishness and violence. One day he run after * 
 Miss Dean, a girl of fifteen, with a chair whip 
 in his hand, to whip her, and would have done so, 
 but for the interposition of her mother. Enraged, 
 Mrs. Dean, to use her own language, " flew at 
 him." Paine retreated up stairs into his private 
 room, and was swiftly pursued by his antagonist. 
 The little drunken old man owed his safety to the 
 bolts of his door. In the fall of the year, Mrs. 
 Dean prevailed with her husband to keep him in 
 the house no longer. The two Bonne villes were 
 quite neglected.^) 
 
 (A) In July, he wrote, for Mr. Carver, the following obscene 
 and impious lines on the birth of Jesus Christ. If any thing 
 could add to their impiety, it would be the disgusting immoral 
 ity and the perpetual turbulence of the man who wrote them* 
 
240 LIFE OF THOMAS tAI 
 
 From Dean ?, he went to live on his farm. 
 Here one of his first acts was to discharge old 
 Derick, with whom he had wrangled, and to 
 whom he had been a tyrant, from the moment of 
 their en^a^ement. Derick left him with re 
 vengeful thoughts. 
 
 Being now alone, except the company of the 
 two Bonnevilles, of whom he took but little no 
 tice, fond as he was of Tom, he engaged an old 
 black woman of the name of Betty, to do his 
 housework. Betty lived with him but three 
 weeks. She seem- to have been as intemperate 
 as himself. Like her master, she was every day 
 
 They are printed from Point s hand-writing. The life of their 
 author is the most powerful antidote to their infidelity. A man 
 more honest, temperate, social, and just, could not, in all 
 probability, have written them. The reader, when perusing 
 the lines, should carry along with him the ideas, that while 
 writing them, Paine was, in all likelihood, drunk, and that 
 he had undoubtedly been exciting husband against wife, des 
 troying family peace, wrangling with all his neighbours, 
 cheating, in his dealings, all whom he could cheat, and living 
 a life distinguished by seduction, by oppression, by beastly in- 
 toxication, and by every species of imposition and injustice. 
 
 Commentary <m the Eastern Wise-Men travelling to Bethle 
 hem, guided by a star, to see the Little Jesus in the man 
 ger. Mat. ch. 2. 
 
 THREE pedlars travling to a fair, 
 To see the fun and what was there, 
 And sell their merchandise. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 241 
 
 X 
 
 Paine would accuse her of stealing ~ 
 his New-England rum, and Betty would retort 
 by calling him an old drunkard. Often, Mrs. 
 Dean informs me, would they both lie prostrate 
 on the same floor, dead-drunk, sprawling and 
 swearing and threatening to fight, but incapable 
 of approaching each other to combat. Nothing 
 but inability prevented a battle. 
 
 In the meanwhile Madame Bonneville was 
 boarding in the city of New-York on the faith of 
 Paine, who, in November, w r as brought up on a 
 warrant before the justices of Uie justices court 
 
 They stopt upon the road to chat, 
 
 Refresh, and ask of this and that, 
 
 That they might be more wise. 
 
 And pray, the Landlord said to them, 
 Where go ye sirs ? To Bethlehem, 
 
 The Citizens replied. 
 Ye are merchants, sirs, to them said he ; 
 We are, replied the petllars three, 
 
 And eastern-men beside. 
 
 And pray what have ye in your sacks, 
 If worth the while, I will go snacks ? 
 
 To them quoth major domo. 
 We ve buttons, buckles, spectacles, 
 And every thing a merchant sells, 
 
 Replied the trav ling trio. 
 
 These things are very well, said he, 
 
 For beaux, a/id those who cannot see 
 F f 
 
242 UFE OF THOMAS 
 
 for the amount of her board. The subjoined mV 
 nute is copied from the records of the court. 
 
 " November 20, 1804. 
 James Wilburn, | Wammt> 50 dols< Paulding; 
 
 vs * . ( Marshal. 
 
 Thomas Paine, } 
 
 Plaintiff, by Peter Paulding, demands 35 dols. 
 for boarding Mrs. Bonne ville, at defendant s re 
 quest. 
 
 Defendant pleads non-assumpsit. 
 
 Adjourned till 1 1 o clock to-morrow." 
 
 Much further than their knuckles ; 
 But Bethlehem fairs for boys and girls 
 Who never think of spectacles. 
 
 And cannot buy your buckles. 
 
 I have a pack of toys, quoth he, 
 A trav ling* merchant left with me, 
 
 Who could not pay his score ; 
 And you shall have them, on condition 
 You sell them at a cheap commission, 
 
 And make the money sure. 
 
 There s one of us will stay in pawn, 
 Until the other two return, 
 
 If you suspect our faith, said they. 
 The Landlord thought this was a plan 
 To leave upon [his] hands, the man, 
 
 And therefore he said, nay. 
 
 They truck d, however, for the pack 
 Which one of them took on his back^ 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 243 
 
 e< November 21. 
 
 Same, ^ 
 vs. >On adjournment, &c. 
 
 Same, j 
 
 Parties appear. 
 
 John Fellows, witness for plaintiff. 
 
 Nonsuit." 
 
 The court was crouded to gaze at Paine, who x 
 exhibited no signs either of fear or shame. He 
 denied the debt with incomparable assurance and 
 intrepidity ; and as the plaintiff had neglected to 
 subpoena Madame Bonneville, to prove that he 
 
 And off the merchants travell d : 
 And here the tale the Apostles tol.d, 
 Of wise-men and their gifts of gold^ 
 
 Will fully be unravellU 
 
 The star iii the east that shin d so bright 
 As might be seen both day and night, 
 
 If you will credit them ; 
 It was no other than a sign 
 To a public house, where pedlars dine, 
 
 In East-street, Bethlehem. 
 
 The wise-men were those pedlars three, 
 As you and all the world may see, 
 
 By reading to the end ; 
 For commentators have mistook 
 fn paraphrasing of a book 
 
 Thev did not understand. 
 
244 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 had promised her to pay her board, the scanda- 
 . lous old man obtained a non-suit. He after 
 wards, however, paid Mr. Wilburn s demand. 
 Probably a menace of a publick exposure in the 
 gazettes forced him, in this instance, to do jus 
 tice. 
 
 He now returned to his farm at New-Rochelle, 
 taking with him Madame Bonneville and her 
 sons. On his arrival, he hired Rachel Gidney, a 
 black woman, to cook for him. Rachel made 
 
 Our Travellers coming to the house, 
 Scarce fit to entertain a mouse, 
 
 Inquired to have a room, 
 The Landlord said he was not able 
 To give them any but the stable, 
 
 So many folks were come. 
 
 And pray who have you there, said they, 
 And how much money must we pay, 
 
 For we have none to spare ? 
 Why, there s one Joseph, and a wench, 
 Who are to go before the bench, 
 
 About a love affair. 
 
 Some how or other, in a manger 
 A child, expos d to every danger, 
 
 Was found as it was sleeping ; 
 The girl, she swears that she s a maid, 
 So swears the man, and I m afraid 
 
 On me will fall the keeping. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 245 
 
 out to stay with him about two months. But as 
 he never thought of paying for services, or for 
 meat, or for any thing else, Rachel had to sue 
 him for five dollars, the amount of her wages. 
 She got out a warrant, on which he was appre 
 hended, and Mr. Shute, one of his neighbours 
 and political admirers, was his bail. The wages 
 were finally obtained, but he thought it hard that 
 he should be sued in a country for which he had 
 done so much /(/) 
 
 Now, if you ll set yourselves about 
 To find this knotty story out 
 
 I ll pay whatever it may be. 
 So in the trav ling pedlars went 
 To pay their birth-day compliment, 
 
 And talk about the baby. 
 
 They first unpack d their pack of toys, 
 Some for show and some for noise, 
 
 But mostly for the latter ; 
 One gave a rattle, one a whistle, 
 And one a trumpet made of gristle, 
 
 To introduce the matter. 
 
 One squeak d away, the other blew, 
 The third play d on the rattle too, 
 
 To keep the bantling easy, 
 And hence the story comes to us 
 Of which some people make such fuss 
 
 About the eastern magi. 
 
 (i) During Rachel s stay, Mr. Carver, an uneducated man. 
 
246 LIFfc OF THOMAS PA1SE. 
 
 Derick, who could neither forget nor forgive 
 the ill-usage he had received from Paine, and 
 who like him was revengeful, atrociously conspir 
 ed, the neighbours say and believe, against his 
 life. On Christmas-eve, 1804, he borrowed a 
 musket, and, just after dark, went out with it 
 from Mr. Dean s, with whom he had lived since 
 his dismission by Paine. Mrs. Dean, who has 
 mentioned to me the circumstances, asked him 
 where he was going with the musket ? Derick 
 replied, only to fire a Christmas-eve-salute. He 
 proceeded towards Paine s, who lived hard by, 
 
 but a respectable citizen, made him a visit, which he cies^ 
 cribes to me in the following communication. 
 
 " To MR. CHEETHAM. 
 " SIR, 
 
 k4 As you are about writing the life of Thomas Paine, if you 
 think the following remarks are worth noticing, you are at 
 liberty to publish them in the work. 
 
 " During the time that Mr. Paine resided at his own place,, 
 at New-Rochelle, I frequently paid him a visit, and possessing 
 a slight acquaintance with a minister of the gospel in this ci 
 ty, who was friendly to Paine s political works, but had not 
 had an opportunity of seeing Mr. Paine, although it was his 
 wish to see him, I informed the gentleman that in a few days 
 I was going to see Mr. Paine, and if he thought proper to ride 
 with me in my chair, he should be exceedingly welcome : h,e 
 willingly agreed to my proposition, and in a few days after we 
 set off for New-Rochelle. At our arrival we found the old 
 gentleman, living in a small room like a hermit, and I believe 
 the whole of the furniture in the room, including a cot-bed^ 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 247 
 
 and who, having a lighted candle in his room, 
 was sitting near the exposed window. In this 
 situation a musket was iired at him, the contents 
 of which, striking the bottom of the window 
 frame, where he sat, dropped down between the 
 inner plaster and weather-boards of the wooden 
 house, to the foundation. In a few minutes after 
 the report of the musket, Derick returned to 
 Dean s. He was apprehended, and tried for the 
 offence, but acquitted. Since Paine s death, 
 
 was not worth five dollars : Mr. Paine, however, had the pa 
 liteness to invite us to breakfast, but I believe of all the scenes 
 that my companion had witnessed, this was one of the most 
 novel : Mr. Paine s breakfast cloth, being composed of old 
 news papers : after the breakfast furniture was placed on the 
 table, the black woman that was a servant to Paine, asked 
 him if she was to put fresh tea in the pot, his answer was in 
 the affirmative, the reason why the servant made this enquiry 
 was, that Paine s general method was to re-dry the tea leaves, 
 before the fire, and have them put in the tea-pot again, the 
 next time he drank tea : this custom I had often seen when I 
 was at New-Rochelle, but no where else in my life time. Our 
 tea at that time was common bohea, and coarse brown sugar, 
 and part of a rye loaf of bread, and about a quarter of a pound 
 of butter : the black woman brought in a plate of buckwheat 
 pancakes, which Mr. Paine undertook to butter; he kept turn 
 ing them over and over with his snuffy fingers, so that it aston 
 ished my companion, and prevented him from partaking of 
 them ; but the country air having created an appetite with 
 me, I ate heartily of them. After breakfast, the reverend 
 gentleman and myself took a walk into the fields; he accosted 
 me thus: Mr. Carver, I think you are a strange man, or you 
 
248 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 he has often said, Mrs. Dean tells me,(&) that 
 he was sorry the musket did not do execu 
 tion, but without mentioning that he fired it at 
 Paine. 
 
 In February, 1 805, he removed from New- 
 Rochelle to the city, where he boarded with Mr. 
 Carver six or eight weeks. The two Bonnevilles 
 he left at school at New-Rochelle. Madame 
 Bonneviue was stationed in a miserable garret in 
 Liberty -street. From Carver s he returned on 
 the 1 3th of May, to his farm at New-Rochelle. 
 In August he again visited the city, arid lived 
 with Mr. Carver a few weeks. He proposed to 
 continue at Carver s, but owing to illness in the 
 family, he could not be accommodated. He 
 
 could not have eat those pancakes, after the old man s turning 
 them over and over with his snuffy fingers; besides neither his 
 hands or face appear to have been washed for twelve months. 
 Why sir, said I to him, I thought you professed to be a Chris 
 tian, and the book or scripture so called, that you believe in, 
 says, * that which goeth into the man, does not defile the man, 
 I am, sir, your s respectfully, 
 
 WILLIAM CARVER." 
 
 ,--" 
 
 () My interviews with Mrs. Dean have been in the city, 
 where she was on a visit to her friends. I have since conversed 
 with Mr. Dean, who corroborates all that has been commu 
 nicated to me by his wife. Mr. Dean is a sensible man, and a 
 judicious observer. He is one of the justices of the peace for 
 the county. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 249 
 
 therefore went back to his farm at Nevy-Rochelle, 
 and took the two Bonnevilles from school to wait 
 on him. Here he remained until the approach 
 of winter, when he came to the city, and lived 
 at Glen s, an obscure house, in Water-street, un 
 til March, 1806.(7) 
 
 During the summer of 1 805, the pestilential 
 fever raged in the city of New- York, which be 
 came nearly evacuated by its inhabitants. . The 
 garret-residence of Madame Bonneville, who was 
 in effect abandoned by Paine, was the focus of 
 the pestilence. Unable to get out of town, she 
 would in all probability have perished with hunger, 
 but for the pecuniary aid which Mr. Carver libe- 
 
 (/) Before his return to the city, Madame Bonneville paid 
 him a visit, and arrived just at candle-light. She told him she 
 had an order which she wished him to sign, for clothing for 
 herself and the children, who were all, in fact, nearly naked. 
 She 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 won t read it 
 to-night, give it me back. Paine resisted all her importuni 
 ties : 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. Quite enraged, he went to Mrs. 
 Dean s and told her the story, by whom, and by Mr. Carver, 
 it is mentioned to me. 
 
250 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 rally and humanely afforded her. Paine was ac 
 quainted with her condition, but he had no feeling, 
 At the latter end of March, 1806, he returned 
 to New-Rochelle. Unwilling to be at any ex 
 pense on his farm, and unable, from the bad cha 
 racter which he had, to procure a servant to at 
 tend him, he boarded, with the two Bonne villes, at 
 the Bull s-head, New-Rochelle, a small tavern kept 
 
 - by Mr. Jones, a Welchman. He continued at the 
 Bull s-head until about the 20th of May, when the 
 
 \/ Welchman actually turned him out. His increas 
 ed inebriation and filth were so offensive to Mr. 
 Jones, that he could not keep him in his house 
 any longer; and as Paine knew not where to go, 
 (no one in the neighbourhood being willing to 
 take him in) the Welchman was obliged to drive 
 him from his habitation. 
 
 He now, Mrs. Dean informs me, returned to 
 
 l/***^ 
 
 their house, and begged to be admitted for a short 
 time.(W) Mrs. Dean made a stout resistance, but 
 at her husband s solicitation, and on Paine s 
 promise that he would not stay long, he was per 
 mitted to enter the house. He brought with him 
 a gallon of New-England rum, and in the even 
 ing got so drunk that he fell from his chair, 
 broke his nose, and sprinkled the room with his 
 
 (//O He had not paid a farthing for his former board at Mr, 
 Dean s, nor had he when he died. 
 

 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.. 
 
 blood. At the end of the week, Mrs. Dean 
 insisted that he should leave the house. And 
 where, said the wretched old man, shall I 
 go? Nobody will take me in! Go where you 
 will, she replied, you shall not stay here. He 
 went to Mr. Daniel Pelton s, one of his political 
 friends, in the neighbourhood, but Mrs. Pelton 
 refused him admission, having accommodated him 
 one night before, and found him exceedingly of 
 fensive. Repelled from house to house, he finally 
 went back to the Welchman s, who gave him shel 
 ter on obtaining his promise that he would not 
 stay longer than a day. This w y as on the 29th of 
 May. On the first of June, Mr. Carver went to 
 Jones s for him, and brought him to his house in 
 the city. He remained until early in the follow 
 ing November at Carver s, where he was cleaned, 
 and treated with the greatest kindness. While at 
 Carver s, he sold his farm at New-Rochelle, at 
 fifty dollars an acre, to Mr. Shute, who had been 
 his bail in the suit of Rachel. The subjoined 
 correspondence will elucidate his character, and 
 account for his conduct while at Carver s. Paine s 
 letter, with its bad orthography, its pointing, and 
 its capitals, is printed, literally, from his own 
 hand-writing. I have already said that Mr. Car 
 ver is an unlettered man. 
 
252 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 " New-York, Nov. 21, 1806. 
 " CITIZEN FRIEND, 
 
 " I take this opportunity to inform you, that I 
 am in want of money, and should take it as a fa- 
 vour if you would settle your account ; you must 
 consider that I have a large family, and nothing to 
 support them with but my labour. I have made 
 ft calculation of my expenditures on your ac 
 count, the last time that you was at my house, and 
 find that they amount to one hundred and fifty or 
 sixty dollars ; your stay was twenty-two weeks, 
 and Mrs. Palmer twelve weeks board on your ac 
 count. I expect, therefore, you will have the good 
 ness to pay me; for you must recollect you was 
 with me almost the whole of the winter before last, 
 for which you only gave me four guineas. If I, 
 like yourself, had an independent fortune, I should 
 not then require one cent of you j but real neces 
 sity, and justice to my family, thus prompts me to 
 urge payment from you. 
 
 * Your s, in friendship, 
 
 WILLIAM CARVER. 
 << MR. THOMAS PAINE." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 253 
 
 No. II. 
 
 u MR. CARVER, 
 
 " I received your letter of the 21st inst. and as 
 there are several mistakes in it I sit down to cor 
 rect them. You say to me in your letter " You 
 must recollect you- was with me almost the whole 
 of the winter before last, for which you only gave 
 me four guineas." This is a misstatement in 
 every part of it. I paid you four dollars per week 
 for the time I was at your house and I told you 
 so when I gave you the money which was in the 
 shop. I had lodged and boarded at Mr. Glen s in 
 water street before I came to your house. I paid 
 him five dollars per week, but I had a good room 
 with a fire place and liquor found for dinner and 
 supper. At your house I had not the same con 
 venience of a room and I found my own liquor 
 which I bought of John Fellows, so that you were 
 paid to the full worth of what I had. As I paid 
 by the week it does not signify how long or short 
 the time was, but certainly it was not " almost the 
 whole of the winter" I had burnt out my wood 
 at Mr. Glen s, and did not chuse to buy a new 
 stock because I wanted to go to New-Rochelle to 
 get Purdy of the farm, I therefore came to your 
 house in the mean time. How does it happen that 
 
254 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 those who receive do not remember so well as 
 those who pay. 
 
 " You say in your letter " You have made a 
 calculation of your expences on my account 
 the last time I was at your house and mid that 
 they amount to one hundred and fifty or sixty 
 dollars, that I \vas 22 weeks and Mrs. Palmer 
 twelve weeks on my account." I know not how 
 you calculate nor who helps you, but I know 
 what the price of boarding is. The [time] I was at 
 your house consists of two parts. First, from the 
 time I came from New-Rochelle till I was taken 
 ill and from thence till I came away Nov 8d I 
 know not exactly the tims I came from New Ro- 
 chelle but I can know by writing to Mr. Shute. 
 I know it was some short time before the eclipse 
 which was the 16 June. The time I was taken 
 ill I can know by refering to my will which is in 
 the hands of a friend. 
 
 You seem not to know any thing about the 
 price of boarding. John Fellows took board and 
 lodging for me and Mrs. Palmer at Winships 
 Coerlear s hook Winship ask seven dollars per 
 week for me and her. The room I was to have 
 was .a handsome spacious room, and Mrs. Palmer 
 w r as to have her room. At your house I found 
 my own bedding and the room I had was no other 
 than a closet to the front room, and Mrs. Palmer 
 had none, nor a fire to come to when the weather 
 
MEE OB THOMAS PAINE. 255 
 
 grew cold. As to myself I suffered a great deal 
 from the cold. There ought to have been a fire 
 in the parlour. 
 
 " The things which Mrs. Palmer did for me 
 were those which belonged to the house to do, 
 making the bed and sweeping the room ; and 
 when it happened Mrs. Palmer was not there, 
 which often happened, I had a great deal of trou 
 ble to get it done*; the black woman said she 
 should not do any thing but what Mrs. Carver told 
 her to do, and I had sometimes to call John from 
 his work to do the servant woman s work and 
 your wife knew it. Sometimes the room became 
 so dirty that people that came to see me took no 
 tice of it and wondered I staid in such a place. 
 
 " I am at a loss to understand you when you 
 say " I have made a calculation of my expendi 
 tures on your account and find they amount to one 
 hundred and fifty or sixty dollars." Why did 
 you not send me the particulars of that expendi 
 ture that I might know if those particulars were 
 true or false ? The expence, however, that you 
 were at on my account was the addition of on 
 more to your family than had before I came and 
 no more, except for the time Mrs. Palmer was 
 there, which was not twelve weeks-) and your 
 wife often called her down to cut out and make 
 things for herself and the children. I had tea 
 with brown sugar and everything else in common 
 
256 B1FE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 with the fare of the kitchen, so that unless I eat 
 more than any body else I was of no more ex 
 pense than any body else. What liquor I had I 
 sent out for myself, on what ground then is your 
 calculation founded. I suppose the case is that 
 you have been a good deal cheated and your wife 
 and son try to make you believe that the expence 
 has been incurred upon my account. 
 
 " I had written thus far on the Sunday evening 
 when Mr. Butler called to see me and I read it to 
 him and also your letter and I did the same to 
 John Fellows who came afterwards. Any body 
 seeing your letter and knowing nothing further 
 would suppose that I kept you out of a great deal 
 of property and would not settle the account. 
 Whereas the case is that I told you the last time 
 you carne for money, and I gave you ten dollars, 
 that I did not chuse to pay any more till the ac 
 count was settled, you ought therefore to have 
 come for that purpose instead of writing the letter 
 you did which contains no account at all. 
 
 " I did not like the treatment I received at your 
 house. In no case was it friendly and in many 
 cases not civil, especially from your wife. She 
 did not send me my tea or coffee till every body 
 else was served, and many times it was not fit to 
 drink. 
 
 " As to yourself you ought not to have left me 
 the night I was struck with the appoplexy. I find 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 257 
 
 you came up in the night and opened the little 
 cupboard and took my watch Did you take any 
 thing else? 
 
 I shall desire John Fellows and Mr. Morton to 
 call on you and settle the account and then I de 
 sire that all communication between you and me 
 may cease. 
 
 Butler called on me last evening, tuesday, and 
 told me of your goings on at Mustin s(w) on the 
 Sunday night. I did not think, carver, you were 
 such an unprincipled false hearted man as I find 
 you to be ; but I am glad I have found it out time 
 enough to dispossess you of all trust I reposed in 
 you when I made my will,(o) and, of every thing 
 else to which your name is there mentioned. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 * NewYork, Nov. 25, 06." 
 
 No. III. 
 
 " MR. THOMAS PAINE, 
 I received your letter dated the 25th ult. in 
 
 (n) A tavern in Little George-street. Paine gave his letter 
 to Walter Morton, who took it to Mustin s and read it in the 
 tap-room. 
 
 (o) He afterwards " dispossessed ^ John Fellows, to whom hs 
 had bequeathed something. I know not how many wills he 
 made, for he " dispossessed" his friends as often as he quar 
 relled with them, which was continually, 
 
 Hh 
 
258 LIFE OF THOMAS PAIKE. 
 
 answer to mine dated Nov. 21, and after minutely 
 examining its contents, I found that you had taken 
 the pitiful ground of subterfuge and lying for 
 your defence. You say that you paid me four 
 dollars per week for your board and lodging, 
 (luring the time that you were with me, prior to 
 the first of June last ; which \vas the day that I 
 went by your order to bring you to York, from 
 New-Rochelle. It is fortunate for me, that I have 
 a living evidence that saw you give me four gui 
 neas and no more, in my shop, at your departure 
 at that time ; but you said you would have given 
 me more, but that you had no more with you at 
 present. You say, also, that you found your o\vn 
 liquors during the time you boarded with me ; but 
 you should have said, " I found only a small part 
 of the liquor I drank during my stay with you ; 
 this part I purchased of John Fellows, which was 
 a demijohn of brandy containing four gallons, and 
 this did not serve me three weeks." This can be 
 proved, and I mean not to say any thing that I 
 cannot prove ; for I hold truth as a precious jewel. 
 It is a well known fact, that you drank one quart 
 of brandy per day, at my expence, during the 
 different times you have boarded with me, the 
 demijohn above-mentioned excepted, and the last 
 fourteen weeks you were sick. Is not this a sup 
 ply of liquor for dinner and supper ? As for 
 what you paid Mr. Glen or any other person, that 
 
LUTE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 is nothing to me. I am not paid, and found you 
 room and firing besides. You say as you paid by 
 the week it matters not how long my stay was. 
 I accede to your remark, that the time of your 
 stay at my house would have been of no matter, 
 if I had been paid by the week, but the matter is 
 otherwise. I have not been paid at all, or at least, 
 a very small part ; prove that I have if you can, 
 and then I shall be viewed by my fellow citizens 
 in that contemptible light that they will view you 
 in, after the publication of this my letter to you.(/>) 
 You ask me the question, " How is it that those 
 who receive, do not remember as well as those 
 that pay ?" My answer is, I do remember, and 
 shall give you credit for every farthing I have re 
 ceived, and no more. I will ask you what con 
 solation you derive to your mind in departing 
 from truth, and endeavouring to evade paying a 
 just and lawful debt. I shall pass over a great 
 part of your letter with silent contempt, and op 
 pose your false remarks with plain truths. As 
 the public will see your letter as well as mine, 
 they w 7 ill be able to judge your conduct and mine 
 for themselves. You say that I seem not to know 
 any thing about the price of boarding in the city; 
 but I know the price is from three dollars to five, 
 
 (//) This is the first time the letter has been published. 
 
2b LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and from that to ten ; with additional charge if 
 the boarder should be sick for three months or 
 upwards. J shall show you how I calculate my 
 expenditures, by the bill that will be rendered to 
 you, and I believe it will be an important lesson 
 to those that may undertake to board you here 
 after. I have no person to help me to calculate 
 or write, but fortunately took the advice of a 
 friend, and got him to keep an account of all the 
 times you stayed with me. You assert that your 
 being at my house only added one more to the 
 family ; I shall prove that it added to the number 
 of three. You know very well when you came, 
 I told you I must hire a servant girl if you staid 
 with me. This I did for five months, at five dol 
 lars per month and her board. This I should not 
 have done, unless you had given me ground to 
 believe you would have paid me. After your de 
 parture she was discharged. Now, sir, how will 
 you go to prove that yourself, and Mrs. Palmer 
 and the servant girl are one ? In order to do this, 
 you must write a new system of mathematics. 
 You complain that I left your room the night that 
 you pretend you were seized with the apoplexy ; 
 but I had often seen you in those fits before, and 
 particularly after drinking a large portion of ar 
 dent spirits, those fits have frequently subjected 
 you to falling. You remember you had one of 
 fchem at Lovett s Hotel, and fell from the top of 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 261 
 
 the stairs to the bottom. You likewise know I 
 have frequently had to lift you from the floor to 
 the bed. You must also remember that you and 
 myself went to spend the evening at a certain gen 
 tleman s house, whose peculiar situation in life 
 forbids me to make mention of his name ; but I 
 had to go to apologize for your conduct; you 
 had two of those falling fits in Broadway, before 
 I could get you home. 
 
 " You tell me that I came up stairs in the night 
 and opened the cupboard, and took your watch : 
 this is one more of your lies ; for I took it dur 
 ing the time your room was full of different des 
 criptions of persons, called from a porter house 
 and the street, at the eleventh hour of the night 
 to carry you up stairs. After you had fallen over 
 the banisters, and the cupboard door was open, 
 and the watch lay exposed ; I told you the next 
 morning I put your watch in my desk, and you 
 said I had done right. Why did not you com 
 plain before ? I believe that I should do the same 
 again or any other person in my situation ; for 
 had the watch been lost you would have thought 
 that I, or some one of my family had got it. I 
 believe it will not be in your power to make one 
 of my fellow citizens believe, that at this period 
 of life, I should turn rogue for an old silver 
 watch. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 " You go on and say, did you take any thing 
 else ? Have you assumed the character of a fa 
 ther confessor as well as a son of Bacchus ? Did 
 you lose any thing ? Why do you not speak out ? 
 You have been so long accustomed to lying, one 
 more will not choak you. Now, sir, I have to in 
 form you I lost a silver spoon that was taken to 
 your room, and never returned. Did you take 
 that away with you ? If not, I can prove that you 
 took something else of my property without my 
 consent. You likewise gave a French boy that 
 you imported to this country, or was imported 
 on your account, a nice pocket bottle that was 
 neither yours nor mine ; it being the property of 
 a friend, and has since been called for ; I lent 
 the bottle to you, at the time you was sick with 
 what you call apoplexy, but what myself and 
 others know to be nothing more than falling 
 drunken fits. I have often wondered that a 
 French woman and three children should leave 
 France and all their connexions to follow Thom 
 as Paine to America. Suppose I were to go to 
 niy native country, England, and take another 
 wife arid three children of his, and leave 
 
 ^ 
 
 / my wife and family in this country. What would 
 . be the natural conclusion in the minds of the 
 people, but that there was some criminal con 
 nexion between the woman and myself? You 
 have often told me that the French woman above 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 263 
 
 alluded to, has never received one letter from 
 her husband during the four years she has been 
 in this country. How comes this to pass ? per 
 haps you can explain the matter. I believe you 
 have broken up the domestic tranquillity of se 
 veral families, with whom you have resided; 
 and I can speak by experience as to my own. 
 I remember you undertook to fall out with my 
 former wife, and one of the foolish epithets you 
 attempted to stigmatize her with, was, that she 
 originally was only in the character of a servant. 
 Was this a judicious remark of the Author of 
 the Rights of Man ? I well remember the reply 
 she made you, which was that you had not much 
 to boast of on that ground, as yourself had been 
 a servant to the British government. And now 
 again you try to break up our tranquillity, by in 
 sinuating that my wife and son have deprived me 
 of my property. I call this pitiful employment 
 for a man that calls himself a philanthropist. 
 When you tell me that Mrs. Palmer did the 
 work belonging to my family, you know the as 
 sertion to be false ; w 7 hich can be proved by her 
 and others that resided in the house. You have 
 written well on just and righteous principles, and 
 dealt them out to others ; but totally deny them 
 in practice yourself; and for my part I believe 
 you never possessed them. An old acquaintance 
 of your s and mine called on me a few days ago. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 I asked him if he had been to see you ? His an 
 swer was, he had not, neither did he want to see 
 x you. (2) He said he believed that you had a 
 V V X good head, but a very bad heart. I believe he 
 gave a true description of your character in a 
 few words : it has been my opinion for some 
 time past, and many more of those you think 
 are your friends, that all you have written has 
 been to acquire fame and not the love of princi 
 ple ; and one reason that led us to think as we 
 do, is, that all your works are stuffed with ego 
 tism. You say farther, that you were not treated 
 friendly during your stay with me, and hardly 
 civilly. Have you lost all principles of gratitude, 
 as well as those of justice and honesty, or did you 
 never possess one virtue ? 
 
 From the first time I saw you in this country, 
 to the last time of your departure from my house, 
 my conscience bears me testimony that I treated 
 you as a friend and a brother, without any 
 hope of extra-rewards, only the payment of my 
 just demand. I often told many of my friends, 
 had you come to this country without one cent 
 of property, then, as long as I had one shilling, 
 you should have a part. I declare when I first 
 
 (<7) Admiral Landay, a French gentleman, who knew Paine 
 in France, and who was in the naval service of the United 
 States, during the revolution. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 saw you here, I knew nothing of your posses 
 sions, or that you were worth four hundred per 
 year, sterling. I, sir, am not like yourself. I 
 do not bow down to a little paltry gold, at the sa 
 crifice of just principles. I, sir, am poor, with an 
 independent mind, which perhaps renders me 
 more comfort, than your independent fortune ren 
 ders you. You tell me further, that I shall be ex 
 cluded from any thing, and every thing, contain 
 ed in your will. All this I totally disregard. I 
 believe if it was in your power you would go fur 
 ther, and say you would prevent my obtaining 
 the just and lawful debt that you contracted with 
 me ; for when a man is vile enough to deny a 
 debt, he is not honest enough to pay without be 
 ing compelled. I have lived fifty years on the 
 bounty and good providence of my Creator, and 
 I do not doubt the goodness of his will concern 
 ing me. I likewise have to inform you, that I 
 totally disregard the powers of your mind and 
 pen ; for, should you, by your conduct, permit 
 this letter to appear in public, in vain may you 
 attempt to print or publish any thing afterwards. 
 Do look back to my past conduct respecting you, 
 and try if you cannot raise one grain of grati 
 tude in your heart, towards me, for all the kind 
 acts of benevolence I bestowed on you. I 
 showed your letter, at the time I received it, to 
 an intelligent friend ; he said it was a character- 
 
 T i 
 
366 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 istic of the vileness of your natural disposition, 
 and enough to damn the reputation of any man. 
 You tell me that I should have come to you, and 
 not written the letter. I did so three times ; and 
 the last you gave me the ten dollars, and told 
 me you were going to have a stove in a separate 
 room, and then you would pay me. One month 
 had passed and I wanted the money, but still 
 found you with the family that you reside with ; 
 and delicacy prevented me to-ask you for pay of 
 board and lodging ; you never told me to fetch 
 the account, as you say you did. When I call 
 ed the last time but one, you told me to come 
 on the Sunday following, and you would pay or 
 settle with me ; I came according to order, but 
 found you particularly engaged with the French 
 woman and her two boys ; whether the boys are 
 yours, I leave you to judge ; but the oldest son 
 of the woman, an intelligent youth, I suppose 
 about fourteen or fifteen years of age, has fre 
 quently told me and others, that you were the 
 complete ruin of their family, and that he de 
 spised you; and said that your character, at 
 present, was not so well known in America as 
 France. 
 
 " You frequently boast of what you have done 
 for the woman above alluded to ;; that she and her 
 family have cost you two thousand dollars ; and 
 since you came the last time to York, you have 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 267 
 
 been bountiful to her, and given her one hundred 
 dollars per time. This may be all right. She 
 may have rendered you former and present secret 
 services, such as are not in my power to perform - 
 but at the same time I think it would be just in 
 you to pay your debts. I know that the poor 
 black woman, at New-Rochelle, that you hired as 
 a servant, and I believe paid every attention to 
 you in her power, had to sue you for her wages, 
 before you would pay-her, and Mr. Shute bad to 
 become security for you. 
 
 A respectable gentleman,(r) from New-Ro 
 chelle, called to see me a few days past, and said 
 that every body was tired of you there, and no 
 one w r ould undertake to board and lodge you. I 
 thought this was the case, as I found you at a tav 
 ern,^) in a most miserable situation. You appear-- 
 ed as if you had not been shaved for a fortnight, 
 and as to a shirt, it could not be said that you 
 had one on ; it was only the remains of one, and 
 this likewise appeared not to have been off your 
 back for a fortnight, and was nearly the colour 
 of tanned leather, and you had the most disagree 
 able smell possible ; just like that of our poor beg- 
 
 (r) Mr. Shutc, who was afterwards a justice of the county. 
 (s} Jones s, the Welchman. 
 
268 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 gars in England. Do you not recollect the pains 
 v I took to clean you? That I got a tub of warm 
 water and soap, and washed you from head to 
 foot, and this I had to do three times, before I 
 could get you clean. I likewise shaved you and 
 cut your nails, that were like birds claws. I re 
 member a remark that I made to you at that time, 
 which was, that you put me in mind of Nebu 
 chadnezzar, who is said to be in this situation. 
 Many of your toe nails exceeded half an inch in 
 length, and others had grown round your toes, 
 and nearly as far under as they extended on the 
 / top. Have you forgotten the pains I took with 
 you, when you lay sick, wallowing in your own 
 filth ? I remember that I got Mr. Hooton, (a 
 friend of mine, and whom I believe to be one of 
 the best hearted men in the world) to assist me in 
 removing and cleaning you. He told me he won 
 dered how I could do it ; for his part he would 
 not like to do the same again for ten dollars. I 
 told him you were a fellow being, and that it was 
 our duty to assist each other in distress. Have 
 you forgotten my care of you during the winter 
 you staid with me ? How I put you in bed every 
 night, with a warm brick to your feet, and treat 
 ed you like an infant one month old ? Have you 
 forgotten likewise how you destroyed my bed and 
 
LJFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 269 
 
 bedding by fire,(>) and also a great coat that was 
 worth ten dollars. I have shown the remnant of 
 the coat to a tailor, who says that cloth of that 
 quality could not be bought for six dollars per 
 yard. You never said that you were sorry for 
 the misfortune, or said that you would recom 
 pense me for it. I could say a great deal more, 
 but I shall tire your and the public s patience ; 
 after all this and ten times as much more, you 
 say you were not treated friendly or civilly. 
 Have I not reason to exclaim, and say, O the 
 ingratitude of your obdurate heart ! 
 
 " You complain of the room you were in, but 
 you know it was the only one I had to spare - 
 it is plenty large enough for one person to sleep 
 in. Your physician and many others requested 
 you to remove to a more airy situation, but I 
 believe the only reason why you would not com 
 ply with the request was, that you expected to 
 have more to pay, and not to be so well attended; 
 you might think nobody would keep a fire, as I 
 
 (*) One day in winter, just after dinner, when lie had drank 
 rather more than his usual potion of brandy, he o\ erheated 
 the brick which, wrapped up in cloth, he was in the habit of 
 putting to his feet Avhen he lay down. The brick communi 
 cated fire to the bed. The smell of fire led Mr. Carver to his 
 room, the door of which he broke open, and dragged Paine 
 out of it. Mr. Carver tells me that five minutes longer would 
 have terminated his existence. 
 
270 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 did, in the kitchen, till 11 or 12 o clock at night, 
 to warm things for your comfort, or take you 
 out of bed two or three times a day, by a blanket, 
 as I and my apprentice did for a month ; for my 
 part I did so till it brought on a pain in my side, 
 that prevented me from sleeping after I got to 
 bed myself. 
 
 I remember during one of your stays at my 
 house you were sued in the justice s court, by a 
 poor man, for the board and lodging of the 
 French woman, to the amount of about thirty 
 dollars, but as the man had no proof, and 
 only depended on your word, he was nonsuit 
 ed, and a cost of forty-two shillings thrown upon 
 him. This highly gratified your unfeeling heart. 
 I believe you had promised payment, as you said 
 you would give the French woman the money 
 to go and pay it with. I know it is customary 
 in England, that when any gentleman keeps a 
 lady, that he pays her board and lodging. You 
 complain that you suffered with the cold, and 
 that there ought to have been a fire in the par 
 lour. But the fact is, that I expended so much 
 money on your account, and received so little, 
 that I could not go to any further expense, and 
 if I had, I should not have got you away. A 
 friend of your s(?/) that knew my situation, told 
 
 n] Mr. John Fellows, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 271 
 
 you that you ought to buy a load of wood to 
 burn in the parlour; your answer was, that you 
 should not stay above a week or two, and did 
 not want to have the wood to remove ; this cer 
 tainly would have been a hard case for you, to 
 have left me a few sticks of wood. 
 
 Now, sir, I think I have drawn a complete 
 portrait of your character; yet to enter upon 
 every minutia would be to give a history of your 
 life, and to develope the fallacious mask of hy 
 pocrisy and deception, under which you have 
 acted in your political as well as moral capacity 
 of life. There may be many grammatical 
 errours in this letter. To you I have no apolo 
 gies to make ; but I hope the candid and impar 
 tial public will not view them " with a critick s 
 eye." 
 
 WILLIAM CARVER. 
 Thomas Paine, New-York, Dec. 2, 1806. 
 
 Mr. Carver s description of Paine s filthiness, 
 which was notorious, is very unequal to the 
 reality. Fancy cannot picture an object so 
 offensive to sense. No father could have been 
 more kind and attentive to his degraded and lost 
 child. Such services as Mr. Carver s may be 
 gratefully remembered, but they cannot be com 
 pensated with money. Paine had not, however. 
 in his heart, a place for gratitude ; and as to the 
 
272 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 golden rule of justice, he disregarded it in prac 
 tice. To have set Mr. and Mrs. Carver at vari 
 ance, and destroyed their peace forever, by 
 accusing the latter, in conjunction with her son, 
 of fraud, would have been much more pleasing 
 to him, than the observance of equity between 
 ^ man and man. If to the infamy of his conduct, 
 in this particular, any thing could be added, it 
 would be, that the charge of cheating, which he 
 brings against Mrs. Carver and her son, was ad- 
 . vanced to cover his own injustice.(^) 
 
 Soon after the date of Mr. Carver s rejoinder, 
 his demand was paid by Paine, through Mr. John 
 Fellows and Mr. Walter Morton. 
 
 (t>) While at Carver s, drinking his quart of brandy a day, 
 and suffering Madame Bonneville to procure a livelihood as 
 she could, or to perish of want, he wrote the following im 
 piety. 
 
 THE STRANGE STORY OF KORAH, DATHAN, AND 
 ABIRAM, NUMBERS, CHAPTER XVI. ACCOUNT 
 ED FOR. 
 
 OLD ballads sing of Chevy Chase, 
 
 Beneath whose rueful shade, 
 Full many a valiant man was slain, 
 
 And many a widow made. 
 
 But I will tell of one much worse. 
 
 That happ d in days of yore, 
 All in the barren wilderness, 
 
 Beside the Jordan shore- 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 273 
 
 From Mr. Carver s, he went to live with the 
 ingenious Mr. Jarvis, portrait-painter, in Church- 
 street. Mr. Jarvis, unmarried, kept what is call 
 ed Bachelor s Hall. Here he lived five months. 
 Whether his correspondence with Mr. Carver had 
 tended to reform his conduct or not, I do not 
 know, but Mr. Jarvis tells me that it was better at 
 his house than coinmon fame had previously re 
 presented it. His temper was by nature sour, and 
 age, with the buffets he had met with in journey 
 ing through life, had made him exceedingly peev 
 ish : yet, Mr. Jarvis says, he was perfectly man 
 ageable by art, patiently and assiduously applied. 
 
 Where Moses led the people forth, 
 
 Call d chosen tribes of God, 
 And fed them forty years with quail,, 
 
 And rul d them with a rod. 
 
 A dreadful fray once rose among 
 These self-named tribes of I AM, 
 
 Where Korah fell, and by his side, 
 Fell Dathan and Abiram. 
 
 An earthquake swallowed thousands up, 
 And fire came down like stones, 
 
 Which slew their sons snd daughters all, 
 Their wives and little ones. 
 
 Twas all about old Aaron s tithes, 
 This murderous quarrel rose, 
 
 For tithes are worldly things of old, 
 That lead from words to blows, 
 K k 
 
274 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 He was easily put into a passion ; he was easily 
 calmed. He did not constantly drink to excess, 
 yet he frequently got excessively tipsey. Once Mr. 
 Jarvis knew him to abstain from liquor two weeks, 
 He had fits of intoxication, and when these came 
 on, he would sit up at night, tippling until he 
 fell off his chair. Disposed to listen to his con 
 versation, Mr. Jarvis sat with him one night from 
 twelve to three, doing all he politely could to keep 
 him sober. At three he left him at his bottle. At 
 four he returned to the room and found him 
 drunk on the floor. Mr. Jarvis wished to raise 
 him up, but Paine desired to lie still. I have the 
 
 A Jew of Venice* has explained 
 
 In language of his nation, 
 The manner how this fray began-,, 
 
 Of which here is translation. 
 
 There was a widow, old and poor,. 
 
 Who scarce herself could keep, 
 Her stock of goods was very small, 
 
 Her flock one single sheep. 
 
 And when the time of shearing came, 
 
 She counted much her gains* 
 For now, said she, I shall be bless d, 
 
 With plenty for my pains. 
 
 When Aaron heard the sheep was shear d 
 And gave a good increase, 
 
 * In commentaries which Paine had beeti reading- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 vertigo, the vertigo, said he. Yes, said Mr. Jarvis, 
 taking up the bottle and looking at its diminished 
 contents, you have it deep deep! In this posture 
 and plight he talked about the immortality of the 
 soul. My corporeal functions have ceased, he 
 said, and yet my mind is strong. My body is in 
 ert, but my intellect is vigorous. Is not this proof 
 of the immortality .of the soul? I am glad, said 
 Mr. Jarvis, that you believe in the immortality of 
 the soul, and in a future state. That, said Paine, 
 is a wrong term. We have strong testimony, I 
 have strong hope of a future state, but I know no 
 thing about it. As the soul, said Mr. Jarvis, will 
 
 He straight-way sent his tithing man, 
 And took away the fleece. 
 
 At this the weeping wtdovv went 
 
 To Korah, to complain, 
 And Korah he to Aaron went, 
 
 In order to explain. 
 
 But Aaron said, in such a case 
 
 There can be no forbearing 
 The law ordains that thou snait give 
 
 The first fleece of thy shearing. 
 
 When lambing time was come about, 
 
 This sheep became a dam, 
 And bless d the widow s mournful heart, 
 
 By bringing forth a lamb. 
 
 When Aaron heard the sheep had young, 
 He staid till it was grown, 
 
276 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 live hereafter, will it be conscious that it has lived 
 now ? To live hereafter, said Paine, and not be 
 conscious that I have lived now, would not be 
 identity ; it would amount to nothing.(w) 
 
 One day, sitting with a volume of his works on 
 a table before him, containing his Age of Reason, 
 the servant girl took it up to read. Mr. Jarvis 
 said she should not open it for the world, and took 
 it from her. Why, said Paine, rising up angrily? 
 Because she is a good girl now : she has the fear 
 of God, and will do nothing wrong. She cannot 
 reason as you can, and if she reads your Age of 
 Reason, and divests herself of those restraints 
 
 And then he sent his tithing man, 
 And took it for his own. 
 
 Again the weeping widow went 
 
 To Korah, with her grief, 
 But Aaron said, in such a case, 
 
 There can be no relief. 
 
 For in the holy law tis writ, 
 
 That whilst thou keep st the stock, 
 Thou shalt present unto the Lord, 
 
 The firstling of thy flock. 
 
 The widow then, in deep distress, 
 
 And having nought to eat, 
 Against her will she kill d the sheep. 
 
 To feed upon the meat. 
 
 (w) He once said to Mr. Carver, that if he lived hereafter, 
 he should be conscious that he had written Common Sense, &c 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 277 
 
 which now govern her conduct, she may cheat 
 me; she may rob me; she may be undone. 
 Pshaw, pshaw, said Paine, walking testily across 
 the room with his hands behind him, why should 
 any body believe in Jesus Christ? Come here, 
 said Mr. Jarvis, to the window ; look there, point 
 ing to a congregation of people of colour, coming 
 out of their church ; do you see that black man ? 
 Three years ago he was a great reprobate; he was 
 guilty of all sorts of offences. He had not been 
 brought up as my servant has ; he was egregi- 
 ously immoral; he had no religious awe, and was 
 not disposed to make use of the little reason which 
 
 When Aaron heard the sheep was kill 4, 
 
 He sent and took a limb, 
 Which, by the holy law, he said, 
 
 Pertained unto him. 
 
 For in the holy law tis writ, 
 That when thou kilst a beast, 
 
 Thou shalt a shoulder and a breast, 
 Present unto the priest. 
 
 The widow then, worn out with grief, 
 Sat down to mourn and weep, 
 
 And in a fit of passion said, 
 The devil take the sheep. 
 
 Then Aaron took the whole away, 
 
 And said the laws record, 
 That all and each devoted thing, 
 
 Belongs unto the Lord. 
 
278 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 he possessed. He has since been converted. He 
 is now a regular attendant on his church. You 
 see that he is dressed well and has a goodly ap 
 pearance. All in his neighbourhood now shake 
 hands with him and are his friends: formerly he 
 was avoided by them all as a pestilence. Paine 
 had no answer to make, but pish, and pshaw, and 
 I had not thought that you were such a man. Pie 
 saw, to use the words of Mr. Jar vis, the fact, and 
 it was unanswerable. 
 
 On another occasion he very seriously advised 
 Mr. Jarvis to get married, observing that the mar 
 riage institution is an excellent one. And uhy 
 did not you get married ?(V) Why, I thought. 
 
 The widow went among her kin : 
 
 The tribes of Israel rose, 
 And all the widows, old and young, 
 
 Pull d Aaron by the nose. 
 
 But Moses call d an earthquake up, 
 
 And fire from out the sky, 
 And all the consolation is 
 
 The Bible tells a lie ! ! ! 
 
 (;r) On his arrival at New- York, I rode out with him to Ge 
 neral Gates s, where we dined, en famille. , Wishing to talk a 
 little with Paine, and to hear his conversation, Mrs. Gates 
 continued after the cloth was drawn. After a while she said: 
 " I always threatened, if ever I saw you, to ask you a question, 
 Mr. Paine." "Well, Madam," said Paine, " what is it?" 
 " Why, I ve heard a great deal about your being married in 
 England; were you ever married?" " I never answer," said 
 Paine, in a very surly manner, " impertinent questions." The 
 general, with much of the frankness, and all the language of a 
 soidier, turned the conversation. 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINJE. 279 
 
 said Paine, that I had talents, and that if I mar 
 ried, I should not be able to make a present of 
 my works to the world, for its benefit! 
 
 As to his person, his disposition, Mr. Jarvis ob 
 serves, was to nastiness. He would eat his 
 breakfast, if he could, without washing himself; 
 but Mr. Jarvis would not allow him to do so. He 
 would pleasantly say, take the coffee away ; give 
 Mr. Paine a little time ; he is a gentleman ; he 
 wants to wash himself: bring him some soap and 
 water. Treating him in this way, and paying 
 great attention to him, he was able to keep him 
 tolerably clean. 
 
 No one could recommend matrimony with 
 greater force than Paine. By habit he was to 
 tally indifferent to his person. Cleanliness, with 
 out which there can be no comfort, he entirely 
 disregarded. In his old age, when the affection 
 ate attentions of a wife are inestimable, he had 
 no house, no home; no one to help or to comfort 
 him. But recommending marriage to others, it 
 was profligate in him to deny, as Mr. Jarvis un 
 derstood him, his own marriage. If he could not 
 satisfactorily reflect upon his connubial state, and 
 upon his conduct towards his wife, he might have 
 avoided a falsehood. 
 
 Principally from his penurious disposition, and, 
 in some regard, from the impertinent anonymous 
 letters which were addressed to him, he refused, 
 
280 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 while at Mr. Carver s, to take his letters from the 
 post-office. If Carver would pay the postage, he 
 would receive and read them with pleasure, but 
 if not, he never troubled himself about them. Se 
 veral anonymous letters were left for him at Mr. 
 Jarvis s, while he lived there, desiring his opinion, 
 whether, in baptism, immersion was better than 
 sprinkling, or sprinkling better than immersion ? 
 Advise them, said Mr. Jarvis, to use soap and ^va- 
 tcr. Paine did not perceive the point. 
 
 He usually took a nap after dinner, and would 
 not be disturbed let who would call to see him. 
 One afternoon, a very old lady, dressed in a large 
 scarlet cloak, knocked at the door, and inquired 
 for Thomas Paine. Mr. Jarvis told her he was 
 asleep. I am very sorry, she said, for that, for I 
 w r ant to see him very particularly. Thinking it a 
 pity to make an old woman call twice, Mr. Jarvis 
 took her into Paine s bed- room and waked him. 
 He rose upon one elbow, and then with an ex 
 pression of eye that staggered the old woman 
 back a step or two, he asked " What do you 
 want?" Is your name Paine? Yes. " Well then, 
 I come from Almighty God, to tell you, that if 
 you do not repent of your sins and believe in our 
 blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, you will be damned, 
 
 and" " Poh, poh, it is not true. You were 
 
 not sent with any such impertinent message. Jar- 
 vis> make her go away. Pshaw, he would not 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 send such a foolish ugly old woman as you about 
 with his messages. Go away. Go back. Shut 
 the door." The old lady raised both her hynds, 
 kept them so, and without saying another word, 
 walked away in mute astonishment. 
 
 From Mr. Jarvis s he went, in April, 1807, to 
 Broome-street, an out-part of the city, where he 
 boarded with Mr., Hitt, a baker. I have several 
 times called on Hitt, who has tried to elude me, evi 
 dently in the hope of concealing facts ; and when, 
 at last, I saw and interrogated him, his communica 
 tions were reluctant and scanty. The little infor 
 mation which I extorted from him, corroborates, 
 however, that which had been incidentally men 
 tioned to me by two or three gentlemen who some 
 times visited Paine when he resided at Hitt s. 
 Both enable me to say, that having less care taken 
 of him than at Mr. Jarvis s, he relapsed into much 
 of his former nastiness. He ate with Hitt s family, 
 and had a small chamber to sit in, adjoining 
 which was a closet, just large enough to hold his 
 bed. In this chamber he received his night-visi 
 tors, and would sometimes, but not often, permit 
 them to taste his rum. Hitt tells me that he was 
 not always drunk, but admits that he frequently 
 was. He thinks that he did not drink more than 
 three quarts of rum a week, while he lived with 
 him, which was about ten months ; but allowing 
 
 that he had no wish to extenuate, none to sup- 
 L i 
 
282 &IFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 press the truth, he could have had but a very 
 imperfect knowledge, his business calling him 
 much from home, of the quantity of liquor which 
 Paine consumed. From breakfast, he retired, Hitt 
 says, to his room, where he remained until din 
 ner. After dinner he would go to bed and sleep 
 till tea-time. From tea, he again retired to his 
 room and drank grog until late at night, when, if 
 able, he w r ould crawl into bed, but if not, which 
 was most probable, he would fall off his chair and 
 sleep himself sober on the floor. Not more than 
 four or five persons visited him, and one or two 
 of these, gentlemen with whom I am in daily 
 habits of intercourse, did so from curiosity; to 
 learn whether he was dead or alive. Some edi 
 tors complimented him with their gazettes. These 
 served him at on^e for a carpet and a table-cover. 
 His room was full of dirt and confusion. Hkt 
 says that he had expected he would have hired a 
 servant boy to attend him, but that he did not. 
 Why did he leave you? Because, said Hitt, I 
 wanted to raise the price of his board. How much 
 had he paid you ? Five dollars a week. How 
 much did you want ? Seven. What did he offer 
 to give ? Six. Immediately after Paine left, I 
 rode past Hitt in the country, and asked, him how 
 eame Paine to leave you ? Why, said he, " the 
 dirty, drunken, cross old devil, I would not let 
 him stay any longer." This was no doubt true> 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 283 
 
 He was somehow apprized, when I called on him 
 for information, that I was writing Paine s life, 
 and, being one of his disciples, he has very repre- 
 hensibly endeavoured to suppress the truth. 
 
 While at Hiit s, Paine corresponded with Pre 
 sident Jefferson. In every thing he was slovenly; 
 and he was regardless of all the principles and 
 rules of honour. He laid the president s letters 
 open upon his table, where every body who en 
 tered his room could read them. The substance 
 of one of them got into our gazettes. It related 
 to our differences with England, in regard to 
 which, Mr. Jefferson had, much to the satisfaction 
 of Paine, very improperly given an unfavoura 
 ble opinion. Paine wrote paragraphs on the same 
 side of the question, for one of our Jacobin ga 
 zettes. In his newspaper essays, he was com 
 pletely a Frenchman. In one of them he joyfully 
 anticipates the arrival of a hostile French force 
 in the city of New-York, and hopes that they will 
 * trim the jackets of the tory merchants J"(y) 
 
 (ij) He vras always an advocate either of democrnt ck anaiv 
 ohy or of imperial despotism : there was no medium with him. 
 " They talk, he said to a friend of mine, of the tyranny of the 
 empcrour of France. I know Bonaparte; 1 have lived under 
 his government, and he allows as much freedom as /TTZ.S//, or 
 an any body ought to have. ? With Napoleon s invasion of 
 Spain, he was enraptured, and, of course, wished him success! 
 Could such a man be a friend of freedom ? 
 
284 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 At the same time Madame Bonneville, utterly 
 neglected by Paine, was somehow procuring sub 
 sistence in the city. Her son, Ben, was with her. 
 Tom was at New-Rochelle, frequently at Mr. 
 Dean s, and sometimes at Joshua Fowler s. He 
 was maintained on the credit, but not, I be 
 lieve, at the request of Paine. His board is 
 not yet paid for. The persons who took the aban 
 doned child in, for he was in effect abandoned, 
 have presented to his executors claims for his 
 maintenance. 
 
 I have already mentioned his letter, which, 
 soon after his arrival in the United States in 1802, 
 he wrote to Thomas Clio Rickman,(z) of London. 
 In this he states, that his property was worth 
 6000 /. steiHng, which put into the funds, would 
 yield him 400 /. sterling a year. Still, however, 
 he was not satisfied. Avarice had either master 
 ed his former professions of disinterestedness, or 
 those professions were deceitful. " In a great af 
 fair, where the happiness of man is at stake, I 
 love, he said, to work for nothing ; and so fully 
 am I under the influence of this principle, that I 
 should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the pride 
 
 (r) Preface to the London edition, 1804, of his Letters to 
 the citizens of the United States, 
 
LIKE OF THOMAS PAINE. 285 
 
 of it, were I conscious that I looked for re- 
 ward."0) 
 
 But, in January, 1808, while at Hitt s, he pre 
 sented a memorial to congress for compensation 
 for accompanying Col. Laurens in his mission 
 to Paris, in the year 178 1. (A) This was a " great 
 affair, where the happiness of man was at stake," 
 and yet he looked for " reward" ! And he tells 
 congress, that unless they compensate him, the 
 story will not tell well in history. Had his claim 
 been a substantial one, neither his wealth, of 
 which he had boasted, nor his former professions 
 of disinterested patriotism, to which his memo 
 rial gave the lie, would have prevented congress 
 from adequately compensating his services. But 
 he had no claim, as I have elsewhere shown, and 
 as congress, in effect, resolved. 
 
 There is a passage in his memorial that merits 
 a more particular, though it shall receive but a 
 very brief notice. 
 
 In the second part of his Rights of Man, doing 
 every thing in his power to excite the people of 
 England to revolt against their government, he 
 compares the constitution of England with the 
 
 (a) Letter 4 to the citizens of the United States. He has 
 similar remarks in his Rights of Man. 
 
 ($) See his memorial in the Appendix. 
 
2 8t> LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 constitution of the United States: describes the 
 former, if he allows that there is a constitution in 
 England, as every thing that is absurd and perni 
 cious, and represents the latter, the constitution of 
 the United States, as containing all possible excel 
 lence. But, in his memorial to congress, he ex 
 presses a very different opinion. Speaking of the 
 services which he had rendered the United States, 
 he says : " The country has been benefitted by 
 them, and I make myself happy in the knowledge 
 of it. It is, however, proper to me to add, that 
 the mere independence of America, were it to 
 have been followed by a system of government, 
 modelled after the corrupt system of the English 
 government, it would not have interested me with 
 the unabated ardour it did. It was to bring for 
 ward and establish the representative system of 
 government, that was the leading principle with 
 me."(V) The middle sentence is ill expressed, 
 and ungrammatical, but its meaning will be un 
 derstood. He was an enemy to our government, 
 because it is modelled after the corrupt system of 
 the Engtisk. The one, in his estimation, is 
 quite as bad as the other, for that of the English 
 he thought excessively vicious. Where now 
 were his old and new systems of government? 
 
 (c) Sec % his memorial in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 287 
 
 The new was that of the United States, which he 
 had recommended to England, but which in his 
 opinion, when revolution was not his object, was 
 precisely the same as the constitution of Eng 
 land ! 
 
 He published, while at Hitt s, but I know not 
 when he wrote, his " Examination of the pass 
 ages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old 
 and called Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, to 
 which is prefixed, an Essay on Dream, showing 
 by what operation of the mind a dream is pro 
 duced in sleep, and applying the same to the ac 
 count of dreams in the New Testament ; with 
 an Appendix, containing my private thoughts of 
 a future state, and remarks on the contradictory 
 doctrine in the books of Matthew and Mark ;" 
 an octavo pamphlet of 65 pages. 
 
 The metaphysical part of this impious work is 
 very wretched. The whole is indeed the feeblest 
 of his productions. It has been very ably and 
 satisfactorily answered by Mr. Colvin, of Balti 
 more. 
 
 From Hitt s, he removed early in February, 
 
 1 808, to No. 63 Partition-street, where he boarded. 
 This was a small tavern, where a sixpenny show 
 was daily exhibited. Here he had no care taken 
 of him : he was left entirely to himself, and I hard 
 ly, therefore, need to add, that, drunk every day, 
 he was neither washed nor shaved, nor shirted for 
 
288 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 weeks. He was so indescribably and notoriously 
 nasty, that he might well contend with the show 
 man for the most numerous audience of curious 
 spectators. One of my friends, actuated by feelings 
 of humanity, paid him a visit, and, in language 
 sufficiently delicate, proposed to accompany him 
 to the baths, to wash him, but to no purpose. His 
 crust of filth seemed to give him comfort. As an 
 inducement, my friend told him, that washing in 
 the baths would cost him nothing; meaning that 
 he would pay the expense himself, but Paine said 
 that neither his beard nor his appearance gave him 
 any uneasiness. He w r as truly an object of com 
 passion, for great as his offences were, he was a 
 human being. He had here one of his apoplexies^ 
 from which it was supposed he would not have 
 recovered. 
 
 In the same month, (February 14, 1808) he 
 presented a letter to the committee of congress, 
 to which his memorial had been referred. In 
 this he grossly misrepresents his conduct, and 
 that of congress, in reference to his controversy 
 with Silas Deane.(^) The object of the letter 
 was to induce the committee to report in favour 
 of rewarding what he had been pleased to term 
 services rendered in Laurens s mission to France, 
 
 See the Appendix, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 289 
 
 and he seems to have thought, that he could ac 
 complish his object by a no very dexterous state 
 ment of many very palpable falsehoods. 
 
 On the 28th of the same month, the commit 
 tee having made no report, he addressed a letter 
 to the speaker of the house of representatives.^) 
 In this he says : " It will be convenient to me 
 to know what congress will decide on, because 
 it will determine me whether, after so many 
 years of generous services, and that in the most 
 perilous times, and after seventy years of age, I 
 shall continue i?i this country or offer my services 
 to some other country ! It will not be to England, 
 unless there should be a revolution." 
 
 This is degenerating into a poor Hessian sol 
 dier, who fights for any country or cause for pay. 
 His continuance in the country depended on a 
 grant of money by congress upon a fraudulent 
 claim! Where were his 6000 /. sterling ; his 400 /. 
 sterling a year? Surely he was above want. 
 What then shall we say of his justice, his avarice, 
 his attachment to the " promised land?" He was 
 ready, in his seventieth year, to offer his services 
 to cfi some other country," for reward, but " not 
 to England, unless there should be a revolution!" 
 
 (<?) See Appendix". 
 
 M m 
 
290 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 No, indeed, whatever might have been his desire, 
 England was prohibited to him. 
 
 Receiving no answer from the speaker, he 
 again addressed him on the 7th of the following 
 March.(/) In his letter he speaks of the commit 
 tee, who had not yet reported, with great con 
 tempt. " If, he adds, my memorial was referred 
 to the committee of claims, for the purpose of 
 losing it, it is unmanly policy. After so many 
 years of service, my heart grows cold towards 
 America!" 
 
 His heart grows cold towards America, because 
 America will not gratify his avarice. 
 
 In the postscript, he says, " I repeat my request, 
 that you would call on the committee of claims 
 to bring in their report, and that congress would 
 decide upon it." 
 
 The speaker, Mr. Varnum, answered his letter, 
 and, after observing that the committee had been 
 much employed, very sarcastically begged him 
 to have a little Christian patience ! Hang him, 
 said Paine, why does he talk to me about chris* 
 tian patience ? 
 
 One or two of his disciples took him away from 
 the tavern in Partition-street, as it w 7 ere by force, 
 in July, 1808, and prevailed with Mr. Ryder, at 
 
 (/) Appendix. 
 
LIFK OF THOMAS PAINE. 291 
 
 Greenwich, near the State-Prison, to board him. 
 I have found Mr. Ryder, who is a cartman, sensi 
 ble and communicative. He lives in a small com 
 fortable house, and he and his family make a very 
 orderly and decent appearance. Mr. Staley, he 
 says, called on him, and asked him if he would 
 board Thomas Paine, at seven dollars a week? I 
 inquired, said Mr. Ryder, if he were the man they 
 called old Tom Paine ? Mr. Staley answered yes. 
 Why, I don t know; I ll try him for a week. He 
 accordingly came, dirty enough, and when he 
 had been three days, I told Mr. Staley, said Mr. 
 Ryder, that he must take him away, for he was 
 such a cross, drunken, morose old man, that I 
 could do nothing with him. Mr. Staley asked me 
 if another dollar a week would do me ? (meaning, 
 tempt him to keep Paine.) I told him it might ; so 
 he staid. When the first month was out, Paine 
 gave me twenty-eight dollars. I then told him it 
 was eight dollars a week, according to Mr. Sta 
 ley s promise. Then, said Paine, Staley may pay 
 the extra-dollar himself, for I won t ; seven are 
 enough : why you d take all my money from me 
 and make me a poor man. Eight w r ere afterwards 
 paid. He lived at Ryder s until the 4th of May, 
 1809, about eleven months; during which time, 
 except the last ten weeks, he got drunk regularly 
 
292 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 twice a day ; by dinner time, when he went to 
 bed, and at night, after he awoke to tea. As to 
 his person, said Mr. Ryder, we had to wash him 
 like a child, arid with much the same coaxing, for 
 he hated soap and water. I soon found that I 
 could not keep and attend him for eight dollars a 
 week, and told Walter Morton that they must 
 take him away unless he would pay more, for I 
 had to wait on him all night, and many weeks 
 together I never had my clothes off: a little more 
 was allowed. And he was so peevish that one 
 could hardly live with him. He once threatened 
 to beat my woman, (Mrs. Ryder) but I came home 
 at the time and prevented the violence. He would 
 often talk about death, and wished to die. Some 
 times, though rarely, he was good humoured, but 
 his language was generally rude, and his conduct 
 insulting and tyrannical. Frequently he would 
 have boiled milk and bread after tea, for supper, 
 of which he would eat two or three spoonsful, and 
 invariably throw the rest into the fire-place. He 
 would have the best of meat cooked for him, eat 
 a little of it, and always throw away the rest. 
 Why did he do so ? Why, said Mr. Ryder, smil 
 ing, that he might have the worth of the money 
 which he paid for his board! Here, as elsewhere, 
 he chose to perform all the functions of nature in. 
 bed. When censured for it by Mrs. Ryder, he 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 293 
 
 would say, " I pay you money enough, and you 
 shall labour for it." 
 
 In January 1809, he began to be so feeble and 
 infirm as to be incapable of doing any thing for 
 himself. Mr. Ryder found that Paine must either 
 leave his house, or he himself must abandon 
 his cart and horse, in order to attend him. He 
 mentioned this to Walter Morton, one of Fame s 
 executors, and it was agreed that he should be 
 paid twenty dollars a week for constant attend-* 
 ance on him. In February, he began to drink 
 milk punch, which, until he left Mr. Ryder s in 
 May, was his diet. Often Mr. Ryder found him 
 in tears, but he cannot say whether they were the 
 effect of bodily pain or of reflection. He was 
 very anxious to die, but still more anxious about 
 his body after death.(^) He wished to be inter 
 red in the cemetery of the Quakers. Staley laugh- 
 
 () His language in the Rights of Man, part 1, p. 53, 
 Phil. 1797, very ill accords with his conduct in the moments 
 of his dissolution. " It may perhaps be said, he there re 
 marks, that it signifies nothing to a man what is done to him 
 after he is dead ; but it signifies much to the li\ ing." He was, 
 however, full of solicitude about the disposition of his body 
 after death. He seemed to be afraid that it would have no 
 resting-place ; that it would be exposed to offence, or be 
 given to the winds. 1 know not whether this be a weakness, 
 for death-bed thoughts are no doubt very different from those 
 of vigorous health. The soul, when about to depart, has per 
 haps a natural and necessary concern for the body. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ed at him, and told him, that as his body was no 
 thing but matter, it was of no moment what be 
 came of it. Paine thought differently. Nothing, 
 on this subject, could mitigate his apprehensions, 
 or lighten the gloominess of his mind. He desir 
 ed Mr. Ryder to go to Mr. Willet Hicks, a highly 
 respectable Quaker gentleman, w r hose country 
 seat is in the neighbourhood, and to say that he 
 wished to see him. I have seen Mr. Hicks, who 
 tells me that he called on Paine on the 1 9th of 
 March, according to his desire. After the cus 
 tomary salutations, Paine said, that as he was 
 44 going to leave one place, it was necessary to 
 provide another. I am now in my seventy-third 
 year, and do not expect to live long : I wish to be 
 buried in your burying ground. I could be bu 
 ried in the Episcopal church, but they are so arro 
 gant ; or in the Presbyterian, but they are so 
 hypocritical !"(/*) He added that his father was a 
 Quaker, and though he did not think well of any 
 Christian sect, he thought better of the Quakers 
 
 (/*) Mr. Hicks does not exactly remember the epithet which 
 he applied to the Presbyterians, but it was one of reproach, 
 and as hyfio critical is that which he used to apply to them, I 
 have supplied the omission of Mr. Hicks with the term. The 
 positive assertion, that he could be interred in the cemetery 
 of either, was nothing but assertion. He had made no applica 
 tion. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 295 
 
 than of any other.(z) Mr. Hicks laid his request 
 before the committee who have the superintend- 
 ance of the Quaker cemetery and funerals, eight 
 in number, of which he himself was one, but the 
 committee did not comply with his desire to be 
 interred in their burying ground. This decision, 
 which was communicated with great delicacy, 
 affected him deeply. 
 
 Mr. Hicks was so kind as to give me the fol 
 lowing in his own hand- writing. 
 
 " In some serious conversation I had with him 
 a short time before his death, he said his senti 
 ments respecting the Christian religion were now 
 precisely the same as they were when he wrote 
 the Age of Reason." 
 
 Mr. David Gelston, collector of the customs of 
 the port of New-York, made him a visit early in 
 April. He mentioned to Paine that he had a let 
 ter for him from Mr. Monroe, who was our mi 
 nister in France when he was liberated from im 
 prisonment in Paris. Confined to his bed, Paine 
 desired that it might be read, and Dr. Manley read 
 it. It appears, that besides hospitably and gra 
 tuitously keeping him in his house near a year 
 and a half after his release from prison, which he 
 had in a great measure procured, Mr. Monroe had 
 generously lent him considerable sums of money, 
 
 (?) I have this remark from Mr, Ryder 
 
296 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE: 
 
 The letter, which Dr. Manley tells me was equal 
 ly elegant and polite, stated that Mr. Monroe did 
 not know, nor did he with regard to himself care, 
 whether Paine was able immediately to refund 
 the money or not ; all that Mr. Monroe desired 
 was, that he would so acknowledge the debt, as 
 that, at some future day, his children might have 
 the benefit of it. Paine listened attentively to the 
 letter, but made no reply. No acknowledgment 
 could be got from him ! Not a word did he speak 
 either then or afterwards respecting it ! 
 
 Madame Bonne ville lived at Greenwich, in the 
 neighbourhood, where she taught French to a 
 few scholars : Ben. was with her. Sometimes 
 she made Paine a visit, though but seldom. He 
 always treated her rudely, and she never mani 
 fested any affection. Tom. was sent from New- 
 Rochelle, the people there being tired of keeping 
 him, as had hitherto been the case, for nothing. 
 From Greenwich he was removed to Bergen, a 
 small village in New- Jersey, where he was placed 
 in a boarding-school. Ben. remained with his 
 mother, to whom Paine now-and-then sent some 
 money. 
 
 Symptoms of his dissolution were now so evi 
 dent, and he was so sensible of them himself, 
 that, on the 4th of May, he was removed from 
 Mr. Ryder s to a small house owned by a Mr. 
 Holbron, in Columbia-street, in the neighbour- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 297 
 
 hood. The house was rented by Madame Bon- 
 neville, for Paine, who occupied the whole of it. 
 The lady did not, however, consent to do so 
 until a nurse had been engaged, being unwilling 
 to pay the necessary attention to him herself. 
 This nurse was Mrs. Hedden, a pious elderly 
 matron, with whom I have conversed on the 
 subject. She was aware, she says, of Paine s 
 bad temper ; determined, however, to take all 
 the care of him she could, but not to bear ill 
 treatment. During the first three or four days 
 his conduct w r as tolerable, although he always 
 quarrelled with Madame Bonneville when she 
 went into his room. About the fifth day his lan 
 guage was offensive to Mrs. Hedden, who told 
 him she would instantly leave the house. Sensi 
 ble of her value as a nurse, and that in all 
 probability no other person would attend him, he 
 made her satisfactory concessions, and w^as after 
 wards civil. For the first week he drank much 
 milk punch, which was his sustenance, but he 
 then became too feeble to take scarcely any thing. 
 He suffered, she says, much bodily pain. He 
 would long and frequently call out " O Lord 
 help me ! O Lord help me ! O Christ help me ! O 
 Christ help me !" as observed by Dr. Manley, in 
 the letter which follows. She then said, that if 
 he would throw himself on the mercy of Jesus 
 
 Nn 
 
298 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Christ, he would find relief. He made no re 
 ply. 
 
 About two weeks before his death, he was vi 
 sited by the Rev. Mr. Milledollar, a Presbyterian 
 minister of great eloquence, and the Rev. Mr. 
 Cunningham. The latter gentleman said " Mr. 
 Paine, we visit you as friends and neighbours. 
 You have now a full view of death : you cannot 
 live long, and whosoever does not believe in Jesus 
 Christ will assuredly be damned." " Let me, said 
 Paine, have none of your popish stuff. Get away 
 with you good morning good morning." The 
 Rev. Mr. Milledollar attempted to address him, 
 but he was interrupted with the same language. 
 When they were gone, he said to Mrs. Hedden, 
 " don t let em come here again : they trouble 
 me." They soon renewed their visit, but Mrs. 
 Hedden told them that they could not be admitted, 
 and that she thought the attempt useless, for that 
 if God did not change his mind, she was sure no 
 human power could. They retired. 
 
 After suffering very violent pain, which he 
 said was in no particular place, but all over him, 
 Mrs. Hedden would read the Bible to him for 
 hours, and he would attentively listen. Did he, 
 I inquired, ask you to read it ? No. Did he ask 
 you to stop ? No. I read and he said nothing. 
 He was very feeble ; quite, to all appearance, ex 
 hausted. Poor man, how I felt for him ! How 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 299 
 
 I wished that he was a Christian ! He would be 
 a day without speaking a word, except asking 
 " is no body in the room who s there ?" He 
 never mentioned Tom Bonneville, who was at 
 Bergen ; but every now and then, seeing Ben, 
 he enquired " Does he go to school" ? Madame 
 Bonneville did not often go into his room. She 
 wished that he was dead, but Mrs. Hedden 
 cannot say whether it was to get possession 
 of his property, or that he might be rid of 
 the pain with which he w T as tortured, and 
 which he impatiently bore. She was soon grati 
 fied. On the 8th day of June, 1 809, about nine 
 in the morning, he placidly and almost without a 
 struggle died, as he had lived, an enemy to the 
 Christian religiont(/). He was born in January, 
 1737 aged seventy-two years and five months. 
 
 Dr. Mauley s letter, which follows, will be 
 read with interest. 
 
 " Bloomingdalc, New-York, Sept. 27, 1809. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " Having lived in the neighbourhood of Mr. 
 Paine, and, in his last moments, attended him as 
 
 (/) According to our gazettes, Mrs. Paine died at Lewes, 
 in England, in the year 1808. From her womanhood she was 
 intelligent and pious. She bore with more than ordinary for 
 titude her connubial misfortunes. She left this world with an 
 excellent character. She had much of that supreme happi 
 ness which is derived from unaffected sympathy with unavoid 
 able distress. 
 
300 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 his physician, I should esteem myself much oblig 
 ed, if you would be so kind as to communicate io 
 me in writing, to be incorporated into his life, 
 which I am preparing for the press, your observa 
 tions on his temper and habits, the cause and na 
 ture of his disease, the kind of persons by whom 
 he was visited during his illness, their general con 
 versation with him respecting his deistical works, 
 his ow r n remarks, opinions, and behaviour, when 
 on his death-bed, and, generally, such informa 
 tion as in your judgment may interest the publick. 
 " I am, sir, your most obedient, 
 " Humble servant, 
 
 " JAMES CHEETHAM." 
 " DR. MANLEY." 
 
 " New-York, October 2, 1809. 
 SIR, 
 
 " Your note of the 27th ult. has been duly re 
 ceived, and I hasten in conformity to your wishes 
 therein expressed to communicate the informa 
 tion I possess respecting its subject. Though my 
 opportunity has been great, you will no doubt 
 observe my knowledge to be very limited; the rea 
 son of which will be obvious to those who are in 
 the least acquainted with the character of the 
 man. Such as it may be, I assure you it is much 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 301 
 
 at your service, and if any part of it afford matter 
 for serious speculation to any portion of the pub- 
 lick, I shall feel a pleasure in having communi 
 cated it. 
 
 " I was called upon by accident to visit Mr. 
 Paine, on the 25th February last, and found him 
 indisposed with fever, and very apprehensive of 
 an attack of apoptexy, as he stated that he had 
 that disease before, and at this time felt a great 
 degree of vertigo, and was unable to help himself 
 as he had hitherto done, on account of an intense 
 pain above the eyes. On inquiry of the attend 
 ants, I was told, that, three or four days previous, 
 he had concluded to dispense with his usual quan 
 tity of accustomed stimulus, and that he had, on 
 that day, resumed it. To the want of his usual 
 drink, they attributed his illness ; and it is highly 
 probable, that the usual quantity operating upon 
 a state of system more easily excited, from the 
 above privation, was the cause of the symptoms 
 of which he then complained. 
 
 " After having done and directed what I 
 thought necessary, I left him, with a promise that 
 I would make him a visit next day, when I ex- 
 expected to see his friends, and state to them his 
 situation. Accordingly I called and saw two of his 
 particular friends, (one of wiiom is an executor 
 to his estate) related to them his situation, and 
 was requested to pay him particular attention. 
 
302 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 From that time I considered him as under my 
 care, visited him frequently, and prescribed for 
 symptoms as they occurred, endeavouring by 
 every mean in my power to alleviate his distress, 
 and conduce to his comfort, which I assure you 
 was no easy service. 
 
 " In the course of a fortnight from the com 
 mencement of my attendance, I observed that his 
 feet were oedematous, and his abdomen begin 
 ning to be distended with water, which, with se 
 veral other circumstances equally unequivocal, 
 indicated dropsy, and that of the worst descrip 
 tion, as I soon found it pervaded every part of 
 his body, which was sufficiently depending to 
 admit the lodgement of water, and such as I had 
 every reason to believe must terminate fatally to 
 persons under his circumstances. About this 
 time he became very sore, the water which 
 he passed when in bed excoriating the parts to 
 which it applied; and this kind of ulceration, 
 which was sometimes v ry extensive, continued 
 in a greater or less degree till the time of his 
 death, producing infinite pain from the constant 
 application of the cause which at first induced it. 
 And here let me be permitted to observe, (lest 
 blame might attach to those whose business it was 
 to pay particular attention to his cleanliness of 
 person) that it was absolutely impossible to effect 
 that purpose. Cleanliness appeared to make no 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 803 
 
 part of his comfort; he seemed to have a singular 
 aversion to soap and water ; he would never ask 
 to be washed, and when he was he would always 
 make objections ; and it was not unusual to wash 
 and to dress him clean, very much against his in 
 clination. In this deplorable state, with confirm 
 ed dropsy, attended with frequent cough, vomit 
 ing and hiccough, he continued growing from 
 bud to worse, till the morning of the 8th of June, 
 when he died. Though I may remark, that dur 
 ing the last three weeks of his life, his situation 
 was such, that his decease was confidently expect 
 ed every day, his ulcers having assumed a gan 
 grenous appearance, being excessively foetid, and 
 discoloured blisters having taken place on the 
 soles of his feet, without any ostensible cause, 
 which baffled the usual attempts to arrest their 
 progress : and when we consider his former ha 
 bits, his advanced age, the feebleness of his con 
 stitution, his constant practice of using ardent spi 
 rits, ad libitum, till the commencement of his last 
 illness, so far from wondering that he died so 
 soon, we are constrained to ask, how did he live 
 so. long ? 
 
 c Concerning his conduct during his disease, I 
 have not much to remark, though the little I have 
 may be somewhat interesting. 
 
 " Mr. Paine professed to be above the fear of 
 death, and a great part of his conversation was 
 
304 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 principally directed to give the impression, that he 
 was perfectly willing to leave this world, and yet 
 some parts of his conduct are with difficulty re- 
 concileable with this belief. In the first stages 
 of his illness, he was satisfied to be left alone dur 
 ing the day, but he required some person to be 
 with him at night, urging as his reason, that he 
 was afraid, that he should die when unattended, 
 and at this period, his deportment and his prin 
 ciple seemed to be consistent; so much so, that 
 a stranger would judge from some of the remarks 
 he would make, that he was an infidel. I recol 
 lect being with him at night, watching ; he was 
 very apprehensive of a speedy dissolution, and 
 suffered great distress of body, and perhaps of 
 mind, (for he was waiting the event of an ap 
 plication to the society of Friends, for permission 
 that his corpse might be deposited in their 
 grave ground, and had reason to believe that the 
 request might be refused) when he remarked in 
 these words. " I think I can say what they make 
 Jesus Christ to say My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ?" He went on to observe on 
 the want of that respect which he conceived 
 he merited, when I observed to him, that I 
 thought that his corpse should be matter of least 
 concern to him; that those whom he would 
 leave behind him would see that he was pro 
 perly interred ; and further, that it would be of 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 305 
 
 little consequence to me where I was deposited, 
 provided I was buried : upon which he answered, 
 that he had nothing else to talk about, and that 
 he would as leave talk of his death as of any 
 thing, but that he was not so indifferent about his 
 corpse as I appeared to be. During the latter 
 part of his life, though his conversation was equi 
 vocal, his conduct was singular ; he would not be 
 left alone night or day ; he not only required to 
 have some person with him, but he must see that 
 he or she was there, and would not allow his cur 
 tain to be closed at any time ; and if, as it w r ould 
 sometimes unavoidably happen, he was left alone^ 
 he w r ould scream and holla, until some person 
 came to him : when relief from pain would admit, 
 he seemed thoughtful and contemplative, his eyes 
 being generally closed, and his hands folded upon 
 his breast, although he never slept without the 
 assistance of an anodyne. There was something 
 remarkable in his conduct about this period, 
 (which comprises about two weeks immediately 
 preceding his death) particularly when we reflect, 
 that Thomas Paine was author of the Age of Rea 
 son. He would call out during his paroxysms of 
 distress, without intermission, " O Lord help me, 
 God help me, Jesus Christ help me, O Lord help 
 me," &c. repeating the same expressions without 
 any the least variation, in a tone of voice that 
 would alarm the house. It was this conduct which 
 
 O n 
 
30(5 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 induced me to think that he had abandoned his 
 former opinions, and I was more inclined to that 
 belief, when I understood from his nurse, (who is 
 a very serious, and, I believe, pious woman,) that 
 he would occasionally inquire, when he saw her 
 engaged with a book, what she was reading, and 
 being answered, and at the same time asked whe 
 ther she should read aloud,(/) he assented, and 
 would appear to give particular attention. 
 
 " I took occasion during the night of the 5th 
 and 6th of June, to test the strength of his opinions 
 respecting revelation. I purposely made him a 
 very late visit ; it was a time which seemed to sort 
 exactly with my errand; it was midnight, he 
 was in great distress, constantly exclaiming in the 
 \vords above mentioned, when, after a considera 
 ble preface, I addressed him in the following 
 manner, the nurse being present. 
 
 " Mr. Paine, your opinions, by a large portion 
 of the community, have been treated with defer 
 ence : you have never been in the habit of mixing 
 in your conversation, words of course : you have 
 never indulged in the practice of profane swear 
 ing : you must be sensible that we are acquainted 
 with your religious opinions as they are given to 
 
 (;;?) The book she usually read was <\Ir. Hobarl s Compa 
 nion for the Altar. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 307 
 
 the world. What must we think of your present 
 conduct ? Why do you call upon Jesus Christ to 
 help you? Do you believe that he can help 
 you ? Do you believe in the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ ? Come now, answer me honestly ; I 
 want an answer as from the lips of a dying man, 
 for I verily believe that you will not live twenty- 
 four hours." I waited some time at the end of 
 every question ; he did not answer, but ceased 
 to exclaim in the above manner. Again I 
 
 addressed him. " Mr. Paine, you have not an 
 swered my questions; will you answer them? 
 Allow me to ask again Do you believe ? or let 
 me qualify the question do you wish to believe 
 that Jesus Christ is the son of God ?" After a 
 pause of some minutes, he answered, " I have 
 no wish to believe on that subject." I then left 
 him, and know not whether he afterwards spoke 
 to any person, on any subject, though he lived, 
 as I before observed, till the morning of the 8th. 
 Such conduct, under usual circumstances, I con 
 ceive absolutely unaccountable, though with dif 
 fidence I would remark, not so much so in the 
 present instance : for though the first necessary 
 and general result of conviction be a sincere wish 
 to atone for evil committed, yet it may be a ques 
 tion worthy of able consideration, whether ex 
 cessive pride of opinion, consummate vanity, and 
 inordinate self-love, might not prevent or retard 
 that otherwise natural consequence ? 
 
808 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 For my own part, I believe, that had not Tho 
 mas Paine been such a distinguished infidel, he 
 would have left less equivocal evidences of a 
 change of opinion. 
 
 Concerning the persons who visited Mr. Paine 
 in his distress as his personal friends, I know very 
 little, though I may observe, that their number 
 was small, and of that number, there were not 
 wanting those who endeavoured to support him 
 in his deistical opinions, and to encourage him to 
 die " like a man," to " hold fast his integrity," 
 lest Christians, or, as they were pleased to term 
 them, hypocrites, might take advantage of his 
 weakness, and furnish themselves with a weapon, 
 by which they might hope to destroy their glori 
 ous system of morals. 
 
 Numbers visited him from motives of benevo 
 lence and Christian charity, endeavouring to 
 effect a change of mind in respect to his religious 
 sentiments. The labour of such was apparently 
 lost, and they pretty generally received such 
 treatment from him, as none but good men would 
 risk a second time, though some of these persons 
 called frequently. 
 
 "Be mortuis nil nisi bonum, is a maxim to 
 which, under certain limitations, I do willingly 
 subscribe, but in its unqualified extent I have al 
 ways viewed it as a highly erroneous rule of 
 conduct, and although it might have originated 
 
LIFE OF 1HOMAS PAINE. 309 
 
 in a heart overflowing with benevolence, yet it 
 must be allowed that it paid no compliment to 
 its judgement. Youthful indiscretions and the 
 infirmities of nature may very properly require 
 its application, but it must be recollected, that 
 there are vices of riper years, and practices, de 
 duced from depraved principle, which the benefit 
 of society requires . should not be buried with 
 the bones of their abettors. I make this obser 
 vation (otherwise unnecessary) lest my remarks 
 may be attributed to unworthy motives : The 
 task of animadverting on the disposition and 
 habits of persons deceased, must always be disa 
 greeable, because there are no characters without 
 their faults ; but in the present case it is peculiarly 
 so, since the utmost partiality will have infinitely 
 less to applaud, than indifference itself will find 
 to condemn, but as they may be supposed largely 
 to depend upon education, and to be influenced 
 much by habits of thinking, in the instance of 
 Mr. Paine they may appear to require special 
 attention. 
 
 " His disposition was singularly unfortunate, 
 inasmuch as it required great correction, and ad 
 mitted of none his anger was easily kindled, 
 and I doubt not that his resentments were lasting. 
 His vanity and self-love were so excessive, that 
 to differ from him in opinion was, in his esti 
 mation, to be deficient in common understanding ; 
 
310 LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 and his opposition to the doctrine of Christianity 
 was so rancorous, that in the early part of his ill 
 ness, he would treat its professors with rudeness. 
 I have had no opportunity of judging of the 
 humanity of his disposition, but I may remark, 
 that he considered himself under no obligation 
 to those who administered to him in his illness, 
 and acted accordingly : he was penurious to an 
 extreme ; would sometimes dispense with a com 
 fort rather than purchase it ; and as he set a higher 
 value on money than it really merited, he thought 
 such obligations completely cancelled by payment 
 of that which he could not withhold. In the lat 
 ter part of his life, he had his companions, though 
 lie seemed unfitted for sociability ; and perhaps 
 the reason why he affected company rather infe 
 rior to himself in point of understanding and ac 
 quirement, might be found in the peculiarities 
 of his temper, which required acquiescence in his 
 opinions to recommend to his attention. 
 ^ "In fine, if Mr. Paine had amiable qualities, I 
 have been singularly unfortunate in never having 
 had any evidence of them ; and though you may 
 conceive the above remarks too severe, I can as 
 sure you, sir, that they are the result of my seri 
 ous convictions ; for during the whole course of 
 his illness, his petulence, vanity, and self-will were 
 so excesssve, that I have been constrained fre 
 quently to remark, that he of all others should, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 311 
 
 from motives of policy, have been induced to keep 
 terms with Christians, as his temper was such as 
 to preclude the possibility of his enjoying the sin 
 cerity of friendship, and none but they (and the 
 best of them too) could possess charity sufficient 
 to cover its manifold imperfections. 
 
 " Your s, with due consideration, 
 
 " JAMES R. MANLEY. 
 MR. CHEETHAM. 
 
 At nine o clock of the morning of the 9th of 
 June, the day after his decease, he was taken 
 from his house at Greenwich, attended by seven 
 persons, to New-Rochelle, where he was interred 
 on his farm. A stone has been placed at the 
 head of his grave, according to the directions of 
 his will, with the following inscription: " Thomas 
 Paine, author of Common Sense : died June 8, 
 1809, aged 72 years and 5 months." 
 
 Exclusive of Mr. Hicks, the Rev. Mr. Milledol- 
 lar, the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, and one or two 
 other gentlemen, who visited him from humane 
 and Christian motives, he was abandoned on his 
 death-bed, except by a few obscure and illiterate 
 men, his former bottle companions, who attended 
 him, merely, it should seem, to urge him to per 
 severe to the end in his deistical opinions. What 
 his admissions would have been during those 
 6 compunctious visit ings of nature which he ex- 
 
312 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 perienced, had it not been for the whips and 
 spurs of those persons, we cannot positively say. 
 That he manifested symptoms of repentance, 
 something like an inward willingness to believe 
 in Jesus Christ, and yet an outward pride of 
 obstinacy in denying that willingness in words, 
 is certain from the testimony of Dr. Manley and 
 Mrs. Hedden. But we have no evidence of his 
 conversion. His seemingly attentive listening to 
 Mrs. Hedden, when reading the bible, if not the 
 effect of debility and a wish for repose, is an 
 indication rather of a mitigation of his fury 
 against it, than of his conversion to it. It was 
 a passive act : there was nothing in it either 
 active or certain. It was after this that Dr. Man- 
 ley interrogated him. He paused. Possibly for 
 a moment he doubted. But there is nothing 
 equivocal in his answer. He had <( no wish to 
 believe on that subject." In something less than 
 forty-eight hours after he died. During this 
 time he had no conversation with any one respect 
 ing the Christian religion. The language of 
 action is sincere. His fear of being alone is 
 evidence against his conversion. The last mo 
 ments of Locke and Adclison were sweetly 
 tranquil. 
 
 His association with low and disreputable 
 persons, is attributable to his attachment to ar 
 dent spirits, and his love of personal distinction. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 31S 
 
 Neither the one nor the other could be gra 
 tified in respectable company. He looked for 
 adoration with as much constancy as he did 
 for brandy. Since over poor ignorant rnen he 
 could tyrannize as much as he pleased, and yet 
 be looked up to by them with a sort of reveren 
 tial awe, he chose them for his associates. He 
 who could not listen with admiration and assent 
 to all he would say, and with a kind of pleasure 
 bear to be called blockhead and fool, and other 
 names of insult and reproach, was no companion 
 for him. And as the monarch of such men he was 
 not content with limited powers. Nothing short 
 of absolute despotism would do for him. Peter, 
 of Russia, got drunk, and, with his own hand, 
 committed murder for his amusement. Paine, 
 reeling amidst his unlettered subjects, was equally 
 a barbarian in manners, though not quite so 
 atrocious in acts. 
 
 Of his moral character, nothing, perhaps, can 
 be added to the facts which have already been 
 stated. His conduct towards his wife were suf 
 ficient to blast the memory of a man even in all 
 other respects virtuous ; but Paine had no good 
 qualities. Incapable of friendship, he was vain, 
 envious, malignant; in France cowardly, and 
 every where tyrannical. In his private dealings 
 he W 7 as unjust, never thinking of paying for what 
 he had contracted, and always cherishing deadly 
 PP 
 
314 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 resentments against those who by law compelled 
 him to do justice. To those who had been kind 
 to him he was more than ungrateful, for to ingra 
 titude, as in the case of Mr. Monroe, he added 
 mean and detestable fraud. He was guilty of 
 the w r orst species of seduction; the alienation of 
 a wife and children from a husband and a father. 
 Filthy and drunken, he was a compound of all 
 the vices. 
 
 His system of government was simple, and 
 therefore despotick. Universal suffrage an 
 nual elections a legislature consisting of one 
 assembly, and a plural executive, like the execu 
 tive directory of France, elected by universal suf 
 frage, were its elements. It is not certain that 
 judges, according to his scheme, were to be elect 
 ed by universal suffrage, but it is that they were 
 to be dependent on the popular will. His one- 
 eyed legislature was to have supreme power, and 
 by the very nature of its constitution the people 
 would controul it. 
 
 Evidence of universal suffrage and annual elec 
 tions we have in his French constitution of 1793, 
 as well as in all his writings, except his letter to 
 the people and armies of France, on the subject 
 of the constitution of Boissy D Anglas. His pre 
 dilection for a plural executive is manifest in that 
 work, as well as in others. 
 
LIFE OF THQMAS PAINE, 315 
 
 In one of his letters to the citizens of the United 
 States, written at Washington, he says, referring 
 to the constitution of the United States : " Many 
 were shocked at the idea of placing, what is called 
 executive power, in the hands of a single indivi 
 dual" " The executive part of the federal go 
 vernment was made for a man, and those who con 
 sented, against their judgment, to place executive 
 power in the hands of a single individual-) reposed 
 more on the supposed moderation of the person 
 they had in view, than on the wisdom of the 
 measure itself. "(/O 
 
 When our constitution was formed, Paine was 
 in Europe, and had he indeed been here, he 
 could have known but little of what took place in 
 the convention, every member being either sworn 
 or put upon his honour not to divulge its pro 
 ceedings. Our knowledge of the motions, speech 
 es, and opinions of the members, which is very 
 limited, is principally derived from Mr. Luther 
 Martin s report to the legislature of Maryland, of 
 which state he was a delegate. But minute and 
 elaborate as it is, there is in it nothing that I recol 
 lect to authorize even a conjecture, that there way 
 a single member favourable to a plural executive. 
 The only contest, as far as we understand it t 
 
 Letter ?. 
 
316 LIFE OF THOMAS PAJNE. 
 
 which on this subject arose was, and it was one 
 of vehemence, whether the executive should in 
 fact be a monarch with the title of President ? 
 Paine s intimation, that a plural executive was 
 warmly agitated and reluctantly yielded, is in all 
 probability one of his bold presumptions on as 
 sumed ignorance. Such an executive, besides 
 its absurdity, is in its nature a tyranny. We 
 are convinced that it is so by theory, and w<e 
 know that it is so in fact. Unavoidably factious, 
 it cannot but break up a nation into as many par 
 ties as it has members. Always distracted, it 
 must always be feeble. 
 
 His attachment to a legislature consisting of 
 one body, is indicated in the Rights of Man. 
 " The objection, he says, against a single house 
 is, that it is always in a condition of committing 
 itself too soon. But it should be remembered, 
 that when there is a constitution which defines 
 the power and establishes the principles within 
 which a legislature shall act, there is already a 
 more effectual check provided, and more power 
 fully operating, than any other check can be."(o) 
 
 That which he considers as most powerfully 
 checking precipitancy of action, has no efficacy. 
 The declaration of rights of the French National 
 
 (o) Rights of Man, part 2, works, vol. 2, p. 184, Plnl. 
 
 1797. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 317 
 
 Assembly, which was in truth a constitution, had 
 no coercive effect on the convention. This " Sin 
 gle House," always passionate, as every single 
 house must be, never had time for cool delibera 
 tion. It conceived in a passion ; it executed in a 
 rage. Nor had it any thing to restrain it, for how 
 is it possible for a written constitution to assuage 
 the most furious of the passions ? A constitution, 
 in such a government as Paine was in favor of, 
 would be not the least of absurdities. Under the 
 influence of universal suffrage and annual elec 
 tions, nothing could be attended to in a single bo 
 died legislature, but party strifes, victories, pro 
 scriptions, and oppression. Party- voters would be 
 gratified, or party-representatives would be dis 
 missed ! The tyranny of an absolute monarch 
 must fall infinitely short of the tyranny of such a 
 government. 
 
 Formerly, Pennsylvania was at once oppressed 
 and disgraced by a similar anarchy. Of this, 
 Paine (/)) was in all probability the author. Mr. 
 Adams has rescued the memory of Franklin from 
 the infamy of the act. But even in Pennsylvania, 
 
 (/ ) "In 1776, and 1777 there had been great disputes in con 
 gress and the several states concerning a proper constitution 
 for the several states to adopt for their government. A con 
 vention in Pennsylvania had adopted a government in one re- 
 presentive assemfoty, and Dr. Franklin was president of that 
 convention. The Doctor when he went to France, in 1776, 
 carried with him the printed copy of that constitution, and it 
 
318 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 full of democratick faction and anarchy as thai; 
 state always is, the single representative assem 
 bly, perpetually despotick, became universally 
 odious. Yet the constitution was so constructed 
 as to require a Senate, but the unorganized se 
 nate was if possible more odd than the organized 
 assembly. Section 15, of that constitution says : 
 " To the end that laws, before they are enact 
 ed, be more maturely considered, and the incon 
 venience of hasty determinations as much as pos 
 sible prevented, all bills of a publick nature shall 
 be printed for the consideration of the people " 
 
 Here the people stood in the place of a Senate ! 
 Bills were to be printed for their information and 
 decision ! Bills therefore could not become laws 
 until this coolj sensible, and dignified senate had 
 
 was immediately propagated through France, that this was the 
 plan of government of Mr. Franklin. In truth it was not 
 Franklin s, but Timothy Matlock, Jamej,Xannon, Thomas 
 Young, and Thomas Paine y were the authors of it. Mr. Tur- 
 got, the Duke de la Rochefoucault, Mr. Condorcet, and ma 
 ny others, became enamoured with the constitution of Mr. 
 Franklin, and in my opinion the two last owed their final and 
 fatal catastrophe to this blind love." President Adams s 
 Letter to S. Perley, written June 19, 1809 ; see the American 
 Citizen of September 2, 1809. 
 
 The conclusion of Mr. Adams is no doubt correct. Con 
 dorcet became an advocate of a single representative assem 
 bly. He was gratified. The convention was established, and 
 it is to the uncontrolled fury and tyranny of the convention 
 that his death is attributable. May not Panic s constitution of 
 Pennsylvania have been the cause of the tyranny of Robes 
 pierre ? 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PATNEr 319 
 
 decided ! This senate of all that was eloquent, 
 magnanimous, and wise, could negative, or the 
 appeal to it were a mockery ; it could affirm, 
 or it were useless. But it could do neither with 
 out mature deliberation ! Where how was it to 
 deliberate ? In the senate house ? No, but in ta 
 verns. Orderly ? The whole system and pro- 
 cesss was disorder. What could be expected in 
 such meetings but a tumult of the passions ? Con 
 flicting demagogues assembled the multitude in 
 ale houses harangued them tore the state to 
 pieces in an ardent pursuit of personal aggran 
 dizement oppressed as they were victorious, 
 and committed injustice as they were powerful. 
 Such was Paine s constitution of Pennsylvania. It 
 did not however last long. In 1790, it was su- 
 perceded by the present constitution of that state. 
 But it has left behind it the most deleterious effects. 
 There is yet a party there, powerful in numbers, 
 in favour of going back to it ; a party avowedly 
 opposed to the independence of judges, to trial by 
 jury, and to every attribute of legitimate polity, to 
 which we have been accustomed to look, and on 
 which alone we can rely, as efficient guards of 
 life, liberty, and property. 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 FROM THE JOURNALS OF CONGRESS. 
 
 FIRST SESSION TENTH CONGRESS. 
 
 In tlic House of Representatives of the 
 United States, ^th February, 1808. 
 
 Mr. CLINTON presented a representation of 
 Thomas Paine, stating various services performed 
 by him for the United States, during the revolution 
 ary war with Great Britain; and praying that con 
 gress will take the same into consideration, and 
 grant him such compensation therefor, as to 
 their wisdom and justice shall seem meet. 
 
 The said representation was read and referred 
 to the committee of claims. 
 
 [No report made during this session.] 
 
 SECOND SESSION TENTH CONGRESS. 
 
 December \th, 1809. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Johnson, 
 
 Ordered, That the letter and representation of 
 Thomas Paine, presented on the 4th of February 
 last, be referred to the committee of claims. 
 
322 APPENDIX. 
 
 On the 1st of February, 1809, the committee 
 of claims made a report, which was read and 
 ordered to lie on the table. 
 
 [Not further acted on during this session.] 
 
 ELEVENTH CONGRESS....FIRST SESSION. 
 
 31s* May, 1809. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Lyon, 
 
 Ordered, That the representation of Thomas 
 Paine, of the city of New- York, presented on 
 the 4th of February, 1808, be referred to the 
 committee of claims. 
 
 [Congress adjourned without any report being 
 made by the committee on the subject.] 
 
 Report of the committee of claims on a letter a?id 
 representation of Thomas Paine, referred the 
 fifteenth December last. 
 
 February 1, 1809. Read, and ordered to lie on the table. 
 
 REPORT... 
 
 The memorialist states, that in the beginning 
 of February, 1781, he sailed from Boston in the 
 frigate Alliance, with colonel Laurens, who w r as 
 appointed by Congress to negociate a loan with 
 the French government, for the benefit of the 
 United States ; that he aided in effecting the im 
 portant object of this mission, and thus voluntarily 
 rendered an essential service to the country, for 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 which he has received no compensation. This 
 memorial was presented to congress at their last 
 session, unaccompanied with any evidence in 
 support of the statement of facts. The committee 
 of claims, to whom it was then referred, endea 
 voured to procure, from proper sources, such in 
 formation as would guide them in making an 
 equitable decision upon the case. The journals 
 of congress, under the former confederation, were 
 diligently examined, but nothing was therein 
 found, tending to shew that Mr. Paine was, in 
 any manner, connected with the mission of col 
 onel Laurens. It appears that on the 1 8th day of 
 Octqber, 1733, two resolutions were adopted in 
 favour of major Jackson : one for defraying cer 
 tain expenses incident to the mission ; the other 
 allowing him fourteen hundred and fifty dollars, 
 as a full compensation for his services, while act 
 ing as secretary to colonel Laurens. A letter 
 from the vice-president, in answer to one address 
 ed to him, by the chairman of the committee of 
 claims, is herewith presented. It will be observed, 
 that the statement of this gentleman is from in 
 formation, and not from his own knowledge. 
 That Mr. Paine embarked with colonel Laurens 
 from the United States for France, may be ad 
 mitted ; but it does not appear that he was em 
 ployed by the government, or even solicited by 
 any officer thereof, to aid in the accomplishment 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 of the object of the mission, with which colonel 
 Laurens was intrusted, or that he took any part 
 whatever after his arrival in France in forward 
 ing the negotiation ; your committee are, there 
 fore, of opinion, that the memorialist has not 
 established the fact of his having rendered the 
 service for which he asks to be compensated. 
 
 On the 26th of August, 1785, congress, by a 
 resolution, declared that Thomas Paine was enti 
 tled to a liberal gratification from the United 
 States for his unsolicited and continued labours in 
 explaining and in-forcing the principles of the late 
 revolution ; and on the 3d of October following, 
 the board of treasury were directed to take order 
 for paying Mr. Paine three thousand dollars for the 
 considerations mentioned in the above resolution. 
 This sum it appears Mr. Paine received on the 
 1 1th of October, 1 785. That Mr. Paine rendered 
 great and eminent services to the United States 
 during their struggle for liberty and indepen 
 dence, cannot be doubted by any person acquaint 
 ed with his labors in the cause, and attached to 
 the principles of the contest. Whether he has 
 been generously requited by his country for his 
 meritorious exertions, is a question not submitted 
 to your committee, or within their province to 
 decide. 
 
 The following resolution is offered to the 
 House ; 
 
APPENDIX, 325 
 
 Resolved, That Thomas Paine have leave to 
 withdraw his memorial and the papers accompa 
 nying the same. 
 
 NEW- YORK, January 21, 1808. 
 To the honourable tJie representatives 
 of the United States. 
 
 The purport of this address is to state a claim 
 I feel myself entitled to make on the United 
 States, leaving it to their representatives in con 
 gress to decide on its worth and its merits. The 
 case is as follows : 
 
 Towards the latter end of the year 1 780, the 
 continental money had become so depreciated, a 
 paper dollar not being more than a cent, that it 
 seemed next to impossible to continue the war. 
 
 As the United States were then in alliance w 7 ith 
 France, it became necessary to make France ac 
 quainted with our real situation. I therefore 
 drew up a letter to Count Vergennes, stating un- 
 disguisedly the true case, concluding with the 
 request whether France could not either as a 
 subsidy or a loan, supply the United States with 
 a million sterling, and continue that supply an 
 nually during the war. 
 
 I shewed the letter to M. Marbois, secretary to 
 the French minister. His remark upon it was, 
 
326 APPENDIX. 
 
 that a million sent out of the nation exhausted it 
 more than ten millions spent in it. I then shewed 
 it to Ralph Isard, member of congress for South- 
 Carolina. He borrowed the letter of me and 
 said, we will endeavor to do something about it 
 in congress. 
 
 Accordingly, congress appointed col. John 
 Laurens, then aid to general Washington, to go 
 to France and make representation of our situa 
 tion for the purpose of obtaining assistance. Col. 
 Laurens wished to decline the mission, and that 
 congress would appoint colonel Hamilton, which 
 congress did not choose to do. 
 
 Colonel Laurens then came to state the case to 
 me. He said he was enough acquainted w 7 ith the 
 military difficulties of the army, but that he was 
 not enough acquainted with political affairs, nor 
 with the resources of the country ; but, said he, 
 if you will go with me, I will accept, w 7 hich I 
 agreed to do, and did do. 
 
 We sailed from Boston in the Alliance frigate, 
 captain Barry, the beginning of February, 1781, 
 and arrived at L Orient the beginning of March. 
 The aid obtained from France was six million 
 livres as a present, and ten millions as a loan bor 
 rowed in Holland on the security of France. We 
 sailed from Brest in the French Resolve frigate the 
 first of June, and arrived at Boston the 25th Au 
 gust, bringing with us two millions and a half in 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 silver, and convoying a ship and a brig laden with 
 clothing and military stores. The money was 
 transported in sixteen ox teams to the national 
 bank at Philadelphia, which enabled the army to 
 move to Yorktown to attack, in conjunction with 
 the French army under Rochambeau, the British 
 army under Cornwallis. As I never had a cent 
 for this service, I fee*! myself entitled, as the coun 
 try is now in a state of prosperity, to state the 
 case to congress. 
 
 As to my political works, beginning with the 
 pamphlet Common Sense, published the beginning 
 of January, 1776, which awakened America to 
 a declaration of independence, as the president 
 and vice-president both know, as they were 
 works done from principle I cannot dishonour 
 that principle by asking any reward for them. 
 The country has been benefitted by them, and I 
 make my self happy in the knowledge of it. Jt 
 is, however, proper to me to add, that the mere 
 independence of America, were it to have been 
 followed by a system of government modelled 
 after the corrupt system of the English govern 
 ment, it would not have interested me with the 
 unabated ardour it did. It was to bring forward 
 and establish the representative system of govern 
 ment, as the work itself will shew, that was the 
 leading principle with me in writing that work 
 and all my other works during the progress of 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 the revolution : And I followed the same princi 
 ple in writing the Rights of Man in England. 
 
 There is a resolve of the old congress, while 
 they sat at New- York, of a grant to me of three 
 thousand dollars the resolve is put in handsome 
 language, but it has relation to a matter which 
 it does not express. Elbridge Gerry was chair 
 man of the committee who brought in the resolve. 
 If congress should judge proper to refer this me 
 morial to a committee, I will inform that com 
 mittee of the particulars of it. 
 
 I have also to state to congress, that the author 
 ity of the old congress was become so reduced 
 towards the latter end of the war, as to be unable 
 to hold the states together. Congress could do 
 no more than recommend, of which the states 
 frequently took no notice, and when they did, it 
 was never uniformly. 
 
 After the failure of the five per cent, duty, re 
 commended by congress to pay the interest of a 
 loan to be borrowed in Holland, I wrote to Chan 
 cellor Livingston, then minister for foreign affairs, 
 and Robert Morris, minister of finance, and 
 proposed a method for getting over the whole 
 difficulty at once, which was by adding a con 
 tinental legislature to congress, who should be 
 empowered to make laws for the Union, instead 
 of recommending them. As the method propos 
 ed met with their full approbation, I held myself 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 in reserve to take the subject up whenever a direct 
 occasion occurred. 
 
 In a conversation afterwards with governor 
 Clinton, of New- York, now vice-president, it 
 was judged, that for the purpose of my going 
 fully into the subject, and to prevent any miscon 
 struction of my motive or object, it would be best 
 that I received nothing from congress, but leave 
 it to the states individually to make me what ac 
 knowledgment they pleased. 
 
 The state of New- York made me a present of 
 a farm, which, since my return to America, I 
 have found it necessary to sell:(*) and the state of 
 Pennsylvania voted me five hundred pounds, their 
 currency. But none of the states to the eastward 
 of New- York, nor to the south of Philadelphia 
 ever made me the least acknowledgment. They 
 had received benefits from me, which they accept 
 ed, and there the matter ended. This story will not 
 tell well in history. All the civilized world knows 
 I have been of great service to the United States, 
 and have generously given away talents that 
 would have made me a fortune. 
 
 I much question if an instance is to be found in 
 ancient or modern times of a man who had no 
 
 (*) To Mr. Shute, in 1806, but as Mr. Shute died shortly 
 after, and his widow found it to be an inconvenience, Paine, at 
 her solicitation, took it back. 
 
 Rr 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 personal interest in the cause he took up, that of 
 independence and the establishment of the repre 
 sentative system of government, and who sought 
 neither place nor office after it was established, 
 that persevered in the same undeviating princi 
 ples as I have done for more than thirty years, 
 and that in spite of difficulties, dangers and incon- 
 veniencies, of which I have had my share. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 NEW-YORK, Feb. 14, 1808. 
 Citizen Representatives^ 
 
 In my memorial to congress of the 2 1 st of Ja 
 nuary, I spoke of a resolve of the old congress of 
 three thousand dollars to me, and said that the 
 resolve had relation to a matter it did not express ; 
 that Elbridge Gerry was chairman of the com 
 mittee that brought in that resolve, and that if 
 congress referred the memorial to a committee, I 
 would write to that committee and inform them 
 of the particulars of it. It has relation to my 
 conduct in the affair of Silas Deane and Beau- 
 uiarchais. The case is as follows. 
 
 When I was appointed secretary to the com 
 mittee for foreign affairs, all the papers of the 
 secret committee, none of which had been seen 
 by congress, came into my hands. I saw by the 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 Correspondence of that committee with persons in 
 Europe, particularly with Arthur Lee, that the 
 stores which Silas Deane and Beaumarchais pre 
 tended they had purchased were a present from 
 the court of France, and came out of the king s 
 arsenals. But as this was prior to the alliance, 
 and while the English ambassador (Stormont) 
 was at Paris, the court of France wished it not 
 to be known, and therefore proposed that " a 
 small quantity of tobacco or some other produce 
 should be sent to the Cape (Cape Francaise) to 
 give it the air of a mercantile transaction, repeat 
 ing over and over again that it was for a cover 
 only, and not for payment, as the whole remit 
 tance was gratuitous." See Arthur Lee s letters 
 to the secret committee. See also B. Franklin s. 
 
 Knowing these things, and seeing that the pub 
 lic were deceived and imposed upon by the pre 
 tensions of Deane, I took the subject up, and pub 
 lished three pieces in Dunlap s Philadelphia pa 
 per, headed with the title of " Common Sense to 
 the Public on Mr. Deane s affairs." John Jay wag 
 then president of congress, Mr. Laurens having 
 resigned in disgust. 
 
 After the third piece appeared, I received an 
 order, dated congress, and signed John Jay, that 
 " Thomas Paine do attend at the bar of this 
 house immediately," which I did. 
 
 Mr. Jay took up a newspaper and said, " Here 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 is Mr. Dunlap s paper of December 29. In it is a 
 piece entitled Common Sense to the Public on 
 Mr. Deane s affairs, I am directed by congress to 
 ask you if you are the author." Yes, sir, I am 
 the author of that piece. Mr. Jay put the same 
 question on the other two pieces and received 
 the same answer. He then said, you may with 
 draw. 
 
 As soon as I was gone, John Pen, of North- 
 Carolina, moved that " Thomas Paine be dis 
 charged from the office of secretary to the com 
 mittee for foreign affairs," and prating Gouver- 
 neur Morris seconded the motion, but it was lost 
 when put to the vote, the states being equally di 
 vided. I then wrote to congress requesting a 
 hearing, and Mr. Laurens made a motion for that 
 purpose which was negatived. The next day I 
 sent in my resignation, saying, that c < as I can 
 not consistently with my character as a freeman 
 submit to be censured unheard, therefore, to pre 
 serve that character and maintain that right, I 
 think it my duty to resign the office of secretary 
 to the committee for foreign affairs, and I do 
 hereby resign the same." 
 
 After this I lived as well as I could, hiring my 
 self as a clerk to Owen Biddle of Philadelphia, 
 till the legislature of Pennsylvania appointed me 
 clerk of the general assembly. But I still went 
 on with my publications tm Deane s affairs, till 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 335 
 
 the fraud became so obvious that congress were 
 ashamed of supporting him, and he absconded. 
 He went from Philadelphia to Virginia and took 
 shipping for France, and got over to England 
 where he died. Doctor Cutting told me he took 
 poison. Gouverneur Morris by way of making 
 apology for his conduct in that affair, said to me 
 after my return from France with Colonel Lau- 
 rens, well ! we were all duped, and I among the 
 rest. 
 
 As the salary I had as secretary to the commit 
 tee of foreign affairs was but small, being only 
 800 dollars a year, and as that had been fretted 
 down by the depreciation to less than a fifth of its 
 nominal value, I wrote to congress then sitting 
 at New- York, (it was after the war) to make up 
 the depreciation of my salary, and also for some 
 incidental expences I had been at This letter 
 was referred to a committee of which Elbridge 
 Gerry was chairman. 
 
 Mr. Gerry then came to me and said that the 
 committee had consulted on the subject, and they 
 intended to bring in a handsome report, but that 
 they thought it best not to take any notice of 
 your letter or make any reference to Deane s af 
 fair or your salary. They will indemnify you, 
 said he without it. The case is, there are some 
 motions on the journals of congress, for censur 
 ing you with respect to Deane s affair, which can- 
 
334 APPENDIX. 
 
 not now be recalled, because they have been 
 printed. Therefore, will bring in a report that 
 will supersede them without mentioning the pur 
 port of your letter. 
 
 This, citizen representatives, is an explanation 
 of the resolve of the old congress. It was an in 
 demnity to me for some injustice done me, for 
 congress had acted dishonorably to me. How 
 ever, I prevented Deane s fraudulent demand be 
 ing paid, and so far the country is obliged to me, 
 but I became the victim of my integrity. 
 
 I preferred stating this explanation to the com 
 mittee rather than to make it public in my me 
 morial to congress. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 NEW YORK, PARTITION STREET, 
 
 NO. 63, FEB. 28, 1808. 
 SIR, 
 
 I addressed a memorial to congress dated Jan 
 uary 2 1 , which was presented by George Clinton, 
 junior, and referred to the committee of claims. 
 As soon as I knew to what committee it was re 
 ferred, I wrote to that committee and informed 
 them of the particulars respecting a vote of the 
 old congress of 3000 dollars to me, as I mention 
 ed I would do in my memorial, since which I 
 
APPENDIX. 335 
 
 ftave heard nothing of the memorial or of any 
 proceedings upon it. 
 
 It will be convenient to me to know what con 
 gress will decide on, because it will determine 
 me, whether, after so many years of generous 
 services, and that in the most perilous times, and 
 after seventy years of age, I shall continue in 
 this country, or offer my services to some other 
 country. It will not be to England, unless there 
 should be a revolution. 
 
 Mv request to you is, that you will call on the 
 committee of claims to bring in their report, and 
 that congress would decide upon it. I shall then 
 know what to do. 
 
 Yours in friendship, 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 The honourable the Speaker 
 
 of the house of representatives. 
 
 NEW YORK, MARCH 7, 1808, 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I wrote you a week ago, prior to the date of 
 this letter, respecting my memorial to congress, 
 but I have not yet seen any account of any pro 
 ceedings upon it. 
 
 I know not \vho the committee of claims are, 
 Vut if they are men of younger standing than 
 " the times that tried men s soulsS* and conse- 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 quently too young to know what the condition of 
 the country was at the time I published Common 
 Sense, for I do not believe independence would 
 have been declared had it not been for the effect 
 of that work, they are not capable of judging of 
 the whole of the services of Thomas Paine. 
 The president and vice-president can give you in 
 formation on those subjects, so also can Mr. Smi- 
 lie, who was a member of the Pennsylvania legis 
 lature at the times I am speaking of. He knows 
 the inconveniencies I was often put to, for tl^ old 
 congress treated me with ingratitude. TThey 
 seemed to be disgusted at my popularity, and 
 acted towards me as a rival instead of a friend.;* 
 
 The explanation I sent to the committee re 
 specting & resolve of the old congress while they 
 sat at .New- York should be known to congress, 
 but it seems to me that the committee keep every 
 thing to> themselves and do nothing. If my me 
 morial A^as referred to the commitee of claims, 
 for the purpose of losing it, it is unmanly policy. 
 After so many years of service my heart grows 
 cold towards America. 
 
 Yours in friendship, 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 The honourable the Speaker 
 
 of the house of representatives. 
 
 P. S. I repeat my request that you would call 
 on the committee of claims to bring in their re 
 port, and that congress would decide upon it. 
 
APPENDIX. 337 
 
 SENATE CHAMBER, MARCH 23, 1808. 
 SIR, 
 
 From the information I received at the time, I 
 have reason to believe that Mr. Paine accompa 
 nied colonel Laurens on his mission to France in 
 the course of our revolutionary war, for the pur 
 pose of negotiating a loan, and that he acted as 
 his secretary on that occasion ; but although I 
 have no doubt of the truth of this fact, I cannot 
 assert it from my own actual knowledge. 
 I am with great respect, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE CLINTON. 
 David Holmes, Esqmre. 
 
 The People of the State of New-York, by the 
 Grace " of God, Free and Independent, to all 
 to whom these presents shall come or may con 
 cern, SEND GREETING : 
 
 KNOW YE, That the annexed is a true copy of 
 the will of THOMAS PAINE, deceased, as re 
 corded in the office of our surrogate, in and for 
 the city and county of New- York. In testimony 
 whereof, we have caused the seal of office of our 
 said surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, 
 Silvanus Miller, Esq. surrogate of said county, at 
 the city of New-York, the twelfth day of July, 
 
 S s 
 
338 APPENDIX, 
 
 In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun 
 dred and nine, and of our Independence the 
 thirty-fourth. 
 
 SILVANUS MILLER. 
 
 The last will and testament of me, the subscri 
 ber, THOMAS PAINE, reposing confidence in my 
 Creator God, and in no other being, for I know 
 of no other, nor believe in any other, I Thomas 
 Paine, of the state of New- York, author of the 
 work entitled Common SeJise, written in Philadel 
 phia, in 1775, and published in that city the be 
 ginning of January, 1776, which awaked Ameri 
 ca to a Declaration of Independence, on the 
 fourth of July following, which was as fast as the 
 H work could spread through such an extensive 
 country ; author also of the several numbers of 
 the American Crisis, " thirteen in all," published 
 JrJ occasionally during the progress of the revolu- 
 5 tionary war the last is on the peace ; author al 
 so of the Rights of Man , parts the first and se 
 cond, written and published in London, in 1791 
 and 92 ; author also of a work on religion, 4ge 
 of Reason, part the first and second. " N. B. I 
 have a third part by me in manuscript and an 
 answer to the Bishop of Llandaff;" author also 
 of a work, lately published, entitled Examination 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 of the passages in the New Testament quoted from 
 the Old) and called Prophecies concerning Jesus 
 Christ, and shewing there are no prophecies of 
 any such person; author also of several other 
 works not here enumerated, <c Dissertations on 
 first principals of government" " Decline and 
 fall of the English system of finance" " Agra 
 rian Justice," &c. &c/ make this my last will and 
 testament, that is to say : I give and bequeath to 
 iny executors herein after appointed, Walter Mor 
 ton and Thomas Addis Emmet, thirty shares I hold 
 in the New-York Phoenix Insurance Company 
 which cost me 1470 dollars, they are worth now p^ 
 upwards of 1500 dollars and all my moveable ef- % 
 fects and also the money that may be in my trunk c 
 or elsewhere at the time of my decease paying H 
 thereout the expences of my funeral, IN TRUST as to 
 the said shares, moveables and money for Marga 
 ret Brazeir Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonne- 
 ville, of Paris, for her own sole and separate use, 
 and at her own disposal, notwithstanding her co 
 verture. As to my farm in New-Rochelle, I give, 
 devise, and bequeath the same to my said execu 
 tors Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet 
 and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns 
 forever, IN TRUST, nevertheless, to sell and dispose 
 of the north side thereof, now in the occupation 
 of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at the west end 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the orchard and running in a line with the 
 
 land sold to Coles, to the end of the farm, 
 
 and to apply the money arising from such sale as 
 hereinafter directed. I give to my friends Wal 
 ter Morton, of the New- York Phoenix Insurance 
 Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, counsel 
 lor at law, late of Ireland, two hundred dollars 
 each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. Palmer, 
 widow of Elihu Palmer, late of New-York, to be 
 paid out the money arising from said sale, and I 
 give the remainder of the money arising from 
 that sale, one half thereof to Clio Rickman, of 
 High or Upper Mary-la-Bonne street, London, 
 and the other half to Nicholas Bonneville, of Pa 
 ns, husband of Margaret B. Bonneville aforesaid: 
 and as to the south part of the said farm, con 
 taining upwards of one hundred acres, in trust to 
 rent out the same or otherwise put it to profit, as 
 shall be found most adviseable, and to pay the 
 rents and profits thereof to the said Margaret B. 
 Bonneviile, in trust for her children, Benjamin 
 Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, their educa 
 tion and maintenance, until they come to the age 
 of twenty-one years, in order that she may bring 
 them well up, give them good and useful learn 
 ing, and instruct them in their duty to God, and 
 the practice of morality, the rent of the land or 
 the interest of the money for which it may be 
 
APPENDIX- 341 
 
 sold, as herein after mentioned, to be employed 
 in their education. And after the youngest of 
 the said children shall have arrived at the age of 
 twenty-one years, in further trust to convey the 
 same to the said children share and share alike in 
 fee simple. But if it shall be thought adviseable 
 by my executors and executrix, or the survivor 
 or survivors of them, at any time before the 
 youngest of the said children shall come of age, 
 to sell and dispose of the said south side of the 
 said farm, in that case I hereby authorise and g 
 empower my said executors to sell and dispose of J*j 
 the same, and I direct that the money arising OT 
 from such sale be put into stock, either in the U- 
 nited States bank stock or New- York Phoenix in- ^ 
 surance company stock, the interest or dividends 
 thereof to be applied as is already directed for 
 the education and maintenance of the said 
 children ; and the principal to be transferred to 
 the said children or the survivor of them on his 
 or their coming of age. I know not if the socie 
 ty of people called quakers admit a person to be 
 buried in their burying ground, who does not be 
 long to their society, but if they do or will admit 
 me, I would prefer being buried there my father 
 belonged to that profession, and I was partly 
 brought up in it. But if it is not consistent with 
 their rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 farm at New-Rochelle. The place where I am 
 to be buried, to be a square of twelve feet, to be 
 enclosed with rows of trees, and a stone or post 
 and rail fence, with a head stone with my name 
 and age engraved upon it, author of Common 
 Sense. I nominate, constitute, and appoint 
 Walter Morton,* of the New-York Phoenix In 
 surance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet,f 
 counsellor at law, late of Ireland, and Margaret 
 B. Bonneville, executors and executrix to this 
 my last will and testament, requesting them the 
 
 (*) A Scotchman by birth. He is a clerk in the Phoenix 
 company ; was a steady companion of Paine before his illness 
 but paid him no visit for a week before his decease. 
 
 (f) The respectability of Mr. Emmet s family is better 
 known in Europe than in the United States. He was one of 
 those gentlemen who considered his country as oppressed, and 
 *vas willing to make great sacrifices to redeem her freedom. 
 He was involved in the general charge of corresponding with 
 the French directory, with the view of introducing into his 
 country a powerful French force, but, much as I have read 
 on this subject, I have seen nothing to convince me, that the 
 accusation, with regard to him, is not groundless. I have the 
 honour of being personally acquainted with Mr- Emmet. 
 His former and present opinions of the French government 
 respecting his country, are correct. France would not in 
 vade Ireland to liberate her from oppression, but to oppress 
 her more. That he is a friend of freedom is true, but surely 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 said Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, 
 that they will give what assistance they conven 
 iently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the 
 children be well brought up. Thus placing confi 
 dence in their friendship, I herewith take my 
 final leave of them and of the world. I have 
 lived an honest and useful life to mankind ; my 
 time has been spent ifi doing good ; and I die in 
 perfect composure and resignation to the will of 
 my Creator God. Dated this eightenth day of 
 Janry. in the year one thousand eight hundred 
 
 this ought not to be considered as an offence in England, the 
 birth-place of the most illustrious advocates of liberty that the 
 world has known. He was, however, arrested in Dublin in, 
 March, 1799, and, without trial, imprisoned in Fort George, 
 Scotland, the following April. Here he continued until June, 
 1802, when, without trial, he was liberated at Cuxhaven, 
 whence he passed to Holland, and thence, in February, 1803, 
 to Paris. He sailed from Bordeaux in September, 1804, and 
 arrived in New- York the following month, where he was ad 
 mitted to the bar in the February term of 1805, and now 
 wholly devotes his time to his laborious profession. Perhaps 
 it were invidious to say that he occupies the first professional 
 standing in the state. He is universally respected, as he de 
 serves to be, and has as much as he can attend to of the first 
 professional business. He is now in the 45th year of his age, 
 has an amiable wife, and nine promising children. Why Paine 
 appointed him an executor I know not, except from his known 
 integrity, for those who pay no regard to that virtue in their 
 ajctions, must respect it when making a will. Unless profes 
 sionally, Mr. Emmet, I believe, had no intercourse with 
 P.aine. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 and nine, and I have also signed my name to the* 
 other sheet of this will in testimony of its being a 
 part thereof. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. [LA] 
 
 Signed, sealed, published and declared by the 
 testator, in our presence, who at his request, and 
 in the presence of each other, have set our names 
 as witnesses thereto, the words " published and 
 declared" first interlined. 
 
 WM. KEESE, 
 JAMES ANGEVINE, 
 CORNELIUS RYDER. 
 
 LIST OF PAINE S WORKS. 
 
 Introduction to the Pennsylvania 
 
 Magazine, January 24, 1775, p. 1 octavo 
 
 To the Publisher of Do. on the uti 
 lity of Magazines, no place, no 
 date, Philadelphia, 1775, (sup 
 posed) . . . . . 5 do. 
 
 Useful and entertaining hints on 
 the internal riches of the colo 
 nies, Pennsylvania Magazine, 
 Phil. 1775. 6 do. 
 
APPENDIX, 345 
 
 Reflections on the death of Lord 
 Clive, Pennsylvania Magazine, 
 (not seen) 
 
 New Anecdotes of Alexander the 
 
 Great, Penn. Mag. 1775, . p. 3 octavo. 
 
 Common Sense, Phil. Jan. 1776, 47 do. 
 
 Epistle to the Quakers, Phil. 1776, 5 do. 
 
 The Crisis, 16 numbers, from Dec. 
 23, 1776, to Dec. 9, 1783, total 
 pages 144 do. 
 
 Letter to Abbe Raynal, Philad. 
 
 1782, 55 do. 
 
 Publick Good, being an Examina 
 tion of the Claim of Virginia to 
 the Vacant Western Territory, 
 &c. Phil. 1784, . . . 31 do. 
 
 Dissertations on Government, the 
 Affairs of the Bank, and Paper 
 Money, Phil. 1786, . . 50 do. 
 
 Prospects on the Rubicon, London, 
 
 1787, . . . . . 32 do. 
 
 Letter to the Authors of the Repub 
 lican, Paris, 1791, . . . 4 
 
 Rights of Man, part 1. London, 
 
 1791, 98 do. 
 
 Letter to Abbe Seyes, 1791, 2 do. 
 
 Rights of Man, part 2, London, 
 
 1792, .. . . 122 do. 
 
 T t. 
 
346 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Letter to Henry Dundas, London, 
 
 June 6, 1792, ... p. 11 octavo. 
 
 Letter to Lord Onslow, London, 
 
 June 17, 1792, . f ; J 3* J 4 do. 
 
 Letter to Onslow Cranley, com- 
 monly called Lord Onslow, Lon 
 don, June 21, 1792, ^;- ^ 3 do. 
 
 Address to the Addressers, Lon 
 don, July, 1792, T : " (- . 42 do. 
 
 Letter to Secretary Dundas, on his 
 detention at Dover; Calais, Sept. 
 15, 1792, . . .* . 3 do. 
 
 Letter to the People of France, (on 
 his election to the convention) 
 Paris, Sept. 25, 1792, ^^ . 3 do. 
 
 Letter to the Attorney -General of 
 England on the prosecution a- 
 gainst him, Paris, Nov. 1 1, 1792, 2 do. 
 
 Reasons for preserving the life of 
 
 Louis XVI. Paris, Jan. 1793, 6 do, 
 
 Age of Reason, part 1, Paris, 1794, 96 duo, 
 
 Dissertations on first principles of 
 
 government, Paris, 1794, ^ V 18 octavo, 
 
 Speech delivered in the convention 
 
 against the constitution of 1795, 8 do. 
 
 Agrarian Justice, Paris, 1796, . 32 do. 
 
 Pecline and fall of the English 
 
 system of finance, Paris, 1796, 23 do, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 347 
 
 Letter to George Washington, Pa 
 ris, 1796, .... p. 76octavo> 
 Age of Reason, part 2, Paris, 1796, 199 duo. 
 Letter to the Hon. Thomas Er- 
 skine on the prosecution of Wil 
 liams, Paris, 1797, . . 24 octavo. 
 Letter to the people and armies of 
 France on the events of the 1 8th 
 Fructidor, Paris, 1797, . . 52 do. 
 Discourse to the Theophilanthro- 
 
 pists, Paris, 1797, . . 6 do. 
 
 Letters to the Citizens of the Unit 
 ed States, Washington, 1802, 50 do. 
 Examination of the Prophecies, 
 Essay on Dream, &c. New- York, 
 
 1807, 66 do. 
 
 He wrote, in addition, from 1805 to 1808, es 
 says for our newspapers, some of which were de 
 cidedly in favour of an invasion of the United 
 States by the French. 
 
 His productions in verse are fugitive, and have 
 never been collected. The happiest of them, that 
 I have seen, are his " Death of Wolfe/ and his 
 " Castle in the Air," which I have taken into 
 his life. 
 
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